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Grace realizes, as Rocky tells him about the tattoos engraved on his arms, that once he had become an engineer—one of the lines representing it—that had been it for him; his job had been cemented at a young age, and he had never pursued any other avenues. As he considers whether Rocky thinks he's only ever been a scientist, the Eridian vocalizes the sentiment.
"[Grace know want to be scientist when young, question? Enjoy it?]"
"Yeah, bud, I kinda knew I wanted to be a scientist when I was young," Grace huffs out, tender humor laced through his words. He scoots his stool back and twists to face Rocky, turning his attention from the translations he was working his way through to compile a full dictionary to put on the beetles, to give the other his proper focus (which he always does when Rocky talks to him, but he likes to tease, pretending he wasn't listening for Rocky to let out his version of a trilling sigh and a bubbling admonishment before he repeats himself) as he considers how to tell the other his dotted history of employment.
He sees Rocky click his claws before settling onto his haunches, the other always enthralled when they have a cultural exchange moment. He clears his throat and sets his elbows on his knees, leaning forward to continue looking at the Eridian. "I'd scrounge up my allowance to buy the Science World magazine at our book fairs—a collection of books and school supplies that kids could purchase for themselves—and was intrigued by the Human Genome Project, which the magazine had a long article about."
"♯ ♪♩♬," Rocky repeats in a lilting, questioning tone, carapace tilting as if to get a better view of Grace.
"New word: genome. Means it's how DNA knows how to make the thing it's in grow and live. One of the big scientific breakthroughs for humans was knowing how our full DNA was set up. That definitely was one of the things that got me into my field of study. But unlike you guys, we don't stick with one job. I had to go to a higher and better school—known as a college or university—than the one we go to when we're young to learn science and get a degree—a piece of paper verifying my knowledge. While I was in college, though, I had to work some odd jobs to make money and fund my school."
Rocky makes his approximation of a gasp and scooches closer to Grace, fully enthralled. "[Have] ♩ ♬ ♩ ♪. [Go to one for engineering]," Rocky comments, which Grace files away as the Eridian term for college before he continues to ask, "['Some'? Not one job? Many?!]"
"Yeah, many! I worked as a cashier at Walmart, which means I helped people to kind of barter for food? Then I ended up as a server for a bit at Denny's, which, for that, means I would bring breakfast food out to people who came to a place specifically to eat."
"[Buy food and serve food? Come to place to eat?! In public?! Disgust… Always food with humans! Disgust, disgust, disgust!]"
Grace barks out a laugh and brings a hand up to cover his mouth as he tries to get himself under control. Rocky has gotten used to him eating in front of him (not many places to try and hide to eat when your spacemate can hear everything), but he'll still voice his discomfort with it and how humanity seems to revolve around consuming food in front of each other.
"Yeah, very disgusting. Then, over the 10 years of college, while I was getting my doctorate—which would let me do original research, publish, and apply it—I got to be a research associate, then a project manager, and then I got into the pharmaceutical industry—which is medicine. Then, ta-da! I finally got my doctorate and became Dr. Ryland Grace.”
"[Grace smart! Amaze, amaze, amaze. Scientist then go to space, very smart!]"
"Ah," Grace utters, pausing. He has his memories of being kicked out of academia, of working to get his teaching certificate, of how he came to be working on Project Hail Mary, then being forced onto Mary, of Stratt calling the agents on him, of Carl telling him, "You know who you are"—but he hasn't told Rocky about any of it. He'd been too afraid to do so, to know that his opinion of him would change with how cowardly he was and is; he doesn't want to tell Rocky he's on a suicide mission, and when he'd first figured that out, he'd drunk himself into a stupor and had almost given in to the idea of just wasting away in a corner. "I, uh, was still a doctor, I guess. But I got kicked out of science? Or at least the research sector of it, so I took up a teaching job, which was pretty great, all things considered. Then I came back as a scientist and joined Project Hail Mary when astrophage showed up, and voilà."
