Felix_Space

Eridians are ambush predators, so pebbles are like kittens in that they play by stalking and pouncing. Grace does the thing that cat parents do where they ignore the kitten that is very obviously stalking them to make them think they’re doing a good job. Grace is just pretending to work on an experiment and Rocky leaps out at him and grabs his leg. “AHHH you got me!!” Rocky’s all happy chirps and stompies because he’s so very stealthy.

Alternatively humans are persistence predators, so Grace plays by running around and chasing Rocky. Rocky CANNOT keep up with him. Grace loves to play hide and seek. Rocky couldn’t totally get with it at first because that’s just scary LOL. Grace prefers being the seeker because he knows very well that Rocky can always hear exactly where he is, even if he pretends he doesn’t.

Grace learns about some Rocky behaviors which are very much pebble traits and not something that adult Eridians usually do after he starts teaching/interacting with others on Erid. And suddenly, from that lens, some past situations make a lot more sense. I think Rocky would have the same revelation about Grace from doing human research. They’re both aware of everything about each other basically, but there’s still much to learn about each others’ social customs. (Rocky is very traumatized, I think he’s regressed a lot of the time tbh, especially around Grace. More than Grace realized initially).

It’s the first “free day” on the vat in a while (it’s never really a free day but a small break is better than none). Teeny Grace was just put down for a nap after crying and fussing all morning. Yáo and Dubois finally take a breather and see Ilyukhina walk down the hall carrying him, and they’re immediately like okayy nope we aren’t doing this today please just come here and relax, and stop dragging the baby into your nonsense he’s tired

Stratt rarely regresses super small, more often middle range. If she does, she’s a lot less chatty, and very one-track mind. This is to say, she points at everything she wants and stares with increasing intensity until Grace gets it for her. If she doesn’t get it she sulks. She keeps pointing at Grace’s coffee (despite the fact she already had multiple of them earlier) and he has to decide if he wants to deal with an over-caffeinated tiny Eva or a sulky tiny Eva. You cannot distract her from wanting something, you can only bargain. “How about a juice box?” Shakes her head, points at the coffee. “I can make you a smoothie.” Shakes her head, points. “Hot chocolate?” Shakes her head and points. “…with marshmallows?” She begrudgingly considers.

Occasionally Eva and Ryland are regressed together and Ryland is the older one (I think he’s got a very wide range honestly it’s a mystery where his headspace will be). And sometimes he decides that he’s actually super big and responsible so he definitely doesn’t need help taking care of her! He gives her everything she wants with no discernment and they play games that are a little too much and it usually ends up with them both getting upset/into trouble. Ilyukhina covertly ushering them away from an active construction zone cause they wanted to see what the engineers were doing.

Stratt tends not to eat fresh fruit even though she’d like to because she doesn’t have any time to prepare it the way she likes. Grace sometimes brings her lunch with pre-peeled/cut fruit slices and she has to pretend that doesn’t make her head feel fuzzy. Everyone else just has to silently accept that the second in command peels and slices the director’s apples for her. No one’s gonna say anything directly to them, but word gets around fast on the vat.

Babysitter/big sister Ilyukhina!!! She’s so so sweet and fun. Shes mostly a middle/teen regressor I think, Grace regresses more often (and much younger) than her so she watches him a lot. She’s usually who little Grace goes to if he can’t get to Stratt. They adore each other!! That’s her Gracie and that’s his Lesya!!

^ This does not mean she’s a good influence. She will always drag Grace into her schemes. Look away for one second and they’re both gone. She’s very good at secretly snatching him from meetings to go do mischief (<- Stratt doesn’t notice until she wants Grace to explain something to her and he’s gone lol). Someone found them hiding inside of a vent once with armfuls of snacks from the cafeteria (found only because they were giggling, crinkling the packages and loudly telling each other to be quiet). Up to no good, these two.

Stratt has a rocking chair in her room because it’s a relaxing stim and she can easily work while sitting on it. It barely fits but she keeps it there anyway. Grace sometimes likes to curl up on her lap and fall asleep to the rocking and vice versa.

Ilyukhina moves a lot in her sleep, especially when she regresses. She will roll on top of you, cling to you, kick you, push you off the bed, roll off of the bed herself and then wake up on the other side of the room. She built removable safety rails for herself after waking up bruised/pushing her poor Gracie off the bed one too many times. But if someone wants to nap with her they have to be prepared for battle and he knows this. So brave… Imagining Ilyukhina’s bed on the Hail Mary also had a “safety rails” setting, or maybe she had the lowest bunk so she wouldn’t fall very far. Grace would be inconsolable about it.

Grace is more of a sleep talker. He’ll mumble and talk to people in his sleep, and he SNORES. He only really moves around a lot when he’s in pain or having a nightmare. He also sleeps in the weirdest most uncomfortable looking poses ever witnessed. This is all both frightening and endearing to Rocky. (And I think pebble Rocky would probably fret about the possibility of sleep talking/nightmares being contagious. They haven’t been thus far).

Grace found Ilyukhina’s teddy bear on the Hail Mary and it permanently stays on his bed. Sometimes when he’s small and/or can’t sleep, he’ll hold it because it still smells a bit like her. He doesn’t cuddle it very often though because he’s scared of the scent going away. He does the same thing with Yáo’s clothes/blankets (and Dubois’ as well if they didn’t remove some of his belongings from the ship).

If you thought big Rocky was bossy you haven’t met pebble Rocky. He quickly gets in stubborn moods where he only wants to do whatever he wants to do and nothing else, no compromise no bargaining. And he will never give it up because Grace spoils him soooo much so he knows he’ll always get what he wants. Adrian has all 5 of their hands full with them.

When Rocky’s regressed is when most of his hidden emotions surface; a Rocky meltdown isn’t uncommon. Stomping, throwing/breaking things, speaking over himself/wailing, hitting the ground and xenonite barriers, laying like a starfish on the ground or curling up into a ball. Grace very gently calms him down, and Rocky knows Grace won’t judge him for it. (And he won’t, especially because he’d been given so much scorn and judgement for his own meltdowns. He’d never put that on Rocky!!) I think ultimately they both feel safe to do pretty much anything around each other at a certain point lol.