Amaze Amaze Amaze @rockys-zenonite-ball - Tumblr Blog

concept: no astrophage au where eridians and humans still make first contact but like, properly. a whole diplomatic mission meeting in the middle of space to save travel time. stratt is humanity's greatest representation. the eridian equivalent is equally as scary and secretly soft. it's all very star trek.

but rocky and grace put the whole diplomacy thing in jeopardy by being too best buddy with it. like they're both really low level members of the mission. some engineer necessary for ship maintenance, and an obligatory molecular biologist they brought along in case they found more alien cells out in space. and these two guys like, somehow keep ending up hanging out essentially "at the back of the classroom." consistently left out of the actually important negotiations, and well, they're bored!

grace steals some laptops and starts jury-rigging his own personal translator for rocky, despite the fact that the official translation software is way quicker to learn and much more nuanced. rocky starts learning english, simplifies his eridian, and immediately starts mocking grace for needing the software. they start blabbing to each other about all the weird quirks of their respective cultures and advanced science their planets can do. the whole time they are ribbing each other about culture stuff. grace eats in front of rocky. rocky forces grace to sleep in a corridor somewhere so he can keep watch.

then stratt and the eridian leader find out and it's like

stratt: you. you've been meeting in private with a member of the eridian deligation?

grace: ... yyyes.

stratt: and you shared with them classified scientific documents?

grace: i... maybe gave him. a laptop. he's so smart! what was i supposed to do?

stratt: HIM? you've assigned male pronouns to a genderless species?

grace: he said he likes to match!

stratt: do you even know the name of this eridian?!

grace: i call him rocky :)

stratt: 😰

then on rocky's side of things it's like

eridian leader: sorry did you say you called the human after one of its digestive noises?

rocky: yeah :)

eridian leader: and. you've been telling it about how to make xenonite. one of our most vital trading resources.

rocky: yes yes, grace is very ignorant about basic chemistry 🙄

eridian leader: right. and you watch it sleep. despite the fact that all the human beings we have spoken to have described this as a cultural violation?

rocky: well he didn't like it at first but he came around!!

anyway both sides of the delegation are sweating profusely (metaphorically speaking) until they see rocky and grace in action and are like ohh! they're both freaks. we are not to blame for this. these two are just really bad at navigating cultural norms.

cut to grace curled up with rocky while he sleeps like a baby.

#project hail mary

conspiracy-frog

What if Erid invented intergalactic fast travel

I don't support Eva bashing that's emotional support environmental terrorist right there. What I'm interested in is the bad pr she is giving earth because the eridian ambassador is too invested in his flesh teddy bears life

#project hail mary #ryland grace #eva stratt #rocky the eridian

skaylanphear

Okay but teacher Grace on Erid having very little say in which kids get filtered into his class, though he is aware that the selection process is super specific and that most of the kids he gets are high performers with star academics and some even with influential parents. He isn't quite comfortable enough with Eridian culture yet to object to the selection process and make it more inclusive, however. That is, until he learns about the special needs kids.

Obviously, there are Eridian kids with special needs, and a few of them even filter into his classes. But one specific type of special needs kid has never shown up in his classes, and the only reason he even learned of the condition is because Rocky and Adrien's first pebble has the condition.

It's initially quite a struggle for them to deal with, and Grace sympathizes of course, because the child will apparently have huge learning and academic struggles and will likely never be able to live on their own. That is, until he learns the details of the disability.

Basically, it's a condition where the part of the Eridian brain that gives them their eidetic memory isn't fully developed, and so these kids just... can't remember things the way most eridians do. And in a culture where an eidetic memory is the norm, all things cater to that, so not having that is actually a massive disability.

But Grace is like, so... this kid just learns the same way a human does, or something like. Which is nothing new to him, though he is somewhat boggled at how much Rocky and Adrian struggle with their infant and their "slow" learning curve, even as far as initial developmental stages. Grace, on the other hand, simply treats the kid the same way he would a human infant, and Rocky and Adrien are impressed with his patience.

