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  1. Public Bookmark *

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    The alien—Grace—is finally asleep. Or, at least, Rocky thinks he is. He’s curled on his side, tucked away under a covering. Rocky sits on the other side of the alcove the human lies in, fiddling away with one of his many repair projects. Typically, watching another as they sleep is fairly straightforward and uneventful. Not much is needed beyond something to do and to keep a lookout for whoever’s resting.

    But Rocky can’t help but focus more on Grace as he rests. He just can’t; the way the human sleeps is, quite literally, otherworldly.

     

    Or: Snippets of Rocky watching Grace sleep during their mission to save their stars

    Language:
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    10/14
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    13 Jun 2026

  2. Public Bookmark *

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    The biodome is, at last, finished.

    Grace runs.

    Series
    Language:
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    Words:
    4,681
    Chapters:
    1/1
    Comments:
    111
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    1,881
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    09 Jun 2026

  3. Public Bookmark *

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    One Grace-sleep is not so long.

    It is not “night,” but Grace calls it night, and so Rocky does too. One human night. One third of one human day. One three-hundred-thousandth of Rocky’s life so far.

    This is what Rocky tells himself. He folds up on his xenonite shelf above Grace’s sleeping area, and he listens, and he fiddles with his clock, and he tells himself that it is not so long.

    ~~~

    Rocky has lived through the deaths of many of his friends. He does not want to lose Grace.

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    3,524
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    1/1
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    1,083
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    09 Jun 2026

  4. Public Bookmark *

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    Jesus, my back.

    I pause, gasping for breath — I'm genuinely sweating. And embarrassed. I wonder if Rocky can hear me losing to a slab of wood.

    God, I hope he can't. Please God.

    It's stuck behind a few empty crates and some miscellaneous spare lab supplies. A few beakers. A blender, for some reason. An ironing board. Why? Because go to hell, Ryland Grace, that's why. You can't have enough fuel to come back but you can have an ironing board with no iron. Here's two kilos of cement-flavoured coma slurry. Kill yourself.

    "I'm being dramatic," I tell myself aloud.

    I'm really not. Dying in space is a very dramatic situation.

    The ways that Rocky and Grace miss everything all the time, yet watch over each other, always.

    Series
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    18,733
    Chapters:
    2/4
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    196
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    1,276
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    08 Jun 2026

  5. Public Bookmark *

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    "Mild sedation will be beneficial to avoid further damage.” Mary says, cool as a cucumber. Right. That sounds good. Great, even.

    And there was a needle coming towards me.

    Wait."
    ...

    Grace has made peace with not going home. Grace has made peace with his choice, and he would choose Rocky every time. Grace has not made peace with what happened to him before he left.

    Language:
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    11,407
    Chapters:
    3/3
    Comments:
    140
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    11,661

    07 Jun 2026