the-pink-cat-gurl

[the-pink-cat-gurl]

I hate tank controls...

now listen, listen ....

I get that it's a fairly basic system to understand, however I am not accustomed to it... I'm far too used to modern controls, so trying to play Resident Evil Code Veronica is literal hell because of the slow movements. I couldn't even get passed the first section they throw enemies at you because I couldn't move more than an inch before I was getting attacked...

I'd love to give this game another shot, but I'll just wait and see if they remake it first..

[the-pink-cat-gurl]

When a Youtuber I really like also likes another YouTuber I like:

Thank you YouTuber FunkyFrogBait for teaching me that if I swear in the search box in Google, you get actual answers instead of Gemini’s answers

[the-pink-cat-gurl]

Hunger Games is NOT Battle Royale

This is an essay I wrote in the summer of last year, with the newest Hunger Games novel just releasing, and Battle Royale currently having a new manga release this feels like the right time to drop this. Warning this essay is looong. Slightly over 4,000.This will contain spoilers for both properties, and one very brief mention of assault in the section "Two Players Remain", but isn't in graphic detail as it's a very minor detail added to show the difference between a character from the novel and the film Battle Royale, and a mention of school shootings in relation to how they altered film within the 2000's.

Keep an eye out for all the asterisks, which will link the sources for each section for select statements made. Below is the essay in it's entirety.

Battle Royale was originally a novel published in Japan sometime in April of 1999, written by author/journalist Koushun Takami, the book later getting an English translation in late February of 2003. Battle Royale follows a class of 9th graders (with two transfer students) who are transported to an island to act upon the BR Act, a military program in which the class of forty-two students are forced to kill each other until one remains. The BR Act was brought about to curb any attempts of rebelling from the Japanese public, and to instill fear within them by showing off the power of the government, on top of playing off of the public’s fear of being murdered by a friend. 

Battle Royale was adapted into a movie of the same name in 2000 by the late director Kinji Fukasaku, who was previously known for films about the yakuza/the Japanese mafia; Battle Royale also got adapted into a fifteen volume long manga in the same year that the movie adaptation was released in theaters. The film became the highest-grossing R15+ film at the time, being the highest Japanese language film for the next six weeks*. The film adaptation gained a sequel years later, with the role of director being changed to his son Kenta Fukasaka, who also wrote the screenplay for the first film, in the middle of production when Kinji passed from prostate cancer in very early 2003, with the film being released later in May the same year. 

Outside of a few film festivals, as well as lingering around film forums and piracy sites, Battle Royale was never officially released in the west for up to ten years**; it’s to be assumed that due to the nature of the film being classmates killing one-another with a variety of weapons, including guns, that the film will draw controversy, particularly in a post Columbine Massacre America. In that time, the film grew to become a cult classic within filmbuff circles, bootlegs of the film being spread around with fan-made subtitles for it, with the official release updating the translation to make it fully cohesive and cleancut.

However, now-a-days, when brought up, Battle Royale is brought up when talking about the Young Adult book series by Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games, especially once the books got adapted to a movie series of the same name. *https://web.archive.org/web/20070305133056/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,501030707-461891,00.html

**https://web.archive.org/web/20181002130526/https://www.screen daily.com/toei-continues-strong-sales-on-battle-royale-3d-/5020957.article

How The Allegations Came To Be.

The Hunger Games, at least the first book, follows Katniss Everdeen after she volunteers herself for the games to take the place of her younger sister. The Games are a televised event, showing all twenty-four tributes from the twelve districts within Panem as they fight to the death until one tribute remains. The ages of the tributes range from twelve to eighteen, each tribute is picked by random through a lottery system. Within the games, the tributes have to evade the other or kill them in order to survive. The books had become extremely popular, being the second most selling YA books, right alongside the Harry Potter series*, and later got adapted into a series of movies by Lionsgate throughout the early 2010’s. And in the 2020’s gain a prequel novel and film, with another one on the horizon.

With the very basic summary of both being stories in which school-aged children are spirited away to an isolated location and are forced to fight one-another to the death until one remains, fans of the film Battle Royale were quick to accuse American author Suzanne Collins of plagiarism.

*https://www.npr.org/2012/08/07/157795366/your-favorites-100-best-ever-teen-novels

Pre-Death Body Count, Weapons, and Publicity.

