“Are you single?” Faye asks.

    “Our mom is single,” Tiff adds.  “At least, you were when we left.  Are you still single?”

    While the two embarrassed adults laugh at this, SD gets to the point.  “No, Alios is not single and your mom is not single.  They’re both already assigned to someone in order to make sure you two girls have a proper home.  Now, stop wasting time and get my hint.”

    The girls take a second to understand this one, but the apparently assigned couple gets it.  Faye and Tiff finally catch on when an official wedding date is set for these two, but these hopes are dashed when Faye remembers her supposed backstory she’ll be telling Ent soon.

    “Grandpa,” Faye says.

    “I’m not your grandpa!  Stop that!  Now, what it is, my dear friend?”  Hopefully this bad habit will stop at some point.

    “I remember reading in my notes before Mommy showed up that I’m supposed to tell Entoni Franklin Rug that my dad died after being stabbed with a sword.  If this is him, wouldn’t that be lying?”  Faye then gets her notes out to make sure she’s got it right.

    Tiff leans over her shoulder and asks, “Whatcha’ gonna’ do, folks?”

    Kneeling down in front of the two innocent beings, with the appearance of thirteen-year-olds but the minds of mere children at this point, the System Director carefully places his hands over the notes to get their attention and gives them another mission.  “Girls, can you be brave for me?”  They’re not sure if they want to be with the tone in which this is said, but they both agree.  With this done, the Director stands up and walks over to the girls’ mom and prospective dad, and without another word or even the slightest hint, he stabs them both.  As Faye would later tell, this did kill Alios right there.  The other sword, however, did nothing to Ally J., other than add to her extreme, loud, displeasure at this hopeful joke.

    Racing to beat the sorrow in reaching their hearts first, SD quickly turns around and says, “Girls, I need you to count down from three.  Ready?  Go!”  The girls quickly give this countdown, and at the end, Alios pops right back up.

    “So,” the man says, “am I a deader now?”

    Chuckling in hopes everyone will get his joke, SD admits, “Nah, I brought you back to a full, normal state of health.  I really only did that so Faye wouldn’t have to lie.  You died, for like, three seconds by a sword, and then I fully revived you so that Ally wouldn’t freak out any more than—OW!”  Ally punched the System Director.

    “That’s what you get for scaring me and my children like that!” says the angry mother trying to hide her smile.  She honestly thinks this pun is hilarious, even if it was really scary.

    Tiffany now asks, “Why didn’t Mom die?  You stabbed her, too.”

    SD explains, “I stabbed them both with the same type of sword that will be very important to your mission, Faye.  For your dad, I altered the settings so that he would die, regardless of his moral state.  This can be done since it’s just an illustrative weapon created in fiction.  However, this is a change that only I can make, so don’t worry about this thing being altered, okay, hon?  That’s why I used one on your mother.  My original intent was to show any doubting real-worlder that Ally isn’t faking.  The sword would have killed her if she were lying about changing.  I mean she wouldn’t have been totally remade as a character if I knew she was faking, but to stress the point, I went the extra mile.  But I did something for you, specifically, Faye, without even meaning to.  I want you to always remember that your mom was stabbed by one of these swords right in front of you, and were you hurt, Ally?”

    “Nope!” The mom says as she then makes encouraging faces at her girls.

    “When the time comes, Faye,” SD instructs, “I will need you to be brave again, just like your mom was.  The sword won’t hurt you, even if you have to pretend like you’re afraid of it until the time is right.  Understand?”

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