“This is what you have all been waiting for, the big reveal!
What could we possibly be doing with these glorious pieces, true pinnacles of carpentry!”
The rickety table with its curved top, nor the very archaic log stools he was showcasing, were able to restrain Pioneer’s hyperboles.
“You thought that building a house and assembling furniture was peak entertainment, but you were wrong!
Prepare yourselves, for something truly unprecedented!
Unexpected!
Incredible!"
The camera moves with Pioneer’s confident gait, lining up the Queen’s giant tree home to the background, presenting it with two outstretched arms.
“Would you believe, if I told you; this massive hollowed out tree will be a school!
Shocking, right?”
He removes his shades and flashes a charismatic smile.
“Look forward to a full on education of the Tyrchids, uncivilized in the ways of the galaxy and its storied history!
You will be amazed how they learn to speak, read and write in no time and become as expressive and lovable as our dear Amethyst!”
Out of the camera’s shot, Amethyst’s fidgets with color gathering on her cheeks, while Frank shakes his head at Pioneer’s promises and exaggerations.
“We still need to carry all of these to the ‘school’ first through…”
Frank mutters and sighs as Pioneer continues to ramble at the cameras.
“Amethyst, shall we get on it then? Mister spotlight can catch up whenever he feels like it.”
“Is it really okay for us to start?” Amethyst tilts her head, giving Frank only half of her attention, as her antennae don’t follow the gesture — still pointing towards the monologing Pioneer.
“I’m sure he won’t mind. Can you carry the stools? I’ll try to handle the table and the blackboard.”
“Alright then.” The fuzzy rods return to neutral gear and she stabs two stools with her hand blades. They stick to them, as the lifts them up sideways with ease.
She takes a step, but looks back at Frank.
“Are you sure… will you be alright?”
Not entirely sure himself, Frank takes the cold pack off his left hand, experimenting on opening and closing his fist.
It isn’t as sore anymore, and functions… serviceably.
“See? It’s fine.”
Though, the spots of red and violet bruising become more sensitive as they are stretched and warm up.
Amethyst's posture slumps and the stumps threaten to fall off her blades.
“Sorry...”
“No no, it wasn’t a big deal,” Frank looks away, his hand instinctively drifting behind his neck.
Pioneer glances backwards, towards them:
“Oh, they are already starting the moving operation, shall we go enjoy the feats of strength of Amethyst?”
She takes this as her cue, and parts from Frank with a flash of a compassionate smile, leaving him alone for now.
The Documentarist with his crew follow after Amethyst.
Frank looks at the blackboard before him, it was a truly scorched piece of wood, a meter high and one and a half long.
Nobody actually used such things anymore, digital canvases ruled over the school environment, but they were still called with the same name as their ancient counterparts.
He measures it and the table with his gaze, evaluating how to best carry each piece.
A sudden tap on his shoulder causes him to turn around quickly.
“Sorry, you looked so engrossed with your creations. Do you still need that?”
A nurse, or a doctor, stands before him, gesturing towards the cold pack he’s holding.
“No, you can have it back,” Frank hands it towards the mid-thirties healthcare expert.
“Thanks -?”
“Carol,” she receives the bag and smiles: “do try to keep your hands away from such hard impacts in the future.”
“I’ll do my best.” Frank responds in turn with a grin.
“If any complications come up, sudden bleeding, unbearable soreness, anything, just let us know.” Her joyous air disappears, as her eyebrows crease and her lips tighten.
She peers a little closer, shielding her mouth with a hand.
“Pioneer doesn’t like us breaking the immersion, but I’ll say the well being of everyone is more important. So don’t worry about him, I’ll handle any medical emergency, no matter what he says.”
“Right, I’ll keep that in mind, thanks again.”
“No problem.” Carol turns away, her loosely braided blond ponytail bobs, as she walks back to her colleague and pops the cold bag into a portable fridge.
Next to Carol, another nurse, younger and shorter than her, does something by a table, her back turned. Frank recognizes her to be the one who handed him the cold pack initially.
Though, he doesn't know her name, but her long hair is memorable, kind of like his, but more well kept and milk-chocolate brown.
