if I feel like absolutely torturing rocky then I sometimes like to imagine a scenario on erid where a few months into The Scurvy Era grace sits him down like "hey pal. there's a chance that the scientists here won't figure out how to meet my nutritional needs any time soon. I would love it if they can! but it might not happen. and I don't want to die very slowly and painfully of starvation. now listen to me. ideally I don't want to die at all. but more than that. I do not want to die. of starvation. I don't need anything from you to help with this, I can address it on my own, but if this becomes a real problem then I am going to solve it. Do You Understand What I Am Saying Right Now." and rocky isn't even allowed to immediately become evil about it.
I imagine that at this point they've had The conversation about how grace got on the ship in the first place and rocky is aware that his friend has some significant issues about having his personal autonomy overruled, so in the moment he just says "hnnnnnn. Iwouldbesadifthathappened but. I can see why you would. feel that way." then as soon as he's out of range he physically attacks the first person nearest to him.
what goes through rocky's head for the following day: absolutely not. absolutely fucking not. I cannot let you die. I don't care what I have to do, I'll threaten biologists, I'll read all the human medical texts eighteen times, I'll break into your living space while you sleep and take anything that I think could be used as a lethal weapon, I don't care, I'll pay for the consequences after you're safe. and I'll do it all without telling you, because I know you need to feel like I'm not taking the choice away from you in order to feel safe. I won't physically stop you, you'll feel like it's up to you, but if I take too long to fix this and make you think that's the only decision you can make then it will actually be my fault.
what somehow manages to vibrate out of his carapace next time he sees grace: "don't need anything from you to help with this" no, stupid. grace clumsy and tired from medical problems, would make errors and do it wrong. rocky much better at working with hands, is my job to fix problems. tell me when time and I Do It For You.















