Filming day 2
In their clinical sleeping space, Amethyst wakes up, finding Frank missing in the still dark room.
He must have really been quiet to not wake me.
She collects her splayed feet and sits up on the soft bed. Its comforting caress, she only got to experience, from her thighs, neck and partly through her hair.
Any other place, her armor was always in the way, not even her blades could feel anything.
Such was the fate of being a Tyrchid, of being protected in this shell, her sense of touch isolated from the world.
The armor plating, just about hovered over her skin, attached from points all over her, where it sprouted from.
Most of the time, she didn’t feel it, but always sensed its presence.
When she bent her body, turned, moved, it would touch and press against her, it was a reassuring feeling, though sometimes painful.
The hard surface; oftentimes tepid, sometimes of startling cold, depending on the weather and other factors.
She stands up from the bed, closes her dark-adjusted hybrid eyes and listens.
Where are you Frank?
Her fuzzy antennae concentrate and start to swish around their axis, sounds that were previously quiet or inaudible, start to grow in strength.
The silent air conditioning in the room, turns to a whirring gust of wind. The quiet water dripping in the showers, the start of a rain.
Loud banging from the lab makes her flinch with its volume, though it fortunately stops to heartfelt cursing from Grent.
Then, a sound of rapid repetition:
Tak tak tak tak.
A knife, slicing away against a cutting board in the kitchen.
There you are.
She stops concentrating, her organic radar sticks stopping their movement, her hearing returning to a normal state.
Barely making out anything beyond the current room, though she could nearly imagine still hearing the water droplets fall and the lab’s banging.
Proceeding towards the kitchen, she carefully presses down the familiar door's handle with the side of her blade, gently kicking it closed after her.
In the corridor, a faint smell of water steam wafted through the shower room’s door.
Another, stronger smell, of fruits or berries hits her antennae as she approaches the bathroom door.
Amethyst pulls the door open to the dark room, to see the tiled floor wet, with splashed around droplets and puddles.
Where’s the fruits?
She peers in with her night vision, spotting what she thought to be the land-rye machine, faintly steaming still.
But she can’t locate the source of the smell.
No food, no berries nor fruits in sight.
Miffed, she turns away from the door, leaving it open.
As she gets closer to the kitchen, the fruity smell returns, weaker, but still recognizable.
With anticipation, she opens the door.
“Oh, morning Amethyst,” Frank looks back at her, then continues to chop up fresh tomatoes.
Without responding, she walks into the room and sniffs around for the good smell. She arrives at Frank.
“Umm, Amethyst?”
“You still smell like fruits.”
“Right, I thought I probably did…” Frank takes a loaf of bread and slices it with the knife next.
“Why’s all shampoos and soaps Grent has are some sort of berry or fruit fragrance. Strawberry, raspberry, orange…”
“I don’t mind.”
Though I wish we actually had those instead, I wonder what they taste like...
“I’m sure you don’t…” Frank sighs, sets the knife down for a moment and turns to Amethyst with an amused smile, raising a single finger. “Just remember what we talked about before.”
“Of course.” Amethyst says and continues to stand uncomfortably close to Frank.
“Do your antennae, move or spin when you smell?”
“No.”
“So how do I know if you’re smelling?”
“You don’t?”
“Okay… give me some space now, or you’ll eat bare toast for real this time!”
Amethyst takes the hint and reluctantly backs off, waiting at the table.
Frank continues preparing breakfast, while muttering.
“White bread, wholegrain, rye, toast… just bread bread bread...
Where did the tomatoes come from, does he grow them here?
They take their time with their morning routine and breakfast.
Though, making it a point to leave early enough, to have plenty of time to meet Pioneer before the filming.
As they pass through the lobby, all sorts of banging and sounds of construction echo from Grent’s lab. The door’s light is red, locked tight.
Frank and Amethyst exit the facility and tread up the damp quarry, into the morning forest.