Frank turns away and ponders the furniture situation, observing his hands, fresh small injuries cover them, pricked by two different plants most recently, then bruised by this blunt force trauma.
His arms were used to rough treatment, working with animals at Wildlife Ventures had often lead to scratches, cuts and burns. Protective equipment — gloves, thick jackets, helmets — weren’t enough, not when dealing with new, alien species.
There wasn’t any documentation, no warning to watch out for the Foxbear’s acid spit, to never touch a Giraffeduck’s neck.
No procedures nor best practices to follow, to wear a welder’s helmet if you really wanted to avoid a Solarophone’s blast, to always keep your fingers together when treating Centizards.
Frank had always had to adapt, to trust his gut, he had been the ‘pioneer’ of his field.
...
That was over now too.
It’s better this way…
A necessary evil, turned into selfish fantasy.
It should never have happened in the first place.
Not like that.
The animals he had treated to the best of his ability, were sent away, their fates unknown. Auctioned off, sent to the rich and to whoever offered the most…
Or to HQ.
Just like them, his co-workers, were captured now too, sent away.
Law-enforcement, prison guards — their likely handlers now.
All, everyone, he ever had in this life, were locked up.
Disappeared.
Condemned.
Left behind.
That was bound to be his legacy.
Leaving dead ends, wherever he went, whatever he did.
…
But maybe, all wasn’t yet lost.
Pioneer’s talking starts to emanate, closing in, Amethyst has dropped the two stools off at the school now.
Frank grips the blackboard into a wide hold with his arms, knuckles white, fingers turning black from the soot.
Lifting it up, his hand still throbs a little, though the first aid cold bag had helped it to not swell too badly.
“Oh and Frank is out and about here, carrying the blackboard solo, what a tenacious fellow, recovered from his injury so soon!”
Pioneer walks with him, as Amethyst goes to get more chairs.
“Tell me Frank, how did it feel to get slapped on your hand by a Tyrchid? A truly crushing blow, I’m sure.”
“It hurt that’s for sure...”
Pioneer’s back is turned to the camera, as he spins his hand at Frank, for him to say more.
Frank rolls his eyes.
“As long as any bones don’t break, it’s nothing I can’t shrug off. I’m just glad it was the dull wrist and not a blade, or I wouldn’t have a hand anymore.”
Pioneer turns to the camera, whispering too loud as Frank overhears him.
“There you have it then. Explorers, do you still wish it had been you?”
“Uh, what?”
“I mean, what an awfully dangerous situation. Yes, truly!” Pioneer swiftly spins back around and grins.
“But do enlighten us, I believe many back at home must be wondering why you didn’t hit the shards yourself with a rock or something, instead of letting Amethyst do it.”
Because you damn told me to keep her in the spotlight!
A sigh later, Frank responds with a manner sure to please him.
“Even if Amethyst is capable and strong, she lacks fine-motor control over her power. This was merely a good chance to train her in that aspect.”
“Oh! There you have it! Frank truly always knows how to surprise, what foresight!”
Pioneer stares at his communicator for a long moment, the sides of his mouth contorting in a strange manner.
“Since you just admitted to training Amethyst, tell me, have you perhaps engaged in other kinds of exercises with her… some more practice, with small accurate movements, in the dead of night perhaps?”
Oh, for fuck’s sake…
“There you have it, that expression tells you more than any words ever could. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, that look is sure to be worth tenfold!”
Frank’s saving grace is that he makes it to the classroom and enters through the big entrance, Amethyst passing him to fetch more stools, the film crew switch to trailing after her instead.
Safely at his destination, he wasn’t sure which had been more draining, Pioneer’s questions or the painful carrying trip itself.
He had been pestered by Pioneer so much, he hadn’t realized Amethyst passed him a few times already, the class room already housing eight stools.
Frank may have just been carrying a thin slab of wood, but it’s sheer size still had made it a slow process.
Laying the blackboard down, leaning against the inner wall, he starts trying to clean himself.
Dusting his hands off the soot, most of it clings, well stuck to his hands. A paper towel later from his backpack, most of its comes off, but his hands definitely still dirty looking.
After giving his stained green jacket a wipe too, he steps into the massive doorway, meeting Amethyst who’s just now returning with the two last chairs, she deposits them inside and comes to him.
