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THE MENTALIST

to @theonecalledrue from your secret santa!

* New student, very small. Grace said it was pebble. Pebble is small Earth rock. Pebble likes name.

* He found out Eridians have no gender rules.

* Students brought him mineral sample. After he stopped crying he said he loves show-and-tell game. Human naming conventions oddly literal.

* I told him Earthsun grew bright.

* I took him up atop atmosphere bypass elevator to look at stars.

* He woke up from nap and found me still with him. I did not wait on his chest; he says I am heavy like “elephant” and he “couldn’t breathe.” I laid my arm over him instead, kept him close, feeling safe. He said “cuddle” was warm.

* Before class he heard younglings singing.

* He has plants in house from sprouts on ship. Plant grew “bud.”

* Engineers got seawater temperature right. He took off shoes and stood in water, sighing. He didn’t care about pants getting damp. Cried until shirt was also damp. Humans very endlessly wet.

* He missed “Doritos.”

* Adrian helped food scientists make taumoeba dried paste. Made it crunchy after heating. We fused it into triangle form. Told him it was Tauritos. That made him laugh-cry. Laugh-cry is rare and precious.

* He remembered Eridians have no gender rules.

* We made him celebration outfit. Used metals he calls pretty. He can see frequencies named “colorful” and “shiny.” These make humans happiest.

* I gave him hug when he wasn’t expecting it. Easier to hug close now with exosuit. Hug when Grace sitting down so he does not fall over.

“What wrong with Grace internal temperature, question?”

“Grace sick, question?”

“GRACE DYING, QUESTION?”

So you have to explain what you actually meant and Rocky’s all like “Eridian word for that is ♩♩♬.”

You put it into the computer with a smile and a nod and a second later—-

but also. adrian is fucking Smart, near definitely also an engineer. ive seen some people depict them as like "autistic nerd and model wife" and like. ignoring the unnecessary gendering of adrian and therefore misogyny, no. they are both smart as fuck. adrian is working on the biodome. on stuff that rocky clearly doesnt know much abt bc he says "ill have to ask them."

genuinely 100% believe they met in the eridian version of college. can you imagine. two engineers at the top of their classes fighting for the top and suddenly adrian is just like. Oh No. i HAVE to get that autistic bitch. adrian the hot and intelligent perfect student that everyone at that college wants suddenly rejecting every proposal and not going on dates and just.. following around their academic rival. purring like a cat. rocky the intelligent but twinky and autistic af student just being like. adrian i LOVE being your friend. :). eventually they figure it out.

also, some canon backing to the got together in college idea: rocky is about 291; him and adrian have been together for 186 years, that means they got together when rocky was either 105 or 65, depending on if you count the 40 years rocky spent in space (i dont; given the "its not enough" line, implying rocky only counted the years they were physically together.) considering graces students are 30 and he taught middleschool (12) back home, id say 30 is around half way to maturity. so reaching maturity is around 45-60.

- Was eventually trialed by governments of the world as a scapegoat and sent to prison

- She somehow BROKE out of said prison and currently commandeers a rogue paramilitary faction of Project Hail Mary loyalists who believe in her over world governments, who presumably are still hunting her down

- She currently is on the run and staying mobile on an ice breaker ship like some kind of james bond villain base (but you know, good) while STILL working on project hail mary the whole time

- Her rogue loyalist faction controlled enough resources they could go to space and collect the beetles Grace had sent. Alternatively, it was the world government that collected the beetles, and Stratt had a whole ass heist movie to steal them, which is why she had the little xenonite figure at the end of the movie. Either ways she was running circles around them.

This moment is so dear to me I want to cry. First of, Grace is so gentle with him? Something something kindness literally saves the world (two worlds, in this case). Also, you just KNOW that Grace is that teacher in whose classroom the kids go to cry when they feel like the whole world has turned against them.

But secondly, "I'm a science human"! Because yeah. None of them is the other's weird alien dog. None of them is the "smart one" (or rather, they both are). They can't do this without each other. They complement each other. They need each other to succeed, there's no other way. That's the whole point! Cooperation! Connection! Working together!

Hope core at its finest.

and grace who is so alien, but reflects eridian mannerisms that they've never considered strange before but coming from a creature so soft and strange, it just doesn't feel right. grace who stomps his foot twice when he asks a question, and it rings out flat and dull instead of the strong, sharp sound of an eridian hand on the ground. grace whose voice is so alien, so one-note, so full of articulations that are sharp and round and everywhere in between, but who echoes the melodies of eridian poetry and music, sometimes on accident but sometimes perfectly in time with what rocky translates him as saying, and later, perfectly in time with his keyboard.