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After Grace, the Saviour of Erid, had hosted an 80’s themed disco night the week prior, Rocky, the other Saviour of Erid, had become fixated on the concept of “arcades.”
It had started with Rocky requesting the help of his beloved, Adrian.
“I need this small, alien machine, beloved.”
Rocky presented Adrian with a picture of a pinball machine.
“I understand, beloved, I will make it tonight.” Adrian pressed their carapace against Rocky’s in affection.
Next to this sweet, romantic display, Grace fidgeted with his thumbs. He leaned in close to Rocky.
“Can you ask them…”
“Grace asks, statement.”
Grace groaned.
“Hey, Adrian, I was just, um, just wondering.
If there was any chance I could get a…”
“What was that? Not even Eridian hearing can pick up what you're saying, Grace.”
“Could I please get a… plush.
Dang! This is so stupid!”
Adrian perked up.
“Yes! Much excitement! I made “plush” all the time before my beloved returned”
“You did?” Grace inquired.
Adrian shook their carapace in confirmation.
“Made for young, scared children, helped me take my mind off my beloved’s absence”
Rocky nuzzled them in sympathy.
“Rocky came home,” he reminded.
“Yes, my beloved returned.
But I haven’t had the reason to make “plush”, now I do. Yes, Grace, I will make that for you after Rocky’s pinball machine.”
Grace smiled,
“Wait– what exactly are Eridian plushies?”
Rocky scuttled away to find an example, meanwhile, Adrian informed:
“Made of fibrous ♫♪ roots. Soft. Used to keep pebbles company when parents are asleep.”
“That is… strangely similar to the human concept of plushies.”
“We all want to care for our young.
What design would you like?”
Grace’s face lit up as crows feet emerged from the corner of his wrinkled eyes.
“Well, there’s this one animal on Earth…”
Rocky returned a short time later with a plush of– Grace? What?
“Why is it me?” The shocked man inquired.
It was a pretty accurate model too, the shape was correct, the little strings of hair. Unfortunately, the colours were all wrong, and Model-Grace was bright purple.
“Rocky made Adrian make it when Grace was sick, sick, sick. Needed to have Grace watch Rocky sleep, but couldn’t”
Grace, predictably, began to tear up.
“I’ll always watch you sleep, bud, I’m so sorry I was too sick before.”
“Is ok.
Adrian also sold pattern to Calico, now can find mini-Grace at the giftshop, very popular.”
Considering that the other doll for sale at the giftshop was of the more, mature, kind Grace was actually pretty happy with this outcome.
Unbeknownst to Grace, or the planet of Eridians he inhabited, a similar phenomenon had occurred back on Earth, where the children and adults alike of the cold, icy Earth snuggled into a marketable plush modelled after their planet’s saviour.
Thus to the immense joy of Erid’s saviours, Rocky had acquired a pinball machine that he used four limbs on to ensure his victory. And Grace had acquired a soft plush of a fox, that sat proudly in the middle of his bed.
Said plush had thoroughly fulfilled its purpose when Grace tossed and turned his way through a thunderous, Eridian night.
Ammonia hydroxide pelted down from the sky, a crash echoed outside his biodome, this storm was particularly fierce.
On Erid, thermal storms sweep debris from the planet’s surface into the dark clouds. There, the debris will mingle and form clumps of rock that swoop gently to the planet’s surface, and cause a loud, blinding crack when they reach the ground.
As a scientist, it was really awesome, or it would be if he didn’t have to live on the planet with said storms.
To accommodate for the heavy rocks that fell from the sky, the xenonite of his biodome funneled the jagged pieces to a collection point, where they would fall through semi-permeable xenonite, and land around 5 metres from his house, ready for collection the following day.
Another deafening crack echoed through Grace’s room.
He curled his strong arms around Mr Fox Extraordinaire tighter.
Grace had been delirious when he first experienced an Eridian thermal storm, he had in fact assumed that he had finally succumbed to starvation, and that the loud noise was an enhanced version of his heartbeat, slowly trailing toward a flatline.