Black pearls of dew still shine, rather ominously, on every leaf, plant and flower.
It irked Frank, the otherwise colorful forest of red and purple, looked like it was sick with some disease.
These black spots, ruling over the scenery, ruining it.
Amethyst extends a hand to a leaf, a droplet rolls onto her blade. She tilts her curved dagger and the black drop of dew moves around on it, amazingly staying together.
Back and forth, in a circle, the pearl rolls, in this balancing performance, doing it at the same time as they walk.
Suddenly, the black drop disappears, for seemingly no reason, from the smooth, solid purple surface.
Was she rolling it around the tiny holes in her blade, like some marble game?
Frank tries to squint to see these holes in her blades, that clearly had to exist for her to be able to set them on fire.
Amethyst’s speech startles him from his concentration and he stops staring, the holes seemed to small to see.
“Do you think he’ll agree to it?” She swipes up another drop from on top of a wide leafed crimson flower, staring down at the droplet.
“Probably, as long as we can make him see its entertainment value. Have you thought how you’ll phrase the suggestion to Pioneer?”
“I have, actually...” Amethyst balances the new abyssal tear for a moment, before flubbing it. “But… I wouldn't mind hearing your opinion…”
“Alright, let’s work on your ‘pitch’ then, until we get there.”
Though, if Pioneer says no, at least we’d be forced to play it safe…
They bounce around ideas and what exactly to say, molding it to match Pioneer’s own priorities, what he would look in an idea, until they arrive at the villages’ vicinity.
The tranquil Pango Grove seemed sleepy at this time of day, much fewer Tyrchid’s around than before.
Though that just gave the film crew more room to spread around and replace them. Discussion groups, equipment checks, though they looked ready for the show already.
Pioneer is examining the start of Frank’s home from yesterday, turning around as he hears them coming.
“Quite punctual I see, very good.”
He leans on the tree, with just his shoulder, crossing his feet for minimal balance but maximum cool.
Slightly lowering his glasses to look over them at the duo, in an awfully smooth way, he asks:
“Ready to lay your idea on me?”
Amethyst hesitates, but pitches the idea with a practiced speech:
“We might not have that much in terms of infrastructure, rich culture, or cuisine outside of Pango Grapes... But... how about we create some of these things right here on your show?”
“I see... Interesting.” He pushes the glasses firmly back on. “What did you exactly have in mind?”
“The backbone of any civilization, is their education and knowledge.
Teaching my kin to communicate, in order to become c-contributing members of the, uh… United Galaxy in the future would be most... prudent, wouldn’t you agree?”
“Ah, how very well said Amethyst, truly teaching them to be as sophisticated as you would treat them well.”
“Thanks…” Amethyst was growing fonder of that word, the more she heard it.
Pioneer’s fingers brush against her chin’s near invisible stubble.
“It’s a very intriguing idea, certainly something that hasn’t been done before...”
Frank takes over, as Amethyst is out of her practiced lines.
“This is just the first step for the Tyrchid’s culture, we also have the infrastructure already started too-”
Pioneer interrupts him, enthusiastically.
“Yes, the hotel, of course!
And what a fine establishment it is! It’s never been easier to find my room, with all the colored lines to guide you there.
Could have went with a less of an industrial naming style, though. But, Director doesn’t have a bad ring to it either.”
“It’s a... quarry themed hotel, as its right next to it.” Frank smiles comically, Amethyst less amused, but would rather not correct Pioneer either.
“Anyway, we can show more of Tyrchid’s construction style by building a classroom here to teach them.”
“How does that sound?” Amethyst asks nervous. “I’m sure it will be… entertaining.”
“A true reality show, school and education of the uneducated, combined with a building show… hmm. I don’t know... it’s never been done before…”
His fingers clack against his golden ring, looking down at it, he starts nodding, before leveling his gaze back to them.
“But I think it just might work.”
Frank and Amethyst have a silent celebration with their eyes.
