#isolation

[cxrrently]

[itshype]

Even humans start to act super weird when isolated even for a month or so and Rocky was alone in Blip-A for 50 years and then alone with an alien for a while. His behaviour should be unhinged. 

Things Rocky does when he got back from Adrien that weirds out other Eridians:

He (subconsciously) picked a facet of his body as his "face" and turns it sometimes to orient towards people or objects he's paying a lot of attention to or concentrating on. 

That thing I've seen Chinese people on social media discuss where they use their own characters to reproduce an English word phonetically, with the actual meaning being a fun sidepoint. Rocky reproducing his closest approximation of words without existing Eridian equivalents (relativity, caffeine, all the colours) that sound like gibberish or odd mashes of existing Eridian terms. 

Thumbs up (down)

Making "random" components of structures transparent for no apparent reason (Grace can't be here, Grace will never be in this part of Erid, but if he were, he'd be able to see)

The Eridian word for "See" is probably something to do with detecting light. Rocky would use this odd, scientific phrase the way a human uses "Oh, I see!" to mean "Oh, I understand." Like someone saying "I've used a Geiger counter to verify the radioactivity of this abstract concept" when they mean, "I get it."

You need to be Silent when watching someone sleep because you could wake them up. A completely incomprehensible idea to Eridians.

You discovered it, you get to name it! No, actually you're Not allowed to call the new molecule "Low Friction, high thermal stability two-parts-carbon-to-four-parts-fluorine" try naming it after your pebble!

1, 2, 3, eyes on me! (Eyes being another phonetically assimilated word)

Odd, overly clear accent. To make sure the software translated his words properly, Rocky was probably taking special care to perfectly reproduce words in the exact same inflection every time, no slurring or mumbling his way through.

[miamaimania]

"Russia, Norilsk" (2023) by Christophe Jacrot ▢ -40°C city fog

[chai-penguin]

On Isolation

[grickle14]

Company.

[babydoll-4444]

[son-of-the-smokies]

In case you're wondering what to do.

Build as much community as you can. Now is the time.

If you've been thinking about asking some old friends to go somewhere, do it. If you've been thinking about starting up that D&D game, do it. If you used to hang out with some people and you're not sure what happened, see if they want to hang again some time. If you see a stranger that you feel like you can talk to, talk to them, even if only for a second.

It's okay if this means that you can't do something else that's kind of important to you. Honestly, your personal goals can probably wait a little bit (obviously don't sacrifice them if they really can't). Chances are very good in the digital age of 2025 that you are weighted a little bit (or a lot) towards your own internal life, since there are so many isolating forces.

It's okay if they don't (within reason) agree with you. Your proximity will probably change them. It's okay if they change you too.

The more people you are connected to, the better. The number of people you can ask to do you a favor when you need one is a very important number. The number of people to whom you can show something at least close to your truest self is also a very important number.

This is how the world used to work, it is the oldest trick that humans have. It is still what we are best at. Humans cannot be destroyed unless they are first divided.