R1 DEADLAND PT2: ELECTRIC BOOGALOO

[lockdownmods]

[it’s strange, for the people who were already dead, the shift in scenery is sudden and complete. For those who have just arrived? It’s like you’re back where you left?

How strange.

But if you ever need her, you can always reach out to the guardian of this place.]

LOCATIONS
Note: locations lag a week behind the living counterparts

Comments

[sendintheclown]

[Gogol turns away from the screen, letting his snowmobile trail off blindly in the snow, vaguely giving it some direction with the controls.]

Really? Why do you think?

[lovedanime]

[Mitarai stares back at his monitor, focusing on the direction but not modulating the speed slower over the slick parts or fast over the rocky ones.]

The witch girl flies on her broomstick everywhere to help people, and this boy without magic follows her around because he loves airplanes. Then she forgets how to fly... That's as far as I can say without spoilers.

[Though now that he's older, it seems kind of lonely watching that storyline always happen to a girl and a boy...]

[sendintheclown]

[A slight concerned gasp as his snowmobile bumps blindly against the barriers of the track.]

Does she remember again? No- wait- I don't want to know!

[That ruins all the surprise and magic of it.]

It sounds lovely! Is it a favorite of yours?

[lovedanime]

Yes, absolutely. My greatest inspiration.

[He clears the finish line of this level first and the game gives him a static notification for his trouble, his points rolling up until Gogol catches up and they can both start the next level.]

The director once said in an interview that... This was a fast and loose translation into English, but that... "Anime was a mistake." All this time I was confused and angry he thought of me that way, but I think I'm starting to understand now.

[sendintheclown]

[Gogol’s snowmobile bumps it’s way along to the finish line, though his attention has completely abandoned the game at this point.]

A mistake? But it’s your passion, isn’t it?

[lovedanime]

Oh, don't get me wrong, he didn't literally mean drawing moving pictures was a mistake; that's CRAZY TALK!

[sendintheclown]

[He doesn't get it.]

Then answer me this! Where's the mistake?

[lovedanime]

Animation... is a contradiction in terms.

[The game starts timing out.]

You want to show the audience a dynamic image, but each image you show them is actually static. True animation would be a completely different field of work. Just like a stage magician doesn't actually pull a rabbit out of an empty top hat. But if you only ever studied photographs of rabbits instead of real rabbits, even though your stuffed rabbit had exactly the same fur and body shape, you couldn't trick the audience at all...

That was my mistake.

[> continue?]

[sendintheclown]

[Gogol gives some pause to thought, letting the game run in the background. The analogy helps put things into clearer terms for him, and he starts to get an idea of what he's getting at.]

A trick sold with a great enough conviction could fool anyone. A great performer can give a man a mouse, tell him it's a dove, and the crowd will watch as he throws it into the air.

[lovedanime]

[Mitarai takes both his hands off the steering console and turns his whole body to face Gogol. Both arms are out like he's offering a loaf of bread or an explanation.]

But it can't fly. It lands.

[He mimes having to catch the limp mouse in his hands.]

Though there are some really great anime about flying mice out there. And pigs, even.

[sendintheclown]

And you can call it a magnificent ascent.

[Truth - reality - it could all be malleable, he believes. Or, he wants to, holding onto the hope that anything could be changed, that anything could fly, as the rope slips through his fingers and burns him on the way out.]

Those sound delightful. I hope you could show me, sometime.

[lovedanime]

I'm hopeful it'll come together someday.

[The movies or the magic show?

Mitarai holds up a coin.]

Another round, Nikolai-san?

[sendintheclown]

[Gogol's gaze lingers on Mitarai for a small moment before he settles back into the controls, focusing on the screen.]

Of course.