✦ ──── THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD (MOSTLY)
ryland grace x alien!reader
masterlist — taglist
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wc. 5,4 k
premise.
Ryland thought meeting one alien was enough excitement for a lifetime.
Then another spaceship shows up.
And what follows is about the most awkward first contact he has ever had with... anything really.
warnings.
harmless (nonsexual) hypnosis?, fingers in mouth., oral fixation for scientific reasons (?) , also bit of a silly plot and reader... scientific inaccuracies, or whateverrr I am just making this up as I go...
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Ryland was… completely losing his mind.
Which, honestly, was a pretty reasonable reaction considering the circumstances.
First, he had been shoved onto the Hail Mary, launched into space against his will, and sent on a mission where the survival of Earth rested almost entirely on his shoulders.
Second, the two people who were supposed to be helping him with this impossible mission were almost definitely dead.
Very dead.
The kind of dead where Ryland tried not to think about the fact that they had probably been gone for weeks, maybe months, while he had been floating through the silent, endless darkness of space...
Third, there was Rocky.
Technically, Rocky should have been the most terrifying thing Ryland had ever encountered. He was an alien from another planet, a species that looked like someone had thrown a spider, a rock formation, and a brilliant engineer into a blender and somehow created the most lovable creature in the universe.
But Rocky wasn't a problem.
And honestly?
Ryland would die for him.
And fourth… there was you.
Alien number two.
Technically alien number three if they counted astrophage, but Ryland preferred not to think about astrophage.
So, alien number two.
Two alien encounters.
Two.
More than one.
Your ship had appeared almost out of nowhere, stopping a mere hundred feet away from the Hail Mary, and Ryland had nearly fallen straight out of his chair when he saw it.
At first, he assumed it was some kind of malfunction. Maybe his brain was finally giving up. Maybe he had spent too much time staring at computer screens and not enough time sleeping. Maybe space madness was a real thing and he was about to become the first confirmed case.
But then your ship moved, and followed him.
And every single survival instinct Ryland possessed immediately screamed at him to panic.
Which, naturally, he did.
Unfortunately, your ship followed him just like Rocky's had.
After several minutes of frantic realisation that you were not, in fact, leaving, Ryland came to the only logical conclusion.
Communication.
Honestly, looking back… he blamed Rocky.
Rocky had ruined his ability to be normally terrified of aliens.
Maybe, you too were interested in exchanging little handcrafted gifts to tell each other you did not intend to harm the other.
Which would be great.
Wonderful.
Fantastic.
Ryland was just beginning to calm down when you connected your ship directly to the tunnel without even asking.
“Of course they did,” Ryland muttered to himself as he stared at the connection point. “Why would the mysterious alien being ask permission? That would make too much sense.”
“New friend, question?” Rocky asked, his voice filled with obvious excitement. “Grace Rocky fist bump, question?”
Ryland looked at him, “Maybe, buddy… I don’t know.”
But despite his concerns, Grace couldn't deny that he was curious.
Carefully, cautiously, and with the kind of preparation that came from a man who had already met one alien and absolutely did not want to make the mistake of being unprepared, Ryland climbed into his EVA suit.
Rocky settled himself into his xenonite ball, ready to accompany him.
Together, they entered the tunnel.
And there you were.
For a moment, Ryland forgot how to breathe.
You were unlike anything he had ever seen.
And then the sound began.
A melody.
Soft and gentle, almost impossible to describe.
It wasn't exactly music the way humans understood music, but there was something familiar about it. Something warm. Something that reminded Ryland of earth songs, of memories he couldn't quite place, of something impossibly distant yet strangely comforting.
It sounded almost human.
Almost.
The lights at the entrance of your ship flickered gently, casting a soft glow that moved with the rhythm of the melody, and Ryland found himself staring.
Rocky stopped moving beside him.
Even he was listening.
The Eridian didn't hear sound in the same way humans did, but he understood patterns, vibrations, frequencies.
The scientist part of Rylands brain was screaming.
