Picking her teeth, Clara goes on.  “Anyway, you girls want a good husband?  Do research on my Kuro.  Dude, that guy has some patience to put up with a trip like me.  I’m going to honest and say that if not for him, I’d die from lack of formal etiquette.  Sure, our little colony wasn’t much of a kingdom, but I was still second-in-command of everybody, so it was my job to be a presentable boss.  You may have noticed that I’m not the best with humility and courtesy, and all that fun stuff.  You heard me, I’m much better than I used to be.  I’ve always been very comfortable with myself, but one thing Mom had always found difficult teaching me was that not everyone is as ‘comfortable’ with me as I am, so I shouldn’t let my confidence cross over into being arrogant and rude.  Yeah, Kuro was everything Mom wanted me to be, so I could never say enough just how thankful I was to marry someone who helped me get over my wild self.”

    Gigi scratches her nose and chooses to believe this was not an intentional part of Cat’s lesson.

    “Okay, so what happened next?  What about the other people?” Duplica tries to help Clara out.

    “What about them?” Clara shrugs.  “Do any of you know their names?  Ever seen them in a history lesson or see their faces plastered on the labels of household appliances?  I mean, I love my friends, but they weren’t the most exciting bunch of crew members.  Why do you think I insisted on Keb keeping such great contact with me, despite being in different timelines after the move?”

    “Because I’m your best friend.  That sounds like a reasonable answer to me,” growls the blue one.

    “Excuse me, Keb,” Faye politely interrupts, “can you clarify what Justine means by separate timelines?  Is it like how our galaxy works compared to yours?  Also, remind us again how you two became best friends between your growing up with different people around you and, boom, you’re now best friends with each other?”

    “Yes, your comparison to our current galaxies is correct,” Keb gives a casual thumbs up as she says this.  “Planet Ruyngard’s time flows much differently from the rest of the universe.  Sometimes, we’re on the same rate.  Sometimes, ten years goes by for them, and sometimes, it’s several thousands of years.  It’s a weird place.  BUT time travel does wonders to solve this critical conundrum.”  As Keb sees Faye is satisfied with this, she answers the next part of the question.  “You might remember a couple of years ago, we told about my adventure to find my real parents.  That happened right after we had just come into contact with Storyboard XL and the Baylors.  AB was in the process of getting the help of Adam and his siblings in bringing Justine’s grandparents together.  They married and went to XL.  Justine’s mom was born and married Porter Scott, and with us skipping ahead in XL’s history, we brought Clara Scott here and let her hang out with us before throwing her on some lonely planet to never return home.  We met, she instantly invaded my quiet, polite world and started corrupting me with her crazy, sporadic attitude, and now, we’re besties, crossing time and space to beat each other up.  Mind you, this kooky corpse is a deader now, so I can visit her in the past or in the Juniper District.”

    Putting an arm around her buddy, Clara recounts their first meeting.  “It all started when I found this child wandering around HQ, sick as a sasquatch, because she was training herself by not using her auto-heal.  I introduced myself and asked to spar, having heard so many great things about her, but was disappointed when she said she couldn’t fight because she was sick, even though the sickness was for training.  She’s all like, ‘If I weren’t sick, I’d tear you up.  Sorry, but I can’t now.’  I wasn’t going to let her slide like that.  I went, ‘Oh, really?’ and punched her through the walls across two hallways.  I knew she’d be mad as all get out, but she’d thank me some day.”

    Just then, Keb pops up in horror.  “Oh, snot!  Oh, snot!  Oh, snot!”

    “What?  What?!  I’m having a sentimental moment here!” roars Justine.

    At this, Keb thunders Clara’s face so hard with her fist, Justine goes flying around the planet and is caught by Keb, who innocently puts her down like she has no idea what happened.  “I just remembered to thank you.  Sorry it took over twenty years on my end.  You poor dear, lasting eon upon eon in the Drawing Board having never been properly thanked yet.”

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