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Would anyone be interested in some more Maul x Brander smutty fanfic? I really love writing sexy Maul and all the endless possibilities with Brander. Gosh.
If anyoneâs interested, here are some of the previous works Iâve done with these two!
Dark Worship -Power bottom Maul x Brander
Maul teaches Brander how he would like to be ridden.
Embracing desire - Maul x Brander
Brander shouldn't give into his desires nor to the charms of the shadows lord, yet here he is face down on silky sheets Maul whispering sweet nothingness into his ear.
I'm not really happy with how they turned out, but this was one of my first projects it sat abandoned for to long, and I really wanted to finally finish it. Plus, I needed to cover the hole it had, oops.
If Rocky had to make jewelry for Grace, I think heâd use aragonite for Grace and blue tourmaline to represent Adrien.
Writing about Project Hail Mary is making me dust off my rock and mineral collection again. Iâve been thinking about Rocky possibly being related to aragonite, a mineral I already haveâbrownish with hexagonal crystals.
Iâve also been thinking about the necklace Rocky gives Grace in my fanfic. In my version, itâs made of clear quartz and tourmaline, with trapped inclusions inside. For Eridians, it would sound very beautiful because of the different subharmonics produced by the tourmaline structure inside the crystal.
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
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When Grace is six years old he receives his soulmateâs first lost item. Itâs a strange hollow cylinder, similar to a pencil, semi-translucent and blotchy brown. It looks like glass, but it canât be; Grace has dropped it several times in his clumsy enthusiasm, and hasn't broken nor chiped. He is absolutely overjoyed by the fact that he finally has a soulmate, even if he has no idea what the object actually is. His parents are mostly just relieved that their son has stopped crying over not having a soulmate.
Grace goes to class the next day and shows everyone his soulmateâs strange object. He tells them itâs a pencil cover, something to make pencils look nicer. The classroom stares at him strangely, and his teacher gives him a look of pity, Grace in his young enthusiasm doesn't notice, too enamored with the object in his hands.
His bullies catch wind of it quickly. Grace is a weak kid, an easy target. They rip the cylinder from his hands and throw it to the ground. The cylinder doesnât break, but something inside Grace does. He feels small, insignificant. He cries to his parents about what happened, but his father only tells him he was stupid for taking something precious to school, where things are always lost or stolen.
Grace drags himself to his room, whimpering softly. He doesnât know where to keep something so important without losing it. In the end, he places the cylinder inside a shoebox. He doesnât have anything better.
__________
Grace is twelve when the second object from his soulmate arrives.
One morning he wakes to find the strangest thing sitting on his pillow. For a second, he wonders if he lost a tooth and this is some bizarre version of the tooth fairy, but thatâs impossible. Which means it came from his soulmate.
He jumps around the room in excitement.
Itâs a small figure, around the size of his fist, mostly turquoise with brown spots that somehow blend together beautifully. It looks like a mix between a crab and a spider, five limbs attached to a rounded carapace that spikes upward. The material almost looks 3D-printed, though Grace has never seen anything quite like it before.
Itâs gorgeous.
The figure immediately becomes Graceâs most precious possession. He tells no one about it because he wants it to be his and his alone. He keeps it on his nightstand because he wants to fall asleep looking at it and wake up to the sight of something his soulmate once touched. Whenever someone strange comes to the house or his parents visit his room, Grace puts the figure into the shoe box. Â
With it comes a realization: his soulmate must be an artist, someone who loves arthropods and strange little creatures.
That realization quietly shapes Graceâs future.
He studies biology in school, always choosing every science elective he can. Eventually he discovers that molecular biology fascinates him even more. Sometimes he thinks, distantly, that he owes his soulmate everything. Without them, he might never have found what he loves.
Turquoise becomes Graceâs favorite color.
______________
Grace is eighteen, living in his tiny student apartment after starting college early, when the next item appears.
The box itself is the first thing that catches his attention. Itâs made from the same strange material as the cylinder his soulmate sent years ago. Grace turns it over carefully in his hands, marveling at it before opening it.
The lid is covered in strange mathematical symbols.
Inside is, frankly, junk.
At least thatâs the only word Grace can think of for the bizarre collection of trinkets, rocks, and crystals filling the box. Nothing looks functional, yet Grace loves every single piece anyway.
One crystal in particular catches his attention. Itâs transparent with flat sides, though it isnât any polyhedron he recognizes. A hexagonal prism sits at its center, and the whole thing glimmers beautifully in the light.
The next day, Grace visits one of those tiny crystal shops with incense smoke thick enough to choke. He asks the woman behind the counter if she has a way for him to wear the crystal safely.
The woman is older, dressed entirely in blue, her hair pulled into a tight bun. Her sharp green eyes settle on the crystal the moment he places it on the counter.
âOtherworldly,â she murmurs as she touches it briefly . âYour soulmate is unlike anyone else. Just like this gem.â
Grace freezes.
He never told her it came from his soulmate.
Still, he leaves the shop wearing a spiraling wire pendant that cradles the crystal safely without altering it. The word otherworldly lingers in his mind the whole walk home.
It feels right.
From then on, Grace never takes the pendant off. It stays tucked beneath his shirt, resting close to his heart. The junk box becomes the new shoe box and the upgrade heals something within him.Â
At twenty-four, he receives another figurine.