“We can use my mother’s large open house as the classroom."
I'm sure she wouldn't mind.
“Add some seats and a... blackboard? made of wood and we’ll have a proper classroom going in no time, right?”
Frank nods to the unsure Amethyst, deep in thought himself.
Pioneer stops leaning, brushes his sleeve from the dust of the bark, and addresses the both of them again.
“What were you thinking of teaching them?”
Frank decides to take this question.
“Well… we aren’t exactly trained professionals in teaching any subject, but… probably to read and write, and some English words maybe, using Tyrchidian language as a base.
“Write…” Amethyst looks dreamily into sky of dark gray clouds.
“Wait… can you read or write?” Frank asks.
“I… I’m not sure? I think I can read... Probably. I’ve never really tried writing.”
“Well if not, you can join them in class then when we teach that.” Frank beams.
“Could I try teaching something?” Pioneer says a bit too excited for the idea.”It would make for wonderful TV!”
“Hmm… maybe, but we will have to see how this goes first. I’m not expecting any ground breaking developments in just a few classes over a couple of days.”
“Ahem, of course. Pardon my hastiness. However, Amethyst there has learned just swell, how long did it take you to learn English?”
“Umm… a few days?” Amethyst answers, before Frank can stop her.
“F-few days?!”
“Amethyst is a kind of a special case, she was just that... talented.”
“She’s basically fluent!”
Pioneer looks at Frank with his shades shining and with an eager grin.
“Really talented, okay?”
Frank tries to reign him in with open handed gestures.
“For her kin, it might prove a challenge to get them to even stay inside of the classroom, so don’t get your expectations too high.”
“Yeah...” Amethyst admits and looks to the ground. “It might not be easy...”
Instead of curbing Pioneer’s expectations, he instead succeeded in crushing Amethyst’s.
“Well that’s fine, I’m sure it will make for a good show nonetheless. Pioneer dust his hands, like a job well done.
"We'll start soon, get ready.” He leaves and goes to his crew.
Frank places a hand on Amethyst shoulder, she looks at him with sad eyes.
“You’ll help me with all this, won’t you? I can’t do this alone.”
“Y-yeah.”
“Great, first we have to furnish the classroom, so let’s start with continuing making the house first and as we carve the wood out, we can shape them into a table and chairs.”
Frank nods to himself as he goes through everything in his head.
“What else… I guess we can use the wall of the Queen’s house as a blackboard… or maybe we should actually make some thin wooden plates for that… it might get real messy otherwise. And we don’t want to damage the walls themselves...”
“You’re really into this Frank aren’t you?” Amethyst wonders, though her attention is in his warm hand on her shoulder.
She could almost feel the heat seeping through her armor and radiating onto the exposed skin of her neck.
“Oh? Hah, I guess so, it’s pretty interesting. Aren’t you?”
“Oh… yeah…”
“Don’t worry, I’m sure it’ll go great, they’re basically our friends by now right?” Frank pats her shoulder twice and retreats his hand with a reassuring smile.
“Yeah…”
That’s not what I’m worried about though…
***
“Welcome back to the show, even those at the very edges of the United Galaxy, don’t worry, you are welcome here too, each and everyone of you are!”
Pioneer walks backwards and reveals the start of Frank’s house, with the two main attractions waving at the camera, feeling slightly more used to it.
“In a moment, we will proceed with the exciting construction, but… that won’t be all.
A special number, that is here to stay, will start soon after. Some of the most perceptive of you might be starting to piece it together soon, or maybe some of you already know?”
Pioneer presses two fingers on the rim of his glasses inquisitively.
“Can you guess what it might be? I have opened up a poll, see the link in the screen right now, and on our gweb pages.
The Explorer who guesses the closest, wins a prize! What will it be? More on that later down the line, it’s a surprise!”
“Without further ado, Frank and Amethyst, take it away!”
