Chapter Text
The sun's rays warmed the inside of Grace's house, the curtains filtering some of the gently, comforting light. Grace lay sprawled out on his bed, blanket halfway on the floor, glasses still clutched in his hand, shoes messily left behind at the foot of his bed.
Memories of the Blip A replayed themselves in Grace's dreams. The things Rocky showed him.
The light catching in the glass chimes, bumping together to make tender music. Is this where the other Eridians on Rocky's crew heard before their death?
Light refracted throughout the ship, beautiful shimmering all around him. Eridians don't see like humans do. They couldn’t have seen the beauty they created.
Faint scuff marks on the floors. Is this where they once walked? Is this where they dreamt of going home again, saving their planet and being cherished as a hero? Seeing their families and kids again? Here, in the place they never knew would kill them?
The quiet “click-click” of Grace's clock mixed with Rocky's tapping on his door created a weird rhythm. Like the rain.
Grace’s dream changed. The opalescent shimmers brighted until they became the cold LED panels of a laboratory. Rain outside clicks against strong windows.
Grace lay in Rocky’s ball, warm but hard xenonite made his muscles ache as his spine and hips were pressed uncomfortably in the small ball, lying face-up. Had their roles switched?
Rocky was standing on the ball, above Grace, knocking loudly. Was he trying to get in?
But Grace could only watch as Rocky banged harder and harder. Grace could only wonder why he was paralyzed like this as the noises became louder. Click-click tap, click-click tap.
The scent of wolfsbane filled the air around Grace, slightly sweet and Earthy.
Click-click tap, click-click tap.
“What did they symbolize, again?” Grace thought to himself.
Click-click tap, click-click BANG.
Grace was startled awake by Rocky’s aggressive banging on his front door. So that’s what that was!
Grace sprung up out of bed, putting his glasses on his face and swiftly getting his shoes on. “Jesus, Rock! Give me a second!”
The banging stopped for a few seconds, and then returned, rougher and more aggressive this time. “♪Rocky already gave Grace many minutes! Come now! Wake wake wake!♪”
Grace grabbed his coat and opened the door, only to have the house invaded by Rocky, who decided to run behind Grace and push him out the door. “♪Come come come! Grace is slow! Hurry!♪”
Grace stumbled out the door, having no time to walk properly from the very aggressive Eridian pushing him currently. His glasses slipped down his face momentarily, though he caught them in time and put them in his pocket. “Where we going, Rocky?” Grace tried his best to sound casual, but his heart rate was increasing every second that had passed.
Rocky continued his pushing with no soon intent of stopping. “♪Grace ask too many questions! Humans ask too many questions! Run with me!♪” And with that, Rocky stopped pushing and started running beside Grace, which Grace followed easily at a jogging pace.
Grace needed his cardio anyway.
✦ . ⁺ . ✦ . ⁺ . ✦
“♪Three is a sacred number.♪” sang Rocky as he worked in the Eridian lab he dragged Grace into, holding what seems to be a dirt sample. “♪The three fates, The Holy Trinity, three leaf clovers, birth/life/death…♪”
Grace shifted his weight on his feet while standing awkwardly in the corner. “Hey man, I know I gave you a laptop, but I don’t know what you’re trying to say right now.”
Rocky pushed the sample into a machine on the table he was standing near. “♪Twenty-two divided by three makes 7.3 infinite three. Twenty-three does not. Why Grace-Rocky only 2, question? Where is the third on the Hail Mary, question?♪”
Grace chuckled slightly despite the odd situation that was unraveling in front of him. “I don’t understand, Rocky. There is no third. Unless you count Armando.”
Rocky tinkered with the machine he was handling. Something got jammed and Rocky was trying to wiggle the sample out. “♪Armando doesn't count! We need three!♪”
Grace decided to lean against a nearby wall to ensure he doesn't get tired of standing. “Well, isn't 5 a bigger number to you? You've got 5 legs, 5 hearts, your biology consists of 5.”
Rocky didn't speak clearly in response, but instead made quiet irritated Eridian noises as he continued to try to get the dirt sample unstuck from the machine. The noise Rocky was making sounded like something that was between a fast violin and the sound a wet finger makes while being rubbed against the rim of a glass cup.
Grace pushed himself off the wall and walked to Rocky's position, crouching to see the machine he was working on better. “Do you need help with that?”
Rocky shoved Grace away with 1 hand while still jiggling the dirt sample out the machine. “♪Bad bad bad! Don’t touch!♪”
2 Eridian scientists walked in at that moment. Rising-Note, an Eridian with a purple-ish blue carapace with white lines that resembled thunder, who wore black fabric on her limbs that covered the majority of their legs (?) except for the fingers on the 2 front legs she used, the cool “gloves” Grace made for Rising-Note after finding out Rising-Note liked being extra warm.
Following close behind Rising-Note was Falling-Note, an Eridian with a grey-ish teal and brown shell, somewhat vibrant thin blue lines that reminded Grace of usual human depictions of the wind scattered along Falling-Note’s body. He wore a NASA shirt Grace made for him, since his sister couldn’t be the only fashionable Eridian here.
“The Storm-Chasers are here,” said Grace, attempting to sound as casual as he could despite recovering from getting pushed around by a literal rock, “What brings you guys here?”
