independent , private , &. plot-driven rp blog for dr. captain ryland grace from andy weir's project hail mary (novel) &. project hail mary (2026) . book-canon with movie influences . written by kat , she/her , 30 . i am not affiliated with andy weir . read my carrd ! no minors please . do not use ai in your responses for me or i'll block you .
ㅤㅤ⁰¹⋆ on followers + following . no minors please . in fact , i'd be more comfortable with people over the age of 21 due to my own age . i am not interested in keeping a large following of people i do not interact with , or who do not at least like my posts every once in a while . whenever i'm on the dash , i try to do the same courtesy . also , sometimes i don't keep up with developments in the rpc , so if you ever see me interacting with anyone who has been proven to be problematic in the past or even recently , please let me know so that i can cut it off .
ㅤㅤ⁰²⋆ on shipping . like everyone , i love shipping , but i'm not someone wants to jump into it without proper development beforehand . i prioritise and often populate my blogs with primarily platonic or non-ship-oriented threads . i practice ship exclusivity , which means i will only ship with one version of a character , and i expect the same courtesy , meaning if your muse ships with another grace , unless you are a very very close friend , i will not ship him with that muse , period . [ … ] on a related note , please don't ask to write smut if we barely know each other and / or haven't written any "regular" threads together . i do write smut with those i ship with , mostly on discord , but pwp doesn't interest me at all , so save us both time and don't ask . i'd write 10 fluff threads over a smut thread any day . i am also not open to shipping if we don't at least write threads on here . again , i am not interested in immediately shipping if we don't have something built up first , and it makes me feel like people don't appreciate it if they don't at least try to answer asks that i send or write some form of thread on here .
ㅤㅤ⁰³⋆ IMPORTANT . i understand that grace is a canon character and everyone's interpretations of him are different . but please do not impose what you think grace would do or how he would react on my interpretation . please also do not try to ship without first plotting out a thorough friendship between them , because both i and grace need chemistry in order for that to work . otherwise i personally will not be invested . my grace is aroace and does not feel sexual attraction . he is sex-neutral . romance is not a need in his life , but he is capable of showing it , just rarely .
ㅤㅤ⁰⁴⋆ on content . triggering content will occasionally be present on this blog . i tag all my triggers with "trigger //" for reference .
ㅤㅤ⁰⁵⋆ on activity . i work a full time job , monday-friday . please respect that in regards to my activity . i'm very active on discord , so feel free to ask me for it .
long ago , on a world a dozen lightyears away , the humans had plagued the world with their game . it consisted only of one objective : to not think about it . a little counterintuitive , but effective when every person on earth was the opponent . rarely would someone be in on the joke , and even rarer still would they shout to anyone within the vicinity that they'd lost it . that was the goal , making everyone lose .
the game comes flooding back the instant rocky's song finishes . no , it's fine . i just didn't expect the game to come to erid , that's all . grace lifts his head from the small soldering pen in his hand , removing it from the metal and setting it carefully down so the tip can hover as it cools . ❝ what ?! how do you know about the game ? ❞
he didn't have to ask that . he knows before he even finishes the question what the answer is . the laptop . it's gotta be the laptop . how it is the laptop , though , grace has no idea . just because it holds all of human knowledge doesn't mean it should hold the equivalent of an inside joke , either . not one as sophisticated as this .
he clicks his tongue behind his lips , slipping the eridian a half-amused , half-miffed look . ❝ dang it , and i was doing such a good job not thinking about it . you little rascal . ❞ he has no choice . ❝ i've gotta put some parental locks on that laptop . ❞
when he'd awakened this morning , he hadn't expected that part of the day would consist of the unnerving shrieks of the xenonite dome opening up to accompany the very notably non-xenonite ship entering its way into the oxygenated atmosphere . he had especially not expected a human to walk out of that ship , nor for the ship to rearrange itself into something vaguely humanoid . nor for it to talk .
is it the atmosphere ? it's gotta be the atmosphere getting to his head . rocky , you didn't make the oxygen clean enough for me ! there has to be some sort of hallucinogen in here . maybe he'll wake back on the hail mary , tubes down his throat and up his gentlemen's parts again . maybe he's still on his way back to earth and this is a really , really long fever dream . maybe he died on the way back .
this is no , this isn't possible . there are walking , talking pieces of equipment , something akin to how he imagines robots would be , towering around just behind her . the human being on erid , he can believe , even though even that's a stretch , all things considering . the sentient machinery ? not so much . nope . no . that's wrong . he's not seeing this . not that he's got any other pressing matters to attend to right now .
