be discreet

[msmage]

It's not much later, in Isabella's room, that she asks:

"So... is Alex really a dom?"

Comments

[alicornucopia]

So they go wait for the bus, and get on the bus, and ride into town, and get out at the theater, and purchase tickets and popcorn (well, Jackson gets popcorn), and sit in seats.

[mrmage]

Sadde gets popcorn too, are you kidding, he has only just recovered his sense of taste to its full extent! Nom.

[alicornucopia]

Popcorn for all, then. Nom.

[mrmage]

And then the traditional pre-movie ads start, and Sadde snorts at something completely unfunny.

[alicornucopia]

"What?" wonders Jackson.

[mrmage]

"Isabella and I were talking about what would happen if we ever met a boy version of her and my mind went funny places," he shrugs.

[alicornucopia]

"Oh." ...Now Jackson's mind may be going places too.

[mrmage]

He laughs. "Mine went those places the first time I pictured it, too."

[alicornucopia]

"I don't think I'd be much different if I was a girl."

[mrmage]

"Well, it's not like it changes a whole lot about you other than how you look and some indefinable internal feeling some people like me seem to have."

[alicornucopia]

"Yeah."

[mrmage]

"The bulk of the thing that I was thinking about was really having two Isabellas, and the dynamics of their interactions. It'd be funny."

[alicornucopia]

"It would?"

[mrmage]

"Well, maybe funny's not the right word, but the thing I told her I imagined was something like 'unstoppable force meets immovable object.' She said they'd probably cooperate, though, so I'm imagining the two of them in a conference room discussing the fate of humanity."

[alicornucopia]

Snort.

[mrmage]

Sadde starts alternating between girl voice and boy voice:

"Should we found a country or colonize another planet?"

"Well, interplanetary travel and terraforming are prohibitively expensive if you don't already have a country."

"But on the other hand there's lots more real estate on Mars for an arbitrary number of countries."

"That still doesn't solve the underlying problem of needing funding."

"Of course, but is founding a country the best way to get it?'"

[alicornucopia]

Giggle.

Previews!

[mrmage]

Previews! And then movie! It's a cute animation with talking animals, heartwarming moments, good orchestral music, and cheesy life lessons.

[alicornucopia]

Jackson steadily consumes popcorn and absorbs cute talking animal plot.

[mrmage]

Something sad happens, and then there is a journey during which people learn important things about something or other.

[alicornucopia]

How edifying.

[mrmage]

The movie has some jokes and moments that would probably sail right past a child's head but are funnier to a more mature audience, and then the main characters solve the problems and everyone's implied to live happily ever after, however, implausible that may be.

[alicornucopia]

Hooray.

Jackson's all out of popcorn. When the movie ends he checks the time on his phone. "I better catch the next bus."

[mrmage]

"Yup. I'm gonna go check something out and then go back to school."

[alicornucopia]

"Bye."

And Jackson gets a bus and goes off to see his master.