Howdy, I'm JDKCosmos, Jay for short. I've finally decided to get some of my au/fanfic ideas for some of the fandoms i enjoy down like ive seen many people do. I hope you enjoy. also sorry for the rough looking blog, idk what I'm doing with it yet.
Ryland had followed the instructions and gone to take a shower. It had been well bigger than any shower he had used in his life, and when he turned the knobs hot water had shot out. He panicked, shutting the whole thing off, looking at the door with heart racing like he expected someone to storm in and punish him. It had been so much water, and hot. There wasn't a lot of people allowed hot water on Eden and - He wasn't on Eden.
He was never told hardly anything growing up of Mars, and even less of Earth, His typical general education had lacked as his guardian had focused entirely on teaching him only what he needed to know to do what he did. It was only well later into life, after having met Simon, that he had realized there was a lot he had missed. Like a lot. Simon had ended up, after a lot of fighting and insecurity, teaching him whatever he could think of from his own schooling growing up when Grace had finally gotten over himself and let Simon help.
He wasn't sure if warm water was a luxury here or not, but if he was going to be kept prisoner again even on earth he was going to be careful. Taking off his clothes he went to walk into the shower when he saw himself in a floor length mirror. Tossing his clothes in he went to investigate himself, getting quite close to see. He was disgustingly dirty, dried blood in numerous places, wounds bruises and scars both fresh and old littering all over his body. Sure, Eden was a little grungy, but they could keep fairly clean. Ryland was always on the low end of that, focusing more on his work than taking care of himself, but he was never in his life this bad. Now that he had realized, and he wasn't so on edge, his skin began to crawl again with the need to be clean. And then, still looking in the mirror his skin began to crawl for another reason.
"Look at yourself."
He practically threw himself into the shower, throwing it on again and ignoring the fact that this time it was freezing, this temperature he was more used to. It was enough of a shock to his system to drown out the memory of standing in front of a mirror as a kid. He wasn't sure what all of the bottles and strange items were for and he wasn't going to bother finding out, seeing a bar of soap he quietly lamented as usual about how it'll leave his hands feeling off and got to scrubbing.
He'd cleaned himself, doing his best with his hair, but it was longer than he was used to and getting severely tangled, so he had rinsed it as much as he could and moved on. Then he scrubbed down the jumpsuit, finishing rinsing everything and wrung it out enough to where it dripped minimally. Holding his damp outfit to his front he made a tense bee-line out and to his room.
Safely situated with a door between him and anyone else he relaxed slightly. Then he noticed things had changed while he was away. He wanted to be upset but this wasn't his space, or even his things, he had no claim to be upset over. The dirty sheets had been removed and new ones were fit onto the bed, pillows switched out, and a pair of glasses sat on one of them. Tossing the wet jumpsuit over the bar in the closet, he quickly threw on the clothes on the bedside table and gently picked up the glasses. Reverently he opened and slowly put them to his face. They were ... Well he was nearsighted and didn't have anything far enough away to look at to know if they had helped. There was an opaque window letting some light in but he wasn't sure if it would open and even if it did he was not going to risk Court getting upset with him. The man may have let him use the bathroom, but he still had a gun and they had some tentative understanding but Ryland was not pushing it.
He closed the precious glasses and considered where best to keep them, eventually settling that on his person was best, and he hooked them into the collar of his shirt under the sweater. He hoped the clean soft fabric on both sides would protect them.
And now there was nothing to do. He looked around the sparse room. Four walls, bed, empty bedside table, windows he wasn't touching, and a closet he had already seen had nothing in it. He was left to his devices yet again. Fuck he hated this, having fuck all to work on. When he was being held captive on COI there was nothing to do for days on end but exercise, consume what was given to him, scream on occasion, and when he was pretty sure no one was coming around any time soon he'd let himself wallow in pity if he could manage it. Some of those ideas were off the table as he knew he could hear through the walls here better than he could in his cells.
Glancing at the door he realizes he could leave the room again and maybe explore the house, but beyond the door being unlocked he hadn't been given permission. Maybe he didn't need permission here? Maybe the door being unlocked was permission? Maybe he needed to stop thinking the word permission to himself, it was quickly annoying. Still he hadn't been given it.
He wanted to try anyway, even as ice began to seep into his veins.
He stood and haltingly walked over to the door, but standing right in front of it he couldn't bring himself to even reach for it, hands frozen. Yes he would get bored in here, and yes he wanted nothing more than to spite his teachings and start doing whatever the fuck he wanted, but the fear that seized him any time he wanted to defy his superiors was stronger than ever in this moment. This dread had been building, he realizes, since he first thought of running while in the garage, and had been compounding since. He hated himself for it. He had been such an issue when he was younger and into adulthood, and then they had backed him into a corner and forced him to behave and now that fear had him in a chokehold.
He was being pathetic, hands shaking at his side, staring at the doorhandle like it was Olympus Mons. He was paralyzed. He had been full of adrenaline and panic and fear when he bit, when he ran, and even when he had woken up from being knocked out yet again. He knew it was because he had thought at first they were COI and Court a traitor, so Edens enforcement didn't extend to them, and yet here he was unable to do anything. They aren't Eden, why can't he do anything!
A swift knock at the door had startled him and he practically threw himself across the room from it. He scrabbled to the bed and sat, on it, making himself look like he wasn't half a second from freaking out. Steeling his face he called out "Yes?"
Colt opened the door, eyes locking on Ryland and then gave him a once over, "Sorry. Court wants to have a talk if you think you're ready." Both of them were being stoic, and both of them could tell. After a moments silence he spoke again, "So, are you ready?"
"May I have a moment?"
"Sure, I'll wait down the hall."
Colt closed the door and after a moment Ryland slipped off the floor. Collapsing to his knees, arms holding him up, he started panting. "Fuck" His heart was racing, his arms shaking, his eyes hot, his lungs heaving. He'd almost been caught, his mind had supplied. He didn't have time, They wanted to talk, and he couldn't leave them waiting. He hunkered down and stopped breathing, forcing his heart rate to slow in the fastest way he could.
_________
Colt, with Ryland close behind, now freshly cleaned and with some of Rylands old clothes Colt had refused to throw out, came into the dining room where Court had waited for them. He sat on one side, Colt walking past him into the kitchen, waving at Ry to sit opposite them. he obediently did. Something new was off with the other but he hid it well and Court couldn't get a read on it.
"Hey Ryland." The other simply nodded at him. "We wanted to talk about Everything that has happened and Maybe delve into our different universes, see what we can gleam from each other, and talk about what we can all do going foreword. Is that okay?" Ry gave a curt nod, saying nothing else, though Court doubted he wanted to talk. "You don't have to talk about anything you don't want to but I figure both sides here are reasonably curious about the other. We could ask questions back and forth or you could tell us about your world or what you went through and we can answer questions about ours, Or something else, whatever you're comfortable with."
Ry shifted minutely, glancing over his shoulder. "Sure. Ask away. I won't promise anything." Court was reminded of someone under interrogation, scared of their own shadow, but holding out. This is not what Court wanted. He did not want his little bro- Ryland to feel like he was interrogating him.
"This isn't, Ry this is a two way street. I'm not hounding you for information, especially if you don't want me to. You looked like you'd been through the ringer, and quite honestly you may not be my brother but I am worried about you. We will go at your pace here." Ryland had scoffed and turned away from him. "What?"
"Such a novel idea, an interrogator going at your pace."
"I am not your interrogator." Court sighed, "If you feel like I am I am sorry. I did not intend to give that impression. I-"
Colt reappeared, three trays in hand, cutting off Court, "With your demeanor any time you ask a question it feels like an interrogation. You're so severe." He dropped off some microwave trays in front of each of them. "Sorry, I'm not fucking cooking right now. Too damn early. Here's the worlds shittiest breakfast."
The trays had two slabs of Salisbury steak, paired with mashed potatoes and gravy and some vegetables. "Damn. I was kind of hoping you'd cook." He still dug in, speaking between bites, "Me and Clair can't cook a grilled cheese between us. She's spoiled and I've either been provided for or scrounged since jail. Sure I could hire someone but she's still not comfortable if it's not me you or Jody."
"You cooked for us when we were kids?"
"Yeah, the saddest and most pathetic meals ever. Mostly canned shit or sandwiches, both cold. Not exactly the meals of champions. It's a wonder I didn't kill you with malnutrition." He smiled easily. It had been nice reconnecting with Colt, and over time they'd been able to joke about their shared shitty childhood without guilt.
They conversed easily, eating and ribbing each other, talking about Jody and Clair and work. Court had intentionally been giving Ryland space, not looking at him and instead between Colt and his meal. Halfway through though he did check in on the other man, and noticed he hadn't touched his food, and was instead observing them dutifully. Noticing he was being watched, Ryland looked back down to his meal, and scowled at it.
Oh. He'd seen this before, he'd done this before. He wasn't trusted and something had happened to him to make him distrust this food given to him in this setting. Turning back to Colt, and continuing to talk about nothing, he tried to casually slide Rylands plate over to himself, getting only a quizzical look from Colt, though he also continued like nothing was happening.
Court cut off a small bit from each of the steaks, scooped a small amount of potatoes onto the two pieces and ate them, following it up with a couple of the peas. He hated peas but he'd live. He slid it back over to Ryland, and stood, still continuing their conversation about Colts newest movie. He walked into the kitchen and grabbed three glasses, filling them with water from the fridge and returned, taking a sip from one of the glasses and handing the same one over to Ry. "You always forget water with meals."
Colt visibly didn't understand, but glancing over Ryland had indeed started to eat. As a matter of fact he inhaled his food. He was surprisingly quiet for how fast he was eating. He looked away, pulling Colts attention back to him. "Hey, Jody and I keep hydrated all day, and don't need extra water at dinner. Not my fault you guys don't care about your health enough." He ribbed Court.
"me mee me" Court mocked him lightly, earning another ribbing. "I stay pretty healthy, have to."
"You literally just admitted you don't cook at all. Like ten minuets ago."
"Shut it or-"
Ryland interrupted them, startling Colt "Can I ask a question?" When he received a nod he asked, "What was this?"
Colt was startled initially when the other had spoke, Court had been waiting for the other to speak up, maybe just not quite what he had expected to be said. "What?"
"It's Salisbury steak. It's not great, I can make way better, but it's been a long night. Also you don't have to ask to ask a question, just ask your question." Colt answered before Ry could repeat himself.
"What's it made of?"
"Uh, beef, or mystery meat more likely." Court decided Colt was right, he was probably too intense to be asking Ryland, who was skeptical of him at best, anything, instead letting Colt take the lead, staying quiet as he slowly finished his own meal.
Ry nodded in grim understanding. "Doesn't taste like it though. And the water? Why does it taste like that?"
"Ry," He and Colt shared a look, "It's nothing special, does it taste off? What are they supposed to taste like?"
"If you're going to question me do it properly."
"Ry, you asked us a question. I'm asking one back because I'm confused. There isn't a proper way to do this, were just having a conversation." Colt picked up his empty tray, grabbing Court and Rylands trays as well, and headed into the kitchen raising his voice as he got farther, "If having a conversation is going to be an issue I'll just go to sleep. What's it gonna be Ry?"
Court and Ryland shared an intense look. "I don't know what fresh hell you went through, but we just want to help, and we want to understand each other. That's it."
Ryland sighed, looking so tired. "I... How can I... I don't trust you. I don't trust this. I'm a prisoner still, just a much nicer cell with insanely good food." Colt scoffed, returning to stand behind Court, an arm on the back of his chair, but let Ry continue. "How do I know you are any better than them? That you aren't pretending to be." Ryland looked sad, and then it gave way to anger as he stood up from the table. "I have been being tortured for information for months. How am I supposed to believe that's just over? I saw the stars and the trees, but what if... god what if I've just cracked? I'm just going insane and stuck in my head imagining some utter bullshit to escape that damned room-" He picked up the glass on the table, gripping it and making as if to throw it, but then he stiffened, and gently placed it back down.
"Throw it." Court said
"What?" Ry whipped his head around to look at the older man.
"You fucking heard me."
"Actually maybe lets not break Jody's favorite glasses?" Colt grabbed it off the table quickly, as well as the other two, and jogged into the kitchen yet again, coming back quickly with an armload of plates. "These though, go ahead. We got them at Ikea." He laid down maybe 20 plates on the table. "There's more. We bought a lot."
"Throw them." Court reiterated, also getting up. "You throw them and see there's no punishment. Throw Them."
Grace, seemingly at war with himself, hesitantly picked up a plate and looked at it, running a finger down the porcelain. "These are too nice. I can't." He looked up to Court and Colt.
"How else will you know?" Court grabbed one. "I lost my childhood. And the one of the ones I lost it for I won't ever see again." He hurled the plate at the dining room wall. It shattered on impact with the wall, sending shards all over the place. "Fuck."
Ryland stared at the mess, looking back at Court with a worried expression, Court realizing the worry was for him, eyes darting around like he expected someone would come in and hurt them. "No ones coming. Colt isn't upset and these are his. No punishment. Get angry."
____
Ryland stared at the plate in his hand. He'd wanted so badly to throw that damned glass, but the fear had gripped him again, forcing him to put it down. It was still there as he looked at the plate. He'd been told to do it, several times, but this was just something you don't do. Permission warred with teaching. Court had done it though, and nothing had happened.
He had been interrogated for months. He had been hurt by so many. He hadn't endured for Eden. He endured because he couldn't do anything else. If he had wanted to say anything his throat had closed the instant the idea entered his head. Eden would've loved to know they had broke him so well. The Father would've loved to know his pet was so unwillingly loyal.
And that was what got him. The Father. All he had done personally to him. The thought that that he might never fucking see him again and yet he was still so securely under his thumb. His skin crawled thinking about the man, he shook violently, and
He threw the fucking plate, hurled it at the wall harder than Court had, reveling in the sound and sight of it shattering against the wall.
He was panting, face contorted into anger. "FUCK YOU" His lungs tried seizing as he said it but he got it out anyway. He couldn't help shrinking in on himself, facing the other two, looking for any sign he was about to be punished.
"There you go." Court said as Colt reached for a plate himself.
"I should've answered that damn call." Colt threw his plate. Ryland flinched when it hit the wall but it relieved some of the anxiety sitting in his throat. "I've got an idea."
Court and Colt started moving the chairs away from the table, Ryland quickly following suit, though still keeping a healthy distance from either of them. Once the chairs were out of the way Court and Ry moved the table to be parallel with the wall they were throwing the plates at while Colt ran and got more dishes he and Jody had stocked up on from Ikea.
