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Grace was this close to smacking the darn flashlight against the floor.
Something about it was out of place, but he didn't know what, and no, new batteries weren't making it work. He'd taken it apart to look at all the internal wiring, but that hadn't really helped, so he'd resorted to just putting it back together and smacking it against his palm, flipping the switch back and forth.
Rocky was very amused by the entire thing.
⟨⟨Does hitting light stick fix, question?⟩⟩ he asked, and Grace could hear his little chirps of laughter.
“Sometimes,” he grunted angrily, “Sometimes it's just cause something is misaligned and hitting it fixes that,” screw it. He smacked it on the floor. Not hard enough to break it, but hard enough that it gave a sharp smack, which he saw made Rocky jump out of the corner of his eye. Whoops.
He flipped the switch a few more times and sighed, tilting the flashlight towards himself. Guess he was down one, which was unfortunate because he only had a few of them, and the tunnel between the Hail Mary and the Blip A was dark.
Stupidly, with the flashlight still pointed directly at his face, he flipped the switch again, just for the heck of it.
“GAH! Sssss,” he hissed, jerking the now perfectly working flashlight away from himself and slamming his eyes shut, reaching up with his free hand to rub his eyes, knocking his glasses askew to hang from one ear.
Grace heard frantic tapping to his right and turned, blinking harshly in an attempt to dispel the spots in his vision, and saw Rocky at the barrier, tapping one of his claws against it, likely to get Grace’s attention.
⟨⟨Why Grace make pain sound, question?⟩⟩ he asked, and he actually seemed genuinely concerned.
“Oh, uh,” he said, blinking a few more times. The spots were still there, but not as blinding. Man that flashlight was bright, “The flashlight turned on and hurt my eyes.”
⟨⟨Light hurt Grace, question??⟩⟩ Rocky sounded alarmed now, his tone higher, making Grace wince slightly as the pitch made his ears twinge.
“Well, kind of,” he started slowly. How to explain light to a being who had zero perception of it? “It was too bright and my eyes didn't like it.”
⟨⟨New word⟩⟩ Rocky said, shifting back and forth slightly.
“Bright? It's like really really strong light. So like, hmmmm,” he paused, putting a hand to his mouth as he tried to figure out a good way to get Rocky to understand what he was talking about, “Ok, so you ‘see’ with sound right?”
⟨⟨Yes⟩⟩
“Ok, do you ever hear a sound that's too loud and it hurts and makes it hard to ‘see’ for a bit?”
⟨⟨Oh, yes. Loud loud loud sound short time stop from sensing surroundings⟩⟩
Grace nodded, before wondering if he'd taught Rocky what that meant yet and instead said, “Yeah, ok, so when bright light enters my eyes, it's similar. It blinds, that means unable to see light, us temporarily if it's bright enough and it . . . well it hurts, but it's usually not serious. Depends on how bright the light is.”
⟨⟨Oh, ok⟩⟩ Rocky seemed satisfied with that answer. ⟨⟨Grace fix light stick, question?⟩⟩
Grace looked back at the flashlight still held in his left hand and saw it was still successfully throwing light. He flicked the switch a few more times, and it turned on and off, no flickers, no problems.
“Yep,” he said, popping the ‘p’ a little bit before turning to grin at Rocky, “And you said hitting it wouldn't work.”
⟨⟨Did not⟩⟩ Rocky straightened a little, giving off the vibe that he was offended by that ⟨⟨Only ask if it work. Human memory bad bad bad⟩⟩
“Your laughter implied that you thought it was stupid,” Grace shot back, pointing at him and accidentally bumping his finger against the xenonite barrier because he misjudged the distance.
⟨⟨What laughter, question?⟩⟩
Ok Rocky was definitely messing with him now. Grace rolled his eyes, deciding not to tell Rocky what that meant for now, before turning to put the flashlight back in the test tube rack he'd repurposed into a mega flashlight.
“Nevermind,” he grumbled, and he swore he heard a few muffled squeaks coming from the other side of the barrier. That little crap.
⟨⟨What seeing light like, question?⟩⟩ Rocky asked suddenly, and Grace froze, staring down at the mega flashlight. How was he supposed to answer that? When he was silent for a bit too long, mind reeling trying to figure out how to describe a completely alien sense to said alien, Rocky said ⟨⟨Apology. Did not mean to offend⟩⟩
“Oh! No no no no no,” Grace spun around, holding his hands up, making Rocky jump back half a step, “No you didn't offend I'm sorry! I'm just . . . trying to figure out how I would even explain it. You don't exactly have a frame of reference for it.”
Rocky hummed softly, twiddling his claws a little like he sometimes did. Grace wondered if it was some sort of nervous tick.
⟨⟨Try anyway⟩⟩ Rocky said after a bit ⟨⟨Rocky want to hear what Grace experience⟩⟩
Grace took a deep breath, feeling weirdly emotional by that, before he paused to think again.
