"Sounds cool! Lots of stuff to try, for sure. New movie, new drinks, sure, I'm down for that."

"Hear, hear!"

Burrito is quickly nommed, but not too quickly to enjoy.

Then she takes Bluebell over to another set of four rooms. Their 'mini-theater' is a pair of long, soft couches with cupholders, and a wall-sized TV screen. Impressive, for something in a living room.

Ayo turns out to be from Nigeria. "<So I hear you've never had a mocktail?>" She asks as Amaris queues up the movie. "<What kinds of soda do you like?>"

"Orange cola is my secret weakness. Also root beer, lemon lime, and ginger ale."

"<Ginger ale is very nice. I want to give you some things to try? Here, let me->"

She starts mixing several things together in an odd machine with several top openings. Ginger ale, orange juice, and then several less identifiable things.

Meanwhile, the movie is starting. It opens with an animated scroll through multiple layers of a dense, busy city. Trams running along, workers clocking in, elevators going up and down. Hundreds of people shuffling along, smoothly getting out of each others' way. The music is a fast classical tone filled with all sorts of city and industrial sounds between the clock-like piano and percussion. The style is remarkably ghibli-like, if busy, like some of the scenes from Kiki's Delivery Service showing city streets, turned up to 11. Clocks are everywhere, steadily ticking along the beat. The intro scene continues without dialogue for a while, giving you a good feel for the productiveness of the city, but also how crowded and regimented it is.

Well this is awkward.

You can just shut up, Clematis. Don't be an asshole. 

Girls, let's focus on the movie. It's new. 

She directs the body's direction to the TV.

"Thanks for experimenting for us, Ayo!"

Ayo grins and nods, then texts:

You're welcome! Here, try this. Slowly. Think about it, I make another in a bit.

It's... Gingery and sweet, slightly thick like a milkshake, cold, a teeny bit tart, and maybe has something a bit sharp like anise in it, too.

The intro cutscene comes to an end as what look like the main character's parents get ready for the day. They wish their daughter, Helena, good luck at school. She looks uncertain and conflicted, but her parents don't seem to notice. The first appearance of the System is present in these scenes, as the father asks it about Helena's upcoming tests - "just do your best, your placement is probably already set, haha!" - and then the bus schedule, and is answered by a cuckoo bird from the clock in the kitchen. School, too, is regimented and orderly, almost too clean. Helena is the only one with a splash of color anywhere on her, a small red flower charm.

During the tests, the paper quiz starts swimming in front of her, and Helena is visibly panicking. And then she floats straight off her chair, and everything devolves into chaos, with the other students and even the teacher afraid of her. Helena reaches out for help but the class shies away fearfully from her outstretched hands as she tumbles in midair.

Aw, the poor girl. 

The movie's capturing her attention, so much so that she's surprised by the drink.

 - Cherry, could you - she beseeches. 

"Aw, thanks!" Cherry takes the glass and takes a sip. 

Her eyebrows rise, and she tastes it in her mouth for a long moment before swallowing and flashing a grin.

"... That's good." She takes another small drink and gives Ayo a thumbs-up.

Helena falls to the ground again with a clatter. The teacher rushes over and bustles her down to the nurse.

She asks the cuckoo-bird in the nurse's office what's happening to her, when the nurse leaves to attend to something. The scene is used to deliver a little bit of exposition about the Ant People and Bee People, but Hannah grows angry at the bird's cold, factual responses, and breaks it. Another bird appears in its place. Her parents meet her and hug her wordlessly. They've brought a bag of her belongings. She cries when a trimly dressed official informs her that- For the safety of everyone, she's being sent to a special place. The train to the 'special place' is a lonely, cold thing. On the way it stops to pick up a few other misfit-looking powered people. None of them talk to her, though one of them changes their skin to show a little red flower, like her charm. A moment of connection shared across the lonely space.

The movie speeds up from there. The 'other place' is in a big cave that opens to the surface in the distance, a mysterious and vast world that none of them have ever seen. An unknown and alluring frontier. There's barely any supervision, just a strong barrier on the way back below and occasional deliveries. A colony mostly made up of misfit kids, built in the image of the crowded city that they can't return to. Helena hears rumors that a lot of people... Leave out the cave, and most never come back. The bee people must take them.

Interesting metaphor. She sips her drink and watches.

A Bee Person visits the cave. They're a bit uncanny and fey-like, taking great care to present themselves in a specific way. They offer to grant any one wish- Anything one can imagine- If only someone would complete an unspecified task for them. Nobody takes them up on it. Helena approaches the Bee Person and asks questions about their life. They wander around the fake city for a bit as the Bee Person, still not given any name, talks about the greater good and the future. Does it matter if someone lives a good life or a bad one, if the end result is the same? The same children born, the same constructions built, the same food consumed? Yes, Helena insists. She wants a good life.

