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Some fanart of the Fanfic "In the Shadow of Legends" over on Ao3.

Not my art, but drawn by someone I know :)

Original meme images below the cut.

Edit: Fixed the duplicated image

The Eridian Governments: wtf WTF wtF???

The Eridian Scientists: *celebrating like they've won the intersteller lottery*

THREE MONTHS LATER

Things Rocky does when he got back from Adrien that weirds out other Eridians:

He (subconsciously) picked a facet of his body as his "face" and turns it sometimes to orient towards people or objects he's paying a lot of attention to or concentrating on. 

That thing I've seen Chinese people on social media discuss where they use their own characters to reproduce an English word phonetically, with the actual meaning being a fun sidepoint. Rocky reproducing his closest approximation of words without existing Eridian equivalents (relativity, caffeine, all the colours) that sound like gibberish or odd mashes of existing Eridian terms. 

Thumbs up (down)

Making "random" components of structures transparent for no apparent reason (Grace can't be here, Grace will never be in this part of Erid, but if he were, he'd be able to see)

The Eridian word for "See" is probably something to do with detecting light. Rocky would use this odd, scientific phrase the way a human uses "Oh, I see!" to mean "Oh, I understand." Like someone saying "I've used a Geiger counter to verify the radioactivity of this abstract concept" when they mean, "I get it."

You need to be Silent when watching someone sleep because you could wake them up. A completely incomprehensible idea to Eridians.

You discovered it, you get to name it! No, actually you're Not allowed to call the new molecule "Low Friction, high thermal stability two-parts-carbon-to-four-parts-fluorine" try naming it after your pebble!

1, 2, 3, eyes on me! (Eyes being another phonetically assimilated word)

Thank about it. Rocky's a spitfire and bounces off the walls at baseline and they looked at that little autistic, bossy ball of energy and went 'yes. that's them. the creature I want to spend the next 500+ years with'. They have to at LEAST match their energy somewhat. And if you think you wouldn't be a fucking ball of PTSD and bitterness at your culture and society after fifty plus years of not knowing they were alive or dead, you're fucking operating on moon logic. Honestly, Adrian and the other families were probably begging for a rescue mission that never happened for various political and logical reasons; and while it probably would have ended in mass fatalities as well, so thank goodness that figurative and literal ship never got off the ground, the fact that it didn't happen probably burns more than a little, reasonable or unreasonable.

So one day Adrian gets some Eridian diplomat on their doorstep, and they're expecting the formal condolences at long last, but instead they go into this whole spiel of ' so. So! Turns out twenty two of the original crew died, but your mate survived! When did they die? Oh, early on, so your mate was submerged in crippling and literal deafening loneliness for over four decades; and now he's back and acting weird, and he's become codependent with this weird fragile squishy human being that's the only reason he came back at all, and he's refusing to send down the cure unless we make the blob an aquarium. Could you come to the space elevator and tell him to stop being so unreasonable?' If that were MY mate? I'd fucking lose it.

Just throwing things at this poor messenger and shrieking like " Oh! Oh!! So it's somehow Rocky's fault that you're refusing to take a few months out of the several hundred Eridian years we have left to ship the cure we already have to Threeworld before things actually become problematic to make sure one of the two saviors of our entire species doesn't die?! To give the sole survivor of the mission--my mate, who's been alone and in silence, with no one to watch him sleep, for hundreds of years--some sort of solace and peace?! And you're wondering why he's acting erratically?! Maybe you wouldn't be in this position at all if you'd sent the rescue mission for which we've pleaded for years at every single thrum! I don't care if this Grace thing is a literal giant space amoeba; get the fuck out of my house and tell the powers that be to give it literally everything it wants and needs!" And they're all 'be reasonable' and Adrian's like " I've been reasonable for hundreds of Eridian years, and you would not be in this situation if you'd actually sent a rescue mission and not simply wrung your claws and hoped for the best, so fucking live in the nest you made. All I'm going to do if you get me on the radio with Rocky right now is tell him he's doing amazing and give him advice on how to properly parboil the Taumoeba so that you can't even recover even the slightest scrap of DNA if you don't give the flesh blob that saved his life and saved OUR lives PLURAL goddamn vitamins." Like, they think it's bad that Rocky basically stands over Grace's sleeping body and hisses? Wait until they get the MUCH LARGER ERIDIAN doing that for Grace and Rocky. Wait until the much large Eridian leads the families of the dead twenty-two crewmates to the space elevator to riot because this sure sounds like a coverup to them!! This sure sounds like the deflection of blame on the sole survivor!! This sure sounds like the same paralysis that left them to die alone in space because you didn't want to admit failure!! Yes, I know, I'm weaving some sort of political intrigue plot that probably doesn't exist in canon. All I'm saying is that you all are missing the delicious implications of a mission that went radio silent for fifty plus earth years with no word from the government and no obvious attempt at rescue, followed by your partner coming home with the only being that's been around to watch him sleep since the rest of the crew died forty-some years ago, and people are calling him weird and changed. You'd be horrified. You'd be sick.

