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This is my side blog, here’s my main blog.
first meeting
whatever go my little rainbow weird kid rock
I love the headcanons of everybody on earth reaction to the beetles. but please imagine like 100 years down the line some random school kid being forced to do history (because that teacher managed to get to the topic first) homework on the whole thing.
like the regular kid enthusiasm of yeah that Grace guy met an alien, cleaned the sun blah blah blah. Eridians are regular visitors on Earth and it's boooooooooring.
and then the kid opens Wikipedia and that asshole is all over the thing. no easy essay of important person invented important thing that is so important that I have to write some bullshit on it. nope.
guy pops up all over the history section. yeah sure. diplomacy? wait wasn't he an astronaut. biology? what? oh he had PhD in something biology. oh he named astophage "astophage"! is that the end of an essay? oh no it continues. xenobiology, xenolinguistics, all the space exploration and, oh, a first contact! are we done yet? no. fuck. wait, metallurgy???? wtf is this dude doing in the metallurgy section. wasn't he a biologist?
and then some kids would get a little bit into it and read through early life section to find oh he got kicked out of his field for being a weirdo alien guy. oh that's a great story! with the hard work and the incredible strength of the will he proved everybody wrong!
no wait
he was just some scrungly guy that got dragged kicking and screaming into this whole bs just to pull the most lock tf in in the history of locking tf in
wtf?!
and then they dig deep enough to find the video logs
so every year. without missing the beat, few kids get totally obsessed.
Listen, he needs a series of YouTube videos to explain.
Pre taskforce- was a doctor that called someone a waste of carbon.
Was then school teacher.
During taskforce
Literally was lead on astrophage - discovered what it was and with help of a government agent/bodyguard carl (he put his name on the paper) bred it.
Literally helped make the ship and so much astrophage + scientists.
Quite literally the heart of team and was assisting stratt on science. Very important man.
Was backup after og scientist and their backup died
Beetles return - he woke up no memory and other 2 were dead. Found alien life. Communicated with alien and they both managed to solve problem. Also how xeno expert. Managed to pilot ship.
Went back after rocky bc his ship was now in the water and sent beetles back + saved erid.
Eridian contact ryland content- has been alive and gathered a lot of data from another planet + culture. Back to teacher.
And he started this because he was kidnapped by the governments! He still thought of himself as a teacher and not very important!
(note this doesn't even get into the stuff happening on earth after he is in space or eridians version of him)
I need a fic that has grace in space with photos and videos of time in petrova task force. Digital and physical.
Headcanon grace during covid made videos to teach and they remain up on earth and in all media on the ship Mary.
I just need him to know he loved earth and his kids, his team.
Especially when he brings it to erid and they can see him as a teacher (maybe even show bc science), and help recognize his importance to earth on the petrova task force - being second in command, being lead scientist about astrophage ect.
Also for him to look back on.
Especially if he continues the vlogs on hail Mary for earth and erid.
I've been thinking of writing a fic with Rocky finding these sorts of videos on the journey back to Erid by basically googling Grace.
Erid looking up things on the laptop grace gave rocky with all earth information and they look up grace and find all of this information would be hilarious.
Grace being unreliable narrator saying he is just a teacher and member of petrova line. Meanwhile they find him in a lot of photos with eva stratt aka the leader of the operation meeting others. And his accomplishments.
I kind of hope that eridians somehow find some hidden files in hail Mary that lists the entire task force and that grace was literally one of the most important people on task force.
Logistically because he was the one to discover astrophage and be the lead, but also emotionally was the heart of the task force.
He answered directly to the boss eva stratt.
Just. Want some vlogs of the task force from someone who isn't grace and so they can "hear" of his importance.
Grace is not a reliable narrator *I'm just a school teacher and was part of the team".
He found most if not all discoveries and helped behind the scenes. (In front of everyone).
Maybe even some interviews about the team leaders.
But yeah, I just want eridians to know he was important to earth and the team even before he saved two planets.
AU where Ryland Grace has a few weeks left of breeding taumeoba when he gets his ‘I didn’t want to go’ memories back and when he’s deciding what videos to upload to the Beetles he realizes this is the perfect chance to get back at Stratt. Now that he’s, you know, had a crying jag and freaked out about the betrayal for a few days, his feelings kind of simmer against the necessity of it, you know? And it helps that he’s not actually gonna die.
