hi there

they/he/ze/she etc. nb lesbian 1998

[beansterpie]

ok so like. I keep seeing posts about how grace and rocky's relationships in phm is so lovely because it's not romantic-- people claiming that romance between the two would have been predictable and uninteresting, because a relationship like theirs ending in a romance is The Done Thing in movies and I-- really just have to laugh.

Uh no. A movie like this with a male, human protagonist who forms a friendship with an extremely non-humanoid alien who was basically assigned male by the narrative would not.... would not likely end in a romance between the two. Lol. Lmfao. If it DID end with a romance between the two, my mind would have been actually blown in the theater. And I guarantee that most people leaving said theater would have been weirded out by it. Because human characters forming romances with non-humanoid characters in fiction is usually used as an indicator that either the human character is a weirdo, that the relationship is unnatural and strange, or that we're supposed to laugh at the relationship. There are definitely exceptions, but by and large that's how that trope appears in fiction ime.

So grace and rocky's relationship ending at a deep friendship is vey literally the expected outcome. I'm not saying that as a bad thing, I love their friendship and how important they are to one another and I love this story, but a human and a non-humanoid aliens relationship staying within the bounds of 'friendship' isn't somehow more subversive and progressive than if it had included romance.

To be clear, I'm all for aro/ace headcanons for grace, and I totally get why this story in particular attracts those headcanons, but acting as though people who ship grocky (specifically eridian!rocky and human!grace) aren't in their own way participating in something subversive feels a little disingenuous.

And this is reflected in the numbers! On ao3, Grace & Rocky as a platonic relationship outnumbers Grace/Rocky by about three times. And even MORE telling, Grace/Simon (from Iron Lung) is over double the number of Grace/Rocky fics. If grace and rocky's relationship is so beautiful because of the absence of romance, then why does that not extend to the ship with two human dudes that doesn't involve the alien?

I'm 100% sure that tons of people who love aro/ace grace and platonic grocky are earnestly engaging with the fact that their friendship is framed as the most important relationship in, at least, grace's life, especially because the movie seems to pointedly subvert any romance between grace and stratt, which I would argue is the much more expected place for a romance to happen.

But I'm also 100% sure that the popularity of the aro/ace reading, or at the very least the popularity of platonic grocky, is due to rocky being a rock spider alien. because unfortunately, a lot of people just find the idea of shipping a human with an eridian off-putting because they're lame and boring.

[cowardsexual]

okay yaoi cocaine wore off. i can think clearly now. the sleepover scene was cute but it also kind of encapsulates all the problems i have with movie!grace because that's not how a scientist would talk about dreams. that's not how a schoolteacher would talk about dreams. that's how a ryan gosling romcom lead would talk about dreams. which is cool #gracerockynation but it really REALLY doesn't take much to make science sound magical too? maybe it was cut down from a longer scene where he makes a genuine attempt to explain and this is what's left of them trying to cram it into the movie's runtime but... where's the wonder, man. on both sides. you're a scientist talking to a sentient intelligent alien (also a scientist!) who physically cannot dream.

the book has the opposite problem where it will accidentally stumble into giving a scientific definition of a soulmate and then go "huh. neat. i hadn't thought of it like that" like the scale of cosmic coincidence necessary for rocky and grace to meet shouldn't blow your goddamn mind. but then again i just reread the scene where they're sharing facts about their biology to each other and rocky physically drops the tool he's working on and whispers "you can hear stars? light lets you hear stars?" and it's just mannnnn. where was this energy

[mteverestaaaaahh]

if the airlock (or just any of this) looks inaccurate, excuse me, I’m an idiot

warning: blood, and Grace frying the ever-loving heck out of his arm

[intactics-deactivated20211231]

and i don't necessarily believe any of this i'm just saying words recreationally

[notholaenas]

shorts

[khaliarart]

Just finished reading Andy Weirs book Project Hail Mary and I would die for Rocky

[kyoukorpse]

he thought time relativity was for one day he mad!!!!!!

[scribbled this sometime last week? bc this post reminded me of that part in the book again and i kept giggling about it]

image ID in ALT text :]

[guiltfactory-moved]

i would like if something horrible and invasive was happening to him and his boundaries were violated and he was uncomfortable and scared

[wrigglewormz]

Quite frankly yall need to be projecting more on the doms. Make the DOM have guilty sexual fantasies !!! Maybe the DOM is shamefully staring at the ceiling after waking up from a dream!!! Yall are cowards. Do none of you have any appreciation for the noble dom identity crisis. Do none of you have any respect for guilty sadists with control issues and who desperately want autonomy for once in their damn lives and who just want to Keep someone, for once, who want to be allowed to Want and Take . Do NONE of yall have any respect for sadists realizing with horror how badly they want to hurt the person they would do anything to protect and take care of and make smile? Cowards, all of you.