This one is smaller and rounder than the first, almost its complete opposite. Grace finds that oddly amusing and terribly endearing. Itâs mostly brown, but three of its limbs are tipped with the same bright turquoise.
The figurine becomes his little companion while he works on his thesis in the research lab.
By now Grace has a few friends, enough people around him that he feels comfortable showing off the gifts from his soulmate. They coo over the little crab-like figure, fascinated by its curious design.
For once, life is good.
____________
When Grace turns thirty, life reaches its lowest point.
His thesis about water not being necessary for life is treated like a joke by the scientific community. No one gives him a chance. Linda, his girlfriend, cheats on him with Markâher soulmate. Objectively, Grace knows it never would have worked; they werenât each otherâs soulmates. But the silent treatment and her sudden disappearance still hurt deeply. He spends days crying, trying desperately to understand where he went wrong. He wonders if something is fundamentally broken inside him. Maybe he doesnât really have a soulmate. Maybe heâs simply meant to end up alone, because not even his parents love him, he hasnât spoken to them in four years.
Eventually, Grace becomes a teacher because he has nowhere else to go, nothing else to, the best he can do is to put his science knowledge to work.Â
After his first day teaching, he returns to his tiny apartment exhausted, only to find another gift waiting for him.
Itâs a scale model of a solar system. Not Earthâs solar system, but something entirely alien and impossibly beautiful.
Grace cries the moment he sees it. Because he does have a soulmate. Someone out there likes the same things he does. Someone out there exists.
The gift gives him hope.
So Grace throws himself into teaching. He teaches his students about space with colorful models and impossible enthusiasm. He takes control of his life again, and for the first time in years, it feels good to make a difference in the world, even if itâs only through children who leave his classroom loving science just a little more than before.
________
At thirty-two, Grace is a well-established teacher in his community. The kids adore him. He holds the unofficial title of coolest science teacher in the school, and nobody fails his class.
Life is genuinely becoming good.
Then Eva Stratt appears.
The Petrova crisis drags Grace into becoming the right hand of the most powerful woman on Earth. The pressure is unbearable, and the number of people they fuck over in the process is catastrophic. Part of Grace would rather stay in his classroom teaching children about planets and cells.
But another part of him is enthralled. Astrophage is everything he ever dreamed science could be.
And then it happens.
âDr. Ryland Grace, you have to go as the Hail Maryâs scientist.â
âI put the ânotâ in astronaut,â Grace jokes weakly, voice trembling around the words.
âYou have three hours to decide.â
âI⌠I donât want to go. Iâm not made for that.â
âYes, you are. You have the coma gene and are the leading expert in astrophage. Apprehend him.â Her eyes are cold.
âNoâNO! Iâm not gonna go!â They chase him. Karl included. That betrayal hurts far more than Lindaâs ever did.
They force him to the ground.
âDonât worry,â Stratt says, holding up a syringe. âBy the time you wake up, you wonât remember any of this and will do your job rightâ
âYouâre murdering me,â Grace sobs into the pavement, salt tears soaking into the ground.
Chapter 2 â
Thank you for reading!! Coments and kudos are highly apreciated.
Grace is a wonderful mate. So bright and loud, Rocky absolutely loved spending time with him. He built the nest as close as he could to Grace's own bed because that poor excuse for blankets and pillows was no nest at all, especially when Rocky and Adrien weren't in it.
They reached Tau Ceti e, the only planet not affected by the astrophage. Rocky built the sample collector while Grace tuned it so it could capture the astrophage entering and leaving Tau Ceti e. Grace got into his EVA suit and opened the sampler.
âI wish you could see this. It's beautiful.â
âRocky can't hear. Scary.â
âNot even with the gun thingy?â
âRocky can see, but just round.â
âI wish you could see all the colors. The swirling greens and reds. It's... wow. Really, Rocky, it's beautiful.â
It must be pretty, because mate Grace sounded really impressed. There was a quality to his voice that Rocky had never heard before, and while Grace told him to look at the planet, Rocky only listened to Grace.
âYou should name it.â
âWhy? It already has name. Tau Ceti e.â
âNo, no.â Mate chuckled. Beautiful.â You found it first. You have to name it. It's a human custom. Whoever discovers it gets to name it.â
âOkay, then. Rocky will name it Medium Rough Texture Circle Planet.â
âGod, that's an awful name. Isn't there something more personal you could name it after?â
âAdrien. Mate Grace says it's beautiful. Adrien very beautiful. This way Adrien also gets to listen to the stars.â
âBeautiful. They would love it.â
Secretly, Rocky would have named it Grace, their star savior, in the same way Grace was his savior. But that felt a bit too much and embarrassing. Instead, he settled for listening to Grace's breathing and that content little hum he made whenever he was feeling pensive.
Grace did all the experimentation because Rocky knew nothing about biology, but watching Grace perform human science was enthralling, and that was all that mattered. When he was done, Grace measured the amount of astrophage in each sample.
âIt's the same amount. It makes no sense.â Grace turned the digital meter toward Rocky. The screen showed the same reading.
âMakes no sense. Should be double astrophage. Go to Adrien to breed.â
âI know, buddy. It's either not reproducing, or it's not leaving the planet.â
They did more experiments. Grace put the sample under a microscope, a thing that magnified tiny things, and suddenly he gasped as he peered down at it.