“Nice job,” Frank gives Amethyst an encouraging thumbs up, surprised to see the film crew not hounding her anymore.
She looks curiously at his fingered hands, the two shorter but thicker stubs sticking up strangely.
The black in his hands, she deducted to be from the blackboard, but more curious was — why is his left hand partially covered in this strange mix of violet.
She wasn’t sure, but could ascertain that it was likely her doing.
“Thanks... you too.”
They share a moment of silence, but not awkward silence.
Not every single moment had to be full of conversation, of action.
Being together in the present, was enough.
“Oh, right. I still gotta carry the table.”
“I’ll help. I mean, if I can.”
“We’ll figure something out.” Frank and Amethyst set out to fetch the final piece of their education plan.
Further away, Pioneer’s face fills the camera, whispering secretively, faking over the top shock:
“What natural interaction, such chemistry, did you see the look on their faces as they locked eyes for a moment?
I must apologize, you Explorers really are one of a kind relationship experts. Nothing gets past you.”
He adjusts the orange tinted glasses, it had been cloudy for a while, but that was no reason to remove them.
“With the classroom coming together nicely, I wanted to address our winner of the competition, some of you may have noticed, it was already announced on our gweb pages.
I even managed to make good with some of the victor’s prizes too.”
“That’s right, the winner of our guessing game: ‘StepOnMeAme’, just used two of their six questions, four more still remain.
They were the first to guess the upcoming segment as “school,” as they put it.”
I’ll have to pass my sincere thanks to the development team for having an 11 character username limit in place.
“If you didn’t win this time, don’t worry, we’ll have more fun little activities like this, in the future too!
As for the rest of the questions, they won’t be available to use for now.
I’ll let you know when its time, you can put them to good use in our upcoming segments, don’t worry!
Spend this time to think long and hard as to what you wish to know!”
“And of course, I will pick other questions from our ensemble of Explorers, but yours, StepOn, are guaranteed to be read!“
“Oh but the classroom must be ready by now, let’s go quickly before they suspect anything, right?
Or actually, I’ll catch you there, after these messages!”
Pioneer stares at his communicator, at the fast flowing text on its screen.
It was real inconvenient having to check the live-stream chat on it, instead of the separate, large and easy to read hover monitor.
Especially, when the higher ups wanted to try even deeper audience participation, now of all times.
But he knew, ISSA required punctuality, waiting for it to be repaired was out of the question.
With this setup, he might not be able to address what was said or talked about as much as he would have liked.
But it still wasn’t going to prevent him from interacting with his viewer chat and his dear premium supporters.
They were all his loyal fans, billions waited for his next grand appearance in the frontiers of space. To show the wonders, forge bonds and relations, the very first to introduce new sapient species.
Action, uniqueness, all sorts of misunderstandings, literally anything could happen in his show, nothing was more unpredictable and interesting than new intelligent creatures.
Well, ISSA’s show really, but over the years they had been giving him more and more freedom making the ‘evidence and legal reel.’
The proof that would be used in ISSA courtrooms, to decide if the species was really sapient, if they were ready to became a part of the galactic family.
The association had become more lenient – meddling less with his vision – the more success the ‘Nature Document’ received over the years.
Nowadays a far cry from its starting days of serious documenting, editing in a studio, to produce a proper TV show.
Why go through all that trouble, when turning it into a live-stream format, not only made the whole thing cheaper to produce, but also performed way better financially?
After all, what better way to fund their good intentions, their endeavor in galaxy wide sapient species preservation, than turning it into a hit, entertainment phenomena. The ad revenue, the view counts were off the charts. Winning many prestigious awards along the years and it was just getting bigger after each season.
Though, a worry hung in the air, spoken silently in boardrooms and meetings. At some point, new sapient species would stop being found, the galaxy was big, but not infinite. His higher ups, producers and directors had told him that the worry was unwarranted and it was ‘being worked on’. Maybe they were really doubling their efforts and would actually look for sapient species themselves, instead of waiting for applications?
He wasn’t sure what they had in mind, but he was happy as long as he got to continue doing this.
Pioneer glanced at his golden ring, time was running out.
He arrives at the ‘school’, Frank and Amethyst were clearly ready and waiting already.