Now, to start with, let’s go over the differences that exist within both Battle Royale and the first Hunger Games novel/movie, as that’s where the main part of the argument lies.

Now, a very basic comparison to make is the size of the people participating within the death games itself; in Battle Royale the class is forty-two students, however before the games officially started the class got knocked down to forty students. In Hunger Games, they have twenty-four tributes in all, one boy and one girl from each of the twelve districts, meaning that between the two, the number of bodies to drop was chopped in half (no pun intended).

In Hunger Games, in order to get a weapon you'll have to run towards the cornucopia to retrieve whatever one can get their hands on while other tributes are doing the same thing whilst also fighting. Meanwhile in Battle Royale, each student is given a bag, each one containing some food, a bottle of water, a map, a compass, flashlight, and a randomly selected weapon. The student has the chance of getting a weapon like a gun or something like a sickle or they'll receive something random such as a pot lid or a megaphone. Both Hunger Games and Battle Royale have a bit of a luck system when it comes to the weapons that one could attain; however with Battle Royale each of the kids get a bit of a headstart as they leave the classroom where everything is laid out to them due to the fact that they’re listed off and let go one-by-one, as in Hunger Games everyone is let go at the exact same time, free to go in whichever direction they wish. 

In Battle Royale, as mentioned before, there’s a system of luck involved when it comes to what kind of weapon one would get. The most common type of weapon one could receive is a gun, mainly/largely handguns with the exception of an uzi that is snatched up by one of the main antagonistic students, Kiriyama, within the game. Everyone else is left to their own devices and whatever weapons they were given, for an example, Mitsuko is given a sickle, and while playing up a persona of either a friendly girl towards the female players of the game or the persona a flirt towards the male players of the game, she gets their guard down enough for her to quickly slit their throats.

The weapon selection in Hunger Games is more-so handheld, with the only long range weapons (such as a throwing spear and a bow & arrow) being few and far between than what is presented in Battle Royale.

However, unlike in Battle Royale every tribute in Hunger Games is given a chance to train within the days leading up to the main event itself, while the kids in Battle Royale are left to pick up how to use everything through first hand experience. All the weapons are left to one’s own devices, they’ll have to run as fast as they can to the cornucopia, the further within the cornucopia they are, the better the weapon, with the exception of the bag, something that may or may not have a weapon concealed within, each item has a chance to do serious damage to another person if the tribute was to use the appropriate amount of strength required. In Hunger Games, the whole event is televised, shown off to not only members of Panem’s capital, but also dispirited throughout the twelve districts. Viewers, if they have a preferred tribute within the game or want to help someone with their district, by sending them something to help them along, ranging from different types of food like bread and broth/soup to things like medicine to help treat burn wounds. There’s hidden cameras around the arena, capturing everything that’s going on to be projected to the on-going live stream that people are watching.

There’s also a group of overseers who observe everything, and sometimes go in and mess with the games themselves from adding wild, genetically deformed animals to the arena, or throwing fire to keep a tribute from going too far.

Meanwhile, in Battle Royale, there is no such thing occurring. While the public at large is aware of this going on, they do not see anything that’s going on within the arena. This isn’t a thing that’s referenced to in either the movie adaptation or the original novel, the only time that any part of the BR Act being filmed is the outcome, as seen within the first couple of minutes of the film, after the introductory scroll explaining how the BR Act came to be, we as the audience are shown a news report stating that a girl has won the previous game. Same can be said in the book as it is referenced early on that the main character recalls seeing a broadcast showing one of the winners with a distorted face. 

One could say that this is it for whether or not Battle Royale had any aspects of it film, but there is one thing: within the English adaptation of the manga, in the very early chapters, it’s called a government sponsored “reality show”, which is most likely where part of the controversy comes from.

The English adaptation of the manga was penned by American comic writer Keith Giffen, who happened to be a fan of the film. Giffen was given a tight translation script, and he was told to make what changes he felt suited best, and told to make it his own*; with this being the case, Giffen adjusted the manga’s script in a way he felt did the film justice, reworking lines such as “I have to kill you first, because you would kill me otherwise”, which Giffen felt was too on the nose for an American reader, to “Fashion tip, red’s not your color”. However, despite the added in reality show aspect of this version of Battle Royale, that doesn’t exist in any other translation of the same manga, as well as setting it ten years in the future, both of these aspects were left out in later volumes of the series.

