Everything Geeky and Gay

She/Her, They/Them, He/Him 23 I will report and block porn-bots, don't fuck with me on this! watch bee n puppycat

[gossamer-green]

one of the last scenes of the movie is grace saying goodbye to earth. a real goodbye, this time

his last conscious moments on earth, he was pinned down, screaming and crying and desperately clawing at the grass as he was ripped away from home

but this time, he calmly and confidently takes a seat in front of the camera, wishes humanity well in his absence, and signs off before he heads off to sacrifice himself

guys

he got to sit down and do it differently.

[domidextrus]

Bloodymary shippers continue to learn the funny way that you cannot outright assume the people who made (or helped make) your favorite works with the blorbos you're playing dollhouse with won't see your indulgent fantasies when you post them publicly on a social media platform.

[xx-all-purpose-nerd-xx]

I know that we’re all “Simon loves plants”, “Simon takes care of a lot a plants on Erid” what if Simon can never look at a plant again without breaking down.

[songofanemoia]

you know, if grace were to return back to earth, eva would get none of the credit for everything she poured her blood sweat and tears into. grace would be the hero, and yes it would be deserved considering all he's been through, but i guarantee you eva would not be appreciated as she should be. SHE is the only reason earth still lives, without HER grace wouldn't have gone. without her none of everything that happened would have happened. and i think people would forget all the anguishing and deciding over science and mechanics and the weight of it all she did to be able to send that crew up, especially grace.

[scottily]

Colt getting a call that he has to clean out rylands apartment, being his closest living(recently found that out) relative.

He gets the spare key, opens the door, and sees the stack of homework ryland never got to hand out, all marked and graded with different colored pens and encouraging words on each paper.

He finds the now expired hazelnut creamer that definitely has too much sugar to be healthy.

The messy bed, missing a quilt.

Minimal decorations, as if all the effort was put into his classroom. But he had drawings his students made him hanging on the fridge.

His school bag has a folder with students emergency contacts.

His laundry basket is only half full.

His closet is a mess, as if someone rifled through it.

There's some "choose your own adventure" books, written in. There's bookmarks halfway through.

A wilted house plant sits on the coffee table.

[justcakethanks]

A homemade PHM sticker! See my video if you wanna learn how to make your own!

[vv0812]

I don't understand why people have agree to make Grace the submissive one in his relationship with Simon.

Canonically Grace has been a person of authority not only as a teacher but as a leader scientist, besides he admits in the book he likes to be respected, and in the movie is able to use his teacher voice to keep some kind of order (or at least try) once Rocky moved to the Hail Mary. In the book Rocky is more bossy, but is still Grace who has the last vote in what they do, because he is the scientist, he is the one with the knowledge and autority to evaluate if something can work or not in the end. Grace is who knows what they need to do, Rocky makes it possible.

Simon, for better or worse, has been a follower most of his life, he knows how to follow orders and even when he has show to be smart and think out of the box, I do not think he would feel very comfortable having power over someone else, because that puts on him the weight of responsability and I think that after risking his (actually dying but lets forget that) for a chance of humanity he would not want to carry with something like that again. Specially having so much control over a person, having his trauma that covers the "I kill a lot of people", I think he would not know how to deal with it.

Other thoughts:

I think people made interpretations of Grace been more submissive because they have the image of Movie!Grace (lovely image), in which he look very soft and helpless. However, I have a mix with the book, in which Grace is more sassy and has more actitud, even mentioning wanting to punch parents and some colleges.

I also think that people like to give Simon this image of a very in power and control man, because he seems kind of aggressive, or like a payment for all the control and power that it was taken away from him, but I don't think that Simon would want more power than the one he needs to control himself and take his own decisions.

I feel people made Grace submissive because they have as reference Grace interactions with Stratt, and I think that people do not realize that Stratt was a kind of exception and that Grace wasn't all that helpless with her until she send him to space, Even when Stratt had all the power of the world, Grace was able to have a friendship with her in where she looked at him as a equal or even a point of reference related to the science part of the project.

In the book is Stratt who asks Grace a lot of things to understand if something would work, which give Grace a lot of power, because depending how he gives this info to Stratt she would take a choice. There is even a scene in which Stratt ask for his opinion about if putting the astronauts in coma or not.

In the end of the day Grace was the second in command.

