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Grace was in the dormitory, in bed reading some stuff on his computer, three pillows to prop his back, he had not much to do now, he just needed to wait to arrive to Erid, the journey started around 9 months ago and Grace fortunately was still not that bored or crazy.
He still had the coma food so for now it was all good… kinda, he hated that food, but at least it was better than the taumeba…
Grace diet was now half of coma food and half taumeba, mostly to balance the intake of vitamins that the tuameba lacked;
and for special occasions the few portions of earth’s food that remained, you could count that portions on your fingers.
Soon the earth’s food will end, and then the coma food, and he will be left with taumeba only, when that time will start Grace knows that things will get a little more difficult for him.
He was reading some stuff about Vincent Van Gogh’s Japanese period, at some point he was just staring at one painting of a woman in a kimono, he had everything he could ever imagine on this computer… thanks… Stratt…
Rocky went down his tunnel, he could just talk to Grace trough the walls, they could hear each other, especially Rocky, but he knew humans, or, this human, preferred the contact when talking, even if Grace never said it out loud.
“What are you reading. Question.”
“I’m reading something about a famous painter that lived in the 1800”
"need word";
Grace looked over his computer, to stare at Rocky, for a second he was silent then he propped himself more up and started to explain, in a way that reminded of his teaching days.
“A painter is someone who paints.. we humans like I told you, we can see colours, and some of us like to recreate what we see, by drawing or painting. Drawing is usually made on paper and with a pencil; instead we paint with brushes and colours that are inside little tubes of paint on canvases… and on earth these two activities are made by really creative people, and are jobs… Some people made so beautiful paintings that they are admired still today even if the painting is hundreds of years old”
“Amaze Amaze! You can capture colours inside tubes!”
“Yes! It was an invention made around the 1800s, before painters had or to carry so many stuff around or they had to recreate what they saw in their studios, in their homes, because before tubes they had to recreate on the spot the colours and the mixtures to make the colours stick to the canvas”
“Want to see painting.”
he said before running to the lab and returning with the crystal pistol.
Grace hopped down the bed and put the computer near Rocky, he with his little pistol and tablet remained still, focusing on the relief painting
“Amaze! Amaze! On Erid we have similar thing! We have artists too, they crave on the stones to make beautiful pictures! When on Erid with Adrian I will show you!”
Grace smiled excited, he will se alien art!
The day continued lazily, Rocky had on his side one computer that Grace gave to him when they thought they would have returned to each’s home planet.
He looked at some paintings humans made during the last 500 years, Rocky had a type of stone that one of his crewmates used to engrave on for fun, he decided that one of these days he would try too, he had the stone and the tools to try... he was an engineer he never tried to engrave art, but now Erid was saved, or on the way to get saved and the days needed to be filled, so why not and try something new.
Some hours passed, and Grace moved to the lab, writing some reports, more like a diary, but he liked to see them more in a scientific way…
Sometimes he thought about when he will be on Erid to find a way to send new beetles to earth with some of these reports and new discoveries about Rocky’s anatomy and stuff, but after the thought he always lost interest because they would for sure not be read by Stratt so what was the point?
He still was trying to find a meaning to all of these reports he wrote… maybe after all they were only for his mental health, a way to keep himself occupied…
Grace at some point fell asleep in the lab, head in his folded arms, computer open near him and his glasses on the table, Rocky wasn’t a big fan of Grace sleeping in places that weren’t his bed, but for naps he “closed an eye” because they were more spontaneous, like Grace explained to him, he also explained that humans often took naps out of boredom, or calmness of after eating food;
Rocky saw Grace taking a nap after eating only when he ate earth’s food…
Grace was with his mouth open and some drool was going down his cheek… “Disgust! All leaky!”
During naps he still watched and in the mean time he worked on something
Rocky noticed Grace glasses, he really liked them, the metal part was so thin and Grace sometimes had them in fun poses on his face, one day when they were still trying to find a solution to the astrophage problem he explained to him how they worked, it was so fascinating to think about a object so simple looking being able to help humans so much.
Grace was asleep and Rocky was feeling mischievous and curious so he hopped inside the xenonite suit and walked gracefully to where the glasses where.
--
Rocky now had his part of the space ship, a ball to roll around and a suit that he used when Grace was feeling cuddly;
he invented the last one in the first months on the journey to Erid when Grace had a few too many nightmares and Rocky felt the need to be able to be closer to him,
now when he always went to sleep for the “night” he would crawl next to him and watch him up close.