*https://web.archive.org/web/20050205111131/http://www.newsarama.com/Battle_Royale.htm

In Story Presentation

To keep this short, the first Hunger Games novel, as well as the others in the original trilogy were kept solely to Katniss’s perspective, meaning that everything that she sees and experiences within the games is what the audience sees, this was tweaked when Hunger Games made the jump to film, showing scenes within District 11, within the Capital, and it shows the inside of the gamemakers’ rooms. 

In all versions of Battle Royale, the story jumps around from each of the students who are lingering around the arena. The audience gets to read about the characters’ backstory, only for that character to get swiftly killed off if they’re not one of the small handful of characters who have more relevance to the plot. You can spend pages reading about a scared student before you reach the next chapter where you might rejoin main characters Shuya and Noriko as they try to survive alongside one of the transfer students, a former survivor of the BR Act. While this may build some confusion if you weren’t paying attention, or you were too busy trying to keep track of all forty-two students, as well as the enforcer of the BR Act, it is a rather quick way to build empathy, especially with the select number of students who have rather tragic pasts.

Two Players Remain

Another common point of comparison is the fact that both stories end with two players of the death game (which happened to be one boy and one girl), being the survivors of the whole event. However, this statement by itself would suggest that the events that had led to two survivors were the same, if not, very similar, when the two situations are far from that aside from the coincidence of the two survivors being a boy and a girl who happen to be close with one-another.

In Hunger Games, Katniss alongside fellow district 12 member Peeta, are tricked into believing a lie announced by the gamemakers that if two members of the same district are still remaining by the end of the game, they would win. This started up once the gamemakers, alongside President Snow, thought it would make the game even more interesting if two people from the same district, whether they be friends, or be lovers like the charade that Katniss and Peeta put on, eventually fight to the death once the rule gets repealed at the last moment. 

Upon the rug being pulled out from under them, Katniss and Peeta take a handful of poisonous berries, almost ingesting them before an announcement came on at what could have been the last second backtracking the repeal of the `one lone victor` rule. The gamemakers, and members within the Capital that work on the death games are airing all of this live, and know how to keep the viewers collective attention. The games have served as a yearly reminder to the public to not rise up and rebel against the Capital, so in fear of a rebelling occurring upon the deaths of all twenty-four tributes, especially with the fake love story that Peeta had made up beforehand during the pre-game interviews, they decided to let the two tributes win in the end.

Meanwhile in Battle Royale, after they defeat Kiriyama, the remaining students Shuya, Noriko, and a survivor from a previous game, Kawada, go out to a part of the island to relax. At first, it seems as if Kawada is going to turn on Shuya and Noriko as he pulls a gun on the two of them, and then the heart rate monitor in the game room of everyone over-seeing the events goes flat for both of them after a gunshot goes off. After everyone else leaves the island, save for the gamemaster who is left to hang around, Kawada shows up, and shortly after so does Shuya and Noriko. It turns out that Kawada disabled the tracker necklaces to fake the deaths of Shuya and Noriko. Then the three of them then take turns shooting the gamemaster until he dies, before escaping the island on a boat, while on the boat Kawada eventually succumbs to his wounds and passes away from blood loss. A news announcement comes on, reporting that both Noriko and Shuya are considered to be terrorists due to their actions on the island, leaving the two on the run from the government.

From the breakdown of both of those endings, the only linking thread that both have is that both of them contain two survivors who happened to be members of the opposite sex. However, as pointed out within both respective paragraphs, the reasoning for the end result being the way they are, is completely different. 

Hunger Games’s ending came about because the gamemakers/the Capital at large wanted to prevent potential rebellion that could come their way if they allowed the death game to not have any winners. So, to prevent that kind of backlash, they backpedaled into reversing the decision they made just moments before, in which, this is another domino falling down to lead to the upcoming rebelling that’ll occur later in the series.  

Battle Royale’s ending, however, came about because throughout the story, there’s elements of wanting to rebel against the game. One group of students that the film/novel cuts back to are planning on overriding the computer systems while they get ready a bomb to set off, as a sort of middle finger to the adults running this. The authority figure, the man running things, within the novel was a disgusting individual, openly antagonizing the students at the beginning, namely Shuya, by mentioning he assaulted the woman running the children’s home Shuya lived at. Select members of the cast have, in some way, suffered due to the fascist regime of this fictional Japan. 