They had dishes of all kinds on the table and spread out. All of them were on one side of the table now, with Colt and Court on the left, and Ry on the opposite end. Colt laughed, "Were making a real thing of this. Jody's gonna be so mad we have to go back to Ikea, she hated it." He noticed Ryland getting nervous at his statement, "No, it's okay. She won't actually be mad. Hell, I'll go later today. It's okay."
Colt started it back up first this time. "I uh, got most of my anger about this situation figured out. Therapy," He gave Court a pointed look, "And venting to Eva about it until we were chill. But that doesn't mean it doesn't hurt. This isn't your fault Ry, but for half a fucking minuet I had hope. I thought I had my fucking twin-brother back." *Smash*
Court picked one up. "I compartmentalized. I've mostly come to terms with the fact there wasn't a lot I could've done. Mostly what I'm mad about is that I didn't try to reconnect until after I'd lost my fucking brother for good." *smash*
Ryland hesitated, plate in hand. His anger and fear had died down in the time it took to set this up. It didn't take long to flare up again. "I hate-" he choked on the words, that lump rising in his throat. The frustration made tears burn at his eyes.
"You got this." Colt encouraged him.
"I-I hate E-" he coughed. "I hate E-Eden" I was barely a whisper, and he wasn't sure the others could hear him.
"Louder." Court interjected before he could throw the plate after the lame attempt.
"I h-hate Eden." He shook, hating how pathetic he was.
"Louder."
"I hate Eden." Ryland actually managed to say it one go, but it was still quiet, and frustration shot through him knowing what Court was going to say next.
"Louder." Ryland knew he had little patience and if he said 'Louder' one more time he was going to fucking lose it.
"I hate Eden!" It was a speaking voice and he already knew it wasn't enough.
"Loude-"
"I FUCKING HATE EDEN" He screamed. Was that fucking Loud enough for him. "I HATE EDEN." He hurled the plate and a pleasant mix of dread and elation buzzing through his veins as it broke against the wall.
"Yehehes!" Colt laughed, grabbing another plate. "I hate Tom Ryder! Fucker!" *Smash*
Court next. "I hate our dad." *Smash*
"I hate the-" He wanted to say 'The Father, but his throat seized in a way he knew he couldn't get past just yet, so he changed course. "I hate the COI." *Smash*
"I wish I still hated Eva." *Smash*
"I hate that I used to wish none of us were born." *smash*
"The Quiet Rapture should've taken everyone." *Smash*
"I am so worried about becoming my father I refuse to have kids." *Smash*
"Clair deserves a real life and I can't give her one." *smash*
This continued for quite a while, a huge pile of ceramic debris littered. Colt and Court both were feeling cathartic, but could tell Ryland was still working up to something, and towards the end were simply throwing plates as Ryland vented. Court had thrown one last one for himself, lamenting internally that he hated how he kind of liked his job, like a fucked up Stockholm syndrome for shitty morally-dubious work, when Colt nudged him and pointed at Ryland.
Ry was shaking violently again, having stopped relatively early in when his body finally accepted nothing was going to happen. "I ... I was tortured for months. I had been told by so many to 'stop being brave' and told 'You're no hero' because I wouldn't talk. I wasn't brave. I wasn't being a hero. I was so scared. I hated Eden, and I would've told the COI anything they wanted, what would it have mattered to me. I was a coward." It was said with such vehemence, revulsion dripping in his voice. "I was a coward but I couldn't say anything, I couldn't even fucking scream when they hurt me." White hot tears began streaming down his face. "All because of him. All because of what The Father did to me. I hate him. I Hate Him. I Hate Him! I HATE HIM." He threw the plate straight down at his own bare feet. He felt some small cuts but they were inconsequential. "I hate what he did to me." He threw another one down.
"Ry wait, don't hurt yourself."
"I hate I was so important they wouldn't just kill me. They had to correct my behavior instead of just getting rid of the problem."
*smash*
This time Ryland grabbed the stack of plates that was left and raised it over his head. "I hate that they handed me over to The Father to do with as he pleased. TO FIX ME."
He went to throw the handful down. but was intercepted midway, one set of hands grabbing the stack of plates before he could let them go to inevitably fuck his feet up, and another set wrapping around his chest and lifting him out of the rubble. "Woah there, I think were done." Colt had grabbed the plates and set them back down.
Ryland was flailing as "I HATE HIM" Court dragged him, literally kicking and screaming, away from the mess and into the kitchen. This time however he was not aiming for Colt or Court, perhaps even careful not to. "I HATE HIM." Fresh hot angry tears were running down his face. The "I HATE HIM"s interspersed with incoherent mournful yells. The sounds were heartbreaking to the others ears.
"Get it out." Court continued to hold Ryland, careful as he slid down the wall to put them in a sitting position. Colt came close behind and sat next to Ryland where he could see him. He yelled until his voice was hoarse. Flailed until his limbs were exhausted, which is when Court had let him go and instead began to run his hands through Ry's hair, humming in an effort to soothe the other. Grace hadn't moved, choosing to lean back and remain against Courts chest, shaking more from exhaustion now than anger or fear. At some point Colt had slid his hand into Rylands, holding it tight and rubbing his thumb along the others knuckles.
"I hate him." his voice was rough and weak.
"Obviously." Colt huffed. "I don't know who The Father is, capital T capital F, but fuck that guy."
"Agreed."
Ryland could feel the hum of the others voice through his chest and felt his eyes getting heavy. "Sorry."
"Don't you apologize, there's nothing to be sorry for. But I think it's time for bed for all of us. It's been a night." Colt got to his feet, pulling Ryland up with him, Court rising shortly after them. Slowly they made their way to Rylands room, Ryland stumbling more than once in his drowsiness. When they got him to his bed, Colt quickly brushed his feet off, making sure there weren't any leftover shards, thankfully the small cuts he got were superficial and hadn't really bled, both of them wished him a good night and left, turning the light on.
The moment Rylands head hit the pillow he was out for the count.
_______
I needed a breakthrough moment with Ry for him to even start opening up, and It felt downright wrong to segment it into two posts, so here is a really long one. This is also a little bit of a vent for myself and my wife. Giving my favorite characters my trauma, #1 pastime of writers.
Also I love writing off dome, cause I did not go into this thinking they were going to end up in a rage room therapy session.
Simon had regretted bending over the plant so harshly, his ribs spiking in pain when he had, and now settling into a manageable soreness.
Grace had thankfully given him some more space after his waterworks once he'd made sure Simon was okay, and after Simon made sure Ryland wasn't planning taking it back. The crazy man had gifted him a plant, his very own tree. This was overwhelming and amazing and so utterly sweet, a word he'd not used for many things in his life.
He couldn't accept this but something evil and greedy and selfish and horrible ate at his insides, defying all he'd been taught, and didn't let him consider even for a second so much as letting go of the ceramic pot, let alone trying to give it back. That same rotten thing inside of him wanted to go back to Eden, stand before the last tree, witnessed by all including The Father so many found precious, and scream his defiance at the top of his lungs for the first time in his pathetic compliant life. He wanted to spit vitriol at those who made him be The Butcher. He wanted to show off that someone had seen fit to gift him one of the most precious things in the fucking universe despite-
Grace knew nothing.
The pot was suddenly hot in his hand and he set it down as gently as he could with shaking hands on the bedside table.
Grace didn't know him or what he had done. Didn't know he didn't deserve this, didn't deserve anything. None of the kindness that had been shown him, the care, the gentleness. Not only was he a monster, but he was useless, unable to contribute anything in his current state. He didn't deserve to share food with Grace.
He didn't deserve 'TO LIVE' a voice, no hundreds if not thousands of voices layered on top of each other slammed into his head, bending him over again and sending more pain into his ribs, said pain only outshined by the instant migraine that slammed right behind his left eye. He grit his teeth and panted heavily. He was not going to get Graces attention, didn't deserve to inconvenience him, and didn't want to.
"Fuck me." He muttered under his breath.
'go back' 'kill him' 'destroy the tree' 'Two halves at war' 'calm down' 'Grace should've let you drown.' 'this is not real' 'eat the plant' 'butcher' 'yes it is' 'Spoilers' 'find him and rip his throat out' 'join us' 'stop that' Not as many voices this time, and most of them saying random shit. He couldn't focus on anything they said, and it was overwhelming him, his brain was becoming more and more static as they prattled on.
"Shut it for a fucking second." And surprisingly they did. Silence enveloped him aside from the sounds of the house and Ryland somewhere among it's rooms. So. Voices in his head. He'd heard them loud and clear. They couldn't be real but that pain was.
'we're real' The voice of a lone little girl filtered through his head. Great they could hear his inner monologue. Fuck. 'fuck' She repeated. He couldn't help the laugh that forced its way out of him, both at her copying him and the fact that his spiral had apparently given him psychosis or some shit.
He started laughing hysterically, still clutching his throbbing head. He heard footsteps approaching and Grace ask "Are you alright Simon?"
Still laughing, and refusing to look at Ryland, he choked out "No. No I'm not."
________
It had been a couple weeks since Simon had arrived, and as much time as he had avoided Grace after he'd found the man laughing hysterically. He gave one word answers any time he was asked anything, resolutely refused to touch the plant he had been so happy to see, and the moment he felt well enough to walk he was gone. Oh, Grace knew where he was at all times, the bio-dome team and the medical team had conspired long ago to have a tracker for Rylands vitals that told them where he was in the dome if there was an emergency which they had given him access to as well, that now also tracked Simon independently. He was not going to force anything, but if Simon didn't want to be found he would leave well enough alone.
Grace had made sure that no Eridians, even Rocky, would be in the dome at any point until he was sure Simon was ready to meet aliens, deliveries being made directly into the house through a tunnel bore underground. He wasn't going to risk it but he also was not going to let them starve. Rocky had visited briefly, forcing his way to being one of those who delivered, and Grace had appreciated being able to see his best friend.
Life had become routined again, however shortly and oddly. He would leave food and water out on the porch for Simon, taking his morning run or a stroll around depending on the meal to let the other eat. He'd not had classes so mostly he stayed inside working, or went to one of the few conjoined domes, Simon currently had no access, to grab something. He had also started to take care of the sapling, hoping Simon would return at some point to do so himself or he might have to hand it back over to the fabrication team to take care of, as he kept forgetting to take care of the thing, even when he wasn't really doing anything.
Finishing a school year always left him feeling odd, even back on earth. He didn't know what to do with himself. He usually had his lab and maybe some smaller hobby projects, but he was paralyzed with indecision on what to do in his free time as he wouldn't leave the dome until he was certain Simon was okay. He wasn't interested in a book, movies, games. He didn't want to try his hand at weaving xenonite again quite yet, his last failure still grating at his nerves. None of the other hobbies he'd picked up seemed interesting right now. He was pretty sure he was too worried to sit still long enough, and his rough sleep of recent was not helping, no one was watching him sleep since he had a temporary hold on Eridians in the dome.
Scratching at the neck of his fox sweater Grace was really getting tired of this shitty routine. Simon wasn't going to out stubborn a teacher, but he might just have to leave the man alone in the dome soon and go to his lab to get out of this funk. He'd planned a lot of things he'd likely need to do with Simon when he was ready, but those plans had been thrown astray when the other had gone non-verbal. This was a lot and Grace was giving him his time but they had been doing so well, and then Grace had just had to go and give the other the sapling, which seemed to throw everything off.
Grace was pissed. He was pissed at himself. For fucking up somehow with the only human he'd seen in over a decade, for not being able to really do anything productive, for overcrowding a man that had clearly gone through hell, for hoping he'd have another friend, for putting any sort of expectations on a stranger, for being too much like always, for-
He had to get out of his head. Fuck it, midnight swim. He couldn't sleep anyway and maybe exerting himself and getting a nice heaviness to his limbs would help him go down. He loved swimming, and he'd done this his fair share in his years on Erid, but he'd refrained to not risk making Simon uncomfortable.
He peeled himself from his spot on the couch, heading to the closet, and grabbing the overly large towels he used for the beach. With a habitual check to see where Simon was, far left of his house, he headed out the door and down the path. It was a chilly night, He'd left plenty of warm clothing for Simon as well as a cot and bedding which had dissapeared when left with his food, and Grace knew the fake ocean would be perfectly freezing.
Getting to the rocky beach Grace began his ritual. He laid out the thicker of the two towels, as perfectly stretched out as he could get it. Stripping down to his boxers, usually he'd go nude but he had company, he neatly folded his clothing into a pile at the back right edge of the towel, finishing off by placing the towel he was going to use when he got back on top of them. There wasn't much wind right now, the wave machine on one of it's lowest settings overnights, but it was for when there was, and he wasn't going to change it.
When he finally headed to the water, wet sand a cold promise of what was to come, he followed a wave out and waited for it to return and roll over his feet. "Frick," he gasped as the freezing water rolled up over his ankles, shooting a chill straight up his spine. He waded out until he was hip deep, shivering the whole way, and waited for another small wave, throwing himself over it in a dive straight into the water. The chill shook him to his core, but he had long mastered his body when it came to this, swimming out as far as he could before coming up to sputter and gasp and shake. Not for the first time he thinks he might've liked those Polar Plunges he'd read about on earth.
Not letting himself succumb to his shivering and adrenaline telling him to Get The Heck Out Of The Water, he started swimming, knowing he'd adjust soon. He went out as far as he typically did, in line with the two rocky jut outs, and faced roughly parallel to the beach. He started doing his laps, the cold keeping him mindless for quite some time, only being able to focus on one arm in front of the other and kicking as evenly as possible, and when his body automatically knew it was at its turn around point, pushing himself under and reorienting himself.
When he was almost to the point he'd usually stop, body having adjusting to be numb to the temperature and a familiar awareness of his muscles, his brain had decided to kick back in and decided he should stay out longer. He knew he was punishing himself, that he probably was being overly mean to himself and he should listen to the logical side of his brain telling him there was no point to punishing himself. He knew that, but it didn't matter. It was too easy to simply keep swimming, letting the excuse that he liked swimming cover the real reason like a safety blanket.
Typically he swam for an hour or so. He pushed and pushed himself into what was likely another 45 to an hour before he had to stop mid lap, flipping himself to float on his back, heaving for breath, chill seeping quickly into his ribs now that he had stopped. "Fuck" he whispered to himself, almost conspiratorially, glancing to his left at the classroom not too far off. His therapist was going to scold him if he told her about him punishing himself again. It was fifty fifty on if he would.
He gave himself some time to rest and then flipped himself up into a wading position. He was debating whether to go to shore here and walk back or swim back and then only have to walk the short distance back to his towels, when he noticed where he was. Almost exactly where Simon had touched down. What a coincidence.
