my long lost husband returned from space obsessed with and devoted to some kind of extremely fragile alien blob. which is fine, i guess. building it a biodome was kind of fun at least.
Hello, I have come with angsty ideas for y'alls Eridian!Grace AUs;
- Eridian Grace is fucking TERRIFIED of going to sleep at the start. Reminds him too much of what Stratt did to him. The whole "sleeping with no dreams and no ability to be awoken" just chills the mercury in his bones and sends him into such a panic the other eridians are afraid FOR him. Adrian and Rocky have to soothe him both in and out of sleeps and make it so the sleeping cycle is as comfortable to him as possible. They also fiercely guard him the entire way through.
- Eridian Grace would more than likely have a measure of limb pain and phantom limb pain from when he was human. All of it basically psychological, no less real. They've found that warm baths actually help his joints and limbs ache less, maybe due to the stress relief?
- probably also has audio processing issues? Since he's lived most of his life as a human with a separate sensory way to see his surroundings, his brain might lag when processing information as an eridian, not because of pure processing capacity but because his psyche is just not used to sight and hearing being essentially one sense. So he takes a longer time to process stuff.
- insanely, ABSURDLY clingly and touchy. Will have bouts of uncontrollable shaking and will basically freak out if he cannot hold claws with Adrian or Rocky at LEAST. Was clearly deeply affected by not being able to touch other living beings for so long.
- gets easily overwhelmed sensory wise too, to the point sound kind of hurts his receptors. Adrian and Rocky have established on pain of Adrian chucking mfers into the artificial ocean of the biodome that if Grace has a "quiet day", then EVERYONE must respect Grace's need for a Quiet Day and if it needs to be more than one day then he'll get more than a day! As many days until sound stops hurting him!!
hc that Rocky learns about rhetorical questions and LOVES them. He immediately implements them when Grace makes some sort of fuck-up, and says something like "what did grace think would happen, statement" and Grace goes to answer, then just starts fuming
I think he is sassy and this would be a great way for him to express that
I posted a simplified version of this in a tiktok comment section earlier, but honestly it deserves a longer post because honestly Rocky and Grace are both shockingly young to be on death missions.
Rocky says that he is 291 years old. He also says that the average Eridian lifespan is 689. He's roughly 42.24% through his life. If we say that this is equal to the average human lifespan (I'm saying 80y bc I'm lazy) and that he's 42.24% of the way through 80 years; Rocky developmentally is basically some 33 year old who has just spent about 6.97% (5.5 human years) of his life alone in space.
Meanwhile, Grace is somewhere in his early 40's when he wakes and meets Rocky. Assuming he's like 42, that's 6.1%ish of the Eridian lifespan making him appear in Rocky's eyes as some 5 year old that just pulled up driving his own spaceship.
This is an insane comparison but I cannot stress enough that Rocky is a 33 year old highly trained astronaut tasked with teaming up with some hyper intelligent alien that's only been alive for 5 years because the alien's kind decided to throw that 5 year old on a one way space trip just to see what happens.
Obviously this is a gross simplification of their ages and how aging works for Eridians, for all we know Eridian maturity can happen at a rate similar to cats, where there's a rapid maturation with a certain period of time rather than a consistent maturation over a lifetime.
But even with that in mind, Rocky and Grace both seem to be at a similar level of maturity where they're old enough to understand the seriousness of their situation, but young enough to still show the side of themselves that's naturally inclined to be some goofy nerd that's just overly excited to discover (friendly and intelligent) alien life.
That being said, though, if anyone’s curious about Adrian, using this kind of math to see how long Rocky's been with his mate we get 27% of his life or 21 years which would mean if they were human that they would have met when they were 12 (Even if we say humans live an average lifespan of 100 and compare that number to 689, that would still make Rocky only 15 when he meets his mate—they're childhood sweethearts!!!)
Summary: Rocky has a question for you about mates. It leads to a conversation which leads to a realization in Grace.
"Does friend have mate, question?"
You look over at Rocky, eyebrows together. "What?"
"Does friend have mate, question?"