âOh my God.â
âWhat is it?â Rocky was immediately worried.
âLife. There is life.â Grace turned the monitor toward Rocky.
âWhat does this mean?â
âThere's a whole ecosystem here, like on Erid or Earth. There's life on Adrien.â
Goodness. Impossible. No way. No way. No way.
Rocky trembled. He knew there was more life outside Erid; Grace himself was proof of that. But discovering it like this, finding something that had never been seen before... it was new. Rocky couldn't help but screech.
âLIFE IS REASON!â
There was life. An ecosystem. A life cycle. A food chain. A predator. Organisms that fed on astrophage like any other living creature. Oh, God. Oh God. Oh God.
âRocky, what areââ
âLife is reason, mate. Life is reason.â
âI don't follow that. What are you trying to tell me?â Grace was shaking too, though for a very different reason. Rocky paused, trying to find the words.
âThere is predator on Adrien.â
âWhy didn't you say so?!â
âIf we bring it to our planets, Rocky and Grace save stars.â
âYes! Yes, we can do that. God, Rocky, you are so smart.â
Rocky couldn't help but preen. Happy hums and chitters escaped him.
They hatched a plan to reach Tau Ceti e's atmosphere and gather a sample. They couldn't leave orbit and simply descend into the planet; if they ventured too far into the atmosphere, the Hail Mary would break. The ship wasn't made for reentries, which rubbed Rocky the wrong way, but right now he couldn't think about it. Saving the stars took precedence.
âWe need to reach the atmosphere. That's where the breeding grounds are, but we can't go that far down.â
Grace was bouncing a ball against his enclosure like an overexcited pebble. It was really endearing to watch him this happy and enthusiastic.
âI make chain. We go fishing. Attach predator collector to chain end.â
âYou can do that, Rock, 5km?â
âYes. Look.â
Rocky pulled out the few chain links he had already made.
âRocky, you're a genius.â
âI know,â Rocky bragged.
During this time, Grace gave him the necklace. The crystal wasn't even in a proper setting. Oh, he was going to have so much fun designing and creating all their matching jewelry.
The first thing he did was remove the wire, careful not to damage it. He noticed how light it was and how soft and malleable the metal was, he would try and replicate it. The first step was to polish the crystal and then frame it with xenonite, similar to how Grace had the pendant surrounded by it, making sure it would chime whenever it touched something, at least by Eridian standards.
Rocky wanted to start with the necklace and devote all of his efforts toward it, but they had to build a chain to save their planets.
The next days were rather miserable. With how many chain links they needed, it took them an entire week. It wasn't as awful for Rocky, who had several more limbs than Grace and was an engineer, but mate Grace had a lot of trouble. He couldn't even sit still for long enough.
They discussed how to fish. Mate Grace said he would just go outside, grab the ball, launch it, and retrieve it. Rocky was not happy about that in the slightest. Mate should not go into the silent space. Even while they skirted its atmosphere, the void was still very scary, and Rocky did not want mate to die.
They discussed it for a long time. In the end, there was no other way. Rocky complained, but not without checking everything on Grace's suit.
âRocky will allow mate to go outside if Rocky can check and improve space suit.â Rocky stood proudly on all of his legs, face to carapace with Grace. Humans valued eye contact a lot, even if Rocky had no eyes.
âOkay, that's fair. If there's something wrong, tell me.â
âRocky will tell and fix. Rocky will make sure mate is safe no matter what. But Grace needs to learn how to pilot first.â Grace's head fell, and he groaned.
Rocky liked hearing that noise.
They spent another week learning how to pilot, while Rocky got enough time to finish securing the predator collector and the necklace, a tricky thing to do because it had to be a surprise.
Luckily there wasn't anything wrong with the suit.Â
âOkay, Rock. I'm ready.â
Grace had his suit on. He was waving his arms and exhaling lots of air, apparently trying to de-stress himself.
Everything was ready. The spools of chain and the collector were on the ship's hull. Grace's skills as a pilot were as good as they were going to get, and Rocky had tested and fine-tuned everything to the millimeter.
It was time.
They settled into a low orbit, close to the atmosphere and at just the right angle. It was the best performance Grace had managed while piloting the ship to date. Rocky would have been proud if it weren't for the anxiety crawling up his limbs.
âGood.â
âYes. It's now or never.â
Rocky dropped the collector.
âThree thousand meters. Good connection,â Rocky measured.
âOkay. Now is the fun part.â
âGoing out to get collector no fun. Rocky not want mate Grace out alone.â
âIt's a joke.â
âRocky not like humor right now. Promise Rocky mate Grace will come back.â
He was desperate and whiny, and he didn't care. Grace was much more important. So much more important that, if he could, Rocky would change places with him. He was sturdier than Grace, and Rocky would die before watching anything bad happen to him.
Grace looked at him. He knew that, if Rocky were human, they would be holding some serious eye contact. As it was, Rocky could only listen in the most earnest way possible.
Rocky had finished the necklace, burning a hole into its side on the pouch where he kept it hidden.
âRocky, I promise you I'm going to make it back. I swear. I'll come back to you no matter what.â
Grace grabbed the sides of the xenonite Rocky was standing at, and slowly, with reverence, he placed his forehead against the xenonite at Rocky's height.
Rocky pressed back just as carefully.
