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With a sigh, I look up from the laptop. I've been scrolling through the Hail Mary's archive for at least half an hour by now. Being three years into our journey to Erid, movie nights have become a bit of a challenge. At least when you're trying to find something your rock alien best friend hasn't seen yet.
I lean my head against my fist and continue looking. The archive is arranged by date of release so you can imagine, how long it took me to get to the movies that came out in 2012. I wish there was a filter system, like other archives have them… but alas, that's something Stratt's people didn't think of. The only thing it has is a search bar, but that isn't really helpful in any way when you don't have a specific movie in mind.
Seen that, not interested in this, not doing a horror movie (made that mistake once… and never again. Not just because of Rocky, but because I almost shat my pants too.), seen that… twice, already watched—
Wait a minute. I scroll back up a bit and am met with a pleasantly familiar face, staring back at me. The cover is tinted in dark yellows and reds, with a barely visible arrow, pointed accusingly at the viewer and a conspicuous burning pin, right behind the title.
The Hunger Games.
Man, I haven't seen those movies in ages. I used to love the books, when they came out. And while the movies left a bit to be desired in terms of accuracy, they're still damn fine movies. Damn fine movies Rocky hasn't seen yet. Perfect.
"Rock, I found one! You ready to start?" I yell out into the ship. Rocky is in the lab right now, so it should only take a minute for him to get to the don't-go-crazy room.
"Am on my way. What movie about, question?" I hear the quiet thumping of Rocky skittering to where I'm at in his flexible suit.
"It's a young adult dystopia movie, adapted from a three part book series. Actually the first of it's kind and get this, people liked it so much that it started a whole new genre. Many other authors tried to replicate what The Hunger Games—that's what the movies are called—tried to do, but most failed rather spectacularly."
"Uhhh, interesting. But Grace hasn't said what story is about yet, statement." Rocky enters the room and immediately loafs next to me on the blanketed floor.
"Right, sorry. Just thought you'd be more interested in the pop culture significance." Turns out Rocky is very invested in earth's culture, surrounding movies specifically. Anything that had a small or major impact on society, Rocky is enamored by.
We've already had a Titanic phase and a —shiver— Twilight one. Thankfully, the latter only lasted about a week. Rocky really, really didn't understand why those movies were so popular and to be fair neither do I. However, that obsession also meant that the first time Rocky showed off his new and improved xenonite suit, he promptly hit me with the 'this is the skin of a killer Grace'. I don't even know how he knew the damn suit sparkled…
"The Hunger Games is about a corrupt government, picking a boy and girl from the every state of the country to fight against each other in a gladiator style spectacle. Which is broadcast live as entertainment for the rich and punishment for the poor. More or less." I don't want to give away too much too soon, but mentioning gladiator fights is sure to pique Rocky's interest.
It's one of his other, a bit more macabre obsessions. Human history, specifically mass casualty events of the past, which is how we got to the aforementioned Titanic phase in the first place. That, then morphed into a general fascination for pop-culture.
Rocky visibly lights up at the explanation. "Interesting, interesting, interesting! Grace Rocky watch now, statement!"
I chuckle and press play.
The big screen turns black and one after the other, sentences written in white font appear, informing the viewer of Panem's past and the reason for the games' existence.
I read it out loud for Rocky, because while he can understand english writing by now, he's still a bit of a slow reader.
"'From the treaty of treason: In penance for their uprising, each district shall offer up a male and female Tribute between the ages of 12 to 18 at a public 'reaping'. These Tributes shall be delivered to the custody of the Capitol. And then transferred to a public arena, where they will fight to the death, until a lone Victor remains. Henceforth and forevermore this pageant shall be known as… The Hunger Games'"
Rocky freezes beside me, then pointedly (and rather unnecessarily) turns his 'front' to face me.
"Twelve to eighteen, question?! That is evil… tiny helpless pebbles forced to fight to the death?! Earth cruel, Capitol cruel, cruel, cruel, statement!" He squeaks besides me, burrowing his carapace further into the cushions in distress and outrage.
