It'll probably be fine. I would be surprised if it doesn't work out. Couldn't put a number on it.

"Okay. Which kinds of Draak are all these, we know there's kinds..."

Flicker is another Ruby, like me. The diggy kind of Draak. Thorn and Rose are Emeralds, like the one called Bloom. Supposedly the best fliers on average. Because of the feathers. Seascale is a Sapphire, like the Seeker. They can swim really well and breathe underwater.

"We might want to set each in a different environment - Flicker in a cave set, Rose in the air, Thorn out in the open, Seascale by the lake, maybe."

Rose and I would fight in midair? That would be pretty cool.

"Is that not typical?"

It happens, but I wouldn't say fights that start, last several minutes, and finish in the air are typical. What will usually happen is one Draak attempts to pin or injure the wings of the other and get them to crash, gaining an advantage for a follow-up fight on the ground.

"Oh, that works. Start in the air then crash, near the macguffin."

Sure. That's a fun word. Macguffin. I guess you'll all want to go over the tricks video I already did and figure out what moves would look best for the intro, and tomorrow morning Meksi and I can both head to the conference to get everyone else to agree to all this and I'll be back in the afternoon, does that sound good?

"Yup, that works on our end."

This is going to be great fun, I am looking forward to it! For now, I will be digging.

He gets dinner from Meksi and digs. His tunnel is a fair bit bigger the next morning, when he flies off for the conference.

The Seeker's egg-shaped black ship is gone. Apparently Flicker is probably going back within a week or two, with the first Amentan visitors to go to the Draak planet. The other three are going to linger around the last ship, Ice Scale, which is staying until further notice, and happy to pick appropriate days.

He's back at the smaller studio an hour after noon.

They have tentative storyboards and have given all his tricks names and have a shooting schedule and are in progress on the sets! Here's a proposed schedule.

Looks good to him. All the other Draak agreed to show up but Seascale made some sarcastic comments so maybe expect slightly less cooperation with storyboarding than the ideal.

"We'll make it work. You up for a makeup test today? They want to see how they can get stuff to stick on your scales and how it'll hold up - might be nothing works, we need to know that early."

Makeup might be kind of uncomfortable, but you do have to try it sometime. Very well. Do you know about my camouflage skill?

The makeup test is mixed but they think they can get a prosthetic wound or fake dirt to stick if necessary, and that if they want to more strongly imply that the salt lamp is magical by having him look different when he picks it up they can have patterns appear on his wings, which are pretty cooperative. They probably won't do that since they have limited time with Rose and don't want to spend it on makeup.

Rose is vain enough she might be temptable into doing a second day if the patterns are neat enough.

Oh, well, they'll finish out the pattern they had in mind on him and take photos to send to her. They have stuff that reacts to black light, look!

Ooh, yes, she'll like this. Should he go exercise some to see how all this holds up to activity?

Yes, that would be great. Especially if there's any tricks that he hasn't shown them yet.

The video Meksi showed them should have most of it except the things he can do while pushing off from or landing on a vertical or hangable surface. Because there weren't any vertical surfaces around that seemed likely to hold up to that treatment. He can land upside down and cling to something, like a bat!

Oooh. And how much does he weigh, maybe they can make the cave set to work with that...

He used a truck scale the other day and it said he weighs just under a ton and a half. If he doesn't eat for a week that can probably go down another couple hundred pounds.

"Couple hundred pounds probably doesn't make a difference here. Might be able to swing it, kick it to set design, don't rely on it till they clear it."

Well I'll do tricks in a new order, the transitions are slightly different, I chain them together.

He goes and exercises. The makeup on the wings cracks and flakes along all the fold-lines after extended movement but everything else sticks alright.