Grizz in Space

When Grizz opened his eyes, he continued to see nothing.

“The fuck...?” he mumbled groggily to himself.  He slowly peeled himself off the hard ground, and quickly became conscious of the smell of rain.  He last remembered falling asleep in a chair, but any memories he reached for seemed to seep around his perception as if they were smoke through his fingers.  Instead, he concentrated on his immediate surroundings.

The ground beneath him was dark and paved.  As Grizz rose to his feet, he looked up and still saw nothing, at least at first.  As he continued to stare and try to make sense of things, something huge went sailing by overhead, and in its wake laid the same trail of glitter the Mayor from the nebula had exuded.  That glitter sparkled brightly overhead, revealing the tops of some tall buildings situated haphazardly around Grizz.

The tall buildings resembled Earth architecture, wrought from red bricks, but they seemed to lack any way inside.  Any windows Grizz could see were boarded up; he couldn't see any doors, but he figured they'd be barricaded too.  When his gaze fell downward to look, though, he noticed an orange glow coming from his control glove.  It wasn't bright enough to see far ahead, but it was enough to see a wall coming if he stuck his arm out and moved slowly.  With that discovery, Grizz began to move.

As he walked, Grizz thought deeply about calling out for someone, but he decided against it.  He was still pretty disoriented, and he probably wouldn't be able to do much in the presence of either a friend or a foe.  When he saw the junction up ahead, though, he couldn't stay quiet.  “What the fuck?” he asked again.

Before him, the tall buildings began to take on bizarre shapes, forming a maze of alleyways between them.  The path straight ahead ended at a wall, but he couldn't see much more from the junction.  There was also a path to his left and his right, and some debris from a collapsed fire escape lay stranded in the center of the bizarre alleyway.

Not even Earthlings would build their cities quite like this.

“I gotta be dreamin',” Grizz sighed.

“Of course you are!”

Grizz let out a surprised yelp.  He darted forward, putting the debris between him and whoever had startled him so badly.  “Who...“

Grizz trailed off as he beheld the being before him.  They were a fuzzy humanoid, a sort he'd never seen before.  Most of their body was covered in a dark blue fur, save for an ovaloid patch of light gray around their torso.  Much was obscured by their long brown hair, including their face, but pointed ears poked out far past the top, and waved back at his gaze as the creature giggled.

“You're so densely focused in the waking world that it's hard to reach you!” they said, their tone almost accusatory.  Despite this, their long, thin tail wagged behind them, fanning at Grizz frantically with a large tuft of white on the end.  “And you haven't fallen asleep until now!”

The more they talked, the more Grizz began to recognize the voice.  “You...you was in my head earlier!  'Careful', right?”  As it dawned on him, he stood up straighter and less defensively.  “Thanks for the heads-up back there.”

“Of course!”  The being approached Grizz on broad legs, a stark contrast to arms so scrawny and hairy that he wasn't sure if he saw hands or not.  “If you go down, I do too!”

Grizz stepped back from the broken fire escape.  About as soon as he did so, the creature raised an arm toward it, and their tail flared out behind them.  What was once a dark, wiry tail had suddenly turned fluffy and began to glow the same orange as Grizz's glove.  The orange hue spread along the blue of their body, and it spilled out from their face and filled the inside of their voluminous mane with light.  They gestured to their right, and the fire escape was heaved away by an unseen force, down the side path and out of Grizz's sight.

As the being loomed over him, standing a good head and a half taller, the orange glow faded from them.  The fluff of their tail folded back down, while Grizz mulled over their words.  “You go down too, huh?” he repeated.  “So you're on my ship?  I dunno, I ain't seen you there, an' you seem pretty hard to miss.”

“Well,” the being replied through another giggle, “I don't have a physical form, not yet.”

“Then what the fuck—“

“I can take this form in your dreams.”  They'd answered the question before Grizz could finish asking it.  In stark contrast to Grizz and his tendency to gesticulate while talking, the being stood quite still, not even appearing to breathe.  He felt so open to this being, while they remained inscrutable to him.  “I still don't know if I'm allowed to take this form in the waking world.”

Grizz reeled back a little.  The word “allowed” struck him particularly hard.  He couldn't imagine this being reporting up to anyone.

Before he could think too much about it, though, the being giggled again.  “I might have said too much,” they worried.  “Oh well!  There's so much I want to talk to you about, but we don't have much time.”  The being glanced behind them, and Grizz followed their gaze.  Some kind of brown smoke or dust storm was billowing down the alleyways behind them and quickly headed their way.  “Promise you'll protect me!  Just for a little longer!  Then I—”

The rest of their sentence faded away into the dust, along with everything else, except a rhythmic series of mechanical beeps.