“Well . . . I guess it could be similar to how you see, in a way,” he started slowly, “My eyes take in light that reflects off surfaces, just like sound with echolocation, it's just . . . more precise I guess. Faster too, but visible light can't go through walls like sound can, so I can only see things in my line of sight,” Grace held his arms out, hands flat and perpendicular to the current floor before spreading his arms out in either direction until they were only visible in his peripherals, “So about that. I can only see in this little cone between my arms. But I can move my eyes and my head to move my line of sight around. Can't see anything behind me or through objects, unless the objects are clear, which means that light can go through them. Like this barrier.”
⟨⟨So that why Grace always turn specific side to Rocky⟩⟩ Rocky said, bouncing a little like he was excited that he figured something out ⟨⟨Grace ♪♬♬♫!⟩⟩
Grace dropped his arms and turned back to Rocky.
“What was that last word?” He asked, a little concerned that maybe he'd just been insulted.
⟨⟨Is word for Eridian who no can hear from certain angles or have weak hearing. From injury or sometimes always have. Need special devices to hear better⟩⟩
“Oh, huh,” Grace hadn't considered that Eridians could also have disabilities, but it made sense, “I guess the closest word would be disabled, which is when a human has physical impairments that the average human doesn't have.”
Rocky repeated the word again so Grace could add it to the computer.
“And that field of vision is normal for humans,” he added after he was done typing, “So I'm—well actually,” he cut himself off. He'd been about to say he wasn't disabled, but the glasses currently perched on his nose immediately disproved that, “Well, I'm not really disabled, but I do sorta need these to see,” he took off his glasses and held them out toward Rocky so he could get a better picture of them away from his face. Rocky moved closer, making the little clicking noises that meant he was looking really hard at something. “They're called glasses. They bend the light to help me see it better.”
⟨⟨Grace can't see without eye glass, question?⟩⟩
“Well, no I can,” Grace said quickly, “everything is just kind of . . . blurry? It's worse in my right eye. My left is just a little bit bad. I actually got away with not wearing glasses for a while, but I started getting headaches because of the massive difference between my eyes, so the glasses help with the strain. Also my left eye doesn't see very well close up compared to my right, which is really good at that, so . . .” he trailed off, wondering just how much of this Rocky was even understanding.
Rocky hummed slightly before saying ⟨⟨What tenth word, question?⟩⟩
“Uhhhh,” Grace paused. He had no idea which word in that ramble was the tenth one.
⟨⟨Grace say ‘everything is’ then pause, then say new word⟩⟩
Grace frowned, trying to remember. . .
“Oh! Blurry?” he asked.
⟨⟨Yes yes⟩⟩ Rocky bounced a little bit in a way that was remarkably adorable for an alien rock spider monster.
“It's when the light isn't clear. Objects are all . . . fuzzy around the edges. I guess it would be similar to sound being all muffled for you.”
⟨⟨New word⟩⟩
Man this first contact thing was hard. Should've sent an English teacher to space.
“Uhh, muffled is like this,” he pressed his hands to his mouth and mumbled some nonsense into them.
⟨⟨Oh! Yes. We call this ♪♭⟩⟩
Grace entered that into the laptop too.
⟨⟨So Grace see muffled without glasses, question?⟩⟩ Rocky asked, tapping twice like Grace was starting to notice he always did when asking a question.
“Yeah a little bit. I could survive without them, I’d just get a lot more headaches than I already do. Uh, my head would hurt,” he added, wondering if they had the word for ache yet.
⟨⟨Amaze⟩⟩ Rocky said ⟨⟨So Grace sight is like Rocky sight, light show shape of object⟩⟩
“Yeah pretty much,” Grace said, putting his glasses back on his face after noticed that he was still just holding them in his hand, “Well, it's still a little different though. Like I can see color and you can't hear that.”
⟨⟨New word!⟩⟩ Rocky seemed excited this time ⟨⟨What that, question?⟩⟩
Grace sucked some air through his teeth as he moved to sit on the floor again, trying to buy himself some thinking time. How did someone explain color?? It was like trying to explain what salt tasted like. You couldn't, because salty was one of the basic flavors that you used to describe what other things tasted like. Color just . . . was. He'd always seen color.
Hmmm, well he could always just go the scientific route.
“Color is part of the visible light spectrum,” he started slowly, “The bit of light that I can see, remember? And color is basically just the different wavelengths in that spectrum,” he held his hands out in front of him like he was holding something pressed between them, “So if this is the visible light spectrum, then red, which is one of the colors, would be on this side,” he shook his left hand a little, “and it's the longest wavelength, and then purple, another color, would be on this side,” he did the same with his right hand, “and that's the shortest wavelength. All the other colors are in between that. So that's why we call the electromagnetic spectrums above and below visible light infrared and ultraviolet, uh, violet is another word for purple,” he added quickly.