Amethyst starts to carve out Frank’s house’s interior, having squeezed through the narrow door inside now, a camera person in a fireproof suit has followed to film her.
As the carving proceeds, Frank is outside handling the makeshift stump stools, large rectangle blocks and other wooden sculptures, she shapes from the walls.
They are smooth from the outside, burned into shades of black and deep browns, the rousing smell of fresh and slightly burnt wood filling the air as she works.
“Here you can see Amethyst expertly working those blades of hers, Explorers, you may be wondering what is she doing, cutting out shapes like that?
You’ll just have to wait, once we’ve procured enough furniture. Oops, spoilers! Just sit tight and all will be clear soon!”
As Amethyst works, Franks takes a look at the cut pieces from yesterday, it’s mostly splinters, but Amethyst cut right below the bark, the door candidate, the one long intact piece of thick bark and some wood with it.
Hmm, this could work as a table top…
It’s a little curved… but probably fine if we use the other side up.
Stolen novel; please report.
“Amethyst can you carve me four legs for the table, about a meter in length”
“Here we see a carpenter, a house builder, a vet and an engineer, struggling in a new environment, relying on his partner for cutting and procuring the materials.”
“Hey, I’m not struggling!” Or even half of those things!
Pioneer walks backwards and approaches him, slapping a hand on his shoulder.
“Frank, please tell us, enlighten me, how are you going to build this table, I don’t see any tools nor nails with you.”
“Well, first of all, you are stepping on my nails, thank you very much.” Frank pulls his shoulder away from Pioneer.
“Oh, I see, how very resourceful.”
The Documentarist takes a step back, and the camera pans downwards, following Frank as he leans down to pick up the shattered wing crystal shard from the pile he had gathered.
He elaborately tosses away the one broken by Pioneer.
“These shards are quite durable, at least if you don’t bend them, or step on them…
Sharp, too, they should, in theory, work as nails.” Frank demonstrates by breaking one in half easily by bending it from the middle, but unable to crush one down vertically.
“What about the decomposing aspect and weren’t they weak to water? Will the table be in pieces by tomorrow?”
“Well we are having an indoor class, as long as nobody pours water on the table it should be fine. And I doubt they’d decompose too fast, embedded into wood.”
“Ah yes, the table does not have to last more than the duration of our visit, is that what you mean?”
“Exactly, we can just make a new table, to continue the education afterwards, make it a bit more lasting.”
Amethyst brings another log chair outside, her hand blade stabbed through its bottom, she shakes it loose and it drops onto the ground, among the nine other chairs.
“How many did we need?”
“I think ten is probably enough, the tree certainly has space for more… but I don’t think we should try to overload our class room with students just yet.”
“Alright.”
“Can you get me the table legs now?”
“I’ve got them right here.”
Amethyst walks back into the in progress cottage, and soon emerges with four square pegs held on her arms, she drops them near Frank’s feet.
Frank notices, they aren’t meter in length, nor exactly the same length, but they’ll do.
“Okay, we’ll use these shards as nails and hit them through the table and into the leg so that they’ll hold the two together.”
“Nails?”
“You’ll see what I mean once we get started.”
“Okay.”
Frank carefully tries to prop up about meter long beam, so that it’d stay up on it’s own, but it’s way too long and uneven for that.
“Amethyst can you hold this up with your hand, support it with your leg or something? I’ll try to get the table top on it so we can nail it down.”
“Can’t I hold it with both blades?”
“You can for now, but I’ll need you to hammer in the shard nails.”
Frank holds the beam up and Amethyst grabs support of it with her wrists, awkwardly holding it.
“Okay, good.” Frank takes the table top, lift’s it up, thankfully it’s relatively thin and only a meter long too, so he manages to get it on top of the long pole.
He holds the table on top of the beam from the opposite side, the structure teeters.