Oh boy…
I probably should have seen that coming. I brush a hand over his vents soothingly, feeling them jump a little under my fingertips.
"We don't have to watch it, I can find something else."
"No! Want to watch, am invested now." He shifts a bit closer to me, pressing up against my thigh and side. His warmth seeps into me, leaving me tingly at every point of contact. I ignore it and shrug.
"Okay if you say so." I press play again.
The first half an hour passes relatively fast. Rocky, of course, immediately takes a liking to Prim and also Katniss, squealing in horror as Prim's name is pulled. Katniss instantly volunteers which, as expected, doesn't ease his distress at all. Mockingjay is gonna be fun…
Rocky marvels at the sheer technological difference between District twelve and the Capitol for a while, before concluding (again) what a cruel nation the Capitol must be, to have all this wealth and instead of using it to ease other peoples suffering its citizens just add to it.
I'm not sure I want to explain the concept of capitalism to him, but he changed the topic on his own when it's Peeta's time to get interviewed.
"I like bread boy." Rocky sings as Peeta walk on stage. He jokes with Caesar Flickerman, which has even Rocky chittering. That's a rare sight, usually he only understands earth jokes after lengthy explanations of the societal context behind them. I suppose that only further proofs the amount of charisma and humor Peeta possesses.
A sudden musical gasp rips me out of my thoughts and I realize what scene we're at. Peeta just revealed to the entire country, that he has feelings for Katniss. Hard cut and he's thrown against a vase behind the stage. Rocky squeaks next to me, clearly caught of guard and confused.
"What?! Why Katniss doing this, question? Thought she like Peeta!" He uses the chords for 'cat' and 'bread-boy' as their names. Cute and quite ingenious.
"She does, she just thinks it's all an act, that Peeta is actually her enemy and will try to kill her, once they're in the games. Only one person can get out of this, remember?"
"Ah, understand… Katniss dense like Grace." He mutters, attention completely on the new and improved, much bigger texture screen. That little rascal.
I shove at one of his shoulder joints. It doesn't budge. "Hey, I'm not dense! Why am I the one catching strays here?"
"No understand, what strays, question? Also Grace saying you're not dense just proves Rocky's point."
"Uh… it's short for stray bullets I think, an earth saying that means being insulted or made fun of without reason, or when you weren't even part of the conversation." I let his second comment go unaddressed, we'd sit here for the next few days, if we were to start arguing about that now.
It's smooth sailing from there, with only a handful interjections or questions from Rocky, until Katniss teams up with Rue in the arena. He's surprisingly only mildly outraged at the reveal that Peeta is part of the Career tributes. Maybe he already suspects Peeta's real goal.
"Grace, she gonna live, right, question?" I suck in a breath, lips pressed together in a thin line. Rue has always been a sore spot for me.
"Just… watch."
Rocky taps on the ground, listening closely to my reaction, then he lets out a shrill high note, like a dying whale on crack. "Grace bad liar. Bad, bad, bad!"
He refuses to talk to me, frozen in place until the inevitable happens. Rue doesn't turn up after their plan to blow up the Career's food and Katniss goes out to search for her. When she finds and frees her from the net, Rocky relaxes visibly. I can't help but feel bad for him, he has no idea what'll happen next. Marvel suddenly appears and Katniss shoots him, dodging his spear in the process. Rocky cheers.
The happy squeal dies in his vocal sacks immediately as the camera pans around to show the spear, lodged deep inside Rue's abdomen. She pulls it out and falls over, into Katniss' arms.
I feel tears well up in my eyes, vision blurring as Katniss sings for Rue until she dies. This part always gets me. Rocky seems affected too, he's sunken deep into the blanket, emanating a level of grief, I didn't know he was able to convey without any facial features. I pull him close, almost onto my lap, hands brushing over his vents in what I hope is comforting. Leaning against him, I lower my head and press a chaste kiss on top of his carapace.
