“It is,” Kammy assures her. “I saw it in a shop on Dogwood HQ and just had to try it out to see if it matched the new suit design I was getting that day. I’ve had no regrets in my decision, ha ha!” Then again, thinking about this, she clarifies, “I could’ve done without the bragging I did after getting it, but the actual decision itself was something I’m very proud of.”
“Well,” Lil concludes, “At least you didn’t put one on the other arm. That’d be one clunky set of bracelets, he he. I’m kidding. Do what you want, Kam Kam.”
The room grows quiet again for a few minutes as the people present, while thoroughly enjoying the time together, try to think about what to discuss next as there’s not a whole lot going on in Andromeda right now.
“Have you met Jet Gem?” asks Lullaby.
“No, we haven’t,” Doug answers.
“Oh, never mind then.” Lully finishes her cookie.
“What? Why?” Faye asks.
“Just something to ask,” the young woman admits.
“She’s new to the galaxy, having come from the Milky Way. Good kid!” Jo awkwardly comments, with not much more to say about the name mentioned than Lullaby had worth talking about.
Going to get more tea, Lullaby asks if anyone else wants some, while also suggesting the group play a game to liven things up. While the others give varying answers regarding the tea, and cookies incidentally, Faye has another request.
“Would you mind singing for us, Lullaby?”
The others like this idea, so the harmonizing hostess obliges, while saying she still wants to play a game. They do both, trying to start a chancing mini-tournament, a Storyboard XL classic, while Lullaby calms the minds and hearts of her listeners with a sweet rendition of both her original Christian songs and familiar hymns. The kids are enjoying the game, but not half as much as her soothing voice.
Lilly Ruth, however, eventually moves into a good string of familiar hymns with a motive that soon pays off as she has everyone singing with her, blessing her just as much since she gets to hear her friends sing, including all the guys. Now, we’re getting somewhere as the time together has gone from a dull history and geography lesson to soul-stirring songs that point the heart to God. Now, this was worth the visit. Also, I have to point out the funny irony of having civilizations so far apart that the geography lesson is also the astronomy lesson.
At any rate, as the singing takes a pause, Lullaby remembers something she was going to ask the team regarding last year. “I know we talked about it at last summer’s Christmas party, but remind me again how your trip went with all the blue rocks and Zocar stuff.”
Ent takes this one. “Well, it’s funny what we learned about all the blue last year, considering how many blue characters we’ve run into this year. In fact, I get the impression that a lot of the people we’ve encountered so far serve as a good example that not everything blue is related to what we talked about last time. Then again, it is kind of weird. But whatever. We found out about how an alternate form of Arion Jekel was manipulating several storyboards, only to transform into the villain Zocar that ended up getting destroyed by James Scott moments later. It was a sweet irony. Then, we saw the Feast of Demons, or the Nightmare Buffet, where AB tricked all the villains into a trap to rid the multiverse of them one last time. We encountered the Mirrors, which all turned out to be messengers of…”
The room is dead silent. Lullaby looks at the faces of six teenagers and three teachers who are too afraid to fully process the rest of Entoni’s sentence as it has one of two possible conclusions. She then looks to her husband, relieved to see he is not as terrified, but her comfort is limited as she knows this is only because he’s as clueless to the situation as she is. It’s risky, but she asks, “the messengers of what?”
All at once, the students reply, “The Ultimate Machine.”
Inner Man Theatre 