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julie

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Though he won't admit it, even to himself, Mathias is slightly nervous.

He's made the best preparations he can, managing to take over the television in the basement for the time being, although he hasn't had as much luck with the bookshelf as he'd been hoping. It seems to know he's looking for something in particular and so has been giving him all sorts of other movies. Eventually, it gave up two monster movies, though neither of them are from the fifties and he's a little disappointed by that. The titles, however, are especially ridiculous and so he hopes they're still entertaining enough.

He's telling this to Julie as he leads her down to the television, holding both movies in his hand. "So our options for tonight, anyway, are Sharktopus or Two-Headed Shark Attack. I am not sure which one sounds more absurd." They both look to be fairly recent, too, perhaps even made after his time and Mathias isn't sure what that says about the modern movie going experience.

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"Of course not!" I'm actually a bit horrified at the thought of a child left out of Neverland. "All children are allowed in Neverland. You'd just have had younger pirates, when you were there. The rules of Neverland are flexible. It's sort of the point, isn't it?"

I have very strong feelings about the subject and feel a need to explain.

"Peter Pan was always a favorite at Craig Castle. My mother even keeps our windows open when we're not at home, in case we come flying back in without warning."

Mathias smiles at that, such a nice memory to have of home and quite a lovely visual on top of that. "It was one of my brother's favourites," he says. "He would jump off his bed all the time, telling me that he could fly. There were many bumps and bruises during that stage of his life. A broken arm once, too, when he jumped off a much higher perch."

"I think Jamie became a pilot just so he could fly without pixie dust." I miss my brother desperately, but talking about him sometimes helps. "I, however, am still not fond of heights. I'll get in a plane, and even jump out of one, but only if I have to. I much prefer to stay on the ground."

I watch sharktopus eat some swimmers and laugh.

"Dry ground."

"I'm not sure it would help with this situation," Mathias says, watching the movie for a moment and although he thinks he should be surprised when the skartopus is suddenly walking along on his tentacles, he really isn't at all. "Perhaps dry ground that is very, very far from any ocean."

"Bloody hell," I say, laughing still at the film. "Noplace is safe from sharktopus. I'm not even sure your hammer is going to be much help here."

"No, probably not," Mathias agrees, laughing at the sight of that thing walking across the ground. The special effects aren't particularly good, but it's still a funny visual, no matter what. "We would need a much bigger and better weapon than that."

I'm not particularly squeamish, but I've got my face half covered with my hand at the gruesome scene.

"Maybe we could set the two headed shark after him."

"Not if he escaped to dry land," Mathias points out. "Unless the two-headed shark uses one of its heads for walking somehow." That actually seems like it might be something that's possible, but he can't imagine how.

"We will have to watch the other movie to see if that happens," he decides. And if it means spending more time with Julie, he thinks that will be just fine.

"It would have to be done before he leaves the water. We'll have to see if it's necessary." I really don't need to be persuaded much at all. "Though I do wonder if you're just trying to find a reason to keep me down here." I adjust myself to move a bit closer to him on the sofa to show that I don't mind. "We're probably safer down here, at least. I can't imagine either of them would be much good at handling stairs."

Mathias grins a little when Julie adjusts and he shrugs. "Perhaps I am," he says. Sam will have something to say about it eventually, but he's having fun down here with her, talking more than watching the movie, but the movie itself is a good enough excuse to stay in the basement. "Do you not think that Sharktopus could get down the stairs with its tentacles?"

"I hope stairs might at least slow him down, but I think Sharktopus can do anything he puts his mind to." My arm brushes against his when I reach for the popcorn. "We might be in terrible danger."

"I would do my very best to keep us safe," Mathias answers, smiling. "But I suspect even the best of us all might not be able to stand up against Sharktopus." And he would hardly count himself among the best of anyone or anything.

"It would be quite a fierce battle, I'm sure. And there'd be no shame in losing to Sharktopus. I'm almost hoping he ends up winning in the end. He's much more interesting than anyone else in this film."

I won't be telling this to Maddie, who will laugh at me just like she did when I cried over the German officer when I dragged her to see The Adventures of Colonel Blimp.

"I think that's typical of most of these movies," he admits, giving Julie a grin. "The human characters tend to be... one dimensional. Sometimes quite boring." And the dialogue isn't particularly intelligent, but that isn't exactly what they're watching for, he thinks. Not a movie with a title like Sharktopus. He wonders who makes these movies, who comes up with these ideas.

"I'm not saying I want to invite him over to dinner or meet him at a dance or anything, but I think I'd prefer Sharktopus on my side over these people."

I say this as poor Sharktopus meets his explosive end.

"Poor dear Sharktopus."

Mathias raises his eyebrows at the explosion, his head tilted slightly at the screen. "Poor Sharktopus indeed," he says, although he isn't sure if they're really supposed to feel sorry for the supposed villain of the piece. "Do you suppose most monster movies end with you liking the monster better than the people?"

"I wouldn't know. I thought you were the expert. Did you entice me here under false pretenses?" I tease. "I do tend to prefer underdogs, though. Or undersharks, as the case may be. I think it comes of being Scottish."

"Mostly false pretenses," Mathias agrees with a solemn nod. "I have to admit, I've seen very few monster movies. Mostly the older ones made their appearance in my home, but the bookshelf seemed intent on giving me this one."

He pauses, looking at the screen. "It is too bad the undershark didn't win, then."

"So I've been tricked into an acquaintance with Sharktopus." I shake my head sadly and force myself not to smile. "I suppose we can blame the bookshelf. It does seem to enjoy being mean to me."

I frown slightly at the end of the film.

"Probably just as well. I'm not sure what kind of future he'd have to look forward to. Seems like it would be hard to be a sharktopus in the world."

"In my world, he would have been famous," Mathias says. "But it would have all gone wrong in the end, I imagine, much like it did with King Kong." It's been some time since he's seen that movie, but he does remember that it doesn't end particularly well. "On the other hand, I suspect he's much less misunderstood than the giant ape."

"I wonder if they'd be friends." I like the idea of King Kong and Sharktopus having whatever passes for tea among movie monsters. "I cried buckets over King Kong," I admit. "At least Sharktopus isn't quite as tragic, even if they technically ended the same."

"Yes, King Kong does have a bit of a different feel to it," Mathias agrees. "It's amazing how movies based on monsters can have such different tones given who's in charge of making them." And, he supposes, what exactly they want to get done. He imagines the makers of Sharktopus are pleased with the result of their movie.

"Much as I'd like to see Sharktopus try to climb the Empire State Building, I'm sure they're both in the film they're best suited to."

I may be bold, but this has been officially defined as a date and I think it's past time one of us did something like it when I reach over to take his hand.

"This is probably the most serious conversation anyone has ever had about Sharktopus."

"Except for the people who made it," Mathias answers with a smile, although that may not be true at all. The people who made this movie may well have not taken it seriously in the slightest.

He glances down when Julie takes his hand, still smiling, then asks, "Would you like to go for a walk?"

"No. I've seen it now. There's no way the people who made it were as serious about it as we are." I love that, for the moment, at least, I have a life where I can be so silly about something like this ridiculous film.

"What if we run into Sharktopus?"