~

Grizz recognized the beeps, and soon opened his eyes.  He was back in his ship, confused but otherwise fine.  His eyes darted all over the cabin, but of course, the tall being from his dream wasn't there.  With a sigh, he turned his attention back to the beeping.  It was his destination notification; he and Nicole had made it to planet Rygor.

He was sure an audio call from Nicole would be soon to follow, and sure enough, the request popped up right away.  “Wake up, idiot,” she snapped as soon as he answered.  “We made it!”

“I'm already awake,” he grumbled, “or I wouldn't have answered.”

“Shut up.  Another payment is headed your way.”

Grizz waited silently for the pop-up in the corner of his heads-up display overlaying his front window.  It took a moment, but another deposit from iyam_sofakingdom for 18,000 credits had reached his account.  “Again?”

“Sort of,” Nicole admitted.  “You've probably been wondering what was so urgent about our delivery.  Well...it's a wedding gift.”

“Oh, hey, nice!”  Grizz had never been one for weddings, and Nicole had had to work with him on accepting gifts, but it was nice news.  “You gettin' married?”

“Don't be stupid.  It's for my friend Elaine.  They're having a Rygorian wedding, as is their custom, so they need three things.”

“What things?”

“Don't follow me!”  Grizz could barely ask what Nicole was talking about before her ship plummeted toward the planet before his eyes.  Whatever her problem was, he was more than happy to not make planetfall.  “Where was I?” Nicole wondered over the intercom, even as she descended.  “Oh, right, three things.  Each lover chooses a sentimental object among their possessions to give the other, and then they get something new to treasure together.”

Grizz couldn't help but glance around the ship cabin.  There wasn't anything he could see that would be worthy of fitting such a role.  When he noticed how deeply he was thinking of it, he laughed it off.  “It's a nice custom,” he said genuinely, “but what's that gotta do with my credits?”

“Elaine found a sentimental object just fine—a headscarf from their parent—but they can't really afford to go in on anything for them and Ciel as a couple.”

The name “Ciel” rang a bell, but Grizz couldn't remember where he'd heard it.  “So pay them, not me.”

Nicole sighed.  “They won't take my money,” she explained.  “They're sorta like you...too stupid to accept free stuff.”  Grizz's computer aired another notification from Nicole, this one a new set of coordinates somewhere on the surface of Rygor.  “They're getting married here, at the park where they first met Ciel.”  Then, yet another notification pinged him, another deposit into his account to cover the remaining 2,000 credits.  “You don't have to go, but there's a bonus in it for you.  Either you drop that crystal off to me here and now, or you deliver it to their wedding when I tell you to, and I give you another 2,000 creds.”

“An' why would they take a crystal if they ain't gonna take your creds?”

“'cause it'd be a pain in my ass to go put this back.”  Nicole laughed and added, “It's fine.  I figure they can take it to a sculptor or something.”

Grizz shrugged.  The rest didn't matter to him anyway.  He'd brought the crystalis crystal to Nicole's destination of planet Rygor.  He'd been paid and invited to take his leave.  He couldn't wait to get away from such a rude, bossy, commandeering—

“I'll go to the wedding,” Grizz answered.  As soon as he did, his hands flew to his mouth.  He had no idea why he'd said it.  He had every inclination to leave, and he hadn't even gotten around to thinking of how he might tell Nicole so.  

“Great!” Nicole chirped.  “See you there, Grizz!”  With that, her call ended, and he was free to dwell upon his answer.  He'd only wanted a moment to bite his tongue, yet it had somehow spoke an answer for him without him thinking of it.

...sorry!

After hearing that voice in his dreams, hearing them again in the waking world was surreal.  They felt startling and out of place, yet also right at home.  His gaze did jump around the ship, but much more lazily than last time.  He felt at least as comfortable around them as he did Nicole.  And if they were apologizing, maybe he could get even more comfortable.

...not ready...!

Grizz laughed.  “I'm not ready for a weddin' either,” he mused.  “Wait!”  Nicole had just bought him new clothes.  He'd changed back into a flight suit before heading out into space, but it seemed worth changing again.  If nothing else, it'd be better than showing up in a flight suit.  Nicole had bought him both pairs of overalls he'd seen, as well as a pair of durable blue pants and a shirt to match.  He chose the blue outfit; it looked more suited to heavy work than weddings, but it was the best he had.

“How 'bout you?” Grizz called out to the voice.  It hadn't worked before, but it was worth another shot.  “Ever been to a weddin' before?”

...no!

“A response!”  Grizz was strangely exhilarated by the development.  He stood up from his chair, still shirtless, not sure which direction to project his voice.  After a glance down at his control glove, he decided on talking toward the ship's rear, toward the Alykian arm, toward the crystal.  “You gonna be ready in time for the weddin'?”

...yes!

