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[katrandomwrites]

"Rocky is a grown ass engineer and a 400 pound rock spider from space."

Yes, I hear you but I think Grace should be able to carry around his emotional support Eridian like a foul mouthed chihuahua in a sweater. I think they'd both enjoy this.

Adrian can carry them both around in an Erid IKEA tote later.

[katrandomwrites]

Listen, listen, listen.

Baby Genius Grace

After they get ahold of the Astrophage the science team is struggling. Stratt is at her wits end when she gets a wierd message in her -personal- email.

The message is rambling and informal but the line "Maybe the Petrova Line is like how birds migrate to breeding grounds???" makes Stratt show the message to the team lead who goes through the full range of emotions twice before running back to the lab.

A massive breakthrough happens two days later. Stratt sends Carl to hunt down their mystery messenger immediately and he brings back a scruffy blond kid with glasses too big for his face. (I can't decide if he's 12 or 14)

This is Carl's child now. He watched Ryland inhale 5 McDonalds cheese burgers before passing out in the back of the big scary security SUV. He is endeared.

Ryland was in a shitty group home so he just gets adopted by the entire aircraft carrier. Team mascot, second in command. He's weirdly good at wrangling scientists and engineers. He has a habit of writing his weird ideas on sticky notes and giving them to people, 9 out of 10 times it leads to a breakthrough.

No idea how/if he gets on the ship but Rocky would be horrified.

[7-inches-of-satanic-panic]

k but imagine Rocky wanting to learn about how humans became the apex predators of their planet so he has Grace “hunt” him in the biodome as an experiment and during it he thinks Grace isn’t trying or taking it seriously which is bad bad bad because this is for research purposes

only for Rocky to get more and more tired as the experiment goes on just to realize that Grace isn’t which makes him panic so he puts as much distance as he can between them and finds a (hopefully) safe spot to sleep and when he wakes up the human is crouching over him like “got youuu” and Rocky has never shrieked so damn loud before in his life

[stayweirdalways]

sooo this inspired me and then prev's tags did too:

so there's a mini fic under the cut I smashed out in like an hour. kinda low effort but whatever. might keep it going on ao3 with more little experiments

At some point, Grace of course realizes it's living in a zoo enclosure. Then comes a Discussion. 

"Rocky."

Rocky is totally panicking - it told the xeno team to not let Grace know! Now Grace is going to be offended or mad about being a zoo animal! There's no way to sugarcoat this! - and screeching out apologies. It won't be able to withstand Grace being mad at it, because the last time Grace was mad at Rocky Grace ignored Rocky. IGNORED. The silent treatment had grated so bad on Rocky's nerves it felt like it was going to go insane.

"ROCKY! CHILL OUT!"

Rocky slows. Grace is still kneeling from where it had settled after first saying 'we need to talk' (worst words in the universe, by the way). Rocky doesn't get any closer, just fiddles nervously with its fingers.

"Rocky, look. This isn't- I'm not mad about it. Honest! I kinda…" It rubs the back of its 'neck' with a hand. "Kinda already figured it out a while ago."

Grace laughs, flashing its 'teeth'. "I mean, we'd do the same thing on Earth if this was all reversed. I get it! I'm an alien, I knew this was a possibility."

"Along with dissection," Rocky grumbles. "And starving to death. Does not mean good thing. Does not mean Grace happy about it."

"But I am! Look, Eridians are learning from me, right?"

Rocky hums a begrudging confirmation. 

"Then I'm happy about it! You know me. Once a teacher, always a teacher. Plus, it could be worse."

That is true, all of it. Rocky sighs. "Okay. If Grace is sure Grace not mad at Rocky…"

"I'm sure, buddy. C'mere." Grace reaches forward and wraps Rocky in a 'hug'. Rocky accepts it, reciprocates, feeling the familiar noises of Grace's organs. 

"Team will ask more questions," Rocky warns. "Want to do experiments on human behavior."

"Oho, boy. I'm looking forward to that."

And Grace isn't lying, and neither is Rocky: within days of the conversation, the xeno team is approaching Grace and asking many more questions about human biology, about enrichment. They already were, of course, but something seems to have emboldened them. 

What everyone finds most ridiculous is human evolution, though.

"Sorry," Historian Lilith wheezes out. It's almost laughing too hard to keep going. "You're saying- you- humans just walk your prey to death? And you became the apex predators on your planet? How does that work?!"

Every other member of the team present is cackling, including Rocky: Grace alone stands sober, pouting in the way it does when it's offended. 

"What's so unbelievable about that?! It's a very effective way to hunt!"

Rocky snorts. "Grace lying. No way walking is efficient! Ambush is better. Example!" And Rocky lunges for Grace, relishing the squeal and the scramble backwards. Then Grace stands up taller. "Okay! I'll show you. Who wants to get hunted?"

Everyone instantly steps back, leaving Rocky at the forefront. Figures. All that talk about how it's not realistic and yet they scatter at the idea of being the prey. Frankly, Rocky can't blame them - nobody wants to be hunted, after all, especially by an alien that breathes oxygen - but it raises a hand anyways. "I volunteer. Grace hunt me. Then we know truth once and for all."