In both the novel and the film, Shuya had lost his father, putting him in the children’s home in the first place. Within the novel, Shuya even has his own way of rebelling, even before the events of the game, he listened to rock and roll music as well as dreaming of becoming a rock star despite the ban of the genre in effect from the government. Kawada in particular has a rage towards the system in place, especially due to his trauma from being forced into the game previously and first-hand witnessing the death of a close-companion, Kawada rejoined the game so he could figure out the meaning of the smile his friend gave him within their final moments, and he also plans to put an end to the whole death game. Unlike in Battle Royale, there was no initial plan in Hunger Games for Katniss to rebel against the Capital in the first place, she solely volunteers herself for the games just to ensure that her sister gets to live, while the rebellion against the government came later, that wasn’t her original plan.

Source Of Inspiration

Koushun Takami, the author of the novel of Battle Royale, came up with the idea for the book/a short story that was submitted to a magazine in 1997 after a dream he had*. Koushun Takami’s own admission, describes the dream he had as such:

He was half awake when the mental image of a teacher from an old TV show he’d watched announced to the class that they would kill each other came to his mind. While the image of the teacher smiling made him, Koushun Takami, laugh, he also felt fear. And from then, he knew he had to write it down. 

He also mixed in elements of pro wrestling events such as the royal rumble. Also, another possible, unsung, bit of inspiration for Battle Royale, could’ve been a rise of youth crime and delinquency in the `90s**, this scared the Japanese public as this was something that they hadn’t experienced before, especially violence from students towards their teachers, something depicted in the film adaptation as the death games’ enforcer gets his leg slashed at by a student in the beginning of the film.

Suzanne Collins, author of Hunger Games, on the other has always stated what her sources of inspiration*** for writing the Hunger Games series were: 

One night, while laying in bed, she flipped through TV channels, and the striking differences between going from a competition show to seeing footage of a real world war stuck with her. Especially so how, as a child, Suzannne Collins’ father was fighting within the Vietnam war, seeing the footage from the war zone terrified her because she knew that her father was there, despite her mother’s efforts to protect her and her siblings. Suzanne Collins felt that even people nowadays would feel the same way with such the disconnect between the reports of a war and on the next channel, one could watch something like a competition. Another influence that Suzanne Collins had for the story was the Greek myth of the minotaur****, in which a punishment for past deeds in Athens was to force seven maidens and seven youths into the labyrinth to get devoured by the monster within those walls.

*https://www.polygon.com/2019/5/26/18636556/battle-royale-games-movie-book-koushun-takami-inspiration

**https://www.nytimes.com/1999/10/12/world/japan-s-troubling-trend-rising-teen-age-crime.html

***https://www.slj.com/story/a-killer-story-an-interview-with-suzanne-collins-author-of-the-hunger-games

****https://uinterview.com/news/author-suzanne-collins-reveals-hunger-games-inspiration/

The Impossibility Of It All

For the final section of this, let’s dig into the impossibilities of Suzanne Collins having seen the film of Battle Royale. Now, it is possible that she may’ve read either the novel or the manga adaptation, as both had their English translations published, or started publishing for the case of the manga, in 2003 while Hunger Games was published in 2008, but the main point of this controversy ignores both of these, and only brings up the film, so let's’ focus on that.

To circle back to a point made very early on, the film adaptation of Battle Royale,  wasn’t officially released in the west due to its themes. After a mass shooting like the Columbine Massacre, it affected movies coming out at the time. Even films that had begun part of its production beforehand, such as Scream 3*, had to change its scripts after the shooting had occurred, alongside general criticism of violence within the media to avoid controversy. It seems that the company behind the film, Toei, agreed to this statement and withheld any legal copies to be sold overseas to avoid controversy until distribution company Anchor Bay bought the rights and sold it in a straight to DVD format in 2010**. 