Grizz wasn't quite sure if that was a good thing or not, but nor was there much he could do about it.  Nicole was already requesting a video call.  “Hey,” she greeted.  “First of all, put an undershirt on with that denim, you idiot!”  Nicole seemed to have left her camera on pointed the other way.  There was a rumble in the background, the unmistakable frequency of industry-strength ventilation, a possible hint that the restroom she seemed to be sequestered in was a public one.  “Second...your cue's almost up.  You want me to call you back then, or do you just wanna listen along?”

“Listen in on someone else's weddin'?” Grizz asked, a little gobsmacked.  “They gonna be okay with that?”

“It should be.  I already told them I'm bringing a plus-one—that's you, idiot,” Nicole added, while Grizz was in the middle of pulling on a black undershirt.  “And they're already recording the wedding for themselves.”

Grizz shrugged.  He muted his microphone for a moment, then leaned his head away from the heads-up display.  “Hey!” he called out to the mysterious voice.  “You wanna listen to the weddin'?”

...yes!

Grizz nodded and turned back to the HUD.  “Yea—oh, right.”  He unmuted his mic and then tried again.  “Yeah, I'll listen.”

Nicole's brow furrowed.  She seemed focused on something for a moment, but a long sigh ended that.  “That look suits you fine,” she carried on.  “You don't have to come out of the ship, but if you want to, dressed like that, that's...that's fine.”  Something about the way she kept saying “fine” made it seem less and less fine every time.  “You'll hear the officiant ask for the third item, and I'll speak up from the crowd.  That's your cue to lower the crystal.  Got it?”

“When I hear someone askin' for the last item,” Grizz summarized, “that's the crystal.”

“Good,” Nicole chirped.  “Ciel has given Elaine her item, and Elaine got so choked up, they asked to take a little break.  But it sounds like break time's over.”

“What'd she get 'em?”

Nicole didn't answer.  Instead, she hastened back to the area.  Grizz only got a short glimpse of the area before she turned off video feed, but it had been enough to spot a myriad of shrubs and bushes ahead, lightly powdered with snow.  He sighed, and hastened to pull up the last frame of video he'd received.  Without it, he'd have no idea where he was going.

Grizz thought he saw a flash of light as he blinked, but there was no evidence of it by the time his eyes opened in the next split-second.  Fortunately, he'd managed to pull up an image of the wedding.  Two rows of chairs looped around the sides of a central gazebo in concentric arcs, accommodating for the circles in the park's design.  There wasn't a great place for him to land, or to leave a man-sized hunk of crystal.  The only path wide enough was a central walkway, the only entrance or exit to the space in which Ciel and Elaine were having their wedding.

Grizz shrugged.  It was too late to change the plan.  He'd just have to move slowly and watch his sensors to make sure no one got crushed.

He'd frittered away most of Elaine's vows with all his worrying.  “—safe from many hardships in my travels,” they were saying as Grizz settled down to actually listen.  “But in your presence, in your embrace...I finally feel a sense of belonging.  I no longer need a wayfarer's scarf.  I am home.  That's why I'm giving the scarf to you, Ciel.  When wretched words or weather batter at you, I want this scarf to block them.  I want you to enjoy its warmth as if it were my warmth.  Whenever we must part ways, I want you to stay safe and find your way home, too.”  After a long silence, Elaine added, “Um, that's it.”

“Thank you,” someone else said.  They weren't choked up with emotion like Elaine, or like the tears of happiness some folks were trying to keep quiet among the crowd.  “Now that Ciel and Elaine have exchanged gifts from their pasts, let us look to the future.”

Grizz nodded in understanding; that must have been the officiant Nicole warned him about.  He could already see where the conversation was going, so he brought his ship in for planetary descent.  With his control glove, he gently flexed the fingers of his giant arm, creating a cradle for the crystal.  The heat of atmospheric entry would be borne by its knuckle, thus shielding its cargo.

“The third gift of a Rygorian wedding will one day be the first keepsake for their lives together,” the officiant continued.  “Who has the third gift?”

“I do!” Grizz heard Nicole shout.

There was a clamor among the crowd, and Nicole started to explain herself, but that part wasn't important to Grizz.  He had to bring his ship in for a safe landing.  Cloud cover obscured his sight of the ground, and probably their sight of him as well.  Finally, though, his mechanical fist punched through, vaporizing the water of the clouds on contact.  As soon as he did so, he slowed way down, just to be safe.  Fortunately, he could see Nicole standing in the entrance path, and she seemed to make a convincing blockade.

“Okay, Grizz!” Nicole shouted into her phone.  “Open it up!”

Despite her demand, Grizz waited until the ship's arm touched ground.  Then he slowly unfurled the lower joints of his fingers to open the hand, revealing the being from his dream laying inside.