Socially Acceptable Gay Shit

It’s the closest thing to show biz on Erid. The orchestra and actors are the stars and divas of culture. Of course someone writes an opra about Rocky meeting the alien Grace and saving the stars together.

The casting call to play Rocky would be so cut throat. And Rocky can’t really give any opinion on who to pick since he’s been out of the pop culture loop for 50 years. (A fact the writers use in writing the script. Purposely giving Rocky dated Eridian slang.)

As for Graces actor, the theater’s master puppeteer becomes invested in making as accurate a puppet as possible to play their alien. In the end they would create a puppet where, instead of stuffing, it is filled with sacks and tubes full of fluid. Including an air pump to churn it and a constant beating of what would be a human heart. The puppeteer tries to capture just how horrifyingly alien Grace is in the best way for Eridians, through sound design.

And that’s just the puppet for the actors to interact with. For the audience, I could see the orchestra Amplifying the sounds of the human body during scenes like when Grace hugs Rocky. Or used for laughs when Rocky points out how flawed the human body is as he describes it to the audience.

Actual Rocky being a puppeteer nerd as a pebble. So when the theater gets approval to send the Opera stars to meet Rocky and Grace during the press tour, Rocky straight up pushes past the glamorous opera divas to meet the puppeteer instead.

Rocky is excited to share with them the fact that so much his and Grace earliest communication was through puppet shows.

Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3

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Shapiro drowning in Dubois’ EVA suit. Dubois with Shapiro's suit taped to him and her helmet balanced on top of his head

Grace looking at the camera confused while the core time circle around him like the one girl surrounded by five guys meme

Stratt reclined on a couch looking demure with a coffee mug and using Grace's legs as a lap board for her tablet. Grace is dead asleep, obviously snoring with his mouth wide open and covered in reports. His glasses are on Stratt's head.

Carl walking by the camera with Grace thrown over his shoulder. Grace is visibly pleased and yapping.

Illyukhina walking by the camera with Grace thrown over her shoulder. Grace looks vaguely ill.

Yao passionately doing karaoke with each of the core staff members.

Lamai asleep on a prototype coma bed.

Steve Hatch maternity shoot with the Beatles.

Grace and Dimtri using a centrifuge to make butter.

Grace and Dimitri getting yelled at by Lokken for using a centrifuge to make butter.

Dubois carrying Grace and Shapiro under each arm to the cafeteria. They all are talking like this is a normal occurrence.

Yao hanging upside down from a simulator that glitched with a straight face while Illyukhina is crying laughing on the floor below him.

Compilation video of the world's greatest minds dropping tools, tripping, and running into the glass walls.

Videos of the astronauts defeatedly drifting away from the mock ship in the buoyancy tank after losing their grip. The others are dramatically reaching out for them.

Redell teaching the Russians about New Zealand bombing dives in the training pools.

Shapiro, in formal wear, standing next to a slideshow titled “How I Cloned and Replaced the World Leaders”

Dubois - “My Alien Seduction Tactics"

Grace - “Middle Schooler vs Scientist”

Dimitri - “Using the Incorrect Equipment for Correct Results"

Hatch - “Yoko Ono: First Contact?”

Lamai - “How Not to Use a Coma Robot”

Lokken - “Grace is an Idiot”

Leclerc - “The Ice Age and You”

Stratt - “Things I DO NOT Have Time For”

Carl - “Securing a Home Depot for Idiots”

Yao - “Worst Times to Make a Joke”

Illyukhina - "Benefits of Vodka in Space”

Reddell - “What I Did in 1989”

Illyukhina passed out on top of Dmitri (also passed out) surrounded by a minefield of bottles none of which are for alcohol.

Leclerc looking upset and holding a penguin plushy.

Ryland's first class is about to graduate from "primary" education, and they're all headed to specialization. Some will come back to study with him at a graduate level, essentially, but most need their secondary education with their peers as a focus.

It's also common that they all started acquiring "human" nicknames as they were in his class. Almost immediately on Day 1, they scrambled home to tell parents about Teacher Grace and the cool things he showed off. What they have been nicknamed and what the meanings are.

