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“Daiju, what the actual fuck is that?” Agnes Tachyon found very few things truly incomprehensible. But a giant glass pyramid in the middle of a Midwestern American city was one of them. Like the one in front of her now.
“Why, it’s the Memphis Brass Pro Shop Pyramid!” Her trainer/romantic partner exclaimed.
Two weeks ago, Tachyon received a collection of dirt samples from different race courses across the globe. After processing these samples, the American one was discovered to have been damaged in transit, and therefor unusable for her current experiment. After much cajoling, she managed to convince her trainer to submit an “athletic field trip request” to America so she could personally get fresh samples from the racecourses there. Although, ever since she told him Tennessee was an acceptable location, he did seem somewhat excited for the trip himself.
Tachyon just looked at him. “…why?” She wasn’t even sure which question she was specifically asking: Why are we here? Why is this pyramid here? Why is it dedicated to a fishing store?
Daiju smiled maliciously. “You see, my dear Tachyon, this is our hotel for our stay.”
Tachyon blinked. “I refuse to believe Director Akikawa approved however much it cost for you to have us stay in a novelty storefront for three days.”
“The thing is, she was actually pretty on board for it from the jump.” Daiju paused. “Tazuna, on the other hand, she was very resistant. At least until I told her my reasoning.”
“What could you possibly have told her that convinced her that…this,” she gestured to the pyramid, “was worth half, no, even worth 10% of the cost?”
“You see darling,” her trainer put an arm around her shoulder, guiding her towards the monument. “We were all a little worried that if we let you get away with begging for one research trip, you might start doing it all the time. But then, I had an idea: Let’s make sure that the next time you want to take a field trip, you’re willing to deal with the consequences.”
Tachyon evidently had been fully tricked. By demanding to go to Agricenter ShowPlace Arena as soon as they had landed, there was nothing keeping Daiju from enforcing his tour of this ridiculous construct upon her.
“The Bass Pro Shop Pyramid is one of the ten largest pyramids in the world. It was constructed in 1991, but was only acquired by Bass Pro Shops in 2015.” Daiju had already handed their luggage over to the hotel staff, so she couldn’t even escape to whatever godawful room she would be forced to stay in for the next week. “Originally a sports stadium and concert hall, the Pyramid has been host to…”
“…600,000 gallons of water are used to create this artificial, indoor Cyprus swamp you can see below us.” 3 hours. He’s been talking about this stupid, overblown megamall for 3. Hours. Tachyon wondered if this is what it was like for other people when she was deep in her research.
“…you’re taking the couch.”
Daiju sighed. “Yeah, I figured. I suppose I was being a little mean with all this.”
Tachyon sat up. “I’m going to have a shower, go to sleep, and tomorrow, we’re going to go to Tunica Arena.”
“Aye aye!”
It was late at night. Despite the jet lag, and the lights actually going down to an appreciable level in the Pyramid, Tachyon couldn’t sleep. She crawled out of bed, and slipped into the fold out couch Daiju was sleeping in.