yumereko ⋆. 𐙚 ˚

Blood.

Disgusting, crimson red blood had stained the stranger that lay unconscious on the medical table in front of Grace. This whole situation was just... Impossible. He’d thought the same thing about so many things that happened to him. But this— This might’ve been one of the least possible things to come out of the mission.

About a year after Grace landed on Erid and gotten accustomed to everything, Adrian informed him of something very out of the ordinary. They’d picked up some sort of radio signal while working on the Hail Mary, but what really stuck out was the fact that it was from a moon. And it wasn’t just any signal either, but it was a distress signal.

The only reason anybody knew it was English was because Rocky, while stopping by to report Adrian’s progress, recognized the composition of the word structure. Adrian had just thought it was a random signal picked up by the Hail Mary— Which, to be fair, they did apologize about.

The most unreasonable thing about this, though, wasn't the fact that a human was somehow in the 40 Eridani Star System. However, it was the fact that the stranger was alive.

Rocky and Adrian set out a special crew to the moon the signal was from to see what was wrong, and on that moon— Which he now knew, from a sample, was apparently covered in blood— There was a submarine. It was floating on the surface due to how much damage was sustained to the side, and it looked crudely made as well. As if there were only enough materials to finish it haphazardly.

And even more interesting, inside the submarine was a person. A barely alive, severely injured, scraggly-looking person. But still, a person. Grace wasn’t bored of Rocky’s company, but his stubbornness made it difficult to stay loyal. To be honest, Grace was overjoyed when he heard whoever sent out the distress signal was still alive.

But when the space crew came back holding a half-dead man strapped to stretchers, his face went pale.

“What the- How on Earth is that guy still alive?! Theres no way!”

He thought. The person looked dead, at least. Though his vitals showed otherwise, Grace was still skeptical when he heard how they found him worse than he was coming in. Truthfully, he didn't get a great look at the stranger whenever they first came back, since they were rushing to get him to a med bay. Rightfully, so. But he did see that the man’s arm was cut... No, ripped off.

But now, standing over this person, he can’t tell if he’s really human. Firstly, the arm that looked like it had been sawed off with a chainsaw was now fully healed, and there was a rounded stump where Grace assumed an arm was. Before they found him, at least. Secondly, and more interestingly, there were teeth in rows, sort of lining up with where the right side of his mouth was... On his face. It honestly looked like something out of a horror movie.

Armando— Or at least, the parts of Armando they’d salvaged from the Hail Mary they put into a lab on Erid for Grace— Gave the human’s report, sucking him out of his own thoughts.

“Patient shows severe signs of radiation poisoning, concussion, internal bleeding, and starvation.”

Well, that checks... But that doesn’t make it any better. He’ll probably need a few weeks to recover, if not more... I wouldn’t be surprised if it takes a month, truly. It only made sense if—

“Eye movement detected.”

...What?

“What is 2 + 2?”

Grace backed away a little from the relatively small cot the stranger was in.

"Armando must be malfunctioning... Right?"

Grace stared at the man’s face, which was indeed stirring.

The last thing Simon remembered was death.

Alone.

In that stupid, blazing hot submarine.

In all honesty, he’d knew he would be dead after he learned they were welding him in. Instead of... Giving him a hatch or something, for fucks sake.

He knew he’d be dead after hearing the eel, too. Something about its crazed, uneasy delusions of some holy light drained his hope. It really told him all he needed to know about this moon— About the blood ocean.

He wasn’t meant to come back.

But still, he felt the grasp of conscience on his forearm— And it was surprisingly... Cold.

He opened his eyes, expecting to see the eel, or the submarine, or the blood ocean. Something familiar. But there was no red in his foggy vision besides himself. It was bright, too. Blinding almost, compared to prison, or hell, even Eden. But in the outline of that light was a figure.

A human figure.

In contrast of the light and shadow, he’d actually dare to call it an... Angel.

Sitting up, he tried to speak to it, but his words came out in uneven strands of slurred speech.

“ehhree... y-yoou ‘n angeelll...”

That was not what he meant to say. And he didn’t mean to sound so fucking pathetic, either. Yet no matter how much he strained, his words all came out either wrong or half-assed.

He heard a voice speak to him; one unlike any he’d heard before. He couldn’t make out anything it was saying, but it sounded... Nice. In a way, at least. Yet not at all tangible. He tried to listen a little better, but that didn’t help the ringing in his ears. So, he layed back down, letting a wave of exhaustion knock him out cold.

Ryland held onto the strangers' arm— Out of habit— And pulled back, almost instantly, realizing how weird it probably was.

“Jeez, can I handle human interaction normally at least this once..”

The stranger sat up a little, blinking at him groggily before slurring out what he could only assume was supposed to be,

“Are you an angel?”

Well, that's weird. Well, not weird in the sense... Weird. But more so confusing.

“Uhh, I mean that’s very flattering, but in the literal sense no. I’m a human, like you I assume... Well, what am I assuming, I mean— Because you speak English so, I figured-”

Ryland trailed off, not realizing he forgot to introduce himself.

“Oh, wait, that probably doesn’t matter much... I forgot to tell you my name! It’s Ryland Grace, and you are currently on the planet Erid! Whoch I'm not sure you're familiar with, but uh... I guess we can get into that more later.”