Chapter Text
Life was quite slow on erid. And kinda boring too. All Grace did was wake up, eat, teach, rest repeat. With the occasional exception of rocky coming to visit every now and then.
It had gotten him into a routine. It was quite nice. But Ryland still yearned for small change. One thing he did notice was that Adrian started to visit him more than rocky. Which was strange, but he thought that Rocky was just busy with life.
Today was no different. Grace woke up with a small migraine. Nothing that a bit of "almost-coffee" couldn't help. Its called almost coffee because eridian scientists couldnt mimic the exact taste of coffee. But it was close enough that Grace could trick himself to believe it was coffee.
Grace walked into the kitchen. Pajamas still on and hair a complete mess. Armando whirred to life, and immediately got to work making graces coffee.
He flopped onto the couch. His migraine getting worse. He was quite tired today. Thank god today was considered a weekend. Armando made its way over to grace, and placed his coffee mug on the table in front of the couch. "Thanks Armando" he lazily fist bumps it before sitting up and taking a sip from his coffee.
He felt the warm liquid go down his throat. And felt all the pent up stress disappear. It felt nice.
Adrian was coming over to visit him today. Which was nice, but he missed rocky. Today he would ask them what was going on.
After an hour of two of lazing on the couch. Grace gets up and places the mug and plate in the sink, and heads back into his room. He changes out of his pajamas and comes out wearing the "i had potential" shirt, and comfortable white jeans.
grace gave Armando one last fist bump before walking out of his house. He stepped outside, taking a deep breath in. The air was artifical, and not as fresh as earths air, but it makes due.
Grace walked along the shore line, walking just far enough away for the water to not reach him. If you listened really closely, you could hear the soft whirr of the wave simulator whirling around underneath the water.
Once grace had reached the small cave he teaches in. He immediately got to work. Grading assignments, coming up with new assignments, and working on a science probect that he was gonna make his students do.
he worked for about 30 minutes before hearing the soft hiss of the airlock just next to the cave. His eyes darted up, and squinted his eyes to see who it was. It was Adrian of course.
"human stupid. Grace still work even on rest day"
Grace let out a chuckle. "Yeah well, thats the life of a teacher, you gotta keep up with the students or else you'll find yourself getting behind"
adrian was about as tall as grace, if not a few inches shorter. It was quite weird seeing a tall eridian. But then again, the only eridians that hes actually seen are Rocky, Adrian, the pebbles, and his doctor that he named tiger, because they look like a tiger eye stone.
"Is still stupid, how has grace been, question?"
grace walked away from his makeshift laptop and walked over to the beach, waving a hand over to adrian to join him on a stroll. "Ive been pretty good actually. Nothig too crazy has happened yet. I feel fine. But ive still been getting those migraines, i feel like its just become a chronic thing... Or at least those migraines last till i drink some coffee. Which still isnt good"
Adrian nodded their head. Or more like nodded their whole body. "I hear, i hear, adrian will look in on that. Find cure for graces migraines" grace nodded his head.
"hey, ive been meaning to ask you. But where is Rocky? I havent seen him in a while. I mean. Its not thay i dont enjoy your company, haha! But I wanna see rocky"
Adrian let out a sad hum. Almost like they were sighing. "Rocky very busy. Working on very big project. Cant share much. Secret, secret, secret"
grace nodded his head and sighed. "I see... Well tell him that i miss him, and that he needs to come see me at some point"
by this point in the conversation, they had already walked back to graces house. They both walked inside and Armando eagerly greeted them.
Grace sat on the couch, while adrian had moved the table out of the way and sat directly in front of grace. They were more in a loafing position, it was kinda cute. "Sooo... What can you tell me about this project?"
"very big project. Even bigger than project we worked on for grace, keeps rocky very busy, and tired."
grace runs a hand through his hair and blows a puff of air. "Oh jeez, this sounds like a realy stressful project." Adrian lets out chirps of approval.
suddenly adrians xenonite suit let out a beep, and they immediately perked up. "Is rocky! Must go. Talk later. Bye grace" grace blinked in surprise. "Leaving already? You just got here?" Adrian let out a sad trill and turned away from him. "Rocky need adrian. Sorry grace will update soon" they rushed out of the living room.
It all happened so fast, grace was still processing what happened not even two seconds ago. After a bit he just shrugged it off.
he was a little upset mostly because he couldnt get more info about the project rocky was working on. But that was alright, he could get more info later.
Grace slowly closed his eyes. And eventually dozed off for a few hours
His eyes fluttered open. His body felt extremely heavy, and it was hard to move his limbs. Unwanted naps during the day were the worst. He laid there for a few minutes, before gathering the energy to actually get up.
he looked over at the livingroom clock to see what time it was.
it was about 6:30 in the evening. The artifical sun had dimmed into a soft orange outside. This was always graces favorite part of the day.
He stepped outside once again and looked up at the sky. The fog had unfortunately cleared up. But it gave grace the chance to look at the sunset, even if it was fake.
He sat at the steps in front of his door. Watching the sun. He missed earth. He missed the city, the countryside, the wilderness. He wished he could explore erid, see if it was any different from earth. Or if it was completely made out of rock and dirt and whatever gem you can think of.
he wished he also had echolocation, then he'd actually be able to see what the planet had to offer.
he stood back up and walked back inside. He was quite bored. Not a whole lot had happened today.
