Grace and Rocky, giving a tour of the Hail Mary to fascinated Eridian scientists and diplomats.
Pointing at things and explaining what they are and how the ship works, lots of awed and appreciative noises are made.
Until one of the visiting Eridians points out a specific item. “And that?”
It’s a strange, circular thing, a xenonite disk mounted upright on some sort of pivot so it can spin freely, but around the edges it has… spokes? Pegs? Sticking out of it, that hit against a stiff flap that would slow down the spinning.
It is also separated into sections decorated with crude etchings of a human and an Eridian.
“Ah,” Grace says.
“That,” Rocky says.
“That’s. Um.” Grace seems somewhat embarrassed. “That’s the sacrifice wheel.”
The Eridian visitors clearly do not know what to make of that. “We think we misunderstood Savior Grace’s word,” they say, apparently hoping this is a vocabulary mix-up. “Explain (question, polite)?”
“Didn’t misunderstand,” says Rocky, sounding very sheepish. “That is sacrifice wheel.”
“So. While we were on our way to Erid, we might have gotten… anxious about each other’s well-being,” Grace says, which everyone is already very aware is a wild understatement. “And, well, you heard what happened at Tau Ceti, and after. There were a lot of unexpected dangers for the whole trip that required a lot of, at least, attempted self-sacrifice to solve. We ended up almost dying for each other several times. And we had an argument about what we’d do if another crisis like that came up. And we couldn't agree.”
“Grace argued that Grace already was unlikely to survive long-term on Erid, so he should be the one to do any potential deadly but necessary maneuvers to make sure I was able to bring taumoeba back,” Rocky says.
“Which made sense.”
“Did not make sense! Grace already sacrificed so much for me and for Erid, wouldn’t be fair to make you do it again—“ Rocky cuts himself off with a huff. They have obviously had this conversation before. “So sacrifice wheel was compromise.”
“Yeah,” Grace says. He spins it to demonstrate; it whirls around in a blur and a rattle of the flap hitting the pegs, then eventually slows down, and stops—pointing at the segment depicting a very bad but very clear image of an Eridian. “Rocky made the wheel, I spin the wheel, and whoever it lands on, that’s who gets to sacrifice themself to save the other and the other person does not get to argue. This way, we wouldn’t waste time debating who does the self-sacrifice and who survives, it’s just a plain fifty-fifty chance. Or, eighteen-eighteen chance in base six. But the point is it could be either of us and we would have to accept the outcome.”
Rocky started fidgeting while Grace was explaining. When Grace finishes, proud of the equitable solution they came up with to allow them to die for each other fairly, Rocky says, “Now that we are back and we don’t need sacrifice wheel anymore… I have confession to make. About the wheel.”
“What about the wheel?”
Rocky doesn’t answer. Grace frowns, first confused, then suspicious, and spins the wheel again.
It lands on Rocky again.
He spins the wheel again, and again, and again, and it lands on Rocky every single time.
“Rocky!”
“I weighted the wheel,” Rocky admits.
“Rocky the whole point was that it was equal, that was why we even made it—“
“Never was necessary so doesn’t matter anymore!”
“But you WOULD have!”
“And you never noticed because you were hungry and cranky and distracted and so would have done bad job on heroic self-sacrifice anyway!”
“I would not! I would have done fine!”
(The Eridian scientists and diplomats are still here watching this btw. Slowly dawning on them that 1) these two are extremely not normal about each other 2) if Erid ever does another space mission they NEED to send a therapist aboard because this is what happens when they don’t)
Grace knows that Rocky has PTSD after the, well, everything. They've been stuck together for four years. He knows.
He understands.
They arrive to Erid, and one of the first things Grace does is playing for Adrian a little speech he made in Eridian using his recordings of Rocky's voice. And it's just... instructions. Mostly.
"He has a lot of anxiety about people's health and will probably freak out about yours at some point, don't dismiss it and let him see that you are okay."