“I just realized… this is going to be impossible for the two of us… You can’t hold up the nail to hammer it, and I gotta hold the table up from this side…”
“Uhh Pioneer, you wouldn’t wanna lend me some of your, assistants?”
“What do you think Explorers, should we lend them a hand?” Pioneer takes out his communicator and stares at it intently.
Sounds of birdsong fill the void of silence that falls, some grunts from the camera crew and a loud sneeze as well.
“Uhh who are you asking that from? Isn’t this-” Frank gets interrupted.
“Alright, we aren’t really supposed to interfere like this, but we will make an exception, any volunteers?” He looks up from the screen and peers at his staff.
Some hands raise up in the production team, who aren’t currently working the hover lights, camera or microphones.
Among them, one girl, wearing a purple blouse is hopping up and down while waving with both hands. Her long dark hair flops every which way, revealing the subtle red highlights.
Strikingly familiar, Frank realizes its the drone operator from last time.
“Okay… you the… new girl? Get in here.” Pioneer picks the obviously enthusiastic girl.
She runs up to the scene her hands girlishly on her sides, beaming a big bright smile.
“Amethyst! Hello!” She waves and radiates a smile, her wide golden necklace’s red gemstones shining almost as bright.
[https://i.imgur.com/Spyf5DT.png]
“Let’s get this table done!” She cheerily claps her hands together, her sharp metallic red and blue earring shingle.
“Nice to meet you… who are you again?” Frank asks.
“Hello, Luna.” Amethyst remembers, though she is a bit taken aback, she had never met anyone so enthusiastic and energetic before.
“Eek! She remembered my name!” She shyly tilts her head, cups her cheeks and blushes. Then gives Pioneer a quick and a sharp leer, which he ignores.
“Anyway… Luna, please hold up this side of the table.”
“Okay.” She answers to Frank without looking at him, sashays to the other end of the table and grabs it.
Pioneer glances at his communicator.
“Now now Explorers, you’re the ones who agreed to lend them help, don’t be getting jealous now.”
He says quietly to the camera, before walking closer to the carpentry crew for a wider shot.
Frank adjusts the beam Amethyst is holding in place, so that it’s at a better position. He ruffles through the shard pile and picks up a sharp, relatively thin piece.
“Alright, Amethyst, you can let go of the beam with your wrists, I’ll hold it up from this side.”
Frank places the shard on top of the table, directly below the wooden beam’s location.
“I’ll need you to hit this with your armored wrist. Wait... is it durable enough, this piece is quite sharp? Should we use the back of your hand blade?”
“I think my wrist should be fine.”
“Okay, great.”
Amethyst winds up her arm for a wrist-slam.
“S-slowly! Do it slowly first…”
“Why? Don’t we want it to sink into the wood?”
“Yeah, but I’m not sure if this will actually work, if the shards can take the hit. And my fingers certainly can’t...”
“Okay, slowly…”
Amethyst gently clinks the shard’s top with his wrist, it does not even dig into the wood.
“A little harder than that.”
Amethyst takes a little bit of wind up and strikes it harder, the shard shatters into a million pieces, her hand stops just before Frank’s fingers.
He pulls them away retroactively, just too late to have saved his fingers, had Amethyst gone all the way.
That was close...
At the other side of the table, Luna holds back laughter and fails at it.
Frank glares at her briefly.
“Okay, let’s try a bit bigger one.”
“Dear Explorers, we almost just witnessed the accidental de-fingering of Frank.
Witness natural selection at work, the stronger Tyrchid’s being a very valid threat to populations with fine motor skills everywhere.
Frank has picked up another shard, let’s see if he is right to bet the well-being of his grabbers on this one.”
Frank places a shard, double the wideness of the previous one, it is shaped like an emerald-cut gemstone, but longer and sharper, or the shape of a commonly known, fictional gemstone currency.
Though it is much less polished and smaller than either, just a few millimeters thin.
“Okay Amethyst… give it another go.”
Frank braces and grits his teeth.