The grin that split Grace's face somehow seems even creepier than usual. It goes off to prepare, murmuring about contacting the substitute teacher that takes over when Grace gets sick. Huh?

Rocky disregards that and prepares by simply making sure the atmosphere suit is fully ready. It knows Grace isn't really going to hurt it, but it has to reassure several members of the xeno team and Adrian, who's come to watch, of that fact. "Seriously? It's Grace. Grace won't hurt me. Grace can't even hurt me!" It starts to mutter about how ridiculous they're all being when someone points out that Grace could potentially break the atmosphere suit with the abundance of rocks in the enclosure, trapping Rocky in the deadly Solean-safe atmosphere, which stops Rocky dead.

It's Atmosphere Specialist Superman, well-known to be paranoid even at the best of times. Eridians have no 'faces' like Soleans, but Rocky deliberately rotates towards the idiot just to hammer in the absolute stupidity of what Superman just said, and then smacks Superman so hard several team members have to pull it off of the scientist. It's swearing and screeching the entire time, and it takes a few Earth hours to calm down properly. 

The very idea of Grace deliberately hurting Rocky in such a way - when Rocky knows for a fact the scars from the Adrian Incident are still fully apparent to the Solean senses, when Grace spent months freaking out over every little sneeze or cough Rocky made when in the prototypes of the atmosphere suit - is preposterous. Grace would never ever hurt Rocky like that, would never do anything to expose Rocky to its atmosphere ever again even accidentally. They're both so very careful about it. Rocky is still steaming about Superman's insinuations when it walks inside Grace's enclosure.

Grace is waiting by the airlock. Rocky huffs. "Unfair. Go farther. Too close for start, cheater." 

Grace holds up its hands in the almost-happy movement ("When I put my hands up like this, this means surrender.") and steps away a good distance. It's still smiling. "Not gonna matter, Rock," it calls. "I'm about to get you back for alllll those times you ambushed me on the trip here."

"Yeah, right!" Rocky shifts, preparing to run. "We see who is better predator."

"Ready?"

"Ready!"

"GO!"

Rocky bolts. The sand is hard to traverse, its arms slipping both from the xenonite covering and the loose grains, but it already knows it's a faster runner than Grace. And when it clicks to see where Grace is, Grace is so far behind it's laughable. Oh, this is gonna be easy. 

Rocky reaches the edge of the biodome, a little worn out. Luckily, it just had a sleep cycle, so it won't need to sleep for another few Solean days. Grace is out of range. HA!

It meanders back closer until it can hear Grace, leisurely strolling along the beach. "What wrong, Grace? Too slow?" It calls out. 

A ripple of laughter comes from Grace. "You'll be eating your words soon enough." It sticks its hands in its pockets. 

Rocky snorts, and decides to continue to be a little shit. It goes back and darts around Grace, mocking it, staying juust far enough away where if Grace lunges Grace won't even be able to touch it. Grace does give chase eventually, but Rocky just carefully climbs up the cliff face. Damn, humans are stupid! Every time Rocky thinks they're not so bad, Grace does something like this. It's not even chasing Rocky! It's just slowly following. 

The biodome cycles over to night, Rocky can tell by the click! of the flashlight Grace carries. It settles on top of the cliff, enjoying the sounds of Grace trying its damndest to climb the cliff. Technically it's well past the time Grace should be asleep, but they're both too stubborn to call quits and the xeno team isn't in a hurry to interrupt this glimpse into human evolution.

Rocky has to run again when Grace reaches the top of the cliff and starts to chase it again. This keeps going, Rocky running and mocking Grace, Grace just continuing on, unshakable. Rocky only starts to worry when night falls again and Grace is still able to catch up to it!

It yells to Grace, who's some distance behind. "Grace need sleep."

"Grace has slept." Grace shouts back. "Remember, I can wake up easily. I've been sleeping and eating regularly, I promise."

"Good!" Rocky lets itself feel some relief that Grace isn't neglecting its health for this experiment. Then it goes right back to insults. "Then Grace have no excuse to be so slow!" It makes a 'fart' noise in Grace's direction and scuttles off, laughing at the offended sound Grace makes. 

Day comes again, and Rocky gets frustrated. What in the actual fuck?! Something's not right. Grace has been at this for two Earth days and nights now. If Grace was going to catch Rocky, shouldn't that have happened by now? Is Grace even taking this experiment seriously?

Well, Rocky does know Grace is taking it seriously, because Grace is doing it. Hasn't given up. Hasn't called it quits. So the only reason why the experiment is still going must be because this persistence way of hunting is, in fact, not effective, and Grace is just too stubborn to admit it! HA! Get wrecked, Grace.