It’s the closest thing to show biz on Erid. The orchestra and actors are the stars and divas of culture. Of course someone writes an opra about Rocky meeting the alien Grace and saving the stars together.

The casting call to play Rocky would be so cut throat. And Rocky can’t really give any opinion on who to pick since he’s been out of the pop culture loop for 50 years. (A fact the writers use in writing the script. Purposely giving Rocky dated Eridian slang.)

As for Graces actor, the theater’s master puppeteer becomes invested in making as accurate a puppet as possible to play their alien. In the end they would create a puppet where, instead of stuffing, it is filled with sacks and tubes full of fluid. Including an air pump to churn it and a constant beating of what would be a human heart. The puppeteer tries to capture just how horrifyingly alien Grace is in the best way for Eridians, through sound design.

And that’s just the puppet for the actors to interact with. For the audience, I could see the orchestra Amplifying the sounds of the human body during scenes like when Grace hugs Rocky. Or used for laughs when Rocky points out how flawed the human body is as he describes it to the audience.

Actual Rocky being a puppeteer nerd as a pebble. So when the theater gets approval to send the Opera stars to meet Rocky and Grace during the press tour, Rocky straight up pushes past the glamorous opera divas to meet the puppeteer instead.

Rocky is excited to share with them the fact that so much his and Grace earliest communication was through puppet shows.

but movie stratt/grace. god.

movie eva isn’t cold. she’s guarded. painfully, deliberately guarded. until the mask slips and, for one dangerous moment, she thinks she might get to keep him.

she cares about him. she knows she cannot afford to care about him. and she does it anyway.

she sends him because she has to. and it hurts because it’s right. and it hurts because it’s him.

and his goodbye message being so gentle??? no rage. no cruelty. not even the satisfaction of blame. just this awful, beautiful understanding. he knows she was right. he knows what she chose. and he doesn’t make her carry his anger too.

rocky: GRACE CALL ROCKY DUMB

grace: no, what i said was that you dont understand! not because of intelligence! you literally just dont have this on erid so i-

rocky: GRACE CALL ROCKY BIG DUMB IDIOT!!!! TELL GRACE NOT BE MEAN TO ROCKY!!

stratt: grace dont be mean to rocky

grace: why do you always take his side

rocky: GRACE CALL ROCKY DUMB

grace: no, what i said was that you dont understand! not because of intelligence! you literally just dont have this on erid so i-

rocky: GRACE CALL ROCKY BIG DUMB IDIOT!!!! TELL GRACE NOT BE MEAN TO ROCKY!!

stratt: grace dont be mean to rocky

grace: why do you always take his side

Colt’s shooting some stunt work in San Fran and asks his brother to come to set to visit him, and also to introduce him to Jody, the cute camera operator he’s crushing on hard! Ryland of course says “yes!” And makes his way to set.