Grace's mouth moved, but no sound came out.
For the first time, Rocky desperately wished he could see. He wanted to know what Grace had silently told him. He wanted to picture Grace's face forever, to capture every skin wrinkle and muscle twitch, to listen to all those hidden details.
He listened to Grace leave, all the way to the airlock, before focusing his attention on Mary's readings.
âOh God.â
âWhat is problem? Grace okay?!â
âYes. It's just... the air is on fire.â
Grace went out through the airlock and carefully navigated the ship's hull until he reached the chain.
There were so many things Rocky wanted to tell Grace. How smart he was. How funny. How handsome. How he was the whole reason Rocky hadn't given up. How much Rocky wanted to hold him forever.
But Grace wasn't ready for the entirety of Rocky's love, and he could not distract Grace from the mission.
So he settled for:
âWords of encouragement.â
âYou can't just say that.â
âGreat words of encouragement. Love.â He knew Grace didn't know the word, but it felt right.
Grace reached the chain and managed to take the collector.
The ship shook.
Rocky whined. He was so very afraid for Grace.
âI have the collector,â Grace announced through the intercom.
âAmaze, amaze, amaze. Come back now.â Rocky demanded
Then Mary beeped.
âLosing altitude.â
Rocky's stomach dropped.
âMate Grace needs to come back now! Losing altitude!â
âI know. I saw.â
There was so much dread in Grace's voice that Rocky trembled on his spot, unable to help.
There was a camera on Mary's hull where Grace was walking by, and Rocky saw something knock into him. He hadn't heard it, he didn't warn Grace.
Grace went down like a sack of rocks.
The collector flew off, and Grace lay motionless on the hull.
Dead.
Rocky panicked.
âGrace. Grace, Grace, please, please, please. Mate needs to get up.â
âI'm... I'm okay.â
âMate injured. Answer!â
âNo, no. I just, I need to get the collector.â
Mary beeped again.âElevated heat signatures.â
Rocky trilled anxiously. Humans couldn't handle heat. Their fragile bodies couldn't withstand those temperatures. Rocky should be the one out there. He could handle the temperature. Things could knock into him and he would be much sturdier. He had more limbs to grab onto the hull.
Rocky sang a sad song into the intercom. He couldn't help it. He was worried.
âForget the collector. Come back inside.â
âI need to get it.â
âGrace, forget about it. Mate will die. We try later.â
âRocky, I don't think there's going to be another chance.â
âGrace not die. Please come back.â
âI said I was coming back to you, didn't I? Trust me Rocky.â
There was so much faith and earnestness in Grace's voice that Rocky had to believe him, because otherwise it would kill him.
âGrace, come back. Please.â
Grace let go.
He flew through the hull into the silent void, and Rocky screamed so loudly that his voice went rough, arms knocking into the xenonite.
âGRACE WILL DIE! NO! NOOO!â
Grace held onto the collector's ball, flailing in the scorching nothingness of space. The thing that had knocked into Grace went down, and the pull made Grace rise. He was now on top of the hull again.
Rocky warbled, claws tapping everywere.
There was a pained yell coming from Grace as the rope securing him to the hull pulled on his arm. He cut the rope. He was untethered in space.
Rocky cried out, distressed.
Grace made it inside. He dropped the collector in the airlock and climbed after it. The relief hit Rocky so hard he felt woozy.
âWhere is that noise coming from?â Grace yelled over the cacophony of beeping machines, frantic alarms, and the deep thumping noises coming from inside Mary.
âNoise coming from everywhere, but harder from dormitory.â
âThe gravity is tearing the ship apart.â
âBad, bad, bad. We need to leave.â
âAffirmative.âÂ
Grace climbed into the pilot's chair, strapped himself in, and pushed the thrusters to maximum capacity.
Mary blared, âIncreased pressure hull.â
âThat's no good. Bad, bad, bad.â
âI know.â
âMate, do something!â
âIt's the fuel deposits. I need to concentrate.â
Rocky fell silent.
He didn't want to aggravate Grace, especially after such a stressful moment, but he remained anxious, warbling worried noises under his breath. Still, he let Grace maneuver.
He couldn't focus on anything. There was too much noise, and he couldn't picture Grace as clearly as he would have liked. It troubled him.
Finally, they exited the atmosphere and pulled out of the planet's orbit.
âWow. Okay. We did it, Rock,â Grace cheered. âI told you I would come back to you.â
âYes. Rocky very happy to have Grace back and predator collector.â
He did some jazz hands and happy trills. He was basking in Grace's smile when his face turned. Rocky noticed the texture-pad gun clank against the xenonite wall.
That shouldn't happen.They were in zero gravity.
Suddenly, Grace's pilot chair was violently pulled to the right, and Rocky crashed against the xenonite again. He let out a pained trill. Grace looked at him, confused, his own terror staring back at him.
âWhy ship moving? Question.â
âThere is a hole in it.â Grace slid further away from Rocky. âThe fuel is escaping toward Adrien.â
âEject fuel deposits!â
âYes, I'm on it.â
Grace stretched. He made struggling noises, and Rocky could barely focus with all the noise going around them. They ejected one of the fuel deposits. The force sent them flying to the other side.
Mary blared, âExcessive centrifugal force.â Rocky couldn't help all the worried noises coming from him. Grace reached, with the tip of his finger, the last button.Then hell.
