“Yeah, I thought I could call myself Razor after Raz in XL and all,” Owan tells the silent Arro, “but it’s too similar to my buddy Ent’s nickname. Any suggestions?”
“Bloodbath,” is the quick response.
“Uh, thaaat’s not gonna’ fly,” Owan says.
“I wasn’t really referring to what I would call you, just to what you do,” is the explanation.
“Well,” Owan scratches his head, “I do like breaking the robots into pieces, but there’s never any blood involved, so that description is only accurate in the generic, metaphorical sense.” Owan’s blabbering stops as he sees Arro walking away.
“I guess it really doesn’t matter what people call you or think of you. What matters is what you do. Are your actions worthy of a good nickname or a bad one?” and with this, Arro considers the chat over.
Seeing this, Gigi politely asks Hikari to wait a second. She then goes to talk to Owan. “So, what did you learn from that?”
“Well,” Owan thinks aloud, “I learned I need to do what is right, regardless of if it’s popular or not. What did you learn from it?”
Thinking, Gigi states, “I probably learned the same from that, but I want to point out that he asked you a question, kind of. If people nicknamed you after your actions, would it be a good nickname or a bad one?”
Owan ponders this but gives the judge’s gavel to Gigi. “Rather than me guessing, I think it’d be safer to ask what you’d nickname me.”
“Hm,” Grace says, “I think I’ll nickname you Owan for now, he he. You still have time to grow as a person. You don’t have to have it all figured out by tomorrow, so don’t rush.”
“Fair enough,” Owan says as he begins to review all the titles thus far. “K.C. Cannon, Double-Edge, Nova G. We can’t forget that one.”
“Storyboard O,” Grace says with a smirk aimed at Owan’s stubbornness.
“Storyboard O,” Owan repeats in contemplation. “I like it, Grace. That’ll work for now.”
“Hallelujah!” Grace is ready to talk to Owan about other things now, as well as finish her chat with Hikari.
As we focus on others nearby, we find Paul is learning everything he can from Pac, both in terms of character development and, believe it or not, fighting. Pac may be from a universe without superpowers, but he still learned how to use martial arts, thanks to his friend James. In fact, it’s the lack of superpowers that makes James and Pac so deadly in this regard as they had to overcome that powerless barrier by using such techniques as proper weight shifting to use one’s momentum as a major speed booster. If the normal people can look competent with the supers, Paul needs to latch on to their knowledge.
“Yeah, that’s my guy,” Kammy can be heard saying to Emily Scott as she points to her Paul. “He’s kinda dorky,” Kammy’s smile covers her shy face as she teasingly gives this assessment, “but I’m crazy about him and just love seeing his passion for learning. I hope I can be even half as teachable as he is. He shows me daily that there’s a big, ironic difference between learning and being teachable.”
Curious at this seeming contradiction, Emily tests the girl by asking what she means. Kammy explains, “I love to learn, but I can be pretty stubborn and unteachable as a person sometimes. Sure, I’m not the grouch I used to be, but I can find other ways to ignore the lessons I don’t feel like submitting to yet. That’s a habit I need to stop. Paul, on the other hand, has an attitude of realizing he hasn’t arrived yet, so he allows others to point out where he needs to improve. He doesn’t make excuses or get mad or politely ignore. He listens and prays about if he needs to change. It makes me feel special that such a guy would think I’m spiritually mature enough to be his girl.” The smile gets bigger.
Emily looks at her James and then over at Paul, the flattered boy trying to ignore what bits of Kammy’s praise he can hear. Em finds this quite funny.
Inner Man Theatre 