I was today years old when I was hit with the brain blast that the reason Grace survived while Yao and Ilyukhina died was because he ran.
Because he ran, he had to be sedated and put into his coma early. Since he was still on Earth/the ISS when this happened, he was induced under advanced medical supervision, while Yao had to induce Ilyukhina’s coma himself and then his own without help. If Grace had agreed to go on the mission for his own free will, he would have been put under by Yao and Ilyukhina; and while her technical expertise would have been a help, neither she nor Yao are doctors, so there’s a not insignificant chance that he also wouldn’t have survived the voyage. He would’ve just lived longer than the others, like Ilyukhina lived longer than Yao.
If all three of them had died, no one would have been left to game out the astrophage problem, which means that Rocky wouldn’t have been able to solve the astrophage problem—and there’s no guarantee that Erid would or could have sent another ship.
The point is that there is a very strong probability that Grace’s cowardice—his flawed and messy humanity—inadvertently saved two worlds.
He could only save the lives of others because he fought to live in the first place.
The internet is so predictable sometimes. You get a literal asexual alien species of rock crabs who reproduce by literally laying eggs next to each other, and y'all go 'no, they would totally shove that ovipositor up my ass...I mean, up Grace's ass. Yeah. Grace's ass. I'm not projecting why do you ask.'
Now that I've made a single post for a popular fandom and have received more combined likes and reblogs on one post in one week than in my decade+ on Tumblr combined, IT'S TIME TO POTENTIALLY ALIENATE PEOPLE with some subjective grumbling about PHM trends.
Because let's be real: can I trust this website and the people on it to have the maturity to realize that a subjective opinion isn't an objective judgement or a condemnation of anything or anyone; and that when I speak in generalizations, I'm not literally generalizing every single fan and every single fan work?
Not in the slightest, but I'm GONNA WHINGE ANYWAY, SO LET'S TALK ABOUT ROMANTIC ASEXUALITY.
Please know that I am speaking subjectively and not objectively and that the generalizations I make are just observations and not someone literally trying to speak for or about everyone on a single topic.
Okay.
So.
Why does the fandom at large make it seem like the only two options for Grace and Rocky's relationship are 'purely platonic' and 'freak4freak'? Like, I am not here to yuck anyone's yum, please know that; but I think it's a shame that PHM gives us an alien race that reproduces by laying eggs next to each other and, thus, likely does not have any sexual contact or even traditional erogenous zones, and everyone goes wild with ovipositors and tentacles like in every other fandom.
Thank God for the aroace side of the fandom; but while I find all of the platonic fics beautiful and deep and absolutely think the strength of Grace and Rocky's relationship is not determined by whether or not it's romantic (rock on aroaces in space), I can't help but sometimes wistfully long for more explorations on romantic asexuality. Rocky's species is literally a species of romantically asexual rocks if we go purely by Andy Weir's designs; and yeah, I have many thoughts about his takes that aren't great and believe that, in the end, we pick and choose from canon as god intended. It's just that there's SUCH an opportunity there to explore romance without any sexual impetus or ways of deriving physical pleasure that may be intimate but are not sexual.
I'm not saying this is completely absent or that I've NEVER SEEN IT EVER; in fact, there's one really good fic out there that kind of made me realize just how...rare it is to see the romantic asexual take. It's like, if it's not completely platonic love, it's full on xenophilia time, and it's just so. Sad. There's such an opportunity to explore what love and romance look like for a species that don't actually seem to engage in sexual contact to reproduce, but it's like we defaulted to the 'sticky' option in Transformers fandom terms, and it's a shame.
Please also know that yes, I'm aware that there might be ways to still experience sexual pleasure even if the version of sex is 'literally laying two eggs next to each other', and no, I'm not trying to yuck anyone's yum, or say that any version is superior than the other. I'm just someone who's looking at a choice between chocolate and pistachio and going 'sometimes it would be nice to have strawberry'.
I see half the fandom characterizing Adrian as patient and selfless, and I see the other half characterizing them as bitter and unaccommodating, and I also see the joking and non joking 'what if Rocky were the trolley operator' fics and ideas, and I've come to the conclusion that you all are missing the beauty of the superior third option that is Adrian also being traumatized and feral over their mate.
Thank about it. Rocky's a spitfire and bounces off the walls at baseline and they looked at that little autistic, bossy ball of energy and went 'yes. that's them. the creature I want to spend the next 500+ years with'. They have to at LEAST match their energy somewhat. And if you think you wouldn't be a fucking ball of PTSD and bitterness at your culture and society after fifty plus years of not knowing they were alive or dead, you're fucking operating on moon logic. Honestly, Adrian and the other families were probably begging for a rescue mission that never happened for various political and logical reasons; and while it probably would have ended in mass fatalities as well, so thank goodness that figurative and literal ship never got off the ground, the fact that it didn't happen probably burns more than a little, reasonable or unreasonable.
So one day Adrian gets some Eridian diplomat on their doorstep, and they're expecting the formal condolences at long last, but instead they go into this whole spiel of ' so. So! Turns out twenty two of the original crew died, but your mate survived! When did they die? Oh, early on, so your mate was submerged in crippling and literal deafening loneliness for over four decades; and now he's back and acting weird, and he's become codependent with this weird fragile squishy human being that's the only reason he came back at all, and he's refusing to send down the cure unless we make the blob an aquarium. Could you come to the space elevator and tell him to stop being so unreasonable?'
If that were MY mate? I'd fucking lose it.