⟨⟨So⟩⟩ Rocky started, then paused again. Grace let his hands fall into his lap and waited patiently to see how he'd done in his explanation ⟨⟨Color is like light texture⟩⟩
“Yeah that's a good way to describe it,” Grace grinned, pointing at Rocky and being suddenly reminded of standing in front of a classroom and that giddy feeling of a student answering a question correctly. He shook that feeling away quickly. Rocky wasn't a middle schooler. He was a super old alien genius with a perfect memory.
⟨⟨What all light textures called, question?⟩⟩ Rocky asked, tilting his carapace to the side a little.
“Well, there are a lot of color names,” Grace started slowly, “But I guess the main ones are red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple,” he was not adding indigo, he had no idea why that was included in the rainbow, it was literally just blue-purple. “We call red, yellow and blue the primary colors, because you can't make them mixing other colors together. And we call orange, green, and purple the secondary colors because you can make them by mixing the primary colors together. So red and yellow make orange, yellow and blue make green, and red and blue make purple.”
It was all pretty basic stuff, but Rocky seemed absolutely fascinated. He was pressed up against the barrier, not even fiddling with anything with any of his legs like he usually did while they talked. Huh.
He waited for a second to see if Rocky wanted to say anything, but when he got nothing he decided to just continue rambling, “You can make more in-between colors by mixing secondary and primary colors until it becomes a smooth gradient between the colors, which then shows basically the whole spectrum of visible light. Like a rainbow.”
Rocky perked up, and Grace quickly continued before he could say ‘new word’ again. It was getting repetitive.
“A rainbow is what we call it when all the colors are side by side like that. They occur naturally on earth whenever light goes through something that can refract, or bend, it and that makes the light split into the different colors. So sunlight through rain, water falling from the sky, can sometimes create a big arch,” he swept his arms up and over his head in a big arching motion, “of colors. It's very pretty. Also prisms, clear 3D objects with sharp corners, can split light too. Here wait, actually—” Grace leaned over to grab the flashlight he'd fixed back out of the mega flashlight, turning it on and turning back to the barrier, “Sometimes if light hits this xenonite just right it'll refract the light too, hang on.”
He started tilting the light around the barrier, trying to get a good angle on the clear substance. Rocky shuffled around a bit, clearly watching him moving the flashlight around. He probably looked like an idiot, just waving a stick around nonsensically to Rocky, and Rocky wouldn't be able to see the rainbow anyway even if he was successful, but Grace didn't care. He was in full teacher mode, he was gonna demonstrate a rainbow dangit.
“Yes!” He grinned as he finally got a good angle through an irregular patch in the xenonite, “You've got a rainbow on you Rocky!”
Rocky jumped, the rainbow currently painted over his ‘face’ moving over him as he moved. Rocky spun in a circle, patting himself like he could get it off, and Grace bit back a laugh, snorting softly instead.
⟨⟨Rocky can't see stacked light textures⟩⟩ Rocky slumped a little, clearly disappointed, and Grace's smile slipped off.
“I'm sorry,” he said, turning the flashlight off and putting it on the ground behind him, scooting a little closer to the barrier.
⟨⟨Not Grace fault Eridians no see light⟩⟩ Rocky tapped one claw on the barrier, pointing at him.
“Sometimes you say I'm sorry to someone when it's not your fault. It just means that I feel bad or sad for you and want you to know. It's called sympathy,” he explained.
⟨⟨Grace no feel bad⟩⟩ Rocky stomped one foot for emphasis ⟨⟨Rocky fine. Fine without seeing light. Not need to⟩⟩
“Ok,” Grace said quickly, wondering if he'd offended Rocky or if Rocky was just pretending not to be at least a little upset. Rocky shuffled a little on his feet again before his carapace dipped a bit, like he was trying to make himself smaller.
⟨⟨Grace describe light textures, question?⟩⟩
“Oh, uh, well they're a little hard to describe to someone who can't see them,” Grace started, and his heart dropped a little when Rocky actively drooped, “Uh, but! But I can try I guess.”
Rocky perked up again immediately, giving Grace his full attention.
“I'm not much of a creative person,” Grace started, rubbing the back of his neck and looking up at the weird textured ceiling of the tunnel between their ships, “But I can try I suppose. We'll start with red. Red is . . . it's warm. We use it to indicate warmer temperatures. Red can also sometimes feel angry. Like sometimes human faces turn red when they get really mad. It also represents love sometimes. Passion.”
⟨⟨Complicated⟩⟩ Rocky commented ⟨⟨So many different things, why not just mean one thing, question?⟩⟩
Grace laughed and shrugged.
