People Magazine

The Secret First-Contact Summit Is a Pizza Night, and Marmaduke Has a Date

The mystery surrounding Captain K’rem T’all’s ominous promise that the public should “wait until Friday” has now been solved.

General Leonard Wood is arriving at the Marmaduke Homestead.

Matthew Marmaduke is hosting.

L’tani Th’ron will cohost with him.

It is also their first date.

Dinner is pizza from Marmaduke’s wood-fired patio oven, followed by cocktails.

So yes, one of the most important human military commanders involved in first contact will be sharing a meal with the Freeholder, several senior V’ren, and the household at the center of Earth’s first extraterrestrial refugee settlement.

It is politically consequential.

It is also apparently pizza night.

The distinction appears to matter considerably more to international commentators than it does to anyone attending.

Social response

• @WorldPoliticsToday: WAIT. L’TANI IS COHOSTING?
  • @KremTall: Yes.
    • @WorldPoliticsToday: As an official V’ren representative?
      • @KremTall As Matt’s date. Try to keep up.
        • @EuropaCivic: A first date is being combined with a meeting involving General Leonard Wood and senior V’ren personnel?
          • @NorthParkEric: You people really need separate rooms for everything, don’t you?
          • @MarmadukeFreehold: Matt is a busy man; didn’t you look at the whiteboard?
          • @MarshallTeacher: Some of you have never had your dad’s boss come over while somebody was on a date and it shows.
• @MizzouGirl2440: International press: POSSIBLE FORMATION OF A NEW INTERSPECIES SECURITY AXIS:
  Matt: pepperoni?
  Leonard: sure.
  L’tani: what is pepperoni?
  • LtaniTall: I know what pepperoni is, but I still object to olives
• @KremTall: This is why I needed him unbusy next week. Friday is already taken.
• @AmazonInsider: I genuinely cannot tell anymore which portions of Marmaduke’s calendar are diplomatic, corporate, sovereign, or personal.
• @MattMarmaduke: Neither can I. That is why we have the whiteboard with 8 different colors of markers
• @SalineCountyFeed
  For everyone overseas still trying to understand:
  K’rem knows Matt’s schedule because K’rem is the senior V’ren on the ground.
  The V’ren are staying at and around the Homestead.
  Matt is their host.
  There is a staff-room whiteboard so everybody knows who is where.
  Wednesday says T’mari back to space
  Friday says Leonard is coming.
  It also says Matt and L’tani are hosting dinner.
  The darts schedule is next to it.
  The lunch menu is next to that.
  The puppies and kittens are underneath.
  You have not uncovered a clandestine government.
  You have discovered a busy house.