"He is terrified of being alone, please make sure someone is physically close to him at all times."
"He is scared of falling asleep and will delay it as long as he can, you need to pay attention to his sleep cycle or he'll be hurting himself."
"He downplays everything bad that is happening to him, mental and physical, please keep an eye on him or he'll be ignoring his health completely."
"He never gave up, but I might die very soon and I'm not sure how he will react to it. Please be with him, even when it's not easy. He loves you. He wanted to return to you so badly. Even though he probably has changed, this is still him. Please keep loving him. He needs it more than ever. He'll need it when I am gone."
...Adrian is very annoyed because a) the fuck do you mean by implying that I'll leave him, b) the fuck do you mean by implying you know him better than I do (Adrian does have to begrudgingly accept this one later: Grace is objectively more familiar with Rocky's trauma responses), and c) the fuck do you mean you're gonna die no one's letting you die shut up and get into the lab we have science to do. They become friends fast, bonding over worrying about Rocky together.
(Rocky is not sure he likes it, but has to admit he can finally feel safe with the both of them by his side.)
If Adrian is a baddie that is bigger than Rocky they need to have the personality to match.
Imagine they were Rocky's defender against bullies on Erid since they were pebbles and now that Grace is on the planet they've re-doubled their efforts.
Worse is, this giant rock can get sassy and vicious and MEAN if they so desire:
Adrian: *hears some tiny eridian talking shit about Grace using instruments and other stuff to speak Eridian.*
Adrian: “Excuse, question?? You speak about Friend Grace that way, question?? With that ugly voice of yours, question??”
Rocky: “Adrian—”
Grace: “Adrian, please, this is not necessary —”
Adrian: “Hush. You two. They're grown rock, they're not pebble, they can answer Adrian just fine, statement.
Now, 🎶🎵...”
*Cue large as fuck Adrian towering over a petrified Eridian.*
Adrian: “Can 🎶🎵 repeat what they said about Friend Grace, question? With ugly little voice and ugly little body, question?”
Grace: “Holy shingles—”
Rocky: “Rocky knows... Aren't they amazing, question?”
I bet Grace's ejection from earth would become like an Eridian horror story. They forced him to sleep. They held him down and made him go to sleep so he would stop fighting. They kept him vulnerable and put him into a dangerous situation with other sleeping, vulnerable humans with no one to watch over them.
And 2 of them DIED! While they were asleep with no one to watch over them!!
Like they probably already thought Rocky's journey was the stuff of nightmares (alone for decades with no one to watch him sleep) but Grace's story would probably be so terrifying to them. Coupled by the relative ease with which he talks of it. He accidentally mentions it to his class and gets several concerned and angry messages from Eridian parents about him telling horror stories to their children instead of teaching Human Science lol
read @startingatmidnight 's fic The Astrobiology Immersion Program, then read it again, then again, then drew fanart about it. it's the world's most perfect bodyswap fic and everyone should read it right now!!!
Transandrophobia is so obviously a real thing that I doubt your ability to think critically or view situations from other peoples' perspectives if you "don't believe" in it. Do you honestly and seriously believe that a society as patriarchal and misogynistic as ours would not care about a so-called "woman" deciding they don't want to be a woman and fulfill the role of a woman anymore? Do you think the patriarchy just decides to stop being misogynistic to someone as soon as they say "Actually, my pronouns are he/they"? Some of you need to turn your brains on.
Transandrophobia is so obviously a real thing that I doubt your ability to think critically or view situations from other peoples' perspectives if you "don't believe" in it. Do you honestly and seriously believe that a society as patriarchal and misogynistic as ours would not care about a so-called "woman" deciding they don't want to be a woman and fulfill the role of a woman anymore? Do you think the patriarchy just decides to stop being misogynistic to someone as soon as they say "Actually, my pronouns are he/they"? Some of you need to turn your brains on.
