[Action OTA]: アニメクラブに行こうよ！

[sciencelizard]

Who: Anyone who wants to attend!
Where: Second floor tearooms.
When: 5/ 18
Rating: E for Everyone, though individual discussions may go higher.
Summary: It's the inaugural meeting of Wonderland's anime club, and it's being kicked off with a movie marathon! Come watch, chat among friends, and eat up.
The Story:

Those who venture up to the second floor tearooms will see a variety of signs, hand-drawn in colored pencil and pen, directing them to the first room in the line, where a big poster is taped to the door. It reads:

Wonderland Anime Club!
Please come in quietly and find someplace to sit!
Remember to keep it quiet for other viewers.
Refreshments are in the back!

Inside, the tables have been pushed against the wall, and the chairs arranged around them, with some limited theater-style seating in the middle; the rest of the room is full of pillows, blankets, and cushions, making a soft place to lie around and relax with a view. The middle of the room contains a projector set up on the table, projecting onto the far wall, and the lights are dimmed. All the films are subtitled, and the speakers on the side let the audio flow throughout the room. A refreshment table is in the back, filled with Japanese convenience store snacks, including various flavors of ramune, pocky, chocolate candies, and potato chips. There is also, helpfully, a list at the refreshment table of all the films being screened that day, and the times they're playing at, so people can properly identify them.

The list reads:
サマーウォーズ / Summer Wars: 12-2 PM
となりのトトロ / My Neighbor Totoro: 2-3:30 PM
猫の恩返し / The Cat Returns: 3:30-5 PM
魔女の宅急便 / Kiki's Delivery Service: 5-6:45 PM
ハウルの動く城 / Howl's Moving Castle: 6:45-8:45 PM
千と千尋の神隠し / Spirited Away: 8:45-10:45 PM

There's also a 'mailing list' left next to that where people can leave their names if they're interested in coming to weekly meetings, to watch new shows and discuss their favorites, among other things. Everything is also decorated with stickers of cats, dogs, and rabbits, along with a surprising amount of glitter for pizzazz.

Come, stay as long as you like, and enjoy the show!

Comments

[intelligently]

Thanks.

( She gives her a smile, settling down before speaking again )

I'm Lydia.

[sciencelizard]

I-I'm Alphys. It's, uh, n-nice to meet you!

[Oh goodness nice people who wanna chat what does she even ask--]

So, uh... d-do you like anime?

[For once, an appropriate question.]

[intelligently]

I've never seen any before.

( It's okay, Alphys. Breathe. She's still nice )

But it seemed like something to try out.

( New hobbies, new friends. Maybe she was just bored )

What are we going to watch?

[sciencelizard]

R-Really? Well, it's, uhm, really g-great, and I'm glad you w-wanted to try! We're watching, uh, s-six movies today, most of them by this one s-studio that a lot of people c-consider to be the best of the best. Most of t-them are about family, and adventure, a-and love! So, it'll, uhm, b-be really great, I hope.

[She really wants everyone to enjoy this.]

So, uhm, I hope you f-find at least one you, uh, really like!

[intelligently]

Those sounds like good themes in any move.

( Or every movie. What movie didn't have a little about family, adventure of love? )

Hopefully I will like them. How many have you watched?

[sciencelizard]

Well, uh, I've seen e-every one we're watching today.

[Is that weird? Maybe.]

And, uhm, a l-lot more past that...

[intelligently]

You really do love it.

( That's cool. It's like Lydia and The Notebook. Don't ask how many times she's watched that )

I've seen movie nights here before but usually of weird things - like Sharknado?

( Look anime made more sense okay )

[sciencelizard]

It's my f-favorite.

[She wasn't messing around. But she doesn't know what a Sharknado is.]

Was, uh, it g-good? I've never seen anything like t-that.

[intelligently]

I didn't watch it - sharks and tornadoes aren't really my thing.

( Don't say there are any sharks in this, Alphys )

[sciencelizard]

[She's lucky! There are no sharks or tornadoes.]

Oh! Well, uh, t-there's not really anything like that. There are other c-cute animals though, and lots of great female characters. One of t-them is even all about cats!

[intelligently]

( Interest piqued )

I think I'll like them, then. They sound pretty great.

[sciencelizard]

W-Well, I hope so! There's something in anime f-for everybody, uhm, I think. I haven't found a-anyone who dislikes all of these m-movies, at least. They're supposed to be c-classics, or at least, uhm, from w-what I've heard from people who knew them in the human w-world.

[intelligently]

( Pause. Now there's something curious ) The human world?

[sciencelizard]

O-Oh, right.

[Right. Most worlds don't have monsters. It seems like almost every world doesn't. It's weird for her to imagine that something so vital to her world's existence just... didn't happen, somewhere else. There aren't even a lot of lizard monsters in the Underground- she's a real statistical rarity, after all.]

Uhm, in my world, t-there are humans, and monsters. But a long t-time ago there was a big war that, uhm, the h-humans won, and they sealed the monsters underground w-with magic. So... we a-all lived there.

[She blushes, a little embarrassed.]

I, uhm, there was this big area near the m-middle of Waterfall, this one area where a big river rushed t-through, where a bunch of stuff from the humans would w-wash down, like trash and anime dvds. So it's w-where I'd find a lot of my materials for, uh, a-all sorts of things.

[intelligently]

That sounds quite sad.

( Being trapped underground. Couldn't they talk and sort it out now? Or was that just wishful thinking )

Where I'm from we have some people that would get called monsters - supernatural creatures. My best friend's a werewolf, but he's nice - like you.

( Because gosh Alphys is not a monster. And lets be real Lydia hadn't even blinked at her being a lizard when she first met her. Her ex-boyfriend was a lizard after all )

[sciencelizard]

Well, most h-humans, uhm, have never even seen a monster. The war that sealed us underground was a l-long time ago. But, that also m-means most monsters haven't seen the sky. I mean, where I come f-from, we had all just, uh, made it above ground. But I was only t-there a week before I showed up, uhm, here.

But, uh, b-being a monster isn't bad! I mean, we don't uh, h-have those sorts of associations with it, l-like humans do.

[a slight pause.]

Wait, you have werewolves in y-your world?

[intelligently]

I guess that makes it better, if a monster is what you are and not what someone calls you.

( Like species-wise rather than rude name calling. If Alphys says she's a monster and means it honestly- maybe it's better )

Werewolves and more, but I've seen werewolves more than anything else.

[sciencelizard]

Oh. W-We don't have, uh, those type of monsters. Like no vampires or a-anything. Just like... skeletons, and animal monsters like m-me, and ghosts? But not werewolves.

[She realizes, belatedly, of course they don't have werewolves, they're all underground. They wouldn't transform!

Shit, maybe they do have werewolves and she just doesn't know. Best not to think about that.]

W-We do have, uhm, big dog monsters, though. They're mostly members of t-the royal guard.

[intelligently]

Are there a lot of different animal monsters?

[sciencelizard]

Well...

[She's never really thought about it, but, yeah, kind of.]

Well, I hadn't, uhm, t-thought about it that way, but y-yeah. There's, uhm, I mean the King and the royal family are goats, a-and I know there are bunnies in Snowdin, and Undyne is, uhm, fishy? And s-she's friends with an old tortoise m-monster, and I k-know there's a whole family of octopi in Waterfall, and there's Snowy and h-his family who are birds. But uh, it's just as common to have like... p-people who are, uhm, entirely made of fire, or things l-like that. There's a lot of different forms monsters c-can take.