its ten pm

(and I wouldn't say the dude love pin would be out of place either for pride month)

not to mention! my redbubble has a Bunch of variations of the "rights/wrongs" quotes on a Bunch of different merch, from shirts to stickers and more (I should finish uploading those...)

(and dude love has quite a few multicolored options as well)

op YOUR mind I'm literally in awe, I see the vision, grace having a fox and yes, stratt having a hunting dog is making me lose it, I'm rotating it in my mind, a fox fits him so well, foxes are predators but smaller ones with soft fur, protective of their children, stubborn to a fault, plenty of people find them cute, plenty of people have tried to domesticate them, dog adjacent but NOT, dog adjacent but outsider, but wrong, but hunted, and they have so many myths and stereotypes around them on earth, mischievous, tricksters, and now they're alone. now grace and his daemon were tricked and they are alone

the idea of his daemon's name being luna, and now they'll never see their moon again, or hell, named mary, or even joseph, the idea of grace having a "male" daemon and that's just another tick in the weird, in the strange, in the wrong wrong wrong column for him on earth that up here doesn't matter. especially considering rocky, considering his daemon (his daemon, rocky has a daemon now, a part of himself outside of himself, it was hard enough to understand grace and joseph's ~*~situation~*~ but now, now he's experiencing it, now he understands intimately) and eridians' lack of human gender, let alone daemon gender cultural issues, and his shock when he wakes up to this new entity on his side of the ship, if we're going based on the movie then rocky wakes first and doesn't even realize there's something else in there with him until he sees it moving after grace and joseph wake up, and they all have a good freak out until rocky feels it. feels them.

I also have no real recollection of the rocky films ff but hilarious if grace names the little guy after creed. god, or apollo, creed's first name, rocky's opponent but here, the god of the sun......

Anyway *cracks knuckles* here we goOoOoO! (๑•̀ㅂ•́)و✧

Among the names you proposed, the best one is Laika from the other post, hands down, 10/10, no notes.

However, about the gender of the daemon: I was about to add a rumination about that as well in the previous tags, but then I realized that maybe I didn't have enough space in the tags and so I held back, but it wasn't much dissimilar to your idea (the making him even more different than/alienated by everyone else):

I remember that in the original Dark Materials trilogy, there was a character who had a daemon of the same gender and my headcanon for that back then had been that it was because he was gay. (Thinking about it now makes me wonder if maybe he had been trans instead, but that's not the point I'm gonna make here.)

(I want to preface the rest of my TED talk with saying that I'm a believer of the AroAce Grace supremacy (≧∇≦), so everything that follows is strictly platonic.)

I have to add another headcanon to the daemon lore that I have (please bear with me a little more, you can ignore this if you want): while your daemon is the manifestation of a piece of your soul, it also reflects your "preference"/soulmate.

So here's the full idea that had popped immediately in my mind while I was writing the other tags: Laika/Phoebe is nonbinary because that's technically what Rocky is, despite Grace using the "he/him" pronouns, and the four of them are platonic soulmates, fated to meet at Tau Ceti (gotta love how the fandom latched onto the idea of the red string Petrova Line linking the duo across the stars (இ﹏இ`｡)).

I still haven't seen the movie (don't worry, you didn't spoiler me) but that sounds rough for poor Rocky, ooof. He's gonna be in so much distress, omg! But hey, at least he's not alone anymore, both while together with Grace while breeding the Taumebae (here he gets sympathy from Grace and Laika/Phoebe) and later, when he's going back to Erid and ends stranded (so even if he thinks he's going to die alone on the Blib-A he's not sleeping alone and his daemon can watch him). (At the same time, can you imagine the angst of Rocky's gonna feel about dooming another being -even if they're a part of himself- to a slow painful death? ( ≧Д≦) )

I went back to check the Rocky franchise Wiki page and I think that actually Apollo fits?? Because, while they are rivals, they respect one another and become friends before Apollo dies?? So you're really onto something here, Apollo accepted! (๑ ◡̀_◡́)و✧

Thank you for the Phoebe edit-mention! Love the nicknames you suggested, they sound so cute! (*⁠⁠´⁠ω⁠｀⁠⁠*)

Now onto an addendum (>:3c I am very evil): Inside the Hail Mary there must have been a ton of aerial/stored Dust, both because among the studies they had done during the projecting phase, you can bet that they added some on daemons and how to keep them healthy (both during the travel and after the awakening, AKA during the search for the cure for the Astrophage) and because Yáo's and Olesya's daemons dispersed when they died.

So I propose you this: When they come back to Erid, Adrian (who ofc waited for Rocky) decides to get a daemon of their own by coming in contact with only one hand/claw with the Hail Mary atmosphere, so they can share the experience/make Rocky and Grace feel less alone.

Will other Eridians do the same? Will it be considered a great honor conscripted only to great people/heroes, or something weird only for oddballs? Will the repeated use of the stored Dust/manifestation of daemon determine a spreading of Dust in Erid's atmosphere and so outside Grace's biome and so newly hatched Eridians already get a daemon?