“ Doctor, doctor- ” Or was it Captain? Should she call him Grace, or should she be more casual and call him Ryland? Goodness, light years away from Earth, and somehow its social conventions and rules still stumped her. Her left hand reached up to the air and waved sideways to catch the attention of the other human, whose neck was bending backward at an uncomfortable angle with his mouth agape. “ Look at me. Don’t look at them. I can explain. ” She sure hoped she could.
a blessing in disguise , his attention stutters when she waves her hand , breaking from the automatons to glance , finally , at vân . they've been talking . he can barely remember what they've said . the only thing ricocheting around his skull are the robots . ❝ are you from earth ? because those aren't . ❞
The sun beat warm on her bare shoulders, even with her hair pulled back as high as she could manage, the long ends still clung to sweat-sticky skin. Arms stretching overhead with a soft exhale as an elbow popped in complaint, a finger fished out one of her earphones to listen to the wind ripple through the trees. The soft chittering of chickadees and finches interrupted by the sharper metallic twang of the Brewer’s blackbirds skittering along the path in search of crumbs left by others working along the trails branching out from Blue Heron Lake. The city wasn’t so bad in moments like this, draped in the little areas of nature that cut between towering buildings and high rising hills. Hell, if the clouds kept free from the sun, she could push her jog to Ocean Beach. Not as though she had much else to do with the rest of her weekend, going home meant wallowing in self pity. Freya was spending it with her uncles, and had taken it upon herself to take her cat with her, and her poor mother hated how empty the house felt without any other souls to fill it.
A long one it was, knocking back some of her water and reading herself to continue before a familiar bike glinted in her peripheral. Huh. Well… It wouldn’t hurt to have some human contact to keep the dread at bay, mustering a smile as she trotted over.
“Oh! Hey Mr- Dr Grace! Sorry, never know which one I should pick.” One hand settled on her hip, the other curving over her brow to shield the sun from her vision. “I uh- Freya Harper’s mom, she’s in your class, her favourite one I might say. Can’t say I expected to see you out here! I work at the other end of the park, in the Academy.” Oh god. Stop talking. “Nice bike.” Fuck.
his bike , nice ? ❝ what , this ? ❞ the fingers he has curled around the handle of his bike loosen , stretch , then tighten up again . nothing like a good compliment to your bike to get a person on your good side , right ? yeah . ❝ thanks . it's , uh … i guess you could call it my primary mode of transportation . ❞ which is basically admitting outright he doesn't have a car . dang it . he should really think before he speaks . his primary mode of transportation lets him get some fresh air , sure , but his calves are starting to bother him anyways .
he clears his throat , tries shoving the moment out of his brain . fails . ❝ so , uh , your daughter's favorite class ? ❞ oh yes , he knows freya harper . he'd be a bad teacher if he didn't . his assessments of her wouldn't exactly resemble ' cool , calm , and collected ' as part of that definition . that's cool . that's actually more than cool , that's great . not many kids choose science as their favorite subject . not for good reason , either . only on account of the subject being more difficult than their others . a good teacher , that's what they need ! a good teacher . thrice , in turn , for the years he's been teaching .
his gaze finds the aforementioned academy now . the california academy of sciences . he's been in there more than once , all of his own free will . and then some . ❝ i can see why . i mean , if her mom works at cal academy . ❞ holy moly . ❝ what do you , uh , what do you do there ? your job . ❞
listen , i'm just saying , it may not be grace's emotional support butt tube , but it's my emotional support butt tube . and i just think that's neat .