The usual, little chirping noises Rocky emits to let Grace know he's listening—with his whole, you know, lack of a face, even though he usually turns one side of his carapace towards him, which he's deemed his front—go silent, and for some reason it sends a shiver down his spine.
"Rocky—," he barely manages to get out, wanting to ask if he's okay, before Rocky explodes into motion.
"[Grace] 𝄪♩ ♬ . ♪?! [Why here? Why not Earth?!] ♩ ♪ ♪___♩. ♪ |♩ ♪ ♪___♩!" The Eridian borderline screeches as he stands and swings his arms around, and Grace winces at how high-pitched and discordant the notes that come from Rocky are. Grace can guess the first notes are teacher, but the rest are lost on him as Rocky continues, sounding like a band that's completely out of tune; if he'd hazard a guess, he'd think Rocky is spewing expletives, but that might be projection.
"Yeah, I'm— or was— a teacher, bud. Jeez, do you think you can tone it down?" He jokes, lifting a hand to rub at one of his ears, but more incomprehensible and loud squealing escapes from Rocky. Grace can see the vents that make up the top of him pop up and down, faster than he's seen them move before. He thinks if they moved any faster, they'd blow large clouds of steam, like in Looney Tunes. (He'll have to scrounge through the database Stratt left later and convince Rocky to watch the series with him, he thinks offhandedly.)
"[No! No 'tone down'! Earth sent teacher up to space?!]" Rocky questions, his pitch so high that Grace is almost unable to understand the words. He watches as Rocky begins to pace, faster than his ball can roll, almost smacking himself into the xenonite. He lets out another string of cacophonic notes, and Grace rushes to explain.
"Yeah, but it's all good. The government needed my help, so I gave it, and here I am. I mean, I miss my classes,"—God, he really does; he misses all of their chaos and how they seemed to love him even though he knows he was an absolute hot mess—"which were made up of children around 11 to 14… That'd be, uh, for your species' kids, a third of your age, right? But, anyway, I was only a middle school teacher, and there are plenty of those."
Even with his casual appeasements, it only serves to irritate Rocky further, and the other stops as if to stare at Grace, stomping his feet so hard he's worried cracks will appear from all the banging the Eridian's given his ball.
"[Grace teach hatchlings! Grace important! Very, very important! Erid teacher are] ♩ ♩ ♬ ♩ ♪ ♫! [Not many! Allow hatchlings to grow! Are like] ♫ ♪ ♬ ♪ [to hatchlings! Erid no make teacher do dangerous mission!]"
"Rocky, slow down. I don't know what you're saying. What are those two words?"
"♩ ♩ ♬ ♩ ♪ ♫! [Mean very important! Not many!]"
Grace racks his brain for a moment, then offers, "Precious?"
"[Yes! Teachers precious! Grace precious!]" And okay, wow, he's going to have to unpack why that makes him flustered and sends tingles through him. Later, though.
"And the second one?"
"[Teacher let hatchlings grow! Help raise! One of main Eridians that takes care!]"
"A mother?" He blurts out, then quickly tries to correct, "Sorry, a parent. A mother is the female parent who usually, uh, carries and hatches… hatchlings. And I guess socioculturally—humans' beliefs—mothers are generally the ones who push for hatchlings to communicate and provide the most support to the kid. But a parent generally means either female or male who takes care of a hatchling that belongs to them."
"[First one better! Teacher are like mother to Eridians. Teacher constantly with hatchlings and help hatchlings learn everything! Teacher help us talk, show how to Thrum, how to walk! Everything!]"
He guesses Rocky makes sense with how involved teachers are in children's lives. Sure, he knows his own teachers were, but he had just assumed that was because he was a foster kid. He never really delved into just how much he did as a teacher, so it put some things into perspective—like how often his kids would accidentally call him "mom" or even "Ms. Grace," then almost keel over in embarrassment. Though it is fascinating to hear that they don't have a multitude of teachers like Earth does, so he supposes it's understandable why he and other Eridians would deem them precious.