Frustration turns to glee, which then curdles into nervousness as the day still goes on with no sign of Grace stopping the pursuit. They've both been running in circles: the biodome's not that big, all told, and Rocky can't access a quarter of it due to the fake ocean. And Rocky can feel a sleep cycle is imminent. It's exhausted. All the running it's been doing must have brought the sleep cycle on sooner. And Grace, last Rocky heard, still shows no sign of tiredness. Shit!

Rocky pushes itself just a little harder, until Grace is far beyond Rocky's range of hearing and Rocky is well hidden: Grace is still on top of the cliffs by the wall of the dome, while Rocky's down below nearer to the water. Then it finds a cave. It knows this cave in particular has a room beside it where the xeno team has been watching on the camera feeds and listening to this whole debacle. 

"Must sleep," Rocky manages. "Can't keep going." It collapses, and the world vanishes. No worries. Grace won't catch up, and if it does, it won't think to look for Rocky here.

When Rocky wakes, it first hears a clamoring from the observation room. Many voices shouting over one another. It sends a spike of fear through Rocky, and it taps at the floor to hear better - and nearly has a cardiac failure then and there, screaming louder than it's ever screamed before in its life.

Grace is standing right. over. Rocky. Looming, really, and it's never sounded taller or more ominous.

"Hiiii."

Then Grace plunges down, wraps its arms around Rocky. "Gotcha!" It opens its mouth and presses it to Rocky's carapace, leaking all over it and pressing its tongue to the xenonite as if it's trying to eat Rocky.

Rocky shudders in disgust and cusses Grace out with every word it knows, smacking it lightly with an arm. "CREEPY! Scared Rocky, nearly kill Rocky with attacking heart! No no no bad Grace! BAD BAD BAD GRACE!"

Grace is laughing, sending vibrations through Rocky's body. "I told you," it says in that light singing kind of voice it likes to do. "I tooooold youuuu! Persistence predators, baby!"

"That no count! You wait until I fall… asleep…" A horrible idea begins to dawn on Rocky. "No." There's no way. There's no way. It's too awful to think of, and yet it's the only possibility.

"Well-" Grace settles back, crosses its legs underneath it and turns towards the window to the observation room: where, by the way, everyone's gone silent with their own realizations. "You guys didn't let me finish explaining earlier. See, a lot of prey animals on Earth are very fast, like Rocky here." It gives Rocky a noogie. "So humans evolved to be able to endure long stretches of exercise like this. We chase an animal, track it using its footprints or the direction it was going in usually, and then eventually the animal's so exhausted that it has to sleep, and that's when we attack and kill it for our food. So that's what I just did!" Grace flashes its teeth again. It's terrifyingly happy about all of this.

Meanwhile, Rocky quite literally cannot move from fear. Grace has sparked fear before: their first meeting, when Rocky had no clue what to expect but it certainly wasn't some squishy cold bag of meat that breathed oxygen of all things; over Adrian the planet, when the ship had been sent into an uncontrolled spin and Rocky had known what it would have to do to save Grace and Earth and Erid all at once even if it meant death; for a few moments when Rocky had been floating in its tomb, the original Eridian ship, and heard a cracking thumping sort of noise coming from space, right before it'd discovered that the noise was Grace coming to save it.

All of those instances were tiny bits of dust next to this type of fear. The revelation that Rocky's wonderful and clumsy friend could have, just now, very easily killed Rocky in Rocky's sleep and that its species did so regularly was the singular most horrifying concept anyone could ever have imagined. Grace probably had no idea that the Solean way of hunting was the stuff of the worst Eridian horror stories. Something that just kept going, kept chasing you until you were forced to sleep? Fucking WHY?! WHY did Rocky have to meet AND BRING HOME the ONE species it knew of that DID THAT?! WHY?!

"That-" it weakly starts - still feeling like it was about to, as the Soleans say, 'shit its pants' - "Very… nice, Grace. Thank for demonstration."

It crawls out from under Grace's arm. "Back soon," and lunges for the airlock. It needs… more than a little bit of processing time. That whole thing was fucking disturbing. 

Grace just waves, oblivious to Rocky's internal turmoil. "See you later, Rocky!"

[7-inches-of-satanic-panic]

OH MY GOD I LOVE THISSSSS

[7-inches-of-satanic-panic]

k but imagine Rocky wanting to learn about how humans became the apex predators of their planet so he has Grace “hunt” him in the biodome as an experiment and during it he thinks Grace isn’t trying or taking it seriously which is bad bad bad because this is for research purposes

only for Rocky to get more and more tired as the experiment goes on just to realize that Grace isn’t which makes him panic so he puts as much distance as he can between them and finds a (hopefully) safe spot to sleep and when he wakes up the human is crouching over him like “got youuu” and Rocky has never shrieked so damn loud before in his life

[stayweirdalways]

sooo this inspired me and then prev's tags did too:

so there's a mini fic under the cut I smashed out in like an hour. kinda low effort but whatever. might keep it going on ao3 with more little experiments

At some point, Grace of course realizes it's living in a zoo enclosure. Then comes a Discussion. 

"Rocky."