Rocky and Adrian found the storms to be a minor inconvenience, the largest issue caused by the rocks falling from the sky was the brief shakiness to their echolocation that it brought.
A rock tumbled over the roof of his biodome.
Grace definitely did not whimper.
Unfortunately, Rocky held great influence over proceedings at the Centre for Human Eridian Friendship.
This led to an increased focus on replicating the games found at a human arcade.
“I don’t want to play Street Fighter with you again,” Grace begged.
“Grace will play now. Grace play as Ken. Rocky play as Blanka.”
“But I don’t want to be Ken. I want to be Chun Li”
“Grace will be Ken.”
This fascination culminated during the latest meeting with the management at the Centre for Human Eridian Friendship, when Rocky shared his genius revelation.
“It is perfect.
Claw machine… appears like an Eridian.”
Rocky flicked to the next slide of his presentation.
“Look, carapace, limbs.
Human claw machine? Carapace” he circled the top of the unit “limbs” he circled the prongs coming off the crane.
He turned to the eager crowd and Grace.
“Is called “skill tester” perfect. Eridians have many skills. Humans have some skills.”
“For best, best, best part of idea:”
Rocky switched slides.
“Eridian is the claw machine”
The Centre for Human Eridian Friendship burst into applause.
Thus, an Eridian Claw Machine was constructed with a human side in Grace’s biodome, and an Eridian side inside the Centre.
The function was simple:
First, an Eridian would be strapped into the top of the mechanism.
Then, they would be lowered into the pit to select a prize.
After 6 seconds, they were returned upward.
The harness holding the Eridian in would shake, making it surprisingly difficult to collect a gift.
As for the “gifts”, they consisted of items from the giftshop (all Grace themed), and plushies that Adrian had designed.
The Eridian Claw Machine was intensely popular, and gained a reputation of immense difficulty.
Rocky was exceptional at the game, and had to be limited to a maximum of eight turns per day.
Grace rarely used the human side of the machine, and preferred to watch the Eridians currently attempting the game. Or, better yet, he would use the time that both Rocky and Adrian were occupied to work on his own private project.
You see, Rocky had banned the synthesis of alcohol after witnessing what Grace became when he found Olesya’s bags of vodka.
However, Grace studied science in college, was friends with other science majors, and as such, had a strong understanding of how to create moonshine that had survived his memory wipe.
Thus, whilst Rocky was commencing his fifth turn on the Eridian Claw Machine, Grace snuck inside his home, and went into his bathroom, where a small, nondescript container was currently housing his moonshine.
He had gone with the “sugar” method, which had been his go-to during college due to its inexpensive nature, and his go-to now because his vitamin shakes desperately needed sugar to be edible.
He stirred the mixture, yes, this was coming along nicely.
He estimated it would only be 30 more hours until he could surprise his friends by getting drunk with them.
“Is time for Grace to go on Claw Machine”
Grace shook his head.
“Nope. No way.”
“Yes way”
Rocky ushered him forward, where he apprehensively stared at the harness.
“Adrian added special Mr Fox Extraordinaire Jr for Grace”
Adrian had in fact added an array of even smaller fox plushies, and that was tempting, dangling over them to catch them wasn’t. Especially when there was an audience just outside the dome.
“Grace can play as Chun Li in next Street Fighter round”
“Fine.”
Thus, Grace was slowly lowered into the pit, where he fumbled with five small fox plushies, and dropped all but two on his way back up.
“Amaze! Maybe if Grace keeps trying he will eventually get skills like Rocky.”
Grace sighed, unbuckled himself from the harness, and ran over to Rocky to give him a noogie.
Rocky and Adrian had just left for the morning, and would be returning in the afternoon for a night of board games, movies, and for the Eridians an intoxicating balm.
Normally, Grace would watch on angrily as his friends got drunk, but not today, no sir, no more FOMO for this MOFO.
His moonshine was ready.
As Rocky and Adrian trailed further into the distance, Grace decided that a small test of the brew was in order.
