"This is outrageous!" the Great Chieftain exclaimed furiously, to Tzipora and Bubba, the two Mordecais and several bogans who had pulled sickies from work for the day in order to hang out with the Chieftain and his crew and get free fish and chips as part of the deal.
The Chieftain and the bogans were clearly different. They knew it and he knew it - but they respected each other. 'Though he might like to wear a black item of clothing or two on occasion, and he didn't really mind their cigarette smoke, or their endless quests to get something for cheaper or even for free, he never accepted their offers of beer or cigarettes, nor condoned their poor music choices. But the fact that he gave them unpatronising eye contact - the bogans could respect that. The Great Chieftain, in turn, could respect that the bogans, despite their (many) flaws, hadn't yet tried to stab him, or steal his wallet, and sometimes they even apologised for using crude language in his presence.
The Chieftain told his small band of listeners his tale of woe, how his arch-nemesis, the somewhat-respected-but-nonetheless-still-kind-of-devious-and-scheming Empress E-Ruby of Rubyland and Eden Island, had tricked him into sending her his clone-o-matic machine for her sick (or possibly deceased) alligator.
However, instead of replacing her deceased alligators and returning said clone-o-matic, word on the street was that she now intended to produce up to 12 clones like herself. "That's what I wanted to do!" he exclaimed bitterly.
"So what's the problem?" asked one of the bogans. "Now she's doing it for you. You just kick back and relax, man," he told the Chieftain, as he flicked his cigarette butt in the general direction of the nearest waste receptacle.
"No, you don't understand," explained the Great Chieftain. "I wanted clones like me, not like her."
"Well, we did make three clones like you already," noted Tzipora. "You've had your turn. Now it's Miss Ruby's turn."
"But my clones were defective!" exclaimed the Great Chieftain indignantly.
"Only one," corrected Tzipora. "And that's cause someone", Tzipora emphasised the word 'someone', as if she was accusing the Great Chieftain, "dropped him on his head too hard after he came out of the test-tube. But the Empress of Jennymaesia has fixed him up from that already."
"But this is the Empress E-Ruby of Rubyland we're talking about!" the Chieftain argued. "She's nefarious! Dastardly! A danger to the stability of the free world!"
"And you're not?" smiled Tzipora encouragingly.
The Chieftain could tell that this was a debate he was not going to win, not even with his new bogans and fish and chips. So after he had composed a somewhat angry letter to the Empress E-Ruby of Rubyland and posted it (no milk chocolates or flowers this time - it was that serious!), he decided to give the Empress of Jennymaesia a quick call. He didn't have her private telephone number, so instead, used the hotline to the Jennymaesian Empress that was listed in the Whitepages.
"Hello?" said an unfamiliar voice on the other end of the phone. "Acting Empress of Jennymaesia, Ellie-may."
"Oh, errr, hello," answered the Great Chieftain. "This is the Great Chieftain of Mosestaria speaking. I was hoping to get in touch with Miss Jenny, or if she's too busy, at a stretch, Charles, her, uhh... disabled, errr... manservant..." The Great Chieftain of Mosestaria didn't want to admit that he condoned the fixing of his broken clone by the Empress of Jennymaesia with her womanly wiles.
"Oh, I'm sorry Great Chieftain," the acting Empress of Jennymaesia explained. "Miss Jenny is still getting off a plane, so I'm still acting Empress of Jennymaesia for a few more minutes at least."
"Oh, well, this is kind of an emergency," explained the Great Chieftain. He went on to elaborate and embellish how the nefarious-and-dastardly-but-with-deceptively-beautiful-long-dark-hair Empress E-Ruby of Rubyland was (possibly) planning to take over the world, including (possibly) Jennymaesia, and could Ellie-may do anything about it at short notice.
"Sure," responded Elliemae amicably. She was keen for an opportunity to show Jennymae and Charles how good an acting-Empress she was, and thought the Great Chieftain's accent was kind of cute. "I'll have the Jennymaesian Feminine Division sent out to the Great Barry R Island forthwith, to defend against the threat of E-Ruby clones."
"Please ensure they're all wearing medical-grade gloves and an extra layer of protective Ruby-red lipstick," the Chieftain advised.
"Oh?" Elliemae sounded puzzled. "Is this Empress E-Ruby of Rubyland and Eden Island particularly prone to disease or other contagions?" she asked worriedly.
"No," explained the Great Chieftain. "The protection is needed because of the bogans. The Great Barry R Island is filled with them, and as we all know, bogans are probably some of the dirtiest creatures on the planet."
Elliemae nodded knowingly. "Understood Great Chieftain. I will have the JFD deployed immediately. And trust me - when I tell them about the bogans, I'm sure they will be double-gloving, *and* using the extra-heavy-duty, durable, waterproof lipstick."