text: [Themes: family friendly]
  
  "RAWR!" You shout, grabbing a lead pipe that was hanging on your wall. You hit the capybara as hard as you can, and it goes flying across the room. You feel tempted to do a little victory dance, but decide not to, since you aren't sure if the capybara is actually dead or not.
  
  > check it out.
  You stare at the capybara, and it stares right back. In fact, it doesn't blink at all. After a minute of just looking at it, you realize that it is just a stuffed animal that has some fluff on it's mouth. How silly of you.[Themes: fan fiction, horror, romance]
  
  [Brad]: hey man, u up? got a present for u, lmk
  
  The lukewarm light from Tyler's phone lit up his room, followed by a cheery chime that signaled the arrival of a text message. Tyler had already been awake, shifting in the sheets uncomfortably for about an hour. He reached over, grabbing his phone from his nightstand.
  
  [Tyler]: Yeah I'm up dude. What is it?
  
  [Brad]: u heard about the Disney plus thing right? bitches are crazy over this shit man, so I got an account
  
  [Tyler]: And?
  
  [Brad]: here... email: fr33zydog071@yahoo.com and password: 0123jxbr, pick up some of those hoes on ur tinder dude
  
  [Tyler]: Where tf did you get the money for a Disney+ man, that isnt even your email.
  
  [Brad]: don't worry about it dude, its free. just make ur own profile tho, dont want ur shit clogging mine
  
  [Tyler]: Alright, I'll try it, whatever
  
  Tyler turned toward his alarm clock, which read 10:37 in crisp red letters. It was a Saturday, thankfully, which meant some other fool was slaving away at Denny's, instead of him.
  
  He kept scrolling through his phone, eyes glancing at Tinder's little "fire" logo; three notifications shone in the corner of the app. With a sigh, he kicked off the rest of his covers and entered the rest of his small apartment. Living in San Jose hadn't given him much in the way of free space, but he was used to it. A bedroom, kitchenette, and small living area were all he had, but that was fine.
  
  It was cozy.
  
  The suspense was killing him, active notifications were like buzzing flies. He had to swat them. As he poured a bowl of cereal, he browsed through his potential matches.
  
  [Author's Note: Play as Tyler, a young man just trying to make sense of dating. When he gets some advice and a Disney+ account from his friend, Brad, there's only one logical thing to do. Entry for Bucky's Year's End Contest]
  
  > Continue
  Stella, 23
  
  About Me
  
  New to the west coast all together. Looking for friends to have a good time and show around.
  
  I love art, music, sports, and adventurous walks in parks.
  
  HMU to hang out!
  
  The smiling face of a tall, blonde girl popped out of Tyler's phone rather jarringly. All of her photos (and there were many) had her up against fantastical backdrops: The Statue of Liberty, The Cologne Cathedral, and... the Tokyo Tower? Maybe the Statue of Liberty wasn't too fantastical, but Tyler had never been there. It all seemed too perfect.
  
  Tyler noticed a slight strain, a bulging in her eyes whenever she was smiling.
  
  Whatever, women are usually at least a little nuts. Not a big deal.
  
  He glanced around at his own apartment, shrinking into himself as the mess from last night's party revealed itself in spades. He'd need to spot clean before having ANYONE over.
  
  I've got my own issues.
  
  Still, something bothered him. Whether it bothered him enough not to swipe right, he was about to decide.
  
  > swipe Right
  Tyler swiped right, only slightly fazed by the girl's thousand-yard stare. She was still certainly out of his league, so why not take a chance?
  
  You got a match!
  
  The chat popped up on his app, and he almost immediately received a message:
  
  [Stella]: heyy, how are you?
  
  [Tyler]: Pretty good, are you a bot? lol
  
  [Stella]: am I a bot? what kind of a pickup line is that?
  
  [Tyler]: Cause youre... uhm... so magnetic? Idk, I get tons of bots on here.
  
  [Stella]: Lol do you want to hang out or something
  
  [Tyler]: Sure, I've got Disney+ if you want to come over and hang out or something
  
  [Stella]: Disney plus? sounds cool, what time should I come over tonight?
  
  [Tyler]: Tonight? How does 9 sound?
  
  [Stella]: sounds perfect
  
  Tyler exited out of Tinder, feeling equal parts nervous and elated. That had been... easy. The difficult part, as he slowly scanned his disaster of an apartment, would be cleaning up his mess. It was already approaching noon, and he hadn't even begun to touch the unspeakable throat spillage that "Mad Brad" had unleashed behind the couch. It STUNK, a rancid combination of each party snack he'd had that night. Industrial strength gloves and baking soda were the recommendation he got from Google, so before he left to grab more snacks, he sprinkled it all over the carpet.
  
