...

[serizawa3000]

 So I guess the Silly Million-Dollar Question is "Why does a story about the Last Man on Earth begin with a twelve-year-old boy lost in the mall, and the kindly (and, presumably, incredibly cute) Goth girl who keeps him company until his parents find him?"

(He isn't lost; he knows where he is. He's sitting on a bench in front of what used to be an Aladdin's Castle but closed now.)

In The Neverending Story (the book, peeps; I know that the movie figures in nearly everyone's memory, but over thirty years ago I read the book in a single gulp), one of the things that stuck with me--and it's a major plot point, even--is how Bastian winds up in Fantastica and meets the Childlike Empress, however briefly, and his wanting to see her again (along with Xayide getting her hooks in him) is what drives the rest of the story until Bastian--well, I'm not giving THAT away...

Anyway.

Part of it is trying to write it from the POV of a 12-year-old (3rd person). Is he going to be sophisticated enough to decide that Velvet is easy on the eyes? That she smells like vanilla and cinnamon? That her coat looks like it could have been made from the shaggy purple pelt of one of Cookie Monster's unlucky cousins? Is he going to be THINKING "Nice boots"? I thought not, so he did not. I put in a moment where he does his best to NOT check out the neckline of her Little Black Dress. His dad gets in a "Okay, you can say goodbye to your punk rock girlfriend" as they're all leaving. His mom is "At least she didn't try to drink your blood" and NOT joking. (Cue creepy stories of the old country.)

I was wondering if he was going to be seeing her again, maybe when he's older, like at a science fiction convention where she's a celebrity guest... and she remembers the boy in the mall...