Grace looks up from his notebook he's writing in from his seated position at the lab table, glancing between Rocky and you. He seems a bit uncomfortable on your behalf, as though he worries that this topic is off limits for you. Or perhaps worried about how one navigates such a conversation when the two participants are not from the same planet. Even though you both have had to do so for months now.
You are sitting on the ground, working on learning how to sew. The trip has been long and the only clothes you and Grace have are the ones that were packed, but now they are slowly gaining holes and becoming ragged from use. Rocky is in front of you, engineering a pseudo-sewing machine for you.
"No, Rocky, I don't have a mate." A laptop is open in front of you, a book on "Sewing for Idiots" open in a PDF.
"Friend have mate in past, question?"
"No, Rocky, I've never had a mate."
"Why friend not have mate, question? Friend is smart. Friend is fun!"
You smile at Rocky, endeared to his compliments.
"Thanks Rocky. Uh, I don't know. Just never felt like I needed one."
Rocky tilts their body slightly, an indication you now know means they are confused. "Not need mate, question? Explain."
You blow out a breath, already bracing yourself for the conversation you know is coming. It's never easy explaining human things or culture to an alien, especially something that is… well, not well known among humans even. You put down your needle and cloth that you were practicing with. Leaning back on your hands, you relax into the conversation.
"Well, I'm sure you understand feeling close and all the things that comes with a mate." Rocky nods at this. "I'm sure you also know that what you feel for Grace and I is different from how you feel toward Adrian, right?"
"Yes."
"I've never felt that way towards anyone. I've never…wanted a mate before. I've never felt the feelings associated with that."
You don't notice it, too focused on explaining all this to Rocky. Grace is still, too still behind you. He's hyper focused on the conversation, his pencil resting on the page, not moving.
"Not want a mate. No understand. Need word."
You blink, thinking. The word is escaping you, just on the tip of your tongue. Perhaps being in a medically induced coma isn't so good for your word recall.
"Hmm. Hold on a second. There is a word for it, but I'm having trouble remembering. Ask me something else about it. Maybe that will spark my memory?"
"Hmmm. Feel bad bad bad without mate, question?" Rocky taps twice on the xenonite of his ball, concerned about you. "Rocky miss Adrian. Rocky want Adrian even when not know Adrian. Friend feel this way, question?"
"No. Not at all."
"Who were you being brave for, coming on this trip?"
You startle slightly at Grace's question, the sound waves coming from behind you. You sit up, looking back at him. "What do you mean?"
Grace taps his pencil anxiously on his paper, little flecks of graphite falling onto the white page. He rubs the back of his neck with his other hand. "I mean, well, Yao told me back on Earth that you have to find someone to be brave for to come on this trip. Who was your person?"
You tilt your head at an angle, closing your eyes. Grace waits patiently, knowing when you are searching your memory for who you were and how that applies to you now. Despite being a whole person before this trip, Grace understands that sometimes the memories not only have to rise to the surface, but have to be fitted in place with the person that is being created now on the Hail Mary.
"Me. Strangers. No one." Your eyes flutter open, looking up at Grace. His face is contorted, and you know you have lost him as well.
"Oh, boy."
"How are you able to throw your life away for no one?"
"The Earth was dying, Grace. Not just humans, but the animals. The plants. Everything would change! If I could do something to help out with allowing sunlight to still filter through tree leaves, I was going to do it."
Grace looked at you as if he was seeing you for the first time. Awe and sadness equally reflecting in his eyes. The awe was something new to you, when sharing this information, but the sadness was a familiar pain. One that caused you to throw up a wall, to stiffen immediately.
"I'm not some poor lost cause just cause I don't want a partner, Grace."
Grace's eyes widen and he drops his pencil onto the lab table, opting to throw his hands up in a placating matter, as if to say "here's my hands, I mean no harm".
You would have laughed were you not still waiting for his response. Waiting for the inevitable "Wait until you find the right person".
"I know that! I don't mean to imply that at all!" Grace pulls his glasses down, hanging them as he always does under his chin. He pinches the bridge of his nose, sighing. "This isn't going how I wanted it to."
"How did you want this to go?"
