Guida: Now's the time to choose your parents, Hop. Let's start with your mother.
A pretty blonde, Margarite, with a devilish grin pops up on the floating screen in front of Hopole and Guida.
Hopole is horrified.
Hopole: No! Not Margarite! I still haven't forgiven her for that lifetime at sea. She devoured me!
Guida: Well...she was a shark and you were a seal. It was the natural order of things.
Hopole: Dear God, is there anybody else, please?
Guida: For your mother, sure. But perhaps Margarite can be your sister or brother. Your threads of destiny are still interwoven.
Hopole: I want her thread of destiny to stay the hell away from mine!
Guida: Let's not forget that you devoured her when she was a fly and you were a venus flytrap.
Hopole: She was a fly, for goodness sakes!
Guida sighs with constrained frustration.
Guida: We'll get back to Margarite. Let's continue to choose a mother.
Another image pops up on the screen of a sexy brunette with bedroom eyes.
Hopole: Now, there's hot mama!
Guida: Incest is frowned upon on Earth, Hop.
Hopole: Well, can she be my girlfriend instead, then?
Guida: She's already tied up in that regard.
Hopole: My kind of woman.
Guida rolls her light eyes.
Guida: I'm doing away with that personality kink of yours this time.
Hopole: You wouldn't dare!
Guida: Orders from Aray. We must trust his judgment. He's an old soul after all.
Hopole mutters under his breath.
Hopole: Old soul, my ass. Old soul asshole is more like it.
Aray materializes in front of them.
Aray: How's the pre-birth planning going, gals?
Hopole shrinks in his chair.
Hopole: Aray! I was just talking about how I wish I could choose a father like you.
Aray laughs merrily.
Aray: That can certainly be arranged.
TO BE CONTINUED