Mine-d Over Matter (Shadow; Flash + Sno private)

Flash had arrived at the mineshaft's entrance, a little over two miles from the edge of Skylight Woods, around ten minutes early. This was partially as his classes had finished for the day and being a robot he had little to do save for arrive early, that and he didn't want to arrive late and risk angering anybody. Particularly Sno.

He stood at the entrance, a comic in hand and undressed saved for his jacket as usual; having his body made such a thing a normality to the point of no one batting an eye. The man next to him, a stout looking miner with a beard, had offered him a head torch and a helmet but the large droid had declined telling him;


A shovel stood, stuck in the ground with a high visibility jacket and a helmet with a torch on it ready for Sno... though Flash did fear the jacket may be a size or two too big...

Regardless the droid was neigh shaking with anticipation, awaiting his friend's arrival, when Mr Mathew Query turned to him;

"Hey... either of you ever been down a mine?"


"I see... is your friend as tall as you are?"


"Just that things are going to be a little cramped down there is all... especially for one of your size... well, bring her through to the elevator when she arrives; I'm going there now to get used to the musk."


The large droid turned a page in his comic, awaiting his friend's arrival.

Matthew's text:

Sno looked at the clock and realized she was going to be late for her meet up with Flash and a miner that they were going to shadow. She was spending too much time trying to find the right outfit to wear in order to prevent another incident like what happened in the library. Sno finally threw together something she was wearing a black turtleneck, some form of what seemed like snow pants, a white skirt, a white coat, and a little headband with a snowflake on it. Sno then hurried to where they were supposed to be meeting up. When she saw her friend and the miner she began to say "I'm sorry I'm late! I didn't mean to keep you both waiting." Sno looked at the miner smiled and said "It's a pleasure to meet you I am Sno Lagu!" Sno then looked up at her friend and said "It's good to see you Flash! How have you been?"

Flash was a little suprised to see what his freind was wearing, having anticipated more blacks and browns so as to prevent her clothes from getting to badly stained. The pink was a rather odd choice for a mine da-adventure... but there was no denying how adorable Sno looked. The droid quickly realized, though it wouldn't have been obvious due to his lack of eyes, that he had been staring and quickly turned his optics elsewhere; pointing toward the elevator.


He extended a hand out to Sno, hoping she would take it, before leading toward the elevator and piling into the rather cramped and rickety device.

"Ah, you're here then Missy. Tis nice to meetcha'; going down."

Flash lent down to his small companion;

Sno took her friends hand as they entered the elevator and began their descent as she read the androids screen she slightly giggled at the two puns he had made and she also responded with her own little pun "Yeah I am ready our objective seems crystal clear." The elevator stopped and the miner said "Here we are welcome to the mine." Sno stepped out of the elevator and said "Then lets get started! Where do we start first?" Sno was looking around the mine was a bit darker than she expected but she could still see perfectly fine it was just a tunnel that was dug out by other miners it seemed to go on forever which just go Sno thinking I wonder how far this tunnel actually leads... Is it like a mole's tunnel and it connects to other tunnels? Oh! Or maybe it leads to a natural cave or ravine like in that one video game with all the blocks! 

Flash froze... no literally, he had a slight systems failure when Sno made her pun. The large droid glitched, unable to deal with this adorable little machine's adorable little joke. He soon however recovered and immediately wrapped her into a tight hug, or at least; as tight a one he could do with her still standing on the ground.


The tall droid quickly released her, a little embarrassed upon seeing the weird look the miner-man was giving him... a kind of knowing grin almost.

"Well, you pair, guess we best be off toward the drills. It's about to get a lot noisier and pretty cramped, just to warn you both in advance."


It seemed to matter little whether his companion took his hand or not because as they got further and further the tunnels grew tighter and tighter. Flash was having to lunge walk at times just so as not to knock out the support beams above him. However, finally, they reached a large circular cavern with a massive drill in it; tunneling straight down. From here alone Flash could see many ores and dust crystals lighting up what must be a rather dark location.

Sno read her friend's screen while being hugged and said "Oh I don't think I am that good at making puns, you are much better at them than I am" While she was saying this Sno couldn't help but think Was me making a pun really that adorable? How was that adorable? I know the definition and how the word can apply to things but.. Oh I am probably just over thinking it. Sno then began to make her way towards the drills and she could tell just by looking at her friend that the cave was getting smaller. She stopped for a second and looked up at her friend while saying "Flash?... Maybe this shadow mission wasn't the best one to pick for you... I mean you are rather tall are you going to be okay maneuvering through the tunnels? We wouldn't want your paint to get scratched on the jagged rocks now would we?... Just try to be careful okay?" When they reached the area where the drill was Sno was many ores and crystals and she just stood in awe of it all as she said "Look at all this Flash isn't it pretty?"