Unknown alien communication method!!! Need to analyze!!!
But another part of him, a much smaller and much more confused part, was simply thinking…
Wow.
Slowly, Ryland lifted one hand and waved towards you.
“We are not here to threaten you…” he said softly, mostly because he wasn't sure what else to say.
Which was ridiculous.
After meeting Rocky he had tried to rehearse dozens of possible first-contact scenarios… because, the first time he had not been prepared, and he didn’t want to make that mistake again.
But… none of his rehearsed scenarios involved an alien singing at him.
“Hi, I'm Ryland … uh.. Grace. Human. Scientist. Uh… Sorry about the whole awkward space meeting thing.”
Rocky tilted slightly inside his xenonite ball, “Grace nervous!”
“I am not nervous.” Ryland mumbled, nervously.
“Grace speaking many words.”
Ryland opened his mouth, then closed it, “...okay, that's fair.”
The melody shifted around them, the sound changing.
The notes twisted into something that made his chest tighten because, somehow, impossibly, it sounded like it was trying to mimic him.
Trying to say his name.
“Grace…”
His heart stopped.
Not literally… probably… he hoped.
“What Grace do, question?” Rocky asked, his voice suddenly more cautious.
Ryland stared at you.
At the glowing lights behind you.
Ryland suddenly felt his thoughts overwhelmed by you, which was, honestly, probably a very bad thing.
Ryland blinked.
Hard.
What the… fridge… was happening?
The melody wasn't traveling through the speakers in his helmet or vibrating through the walls of the tunnel. It wasn't something he was simply hearing. It was something he was feeling, something that seemed to slip past every layer of technology and clothing between you and him until it settled directly inside his mind.
And somehow… it sounded like his name.
His name.
Ryland Grace.
His fingers twitched against his suit sleeve, his gloved hand tightening slightly as he tried to force himself back into reality.
There was no pain, no sharp warning signal telling him something was wrong, but there was a strange warmth spreading through his thoughts, a soft, dizzying sensation that made his mind feel heavy.
It was like sinking into warm water after being cold for far too long, like someone had gently pressed their hands against his temples and told every anxious thought in his brain to quiet down.
Which, naturally, was terrifying.
“Grace.”
The sudden impact against his leg snapped him slightly out of the strange haze.
Rocky had bumped against his EVA suit.
“What Grace do?” Rocky asked again.
Rocky had learned humans. Maybe not perfectly, because humans were confusing and did strange things, but he had learned enough to recognise when something was wrong.
And something was definitely wrong.
Because Ryland wasn't talking.
Ryland always talked.
He talked when he was nervous, he talked when he was excited, he talked when he was trying to explain something, and he especially talked when he discovered something new.
But now he was silent.
His eyes were fixed on the glowing entrance of your ship.
And you were still singing.
The lights pulsed softly with the melody, shifting from a bright neon glow into something gentler.
Ryland knew he should be afraid.
Every logical part of his brain was screaming at him that this was an unknown alien, that he had no idea what you were doing, that walking toward an unfamiliar extraterrestrial life form because it made him feel safe was probably the exact opposite of survival instincts.
But then the voice reached him again.
“You look lonely…”
The melody twisted and shaped into language, carrying a sweetness so overwhelming that Ryland felt his chest tighten.
"I can fix that..."
The light brightened, not harshly, but softly, like the first sunrise after months of darkness. It didn't feel threatening.
It felt warm.
Safe.
Almost like home.
And that was what scared Ryland the most.
Because his body reacted before his mind could catch up.
One step.
Then another.
His heavy boots moved against the floor of the tunnel as he slowly approached the entrance to your ship, his thoughts becoming quieter with every step.
The scientist in him was shouting.
This is a terrible idea.
You do not approach unknown aliens!!
But the exhausted, lonely human part of him whispered something else.
Just a little closer.
“Grace!”
Rocky's voice suddenly cut through everything.