But, through this, it occurs to Grace that there must be other kids out there with this disability who likely aren't getting the attention and chances in life that they deserve, because Eridian culture is particularly hostile toward this disability, and actively views those with it as unable to function in regular society.

So Grace demands that a special course be put together where he teaches kids with this disability specifically. Rocky is hesitant, as most kids with this disability are home schooled and kind of... kept shut away. But Grace insists and as one of Erid's saviors, he gets what he wants eventually.

His first class is super small, maybe only three kids because so few parents were willing to advertise that their children have this disability. And because of the stigma around it, even those who agreed to it are super unsure and want to be present during the lessons, perhaps paranoid about the impression it will leave on Savior Grace, who is so accustomed to only teaching the most gifted students.

But Grace knows exactly how to deal with these kids. Some of them have varying degrees of function when it comes to their memory banks, which isn't so unlike teaching kids on earth. And so Grace is able to introduce all these tools and teaching techniques that were previously unheard of on Erid (though very normal on Earth) like having textbooks for reference with you at all times and having strategies that are less focused on memorization for understanding, and providing these kids with tools like calculators and teaching them the art of taking notes to look back on, etc etc.

Suddenly, with all these tools that most Eridians don't need, these kids are learning at a much faster rate, and succeeding with the help of all their little tools. And because so many normal eridians are ignorant of Grace's actual biology, it's shocking to them that Savior Grace doesn't have an eidetic memory either (shocking to everyone but Rocky anyway)--that his brain functions quite similarly in capacity to these "disabled" children.

Once this news gets around, suddenly there's more kids in his special classes, and there's all kinds of discourse being inflamed because the real reason these kids can't live on their own or function is lack of support from Eridian society.

If Savior Grace, who is well respected as a genius in his own right amongst the Eridians, can function so successfully, they why can't these kids?

I dunno, I just think it's an interesting premise.

rockys-zenonite-ball

Aaaaa I love this! As someone who is physically disabled and has ADHD and autism I love seeing posts talking about the idea of eridian disabilities especially how in this post it mentions that it shakes up eridians view of this disability and how it’s the lack of accommodations and accessibility in their society that truly worsens the disability. Though that’s not to say that the disability would magically be gone but it would improve their quality of life and ability to function on their own.

#project hail mary #ryland grace #eridian disability #disabled eridians

almondcroissantsandink

Ryland Grace, seconds before losing consciousness: did--did you just reference Parks and Rec

#project hail mary #eva stratt #ryland grace

kipsa-hoy

Hear me out on Erid gone wrong, gone polycule

#project hail mary #ryland grace #rocky the eridian #adrian the eridian #grocky #grockdrian

ratsoupee

Part 2 - Start | Prev | Next

#among the hail mary #bloodymary #ryland grace #simon the convict

bismuthfool

Simon's stretch marks

Grace will never stop talking

#bloodymary #ryland grace #simon the convict

derpycatsu

youll never believe what i rewatched

#coltland twins #ryland grace #colt seavers #jody moreno #coltland

waldos-art

From @twinkdeath-of-the-universe: Ryland working on something in the lab and Simon walks up behind him and human-blankets over his shoulders (bonus if this is the first time he's ever been touchy-feely with Ryland and he has no fucking clue how to react to this new information)

Ryland is finding out more than just how to maybe engineer enough sugar to make Skittles....

#project hail mary #ryland grace #simon the convict #bloodymary

masao-micchi

he just needs some time to adjust LAKSDJKLADJ

my other PHM art here

#project hail mary #ryland grace

wayba3

A teacher and his aquarium

rockys-zenonite-ball

This is so cute!!!

#project hail mary #ryland grace

technically-human

Rocky chose a hand to match Grace's scar!

#project hail mary #ryland grace #rocky the eridian

ink-ami

I love Rocktiz, but I can't draw him with human Grace because I'm just too attached to the interspecie bond between Grace and Rocky. It's the soul of the movie and its so beautiful.

The human Rocky AU and eridian Grace AU down there, since i really liked the linearts its a shame they're so hidden