Rising-Note scurried over to Rocky, grabbing his arms to drag him with her. “♪We need Rocky for science! Falling-Note stays here to watch over human-Grace.♪”
Rocky let go of the stuck dirt sample and walked away with Rising-Note. Falling-Note somewhat calmly walked over to Grace, making some type of clicking noise, like that of a keyboard. “♪Falling-Note never does big science. Falling-Note stuck here with leaky blob.♪”
Grace pat the top of Falling-Note’s carapace and then leaned back against the wall again, smiling softly at how similar Falling-Note sounded to Grace’s old students when they did something they didn’t like much. “What big science you want to do, buddy?”
Falling-Note tapped his legs against the ground in what seemed to be annoyance. “♪Rocky said is secret science! Falling-Note doesn’t know either!♪”
Grace took a quick glance at the sample stuck in the machine, before turning his head back to Falling-Note. “I think I've got a job for you. Get the sample out of there without breaking Rocky's machine.”
Falling-Note clicked his claws together in annoyance, very clearly not enjoying the job of being the clean-up crew for Rocky's mess. “Fine! Whatever, leaky blob!”
Falling-Note walked over to the stubborn machine, positioning one of his claws below the machine and the other on the sample so he’d be able to stand comfortably on 3 legs.
It reminded Grace so, so much of when a student was assigned to clean up the science supplies in the classroom. That stance that screamed they wanted to be anywhere else, but still getting the job done.
So, so much like his students.
“Y’know,” Grace crossed his arms, “Some of my students told me they used to sneak out to go to afterschool clubs when their parents said no.”
Ah shoot.
Bad influences.
Falling-Note’s carapace tilted upward in interest, and he momentarily let go of the dirt sample that still somehow didn’t come out yet. “Good good good idea!! I know a place!”
‧₊˚♪ ♫₊˚♫ִֶָ. ..𓂃 ࣪ ִֶָ♫⋆｡♪₊˚♬.་༘࿐
Sneaking around the "Grace-approved" sectors of the lab was easy, there were many lights on the path that Rocky had forced the Eridian scientists to add so he could see. The problem was sneaking out into Eridian-only places where it was pitch-black.
Grace had luckily brought a flashlight with him, thanks to the gut feeling he had back at the biodome that he'd need it, but there were still many problems throughout this journey. Like, for example, how Falling-Note kept telling Grace to stop making so much noise before realizing the majority of it was Grace's internal bodily functions, which Falling-Note had greeted the fact with absolute disgust. Atleast Grace got to learn about Eridian swear words, maybe he'll use it when Rocky is being especially bossy ! (He won't, but still.)
Well, with noise complaints out the conversation, Falling-Note was the one to suggest to take less popular routes to get out the lab, which Grace agreed to, because if he's going to be stupid, it'll be in his best interest to not get caught by some high-ranking scientist who couldn't give 2 flying ♪♫♪♪ about fun.
After a long trek through tight tunnels and very steep slopes (do these guys have no concept of stairs?!?!?), Grace and Falling-Note finally got out the building. (Could it even be called that?) Now came an even bigger hurdle; Eridian society. It's not everyday that the leaky alien blob leaves the lab with nobody but some random Eridian who clearly had a temper and seemed relatively unimportant in the science league.
Immediately after standing up and flicking the beam of light from his flashlight around the almost cave-like structure, Grace was approached by an insane amount of Eridians bombarding with questions so fast he couldn't decipher anything that was being said to him. Something probably along the lines of "What are you doing out here?" or "Why is savior Grace not with Rocky?" or "Where's the medical team that's supposed to be with them?" Of course, these are just assumptions Grace made, because he can't understand Eridian language well when there's 50 people screaming at him for answers, but they're all valid assumptions because it's what he would've assumed if he were one of them.
Grace was swiftly pulled away from the chaos by Falling-Note, being dragged into a labyrinthine tunnel system that Grace had yet to decipher. Maybe he'd ask Rocky about it later if he was caught.
Falling-Note made this mix of a chittering noise and purr of excitement when they weren't being followed anymore, bobbing his carapace up and down while scuttling along the top of the tunnel. "We're almost there! Grace and Falling-Note will have much fun fun fun!"
Grace tilted his head and put his hands in his pockets, taking on an amused look. "Can I know where we're going, Mr. Director Falling-Note?"
Falling-Note took no notice to the nickname Grace gave him, and instead pointed a claw dramatically to the direction they were walking in. "Cool hangout spot away from big crowds! Fun fun fun!"
"God," Grace thought to himself, "I'm getting dragged to the Eridian equivalent of some back alleyway or some shack where those sketchy highschool hangout parties are hosted."
Grace shook his head, pushing those thoughts away. Surely the Eridian the science team trusted to watch over Grace alone didn't make the bad decisions party-goer teens did. Gods-willing.
Meanwhile, Falling-Note seemed to be having the time of his life, it seemed nothing could break his stride because he was happily swaying side to side in this half walk, half dance motion.
This is why Grace was pretty surprised when Falling-Note stopped his motion all together. Grace also stopped in his tracks, his muscles stiffening in an uncertain feeling that he had accidentally done something seriously wrong by Eridian standards. Grace sucked in a breath preparing to ask if something had happened, but Falling-Note raised an open claw to signal Grace to be quiet before he could say anything.
Grace swept the light from his flashlight down both sides of the tunnel, but there was nothing other than the little handles at the tops of the tunnels Eridians could use if they wanted to enter spider mode, as Grace has dubbed it.