Jody sees him at craft services and for a split second thinks “Colt’s dressed weird today?” Before remembering that he’s currently in a rehearsal for a defenestration stunt and that this guy must be the brother he’s been talking about. (Based on my own experience as a twin, I take every opportunity to talk about my sister when I’m at work. But that’s a post for a different day) So she makes her way over to him because he’s looking a little lost. He very quickly tells her that he’s looking for Colt… Mr Seavers? Whatever he’s going by, and she lets him know where his brother is.

“Oh good, that’s good.” He says white knuckling a coffee cup like his life depends on it. He’s so nervous! Is it the stunt his brother’s about to do? No this is something else. She asks him what’s up and he’s so jittery awkward about it and she’s been so nice when everyone else has just been stupid busy and running around like headless chickens that he just word vomits that Colt’s not the only person he’s here to see.

“He wants me to meet his new… girlfriend? She’s a camera operator, you might know her actually. Jody Moreno?”

And oh. Oh ho ho! He DOESN’T KNOW SHE’S JODY!! Oh this is juicy! She should tell him who she is … but this is more fun. So she plays along and leads him to where Colt is all the while asking leading questions like “So Colt’s pretty serious about this girl huh?” And “Does he talk about her often?” (The answers are “UH YEAH HE’S SERIOUSLY IN LOVE WITH HER!” And “He literally never shuts up about her, it’d be annoying if it wasn’t so sweet” but Ry has at least some restraint to not blurt out his brother’s biggest feelings to the… techie? Yeah techie next to him)

Eventually they get to set and Colt’s about to do his stunt when they get there and he’s so excited to see his brother who he’s not seen in MONTHS! When he realises that… oh shoot. He’s been so wrapped up in his own nerves that he never asked her for her name! What a jerk!

“Thank you so much for helping me, I’m so sorry, I never got your name?”

Both Colt and Court work high danger jobs, and sometimes Ryland does too. His is just working with dangerous chemicals or unknown substances before he became a teacher.

But I love the idea that Ryland had his own adrenaline fueled dangers acts too

"oh yeah, I could never do donuts until Ryland showed me," Colt admits to Jody at night, sitting on a set that was getting refined for another shot.

"your brother? The one that came four weeks ago? With the glasses and chemical compound pun t-shirts?" Jody asked, resting her arms over her mounted dolly camera.

A Bloodymary Coltland Gentry AU

Fic/Comic Plot points. Below ⬇️

-Grace goes to Australia after Jody calls him about Colt arriving on set. He gets kidnapped immediately after landing and given a low dose of the amnesia drug. Tom Ryder tries to convince him that they are dating (One sided Starstruck lmao), and that his twin brother (Colt) is a murderer. Grace doesn’t really believe him even with amnesia. He runs away after he over hears a phone call between Ryder and Gail about plotting the amnesia, and then crashes into Simon who was looking for him after because he owed 6 (Courtland) a favor. Grace trusts Simon immediately because wth why not, all he has on him is the clothes on his back, no cellphone, so he’s gonna trust the cool looking guy who says he knows his brother (not specifying which one mind you.) over the guy who gave him amnesia. Simon just got out of jail after being wrongly accused (framed for the murder of sixty-two people) by his cult. He doesn’t really want to join the Sierra Program but Court vouched for him so he works effectively for Court until he decides if he wants to join.

-Simon was supposed to just keep a watch after Grace. Grace at this point is semi-famous because he helped save the world from a micro-organism (idk not astrophage) with his work/bestfriend Rocky (Idk some science shit) but he lost Grace after he was kidnapped at the airport. At this point Colt was so close to meeting Ryland, he’s going through the whole unicorn chase then finding Henry’s dead body. Meanwhile Ryland is trying to remember anything besides Rocky, because he stole a decorative paperweight (it looks like Rocky from the PHM movie) holding down an obscene amount of sticky notes, he only remembers Rocky, not even Colt really. He knows he cares for a Colt but can’t remember why, he also knows that Ryder is after both of them.

