I saw indysinks on instagram draw rocky as a cowboy because of the Barbie movie (Please go check them out- I don’t know if this automatically links the image, I hope not because I want yall to directly support them)- and it triggered me and my friend to basically world build for an hour
Me and my friend sjackartsy on insta (please also check them out, their art is absolutely incredible just like them! It’s like a fairytale illustration crossed with old manuscripts, the color palette of a mandala, and the literary and emotional depth of the ocean) got to thinking- cowboy tassels kinda look like eridian celebratory garments- so what if grace shows the eridians earth fashion and all the eras and styles that have those tassels become common on Erid even after he passes?
Dude - cowboys, hippies ( idk the right word or era), basically any native society that lived in the plains, anything man!
They would use their own materials to try and replicate it and eventually add more than tassels. They would add small bells onto outfits, make ones laden with clicky beads, choose the most rustle-y, flowy fabrics, body jewelry, basically anything textured or noise making.
And humans come years later to find that eridian fashion has begun to mirror that of societies before colonization, and they take that back to earth and all of a sudden those fashions gain massive appreciation again and there is more effort to protect them, because the extraterrestrials that helped save all of us love those fashions and want to know more.
There are now fashion historians who study the changes in eridian fashion in relation to the one-way trade route graced brought- and how it continues to evolve!
They find that part of the ways eridians had studied those fashions was through movies that contained them- which also resulted in eridians discovering the soundtracks to old westerns.
Naturally they wanted to explore further so gracefully shows them more- and again, human visitors realize that eridians have developed their own genres of music based off of human music- a lot of which sounds like human music but with added synth ( basically eridian pop music in how it takes over the industry) ( also synths because their sound design was based off new age synths)
Eridians also appreciate any genre that has heavy use of percussion, as it is slightly similar to what they already have and discovering new forms of percussion is always fun for them. We also feel like it would also make cool effects they could see since they only see via echolocation.
They also, occasionally, make songs that are meant to mimic human speech but when you listen it’s actually just gibberish that switches between the distinct sounds, tonalities, and intonations of basically every language in the world.
They even have some covers of human songs- which is just the words translated into eridian and modified to work with eridian grammar. This could sound like a melody on top of the original backing off the song or be a standalone work. ( there is an eridian version of let it go. Trust.) ( also- we thought the idea of eridians one day making their own version of “ we are the world” is amazing and we are definetly not crying rn)
There is some genres that they avoid ( ironically ones like pop) because it turns out a lot of common chords used in those genres are eridian curse words.
When the eridians first discovered those genres, some of the parent eridians were scandalized because since all of their children were curious, those genres spread quickly, and they did not want their children repeating those chords thank you very much! ?
Sadly, the eridians did not like Shakira’s music- because one of its frequent chords says insults about one’s female parent (which confuses them more because eridians don’t have gender). However, they loved her dancing and all the great stuff she did on earth enough that she is one of the better known earth celebrities in erid.
What if certain instruments also sounded more aggressive or calming to eridians like synth or guitar because the trills they use to convey emotion sound very similar- and the eridians are confused as to why the song “ happy” by Pharrell Williams sounds so sad- and why grace keeps dancing to it.
This can also completely flip some genres on earth, because there are so many genres seen by those outside of them as “ aggressive” or “ crude. And then all of a sudden, the Rocks that saved us find those genres beautiful and wonderful.
As a result, alternative music genres gain popularity overnight, and so do the messages they are trying to share. More musicians in those spaces get to talk about issues that are important to them- and as a result, social movements get stronger, issues become un-ignorable, and earth goes through some major changes for the better.
And Stratt and Carl sit back home, one in hiding and the other spending time with his grandchildren, long after the Petrova line has faded away, looking at the progress that has been made. The earth that was once doomed to cool until it froze, taking lives and leaving the remaining ones scrambling to survive, where world governments abandoned their allies to save their people first and foremost, ceased to exist.
The man they forced on a suicide mission and his pet rock that was as smart if not smarter than him, not only saved those lives, but thanks to grace’s ability and passion for teaching, and the determination of rocky to learn everything he could from grace before he lost him, they inadvertently sparked a new era on erid and on earth. One that not only saved billions of lives, but helped improve the quality of those lives. An era that formed a relationship beyond the two solar systems that would last as long as their species did. An era that brought about new waves of cultural appreciation and preservation on both planets. An era that brought strength to the right people, who would fight for others and against corruption and discrimination.
Stratt and Carl both look up at the sky, to where the planet they now know as erid spins,to where grace now lies. Smilling- and praying they live even longer, to see how far Grace and Rocky’s love reaches.