They're his first class, and he wants to sends them off well.

After trying to figure out what to do, he gets an idea from Eridian culture combined with some Earth classics. He recruits Rocky and gets to work.

On the last day of class, the students show up to find thread and little bowls of beads all about. Eridian letters carved into the surface of some, English letters in others. Stars, moons, mathematical symbols, and more.

Ryland explains the concept of friendship bracelets. He knows Eridians have special jewelry often as part of their culture (courtship, marriage, birth, major life events) and wanted to give them a human version of it. He made sure that each get a packet with their human names as beads, but he leaves the rest to them.

The class adores it, and they make Teacher Grace make one with them. They pick out the Eridian letters for his name and he adds a "year 1" to the necklace. Everyone leaves the class with the coveted gifts.

It becomes tradition. Every class that graduates makes a Charm Necklace with, at minimum, their Human Nicknames on the strands. Ryland makes a new one each year, with later years bringing chips from molted carapaces as beads for Ryland to add.

(When Ryland passes, all of his students come to his memorial wearing their necklaces, tracing out worn and new beads with reverence and love.)

(It continues to be tradition, old students stepping in where Ryland left off. Students who never knew Ryland still find Nicknames along the way, and they make their necklaces as their predecessors had.)

(And, years on, when humans and Eridians bridge the gap of space, humans are a little surprised to see the envoy wearing a necklace with a human word on it. The Eridians have a more advanced version of the translator, thanks to continued work, but, they explain, it was a tradition. Those of Ryland's class and beyond created these necklaces, and they wear them now in honor of him as they meet more of his species.)

(And then, at the end of the talks, once humans and Eridians make their bond official, the Eridians offer necklace and bead supplies and packs of Eridian letters. Just as Grace taught them before, as a token of friendship and care, so, too, do the Eridians do now - bestowing their new friends with Eridian names, carrying them in the form of Friendship Necklaces.)

The Enigma of Amigara Fault

This short story by Junji Ito is about a fault that appears in Amigara mountain after an earthquake. The earthquake exposes countless human-shaped holes in the mountain which seem to have been made about a thousand years ago. People, intrigued by these  silhouettes, gather at the site and that’s when things get creepy.

And it pissed me off so badly that I spent the ENTIRE WORK DAY today compiling evidence from every project my team has ever done for her, pulling past emails she’d sent us, putting together an entire case proving that she had been the problem all along. That she got projects mixed up, that she’d made requests that were nonsensical, literally everything you could possibly imagine. Screenshots of emails, reports we’d submitted, EVERYTHING.

This woman in particular has been terrorizing my team for years, her name is almost a slur in my office, I had simply had ENOUGH of her.

I put all of this evidence together and sent it to all of my bosses at 4:30pm. Then I took a long break to eat a sweet treat and drink some tea.

After my break, my bosses all called in an emergency meeting with me and they said they read my report and fucking loved it. And I sat on a teams call with my boss’ boss as she wrote my nemesis the scathing email I had always fantasized about sending, using the evidence I’d compiled, and hit send.

Turns out you can roll a 7 on a d6

Further update: Greg is trapping goblins in the Dollar General

hi hi! I understand your scepticism, but I lived Here for half a decade:

and nnno we don't call it "winter" when it's december even though we're TECHNICALLY in the northern hemisphere. because it is 35+ degrees during december and 35+ degrees during july and 35+ degrees every other time of the year as well. so it doesn't really make sense to reference the typical northern/southern seasons when you live right on the equator!

I liked it

Eva Stratt is a FANTASTIC character, I hated her choice and I understood it perfectly and I'd have done it too. 10000/10 nuance

I was terrified they'd make her and Grace kiss and I'm so so glad they didn't

I too would die for Rocky

About 3/4s through the movie I said out loud in front of my entire family "Rocky and Adrian seeking third, question" and at least two of my siblings snorted

As a huge fan of "queerplatonic soulmates bonded through the fires of hell; not lovers or brothers but something deeper" phenotype, I am actively chewing on the drywall

Actually actionable advice (break it down into smaller pieces, leave and come back later, find somebody to do it with you so you aren't doing it alone)