He's not sure what compelled him, but he looked down through the clear water illuminated by the simulated full moon overhead. "He could've died there if I hadn't seen him fall." It had been incredibly lucky he had spotted Simon falling, that he had turned around right as it happened. And another stroke of luck as he saw something glint in the rocks at the bottom of the ocean.
He knew from experience he could reach the bottom, had used it as an indicator of progress on his strength and lung capacity while recovering, he was unsure why he had chose this arbitrary goal, but it had felt good when he could finally do it, Rocky had freaked out when he had shown him though. Eridians were not fond of their ocean in a recreational capacity.
Screw it. He pushed himself under and despite the drag of his muscles he pushed himself on to the bottom. Quick as he could he turned on the flashlight function of the watch rockys friend Turner had made at his request, and they had made it their passion project, adding more functions to it beyond timekeeping and currently they were working on connecting it to Rocky and Graces messaging system.
Sweeping the light around where he had seen the glint Grace had a creeping worry he might have to try this again, far too exhausted to stay down for long, when he saw it, a circular bit of glass, half sticking out of the gravel. Quickly he snatched it, pushing off from the bottom and swimming as quickly as he could to the surface, heaving for breath the moment he broke the surface. It hurt in an almost alleviating way, his lungs and limbs, a balm for the guilt he felt.
Without waiting, both to be sadistic and to get this excursion over with, he chose to swim back. He did his best to keep form with one of his hands in a death grip around the glass, but it made the swim take a little longer than he wanted. When he knew he was near his entry spot he started towards the beach, pushing himself under to keep his head chilled as much as possible until his hand hit stones, and he fully stood up. The relief of the slightly warmer air on his head was immediate, a relieved sigh escaping him.
Flipping his hair out of his eyes he scanned for his towel, finding it to his right, and immediately noticing the figure sitting near the edge of it.
______
Did I look up where things were in the brain and which side did what to be as accurate as possible with his migraine, a detail that is seemingly very innocuous? Yes.
Lungs And Limbs would be a great band name.
Am I giving Grace my own special breed of autism when it comes to being in the water? (not the pushing himself.) Yes.
Simon had regretted bending over the plant so harshly, his ribs spiking in pain when he had, and now settling into a manageable soreness.
Grace had thankfully given him some more space after his waterworks once he'd made sure Simon was okay, and after Simon made sure Ryland wasn't planning taking it back. The crazy man had gifted him a plant, his very own tree. This was overwhelming and amazing and so utterly sweet, a word he'd not used for many things in his life.
He couldn't accept this but something evil and greedy and selfish and horrible ate at his insides, defying all he'd been taught, and didn't let him consider even for a second so much as letting go of the ceramic pot, let alone trying to give it back. That same rotten thing inside of him wanted to go back to Eden, stand before the last tree, witnessed by all including The Father so many found precious, and scream his defiance at the top of his lungs for the first time in his pathetic compliant life. He wanted to spit vitriol at those who made him be The Butcher. He wanted to show off that someone had seen fit to gift him one of the most precious things in the fucking universe despite-
Grace knew nothing.
The pot was suddenly hot in his hand and he set it down as gently as he could with shaking hands on the bedside table.
Grace didn't know him or what he had done. Didn't know he didn't deserve this, didn't deserve anything. None of the kindness that had been shown him, the care, the gentleness. Not only was he a monster, but he was useless, unable to contribute anything in his current state. He didn't deserve to share food with Grace.
He didn't deserve 'TO LIVE' a voice, no hundreds if not thousands of voices layered on top of each other slammed into his head, bending him over again and sending more pain into his ribs, said pain only outshined by the instant migraine that slammed right behind his left eye. He grit his teeth and panted heavily. He was not going to get Graces attention, didn't deserve to inconvenience him, and didn't want to.
"Fuck me." He muttered under his breath.
'go back' 'kill him' 'destroy the tree' 'Two halves at war' 'calm down' 'Grace should've let you drown.' 'this is not real' 'eat the plant' 'butcher' 'yes it is' 'Spoilers' 'find him and rip his throat out' 'join us' 'stop that' Not as many voices this time, and most of them saying random shit. He couldn't focus on anything they said, and it was overwhelming him, his brain was becoming more and more static as they prattled on.
"Shut it for a fucking second." And surprisingly they did. Silence enveloped him aside from the sounds of the house and Ryland somewhere among it's rooms. So. Voices in his head. He'd heard them loud and clear. They couldn't be real but that pain was.
'we're real' The voice of a lone little girl filtered through his head. Great they could hear his inner monologue. Fuck. 'fuck' She repeated. He couldn't help the laugh that forced its way out of him, both at her copying him and the fact that his spiral had apparently given him psychosis or some shit.
He started laughing hysterically, still clutching his throbbing head. He heard footsteps approaching and Grace ask "Are you alright Simon?"
Still laughing, and refusing to look at Ryland, he choked out "No. No I'm not."
________
It had been a couple weeks since Simon had arrived, and as much time as he had avoided Grace after he'd found the man laughing hysterically. He gave one word answers any time he was asked anything, resolutely refused to touch the plant he had been so happy to see, and the moment he felt well enough to walk he was gone. Oh, Grace knew where he was at all times, the bio-dome team and the medical team had conspired long ago to have a tracker for Rylands vitals that told them where he was in the dome if there was an emergency which they had given him access to as well, that now also tracked Simon independently. He was not going to force anything, but if Simon didn't want to be found he would leave well enough alone.
Grace had made sure that no Eridians, even Rocky, would be in the dome at any point until he was sure Simon was ready to meet aliens, deliveries being made directly into the house through a tunnel bore underground. He wasn't going to risk it but he also was not going to let them starve. Rocky had visited briefly, forcing his way to being one of those who delivered, and Grace had appreciated being able to see his best friend.
Life had become routined again, however shortly and oddly. He would leave food and water out on the porch for Simon, taking his morning run or a stroll around depending on the meal to let the other eat. He'd not had classes so mostly he stayed inside working, or went to one of the few conjoined domes, Simon currently had no access, to grab something. He had also started to take care of the sapling, hoping Simon would return at some point to do so himself or he might have to hand it back over to the fabrication team to take care of, as he kept forgetting to take care of the thing, even when he wasn't really doing anything.
Finishing a school year always left him feeling odd, even back on earth. He didn't know what to do with himself. He usually had his lab and maybe some smaller hobby projects, but he was paralyzed with indecision on what to do in his free time as he wouldn't leave the dome until he was certain Simon was okay. He wasn't interested in a book, movies, games. He didn't want to try his hand at weaving xenonite again quite yet, his last failure still grating at his nerves. None of the other hobbies he'd picked up seemed interesting right now. He was pretty sure he was too worried to sit still long enough, and his rough sleep of recent was not helping, no one was watching him sleep since he had a temporary hold on Eridians in the dome.
Scratching at the neck of his fox sweater Grace was really getting tired of this shitty routine. Simon wasn't going to out stubborn a teacher, but he might just have to leave the man alone in the dome soon and go to his lab to get out of this funk. He'd planned a lot of things he'd likely need to do with Simon when he was ready, but those plans had been thrown astray when the other had gone non-verbal. This was a lot and Grace was giving him his time but they had been doing so well, and then Grace had just had to go and give the other the sapling, which seemed to throw everything off.
Grace was pissed. He was pissed at himself. For fucking up somehow with the only human he'd seen in over a decade, for not being able to really do anything productive, for overcrowding a man that had clearly gone through hell, for hoping he'd have another friend, for putting any sort of expectations on a stranger, for being too much like always, for-
He had to get out of his head. Fuck it, midnight swim. He couldn't sleep anyway and maybe exerting himself and getting a nice heaviness to his limbs would help him go down. He loved swimming, and he'd done this his fair share in his years on Erid, but he'd refrained to not risk making Simon uncomfortable.
He peeled himself from his spot on the couch, heading to the closet, and grabbing the overly large towels he used for the beach. With a habitual check to see where Simon was, far left of his house, he headed out the door and down the path. It was a chilly night, He'd left plenty of warm clothing for Simon as well as a cot and bedding which had dissapeared when left with his food, and Grace knew the fake ocean would be perfectly freezing.
Getting to the rocky beach Grace began his ritual. He laid out the thicker of the two towels, as perfectly stretched out as he could get it. Stripping down to his boxers, usually he'd go nude but he had company, he neatly folded his clothing into a pile at the back right edge of the towel, finishing off by placing the towel he was going to use when he got back on top of them. There wasn't much wind right now, the wave machine on one of it's lowest settings overnights, but it was for when there was, and he wasn't going to change it.
When he finally headed to the water, wet sand a cold promise of what was to come, he followed a wave out and waited for it to return and roll over his feet. "Frick," he gasped as the freezing water rolled up over his ankles, shooting a chill straight up his spine. He waded out until he was hip deep, shivering the whole way, and waited for another small wave, throwing himself over it in a dive straight into the water. The chill shook him to his core, but he had long mastered his body when it came to this, swimming out as far as he could before coming up to sputter and gasp and shake. Not for the first time he thinks he might've liked those Polar Plunges he'd read about on earth.
Not letting himself succumb to his shivering and adrenaline telling him to Get The Heck Out Of The Water, he started swimming, knowing he'd adjust soon. He went out as far as he typically did, in line with the two rocky jut outs, and faced roughly parallel to the beach. He started doing his laps, the cold keeping him mindless for quite some time, only being able to focus on one arm in front of the other and kicking as evenly as possible, and when his body automatically knew it was at its turn around point, pushing himself under and reorienting himself.
When he was almost to the point he'd usually stop, body having adjusting to be numb to the temperature and a familiar awareness of his muscles, his brain had decided to kick back in and decided he should stay out longer. He knew he was punishing himself, that he probably was being overly mean to himself and he should listen to the logical side of his brain telling him there was no point to punishing himself. He knew that, but it didn't matter. It was too easy to simply keep swimming, letting the excuse that he liked swimming cover the real reason like a safety blanket.
Typically he swam for an hour or so. He pushed and pushed himself into what was likely another 45 to an hour before he had to stop mid lap, flipping himself to float on his back, heaving for breath, chill seeping quickly into his ribs now that he had stopped. "Fuck" he whispered to himself, almost conspiratorially, glancing to his left at the classroom not too far off. His therapist was going to scold him if he told her about him punishing himself again. It was fifty fifty on if he would.
He gave himself some time to rest and then flipped himself up into a wading position. He was debating whether to go to shore here and walk back or swim back and then only have to walk the short distance back to his towels, when he noticed where he was. Almost exactly where Simon had touched down. What a coincidence.
He's not sure what compelled him, but he looked down through the clear water illuminated by the simulated full moon overhead. "He could've died there if I hadn't seen him fall." It had been incredibly lucky he had spotted Simon falling, that he had turned around right as it happened. And another stroke of luck as he saw something glint in the rocks at the bottom of the ocean.
He knew from experience he could reach the bottom, had used it as an indicator of progress on his strength and lung capacity while recovering, he was unsure why he had chose this arbitrary goal, but it had felt good when he could finally do it, Rocky had freaked out when he had shown him though. Eridians were not fond of their ocean in a recreational capacity.
Screw it. He pushed himself under and despite the drag of his muscles he pushed himself on to the bottom. Quick as he could he turned on the flashlight function of the watch rockys friend Turner had made at his request, and they had made it their passion project, adding more functions to it beyond timekeeping and currently they were working on connecting it to Rocky and Graces messaging system.
Sweeping the light around where he had seen the glint Grace had a creeping worry he might have to try this again, far too exhausted to stay down for long, when he saw it, a circular bit of glass, half sticking out of the gravel. Quickly he snatched it, pushing off from the bottom and swimming as quickly as he could to the surface, heaving for breath the moment he broke the surface. It hurt in an almost alleviating way, his lungs and limbs, a balm for the guilt he felt.
Without waiting, both to be sadistic and to get this excursion over with, he chose to swim back. He did his best to keep form with one of his hands in a death grip around the glass, but it made the swim take a little longer than he wanted. When he knew he was near his entry spot he started towards the beach, pushing himself under to keep his head chilled as much as possible until his hand hit stones, and he fully stood up. The relief of the slightly warmer air on his head was immediate, a relieved sigh escaping him.
Flipping his hair out of his eyes he scanned for his towel, finding it to his right, and immediately noticing the figure sitting near the edge of it.
______
Did I look up where things were in the brain and which side did what to be as accurate as possible with his migraine, a detail that is seemingly very innocuous? Yes.
Lungs And Limbs would be a great band name.
Am I giving Grace my own special breed of autism when it comes to being in the water? (not the pushing himself.) Yes.
This part is going to be basically an info dump about what happened in the Rapture!verse to Ryland and his siblings that he will never find out, but you the viewer can!
Courtland was the first born to his parents, Damon and Holly. Damon had been a soldier and Holly was an engineer. Court, in any attempt to escape his father, had thrown himself into whatever work he could find once he was old enough to, mainly ending up working with the church and doing whatever odd job they needed of him. Over time he saw the church as his sanctuary and worked even harder to thank the place that gave him comfort and rising in the church's esteem. such a devout young soul.
Then his father is killed in a fight in one of the housing districts, with his mother about to give birth. His father being a Soldier Of Eden of high renown, had been given allowance to have more children. This allowance was not extended to Holly, and was lost the moment Damon died.
Two days later she gives birth to twins and succumbs to exhaustion, leaving Court suddenly alone with his newborn twin baby brothers (Colt is older by three minuets). He cannot keep them, he's already been told as much but god does he want to. He wants to protect them but he's just a kid himself and he has no leverage of any kind. Colt will be fine, he'll go to the armies nursery, but Ryland isn't the healthiest baby, he'd be granted burial. He goes to church before anyone can take them away, bringing them to his sanctuary.
The Father, yes THE Father, had taken notice of him prior, and just so happens to be in the church Court visits, and just so happens to know Courts predicament. He makes Court an offer. Court becomes his, unconditionally, he can't ever see his brothers again. He becomes The Fathers own pet project to do with as he pleases and in exchange he will find Ryland a home. Colt will still become a soldier, but Ryland would live, and he could watch over them from a distance. He doesn't want to give them up, loves them despite being hours old and screaming their heads off, seemingly at each other.
He agrees.
Court becomes the Fathers little project. Raises him hard, harder than before, but he takes it. He endures for his brothers, and eventually he's The Fathers perfect personal soldier. He does whatever he's told. He kills whoever needs killing. He watches his brothers from afar.
He watches through reports and occasional stalking his brothers grow up.