The Eridian rolled forward in his xenonite ball, moving faster than Ryland had ever seen him move before. His legs spun rapidly, sending him rushing across the tunnel like a small extremely stressed asteroid.
“Grace stop! Grace listen to Rocky!”
Rocky didn't hear the song the way humans did. He didn't feel the strange warmth spreading through Ryland's thoughts. To Rocky, it was simply a pattern of vibrations and sounds.
But he could see the effect.
He could see Ryland's eyes becoming distant, his body moving seemingly on his own.
So Rocky bumped him again hard.
The xenonite ball struck against Ryland's leg with another loud thump.
“Grace! Listen!”
The panic in Rocky's voice was impossible to miss now.
Humans had strange reactions to sounds, Rocky knew that. He had studied it. Humans could become emotional because of music. Humans could stare at spinning objects and become distracted. Humans were, overall, a very confusing species.
But this was different.
This was dangerous.
Rocky rolled around Ryland's feet, bumping into him again and again, making increasingly frantic clicks and chirps.
“Grace! Grace stop! Rocky does not like this!”
Suddenly the entire tunnel erupted in light.
The pink glow surged outward like a ripple moving across the surface of water, spilling from your ship and flooding every corner of the passageway.
The metal walls reflected the strange illumination, and even Ryland's EVA visor caught the color, turning his entire world into soft shades of rose and gold.
Then he finally could make out your full form.
You stood at the entrance of your ship without a helmet, without a suit.
Your skin shimmered beneath the strange pink light, a beautiful greenish-blue.
It wasn't like anything from Earth, not quite like scales or skin or any biological structure Ryland knew, but rather something in between, smooth and luminous like polished stone.
Every movement caused faint colors to shift across your skin.
You were beautiful in the way a planet was beautiful.
In the way a star was beautiful.
His xenonite ball spun rapidly across the tunnel again, hitting Grace hard again.
The impact against his leg knocked him off balance, and suddenly Grace found himself falling forward in the least graceful way possible.
There was a loud metallic clunk as his helmet hit the tunnel floor.
For several seconds, Ryland simply remained there, half kneeling on the ground in front of you.
Of all the ways he imagined first contact with another alien civilization going, this had not been one of them.
“Ow…” he muttered.
Unfortunately, his dignity had not received the same level of protection as his head from the reinforced helmet.
Ryland slowly lifted his head, painfully aware of exactly where he was positioned.
Right in front of you.
And he was currently on the floor in front of you…
Great.
Fantastic.
Excellent first impression.
“Oh…” your voice broke the sudden silence.
Ryland winced.
“Okay,” he said quietly, “That is definitely not what I was aiming for.”
Rocky quickly rolled beside him.
The Eridian was clearly trying to decide whether you were a friend, a threat, or simply another alien who needed to understand that humans were fragile creatures who occasionally fell over…
Slowly, Ryland raised one gloved hand, “...Hi.”
It was possibly the least impressive greeting in human history.
You tilted your head.
The movement was curious, almost birdlike.
Then you leaned down slightly, extending your hand toward him.
Another soft harmonic sound escaped you, gentle and unfamiliar.
And Ryland immediately noticed something strange.
The voice he had heard before, the one that had spoken his name, was gone.
Now, you weren't speaking.
Not in a language he understood, anyway, which was confusing, because he knew he had heard you.
Didn't he?
His scientific brain immediately began working through possibilities.
Perhaps the song had been a form of communication.
Perhaps it wasn't sound at all, but some kind of neural translation.
Or perhaps he was just losing his mind after too much time in space.
Honestly, that option remained annoyingly possible.
Ryland stared at your hand.
It was strange…
The gesture itself.
The offer.
The same thing humans did when they wanted to show trust.
Slowly, carefully, Ryland reached out.
He carefully noted your anatomy, your four fingers instead of the human five or eridian three.
Ryland glanced at the offered hand again.
Then back at you.
Then back at the hand.
Why was he struggling with this?
It was just a hand.
A completely normal, definitely-not-alien hand.