The tall droid felt the need to stretch in the open drill cave despite the fact that he had no muscles to cramp nor bones to click. Just felt natural... even for one as unnatural as he was.

The miner with them reached up to the wall next to them and hit a button, both stopping the drill and letting the loud noise vanish from the room; "This here's the drill. Tip of it's covered in diamonds, only way to make it strong enough to dig this deep. Were it just iron or steel it would have long been chipped and corroded away."

Flash stood awkwardly at the rim, watching as the mass of metal and diamond was extracted only to reveal ores of all sorts and crystals of many types of dust beneath it. Having heard Sno's last line of dialogue an incredibly cheesy line had popped into his head... so cheesy and awkward in fact that even Flash Driver could not bring himself to say it and was left awkwardly poking his two forefingers together with "0///0" on his face. Head just angled toward Sno so she could see him standing like a doofus. Sensors picking up her movements in the sheen of the diamonds. It didn't help that he recalled, back in the library, the thought of this as a date.


"Well, time for you two to actually get to work. Both of you get down in there, don't worry plenty hunters in training have been in before; they were humans and yet they got out fine... should be easy for droids, and pick up as much dust as you can for us to carry out of here. Unfortunately I can't let either of you keep the dust but... I suppose I could allow for a single gift of another kind of ore or stone each."

Flash was struck from his daze by the man's words; "0.0 R-Really? Oh wow, thank you mister! Alright Sno, let's rock (>///>) and roll. It's not Stone-a take us long to finish this task if we really try ^^"

Sno read the screen of her friend and was rendered speechless by his compliment, eventually she was able to speak "T-thank you... My creator designed me very well." Sno felt something but she couldn't really put a name to it at all so she thought nothing of it It was probably just a minor malfunction in my emotions I am sure its nothing to worry about. Sno heard the job that they were given and then looked at her friend and giggled at the puns that he had on his screen. But then she thought of something and said as she looked at her hands "Hmmmm I don't think I will be able to carry as much dust as you can Flash... But I propose a contest! Who ever gets collects the most dust wins and gets to do whatever they want to the other one!... I don't plan to loose this one! Prepare yourself Flash Driver! If I win then I will make you look so silly!" Sno then began the task they were given and began collecting all the dust that she could carry and putting them in a pile so she could count it later.

Flash got flustered further still when he realized what he had tried not to say had leaked through, covering his screen with his big hands out of embarrassment; hearing what Sno offered through it he paused.

Gets to do whatever they want to the other one... he thought to himself, o///o what could that mean? >///< Guess it's lucky I'm a nice person. I can't really think of anything silly or nasty to do o.o ...But what would I ask her to do anyway...

The droid jumped in shock, his thoughts having distracted him long enough for Sno to make a good start ahead of him but ultimately he knew; due to his shear size, he'd be able to carry more... should he was another question. As he began to lift large and heavy pieces of dust he was met with an inner conflict. That of the child who wanted to win this harmless game and that of a gentleman not wanting to upset a lady. It took a moment but ultimately he decided not to let the competition get the better of him and just do it as a job for his friend, the miner. The competition didn't matter too much to him anyway... he hoped Sno would be merciful should she win. While reaching for one crystal the large droid accidentally put his hand atop the smaller one's;


He tried to distract himself with the task, making his own pile on the other side of the cave from Sno.

Sno was collecting crystals as fast as she could but it didn't seem to be doing much since she was up against someone a lot bigger than she. But Sno didn't give up instead she said "Don't you think you are going to win just because you are bigger!" Sno went to grab another crystal and so did her opponent however it seemed like they were going for the same crystal. Sno giggled as she said to her robot friend "You better not be trying to pull any tricks! If I find out you were cheating then I say I will automatically win!" Sno then began giggle as she thought Now lets see.. Oh! I am going to force him to look more like a girl! Probably add some pink polka dots to his outer paint! and force him to have his text color some shade of pink! 

Flash had quickly realised that, on average, he could scoop around five crystals up with a single hand... He had quickly realized the rather large advantage this had given him. Able to scoop up such a large volume of dust, at least twice what Sno seemed to be able to with ease.

The tall droid was forced to pause when she laughed... Was his larger hand span considered a cheat? He hoped not. Wasn't very much he could do about it... He supposed the extra time she's got at the start made up for it a bit.