❝ ooo , better keep an eye on him , that one . ❞ over the rims of his glasses , grace peers at the boy shoving his way down the hallway . his whole body leans several dozen degrees to the left , where he can be just a few more inches nearer clive . ❝ caleb , no running in the hallway ! ❞ there is always , always the matter of his kids releasing a bit too much of their pent up potential energy coming out of his classroom . science at work . and science they really don't need to work at the moment . oh well . it's not grace's responsibility anymore .
the grin on his face settles into a lighthearted smirk as he watches another one of his students make the wide half-circle out the door of his classroom and into the door of clive's . his problem now .
at the english teacher in question , grace turns that smirk . ❝ please don't tell me you're going to assign them tolkien to read today . you could assign them some tchaikovsky instead . or gibson . those are both great reads , if you ask me . ❞ those are all science fiction reads too , if he were ever asked . ❝ when's the unit on i , robot anyways ? do you even teach i , robot ? oh my gosh , please tell me you know what i'm talking about . ❞
HER SIGH IS A LONG-SUFFERING THING, nearly cut off as fingertips pinch the bridge of her nose. she kneads at the cartilage for a moment, accessingly, peering at him in a way that made him squirm. she cares little for incessant flattery or coddling tender egos, not that grace demanded either. he possessed a lack of self- awareness and esteem that ground her nerves to a fine powder though. words alone could not rewire his brain enough to allow praise to take root. psychotherapy, perhaps, but they didn't have the time required for a shrink to to unscramble his synapses [ . . . ] still, eva jots down a quite note in her tablet to obtain a specialized therapist for the months ahead.
〝 doctor grace, you have been a part of this project for well over a year now — more than enough time to deduce that I will accept nothing less than the best. 〞 her tone is firm, leaving no room for debate on the matter. it was unlikely to help much. she understands that he is floundering, that the weight of responsibility keeps dragging him down, and he was not blessed with the resilience to keep kicking his way to the surface. 〝 you feel out of your depth, but you forget that we all are. I promise you, every person outside of the rooms feels the same way you do right now. 〞 its a force of will to remove the teeth from her voice, even more to resist rolling her eyes and shaking him by his collar. 〝 no one feels qualified to save the world. if I didn't think you were, you wouldn't be here. 〞 now get a fucking grip.
he trusts her opinion . it is a thing , a will , unlike anything he's ever encountered before . sure , there were strong-willed kids in his class , those who would back down for nothing and no one until they got their way . but even they had their limits . instructions to be followed . their protocol didn't call on any government just calls back to parents , a trip to the office . nothing that involved the fate of three human beings . which happens to be dying . a very real fate , if you ask him . but eva stratt has quickly shot up to the top of his own personal list of strong people he knows . the strongest out of anyone , her stoic expression giving nothing away of her actual person . she backs down to no one . he admires that , because that could not be him .
to have the woman in charge of calling shots like those looking at him now like he's a dog who's just peed in her flower vase has him turning his gaze down like said dog , quick . ❝ i understand . ❞ he doesn't really understand . fully . there's more to working on the hail mary project than just nodding and saying 'yes' or 'no' . it's all out of his scope . his scope belongs in a classroom full of kids , not standing amongst the world's greatest leaders , working on mission ' figure it out or a quarter of the world's population ( with generous rounding ) dies ' all because of a dissertation on water-based lifeforms . stupid dissertation .
❝ i mean , i don't . sorry . i'm lying to you . we are all … out of our depths . i understand that . but there are people who have been a part of this project than longer than i've known about it , who definitely know more than i do about most of this stuff . i'm here for the astrophage . ❞ and for following her around . he can't even count on two hands how many countries he's been in these past two weeks , how many hours he's spent sat beside her , or stood as a stalemate associate to her decisions . ❝ you know what you're doing . all the time . how ? ❞
does anyone want to be put under a microscope for science ? like just lowkey . this is a plotting call . definitely like this post if you're interested and i'll reach out :} pleaseee let me talk let me talk let me talk .
no one in their right mind would start pressing every button on a panel connected to a supercomputer , but here grace is , pressing every button on the hail mary's interface , hoping it will lead him to the correct screen . no , that's the projector . no , that's the star map . no , no , no , wrong , wrong . he's not in his right mind . he's tired .
