[Hyde POV]
I checked the episode before going to sleep. They had included some footage that wasn't there before— me daydreaming about spending quality time with my dad.
Fixing cars together, him comforting me after a nightmare, and the two of us playing catch in the backyard.
"Pfft. This is all fake." I snorted and closed the episode.
Apparently, Red had talked to my father and told him to wait until I was ready. Then, I'd reach out to him myself.
[Episode 2 Season 3: Hyde's Father.
Old rating: 7.5
New rating: 8.2
Rating points: 0.7
Fan letter: 3
Spinoff counter: 10/250.
(One random item ticket added to storage)]
I used the random item ticket immediately.
[Jagua Ink Temporary Tattoo. (2 weeks before disappearing). Black Dragon (Left arm) x 1]
"Temporary tattoo? Nice."
Unable to sleep, I poured myself several glasses of whiskey and drank alone in my bedroom while jotting down ideas for my movies.
Eventually, I decided to watch some YouTube videos and somehow stumbled onto clips from an anime called Daily Life of High School Boys.
"Why is this being recommended when I'm searching for comedies?"
I had never watched the show before, so I got curious and clicked on a few clips.
A couple of minutes later, I was laughing so hard my stomach hurt.
Then I ended up binge-watching all twelve episodes in a single night.
I started at 2 a.m. and watched it till dawn. Finally, I fell asleep and woke up in the afternoon with a terrible headache.
I groaned as I sat in my spot, watching TV with my friends who were already there. Eric was watching TV, and Kelso just finished a popsicle.
Taking my notebook out, I began reading the notes I made last night and fell into a deep confusion.
Eric scowled at me and said, "Hyde. What were you doing last night? You startled me with your laugh at 4 in the morning."
I grunted as a reply, my head still hurting. "Don't talk to me. I have a hangover."
I paused for a few seconds before asking, "What were you doing up at 4?"
"Just getting a drink." He replied warily.
"No, you wouldn't hear me laughing in the kitchen. You'd have to get down here– You were trying to catch the late-night channel, weren't you?"
Eric's eyes widened. Donna walked into the basement with Jackie.
Kelso laughed and said, "I did that once. But there's nothing on there. Except for some reruns of Happy Days."
"What are you boys talking about?" Donna asked.
"Late-night porn. I think that's only on cable. You'll have to ask your dad to put cable in the basement, Forman." I said cheekily.
"What–" Eric laughed with disbelief and nervousness, "I wasn't trying to find porn at 4 in the morning. That's… I'm just worried because I heard you laughing alone at night."
Jackie's face immediately turned jealous. "You were laughing in your room? Did you bring some sluts into your room last night?"
I grimaced and looked at her with annoyance. "Even if I did bring someone, you can't say anything to me, since I'm not your boyfriend."
"What– I am your girlfriend! For the whole summer!" She said angrily.
"Jackie." Donna called her out pitifully.
"Stop looking at me with those eyes or I'll poke them." She warned Donna immediately.
Kelso laughed and said, "So what if he brought some girls back to his room?" He placed his hand on my shoulder abruptly. "He's a rockstar. Girls want to throw themselves at him."
"Move your sticky, ice-cream-drenched hand away from my shoulder." I warned him and he took his hand off instantly.
"So if it's not some girls, why were you laughing last night?" Donna pressed on.
"Boy, you can't let things go, can you?" I looked at her with annoyance now. Then I turned to Eric and said, "I pity you in your relationship."
"Yeah–" he accepted it and saw Donna's glare, so he changed his words immediately, "No–! I mean she's the most easy-going girl in the world!"
"Hmm." Donna reacted curtly. Eric sighed as he knew he was in trouble now.
"I watched some comedy, trying to think about skits I can use in my movies." I said and slapped the notebook slightly. "But I have no idea what I wrote. I don't know how Hemingway did it."
"I think he paced himself and didn't get drunk." Donna teased and took the notebook from me. She sat next to Eric and they read my notes together.