The suit was really nice and he loved being able to touch all of Grace squishy and leaky body;
the suit was made with a particular xenonite mix that felt to the human skin like silk,
Rocky used the suit a lot but he also liked to stay in his part of the ship, even if the suit was soft after so many hours (at least around 72) when taking it off felt like taking a bra off, so he enjoyed too the time in his “dome” in the space ship.
--
Rocky took in his claws the glasses, Grace told him that they were transparent like all the xenonite barriers Rocky used and it made so much sense, the light passes trough! Such an interesting thing!
Rocky tried to be as silent as possible, he liked when Grace slept even if at first it made him anxious, because
1) every time he slept when he woke up he would be less stupid,
2)it was comforting because even in his sleep he could still hear his heart, and know he was okay, and
3) when it was “night” Grace would hug Rocky
Rocky played with the glasses he put them on his carapace and for a second he acted and moved like Grace does, he tried to put them on more, like how they are suppose to be on… he pushed them a little more toward his carapace, he was having some fun and didn’t notice that he was enlarging the frames..
In an instant both frames started to fall,
Rocky wasn’t able to grab them gracefully enough and stopped their fall by grabbing the lens with a bit too much strength with two claws
Soft cracks were audible trough the ship
Rocky panicked, he broke his second mate’s glasses, that was a prized possession!
He hid the glasses under a cabinet and ran to his part of the dormitory, to his computer to search a way to fix the lenses, if it was for the frame it would have been a kid’s play, but lenses had to be different than a normal glass sheet!
After half a hour Grace woke up and moved his hand around for his glasses first thing first, he remembered he put them at his right but they weren’t there.
Damn! Grace noticed immediately! Rocky was anxious, he could see/feel/hear Grace movements around the table
Grace hummed in thought, usually Rocky loved those little sounds, they were so cute, but now he was so stressed to see how he would further react to the loss of the glasses.
The human straightening’s his back moved the computer away from him and indicator that Rocky picked up that meant that Grace didn’t want to use that object anymore, Eridians did that too, Rocky liked when they had this kind of thing in common, the interesting part tough was that Eridians did that primally because of the echolocation, humans had no specific reason.
Grace started to feel the table again in search for his prized possession
“Hey Rock have you seen my glasses?” he said in a normal voice
“No. Statement.” he lied again, saying it out loud since he was in another room and so Grace could hear, another bad indicator! him not taking the time to go to the room Rocky was in to talk to him!
“Can you use your echolocation?”
“Now busy”.
Grace palmed his face with both hand, nothing again, one time he forgot his glasses up on his head…
He started to crawl on the floor, maybe in his sleep he made them fall,
Rocky giggled for a moment in his beautiful tunes seeing Grace on all fours, it was always a funny thing to witness, it always felt like a bad imitations of Eridians,
but no it was not the time to think Grace was ridiculous! He needed to find a way to repair the face crystals!
Grace crawled all around the table and then under, and after some seconds he tried to get up but banged his head on the metal table “Fu- … argh…”
Rocky popped in the lab with worry for Grace’s soft and squishy brain.
“Okay. Question.”
“Okay statement” said Grace, still on the floor
In that moment, bended like that and in Rocky direction he maybe saw something under one of the cabinets, there was something, it shined, maybe a screwdriver but maybe his glasses.
He started to crawl again, and asked “Hey Rocky are those my glasses?”
Rocky could not lie again, so defeated with a claw he scooped the glasses out, the shards making a light sound..
“Uh”
Grace stopped, motionless.
Grace laughed a little, and with a hand patted Rocky’s carapace, like a little kid, certain habits die hard.
Rocky began shifting his weight between one foot to the others anxiously
“Made mistake. Broke Grace glasses. Sorry statement.” Rocky said with soft and sad tunes
“Owh buddy don’t you worry I can get new ones”
Grace said lightly only to stop his whole body once again when he realized he did in fact not had another pair, his crew didn’t use glasses… they didn’t send anything of his in space, he was actually using Dubois clothes…
“Ah… I… I don’t have another pair…”
With stressed thrills Rocky said “Will fix!”
“Will fix Grace’s glasses. Statement!”
Grace was silent, now he was just sat on the floor
“You can fix them?”
“Yes Yes!”
“What happened?”
“Tried to put glasses on me, broke them accidentally. Sorry statement”
“Don’t you worry, it was a mistake, but if you can repair them it would really be nice, I’m kinda blind as a bat, but well bats have echolocation like you guys”
“Grace blind. Question”
“Well kind of, I can see shapes, colours and lights but everything is pretty blurry”
“Have question. Grace some times keeps glasses of eyes, how does that work. Question”
“Well if it is really near me I can make out what is it, but usually when I take them off is because I am thinking, and I like to think without them because it gives me a more bland perspective, like my eyes don’t focus on anything and I can concentrate more, it’s maybe hard to explain to someone without eyes”
Rocky made a bunch of noises to show he understood what Grace meant
“Now goes to work on solution for glasses”
“Wait can you help me go down to my bed?”
