FifIknow

[gloryhollanovjah]

Whoever invented the flight attendant call button is a genius.

All Ilya has to do is press the little button above his seat and in a matter of seconds a beautiful man will come stand in front of Ilya and ask what he can do for him. A beautiful man with beautiful freckles and shining brown eyes and biceps that had flexed tantalizingly when he'd helped an older woman with her overhead luggage during boarding. And not Ilya, no. He'll ask what he can do for Mr. Rozanov.

It's honestly almost too much. (Almost.)

The first couple of calls had seemed innocent enough, and the flight attendant ("SHANE," his name tag helpfully provides) had been the picture of customer service as he arrived at Ilya's seat with a pasted-on pleasant smile and confidently strode up and down the aisle to bring him a hot towel, a snack, an extra blanket, and always "if there's anything else I can do, sir, please let me know." Ilya had never appreciated the phrase "hate to see them go, love to watch them leave" more.

By the fifth call in the space of an hour, Shane seems to be getting suspicious. His smile has taken on a wry edge as he approaches Ilya's seat, but Ilya maintains perfect innocence as he asks Shane if he can close his window shade.

Shane stops just short of rolling his eyes. "Mr. Rozanov, I have a feeling you're more than capable of closing a window shade on your own."

Ilya shrugs, eyes wide in put-upon bewilderment. "It's stuck! I cannot budge it."

Shane sighs as he braces one hand on Ilya's armrest leans across him to pull the shade down (easily, of course). Ilya tries not to be too obvious as he breathes Shane in, reveling in having him so close, but Shane must sense it anyway because he freezes as he starts to pull away, looking back at Ilya warily as if he's not quite sure what his game is.

"Ah, my hero," Ilya praises softly. "I knew you could do it."

Ilya watches Shane swallow hard before he straightens up. "Anything else I can do for you, Mr. Rozanov?" he asks, a slight waver in his voice.

"Not right now, thank you, Shane. But I'll let you know next time I need you." Ilya points to the button above his head and winks, smiling at the way it makes Shane flush before he hurries away.

Ilya decides not to press the button for over an hour after that, just to see, and the way it makes Shane slowly grow more and more antsy is simply delicious. Ilya can tell he's itching for Ilya's next call, nervously shifting his eyes over to Ilya as he assists other passengers.

After about forty-five minutes, Ilya is playing a game on his phone when he senses Shane next to him and looks up, where he's nervously biting his lip. "Mr. Rozanov, I just wanted to let you know that we'll be starting beverage service shortly. I'll be busy with the cart for a while, so if there's anything you might need..."

He's so beautifully nervous. He's being so wonderfully good. Ilya rewards him with an honest smile, one that seems to put Shane at ease. "Thank you, Shane. I will be fine."

Shane breathes out, returning Ilya's smile. "Ok, cool. I'll, uh, check on you later, ok?"

"Ok. Thank you."

When Shane comes with the beverage cart, he asks for Shane's number. He's never seen anyone flush more prettily as he writes it down on an airline cocktail napkin and signs it "xx Shane."

~~

thank you @hutsonwoolyums for the inspo! 😘😘

[cimmeria-writes]

so i’ve been reading the book.

[bulkhummus]

its a long journey to erid

[welton4jones]

Hannah Waddingham as Judith Burton in Ride or Die, Season 1 Episode 1. THE black dress

[thewildwaffle]

**Spoilers for Project Hail Mary**

I like to think that once Earth receives the beetles and fixes the sun, they then send another beetle to Erid full of seeds, food, spices, and other care package stuff for Grace.

At that point, they won't know he's still alive, as far as they know, he probably starved to death by then. But Stratt insists they send it anyway. If nothing else, it can be a gift for their newly discovered neighbors, the Eridians. Afterall, what's more friendly than sharing food?

The Eridian scientists study the contents of the care package. It's full of shelf-stable human food that they do their best to clone/replicate for Grace. There are also some seeds that store well for the years of travel they experienced. Radish, lettuce, tomato, beans, etc. (Potatoes would be a great callback to "The Martian")

The Eridians are absolutely delighted to observe Grace grow a little garden of Earth plants. Rocky, Adrian, and any of their kids big enough to fit in xenonite EVA suits help him pollinate plants with little paintbrush-like tools. Grace keeps a few plants in pots so he can easily move them around and show them to his students.

[cornmandog]

Like a child just wandering in a garden… yanking leaves…

[isabellebearvolume2]

Grace : "Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves." Stratt: ... Stratt: What a stupid fucking quote. Stratt: I'm killing way more than two people, idiot.

[subaru-copilot]

im so sorry that you're doomed by the narrative but i really need you to answer my message on Microsoft Teams

[shiphappen-s]

I bet Grace's ejection from earth would become like an Eridian horror story. They forced him to sleep. They held him down and made him go to sleep so he would stop fighting. They kept him vulnerable and put him into a dangerous situation with other sleeping, vulnerable humans with no one to watch over them.