Except it was attached to an alien being who had appeared in the middle of deep space…
So maybe his hesitation was understandable.
Your glowing eyes moved over him with visible uncertainty, almost as if you couldn't understand why he was still down there frozen instead of accepting your gesture.
Another soft harmonic sound left you.
This one was different.
Concerned.
Questioning.
Were you asking if he was hurt?
Before Ryland could answer, you leaned closer.
And then, to his complete surprise, you reached forward with both hands.
One second, you were offering him your hand, the next, you were gently grabbing onto his suit and helping him stand.
Ryland could only stare as your hands wrapped around his shoulders, your movements careful despite the fact that you were strong enough to lift him with surprising ease.
His legs were still slightly shaky as you helped him stand.
But, Ryland continued observing you.
Your fingers were longer than his. Your movement careful.
Also...
You were tall.
Ryland had not fully processed that before.
Now that he was upright again, he realised that you were at least a few inches taller than him. Not dramatically so, but enough that he had to tilt his helmet slightly upward to look at your face.
Which, unfortunately, made him feel even more like an awkward human toddler…
When Ryland was standing steadily again, you didn't immediately let go.
Instead, you studied him.
Your dark eyes moved across his helmet, searching.
Looking for signs of injury.
Confusion.
Pain.
You were trying to understand him.
Why had he fallen?
Why hadn't he stood up himself?
Ryland realised with a strange ache that you must be worried.
Eventually, you seemed satisfied that he wasn't damaged and slowly released him.
The moment your hands left his suit, Ryland became painfully aware of the absence of them.
Which was ridiculous.
Because he was wearing an EVA suit.
There was no way he should have been able to notice anything like warmth through all those layers.
You made another sound.
A lighter one this time.
Then you raised one hand and pointed toward your lips.
You didn't seem to be speaking English, at least not naturally.
And while the mysterious voice from before had somehow translated itself into something he could understand, Ryland couldn't exactly rely on a voice inside his head every time he wanted to have a conversation with an alien.
So, they started simple.
Very simple.
So, he pointed to himself.
“Ryland,” he said clearly through his helmet communicator.
Then, slowly, he pointed toward the small Eridian beside him.
“Rocky.”
For a moment, you simply watched him.
Then you nodded, “Ry...land.”
The way you repeated it made Ryland freeze.
It wasn’t wrong, but it sounded suspiciously like you were but mimicking the sound of the word.
What was it always with these aliens and sounds…
You copied it with an accuracy that was almost unsettling, recreating the exact rhythm of his name.
Ryland stared.
Okay.
That was new.
Maybe it was some… adaptive vocal structures?
Advanced auditory processing?
Auditory mimicry?
Some kind of species trait specifically evolved for communication?
Before he could say anything, Rocky reacted.
The Eridian spun slightly, all five legs moving in excitement.
"Make sound!" Rocky chirped.
Ryland looked down at him, “Yeah I noticed, bud…”
Rocky was practically vibrating with curiosity.
The excitement was contagious, even if Ryland was still slightly overwhelmed.
But honestly?
He couldn't blame Rocky.
This was incredible.
Ryland didn’t expect to meet one alien here, but now he already met the second…
So Ryland decided to test it.
He pointed toward Rocky again.
“Rocky.”
You looked at the Eridian, then back at Ryland.
And repeated:
“Ro–cky.”
Rocky made a delighted series of clicks and chirps that were unmistakably the Eridian equivalent of someone discovering the coolest thing imaginable.
“Grace! Make sound!”
But before Rocky could continue his excited scientific celebration, you shifted your attention back to Ryland.
Your eyes moved over him slowly.
Over the bulky EVA suit.
The helmet.
You seemed to study it carefully, as if trying to understand why he was wearing something that appeared so uncomfortable.
Then you reached forward, your finger gently tapping against the front of his visor.
Clink.
The sound echoed softly through the tunnel.
Then you did something even more confusing.
You took a slow, deep breath.
A deliberate one.