Grace act stupid , how long since last sleep
statement ? question ? heck , he's sick of that . tired is an understatement now . ❝ okay , you know what ? out . i'm moving you out of this room . come on . it's time out for you . ❞ he plants both palms on both sides of rocky's xenonite enclosure . the structure is wide , and it'll be heavy , but there's nothing like a bit of irritation adrenaline coursing through his veins to get him really going . he'll try anything . and try he does , pulling the thing with all his might . nothing budges . ah , he forgot . rocky is heavy .
still , that won't make him give up . a pull , again . one , two , three . in emphasis , like an eridian . except he's a human , and he's starting to think humans really are weak in the grander scheme of the universe . physically .
one last big yank and in his exhaustian , his fingers slip . they must have gathered some moisture . he topples to the side , one foot catching against the ball , which sends him staggering to the side . then he's tripping over his own feet , falling hard on his hip and his shoulder . at some point , he comes to a complete stop on his back , staring up at the lit screens , russian words and universal numbers flashing in front of his and the corners of his eyes . great .
forearm settles over his eyes . it'll be better if he can't see rocky right now . out of shame more than anything else . around them , he can hear computer questioning his choice in bed : the floor of the pilot's deck . ❝ yeah . nope . i'll sleep . ❞ over twenty hours . it's been over twenty hours since his last sleep . ❝ right here . ❞
grace's gaze moves to the screen in his peripheral vision . they're strained . he turns his head away from rocky to read it . yeah , that's what the translator has too . written right out , in a flash of white . brave , brave , brave . three words for emphasis .
❝ yeah … ❞ he clicks his tongue , weighed by the mucus . ❝ i don't know about that , rock . it's a big word to talk about big people . ❞ and he is not , by any definition of the word , a big person . just a middle school science teacher with the inspiration to thrust that greatness onto the younger generation , and no inspiration at all to aid with something so much bigger than himself . not in this way , by any means . there was a team … there was a team . there was a team , and he wasn't part of that team , and he was never meant to be a part of that team .
is that metal he tastes ? he's pretty sure it's metal he's tasting . he's certainly sure he can feel the mucus gathering at the back of his tongue , which makes it difficult to swallow . that doesn't help his concentration . unless he's bleeding from his throat , and something in his body is inevitably going to fail at any moment now . maybe the radiation's finally gotten to him . he's choosing not to believe any of that .
rocky has no face , but grace sees something there . he thinks i'm dumb again . funny , how every species he knows seems to think him a fool for not taking a compliment . ❝ but thanks , pal . that's nice , coming from you . ❞
this is for everyone who hasn't watched the movie . it's also for everyone who has watched the movie . at least watch this clip i promise i edited it so good ( it took me 7 minutes )
stratt is just gonna stand there and give him the neutral face of displeasure. - @anyc0st
ㅤㅤㅤㅤ[ @anyc0st ] ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ❝ … oh . ❞
okay , yeah . he recognizes that look . faster than he thinks every her second-in-command could recognize it , whoever that is . she's not exactly upfront about things . except about things like her displeasure , which she cloaks about her taut shoulders and wears like eyeliner around her eyes . eyes that stare blankly at him , as though she's currently deciding if she should toss him out the window he's standing next to .
nice . what did you do today , dr . grace ? oh , you know , not much . just clocked into my job at the pissing eva stratt off factory and pissed eva stratt off all day . sometimes without even know i was doing it .
like right now . he doesn't know what he said exactly to turn her eyes into literal knives , but he must've said it really , really badly . ❝ i just … don't think i'm your best bet here . you could gamble on dubois instead . odds are always good with him . and he's the one going on the mission i'm not . ❞
# lasthail . hail mary , full of grace , holy mary , mother of god , pray for us sinners , now and at the hour of our death .
Independent , private , &. plot-based rp blog for dr. captain ryland grace from andy weir's project hail mary (novel) &. project hail mary (2026) . book-canon with movie influences . written by kat , she/her , 30 . i am not affiliated with andy weir . read my carrd ! no minors please .