Colt grows up in the army. He's a perfect soldier. Aces anything put in front of him. Top of his class. A little hot headed and sometimes too eager, but he does Colt proud. He's patriotic and kind and meets a radio technician named Jody one day and settles down. She's good for him. They live fairly long, as long as one can in this place. They have two kids, and are fairly fulfilled.
Ryland has a much harder time. He's handed over to a scientist who was looking for an apprentice. She raises him, teaching him all she knows and he becomes one of their major researchers. He loves to learn and Court can see just how much he loves the things he learns. The problem is he sees through the system too easily and fairly young, leading to harsh treatment all around.
Don't get Court wrong, he can see it too, especially being this high up, but he has a job to do and promises to fulfill. But who can blame him if he takes a wrong turn one day and walks past Ryland once when he shouldn't have, He wanted to see his brother in person once. The reason he does what he does. He even pulled strings to get Ryland a friend, an engineer named Simon who works alongside him for a few years. His brother seemed a lot happier with Simon around, and if he ignored that there might've been more between them that's no ones business but his own.
Ryland may love what he does, but he hates who he's doing it for, and despite being very important, one of the smartest people on Eden, there's more than one occasion where Court has to pull strings to keep him alive. Ryland is important but that only goes so far without help, even after a sudden drastic change in attitude that kept him out of trouble he still had slip ups from time to time. One such occasion he has to put Ryland on a strike force to Filament Station. He's supposed to sabotage the reactor and get out. A quick job to amend for an offence.
But something happened (No peeks, this'll come later) and Ryland is either dead or one of the COI's prisoners. And Court can't get to him. For once Court cant do anything, can't fix anything, he's helpless in a way he hadn't been since the twins were born, since he had to hand them over.
I like to think he takes out this helplessness on The Father. Maybe he turns coat, or maybe he simply gets rid of The Father and someone else kinder fills the role. Either way, it's only after Ryland is captured by the COI and he takes out The Father that he learns of the horrors the man committed, and that's just what he did to his brother. He lives with regret for the rest of his life, and refuses to see Colt. He uses his pull to start going after COI, Finds out his brother died in prison and goes apeshit.
He goes after any guard logged to be in the prison at the time. Tried going after Ava but learned she was already dead. Starts going on more Ops against the COI, as well as sabotaging Eden from the inside Only stops his rampage when one of his coworkers dies and leaves behind a sick child and he has to pull his shit together and take care of her or she will be be granted burial as she is a sick kid. She reminds him of Ryland, who was whip smart. He vows she will not befall the same fate.
_________
So there's a lot likely not discussed, but if y'all have ideas or questions about something I didn't think to add, shoot an ask, you're more than welcome!
After a harrowing conversation, most of which Simon remained skeptical of Graces every word, and Simon wholly shocking him with news of The Quiet Rapture, Grace quickly confirming their apocalyptic events were not one and the same, he offered to show Simon some evidence of his theory he thinks Simon will enjoy.
Simon follows him at a distance, and when they get to the junction between lab, dorm, and cockpit, Simon is looking down the other two corridors warily.
Grace lets him investigate for a moment before getting his attention, "Over here." Turning, at first the other is obviously confused. Looking out the domed window, currently all he saw were streaks of light passing insanely fast. "Can you hold on to the hand holds here and I'll be right back, I'm going to spin down the centrifuge and stabilize us." Simon nods in understanding.
Grace practically ran to the cockpit, going through the process of spinning down the centrifuge which automatically stabilized their orbit. Running- well floating- back he came to a stop on the other side of the window, giving the other some space hah. "Here are the stars Simon."
Simon was curled into the window, eyes wide and blown out, lone hand gripping the hand holds like a lifeline. "No, no these can't be, there's colorful ones. The few stars left were all white." Even as he said it Grace could tell it was almost a compulsory argument as tears began to well up in their eyes.
Grace smiled, happy he could give Simon some comfort in any form after whatever he had been through and then , "Yeah, depending on their temperature. The ones left in your universe must've been all around ten thousand degrees Kelvin, the second hottest, or well too far away to see their color. They can be red, orange, yellow, white, and even blue. Though the blue ones sometimes look green, at least to me. Fun fact! The most common star color is red. Red dwarves make about 76 percent of the milky way Galaxy- and I'm rambling. Sorry."
He'd noticed Simon had turned from the window, from his stars, to look at him as he'd went off on a tangent about something Simon likely didn't want to hear. Christs sake Ryland the man woke up only a few hours ago and you couldn't wait to talk his ear off. Why did he always do this. His little 'fun facts' were never fun to whoever he told, and their only use was to make a conversation suddenly and irrevocably uncomfortable, even usually to his kids. At the very lease Simon didn't look half a second away from crying anymore.
"Then why are most of them white?" Simon had looked back out the window for a moment but had returned his attention to Grace patiently waiting for an answer.
Graces chest tightened in a way he couldn't tell was good or bad, and he wasn't going to sit in it and find out. "That's because we are seeing a very small amount of light from the stars, the human eye needs a pretty decent amount of light to perceive color, and compared to the lamps in here shining on the metal or my shirt, the stars are so far away our eyes can't pick up on the color, and instead we see it as a pinprick of light. You see how most of the ones that aren't white are larger?" Simon glances back out the window and nods, "The stars you can see that do have color are bright enough and close enough your eye can pick up on the color, leading to them being larger."
Simon stared out the window silently for long enough Grace had worried he'd annoyed them, until yet another question was shot his way, "Why are red dwarfs the most common?"
_______
The two of them spent probably longer than ideal floating together in zero-g, Grace rattling off information and Simon always following it up with engaging and genuine questions. He wanted to learn and despite not wanting to take up Graces time or impose, the inquiries had come easily from his traitorous mouth.
Eventually though, Simons eyes had started to get heavier and harder to open, despite his best efforts to keep his focus on the man speaking and the stars. He found himself lulled by Rylands consistent voice, head jerking up several times when his body realized he was falling out of it. But when he and Ryland both noticed he'd let go of the hand hold and started to drift was when they called it.
"All right, now that I've bored you to death, you should probably go get some rest." Simon shook himself out of his stupor and did his best to straighten, getting a hold of the handle again. "You'll be ok as i spin back up the centrifuge?" Simon nodded and Grace sped off down the hall to the cockpit. Simon could see him disappear down a ladder to the presumed control room. He'd love to get in there at some point and look about, learn the systems, see what he could do, and maybe how useful he could be to Grace.
As gravity returned Simon didn't bother to wait, he immediately headed back to the dorm. As soon as he had maneuvered himself back into bed, with some assistance he was very reluctant to accept from Armando, he cursed his missing limb and the creature that had caused it. It took him only a few minuets before his drowsiness won and he was out.
Only to be woken up an undetermined amount of time later to Grace doing something out in the corridor that sounded detrimental to the ship.
Five more minuets.
Simon woke up again, but instead of metal wrenching sounds he heard last time, the ship was completely silent outside the life support systems. Should he be concerned? Probably not, but he'd find Ryland anyway and start getting the lay of the land. Leaving the dorm he slowly made his way out, only to realize the corridor was a lot dimmer than before. Inspecting the walls he noticed gutted slots where the lights used to be. Now he was a little concerned.
He searched what he found to be the lab first, finding some weird metallic things on a table with a soldering kit and a diagram of the stars projected onto a screen. On habit he turned the projector off and closed the laptop, leaving as Ryland wasn't around the lab or at least not in earshot.
Maybe he was in the cockpit? Following a trail of metallic gore turned into a jury rigged set of wires leading into the airlock.
The open airlock.
The airlock that had both doors open.
Fuck!
"RYLAND!" Simon started slowly making his way down the corridor, not bothering with the EVA suit he knew he probably should have when he noticed Ryland in the distance without one. "Fuck fuck fuck this." Had Ryland gone mad? The wires, the airlock, no EVA suit himself? Was this tunnel apart of the ship? He feels pretty certain he would've seen a tunnel this long while looking out the window before, but maybe it extended off the ship? Probably not with the rigidity and color.
Finally, after hobbling on the uneven floor for what felt like ages he got close enough for Ryland to notice, who immediately stood up and started loudly protesting, "No no no Simon you need to go back to the ship. You already had radiation poisoning, you shouldn't be risking any more."
Simon felt like that was the least of their concerns, Grace had done whatever this was, a clock taped to the clear wall, a laptop and a bunch of bracelets with some other random shit on a desk Ryland had to have dragged here. "Ryland what the fuck are you doing?" and after a moment realized what Grace was worried about, asking, "Is this not fucking shielded?"
Grace started walking towards him, "I don't know, theoretically it should be but I don't want to take any chances with your health." Which was rich coming from a man who Simon now realized had a fairly fresh burn over the side of his right cheek.
He was about to comment on it when movement behind Ryland startled Simon and drew his eyes to the glass wall. There was a Rock like thing standing still on the other side of the glass. "Grace bring other human! Very tired, much sleep!"
Court had immediately turned heel and stomped out of the room.
Colt had stood there, opening and closing his hands. He needed to hit something. Something horrific had happened to Ryland and he hadn't been able to save him from it. This was his fault. He hadn't picked up the phone when Ryland had called cause he was supposed to be dead. He had explained everything to his little brother already but he should've known when his twin called it had to be important. The voicemail still haunts him to this day. He didn't have the courage to delete it. He didn't deserve to delete it, he deserved to rot in guilt.
"Can you have a crisis elsewhere?" Rylands dry tone cut through Colts panic.
For a moment he was angry at Ry being a dick, but pushed that down, he didn't get to be angry. "Uh, yeah. You promise not to leave again?" Colt had inched towards the door.
Ryland scoffed. "I'm not promising fuck all."
Good enough. Giving him a pointed look, Colt slipped out, not bothering to lock the door like it had been when he saw Court had stationed himself just outside the door. They shared a quick look, he could tell the other was in Six mode right now, but he needed a damn minuet. He turned and walked away, headed for the home gym he had in the house he and Jody shared. She was currently out of town, making some big movie deal, and he had yet to tell her what happened, but planned to soon if Ryland continued to be a safety hazard.
He wasn't risking his little twin brother (and yes, he swears he's older) taking a chunk out of Jody. God forbid something even worse.
Reaching the gym he immediately started absolutely going to town on the punching bag. Colt had treated the wound on Courts shoulder. *BANG* Ryland had almost taken a full fucking chunk out of the guy. *BANG BANG* Ryland was supposed to be in space, and possibly dead. Yet here he is, *BANG* having gone through none of what he had seen in the tapes Stratt had sent him, his brother wasn't coming home. *BANG* Ryland couldn't be here. *BANG BANG* Ryland had appeared in his locked garage *BANG* that was not broken into. He had been branded *BANG* Fucking branded *BANG BANG* by god knows who.
Colt put his arms down. But this couldn't be Ryland. This couldn't be the one he let get taken. He'd seen the videos. This wasn't Ryland. It was, he responded to his name, but it wasn't. He took a weak swing at the bag, leaning foreword and resting his head on it. If he had come back Stratt would've picked him up. Wouldn't have let whatever happened to Ry happen. This wasn't Ryland. But it was? That was his twin, but-
Court walked in.
______
Ryland knew now what had happened. Court didn't have the Mark Of Eden on the back of his neck. In his short passing he knew he'd seen it, most people, but especially those closer to Father were eager and willing to be branded to remind them they were Edens. That they were the Fathers. You couldn't just remove a brand like that, Court had never had it in the first place.
He probably was their brother here, which makes him wonder if he had brothers back on Eden he didn't know of. Was the man he'd seen his brother? Had he had a twin he'd never seen? Eden didn't have a large population and everyone knew almost everyone, though Ryland had only seen Court once. Barely. With limited resources people really weren't allowed to have more than one kid, with very very few exceptions. Twins would've been a blessing and a curse. He'd seen excess kids taken from their parents and usually put into their army, or on multiple occasions if not healthy enough, fed to the tree.
If Court was his older brother it was a wonder he hadn't been given to the tree, not having had the best health as a kid. What of Colt too? Had he even been a twin? If so was Colt given to the tree? Put into the army's nursery?
He shook himself out of these thought. There was likely no way he'd ever get an answer now.
So what to do here?
He glanced down at the table by the bed, suddenly remembering Court had put something there. A soft bundle greeted him. Pulling it off the table, trying his best not to dirty the pristine cloth, he separated them and looked them over. They had given him underwear, jeans, a sweat shirt, and a shirt with something printed on it. Holding up the black shirt he involuntarily huffed in amusement. It had the periodic table with the title 'Can I lick it?' in bold above, and a color coded chart below indicating which you could and which would kill you. It was quite accurate aside from a few missing elements. Ryland almost despised that he'd found it humorous.
Shaking his head he put the shirt back down with the rest on the table. He stood, taking stock of himself. Prior to being captured by the COI he'd been wearing his Lab gear. The blue jumpsuit with extra pockets scattered about and sewn on, a longer thick jacket for safety with a shoddily sewn on patch indicating he was one of his team, a toolbelt that extended on one side down to clip just above the knee that housed a lot of the smaller equipment and safety gear he'd need, and of course shoes, almost all of which had been confiscated. He felt naked in just the worn jumpsuit.
The real problem was that he was dirty. He noticed the bed, blankets streaked with dirt. He was glad they hadn't touched him beyond moving him, and likely checking his pockets. He had two choices: Either find a way to clean himself up and wear the new clothes, or stay in the filthy jumpsuit. He was used to the filth sure, but if they were going to give him the option to be clean for once he'd damn well take it.
He was going to try for the door when Edens ingrained hospitality dragged him back to the state of the bed. As much as he despised anything and everything Eden had taught him, besides science, he loved science, he couldn't deny the guilt that tugged at him. He'd been treated well all things considering.
He heard Court, he knew it was Court as his footsteps never retreated from the door, enter the room as he was pulling the sheets off the bed. There was silence as he meticulously folded and placed the dirtied items next to the bed. His skin crawled leaving someone dangerous behind him for so long but he wasn't going to let the man think he was afraid of him.
Turning finally, when he was done, he met Courts eyes in challenge. "You making sure I'm not taking off again?"
Court nodded unashamedly. "Why would someone who's upbringing turned them into," He simply motioned at Ryland to get his point across, "Be unmaking their dirty bed? That's more polite than you've been."
Ryland had noticed the distinct military stance, hadn't thought anything of it until he realized the other wasn't from Eden or the COI. "Probably a similar enough upbringing to you." He knew he was pushing, Court knew he was too. Testing boundaries. "You accepted I'm not the same person?"
