tragic-comedy-act

If I’m remembering correctly, Eridians are both sex’s male and female, (and I also don’t think they have a concept of binary and non binary genders like humans do) so I don’t think they’d have “she” or “he” pronouns in their language at all!! This is why Rocky refers to Adrian as “they” because that’s what everyone goes by!

Grace had never explained “he” and “she” pronouns to Rocky, Rocky had made the connection on his own when they did numerous biology lessons!

Up until they got to Erid, Rocky had never needed to refer to Grace in third person.. when Rocky introduced Grace to Adrian he said something along the lines of;

“Adrian! This human friend Grace! They save me from taumoeba leak in ship!”

Rocky hadn’t even noticed it when he said it, but Grace DEFINITELY did.. and for some reason it made him quite happy, so he chose not to correct Rocky.

One night Rocky was in Grace’s house, fiddling with something while Grace was staring at the ceiling, deep in thought.

Rocky noticed and asked them “Grace mate thinking hard, Grace okay, Question?” Grace sat up quickly, their hands in their hair. With very little push back, they launched into an explanation of human gender and gender roles on Earth. And how Rocky referring to Grace by “they” made them happy in a way they hadn’t felt before and they weren’t sure if that was wrong or not.

Once Grace was done with their rant they had rubbed their face, clearly distressed.

Rocky paused for a moment, deep in thought before saying;

“Why is breaking rule bad thing if breaking rule make Grace happier, question? No human here to judge. Rule stupid, statement. Rocky wants Grace happy happy happy, if “he” make Grace sad, no more “he!” Simple fix.”

Rocky: Why has Grace's face changed? Why does Grace's face have a bump? CANCER????

Grace: oh thats acne Rocky. It happens when hormones go funny or if diet changes a bunch, and Ive recently gotten my hands on chocolate again. Synthesised but chocolate nonetheless.

Rocky: How? Skin is shield for humans.

Grace: how do I get it? Uh well, the skin is made up of these tiny tiny holes called pores-

Rocky *who is about ready to jump out of his carapace*: MANY HOLES?!?!?!!? IN YOUR SKIN?!?!?

Grace: jeez rocky chill, theyre super tiny and we have a lot of them and sometimes our natural skin oils can block them or make-up. But they wont kill me

Rocky: WHY DIDNT YOU TELL ME THIS SOONER HOLES IN YOUR PRIMARY DEFENCE?!!?!?!?

Grace: Well I thought I had told you to be fair.

Rocky: Im gonna have an aneurysm. Stupid human memory, Grace forgot he hadnt told me. *skittering away*

Grace: YOY CANT EVEN GET ANEURYSMS ROCKY!!!!

Sol was an only child. Incredibly rare for an Eridian, because they are so long lived and tend to have big families. But fertility issues happen on every planet.

Sol was raised by a grandparent because both parents are already gone (were they on the blip A maybe?).

When grandparent dies, Sol starts lashing out in class, which gets noticed by Grace (hypervigilant mandatory reporter Grace, my beloved).

Erid has no foster care or CPS system, because there is rarely a need for it on Erid. (Not because horrible things never happen or horrible parents dont exist, but simply because families are so large that there is usually an alternative caregiver within the family, and outside intervention never got developed).

But Sol doesnt have a big family. Their parents are gone. Their grandparents are gone. They have no siblings.

The only familial tie is a (genderneutral word for aunt/uncle) on the other side of the planet and Sol definitaly doenst want to move!

So, Grace decides to do some education and visits the Eridian Planetary Childcare, Development and Education Thrum. Grace gives them a lecture on Earth childcare and protections; the role of mandatory reporters, the universal rights of the child, CPS, foster care systems…

That last one raises the interest of the thrum. They start on setting up a system of rules and policies on how a foster system could work on Erid.

“It settled. Grace allowed to foster Sol.”

”Wait…what?”

“That not Grace goal, question? Grace develop Erid foster care system and not participate, question?”

“No, I'd love to, but, I mean… I’m an alien to them! Isn’t it better for Sol to grow up with fellow Eridians?”

“Grace not realise, Grace been raising pebbles since start teaching. Besides, foster system still new. No potential foster parents yet. Except Grace.”

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