Among the sizeable portion of humanity who would believe the Eridian footage to be faked, I wonder if “yeah, and Dr. Grace went to live on Erid in a beautiful biodome” becomes the new “we sent your dog to live on a farm upstate”
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@phm47916
Among the sizeable portion of humanity who would believe the Eridian footage to be faked, I wonder if “yeah, and Dr. Grace went to live on Erid in a beautiful biodome” becomes the new “we sent your dog to live on a farm upstate”
when i read this bit i knew I’d love this book ngl
I'm obsessed with this little moment where Stratt is like reaching out to say Hi to Grace but instead of patting his shoulder or something she pats his tiny little chair. and filmed from behind a barrier
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)
study of that bit in phm where grace gets his face smashed in
Ok, so I'm In tutor rn, but I'm listening to Taylor swift and I have another song for you guys to consider:
"So ill watch your life in pictures like I used to watch you sleep"
From Rocky's perspective, definitely don't think about Grace having an insanely short lifespan compared to Erdians (sobs)
"I'm not much for dancing, but for you i did"
Stratt's perspective, not exactly dancing but the karaoke scene, she obvs did that for Grace lets be fr.
"So I'll go, sit on the floor wearing your clothes, all that i know is i don't know"
The start of the movie, when Grace does not know who he is, and wears ilyukihna's clothes, HEAR ME OUT GUYS
Last kiss has so much edit potential.
drew some more art of my take of Grace on Erid!
full image under cut :D
the book scene where dubois and shapiro tell grace they’re having sex is really interesting. it’s not just that’s he’s uncomfortable talking about sex (although he very much is) it’s that he doesn’t understand why they would have sex if one of them is guaranteed to die in space soon. they kind of included this in the movie (when he asks stratt why everybody is partying and hooking up if they’re all gonna die)
there’s another line that stood out to me in the book, where amnesiac grace initially finds his dead crewmates, and he goes “i hope they weren’t friends of mine!” which imo is a crazy thing to say upon finding two corpses
it’s not just that grace avoids forming close relationships, it’s that he avoids it (in part) in order to avoid experiencing loss. really interesting character trait especially knowing he has no immediate family (did they die? is that why he’s like this?) not even a pet (is he scared the pet will die?)
it's usually closer / on your chest
mmm cant stop thinking about this post, specifically that grace is the only one who wants physical touch but that rocky engages in it for grace's sake. it's such an awesome lens to remember to view rocky's actions through because he really is bending over backwards to make grace comfortable.
i love rocky having no natural desire or drive for touch, and i love the thought of him developing one during the trip to erid. humans need touch and rocky will move heaven and earth to give grace whatever he needs.
i can see rocky coming to resent the xenonite barrier because the lack of direct contact hurts grace. getting frustrated with himself because he knows it's not rational and that grace is being stupid stupid whenever he bumps the panels and sighs that he wishes they weren't there. want grace rocky to die painful, question?! but even after he waves grace off he sits and ponders how to make the panels thinner, more flexible, pushing the limits of eridian technology.
i can see him starting to yearn for closeness so he can cure grace's "touch starvation." the form-fitting suit was built so nothing like what happened on adrian will ever happen again and so when the hail mary starts to complain about her old age he can patch her up. but of course the moment the suit's passed rocky's stress tests grace is throwing his arms around him and rocky has a long long long long long to-do list but he'd rather rip his carapace in half than end the hug a second before grace is full.
he doesn't care about touch. it does nothing for him and means nothing to him. touch is also the single most important problem he has to solve. eridians can make food, eridians can replicate earth, but eridians can never press their carapace against human flesh.
listening to grace waste away, listening to him curl up against the xenonite, listening to him trying to hide his tears as he warbles about how he wishes things were different makes him want to break through the airlock again.
touch has no significance to eridians, but rocky still scoots closer.
#1 Eva Stratt defender
From Lost In Translation by @quekerahkerah (which is so fun, go read it rn!!!)
had a Thought. we know that James Ortiz kept talking and performing as Rocky throughout the process of filming, even for the scenes that would later get dubbed over by alien sounds, right?
so what if the heartbreaking “I will not… let Grace die” line we heard in the trailer (but not in the movie) was from the aftermath of Time Go Fishing when Rocky is dragging Grace back to the dormitory?
Picture it. Decades after the world is saved, a huge alien spacecraft touches down on earth.
Scientist, politicians, and thousands of reporters gather to witness the aliens disembark the ship. A group of boulder-like creatures, clicking and whistling to the humans around them.
One of them raises something large and metallic towards the crowd.
There's an immediate recoil of fear (is it a weapon?!) before the audience realises it's human technology. A laptop, old and beaten and looks like it was put back together by a drunk.
The alien presses a button.
