Bleh

it starts with them watching a movie, maybe the devil wears prada, and a little way through the movie rocky asks why miranda has two names. is it because she's more important?

grace, already anticipating a long conversation, says no, all humans have two names. everyone's just scared of miranda because her two names are really well known.

"grace have another name and not tell rocky?!" rocky asks, incensed. "what names mean, question? why two?"

"well," grace explains, "your first name is the name your parents give you at birth. usually people call you by your first name, especially if you're close. except in... some situations, i guess," he says, remembering stratt's vat. nobody had called him ryland there, but he still felt pretty close to all of them.

"and second name?" rocky prompts.

"right - last names correlate to your family. when you're born, you take your family name so that people know who you're related to. it also helps differentiate between two people with the same first name."

"so what grace last name, question?" rocky asks. grace blanches a little.

"uhh... grace is my last name, rock," he says, sheepishly.

"what?!" rocky yells. grace winces. "grace not tell rocky grace first name? grace not close with rocky? grace hate rocky?"

"no!" grace protests. "of course i don't hate you! don't say that!" maybe it's stupid, but grace does actually feel a little hurt by the insinuation.

"then why not tell rocky?!"

grace sighs. "i don't know, rock. i mean - when i met you i barely knew up from down, much less what my name meant to me. and i kept getting these memories and everyone kept calling me grace, and i just, i haven't been called ryland in so long it doesn't really feel like my name anymore."

rocky ruminates on this for a moment. then: "...ryland is grace first name, question?"

"yeah."

"rocky like grace better." grace deflates with relief. "yeah, me too, buddy."

"but," rocky says, "rocky want last name too now."

huh. okay, then.

"i guess i could figure that out," grace agrees. "we could give you movie rocky's last name? you wanna be rocky balboa?"

"mm, no," rocky says.

"okay, well we could go region based, i guess. where'd you grow up? i can make up something fitting, or i can look something up on my computer, i'm sure there's places on earth that are similar to places on erid -"

"no," rocky interrupts. "want grace."

"...huh?"

"rocky want grace last name."

grace is suddenly feeling very, very flushed. "you what??"

"last name is family name, question?"

"well, yeah, but -"

"and rocky grace family now. so rocky want grace family name!"

...well, when he says it like THAT, it's so much more innocent. grace... well, he agrees, because what else is he gonna say? that rocky should know that that that's as good as a marriage proposal?

no, that takes too much cultural context, and a longer conversation than he wants to have right now. easier to just let rocky have it. it's not like there'll be any consequences to bite him in the ass, right?

Early on, Grace sits Rocky and Adrian down and explains that he doesn't expect them to watch every time he sleeps. He sleeps so much compared to an Eridian, and he really doesn't want them to feel like they have to be trapped in his house for 8 of every 24 hours. Waking up alone every so often is a little melancholy, but it's far outweighed by gratitude that when he expresses his wants and needs, he's believed and respected.

Field trips in the dome become a regular occurrence. They're chaotic and exhausting and so, so much fun. The waiting list is months long at this point. After lessons on geology, fluid dynamics, and Earth biology, the pebbles pretend to be space explorers discovering a new planet, or ambassadors to Earth that Grace receives with appropriate pomp and circumstance. Fully half of them have aspirations of joining Erid's newly-booming space program when they grow up.

Once Adrian learns that humans need regular touch for optimal health, they take it upon themselves to make sure that Grace never runs dry. Rocky's hugs are still his favorite ones in the universe, but when Adrian watches his sleep, he feels like a particularly beloved and indulged pet cat curled up in the arms of its favorite person, as Adrian strokes his hair and rubs his back or chest and carefully massages his shoulders.

Rocky builds them a proper theater room, with a comfy nest to lay in and a built-in texture translation screen that works much better than his makeshift texture gun. They start by rewatching all the Rocky movies, because obviously Adrian needs to see them.

With respect to Andy Weir, Grace is a biologist with the resources and goodwill of an entire planet behind him. Together they bioengineer plants that can survive in the biodome, and then some safe-for-human-consumption crops. Maybe the Eridians even get some new medicines out of it. Now that he's no longer limited to a San Francisco apartment, Grace finds that he really likes gardening, both ornamental and functional. The new foods don't replace everything he misses from Earth, but they add plenty of flavor and variety to his meals.