Before that point, one would've had two choices in order to see this cult classic. Piracy, or film festivals. Battle Royale has premiered in multiple film festivals, including one over in Seattle, Washington. Now, it could be possible that Suzanne Collins had seen this film if she had been in Seattle***, much like how film director Quentin Tarantino**** might've seen it as he's gone on record proclaiming his love for the film, even bringing over one of the actress to be in Kill Bill vol 1; but since 1991, Suzanne Collins has been working with Nickelodeon to help write select children's TV shows.***** 

On top of that, Suzanne Collins was also working on another book series, inspired by Alice in Wonderland, called Gregor the Overlander, which started publication in 2003. Gregor the Overlander is a five-book long franchise, meaning it's highly likely that she would've been too busy writing and rewriting not only Gregor the Overlander, but also working for Nickelodeon as while working on Hunger Games, she'd used her job on Wow Wow Wubbzy****** to have some levity between writing breaks for the novel by writing scripts for the show. 

Gregor the Overlander/The Underland Chronicles series of books ran from 2003 to 2007, four years in total with yearly releases according to Google; even if one wants to try and say that Suzanne Collins might’ve pirated it, she’s been a writer on other childrens’ property******* at the time too, such as Clifford’s Puppy Days from 2003 to 2006, Oswald from 2001 to 2003, as well as a TV special called Santa, Baby.  Suzanne Collins would’ve been too busy to pirate a foreign film, and on top of all that, she’s also a mother with two kids who would’ve been around nine and four in 2003.  

In other words, after adding up all of those details, the idea of her having possibly seen this movie becomes less and less likely when one considers the load on Suzanne Collins’ plate at the time in which she could’ve seen this film from before she started writing on Hunger Games. Plus, unlike now-a-days, trying to pirate anything back then would’ve been risky, giving people a fifty-fifty chance of accidentally infecting their computer with a virus; even going to unofficial free movie sites today will bring up dozens upon dozens of pop-ups, so the possibility of her pirating the film online is also unlikely. 

So, hopefully these past several paragraphs helped to show that, not only are the two properties very different, but the possibility that Suzanne Collins might’ve seen this film is improbable when one considers all of the above factors.

*https://bloody-disgusting.com/editorials/3607372/scream-3-may-maligned-sequel-still-fun-scooby-style-slasher-aughta-know/

**https://web.archive.org/web/20181002130526/https://www.screendaily.com/toei-continues-strong-sales-on-battle-royale-3d-/5020957.article

***https://mubi.com/en/films/battle-royale/awards

****https://web.archive.org/web/20120418080044/http://xfinity.comcast.net/slideshow/entertainment-tarantinotop20/2/

*****https://www.suzannecollinsbooks.com/bio.htm

******https://www.slj.com/story/a-killer-story-an-interview-with-suzanne-collins-author-of-the-hunger-games

*******https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1056741/

[the-pink-cat-gurl]

does anyone else have crack head canons for their OCs?

Like, little-itty bitty bits of lore that you don't take seriously at all just for fun?

because mine is that a vampire character of mine saw Nosferatu: Symphony of Horror back when it came out, because his late wife was raving/joking about it after hearing about it from her German penpal. Only to several years later flicker through the TV to see the vampire from that movie in an episode of SpongeBob.

[the-pink-cat-gurl]

MATTEL!

When's the new drop of the Wicked Barbies supposed to come out?!

I wanna get the rest of the characters that I don't have! Madame Morrible, Nessa, and Fyiro!

Please! Drop them in stores soon

[the-pink-cat-gurl]

I was looking at my x-mas list for others...

and I was wondering why tf it was already over $200, and I have 9 things in it. Then it hit me.

About half of it, is Legos....

Honestly, it's an easy gift for people, so I just said "screw it" and decided to get the majority of my gifts from the same place for pick-up

[the-pink-cat-gurl]

This is ridiculous

Why on earth would I need AI to make a playlist on Spotify??

I built my Spotify playlists brick by brick, I don't need help! Also, how's AI going to help me when making OC based playlists?? They can barely make up an essay without sounding weird af.

I get that "AI is the future" but... don't shove it everywhere. Infact, keep working on it. Make sure it doesn't go and steal people's hard work. Is that too hard?

[the-pink-cat-gurl]

Playing Telltales' Walking Dead and...

Idc what people say, Kenny is my man, he's my bestie, and we're cool with one another!

[the-pink-cat-gurl]

Might as well post this here for posterity, since Youtube has yet to resolve the matter.