  It was 8:30 pm, and Tyler was vaccuming up the last of the baking powder, praying to the party gods that Google had not failed him. Luckily, it seemed to have worked. It still smelled a little suspicious, so he hit it with a few puffs of Fabreze before taking another look at his apartment. Everything was looking pretty pristine. He'd scrubbed the bathroom, sterilized the kitchenette, and rearranged the furniture to cover up one of the stains he wasn't able to remove, a blotchy brown stain that had been there long before he'd lived there. Stella had asked for his address about an hour ago, so now it was time to wait.
  
  He was in the middle of an agressive pre-date pep talk when there was a light knock on the door. It was Stella.
  
  "Hey! How's it going?" Time seemed to freeze as he opened the door, and those words came out of the blonde-haired girl's mouth. She was even more stunning in person, and it was pretty evident that she wasn't trying to be. She was wearing a blue hoodie and jeans, and a warm smile.
  
  "Pretty good," Tyler answered cautiously, "You're Stella, right?"
  
  "Do I not look like my pictures?"
  
  "Yeah, uhm... you do. Want to come in?"
  
  "Sure haha, I like your apartment, by the way, it's cozy!" Her eyes scanned over Tyler's place, as if she was looking for something, and Tyler was relieved that he'd taken the time to scrub everything. Her eyes glanced at his Denny's uniform, hung over a chair and pressed neatly. "You work at a Denny's? That's like my go-to 4am spot, dude. Can't believe I've never seen you at yours, I go so often!"
  
  "Well I'm not usually working the night shift. What do you do?"
  
  "Uh... I work part-time at a nursing home while going to school to become a high school teacher."
  
  Goddamn, I never had any teachers that looked like this. Kids nowadays get fucking everything.
  
  "So, if I remember correctly, I was promised Disney movies. So, what's your pick?"
  
  "Oh, I was going to let you pick, since you're the guest."
  
  "I have to pick? Uhm... okay I guess my two favorite Disney movies would be either Frozen, or Beauty and the Beast. So your choice," she smiled, "the best I can do is narrow it down for you."
  
  > Frozen
  "Frozen, I guess? I've never seen it." Tyler had definitely seen it before, several times.
  
  "Really? Well, I hope you enjoy it then. We gonna watch it out here?"
  
  "Well, I mean there's also a TV in the bedroom, but it's a bit smaller--"
  
  "Sounds perfect!" She broke into a larger smile, and that's when Tyler caught a glimpse of the same buggy-eyed look that was in a few of her Tinder photos. She grabbed his hand and led him towards the back, where his (thankfully made) bed waited.
  
  She's being hella forward. Fuck it, man.
  
  Tyler switched his tv on, and opened up Disney+, where the display of different classics flashed on the screen. Clicking through, he stopped on the second annoying franchise mascot he saw. Not the tiny green one, the retarded carrot-nosed one. Kicking back, Tyler put his arm around Stella, which went surprisingly smoothly, and started the movie.
  
  As the runtime began, Tyler started to become increasingly self-conscious. The temperature in the room was probably the most alarming thing to him.
  
  Goddamnit, should've set the thermostat lower, am I going to start sweating? It's anything but frozen in here.
  
  Looking at the barren landscape of Arendelle, he began to grow jealous of the main characters, who didn't have to worry about sweaty armpits. With dry air came a dry mouth, and with a dry mouth, came dry breath. Stella didn't really seem to notice, enamored with the main characters' dispute of whether to construct a solid-water humanoid. Tyler made the decision to get some water. He could knock out two birds with one stone: turn down the thermostat, and get some water.
  
  "Hey, Stella, I'm gonna grab some water real quick." He began getting up when she grabbed his hand.
  
  "You're going to miss literally the best part of the movie if you leave now! Cmon dude." There it was again. The bugginess.
  
  "The best part of the movie? Isn't this the p--" He stopped himself just in time.
  
  "Just, don't worry about the water." She grabbed his face suddenly, pulling him forward for a kiss. It was unexpected, but not entirely unwelcome. But it didn't entirely alleviate Tyler's fears.
  
  > go get some water
  Tyler pulled away, reluctantly, and spoke:
  
  "No, I really need some water." Her eyes widened, and almost pleaded with him to stay. "I'll be right back!"
  
  "Wait, no, really. You can't leave yet."
  
  "Why not?"
  
  "You just... you just can't." Her eyes were bugging again, and alarmingly so. It was just more reason for Tyler to exit the room and get some space.
  
  Damn, this chick's kinda nuts man.
  
  He opened the bedroom door, as Stella got up and rushed to it, now almost yelling at him. What the hell was going on here? Out in the hallway, he walked towards the living room, where he could hear something walking and rummaging around. Before he could turn the corner and find out what it was, something swung around it, hitting him square in the forehead.
  
  Tyler's limp body hit the carpet.