QuasarDraws

Like, Grace is in the bathroom, shaving, the curtain pulled to the side and suddenly he stops and says "stop touching my stuff". Rocky, frozen, somewhere behind him, can't fathom how Grace sensed that. He was so quiet. The razor is so loud. Grace's still facing away from him. What the fuck.

Obviously, there are Eridian kids with special needs, and a few of them even filter into his classes. But one specific type of special needs kid has never shown up in his classes, and the only reason he even learned of the condition is because Rocky and Adrien's first pebble has the condition.

It's initially quite a struggle for them to deal with, and Grace sympathizes of course, because the child will apparently have huge learning and academic struggles and will likely never be able to live on their own. That is, until he learns the details of the disability.

Basically, it's a condition where the part of the Eridian brain that gives them their eidetic memory isn't fully developed, and so these kids just... can't remember things the way most eridians do. And in a culture where an eidetic memory is the norm, all things cater to that, so not having that is actually a massive disability.

But Grace is like, so... this kid just learns the same way a human does, or something like. Which is nothing new to him, though he is somewhat boggled at how much Rocky and Adrian struggle with their infant and their "slow" learning curve, even as far as initial developmental stages. Grace, on the other hand, simply treats the kid the same way he would a human infant, and Rocky and Adrien are impressed with his patience.

But, through this, it occurs to Grace that there must be other kids out there with this disability who likely aren't getting the attention and chances in life that they deserve, because Eridian culture is particularly hostile toward this disability, and actively views those with it as unable to function in regular society.

So Grace demands that a special course be put together where he teaches kids with this disability specifically. Rocky is hesitant, as most kids with this disability are home schooled and kind of... kept shut away. But Grace insists and as one of Erid's saviors, he gets what he wants eventually.

His first class is super small, maybe only three kids because so few parents were willing to advertise that their children have this disability. And because of the stigma around it, even those who agreed to it are super unsure and want to be present during the lessons, perhaps paranoid about the impression it will leave on Savior Grace, who is so accustomed to only teaching the most gifted students.

But Grace knows exactly how to deal with these kids. Some of them have varying degrees of function when it comes to their memory banks, which isn't so unlike teaching kids on earth. And so Grace is able to introduce all these tools and teaching techniques that were previously unheard of on Erid (though very normal on Earth) like having textbooks for reference with you at all times and having strategies that are less focused on memorization for understanding, and providing these kids with tools like calculators and teaching them the art of taking notes to look back on, etc etc.

Suddenly, with all these tools that most Eridians don't need, these kids are learning at a much faster rate, and succeeding with the help of all their little tools. And because so many normal eridians are ignorant of Grace's actual biology, it's shocking to them that Savior Grace doesn't have an eidetic memory either (shocking to everyone but Rocky anyway)--that his brain functions quite similarly in capacity to these "disabled" children.

Once this news gets around, suddenly there's more kids in his special classes, and there's all kinds of discourse being inflamed because the real reason these kids can't live on their own or function is lack of support from Eridian society.

If Savior Grace, who is well respected as a genius in his own right amongst the Eridians, can function so successfully, they why can't these kids?

i tried to sketch out some of the human crew of the (as of now) Salvastra mission for my phm au, where earth send a ship to Eridani with taumeba after the return of the beatles. once again, Olivia was really the only one i had a solid formed idea of, so any names, headcanons, ideas you guys have for these guys or others are all welcome🙏

also a book joke that was funnier in my head:

"how can grace live longer in the salvastra au?" uhhh fun alien chemicals or something also do you know what's reeeally funny about chemistry-

He did a wonderful job, but as he was returning my plant to my custody, he explained "I watered her every other day, I gave her new dirt, moved her into the sunshine, prayed the rosary-"

"What?"

He looked at me, confused. "Isn't she a plant you pray with?"

"No," I said slowly. "She's a prayer plant. That's the... colloquial name of the plant."

Upon seeing his stricken face, I realized something went wrong. Turns out, this entire time, he's been including my plant in on his prayers and leaving her near icons.

Behold, Dorothea

He turned to me, sighed, and said in a very deadpan tone-- "Plants don't have covenants, Joy,"

-Front door slams open, four pebbles rush in. Adrian and Rocky arent anywhere to be seen.-

Grace: (under his breath), “Ohgoshnotnow-“

-the four tiny pebbles make it over and topple on to him-

Grace: “OUMFF- hey kiddos”

-cuddling them all close as they hum excited notes-

[ Adrian and Rocky finally make it to his door, Rocky rushing over ]

Rocky: “Sorry Grace friend :( we know you tired, but-“

Grace: “-Yea Ill watch em sleep don’t worry, have fun with Adrian”

Maybe thet were covering human reproduction in their clases, or they got curious about human courtship rituals, or the pebbles just realized that Grace has no mate, and because mates are so important for eridian culture (who is going to watch Mr. Grace sleep while they aren't there? He is all alone in his dome he could die!) and once they know that Simon is living in the dome too, the pebbles decide to get to work, to save Mr.Grace of dying while sleeping of course.

It could go in two ways:

The pebbles are using their knowledge in eridian courtship rituals.

The pebbles are using their little knowledge in human courtship rituals.

The first one lead to opportunities such as:

Dressing Simon and Grace in eridian jewlerly and tattoos (paint this time because they are too young to know how to do real eridian tattoos) to be more attractive.

Teaching Simon and Grace how to do eridian dances designed to impress a mate.

Trying to make Simon and Grace sing to each other eridian serenates, that only end in very out of tune karaoke.

Pebbles finding very nice rocks to given them to Mr.Grace so he can give them to Simon.

The second one lead to possible scenearis such as:

Pebbles using the thinking machine (the computer) to investigate about human courtship rituals, which ends in watching a lot of movies and reading a lot of wattpad.

Pebbles playing tricks at the style of The Parent Trap to make Simon and Grace closer.

Pebbles asking for Simon to attend the classroom because having two humans help them to understand better human topics, because they have not one but TWO examples of alien lives, and in this way Grace and Simon spend more time together.

The pebbles try their best to highlight the good qualities of both of them as subtle as they can "Grace is pretty good at watching you sleep, statement" "...What?"

Pebbles trying to make Mr. Grace dress better, they thing that the jokes in the shirt are funny, but not very useful to attract mates.

Pebbles trying to throw compliments they learn to Mr. Grace in front of Simon so he notices how nice and pretty Mr. Grace is, but sucking at it.

"Don't you think that that shirt matches with Mr. Grace's eyes, question?"

"What are you talking about?, that shirt is red, Grace's eyes are blue."

"Oh..." A pebble trying really hard to guess what can be blue " the sand, question?"

"That is yellow"

"...the sky, question?

"The sky is blue, that works"

"Amaze, amaze, amaze! Don't you think that the sky matches with Mr.Grace eyes...question?"

"...Yeah it does"

Extra thought:

Pebbles asking Rocky and Adrian for help because they are really close to the humans.

Rocky been the one who gives the Pebbles the computer (he knows what he is doing and he thinks that all this is hilarious).