Hello, call me Gallium, or Spoon, or Gallium Spoon! I am 28, and I'm an occupational therapist. I post about whatever random stuff I feel like but mostly cats, art I like, and whatever I'm currently reading. You'll see my two cats here a lot, their names are Rocky Road and Creme Brulee. My header is a pic I took of Sue the world's most complete T Rex fossil, and my pfp is The Creature.
Pet owners, what kind of name does your pet have???
A food-item (Waffles, Peanut)
A color (Pinky, Hazel)
A real-life person (Marilyn, Paris)
A fictional character (Eevee, Simba)
A type of flora (Rosie, Willow)
Animal-like (Kitty, Gator)
A trait (Lucky, Buddy)
Something else
If you have more than one pet, choose the most applicable listed (ex: you have three pets named Cookie, Cream & Rocky, so you choose the “Food” option). Also, would be interested if you reblogged your pet’s name(s) in the tags and the reason why you chose it ^^
Pet owners, what kind of name does your pet have???
A food-item (Waffles, Peanut)
A color (Pinky, Hazel)
A real-life person (Marilyn, Paris)
A fictional character (Eevee, Simba)
A type of flora (Rosie, Willow)
Animal-like (Kitty, Gator)
A trait (Lucky, Buddy)
Something else
No pet
Remaining time: 1 day 20 hours
If you have more than one pet, choose the most applicable listed (ex: you have three pets named Cookie, Cream & Rocky, so you choose the “Food” option). Also, would be interested if you reblogged your pet’s name(s) in the tags and the reason why you chose it ^^
My hair has gotten darker as Ive gotten older and my mom was talking about how she misses my blond baby hair and she kinda implied that she'd like it if I bleached my hair??
Which is already kinda a weird ask but I really don't think she's thought this through because I am a white guy (gender neutral) with a buzz cut
If I bleach my hair I'm gonna look like blond Tom Blyth and no one wants that
My hair has gotten darker as Ive gotten older and my mom was talking about how she misses my blond baby hair and she kinda implied that she'd like it if I bleached my hair??
Which is already kinda a weird ask but I really don't think she's thought this through because I am a white guy (gender neutral) with a buzz cut
If I bleach my hair I'm gonna look like blond Tom Blyth and no one wants that
Boyfriend was describing to me what he would do if he lived in the Pokemon universe, what kind of trainer he'd want to be, what kinds of pokemon he would want and how he would catch them etc
Me *has never played a pokemon game and has seen maybe ten episodes of the tv show* If I were in the Pokemon universe I would have a Sylveon and we would be best friends
“This means… of Rocky, possessive. Of the speaker.”
“My.”
“Correct. But only for names.”
“So you’re calling me…?”
Rocky repeats the word: “My Grace. Yes.”
“Are there other Graces? Why do you need to specify?”
Rocky considers this, tapping his xenonite-encased claws idly against the floor.
“No other Grace,” Rocky says. “We just do this.”
“Like an honorific,” Grace guesses. “It goes before everyone’s name? Everyone you know?”
Rocky whirs in surprise. “No, no, no. Not at all.”
“Okay, then who? What makes me qualify?”
Rocky is silent for a moment.
“...Does this offend Grace?” he asks, voice lower.
Grace blinks. “No! I don’t think so. Is there a reason to be offended?”
“Good,” Rocky says, relieved. Grace is starting to recognize what Eridian relief sounds like. “No, no reason.”
“Who else do you call that?”
“You don’t have this on Earth?”
Grace considers. What for, friends? He couldn’t call Marissa “my Marissa.” That would be weird.
“I still don’t know what it means,” he settles on. “So I couldn’t tell you.”
Rocky groans in frustration. He’s a very impatient tutor. “We just say it.”
“Are you my Rocky?” Grace asks. He hits the two keys to make the my note.
“I don’t know!” Rocky says. “You decide this.”
“I decide? Who do you use it for?”
“You. Adrian. I will use it for my pebbles.”
Grace blinks. “So few?”
Rocky shifts. “I am… you do not have the word yet. Eridian who works alone often, not close to many other Eridians.”
“What, mechanical engineer?”
Rocky chitters with amusement. “Acceptable.”
“Is Adrian your only friend?”
Rocky draws back, like he’s taken offense. “I have friends. Coworkers. But different.”
So just Adrian. And him.
“This worries you,” Rocky says.
“Adrian is your mate,” Grace points out. “I’m not your mate.”
“Correct. You are not. You do not like to be a mate.”
Grace isn’t sure how to respond to that, so he ignores it.
“I’m your friend,” Grace says.
Rocky hesitates, for a second. “...Correct.”
“Like your coworkers.”
“No.”