The stools were ordered in a class room fashion, there was so much space they might as well be made into a half circle, but maybe this two row setup of ten was better.
The furniture really looked puny in the massive space, the ceiling so high, it didn’t receive any light, room so wide, all of the Tyrchid’s of the village might have just fit inside.
Regardless, he suspected they were right to start small.
Who knows, if this succeeds, maybe I can make a second season here, a spin off series.
‘Learning with Tyrchids’ no, ‘Tyrchid Highschool’ that sounded better already.
Or maybe this could be franchised, ‘The Alien University’ a reality stream show, no scripts, just lessons planned ahead of time.
The younglings of many alien species attend school, we film them to see their struggle to learn, chaos and conflicts sure to arise, with so many different budding sapient species in one place.
Oh yes.
He had his doubts of their current show, but… maybe this could be a success after all, with room for sequels!
Pioneer laughed at his own brilliance, but it was time to stop daydreaming.
The equipment was now placed around the classroom properly, and the ad break was about to end.
He counted down to the end of the extra adbreak, from the small hyper accurate clock embedded into his ring.
“And we are back Explorers! To those of you, who are just tuning in, we are just about to hold the grand opening of the Tyrchid’s elementary school, but what is a school without students?”
He steps a bit off the shot to give more room to Amethyst and Frank.
“Pray tell, where are our dear pupils?”
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“We will soon call them in,” Frank pockets a lot of pre-picked berries from the flimsy curved table, the Pango Grape bloom lying on top of it.
“What are you going to do with those?” Pioneer asks.
“I think our students might need some persuading to come take up the mantle of knowledge.”
“Can you not just tell them to come here, sit down and learn, Amethyst?” Pioneer inquires confused.
“Um, Tyrchidian doesn’t have words for teaching or school.”
Or even for ‘come here’.
“Please try to understand.”
“So we need to take some more, um- primitive approaches in cases like these.” Frank assures, anticipation and trepidation building.
“Ah, of course, I get it now, shall we start?”
They agree with a nod, and walk outside, to the camera stationed at the entrance, Frank and Amethyst in the scene, while Pioneer hangs back at the foreground.
Outside, the Tyrchids mostly woken up now, go about their business, totally used to the presence of them in their home.
Garnet, the familiar bandaged Tyrchid, spies at them from behind a tree, Onyx looming right behind her.
On the other side of the same tree, Emerald also happens to be peeking, they don’t seem to know of each other’s presence.
Amethyst looks at Frank who nods.
She buzzes out the Tyrchid call for food, “Shfluz,” quietly, hopefully only nearby Tyrchids hear it. It would be best to avoid the swarming of the last time when Frank fed them.
Garnet, Onyx and Emerald slowly start their approach, as well as others from all around them.
Eventually, this one call gathered a small crowd around them. Most seemed confused at the lack of any evident food around.
“I think this is plenty, should we start?”
“Yeah,” Frank takes a berry out of his pocket and shows it to the Tyrchids.
The crowd spots it and stares at it intently, like mesmerized by it.
Frank walks backwards inside the building, dangling the swirling berry, Amethyst following closely after him.
Ten Tyrchids follow them inside the house, the others loose interest and scatter, confused or not bothering without immediate reward.
The ten inside, look around, reluctant to follow further than the entrance.
Amethyst follows, as Frank leads her in front of a stool.
He orders, “sit” and points a finger down.
Amethyst sits down, she looks at Frank’s commanding face with amusement.
Frank gives Amethyst the berry as a reward, which she happily and exaggeratedly eats.
Demonstration over, let’s see then.
Frank approaches the crowd with a berry held out.
“Alright, Emerald was it?”
He offers it at Emerald who’s near to the front, she tries to immediately go for it and nab it from his fingers with her mandibles.
Frank yanks his hand away, and starts leading her to a stool.
“Come and show us what you can do.”
Like a reluctant pet, the allure of the berry acts like an invisible collar and lead, binding her to follow.
He tells her, “sit” with the same gesture.
Emerald looks confused and gazes at Amethyst who’s still sitting down.
Slowly the green tinted Tyrchid sits down too and Frank gives her the fruit.
