Chapter Text
“And here,” Merlene said, leading Rocky to its new workspace, “is where the magic will happen— excuse me, do you know who I work for?— and I guess that’s it! Do you have any questions for me?” She smiled at him brightly as if she hadn’t been cursing out whoever it was on the phone the entire tour.
“No questions,” Rocky said, shaking its head. It tended to keep its responses short as it was still working on using its new human voice, not quite used to only having one vocal system instead of five. Its voice sounded oddly flat to itself.
It ignored the numerous pairs of human eyes boring into its cara— skin.
“Alright-y! You can— no, I will not hold!— you can put your stuff down, and then you can grab a few pronoun stickers and placards to put on your desk! They’re over on your right. Now, listen here, you little—” Marlene pointed to a few bins of what appeared to be paper and plastic signs, then immediately turned and begin walking away, arguing into her phone.
As one of Stratt’s many assistants, she must’ve been very busy.
Rocky looked down at its work area and felt its face shift into a grimace (which was an odd thing to feel its new face do).
In its original body, the space would’ve felt humongous, but as it was, in its 5’10” male body, it would probably be very cramped. It was just a small cubicle with a desk and a rolling chair, and a small file cabinet. On the bright side, the cubicle was already outfitted with all basic engineering tools it might need, and Marlene had told it that it could also ask for more.
It wondered if it could also ask for a new chair, as it could already tell that the one in its office wouldn’t be able to carry its weight. Half-Eridian or not (as far as it and Grace could tell), it was still far heavier than an average human of its size.
It placed its satchel— full of the tools and compounds needed to make and work with xexonite, just as mysterious as literally everything about its entire situation— onto the desk. It really had nothing else, as everything else it was using actually belonged to Grace. The two of them really had arrived back in time with nothing but the clothes on their back, Rocky especially.
Well, clothes and its satchel.
Rocky then wandered over to the bins that Marlene had pointed out. There was a mix of different colored stickers and placards, though Rocky couldn’t even begin to guess what the colors were or what the differences in the words on them were for.
It must have stood there for what was nearing five Earth minutes when it felt a presence approaching it. It waited until the presence got arguably close enough to hear with its human hearing before turning (apparently, being able to hear where things were at all times with echolocation was “creepy” to most humans, according to Grace).
“Hi!” the person, a female with brown hair, said. “I’m Olesya! And you are… Dr. Erin Rockwell, right?”
“Rocky,” Rocky responded.
Olesya didn’t seem put off by its shortness. “Rocky, then! I’m Lead Engineer for this project, so you answer to me. But don’t worry, we are not so formal here! You let me know if you need help with anything and I will introduce you to rest of us when you settle in.”
Rocky looked down at the bins again. “I— not know what pronouns to choose.”
Olesya’s eyebrows shot up. Rocky had learned that that could mean a variety of things, but it thought that it meant surprise in this instance, maybe.
“Hm… pronouns are the words you would like other people to use to talk about you. Like, I use she and her pronouns, so others would say, ‘She is Olesya. She is eating her lunch.’ So, you would choose what you want others to call you,” Olesya explained, a little unnecessarily, as Rocky already knew what pronouns were. It just didn’t know what to use.
Seeing Rocky continue to stare at her blankly, Olesya opened her mouth, presumably to offer further explanation, when Rocky heard a familiar figure— as familiar as its own etchings— come into the room.
“Grace,” it called out, turning its head. Laying its new eyes on Grace was an experience it hoped to never forget. Rocky always thought Grace to be weirdly beautiful, despite the leakiness, but being able to see it was a whole new thing. Grace’s eyes were so pretty that Rocky wished to find a stone the same color to add to its carapace.
Well, when it was back in its own body, which was uncertain as to when that would be. If ever.
“Rocky!” Grace immediately changed course towards Rocky, leaving colleagues behind completely to stand in Rocky’s space.
“What pronouns does Grace use, question?” Rocky leaned forward to wrap one of its upper limbs— no, it’s called an arm, with a hand— around Grace’s waist and tapped its fingers twice against the other’s hip to emphasize its question. Grace’s glasses were crooked again, barely hanging onto one ear, so it used its other hand to fix them. Silly Grace.
“Oh! Are you choosing stuff for your desk?” Grace asked, leaning in, letting Rocky take most of their combined weight. Rocky hummed a yes in Eridani. “Well, I use he/him pronouns.” He whispered a probably under his breath.
“Okay,” Rocky said. It— he turned to Olesya, whose eyebrows were still up, but with the inclusion of her mouth hanging open. Her eyes were flicking between the two of them. “I use he/him pronouns. Same as Grace, statement.”
“Rocky! You can’t just choose your pronouns based on my pronouns!” Grace scolded as Rocky used his free hand to scoop up some stickers and a placard that read he/him.
“Grace is greedy. Our pronouns, statement,” Rocky said, and led Grace back to his small cubicle. His chest felt warm when Grace easily followed.