-Simon tries to convince Grace to lay low because of his memory issues before he remembers one of the sticky notes Tom wrote about framing colt. Now Simon has to protect both Colt and Grace, he tries to contact Courtland but he doesn’t answer. So now Simon agrees to find Colt but won’t tell Grace why he’s helping for his own motivations besides owing his brother a favor. Grace and Simon try to go chase after Colt, meanwhile Colt is doing stunts and highway chases. Simon and Grace are on the street when the car chase happens (they heard from the stunt coordinators that everyone was going to karaoke, they went to set but just missed Colt, when they went to Karaoke he didn’t show up so they left), they try to find Colt but fail.

-Grace at this point is remembering more, but is slowing down due to sleep deprivation. Simon lets Grace nap in the car while he drives around looking for leads, he tries to contact Courtland and he manages to get a message out, Courtland then flies to Australia. Simon then wakes up Grace and they realize that Colt could be at Ryder’s place. So they go stake out his place. When they get there they sneak in to see the place trashed. They knock out a security guard and look at the monitors. They see the dead people (from extended edition of the fall guy movie) and colt spitting fire (gasoline) at the bad guys on the boat dock. They try to chase after them but have to hide due to Ryder’s body guards, Simon’s main job is to protect Grace so he doesn’t think twice before hiding them, in this he looses his phone too. They hear the explosion and Grace thinks the worse and then remembers the Miami Vice stunt and believes he’s alive. Simon will believe anything Grace says because if there’s a chance that Colt isn’t dead then he isn’t going back to jail, Courtland is kinda intimidating. Grace thinks of where colt might go after the explosion, he thinks of Jody, who he now remembers is Colt’s ex-Girlfriend/Ex-situationship/love of his life?

-Simon and Grace go to set to find Jody, they have to sneak in because Grace looks exactly like Colt and that would cause a stir, (there’s a news broadcast that Ryland went missing and is suppected kidnapped by colt because Ryder told the cops this as a way to get Grace back.) Grace and Simon get to Jody first and Jody for a second thinks he’s colt but then gets sad. They talk, Simon makes a phone call to Courtland from Jody’s phone. Colt sneaks in as an alien and Jody and Ryland tackle him. Simon helps but then realizes that it’s Colt and grabs Grace, Grace panics and they tussle for a bit. Jody realizes that it’s also Colt. They both have their moments with their respective partners, (Grace and Colt hug after Grace remembers him fully), Simon realizes he likes that Grace knows basic combat takedown techniques. Then Gail bangs on the door, they quickly shuffle Simon and Colt into the back of the trailer but Ryland doesn’t get back in time. He quickly tells Jody that he is supposed to have amnesia and they plan to act along with it. (Very badly)(Simon and Colt are listening to their bullshitery, Colt does the asl and the “no” movements like in the movie, Simon tries to drag him back so that Jody and Grace don’t laugh. Gail leaves and then they plan out the shoot. Jody and Grace leave Simon and Colt. Grace gets checked out by the set medics, they check for the drugs in his system and find it, Grace mostly remembers everything now (except for Courtland lol) he lies to the medics and the cops, still telling them about the amnesia.

-It’s Operation “Time Go Catch a Murderer!” “We are not calling it that.” Ryder gets to set and his guards are crawling everywhere, he gets real dramatic and asks why Ryland left him, Jody is recording this secretly for evidence that Ryder abducted him. He drags Grace away and he bullshits his way through an explanation saying that he found a rock and he remembered something. Ryder gets real scared for a second until Grace says it was about his friend rocky and how he found a rock next to Ryders bed thinking it was his. (Grace does this to secretly keep the rock, he thinks Rocky would like it when he goes home.) Ryder lies saying it is his and asks where he was for the past day and a half. Grace says that he wandered around because he was lost and could not remember where Tom’s boat was (not a lie), took a nap in a random car (kinda a lie), and then found a stranger(Simon) willing to take him to Jody because he remembered her (not a lie.) In this Grace is trying really hard not to sweat under the pressure of Ryder and his gang. Grace is then guided (read taken again) to Gail and is kept under watch by the goons.

