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As funny as it is that rocky sees grace and complains about grace and humans in general as a terribly inefficient blob of water and fluids and teases constantly...

I REALLY think this should be a relatively rocky-exclusive perspective. He's watched this incredibly stressed human drip all kinds of tears and goos while they were floating around in space, and grace let down basically all of his guard around rocky personally, have discussed and understood eachother over life threatening missions. To Rocky, grace is Grace!

But grace does have some naturally combative push to him (see, the commentary that got him stonewalled in the scientific community in the first place, and being able to keep up with and handle Eva stratt) and further more, when an eridian is Not Rocky, i.e. not incredibly socially withdrawn and traumatized and maybe on their own spectrum of divergence before his ill fated mission and was very susceptible to latching onto a strange and unusual creature in just as much crisis as him...

That is to say. The eridians are going to meet grace with wildly different priorities and expectations. And what they're going to get is a human dangerously close to deaths door, and cornered and dying humans aren't always the most friendly or cooperative and friendly, even the Nicest Humans You Can Get.

So they get a dying human. And as tumblr loves to say, humans are terrifying to aliens, and fuck do they persist. Rocky's so-described "pathetic space blob" grace is terrifying to most eridians, especially the scientists studying him.

A particularly pessimistic and irritating Eridian is pontificating to the others, insisting on the highest degree of caution when interacting with the alien in any way, even if that comes at the sacrifice of speed in treating the alien's ailments. Rocky is furious at the implication of "even if that comes at the sacrifice of the alien, period", but silent, unwilling to express his counterargument at full volume and risk waking Grace. Still, he is almost vibrating with anger where he sits on the makeshift 'human-style' bed beside his friend.

"This creature moves about even when supposedly at rest! It's unnatural! Perhaps Rocky-hero only survived the journey here at all because he was safely on the other side of a barrier of xenonite and ammonia, out of this creature's reach. Who knows what violent urges and instincts are contained within that bizarre body?"

The collective attention of the gathered Eridians shifts to focus in on Grace's slumbering form.

As if on cue, Grace rolls onto his side, still snoozing away, and cuddles his whole body in a curve around Rocky's, in a shockingly-close mimicry of a parent [Eridian-cat-equivalent] curling around its [Eridian-kitten-equivalent].

Wrong!!!

I think that Asylum seekers and Migrant workers and The Undocumented and Everyone Else should get free healthcare too

Because then Adrian and Rocky can be that couple moving in together and desperately trying to get their cats to get along.

Rocky with his cuddly chatty orange cat who has so many brain cells they often negate each other, and is a maximum clinger. Currently recovering from scurvy.

And Adrian with their feral rescue, an unlucky black cat they found injured at the bottom of a metal dumpster. Who’s aloof and avoidant of everyone except Adrian, the Only One he loves and trust.

Continuing the cat analogy, I'm reminded of a My Cat From Hell episode I saw years ago where a couple were trying to get their two cats to coexist peacefully. Here was the problem: one cat was deaf; the other's tail was paralyzed. The kitties couldn't communicate effectively with each other and didn't know how to deal with that because, y'know, they're cats and their brains are smaller than apples.

So imagine that the Eridians have made Simon a habitat with a more-or-less correct atmosphere, gravity, and temperature. Maybe they've collected enough of his tissue to figure out how to keep him hydrated and nourished.

But unlike Grace and Rocky, Adrian and company don't have thinking machines that can turn Eridian speech into something a human can understand. And as paranoid as Simon is, he's likely to be more combative than cooperative.

Also keep in mind that Simon's habitat is probably dark because the Eridians have little awareness of light.

So as far as Simon is concerned, he's been imprisoned by giant spiders.

I need Simon to be feeling abducted by aliens and for the Eridians lack of knowledge of humans to cause their help to hurt him on occasion.

He does slowly grow to trust Adrian tho, that’s important! They see this extra leaky space blob alone in the universe and dedicate themselves to making him as comfortable, safe, and enriched as possible.

