Anonymous Star

Was inspired by the wonderful post by @hailed-marys so me and @sam-i-am-27 got possessed by the demons and came out with this. (NEXT)

HC list under the cut

Guards! Put the blond man in spandex in situations!

Rocky chose a hand to match Grace's scar!

I think it'd be really funny if Eric was actually a younger brother. So, like, maybe he's a duke, actually, but he still gets the title of Prince. Travels the sea a lot, unlike a more landlocked heir. Hanging out at this summer seaside palace while the rest of the family is elsewhere for some reason.

It's Soft and Warm by freman_wali!

POV: Picking clothes while being dyslexic 🥲✌️

(I’m pretty sure this whole comic sounded funnier in my head, so please forgive my rotten sense of humor)

—

PBS: Language as Prejudice - Myth #6: Women Talk Too Much (via misandry-mermaid)

Every EVERY women’s studies class I’ve been in has had this problem and failed to address it. 

This is because there are two parts to memories - their encoding and their recall. The encoding determines their availability, their recall determines their accessibility. The reason why trauma memory and childhood amnesia are different is in this distinction. Trauma memory is often encoded differently, bypassing to the limbic system where it is stored as intrinsic memory. It can’t be recalled because it was never encoded. Childhood amnesia, however, seems to indicate that the memories are encoded, but we lose access to them as we age. This is most likely due to the development of brain structures that fundamentally change our encoding and recall of memory as we get older.

Hey so yeah for my series on adopting an eridian with Ryland (you can find more about it on my ryland grace masterlist if unfamiliar), I've been doing hella research on Erid, Eridians, and also having to figure out behavior and biology of the pebbles because 1: I like to be accurate, and 2: Its fun :3

The basis for most of this is from the official PHM fandom Wiki, which most of that comes from Andy Weir himself. Additionally, I based a lot of the biology and behaviors on earth animals that primarily use echolocation, with baby bats as a main source of inspiration!

So anyways here is some of my shared research/headcanons/ideas that I'm going to be using for my fics!

The average pebble is around 5 inches in diameter. I did the math and using the ratio of a baby to an adult human (Which may not be the best animal ratio to use, but

Pebble's often get confused on their directions constantly. Eridians canonically are able to sense magnetic fields and inherently know which direction is North. Pebbles aren't the best at this quite yet, so they get confused a lot.

Object permanence is something the pebbles deal with as well. Their range of hearing is much smaller than that of an adult and are practically wandering blind half the time, and I want to think that this also applies to seeing through walls. They can't exactly see through walls just quite yet, as their hearing isn't that adept at doing so, so while you leave behind a wall, it may seem like you genuinely disappeared.

Pebbles cry whenever separated from a parent. Because of their survival instincts of wanting someone to watch them sleep, a pebble with freak out whenever a parent is not near them and will cry out for their parent. These cries get more desperate whenever they get sleepy or have just woken up and they are alone, as they do not feel safe and secure.

Baby food isn't that different from adult food. Adult eridians already have to butcher up a carcass and grind up the food into almost a paste. The main difference is that pebbles need it to be much more ground up, into practically a liquid. Additional nutrients can be given in the foods, such as certain minerals, usually for the carapace health of the pebble.

Pebbles like to babble. Just like almost all babies, they like to repeat back and mimic adults. This is how most babies learn how to speak and learn languages, so it only makes sense for the pebbles to babble too.

Pebbles molt/shed their shells as they grow. These outer layers are high in mineral value (same as their eggshells after they are born), and it is a common practice and encouraged for a pebble to eat their molt while they are still very young, as it is beneficial for their carapace health to maintain these minerals.

Molting/shedding is a difficult process. When the pebble is very, very young, you are able to help keep their skin moist to help gently ease off the outer layer. If these layers come off too early, it can be painful and cause bleeding and possibly cause malformations in future carapace growths. After they shed, their carapace is much softer, as it hasn't yet been exposed to the air. A moist environment is also helpful in this situation to help ease the hardening of the carapace.

Newborn pebbles eat once a day, compared to the adult feeding schedule being around a week or so. They cannot control ejecting the waste from their previous feeding cycle, so it is important to keep an eye on the pebble so that if they eject their waste, they can eat immediately, as their opening needs to seal as soon as possible to lessen any possible infections from the outside air.

Pebbles nap quite often. All eridians will go into a dormancy period after eating, as it conserves energy for digestion. Because of the frequent eating cycles, they will have a quick nap after eating. Because their opening is much smaller than that of an adult, who usually needs a few hours, a baby might only need an hour or so.

Pebbles also sleep for longer than an adult Eridian. Eridians sleep at irregular intervals based on availability on someone being able to watch over them. Since pebbles are almost constantly being monitored and are rarely alone, their intervals of dormancy and in-between dormant states are much shorter. They don't need to prolong the time in-between dormant states, unless prompted by the lack of monitoring. Usually, their dormant states are triggered after physical activity, such as playing.

