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The Eridians had done everything in their power to accommodate Grace and Simon when they’d arrived on the Hail Mary. They’d built them a spacious biodome that kept them safe from the ammonia atmosphere, did their best to mitigate their intense gravity for them, and had quickly learned to make them food so that they didn’t have to survive off of taomeba and succumb to scurvy or rickets. If Ryland ‘protector of stars’ Grace had asked the Eridians to find a way for him to personally torment Eva Stratt’s soul, those musical rocks would’ve held a Thrum to figure out Arcane magic and overthrow the devil for him to do so.
Simon, did not have that amount of pull with the Eridians. Rocky had done his best to downplay Simon’s initial reaction when he’d woken up out of the blood ocean, but the Eridians were still wary of the ravenette. So, he’d spent the first six months in the biodome separated from Grace by a xenonite wall, and only allowed to interact with the blonde under strict supervision.
If it hadn’t been for Grace’s explanation of ‘failure to thrive’, Simon likely would have been moved to an entirely separate biodome with the bare essentials. Or worse, forcibly shipped back to Earth.
Instead, the ravenette had been allowed to stay. The wall that had separated him from Grace was removed after six months, and they even moved Simon’s assigned house closer to Grace’s when he’d asked. Simon was still under supervision, but he was used to that.
I can’t really blame them, either. I attacked their savior and I don’t look like a normal human. I wouldn’t have trusted a weird looking mystery thing near Father, so it’s a fair reaction. He thought one day while he sat on top of a rock to watch the water lap at the sandy shore. His legs were crossed and he leaned forward on his elbow while his tongue prodded at the cheek-teeth from the inside. At least they didn’t kick me out of this thing entirely. They’re nicer than Eden would’ve been.
Simon squeezed his eyes shut and let himself rock forward slightly at the thought of Eden. The thought of Father had already turned his stomach slightly, but the name of his home had conjured the memories. Mental images of the last tree flashed in his mind along with snapshots of his childhood and of his mother, all things he’d tried not to think about ever since he’d been rescued.
Like Simon, Grace had been forced onto a suicide mission for what had been deemed ‘the greater good’ by others. The differences between them were, where Simon had encountered a hivemind-like creature with too many teeth and sunken eyes, Grace had met Rocky. Where Simon didn’t know if the black box got to the surface for the others to find, Grace had found Taomeba, and got it back to Earth safely. Grace had stopped The Quiet Rapture, while Simon had been a sacrificial lamb in humanity’s fight to survive it.- Simon was pulled out of his thoughts by the melancholic sound of approaching music.
“Okay, class! Remember the rules, you have to stay with the group, and you have to listen to me, or else we will go back to the classroom.” Grace called to the twelve transparent balls that stampeded across the beach. His twelve pebble students all singing as they tried to simultaneously behave enough to not ruin their field trip, but also play in the sand or waves.
It took Grace a full minute to reign in the young aliens and get them to stop their excited trills and melodies when they came to a stop a bit in front of Simon’s spot, but the one-armed man didn’t mind the noise. He couldn’t understand the pebbles’ words or body language yet, he found it endearing to watch them be so clearly excited for Grace’s lesson.
It was also nice to see the way Grace’s face lit up when he taught. The man’s entire face seemed to glow when he got to teach. He got a smile as bright as the sun and his oceanic blue eyes always seemed to lighten while he lectured. It didn’t matter if it was the pebbles and time dialation, or the chance to teach Simon Eridian, Grace always lectured with so much earnest excitement that Simon couldn’t help but stay put to watch the man teach and eventually throw himself into the cold water to show his students how he could float. Grace then came back to shore to his students all singing and bouncing in their protective balls.
“Quiet down, quiet down, kids. I can’t understand you when you all speak at once.” He reminded them, so they all switched to waving their arms wildly until he picked one to speak . “Oh, no, I’m sorry, I can’t let you all try to float in the water. There’s only one of me, and twelve of you, and you might float away.” He explained, and Simon jolted a bit when the entire class pointed him out to the teacher.
Grace’s expression when he spotted Simon was a mix of amusement and slight confusion, but he waved and opened his mouth to call out to him. However, his class were already rolling over to crowd the base of Simon’s rock. Their three-fingered claws presed together to plead while they trilled and sang, some using a third arm to point back to the water, as they knew Simon couldn’t understand them. The blonde did try to call them back,
“Kids! You can’t beg him to help, that’s rude.” But, like any kid sent to ask their other parent, the pebbles were determined to try and convince the mutated man. So, the teacher pinched the bridge of his nose and settled for, “At least ask him nicely, like civilized eridians!”
On the one hand, the scene was overstimulating and pure chaos. The pebbles tried to clamber over one another as if they had puppy dog eyes that would convince the man, and while they sang their prettiest ‘please’, he was sure, it was still a high-pitched cacophany of excitement. On the other hand, Simon couldn’t help but feel a smile spread across his face at it. They may not have looked like them, but the pebbles reminded Simon of all of his youngest siblings, and the way they’d gather around him to steal a bite of whatever rare treat he may have been given back on Eden.
“I...suppose I could help babysit.”
Despite the fact that Grace’s water was safe, and how Simon had seen the blonde swim in it with no extra teeth, spines, or gills to show for it, the ravenette had never dared to touch the water himself. Yet, he swallowed that fear in that moment. He put on as brave a face as he could manage so that he could follow Grace into the shallow water, just deep enough so that the two winners of Grace’s impromptu trivia game could float a bit in the water. Which, wasn’t very deep since the pebbles didn’t yet weigh the three hundred or more pounds that an adult Eridian did, Simon’s feet still firmly touched the sand, but the teeth on his cheek were still tightly interlocked to make his smile look lopsided. And, his gills pulled in extra gulps of air every time he breathed.
Grace explained the reason why the two pebbles floated differently, but Simon barely registered the words. He was too focused on the beat of his own heart. Relax, it’s good water. It’s the same stuff you drank back home, it won’t hurt you. Don’t upset the kids by freaking out, just stay calm. He told himself while the pebble he clung to raised and lowered their carapase to look above and below the water. I shoud’ve thought of this more before I agreed. What if I’m pulled out further? What if I contaminate it- Damn it, no! Look at the kids, they’re so happy about this. Don’t ruin this!
He nearly jumped out of his skin when something pressed against his arm, but when his head snapped towards it, he only found Grace’s comforting smile.
“The pebbles just wanted to see our height difference in the water. It’s too noisy for them to see what we’re standing on.” He explained, and Simon nodded. Some of his panic was soothed by the warm press of another human. A reminder that let his breathing level out a bit. Then, after another moment or so of explanation, Grace put a steadying hand on Simon’s upper back to nudge him forward until he had to put the pebble he’d held down and let them roll back to the others. “Okay, class! Say thank you to Simon for his help with the lesson. No, we can’t take all of you out today, class is almost over.” Grace pointed out, able to cut off the group’s complaint before they even sang it. Though, he did add, “Maybe the next time we have a field trip, you can ask mister Simon to do this again, but you’ll have to earn another field trip to do that.” to ease the dissapointment and get the pebbles moving.
Though, before he left to follow them, he turned back to the panicked Ravenette and gave him another smile that befit the angel that he was.
“I’m sorry they bothered you like that, Si. But, also thanks for humoring them. I saw how scared it made you to do, so...I owe you one, okay?” Simon gave a slightly tense laugh and shook his head.
“You don’t owe me anything, I’m happy to be helpful.” He assured, but Grace just gave him a thumbs up.
“No takes-backsies. I owe ya.” Then jogged off after his class before the ravenette could argue.