"Thank you," Parafi says gratefully as he accepts them, holding them carefully. (If he notices the looks, he doesn't immediately respond to it.)

"You welcome, dude."

They get in. There is some seating arrangement thing, but the adults get aisle privileges and Teronmas lets Parafi seat on the aisle if he wants to.

The lights go out. There is musical commercial about buying snacks and what to do in case of fire (calmly leave as the wards will handle it).

Parafi would like! Thank you very much, Teronmas.

He listens and watches intently, and sneaks a few bits of popcorn.

There are couple of trailers, one for an animated movie and one for a high fantasy with winged people.

Than the movie starts with the opening sequence showing the birth of the tittle character "Maltadee" being born and being forgotten by the family in their car.

Nova is utterly enthralled, and a little on edge. (It's not the same, not by a long shot, but he can't help but identify with Maltadee.)

Maltadee is growing up. Her family remains awful, but she learns to take care of herself. Here is a montage of her doing things like math while her mother is on the phone complaining about a salesperson being wrong about a discount. And here is a montage of her baking herself cake and enjoying it under the table while her family wonders where that delicious cake smell is coming from.

Then she discovers the wonders of libraries!

Yup. Parafi is very taken with this movie. (He's kind of forgotten he has the popcorn and candy.)

So many books! The family remains awful, but Maltadee can escape into different lives and different worlds. And it's almost like meeting people from ages ago!

In short: books are great!

One day, Maltadee learns that there is a school nearby and decides that she wants to join!

Her parents say "no" seriously misjudging her age.

Parafi is leaning forward in his seat, more and more taken, and utterly invested in Maltadee.

Not all hope is lost! Maltadee sneaks into school. By a window. This confuses her fellow students enough that they don't stop her. The teacher arrives moments later and is a substitute teacher, so they don't immediately notice that Maltadee isn't supposed to be in that class.

Luckily, Maltadee gets every answer right! Impressing the teacher Ms. Honey.

Go Maltadee!

Parafi manages not to make an exclamation of sheer joy.

Ms. Honey is very impressed, during recess she tries to ask about Maltadee, but there is no school information about her in the schools files.

Meanwhile, Maltadee befriends a diverse cast of children belonging to a variety of ethical, social and even interdimensional backgrounds. But then everyone goes quiet as a tall, thin woman with sharp nails strides across the campus, followed by Maltadee's father! She looks very angry! And her dad looks very unhappy!

Maltadee hides! The woman stops and appears to catch her scent after a moment, but resumes her walk. She takes Maltadee's dad to her office where she berates him about the car accident and to confirm his contact information through the phone.

Now Parafi is on edge, one hand gripping an arm of the seat tightly.

The contact information turns out to be false, and Maltadee's dad fumbles to give her the actual information. The woman, reveals herself to be Aratia Warspear, former spear throwing athlete (she makes threatening motions with the spear she has in her office) and talks at length about her iron maiden (also in her office), implying she wishes she could use it on Maltadee's dad.

(Some of the children in the audience are whimpering. Teronmas is trying to calm one of them.)

Meanwhile, Maltadee's mom shows up and catches her sneaking around. Apparently, convinced that Maltadee sneaked in the car she takes her daughter back to it and the three leave when the Aratia dismisses Maltadee's father.

Ms. Honey watches all of this happen.

Parafi is doing better than the children whimpering, he looks a little more angry than scared. (Even if he can almost feel the fear thrumming through him, can remember what it was like- He pushes it away. This is a film.)

For once, Maltadee's parents pay attention to her and ground her. She can't get to the library or try go to school again. It's very sad. Dramatically sitting by the window watching the rain levels of sad.

Luckily, Ms. Honey shows up at their home! And manages to convince the parents to let their daughter attend an advance class. They don't believe their daughter has any potential, but fear that the teacher was sent by Warspear, so Maltadee gets to go to school!

Maltadee is very happy about this. So happy that when she goes to her room she starts jumping around, her eyes are closed, and she doesn't notice the surrounding objects floating while the lights flicker. She jumps so high that she hits the ceiling and everything stays very still for a moment before falling to the ground again.

The scene ends with Maltadee blinking in confusion at her room. She raises a hand and a book inches closer.

Intermission!

"The movie is not over yet. This is just a break for people to go to the bathroom or buy more stuff. How are you doing?"

Parafi thinks about that for a moment. "I- I'm good. It's- this is good?"

"I am good too." He turns to the kids on the other side of him. "Are you guys good?"

"I want more cherry snaps."

"I need to go to the bathroom."

"Right, it is the bathroom break. Excuse me, Parafi?"

He moves so that everyone can get out.

"You can go as well. Just a suggestion." Teronmas picks up the two kids by the neck and lifts them effortlessly, gently depositing them into the aisle.

That one that stayed asks. "Hey, can I get your popcorn?"

He looks down at it. "Yeah, sure," he holds it out.

The kid greedly grabs the popcorn and starts shoving it in his mouth.

Feliaris comes over. "Hey, do guys want anything? I am buying stuff."

The kid, mouth full of popcorn and with more spilling in the ground, says. "Popcorn!"

"Okay, but try to keep it to your mouth."

"I'm fine, thank you."

A trailer to a musical plays during the intermission and then the lights go out. Feliaris and Teronmas are back shortly after, followed by the two kids.

The movie starts again. Maltadee is happy at her first day at school until Warspears shows up at the end of the recess. The kids run from her and Warspears grabs the slower ones and starts throwing them back into class.