hsquinlan’s hyperfixation stache

don't worry, that lil guy will keep trying until he gets it right

also i just know rocky is seething whenever he tries to talk about his feelings but the translator spits out some crude, chewed-up oversimplification of his confession that can still be reasonably construed as platonic. which grace absolutely does.

rocky: you are half of me, and i want us to be so inexplicably intertwined that it's hard to tell where i end and where you begin. love is too small of a word to encompass the depth of what i feel for you

translator: rocky love grace

Imagine Eva seeing Grace again.

Oh no no no don’t look at me like that. He’s not mad at her. He understands that she did her best in a horrible situation with no good answer. So no he’s not mad at her.

It’s so, so much worse than that.

Eva didn’t even realize the difference between Grace’s friendly and Grace’s politely cordial until suddenly she had experienced ‘friendly’ and sent him away, okay with never experiencing it again.

But then he comes back. And he IS friendly, downright loving towards the rock people following him around. But he’s politely cordial to Eva. He answers her questions when she asks them but doesn’t ask any of his own. He turns to the big brown rock when it chimes and tells it in that tone of affectionate disbelief, “Rocky, you can’t say that to her!” But then only tells Eva when she asks, “you don’t need to worry about what he said; he didn’t mean it, he’s just mad.”

Imagine Eva attempting to go for a hug when she first sees him again, and he either just tolerates it, or even worse, he politely tells her “not yet,” “not now,” or even just “no.”

It was easy to pull the lever when you thought you’d hear the trolley roll over one person you loved, and they’d scream and train wheels would roar and with a splat, that would be it. But no; the one life she threw under the trolley, even though it was someone close to her, closer than she ever let anyone else, did not die. He managed to escape and survive the trolley and even managed to make the universe a bigger, better place.

But now he’ll never forget the look on her face when she pulled the lever. And things will never, ever be how they were because even though it was justified and he understands and doesn’t blame her, it hurt, even though the trolley never touched him.

It was better when she thought she was killing her friend, because she wouldn’t experience his friendship again, and neither would anyone else.

Now, everyone gets to experience his friendship.

oh this is so peak... gracerocky inspiring a whole renaissance is crazy... they've introduced the concept of soulmates to eridian society and the romance scene will never be the same.

your eridian situationship can't text you back, but savior grace kept tracking the location of savior rocky's ship long after they parted and it's the only reason they managed to find each other again in the big nothing... okay...

I do think they develop a way for Rocky to hug Grace for real because guy clearly wants a real hug So Bad (and Rocky is learning that it can severely affect a human’s health to never have physical touch with another person. Which. Wild.) I also think Rocky is extremely neurotic about Keeping Grace Alive after everything so yes!! We will figure out way for Grace to get BEST hugs! This Is New Project. Will dedicate Full Time to solution.

Grace is definitely grateful and after getting his first hug in years and crying a lot about it, it probably takes him a while to realize that. Hey. What do Eridians do? What have you been missing like this from being all alone for decades? I know about watching each other sleep and I’m happy to do that for you, but is there anything you’ve been really missing this whole time?

Eridians don’t really cuddle as humans understand it, but turns out they do purr. Sort of. That’s the word Grace assigns it. It’s a low rhythmic sound loved ones will emit at each other in times of calm and relaxation that just means “I’m here, I’m close to you, I’m happy and safe and calm.” It conveys the same idea.

“Oh,” Grace says. “Humans have the idea of humming, is that similar?”

“Not really,” Rocky tells him. “Somewhat. Have heard Grace hum, not the same.”

Grace goes :( “Is there anything I could do that would make you feel the same way?”

“Yes,” says Rocky, and Grace perks up a little because he is also a little neurotic about this. “Human body is much louder than any Eridian’s body. Water inside Grace’s body is sloshing around all the time.” (“Thanks.” “Is true. Humans are sloshy leaky bags of water. Like baby. No carapace at all.”) “And loudest human sound is heartbeat. When Rocky first met Grace, was hard to concentrate because Grace’s heartbeat was so loud and so constant. Rocky wondered how humans ever made any science inventions driven crazy by constant big sound like that. Then got used to it. Blip-A was so quiet. Grace is loud and alive. Now feels like purr. Know Grace is alive and safe and present because Rocky can hear Grace’s heartbeat.”

This is just about the sweetest thing anyone has ever said to Ryland Grace and he probably starts crying again. Just a little bit.

So like she gets the recordings and realizes Yao and Ilyukina are dead before he wakes up so he’s got no pilot, no engineer, and no memories.

And then you also have to remember that the EXISTENCE of these recordings and the fact they were accompanied by the Taumoeba means that an amnesticized Grace somehow managed to save earth without a pilot or engineer and shoddy memory that only vaguely gives him enough to work with as he works.