I freeze immediately. Why did I do that?! Oh god— what in the ever-loving freak was that?!
Rocky stirs under me, lifting himself up a little and I hastily pull back, clearing my throat. Maybe he didn't notice. I keep my eyes fixed on the screens in front of us, pointedly ignoring when Rocky drapes one of his limbs over my criss-crossed legs. This is fine.
In the movie, Caesar just announced the Rule change, stating two tributes could win as long as they hailed from the same district and Katniss makes it her new mission to find her district partner, Peeta.
Rocky is absolutely smitten by their ensuing relationship, even though it's only an act on Katniss' part. He insists Katniss feels the same way, and that she's just 'dense like Grace'. Rude. I am again the one catching strays.
I can tell Rocky is fully invested now, he's on the edge of his seat, when Katniss goes to the feast to get Peeta's medicine. But as the number of remaining Tributes continues dwindling, he grows more and more nervous, rightfully so. The finale approaches and Katniss and Peeta are forced onto the Cornucopia by the mutts, where they fight against Kato.
I feel a small limb grab at my knee, hard, as the whole scene unfolds. Rocky's hold on me only eases, when Katniss takes the final shot, killing Kato. If this were the book, Peeta would be bleeding to death right about now and I would probably have my kneecap crushed by a stony claw. So maybe some inaccuracies aren't that bad.
Caesar's voice rings through the arena again, announcing the rule change to be invalid and Rocky jumps up, exasperated.
"WHAT, QUESTION?! Can't just take back now! Capitol human CRUEL, insult!"
"Yep… that was pretty much my reaction too. You just have to keep watching though, it's worth it, I promise."
On screen, Peeta and Katniss divide the poisonous berries between each other, showing them to the world. They count down, but before they can actually consume them, a hollering voice echoes through the arena again, announcing that they've won. Rocky jumps up.
"This mean Katniss and Peeta both live, question?! Can be together forever now, question?!"
I nod at him. "Yeah pal, they won."
We finish the first movie and Rocky demands we watch all the others too, not that we have anything else to do. I scroll up a bit in the archive and this time it only takes a few minutes to find what I'm looking for. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.
As the credits roll, Rocky sits frozen in place. I have never seen him this still before. After a moment he sings, strained, “What does Gale-human mean, question? How can entire district be gone, question?!”
“You’ll see.” I respond, swallowing down tears. Rocky squeaks at me in outrage at my refusal to answer his questions. But instead of arguing with him, I find Mockingjay part one and press play.
It's hard to watch, equally due to the movie itself and Rocky's reaction to it. He stands firmly on the side of the rebellion and is distraught beyond words, when he finds out what Snow subjects Peeta to. We watch mostly in silence at this point, until Rocky makes an interesting observation.
"Grace very similar to Katniss, statement." I turn to look at him, brows furrowed.
"What? Where?"
"Katniss smart, observant, very talented hunter. Grace talented, very good scientist, very observant too… most of time. But both have fatal flaw, too little self esteem, think little of self and diminish achievements. Causes you to not believe or ignore when people express interest. Just like Katniss. And you also both dense, too dense to realize own feelings for Peeta." He states, attention still half on the movie.
"I— uhm what?! Okay, I mean yeah the first part may be true, the rest I'm pretty sure you just made up. Also what do you mean… I'm not in love with Josh Hutcherson."
"Not made up, just keen observation. Rocky just good at reading people, Rocky more like Peeta." He smacks his forehead, a gesture he definitely picked up from me.
"Also not what I mean, only further proves statement of Grace being dense."
"Okay, I'm going to just ignore that, but I suppose, I could see your other point. You're smart, funny, true to yourself, kind and incredibly considerate, and your xenonite sculptures could be seen as art—" I freeze. What am I saying? My face turns bright red. Something about these movies must be massively scrambling my brain. Between this and kissing Rocky earlier it almost seems like—
Two realizations hit me at the exact same time and with the intensity of a truck.