The large droid reached down, trying to pull out what he though was an average little dust crystal... Only to pull a hulking mass of shinny red dust out the ground, the size of his head and around as heavy.


"Nah, but that's time up lad and lass... Hope you can carry all that out of here" The miner man seemed frankly flabbergasted at the amount the droids bad collected.

Sno heard that it was time to go and then she realized something. Sure it was easy for her to carry the crystals individually but how was she going to get them back to the lift. She was staring at the pile she had for awhile not sure on what she should do and also trying to calculate how heavy the pile actually was. She didn't want to ask for help since they were still in the middle of a competition so Sno was trying to come up with her own ideas Lets see I could try to make multiple trips... But that might take too long... Hmmm Maybe this contest was a bad idea... No! Don't loose hope just come up with a solution think of a way around it but most of all don't show that you might lose this! YOU WON'T LOSE THIS YOU CAN'T LOSE THIS!!! You were the one that came up with this idea so you can't lose this!

Flash easily lifted near half of his collected crystals in his strong metal arms, stacked well above his screen to the point of obscuring it. He quickly rushed around the mine, all the way to the lift as quickly as he could and set down his pile; the miner going up with the pile before returning with a once again empty lift. Upon his return to the cavern Flash saw Sno struggling to find a method of carrying them, it was rather clear that she wouldn't be able to take her whole collection in one go... but she had made this a competition... she wouldn't want his help.

He got an idea, he simply wandered over to her pile and said;


And like that the droid reached down, scooping up the vast majority of his friend's dust and beginning to wander toward the elevator; this way Sno's pride would remain in tact and she wouldn't have felt like cheating! He was rather glad to have helped his friend out in such a simple yet effective way.

Before Sno could tell him that he was wrong and that it was her pile Flash was already headed towards the lift. Sno picked up any crystals that he left behind and walked towards the lift herself thinking Am I actually going to lose? I mean sure I am smaller and it was obvious that I couldn't carry as much as Flash but still.. Wait what did I expect? This isn't some movie cliché where the underdog comes out on top this was a real competition with a winner and a loser. Sno sighed and spoke to her friend "I guess this means you win so what do you want me to do?" Sno knew that Flash wouldn't make her do something outrageous because he wasn't that kind of guy but still knowing that she lost made her feel just as bad as she could feel if she had to do something ridiculous.

The large droid had no idea quite what he wanted his companion to do as they stood in the lift together, awaiting the fleshy one above them pressing the button to call them up. He had hoped it wouldn't go like this, despite being a robot there was some clear emotional leakage, her sigh was evidence of that... she wasn't happy.


The large bot felt the lift shift beneath him, vast quantities of dust at the duo's feet. While it hadn't exactly been a date like he'd initially thought he'd enjoyed his time with Sno immensely today; shooting her a thumbs up.

Sno smiled as she read her friend's screen. Then she heard the miner's voice "Alright going up!" Then he pressed a button and the lift began to rise back to the surface. Sno then said to her friend "Yeah I guess that would look silly now wouldn't it? I know I wasn't built to do things like this but that shouldn't stop me right? I mean I was really built to help people so I should try to help them however I can right? Why limit myself to just singing for them?" The lift finally reached the surface and Sno stepped out while carrying the crystals although she nearly tripped but regain her footing while saying "I'm okay!" Sno then looked at her friend thinking I wonder why Flash was built that way? Was he used for manual labor?.. What of he was a military robot?.. Nah the military robots are probably a lot bigger... I bet they are massive!

The larger droid helped his friend, scooping up the little dust that had fallen as she stumbled and placing it in her arms.


"Alright you two, ta for the help. You can head on back now!" Mathew the miner shouted aloud to the pair, hungrily eyeing up dust crystals as they walked passed the pile for Sno to set hers down.

The large machine extended a hand to his friend before wandering back to the School.

[Exit]

Sno smiled as she said to her friend "Yeah I guess you got a point." Sno heard that they were allowed to head back and then she read her friends screen and said "Yeah We can walk back to the school together! It sounds like fun!.. Ya know something we need to hang out more often!" Sno took her friends hand and happily skipped along the way back to the school. Along the way there Sno began humming it wasn't any specific song just random humming she couldn't think of a song to sing at the moment but she was happy that she had a friend like Flash. Flash is always so nice and really knows exactly what to say in order to make his friends feel better.. There is no way that he could of been a military robot he just doesn't have the heart for it! But still I wonder who made him and what was his life like before the academy? Sno was pondering this all the way back to the academy.


-Exit-