“Very good Emerald.” She eats it, a slight smile from the treat or maybe the compliment.
She looks at Frank as he goes past her, taking care to give her enough space, to not overstep into the possible flight zone.
He clears Emerald, who remains seated, looking at Amethyst on the next seat instead.
“Who’s next?”
As Frank returns to the crowd, he notices only seven are remaining.
They don’t have long attention spans huh?
The bandaged Tyrchid is at the back of the group, Onyx standing in front of her protectively.
He had hoped to start with the ones he was familiar with, at least on some level, but it looked to not be an option anymore.
Frank picks the first at the front instead, an orange tinted and haired Tyrchid.
Although, he seemed weirdly familiar too.
He?
Frank didn’t know, how he recognized their genders. Maybe his nose and subconscious had started to notice some patterns.
It was a feeling, which felt right, somehow, though maybe it was also the subtle ways in their posture, body structure and shape.
The orange Tyrchid eagerly follows him, Frank has to stride backwards to avoid being caught.
As they get to the stool next to Emerald, it sits down without any prompting.
“Well aren’t you a quick learner.” It seems to smile back with pride.
Woah, this is going way better than I expected.
Frank rewards him and returns to the group of six, yellow and gold haired Tyrchids stand at the front, very close to each other.
He picks the yellow hair as the next lure target, but she just glances at the gold haired one without budging.
Like exchanging glances, they both start to follow him.
Could you be… sisters?
At the last free front seats, he gives them the command and gesture, they both take a seat at the same time.
A reward later, they both seem happy to be there and wait.
Even with the swiftness of getting two Tyrchids at once, the crowd is thinned again by two.
Four seated, two remained.
“Will you be okay with them?” Amethyst asks as he walks past her 'sitting demonstration' -spot.
He had completely engrossed himself in this exciting endeavor, what was for all intents and purposes, wild animal training, forgetting about everything else for a moment.
“I can try talking to them first.”
Amethyst continues, she too privy to the danger that was Onyx, an alpha male, protecting his wounded mate.
“I’ll be fine. I did help them before already, I… I’m sure they’ll remember and understand.”
Amethyst doesn’t argue and lets him go.
Onyx evaluates him, with vigilant eyes as Frank presents a berry.
Garnet moves a bit from behind Onyx, but a lifted black blade stops her advance.
“Shfluz shfluz!” he says with a deep voice.
Amethyst suddenly shows up next to Frank, “I think he wants more berries.”
“Really?”
“Shlufz shfluz shfluz!” Onyx repeats oppressively, like a threat.
“Now he’s upped his demand to three already.”
Frank quickly takes out two more berries and shows them to the jet black and silver Tyrchid.
“Fxh!” Onyx booms and walks to a seat on its own, at the back row, Frank feeds him the three berries under his scrutinizing gaze.
The other Students already seated start a ruckus and shout “Shfluz Shfluz Shlfuz!”
“Okay okay calm down I get it, it’s unfair now… here have two more each…”
Frank makes the rounds and feeds the Tyrchids again.
Returning to Amethyst, he shakes his head:
“I feel like I just got played…”
“You sure did.” She smiles back, then looks at the last remaining student.
The Tyrchid of red and pink stands at the doorway, restless, appearing lost and shy.
Reserved, it glances at Frank who offers three berries to her.
She seems too scared to follow, “Shuzs bfhusz,” Frank gives his best ‘friend’ pronunciation.
She seems to open up to Frank a little more again, starting to follow. She only limps a little, gladdening Frank’s heart, his operation seemed a success.
He seats her at the back row, next to Onyx.
The black haired Tyrchid follows them intently.
Frank lets her eat the berries, “shuzs bfhusz,” Garnet answers once she’s done.
“Aww Frank, you made a friend!”
Onyx springs up from his chair and shouts: “BHLIZ!” Pointing at Frank with a red-tinted, gleaming black, hand blade.
Garnet shoots up into between the two, waving her blades around, her pink hair flowing.
“Fxh! Shuzs bfhusz, Fxh!” She points a blade at Frank.
Then, pointing at Onyx, “Mosf!” She says something new Frank hadn’t heard before. This seems to calms him down, both returning to their seats.
“Uhh, what just happened?"