"Centipede?" Eric read it and looked at me in confusion. "What's a centipede?"
"I honestly have no idea." I replied.
"Literary girl?" Donna was also confused. "Also, stealing skirts? Is this a raunchy comedy?"
"No?" I tried to remember, then it hit me. "Ah. I remember it now. So, three guys are sitting in a room. One of them suddenly says, 'I wonder what it's like to wear a skirt.'"
Kelso interjected, saying, "I wonder about that too at times."
I turned to him slightly before continuing, "So. They decided to grab the skirt from the younger sister's room. Kelso, why don't you go and grab some skirts from Laurie's room? We can recreate this."
"On it!" Kelso rushed up the stairs like a golden retriever to grab the skirts.
Eric turned to me and said, "You're going to get him to wear the skirt, aren't you?"
"Yeah." I smiled slightly.
Jackie laughed and said, "Ooh! I'll take a picture!" She rushed to my room to grab a camera.
"Nice." Donna laughed slightly.
Kelso came back bringing the skirt with him. "I got it!" He laughed gleefully.
Eric and I shared a mischievous glance with each other before Eric said, "So. We're all going to try wearing the skirt, aren't we?"
"I mean… Isn't that kinda fruity?" Kelso laughed nervously.
"I'll take one." I picked up one of the skirts and went to my room.
"Hyde? Seriously?" Kelso was taken aback.
"I'm also going to wear it." Eric said and went into the storage room.
"You too?... Fine! I guess I'll wear it too!" Kelso said and he got into the unfinished shower, covering himself with the curtain.
"Are you done?" I yelled.
"I'm done!" Eric also shouted.
"I'm… I'm done too! But I think I need to go on a diet after this–"
We all went out to the living area together. Kelso saw us still wearing our pants, and he alone was wearing a skirt, with his clean-shaven legs that looked like a girl's.
"You tricked me!" Kelso was frazzled.
Jackie snapped a picture of him instantly. "Smile, Michael!"
"NO! JACKIE, NO!!" He tried to cover up the lens, but Jackie was relentless. So he ran out of the basement and went outside.
All of us burst into laughter.
"You know what, Hyde? This definitely can be in a film. It's really funny." Donna laughed out loud. "Although, I need to hear more about the others."
"You wrote one screenplay, and you think you're a professional writer." I scoffed slightly.
She grinned and said, "I got paid for it. That is the definition of a professional, you dumbass."
Forman laughed at the joke exaggeratedly. "Yeah, you dumbass."
Donna ignored him and asked me, "Want me to write the scene?"
"No. I'll do it myself. Instead, I need your help with another script."
Jackie grimaced as she wasn't included in the project and whined, "I want to do it too. Make it a roller disco movie!"
Fez suddenly entered the basement with an angry expression. "Kelso is wearing a skirt! Did you guys have fun without me again?!"
"Yeah." Forman replied mercilessly.
…
I sat in the living room with Forman and Donna to discuss the movies. Forman helped a lot with the comedy movie scenes and I figured out how to make the entire movie in just a few hours.
"Since it's just some skits, the budget doesn't need to be high. I can make it with just 50 thousand. But the main problem is the actors."
"How about Brad?" Donna asked. "He's a teen."
"That's true." I nodded and said to Eric, "Can you seduce Buddy Morgan to get him to act in the movie?"
"What– Pfft– Seduce him? I'm… Alright, maybe I can seduce him, but am I going to do that? No."
Donna snickered and teased Eric, "So are you going to talk with your little boyfriend?"
"What– No!" Eric scoffed, laughing nervously.
The phone rang and Eric picked it up. "Uh-huh. Hyde, it's your other girlfriend." He gave me the phone.
"Hello." I picked up the phone and asked, "Who's this?"
"It's Talia. Do you want to come over?" She asked directly.
"Sure." I replied easily.
"Good. Bring a movie with you too." She said and hung up the call.
Forman grinned and asked, "So. Are you going on a date with her?"
