Me, playing Stardew Valley: “man, i have to marry SOMEONE to get the stardrop but i really don’t feel like romancing any of them. Friends is fine but i dont want to MARRY them, even emily who i have married in the past”
Me, two second later: “HOLY FUCK I JUST REMEMBERED KROBUS”
The soil testing equipment on Curiosity makes a buzzing noise and the pitch of the noise changes depending on what part of an experiment Curiosity is performing, this is the way Curiosity sings to itself.
So some of the finest minds currently alive decided to take incredibly expensive important scientific equipment and mess with it until they worked out how to move in just the right way to sing Happy Birthday, then someone made a cake on Curiosity’s birthday and took it into Mission control so that a room full of brilliant scientists and engineers could throw a birthday party for a non-autonomous robot 225 million kilometres away and listen to it sing the first ever song sung on Mars*, which was Happy Birthday.
This isn’t a sad story, this a happy story about the ridiculousness of humans and the way we love things. We built a little robot and called it Curiosity and flung it into the star to go and explore places we can’t get to because it’s name is in our nature and then just because we could, we taught it how to sing.
That’s not sad, that’s awesome.
*this is different from the first song ever played on mars (Reach For The Stars by Will.I.Am) which happened the year before, singing is different from playing
Okay! First fic in nearly half a decade! Be nice! Please! It's only like 800 words because I wrote it in like 30 minutes, but I hope you enjoy!
It is basically just meeting between Adrian and Rocky, except Adrian is the one getting to be all flustered instead of Rocky, and Rocky is a flirt. Rocky also has a bunch of tattoos, cause I think it's funny. Good luck!
I dearly hope I can find someone I enjoy the tune of... Adrian thinks to themselves as they walk into the thrum chamber. This being their first thrum to the topic of engineering, just an exploratory move, they were a tad bit nervous. Of course, in their biology thrums they have had no issues, but this was an entirely new environment! And after all, engineers are a very... different type of stone than themselves. Oh well. Far too late to turn back.
The jumble of Eridians so terribly different from themselves already began, it seems, based on the resonant hum that immediately floods their senses and renders them practically blind. They stumble in, bumping into several bodies, or at least they assume bodies, one can never be too sure. Perhaps it is a rather large, Eridian shaped tool that someone has found some use for. They attempt to join the song, adding input where they can, but their limited knowledge only allows them to add small notes to projects that, frankly, are at the wrong thrum in the first place. After a while, they relegate themselves to only small noises of affirmation, that way they do not impede the true professionals. Only a bit longer before they can leave, anyway.
Suddenly, they feel as if the entire thrum quieted for a single voice to rise above it all. A darling warble, beautiful in its intonation, perhaps a bit higher than the usual Eridian, but resonant all the same. The competency contained in such dulcet tones shocks them too, an Eridian with a beautiful tune and such a crystal? Why, its nearly unheard of! Goodness knows a brilliant Eridian nearly always has their flaws, but this... this is magical. Adrian can feel the room fade away as their focus shifts solely to this warble that comes from... somewhere. Damn these caves and their resonance. While it aids the thrum to hear each voice and entangle them in a lovely display of unity, it makes it difficult to find such a charming instrument. Adrian stumbles through more bodies, attempting to follow where the tones are loudest, and after much trial and error (and many touches with walls.) they are near enough to just barely make out the shape of the carapace of this darling rock. Carvings galore, some more important than others... Actually several are just random interests.
A xenonite carving? Surely a material cannot be that important to someone so brilliant. Then again, I suppose I did get a carving in honor of my favorite lizard being, so I suppose I cannot judge. Adrian ponders quietly to themselves, for a moment forgetting that their murmuring was broadcast by aforementioned resonant walls, leading to this dazzling being shifting slightly closer to Adrian and giggling at their remark, and they speak in those beautifully resonant tones "Xenonite is that important, after all, what else would we build things out of? Each other?"
The chord that leaves Adrian is neither dignified nor calm, but an expression of joy so sudden it startles the Eridian beside them, but they only flinch slightly. Adrian, not having noticed due to their sudden rush of excitement, promptly begins a long song about how, technically speaking, they do use each other for building. Oftentimes, mountains on Erid are old Eridian corpses, weathered by time and now hardly recognizable. The Eridian, despite their surprise, listens attentively, enjoying the sudden information granted by this larger figure. In their haste, Adrian has another epiphany.
"I never asked your name! Oh how rude of me! I am Adrian, of the North-East Ridge, and esteemed member of the Biological Thrums. Who are you?" They chatter, trying to redeem their sudden intrusion.
"No harm done, Friend Adrian. I am Rocky of the Southern Band, Head of the Engineering Thrum. I am quite pleased to make your acquaintance." The Eridian, now known as Rocky, raises his carapace in a display of pride, and Adrian feels their vents begin to blow even hotter. Head of the Engineering Thrum? Goodness, no wonder he's brilliant. And with such a lovely tune... I truly do find myself besotted by an individual likely already mated. How silly of me.
And yet again, they forget themselves, and Rocky laughs at them again. "Well, aren't you a flattering song? I am not myself mated. By that, I can assume neither are you?" Rocky asks, the beautiful tone shifting to something almost sultry, and Adrian yet again feels their vents act up.
"No. I am not mated." They hum back, and Rocky makes a pleased sound.
"Then I suppose you have no reason to deny that we take a walk along the Ridge after the thrum concludes?"
"Yes, that sounds excellent." Adrian speaks calmly, but the ammonia whooshing through their vents speaks to their true emotion.
"Don't hide your eagerness, sweetsong, it's unbecoming of a courted stone."
can you imagine tho if Eridians discovered radiation years and years after the Blip-A left
and they're just absolutely horrified because now they know why the Blip-A never returned, they sent them all to die, now to save their sun they have to redo the entire program all over again and Adrian is devastated -
and then three Eridian years later Rocky shows up with his pet alien and a ton of taumeoba all I LIVED BITCH
Imagine Grace defined his name as the elegance definition of grace and Rocky spends years thinking how fucking ironic this clumsy leaky space blobs name is.
Until Grace slips out a sentence along the lines of "could you give me a little grace here" and Rocky immediately points out he used a word wrong so Grace has to explain that yeah, grace means elegance but it can also mean mercy sometimes too.
And Rocky has to suddenly reconcile that the clumsy leaky blob that saved his life twice, that almost certainly doomed himself to come back for him, name is Mercy.
Rocky probably not even considering that Adrian might even like him back. He’s clumsy, short for their species, and geeky. Plus Adrian probably has suitors wrapped around the corner.
So, when Adrian presents the mating pebble, he’s genuinely shocked. Yes, Adrian presenting the mating stone, probably being nervous themselves, they’re just that much of a baddie.
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