Rocky is totally panicking - it told the xeno team to not let Grace know! Now Grace is going to be offended or mad about being a zoo animal! There's no way to sugarcoat this! - and screeching out apologies. It won't be able to withstand Grace being mad at it, because the last time Grace was mad at Rocky Grace ignored Rocky. IGNORED. The silent treatment had grated so bad on Rocky's nerves it felt like it was going to go insane.

"ROCKY! CHILL OUT!"

Rocky slows. Grace is still kneeling from where it had settled after first saying 'we need to talk' (worst words in the universe, by the way). Rocky doesn't get any closer, just fiddles nervously with its fingers.

"Rocky, look. This isn't- I'm not mad about it. Honest! I kinda…" It rubs the back of its 'neck' with a hand. "Kinda already figured it out a while ago."

Grace laughs, flashing its 'teeth'. "I mean, we'd do the same thing on Earth if this was all reversed. I get it! I'm an alien, I knew this was a possibility."

"Along with dissection," Rocky grumbles. "And starving to death. Does not mean good thing. Does not mean Grace happy about it."

"But I am! Look, Eridians are learning from me, right?"

Rocky hums a begrudging confirmation. 

"Then I'm happy about it! You know me. Once a teacher, always a teacher. Plus, it could be worse."

That is true, all of it. Rocky sighs. "Okay. If Grace is sure Grace not mad at Rocky…"

"I'm sure, buddy. C'mere." Grace reaches forward and wraps Rocky in a 'hug'. Rocky accepts it, reciprocates, feeling the familiar noises of Grace's organs. 

"Team will ask more questions," Rocky warns. "Want to do experiments on human behavior."

"Oho, boy. I'm looking forward to that."

And Grace isn't lying, and neither is Rocky: within days of the conversation, the xeno team is approaching Grace and asking many more questions about human biology, about enrichment. They already were, of course, but something seems to have emboldened them. 

What everyone finds most ridiculous is human evolution, though.

"Sorry," Historian Lilith wheezes out. It's almost laughing too hard to keep going. "You're saying- you- humans just walk your prey to death? And you became the apex predators on your planet? How does that work?!"

Every other member of the team present is cackling, including Rocky: Grace alone stands sober, pouting in the way it does when it's offended. 

"What's so unbelievable about that?! It's a very effective way to hunt!"

Rocky snorts. "Grace lying. No way walking is efficient! Ambush is better. Example!" And Rocky lunges for Grace, relishing the squeal and the scramble backwards. Then Grace stands up taller. "Okay! I'll show you. Who wants to get hunted?"

Everyone instantly steps back, leaving Rocky at the forefront. Figures. All that talk about how it's not realistic and yet they scatter at the idea of being the prey. Frankly, Rocky can't blame them - nobody wants to be hunted, after all, especially by an alien that breathes oxygen - but it raises a hand anyways. "I volunteer. Grace hunt me. Then we know truth once and for all."

The grin that split Grace's face somehow seems even creepier than usual. It goes off to prepare, murmuring about contacting the substitute teacher that takes over when Grace gets sick. Huh?

Rocky disregards that and prepares by simply making sure the atmosphere suit is fully ready. It knows Grace isn't really going to hurt it, but it has to reassure several members of the xeno team and Adrian, who's come to watch, of that fact. "Seriously? It's Grace. Grace won't hurt me. Grace can't even hurt me!" It starts to mutter about how ridiculous they're all being when someone points out that Grace could potentially break the atmosphere suit with the abundance of rocks in the enclosure, trapping Rocky in the deadly Solean-safe atmosphere, which stops Rocky dead.

It's Atmosphere Specialist Superman, well-known to be paranoid even at the best of times. Eridians have no 'faces' like Soleans, but Rocky deliberately rotates towards the idiot just to hammer in the absolute stupidity of what Superman just said, and then smacks Superman so hard several team members have to pull it off of the scientist. It's swearing and screeching the entire time, and it takes a few Earth hours to calm down properly. 

The very idea of Grace deliberately hurting Rocky in such a way - when Rocky knows for a fact the scars from the Adrian Incident are still fully apparent to the Solean senses, when Grace spent months freaking out over every little sneeze or cough Rocky made when in the prototypes of the atmosphere suit - is preposterous. Grace would never ever hurt Rocky like that, would never do anything to expose Rocky to its atmosphere ever again even accidentally. They're both so very careful about it. Rocky is still steaming about Superman's insinuations when it walks inside Grace's enclosure.

Grace is waiting by the airlock. Rocky huffs. "Unfair. Go farther. Too close for start, cheater." 

Grace holds up its hands in the almost-happy movement ("When I put my hands up like this, this means surrender.") and steps away a good distance. It's still smiling. "Not gonna matter, Rock," it calls. "I'm about to get you back for alllll those times you ambushed me on the trip here."

"Yeah, right!" Rocky shifts, preparing to run. "We see who is better predator."

"Ready?"

"Ready!"

"GO!"