"I think I get it now, Rock. You guys have a small number of teachers, and because they're like… moms, they're super important to you guys. Does that really stop you guys from sending them up into space? They're that important?" Grace inquires, raising his hand again from where it'd fallen onto his leg to scratch at the back of his head.
"[Teacher Grace precious, teacher Grace important! Bad to send to space. Bad, bad, bad. Never hurt teacher.] ♬ ♪ ♪ ♫ [for Eridians who hurt teachers,]" Rocky chitters, his tone still sounding as if he's infuriated. Still, he's become physically calm enough to roll his ball over and nudge it into Grace's leg. Grace lowers his hand from his head and presses it against the xenonite, watching as Rocky moves to press his own hand against Grace's. He can feel the warmth that radiates from it against his palm.
"New word," Grace prods, and Rocky rocks his carapace back and forth. He sees the Eridian's claw flex against the glass, as if he can press it further into Grace's hand.
"♬ ♪ ♪ ♫ [mean bad, bad act done to Eridian for hurting teacher.]"
"Bad act…? Uh, punishment?" Grace supplies, his brain mulling over the fact that teachers are important enough that if Eridians hurt them, there are what seem to be severe consequences. He wonders what type of punishment they get, but realizes he'd like to leave that for another time. He also decides that, for now, he's definitely not revealing the fact that he's on a suicide mission. Neither of them needs to be more upset, and he'd rather leave the topic alone until it becomes necessary. "Well, that doesn't happen on Earth. I mean, there are punishments just for hurting people, but not specifically teachers."
Rocky lets out a grumble that's deep enough to sound close to a whale call. "[Earth disgust. Earth full of]♩ ♫ . ♩! [Erid treat Grace better. Erid protect Grace. Rocky protect Grace.]"
Grace finds himself exhaling a soft laugh, sliding his hand up the xenonite and gliding over the top of it as if to pet Rocky's head. "Yeah, sure, bud. If I ever visit, I'm sure they, and you, will."
"[Yes! Rocky and Adrian protect Grace. Adrian will love Grace, like Rocky love Grace.]"
He does raise an eyebrow at that. They'd watched The Notebook only a couple of days ago—with most of his time spent during the movie fielding questions from Rocky, like, "[Why Noah look like Grace?,]" "[This is love?,]" and the funnest one of them all: "[They are engaging in human reproduction?]" He'd tried to explain the difference between familial, platonic, and romantic love, but he doesn't think Rocky fully grasped it. It's still sweet, so he'll refrain from a teaching moment about it again.
"I hope you're right," is all he replies, still going through the rhythm of running his hand over the top of Rocky's ball.
"[Very right. Love Grace very much, so Adrian will, too. Grace love Rocky?]"
He cracks a smile seeing the little vibrations that run through the other and the minute tip-taps of his feet—his form of excitement. What's the harm in saying he loves him back when it's true? Rocky is his best friend, whom he loves a lot. Strictly platonic. Definitely.
"Yeah, Rock, Grace love Rocky."
This time, Rocky lets out multiple trills, but they're more pleasant than before. It makes him recall the softer section of the intro from "No Leaf Clover." (What can he say? He likes his dad rock.)
"[Grace, Grace, Grace,]" Rocky sings, and Grace can feel his smile grow wider. "[Grace perfect on Erid. Grace perfect with Rocky and Adrian. Grace visit many times.]"
"Rocky, Rocky, Rocky," he chimes back. "I'll check my schedule. Maybe I can make time for you guys."
He snorts as Rocky lets out an incredulous noise and retorts, "[After save Erid and Earth, have much time!]"
"Ehhh, we'll see about that. I might need space from you."
"[In space! Have much space! No more space!]"