Lying awake in the dark at 5:00am thinking about my lovely little space blob and rock spider so I might as well post those thoughts here;
My current obsession is the idea of Rocky first learning about Grace’s age and not accounting for their significant lifespan difference(totally valid btw, if my best friend/platonic soulmate/red-string fate/funny alien crew-mate told me his life only lasted 1/7th of mine I would refuse to believe it too. Sort of like how cat and dog owners refuse to believe their furry friends won’t be with them forever, ya know). The initial conversation I think would, go something like:
Rocky: *building some new xeonite structure* How old are you?
Grace: *Working on some experiment and answers without even looking up*: I’m 34.
Rocky: *Drops tools*
Rocky: You are the youngest person ever!
I have seen so many people make skits and animations to that audio and it is freakin hilarious to me. I think Grace would be oblivious to the actual implications of Rocky’s reaction (as usual) but Rocky is in the corner like ‘Holy shit I have said so many Eridian swear words at a literal baby’. Rocky I think would immediately become very parental but in a very cautious way.
On the one hand I think Rocky has so much Parental energy in him he is literally banging at the xeonite glass to baby grace, like he already thinks he’s a little stupid, doesn’t take care of himself efficiently, messy, leaky and fragile due to a lack of a protective carapace, and constantly covered in bruises and scraps from tripping on every possible thing in the ship so once he learns Grace’s age he’s like ‘Ohhhhhhh it’s all making sense now’, but adding on to that I think Rocky and Adrian wanted to have pebbles but weren’t able to before Rocky had to leave for the mission so there is that deep internal want to care for something in that way and now that his crew-mate just revealed he’s a literal toddler those instincts are kicking in fast.
However Rocky would have to be very subtle about it as well because humans are very weird about certain things and Rocky needs to address this very carefully to not set Grace (who already has some issues with keeping walls up in relationships) off to the point he becomes stubbornly self sufficient or worse pull away from Rocky’s much needed help. So Rocky has to be sneaky about it until he can slowly lay on more directly parental behavior like :
“Grace has been working on same problem for much longer than normally, how long since last sleep, question?”
“Has Grace eaten yet, Grace must eat to stay strong for trip back to Erid. Grace have little snack THEN do experiment, statement.”
“Grace room dirty dirty dirty, must clean now, statement. No, can watch movie later, clean now.”
Just general Bossy Rocky behavior until it slowly escalates to:
“Has Grace used ship Lacatories recently, question? Rocky know Grace forget sometimes when busy working, Grace should take bathroom break, statement.”
“Rocky make Grace new Xeonite ‘puppets’. Grace do puppet show and make Rocky happy happy happy.” *Trying to trick Grace into playing*
“Grace have “Oral Fixation”, Rocky look up on portable earth thinking machine. Rocky make tool for Grace to chew safely.” *Proceeds to give him Eridian teethers*
“Grace disgust when eat, let Rocky feed, is faster and less messy.” *Grabs spoon through flexible xeonite panel* “Grace open wide for Hail Mary.” *Starts making Eridian spaceship sounds*
There’s so much I want to post about this topic but I am going to end it here for now and return with more later when I have had more sleep. Thank you my lovelies I’ll see ya soon.🫶