Rocky bolts. The sand is hard to traverse, its arms slipping both from the xenonite covering and the loose grains, but it already knows it's a faster runner than Grace. And when it clicks to see where Grace is, Grace is so far behind it's laughable. Oh, this is gonna be easy. 

Rocky reaches the edge of the biodome, a little worn out. Luckily, it just had a sleep cycle, so it won't need to sleep for another few Solean days. Grace is out of range. HA!

It meanders back closer until it can hear Grace, leisurely strolling along the beach. "What wrong, Grace? Too slow?" It calls out. 

A ripple of laughter comes from Grace. "You'll be eating your words soon enough." It sticks its hands in its pockets. 

Rocky snorts, and decides to continue to be a little shit. It goes back and darts around Grace, mocking it, staying juust far enough away where if Grace lunges Grace won't even be able to touch it. Grace does give chase eventually, but Rocky just carefully climbs up the cliff face. Damn, humans are stupid! Every time Rocky thinks they're not so bad, Grace does something like this. It's not even chasing Rocky! It's just slowly following. 

The biodome cycles over to night, Rocky can tell by the click! of the flashlight Grace carries. It settles on top of the cliff, enjoying the sounds of Grace trying its damndest to climb the cliff. Technically it's well past the time Grace should be asleep, but they're both too stubborn to call quits and the xeno team isn't in a hurry to interrupt this glimpse into human evolution.

Rocky has to run again when Grace reaches the top of the cliff and starts to chase it again. This keeps going, Rocky running and mocking Grace, Grace just continuing on, unshakable. Rocky only starts to worry when night falls again and Grace is still able to catch up to it!

It yells to Grace, who's some distance behind. "Grace need sleep."

"Grace has slept." Grace shouts back. "Remember, I can wake up easily. I've been sleeping and eating regularly, I promise."

"Good!" Rocky lets itself feel some relief that Grace isn't neglecting its health for this experiment. Then it goes right back to insults. "Then Grace have no excuse to be so slow!" It makes a 'fart' noise in Grace's direction and scuttles off, laughing at the offended sound Grace makes. 

Day comes again, and Rocky gets frustrated. What in the actual fuck?! Something's not right. Grace has been at this for two Earth days and nights now. If Grace was going to catch Rocky, shouldn't that have happened by now? Is Grace even taking this experiment seriously?

Well, Rocky does know Grace is taking it seriously, because Grace is doing it. Hasn't given up. Hasn't called it quits. So the only reason why the experiment is still going must be because this persistence way of hunting is, in fact, not effective, and Grace is just too stubborn to admit it! HA! Get wrecked, Grace.

Frustration turns to glee, which then curdles into nervousness as the day still goes on with no sign of Grace stopping the pursuit. They've both been running in circles: the biodome's not that big, all told, and Rocky can't access a quarter of it due to the fake ocean. And Rocky can feel a sleep cycle is imminent. It's exhausted. All the running it's been doing must have brought the sleep cycle on sooner. And Grace, last Rocky heard, still shows no sign of tiredness. Shit!

Rocky pushes itself just a little harder, until Grace is far beyond Rocky's range of hearing and Rocky is well hidden: Grace is still on top of the cliffs by the wall of the dome, while Rocky's down below nearer to the water. Then it finds a cave. It knows this cave in particular has a room beside it where the xeno team has been watching on the camera feeds and listening to this whole debacle. 

"Must sleep," Rocky manages. "Can't keep going." It collapses, and the world vanishes. No worries. Grace won't catch up, and if it does, it won't think to look for Rocky here.

When Rocky wakes, it first hears a clamoring from the observation room. Many voices shouting over one another. It sends a spike of fear through Rocky, and it taps at the floor to hear better - and nearly has a cardiac failure then and there, screaming louder than it's ever screamed before in its life.

Grace is standing right. over. Rocky. Looming, really, and it's never sounded taller or more ominous.

"Hiiii."

Then Grace plunges down, wraps its arms around Rocky. "Gotcha!" It opens its mouth and presses it to Rocky's carapace, leaking all over it and pressing its tongue to the xenonite as if it's trying to eat Rocky.

Rocky shudders in disgust and cusses Grace out with every word it knows, smacking it lightly with an arm. "CREEPY! Scared Rocky, nearly kill Rocky with attacking heart! No no no bad Grace! BAD BAD BAD GRACE!"

Grace is laughing, sending vibrations through Rocky's body. "I told you," it says in that light singing kind of voice it likes to do. "I tooooold youuuu! Persistence predators, baby!"

"That no count! You wait until I fall… asleep…" A horrible idea begins to dawn on Rocky. "No." There's no way. There's no way. It's too awful to think of, and yet it's the only possibility.

"Well-" Grace settles back, crosses its legs underneath it and turns towards the window to the observation room: where, by the way, everyone's gone silent with their own realizations. "You guys didn't let me finish explaining earlier. See, a lot of prey animals on Earth are very fast, like Rocky here." It gives Rocky a noogie. "So humans evolved to be able to endure long stretches of exercise like this. We chase an animal, track it using its footprints or the direction it was going in usually, and then eventually the animal's so exhausted that it has to sleep, and that's when we attack and kill it for our food. So that's what I just did!" Grace flashes its teeth again. It's terrifyingly happy about all of this.

