Mega Dragonite Stan Account

@c1tr4n1um

Not actually a Mega Dragonite stan account • Nigel • he/him • systeen • personal blog!

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Imagine that Eridians grow with age, so when Rocky first left Erid, Adrian was around the same size as them, but now coming back all these years later Rocky reunites with Adrian and they're now like three times the size of Rocky. (the wonders of time dilation)

Rock doing the equivalent of blushing furiously and swooning like "omg... my mate is so so so beautiful."

Also imagine that they never stop growing until death, so maybe by the time they reach 600-and-something and die of old age, they're MASSIVE.

So an old Eridian will just lumber off a ways, sit down, and pass on. and boom. they're a mountain now. That's a mountain.

Rocky leads Grace to two towering mountains and points up at them like "look look look! These were Rocky's parents!"

(yes, I was thinking about lobsters when I wrote this)

agentrouka-blog

I love Carl's introduction. It's such a great establishing moment.

Ryland Grace has made it all the way to his bike with Eva Stratt at his heels, so her trusted security team has correctly assessed it's time to move in the cars, and Carl is approaching off-screen.

Grace comes out of the little "I don't know why that makes me such a nut!" rant, and there Carl is, stepping up into frame exactly next to Stratt. Tall, broad, unimpressed, unmistakably a force to be reckoned with, unmistakably a trusted professional.

But also a nameless goon at this point. An extension of the threat Stratt seems to represent to Grace. A depersonalized tool.

Grace clocks the cars, his presence, the unfolding situation, instantly and incredulously. And he does something clever, something he always does, which is to call attention to the absurdity of the unspoken threat by trying to force the situation into a normal mold.

"I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name."

Turning Eva's nameless goon into a person with agency. Trying to force a relationship that hinders coercion.

Ideally, this would force them all to acknowledge how abnormal they are acting and retreat a little to keep up the appearance of normality. Or admit to what they are doing by refusing. Either way, the ball shifts out of Ryland's court into theirs.

Neither happens, though.

Carl sees exactly what he's trying to do with that and interrupts him mid-question. "Carl." And then keeps staring at him the same way as before. One word, and we already know so much about him.

He is not a nameless goon. He is an individual named Carl.

And he fully supports what is happening there. Because nothing is normal and it's stupid to pretend that what is happening isn't happening.

So yes, while he bonds with Grace over silliness and is the astrophage-coparent and instigator of Carl's Hypothesis... he is also entirely introduced to us as the man who will wish Grace the best of success on the mission while he's being sedated on the ground. Because Carl has a personal opinion about what is at stake.

"Sun's really dying, isn't it?"

"Yeah."

read @startingatmidnight 's fic The Astrobiology Immersion Program, then read it again, then again, then drew fanart about it. it's the world's most perfect bodyswap fic and everyone should read it right now!!!

one day grace hurts his right hand somehow and he's all upset bc he's like gosh dang it now i have to do everything left-handed. and rocky's like ?????still have other hand?? and grace explains the idea of dominant hands and rocky is like. you only have two hands. the FUCK do you mean only one of them can do anything

I keep thinking about the fact that Eridians seem so much stronger and sturdier than humans, so what humans-are-space-orcs thing could Grace even do that would freak Rocky out... and then I remembered humans are persistence predators.

So picture some years in the future when the xenonite suits are so safe that Grace's class can now take field trips into his biodome. Rocky's there because this is a big moment for everyone involved and also he just loves listening to Grace in his element. One of the more mischievous kids tries to sneak off from the group and there are plenty of chaperones but Grace is the first to notice.

His posture changes, goes focused but loose in a way Rocky's never seen before as he peels of from the crowd. Rocky just stands there, stunned, as he watches his sweet, gangly, goofy, clumsy blob of a friend turn into a hunter. Grace circles around the pebble, slightly crouched, head turned and honed in, arms loose to the sides, and maybe the little one notices and does that nervously excited giggle-squeal thing kids do when they're being chased and tries to get away, but Grace expertly corrals them. He doesn't even have to run for it, he just pens the kid in, lunges-

And takes the little pebble by the claw to lead them safely back to their peers. And just like that he's Grace again, smiling and joking and tripping over his improvised shoelaces. Rocky hasn't been scared of Grace since first contact. Have you seen the guy? ... but for a second there his instincts were telling him to run.

Eridian Grace, as in culturally Eridian, not the species Eridian, is so important to me.

Grace who does jazz hands and taps when he's asking a question and says some words three times like Rocky. Grace who makes chirps and trilling noises when he's happy.