The Hail Mary spun out of control. The disengagement jolted them painfully to the side before crushing them forward.
Rocky crashed against the xenonite wall. It was painful, but not detrimental. The pressure was more harmful. In the midst of it all, Rocky heard it.
Crash.
Crunch.
The noise was organic. Wet. Absolutely horrifying. Rocky knew something inside Grace had broken. Something solid had shattered. And that was what drove Rocky into panic.
âGrace.â
âGrace!â
âGRACE!!â
No response.
For the first time ever, the world was truly silent for Rocky. His only focus was Grace.
He listened.
A heartbeat.
Grace was alive.
Then Grace's eyes fluttered open.
Rocky didn't think he had ever seen Grace's face in such horrific detail. Blood poured from the cuts across his face. His features were distorted by the accumulated blood, and his nose was caved in. Broken.
Rocky feared that, without a nose, Grace would suffocate to death, unable to breathe.
Grace reached with one trembling hand toward the controls. The centrifuge control would counteract the extreme centrifugal force.
Rocky tried to encourage him with trilling noises.
The force was too much. So much so that Rocky could hear the way Grace's blood was moving toward one side of his body. He could hear his breathing slow and his heartbeat weaken. His arm fell.Â
Grace was wholly unresponsive, dead to the world, if it weren't for the fact that Rocky could still hear his heartbeat, he would have tough him dead.
They were going to die.
The realization settled over Rocky with more weight than the centrifugal force crushing them.
He needed to hit that switch. If they didn't activate the false gravity, they were going to die.
He had to hit that switch. Grace couldn't.
And Rocky refused to let his soulmate and love die.
No one else was going to die on his watch.
Adrenaline and resolve coursed through him. He punched the xenonite with all his might. One hit two on the third hit, it broke. His carapace bleed.
It was cold. So terribly cold, and at the same time, it burned like hell.
Agony.
He scratched at the controls. He could barely handle it , but Grace needed him. He turned the switch and pulled the lever.
The relief from the centrifugal force did nothing to alleviate his pain, but Grace was no longer being crushed against Mary's panels.
The blood began returning to his whole body.
Rocky unstrapped Grace from the pilot chair. He could hardly manage any finesse. He grabbed onto Grace's arm.
He had never regretted his wish to touch Grace, so much. The skin beneath his claw sizzled, warped, and popped under the extreme heat. Rocky dragged Grace with enough force not to crush the arm bone he was holding.
It was so cold.
So very cold.
He was shivering.
But GraceâGrace needed to get to Armando.
They reached Armando, and the robot wasted no time. It held Grace up and placed him into the bed, immediately administering all the medicine he needed.
But Grace wasn't waking up.
His eyes weren't opening.
Rocky would watch until Grace woke, even if it was the last thing he did.
âGrace. Love. Mate. Please wake.â He wailed. He was so loud and distressed that he didn't even know whether Grace's ears could hear him.
He took the pendant out of the pouch, his body trembling and limbs convulsing, but carefully settled it onto Grace's chest.
Grace woke.
His eyes were unfocused until they landed on Rocky.
The relief was so immense that all of Rocky's remaining strength left him.
He fell.
It burned so much.
It was so cold.
But Grace was alive.
The pain became unbearable.
Rocky ran for his airlock. He bumped into every wall and door on the way there, but he managed it.
There was no relief.
The pressure of his natural environment suddenly felt suffocating.
He fell to the floor, exhausted, bleeding, cold.
But Grace was alive.
That was all that mattered.
______________________
I'm really sorry for my absence! I was playing Mass Effect and it absolutely destroyed me, but I'm back now and returning to my old "schedule". I hope you're not mad and that you'll enjoy this new chapter!
I had to write this one with the movie playing in the background, pausing and rewinding it way too many times to make sure I got all the details right.
New chapter up tomorrow! Fishing in the stars. This is a big one, narrating the entire fishing incident from Rocky's POV, so you are getting all the angst in one chapter.
I'm really sorry for my absence! I was playing Mass Effect and it absolutely destroyed me, but I'm back now and returning to my old "schedule". I hope you're not mad and that you'll enjoy this new chapter!
I had to write this one with the movie playing in the background, pausing and rewinding it way too many times to make sure I got all the details right.
So sorry for my month-long absence. I bought the Mass Effect Legendary Edition on Steam because it was on sale, and I needed my alien romance as soon as possible so I could read fanfic and maybe write something. Except I just finished it, and now I have depression.
I could have never imagined that ending for Shepard. I need help. My poor husband Garrus.
Anyway, Iâm back now, and more Rocky x Grace will be updated soon.
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
â Live Streamingâ Interactive Chatâ Private Showsâ HD Qualityâ Free Actions
Free to watch ⢠No registration required ⢠HD streaming
do you think his face is so kind so soft it does not macth the life he was forced into it, he has the face of a caretaker the face of a loving mother who is so tired of figthing so much. at first he only puts it on fro his batles to protect himself and
The mask is protectionâbut not for the brutal world of gladiatorial arenas, but to the death matches that allow no emotion except anger.
And Soundwave has never been good at only anger.
He weeps.
Quietly. Constantly. Behind optics that refuse to harden the way the crowd demands. He looks at his victims with sorrow that lingers too long, too visible, too human for a place like this.