I have the believe that Simon would panic with the power of chosing over someone else, because he would not want to take away the will of someone else.

Also I feel that we have this picture that dominating part of a realtionship has to be intimidating or physically powerful, when the true is that they just need to know how to dominate/control their partners.

Extra Extra:

I think that if Grace was the dominating and Simon the submissive would also have a lot more of vulnerability and intimidacy, because to get to this point Grace must have to show to Simon that he is worthy of been trusted to use the power that Simon has gave to him without taking advantage of it.

I know, I know, some people are thinking in the sexual stuff of all of it, but honestly I'm not thinking in that, power dynamics go beyond that, it could be something like Grace having to sleep Simon for a medical procedure, or Simon letting Grace be the one with the final choice in a hard situation because he knows that Grace would never choose something that would made him harm.

Extra Extra Extra:

I'm also believe that if Grace ever praises Simon, Simon would melt on the spot. It could be in any context, maybe Simon is just watering a plant or fixing something and Grace tell him a joyful "good job!" or "you are good doing that", and Simon would be undone.

[dangermanatwork]

rocky concerned statement

I don't remember if I'd already seen something similar or it's just my paranoia talking, pls tag me if it's true, ill be sure to give them credit!

[sleeping-with-seraphim]

I've seen a few people throw around the headcanon that Rocky swears like a sailor, but Grace refuses to input translations for his swear words. Now, don't get me wrong, people can headcanon whatever they want, but like.. that feels so out of character to me 😭

The translator is, in the beginning anyway, basically the only direct way Rocky can communicate with Grace. Why would Grace try to limit the way Rocky can communicate with him based on some arbitrary human social norm?

I like to think Grace had a student at some point who used an AAC device to communicate, and he'd apply rules from that to translating words for Rocky - Rocky deserves equal access to communication (even if it's rude/improper/vulgar) as everyone else. If he wants to swear, he can swear, and if Grace really did have a problem with it he could talk to Rocky about it and ask him to cut back rather than just take the words away from him altogether.

[42starsintheuniverse]

So after much diplomacy, and meetings, and conversations that Grace is too bored to understand, he's FINALLY allowed down to Erid's surface.

After settling into the biodome and getting back to full health; Grace is finally allowed out into the public, and he's sitting in the train, staring wide eyed at everything. As he examines two Eridian's get off the train, and five pile on, he realises something.

And the realisation goes like this:

Rocky is a lot rougher around the edges than most of the other Eridian's so far... I wonder how that works? Do they, polish their skins? Is that possible, or would it hurt them? Is it some kind of environmental reaction? Come to think of it, those two have bags- actual BAGS- like a leather handbag, instead of Rocky's engineer toolbelt - all stained and oily. And Rocky's clothes are so much worse than everyone else's, this is like- the equivalent of him choosing to wear a mechanic's jumpsuit in his everyday life. The other Eridian's have polished body's and arms, beautifully smooth crafted jewellery, they have soft, draping, breezy clothes, and they also don't have-

"Are those TATTOOS?!?" Grace yelps -on the train in front of, and briefly startling, everyone- as he points at Rocky's arm through the zenonite barrier of his suit, pressing right up against the carving in Rocky's nearest arm.

"No fret- scare public," Rocky says gesturing at how everyone on the train is frozen in freaked out silence.

"Sorry," Grace whispers mortified, as the train car settles into soft murmurs again.

"Why make such big deal about carvings, question? Human word 'Tattoos' mean, question?"

"You have tattoos.." Grace says, eye's huge, and Rocky sighs, calls him idiot, and settles beside him. Meanwhile, Grace is having a mind melt down six ways to Sunday, because his best friend in the whole universe, the best engineer, smartest, funniest, most loveable person Grace has ever met, who Grace perceived to be a happy, chirpy, hopeful labrador... Is actually some bad boy with tattoos, who wears his stained work clothes everywhere, and who's idea of 'a nice outfit' is a backwards cap, and a sweatband saying 'Got u babe'.

And Grace is supposed to be normal about all this.

He's supposed to be normal, about Rocky being super smart, an incredible craftsman, who could lift Grace with a single arm. While also being a tatted up, roughly shaved, and prefers the Eridian form of beer type of guy. And, being so sharp and witty that he makes Grace laugh more than any one, and being stubborn enough to push Grace's thoughts more than any one, and is more achingly gentle with Grace's fragile heart than anyone else in the whole universe.

