Silly Ghast

//in regards to the newest chapter

Grace: *Retroactively freaking out about Doing A Misogyny™*

and grace who is so alien, but reflects eridian mannerisms that they've never considered strange before but coming from a creature so soft and strange, it just doesn't feel right. grace who stomps his foot twice when he asks a question, and it rings out flat and dull instead of the strong, sharp sound of an eridian hand on the ground. grace whose voice is so alien, so one-note, so full of articulations that are sharp and round and everywhere in between, but who echoes the melodies of eridian poetry and music, sometimes on accident but sometimes perfectly in time with what rocky translates him as saying, and later, perfectly in time with his keyboard.

Until Grace slips out a sentence along the lines of "could you give me a little grace here" and Rocky immediately points out he used a word wrong so Grace has to explain that yeah, grace means elegance but it can also mean mercy sometimes too.

Rocky: I hate seeing you like this convict Simon, statement.

Simon:*Breathing heavy through pain* Like what?

Later, with Grace: “Simon is a beautiful name.”

When they get to the point of starting to trust each other, they’re sitting on the beach watching the artificial sunset and it’s a comfortable silence for a bit before Simon says “I’m sorry…..for not trusting you before.” And Grace is taken a back.

“You don’t have to apologise. I get it. The last time I saw a living human being, they chased me and pinned me to the ground to sedate me to send me off to space.” Grace is fiddling with some sand in his hands.

“Really? Shit….. Last time I saw a living human being I was welded shut into a submarine.” Simon huffs a laugh and Grace swears he could see a small smile on his face.

“Guess we’re just two guys who were sent to do something against our wills.” Grace shakes his head. “We’re like laika and felicette.”

“Who are they?” Simon tilts his head in question.

“Oh! Well on Earth, before we sent humans into space we sent animals. Laika was a stray dog sent into space but they didn’t come back….. felicette was a cat they sent to space but she got to come back but they killed her when she came back so they could study her brain.”

“Oh…..” Simon mumbles. “When….when I was in the sub….. I told them that I just wanted to live and was that so wrong? I know I did bad things but I just-“ Simon stops himself and looks back out into the ocean.

“I’m sorry that happened, convict-“

“Simon.” Simon turns to him. “My name is Simon.”

“Oh! Nice to meet you Simon. I’m Ryland Grace but you can just call me Grace.” Grace rambles out.

“I know.” Simon huffs a laugh softly. “When I was at the COI, all they called me was convict. They didn’t know my name or they just didn’t care to learn it.” Simon shrugs.

“I’m sorry.” Grace apologises again and Simon huffs softly.

“Stop it. You- you weren’t the one to do those things to me.” Simon tells him. “Just like I wasn’t the one who sent you into space against your will. There was just- nothing either of us could do to stop it from happening…”

“Do you regret it?” Grace asks. “Me saving you from the sub?”

Simon shakes his head. “No. I uh, I’m thankful. You gave me my freedom.”

Grace smiles softly at him and says “I don’t regret it either.” Grace pauses before saying “but if I had a Time Machine, I would set it to before they welded you into the sub.”