-The climax of the Fall Guy movie happens the same way with the exception that Simon and Grace are fighting the ground goons when the car chase begins. Simon sees Grace getting threatened by a gun and acts out of pure instinct, he gets shot. (He’s wearing a prosthetic arm and gets shot there.) He feigns being dead and Grace huddles over him, this is a rouse to get the bad guy to let his guard down so Simon can wack him with one of the prop guitar guns. (At this point the ground goons still want Grace alive per Tom Ryder’s orders) Grace sees that Simon is alive and yells at him or some shit, they kiss all romantic like, again idk romance. The helicopter is going sporadic, Simon + Grace + Jody and the rest of the crew are helping move the truck with the rescue stunt air bag when Courtland arrives. Courtland was not informed of the plan and is like “WTF is going on lil bro” and Grace is like “woah who da frick r u and why do u look like me and Colt.” Court realizes Simon forgot to tell Grace that he was coming and Simon at the same time forgot to tell Grace that Court was his older brother at all. Court asks where Colt is and they both dumbly point up in the air. Court is done with this shit and sees Colt nearly fall out of the helicopter, all of them on the ground wait with baited breath until Colt does his wicked ass fall into Jody’s arms and they kiss. the end.

Cort wakes up first, he got put into the coma first to keep any chance of him fighting back to a minimum. He's also the quickest to realize what happened too, due to his Sierra training and missions.

Colt and Ryland wake up pretty much at the same time, with Ryland waking about three minutes before Colt. (I think Ryland's the younger twin, so some irony or something to him waking first)

Ryland is obviously freaking out, he's got no memories, doesn't even know his name. But there's two people here, they both look so similar to him and they're both so familiar that it hurts his head.

Colt is the one who calms him down. Cort tries, but Ryland and Colt were closer on earth than Cort was to them.

They spend a few hours, maybe even days since they're kinda stuck up there, talking about the problem, Ryland's memories, the mission, and what's probably least important, Cort's whole "dead not dead" thing. They never discussed it on Earth, but now they've got time.

Ryland doesn't really know how to feel about it, he doesn't remember Cort leaving him, hell he barely remembers that they're brothers. Due to repressing childhood memories and the amnesia drug.

Colt and Cort argue about it when Ryland's asleep Though it's less arguing and more Colt making Cort explain the Sierra program and why he didn't me tell them he was alive. (He understands, it hurts, but he understands)

Then Tau Ceti. And Rocky. (I haven't actually seen PHM, but I'm reading the book so most knowledge comes from there)

Colt is the pilot. Since he was the risk specialist, he was the one testing a lot of equipment, including, I imagine, a version of the Hail Mary, he's familiar with the Captain's seat is what I'm saying. Cort is the co-pilot, though he's mostly just watching the monitors while Colt moves away from Rocky's ship.

When Rocky sends over the first canister, there's a brief argument about who goes to get it (Colt: I'm a stunt man, I can get it, Cort: A stunt man does not mean you're good for space travel! I'm older, I'll go get it. Ryland: I mean.. I could get it? Colt and Cort: No.)

Cort gets the canister while Colt watches as backup. Ryland does his whole idiot genius thing to figure out the canister.

Ryland refuses to be left on the ship when Rocky connects the two tunnels. First contact with aliens, of course he’s gonna go meet them! So all three end up in the tunnel to meet Rocky. Colt wasn’t going to be left on the ship either. Incase the alien tried to eat them or something.

Rocky is delighted to meet the brothers, going from being alone to having three people to watch him sleep, and they’re also here to solve the dying stars problem. Eridian equivalent of a dream come true!

Ryland and Colt are quick to get along with Rocky, Cort is a little more wary but even he slowly warms up to Rocky because it’s obvious they’re all in the same boat.

Rocky entering the ship is just as funny as it is in canon. With the bonus of three Goslings chasing after him. Cort is cautious about their new roommate. Rocky has decided all three need to be taken care of because “Leaky space blobs don’t know how to take care of themselves”

Yes I’m including the alien mandated bedtime. Ryland especially has problems with this, he has science stuff he needs to do and now his brothers are teaming with his new best alien friend to force him to sleep.

The brothers take turns watching Rocky sleep.

