Chapter Text
It happens maybe two weeks into the trip to Erid. After reuniting with Rocky, life quickly returns to normal, or at least whatever funhouse mirror version of day-to-day life passes for normal around here. An average cycle looks a bit like this: I wake up, construct something adjacent to a meal from my remaining rations, occupy myself with maintenance around the ship or tooling around in the lab, bicker with Rocky over nothing, rustle up some even more inexplicable grub, bicker with Rocky over something else, watch a movie to unwind, go to bed.
Only, there’s one thing that’s changed. Suddenly, without warning, Rocky has decided that he no longer needs to watch me sleep.
“What’s with the switch up, bud?” I ask, the third time I wake up without him peering over at me from his usual perch. Honestly, I expected him to be even more clingy after going back for him, at least for a little while. “Eridian cultural norms go and change when I wasn’t looking?”
“Eridian culture is same,” he answers. “Rocky still prefer watch Grace sleep. But Grace can sleep alone if want. Do a privacy.” Well here’s a sea change… it wasn’t so long ago I was ripping my hair out, trying to claw back even an inch of personal space for myself from this guy. Now here he goes singing a very different tune out of nowhere. “Learn important human phrase: Sleep alone, sleep with someone else. Either way, is okay, you wake up with yourself.”
“Is that–” I stare at him for a long, surreal moment. “Are those song lyrics?”
“Yes!” Rocky hops up and down a bit, excited. “Many time, Rocky confuse at Grace way of thinking. Foreign, do not understand. Big difference.” An understatement. The two of us belong to different species, from opposite corners of the universe. It’s remarkable that we share any common ground at all. “Do research computer. Eridian music is archive record. History, civics, law. Boring. Rocky not like, but understand use. Start there, think human music same. Wrong, exclamation!” More excited hopping. “Human music philosophy! Amaze, amaze. Even more useful for human research than Rocky think. Explain all!"
“I–” If I’m interpreting this correctly, Rocky has apparently concluded that the best way to understand the human condition is via the musical offerings of Billy Joel. “Actually,” I decide after a moment. “I guess I don’t really disagree with that.” Obviously, we can all agree that The Stranger is one of the best albums ever made. And I’ve got a soft spot for Uptown Girl, hokey though it may be. Still… if I was trying to introduce someone to the general concept of human reasoning and ethics, I would probably not point them towards the guy who wrote Only The Good Die Young. “Seriously, though. There’s, like, an infinite amount of music on that thing. How the hell did you arrive at Billy Joel, of all people?”
“Do not know.” Fair enough. “Rocky dislike many human music instrument. Distraction noise. Keyboard only good one. Type search “piano”. Human male gender voice most experience, most easy translate. Type search “man”. Think human music is similar Eridian music. Type search “history”–”
“–and it pulled up We Didn’t Start The Fire,” I finish for him. Yeah, I guess I can see how we might have ended up here.
“Search broken. Man, yes. But!” he trills. “No piano! No history! List of human terminology, no context! What is possible use case, question?” Well, the song certainly does invoke history, and a lot of it, but he’s right about there being no context. Not particularly useful for an alien entity operating from an extremely limited understanding of humanity, in any case. “Next music better. Words declarative, thought process from human perspective. Useful information! Listen, realize human is more ♩♬♪♩♪♪ than Rocky know.”
“New word,” I inform him as I grab the laptop, ready to input another entry into the ever-growing dictionary.
“Opposite together, opposite group. Similar, alone.”
“Solitary.” I type it in, and then frown at the screen. It doesn’t look right. Well, I’m pretty sure the word is accurate, but the larger statement… “That might be true compared to Eridians, but humans are a social species, Rock,” I correct. “I mean, sure, I guess some people are honest-to-betsy hermits that live out in the woods, but the vast majority of us are part of communities, have families, neighbors, things like that. We’re pack animals!”
“Yes. Cause human stress, yes, question? Rocky research other music, not only ♩♫♩♪♫♩♪♪♭ human.” There’s another one for the history books, folks. As far as I’m aware, this makes none other than Billy Joel the second human in all of existence to ever be bestowed an Eridian name. Hey, this means I’m, like, two degrees of separation from him now! Nice. “Speak always about hope, want, disgust, confuse, in regards to…” Rocky paces about a bit. This is his ‘thinking scuttle’, as I’ve begun to call it. “New word. Join between two.”
“Already got that one, bud. ‘Connection'.”
Even more pacing. No? Not connection? “Yes,” he admits, after a moment. “But, word too broad. Designate specific variant.”
I shrug. “If you insist. Word is ‘interpersonal connection’.”
“‘Interpersonal’! Word is two word, ‘inter-’ and ‘person’. Rocky understand Grace language easy, statement.” Hey, no argument here. He’s been shockingly quick on the uptake. “Interpersonal connection big topic for human, very difficult. Hear this many places: in music, in movie, in book. Is all human talk about!” He points an accusatory limb in my direction. "Species so whiny! Always fear over nothing! Obsess with self! Give Rocky break already!”
Selfish, I hear someone else say. Coward.
“Yeah,” I respond, dismissing him with a wave of my hand. I think I’d like to get off this subject. “Whatever, man.”
He really doesn’t mean anything by it. And I don’t take any actual offense to it. It’s just another round of your garden-variety friendly ribbing, playful in nature, that’s all it is. Still, Rocky pulls back, somehow sensing that he’s hit a nerve. Isn’t that weird? Being able to verbally communicate with each other is still an ongoing process, and yet, sometimes, I swear we can read each others’ minds. “Make too much fun,” he admits, relenting. “Not Grace fault. Understand now. Is just way human is.”