When a pebble is sick or about to molt, dormant states are longer. This is due to the fact that they are needing to conserve more energy to prepare for a molt. Additionally, they need to be able to conserve energy for recovering from a sickness, so they will sleep for longer and with less time in-between these dormant states right before molting or when they are sick.

But brushing your teeth for 30 seconds is better than not brushing them at all when that 2 minutes seems exhausting.  Doing ten minutes of yoga is better than 10 minutes of sitting when 30 minutes of cardio sounds impossible.  Changing my clothes is good when a whole shower is impossible.  Standing on the porch for a few minutes is worth it after being in the house for three straight days because I don’t have the energy to go anywhere.

Like people make fun of middle aged women for not getting married or being divorced or "always the bridesmaid never the bride" and all like "oh she's desperate! No one wants her! Old maid!' but they become straight up hostile and upset when you tell them you never want to date.

The core wound of this demographic is being rejected and being relentlessly asked to stop your bullshit relative to romance and sex, and to get back in the ranks. The aroace definitely qualify.

And since being rejected is obviously a veeeeery common trauma in the queer community, and people tend to reenact unhealed patterns, it's not rare to see queer people rejecting other queer people with shit like biphobia, being picky with who "qualify" as trans, dismissing aroaces etc...

They were invested in the mision and dying even before they could fulfill their roles for the Project Hail Mary must be reason enough for them to have uncomplete things to do.

I like to think that they were accompaning Grace through his mission, giving him strenght to not lose his mind. That those moments in which he learned something about himself out of nowhere, or those sparks that lead them to solutions related to how to navigate Hail Mary were motivated by the efforts of Yáo and Ilyukhina to guide and help him.

Imagine with me:

Yáo and Ilyukhina not understanding they are dead at the start and thinking that they just wake up earlier (Yáo die first so he realize first in thinking this, when Ilyukhina dies Yáo explains to her that she did not survive the induced coma).

Yáo and Ilyukhina knowing that is cruel to wish for Grace to wake up sound and safe, just for him to be complete alone, but he is the only hope they have left.

Yáo and Ilyukhina feeling more at ease after Grace gives their corpses to the stars.

Ilyukhina been the most excited one about Rocky apparition, because she was an engineer and is just fascinated by what Rocky can do.

Yáo and Ilyukhina been indignated to have lost their chance to be part of the first contact in life.

Yáo trying to pass his knowledge as a captain to Grace, to ease his way with the controls.

Ilyukina been that little voice in Grace head of giving a chance to the Blip- A, that maybe they are friendly.

Yáo been a quiet force that supports Grace. There is point, at least in the book in which Grace seems to think that maybe he was brave, but he doesn't remember it, maybe that thought came from Yáo who believed that anyone could be brave.

All those little moments of luck been Ilyukhina and Yáo trying to influence so Rocky and Grace can have a successful mission.

Both ghosts, but specially Yáo bringing bad energies the moment they realize that Grace was sent against his will.

Ilyukhina crossing to the other side in peace the moment that realize that Rocky is the new engineer and that Grace has made the taumeba been able to survive Venus and the eridiani-2 planet.

Yáo crossing to the other side in peace when Grace decides to go rescue Rocky, because he can finally see Grace been truly brave for someone he cares.

Extra + Rocky

If Grace has 2 ghosts taking care of him, Rocky has 22.

22 eridian ghosts noticing the Hail Mary first and making it more noticiable for Rocky (maybe they made subtle sounds or vibrations so Rocky would have a better picture of it).

The Blip-B and Blip-C having a perfect trajectory to the Hail Mary thanks to the 22 eridian ghosts.

22 eridian ghosts celebrating that their single survivor has been able to be part of the first contact.

The Hail Mary been the home of 22 eridian ghosts who come in all the sizes and shapes.

22 eridian ghosts been fascinated with the alien that Grace is and how leaky he is.

22 eridian ghosts concentrating their efforts so Rocky is able to recover after been burn by the oxygen.

22 eridian ghosts using their best clothes (they are ghosts they can wear whatever they want) as a celebration for having succed in doing the taumeba.

22 eridian ghosts not knowing what to do once Blip-A starts failing and Rocky is left without astrophage.

22 eridian ghosts crossing to the other side in peace once they hear the knock outside the Blip-A, because Grace is here.

Extra Extra:

Guess who's back? CRACK! Here's a fresh-off-the-press drawing of a fully grown Skittle! Feel free to ask me about them!

I had a lot of fun making this. Thank you all for being so kind and supportive while I took my break. I have many exciting things coming in the near future! Finishing up Skittle's comic, sketch dumps, a new Simon-focused angsty bloodymary comic... all the goods :)

Hewwo @twiggyart6 👋

I have very normal feelings about your Eridian Grace AU, I love it a normal amount and I would love to have some very normal conversations about it. I do not bite.

Here's some fanart and thoughts