Chronic Repost-er

Rocky is having a conversation with Grace while he's furiously typing at the computer, going "Uh huh. Mm. Yeah." every time Rocky pauses. What a good listener Grace is today, Rocky thinks happily! No arguing, how unusual!

Then he tries to bring the topic back up later and Grace has NO IDEA what he's talking about. "Grace agreed when Rocky said this meeting was at a good time!" "What?! No I didn't, you literally never talked to me about this!" "ROCKY DID. THREE HOURS AGO. EARTH HOURS. GRACE MADE AGREEABLE HUMAN NOISES AND SAID YEAH. ROCKY OKAYED MEETING WITH GRACE PERMISSION. GRACE SETTING ROCKY UP, QUESTION?" Rocky briefly thinks maybe human memories ARE that bad — but no, Grace has never forgotten a conversation they've had in such a short timeframe before.

He is NOT happy to learn that humans are capable of certain pre-programmed responses that we can just... automatically do when our brains are elsewhere.

What do you MEAN you can fake an entire conversation without absorbing any of it? How does that even work? Why?? GRACE DIDN'T EVEN COMPREHEND WHAT ROCKY WAS SAYING. HOW can Grace give such convincing responses???? And JUST TO TRICK ROCKY INTO THINKING HE WAS LISTENING????!??!? FOR WHAT BENEFIT??????????????? WHY WOULD HUMANS EVOLVE THIS??!!??!!!!!

it's a 5 page minicomic and I truly lost minddd

Eridian mating where, when they mate, they cuddle close together. I mean, not a seam or gap between them.

Their bodies stay there for days into weeks even. This is the final step in the mating ritual.

Where their bodies touch, a chemical reaction is happening over this period, where their bodies are basically meeting one another on a molecular level.

The pair can stay as long as they want, and it's normal, even expected, for your mates carpapace to be swapped for your own.

This explains Rocky having bits of his mate, Adrian, on him. And Adrian, bits of Rocky.

I like to think they call it Melding, and they did one last Meld before Rocky left Erid.

Imagine Rocky 'seeing' his claw mark on Grace, and feeling so guilty to have accidentally Melded him, when Grace has no way of knowing.

God, can you imagine how it'd eat him up inside? He loves Grace with his whole heart and soul, and to see something so intimate on him...

It tells any Eridian that Grace is Rocky's, and Rocky wants that to be true. But in the same breath, he feels that he has no right to him.

Even after everything they've gone to. Nevermind that Grace likes it, because that is somehow worse.

The closer they get to Erid, the more anxious Rocky becomes, before he comes clean.

He sits Grace down and explains how Eridians mate, and how he got the "medium rough parts" (or green to Graces eyes) on his carapace. How, when Rocky grabbed him and pulled him out, the scar he left on Graces arm looks like an Eridian Melding mark.

"You did not know." Rocky tells him, humming in a low tune, his body tilting down. Grace has come to recognize this as a guilty stance.

Grace crouches to be closer to his level, something he did when comforting his students.

He understands where Rocky is coming from, it would probably be the equivalent of coming home covered in lipstick stains. Despite reassurances that it had healed right and he was not longer in pain, well, that was the physical side to it. They hadn't even begun to discuss the emotional ramifications of it all.

Rocky shakes his body, low and slow back and further.

"It is not that. Melding mark for mates," He stresses. "For lovers."

There it is.

Grace takes a deep breath, gathering his thoughts, before speaking lowly and quietly.

"Does that bother you?" He asks.

"Yes..." Rocky's voice is still low, guilty, and his body is tilted towards his scar. Grace knows that he has his 'eye' on it. "You did not know..."

"You're right, I didn't know." Grace begins. "But, I don't mind it. I like it even. It shows that you saved me, despite the damage that you received. We saved one another. Isn't that beautiful?"

Rocky makes a low sound, soft and melodic, that sounds like he's rolling the thought around in his head.

"Beautiful, yes, but what about the mark? Looks like Melding mark, for mates. Grace, Rocky, not mates."

Grace looks thoughtful, and the silence does nothing for Rocky's uneasy mind.

"So then I guess we're mates." He has the audacity to say it with that damned reassured smile that Rocky believes wholeheartedly in.

"What?" The translator speaks, but it doesn't catch how his tones are higher, almost squeaky. Like someone who can't believe they just hit the lottery. In a way, Rocky had.

"I mean- that is to say- if you'll have me." Grace laughs, and it's soft and sweet and melodic, like the warmth of spring day.

"Yes! Yes! Yes!" Rocky is jumping back and forth on his side of the wall, occasionally hopping back and forth between his left and right legs.

"Ah, but now you need one to match." Grace points out with a teasing tone.

This has Rocky standing to his full height than crouching down, up and down, clearly at war with Graces words, working him up.

"How would work, question?!" He asked, slipping back into a familiar vernacular of when they first met. He's tapping one arm in clear agitation.

Grace knows that Rocky must be thinking of ways to make such a thing possible, how the temperature difference alone would make it difficult. The only thing Grace called immediately to mind was possibly giving him a tooth, as bone might be the only thing to survive on an Eridian body.

"Rocky's carapace too hot for human bodies! Grace is stupid, question?!"

It makes Grace laugh regardless.

co-working (and co-shrimping) ft. rocktiz

Grace describes it as best he can, but all he can really manage to get across to Rocky is that he was surrounded by small floating lights.

Later on, Grace is talking about the stars and how important they've been to human cultures for millennia. “What do the stars look like, question?” Rocky wants to know.

Oh, y'know, they're a bunch of small floating lights.

There's a disco ball on the Hail Mary. Grace says it's there because it “makes me happy”. “How does it make Grace happy, question?” Rocky wants to know.

Oh, it creates the illusion that he's surrounded by small floating lights.

Rocky begins to do some research.

Glitter: a substance invented by humans to make things look like they're covered in small lights.

Human jewellery: mostly involves gemstones or polished metals, designed to reflect small lights.

Christmas lights. Candles. Lanterns. Fireworks. Glowsticks. Glow in the dark paint. Rocky is beginning to notice a pattern here, statement.

It takes Grace a fucking while after getting to Erid to notice that a lot of the gifts he's receiving from grateful Eridians are either a) sparkly, b) incredibly shiny, or c) fitted with lights.

While the last one is obviously a concession for his human light sense, he's confused about the former two. Are Eridian materials usually this shiny? Is there some quality about sparkly or highly polished surfaces that makes them sound better? Or is there something about Eridian geology/metallurgy that makes their materials like this?

He asks Rocky about it.

“Simple. I tell people humans like lots of small lights. Humans are easy to make happy.”

Grace kind of wants to protest that humans are much more complicated than that.

But honestly… it fucking works. Like yeah the polished gemstones, shiny metals and glittery rocks are beautiful. Yes those Christmas lights you put up around the house did markedly improve my mental health, Rocky. Thank you, I hate it.

Rocky feels vaguely disgusted and neutral on being basically treated like an ice cream, but Grace looks nice when he's so desperate so he'll endure a little bit

They both find each other hot! But not everything, not immediately, and not in the same way or for the same reasons.

The breakdown goes like this:

Well that was Not Great. But he puts up with my weirdness, so. -> I know you need this so go ahead :) -> well. it's kinda hot the way it makes him so wet and desperate and I'm just standing here unaffected... -> oh yeah... put your fucking mouth on me... keep trying to lick me... -> Uh Oh! I think I'm fundamentally changed forever!