They call him weak. Soft. A waste of a frame.
He makes barely any revenue.
No one wants a crying mech in the pits, while it kills.
Megatronusâfriend, caretaker of his cassettes between matches, the only one who ever bothers to sit beside him afterward without judging, tells him he has to improve. Not because he wants Soundwave to become cruel⌠but because he knows what the arena does to those who donât adapt.
âYouâre good,â Megatronus says, quietly. âYouâve never lost.â
A pause.
âThatâs why youâll die, they will eat you alive if they couldâ
Kind souls do not survive in the arena.
So they build the mask.
At first it is only a tool. A way to keep his face concealed thru the matches, to make sanix and keep the cassettes fed, to make sure they are not sold off, dismantled, or worse. His popularity rises the moment he no longer shows what he feels. The crowd prefers silence over sorrow. They prefer violence over mercy.
Slowly, the mask stops being something he wears.
It becomes a performance of deliberate silences and walking in shadows.
A way to hide the pain and sorrow that plagues his frame after each fight.Â
And he learns to perform it so well that even Megatronus stops looking at him like he is fragile.
Then Megatronus comes to him with a dream.
A future beyond the pits. Beyond the Senate. Beyond the cruelty that decides which sparks deserve to starve and which are allowed to burn bright.
A life where Soundwaveâs cassettesâhis childrenâwould not have to fight for scraps or sleep on cold metal floors.
Soft berth. Warm energon. A safety that does not disappear when credits run out.
Soundwave believes him, with the desperation of a mech who has been brought to edge too many times.Â
Because no one has ever spoken of survival like something that could also be gentle.
He starts to follow him.
Support him.
Hopeful and carefully, because it feels like handling broken glass and he is afraid it might still cut him.
The mask begins to come off only in rare places. Quiet, hidden spaces. The calm archives with Orion and Megatronus after extraneous days. The bar at night with Jazz, where music drowns out the noise of the pits. Moments where he almost feels like a mech who could exist without armor.
It feels⌠like breathing.
Like maybe the world is not only built to hurt him.
Then everything explodes.
Orion Pax receives the Matrix instead of Megatronus.
And the world does not shiftâit breaks beyond repair.
The revolution becomes fire.
The Senate falls by their hands.
The only time Soundwave smiled after the killing.Â
The streets become warzones. Names become weapons. Ideals become war manifesto .
There is no more caretaker Soundwave.
Only the silent terror of the pits surviving inside a mech who no longer has time to be anything else but.
Megatronâs most loyal supporter.
At night, the mask still comes off.
Because he needs air.
But even the air still tastes the sameâmetallic, burnt, heavy with spilled energon and the echoes of what they used to be. Still, he clings to it. To the only thing that remains consistent: his cassettes, curled close to his spark like they always have been.
Like they always will be.
Even if everything else disappears.
The revolution becomes war replacing everything that came before it.
No Senate. No reform. No future shaped by hope.
Only war generals.
Only broken sparks learning to survive by becoming something Soundwave has only seen in the pitts and Cybetrons most broken parts.Â
It sickens him, because the world changes but Soundwave does not, he just wears a mask that threatens to fuse to his face.
One cycle, he goes to Megatronâs chamber at night.
âMegatron⌠I think we could negotiate a peace treaty with Orion Pax. He is a sound mech. He stood by ouââ
The energon cube hits the wall before he finishes.
It shatters violently, like the peace they once had.
Liquid spills down expensive carpeting like something alive bleeding out.
âDo not say that foolâs name,â Megatron snaps. âOptimus killed Orion. He knows nothing about us. About what we have endured.â
His voice cracksânot outwardly, but Soundwave hears it anyway.
âAs long as he is a Prime⌠he is one of them.â
Silence.
Soundwave steps forward anyway.
âMegatron⌠old friendâŚâ
His fingers go to the mask.
A pause that feels like falling, like walking into live fire.
Then he removes it.
The room does not change, Megatron keeps looking at him the sameâbut it feels more fragile.
âLook at me,â Soundwave says softly. âLook me in the eyes and tell me that again.â
His optics are gold.
Not sharp. Not cold.
Just tired, sorrowful.
Full of something that never stopped being care, even when everything else turned into hate and pain.
âTell me you didnât love him,â he whispers. âTell me you didnât let your ego decide what he became after he was gone.â
Megatron freezes.
For a moment, there is no conqueror, no lord in the room.
Only Megatronus.
Only someone who remembers, someone who feels to much.
Soundwave doesnât look away.
âPlease.â
It´s a plea, because with Megatron with his old friend Soundwave has always shed the mask
The air changes, fractures.
A quiet collapse held together by loyalty that should not have survived this long.
Megatronâs expression hardens slowly like when the crowd had demanded a kill in a non lethal match but you still had to do so, like putting armor back on before the wound can be seen.
âCover that face, Soundwave.â
The words are sharper than any sword they´ve used. Defensive.
Final.
âNo Decepticon of mine will be caught looking at his victims with sorrow.â
His optics glow with cold authority.
But Soundwave has already seen what is underneath.
And that is what hurts the most.
________________________
This started out as a short headcanon, and now Iâm sitting here with a oneshot that had me holding back tears because Iâm apparently incapable of writing soft comfort.
Hope you enjoy it and suffer as much as I did writing it.