Grace sighs, rubbing his hand across his face. Okay, maybe that’s fair. It’s not like he felt about any of his coworkers like he feels about Rocky.
“Best friend,” Grace amends. “You’re my best friend, too.”
Rocky hums. “Acceptable.”
“Just acceptable? Now you are offending me. Can you just explain?”
This makes Rocky fall silent for a minute longer than usual. Grace is half-ready to apologize and to say let’s move on and to retype his own name without the superfluous my.
“The Earth ‘best friend’ is not strong enough,” Rocky says finally. “It does not translate this way.”
Grace runs his fingers through his hair, a little nervous, for some reason. “Okay.”
“It is…” Rocky pauses. He has to pause more often, now that they’re not using the translator, to simplify his language. “It means that I am not Rocky without my Grace. You are part of… of the whole. When I wake up, I think of you. When I work. When I eat. When I think I am going to die.”
Rocky speaks slowly, but it’s still a lot of Eridian for Grace to grasp all at once. Even as he works out the sentences in his head, he can feel hot tears rising in his eyes.
“It means that when you are sick, I am sick,” Rocky continues. “And it means I will take care of you, because taking care of you is taking care of myself.”
Grace bunches up his sleeve, wiping it across his face, blinking furiously.
Rocky’s voice is soft. “So Grace is part of Rocky. Grace is like a cell. You see? My Grace.”
Grace is quiet, for a moment, trying to get himself together. When he speaks, his voice is shaky.
“...Oh.”
Rocky hums, pressing his carapace gently against Grace’s arm. “You are leaking. Does this make you sad?”
Grace shakes his head, sniffing, crossing his arms across his knees and resting his chin on his sleeves. “Not at all.”
“Good, good.”
“I feel like that,” Grace mumbles. “Just like that. Just exactly—exactly like that.”
“About your old mate?”
“Don’t act stupid. You know I’m talking about you.”
Rocky hums, burrowing closer. Grace curls one arm around his carapace. That’s not enough, so he leans over, dropping his head down so his forehead presses against the xenonite.
“My Rocky,” Grace whispers in English.
“My Grace,” Rocky echoes in Eridian. Grace can recognize the note at the start. He will add it when he plays Rocky’s name.
“How long have you called me that?” Grace asks. “Must’ve been a while. I didn’t notice it change.”
though two of these trace back to a single PIE root (*skal- “to cut”) while the other traces to a different root (*skand- “to spring, leap, climb”) so maybe more cognates in this group than it seems
Sam and Frodo on the cliffs of Mount Doom c: They´re fine c:
Sketch for a lino print I forgot to scan but I managed to print in two colors this time! Really fun but a bit messy
My ideal immediately-post-reunion dynamic for Grace and Adrian is this:
Grace: It is vitally important that I get along with Adrian. This is my best friend's mate, the person he fought so hard to come home to, and the most important person in his life. Yeah it's a little awkward because they've been together way longer than I've been alive and I'm just some alien he picked up on the way and will probably forget about once he has his real family back, but I've still gotta make this work. For Rocky.
Adrian: It is vitally important that I get along with Grace. This is the person who saved our entire species and brought my mate home to me. I owe him everything for that, and he clearly means the world to Rocky. Yeah it's a little awkward because I haven't seen my mate for years and now it's like I barely know him anymore and he's closer to this weird new alien than he is to me, but I've still gotta make this work. For Rocky.
This leads to Grace and Adrien having many conversations in front of Rocky which are very polite and nice and accommodating- and excruciatingly awkward.
Rocky puts up with this for a few weeks before conspiring to lock the two of them in a room alone together, where they eventually manage to have an honest conversation, bond over their mutual love of science (and of Rocky) and become fast friends.
Some random headcanons to do with Adrian that I think would be fun
Zoologist, particularly focused on social behavior in various species. Studies social animals both in the wild and in captivity
Constantly refers to Grace's dome as his "enclosure", much to the rest of the team's chagrin. Grace thinks this is hilarious
General "call a spade a spade" attitude to using zookeeping terms when referring to everything to do with keeping Grace happy, healthy, and alive. Some of the others on the team misread this as depersonalizing and cold towards Grace, but it's just Adrian's communication style
Gets along with Grace like a house on fire. They terrorize Rocky together
There was a brief period of awkwardness where Grace and Adrian were trying to be normal about how badly they wanted to study each other like bugs
Relationship to Grace is like if your best friend was also an exotic animal whose enrichment and enclosure design was your responsibility, if you and said animal/friend were both gleefully studying each other
"My esteemed colleague, Dr. Grace, needs more novel and varied enrichment options in his enclosure"
i think we should be ridiculing them more for this. you don't get to try and go all "queer website" when your staff likes to go on nuking sprees targeting the trans fem users