So, after uploading all the science and posterity videos, Ryland adds one ‘For Eva’ knowing full well that several governments and possibly the entirety of what is left of the world is gonna see it and he lays on a thick spiel about how he finally remembered that they were gonna get married, right before the accident that put him on this mission, that he remembered proming her the rest of his life and he remembered ‘how hard it was for us to say goodbye’ and ‘you made the right decision. Of course you did. Of course it was the right decision, but Eva, I still miss you. I was missing you before I even fully remembered you. Golly, why didn’t we just – touch more? Talk more? You wouldn’t even let me hold your hand! But I understood. Your hands were full. You had the world in them, Eva.’ And ‘I hope you kept the lights on love, because I’m coming home!’ and he gives the camera this goopy, sweet, broad smile, because he’s utterly tickled, knowing full well that Eva is gonna have to live with this for the months and or years between the Beetles arriving and Ryland making it back, and he even gets Rocky to make him a xenonite wedding band to tuck into a Beetle with his little spaceman, to really sell the whole thing, right, and he’s just freaking giddy about how mad that’s gonna make Stratt –
And then the tauemoeba escape, and Ryland has to go back for Rocky, and he makes another video, explaining the science and the issue and the solution and then he trails off for a minute or so, expression conflicted, and when he looks back up it’s just with this breathless soft ‘Eva’ on his lips, and then he swallows, and then he smiles and it’s – sweet in a sad way, because for Ryland this is really goodbye, and his prank had sort of made him feel better about what she’d done, and honestly – he did miss her. Even still. ‘Eva, I’ve gotta go,” he says, his eyes wet and his voice quavering. ‘You were right about me. It’s gotta be me,’ he shrugs, laughs, wipes away the wet line at the edge of his eyes. ‘There’s nobody else and I mean, I’m on a winning streak, right? Why not try 2 for 2 in saving an entire species, huh? So I just…I’m sorry. I’m so sorry I made it so hard for – for us. And I’ll miss you. Just – do me a favor and in case I don’t make it – I know how you love back-up plans, yeah? – do me a favor and send an extra probe of taumoeba to 40-Eridani for me? You really can’t let me die in vain here, alright? So make sure – make sure to save both our worlds, alright? Yeah……. And just…. if you care for me any bit at all still, do me one other favor, Eva Stratt. Live a good life for me’ He pleads, before he shudders a breath, looking off to the side for a quiet moment, and then he looks down, nods to himself, presses a kiss to his fingers and his fingers to the camera and turns it off.’
And Eva, right, watches these tapes in a room full of world leaders and aerospace representatives and she’s just – fuming red and there is that stupid little ringbox from the Beetle in front of her with the most unique wedding band in the galaxy in it and it fits perfectly and she’s just -seething, because that is not what happened. They were not – secret lovers, they did not secretly marry or promise to marry, none of that –
But the old Petrova Task Force, right, they take this and run with it – “Oh yeah, it was obvious, I mean ,they denied it, but you could tell –“
“Grace was so bad at hiding right, terrible liar –“
“Stratt was always slipping him these – sour skittles packets, and i mean, that was definitely favoritism, you have no idea how hard it was to get anything on the vat –“
“And the sticky notes! She’d leave him these cute little notes, right, on his lab or on his coffee mug or, one time, I saw her just stick it to his forehead –“
“And Grace never let her be alone, you know? I mean, he was always kind of following her around like a puppy, but no one else ever really approached her, so when we were all, you know, together, those two would wander off –“
Eva’s getting bombarded with all this, and she’s shaking with anger and like, maybe cried a tear or two of frustration, denying it because people are acting sympathetic, while she's insisting that; "I paved the Sahara and I bombed the Antarctic shelf and I sent Ryland Grace into space against his wishes –“
And everyone is just like, oh Eva, we know you loved him. We know how hard that must have been –
And they remake the movie about the project, and the new one has this entire romantic sublot, and the theme of her loving him so much, and having to give him to the stars to save humanity, knowing she’s never getting him back, and this really poignant ending about Stratt waking up in prison (because she did go to prison) and Ryland Grace, waking up in space, both of them on these narrow bunks with these tiny little windows, reflecting different suns, and theres this mutual red streak of cinematic glare in that sunlight, right, and they turn her into this doomed tragic heroine in the public eye, right, and Eva goes so far as to try and release the audio of Grace’s refusal to go up on the Hail Mary as proof that it was not what they were making it out to be, except someone (Carl) removed bits of it, and the rest can definitely be interpreted as having some… subtext, and Eva’s like ‘Carl, why?’
And Carl’s just – it’s what our man would have wanted.
And Eva actually wears the damn ring, right? It’s a space ring, from outer space, from another intelligent species, and it she looks at it daily wanting to kill Ryland Grace and knowing she already has, and what to do, with that?