Meanwhile, Rocky quite literally cannot move from fear. Grace has sparked fear before: their first meeting, when Rocky had no clue what to expect but it certainly wasn't some squishy cold bag of meat that breathed oxygen of all things; over Adrian the planet, when the ship had been sent into an uncontrolled spin and Rocky had known what it would have to do to save Grace and Earth and Erid all at once even if it meant death; for a few moments when Rocky had been floating in its tomb, the original Eridian ship, and heard a cracking thumping sort of noise coming from space, right before it'd discovered that the noise was Grace coming to save it.

All of those instances were tiny bits of dust next to this type of fear. The revelation that Rocky's wonderful and clumsy friend could have, just now, very easily killed Rocky in Rocky's sleep and that its species did so regularly was the singular most horrifying concept anyone could ever have imagined. Grace probably had no idea that the Solean way of hunting was the stuff of the worst Eridian horror stories. Something that just kept going, kept chasing you until you were forced to sleep? Fucking WHY?! WHY did Rocky have to meet AND BRING HOME the ONE species it knew of that DID THAT?! WHY?!

"That-" it weakly starts - still feeling like it was about to, as the Soleans say, 'shit its pants' - "Very… nice, Grace. Thank for demonstration."

It crawls out from under Grace's arm. "Back soon," and lunges for the airlock. It needs… more than a little bit of processing time. That whole thing was fucking disturbing. 

Grace just waves, oblivious to Rocky's internal turmoil. "See you later, Rocky!"

[7-inches-of-satanic-panic]

OH MY GOD I LOVE THISSSSS

[tennas-t-v-time]

Often times i will day dream about tenna having a bad chronic pain/exhaustion day and mettaton wants to run errands so he puts a tiny tenna in his purse full of soft fabrics and tenna sleeps in that all day and gets woken up to be given various fast food treats

[tennas-t-v-time]

I really like this topic

[underfell]

Defernull Spamton and Tenna Dissection.

Defernull is brand spanking new and is an AU based off of an unfinished game. So things Will Most Likely change, whether it be tomorrow or when the new chapter comes out. Who knows.

I’m not going to lie, it’s going to be a little difficult for me to describe Tenna and Spamton’s characterizations in Defernull along with their situationship without it being a word vomit. Like all of this is purely me spitballing.

I'm currently only using MTT as a foundation for these two in terms to overarching themes. Once I renew the UF MTT design I'll come back to explaining this.

KEEP IN MIND, SOME OF THIS COULD CHANGE. THIS IS NOT A COMPLETE ANALYSIS, CONSIDER THIS A FIRST DRAFT. GO EASY ON ME!!!!!

SPAMTON

Spamton is harder to get a grasp on purely because of not knowing what his overarching role is in Deltarune.

Anyway, I picture Spamton as some "cleaned up" Conman who says he's not the same guy he was before, but really he's just saying that so you'd let your guard down. He acts invested and overly ecstatic to try and earn one's trust, despite having full intention of betraying them to get what he wants. Maybe he uses mirroring as a way to get what he wants too? The odds are in your favor, he's here to help you !!! (YOU SCRATCH HIS BACK HE'LL STAB YOURS!!!)

This song by musician neutrina really helped me figure him out more because of the title itself, WANT WHATCHA NEED? YOU GOTTA JUST TAKE IT.

IMO THAT'S EXACTLY what it is, that line I feel is how DN Spamton would carry himself throughout possibly every era. Also, probably a line he would've said to Tenna during the time they spent together.

Which I think would've put Tenna off at some point.

It goes without saying that Spamton really deep dove into the madness, almost like an addiction. Maybe he thought he was a bit invincible during his big shot era. Really basking in his success.

Also, he definitely lives in his car at the dump. A thank you and Credit to Milkaroos for that genius idea.

TENNA

I want to say instead of being afraid of being abandoned/not liking change like DR Tenna,

DN Tenna’s problem would be more so that maybe he’s a bit apathetic. He’s comfortable with how things are because he worked hard to keep it all together despite losing himself (The Apathy) practically becoming desensitized in a way?

He’s probably not happy, but he’s comfortable. This is what he wanted, right? Type of deal.

He can front like no one's ever fronted before. He's serious, he means business, and You will trust that he's always right.

His thinly veiled anger management issues...(idk where to put this)

I think the deal with him too is that he'd 180 from who he initially was (that being closer to his DR counterpart), which is where the whole "losing oneself" comes from. He'd use tactics he originally didn't want to use or believe in using. But then forced himself to use.

Tactics including the Hypnosis Channel, Subliminal Messages, fearmongering, Twisting the narrative. (JUST LIKE REAL TV, BABY!!!)

I might even go on a whim and say these tactics might be some that Spamton might've brought up to him before their eventual separation.