“You got called names, just the worst possible insult. I think the black haired one might be jealous you got called friend.”
“Oh… wait, what was I called?”
“A Sabertiger.”
“That’s your swear word?” Frank laughs briefly, “makes sense.”
“I guess so?”
The Pioneer comes back to his senses, shaking his head like waking up from a trance. He takes off his sunglasses and quietly speaks to the camera.
“Wow, Explorers, that was so enchanting I completely forgot to comment. I got totally immersed in the subtle intricacies of social interaction.
Were you the same? Did you stay silent in class too? If so, I commend you on your good behavior.”
“As our first lesson, we will be giving you all names.” Frank says, speaking for the audience, more than his students. Who even knew, if they really understood anything they said?
“Can we name one?” The Pioneer asks from the back, the class turns around and stares at the man suspicious.
“Sorry, we already have a naming convention, and I think I have names thought out for each of them already.”
“Aww, sorry Explorers, all of those great suggestions won’t get used now. Maybe if we get some more students next time?” He says to the camera.
“Anyway, let’s start with Emerald. We met her before already, so she has a name, but, let’s see if she can say it too.”
Frank looks at Amethyst on his side, behind their teacher’s desk.
“Let’s start with a demonstration.”
They get into their places, Amethyst at her seat and Frank in front of her.
They remain silent for a have a few seconds, to clearly distinguish this from their previous ramblings.
Frank points at himself and says, “Frank”, then pointing at Amethyst saying her name.
Amethyst then repeats after him, starting with her own name and then Frank’s, receiving a berry as a reward from her performance.
Frank then walks in front of Emerald, repeating the gesture.
“Frank. Emerald.”
She hesitates for a moment.
“F-fzunx”
Frank’s jaw hangs open, astonished at getting her to speak — and for how wrong she managed to say his name.
The order was wrong too, she was supposed to say her name first, but its fine.
“I...F...Fzfmurlb”
Frank quickly stifles a laughter, Amethyst looks at him with disapproval.
“I-I’m sorry-” He struggles to hide it.
“Frank! We only have…” Amethyst thinks and counts in her mind,
“15 letters in the Tyrchid language! Only two of them in Emerald!“
“Oh that’s good to know… I bet none of my names use only those letters…”
Oh well...
He turns back to Emerald. “One more time, we gotta get you some more pronounceable name."
"Frank. Emerald."
Emerald looks a little unhappy, but obliges.
“Fzunx”
She tries really hard
“I-Imilol”
“E-me-ral-d” Frank tries to say her name, as clearly and slowly as possible.
“Imilald!”
Wow she got pretty close!
“Okay that’s very good, Imilald.”
He gives her three berries as a reward, she happily eats them.
He moves onto the next one, to the orange haired one.
“Frank, Zircon.”
“Zigon! Flonk!” He answers without wasting a second, demonstrating his capability for learning once more.
Though, hilarity tries to overtake him again.
“Flonk!”He covers his face with his injured hand and speaks through it.
“T-that’s very good, we’ll go with that, here you go Zigon.”
Next up the yellow haired one.
“Frank, Citrine” Maybe I should have consulted Amethyst on these names first...
“Flonz. S-Sifli-in,” she hesitates then repeats smiling proudly: “Siflin!”
“Nice to meet you Siflin” he rewards her with berries.
Before he can get to the next golden haired one, she’s already repeating: “Flonz! Flonz!”
And then points at herself.
Eager aren’t we? You really are sisters huh?
But...
Aren’t they all supposed to be sisters and brothers according to what Amethyst told me?
Hmm that can’t be right?
… well whatever.
“Topaz.”
She looks at her sister and says “Siflin…”
Then looks at Frank joyously, shouting: “Sfipoz!”
She made it more like her sister?
“Alright Sfipoz, here.”
And then… oh boy.
Frank makes his way in front of the troublemaker.
Regardless, he stays calm and repeats the mantra: “Frank, Onyx.”
“Blizh, Gnox,” his buzzing voice drips spite.
He just called me Sabertiger again!
“Blizh! Shfluz!”
And now he demands food from me regardless…
Is this how it feels to be a teacher when your students bully you?