The slightest sadness could be found in Courts eyes, but he nodded. "You can't be. Much as we wanted you to be, you can't be. Not from this universe at least." Oh, so Court had figured it out. Maybe he was more than just military, or maybe military on this world was smarter. "I went over that garage 20 times, there was no way you broke in, no footprints or drag marks leading to you outside of our scuffle, and no way you knew the codes to get in. There's not a lot of options for that. There's also the brand itself, its far too old. You would've gotten it in your early teens, maybe younger, I knew Ryland until he left as an adult. He never had it."
Ryland didn't wait for more banter, not liking where the conversation was going and how almost on the mark Court was getting. He cut to the chase, "What do we do now?"
"You can't really run wild out there. Our Ryland is gone and you showing up would raise a world wide meltdown. We already had one neighbor come to ask about the spectacle you put on, and I've had to doctor the security footage of no less than 12 houses, including this one." He looked only mildly annoyed.
Ryland considered this. "World-wide?"
"Ryland we shot you into space years ago to save the planet, you did, and in the footage sent back to us you knew you weren't coming home" Court obviously wasn't bothering with distinguishing between them when Ryland could figure out who he was talking about easily.
Shaking his head he said, "We will get into that later. So were on earth," he smartly deduced from Court saying it out loud, all previous theories so far out the airlock it wasn't funny, "I'm alive by miracle of theoretical physics. You're my... brothers?" he gets a nod, "I have to assume I can't go back, not that I'd particularly like to, and I can't go anywhere."
"This is gonna be fun for all of us."
"You have an interesting definition of fun."
"And I get the feeling you have no definition of fun. You gonna leave?" He considered, and then shook his head. "Great. Shower is left down the hall, last door. I'm going to talk to Colt. Later we can all talk." Court turned heel and left, leaving the door open behind him.
_____
"That's not Ryland. At least not ours."
Colt groaned. "I know. It doesn't make sense but I know."
They stood looking at each other in silence, contemplating what had happened and the fact that their brother was still gone, until Court spoke, "You know this isn't your fault?"
Colt turned away, fresh hot tears stinging his eyes like they did anytime someone said it. "Court what are we going to do with him?"
He wasn't getting out of it that easy. Forcing Colt to face him with a strength he knew he had no chance of fighting, Court said it again. "This isn't your fault." He closed his eyes in a desperate attempt not to cry. "This isn't your fault. None of this. Not then, not now." Even with his eyes closed he felt the tears begin to run down his cheeks. "Colt this isn't your fault." He started shaking. "This isn't either of our faults." Court himself started to sound rough. As much as he tried every now and then his training as Six waned in the emotions department, and Colt could see it now.
He coughed out a sob, "It's not our fault." He slumped his head on Courts shoulder and they quietly cried together.
They held each other comfortingly until Colt had jolted and began to wiggle out of his grip as he remembered something. "Shit!"
"What?" Court had let him go when he started struggling.
"I already called Simon."
_________
The link for the shirt was miles long, so if you want to see what I'm talking about you can look up "Can I lick it periodic table" and you'll find it.
Since Ryland will never get to know what happened to the others on the other side I'll make a 4.5 for this AU if anyone's interested telling you what happened in general. Please let me know if that's something you'd like to see!
The next time Simon woke up he was much less mobile. One of the medical team had been in, giving him much milder meds than before, and saying Simon was doing incredibly. Well, he was healing incredibly but he still had plenty of problems. Bruised ribs, one of which got worse when Simon had first woken up, concussion, very mild radiation poisoning that was clearing up fast.
So when Simon sat up, practically folding himself in half while clutching his stomach, Grace was only slightly surprised. "Fuuuuck." he groaned. "what the fuck."
"Sorry, We needed to lower your meds after last time, but maybe we did too much." Grace had been given some pills just in case this happened and had been ready with a cup of water. "Hey take this."
Simon shakily took the water and downed the pills. He lay down and curled up again, looking at Grace with hope in his eyes, gritting out "Fuck is that really you?"
Grace grimaced, might be better to ignore that one for the moment, though he felt a little guilt about avoiding the question. "Do you remember what happened?"
"Uhh yeah. I think so. I was-hnnn- I was in the sub. I tried fighting. I think I won." He let out a delirious laugh. "The sub collapsed, I felt it. I swear I felt the-cough-metal, but then I was falling. There was blue. It was-ahh-nice to see something other than red. Then pain. Then now." He slowly roiled in pain, bringing a pillow to his chest and clutching it like a lifeline. "Ryland what's going on?"
He felt his heart strings pull, he was sorry Simon had to deal with the pain. But oh this guy knew his name and he knew for a fact he'd introduced himself as Grace. That was interesting. Not just angel anymore, and he didn't remember being on pain meds. "You'll feel better soon." All he got in response was a grunt. "Lemme grab you something that might help."
Standing from the cot Grace walked out of the room and into the kitchen, He grabbed a couple cold compresses from the freezer and returned, finding Simon back in a sitting position, still holding the pillow but now staring at Grace like he was a ghost. "You-cough-You're not Ryland."
______
Rylands face softened, no not Ryland. He looked almost sorry. "No, at least, I'm not your Ryland."
Grace had calmed Simon, explained what he thought the situation was and what he had seen, where they were, and that yes, he was indeed Ryland, but Ryland Grace. Not his Ryland. No. His Ryland was dead. Somehow he wasn't. They had told him Ryland was dead. They had no real reason to lie.
Grace had sort of left him alone after that to think on everything after giving him some cold packs for his ribs. He was still in the house, and it was a fairly open plan house, so really he was a few rooms over and within loud talking distance.
Simon was alone. With someone who looks exactly like the man he lost. It was heartbreaking. Ryland was gone but he was also two rooms over. They sounded the same. God they sounded the fucking same. But he had to get over it. He'd known since Ava brought the proposition to him, telling him the scientist they had picked up with him had accidentally died before they could send him to do what she wanted him to do. He was their backup, and he'd get his freedom.
The least he could do for Ryland was go in his stead and earn his freedom for the both of them. Only for it to be a suicide mission he was never supposed to live through.
There were positives. Grace had told him the stars here were fine in this universe, and offered when he was feeling much better to show him. So was Earth and much to the others confusion when asked Mars. No Quiet Rapture. Theoretically there were plants, but there were none in this room, and Simon didn't want to move, both because of his ribs and the fact that right now he really didn't feel like doing much of anything.
Erid huh? A planet full of Rock aliens and Ryland. Nothing but a xenonite barrier between them and a death sudden enough they wouldn't even know it happened. The Eridians cared enough to build him a huge home and do many other things for him, and Earth had sent him away on a suicide mission. Like his Ryland was supposed to have been sent on. Like he had been sent on. Similar paths but Ryland was working for the survival of humanity, and Simon was only working for his freedom.
He wasn't going to think about this anymore.
Eventually the pain died down, and for all of half a second he had considered getting up to take a look around. And then his rib twinged and he threw that idea out the airlock. He sucked it up and called out, "Ryland?"
"Give me a second! I'm almost done, got something for you." Simons anxiety spiked. Reasonably if Ryland was going to pull something he would've when he was unconscious, but the statement still had him on edge. He waited nervously for a few minuets, soon hearing a "Coming" from a room over. Rounding into the bedroom from what looked like the kitchen. He had three items in his hands, and began handing them over.
The first was another cup with water in it, which he took gratefully. taking a few sips, careful not to chug it like he did earlier as it had made him nauseous. The second was a pouch, warm to the touch, with a written label that said 'Day 1, Meal 1.' "It's food, take this slowly. I've been saving the last two for a special occasion and today is certainly one."
Rylands words caused a twinge in Simon who immediately tried to give it back, "Don't waste this on me. Especially if you were saving it."
The look he got was stern, like one of Simons teachers when he was learning to be an engineer. He stopped trying to return it immediately. "Simon, this is most definitely a special occasion. It's not every day theoretical physics is proven real, and this will be easiest on your stomach. I'm not wasting anything. Try it."
Under Graces persistence he gave in, popping off the top. From experience he didn't bother taking a whiff and simply sucked a small mouthful.
Holy shit.
This was the best food he'd ever fucking tasted. He'd groaned, legit groaned. Immediately a flush of embarrassment washed over him, and he could feel his cheeks getting warm. He turned his face away from Ryland in effort to hide as best he could.
But Ryland laughed, something he'd heard few and far between. It was short and genuine and Simons head had whipped around so fast to watch the others face he swear he heard something crack, only to immediately meet Rylands eyes. He looked radiant, glowing with mirth, and Simon knew without being told he wasn't being laughed at. "Right? I reacted the exact same way when I woke up. It was so good. It's why I've been saving the other two. What better way to greet you than hands down the best meal I had on the Hail Mary."
Simon felt a pit begin to form in his chest -not his- but shoved it down trying to placate his guilt by offering Ryland the pouch again. He could see a protest beginning to form but spoke before Ryland could. "It's customary. You shared food, good food, we partake together." He didn't mention the implications of sharing food in a non-emergency situation.
Ryland silently took it, taking noticeably a smaller amount than Simon had. He closed his eyes and his shoulders relaxed, savoring the taste he had missed for over a decade. He whispered just barely audibly and possibly not even meaning to speak out loud, "Goodbye." Handing it back he moved to the side of the bed farthest from Simon, asking, "You mind if I sit?"
"It's your bed Ryland." And when Ryland continued to wait for an answer he simply nodded.
"So," He pulled out the third item he had been holding under his arm, "I've got something that will hopefully keep you from being bored on bedrest." Between passes of the food pouch, of which Simon was almost certain the other was now only pretending to eat, Grace had given Simon one of his spare laptops. Showing him where the games, books, and movies were, and also some other programs in case Simon wanted to mess around. Simon had tried yet again to deny the gift but Grace had pointed out it was going to get really boring really quick, he'd already been there but he wasn't going to mention it.
Then Grace had gotten up again, and Simon had almost missed his proximity. "One more thing for you." He slipped halfway into the kitchen, grabbing something he'd covered in a towel.
"Ryland no, this has already been too much."
That stern look had returned. "No. The water, food, and entertainment are meeting your basic human needs. This is more of a 'Hey you fell out of the sky, welcome to Erid against your will' present."
Simon raised an eyebrow in amused skepticism. "Is that the official title?"
"We can workshop it." He handed over the gift, and Simon felt raw ceramic against his hands. He was wary but more curious than anything else. Pulling off the towel he was suddenly struck. Not physically. Emotionally. "This is one of the newest ones we've been able to synthesize from the info we have from earth. It's brand new, but it'll be hardy and grow fast with the slight modifications the botany team made. It's an Orange tree, but soon we will have even- Oh Simon, are you okay? What's Wrong? Simon?"
Simon had bent over the tiny sapling protectively and sobbed.
_______
Yes, even starving Grace had saved the other two Day1 meals. He was going to eat them if he was certain he was going to die but thankfully it only ever came close. Plus he can use the remnants and give it to the food team to make more now that he finally cracked it open. Like a fine vintage, survival paste, not that the new ones will have as much weight to them. He's still going to save the other one.
Bonus points if you can figure out whose meal that was and why I chose them.
Triple bonus points if you can figure out what event he's specifically holding the next pouch for. *wink*
Also, please don't hesitate to ask or suggest things! For any of the AU's! I would love it and might even write a little something. I don't mind writing little blurbs that are time skips, I can just do my best to avoid big events I already have planned to write about. (I just really wanna talk about the Au's, don't mind me)
Grace had oddly enough left him essentially alone. He'd told Simon that if he needed any help, or when he was ready to talk, he would be just outside in the data corridor. He'd said they had a lot they needed to talk about but that Grace would wait as long as needed for him to be ready. He implied it would be a big conversation.
Simon had spent a good chunk of time rooted in place. He'd cleaned and applied the patches to his cheek, which was now just a hole showing off his teeth. But after about half an hour he got impatient and uncomfortable on the floor. Checking that Armando wasn't going to come for him again he sat on the bed, legs hanging off the side. It reminded him of getting a medical check as a kid, waiting for the Eden doctor to come see if he was fit to work. There was no less anxiety here.
Simon was generally a patient person but after two hours of sitting alone in the room He got antsy. He'd looked around, found two other bunks but they were shut and he couldn't open them, rooted through the medical supplies, nosed around some of Graces stuff in a storage bin, and in desperation for anything to do started investigating himself in a small mirror he found tucked away in the open bunk.
He'd never been this bored in his life. There was always something to do. He thought he could outlast Grace but the uncomfortably clean white walls and lack of fuck all to do was getting to him. Sans Armando, and he wasn't getting anywhere near Armando, there was nothing to tinker with. He was almost sure Grace had something to keep him occupied. This was a losing battle.
Ah fuck it. So far at least he had nothing to fear from Grace. He had been incredibly kind and patient it was almost uncanny. Maybe the COI really needed or liked him and they gave the doctor whatever he wanted, including extremely clean facilities and enough supplies he didn't have to worry about giving them away, there were plenty of medical supplies in this room and Armando was a pretty piece of equipment.
He walked over to the door, peeking out. There was another turn before what he assumed was the data corridor he was told about. Holding firmly the tiny earth, he quietly as he could padded down to the next section.
______
If Grace said Simon hadn't startled him he'd be lying, but he managed to hide it well enough from the other. It had been around 3 hours, and he had to hand it to the man, he lasted well longer than Grace thought he would, but to be honest he was also used to children and sleep deprived scientists when he pulled the 'I'll wait till you're ready' move. He'd been sitting cross-legged at the other end of the corridor, laptop in his lap and some stuff for Simon when the man appeared.
Immediately he closed the laptop, and gave the other his full attention. It took a moment, Simon looking around a little. "You wanted to talk."
"Yes, you mind if we talk in the dorms, so I can sit?"
"Sure." Simon turned back and dissapeared around the corner. Gathering his bundle of things he followed. He set up the items on a shelf and sat on a chair that folded out of the wall.
Once comfortable enough he addressed the other. "So, besides you're health, there's two major things about our situation I need to tell you. Firstly your health," He pulled out a tablet that he had pulled up Simons vitals and medical data on, "You're in pretty good health overall. Some burns, plenty of scars, irritated skin, bruised ribs, And one hell of a bloodshot eye which should take care of itself in time. You had acute radiation poisoning but those numbers are rapidly dropping. I'm going to attribute that to the astrophage, as they absorb radiation and well I have to take a guess in the dark for that. I researched it and you shouldn't be recovering this quickly but I'm no doctor, so Astrophage it is." Glancing up, Simon looked incredibly confused. Oh, "Is it astrophage you're confused about?"
"You're not a doctor?"
They stared at one another for a few solid seconds in dumbfounded silence.