You can read this as part of the I LOVED AND I LOVED AND I LOST YOUÂ fanfic universe. A fanfic where Optimus asks Megatron to stop the war again and again to no abail.
Why didn't rocky go back to Erid when his crew died?
HOLY SHIT. HOLY SHIT.
I just had a realization.
Why didn't Rocky go back to Erid when his crew died? Or even while they were dying? Is that ever explained? I don't remember, and I've read the book.
So here's my headcanon:
Rocky never went back to Erid because he thought he had some strange, incurable disease that he was somehow immune to. He didn't want to risk bringing it back and contaminating his entire species, so, in a way, Rocky was on a suicide mission too. He was prepared to die alone in space if it meant protecting Erid from whatever had killed his crew.
It would also explain why he stayed, because Erid would have been sent their most capable scientists to the Blip-A working on the problem. From Rocky's perspective, there was nothing he could do except keep himself isolated.
Then Grace explains radiation.
And suddenly Rocky realizes...
He isn't contagious.
He can go home.
He can see his mate again. His friends. His old life.
He gets all of that back because this weird leaky space blob took the time to figure out what had actually happened.
So of course Rocky gives Grace the fuel. Grace didn't just save Eridâhe saved Rocky. He gave him his life back.
I'm losing my marbles over here. Please tell me I'm not the only one who thought of this. đ
ok I know I seem insane for watching project hail mary for the fourth time in 10 days but I got to watch it with the directors commentary tonight and itâs incredible how much thought and love went into this film by EVERYONE. the directors, ryan gosling himself, the sound department, costumes, set production, cameras. everyone has so much pride and the story is so beloved by all. anyway here are some of my favorite things from the commentary
no one knew how to pronounce eridani (air-id-ah-ni or air-re-deni) so they just literally never said it in the film
the âgood luckâ at the beginning is supposed to have been written by the astronauts on the ISS who delivered ryland to the hail mary
when ryland calls stratt after successfully breeding astrophage and he says âcarl and I made a baby,â that was ryan gosling was calling sandra hĂźller on her day off and she had no idea thatâs what he was going to say. that âwhatâ was her genuine first reaction
the scientist whom ryland called a stagnating waste of carbon was the bearded guy sitting next to him and stratt in the initial phm meeting
the idea of the soundtrack being so hopeful was supposed to be like there were two different planets cheering him on
when ryland is sitting on the beach in that donât-go-crazy room and sees a figure walking towards him, thatâs him on erid at the end. heâs seeing himselfÂ
among the markings on rocky were the petrova line mission patch, his rank, family crest, and wedding band
rocky always stamped his claw on the ground twice for a question
they wanted to make it so that eridani could have different tones. so it could be a given series of keys for one word and then you could change the frequencies for happy, sad, scared, etc.
after rocky wakes up and asks ryland if they caught the taumeoba and ryland shakes his head no and then yes, the directors went âwhat an odd thing to doâ
ryan gosling wrapped all the gifts that ryland gave to rocky himself
the entire reason that exchange panel was put on rockyâs ball was so that ryland could pass him the little beanie earth
the movie starts with an upside down shot of ryland waking up. the epilogue starts with a right-side up shot of ryland waking up. he also makes his bed and brushes his teeth to show how time has passed LOL
their headcanon for explaining the rocky nature of the beach is that the eridians tried to emulate sand but got the scale of the grains wrong
rocky had them create a beach, and wave machine for the beach, and a tree for ryland so that he felt closer to home, but rocky was all he needed for that
When Grace is six years old he receives his soulmateâs first lost item. Itâs a strange hollow cylinder, similar to a pencil, semi-translucent and blotchy brown. It looks like glass, but it canât be; Grace has dropped it several times in his clumsy enthusiasm, and hasn't broken nor chiped. He is absolutely overjoyed by the fact that he finally has a soulmate, even if he has no idea what the object actually is. His parents are mostly just relieved that their son has stopped crying over not having a soulmate.
Grace goes to class the next day and shows everyone his soulmateâs strange object. He tells them itâs a pencil cover, something to make pencils look nicer. The classroom stares at him strangely, and his teacher gives him a look of pity, Grace in his young enthusiasm doesn't notice, too enamored with the object in his hands.
His bullies catch wind of it quickly. Grace is a weak kid, an easy target. They rip the cylinder from his hands and throw it to the ground. The cylinder doesnât break, but something inside Grace does. He feels small, insignificant. He cries to his parents about what happened, but his father only tells him he was stupid for taking something precious to school, where things are always lost or stolen.
Grace drags himself to his room, whimpering softly. He doesnât know where to keep something so important without losing it. In the end, he places the cylinder inside a shoebox. He doesnât have anything better.
__________
Grace is twelve when the second object from his soulmate arrives.
One morning he wakes to find the strangest thing sitting on his pillow. For a second, he wonders if he lost a tooth and this is some bizarre version of the tooth fairy, but thatâs impossible. Which means it came from his soulmate.
He jumps around the room in excitement.
Itâs a small figure, around the size of his fist, mostly turquoise with brown spots that somehow blend together beautifully. It looks like a mix between a crab and a spider, five limbs attached to a rounded carapace that spikes upward. The material almost looks 3D-printed, though Grace has never seen anything quite like it before.
Itâs gorgeous.