I’m sorry miss Frolend, I shouldn’t have given in to the peer pressure and joined in, all those years ago…
Frank looks at Amethyst for help, she just shrugs.
Damn I’m not a professional teacher! They didn’t teach this at vet school!”
“Blizh, Shfluz!”
“Okay whatever, you win, be Gnox then, here you go.”
“Explorers, are we sure Frank is not a real teacher? Have any of you done a background check and maybe found him in any school’s databases?
He’s handling them all with such expertise, even the hooligan! They all have names now, everyone spam the chat with who’s your favorite!
Is it the adorably stoic and struggling Imilald, the fast learner Zigon, maybe one of the cute sisters of Siflin and Sfipoz or maybe the bully Gnox who seems to have the hots for umm, hold on…
Hold that thought, we still have one more Tyrchid to name!”
Frank is in front of the red and pink Tyrchid now.
“Frank, Garnet.”
“F-floi… Floing!”
Frank can’t stop himself, and burst into laughter.
Floing! I can’t-!
Garnet looks heartbroken like she just might cry.
“I-I’m so, haha, so sorry, I- I can’t… stop laughing. A-a-amethyst take over.”
Frank steps over and folds, holding his stomach.
Gnox stands up and looms over him.
“BLIZH!”
“H-hey! Shuzs bfhusz!” Amethyst goes to cut him off, the rest of the class scatters away, escaping from this confrontation’s way.
Gnox raises his hand: “Ghs!”
“I’m not going- Ghs’s:ing anywhere, you need to calm down, I’m not letting you to Bl- Frank!”
Gnox raises a blade to strike Amethyst, she braces her own to block.
“Uh-oh! Looks like things have escalated. We uhh, we got security standing by just in case, right?
Like if we need to run?
What, no- no, did you hear that Explorers? I meant just in case we need to run to them and restrain them so no harm comes to anyone.”
“Gnox!” Garnet comes out from behind, her voice freezing Gnox in place.
“Gnox...” she repeats, then shyly points at herself, “Ghoxh.”
Gnox lowers his blades, turning to her.
Without looking back, they start humming a low tune, proceeding to walk together out of the now studentless, classroom.
“So they really were a c-couple then, huh?” Amethyst says, avoiding looking directly at Frank.
“Y-yeah, so it seems, she basically discarded ‘Garnet’ and just took her husbands name.” Frank concludes.
“Good for them, phew… that was exhausting.”
“You mean all the laughing you did?”
“Oh come on, I didn’t- well, that too I suppose.”
“Here they are, the champions, the heroes of the day.
The supermen and women of today, the fledgling teachers, so skilled and potent we all wished they’d be teaching our children.”
Pioneer strides to them, with multiple cameras in tow.
Isn’t that taking it a bit far...
“I really didn’t do anything today…” Amethyst confesses.
“They have managed to grant names to the Tyrchids, even having the solidarity to let them modify their names to fit into their own mouths, quite literally.
What exciting antics will our renovating teachers get up to tomorrow? Tune in on the usual time to see for yourself!”
Pioneer does his flourish and points at the camera.
“Keep on being curious and remember, a little exploring a day keeps the mind keen and boredom at bay! I wish you all a good morning and a good night!”
The Documentarist gives a free form, stylized wave, the camera crew start to make their leave soon after.
“Whoowee! A mighty cracking show today, very good, very good!”
He pats Frank’s back and then stops to carefully touch Amethyst’s shoulder too.
“You know I really wasn’t sure how this would go, but you nailed it, everyone loves the show- erm, loves you!”
“Damn, is that so-,” Frank falls silent all of a sudden.
“Wait… what do you mean? How can they love us, the show’s not airing yet is it?”
“Whatever do you mean? This is a live-stream, you know what that means right? It’s all broadcast real time.”
“Oh no...”
“W-what!” Amethyst cries out surprised, reacting to Frank’s tone.
“What does that mean…?”
“I just burst laughing in live TV… I thought they could at least cut that out in the editing…” Frank covers his face with his hands.
“Hmm… Everyone has seen us already, in one of those screen broadcasts like in the office before? Right?” Amethyst remembers what Frank told her before, but fails to see what the problem is.