"No? I'm sorry, When did I say I was?"
"You literally introduced yourself as 'Doctor Grace.' While we were in a medical bay."
God sometimes Grace was an idiot. He ran a hand down his face groaning. "Sorry, I have a doctorate, I'm not a doctor. I must've fallen into old habits without realizing. I'm sorry for the confusion."
Simon looked more skeptical of Grace than ever before, letting a drawn out "Sure."
Putting the tablet back He grabbed the soft bundle he had. "I've got some clothes here for you so you're not wearing the stupid med bay suit Armando put you in." Simon glanced down but didn't say anything. "And I'll show you where the bathroom is so you can take a shower, but first, do you know how you got here?"
Simon shook his head, "I have to assume I managed to survive some-fucking-how, I was retrieved, and they handed me off to you."
"Who's they?" Simon only squinted at him. "O.K. Well, that's not possible. No one gave you to me, they couldn't have." Grace took a deep breath, dreading this, but it needed to be done. "Were in space and you're stuck here with me."
He expected anything besides Simon looking at him like he was fucking stupid. "Was I sent with you on another suicide mission or are we lost? How are we stuck together?"
The accuracy almost threw Grace off. "Because were in space? Also you just appeared on my ship, where we are about 7 trillion miles from the closest living humans. I have the theory, and really it's the only viable one, that a wormhole pulled you through from another universe. However it dropped you off in one of the worst places possible, as yes. I was sent on a suicide mission."
Simon looked more and more confused the more Grace talked until he mentioned the mission. His eyes widened and he deflated, "No, not again. What is it this time? Are we going to another fucking moon?" The rising panic in his voice gave Armando alarm who wheeled a little closer but still didn't touch him.
"No," Grace tried to placate, "no moons... Probably. We're in the Tau Ceti system. I was sent to try and save Earth."
Earth. The other man pulled out the beanbag from behind him. "Earth? Earth sent you?" He was looking at Grace like he was a nutcase.
"Yes. Sent by Earth to solve the astrophage problem. I don't blame you for thinking I'm crazy. I don't know what your universe was like."
"Well for one Earth doesn't exist. Not anymore."
_____
This ones a little shorter, sorry bout that.
Grace thought this would go a lot differently. Instead he is the one confused.
Ryland knew they hadn't killed him when he felt the throb in the back of his head while waking up. What the fuck did they need him for so badly that they kept his ass alive even after he'd bitten the absolute shit out of that one with the gun. The theoretically really important to Eden guy who was wherever the hell they were with... Stars and trees?
While laying, pretending to still be asleep, he went over the best theory he could think of. Another station or colony had managed to survive but had kept its distance from COI and Eden. Reasonably as both of them were shit shows. Neither group knew about them but they knew about the two warring factions. They had spies at least in Eden, and Gun-Ryland was one of them. This new colony was obsessed with old earth and large enough to simulate it to a disturbing degree.
Great. Space hippies.
And they had access to possibly real trees, and a dome that could project fake stars. Eden would have a field day here, but if Eden could be denied this he would be content. They would ruin it, whatever it is, even if it is a fallacy.
Snippets of a conversation started to reach Rylands ears, getting closer. "-has to be- alone? Is that really- God he fought like when we were kids. All teeth and pent up anger." The conversation hushed as footsteps approached the door. Not that they had been saying anything important before.
The door opened slowly, Ryland could hear two sets of cautious footsteps enter, one coming closer to the bedside than the other. They let out a breath and whispered to the other, "He's asleep." Something was placed next to the bed.
"How fucking hard did you hit him Court? And how can you be sure?" The one closer to the door was a shitty whisperer but gave him something important. The not-Eden gun-Ryland is called Court.
"Just hard enough to knock him out, and I know Colt, I've always been able to tell if you two were actually asleep or not." The other ones name is Colt and Court seems to think he's watched Ryland sleep before. Horrific notion if he wasn't sure he was an incredibly light sleeper. Had to be. He could be being mistaken for someone else, I mean there were three people in this room who all looked alike, it wasn't off the table for there to be more hiding away somewhere.
"He might've been pretending to sleep in the garage!" Colt whispered angerly. Shit he had some sense.
There was silence before Court whispered "Fuck" He stepped back from the bed before speaking slightly louder than normal volume "Ryland." Colt was now Rylands arch Enemy.
It would be a futile attempt at this point to pretend so he sat up and looked at them. "What do you want?"
Court was looking at him curious and stern. Colt looked angry and sad.
They all stared at each other for a few minuets. Ryland was about to lay back down to make a point when Colt asked, "What happened to you?"
It was his turn to be confused. "The fuck do you mean, 'What happened?' You knocked me out and dragged me here."
Both of their eyes widened and they shared a look. "Well uh- Grace what happened after you left? How are you here?"
Grace? was that a prayer? "I just told you, I ran, you pursued. Or did someone else follow me and knock me out?" He knew he was getting frustrated and raising his voice. He knew it had gotten him in a lot of trouble in the past, leniency of him being one of few scientists aside. He dug his nails into his palms to ground himself. "If you mean how I got here in general I would have to assume that a man and woman fucked and I popped out."
_____
There was no way this was their brother. But he had to be. Besides a little added scruff, more than normally unusual clothes, and being dirty and unkempt that was Colts twin. His brother was back but he shouldn't be, and he was acting like a wild fucking animal. Grace never cursed, not much as a child, and especially not after he became a teacher.
Worst of all Grace didn't recognize him or Court. Court He would maybe understand, he had only reconnected with Colt after Ry had been shot into space, the last time either of them had seen him being when they were kids. But Colt. They were twins. Had been inseparable even after they were adopted by their Uncle, and well into adulthood. Even through Colts accident Ryland was the only one who wouldn't let him push them away.
"For sake of being specific," Court put emphasis on specific, "We mean after Ava forced you onto the Hail Mary? Or do you not remember and the amnesiac she gave you hasn't worn off?" Colt could only hope that was the case.
"I don't have amnesia." Was the only response they got.
"Then do you know who we are?"
Grace squinted at Court. "Turn around."
Court raised an eyebrow at him. Colt didn't begrudge him this, Grace had only an hour or so earlier bit the ever-loving shit out of him. He glanced at Colt as if to say 'watch my back' and obliged. He only stayed turned for a few moments, facing Ryland again quickly. Colt didn't like that it was like Court was on alert because of their brother.
Grace hummed and stared off into the distance in thought. His concentration was broken by Court. "I showed you mine, you show me yours?" Ry immediately bristled, baring his teeth, and hunching down. "No. It's only fair. You turn around." Courts voice reminded Colt of when he was being a parent to his brothers and had to be strict for their own good. When Grace made no move to comply Court shrugged. "Or if you prefer I can come over there and look for myself. Your choice." Colt shivered. Sure he was an adult but Court had raised him and he was damn well conditioned.
"Court." Colt tried to interject, calm the situation. Something was obviously wrong and Court agitating The other wouldn't help.
But it worked. Ryland, still tense, turned his head and upper body as far as he could without getting up, and pulled his longer than normal hair up off the back of his neck. Court sucked in a breath and Colts hands started shaking with rage.
There was a painful looking brand on the back of Rylands neck. It was simple but brutal, and it made a point. It marked property.
_____
Twin beef even through alternate dimensions lets go.
Grace had actually ended up waiting about 15 minuets to sleep for Rocky to collect his cot from 'their' lab. He had offered to go get it himself but Rocky knew he was hesitant to leave the other man to possibly wake up to an alien so his friend went instead. Stratt, when putting supplies in the Hail Mary, had apparently took into consideration that scientists were weird and would probably want to sleep next to their experiments from time to time and included military like cots in storage. He wasn't going to give her the distant satisfaction of admitting it out loud but he had used them more times than he would like to admit while babysitting the Taumeba and now on Erid.
The moment Rocky got back though he was out for the count.
He slept fitfully, every few hours or so waking up and checking on the other human. Grace can't tell if it was because he got so used to watching others sleep and being watched in return he almost felt like he needed to watch over the stranger, or if the familiarity he felt earlier was bothering him enough to not let him sleep, or if the events of today were throwing him off so much he was restless. Either way he was not getting a lot of sleep.
Rocky, maybe being understanding today despite his long history of being brutally structured about Graces sleep schedule, did not comment once about his lack of sleep or his decision to get up and stay up a few hours early. "Thanks for watching us Rocky, you wanna go home to Adrien?"
Rocky trilled a hesitant affirmative. "Grace, you sure you don't want me to stay?" Grace felt bad enough Rocky had stayed personally tonight, keeping him from his partner. At this point there was a group of Eridians who rotated 'watch Grace duty' and usually Rocky was home with his family. It made him ache sometimes, and he'd never say it out loud, but he selfishly missed Rocky watching over him at night. Sue him he almost always slept better when it was his best friend he spent literal years alone with.
"Yeah bud, I'll be okay."
"What if new-human is hostile when he wakes up? What if they attack you?"
To be honest with himself he wasn't sure. He could defend himself well enough, he'd had to do it before against beings stronger than him. Sure but anyone could slip up. "Hmmm. How about I go get the old call button?" When Grace had first been on Erid in his decrepit state the Eridians had given him a call button like those on hospital beds just in case something happened when someone was gone or that he could feel but they couldn't. "I know it's still hooked up because you're paranoid."
Boy if a Rock could look Guilty. "What if security cannot get here fast enough?"
"Rock I will be okay. I don't want to risk him waking up to what he would see as an alien. He might Really freak out then when he might not have." The Eridian shifted around nervously. He hadn't been this over-protective in a long damn time. "Hey," He kneeled down and held his arms out, "Are you okay buddy?"
Rocky crawled foreword into his arms and hugged him. "Worried. We cannot know what will happen. What if they are not a nice human? What if they are and you like them better than me and I'm not you're best friend anymore? What if they take you from me?" Grace had known for years Rocky had anxiety among other things.
"You're right, we wont know until he wakes up, but I do know you should be with Adrien and the little ones. I can promise I will do everything in my power to be okay. Also, Not a soul alive could take your place as my best friend, you and I have been through too much together for there to even be a chance of that." He was glad Rocky was blunt and to the point. He admitted his fears freely which let him address everything. Grace was still working on that.
"mmmng" Rocky wasn't happy about it but he knew Grace was right. "Fine. Be careful. Will be back later."
"See you then bud. Love you."
"Love you." Rocky trilled back and left the house in slightly better spirits. Adrien would help, they were a great partner.
Once he was gone Grace grabbed his laptop and plopped himself down in the comfiest chair in the corner of his room. He'd do some research and maybe watch something. He mildly lamented the inability to go to the lab like he had planned today, but he deserved a day in to laze about.
______
"Eye movement detected"
The absolute last thing Ryland had expected when he heard Armando rattle off his catchphrase and the man was awake was for him to throw himself out of bed and practically fall into his lap, all before Grace could even process enough to do anything besides get his laptop off his lap. In a matter of seconds the man had slotted himself between Rylands legs, had wrapped his arms around Graces chest, and had shoved his head into his stomach. For a moment Grace feared Rocky was right and he'd been stupid as all heck and he was about to die.
And then the other started practically sobbing, muffled voice the other noticed was slurring a little. "Angel. Angelllll. They told mee they killed youuu. She told mee it was an accident. She wannnnted you but they killllled you. sheee-she took me inssstead. Annngelll." He was slurring absolute nonsense. "Yourrrrre aliveeee"
Dang. Those pain meds must be doing a number on him. The Team had given the stranger the good stuff because of the missing limb and his lungs, but maybe this guy had never had any before now. All he could do was placate the man and not let them use the good stuff again unless they really needed to. "Hey, hey. I'm all right. I'm right here." It felt weird acting like he knew the man. "Can you stand up for me?"
There was a very slight shake of his head into Graces stomach. "Don't lllleave me pleeeasee." His pleading was so broken Graces heart hurt, but the shaking of the head had been incredibly uncomfortable and as much as he had thought human touch would be welcome the whole situation made his skin crawl.
Shifting forward on the seat, eliciting noises of protest from the other, he spoke, "Alright, I wont. But we need to get you back in bed. I'm going to help you up but you need to put your legs under you okay?
Some awkward maneuvering and having to practically pry the other mans arms off with a crowbar later, the man was back on the bed and under the covers. The only issue is that if Grace tried to leave his side for even a moment he whined and tried to follow, risking falling off the bed. So now Grace was bound to the bedside, barely having managed to pull the cot over before the fall risk had a chance to notice.
The man was only truly content if he was touching in some way, so instead of holding his wrist like the other had wanted, he settled for running a hand through his hair. The motions had significantly calmed the man, and It was nice hair. "Now that that's over with, can you remember your name for me?"
The response was surprisingly quick, "Simon." The man had closed his eyes when Grace started scratching at his scalp and he had half expected him to fall asleep. Heck yeah we had a name.
"Simon. That's a nice name. I'm Grace." Simons eyebrows scrunched lightly, but the noise he made sounded tired. He seemed to be falling asleep and Grace was thankful. He'd be able to get his laptop and maybe get a message out to Rocky and the science team. They'd set up a cross device messaging system when he'd recovered and there were far less people constantly present.
The softest of snores was let out by Simon and Grace immediately took the oportunity, slowing his brushing until it was gone. When Simon didn't panic or protest he quietly got up and grabbed his laptop, setting it down on the bed where it wasn't touching the other, and opened a new document. He was going to note everything about Simon and see if he could figure out what happened to the other man.
*His name is Simon.
*He called me Angel
*Appeared in air in Biodome over water. Wormhole most likely suspect. Different dimension?
*Thinks he knows me. Thought I was dead. Possibly a different me on other side of wormhole. Will not consider other option.
*"they" killed me. "She" told him and took him. Who?
*they wanted me but sent him instead. To do what?
*Maybe no more narcotics for now, or a much lower dose. Then again I don't want him to be in pain.
There wasn't much but it was a start, and hopefully more would reveal itself when he wasn't as out of it. For now Grace let his mind wander and consider most of the possibilities surrounding this baffling situation.
Oh and he had to message Rocky.
______
Simon is going to have a much worse time when he wakes up again.
When Grace was done in the Bunk room, having also discarded the clothes and cleaning the bracelet, and after checking in with Armando that the stranger was stable, he decided to continue with his cleaning momentum and fix the mess he had made of the ship. He had company now after all, he didn't want his first impression to be that he was a slob, even if he had been recently. He gets the impression he usually wasn't this messy, but he also usually wasn't hurtled into another solar system without his memories.
This was the only reason. Definitely.