“I don't know. Human feelings are weird. And there are different shades of colors too, which are like small texture shifts without changing the color, so I guess it probably depends on the shade? I don't know, like I said I'm not very creative.”
Rocky hummed thoughtfully before he tapped the xenonite again.
⟨⟨Next light texture⟩⟩
“Orange is next,” Grace started, looking around as he thought, “Uh, it's between red and yellow like I said before, and it's like . . . happy? Yeah I'd say orange is a happy color. So’s yellow though. Orange is like a calmer happy I guess. I don't know, I'm not making much sense am I?” He asked, though it didn't really sound like a question.
⟨⟨No, but ok. Light texture not make sense to Rocky anyway⟩⟩
Grace smiled softly before continuing, “Well, next is yellow, which, fun fact, is actually my favorite color.”
Rocky perked up.
⟨⟨This best light texture, question?⟩⟩ he asked, moving closer to the barrier.
“Well in my opinion it is,” Grace put a hand on his chest, “But people have all different favorites. It's more of a preference thing. Like which color they like to look at most. Which color makes them happiest when they see it.”
Rocky hummed to show he understood, and Grace continued.
“So yeah, its my favorite color, and it's a very happy color. The sun is yellow and these pants are yellow,” he pinched the fabric of the jumpsuit he was currently wearing as pants, with the top half tied around his waist. Rocky clicked to get a better look. “I like yellow because it's just . . . it's cheerful, which is another word for happy. It's very bright and it stands out and it's warm, but not as warm as red. It's . . . nice.”
⟨⟨Grace make it sound nice⟩⟩ Rocky said, folding his legs underneath himself so he was sitting, still tilted up toward Grace ⟨⟨Next light texture, question?⟩⟩
“The next one is green, which is the first ‘cool’ color,” he explained, “Most plants on Earth are green so it's associated with life a lot of the time. Life and growth and stuff. But also sometimes I think it represents evil? Which is weird, I don't know why.”
⟨⟨Very opposite. Confusing⟩⟩ Rocky observed, and Grace nodded in agreement.
“I like green though. It's nice. Remind me to bring one of the plants on the Hail Mary out here to show you later,” he knew Rocky would. The perks of having a perfect memory.
“So next is blue,” he continued, “and blue is a cold color. We use it to indicate colder temperatures just like the opposite with red. The sky is blue, and that makes the oceans, really big bodies of water that cover most of Earth, look blue too cause the water reflects it. The Earth looks very blue from space because of that. I like blue too, I think it's probably my second favorite color.”
Rocky hummed, sounding happy.
⟨⟨One more light texture⟩⟩ he said, because of course he remembered exactly how many Grace had mentioned.
Grace bobbed his head once in a very exaggerated movement before thinking.
“Purple is like . . . like a slightly warmer blue. Because it's red and blue mixed I guess. I'm . . . not really sure how to describe purple actually. It's a rarer color in nature. There are some flowers, a kind of plant, that are purple I think. I know that purple was a sign of royalty because it's rare. Uh, royalty are like really important in-charge humans,” Grace decided he didn't want to get into systems of government right now, so he quickly moved on, “So, uh, yeah. That's all the colors, more or less.”
⟨⟨Amaze amaze amaze⟩⟩ Rocky chirped ⟨⟨Light so interesting⟩⟩
Grace smiled slightly.
“Yeah it is,” he paused, his smile fading somewhat, “I wish you could see it. I really did a very horrible job of describing it.”
⟨⟨Rocky like Grace descriptions⟩⟩ Rocky tapped the barrier a couple times, and Grace ducked his head, feeling suddenly embarrassed ⟨⟨Is good⟩⟩
“Oh, uh, thanks Rocky,” he mumbled, rubbing his face with one hand like that would swipe away the embarrassment he always felt after getting a compliment.
⟨⟨What light texture Rocky, question?⟩⟩ Rocky asked, and Grace looked over. He tilted his head, narrowing his eyes a bit.
“You're mostly brown, which is like a mix of a lot of different colors all together, though you do kind of look a little orange in certain lights. But then you have all these green patches on you that look a little more blue in places. Like a blue green. They're pretty,” he paused, wondering if that was a weird thing to say.
⟨⟨Describe new light texture word⟩⟩ Rocky said, tapping what would either be his face or chest if you compared his anatomy to a human, with one claw.
“Brown is . . . it's also warm. It's the color of dirt back on Earth, which is like the ground where all the plants grow from. It's very . . . solid. Grounding,” he paused and grinned a little, “Heh, like a rock.”
Rocky chirped, tilting a little back and forth in something like a happy wiggle.
⟨⟨Rocky like! Rocky color of warm and life! Amaze amaze amaze!⟩⟩
Grace smiled again as Rocky continued to make happy chirps. It really was pretty fitting. After all, he and Rocky were going to save the stars.
Save warmth and life.