Reading posts about Ryland and his Eridian classes and had this thought:
Ryland's first class is about to graduate from "primary" education, and they're all headed to specialization. Some will come back to study with him at a graduate level, essentially, but most need their secondary education with their peers as a focus.
It's also common that they all started acquiring "human" nicknames as they were in his class. Almost immediately on Day 1, they scrambled home to tell parents about Teacher Grace and the cool things he showed off. What they have been nicknamed and what the meanings are.
They're his first class, and he wants to sends them off well.
After trying to figure out what to do, he gets an idea from Eridian culture combined with some Earth classics. He recruits Rocky and gets to work.
On the last day of class, the students show up to find thread and little bowls of beads all about. Eridian letters carved into the surface of some, English letters in others. Stars, moons, mathematical symbols, and more.
Ryland explains the concept of friendship bracelets. He knows Eridians have special jewelry often as part of their culture (courtship, marriage, birth, major life events) and wanted to give them a human version of it. He made sure that each get a packet with their human names as beads, but he leaves the rest to them.
The class adores it, and they make Teacher Grace make one with them. They pick out the Eridian letters for his name and he adds a "year 1" to the necklace. Everyone leaves the class with the coveted gifts.
It becomes tradition. Every class that graduates makes a Charm Necklace with, at minimum, their Human Nicknames on the strands. Ryland makes a new one each year, with later years bringing chips from molted carapaces as beads for Ryland to add.
(When Ryland passes, all of his students come to his memorial wearing their necklaces, tracing out worn and new beads with reverence and love.)
(It continues to be tradition, old students stepping in where Ryland left off. Students who never knew Ryland still find Nicknames along the way, and they make their necklaces as their predecessors had.)
(And, years on, when humans and Eridians bridge the gap of space, humans are a little surprised to see the envoy wearing a necklace with a human word on it. The Eridians have a more advanced version of the translator, thanks to continued work, but, they explain, it was a tradition. Those of Ryland's class and beyond created these necklaces, and they wear them now in honor of him as they meet more of his species.)
(And then, at the end of the talks, once humans and Eridians make their bond official, the Eridians offer necklace and bead supplies and packs of Eridian letters. Just as Grace taught them before, as a token of friendship and care, so, too, do the Eridians do now - bestowing their new friends with Eridian names, carrying them in the form of Friendship Necklaces.)
(And the humans, well, they think it's a bit childish, but, really, it seems to fit the legendary Captain Doctor Ryland Grace. Plus, best not to piss off their new friends, so friendship bracelet making it is.)