"Hello Earth, this is Doctor Captain Ryland Grace. These guys are Eridians and they're here on a shopping trip. I have a list and no money, but I did save the world so that has to count for something. Number one, salt and vinegar chips. Actually anything potato. Number two, I miss apple juice. Number three,"
watched wall-E while in the midst of my ongoing phm brainrot
Can you imagine being stuck in space completely alone with only the corpses of your friends for company, and the first living thing you meet after 46 years of that misery is a fucking weird alien creature who just rolls up with crazy advanced tech and goes "hi let's work together" and makes it possible for you to save your world through the power of friendship and molecular biology. AND THEN you find out that in this creature's language, its name means "mercy". Happened to my good friend Rocky btw
aroace grace (who doesn't know it) terrified because he loves rocky and adrian. they're best friends and have been through hell together; they've moved past their codependency on the hail mary and now settle down as separate individuals, comfortably moving besides one another on erid. grace is busy with unconventional lesson plans and introducing silicon computers to eridians; rocky is back in his workshop working on blueprints their mate supplies them with. grace finds himself looking for them whenever he hears a sound in the dome.
it's not that he doesn't find them attractive, he supposes. rocky is strong as all heck—he's able to carry grace like it's nothing. he thinks he could watch the eridian's hands work on intricate designs for hours. adrian is gorgeous, their carapace something that would be on display at a crystal shop. they're much smoother than rocky is (physically and socially) and grace loves tracing the turquoise swirls in their blue hematite and imagining how it feels through the barrier.
grace, like every relationship that came before, finds himself yearning. and he isn't stupid—he sees the way rocky and adrian court him. he overhears his students and how the three of them are the hot gossip of not just the village, but the whole planet—the eridian who saved the stars brings home an alien to their mate and they woo him together, more at IV̶.
but he knows the second he accepts their advances and they want more than just hand holding, it'll all go away. the interest will die like it was never there at all—the eridians will be furious or disappointed that grace wasn't present, that he was keeping a wall up. they'd think he lied about wanting them because he doesn't want to kiss and their dates are moreso "hanging out" than a romantic encounter. ryland can handle his own self-pity, but he doesn't think he can take the eridian he promised to be brave for call him a coward.
he's honest when he sits them down and says he can't be a boyfriend. rocky and adrian need to have the word translated—male-identifying human who participates in an established, exclusive romantic coupling. then grace has to explain human romance—and ultimately fails to do so in a way that the two can understand.
he starts rambling about how he wants it really bad and once he starts, he can't stop. he wants to be part of what they have, whatever it is in their language or culture. grace wants to be held and wanted and to take whatever pleasure they'll give him. he wants to live with them—not just the dome next door, but to actually live in the same house where they can sleep together. he wants adrian and rocky to come home from their jobs and tell him how their days was instead of stopping by his place. he wants to be part of something.
maybe it's just the lack of human contact and he's going crazy, maybe he's just always been insane and it's the reason he ruins everything because his stupid fucking brain is *broken.* sure he's not an eridian, but he isn't much of a human either when the passion he's been told is the backbone of consciousness doesn't work.
adrian says that wasn't what they wanted—they didn't want something from him. the human wants to curl up in a ball and die a little at first because he thinks he just read the room wrong. of course they're not courting him, they're happily committed in a romantic relationship of their own species—
rocky explains that they don't do "boyfriend" on erid. they have pairs that work as teams—rocky create adrian's visions that push their mate to come up with more ideas. together, they're a brilliant, persistent thrum. they're together because it's comfortable, not because of a driving force they can't see.
grace talks about the pressure of needing to conform and belong. how he spent years of his life trying again and again, wondering where the missing piece was to make himself feel whole and wanted.
it infuriates the eridians—the concept of something be missing, like grace's beginning is his end. they didn't mate to find a puzzle piece to be "whole," they partner together to build a foundation to die on.
adrian could be completely deaf and rocky would find peace next to them.
rocky could have never come home and adrian would have been happy their mate took space for just awhile, even if it wasn't enough.
mates is something that is as simple as sitting together in the sand. the full word is a little more complicated in eridani, the full pronunciation a series of polychordal morphemes an organic mind can't separate. in grace's language, the closest translation is complete, but that doesn't do it justice. mates is a song, constantly changing like grace's ocean shore.
they want grace as he is, albeit living together and for them to integrate the human into their mating mark. those things are just to be expected as they grow closer, but have nothing to do with an underlying process.
the pair wants grace in their lives because he gave them everything.
rocky and adrian want grace because he's their favorite song. they want to introduce themselves and for their names to tell a story of where he wove himself into their concerto, each note he speaks in human tongue as unique and boundless as the cosmos he came from. they can show him that where he came from was ignorant in it's understanding of his place among the very stars that his planet sent him to die among.
they want ryland grace because he is everything.