ares

but rocky and grace put the whole diplomacy thing in jeopardy by being too best buddy with it. like they're both really low level members of the mission. some engineer necessary for ship maintenance, and an obligatory molecular biologist they brought along in case they found more alien cells out in space. and these two guys like, somehow keep ending up hanging out essentially "at the back of the classroom." consistently left out of the actually important negotiations, and well, they're bored!

grace steals some laptops and starts jury-rigging his own personal translator for rocky, despite the fact that the official translation software is way quicker to learn and much more nuanced. rocky starts learning english, simplifies his eridian, and immediately starts mocking grace for needing the software. they start blabbing to each other about all the weird quirks of their respective cultures and advanced science their planets can do. the whole time they are ribbing each other about culture stuff. grace eats in front of rocky. rocky forces grace to sleep in a corridor somewhere so he can keep watch.

then stratt and the eridian leader find out and it's like

stratt: you. you've been meeting in private with a member of the eridian deligation?

grace: ... yyyes.

stratt: and you shared with them classified scientific documents?

grace: i... maybe gave him. a laptop. he's so smart! what was i supposed to do?

stratt: HIM? you've assigned male pronouns to a genderless species?

grace: he said he likes to match!

stratt: do you even know the name of this eridian?!

grace: i call him rocky :)

stratt: 😰

then on rocky's side of things it's like

eridian leader: sorry did you say you called the human after one of its digestive noises?

rocky: yeah :)

eridian leader: and. you've been telling it about how to make xenonite. one of our most vital trading resources.

rocky: yes yes, grace is very ignorant about basic chemistry 🙄

eridian leader: right. and you watch it sleep. despite the fact that all the human beings we have spoken to have described this as a cultural violation?

rocky: well he didn't like it at first but he came around!!

anyway both sides of the delegation are sweating profusely (metaphorically speaking) until they see rocky and grace in action and are like ohh! they're both freaks. we are not to blame for this. these two are just really bad at navigating cultural norms.

Shoutout to Hayden Pike for being a ride or die bestie for Shane Hollander.

Here’s a list of ways Hayden has been an incredible best friend:

1. Hayden invited Shane to dinner with his family wanting to befriend him

2. Riffs with Shane about the interview he has to do and jokes around with him all the time

3. Intervenes when the guys on the team are overwhelming Shane

4. Immediately threw hands at Marleau for accidentally hitting Shane

5. Always down to hangout with Shane while doing things like running, going places, family dinners (yes I’m listing this twice. The Pikes have made Shane a part of their family and I love them for it)

6. Stood up for Shane after he and Ilya were outed when no one else on the team did

(I know there’s plenty more examples so feel free to share any in the comments and tags)

st. christopher, patron saint of travellers — st. theodore, patron saint of soldiers

Renaissance(distinct lines, stability and the individual man):

Baroque (bold, chaotic, dramatic):

Romantic(romanticize the simple hard working life):

Something something Erid is a high-pressure, no light planet with liquid water and bioluminescent, lure-based, energy efficient ocean creatures could develop; something something Eridians have close to no spatial memory and therefore worse scale? memory; something something Eridians are the apex land predator specifically.

I think Ilya is honestly low key terrified of butches.

Once he and Shane are together openly after their outing, he revels in queer culture. He loves gay and bi men of all kinds, trans people of all genders, bi and lesbian femmes, and gets along with all of them famously.