“Hey now, don’t be so glum! And you should have known, did you not read the ISSA application all the way through, or my email!”
“Well I didn’t exactly have time to peruse the whole thing, I just thought the procedures would be the same as ten years ago, when I studied for ISSA’s entry exams...
Oh and, your ‘email’, literally said nothing of this!”
“Woah Frank, you don’t have to be so hostile, come on, just enjoy the stardom!” Pioneer says and spreads his hands innocently.
“Well whatever, see you tomorrow and all that. Let’s just go back now Amethyst?” Frank turns his back on Pioneer, to leave already.
“Uh, right.” She follows after him.
----------------------------------------
They don’t get far down the forest path, until a woman shouts after them.
“Wow! You did so good today in the shoot, you’re such a natural!”
They turn around to see Luna run up to them.
“Uhh, what now… um- who were you again?” Frank comments with concealed spite.
“Is your head as thick as your hair? I’m one of the stagehands working with Pioneer. Like, we’ve met once already. Today, even!
If it helps, my full name is Luna Mi-Safiljo, just Luna to friends.” She grins at Amethyst.
“Have you considered a career in acting?”
“Uh, not really, can’t say its an aspiration of mine or anything, although this style isn’t too bad-”
“Of course it isn’t your style, I wasn’t talking to you, Frank.” her tone grows cold.
“Wha-?”
“I’m so sure of your success, can I have your autograph, Amethyst?”
Luna holds a pen and a notebook before her, expectantly.
“Oh I…” Amethyst seems confused at the prospect.
“I can’t give you an autograph, I can’t write with... these.” She looks at her blades.
“Oh that’s right,” Luna caresses her chin in a cute way exaggerating her thinking process. “Whatever will we do...”
“Can’t she just stab a piece of paper, won’t that be the same thing?” Frank spits out.
“Fraaank what are you even saying? That’s totally different!” she whines.
“Oh, I know!” She smiles wickedly, taking a bunch of pages from her notebook and crumpling them into a ball.
“Why don’t you bite into this? Teeth marks- uh, mandible marks, are so 4060, all the species that can’t write are doing it!”
“You can’t be serious.” Frank and Luna glare at each other.
“What do you say Amethyst, will you please please pleeeeease do this for me?” Luna begs innocently with pleading eyes.
“Oh, umm, o-okay!”
“Oh my gosh, oh my gosh! Thank you!”
Luna approaches closer to Amethyst.
“You are so good looking and beautiful I just can’t contain myself! I want to hug you all over… But I’ll try my best to refrain...”
Amethyst doesn't know how to react, but her complexion does. Frank crosses his arms and scowls.
Luna reaches out and delivers the paper ball to Amethyst’s mandibles, she presses into it, mushing it against her partly open lips.
“Like this?” her words muffled by paper.
“Just like that!” Luna holds her hands together in joy.
Amethyst releases the ball and holds it with her mandibles, Luna grabs it.
It’s covered in saliva, a small trail following the ball in the air before snapping.
“Oh my gosh! I really got her Autograph!” She presses the wet paper against her cheek and nuzzles it.
“I will treasure this… forever. Thank you...”
"N-no problem..."
“Okay Amethyst, I think we should head back, it’s getting late.” Frank says sternly and grabs her arm.
“Oh, okay.”
“Aww so soon, but we just met!”
Luna looks dejected, like her heart had broken.
“Oh well, we’ll talk more later… Good Night Amethyst! Sweet dreams…”
They walk in silence through the bright forest, the black pox of morning, completely dried up now.
“What was her deal? Is Luna really creepy, or is that just me?”
“Frank!”
“What, do you disagree?" Frank shakes his head in disbelief.
"I’ve never even heard of that kind of autograph.”
“I... don’t know. She seemed nice.”
“What?”
“I mean, she’s so… happy and everything...” Amethyst looks away into the sky, the smaller sun partly peeking through the clouds.
Frank sighs. “Just don’t do everything she tells you, okay?”
“Okay.”
She didn’t really know why Frank was so worried, but tried to keep an open mind regardless, he probably had his reasons for thinking like that.
They had so far always looked after each other, for as long as they had known, Frank helping her, Amethyst saving him and vice versa.
That wouldn't — couldn’t — change, right?