get jinxed!

in canon...

...i don't think he would've had a type specialty, or even very many pokémon before he was sent up. i imagine his focus was always more on research than actually training pokémon himself... until the petrova taskforce and the hail mary, where suddenly he would've encountered pokémon he would've otherwise only ever read about.

thievul i like to think he would've grown up with--we've all collectively decided foxes are grace's thing, after all. not a lot of lore here; i just like the idea of his first partner being a nickit, and it growing up with him. i think it would've been a late bloomer, only evolving into thievul around the time he asks to be part of the petrova taskforce.

reuniclus he would've met in undergrad as a solosis, and they've been together ever since. i like to imagine it evolved into reuniclus around the time he finished his phd, as if they were growing and learning together. it just fits so perfectly.

solrock is pretty self-explanatory; it's an extraterrestrial pokémon that looks like the sun. however, i did find in it's pokédex entries that "on sunny days, groups of solrock line up facing the sun and absorb its light" and that they release intense light and heat, which felt thematically perfect regarding the petrova line and astrophage... and since we're talking about the petrova line here, i imagine this one to be shiny.

metang was the closest thing i could find to armando/the nannybot, and i thought it was fitting; grace felt intimidated by armando at first, which suits metang being a little dangerous and alien-looking, but soon grew accustomed to and almost companionable with it. i think it's probably quite a stern, mission-focused pokémon, having been assigned there by dr. lamai and focused solely on caring for the comatose hail mary crew, but that it loosens up as it grows closer to grace. after moving into the biodome on erid, it finally evolves into metagross--the eridians LOVE this.

beheeyem he has a complicated relationship with, because it was originally stratt's--she sent it up on the hail mary to mess with grace's memories so he didn't sabotage the mission (as per its pokédex entries). on the one hand, he resents it for the distress the memory loss caused him, and because it reminds him of stratt and that's a can of worms in and of itself... but at the same time, he sympathises with it; both of them were sent up without any say in the matter, after all, and stratt being willing to send her own partner to space shows her commitment to solving the astrophage crisis, no matter the cost. it also fit the space theme perfectly as the literal 'alien' pokémon; i like to think it came to earth during roswell (as suggested in elgyem's pokédex entries), and was hidden away in area 51 until the petrova taskforce came together.

and last, but by no means least... we have boldore as our beloved rocky. i like to imagine erid as a planet of almost exclusively rock-types; many (like rocky) are from the roggenrola line, but i can also imagine nosepass, regirock, naclstack, stakataka... you get the idea. i'd imagine they're more advanced than earth's pokémon, and have their own societies etc—so he'd still be grace's equal, and they wouldn't have a typical 'trainer-pokémon' relationship. i think he'd evolve into a gigalith once he and grace return to erid, as if he's 'traded' decades away from home in exchange for all his new knowledge and experiences while in space.

but in another life, if he'd never ended up on the hail mary...

...i think he'd have been a normal-type specialist, seeing how he's just a normal guy. lots of cute and cuddly, first-stage pokémon; they're great with kids (i think he'd get them involved in class a lot), and we know he's a bit of a 'head in the clouds' dreamer himself. pokémon that aren't quite grown up would suit him, i think.

nickit shares much of its reasoning with thievul from the other team; i like to think that in this universe, since grace never went up and never experienced all he did (while also staying as a teacher, necessitating 'kid-friendly' pokémon), nickit likewise chose not to evolve.

helioptile is a cute first-stage pokémon, and it fit his astronomy vibe while keeping with the normal-type theme. can definitely see him bringing it to class when he's teaching about renewable energy.

cyclizar is more utilitarian than anything else; we know he cycles to work (in the movie, anyway--though i didn't read otherwise in the book), and it's a normal-type. not much else to say, though i think as a scientist he'd have a lot of thoughts on its evolution and the possibility of it being a 'missing link' between koraidon and miraidon.

teddiursa, like helioptile, checks the boxes for being cute, first-stage normal types with an astronomy theme.

porygon is more a relic of his academia days, which i deliberately steered away given how in this universe, he made a point of stepping away from that life and never went back. nevertheless, porygon's been his buddy since his university days; it helped him with research and experiments, and now with marking and classroom practicals. also, i think, symbolic of how he never totally left research behind; he just made teaching a priority.

haven't read the book (yet, it is on the way!!!), but i couldn't help myself LMAO i'll make a part 2 once i do because i KNOW it'll give me more ideas.

i think his fine motor skills are stronger than his gross ones, generally. his handwriting's decent, if only because of how often he uses it in the classroom. gross motor skills, though? diabolically bad. he'll trip over everything and nothing, bump into doors, counters, other people.

on the petrova taskforce, and later the hail mary, he struggles a lot in the hazmat suits and his spacesuit because he's just so much bulkier than he's used to.

he's forever bumping his head on rocky's xenonite tunnels, no matter how long they've been there for.

he can tie his shoelaces; it just takes him a minute. if he's only going to be moving around a little bit, he doesn't usually bother.

he's a VERY visual thinker; he finds drawing things out works best, but anything goes as long as it's physically in front of him. super creative to boot, and loves classroom crafts.

it works great for his kids too, and later rocky and the eridians. he LOVES showing things in action and getting them involved in experiments and crafts, versus just talking at them and expecting them to understand it.

on the hail mary, he's DELIGHTED to find the puppet shows work for rocky, because they work SO well for him as well. they'll do them for each other whenever something's getting lost in translation.

his working memory and organisation isn't great; he loses things like his keys often anyway, but if something's not in its designated spot? gone forever.

on earth, he lived by calendars, post-it notes and notes app lists to keep him on time and on track. everything from parent-teacher conferences to shopping lists had to be written down. it helped significantly, but he'd still forget something or other most days.

on the hail mary he prefers keeping the centrifugal gravity going as often as possible when he and rocky are doing 'big science', because as soon as they move into zero gravity everything floats around and he cannot find anything.

i do think this becomes slightly more of an issue after he hits his head jettisoning the fuel tanks near adrian.

i think he would've been diagnosed later in life, maybe as an undergrad student; he was always pretty academic despite how much he would've struggled, so nobody took much notice growing up. i think he would've pursued it partly out of curiosity, just to know why he is the way he is.

some of his low self-esteem stems from growing up feeling like there was something wrong with him, because he couldn't do the things other kids could. he struggled badly with sports, and would find ways to get out of doing them (took up science extracurriculars, etc).

on the hail mary, this shows up when he's doing his pilot training with rocky. he's usually endlessly patient, but struggling to control the ship hits a sore spot, especially with rocky teasing him (not that he knows any better, of course). they have a talk, and once he understands, rocky lays off a bit.

he's always covered in bruises, and can rarely tell where they've come from. armando frets over him endlessly.

it's not something he's ashamed of (anymore), nor something he advertises; it's just part of him. if he needs accommodations, he'll ask for them.

as a teacher, he had slightly longer to tidy and set up his classroom between lessons.