I Want Shitkickers

Among The Hail Mary [Part 7] - Start | Prev | Next

Look guys!! Joy in the Mary!!!

-

If you would like notification updates on Among The Hail Mary, you can follow the [ATHM Masterpost] over my Update Blog!

Bonus:

when you are on a date, and someone has an interest you don't quite get, instead of saying lol lame, try saying hmm i don't quite get that, please explain that to me, and then listen as the other person talks about why that thing is something they are in to.

you might learn something which recontextualizes the matter, and you will definitely learn something more about your date, which is the entire point of dating.

you don't have to be a superfan by the end, but you will have shown you can be chill and take an interest in stuff, which is much more likely to result in a second date instead of being ditched in a coffee line.

If we keep the careers the same, Rocky’s still an engineer. He knows some science, sure, but not enough about astrophage. The scientist died on the trip, so he is left knowing *why* he’s on the ship, but no way of knowing how to accomplish the goal. All he knows is that *someone* could, but the person is not him. Cannot be him.

Then he meets Grace, an alien scientist. He doesnt know anything about radiation or relativity, but godDAMN is he knowledgeable about astrophage.

Couple of Project Hail Mary doodles!!

The first one was my idea of what he would go for as a jingly celebrations outfit ahah the eridians collect and make him all sorts of beads; even if they're sad that their most resonant materials are toxic to Grace. They settle on some of the lightest metals they have plus porous rocks (trying to avoid extra weight as much as possible because of, well, extra gravity).

Grace has a fun week sorting them by colour which is incomprehensible to them (to the point someone alerts rocky that the human has been pushing the same beads around arbitrarily and is he ok??)

It is not the best sounding outfit anyone has heard but they're happy Grace is well enough to celebrate with them!

"Sorry, I don't mean to offend--"

Which of course, I brace for hell, since he is around 60, and i am a gangly cryptid that people usually struggle only to find the right slur to apply to. But i dutifully keep my work voice and go "nah nah, don't worry, what can I do?"

He hits me with "Are you--uh, I've been saying 'thank you ma'am' but are you... okay with that? What should I call you?"

And i live in a small conservative pocket within one of the most liberal states in the US, so my experience in public is varied. People have guessed, they've gone with she, he. they, they've awkwardly avoided it, but no stranger had ever asked me.

So i panicked and chuckled. This felt kind of like walking into a fake tumblr post. I said "Oh, you can call me whatever you want, its fine."

Any cis person would probably sound a little insulted. i knew i was confirming some kind of gender fuckery, but giving him the out that he didn't have to change anything. Fucker kindly smiles though, and like. Pounces. Asks, much more confidently, "But would you prefer sir? What are your pronouns?"

He's on script now, I'm astral projecting to a different plane where i'm a bug on a well lit microscope and my throat's a little tight all the sudden. I say, "Oh. I uh--I use they/them."

I use they or he, but 'they' is the language curveball. I know this, which is why i usually just let people use whatever. He nods, and I choke out (because its been a bad bad day, autoimmune flare pain on top of record high patient numbers) "Thanks. No one... has ever asked me. Have a good day."

He told me the same, I booked it, because the dim room was hiding watery eyes but not for much longer. Got it together in a nearby closet (ha) and moved on.

Came back later on in the evening because I had promised to visit when his wife was there earlier in the day. She's sweet, he's sweet, I do my usual spiel, he avoids any 'ma'am' studiously, but on me going to head out again, hits the dilemma of having no polite substitute for 'ma'am' or 'sir' that isnt gendered in some subtle way, and he's fucking trying, but this is not second nature obviously.

So what comes out is "Have a wonderful night, Them!"

Beaming, proud, right next to his extremely confused wife, who he seems to have not outted me to (nice) who now thinks he's probably having a stroke (funny, but not nice lmao)

The only things that work without rest are machines; literally everything that lives requires rest.