Just throwing things at this poor messenger and shrieking like " Oh! Oh!! So it's somehow Rocky's fault that you're refusing to take a few months out of the several hundred Eridian years we have left to ship the cure we already have to Threeworld before things actually become problematic to make sure one of the two saviors of our entire species doesn't die?! To give the sole survivor of the mission--my mate, who's been alone and in silence, with no one to watch him sleep, for hundreds of years--some sort of solace and peace?! And you're wondering why he's acting erratically?! Maybe you wouldn't be in this position at all if you'd sent the rescue mission for which we've pleaded for years at every single thrum! I don't care if this Grace thing is a literal giant space amoeba; get the fuck out of my house and tell the powers that be to give it literally everything it wants and needs!"
And they're all 'be reasonable' and Adrian's like " I've been reasonable for hundreds of Eridian years, and you would not be in this situation if you'd actually sent a rescue mission and not simply wrung your claws and hoped for the best, so fucking live in the nest you made. All I'm going to do if you get me on the radio with Rocky right now is tell him he's doing amazing and give him advice on how to properly parboil the Taumoeba so that you can't even recover even the slightest scrap of DNA if you don't give the flesh blob that saved his life and saved OUR lives PLURAL goddamn vitamins."
Like, they think it's bad that Rocky basically stands over Grace's sleeping body and hisses? Wait until they get the MUCH LARGER ERIDIAN doing that for Grace and Rocky. Wait until the much large Eridian leads the families of the dead twenty-two crewmates to the space elevator to riot because this sure sounds like a coverup to them!! This sure sounds like the deflection of blame on the sole survivor!! This sure sounds like the same paralysis that left them to die alone in space because you didn't want to admit failure!!
Yes, I know, I'm weaving some sort of political intrigue plot that probably doesn't exist in canon. All I'm saying is that you all are missing the delicious implications of a mission that went radio silent for fifty plus earth years with no word from the government and no obvious attempt at rescue, followed by your partner coming home with the only being that's been around to watch him sleep since the rest of the crew died forty-some years ago, and people are calling him weird and changed. You'd be horrified. You'd be sick.
You'd be pissed the fuck off at every body of power that let this happen.
Please, learn from my mistakes, because I received my Wallace figure from Pokegalerie crafted by JB Studios approximately two weeks ago, and he is already in this many pieces.
Please note that he would have been in more pieces had we not re-glued his cape and also his HEAD. Also note that I was NOT throwing him against the wall or having him attacked by a small child or a dog, and that his entire arm and fingers came off after a soft fall onto carpet from a 3 ft tall dresser. I have no clue how the rest of him got broken and attempting to re-glue the scarf broke off the middle portion of it, as you can see.
Also, per Pokegalerie policy, there is apparently no way to get a refund. All I can do is warn people that you will purchase figures designed by JB Studios at your own peril.
PS: I had a similar experience with a Steven figure I purchased from JB Studios that promptly lost its hand and then its head. This was several months ago and I do not have pictures but I thought it was a fluke at the time. It is not.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Chapter 7: Steven quits his day job, confides in a family friend, and learns even more about the man he loves. The troupe, for better or worse, is also there.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Chapter 7: Steven quits his day job, confides in a family friend, and learns even more about the man he loves. The troupe, for better or worse, is also there.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
(More of the Moulin Rouge! AU that no one asked for, hooray!)
Chapter 5: In which Steven pitches both the troupe and the show with Wallace's help. Also, he's a helpless romantic, but what else is new?
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
(More of the Moulin Rouge! AU that no one asked for, hooray!)
Chapter 5: In which Steven pitches both the troupe and the show with Wallace's help. Also, he's a helpless romantic, but what else is new?
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
At the turn of the century in Kalos and in the midst of the Victini Revolution, exiled champion and heir Steven Stone has been forced to flee from Hoenn to escape the consequences of doing what's right, and he has spent the past two months in hiding at the Hotel du Roi in the Montmartre district of Lumiose City. When a theater troupe literally comes crashing through his ceiling, they drag him along with them to the notorious all-electric night club and pleasure house across the street known as the Moulin Rouge, where he is to act as their ambassador to the 'Enchanting Emerald'--the club's star performer and courtesan--in a last-ditch effort to pitch their play.
However, when Steven discovers that said star is actually the beloved friend he'd met soon after arriving in Kalos, his existence shifts on its axis. Love may be like oxygen, but when it comes to the well-mannered but jealous and entitled duke, the ambitious and mercurial club owner, and the ambitions of those around him, one can find themself gasping for breath.
(Aka, the Moulin Rouge! AU no one asked for.)
- - -
Chapter 4: Wallace seduces the duke, Steven wishes he was anywhere else, and an act of serendipity poses as a rude interruption.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
At the turn of the century in Kalos and in the midst of the Victini Revolution, exiled champion and heir Steven Stone has been forced to flee from Hoenn to escape the consequences of doing what's right, and he has spent the past two months in hiding at the Hotel du Roi in the Montmartre district of Lumiose City. When a theater troupe literally comes crashing through his ceiling, they drag him along with them to the notorious all-electric night club and pleasure house across the street known as the Moulin Rouge, where he is to act as their ambassador to the 'Enchanting Emerald'--the club's star performer and courtesan--in a last-ditch effort to pitch their play.
However, when Steven discovers that said star is actually the beloved friend he'd met soon after arriving in Kalos, his existence shifts on its axis. Love may be like oxygen, but when it comes to the well-mannered but jealous and entitled duke, the ambitious and mercurial club owner, and the ambitions of those around him, one can find themself gasping for breath.
(Aka, the Moulin Rouge! AU no one asked for.)
- - -
Chapter 4: Wallace seduces the duke, Steven wishes he was anywhere else, and an act of serendipity poses as a rude interruption.
