#random echo comments

What if Rocky talks in third person because he’s spent so long without anyone to talk to? He would pretend that someone called his name or pretend that there was someone to watch him sleep even when there wasn’t. It was the only way he could get by.

And when he gets back, speaking in some messy form of eridian with only referring to himself as his name, the other eridians are more than a little concerned.

What could have happened to the silly but well spoken engineer they sent out? And where was the rest of his crew?

Man, when Rocky finally tells them the full story, beyond just the eridian equivalent of “stuff happened”, Adrian and his family he left behind is there to support him. And the best way they can do that is by keeping Grace alive and healthy.

In this case, it’s a project Hail Mary fic. I don’t like species change aus usually but this one is important to the story that I can’t do the fic without it. But basically: it’s about Grace and he’s gotten old. He tries to escape death by taking the option the eridians gave him. Some part of him hates the idea that he can’t do things, that he can’t be everything, that he’s growing old. He ends up surviving as an eridian himself, but a whole new set of problems have arisen. Namely, he doesn’t understand the culture as well as he thought, he doesn’t understand how to use this body, none of that. He’s so confused and upset. He traded one set of problems for another. And now…

It was worth it, he knew that. He felt it in his bones, but he hated it. He hated it. He hated feeling worthless and alien in this society even more than he did before. And thats when he meets Grackle.

Grackle is a “soundless” Eridian (one who’s vocal cords have been damaged and who cannot process sound as well due to any reason.). She fell asleep by herself one day, thinking that it was safe enough right? She could risk it once. And she didn’t have anyone to ask at the time as she’d been too busy preparing to go into her career, she hadn’t really made any close friends she trusted and her family was busy with their own lives. She fell asleep and got attacked by a predator that fills an eridian’s body with a venom that causes build up in areas that process sound and slowly kill them. Grackle was saved by another eridian coming to stop by and talk with her about a position in the field she wanted to go to, only to find her slowly dying with this predator. She was saved, but now this society looked down at her.

(Also I know where your brain is going but no, this is not a romance. Grackle’s like barely older than a pebble. And I don’t wanna write a romance.)

The whole fic is basically Grace coming to terms with his own disabilities and his struggles with self hatred that he ran from, all the while helping Grackle who is a complete social outcast because of hers. Along with a little of Rocky healing and struggling with c-ptsd very badly. Like, REALLY badly.

Imagine Grace gets to Erid, and not only does he realize how different dialects there are and that makes it near impossible to translate quickly enough to understand, but now he must rely on ROCKY to translate for him because he couldn’t bring his computer. And Rocky is a little gremlin who purposefully translates things just a little off to confuse and mess with Grace until Grace catches on.

✨

Oh dear! Gonna be hard to pick people to send it to!

Uhhh 5 things I like about myself? Uhm…

1. I guess my drive for creativity ? Both visual and written works

2. I like that I’m decent at reading people somewhat!

3. High pain tolerance I guess!

4. I like that I can write stories.

5. I like that I can draw!