Amethyst hits it and the shard sinks a little bit into the table.
“Yeah! Do that again!”
Amethyst hits it again, the bottom triangle sinks in almost entirely, Frank checks if it stays up on its own, but its not quite deep enough for it yet, he continues to steady it.
“Well done!” Luna beams brighter than the twin suns in the sky at Amethyst.
Feeling good getting complimented like this, she hits the shard again, forgetting to adjust her strength properly.
The shard’s top triangle shatters, but the rest of it holds, as it shoots inside of the wood almost entirely, Amethyst’s armor smashing onto Frank’s fingers.
“Ahh! F-” His fingers hurt like hell, but Frank still manages to avoid cursing for Pioneer’s sake, it was a show for all ages after all.
Frank staggers away from the table and holds his left hand, the thumb and the index finger taking the brunt of the blow.
Though, the rest of her hand was squished against the table too and throbbed.
He stretched and curled his fingers, it was painful, but at least nothing seemed broken.
“Frank, A-are you okay!”
Luna struggles to keep the table upright, partly from having been left alone to hold it up, but mostly from laughing uncontrollably.
After her fit, she manages to balance it back up, with the one leg now attached.
“And so natural selection play’s its course, may we have a moment of silence for Frank’s fingers. May they find peace in a better place-”
“They are all still attached, thank you very much! Do you have a medical team here or something?!”
“Yes yes… What are you standing around for, give the man a cold pack, stat!”
Frank sits on the root of the in progress house, on the crimson blades of grass.
“I’m sorry Frank, I- I just got so excited…”
“It’s… okay”
He reveals his fingers from his palm, they shine red and have turned purple at spots, starting to swell. Rest of his hand having small cuts from the rough wood.
The older injury further up his arm left from the prickly thorns already scabbed shut and healing nicely.
“And so Frank has suffered a fatal injury, straight into his pride, will his left hand ever recover from the fearsome blow of Amethyst?
What about his resolve to go on building and- oh! What will happen to the special upcoming section now!
Find out right after these messages from our sponsors.”
After this announcement he raises his hand, rotates it in the air two cycles and holds up five fingers, the crew scatters to take a break.
“Can I already let down this table?!” Luna shouts angry at Frank.
“Yes, gently though.”
A medic person hands him a cold bag, which he wraps around a thin bandage taken from his backpack and then presses it to his hand.
The cool feels great, but also painful, unable to stop himself from grimacing.
Luna lays down the table and walks on over to them.
“Don’t worry Amethyst, if he can’t take you at your worst...” She smiles at Frank wickedly.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means that-”
“Luna, that’s quite enough.” The Documentarist says from behind her, she winces and shuts up.
“So, Frank, what now? Can you go on building, or should we wrap up for today.” He asks serious, but sincere.
“But we just started?” Amethyst says worried.
“I know, but the co-star is working at half capacity now, can you go on?”
Frank opens his mouth to speak, but Luna blurts out instead:
“I can take his place! We can turn this show around, just us girls.”
“While I appreciate your enthusiasm, I wasn't asking for your opinion.” Pioneer points a shushing palm at her.
Luna crosses her arms and glares at the injured man.
“Now, tell me Frank.”
“Let’s go on, we got the first leg done, it seems to hold up well enough too. Should be easier from now on.”
“That’s the spirit!” Pioneer smacks the sitting Frank on the shoulder.
“I should be able to do it one handed, all I have to do is hold up the nail.”
“I-I won’t let it happen again Frank, I promise I won’t!”
“Don’t worry about it, it’s okay” Frank cracks the cold bag and checks underneath it, a jolt of pain shoots and he presses it back down.
He smiles through the pain. “I trust you can do it Amethyst. Now let’s build the best table Midnight Iris has ever seen” Frank takes support from the tree and stands up.
“It’s the only table Midnight Iris has ever seen.” Luna says with a scowl.
