Within twenty-four hours, Candace found herself standing in the middle of a gumdrop world, dressed in some bright pink rubbery dress that looked like fondant icing draped over her body.
Her long blonde hair was artfully arranged with lollipops and taffy flowers of bright blues and yellows and reds. In her hand was a huge scepter made of a large gold foil-wrapped chocolate kiss stuck atop a red and white candy cane.
By her side was her husband Lucas. He had been nicely cleaned up by the stylists and no longer looked like a homeless beach bum.
His blond hair had been dutifully re-dyed a nice shade of gold-pink running in streaks all over his bright pale blond head.
The mega star's razzmatazz glitter and glamour was back!!!
Pink-gold was Lucas' signature color, one that was instantly recognizable as the galaxy famous award-winning Second Prince of Erenveil, and he played it up to the hilt.
He was similarly dressed in some rubbery fondant icing royal clothing that were more suited for a clownish male monarch than his usual serious self, but for this particular CandyLand set, it was perfect.
On his head was a crown made of gold decorated with dozens of colorful jelly beans. In his hand was a grapefruit-sized cluster of yellow rock candy with a 'C' stuck on top, indicating it was the realm of CandyLand he was reigning over.
They were both standing on top of a round platform that had been decorated with plastic frosting to look as if it was the top of a beautiful white frosted cake.
All around them were more of the same rubbery fondant flowers in multitude of colors. The green peppermint trees were covered in gumdrop lights, and the bushes held roses of red and pink bubble gum clusters.
All day long, they spent working with the production crew on the shoot.
The dialogue was cheesy and cringe-worthy but the staged kisses between Candace and Lucas were so real that many of the stage hands blushed and had to look away.
There was no way to fake the kind of passion that Candace and Lucas shared. They had known the kind of intimacy that spouses shared and it was very evident in the way they touched and looked at each other.
"And CUT!" The Director yelled out at the final scene. "Okay! We're done for the day. Tomorrow, we will be shooting the gondola ride on the chocolate river. Please learn your parts so I don't have to keep pausing the shoot."
"Sorry…" Candace grimaced. She had never done anything like this before, and suddenly being thrust into Lucas' world was discombobulating and unnerving.
"No no! You did great!" Lucas hastened to reassure her while giving the Director a mean look.
How dare he talk to Candace in that manner? Didn't he realize Candace was the Empress of the galaxy?
Jason and Jared grinned as they joined them for the walk back to their section of the ship.
One more day flying and they would be back in Erenveil space. It was quite amazing how capable Dante was.
A single command from him had resulted in a nearby cruise ship being deployed to meet up with the Raptor 650 to take them back to Erenveil within two days.
Mother Gwen and Lyra had tearfully sent them home with the promise that they would return within two weeks to attend their wedding.
Meanwhile, onboard the cruise ship, a movie stage had completely taken over one of the ballrooms, complete with director and crew.
At this point, they were all launched head-over-heels into Lucas' world of cinematography and acting.
Each scene was shot and reshot over and over and over to capture the most nuanced aspects. It got to the point where, if dialogue had not been completely remembered at the start of the shoot, it was most definitely engraved in the mind by the end of the shoot.
Lucas was the main star of the show so luckily, the scenes were mostly of him. Candace however, being the queen of his CandyLand Kingdom, had quite a few speaking parts.
"You did a fantastic job, Love!" Jason swooned. "I think I have a huge crush on you."
Candace laughed. "Isn't that a bit much, since you're my husband?"
"No it's not!" Lucas sniffed. "I have a crush on you too!"
Jared coughed. "You guys stop it. Who in the world has crushes on their wife?"
Jason pursed his lips. "Weren't you the one who kept pulling out that picture of Candace and staring at it with drool running down your mouth?"
"I wasn't drooling!" Jared huffed.
"Picture? What picture?" Candace wanted to know.
Jason laughed and waved his finger, showing an image of Candace and Lucas in one of their faked photo-op pictures that won The People's Choice Award for Couple of the Galaxy. Above the image of the two lovebirds was the single word Lucandace.
"Oh my word!" Lucas guffawed. "He was drooling over my fake photo-op wife from the People's Choice Award! Hahaha!!!"
Jared looked upset that his brothers were teasing him so much.
"Oh hush. You guys stop teasing him." Candace slapped at both Jason's and Lucas' arms.
She reached out and gave Jared a hug. "It's okay Sweetie. I love you too."
Jared leaned down and gave Candace a swift hard kiss on the lips. Trust Candace to always make him feel loved and wanted. The crush that he had just moments ago denied had grown even larger than before.
"Let's go and take a look at tomorrow's outfits that I made for you and Lucas." he ushered them forward, changing the subject.
===============
For the rest of that evening, while she and Lucas were being fitted for new clothes and shoes by the twins, Byron and Leonardo were in talks with Dante and Slate over 3D visuals, making short and long-term plans.
"We need to make sure that this war ends soon. I do not want to bring my child into this galaxy in such chaos churning all across the galaxy." Byron shook his head.
Slate pounded the table in front of him. "You think you have it bad. With a war raging like this, I cannot take any time off at all to be with my wife."
"You and me both." Leonardo sighed. He wasn't complaining about the work that had to be done, but it was hardly fair when the other brothers were able to do their work wherever they wished, but he and Slate had to be out at the skirmish lines all the time.
"Bottom line is, conflicts require the fuel of weaponry to sustain itself." Dante pointed out. "Without weapons, the wars die off for lack of something to launch at the enemy."
"That is true. Choke off the supply of weapons and you've starved the war on both sides." Leonardo agreed.
"Choking off weapons means we have to neutralize Haribou." Byron nibbled his lower lip. "Or at least, the weapons manufacturing parts of Haribou."
Slate nodded. "Once the avians and the insectoids run out of weapons, we can dominate both sides and keep them from scrimmaging all over the galaxy."