"I don't know! I, uh, I just want to know more about this. It's interesting. You're interesting!"
A scoff leaves your lips.
"Rocky agree with Grace. Topic is interesting. Friend save Earth. Save Erid. Life is reason, question?"
"Yeah, Rock. Life is the reason I left Earth. Life is what I love!" Your eyes light up, finally, at Rocky's question. Who knew that all it would take for someone to understand was for them to be not human?
"You've never had a crush?" Grace asks you, ignoring your moment with Rocky.
"No."
"You've never gone on a date?"
"Nope."
"How did you know that's who you were?"
"How did you know that you wanted to date?"
Grace's mouth drops open, hangs for a second, and then snaps shut. He looks away from you, running a hand through his hair. He stays quiet.
Rocky rolls closer to Grace, placing a claw on the edge of his ball. "Grace say Grace had mate once. Remember, question?"
"Yeah."
"So, how did you know you wanted to go out with them?" You lean forward, gazing up at Grace, making sure you give him the time to respond.
It takes a while. At first, he seems flustered by the interrogation on both yours and Rocky's behalf. His knee is bouncing up and down, practically shaking. Then, he seems to be lost in thought, parsing through his own memories.
"I don't think I really did want to date."
You blink, your spine straightening, head cocking slightly.
Oh.
"Why not?"
"I got asked out. I had never been asked out before. That's what you should do when a girl asks you out, right? Go out with them. I never really thought about dating as a reality for me, until she came up to me."
"Were you attracted to her?"
"No understand word. Explain." You look up at Grace, darting your eyes between him and Rocky, asking for help on this one. Grace hastily puts his glasses back on, as though that will help him explain this very complicated word.
"Uh, let's see. Attraction is when you think someone looks nice. Or I guess, for you, it would be they sound nice or interesting."
"Attraction only for how they sound, question?"
"No, no. That would be more, like, physical attraction. You could also be attracted to who they are. You want to get to know them. Possibly be closer to them."
"Oh, understand. Felt attraction for Adrian."
Grace looks over at you, one corner of his lip at a crooked angle, showing his lack of confidence in his explanation of attraction.
You shrug back. It's not like you would explain it much better right now.
"So, were you attracted to her?"
"I mean, she was nice. It was nice to have someone around to talk to."
Your eyes softened. "That wasn't my question, Grace."
"I…I don't know. How would one know if they were?"
You laugh, a loud clear sound. The tension in the air is long gone, and Grace smiles nervously, laughing a little to himself.
"What's so funny?"
You take a deep breath, still giggling a little, trying to come down to this serious conversation.
"You think I would know? I just told you I have never even had a crush!"
"Oh, yeah," Grace looks down, a slight blush rising on his cheeks. "I guess I don't know. I don't think I was attracted to her. Not that she wasn't nice to look at." Grace immediately backtracks, shaking his hands out in front of him again, "Not that I mean it like that! I just-I don't know-she was pretty, but I don't think I felt it that way."
"I understand."
Grace folds his arms over his chest, peering at you over his glasses. "I guess you do."
"So you didn't feel the need for romantic relationships?"
Grace leans back, closing his eyes. "I guess I didn't."
"Did you…uh…please don't take this the wrong way. I can answer first, actually. I…don't really want romantic relationships… or even purely physical ones? If you get what I mean?"
You see Grace's eyes open, but he doesn't look at you. All of a sudden, the roof is the most interesting thing about being in space.
"Oh."
"Yeah."
"Um…no, I don't think I felt the need for those either."
"Rocky no understand."
Both of you jump at the computer program's voice. In the midst of figuring each other out, you forgot about the other person present in this conversation. Who doesn't get how humans tend to skirt around 'taboo' conversations.
You take your turn this time. "Rocky, do you Eridians have a way of making more of you?"
"What friend mean, make more, question?"
"Like how we encouraged the taumoeba to breed?"
"Yes! Eridians make more eridians."
"Well, it's that. Although…not always just to make more. Simply for the act itself."
"Oh. Understand. Humans do this, too. Humans not like talk about it, question?"
You look at Grace, a bit helpless. "Not all humans. You managed to get two who don't really care for it, I guess."