Rocky cannot stop making him things. The alarm clock and wristwatch were just the beginning. Little signs for his garden so Grace can keep track of what he's planted where. Gardening tools and kitchen gadgets. Furniture, mobility aids, experiments for his students to do. When Grace runs out of ideas, Rocky starts looking through the laptop for inspiration. A windchime that hangs outside his front door and produces the most beautiful, complex music. A true-to-life night sky projection that shows the stars as seen from either San Francisco or the top of Erid's space elevator. He spends three entire months building a pair of xenonite palm trees on the beach. They're as tall as Grace, with the colors and textures of Rocky's and Adrian's carapaces, and perfectly spaced to hold a hammock between them. It's the best spot for an afternoon nap.

but i have never in my life seen a post saying to support masculine trans girls and trans women or trans girls and trans women who like traditionally masculine things and its really important to understand that showing support for trans women in any form is just as important as showing support for trans men so please, please reblog this.

--

I looked at the readout for my latest blood test and sighed.

"New problem, question?" Rocky asked. We were about ninety days out from 40-Eridani's heliopause, and it seemed like new nutritional problems were popping up every day. Probably from me mixing more taumoeba into the coma slurry to make it last longer.

"Yes," I said. "Apparently I'm becoming anemic."

"New word, question?"

"Anemic. Means my body isn't getting enough iron."

"♪♫♪♩♩♬!" he said, his carapace shooting up. "I fix!" He scampered off down toward the dormitory.

I stared at where he disappeared into the floor. That... sounded a lot like him giving me his word for "anemic". But that couldn't be it. We haven't discovered any overlap of nutritional needs of humans and Eridians, besides a base need for glucose and proteins. And what did he mean by "I fix"?

In retrospect, I really should have seen what was about to happen. However, the brain fog from my various nutritional deficiencies was really starting to settle in, so I just continued to stare in confusion.

I was startled out of it by Rocky yelling. "Grace! Come to airlock! Grace!"

He continued to call my name and pester me even as I moved toward the ladder, and I know he can see me moving. "Alright, alright! I'm coming!"

As I got down the ladder, Rocky became even more frantic, tapping on his side of the airlock. Inside was what looked like some sort of pouch. "Take, take!"

"It has to cool down first!"

"Is cold. You take!"

How long was I staring at the wall, that whatever it was had already cooled nearly two hundred degrees? "Alright, I take!"

I took the pouch from the airlock, and opened it. Inside was a bunch of... metal chips? Each one was about the size of the tip of my pinkie finger. "Rocky, what is this?"

He tilted his carapace in a way I've come to recognize as pride. "Is Eridian supplement. Cannot make you vitamins on Hail Mary, but have iron. Eat, before react with oxygen in you air!"

It took a second before things clicked into place. "Wh- Oxidation doesn't happen that quickly-" I shook my head, dislodging the errant thought. "Rocky, I can't eat this."

"Why not, question? Does not have thallium, or mercury, or any other 'heavy metals'," — yes, he did the air quotes, with three hands — "is just iron."

"Just because it won't poison me, doesn't mean my body can use it. It needs to be in... certain salts... I think." That sounded right, but information recall was becoming extremely difficult these days. I picked up one of the chips; it's very thin. "I might even have to worry about this cutting up my intestines..."

Rocky was uncharacteristically silent for a moment, so I looked back up at him. He was staring at me (don't ask how I know he was staring, I just do) in disbelief. Then he threw up two arms in exasperation. "Human body useless!"

Lesson #18 Adrenaline

That came to me after watching a TikTok of some guy just jumping down a slope and being like “yeah checks out” after seeing it was sponsored by red bull.

First lesson Previous lesson Next lesson

Thank you to my super beta readers!

@xushibeetle

@the-asexual-winter

However, I do find it fully plausible and in character for Grace to forget about programming swears into the translator, for Rocky to realize that he’s missing an integral part of his daily vocab and bitching at Grace to fix it, and for Grace to, in response, refuse to do so for the sole purpose of annoying Rocky. At some point he’s keeping them off more to see how long he can get away with. This provides him a good few weeks of amusement on the Hail Mary.