“No it’s not, there’s at least a single table in the building at the Quarry!" Amethyst says factually and proud. "I've seen it myself!"
“How did you not know? Weren’t you supposed to be living there now?” Frank continues with a smug smile directed at Luna, overcoming the pain momentarily.
“O-oh, well I’m sure it will turn out to be the best table regardless, when you’re building it Amethyst!” Her tone and expression immediately soften as she addresses Amethyst.
Amethyst shyly blushes, unable to respond.
Frank stares at Luna with squinted eyes, his copper eyes burning.
Pioneer loudly claps his hands together, glances at the bickering trio but doesn't say anything.
He turns around and announces: “One minute everyone, one minute!”
“To the Table, let’s go.” Luna says and leads the way back towards it.
“Welcome back Explorers of the furthest galaxies, of the deepest space and the most exotic species.
Frank has successfully recovered from his unfortunate injury, his spirit unbroken, this table shall be built, the renovation must go on!”
Luna holds up the table, Amethyst standing at the other end, Frank holding another leg on his right hand, his left squeezing the cold bag.
“Okay, raise the right side up a bit and I’ll slip this underneath.”
Luna does as she is told, tipping the table slightly upwards, Frank places the rough leg down and Luna lays it back on it.
Frank procures a similar shard to the previous one, though the top being level this time, placing it on the table.
“I’m counting on you Amethyst”
“Y-yeah!”
I can do this, I won’t let him down!
She hypes herself up, it was all up to her, she was the one running the show.
It all hinged in her ability to control her strength.
The pressure builds up inside, she takes comfort in the smile Frank blessed her with even when in pain. And the bright smiles of Luna from before too.
Looking upon his wrist armor, no dents were visible, the purple with a gradient of blue still shone bright and clean.
Its shine reminded her of that time Frank had scrubbed her clean. The warmth of his touch almost returning.
Ready and confident she swings her wrist downwards.
The shard sinks clean into the table from her strike, but not quite entirely, so Frank’s fingers are spared.
I did it!
Clonk
Amethyst looks under the table, the table leg, fallen to the ground, she looks back at the table and the shard inside and then under again.
“Noo! I… I was so sure...”
“I’m sorry Amethyst, I couldn't hold it so it dropped from underneath just as you hit it.”
“You better be sorry, it’s all your fault.” Luna says coldly with a look of superiority.
“I’m not the one holding the table though.” Frank shoots back confident of his retort.
“You could have held the beam, your legs are still free!”
“Fine! Amethyst, let’s try again!”
“Y-yes!” Amethyst answers confused, as the two riled up individuals stare at her momentarily, she avoids both of their gazes.
Frank's mischievous eyes make contact with Luna, as he picks up the piece of lumber.
He places it back underneath the nail, before smacking it to the tabletop, sending the protruding shard nail flying straight into the air.
Luna almost looses grip of the table, her red-tinted eyes bewildered.
The shard nail flies high into the air, meanwhile, Frank quickly places the table leg in place and holds it between his knees.
He looks up and catches the shard gracefully with his right hand, while doing his best to hide the shaking of his legs in this demanding position.
Luna’s expression goes to that of astonishment until she turns away with a scowl.
“Hmph!”
“Do you see that pose, that absolute dedication to his cause? That one handed dexterity!
What admirable selflessness to put behind his own pain and lay it all on the line, his dignity, his shattered – yet to recover – pride. Maybe that allows him to push himself to such extremes?”
Frank places the shard back into the ready made slit and retreats his hand.
“Okay Amethyst, this time it will work.”
Their determined gazes meet.
Amethyst loads up another swing, of immense concentration, she had already done it right before. She wouldn’t mess it up again.
She swings and it hits true, the shard sinks into the table cleanly.
“I did it! I really did!”
“Congr-” Luna starts-
“Congratulations Amethyst!” Frank looks Luna mockingly, as he loudly speaks over her, before directing his attention to Amethyst.