A couple of weeks ago, my short film 'Pleasant Inn' got a false copyright strike from an individual named Kazi Zidane Mim. He has been striking any Youtube channel that reacted to my short film in the hopes of uploading his own stolen version titled 'Paradise Hell.'

For comparisons, here is my original short film:

[This is a horror animation and contains flashing lights, so viewer discretion is advised]

And here is Kazi Zidane's stolen version:

Kazi Zidane Mim has a history of just flat out stealing.

As an example, this is his 'Bloody Mary graphic novel,' which is actually a manga called 'Ibitsu,' with only the text/dialogue changed.

He's literally just selling this on Google Books and Amazon without any push-back.

I also found out that he has a Sketchfab account.

Why is this important? Because Sketchfab offers a great library of 3D models made by other artists, such as this animated deer by Games in Motion Studios;

Look familiar?

I'm sure coincidences are possible, tho 🦌

Kazi Zidane even made a bogus IMDB page of my stolen short.

And to add insult to injury...

So far, Youtube hasn't done anything about this and I'm tired of waiting. Many channels have received false copyright strikes by Kazi Zidane Mim just for reacting to 'Pleasant Inn' since 2019.

[the-pink-cat-gurl]

OKAY!

Let's not do this!

Yes, transphobes suck, but let us not drag them into this situation.

Was this initially reported on a site that allegedly supports anti-trans bias, yes. However, let's not make shit up saying: "Oh! I bet people made this up because they hate trans people!"

There's a very real chance this could be real, and if it is, you'll end up making an ass out of yourself for protecting a creep by trying to discredit the accusations.

Trans people has nothing to do with what Neil Gaiman is being accused of, so don't drag them into this and make this situation a bigger mess than it needs to be.

Yes, we can support trans people, and wish them the bestest life, but we cannot discredit victims of sexual harassment/assault because you don't wanna believe for even a second that your favorite author could do this.

Next time, think.... just think before you post something like this, especially with how serious the accusations are!

I bet the TERFs hung Neil Gaiman out to dry cuz they couldn’t find any dirt on David Tennant

[the-pink-cat-gurl]

Celebrities/YouTubers need to stop trending...

I don't need to play the "are they dead or are they gross" game every single time.

I swear, Twitter needs to add a lil button you can press to see why something's trending so you know what's up without the mini panic.

For example: "*insert name here* is trending because it's their birthday" or " *insert name here* is trending because they're a pervert".

[the-pink-cat-gurl]

A co-worker made me realize something...

[the-pink-cat-gurl]

As someone who has actually read My Immortal a lot, it has its reasons to be infamous.

The poor spelling/grammar. The self-insert Mary Sue mc. The out of characterness of everyone in the story. The nonsensical plot.

All of these are reasons why people hate it/find it fascinating to the point we're wondering if it was meant as a parody in the first place. Now onto the main topic...

Lily wrote Stockholm. There's video evidence of her talking about it out right admitting she wrote it (from a pre-AI time) , clips where one of the fics in the collection (as Stockholm was a series) in the background of one of her vids. If this was all one grand lie, that'll be a ton of effort to put into it just to slander one person.

Here is a comprehensive video talking about all fics within the Stockholm series from a person who's read all of it. Note: they mention having a Google Doc in the description, but as far as I'm aware this reupload doesn't have it/I don't think it's still available, but within the Lilly Orchard tag you can find an archive of the fics being reupload

Nine minutes of Lily Orchard kind of admitting to writing Stockholm

[the-pink-cat-gurl]

In the Resident Evil franchise...

who/what is the scariest monster(s) to you??

For me, it's the giant monster baby in RE8

[the-pink-cat-gurl]

So, I found this dumb list

and it's going over games that are "woke" (aka inclusive) and "censored" (meaning you can't up skirt the girls in the game, and so on)

Then I saw this:

"Ashley is now wearing weird pants"

"ASHLEY IS NOW WEARING WEIRD PANTS".

Tell me you don't know what tights are without telling me you don't know what tights are. Also, maybe they removed Ashley being seductive and the flirting because that's kinda weird for a horror/life-or-death scenario. Like, more important things on the line here

[the-pink-cat-gurl]

me reading Hellsing and Anderson appears:

[the-pink-cat-gurl]

Vol 6 starts going into Sangwoo's mother...

oh dear, the end is certainly near..

Anyways; all aboard the train!