Roderick called Vickie the morning after their movie to invite her out for bowling. Vickie had never been bowling, but how hard could it be?

“You know who is a naturally born bowler? This girl!”

“All right,” Rod said with a raised eyebrow, “Show me.”

“Grace in action. Watch this.”

“My foot slipped! What kind of floor is this??”

Roderick choked through his laughter, “You know you’re supposed to use special shoes for this right?”

“OK, Mr. Pro Bowler, show me how it’s done.”

“Yeah! That’s how it’s done!”

Vickie gaped at the score. “You hit like three pins! If that gets you excited, you can’t be much better at this than I am!”

Winston hadn’t given up on his teppanyaki performance.

This was his dream skill — performance cooking. All his practice was paying off.

It also kept the household in a backlog of food that they could barely eat before it went bad.

“You know,” Winston mused over his teppanyaki breakfast, “I bet I could work this into my act. A bit more knife-throwing, maybe, and a treat to hand out to the audience at the end. I wonder…”

Manisha and Ash Sample-Baerwyn moved into a new house. Gamora knew where it was as soon as they set foot inside.

There was talk of adopting a child. Manisha hadn’t been interested in the child she HAD — the weird leafy one — but she’d consider becoming a mother to a normal kid.

She gathered fallen stardust. This would improve double the strength of the cosmic magnet.

If Gamora had any qualms, learning about the kid resolved them.

She was ready.

Manisha’s new husband Ash wasn’t the brightest bulb in the box. He didn’t know what she looked like, so she didn’t need much disguise to be sure Manisha wouldn’t guess who she was from anything he said.

The most important part was to be sure her leafiest bits were well covered.

Earning his trust was child’s play.

Across the courtyard of Percival’s Provisions, Gamora’s sort-of mentor watched. His eyes were hidding, as always, but a sardonic, approving smile crossed his lips.

Then she gasped in almost-authentic terror. “Look at that! In the sky!” she cried.

“What!” Ash echoed. “What is it!”

She pointed to some gray-shadowed, lumpy clouds in the distance. “You see those! They’re headed straight for us! The sky is falling!”

Ash’s eyes widened as he looked where she pointed. “I’ve never seen anything like that! You think we’re in danger?”

“I don’t know how much longer we have left before it hits,” Gamora hissed. “Get your family to safety.”

She MIGHT have used just a little bit of psychedelic pollen to help convince him.

On the other side of Avalon, Winston had upgraded to an audience of two.

“If you think this is good now, just wait until you see me slice vegetables while juggling!”

Late that night, Gamora crept back to the Sample-Baerwyn house. She could hear Ash and Gamora arguing through the closed window. She couldn’t make out the words, but she could guess what they were arguing about.

From the cover of the hydrangeas, she lifted the cosmic magnet and pointed it to the night sky.

It was time to prove Ash’s fears correct.

---

Gamora’s revenge on her mother finally starts coming to fruition. It’s been fun to working that in with her objectives for her LTW.

I fired up my game for the first time in years. I am determined to finish this legacy!