Oh my.

The voice Ellie had chosen for herself on the translator was small. Feminine, still, but higher and sharper.

Simon turned towards her at her call; she hovered at his eye level in her tank. She was much easier to see now, through the plasma. "I think the actual blood cells were hurting her," Ryland had said, "but her sample didn't react well to pure water, either."

"Was he right?" Simon asked, forgetting, again, that the creature could no longer read his mind. (If she ever could? His understanding of all of that was hazy.) "Grace," he clarified. Ryland had introduced himself as Grace; even Rocky called him Grace. "Was he right about the blood? Are you more comfortable in there?"

"Much much much," she replied, and Simon almost smiled at the mannerism clearly picked up from Rocky. "Clear gills. Better breathe."

"Yeah. I've been breathing better, too."

"...Simon relax even with Ellie here?"

Simon halted, opening and then closing his mouth. "I came back for you, didn't I?" He finally settled on.

"I think about her a lot," he'd said.

"The woman?" Ryland had asked.

"The eel," Simon had replied, voice tired. Defeated. "I don't know. I don't even know if they're my own thoughts."

"Assuming they are," Ryland had been so gentle, "what are you thinking? About the eel?"

"That she's alone." Simon had shifted, curling in on himself. "That I was the only other thing down there with her, and now she's alone again. That maybe the ocean was doing to her the same thing I felt it doing to me. Maybe she just couldn't fight its will. Maybe that's why she was reaching out to me." He'd gone on longer than he'd meant to. "Maybe... what if she's just an animal?"

"I don't know," he'd said again, for good measure. "Place still has its hooks in me. Trying to pull me back. Am I insane?"

"No," Ryland had said at once. "Worse, I think. You're kind."

"Simon want save eel, question?"

"Even if I did," he'd said, absently tapping the surface of the ball, "I don't know if it would be possible, Rock."

"Is," Rocky had said simply, sounding so through with Simon. As he often did. "Grace Rocky save stars. Grace Rocky save Simon. Grace Rocky Simon save eel. Is possible."

"Not what Ellie asked," she replied, a little dejected to Simon's ear.

She was about the size, now, of an animal Ryland had taught him about called a catfish. A very large, long catfish, but no less very much smaller than she'd been. Along with determining she was of humanlike intelligence, Ryland theorized that the reason for the absurd elasticity of her cells was simple: she was a juvenile. Not just an animal, a child.

No wonder Ryland was so good with her.

"I'm trying my best, Ells. I don't want to be afraid of you."

"Ellie hurt Simon, Ellie knows. Bad Ellie. Stupid Ellie. Couldn't fight blood. Weak. Weak weak weak."

"You're not weak. The blood was just really strong. You're just a kid, Ellie."

"Ellie love Simon. Love Grace and Rocky. Never want go back to blood."

it's not that he doesn't find them attractive, he supposes. rocky is strong as all heck—he's able to carry grace like it's nothing. he thinks he could watch the eridian's hands work on intricate designs for hours. adrian is gorgeous, their carapace something that would be on display at a crystal shop. they're much smoother than rocky is (physically and socially) and grace loves tracing the turquoise swirls in their blue hematite and imagining how it feels through the barrier.

grace, like every relationship that came before, finds himself yearning. and he isn't stupid—he sees the way rocky and adrian court him. he overhears his students and how the three of them are the hot gossip of not just the village, but the whole planet—the eridian who saved the stars brings home an alien to their mate and they woo him together, more at IV̶.

but he knows the second he accepts their advances and they want more than just hand holding, it'll all go away. the interest will die like it was never there at all—the eridians will be furious or disappointed that grace wasn't present, that he was keeping a wall up. they'd think he lied about wanting them because he doesn't want to kiss and their dates are moreso "hanging out" than a romantic encounter. ryland can handle his own self-pity, but he doesn't think he can take the eridian he promised to be brave for call him a coward.

he's honest when he sits them down and says he can't be a boyfriend. rocky and adrian need to have the word translated—male-identifying human who participates in an established, exclusive romantic coupling. then grace has to explain human romance—and ultimately fails to do so in a way that the two can understand.

he starts rambling about how he wants it really bad and once he starts, he can't stop. he wants to be part of what they have, whatever it is in their language or culture. grace wants to be held and wanted and to take whatever pleasure they'll give him. he wants to live with them—not just the dome next door, but to actually live in the same house where they can sleep together. he wants adrian and rocky to come home from their jobs and tell him how their days was instead of stopping by his place. he wants to be part of something.