Firstly: Rocky just compared us to literal lovers. Two people who's relationship he doesn't just support but actively celebrates and wants to last forever. In a romantic sense, which he definitely understands the significance of.
Secondly: I'm not as opposed to that idea as I'd like to be, on the contrary, I think… oh god I think I'd actually really enjoy that, being in a relationship with Rocky, I mean.
Wait a second?! Is this what Rocky was referring to when he made that comparison?
Of course… he didn't mean to imply you're in love with Josh Hutcherson, dummy, the voice in my head replies.
I clear my throat. "Uhm— I— saying that holds some implications, like you know, saying we're like the couple in a movie could mean—"
"Grace, how dense do you want to be, question?" Rocky turns to me, signaling I have his full and undivided attention.
"Wait. Wait, wait, wait, so you're saying, that you pointed this out on purpose?!"
"Yes! I cannot believe it takes this long for you to realize. Really are like Katniss. Rocky is like Peeta in all ways you listed, but is also like Peeta in other regard… am madly-in-love-with-you-but-you-too-dense-to-realize." His words melt together in a single multilayered harmony. I catch bits and pieces and it takes me a moment to puzzle out its meaning.
Rocky just said he's in love with me. At least that's what I heard… surely I must have misheard him.
"Could— could you repeat that, I think I didn't hear you correctly there, dude." I'm no longer paying any attention to the movie still playing in the background. Instead, I zero in on Rocky, now fully turned towards him.
Rocky pushes steam out of his vents, an exasperated sigh. "Said that I am in love with you…" He ducks his carapace slightly, as if bracing for a hit. His claws fidget with the soft fabric of the blanket, clenching and unclenching his fists rhythmically. "Have been for long time, but didn't think you feel the same… didn't want to pressure you. But then you gave human gesture of endearment before, heart rate elevated and pupils and face blood vessels dilated, all signs of deep affection. Put two and two together because am not dense like you. Is Rocky correct in assumption that Grace feels same way, question?"
I stare at him, mouth agape, trying to wrap my head around everything he just told me. He's in love with me. Has been for a long time… and I'm in love with him too. At least that I've realized. These feelings just snuck up on me, he made himself at home in my heart and I let him, without second thought. Never even questioned it until now. Rocky's right. I love him. More than anything, anyone. Heck, nobody on earth could ever compare to him, not even the entirety of my own species.
I feel something wet run down my cheek and when I brush it away I realize it's tears. I didn't even notice my vision blurring. The truth of everything Rocky said, of all my thoughts sinks in at once and I throw myself into Rocky's arms. He catches me, claws digging into the fabric of my shirt.
"Yes you're right, you're always right. I love you too, like so much. You got my whole heart and I never even stopped to question it. Falling in love with you has been the easiest thing I've ever done, so easy I didn't even know it was happening until now, until it was way, way too late." I sniffle into one of his shoulder joints, tears falling in a steady stream and gathering on the smooth xenonite. Rocky just holds me tighter.
"That means am allowed to keep you, question?" His voice warbles on the last sentence, almost like he's crying too.
I grip his carapace as hard as I can in response. "Yes, I'm all yours for as long as you want me. I'm yours."
We stay like that for a moment, until my tears dry and my breath stops hitching. I pull of off Rocky and blatantly notice that the movie's still on. And oh… is the scene fitting and simultaneously the exact opposite of our situation. A pit forms in my stomach.
Katniss is rushing through a crowded medical ring, head turning in search of someone. She's guided to a door and enters. Her eyes well up with tears as she sees who's inside. Peeta. In rough shape, but alive, here, safe from Snow. She gets closer, reaching out her hand, but instead of doing the same, Peeta attacks her.
Rocky squeals. He bumps against me hard, almost knocking me to the ground. "What happened?! Why Peeta doing this, question?!"