So there’s one generation that knows her as Eva Stratt, World Dictator, and another generation who knows her as Eva Stratt, Ryland Grace’s Widow, and like, in every single public appearance, she has to continue to protest that they were not married, and everyone is just like ‘Damn, she’s so broken-hearted she’s in denial’ and Eva is like ‘No, that is not what is happening.’
And anyways, she lives to an unreasonably old age and when she’s like, one hundred and eight or so a ship arrives from Erid, bearing a delegation and Ryland Grace’s ashes, which one of the aliens absolutely insists on delivering to Eva Stratt, right, and this is Rocky and he’s carrying this most beautiful sort of crystal urn and it’s all very public and touching and Rocky asks ‘Did Eva live a good life?’
And Eva actually cries this time, for Ryland, and it’s stupid and they weren’t ever anything and this whole joke of his has tormented her for decades and now she’s crying over him because he’s dead. She sent him into space to die and it took him a lifetime to do it and she still outlived him and it is – unfair, now. It has always been unfair.
‘He did not actually love me,’ Eva tells Rocky, when they have been ushered somewhere private out of respect for her ‘mourning’. ‘We were not – that.’
‘Rocky knows,’ the alien says. ‘But Grace said…. maybe could have been.’
‘Is that really his last message for me?’ Eva asks, shaking her head.
The alien shifts on his feet a bit. ‘Rocky hate hate hate you sent Grace to die. Grace scared scared scared. But… if not, Rocky not meet Grace. Rocky Grace not save stars....Grace last message: Good job, Eva. Thank you, and - goodbye.’
That's evil in so many ways.
The ring she wears because of course she would: it's a reminder of what she has done, it is a reminder of someone she once had an understanding and trust with, someone she can never forget. And a fact that it's a wedding ring makes it so much worse because it is a prove of an ultimate(in the eyes of many) connection, something unbreakably strong and eternal. It is eternal, he is always there one way or another, in everything alive because of his death. But they never had the chance to have a deeper bond: she didn't allow it, just like he said.
The fact people started sympathizing her suddenly, because love is what makes us human and it's hard to sympathise with someone who doesn't feel human(she loves the world and she loves humanity but that's not romantic so it's not important, of course).
The fact people completely warped who she is as a person to just make their shared illusion juicier, more dramatic, made her into some weeping heart-broken widow, because it's so much easier to accept someone like that as their savior than to understand that they are only alive thanks to someone who's head is cold and who's hands shoulder-deep in blood.
The fact they started treating her as Ryland Grace's widow, almost like an afterthought of him, because she is a woman and he is a man, so she can only be viewed in connection to him, can't stand on her own, can't have her own title and identity (if she is not prison-worthy World Dictator, of course).
The we could have been. Yeah, Ryland was joking, but there was just so much truth in his words, the "wish we talked more, touched more", the "I understand why not, you were busy with things much bigger than the both of us". They could have been friends or partners or some weird third or even fourth thing only they understand, if it wasn't for the weight of the world, if it wasn't for the horrendous situation they were in. They could.
i love it actually when nonnative speakers make mistakes that reveal how their native languages work.
lots of koreans online say they "eat" drinks which would assume they only have one word which covers the concept of consumption.
arabic immigrants in sweden (my mother included) have a hard time differentiating between "i think/i believe/my opinion is" which suggests that in arabic these different modalities of speaker agency is treated as one or at least interchangeable.
swedish speakers in english will use should/shall/have to/must with much higher nuance precision than native english speakers, to the point where they sound well awkward, because the distinction between these commands in swedish is much clearer than in english. i make mistakes between is/am/are and has/have constantly because swedish only has one pronoun covering all grammatical persons.
i've heard speakers of languages without gendered pronouns (finnish, the chinese dialects, and a tonne more) make he/she mistakes because it's hard(!!) to learn two or more gendered pronouns and when to use them correctly.
how neat is that?! it add a charm to international english usage in particular and make our appreciation of both our native languages and our learnt ones stronger...!!
i love this! one thing i notice with a lot of people (native speakers of polish, romanian, french and others) is no differentiation between present simple (i go) and present continuous (I am going), because those languages only have one present tense to cover both. it's so lovely every time i hear it
i always think one of the most fun things about learning languages is that it teaches you how weird your own is! especially english phrasal verbs (the very different meanings of stand up, stand down, stand off, stand up to), or trying to explain the difference between being up to something and being up for something to my french friend. I love it!
another tag reminded me of how spanish speakers often mix up /v/ and /b/ because in panish they pronounced identically!
I wish more people had the ability to become bilingual because you're right, it makes you understand your own language at a more intimate and analytical level!!
