The Eridian science teams try soooo hard to be soooo normal about Grace. "He helped save our entire planet, we cant experiment on him!" "Hes a whole ass intelligent being, the biodome isnt like a zoo enclosure at all we swear." "Rocky might actually kill us if we try and add enrichment things to the biodome just to see what happens. It'll seem like an insult to Grace's intelligence."
Meanwhile Grace is just waiting in anticipation for someone to ask for a chunk of his hair or something. Hes lowkey curious as to what theyd find. Hes fine with being a creature to them its chill he gets it as a fellow intellectual and all around curious guy who insisted on watching Rocky eat.
I feel like the book Grace would just ask some scientist if they want to do experiments and need samples, no care no niceties (but he IS polite) just curiosity. Bonus points if that specific scientist also isn't that socially aware and they just start taking samples while the others go on a break or for some reason leave them alone. Grace gets his samples and answers and the scientist gets theirs.
Even more bonus points if it's Adrian and they start to geek out about each others biology
Adrian: So those thin keratin strings are for attracting a partner?
Grace: yeah, at least the ones on our heads are, one of the theories as to why the head hair stayed whilst all the other body hair is usually miniaturised hair follicles is due to a need for early humans to thermoregulate better for persistence hunting. And your carpace is so interesting, you said different people have a different exoskeleton make-up?
Adrian: yes, depending on our preferences we can change it's contents with specific diets and regular sheds. Most of the scientific community prefer to keep their carpace soft in order to have more range during studies.
Grace: ah we kinda have that. You saw how malnourished I was when we arrived, and how my body changed when I got the nutrients. Like you, with a right diet but also exercise we can prioritise different builds for our bodies, like a bigger muscle mass or less fat reserves.
Adrian: ah, yes, we could take samples of those. Maybe we'll figure out how to replicate those cells.
Grace: you mean cloning? Huh, I kinda want to know if I could eat meat that way, just, it would be my meat.... Wonder if that counts as cannibalism...
Adrian: not only that, with the equipment from Hail Mary some other scientists are trying their hand at gene editing and splicing. It will help develop medicine for a lot of deadly for us diseases
Grace: Because you don't have an immune system, right?
Adrian: Yes, Grace is smart, anything that gets inside our carpace and to our worker cells can easily kill us, although carpace illnesses aren't that light too. Some people who have a metallic carpace are for example at risk of carpace deterioration due to oxidation. It can be external and internal, the latter being more common around our joints. That one we never know when it's developing untill said joints collapse.
Grace: you said oxidation? As in rusting? That might be visible with light sense. Usually metals change colour when runsting, especially Iron, it gets a reddish orange colour compared to it's usual silver.
Adrian:...do you want to take a look at some of the patients suffering from it? Maybe it's visible to you light sense?
Grace: YES