Ryland watched as your chest rose and fell, the movement exaggerated enough that he seemed to understand what you were trying to show him.
Then you exhaled.
You pointed toward yourself.
Then toward the surrounding air.
Then back toward him.
You could breathe here.
Ryland stared for a long moment, as once again he found himself having to totally rely on trusting a strange alien that they weren’t trying to kill him.
“You’re telling me…” Ryland muttered, mostly to himself.
Rocky tilted slightly, “Grace remove suit?”
“No, Rocky...definitely not yet.” he said.
“Just– wait–” Ryland said, holding his hands up, signing for you to just stay where you are before he scrambled back to the entrance of the Hail Mary, “Just– hold on–”
Ryland returned with a ridiculous amount of instruments, that confirmed… the oxygen levels were slightly higher than Earth's average, there were no detectable toxins or unfamiliar particles that could harm him…
Then … realistically, Ryland could take off his suit.
He could stand in front of you… No helmet. No glass barrier. No bulky suit making him look less like a human and more like a strange mechanical creature.
And, perhaps more importantly, you would finally be able to see him properly too.
Ryland hadn't realised how much the suit had been bothering him until that moment.
His heart beat heavily in his chest.
Rocky gave him another encouraging nudge.
“Off! Off!” he chirped, clearly far too excited about the idea.
Ryland glanced down at him, “You really want me to do this, huh?”
“Grace see friend!”
“Rocky, I can already see the alien friend…”
“See better!”
Unfortunately, Rocky had a point.
You tilted your head, looking at the two scientists.
Ryland stared at you through the glass.
Then, slowly, he reached for the release mechanism.
His fingers hesitated for only a moment before pressing down.
The familiar hiss of the helmet seal releasing echoed through the tunnel.
The helmet came free.
Cooler air rushed briefly around his face…
And it was...
Wonderful..
Your expression shifted.
But your lips moved into something that Ryland recognised as a smile.
It wasn't exactly human… but there was something almost overwhelming about another intelligent being looking at him and smiling.
Then you moved again.
You extended two long fingers from each hand and gently touched them together twice.
Ryland watched carefully.
A greeting, maybe?
Then you stepped even closer, hands reaching out and just touching him.
Ryland froze as your hands moved to his shoulders, then toward the front of his suit, your fingers carefully exploring the unfamiliar material.
You were… naturally curious, he assumed you had never seen a human before.
And now, after possibly also considering yourself the only intelligent species, you were standing in front of him and looking at him with the same fascination he felt toward you.
A human male.
Six feet tall.
Tired.
Messy blond hair flattened slightly from his helmet.
A scruffy beard.
A person who was, somehow, just as alien to you as you were to him.
And.. you were looking at him like he was something worth discovering.
No wonder you were reacting like this.
Ryland didn't mind.
Maybe another human would have been uncomfortable. Maybe another person would have pulled away …
But he simply stood there.
Then you opened your mouth, a soft sound escaped you before you pointed toward his mouth.
Ryland blinked, staring for a moment, processing.
Oh.
You wanted him to talk.
You wanted to hear him, to learn.
Rocky remained completely silent beside them.
The Eridian had tucked his legs close, watching the interaction with great focus.
Ryland opened his mouth slightly and spoke, “Uh… hi, again…”
Your expression changed immediately.
Fascination.
Your eyes widened slightly as you focused on the movement of his mouth, the sound, the way the word formed.
And then, before Ryland had even finished processing your reaction, you moved closer.
Very close.
Then your fingers touched his lips.
Ryland froze, “Wai–”
Before he could finish you poked two long fingers inside his mouth, not with any intention to harm him, but still…
Your fingers were in his mouth.
His brain stopped functioning for a solid moment.
You carefully examined him, gently parting his lips further as you looked inside, your expression filled with the fascinated curiosity.
Your face was incredibly close now, examining his teeth, gums, the way his tongue moved when he attempted to form a word.
“Uh– usually you don’t stick your finger in someones mouth–” he said, or attempted to do so, as your fingers were still stuffed inside his mouth, making it sound more like a muffled mess of sound.