Grace briefly registers that:

1) The hypothetical demisexuality that's been dormant for years is no longer dormant. 2) He's definitely into Rocky 3) He is interested in building a home, a life, a family with a rock.

"This our stop," Rocky nudges him up, and Grace feels dizzy at the lightness of Rock's touch, the amount of power he holds back so easily in order to be so delicate with Grace.

"Right!" Grace squeaks, and gets up shakily to head for the door.

"Grace still okay for interview? Sick? Nerves?"

"Uh, it's nothing Rock. Don't worry about it..."

Rocky positions his body in the 'I am suspicious of you' look, before they both have to step off the train. "Not too late to back out. Fake sickness. Fake emotions. Go back home, just us."

Grace pauses for a moment, and looks at the flow of Eridian's getting off the train and heading for the exit. He thinks about the interview, the papers, finally sharing himself with the world. He glances down at Rocky.

"Yeah. I got terribly scared, I was so sick, you thought I might die if I didn't go straight back to the biodome. And locked it down completely. And told the science team you'd take care of me."

"Deal," Rocky says, holding up his fist, and Grace gives it a little bump as they turn around, and get right back on the train heading home again. And the whole trip back, even though he doesn't have a mouth, so it shouldn't be possible, Grace is pretty sure Rocky is smirking at him.

[gracelookdisgust]

basic pattern recognition test

[critter-of-habit]

Haven't had the energy to draw recently, so here is a timelapse of my recent PHM art instead 🙏

[wirybug]

I love and respect shippers and they are of course a vital part of the ecosystem, but I find it so frustrating when grace and rocky's relationship is pushed into a conventionally romantic mould.

romance is a deeply human cultural concept. not only that, it's a very specific and niche cultural concept even among humanity! the idea of "romantic love" as a distinct thing has not even existed for very long relative to human history, doesn't exist in every human culture, and what we mean by it changes extremely rapidly. like... the use of the split attraction model and classifying orientation on two separate axes has existed in its recognisable form for literally ten years. even the idea of orientation being something that you can classify people by is historically recent!!

all this to say. those concepts are not universal. they are not objective, measurable, or observable. they are models and labels which some people have developed, for the purposes of communication and understanding within their cultural context. sometimes they are useful. sometimes they are not.

and what is the cultural context of grace and rocky's relationship? there isn't one!!! they have absolutely zero shared context. everything they have, they build from scratch, in a situation of total isolation from both of their own species and societies. they don't share physical environments, they don't share sensory perceptions, they don't share biological functions. THEY ARE ALIENS TO EACH OTHER.

so why would either of them find it useful or important to define their relationship with A LITERAL ALIEN according to their own locally- and historically-contextual cultural conventions? and WHYYYY would their own cultural conventions be remotely understandable or translatable to each other?

the relationship they have is the relationship they have. the only way it can be defined is as the relationship they have. there has been and will be no other relationship in the history of either of their species that fits into the same classification. there has been and will be no cultural context for defining it in either of their worlds. no-one but them will ever be able to understand their experiences or what their relationship means. it's okay!!!

they don't neeeeed to have san francisco queer community style relationship negotiations where grace explains that he's asexual and so if they have sex it still won't mean he's experiencing sexual attraction, or where rocky talks grace through the implications of eridian polygamy conventions. none of that would mean anything to either of them!

i'm not saying they would never talk about their relationship or how they feel about each other. but these are two awkward, practical, traumatised, intelligent adults, in an absolutely unimaginable and unprecedented situation. their conversations would reflect that! they would talk about what activities they want to do together, what topics are too upsetting to bring up, what they can do to help each other on a bad day. they would explain their own cultures but would not impose them on each other. they would (awkwardly!!!) share their feelings and have arguments. but they simply would not be having modern usamerican-style dating drama.

[minaharkers]

karaoke night go hard on the hail mary statement

[techiecentral]

thank you for everything

[hrtsdsre]

connection

[local-mist]

♫ Human did WHAT to rock? ♫

Grace holds a seminar for Eridian scientists and does something unexpected.

word count: 1660 / reading time: 10 minutes

author's note: this is just a slice of life, no shipping, completely SFW kinda thing. It's a bit nerdy, a bit funny (hopefully). The idea came to me so fast that I just had to get it out of my head as soon as possible, so I wrote it at work instead of doing my job. It's my first fanfic EVER, so dont come for me too hard. Enjoy the shenaningans under the cut.