I believe both Spamton and Tenna influenced each other in different points of their lives..? Tenna rejecting Spamton's initial ideas, but then eventually falling into the same habits/mindset as Spamton in order to stay relevant and "Successful".

THEIR RELATIONSHIP (A HEAVY WIP)

I think here it would be more prominent, I’m trying to mirror Underfell’s Alphyne already dating and getting engaged at the end of the trust/closure routes. IN A WAY. So bear with me.

One of those - they kind of know they’re together, but don’t really outright make it “official” deals. At first, it definitely was just business, Tenna wanting to know his secret, Spamton riding off of Tenna's already present significance and stardom. One thing led to another etc etc etc. CLOSE, but not TOO close. Definitely no I love You's being said here. Maybe one of them thought about it? Who knows.

All I've gathered so far is that the two were definitely a bit closer than their DR counterparts here.

AT SOME POINT, Spamton becomes more and more addicted to the madness.

Tenna definitely witnesses him going off the deep end in real time, it gets to a point where Tenna tries to break off their "Private Business" aka their unspoken relationship, thinking that maybe that would give him a reality check. Obviously it doesn't.

They both convinced themselves it wasn't anything special.

I want to say after Tenna broke it off, they both revert to pursuing their initial goals. Trying to get secrets, life advice, bigger from each other. It's a little messy, idk.

Instead of Tenna sweet-talking Spamton to let him in on his secret, Tenna would've probably given him an ultimatum? Another shot? I'm still figuring this out, but Spamton would still leave. Without a word.

Which forces Tenna into a last resort, using the hypnosis channel on Asgore to get better signal. (The new Rabbit Ears) Which is where his whole 180 would come in.

Random: Instead of "tropic of love" island for Defernull I think there'd be something called "LAST RESORT" because that's basically what Tenna would've come to, a last resort. Lawl.

Annnyywayyy That's ALL I got so far, my word vomit.

THIS IS NOT ALL OF MY THOUGHTS.. THERE IS SOOOO MUCH MORE...THIS IS JUST ENOUGH TO AT LEAST GET A BALL ROLLING.

I TRULY HOPE THIS MAKES SOME KIND OF SENSE.

Thank you for reading.

[verysadpaper]

I’m in love

[rockinmusicquarterly]

i don't think enough ppl appreciate how much of an absolute saint tenna was being in chapter 3 considering the circumstances he was in

like. imagine your entire world revolving around one room and one family that you've watched grow and change over the years - they are all you've ever known and you love them so much you want to be a part of them and consider yourself a part of them, you make their food and make games based around them and learn what they like best so you can cater to them as much as possible, because you love them

and then they all start to leave one by one, starting with one of the older kids going missing without a trace (which you may or may not be aware of but it's heavily implied you are), and everybody else eventually following in her steps. the parents of your house fight constantly, the kids grow distant and jaded, and old friends never come around to visit again. they're the center of your world, and from your tragically limited perspective you're the center of theirs; of course you assume it's your fault.

it would be one thing if you were just a family friend or an older relative, but imagine instead you're the tv. your entire reason for existing is hinged upon being looked at; watched; paid attention to and wanted and loved. you also know what happens to tv's that aren't used anymore - you know that there's newer, fancier, less fragile alternatives on the market, and you're practically only one bad day, one glitchy display or broken signal away, from being replaced, taken away from your entire world and made into scrap junk. you're terrified. you love them all and you aren't sure if they feel the same way anymore, and you're terrified, and you don't want to be scrap junk

but then one day - after years of neglect, isolation, terror at the inevitability of being thrown away growing likelier by the day - it comes back. one of your old viewers, your family, the little weird adorable prankster youngest you love so much, powers you back on for the first time in ages. this is your chance, isn't it? things are finally going back to normal, aren't they? oh, you're so excited, you've been waiting for this for so long, they're older now and they look more tired than you can ever remember seeing but you love them, you love them so so so much-

-they tell you they'll unplug you again if you don't do what they say. you realize slowly they don't actually have any interest or want or care for You - they just need you to do them a favor. a shady favor you can barely understand that puts one of your other beloved family members in a position that makes you uncomfortable and guilty, but you literally can't say no. you're not Allowed to say no, are you? not unless you want to go back to the dark and the dust and the isolation and the fear. they'll probably throw you away afterwards if you say no.

but if it's them asking, then surely it'll work out. you trust them and you love them, so you try not to think about what they said they'd do to you, the fact that they barely smile or look at you for the rest of the time you see them, that you're pretty sure they hate you now - you still love them, so it's going to work out. isn't it?

maybe not. things start dragging on, longer than was planned, longer than they said. your other contestants start getting bored (bored of your entire purpose bored of your work and efforts bored of You). your employees start fucking off and ignoring you, putting the show at risk and ruining the immersion of the games. you're scared. what's happening? why aren't things going to plan? why won't anybody tell you what's going on? everyone's getting bored and all you can think of is your family, disappearing one by one, because you were just too boring to keep them around

and then the one who gave you this whole plan in the first place - the one who threatened you, the one who won't look at you anymore, the one that you're ashamed of yourself for being scared of - sabotages you. takes their friends to the one place they weren't supposed to go and jeopardizes the whole plan, and makes them all see what a bad guy you really are.