Armando handed him a pouch. It was probably dinner. He slept through lunch on accident and was quite hungry. He took a sip from the pouch, chicken soup. Not too bad! Wow a whole lot of nothing was happening wasnt it.
He heard a eager little knock on his door, and he flinched. He wasnt expecting anyone else today, who could it have been? Maybe it was rocky. "Savior grace, please answer door" ah only one little rock called him savior grace. He walked over to the door and opened it. "Hey tiger" tiger did its weekly checkups around this time. "Hello savior grace. Have come to do weekly checkup" grace nodded his head, stepping to the side to let tiger in. "Yep, i remember"
he sat down on the couch, and tiger stood next to him. It had brought a small kit of tools. Mostly to keep note of his condition. Tiger grabbed graces wrist and listened closely to his heartbeat. While at it, it also looked at grace's organs
"Heart stable, condition fine. Savior grace healthy!"
grace let out a small chuckle. "Yeah, but im still getting those migraines, and theyre starting to really bother me. Do you think theres anything you could do about that?"
tiger let out a small warble. Pondering for a second. "Not know what we can do. Can try to make medicine. Might not work. Lean down" grace let out a disappointed huff as he leaned down. Tiger placed a manipulator on his head, looking in and seeing what was going on behind that thick skull.
"wil try to come up with medicine" grace nodded his head. Right as tiger was about to walk away, he called out. "Wait!" Tiger stopped in its tracks. "Whats wrong savior grace?"
"have you heard anything from rocky?... I havent seen him in several days" tiger let out a surprised trill. "Savior grace not know? Rocky working on another biodome! Been taking care of other human in biodome!"
Grace blinked. And then blinked again. And then thought that he heard tiger wrong. "You did say. "Another biodome" correct?"
"Yes"
"so that means theres another human, correct?"
"Yes, is savior grace doubting me, question?"
he raised his hands up in defense. "Nono! Im just making sure i heard you correctly, because no one told me about another human"
tiger let out a chitter, it seemed pretty uncomfortable. "Hearing going bad, question?" Grace shook his head "no... Just.... Surprised thats all"
it had been 2 days since the news had been dropped on grace. And it still pledged his mind. "Another human... I wonder what theyre like. Or where they came from... Maybe they also came from earth?"
it was a weekday, so grace was getting ready for class. He would have to ask adrian about this other human later.
when grace stepped out of his house, the moment he stepped foot on the sand. Something felt very off. But he couldnt place his finger on it. He looked around. Nothing changed in the dome. He smelled the air. The o2 was perfectly fine, and it wasnt humid either. Grace shrugged it off. Thinking it was just stress.
when he arrived at the little cave, no one had shown up yet. That was fine. It was still pretty early. So, he waited. And waited. And waited. Till an hour had passed since class had started. That's weird. Maybe he read the calendar wrong and its still the weekend. Wouldnt be the first time hes done it. When he checked the date on his laptop, it read that it was Monday. A weekday. That's strange.
Grace let out a sigh, his migraine starting to come back. He hopes that tiger will be able to find a cure for these migraines.
He sat around kind of bored. No one had come to check on him yet. Adrian wouldn't be here till much later. He sat on the shoreline, staring out into the fog. His eye lids suddenly felt heavy. A nap sounds pretty good...
"hi grace"
grace nearly jumps 5 feet into the air. He quickly turns his head to see who it was. It was rocky! In a thinner xenonite suit! "Rocky! Buddy!" Grace immediately crawls over to rocky and hugs him. "Hi grace. Sorry for not visiting sooner. Very busy" rocky very awkwardly hugs grace back, but grace doesn't seem to care how awkward it is. He's just happy to see his best friend.
"i know! Adrian told me how busy you were. They told me you were working on a project." Rocky let out a small chirp. "And tiger told me you found another human, why didn't you tell me?!"
rocky nervously fidgeted with his manipulators. Shifting back and forth, side to side on his legs. "Not tell grace because not sure how grace would react. Other human is a very scared human. Been able to tame, but not by much"
grace nods his head, listening closely. "So... Who are they? Male, female, nonbinary? Where did you find them?"
Rocky circles a small spot on the sand before loafing in front of grace. "Male, very much male. Found in the ocean of strange moon. Was extremely injured. But tiger fixed. Was missing an arm, but rocky made him one. Took a while to get measurements"
Grace tapped a finger on his chin. "Strange moon, eh? Was it just him? There wasn't any other life form or human life?"
"Found other lifeform but not human. The entire ocean on moon made entirely of human blood. Very disgust"
grace cocked his head to the side. "Human blood? That's disturbing... Well, where's the human now?"
"Human in other biodome. Took while to get him there. Very skittish."
grace nods his head, his brows furrowing in thought. "I see... Will i get to meet him?" He asks. He can't help but feel that small spark of excitement of meeting another human. Jeez. Years of being the only human outside of your solar system can really do something to you.
Rocky hesitates before answering grace, which makes him feel a little uneasy. "Yes! But... Not sure how other human would react. told him another human is here but does not know much about you."
Grace breathes a sigh of relief. But he didn't feel completely relieved. "Oh... Okay then. So, I'm guessing that you're working on connecting our domes?"
"Yes, yes! working on connecting domes today! will meet human tomorrow!"
graces eyes widened and he let out a soft chuckle. "tomorrow? that quick? I cant say that im not a little excited..."
That was a lie, he was very excited.