P.S. Grace's thoughts are in italics.

Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. ThudthudthudthudthudthudTHUDTHUDTHUDTHUDTHUDTHUDTHUDTHUD

Grace slithers out of bed, inconveniently woken up by the loudest door banging he's ever heard in his life. He wraps himself up in a blanket and stumbles towards the ruckus trying to keep his eyes open enough not to trip over his own feet. “Gosh, Rocky, you’re an impatient one.” Grace groans as he opens the door for his Eridian friend. Rocky comes strutting into the house like it’s his own. Well, technically speaking, it kind of is. “Good morning Grace!” he sings excitedly on his way in. “Ready for today?” Grace yawns, trying to get a hold of his bearings and shake off the remnants of a really strange dream he was having. Wait, what’s happening today? It takes him a moment to remember what they had planned. “Oh, the seminar? Yeah, yeah, I’m excited!” the microbiologist sits down on one of the kitchen chairs still wrapped in blankets and half asleep. Armando places a mug of synthesized coffee in front of him, earning a thumbs down and a croaky “thank you”. The Eridians did a bang-up job of simulating the effects and the taste of the beverage. Now that he’s a little more awake, Grace notices a bunch of xenonite containers that Rocky was carrying on this back. His head? His face? Whatever, on top of him. “Rocky bring samples. Grace bring equipment?” Rocky unloads the containers onto the floor and starts putting them on the kitchen table. “Yes, it’s in my room, I’ll set it up in a bit.” “Good good good. Scientists come in twenty minutes, so Grace hurry.” What in the world, did I sleep in that much? Grace looks at the clock and yes, he did indeed sleep in. He now has to eat, shower, brush his teeth and set up the equipment all in twenty minutes time. Welp. Thank Universe for the Eridian coffee.

One frantic glasses search and one stubbed toe later the kitchen table has turned into a miniature science lab. The equipment that Grace brought in yesterday from aboard the Hail Mary was just the essentials: the atomic resolution microscope, the element analyzer, a Geiger counter, some scalpels, gloves, goggles and a respirator. Safety first, kids. Rocky keeps reorganizing things on the table, either because he really wants to help but doesn't know how else to do it, or he just isn’t satisfied with Grace’s arrangement skills. We’ll never know for sure.

Knock knock knock. The Eridian scientists have arrived. “See, this is how polite people knock on door,” Grace points out jokingly with a cheeky grin, gets up from his chair and proceeds to let the guests in. Rocky regrets he doesn’t have a tongue, or he’d show it to Grace in a gesture of playful retaliation. The scientist team includes five of some of the most prominent scientists on Erid. Grace has already met them more than once, to learn from them about their wonderful planet and to teach them about his own. Today's seminar was going to be mutually informative. Grace welcomes everyone to the kitchen which gets a little crowded. Admittedly, it wasn’t designed to hold a whole human and six whole Eridians but they make do with what they have. “Alrighty, let’s begin!” Grace claps his hands in excited anticipation. “From what I understand, you guys want me to examine these samples over here and tell you what they are called on Earth, correct?” “Yes, is correct,” a small round red Eridian with yellow spots replies. Grace named them Isaac for convenience. “Okay. Can you guys tell me what these are first?” “Samples of minerals found on Erid,” a big pyramid blue-green scientist says. That’s Marie. “Scientists want to know if exist on Earth too,” sings Albert, the tall black one with white layers. “Scientists want to know names of rocks,” this orange-yellow Eridian’s name is Lynn. “And thank you for time, Dr. Grace!” that’s Charles. They always say “thank you” for everything. Very lovely. “Oh, no, it’s my pleasure,” Grace replies, trying to decide how to start the examination.