“You really are a natural at this!”
"T-thanks"
“Ladies and Gentleman, undefined or otherwise different, those watching at home and my dear Explorers, this has truly been the most riveting making of a wooden table in all of galactic history. I am truly glad to have been able to share this roller coaster with you all.”
The Pioneer sniffles and wipes a tear with a single crooked finger.
“But, don’t go anywhere, we are just getting started! The table is only half – way – done!” He strikes a cool pose and presses down on his sunglasses.
“Nice job Amethyst”
“Woohoo!”
“Pioneer, we are done” Luna says and walks past him a sour look on her face, back behind the camera to join the rest of the crew again.
“W-what, it’s not possible! But we just-
My speech wasn’t that long, I-”
He turns around to see the flimsy table with all legs now, standing up, but definitely not proud.
“No… this cannot be… my-my content… my-”
His voice drops, alongside his posture.
“Ahem, so it seems to be, um, completed and what a… fine table it is.”
A long pause, and Frank recognizes Pioneer to be struggling, for the first time, he seems lost in his own set, in his own environment.
“Allow me” Frank pushes past the Documentarist into the scene and adjust himself so that the table and Amethyst are visible behind him.
“As you can see by the building process of this table, Tyrchid’s culture is all about resourcefulness, using all that is available and not wasting even a single splinter or a shard. More over-”
“What about that pile of wood splinters though? The small cubes carved out initially? Or those not big enough for furniture?”
Pioneer asks still in a state of daze and disappointment.
“That is for… kindlings for a fire… a fire to keep them warm on cold nights…”
“Tyrchid’s sleep in tree houses though, isn’t that dangerous?”
“Well, we have established that the trees are very fire resistant, so that is just fine to do.”
“If the trees are fire resistant, how are you supposed to light a fire with the splinters?”
Pioneer insists, almost feeling like a retort for invading his spotlight.
Frank is at loss for words, he just walked right into that one, talked himself into a corner.
A silence that follows feels like an eternity as Frank’s thoughts completely clog up.
The two men stand in the spotlight, in front of the camera frozen, Pioneer showing the first sign of negative emotion since they met him, nervously fiddling with his ring.
“The pieces are small enough that they’ll light up if exposed to the great heat of our blades for a while.” Amethyst swoops into the shot too.
“We do umm, celebrations... around a campfire...” Amethyst looks at Frank who nods subtly for her to continue.
“So, uhh, we use them for that too…”
“Then you can show us a traditional Tyrchid celebration on the last day of filming, I hope? A sort of an Extra episode maybe?”
Pioneer recovers his usual pizzazz with convenient timing.
“O-of course, sure we can do that…” Frank hides his nervousness by fiddling with the cold pack.
“Wonderful! Explorers, look forward to it, your Pioneer is going partying!” Completely recovered, Pioneer back in control of his show.
“What exactly do these festivities entail?”
“A big roaring fire, and good food… fruits and berries hopefully...”
Documentarist looks expectant and gestures Amethyst to keep it up.
“Uhh, singing and dancing, I’ve always wanted to try those…”
Those are things related to parties… right?
“You haven’t tried to sing or dance? Despite those being a part of your traditions?”
“No-no, Amethyst meant to say that she hasn’t uhh- danced with me yet! -and she doesn’t know any pair dances, it’s always a solo act, you know, with the multitude of blades and all.”
Frank nervously laughs.
Pioneer joins in and snickers a few verses with him. “Ah, of course! We can expect a dance show by you, what could be more wonderful! What about the singing?”
“We can uhh, sing a traditional Tyrchidian song together?”
“I hope you can provide us with lyric sheets, I think we will have a hard time to sing along otherwise!”
“S-sure, Frank can help me in writing those… Right?”
“Yes of course...” Frank scratches his chin.
Their confounded gazes and awkward smiles meet.
A common thought in both of their minds: “What have we gotten ourselves into?”