He deep cleaned the ship, deciding halfway through to make an inventory for himself of all of his supplies and individual types of food. He was going to need to start rationing immediately after all. Again, the only reason. Ryland found he had more food than he thought, maybe at launch they had stuffed extras in? He had plenty coma slurry and the ship had it's own water recycling system. He did learn that his suit he ruined and any wrappers were jettisoned straight into space. Little wasteful, he thought, what if he ever needed the aluminum.
It was at this point, debating the practicality of keeping his trash on the slight chance he might need trace amounts of aluminum and plastic, he couldn't reason with himself that he could keep avoiding himself or the unconscious stranger. Slowly he made his way back to the dorm.
Now here he was, getting his first good look at the man laying on his bunk. Armando had done an incredible job at cleaning him up, revealing black wavy hair, a beard, plenty of scars including what looked to be a stitched up hole in his left cheek, and the biggest detail he hadn't noticed when he was a blood covered hunk of meat, his left arm was freaking missing! About halfway to his elbow the arm had been severed. He couldn't tell under the bandages if it had been clean or crushed or ripped, but it was certainly fresh,
Jesus what had this guy been through.
More importantly where had he come from, and was his throw away theory correct?
And here he was, at the part of his thoughts he had been avoiding for the last few hours. This guy, who looked like he had been through hell in a handbasket, was now stuck on a suicide mission with Grace. How could he tell him he arrived here only to be stuck where he will inevitably die. He probably would've been better off literally anywhere else. Anywhere except wherever had ripped his arm off.
A pang of guilt and shame hit Ryland. This was the other part he wanted to ignore. The selfish part of him that was so glad, so relieved to not be alone anymore he almost didn't care they were doomed. Almost. Of course he did care but that selfish part of him was still there, ringing with guilt so much it almost made him sick.
He stood, staring down at the man for likely too long. He took note that Armando hadn't intubated him so it thought he would wake up soon, but with the blood loss he doubted it. Of course, this is when the mans eyes shot open, just to spite Graces inner monologue.
_____
Simon had died. He knew he'd fucking died. He felt himself die. It had hurt unbearably until it hadn't hurt anymore. Yet here he was, alive, very unfortunately alive if the ache in his entire body and the fresh pain in his cheek had anything to say about it, and in the corner he put himself into of an uncannily sterile room. There was a man, standing by the bed he'd all but thrown himself out of, arms up in an attempt to not seem threatening, and a machine arm reaching out to him in a futile effort to grab him.
"Armando stop it." The man said, shoving gently at the machines base, which did manage to get it to back off almost looking dejected if a machine could show any emotion. "Hey there, I'm so sorry about that. I hope you're cheek is okay, we can fix it when you're ready. I'm Dr Grace." Grace was such a weird name. Eden would've never allowed a child to be called something so blasphemous. Even a doctor. It didn't matter. He couldn't go back. That had to be the only reason he was here, somehow he hadn't died, they'd collected him, and they're going to use him again.
"Please." He hated how he practically whimpered, he was weak. The big bad butcher pleading for his life, but all of his anger was long gone, and he had never really been The Butcher. He didn't care how they saw him now.
"What?" Grace had leaned foreword, trying to hear him better.
"Please," He said a little louder, "Please don't send me back down there. Please." God he was pathetic. "I don't care if you have to lock me up again, I don't want to go back. Please. You can send me to work, I'm strong I can-." Almost as if to punctuate his words a throb of pain shot up his arm. Looking down Simon was horrified to be so harsly reminded he had ripped his own arm off when it had been welded to the ships pipes.
"Nononono. Please, I swear." He held his stump and shoved it into the corner, trying to hide it from sight as if Grace hadn't already seen it and tended to it, pleading ramping up a notch. "I can still work. I can lift with one arm. I can learn. I swear. I promise. I can. It's not even my dominant hand. Please. " His begging devolved into sobs as he curled in on himself, certain they were going to send his pathetic useless ass back down into the blood. He wouldn't be able to do it this time. He couldn't he couldn't he couldn't.
It was a few minuets into his freak out, enough he wasn't actively sobbing like a baby anymore, that he felt and heard Grace sidle up next to him. Not close enough to be within arms reach, but close enough he tossed something soft that hit his leg and fell to the ground.
This was a ploy.
He looked anyway.
There was a tiny blue and green fabric ball on the ground by his thigh. It confused him enough he unfolded himself just enough to reach his arm down and snatch it off the floor before returning to his previous position. It was only mildly soft but it was a tiny replica of earth. This would be coveted in Eden. Why had it been given to him?
He fiddled with it in his lap for a little bit, much calmer now than he had been after waking up panicking, when Grace spoke up. "Hey, I'm not sending you anywhere. You can stay right here in this corner if you want, as long as you want. No one is going to make you do anything you don't want to do here." Exhaustion hit him like a truck and he simply grunted at the other, not sure if he believed it. "So~ I introduced myself. Would you mind telling me your name?"
He scoffed. It was laughable. Of course they still didn't bother to know his name. He was just a convict. But... but Grace was being patient. Like really patient with him. Most people, Eden or COI wouldn't have put up with his whiny bullshit just now, much less promise him anything, even just that he could stay in the corner. Maybe they had just handed him off to someone as a pet project. Sure, he could work with that. If this is what the COI meant by freedom he could live with that. His voice was raw to his own ears, "Simon. My name is Simon."
"I like that name, Simon. It's a nice name. So Simon, would you let me fix your cheek up?" After so long of not hearing his name except from a horrific blood eel or his own hallucinations it was nice hearing it from the doctor, but he still wasn't going to let him touch him if he could help it. Shaking his head he heard Grace get up. He curled in on himself, gripping the little planet tightly, worried Grace would be upset he said no.
Grace instead walked away from him. Peeking over his arm he saw the doctor walk over to a storage compartment. Grabbing what he wanted he walked back over, crouched just out of Simons reach, and then extended his hand out to him. "Here then, would you clean it and bandage it then?" Seeing Simons hesitance he added a "Please? It could get infected. We Really should sew it but we can settle with bandaging if you're careful."
He felt Grace would continue to pester him about his health, even if it was a waste of resources. He was a doctor after all, and if Simon was his pet project he would want Simon healthy. Hesitantly he returned the earth to his lap and grabbed the items from Grace. Large bandages, rubbing alcohol, and a cloth.
Looking into Graces eyes the man smiled at him such a stunningly bright smile Simon was momentarily dazed by it. "Thank you Simon."
It was embarrassing how much his own name was music to his ears.
_____
I don't think, after having come out the other side, Simon would be violent. I think he'd be scared. Scared he'd have to do it all over again. Scared he hadn't earned his freedom in the eyes of the COI. Scared.
I've been really well received on the longer posts that I'm going to make sure they are generally longer. Idk what my average wordcount is or anything, but at least long enough I feel it needs a read more, and when I feel it's a good cutoff.
There were two people standing in front of him, a few feet away. One standing in the doorway, hands hovering over the light switch, and the second only a foot in front of the other with a gun raised and pointed at Rylands chest. Both of them looked almost exactly like him except for small details.
Gun-Ryland was close but had different facial hair, along with shorter and slicked back professional looking hair. He also was maybe a little older than himself he noticed, as a memory tugged at him. He thought he'd seen him before in Eden but only in passing with a parade of other important people, and hadn't realized the resemblance at the time, but him being a higher up would also explain why he was allowed something so precious and scarce as a gun. He must be really important, and Ryland had just went and attacked him. Fuck.
Door-Ryland had slightly longer hair, still shorter than his own as he hadn't exactly had the ability to cut his hair recently, but was the same length and style he preferred to keep his own, same going for the facial hair he sported. Where gun-Ryland looked like maybe a slightly older version of himself, Door-Ryland was like looking in a fucking mirror. A mirror that gave him super loud colorful clothes he didn't think existed at the end of the universe, and made him cleaner than he thinks he'd ever been in his life. He didn't have glasses though, not that Ryland did either, they'd been confiscated long ago.
If this was Eden and they had retrieved him... no. Eden didn't care enough about him to collect him. He'd been caught and they had no way of knowing if he had talked, they'd kill him on sight for that alone. Was this some sort of new psychological thing? There was no way the COI had this kind of technology, and no way they would waste it on him if they did. He was a scientist, not a damn soldier or disciple of Father.
Then Ice ran through his veins as his name was called.
"Ryland?" the broken noise ripped him from his thoughts, coming from further of the two, their hand raising slightly seemingly of his own accord.
The COI didn't know his name. They didn't care to. It had to be Eden, but it couldn't be Eden. Yet gun-Ryland was from there, and only someone from Eden would know his name, but no one would have ever cared enough about him for this. Maybe gun-man was a traitor, but It was very difficult as the higher ups were all zealots.
So then what was this?
"Ry-Ry?" The one with the gun lowered it slowly, putting his free hand out to the side like he was trying to placate the wild thing Ryland knew he probably looked like.
Following the downward movement he noticed the item he brandished in his hand was... a socket wrench? He did a quick glance around. Smallish four walled room. Lot of equipment on the walls next to and behind him. Super clean besides oil stains on the concrete. A set of large almost wall sized coiling doors. Then the most out of place things, two old world vehicles. None of which existed anymore. The stations weren't big enough and none had been present when The Quiet Rapture ripped everything from them.
Movement. He whipped his head back to the two, Gun had moved forward a single step, gun now in it's holster on his hip, and both hands out and the saddest look on his face. Was this guys eyes welling up? The one behind him was stuck in a look of shock. This was all wrong. Eden or not he needed to get out of here, at least if he was shot fleeing he'd just be dead.
He had noticed a larger window in his glance around, but he did have to get past the Eden gunman to get to it, and that was if it chose to cooperate and break. He tensed as the man took another step towards him. Too close. It had to be now.
Quick as a flash he chucked the wrench at the window which did indeed shatter. Immediately he tried to follow it, unfortunately the gunman was quicker and despite Rylands best attempt to dodge him he'd gotten a hold of him. Quickly, they wrapped their arms around his chest and waist in an awkward attempt to restrain and hold him from the side.
Ryland struggled and as the man lifted him and turned with the momentum he kicked out violently, hitting the light switch as he did, sending them into mostly darkness again. He heard shouts and as he tried swinging his head to headbutt the other he met shoulder. Good enough. He kicked again, hitting something else that started up a loud noise on the other side of the room and letting more light in. It must've been the door. Perfect. He opened his mouth, and using the momentum, swung his head down and bit as hard as he could the other mans shoulder. Thick, hot, disgusting blood flooded his mouth instantly, and for a relieved moment his teeth stopped itching.
With a scream he was dropped harshly. He heard the other stagger away from him and the man in the doorway screaming at them. He didn't care. Scrabbling to his feet he ran at the slowly opening door and ducked under it and fucking ran. One of them screamed his name again but he ignored it, running down the concrete and hooking left after a chain fence. He ignored everything, tunnel vision and adrenaline pushing him farther, faster. He needed to find somewhere to hide, or just outlast them.
He had only just started to look for a way to cut off their vision, other paths that might lead out of sight when he noticed everything around him was odd. He was going to ignore it, survival over confusion, when he past something on his right that caused him to hesitate and stumble hard to the ground. His hands and his knees burned but he needed to know if he was hallucinating, he needed to know if he was crazy, getting caught be damned.
He lifted his head, intending to turn around to look at the one he'd noticed first, but he didn't need to. There was a line of trees leading down the street. Trees? Were those trees? Real trees? Plural trees? "holy shit." He needed to touch them, he could tell if they were real if he touched them. Probably. As Ryland made to stand up he finally noticed something even more debilitatingly extraordinary.
He sat back onto his heels, staring straight up. Tears filled his eyes as he gazed up at a sky absolutely littered with stars. Just like the stories he was told of earth before The Quiet Rapture. There were houses all around him, not housing districts. There were trees all over the place like they didn't need to be religiously guarded for how fucking sacred they were. And most importantly the stars. Rylands guardian had a hand me down ancient star map from earth, and when he was a kid they had spent hours looking at it. He had memorized it, partially due to his near-perfect memory, but he had spent long hours studying it and being told so much about it. The same exact sky he had seen on the map loomed almost intimidatingly above him.
Fuck. Stars. Stars. And they were so beautiful.
He heard them running up behind him, footsteps gradually slowing before stopping completely. They were whispering to each other, but he didn't care. They were going to kill him, for sure, but Ryland found it would be fine. More than fine. He didn't care. Especially if his last moments were staring up at a stunning sky full of the stars that he never even considered he'd see until he was dead. And maybe he was already. That was fine. Whatever led to this was worth it.
Then his world went dark again.
____
To clarify, I know the Quiet Rapture occurred in Simons lifetime, meaning it would've happened in Rylands, but I've chosen to push that back to their parents generation. Fuck it, more trauma.
Sorry Court, you now have rabies lol. /joking
I swear this will be Bloodymary. Give Simon a little bit of time to get here. He should be on his way.
Grace had been on Erid for some time, going on 7 years now. He'd taught many classes of pebbles, made numerous changes to his biosphere with Rocky and Adrian, had a much wider variety of food now to the point he could actually cook for himself instead of all his meals being me-burgers and taumeba, and long come to terms with the things he'd never have again like good coffee and human interaction. Grace was a lot more grieved by the loss of good coffee.
He was in the middle of his last day with his current class. He knew many of them would come by every now and then, and some he might even see in some of his other classes, but he was going to miss them for sure. He loved teaching, so much, and his students were a huge reason he wasn't too upset by being the only human, as most of the humans he missed were his kids, and the pebbles (and for some classes even adults) were a balm to that loss.
"Hey, i know class is almost over, but I just wanted to thank all of you, you were amazing students, and i couldn't have asked for more attentive pebbles. Please, don't hesitate to drop by, and don't forget-" He had turned around to grab something off his desk, but his attention was grabbed by something over the biodomes fake sea. He glanced up just quick enough to spot a disturbingly human shaped object hit the surface of the water right as a chorus of voices erupted behind him.
"Dr. Grace!" "What's that?" "Is the dome breaking?" "Grace?" Over time he'd gotten better at distinguishing voices and being able to comprehend more than one person at a time, but he needed to tune them out right now.
Turning back to his students he pointed to Tabby, a slightly large for their age pebble he knew was one of his fastest students. "Tabby, run and go get Adrien and Rocky, fast. The rest of you, class dismissed." He and Tabby were running before he had even finished. He threw himself into the water and immediately started for where the possible body had landed. He had one of the control panels for the wave machine at his classroom and he was cursing himself by the time he was chest deep that he hadn't thought to turn it off, but he knew he'd become a good enough swimmer to the point it would've been pointless to turn around.
