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    "Hey...can I ask you something kind of weird?"

    "Shoot," Rocky says, his voice sounding amused. "But not actually shoot."

    Grace wants to laugh at the joke (he's been getting better at joking and sarcasm) but instead he swallows, his fingers tracing idle patterns on the blanket. The ache from earlier at the classroom, the beach, the constant invisible wall feels closer tonight.

    "What does it feel like... to touch you?" he asks. "I mean, if we could. Your carapace. Your claws. What would it feel like to me?"

    Rocky is quiet for a long beat. When he sings again, his melody is thoughtful and gentle.

    "Hard. Rocky, like name. Like...strong stone that is alive. My claws are sharp but careful. My body pulses a little when I am happy. Like singing Grace can feel instead of hear." He pauses, then adds with a soft, almost shy trill, "What does human skin feel like, question? To me, I wonder."

    He imagines it.

    In his mind, the xenonite shell vanishes.

    Or: Grace is touch starved and Rocky wants to make it better

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    14 Jul 2026

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  2. Public Bookmark *

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    There's 1 in 70,000 people on the planet who have the gene needed to survive the Hail Mary's expedition. In that limited pool, 1 in maybe 1000 had the necessary skills needed for the mission — more dire still, even less people were willing to volunteer for what is essentially a suicide mission.

    When an explosion killed not only their science officers but also their engineers, Eva Stratt makes the tough decision to put 2 people on the spacecraft that no one was expecting to be even be candidates.

    One is a middle-school science teacher.

    One is a convicted eco terrorist.

    --

    AU where Simon did all his suffering on Earth and is dragged against his will onto the Hail Mary alongside Grace

    Language:
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    13 Jul 2026

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    I lived with this hunger long before the Hail Mary. This is nothing new. I’m fine.

    Right up until Rocky asks another question.

    “When last time you touch other human person skin, question?”

    Oh. Oh no. “When I… a few days after I first woke up here.”

    Rocky starts to relax for a split second, but then tightens when something occurs to him.

    “Grace crewmates dead when you wake up. You said this, statement. You not even know your own name, remember nothing, see dead bodies, confirm?”

    I nod, because if I open my mouth I will gag.

    “When last time Grace touch ALIVE human person, question.”

    I swallow thickly. I don’t answer aloud because I know Rocky can hear the hitch in my breath. My stomach churns with fresh bile. He senses my vital signs tick over into stress patterns and goes very, very still again.

    “Grace. When last time, question.”

    I clench my jaw so hard my temples ache, and beg him with my eyes to just stop.

    “Grace. Please say not when… when Evil Stratt humans put you to sleep.”

    I can taste grass.

    ---

    AKA: Grace starves for more than just food on the journey to Erid.

    Series
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    13 Jul 2026

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    (wake up your saints, ryland, i need them)

    In which Ryland Grace makes it his mission to rescue the broken, bloody man he and Rocky found drifting among the stars. (He just doesn't realize that this broken, bloody man is going to rescue him too.)

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    11 Jul 2026

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    Sometimes I'd forget

     

    Rocky has been stranded, alone and light years away from home for 46 years. For a long time it seemed like nothing would ever change. But a new arrival in Tau Ceti system is about to alter the course of history; For Rocky, for Erid, and for another world far, far away.

    -----------------------------

    Beta read by chez_levi! Thank you for your notes, and curse you for your implications about metaphors

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    10 Jul 2026

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