You weren't disgusted by his ‘leaky’ mouth, but simply amazed.
“Grace okay, question” Rocky now asked, unsure if that new alien sticking two fingers into his friends mouth was good or bad.
Grace tried to respond, but doing so was slightly difficult when an alien was currently investigating his teeth.
Ryland swallowed carefully, very carefully, he did not want to accidentally bite you or startle you.
And then he showed Rocky a thumbs up, to which Rocky responded with a thumbs down.
His face felt warm.
Were his cheeks actually burning?
Was he blushing?
In front of an alien?
While letting an extraterrestrial examine his mouth?
That was apparently how first contact was going…
It wasn't that Ryland enjoyed it.
Not exactly.
He wasn't sitting there thinking wow, this is a wonderful experience, I always hoped an alien encounter would involve a mouth examination…
No.
Not really…
But at the same time, it wasn't hurting him.
And if studying human anatomy was simply how you learned about new species, how you built trust and understood the creatures around you, then Ryland supposed he could tolerate it.
For science.
Probably.
Maybe.
He was still deciding.
Meanwhile, you remained completely fascinated.
Your attention was entirely focused on the discovery in front of you.
Human saliva.
Interesting.
A clear liquid with a slightly different consistency than what your species produced.
The tongue.
A muscular structure capable of incredible movement and precision.
The teeth.
Surprisingly organized..
You made soft humming sounds as you continued your examination, not speaking this time, simply observing.
When you finally looked up, Ryland gave a small nod, like…
I'm okay.
Or at least, that was what he tried to communicate.
That seemed to be enough.
Slowly, you withdrew your fingers from his mouth.
Ryland immediately became aware of how strange the entire situation had been, but before he could say anything, your attention shifted to your hand.
You examined the small amount of saliva left behind on your fingers.
Rocky tilted slightly, chirping, “Leaky Grace!”
Ryland stared, as if his alien best friend exposing him for being leaky really was weird now, “Really, Rocky?”
The Eridian seemed amused about his words, his melodic laugh ringing as you looked down at the rock like creature, then back at Ryland.
Then, you leaned forward, apparently not having figured out enough about the human mouth cavity… Ryland barely had time to register the movement, before you kissed him.
Or at least for him, as a human, it seemed to be like a kiss.
Ryland stopped functioning completely, his head turning entirely red.
This must have been his mistake, a sort of misunderstanding he created, because he had not expected to be kissed.
Especially not by an alien.
Your lips were surprisingly warm and soft, not so different from a human's, despite everything else about you being completely unfamiliar. The sensation was strange, but not unpleasant...
Then something else happened.
Something his brain absolutely did not know how to process.
A sudden movement.
Quick.
Precise.
Something thin and unfamiliar moved past his lips and into his mouth before he could react.
Straight toward his throat.
Toward his vocal cords.
Ryland's entire body locked up.
Because what.
What was happening.
There was no time to ask.
No time to move away.
No time to explain that humans generally considered unexpected throat contact during a kiss a little outside the normal boundaries of communication.
The sensation wasn't painful, it was an incredibly strange and very sharp, almost tickling pressure deep in his throat, a strange vibration where something alien briefly interacted with the very thing that allowed him to speak.
And then, just as quickly as it happened...
It stopped.
You pulled away.
Your expression remained calm, as if that hadn’t been completely out of the norm of… everything and anything.
Ryland realistically knew there was no common understanding of boundaries between all living beings, but, at least in his mind, it was commonly accepted not to just stick things into strangers' throats.
Oh how wrong he was…
You looked almost satisfied with yourself almost as if you had concluded another piece of important research on homosapiens.
Ryland, however, was having a very different experience.
The strange sensation lingered in his throat.
A feeling he had no human comparison for.
Ryland doubled over, one hand instinctively moving toward his throat as a harsh cough escaped him and echoed through the tunnel.
He wasn't choking.
He could breathe.