“Without glasses you can’t do that. Question”
“Yeah”
It began a small journey of them trying to find a way to go down,
at first it was Rocky guiding Grace towards the ladder,
Grace would firmly hold with one hand one of Rocky’s claws, it was a new experience, Rocky moved really slowly, and it was strange to think about,
Grace was so powerless in this moment, just the other day he flexed about being on top of the food chain on Earth, the apex predator…
Grace was feeling scared near the void where the stairs passed through so he sat down, Rocky trying to be supportive, sat near him,
When they were near the ladder, Rocky scared that Grace might fall down kept him close and with two claws he grabbed his legs,
“I’m not gonna fall, but damn it looks deep like this”
“Not going to risk you falling”
After one minute Grace began to play with one of Rocky’s claws, with his fingers he passed every detail che could feel, pressing hard to feel the details trough the suit, he could feel Rocky’s warmness
They stayed there for a bit, Rocky liked what Grace was doing, it felt intimate, and Grace’s hands were always strange and wiggly it was fun seeing them going around him
“you can wait here, I can work on the glasses, and, then, bring them to you”
“Maybe it is a good idea, I’m not sure I can go down the stairs without falling”
“Yes! Don’t fall, you wait here”
But Rocky didn’t move, he waited for Grace to let him go,
Rocky with one claw started to roam around Grace’s body too, the xenonite suite softened the sensation but he could still feel with the claws and see with the echolocation the jarred skin on Grace’s harm.
In that moment some sad tunes were emitted from Rocky, not coherent words, just a soft humming, Grace knew, they talked about the scar,
Then they both stopped, Grace crawled near a wall and just sat there, “I’ll wait here, I kinda feel useless right now” he for sure was feeling insecure, a scientist not being able to do anything
“Will fix glasses quickly”
After some minutes, like maybe 15, Grace was so bored, and hungry, he wanted to eat something, in his mind he could only think about a burrito..
He decided that he would go down by himself, he doesn’t see well he is not totally blind! He can do that!
He went near the hole, the ladder was a dark grey so he could kinda see where the stairs were. Slowly reeeeaaallly slowly he began ascending, sometimes his footing was wrong and his hear would jump
Rocky was so concentrated that at first didn’t notice, but ho boy, the second he did he started screaming at Grace
“You reckless! You are gonna fall! Idiot! It is dangerous!”
Rocky was scared he did not know what to do, even in the suit he could not grab Grace in the case of a fall, he is too hard, and he can’t move the bed
“Be careful! Do not fall!” he continued every two seconds, and a cuss word here and there
“I’m sure of my capabilities Rock, I won’t fall, don’t you worry!”
Grace was in socks, what was the point of wearing shoes in a spaceship?
And one foot, slipped on the smooth metal
Grace began to fall, he was still high,
Rocky ran to the suit he needed to catch Grace
“Ah!... Armando!” said Grace with a nervous smile
Rocky stopped in his run for the suit, just a small thrill that felt like a sigh of relief
Armando got Grace, and slowly he lowered him on his bed, the robotic arms where programmed to do that, he totally forgot, and since they were already there “Food!”
DINNER
said Armand before giving Grace a grey packet
“You stupid! You could really hurt yourself! You are lucky, Armando saved you”
“Yeah, next time I’ll be more careful”
“I’ll make sure, no next time”
Grace opened one corner of the packed and started to squeeze the come food in his mouth, he really missed the burrito
This felt like medicine, sometimes he thought about mixing this “food” with just a little super little grain of Ilyukhina’s cocaine so he could enjoy what he was eating
Rocky in the mean time, after trashing Grace for how reckless he was he returned to the glasses.
“Rocky found interesting stuff, you have multifocal lenses!”
And then started to explain the whole process…
“Take them”
Grace grabbed the glasses, he frame was just a little more stiffer than the one he had before.
He put the glasses on, and “Whow I see so much better! When you earlier made a scan of my eyes I didn’t imagine it could be this precise”
“Great engineer and great oculist”
“Yeah thank you”
Grace sat in bed, and with a small mirror he looked at himself, the lens were made with a strange xenonite compound, they were completely transparent but lighter than the glass ones, and the frame was a dark grey, “They are so cool!” The shape was the same but they were definitely better.
Grace opened his legs and arms, sign that he wanted a hug, Rocky that now was in the suit ran to his human, glad that he was able to fix this.