[tourmalinemachine]

is this fandom prepared to understand what it means to write numbers in base six. because u don’t just transliterate a base 10 number out of arabic numerals into eridian numerals. u have to restructure the way the number is written.

i just typed like one third of a poorly structured explanation and realized i don’t know what i’m talking about. went and got my whiteboard off the fridge and im gonna spend my afternoon learning how tf to heximal

[tourmalinemachine]

for example: let’s say you want to have an eridian write the number one hundred and forty four. you would need to first express that in base six and then transliterate the numerals, rather than taking 144 and getting II+. 144 in base six is written as 400. so your actual translation of 144 into eridian should be +ℓℓ!

[tourmalinemachine]

is this fandom prepared to understand what it means to write numbers in base six. because u don’t just transliterate a base 10 number out of arabic numerals into eridian numerals. u have to restructure the way the number is written.

i just typed like one third of a poorly structured explanation and realized i don’t know what i’m talking about. went and got my whiteboard off the fridge and im gonna spend my afternoon learning how tf to heximal

[tourmalinemachine]

do you guys think eridians have bfrbs. i think if i was made of rock i could invent a new kind of trichotillomania even if i didn’t have hair

[cowardgrace]

short thing about rocky’s hands because i could not stop thinking about @bugliest’s post and @cowardsexual’s tags

ao3 link

“All right,” Grace said. “If we’re gonna be crewmates for four years, we better get started on a chore chart.”

“Need words.”

“It means we should divide up the tasks to keep the ship from becoming a mess,” Grace said. He picked up a rag and wiped one of the whiteboards clean. “Who’s gonna clean the bathroom, clean the lab, change the sheets…” Rocky could only barely make out the ink on the surface of the board, but he was pretty sure Grace had written his own name in human language next to every chore. Grace’s mouth was turned upwards in amusement.

“Understand,” Rocky said. “Is joke, because I am in ball. Tasks all for Grace, none for Rocky.”

“Not so fast,” Grace said, holding up a finger. He wrote something else that Rocky couldn’t decipher. “Your one chore: to keep your side of the ship tidy.”

Rocky puffed up. “I always tidy! You the one who is messy messy messy.” He put a little teasing music into his voice, and Grace laughed softly. He had become comfortable enough with Eridian that he could pick out the different vocal inflections.

Rocky’s hearts flooded with fondness. It had been 46 years since someone had understood his tone of voice.

“All right! You’ll be tidy, I’ll be tidy. Let’s shake on it,” Grace said, extending his hand.

Rocky shifted in his ball. “No understand shake on it.”

“Oh, it’s an expression. It means let’s grab each other’s hands and shake them up and down. Human custom.”

Rocky almost balked. “Both hands, together?”

“Yeah,” Grace said, crouching down and reaching toward the exchange panel. “Put ‘er there.”

Rocky hesitated, listening hard to the hand that was now extended to him. “Human custom,” he said. “Culture thing.”

“Yeah! Just grab on.”

Imperceptibly trembling, Rocky placed his hand against Grace’s through the exchange panel. Grace gripped it gently but firmly and shook it up and down. “It’s good manners to squeeze a little bit,” he informed Rocky.

Not trusting himself to speak, Rocky managed to squeeze back. He shivered and his insides went cold.

“Now it’s a deal,” Grace said. But he didn’t let go, instead turning their hands over so he could see better. “Your hands are really cool, Rock,” he said, gently pulling Rocky’s fingers open to expose the palm.

“Ye-yes,” Rocky stammered, the notes of his speech tripping over each other. “Eridian hands very sensitive.”

“Humans too. Makes sense. A lot of information is gathered through touch.“ He traced a finger across Rocky’s palm.

Rocky’s mind went completely blank. All five of his hearts were jackhammering against his limbs. He hoped he was still upright.

Grace ran his thumb over his palm one more time and let go. “All right. Well, I’m going to clean the bathroom now. Better check something off the chart while I’m thinking about it.”

Thank all the luck in the universe humans had not evolved to hear the frequency at which Rocky’s whole body was vibrating. “Yes. Good. Clean ship,” he managed to say.

The moment Grace had safely left the room, Rocky collapsed onto the floor, each limb splayed in a different direction.

What the fuck.

[tourmalinemachine]

i love watching all the phm blogs be soso happy and have a good night. internet celebration time

[fujoshijpeg]

grace making these faces at rocky. at rocky btw. looking just like a besotted fond fuck and for what. it's almost like he's. it almost looks like. it's almost like for the first time in his avoidant loser life he's feeling what it's like to ACTUALLY LOVE SOMEB

[tourmalinemachine]

how many fucking expo markers do they have on this ship

[tourmalinemachine]

sorry but i hate movie mary. thats not how robots are. shes so responsive in a way that reads as nonsensical