The figure immediately becomes Graceâs most precious possession. He tells no one about it because he wants it to be his and his alone. He keeps it on his nightstand because he wants to fall asleep looking at it and wake up to the sight of something his soulmate once touched. Whenever someone strange comes to the house or his parents visit his room, Grace puts the figure into the shoe box. Â
With it comes a realization: his soulmate must be an artist, someone who loves arthropods and strange little creatures.
That realization quietly shapes Graceâs future.
He studies biology in school, always choosing every science elective he can. Eventually he discovers that molecular biology fascinates him even more. Sometimes he thinks, distantly, that he owes his soulmate everything. Without them, he might never have found what he loves.
Turquoise becomes Graceâs favorite color.
______________
Grace is eighteen, living in his tiny student apartment after starting college early, when the next item appears.
The box itself is the first thing that catches his attention. Itâs made from the same strange material as the cylinder his soulmate sent years ago. Grace turns it over carefully in his hands, marveling at it before opening it.
The lid is covered in strange mathematical symbols.
Inside is, frankly, junk.
At least thatâs the only word Grace can think of for the bizarre collection of trinkets, rocks, and crystals filling the box. Nothing looks functional, yet Grace loves every single piece anyway.
One crystal in particular catches his attention. Itâs transparent with flat sides, though it isnât any polyhedron he recognizes. A hexagonal prism sits at its center, and the whole thing glimmers beautifully in the light.
The next day, Grace visits one of those tiny crystal shops with incense smoke thick enough to choke. He asks the woman behind the counter if she has a way for him to wear the crystal safely.
The woman is older, dressed entirely in blue, her hair pulled into a tight bun. Her sharp green eyes settle on the crystal the moment he places it on the counter.
âOtherworldly,â she murmurs as she touches it briefly . âYour soulmate is unlike anyone else. Just like this gem.â
Grace freezes.
He never told her it came from his soulmate.
Still, he leaves the shop wearing a spiraling wire pendant that cradles the crystal safely without altering it. The word otherworldly lingers in his mind the whole walk home.
It feels right.
From then on, Grace never takes the pendant off. It stays tucked beneath his shirt, resting close to his heart. The junk box becomes the new shoe box and the upgrade heals something within him.Â
At twenty-four, he receives another figurine.
This one is smaller and rounder than the first, almost its complete opposite. Grace finds that oddly amusing and terribly endearing. Itâs mostly brown, but three of its limbs are tipped with the same bright turquoise.
The figurine becomes his little companion while he works on his thesis in the research lab.
By now Grace has a few friends, enough people around him that he feels comfortable showing off the gifts from his soulmate. They coo over the little crab-like figure, fascinated by its curious design.
For once, life is good.
____________
When Grace turns thirty, life reaches its lowest point.
His thesis about water not being necessary for life is treated like a joke by the scientific community. No one gives him a chance. Linda, his girlfriend, cheats on him with Markâher soulmate. Objectively, Grace knows it never would have worked; they werenât each otherâs soulmates. But the silent treatment and her sudden disappearance still hurt deeply. He spends days crying, trying desperately to understand where he went wrong. He wonders if something is fundamentally broken inside him. Maybe he doesnât really have a soulmate. Maybe heâs simply meant to end up alone, because not even his parents love him, he hasnât spoken to them in four years.
Eventually, Grace becomes a teacher because he has nowhere else to go, nothing else to, the best he can do is to put his science knowledge to work.Â
After his first day teaching, he returns to his tiny apartment exhausted, only to find another gift waiting for him.
Itâs a scale model of a solar system. Not Earthâs solar system, but something entirely alien and impossibly beautiful.
Grace cries the moment he sees it. Because he does have a soulmate. Someone out there likes the same things he does. Someone out there exists.
The gift gives him hope.
So Grace throws himself into teaching. He teaches his students about space with colorful models and impossible enthusiasm. He takes control of his life again, and for the first time in years, it feels good to make a difference in the world, even if itâs only through children who leave his classroom loving science just a little more than before.
________
At thirty-two, Grace is a well-established teacher in his community. The kids adore him. He holds the unofficial title of coolest science teacher in the school, and nobody fails his class.
Life is genuinely becoming good.
Then Eva Stratt appears.
The Petrova crisis drags Grace into becoming the right hand of the most powerful woman on Earth. The pressure is unbearable, and the number of people they fuck over in the process is catastrophic. Part of Grace would rather stay in his classroom teaching children about planets and cells.
But another part of him is enthralled. Astrophage is everything he ever dreamed science could be.
And then it happens.
âDr. Ryland Grace, you have to go as the Hail Maryâs scientist.â
âI put the ânotâ in astronaut,â Grace jokes weakly, voice trembling around the words.
âYou have three hours to decide.â
âI⌠I donât want to go. Iâm not made for that.â
âYes, you are. You have the coma gene and are the leading expert in astrophage. Apprehend him.â Her eyes are cold.
âNoâNO! Iâm not gonna go!â They chase him. Karl included. That betrayal hurts far more than Lindaâs ever did.
They force him to the ground.
âDonât worry,â Stratt says, holding up a syringe. âBy the time you wake up, you wonât remember any of this and will do your job rightâ
âYouâre murdering me,â Grace sobs into the pavement, salt tears soaking into the ground.
Chapter 2 â
Thank you for reading!! Coments and kudos are highly apreciated.
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