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Ahem. Fanfic Grace quite often names eridians in his biodome team or class after foods (like Oreo or Cocoa or Cola), but with the context that eridians pretty much hold food and eating to the same regard we hold actual shit and shitting, I'm just here thinking about how insulted these eridians would feel after learning they've all been named after foods of all things.

Imagine an alien saved your solar system, then came to your planet and went around giving everyone names, which you obviously covet greatly and feel very proud of because an honest to god alien has given you this name. Only for you all to later discover that the alien has named you ALL after different variations of poop. And your child is Diarrhea, and you're called Shitstain and your co-worker is Skidmarks.

Ryland is in space, and he names... ALL of his toys after people from the vat.

There is a well-loved fox he's named Carl, a smart squirrel called Dr Lokken, a kind-faced ox called Yao, a smiley cat named Olesya, a polite bear who goes by DuBois, and of course—

I like to imagine Grace tussling with the very morbid thought, struggling to find a way to word his question in a sensitive way, because he can't very well go up to Rocky and ask

Hey buddy, so if I cracked your carapace open, would your brain be full of pretty lights?

Rocky would think he's insane and stick him in the airlock for the rest of their trip home, and Grace wouldn't even blame him, because who asks that?

Alas, the biologist within him is so so curious, and Rocky is weirded out AF because why is Grace suddenly analytically frowning at his carapace every chance he gets? And is he... is he trying to peek inside his vents? Grace wtf, Rocky doesn't try to hear into your orifices.

Grace finishes saving two planets, he's stuck on a spaceship for 4 years with his best buddy, the topic of intoxication would surely come up, yes? And we already know that Xenon is plentiful on Erid, and Rocky would likely have a large supply of it either in his atmosphere or in the form of xenonite.

My question is, do you guys think Mr I Took A Pill From A Stranger Without Knowing What It Was would ever just like... get Rocky to hook him up? He's a man with copious amounts of trauma, full access to advanced lab equipment, more than enough knowledge to use that lab equipment. Let's not forget that we've already seen him use alcohol to cope with his emotions...

I'm just saying, I don't think he'd be a stimulants guy, but I could absolutely see Grace being curious about DMT, Ketamine or other psychedelics or dissociatives. He's already stuck in space with a shit ton of trauma, may as well give this ego death thing a shot, right? It's being researched as a PTSD treatment for a reason, maybe it'll help him stop freaking out whenever anything ever touches his back, he reasons, and it's not like he has anything better to do.

Hey hey hey, I've read a fic with a similar premise on AO3! Authorization Needed by emogoose! Props to that author, because I love that little oneshot and that fic was what got me pondering Armando and Grace's relationship in a classification AU. They have the potential for such an intriguing dynamic, I think, and that fic does a good job of exploring it a little.

And space imagery...

Like yes, canonically, that is her friend and the fandom is happy to make him her boytoy too, so it's sad that she's betraying him, but think about an AU with me. Stratt as Ryland's caregiver. The betrayal would be soul-crushing.

He wouldn't run from her when the shady doctor threatens to sedate him, he'd run TO her. He's been conditioned for months on the vat to come to her for support, for help, when he's overwhelmed, when he's sad, when he's stressed. She's put the work in to make sure he feels safe enough to do so, because that's her top scientist and she needs him working to his best capacity, so he must take care of himself and that includes his headspace.

He associates her with emotional and physical safety and he trusts her and she knows this. But maybe she'd still been hoping that he wouldn't drop, that he'd agree to go or simply remain outside of headspace so it would be easier for everyone, but he doesn't. What's more stressful than fearing for your life? Of course he drops in that office, of course.

She'd put the work in to make SURE Grace comes to her when he's struggling emotionally, and now, with stone-faced russian guards in the room and a terrifying doctor approaching him with a strange needle and his heart hammering in his throat. Yeah, he's struggling.

Maybe he'd run out of the room once he'd panicked enough and it sank in that Stratt wasn't going to help him, maybe he'd drop so fast he'd just sink into her arms and sob into her neck while they prick him. I don't know, but what I do know is that this would absolutely destroy Grace. It would destroy Stratt and it would destroy Carl, somehow even more so than canon. Infinitely more so than canon, it's amazing.