Also, Adrian POV: when your dead husband returns home in an alien ship (made by the SAME alien species of your adopted alien) with the answers to save your dying star AND the entirety of that alien species wealth of knowledge downloaded onto that alien ship.

And! He befriended one of those aliens! An alien who sacrificed returning to its home planet to save your mate and star. Who’s barely hanging onto life and needs specialized medical care that You’ve Already Figured Out.

We've seen a lot of fics where Simon is paranoid and violent, threatening Grace. And I love it! However, imagine that once Adrian and Rocky move Grace's lamps into the biodome and Simon can see Grace, Simon internalizes how sick and weak the man on the other side of the xenonite divider really is.

Once the divider is lifted, Simon takes to aggressively guarding Grace and only allowing Adrian access.

Ryland has the kind that comes from a mommy and daddy who worked in the Bay Area.

Because then Adrian and Rocky can be that couple moving in together and desperately trying to get their cats to get along.

Rocky with his cuddly chatty orange cat who has so many brain cells they often negate each other, and is a maximum clinger. Currently recovering from scurvy.

And Adrian with their feral rescue, an unlucky black cat they found injured at the bottom of a metal dumpster. Who’s aloof and avoidant of everyone except Adrian, the Only One he loves and trust.

Continuing the cat analogy, I'm reminded of a My Cat From Hell episode I saw years ago where a couple were trying to get their two cats to coexist peacefully. Here was the problem: one cat was deaf; the other's tail was paralyzed. The kitties couldn't communicate effectively with each other and didn't know how to deal with that because, y'know, they're cats and their brains are smaller than apples.

So imagine that the Eridians have made Simon a habitat with a more-or-less correct atmosphere, gravity, and temperature. Maybe they've collected enough of his tissue to figure out how to keep him hydrated and nourished.

But unlike Grace and Rocky, Adrian and company don't have thinking machines that can turn Eridian speech into something a human can understand. And as paranoid as Simon is, he's likely to be more combative than cooperative.

Also keep in mind that Simon's habitat is probably dark because the Eridians have little awareness of light.

So as far as Simon is concerned, he's been imprisoned by giant spiders.

"Oh! A human!" :O

And then... Just a heart beat later, he thinks that he was taking too long and Earth sent someone ELSE on a death mission.

"Oh. A human."

Ryland Grace has made it all the way to his bike with Eva Stratt at his heels, so her trusted security team has correctly assessed it's time to move in the cars, and Carl is approaching off-screen.

Grace comes out of the little "I don't know why that makes me such a nut!" rant, and there Carl is, stepping up into frame exactly next to Stratt. Tall, broad, unimpressed, unmistakably a force to be reckoned with, unmistakably a trusted professional.

But also a nameless goon at this point. An extension of the threat Stratt seems to represent to Grace. A depersonalized tool.

Grace clocks the cars, his presence, the unfolding situation, instantly and incredulously. And he does something clever, something he always does, which is to call attention to the absurdity of the unspoken threat by trying to force the situation into a normal mold.

"I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name."

Turning Eva's nameless goon into a person with agency. Trying to force a relationship that hinders coercion.

Ideally, this would force them all to acknowledge how abnormal they are acting and retreat a little to keep up the appearance of normality. Or admit to what they are doing by refusing. Either way, the ball shifts out of Ryland's court into theirs.

Neither happens, though.

Carl sees exactly what he's trying to do with that and interrupts him mid-question. "Carl." And then keeps staring at him the same way as before. One word, and we already know so much about him.

He is not a nameless goon. He is an individual named Carl.

And he fully supports what is happening there. Because nothing is normal and it's stupid to pretend that what is happening isn't happening.

So yes, while he bonds with Grace over silliness and is the astrophage-coparent and instigator of Carl's Hypothesis... he is also entirely introduced to us as the man who will wish Grace the best of success on the mission while he's being sedated on the ground. Because Carl has a personal opinion about what is at stake.

"Sun's really dying, isn't it?"