"Interesting. Humans on ship different from humans on Earth."
"Yeah, something like that, bud."
The room goes quiet for a second. Grace seems to be lost in thought, his head in the clouds. You pick up your sewing needle, returning to the task that was at hand before all this tangential information was relayed.
Not that it was bad. In fact, it was one of the more productive conversations you had ever had when talking about your orientation for relationships in that way. Having a scientist and an alien who loves learning about culture really was the best way to talk about it. With curiosity. No judgment.
A few minutes pass before Grace comes back down to Earth. Well, back to the Hail Mary, you muse.
"Did you remember the word for it?"
"Hmm?"
"The word. For what we were talking about. Do you remember what it was?"
"Oh. Um. Give me a second, I'm gonna search the files." You pause what you were doing. Mentally scanning through memories and words associated with those memories. "I'm aromantic…and asexual. I'm aroace, you could say. I'm not really interested in a romantic relationship and I'm not interested in sex."
You look over at Grace. Blue eyes stare into yours. Suddenly, they well up, tears lining his eyelids.
Grace continues to look at you, tears beginning to drag down on his cheek. His mouth opens, a little sound coming out, before he shuts it quickly. Instead of speaking, Grace gets up from his seat, and practically crashes into you on the floor, arms wrapping tightly around you.
One of your hands go to his back as well, steadying him to you, grounding him. The other attempts to throw the sewing needle you had been holding toward your makeshift pincushion, by the laptop. It misses, rolling out of your view somewhere on the floor.
"Oh no."
Grace practically jumps out of your arms, face showing abject horror at those two little words. "I am so sorry. I should have asked. I didn't mean to-I mean I just got swept up in the moment. It was so nice to hear you also feel that way-Not like that! I mean, you know-feel nothing. Not nothing! I mean-"
"Grace!"
He shuts up, eyes wide and chest heaving. You purse your lips, trying desperately to hold it in, but you can't. You laugh, loud and unabashedly.
"What?"
"Grace! I dropped my sewing needle somewhere behind you. I wasn't mad about the hug. Oh my god, you should have seen your face!"
Grace stares at you for a second, then two, before he starts to laugh at himself. Through little fits of laughter, he manages to get out, "So was a hug okay?"
You give one last chuckle, smiling long after. "Of course it was."
He smiles back, before going in for the hug. As he begins to reach out again, Rocky rolls his ball up to you both, nearly knocking you both over.
"Rocky want group hug! Group hug! Group hug!"
"Jeez, OK, Rocky! Bring it in!"
You shift back, giving space for Rocky to also be a part of the group hug, but make sure that Grace gets enough contact. You feel as though he needs it.
A moment later, you all separate. Rocky clacks their claws together, shifting side to side in a happy dance.
You sit there, picking under your nails, before looking up at Grace. "So why were you crying?"
Grace inhales, then blows out the breath. "Oh boy, well. I've always felt I was…different. It's nice to know there is a word for what I think I am. I mean, I am a scientist, I want to research this a little more, but at least I have a lead."
Grace peers at your over his glasses, a small lifting in the corner of his mouth as he says,"Thanks to you."
You place a hand on his arm, leaning toward him. "I know what it is like to feel different. It took me a long time to realize that it didn't have to mean that I was wrong or bad in anyway. I'm just glad that I could be here to tell you this. It will save you a lot of heartache to know that it's a thing. That you can be different and similar to other people. It's not a bad thing."
You shift back, but still hold his gaze. "It's just you."
Grace closes his eyes, biting his cheek. When they open again, they are glossy with unshed tears.
"You know, I still wouldn't have come on this mission. Even if I had known back then what I know now."
You nod. "I understand. I don't think less of you for it. Just because I appreciate the Earth by saving it doesn't make you a bad person for wanting to stay and experience it for longer."
One last tear drips down his face at your words. You gently wipe it away with your thumb, holding his face after with one hand.
"I know you need time to sit with this, but if you do end up thinking you are AroAce, I want to personally welcome you. You'll always have me, no matter what."
You feel his face shift under your hand, a beaming grin forming on his face.