But his body had very clearly decided that whatever had just happened required immediate attention and extraction.
“Okay–okay–” he managed between coughs, his voice rough. “That was... unexpected.”
“Grace… and friend make mouth hole contact” Rocky, expertly, pointed out.
Ryland coughed again, “Yes, Rocky. I noticed.”
The Eridian remained silent for a moment.
“Very strange friend.” Rocky pointed out.
Ryland, still trying to recover, couldn't even argue, that was probably the most accurate description of the situation.
Then, slowly, you cleared your throat.
Your expression shifted slightly as you made a few soft sounds, almost as if you were adjusting something.
Then you spoke, “Hello.”
Ryland stopped coughing, immediately locking up as he heard the sound you … spoke.
With his voice?!
Low, deep, rough, familiar, his voice.
Ryland stared at you.
Because you had just said “Hell” in his exact voice.
The same cadence.
The same tone.
It sounded like Ryland had spoken.
Except he hadn't.
Rocky gave a collection of probably very colourful Eridian curses from him, which he expressed in a series of some concerning and high pitched notes coming from him.
You coughed, clearing your throat again, a small, awkward sound coming from your throat.
“Hello!” you said again, your voice clearer now, higher, softer, almost musical.
“I'm sorry,” you said, shaking your hands up and down in front of your body, an apology in your culture, but it looked more like you were very enthusiastically doing jazz hands.
Then you tilted your head, “I scanned your vocal cords to mimic the human language. I am sorry if I hurt.”
Ryland blinked a few times, stringing the flood of new information together, and suddenly everything clicked.
The kiss wasn't, as he suspected, a portrayal of romantic feelings towards this pasty earth human you had just met, but… an alien communication thing.
Which made a lot more sense.
You hadn't been trying to harm him. You had been learning. You had copied his vocal patterns… or so.
“Friend speak Grace language!” Rocky seemed delighted about this discovery, and a lot less freaked out.
It was weird.
Extremely weird.
But it made sense.
You smiled slightly, before, with complete sincerity, asking, “Would you also like to stick your hand in my mouth hole?”
Ryland grimaced a bit at the offer, his eyes widening, his glasses sliding even lower on the bridge of his nose.
It was, objectively speaking, an incredible scientific opportunity.
A chance to examine the oral anatomy of a completely unrelated intelligent species.
It was also, by every human standard Ryland possessed...
Incredibly intimate.
He had absolutely no idea what he would find inside your mouth, and somehow that uncertainty only made his imagination worse.
Sensing his hesitation, you smiled reassuringly.
“You are not obligated.” you hummed.
The addition seemed almost thoughtful, as though you'd realized your customs might not translate perfectly across species.
Then, perhaps deciding that a demonstration would help, you opened your mouth a little.
Your tongue wasn't merely longer than a human's.
It was a rich violet-purple, almost luminous beneath the lights, and it split cleanly down the middle, each half moving independently of the other, curling and flexing with precision, they were also unusually pointy.
What evolutionary advantage did that tongue provide?
Chemical sensing?
Communication?
Or...
His thoughts drifted unwillingly back to the brief moment when you'd poked his vocal cords.
Maybe that was part of it.
Maybe your species had evolved incredible control over the structures inside their mouths specifically to imitate unfamiliar sounds.
Beside him, Rocky shuffled closer, leaning just enough to get a better look without appearing rude.
“Grace, look!” Rocky exclaimed excitedly. “Friend also leaky like Grace!”
Ryland looked back toward you.
Sure enough, your tongue glistened with a thin coating of a saliva-like-substance, no different in principle from his own.
“Both leaky.” Rocky noted like it was his best scientific discovery yet.
The Eridian made a series of pleased little clicks, clearly delighted that he'd found a similarity between the two species.
Meanwhile, you seemed completely unbothered by the attention.
If anything, you looked pleased that Ryland was studying your biology just as intently as you'd studied his.
You slowly flexed each side of your tongue again, demonstrating how independently they could move before letting the muscle disappear back into your mouth.
