I woke up like this, no idea

I really do love homewrecker Grace. It's not his fault, he doesn't even know he's a homewrecker. But him and Rocky arrive on Erid and all is great they saved the world! Grace is immediately under intense medical care and Rocky's near-permanent watchful eye, and it's been just the two of them for so long that life on Erid doesn't ...fit with Rocky anymore. Or Rocky doesn't fit into life on Erid anymore. Adrian loves him, never stopped loving him all those years they were convinced he was dead, but Rocky is so alien now. His body language is nonsensical to Eridians, he speaks in unnatural tones, he says words and phrases that don't make a lick of sense, and he seems almost permanently overwhelmed by the loudness that is Eridian life and society. Adrian doesn't hate the alien, it gave up its life to save all of Erid and their mate Rocky, but whenever Adrian gets the chance to talk to Rocky it's always about Grace. And even when it's not Adrian still can't make sense of him. It's clear to them that the alien is more than a forced companion to Rocky, that the way he speaks about it is closer to a mate, the way he cares about it and advocates for it and caters to its every need is exactly how a mate would. And Adrian doesn't want to compete with the alien, doesn't want to force Rocky to be someone he isn't (he doesn't even respond to his Eridian name most of the time anymore), so it's clear to them that without meaning to, Rocky has taken on a new mate. Rocky and his alien have nestled themselves into this own corner of the universe, and Adrian doesn't fit in that. So they don't push it, don't go to make friends with the alien, don't beg Rocky to come back to their home, just let the saviours of the world be as they are.

If some of y'all needed a cry, I've got you. Found this fic and this chapter is readable by itself, but you can read the whole fic if you'd like. It's really good. It's a time travel fic where Grace goes back in time and is in general acting like a weirdo. But this chapter specifically had me crying in the club. It's about the end of both Grace and Rocky's lives and the people who are left behind to mourn them. It's so sad and Adrian spends the entire chapter making it worse by talking about persevering love.

(18+)

not enough grocky fans are monsterfucker enough, dont get me wrong human rocky designs are cool but a lot of you seem to think grace being with regular rocky is impossible

grace rocky save stars :)

suddenly thinking about the courtroom scene, of Stratt being accused of pirating literally everything, and Grace later having everything in the various computers aboard his ship that he gave a copy to Rocky without issue, and the beetles having such a massive memory capacity and...

You know, one of my favourite things about Ryland Grace is how sociable he is. How easy it is for people to fall into his orbit. They show it time and time again. How much his students obviously love him, how he manages to hype up the dour suits whilst he's testing the astrophage, Carl playing with him in the Home Depot, the other government people eating his Skittles, Eva Stratt dragging him around everywhere and allowing herself to be just that little bit more vulnerable around him, Rocky and the Eridians embracing him as not just as a savior but family.

me: so you see, even if andy weir says he didn't intend for your story to be political, there remains an intense underlying political message in your earth's journey to survival. hope and collaboration are just as political and perhaps even more radical as dystopia in this day and age. and to just throw all that away and say we're all reading into it is a disservice both to the readers who fell in love with you as a character, and to the very ideals you represent.