(This ones a bit longer than the others)
There was so much running through his head as he swam harder than he ever had before in his life. Was this a good idea? Was that really a human shape he saw? Was it really something wrong with the bio-dome like his student said? Should he be going out there? was it safe? Whatever it was how had it gotten here, in the dome? Had it gone through the dome? No, that was stupid, he chided himself, he'd be dead if had come through the dome, and he didn't want to think about the trauma that would've inflicted on his pebbles.
He did his best to stop thinking about it as he got near and he noticed the water was tinted slightly red and a definitely human body sinking slowly. He took in a breath of air and pushed himself under, quickly gaining on the person and finally getting a grip on it's shirt and yanking it up towards the surface, noting the lack of most of one arm. He started immediately back to the shore, if this definitely a human person was alive, he couldn't quite tell at the moment and wasn't wasting the time to check, he needed to get them there to help.
It took what felt like way too long, despite having been a quicker trip back, to get to the shore. He noticed Rocky's frantic tones coming from near the airlock as he dragged the body most of the way onto land and immediately threw himself into compressions even, though he was panting hard and could already feel his muscles beginning to ache. When he stopped to give air to the person he also checked his pulse to make sure he wasn't doing CPR on a dead man.
A pulse! Back into compressions he heard the sound of Rocky approaching quickly over the sand. "Grace! Is that another human? What happened?"
He gave the person another breath before responding, "Dunno, hold on." Rocky made some pretty upset noises but Grace had to make sure. Another few pumps finally found the persons head lolling to the side and violently ejecting pink foamy water onto the sand.
Coughing and spluttering the person seemed to come to, raising his head to look around. Their hair slid off one of his eyes and Grace had the chance to take in the fact that it was probably a man, given the facial hair. The man zeroed in on Grace and looked him up and down, pain giving way to a wash of confusion. Still coughing the man raised his only hand shakily towards Graces face and managed a weak "A-Angel?" before his hand fell back to the sand and his head lolled to the side.
The moment his head fell Grace scooped the man up and hoisted him into his arms bridal style and started a quick jog towards the house, Rocky right next to him. "Can help Grace? Adrien is already getting the medical team."
"Yeah, can you open the door when we get to the house?" Grace had been dropped by rocky one too many times to ask the Eridian to carry the man. "I don't know if he ingested water but he definitely inhaled it." Rocky and the team would know how to help after the incident of grace swimming far too long while he was still recovering. He'd made sure it never happened again but at least they had the experience, not that there was much to do besides make sure there's no more salt water still in him and give him medication for the pain he would surely be in.
Finally they made it the house, Rocky surging ahead and throwing open the door and barreling into the house. Grace saw the medical team and Adrien running over as he rushed into the house, heading straight for his bedroom where he knew Armando was waiting and Rocky was probably moving things out of his way. Entering he practically threw the man on the bed, before immediately getting out of the way for the team that entered behind him.
He took a few moments to watch them, taking in the details he could see of the stranger like the fact that his arm was a fairly recent heal as it looked raw and painful, and the equally fresh scar over his cheek and eye. He could feel the adrenaline ebbing and decided as the team started to cut away his clothes to leave the room. Ignoring a tug of familiarity at the strangers face, he decided to head to the porch, Rocky trailing behind him.
As the last of the adrenaline left him and the consequences of pushing himself nagged at his muscles he dropped himself onto the rocking chair, rocky settling down beside him. Rocky gave him a moment to breathe and steady himself before he spoke up, "Grace, okay?"
Taking a second to consider, scratching at Rockys xenonite suit, he took in the situation. "Yeah bud, I think I'm alright, just a bit spooked and worried. I mean, I hope he's alright but how did he get here? I only saw him hit the water, but he couldn't have come through the dome or I'd be dead, so only option is he appeared in the dome."
"Simply appeared? Don't understand how that's possible."
"Just in the air. Hmmm" Grace rocked foreword in the chair.
Grace considered it, and Rocky put voice to his thoughts. "Wormhole?"
"If he really appeared in the air then yeah, that's kind of the only option. Either way he's here and we can hope he's not hostile when he wakes up."
This seemed to remind both him and Rocky what the stranger had said for the moment he was conscious. "Grace, new word."
"Yeah, an angel is related to religion, I know we didn't talk too much about religion. It's related to that."
"Good or bad connotation?"
"Usually good." Grace looked out over the water. He hoped this wouldn't turn bad but he knew at least things were going to get interesting.
Adrien exited the house, followed by the medical team who passed them and headed out of the dome, giving Grace their goodbyes. "New-Human doing okay." Adrien told him. "Should remain stable. Adrien head home to look after pebbles. Rocky stay?" Rocky chirped an affirmative and nuzzled their mate. Adrien and Rocky shared a farewell hum before the larger headed off. They'd had pebbles nearly immediately after Grace was in the clear six years ago and they were already a rambunctious trio.
"Grace sleep. Will watch new-human and Grace sleep." Rocky nudged his leg and stood, going for the door. "Can practically hear Grace brain turning off."
Rocky was right, despite it being kind of early the adrenaline crash was finally dragging him down. "Yeah, that sounds good buddy. Lemme just check on him first." He headed into the bedroom and took stock. The team, or more likely Adrien, had switched out the pillows and sheets on his bed for fresh dry ones, and someone had put the stranger in graces clothes. The horseshoe auto club shirt peeked over the covers.
Seeing the shirt Grace was reminded of himself. Looking down at his own attire he found himself, for the first time in a long time, self-conscious of himself. He was wearing... well, a skirt. And besides the jewelry that had pretty much been the only thing he was wearing.
It had taken Grace two years to finally throw caution to the wind and decide that societal norms were pointless when he was never going to be apart of that specific society again. There were a handful of Eridians who had been helping him make more clothes, and when he threw caution to the wind they started making him much more Erid style clothing and even got in contact with some jewelers to spice things up. Rocky himself had been ecstatic to help change up Graces wardrobe.
Grace had since pretty much been wearing looser clothing. Skirts, loose shirts, silks and some odd wool like stuff. He'd really taken to the looser stuff, and honestly, with his sensory issues he'd been going shirtless more often than not. The Eridians certainly didn't care, and honestly it felt nice to be, well, going native sort of. His clothes from the Hail Mary were reserved for special occasions and comfort days now.
God, what would the stranger think of him? He would be freaky and weird compared to normal humans now, like those people on shows who were shipwrecked and when they got picked up they were seen as odd. He really didn't want to make a bad impression. He'd wear something normal. Something that doesn't make him look like a freak. Yeah. He'd do that. It'd be fine.
________
The ending of the first part of this feels a little off, sorry.
"Foreign user Detected." Armando said out loud to no one. Ryland froze. He was floating through the corridors back to the lab from the cockpit, rounding the corner when he heard the notification. He stopped in his tracks, which meant he just kept floating for a moment before he came to his senses and whipped around.
No he thought to himself, There cannot possibly be anyone on this ship. Besides the two others, the thought of which made him shiver uneasily, which were so well beyond dead they could not have set off Armando. Grace wracked his thoughts on the possibilities, each worse than the last.
Best case scenario Armando is malfunctioning (maybe not best case in hindsight), Someone had managed to stow away (very unlikely, Grace had checked every nook and cranny in his initial, post remembering his name, confusion), something had managed to get on the ship or had already been on it (please not chest burster aliens for the love of-), or a wormhole had decided to prove it's previously theoretical existence and drop someone or something off in the dormitory (yeah fucking right).
Rounding the corridor into the dorm he was greeted with a horrifying sight. A lot of blood. A fuck ton. So much of it floating around and some stuck near the floor by Armando, a streak along the ground leading to Graces bunk Armando pulled out. And there was a human shaped mass covered in blood on said bunk. Armando was already cleaning off and assessing the thing.
"Holy fuck" Grace very rarely cursed but he gave himself a little leeway here. He wanted to rush in but the blood, he needed to get rid of it, the possibility of all sorts of pathogens or contaminates, some of which he might've already been introduced to simply by being in the room. Shoot, he needed something, maybe a towel or...?
He flung himself back into the lab and started looking for anything. Cleaning enough to get in there in Zero-G would be nigh impossible, unless. Looking around he zeroed in on the equipment. The extremely sensitive lab equipment. The extremely sensitive lab equipment that doesn't work in zero gravity! The memory of a conversation between himself, Stratt, and a Dr. Lokken came to hid mind. Of course! They needed the tested and proven equipment and couldn't make new, so they cracked the ship in half and made it a centrifuge.
He threw himself out of the lab and headed back to the cockpit. It would be far easier to clean if there was gravity again, and he'd feel a lot better with his feet under him again. He found the centrifuge lever and activated it, and wasting absolutely no time in going back, not even waiting for the gravity, which made it extremely awkward when he got to the supply closet and he didn't have enough time to right himself and ended up slipping to the ground in front of it. "Fudge." Righting himself, he grabbed a mop and some cleaning supplies, thank you Stratts team for thinking of everything, and booked it back to the bunks.
Returning he saw that some of the blood had managed to float out of the room and had landed on the floor right outside. He looked to the man shaped lump that looked a lot more like a man at this point with a good chunk of the blood removed from the head and chest area. Not that he could see much from the doorway. He got to cleaning.
Ryland has been thrown from room to room, interrogator to interrogator for so long now he's not even certain if he is still on Ceres station anymore. He thinks there was a transfer at some point but they've kept him unconscious for most of it. He's also pretty sure the repeated "knock him out" orders to transport him is not helping his internal compass. At the same time if he was thinking so clearly about the side effects of repeated hypoxia on short term memory he's probably not too bad off. Right?
His latest 'meeting' had resulted in yet another interrogation, and funnily enough, his least favorite of all the methods. Sensory-Deprivation followed by sensory-overload, followed by more sensory-deprivation and so on and so-fucking-forth. It drove him mad. He could deal with the torture, really he could, and he had no intentions of saying shit, but fuck he wished they weren't so creative. Eventually they had to get tired of him and just put him to work or kill him. Right?
God he hoped one of them happened soon. Maybe they would kill him and he'd join the one person who'd made Eden tolerable.
Fuck he missed him.
He had woken up not too long ago, maybe 15 minuets. As standard he'd been thrown haphazardly into his holding cell, vaguely familiar concrete under his cheek, and nothing to do but wait for a ration they'd give him. One of these days he figures they'll stop feeding him. He hops its not today. His teeth were still ringing from the noise and his whole body felt like it wasn't his.
He could bite himself to calm his teeth and work out to settle his skin as he usually does but he has to wait. He'll wait for them to throw in the ration and then he would get up. They usually don't pull anything if he's still unconscious, at least not the first day he's back in his cell.
It takes them a little longer than usual but eventually he hears steps and hushed voices, then the door is unlocked and it opens. Shit. Today is not his lucky day, just like the fucking rest. He almost wanted to scuttle away, press himself into a wall and protect his back, but there was still a chance. Slim but there.
Without stepping in one of them breathed out a confused "What?" before he heard steps rapidly approaching. "Dude holy shit." The man still at the door sounded uncomfortably familiar but he couldn't place it. "Is he dead?"
"No, they're breathing." The one over him spoke, a still familiar but deeper voice, "I don't understand how-"
Suddenly there was a hand on him, and he couldn't help his knee jerk reaction. He kicked out at them and threw himself back into the wall, except the wall was farther than he knew it to be and he ended skittering a fair distance until his back hit a table leg and ... table? fuck were they not taking breaks anymore? Had they just moved him from one interrogator to the next? They were going to kill him if they did. Fumbling on the table he grabbed whatever was close, shoving some smaller shit out of the way before finding something heavy enough to brandish.
"What the fuck!" The one who stood over him was on his feet in a flash and had stepped back, Ryland could barely see him or the figure in the doorway, both backlit. "Lights!" the deeper voice shot to his partner, who immediately flicked on the lights from the switch.
Thankfully he'd reacted quick enough to the shout to shield his eyes from the worst of it, and now he'd be able to see the COI bastards.
the... COI...
... was that him?
... was that him pointing a gun at him?
_____________
This is gonna be the sort of intro (besides the summary) for the RBCGAU. I shall also be posting the introductions to the other Aus.
If you have any suggestions or critiques, let me know, on this and future works.
Thanks for reading, have a good day.
edit: I took out Rylands last name cause I forgot I had the HC that people from Eden don't have last names since they're supposed to be one big family, so their last name is more of a title "of Eden" or "brother of Eden" type thing, probably dependent on how high you are in the hagiarchy.
I've got a few ideas for BloodyMary and for rn i think I'm going to stick with just this fandom, and maybe expand to others later on if there's any interest. Here's the Aus and feel free to ask questions or suggest scenarios to put these sad men in.
Reverse Bloodymary ColtlandGentry Au (RBCGAU)
A very scared and confused and hostile Ryland Grace finds himself thrown at the mercy of his next set of interrogators. Except they both look waaaaay too much like him, sound like him, and for a minuet they act far too familiar with him. What kind of new age bullshit torture method is this? The COI did not have nearly enough resources to pull some psychological shit like this. Or... or did they? Either way, he's not saying shit.
Not-So-Meet-Cute (NSMCAU)
A fairly typical au, Simon arrives on the Hail Mary shortly before they meet Rocky. Grace now has to try juggling befriending an alien who shares no language with him, getting Simon to open up or at least stop being actively avoidant, deal with his memory issues, all on top of trying to save the stars. It's not an ideal situation and its not like he didn't already have enough on his plate, but hey, he's happy for the company, even if he is struggling. Oh, and Simon sometimes hears voices in his head, and they only agree on one thing.
It's Raining Bloody Men (IRBMAU)
I'll be considering this the companion to the ColtlandGentry reverse au (Ryland and Simon might not be able to have each other in their own universes but something out there (me) decides they might still be able to get their happy ending), Simon drops in (literally) on one of Graces classes, falling into the biodomes ocean. Oddly enough this stranger seems familiar, but he that's not important. Graces stable life on Erid just got a lot more interesting.
PS: Ryland is going to be showing some Autistic tendencies in each of these AU's, some more than others cause the environment breeds different masks/coping mechanisms. I will be throwing my own flavors of Autism in every now and then.
PPS: Fair warning on IRBMAU I saw art of Ryland wearing Erid clothing and jewelry (Cant find the exact one but blipity.blopity on insta has some great art of it) and it made me think about how maybe he just says "Fuck it, I'm not seeing another human again I might as well do away with a lot of human hang-ups." Also he's autistic so like, Erid silk is really nice sensory wise so why not go native and wear a skirt or some shit, who cares. And now, after years of thriving without a mask in a culture that genuinely doesn't care there's another human and he has to try masking again, with varied results.