Then you smiled, which allowed Ryland to note that your teeth were more shaped like one thick row, and not separated individual teeth like humans had.
This would indicate something about your diet, a thought he couldn’t quite conclude as Rocky interrupted his train of thought.
“Amaze! Amaze!” Rocky said.
“You've got to admit,” Grace murmured, mostly to himself, “that's... cool.”
“Thank you.” you said, “I think your mouth hole also is cool.”
Then you looked between him and Rocky.
“Are you, Ryland, also a space traveller... with Rocky?”
Ryland blinked, a slow sheepish smile forming, that was a wonderfully normal question, considering what had gone down before.
He glanced down at Rocky, who looked back up at him as well.
“Yeah,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. “I guess we are.”
He gestured toward the Hail Mary behind them.
“We're... well…” He paused, trying to think of the simplest explanation before giving up with a crooked smile, “We're trying to save our planets.”
Rocky vibrated proudly, “Grace Rocky save stars!”
Ryland nodded, “...Yeah.”
He looked back at you, still smiling.
“So…” he said, scratching absentmindedly at the back of his neck. “I have a feeling we're all going to have a lot of questions.”
He wasn't sure which one of them would ask the first.
Perhaps it would be Rocky, eager to learn everything about your planet.
Perhaps it would be you, hopefully this time not trying to stick your fingers into his face again..
Or perhaps it would be Ryland himself, unable to resist the opportunity to understand yet another corner of the universe.
a/n: what the fudge is this... you ask yourself, and oh boy do I ask myself the same thing...
The Hubble Space Telescope captured this image of NGC 5264, an irregular dwarf galaxy.
Irregular galaxies tend to have unusual shapes, like toothpicks, rings, or little groupings of stars. Their sizes also range from dwarf irregular galaxies, with 100 million times the Sun's mass, to large ones weighing 10 billion solar masses.
Astronomers think these galaxies’ odd shapes are sometimes the result of interactions with others. For example, one spiral galaxy passing another with a stronger gravitational pull could lose some of its material, become distorted, and morph into a new shape. Some, like gas-rich dwarf galaxies, may be new, formed by material pulled from such encounters. Or perhaps when galaxies collide, they create a larger, oddly shaped mashup. Some scientists theorize that some large irregular galaxies could represent an intermediate step between spiral and elliptical galaxies.
Irregular galaxies born from galaxy interactions or collisions typically host a mix of older and younger stars, depending on the characteristics and composition of the original galaxies. Irregular galaxies may also hold significant amounts of gas and dust – essential ingredients for making new stars.
It's expected that when our galaxy collides with Andromeda, it will form an irregular galaxy.
Some time ago I made a post about M'gann/Danny ship. There was some nice talk about it, I think it's my favourite post so far solely based on feedback it get. But we never named it.
Today while daydreaming instead of doing math, it struck me.
M'gann is fascinated by space. For her, Earth is alien planet (it feels dumb to write it like gods know what revelation but I swear my brain made this connection just now for some reason), so her fascination is no much different than Danny's fascination of Mars.
So I raise, they're ship name to be:
✨Space nerds ✨
Also, I will still whine about lack of content about them together and M'gann as one of main characters in general. I could try to write it myself but I base my knowledge about either universe on fanfics alone and I don't feel like I know Miss Martian enough to write her well
Yes, this is indirect ask for recommendations
Anyway, what do you think about this name? Them together in general? Do you have a good day? I genuinely hope you do, amazing internet buddy
Pyke: *nudges Rett at 3am* Pretty fucked up that we depict the moon as a girl and the sun as a boy. They're just floating rocks in space. Rett? Wake up, Rett! Listen! They're sexless!
‘The Yowl Cats!’ band leader & bass player has retired after twenty long years of performing, breaking up the band and retiring to spend time with his family, only for there to be a dark turn when he suddenly goes missing, leaving it a cold case with no leads…nothing but a large paw print left by his manor front porch.
