RUPERT;

[goalsides]

Comments

[goalsides]

Definitely not. This...I don't even know if this could really be called a movie.

[heartlands]

I have no frame of reference and yet I'm still horrified...

[goalsides]

I'm not even sure if having a frame of reference would help. I feel really sorry to anyone who's never seen a movie before and getting this as their first experience.

[heartlands]

I actually feel a little bit sick? Do other movies do that?

[goalsides]

Some of the goriest horror movies, maybe. Did they mislabel this one?

[heartlands]

Wait - there are movies all about horrible things happening? Uh, I would say this definitely qualifies, then. Seriously, who decided to make this?

[goalsides]

To tell you the truth there's probably a movie for just about everything you can think of. That's why they're popular.

[...] Not this one. This one should not be popular.

[heartlands]

So, I would be correct in assuming this is not in fact one of the greats.

[goalsides]

Let's just say I would give you an a-plus for that assessment. [frowning in thought.] How much more of this movie do you think there is?

[are they really stuck analyzing this forever?]

[heartlands]

How long do movies usually last? Not too long, right?

[goalsides]

A couple of hours, give or take.

[heartlands]

[glancing at the screen again and then remembering what they're watching and looking right back to taichi!]

...That's really impressive. How do all of these people act exactly the way they're supposed to for that long? Well, I guess it's not that different from a play.

[goalsides]

[yeah me too rupert. this is why taichi is looking at him and not the screen as well.]

Well, a play's a little different. When you're doing something live, you don't get to stop. But movies are made so that people can stop if they mess up or if they decide they want to do something else with the scene. It takes way longer to make a movie than a play, I think.

[heartlands]

[he blinks.]

Wait, so - how does that work? What happens if they mess up, exactly?

[goalsides]

Uh...I guess the director just goes "CUT!" really loud and the camera stops so they can set up and try again.

[heartlands]

...What's a camera?

[i'm sorry this keeps happening to taichi specifically]

—Oh, is that the thing on our phones that can make portraits instantly?

[goalsides]

[it's fine sometimes you have a baby dinosaur who had to learn about earth things too.]

Yeah, like that. Where I'm from there're things called video cameras, too. It's like taking a bunch of portraits in motion and creating something that looks like that. [he gestures to the tv.

and then makes a face.]

Except this looks like it got a bunch of special effects that made it worse, so it's not exactly like that.

[heartlands]

Special effects... So, not all of them look like this?

[thank god]

[goalsides]

No, this was a very specific way of screwing this up. A lot of movies have people that look like us. [i.e. normal and not weird cgi cat faces.]

[heartlands]

Of all the things to pick... I knew this school was suspicious.

[this is apparently what confirmed it for him]

[goalsides]

[rupert...there's a laugh.]

Yeah, you're right. [but ah.] Is this your first time at a school, or do they have those where you're from?

[heartlands]

It's pretty much my first time...? I mean, I had tutors, but not, like, a completely different building that I went to every day to learn stuff. What about you? I mean, I'm guessing you went to one, but.

[goalsides]

It's similar. The curriculum was way different, and we were always in one classroom throughout the day except for lunch and clubs. Our school was pretty big and it wasn't that far from where we lived, so I usually biked there. We also had classes six days a week.

[can't believe his life is about to be ruined with five days of class and then a murder trial saturdays.]

[heartlands]

Biked...?

[but, also:]

That sounds - pretty intense. Six days a week, really? How long did you have to stay?

[goalsides]

It's...never mind, it's not that important. [he will find a bike and show rupert someday maybe.]

Saturdays were usually half-days, but we started pretty early in the morning and would go into the afternoon. I had practice before and after school so I spent a lot of time there.