And 2 of them DIED! While they were asleep with no one to watch over them!!

Like they probably already thought Rocky's journey was the stuff of nightmares (alone for decades with no one to watch him sleep) but Grace's story would probably be so terrifying to them. Coupled by the relative ease with which he talks of it. He accidentally mentions it to his class and gets several concerned and angry messages from Eridian parents about him telling horror stories to their children instead of teaching Human Science lol

[ram-to-the-ham]

You cannot convince me that Grace wasn't losing his marbles being stuck on that tiny ass ship all the way to Erid.

[imconfusedallthetimehelp]

Grace: *does something*

Rocky: "why Grace so 🎶🎶🎶 stupid. Question."

Grace: "Excuse me buddy?"

Rocky: "...🎶🎶🎶 stupid. Hmm. Need word."

Grace: "...what does it mean?"

Rocky: "Meant add strength to word. But some Eridians think also .....rude"

Grace: "So a swear word. I'm not giving you the human word for that."

Rocky: "Why not. Question."

Grace: "Because this human thinks they are rude too."

Rocky: "Do not be little 🎶🎶🎶 Grace. Give Rocky human swear word."

[utopians]

people aren't even exaggerating indeed is literally like that. walmart attendant $13 an hour, target attendant $13 an hour, AI dick sucker $40 an hour, home depot attendant $13 an hour, guy who designs bullets that can only kill children $160k a year plus benefits, gas station manager $18 an hour

[sticksandstans]

things that absolutely murder me about the project hail mary (book) ending

the chapter title is notated in eridian numbers

grace fully thinks in eridian numbers now actually

IT'S BEEN 16 YEARS. HE'S 53.

he eats his own cloned muscle tissue and calls it a meburger. hannibal lecter who. (i'm gonna be honest my dad told me this one as we walked out of the theater and i fully thought he was lying)

cane user grace. he means everything to me

he's fully fluent in eridian so rocky speaks to him completely fluidly. and also swears.

after SIXTEEN YEARS eridian scientists discover that sol has returned to full luminosity

grace doesn't know what wars have happened and how many died but he DOES know that humanity truly saved themselves. with his help

[michaelwaev]

I really think we should stop saying "kid-friendly" and start saying "ad-friendly". We shouldn't indulge these companies and their excuses anymore. I also think that continuing to pretend that this is about "protecting the children" pushes a lot of the blame onto kids and teens, who don't have the political power to push through any of this censorship legislature. Corporations and governments are to blame.

[silmarienthequeen]

Just finished rereading Project Hail Mary again and it’s really interesting that Stratt is not a scientist. She’s an administrator, a politician, a leader. Not a scientist. She’s surrounded by some of the smartest people in the world, and they’re speaking in very science-y terms, and she has no idea what is going on. So what does she do? She turns to Grace and asks him to explain it to her. And he does, he explains the very complicated stuff in a way she, a non-scientist, can understand, because he’s a teacher. That’s what he does. It works very well from a narrative perspective because you, the reader, also don’t know what all this stuff means, so Grace explaining it to Stratt also explains it to you. But I also think maybe this is part of the reason Grace became so important to Project Hail Mary, why Stratt dragged him around everywhere- and she really does take him everywhere with her- not in spite of the fact that he’s a junior high school teacher, but because of it. 

[stealthetrees]

I think Rocky named Grace ‘Dumbass’ or ‘Idiot’ or something and then just never changed it. Then when they get to Erid he’s so used to calling his alien friend ‘Shithead Moron’ that when he introduces him to a large crowd they’re all like ‘woah man what the fuck’ and ‘that’s not nice!’ and ‘you can’t say that bro that’s too mean’ and Rocky has to awkwardly explain to Grace why they’re upset. Grace, who is now very familiar with Rocky’s standard vocabulary, laughs until he is crying on the floor and can’t breath, which makes all the other Eridians panic while Rocky stands there yelling at Grace that it’s not that funny asshole.

[brothermouse-skeleton]

Stratt is the funniest bitch in the project on purpose. When she makes a joke she 100% meant to do that and she knows that it's the funniest shit ever, even if everyone is too intimidated to laugh.

Grace is the funniest bitch in the project by accident. He's used to being around kids so he's forgotten that filters are a thing and just says the first, dumbest joke that pops into his head. He has no control over it. Nobody makes him feel bad about it because they're afraid of what Stratt will do if they hurt his feelings.

Rocky is the funniest bitch on the Hail Mary because he's been alone in space for years and has probably gone insane, sane, and then insane again. He's 10-20% worried that Grace is just a vivid hallucination and treats him accordingly.