#phm posting

rocky spends half an earth century alone in space, which is notoriously so extremely quiet, and people have been exploring the idea of eridians experiencing a version of touch starvation in the form of like, a lack of noise. and then grace comes along. and he is just so goddamn noisy. he breathes audibly. his body has no exoskeleton, and all the little things inside of him also make noise. he snores. a thing done while sleeping.

rocky does find the fact he can hear all of his internal organs and their functions somewhat disgusting, but eventually it becomes such a comfort to him that when he and grace go their separate ways home, the hardest part is being in the quiet again. the sounds of his ship do little to comfort, because there is no heartbeat. there is no blood rushing to listen to like white noise. no disgusting mouth sounds and 'humming', those vaguely eridian-but-not-quite noises that grace insists do not have meaning.

rocky sits in his ship with the fruits of his journey actively killing him, not knowing what's wrong, not knowing how to fix it, his planet doomed and the families of his crew never receiving their remains, thinking he has failed, and the only thing he can think is that it is so quiet.

like it is actually very important that you learn about who initially came up with the centrifuge design system for the Hail Mary and that she was one of the scientists that disagreed with Grace and he still doesn't like her for it and the feeling is mutual but he still acknowledges how fantastic her idea is because of course it is. She is the whole reason the ship works in a way that is vital to the mission.

It's important that you understand that Strat finds the world's leading climatologist to tell her exactly what mandmade catastrophe would increase greenhouse gases exponentially because it doesn't matter that it fucks with the world's ecosystem as long as it buys the earth more time while the sun actively cools down due to the astrophage infection.

It matters that you know she took a man out of prison for involuntary manslaughter because of his idea to pave vast amounts of land with solar panels to breed astrophage faster. It matters that you remember with Grace that paving a vast chunk of the Sahara Desert with these solar panels fucked up weather all the way up to Europe.

It matters that you understand the gravity, the desperation, and how all of it was necessary because there just wasn't enough time to work with without sacrificing something. Someone. Anyone.

It matters that you know how quickly Strat hired these people, blew off court appearances, hired convicts, and ordered bombings of the Antarctic to release gases into the atmosphere to make global warming worse. You need to understand the level of urgency, how Strat moved through these hurdles and approached solutions. How she was a history major in college and it's why she knows damn well how bad it's about to get for Earth.

Because once you know how little time the earth has, how limited the resources are, how risky the science is, how so few people are well equipped for this particular mission that is well and truly the world's only shot at surviving, you understand a lot better why forcing Grace to go was their only option after their other scientists died due to a simple, fatal flaw. Even with one scientist left in the world who was willing to go.

Cue a ton of jewelry.

Necklaces, bracelets, rings, waist chains, chest chains, earrings, you name it it’s being made. Erdians dress up for important things and finding your forever mate is a very important moment. So Adrian asked the pebbles of Grace’s class to help make some jewelry. They get to practice their building and make Mr. Grace happy. It’s a win-win for them.

If it wasn’t for the fact that Simon is supposed to wear nothing but the jewelry.

He had to explain to Adrian that he wasn’t comfortable walking around naked so at the very least he can wear a cloth around his waist. Adrian would very much like to not see that so yes he can wear the cloth, in fact I never want to see either one of y’all naked.

So they’re on the beach as Adrian tells Simon how to put on each piece of jewelry that the pebbles hand him while Rocky keeps Grace distracted in the house. It’s all going well until an earring slips from Simon’s hand and gets swept up by a wave. The pebble that made it, gonna call her Sweet Potato, freaks out and immediately runs into the ocean to grab her best creation yet.

Cue Simon and Adrian freaking out.

Eridians can’t swim, they’re literally rocks, but most don’t know that cause they’ve never seen water let alone an ocean before. So Simon immediately runs into the waves, scrambling to grab Sweet Potato so she doesn’t sink to the bottom of the ocean. Rocky thinks that it’s time and brings out Grace right as Simon wades out of the water absolutely soaked while cradling Sweet Potato to his chest.

He’s not mad, just telling her that she can always make a new earring to replace the lost one but that they can’t make another Sweet Potato. He’s checking over her before explaining to her and the rest of the pebbles that the ocean is pretty dangerous for them since they will sink to the bottom. Adrian and Rocky are a bit upset cause they think the whole mating process was ruined, Simon is soaked to the bone, and they’ll have to schedule it for another time.

Grace has never been more flustered and turned on in his life.

Simon is standing there, water dripping down his body that was covered in jewelry sparkling in the setting sun. He was cradling Sweet Potato so tenderly while gently correcting her and the rest of the pebbles. And that cloth on his waist.

Goodness that cloth was fighting for its very existence to stay up.

Rocky hears Grace’s heart speed up and sees heat blooming on the human’s face. He glances back at Simon and back to Grace before doing a little victory dance.

People on Earth would call Grace Saint

Eridians would call him Savior