"Grace have Rocky too. Rocky still not understand, but Rocky always a friend of Grace."
Grace lets out a breath of air, a little huff of amusement. "I can help explain more later, bud.” Grace looks between you both, a newfound peace in his eyes. “Thank you. Both. You'll always have me too."
Incredibly charming to think about the translation assumptions around profanity being made by Dr. Ryland "what the fudging fudger" Grace and Rocky "everyone agrees he is swearing up a storm" the Eridian. What a beautiful duo to make first contact.
What would you name your pebbles? And how many pebbles are you planning to have with Adrian?
Talk about pebble name in last post — one name for Adrian parent who pass when Adrian very young. One name for Mary, who keep Grace Rocky alive enough to come back to Erid. And maybe - if not weird - one name for Grace.
Eridian clutch of egg usually five, but … even though Rocky live through radiation on Blip-1, probably have damage. Grace say can affect ability to breed. So Rocky… very unsure. Does not want to hope for five.
Will be happy even with only one pebble, though. Grace Rocky Adrian spoil pebble.
The importance of his doctorate in molecular biology aside, the way in which Ryland Grace approaches an alien life form with curiosity, compassion and kindness is indicative of his lived experience as a teacher in a middle school.
It is one thing to be able to teach effectively, and another to manage a variety of different individuals needs while maintaining engagement. Every skill that Grace uses in his meeting of Rocky, and building a relationship with him, whether he remembers or not, are skills a good educator and mentor uses.
To not assume ill intent. To approach first with curiosity. To explain difficult concepts in a palatable way without condescension or malice. To empathize with one's situation and acknowledge how it may shape one's responses. To exercise patience. To adapt and shift gears in the face of uncertainty. To remain calm in the height of stress and remain a leader.
Grace as a scientist yes, but as a teacher, maintaining an openness to not only work with Rocky, but to also embrace his differences and utilize his strengths to find creative solutions that benefit both of them.
History is fraught with disputes and wars driven by ignorance and sustained by fear of unique cultures and experiences that are different to our own. It is practically in our DNA to reject or fear that of which is different to us, and so it is not weak to trust or to be kind. It is harder to be these things, because the opposing forces come so effortlessly.
Grace's inclination toward 'flight' instead of 'fight' is not an indicator of weakness. It is preservation. It is learned behavior. To take a step back, recalibrate and approach again. You do not win students over by being a fearless dictator. You win them over by treating them like people, and acknowledging where you yourself have room for growth. Ryland Grace is a coward for many reasons that define his narrative, but being trusting and kind are not among them.
Humanity owes its salvation to Ryland Grace the middle school teacher.
Sometimes I get annoyed by how many people in the PHM Fandom gloss over that fact that Grace HAD a partner before. Plus the very iconic line "Rocky hate Mark" came from that scene.
I think people are missing out on some very funny aroace discovery shenanigans. Imagine Grace's previous partner being annoyed that Grace is treating them like a REALLY good friend instead of a romantic interest and sexual partner and having his "head in the clouds". And Grace still in the events of the movie not realizing that theyre aroace and thats probably why the relationship fell through, because she was looking for something else in a partner.
Like this absolute ditz of a man is confusing every person he reels in with his absolutely lovely being. He has everyone in the movie at some point going, "What are we?" Lmao. Something about the concept of being "unattainable" being incredibly attractive to a lot of people.
Grace's Ex, a few hours after one of their first dates where they watched a movie at their place:
Omg he didn't make a move once! And we had deep, engaging and funny conversations! He's such a gentleman!
The Project Hail Mary Crew watching this disaster of a golden retriever, fumble his way into their hearts:
If she was in charge of the backrooms research team then there would be no fucking about. She would already have the answers, none of this ‘I don’t know’ business. Ryland Grace would be hazmat suited up and sent in there ASAP.
grace's students putting inappropriate names while on kahoot and hes like "guys cmon keep it clean please" "do you guys want to get smth from the prize box or not"
and then when he finds out his eridian students arent actually saying "bad bad bad bad bad" while taking a test he does the exact same "guys cmon keep it clean please"
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