"I don't know." I replied, confused. "I'm not sure if she called me to hang out, or just wants me to bring a movie."
It was already 6 in the evening. We talked for hours. Jackie got bored and she went to the mall with her cheerleader friends. Fez and Kelso were hanging out at the Hub.
I wore my leather jacket and jeans, some cologne, even dabbing some of it on my crotch.
Riding my Chevelle to her apartment, I knocked on the door and waited.
Talia opened the door, wearing only a white, almost see-through nightgown. "Come in." She beckoned.
"Um." I was slightly taken aback, yet I entered anyway. "I brought two movies here."
She took the tapes from me and read the titles. "'House on the Straw Hill' and 'Herbie Rides Again'. Hmm… I guess we'll go with House on the Straw Hill. I haven't watched that yet."
"Me neither." I told her. "Also, why are you speaking in a sultry manner?"
She whispered seductively, "Isn't this what guys want? I saw it in a movie."
The nightgown made my blood rush to the center of my body.
"You look incredibly beautiful. Although, you can just speak normally. It's hard for me to catch what you're saying."
She immediately changed back into her normal voice. "Alright. So I thought about our last date."
"How you got sick and blew me off?" I teased.
"Yes." She agreed instantly, which caught me off guard. She added, "I thought of some ways to go on a date while watching the movie. We can play a game."
"What kind of game?" I was intrigued.
She gave me a handmade bingo board with a huge grin on her face.
"Playing Bingo?"
"More accurately, movie bingo. We predict what's going to happen in the movie. If it happens, we cross out a slot."
"Yeah. I get it." I nodded with enthusiasm. "Sounds fun. What's the prize?"
"The winner can get anything they want from the loser." Talia said with a grin. "And they have to do it."
"Even–"
"Sexual… things included." She interjected before I could say it.
I grinned and said, "Now this sounds even more fun."
We wrote our own slots for the movie. There were 25 slots. While I was filling them out, I asked her, "What happens if it's a tie, or no one gets bingo?"
"Then we both win. And if no one gets bingo, the one with the highest number of crossed-off boxes wins."
"Nice. I love having clear rules before playing a game."
We watched the movie together. In the first minute of the movie, I already got one slot filled.
"Weird/Creepy sex with props." I muttered and crossed off my list.
She also grinned and said, "I wrote nudity within the first 5 minutes. And breast implants."
"Is it an implant?" I narrowed my eyes to try and see it on the screen. "There are no implant scars though?"
"Trust me. That's an implant." She said confidently.
"Alright then." I smirked and continued the game with her.
Talia sat close to me, the smell of her perfume tickling my nose.
She smiled in excitement as she crossed off her list again.
"Old creepy lady."
"Masturbation."
"Sexual assault."
I raised an eyebrow and said, "Suddenly I feel like it's really inappropriate for us to cross off our list like that."
BANG
A gunshot sound from the TV caught my attention.
I grinned and said, "Oh. I got another one. Rapist got killed."
"Damn it. I had it and I erased it." Talia grumbled.
Halfway into the movie, Talia suddenly said, "I need one more to win."
"Damn it. I need at least 2. Come on, car crash! Oh hey. I got 'old lady gets killed'."
I crossed out my boxes, but it didn't help.
Talia only needed 'Bathroom murder' and she was golden.
We watched the movie competitively from that point on.
"Oh damn it. I didn't write 'groping'." Talia whined as she saw the scene. She touched my leg slightly, leaning into me. I grabbed her waist and pulled her in closer.
"Come on! Just one more murder!" I said to the TV.
Megan suddenly came out of her room with her hair all frazzled up, and her tank top strap slipped down her shoulder, causing her shirt to be pulled down.
"Can you guys keep it down? I'm trying to sleep over here."
"It's 7:30." I looked at her with disbelief. "What were you doing sleeping so early?"
"Some of us actually had to work hard during the day." Megan grumbled and went back inside.
