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Eda could tell that there was something wrong with Luz. She’d come down for breakfast, but was staring glumly at her plate, shifting her food around and cutting it up without eating it.
“Everything alright?” Eda asked, sitting down beside her ward with a steaming cup of coffee in hand.
“It’s stupid. Don’t worry about it.”
Eda took a loud sip from her coffee. “I don’t think it’s stupid if it’s bothering you. Normally I can’t keep you away from those gryphon eggs.”
Luz sighed. “Well, the new season of Ultra-Mord: Intergalactic Defender was supposed to come out tonight, but we don’t get human TV stations out here.”
Eda had expected something a bit more substantial than a television programme, but something about the name rang a bell. “I think I’ve heard of it. What’s it about?”
That seemed to light a fire under Luz. “Oh! Um, it’s about a group of misfit teens who find ancient alien technology and use it to defend Earth from an evil intergalactic empire! Each one of them has their own robot in the shape of a gryphon, and they can all come together to form an even bigger robot!” She grabbed her phone, breakfast forgotten, and showed Eda a series of pictures of cartoon characters piloting elaborate robots. “And in the finale of the last season, we learned that Kalvyn, that’s the edgy bad boy, is actually the son of the alien emperor! And his human mother whisked him away to Earth as a baby! And I was so excited to see what happened next!” She put her phone down. “But I guess I’ll have to wait until after the summer’s over. I was really excited to talk about it on the message boards.”
“Hey,” Eda gave Luz an affectionate nudge on her shoulder. “I’ll see what I can scrounge up for us to watch once you’re home from school. I might not have your robot show, but I’ve got some human popcorn I can make.”
“Oh. That sounds awesome! Thanks Eda!”
Luz did, eventually, finish her breakfast before she had to head out to Hexside. She gave Eda a hug before she left.
Now, Eda just had to find something good in her VHS collection.
By the time Luz arrived home, Eda had finished popping the popcorn.
She burst into the kitchen, throwing her backpack to the floor. “So, what are we watching?”
“That's a surprise.” Eda pointed to a white, waxy lump on the counter. “Now, melt that gorlok butter so we don’t have plain popcorn.”
Luz did as Eda requested, pulling a white lump of animal fat from the refrigerator and melting it on a pot on the stove. Once both topping and popcorn were finished, Eda poured the fat on top of the popcorn and sprinkled it with some salt. She poured it into a bowl and brought Luz over to the living room.
Once Luz was situated, Eda turned on the TV, where the logo for “Ultra-Mord: Gryphon Defender” was emblazoned.
“Look, I know it’s not your Ultra-Mord, but I thought you might like to see where the series began. And it was the only one I had on VHS.
Luz’s eyes lit up and she wrapped her guardian in a tight hug. “It’s perfect. Thank you, Eda.”
