“YOU’RE A SYSTEM GUARD NOW?!” This hysteria comes from both the mouths of Ally AND Duplica, both of whom knew about her final arrest, but not of her fate after the fact.
Having properly introduced herself, Destiny confesses, “I’m not exactly a System Guard. You know how I am careful with my choice of attire. They wanted to drag me out looking casual, but I knew someone as special as you needed something that communicated how cared about you really are by all of us back in the Drawing Board.”
In shock, Ally repeats this detail. “The Drawing Board? You all knew about me? And you cared?” This reminds Allison of what AB was trying to tell her earlier about his decision regarding the Juniper shield and the Drawing Board. “All this time, I believed he was keeping me out of that place to protect you people, but I see that was not the case. Had I invaded the Drawing Board, or even Juniper, I would have easily been squished before I could even blink. He wasn’t protecting the Drawing Board from me, AB was protecting…” Ally begins to weep again as she can’t finish wording this realization.
Cat finally understands as well. “He was protecting Ally.”
Destiny leans down and asks Ally if she can tell her a story. After receiving a pitiful, “Sure,” she tells this dear one all about how Destiny Allure was created.
“Many years ago, when the System Director was just a boy, enjoying television and playing video games, he came across a scene that greatly bothered him. Now, this scene isn’t important as it was long ago and has never again been encountered. However, this is the System, an imaginary world that once had an endless number of universes with the implication that any given universe could have any given possibility. What I mean to say is that, as autonomous beings, we can choose to do wrong, but that does not mean the Director is actively thinking about what we do. You know what I mean, if I may say so, being a fellow Allure, that even though it is very obvious what we’ve done at times, that does not imply the System Director ever actually thought about our devious actions. It’s only generically stated or implied as what we personally choose to do is not equal with his own thoughts. So then, with that initial bad scene from his childhood in mind, I can say that, just like with every other possible situation somewhere within the various storyboards, the System equivalent of that bad scenario was bound to occur. It happened on Earth during a period of time I’d rather not say for sake of specifics. I was the person from that image.”
Doug, still being present, gasps for dramatic audience effect.
Destiny keeps speaking. “During one of their typical patrols, AB and Missy came across my area and recognized it enough to know what wickedness was happening nearby, so they barged in, found me in my sin and instantly realized I was that horrible scene from the Director’s childhood. Their instant assumption was that I was wicked to the core, so they killed me in haste. However, this wasn’t true. I don’t know anything about the real-world equivalent, but as is typically the case in the System, my personal history and way of thinking was different from my source material. No one had told me what I was doing was wrong, so I didn’t know to stop. They killed me without giving me a chance to learn or change. And yet, it wasn’t these two that revived me. It was Arion Jekel, and knowing my wicked past, he’s the one that cursed me with the horrible pig face and insatiable yearning to devours human flesh, tricking them into my lair with my robot women.”
Keb finds it necessary to clarify, “Yeah, Allure didn’t ‘feed off of energy’ like one of your tots claimed. She literally ate people, NOM NOM NOM NOM!!”
No one is amused.
“Oh, come on!” Keb says, “Someone’s going to read book four and totally catch the foreshadow!”
Inner Man Theatre 