Eventually he determines that the first step would be to see if any of the samples are radioactive. The microbiologist takes the Geiger counter, turns it on and holds it next to each container for a while. None of them elicit a negative reaction from the device. That’s a great start. Grace opens the first container and takes the mineral out. It’s a gorgeous deep green rock, with visible layers like a tree’s annual rings. He has a vague idea of what it might be. The element analyzer shows a “Cu2CO3(OH)2” formula on the screen. A quick consult with the laptop confirms Grace’s theory. “This is malachite,” he proclaims to the scientists. It makes them chirp with excitement. “In Eridian is called ♪♫♫♫♪♪,” explains Lynn and Grace records the word on the laptop to learn later. “It’s very pretty,” says the microbiologist, “kind of reminds me of Adrian, eh, Rock?” Rocky softly purrs in agreement. The next container holds a hard white rock with several grey spots. Grace doesn’t recognize this one. He inspects it with the analyzer and searches it on the laptop for a while before finally concluding: “This, I believe, is called dolomite.” Eridian scientists murmur in fascination. “There’s a mountain range on Earth called the Dolomites, because the mountains are mostly made of it. It’s named after the scientist who discovered it. I actually visited the area when I was in Italy for a biology conference and it was stunning. The nature there is absolutely breathtaking—" Grace realizes that he’s starting to digress from the topic. They’re not here to listen about his academic adventures in Europe. They’re here to listen about rocks. That happened a lot when he was a teacher on Earth. The students knew that he liked to talk about everything and anything and tried to steer him into telling them fun stories from his life every chance they got. How long ago was that? “Dr. Grace?” Isaac softly calls him. Oh shoot, I spaced out! “Yes, I’m here, moving on,” Grace composes himself quickly. Good thing that Eridians can’t see color, or they would have seen his face turning red. Third sample is a transparent cluster of crystals. The analyzer shows silicon dioxide on the screen. So it’s quartz. “It’s quartz.” Grace lifts it up and it sparkles beautifully in the light. “Sand on the beach is mostly made of tiny quartz crystals. But you guys already know that.” Container number four. Another transparent crystal. This one is chunkier and much clearer than quartz. Grace scans it with the analyzer. “Straight up carbon. I don’t even need to double check, this is a diamond, everybody.” Microbiologist takes its sharp edge to the previous crystal and it leaves a scratch on the surface. Yup, that tracks. “This is the hardest naturally occurring substance on Earth. Humans make tools and jewelry out of it. It’s sort of a tradition to give a ring with a diamond on it to your mate, when you want them to marry you.” Isn’t it stupid though? Here, my love, have this overpriced piece of pressurized carbon to signify our eternal devotion to each other. We are now in debt. Grace isn’t a fan of this idea, as you can see.

Time to open the last container. When Grace tilts it over, a snow-white piece of mineral hits his hand. It’s very light and leaves powdery residue everywhere. He immediately knows exactly what it is. Back on Earth he held it in his hands every day for years. A soft smile lights up his face. “Calcium carbonate. Chalk.” The analyzer confirms the teacher’s words. “On Earth we use it a lot in schools. You write with it on a blackboard and it’s easy to clean up after.” The Eridian scientists harmonize in understanding. Grace tosses the chalk up in his hand. The memories from his teaching days are flooding in all at once. Everyday classes, crazy lab projects, science fairs, detentions, exams, proms, competition victories and so on. The teacher is sitting at the table, lost in thought, staring at this piece of chalk with a smile. The feelings are bittersweet, and the human can feel tears welling up in the corners of his eyes. He misses these days a lot. Suddenly something else hits him in the back of his mind. This is a strange sensation. He can feel it in his bones for some reason. Is this a craving? For calcium? Now that he thinks about it, he's probably not getting enough of it from Eridian food. He fidgets with this piece of chalk for a moment and then lets the intrusive thoughts win. Without thinking too much Grace lifts the chalk to his face, opens his mouth and bites down on it with the right side of his teeth. The chalk doesn’t give at first, but with a bit more pressure from the man’s canines it shatters into pieces. A good chunk lands in Grace’s mouth and he starts to chew. It’s crunchy, powdery, very dry and doesn’t really taste like anything, but oh, it’s so satisfying. The teacher sits in one place, staring into the distance, the chalk turning into paste in his mouth and it feels so good that he lets out a sigh of pleasure, like when you’ve been starving for days and then take the first bite of the best pizza of your life. It takes Grace a moment to notice, but the room is now perfectly silent. The Eridian scientists aren’t talking anymore. They’re just standing there completely frozen, watching him. If Eridians had facial features, in this moment they would look absolutely horrified. Grace swallows the chalky paste and looks around the room, confused as to what happened. And just as it dawns on him he hears Rocky’s melodically disturbed voice:

“Grace, what the fuck?!”