The Bee-Person is lit from behind in the cave exit, regarding Helena. They check a pocket-watch with a bird filigree. Then they shrug and say, 'Then go get one,' before flying away. Helena tries to follow and demand an explanation, flying out the cave and shouting more questions, but the Bee Person is much, much faster, and soon vanishes into the distance. Then Helena looks all around at a beautiful landscape, and panics, falling out of the sky unable to control her flight ability! She lands, scraped and scuffed, in a dark and foreboding swamp where mysterious noises and movements spook her as she wanders. She tries to climb trees or fly up, but can barely hover.

This is my favorite part.

Comes as a text from Amaris, who is rapt. Her drink is probably getting low.

She watches closely! Wonder what's the favorite part?

Chase sequence! Some sort of skittering many-limbed monster with glowing eyes spooks her, sending her falling into muddy water and then crashing through old deadwood, getting half-trapped in vines, and so on, the thing tearing at the obstacles seemingly in an attempt to get at her. She half-floats, half-plows through a beautifully animated series of scenes- Disturbing insect colonies, foxes and frogs, birdlizards, flowers, etc, as she flees. Then she falls into a sort of pit and remains stuck. The creature reaches down to grasp her arms and torso firmly, Helena squinting her eyes closed-

-And picks off a thorny vine from her arm then sets her gently on the ground and pats her on the head. Then the front opens up and reveals a scrawny boy with a lantern, waving cheerfully. They chat, with the swamp somehow seeming much more friendly now thanks to editing and framing tricks. He offers her some berries and is amazed at her flight, and invites her to his stilt house, a very Miyazaki-ish cozy place in a clearing that looks like something between a tree fort and a witch's hut, complete with a dumb-looking lizard as a pet.

Awwwww! Adorable!

Also this drink is really good.

This drink is also almost out by now! Ayo is eyeing her glass anticipatorily but restraining herself from asking how it was.

She gives Ayo a thumbs-up, and texts her. 

I really like the drink! It's got a complex blend of flavours but they all work well together without clashing. You know your stuff!

Yay

I'm going to be a bartender. Think of a word, any word, or a phrase, for me to theme the next one?

On screen, Helena and the boy who says he hates his name are cooking dinner. The ingredients are weird and slightly gross-looking but the result looks surprisingly normal and good. Helena misses her family dearly but is trying not to ruin a new friendship. The boy is trying to play off the subject, but it's clear he also has feelings about family. Eventually, the boy- Who accepts the name Budo with a shrug- Claims that family is who you want to be with. Helena just says she wants to be back below, where everything made sense. She asks about the Bee People and the one who was offering a wish. Budo goes serious and says it's legitimate, but she probably doesn't want to do it. Helena insists, and Budo sighs and agrees to escort her to somewhere she can meet the Wish Bee again.

Hmmmmm... 

Let's go with "Sparkles". 

She smiles at Ayo and watches the show. Budo seems cool.

The next drink is sprite-like, more carbonated, and has little seeds or something to add texture and a bit of sourness. Or boba, maybe?

The movie continues, being recognizably Ghibli despite the wholly different subject matter. Loving animation of tiny details and all. The Wish Bee's mission is to escort a princess, Sakura, to the Heart of the Planet. Sakura is kind and sweet, and gives great comfort to Helena and Budo on the journey, but she's also detached, sad and wistful at moments. They face a few trials and tribulations - saving a beaver family, trying to contact Helena's family by diving through the Ant People city for a bit (and seeing the chaos and fear their intrusion caused), and mediating a conflict between two groups of forest animals. Helena learns to control her flight powers with the help of flocks of birds. But Sakura pulls away, saying that becoming friends will only hurt them all.

The Heart of the Planet is a massive tree alight with green energy. Flocks of birds roost in its crown and it seems to put a physical pressure on all three as they approach. Only with great struggle, the pair helping Sakura along when she can barely move, do they finally arrive. It turns out the purpose of the trip to the Heart of the Planet is for Sakura to live here for the rest of her life, taking care of the tree until she becomes one with it. She is slowly transforming into a bird, and only now reveals it, feathers on her arms. Budo begs her to come away with them, while Helena only watches in shock. But Sakura says her heart is broken, this is a relief, and don't you DARE wish for me to come back.

Eventually, Budo and Helena leave, watching Sakura pet a bird that landed on her hand with the same sad smile. Shortly after that, the Wish Bee appears again, standing silent with them for a while as the music mourns. They go back to the cave of misfits, after receiving a golden pocket-watch each from Wish Bee, for when they eventually want to call in their wish. But for now, they just go to the city and rest.

Roll credits.