Oh, the possibilities....

so yes yes yes laika/phoebe being nonbinary, having a very androgynous voice and foxes aren't exactly known for being especially gender dimorphic, and people assume they're a girl because grace is a boy (or is he) and because of their name, but they're not, they never have been, they never will be, ryland tried explaining that to his parents when he was younger and it never stuck so he just... stopped trying. same with his lack of interest in romance, in dating, in one night stands. even if people still give him Looks when he specifically refers to his daemon as a "them", and when he laughs off questions about his love life. he, and laika/phoebe, have learned to ignore it. (aroace ryland grace my beloved)

now. speaking on the name, I love both. I really love both. I love the idea of laika being their first name, the name grace's parents' daemons gave them the way his parents named him ryland, and it becoming a self fulfilling prophecy. ryland, for the place he is leaving, grace, for the ship he's leaving in, and laika, for the journey itself. and I love the idea of phoebe being the name that comes from his memory loss. quite literally nothing to base it on whatsoever, he just woke up in this ship lightyears from home with a fox in his "sleeping bag" that he almost crushed when he rolled off the bed and who is now the only other living being on this ship, this living being who feels like an extension of himself, he may not know who he is or who this fox is but his brain Knows they're his, his, the same way he knows they're a them and not a her or a him, so instead of referring to them as just "you" or "fox" or what have you, especially after he remembered His name and not theirs, they decide on a name together. (and then they Do remember, later. laika. laika, the patron saint of one way trips. laika, the canine sent into space to die. oh, does grace have a breakdown about that!)

now. let us discuss The Fic. Laika (Tamed Dogs Still Bite) (banger, everyone read this immediately, where I got the two names idea) reminded me that daemons can unsettle when their humans undergo extremely traumatic experiences. and tbh I think that fits this situation fucking perfectly, I really do think ryland's daemon would not be the same as grace's. I think one daemon existed before the hail mary and one existed after. however, I am extremely attached to him having a fox, so what I am Actually suggesting is that instead of a wholesale unsettling, it would be an Almost unsettling. a Not Quite unsettling. instead of a fully-orange red fox like laika, I'm picturing that phoebe would be dappled. still, mostly, orange, red, but with spots of white and light brown that make them look piebald. they would not be mostly white - but they would not be mostly red, either. they would still be a red fox, not an arctic fox, but you wouldn't know that, looking at them. and that lack of knowing is the thing that hurts. the first time grace saw them he didn't recognize them, and it wasn't because of his memory, it was something in him, that felt stranger, before his heart skipped a beat and he realized. phoebe no longer feels wrong, but the hurt lingers. they both feel it. changed. irrevocably.

now. about rocky/adrian. yes yes yes one hundred percent god would rocky feel guilty about having this other living thing with him when the ship breaks down. he would feel so guilty about it, and guilty about being selfishly glad that he's not alone anymore, and only be mildly assuaged at the fact that this other living being, apollo grace named him, is a part of him and knows how he feels and feels pretty much exactly the same. two sides of the same coin. bickering constantly I cannot stress enough that one of the reasons apollo fits as a name so well is because he and rocky were rivals in the movie and that is what his new daemon feels like! (sometimes. rocky is often too pleased to no longer be alone to really feel That much annoyance. grace always laughs that its what rocky gets, being so snarky and sarcastic and so much of a "diva".) And Literally!!! they can watch each other sleep!!!

its no wonder adrian is curious when they finally reach erid. grace having his own weird human thing? sure. he's an alien. adrian's mate now having this weird human thing after being present in grace's so so poisonous atmosphere? ...well. rocky went through plenty of his own medical check ups Beyond the whole "being in space for five decades" thing because of it, but adrian was curious. they're not even the only curious eridian! ...but they Are the one closest to the human aside from rocky. so they have the best chance of testing this out.

and then their daemon is different from rocky's. I'm picturing rocky's being a fairly small also stone-like tick looking sort of thing that can cling to rocky like a magnet. not a parasite, but maybe something eridians consider pets the way humans consider reptiles? small enough to not be a hazard to rocky's ball or tunnels on the ship, before they get back to erid. and yes, he is a he, the way laika/phoebe is a them. rocky has to make up a new word just for him. adrian's, I'm not so sure. bigger than rocky's, the way adrian is bigger than rocky (I picture adrian as like a foot taller and completely teal/turquoise blue btw), but maybe the size of a cat? something that can roll itself into its own ball, maybe much more metallic than rocky's, isopod-like. if eridians look like that their animals have to be just as hardened, I assume.

I'm also imagining adrian names them mary. after the ship that brought their mate home. grace pouts about the loss of another rocky pun but can't mind too much, because adrian has a daemon now. adrian, rocky's mate, has a daemon. on purpose. on purpose they burned the shit out of their hand to get a daemon. and it worked.

op YOUR mind I'm literally in awe, I see the vision, grace having a fox and yes, stratt having a hunting dog is making me lose it, I'm rotating it in my mind, a fox fits him so well, foxes are predators but smaller ones with soft fur, protective of their children, stubborn to a fault, plenty of people find them cute, plenty of people have tried to domesticate them, dog adjacent but NOT, dog adjacent but outsider, but wrong, but hunted, and they have so many myths and stereotypes around them on earth, mischievous, tricksters, and now they're alone. now grace and his daemon were tricked and they are alone

the idea of his daemon's name being luna, and now they'll never see their moon again, or hell, named mary, or even joseph, the idea of grace having a "male" daemon and that's just another tick in the weird, in the strange, in the wrong wrong wrong column for him on earth that up here doesn't matter. especially considering rocky, considering his daemon (his daemon, rocky has a daemon now, a part of himself outside of himself, it was hard enough to understand grace and joseph's ~*~situation~*~ but now, now he's experiencing it, now he understands intimately) and eridians' lack of human gender, let alone daemon gender cultural issues, and his shock when he wakes up to this new entity on his side of the ship, if we're going based on the movie then rocky wakes first and doesn't even realize there's something else in there with him until he sees it moving after grace and joseph wake up, and they all have a good freak out until rocky feels it. feels them.

I also have no real recollection of the rocky films ff but hilarious if grace names the little guy after creed. god, or apollo, creed's first name, rocky's opponent but here, the god of the sun......

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