and even still the worst thing you do is put them in plastic balls - just to keep the plan going, just until somebody arrives and lets you finally put an end to this whole horrible thing. you try to make it fun, even though you feel yourself fracturing and shutting down, forgetting where you are and what's happening, begging for anybody to help and make it stop. you still try to make jokes and play games, because you love them and that's what you Do

and then everybody leaves, one by one. again. you're the bad guy again, and no one can tolerate you anymore. and still you're too scared to tell them what's really happening, you're panicking too hard to get your thoughts together and say anything other than "help me, help me, help me", and then they're all gone.

maybe you could have forced them to stay, but you didn't. you don't want to be the bad guy like that. you hate being the bad guy. so you watch them go, just like you watched your family go.

oh and then the exact moment later on that you finally see a light at the end of the tunnel, you get murdered for it

like. can anyone hear me. it is honestly astounding that he didn't become so much worse from everything that happened. we see him at his lowest and his meanest and still he can't bring himself to fire anybody, begs his friends not to go, turns his boss fight into a fun challenge with a win condition and games. he's literally nice

[vampalaurels]

So about a month and a half ago I became obsessed with Noises Off by @runicmagitek, and that obsession turned into a 25 page monster. PLEASE everybody go read it.

This doesn't 1:1 match up with the events of the fic (mostly bc at the time of making this comic this particular scene hadn't been posted yet) but I did it with lots of love so I hope that counts 💖💖💖

[dorothylarouge]

[funfey]

You are not staying in the tags

[princesspineberry]

This is by the way an actual plotline in one of the comics (Spider Girl #11, 1999)- Jameson sees the titular spider girl and assumes that spider-man has transitioned specifically to torment him.

[thatgirlwiththememes]

I swear I get sad if I wake up and one is on the floor

[cumaeansibyl]

They are exploring under the bed! This is normal stuffed animal behavior, as they are trained to protect you from monsters and shadow creatures, so it's natural that they want to keep an eye out. Don't be sad, thank your friend for doing such a good job.

[aquilacalvitium]

[going2hell4everythingbutbeingbi]

things to say after fucking up egregiously

pack it up boys we've made a social blunder

let's run that again

one more time normal style

I'm going to become a statistic

further proof god is out to get me

it's because I tore my acl senior year

I couldn't do it for religious reasons

my ex took my talent in the divorce

good thing nobody saw that (said directly to someone who definitely saw it)

[skygemspeaks]

Conversations with murderbot are always a bit of a minefield because occasionally it will drop the most devastating piece of info totally casually and then move on while its human friends are left reeling.

Like one day they're having a watch party or something, and ratthi will look over, stare at murderbot for a second, then say in a surprised voice, "oh, i didn't know that secunits' organic parts age the way humans do!"

Murderbot is quiet for a few seconds as it studies itself from one of its drone cameras, sees the fine wrinkles starting to line the skin of its face. Then it says in a wondering voice, "I didn't know that either. We usually don't live long enough to experience significant changes to our appearance."

And then an explosion happens on the display and murderbot goes back to paying attention to its show while all the humans around it stare at each other in abject horror. Arada's on the verge of tears and wants to hug murderbot so badly. Instead, she just hides her face in Overse's shoulder.

Mensah has to leave the room.

[ficauthor]

[transingthoseformers]

We need more of minicons manhandling humans because they're closer in size in this world

[34521509436720948and2]

do you think tenna had a bed (let alone a bedroom) in tv world, or do you think he either slept on the couch darkner or blipped out of physical existence or something

i had a divine vision of tenna claiming he has never slept on a bed and when pressed about how he has slept in the past, it is just him passing out cold on the floor where he stood

[34521509436720948and2]

our marvelous suggestions:

there are other really cute suggestions in the replies and reblog tags, but these were meant to be quick so i am stopping here for now

[tennas-t-v-time]

Every time i think about the potential for tenna having mommy and daddy issues i feel sick to my fucking stummy. Like what if your parents didnt know you existed. What if you loved them with everything you had but they saw you as an object. What if you knew it wasn’t reasonable to blame them because theres no way they could know you were real. What if you justified every way they ever hurt you because of this. What if they talked in softer voices while arguing around their other two kids but not you. What if they apologized to the other two but not you. What if the other two got sat down and explained why daddy wasn’t coming back but you didn’t so you don’t know why hes gone and it might be your fault. What if your family stopped talking to you slowly one by one. And you still loved them. What if the only times they hugged you and carried you around was to move you and eventually throw you out into the rain.

[tennas-t-v-time]

What if you wanted your parents best traits so bad but you had their worst traits. You had your fathers anger and need to break things and your mothers loneliness. What if you had their best traits like an affinity for flowers and a love for cheesy jokes but they never knew you so they never ruffled the top of your head saying you’re just like them.