Grace who starts thinking and dreaming in Eridian, who sometimes has dreams that are just sound, no visual. (Grace who, if he ever goes back to Earth for whatever reason after years on Erid, forgets some words in English and speaks in the sentence structure of Eridian because he has to translate from Eridian to English when he speaks outloud).

Grace who does scarification (even if Rocky protests at first) - I've read some fics where he does the Voyager pulsar map, or dots and lines showing his route from Sol, to Tau Ceti, turning around towards Sol, and then the line going all the way back to Erid. Even though he already has the scars from Rocky saving him, maybe Rocky's family crest. A scar showing his rank as Captain of the Hail Mary - maybe something to represent her, too.

Grace who wears Eridian gems, as earrings, in a chain for his glasses, in strings draped over him that clink together when he walks - the most important ones, like the earrings he wears all the time, the color of the blueish-green gems (or spots?) in/on Rocky's carapace.

Grace who wears a bracelet on each arm that have ribbed marks like on Rocky's arm so he can properly say goodbye (not something he had to do, but something that felt right to do, something that made him feel more like himself), sound included.

Grace who considers himself an Eridian!! Grace who IS an Eridian!!

i know rocky still technically got to play with the measuring tape in the movie but the way it happened in the book always makes me smile when I read it. :]

(image IDs in ALT text !)

thirsty-and-distant

Eva Stratt who is the most powerful woman in the world and has a powerpoint ready the second she needs to explain project hail mary. and the title page is "what is project hail mary". exactly like you would do for a classroom presentation. no one is doing it like her

and Ryland Grace. a middle school teacher. is taking notes like this is a classroom.

I feel like grace was in such a rush to turn that ship around and hightail it back to rocky that he was indiscriminate about what data he sent back. just shoved it all into the beetle probes, just to realize ‘ok so 20% of that data is scientific breakthroughs to save the world……..80% me and rocky’s movie reviews. and I def forgot to delete the fifteen minute long dance off. hm.’

does anyone here like project hail mary

it's really really funny to me that eva stratt's list of crimes canonically includes piracy. do movie only fans know they tried to take her to court for pirating everything ever published and she ron swanson'd her way out of it. i need you all to know this.

acormorantcalls

imagine forcibly sending your second in command to space and erasing his memory and having made peace with it for 26 years but then you finally get the back the information that will save the world and you find out that he woke up all alone because the other two died on the way and he didn't know what was going on and he was so scared but he manages to make first contact and he figures it all out anyway AND he might be able to go home with the astrophysics the alien gives him and you feel a part of your heart that hasn't felt alive in decades start to beat again because he might come back in just a few months if what he's saying is right and then you watch the last log and it turns out he needs to go back to save an alien species and he is going to starve to death and you feel the grief all over again.

Ryland Grace in just his boxers, on the floor, white board marker in hand as he's labeling bones in his body and telling Rocky what they are and how fucked he'd be if they broke: ...yeah so this one is my femur and if that one breaks that's gonna take 4 - 6 months and I basically can't walk for most of it.

Rocky, texture reader in one hand, watching all this in horrified silence:

no because i LOOOOVE the idea that grace is 100% on board with being studied and kinda poked and prodded by eridian doctors. he’s a scientist, and his only hard line is obviously being like. vivisected lol. but here’s a piece of muscle tissue i won’t miss (and of course this becomes the meburgers), here’s a nail clipping, some of my hair, bodily fluids, go ahead and scan me listen to me monitor me learn all you can about me! he’s enthusiastic as hell about it, even though rocky might not be, but grace knows how exciting it must be for them to be able to study alien life for the first time and they’re SO respectful about it too. this is the thing that saved our planet and one of our people, we will learn everything we can about him in the most careful of ways so we know how to take care of him forever.

It's always "hail Mary, full of Grace" and never "Eva, the first woman, whose sins cast humanity away from Eden (but humanity found it's place out there)".

Anyway, Eva Stratt, you did everything correctly, you made the wrong choice, humanity is alive because of your determination, the most woman ever. They coul never make me pin your morals down as 'good' or 'bad'.

sadclowncentral

to me, the cruelest thing that eva stratt does is not the kidnappig itself. it's that she tells grace that he does not even have a dog. dr ryland grace, a man who dedicated his life to the greater good, first to science and then to teaching, does indeed not have a dog. and because of this, he has to spend his last precious moments on his home planet with the full knowledge that while he might be smart enough to save the world, he is not loved enough by anyone on it to be worth saving

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