During one "night" Cort and Rocky bond over keeping watch. Because Cort has always kept watch over the twins even when they didn't know he was alive, and obviously keeping watch is important for Eridians. Both were signs of love and protection.

Rocky comments on the brother’s similar looks. It isn’t until they’re able to see a movie that Rocky believes them when they say that not all humans look like them. (He’s seen three of them! That’s like seeing three identical Eridians, there are assumptions that will be made!)

Rocky and Colt get along fantastically, teasing Ryland and Cort.

Ryland does eventually remember Cort leaving him and Colt, and he too has his discussion about why. Like Colt, he understands but is still hurt. The conversation ends with Ryland hugging Cort and sobbing. (Rocky worries about Ryland leaking, but he’s also getting used to Ryland crying. Just some light teasing.)

Colt does the fishing, Cort is piloting. This was a five minute argument. Ryland and Rocky watched like it was a tennis match before Rocky commented on the stupidity of arguing who is going fishing.

Like in canon, there’s the brief moment where everyone thinks they’re going home and then the toumeaba eat through the xeonite.

I think they’d still turn back to save Rocky. None of them want to leave Rocky to die, even if it means never seeing Earth again. Colt sends a message to Jody in one of the Beetles. With express instructions that only Jody is allowed to see it.

So obviously, Ryland gets recruited to the Hail Mary Project. Well, Colt gets brought onto as a risk specialist. This doesn’t happen until after Stratt realizes that Ryland has the coma gene, and you know the whole identical twin thing. Gotta have back ups. As the project continues to gain attention, it’s obviously gonna get some negative attention. Because one thing humans are good at, it’s disagreeing on things, even if it means saving the world. So Sierra Six gets sent in as a bodyguard for Ryland.

Ryland and Colt are definitely hurt and angry because they hadn’t seen their big brother since he killed their father and they had been told he was dead. There was one fic I read with Cort as Ryland’s bodyguard where Ryland was pissed at Cort (rightfully so) and I am thus incorporating that into this little headcanon au. Just with the added Coltland twins angst. I don’t think it’d take long for the twins to, maybe not forgive, but to let things rest. Because there’s a planet to save and their little family is together for the first time in decades, so there’s more important things to go on.

A lot of things stay mostly the same, just with added Coltland gentry brotherly shenanigans. Like Cort getting Ryland to sleep, or Colt playing some moderate pranks, enough to be funny but not enough to impede the important work going on.

And then the explosion, both the main and backup scientists are dead. And while it’d kinda make no sense, and it kinda pains me to kill more people off, I’d say pretty much both main and backup crew might have to be dead. Cause there’s only three crew members, and conveniently three Goslings. But the brothers get told they have to go up into space. There’s no choice, well there’s the three hour decision period but we all know how that ends.

Obviously, Ryland doesn’t want to go, Colt has Jody, and while Cort’s concerns are his brothers (This would either take place before Gray Man, or Fitz lived and Claire lives with him still, love her and Cort, but he’s getting shipped to space here). So they’re gonna do the escape attempt.

Cort’s got his gun, and training, so he provides cover for the twins to get away. Someone gets a (really) lucky shot, he goes down and the twins are pretty close to follow.

Ryland is still the only one to get the whole amnesia thing (much to the anger of Colt and Cort) cause angst. Can’t have a Coltland gentry au without the angst.

Does this make sense, nope, but I really want to read about all three in space. I don’t have the time to write it myself. Might do a second part with headcanons/plot points with them and Rocky, maybe.

"i may be only the second in command for the petrova taskforce, but i am the commander of the hail mary mission. i also aware the chairwoman is wanted in every country and there's a bounty for her, but i am aware that petrova taskforce was reinstated as we enter the solar system. so heres the thing, we can bypass and overwrite any rules, that means courtland gentry-grace is a free man and is considered as hero of humanity as he was part of the crew that bring back the cure for the astrophage crisis. anything that he did as sierra six in the past is the past and is not bound to him. i can get myself a letter from any governments, especially from the US President about it. do i make myself clear?"