Dan & Phil: Not of This Earth

08 | Starting with Stars in Our Eyes

Word Count: 2287

     A few hours passed as Dan and Black Opal spoke quietly together. Dan had fully recovered and joined his friend where he had been seated on the floor. Their conversation began with Dan, overcome with guilt, expressing his deepest apologies for blanking out when they got to the ship, but, now they were discussing how strange the word "facetious" was.

     Black Opal pronounced the word for a second time. "Fah-see-shuss." His mouth then became a small smile and he chuckled. "What, heheh, what if it was 'facet-ee-us'? What would it mean then?"

     Dan laughed. "I don't know. Perhaps it would be 'of facet' or something? If we said a lot of words differently, their meanings could be anything." He thought for a moment and snapped his fingers. "If we said – what are you looking at?" Dan twisted his torso to the Gems behind them. No one was doing anything special. However, he got a cheeky thought and returned to face Black Opal with an all-knowing smile. "See someone you like?" he asked in a hushed tone.

     Black Opal waved his hand dismissively. "Someone's about to fuse. Uh..." He pointed to a blue pearl and a much taller and muscular obsidian. "Them! We'll go through turbulence and he'll fall into the pearl!"

     "Mm...and when will that happen?"

     Black Opal held up five fingers and slowly counted them down. When he was out of fingers...nothing happened.

     "Fantastic future vision," Dan commented smugly.

     "Aw, boo!"

     The ship rumbled beneath them then, and tried to secure themselves on the floor. Dan grabbed the arm of the chair behind him where Black Pearl now sat while Black Opal tried to keep his palms flattened against the floor. Suddenly, the ship lolled to the right, jutting Black Opal forward to collide with Dan. "Ah! Look out!"

     Dan let go of the chair's arm to attempt to catch Black Opal, but when they made physical contact, their forms became white masses then materialized into one. The white popped off in a sparkling cloud to reveal the same Gem from earlier.

     The ship rolled in the opposite direction and wobbled until it levelled out properly. No one was too worried about the ship, however.

     The new Gem looked at its hands, not pale or particularly peach but somewhere in between. "Huh."

     His hands curled up under his chin and his knees bent until only his heels were touching the floor. He apologized to himself in a slightly higher pitch: "Oh, Dan, I'm so sorry!"

     He let his limbs go limp and he waved dismissively. "It's not like we could help it, I guess." This voice was flatter and more articulate, and it was easily coming from Dan.

     Black Pearl was now standing with her hands pressed against her cheeks. There were visible stars in her eyes and a huge grin on her face. "You fused!" The Gem looked to her and noticed the pearls behind her in awe as well. He looked to his left to see everyone else. Some shared the same excitement and others were hesitant to celebrate.

     The Gem stood with help of the chair behind him and a hand in the browner portion of his hair. "Oh, yeah." His knees wobbled under him; he was completely unfamiliar with walking.

     "Who are you? What's your name?" Black Pearl gushed. Others agreed from the crowd, some louder than others.

     "Oh, um..." He threw his left leg before him and attempted to throw the other after it. Instead, he nearly fell face-first into the control panel. A pearl caught him and shoved him away quickly. Now, in the near-middle of the floor, he tried to retain his center of gravity. "Well..."