He was aware that it was 10am, but it was 4 o'clock somewhere in the universe.
He poured a glass of the mixture into his atom patterned mug, and sat back in his living room.
The taste was questionable, but no worse than the other things he ate, and compared to Tauomeba? It was Michelin Star.
The alcohol was quite strong, Grace didn’t really have any way of measuring its potency. The intended effect was indeed working, and Grace found himself becoming increasingly relaxed.
He wanted to dance. But Rocky and Adrian wouldn’t return for another couple of hours, that’s okay, he had Mr Fox Extraordinaire to dance with.
It was whilst he was slow dancing with the plush that an unexpected thermal storm began.
Grace yelped, and hid behind the lounge as rocks pelted down relentlessly from the sky.
This storm was particularly strong, and rocks had begun to tumble out of their collection zone, and spread out across the beach.
When one has begun drinking, a strange phenomenon happens where drinking more seems the suitable answer to all problems.
Thus, Grace mixed in some more moonshine with a shake, and waited out the storm with Mr Fox Extraordinaire.
Therefore, it was not unexpected that by the time the storm had finished, Grace was well and truly shitfaced.
He had spent most of his morning and early afternoon drinking on his living room floor, a state he had not achieved since his freshman year of college.
Unused to being so drunk, he stumbled up like a newborn fawn.
He checked the time, Rocky and Adrian were set to be coming in any moment now.
His drunken mind decided that the best course of action was to greet them.
As such, Grace stumbled out of his house, and trekked unsteadily down toward the beach.
Being so drunk, he failed to notice a jagged rock sticking out of the ground as he traversed down the hill.
Grace was uncoordinated at the best of times. He tripped over the rock, and flew straight into a crevice between two others.
He blearily looked around. Rocks.
He looked up. Sky.
He tried to move his leg upward. No use.
Oh dear.
He was stuck.
He burped. And then called:
“Rocky! Adrian! I need help.”
Said creatures were suiting up to enter Grace’s biodome when they heard what sounded like a faint whisper.
“Was that Grace, beloved?” Adrian asked.
“No. Don’t think so. Maybe a bug.”
“Rocky!” Grace drunkenly yodeled.
“Look at these rocks… that storm sure was bad.” Adrian commented.
“Lost vision for a whole second!” Rocky added.
“Rocky! Adrian! Is that you? I’m stuck” Grace attempted to say– what actually came out was simply: “Stuck.”
Rocky, hearing Grace’s voice, hurried over.
Grace sat wedged between a rock and a hard– no, another rock.
“Rocky, I tripped, have I ever told you that I love you so much?” he started tearing up “you’re the best thing ever”
Rocky recognised this.
“You drank stupid-liquid!” he accused.
“Did not” he burped.
Rocky stomped in frustration.
“Lucky that Rocky has skills to get Grace out” Rocky assured.
“Skills?” Grace asked himself.
Rocky headed over to a small construction crane positioned at the edge of the biodome, currently being used to add detail to the sky.
“Oh no. No, no, no, no, no.” Grace cried.
“Rocky! No! Wait for someone to get me out.”
Alas, Rocky was assured in his skills as a claw machine extraordinaire.
He drove the crane over to Grace.
“Grace stay calm now. Rocky get Grace out.”
Grace screamed as the claw of the crane moved toward him.
Unfortunately, Rocky had only been the claw machine, not operated one.
Hence, it took five tries for Grace to be hooked onto the machine.
“Rocky! Don’t you dare lift me up.”
Rocky lifted Grace into the sky.
Grace flailed like a caught fish.
“Put me down, put me down, putmedown!” he screamed.
Alas, Rocky was a winner.
Rocky wasn’t used to putting gifts back down.
Thus, Grace was dropped unceremoniously to the ground. Where he lay sprawled and angry.
Adrian ran over to comfort their friend.
“You” Grace began seethingly.
“Are synthesizing real alcohol after that one.”
Rocky shifted his carapace side-to-side sheepishly.
“I want a Pina Colada."