maybe it's just the lack of human contact and he's going crazy, maybe he's just always been insane and it's the reason he ruins everything because his stupid fucking brain is *broken.* sure he's not an eridian, but he isn't much of a human either when the passion he's been told is the backbone of consciousness doesn't work.

adrian says that wasn't what they wanted—they didn't want something from him. the human wants to curl up in a ball and die a little at first because he thinks he just read the room wrong. of course they're not courting him, they're happily committed in a romantic relationship of their own species—

rocky explains that they don't do "boyfriend" on erid. they have pairs that work as teams—rocky create adrian's visions that push their mate to come up with more ideas. together, they're a brilliant, persistent thrum. they're together because it's comfortable, not because of a driving force they can't see.

grace talks about the pressure of needing to conform and belong. how he spent years of his life trying again and again, wondering where the missing piece was to make himself feel whole and wanted.

it infuriates the eridians—the concept of something be missing, like grace's beginning is his end. they didn't mate to find a puzzle piece to be "whole," they partner together to build a foundation to die on.

adrian could be completely deaf and rocky would find peace next to them.

rocky could have never come home and adrian would have been happy their mate took space for just awhile, even if it wasn't enough.

mates is something that is as simple as sitting together in the sand. the full word is a little more complicated in eridani, the full pronunciation a series of polychordal morphemes an organic mind can't separate. in grace's language, the closest translation is complete, but that doesn't do it justice. mates is a song, constantly changing like grace's ocean shore.

they want grace as he is, albeit living together and for them to integrate the human into their mating mark. those things are just to be expected as they grow closer, but have nothing to do with an underlying process.

the pair wants grace in their lives because he gave them everything.

rocky and adrian want grace because he's their favorite song. they want to introduce themselves and for their names to tell a story of where he wove himself into their concerto, each note he speaks in human tongue as unique and boundless as the cosmos he came from. they can show him that where he came from was ignorant in it's understanding of his place among the very stars that his planet sent him to die among.

I wanted to make my absolute favourite eridian OCs on Tumblr, known best friends with parental issues: Prism and Cheeto! (By the amazings @sharkfiinn and @problematiccheeto respectively)

I've learned my lesson about long posts, so more rambles and pictures under the cut:

Hiya!!! I love this idea a lot, hope I did it justice :3

Shout out to that one tumblr post that was like: "You know it's not just trans people who ponder their gender, it's healthy for cis people to take a look inside and be like! Yep that's all good!" And I read this post and was like.... like what do you look at inside though T O T??? I asked my boyfriend how he knew he was a boy and he said he just felt this unexplainable intrinsic feeling he was a boy... and I'm like... I HAVE GENUINELY NO IDEA WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT WTF 😭😭😭!!!!!!!! So apparently its like. Normal for people to feel this inexplicable 'Gender' feeling or whatever,,, I feel like how asexual people feel when they discover people around them aren't making up the fact they experience sexual arousal T O T

Obviously all my sciency stuff is just speculation! But I'm the type of person who believe that everything has a rationale behind it, and like an adopted child who is curious about their biological parents, I just am just interested in my origins! The field of genetics still is mostly just like,,,, hmmm we think this whatever MIGHT be a contributing factor to a person turning out this way... maybe. If you are more interested in the topic I discussed, just look up 'Genetic Memories in Animals' and there should be some more stuff OuO!

I have a bajillion questions like does the better regen mean they get to live long enough to see a forest on Erid I really hope it does

But mostly PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE can we know what happened in the politics meeting I love politics PLEASE

(I’m writing this while transporting a month old kitten that my former coworker found if u gimme politics I’ll show pics LMAO)

anything for cat pictures /lh and yeah i'd like to think the better regen lets them live like maybe twenty extra years? something like that. not enough to rival eridians in any way shape or form and it's not THAT much more if you really think about it but then again the regen isn't THAT overpowered. mostly it'll give them like twenty extra and let them get there a lot healthier and mobile and like. not as old-looking as i imagine someone being like 110 under erid gravity would look like. they'll still probably end up using canes though not as soon as grace does in the book, and towards the end the eridians will make them their five-legged contraptions to scuttle around. and yeah they'd get to see a poplar and eucalyptus forest + their maple

space politics below!

I love Rocktiz, but I can't draw him with human Grace because I'm just too attached to the interspecie bond between Grace and Rocky. It's the soul of the movie and its so beautiful.

The human Rocky AU and eridian Grace AU down there, since i really liked the linearts its a shame they're so hidden