"I'm afraid it's true," Relena-nee shook her head sadly as the four of them advanced to the ticket window. "I could scarcely believe it, either."

   "Four, please," Duo told the ticket-guy, ignoring the blondes.

   "IDs?" the ticket-guy drawled.

   He was shown Mrs. Noventa's old college ID card, Mrs. Darlian's Cinq driver's license, an ID/keycard for one D. Morisato of the Earth Otasuke Center, and the academy ID card in the name of one Treize Khushrenada which Marimeia had thoughtfully abstracted from Anne's desk -- it was the one which he had complained at the time made him look as if he had tried to cure a hangover with marijuana.

   "'Kay, you're cleared," the ticket-guy said, scooping up the money as four tickets emerged from the slot in front of him.

   "They really don't check IDs," Marimeia said once they were inside, had distributed the tickets, and sent Relena-nee to go get soda and popcorn.

   "Never do," Duo shrugged. "Here, hold on to the minty things while you're at it."

   "Minty things?" Marimeia blinked at the white box.

   "You can't go to the movies without eating minty things. It's tradition."

   "But don't they make you feel sick to your stomach if you eat too many?" Sylvia asked.

   "That's what the soda and popcorn are for. OJOUSAN! TELL THEM TO GO LIGHT ON THE ICE!"

   "Are soda and popcorn traditional, too?" Marimeia asked.

   Her two older friends nodded.

   "So," Sylvia said after a pause, in which Relena-nee still didn't come back -- if Marimeia leaned way forward, she could see that the taller girl was still um, discussing with the person selling the popcorn and soda. "What on earth did he want to collect them for?"

   "Well," Duo explained, "he went to one of Julie Green's used psychoanalysis sessions -- "

   "Used psychoanalysis?" both girls chorused.

   "Yeah. Why spend over a hundred bucks an hour to get the same old advice when you can get it used, in just as sincerely interested-sounding a tone of voice, for only fifteen bucks an hour? Such a deal! -- anyway, she told him that he should take up collecting something."

   "Something?" Marimeia echoed.

   "He decided on the bean-stuffed animals because they were more easily transportable than antique cars and less fragile than glass paperweights. Then all he did with them was put them in order, for crying out loud! I don't really get the point -- I mean, I collect Dray Prescot books and Urusei Yatsura widebans, but I read them."

   "I collect the compilation books of Shoujofic," Sylvia confessed. "Especially the ones that have fanart in them as well as fanfiction."

   "Yeah, that's what a sensible person does," Duo agreed. "Then again, when he'd acquired every single one, he took about five zillion pictures of them, burned all the pictures to disc, auctioned off all the toys, and started collecting Mint Pastel Angel Funky Connie pull-pack cards. I don't think he quite gets it either."

   "I like Funky Connie," Marimeia declared.

   "You're an eight-year-old girl," Duo shrugged. "You're meant to."

   "Did someone mention Funky Connie?" Relena-nee asked. "Hold this." She handed Marimeia a large soda, put the bag of popcorn she'd been carrying in her other hand on the younger girl's lap, retrieved a second one from some brown-haired guy in a red jumpsuit, and added it to the redhead's load.

   "Indeed they did!" Sylvia smiled. "And you know what THAT means... "

   "Funky Connie Dance!" Relena-nee and Sylvia chorused, hooking arms and skipping around in a zanily weaving course.

   The jumpsuit guy turned to his friend, a blond in a Happy Temps uniform. "They need to get out more."