"He was tortured by the capitol, they used those insects from the first movies—the ones that cause hallucinations— and turned his memories of Katniss into something scary, so he would try to kill her." As I explain, I brush a hand over his carapace, hugging him loosely.
"Oh… Peeta-Katniss going to be okay, question?" He settles in between my legs, slightly more relaxed now.
"You'll see."
"Grace mean! Tell Rocky now, demand! If Peeta-Katniss not okay and happy by end of series, Rocky throw self out of airlock and take you with me." I can't help the chuckle that escapes my lungs, who knew emotional support ships are an inter-species thing.
Mockingjay part one ends in a massive cliffhanger. Rocky is not amused and demands we watch the last one right this second, even though, I haven't eaten anything in the last six hours. Not that there's much food left to eat these days. We come to an agreement, since I've already seen the movie, I'll let it run, while I get myself some coma slurry and 'eat' it in the don't-go-crazy room next to Rocky.
It works out and we get through most of the movie pretty smoothly. Rocky gets increasingly pissed off at Gale, but chitters with glee every time there's even a minor victory regarding the rebellion and Peeta and Katniss' relationship.
He hasn't had many opinions about Finnick, but his death still hits him hard. Minute by minute we get closer to the moment I've been dreading since the very beginning. Gale and Katniss make their way towards the Presidential palace, running right into a brutal war zone.
Out of sheer luck, Katniss makes it to the grand plaza and promptly witnesses the bombing of Capitol children via parachutes. Rocky clicks at the screen, motionless. He doesn't say anything, but I hear a deep rumbling sound emanating from him. It travels through my legs, still wrapped around him, and vibrates deep within my core, rattling my bones.
It sounds like grief.
On screen and for only a second, Katniss spots Prim within the crowd of injured children and the low rumbling suddenly stops. Rocky turns his carapace up slightly as if looking at me, then quiet, almost inaudibly sings, "No… not Prim, not Prim. What was point, question? What was the point of Katniss going into the games, doing everything, becoming the Mockingjay to save Prim so Prim could have better life, life without the Reaping if she dies now, question?"
"I'm not sure." Like predicted, the rest of the parachutes go off, engulfing Prim in hot fire.
I hug Rocky tighter. The next twenty minutes of the movie are difficult for both of us. Rocky understands Katniss' plan quickly, but when it comes to pass he doesn't cheer, he seems utterly defeated. Only one thing has the ability to lighten his mood again.
After months of isolation and depression, Katniss finds Peeta planting primroses in their garden in the Victor's Village, as a final tribute to Prim. They find into each others orbit again, falling back into a sense of familiarity and reclaiming the name of Star-crossed lovers for themselves.
Katniss climbs into bed, settling into Peeta's arms and before they fall asleep, Peeta asks, "You love me, real or not real?" After a moment Katniss answers, "Real."
Rocky lets out the most adorable little squeak, jumping up and out of my lap, he points at the screen in excitement. "Grace hear, question?! Grace, Grace, Grace, Katniss said thing, said real, statement!"
I chuckle. "She did bud, she did. But wait, it gets even better than that."
The epilogue comes around, Peeta playing with their children in the field as Katniss watches. She tells her youngest child and the audience about the twenty years sitting between the presence and the rebellion, finally feeling safe enough to commit to living fully. Having helped to create a world where Peeta's children are safe and sound. Just like the lullaby describes.
Rocky's voice warbles as he says, "This is good ending, Katniss-Peeta safe forever, together forever. Happy. They deserve all happiness after what they've been through, statement."
"I don't have anything to add to that, I totally agree with you."
"Rocky have one more question for Grace, statement."
"Okay, shoot."
"Grace love Rocky, real or not real, question?" He tilts his carapace in a very sheepish looking way.
I snort, an indescribable fondness building inside my chest, threatening to burst. "You know the answer to that, but fine. Real."
"Rocky glad. Good, good, good."