Talia muttered suddenly, "Did she not realise she wasn't wearing bottoms?"
"I don't think so." I shook my head slightly and grabbed Talia's pen before she crossed out something. "She's not in the movie. Don't cross out 'full frontal bush' here."
Talia finally won the game as the main character got into a car crash while the killer was having lesbian sex with a prostitute.
"I won!" She stood up and celebrated with a dorky dance.
"Not so fast! I have a lesbian scene and a car crash too! So I also got Bingo!"
Talia sulked with disbelief. "No way you got Bingo without watching the movie first. I watched it before, and even I–"
She froze as she realized she had blurted out her secret.
I grinned and said, "Oh. So you were cheating from the start."
"No–" Her tone got slightly shaky. Then she sighed in defeat and said, "Fine. Let's have sex already."
I burst into laughter and said, "I'm not going to force you to do anything you don't want."
She smiled and said, "I saw you sing on Sunday. When I got home, I began shaving my entire body and waited for you."
"Okay then." I grinned and pulled her on top of me.
She giggled and said, "It's my first time. Be gentle."
I kissed her on the lips and she stuck her tongue down my throat. She ruffled my hair and unbuttoned my shirt, and I groped her over her shirt.
She let out a muffled moan as I sucked her nipples. My right hand caressed her smooth thigh and slowly made its way into her panties.
Suddenly, she stopped me and said, "On second thought, I'm not ready yet."
She stood up abruptly and ran to her bedroom, fully embarrassed.
"Oh, she's a tease." I groaned frustratedly and tried to stand up, but sat back down and slowly counted down from 100 to turn off what she had turned on.
…
After the unfortunate incident occurred, I went back home and stumbled into another misfortune.
"The Empire of the Ants director wants to meet with me?" I asked Donna with slight surprise.
Donna was writing the new script with Eric's help and wasn't focused on me.
"Yeah. She said he's mad. So he's coming over tomorrow to yell at you."
"Who's 'she'?" I asked.
"Patty the showrunner." Donna replied. "She's also coming by to meet you. She said she finally found the person you want."
I thought about it and shrugged it off.
Eric looked at me with concern and asked, "Hyde. Are you going to be okay?"
"It's fine. It's not like I haven't been yelled at before."
"And if he tries to beat Hyde up, he's going to make the worst mistake of his life." Donna said teasingly.
I chuckled and said, "Work slave. Work. I want to see the full script tomorrow."
"That's not going to happen, you son of a bitch. I have to write a lot of stuff!" Donna argued.
"This is what being a professional is like, Donna." I laughed maniacally and went to my room.
I chatted with my editor about the movie and he gave me some terrifying ant attack footage.
{Hyde: This is awesome! Thanks.}
{Editor: That's going to be 200 bucks.}
{Hyde: I'll give you 500.}
200 bucks in 2025 was 20 dollars in my money. He actually did a lot of good work for the movie, so I decided to pay him more.
The AI close-up of the monster was really realistic, even the part where it killed someone.
And he fixed up the ant on the ship scene, which brought the movie quality higher.
While chatting with him, the scoring company that's producing the music score for my movie contacted me.
{It's done.}
I sent him the money, which was only 1500 dollars– extremely cheap compared to the professional scoring companies in 1977, and finished up the first cut of my romantic movie.
"The movie shall be called 'Fading Colors'... well, it's a title in the works."
After editing the opening scene of the movie, which was the guy asking out the girl at school, I edited the credit scene and finalized the movie at 7 in the morning.
It turned into another all-nighter for me.
At 10 in the morning, Mrs. Forman called me up urgently.
"Steven. There are a few people waiting for you at your office. I think you should go there now!"
I woke up with a groan and stretched my arms up high. "Okay, Mrs. Forman." I told her lazily and walked groggily to take a shower.
Taking all of the new films with me, which filled a giant suitcase, I went to the office to meet with Patty, Bruce, and the angry movie director.
(Read up to chapter 176 on my patreon.
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