“So, you have Peter alter your appearance,” Jo rehearses, admittedly proud of Lul for following a very common Infinite practice while still being an iu-level. “I guess that means you’ve got the actual birth planned out, too.”
“Uh, yah!” Lul says with a shake of the head. “I might be in training and all, but that’s one battle I want to avoid. When our son is ready, my Mr. Midwife, ha ha, will be the one to make sure it’s a completely painless process.”
“Note to self…” Kammy starts.
“…marry an Infinite,” Gigi finishes.
“Okay, switching from childbirth,” Owan nervously begins, “I have a question of Infinites. If you can do virtually anything, wouldn’t that include making someone else an Infinite if you wanted to?”
“Sure!” is the group answer.
“But that assumes the subject wants to skip out on the adventure,” Lillian clarifies. “Sure, Pete could instantly upgrade me to that level, but where’s the fun in that? I am NOT going to give birth in the typical iu fashion if I can help it, but other than that, I want to reach that height by myself. It’s a long way away with the iu cap being 11,000 and I’m only at about 500, but I know I’ll get there eventually. I can always binge train once I have the baby, ha ha. But since I’ll be focused on my family first, then my singing, it’s not that big a deal with how long it’ll take. Who knows? I might be satisfied with 700 one day and have Peter upgrade me from that. I just want to take my time for now.”
“You could always go beat up the people in the Console System next door,” Jo jests. “Just pay Planet Leisure a visit and tell Miss and Keb you want to challenge them to a duel, ha ha!”
“Why did we skip Andromeda’s Solar 2, Doug?” Mercy asks.
The quick answer is, “This husband is smart. These notes are rude.”
The two female teachers reply, “Gotcha.”
“Yeah, what’s up with Cat?” Lilly asks. “I asked her if y’all were coming and she was very weird about it. I wasn’t sure if she was sick or just goofing off.”
“Who knows?” Doug shrugs and sips his tea.
Happy to see her guests enjoying their drinks, Lil states, “When I saw you all, I was relieved, thinking that Cat was with you. But as I noticed I was wrong, I assumed she really was sick.”
“No,” Doug explains, “she had to go take care of something at the last minute. That wouldn’t be a problem if not for the fact she’s been super weird with the instructions she left for me, as well as with whatever she’s been telling everyone else we were supposed to visit. That woman scares me sometimes.”
“That woman scares me all the time,” Mercy shoots back.
“Speaking of scary,” Paul says, “when you said this is the Quasar System, I was thinking we were in an actual quasar, and I’m like, ‘Is that a safe place to live?’ But people seem to like living in dangerous spots. Just look at the Californians on Earth.”
“Nah,” Lully responds, “it’s named after the Quasar Factory that made my blue buddies.”
“How are they?” Paul asks before noticing the old man isn’t in the cabin, thus he mentions him, too.
Nibbling on a cookie, Lullaby says, “Quasar’s here as well, though the business seems to be in a rut at the moment. As for the doctor, well, he lives on Juniper now.”
“Yeah,” Peter adds, “Ol’ Pa was already up there in age and wanted to go out naturally instead of me healing him or making him an Infinite. Since Lil works on Juniper, we see ‘im all the time, so all it did was move him and give him the rejuvenation he woulda’ got anyway.”
Forget nibbling, Paul’s gone to town on his third cookie, much to the hostess’ delight. “Ah, well, it’s nice to hear that you guys still get to see him.”
There is a brief moment of silence as everyone enjoys their snacks until Gigi throws a compliment at Lil. “Girl, I love what you’ve done with your hair.”
Inner Man Theatre 