People whose native language is heavily gendered often apply gendered pronouns to English words that don't have them. For example, my Brazilian sports coach referred to my knee as "she" instead of "it". It's even more interesting when you realise that Old English did have gendered nouns, much like German, and we've essentially lost that entire element of our language.
under US law, it's illegal for anyone who's not a member of a recognised native tribe to own an eagle feather. the penalty is a $100,000 fine.
14 years ago when I had recently moved to Alaska, I went hiking with an Aleut friend, and she pointed to a feather lying on the ground and said "hey that's a bald eagle tail feather, you should grab it!" and I was like "uhh I'm very white and that's very illegal" and she went "they're fuckin everywhere up here man. I have 20." so she grabs it off the ground and hands it to me and says "there, now it's a ceremonial gift from an indigenous person."
and I'm like, okay, cool, I guess this is how we do things in Alaska. nice.
so I keep this bald eagle tail feather around for years. display it in my home among other cherished memorabilia from places I've lived and visited, etc.
on a whim, I have just now looked it up. there is no exemption to that law for a ceremonial gift from an indigenous person. the last 7 years I lived in the US, I was technically a bald eagle poacher.
probably a good thing I don't intend to move back there anytime soon. I wonder what the statute of limitations is on bird crimes.
@freedomisscaryshit I'm fucking dying I think you forgot the word "feathers" in your tags?? or do you just wish you could grab whole ass eagles that land in your yard??
As an Indigenous person, it continues to astound me that there are such strict laws (written by White people) in our name, laws against...picking up things just found on the ground. Like, stop pretending this is "for" us. We don't want this.
so, for clarity, that's not what this is. the law against possessing feathers is an anti-poaching measure, derived from a North American treaty protecting certain migratory bird species from hunting. that treaty has an exemption for indigenous people to allow tribes that use eagle feathers in ceremonial or religious practices to continue doing so.
i used to collect feathers (illegally) as a teenager and the thing is that it's incredibly important for feathers from wild birds to be illegal to possess because it ensures that they never become fashionable to wear. the reason we passed the migratory bird act was because the american and european fashion industry was driving species to extinction in a timespan of years. not just decades. the ecological devastation of exporting birds for hats was absolutely insane and people were watching wetlands and forests and meadows just empty out in realtime. look at the wikipedia article for the plume trade.
the law against 'picking feathers up off the ground' means that you can't go shoot an eagle then sell the feathers on etsy by saying you 'just found them'. you can't own them no matter where they came from, which makes sure that they're not going to come from any birds killed and then secretly disposed of.
these laws, as harsh and ridiculous as they seem, saved flamingos, spoonbills, egrets, and all kinds of hawks and eagles from extinction. the minute these laws weaken and people can make money off killing them again, they're fucked.
this is one of those "no actually this regulation exists for a reason" laws much like work place safety and building fire codes (that Republicans keep trying to roll back) and is written in blood just like them as well. it's just not human blood this time, and the fact that people actually cared enough about long term future over short term profit to get it put in place is nothing short of astonishing. That it didn't get put in place in time to save several species is heart breaking.
#my only qualm#with the mbta is that it doesn’t discuss#regions at all#so birds that have expanded outside their natural zones#like starlings and sparrows#are still protected no matter what#which like#small issue#but funny when that bitch isn’t wven native and you can’t touch its dead body AT ALL (via @hellbent-boy)
Starlings are entirely non-native to North America so you can in fact hunt those. It's encouraged, even, because they crowd out native species.
Bow. As a reader, I think that having the first chapter of a fanfic is better than having no fanfic. I'd rather a fic is eternally unfinished than to not see it at all. I have read many a brilliant concept and wailed at the lack of the next chapter button and yet did not regret reading it. If I didn't want that, I could simply filter out unfinished fics; but I don't, and I don't for a reason.
As a writer,
Let's ambush mama! 😼
"Why do Pallas cats always look grumpy?"
"Pallas kittens."
The sheer roundness of this kitten must be admired.
whats that post about the woman who accidently became the leading researcher in like ancient pottery or something and was asking around "who's the leading researcher in this, I have a question" and everyone was like ",,you are. thats you" bc thats literally grace.
Crack imagine~
Business as usual in Stratt’s Vat
Scientists are sciencing
Stratt’s making her rounds in the lab
In his typical fashion Grace does/says something silly, funny, ridiculous, or has a harmless mishap
The mood lightens, it ain’t all bad for that one moment
Everyone’s chuckling or full blown laughing
And in all that mirth there’s a few gasps of alarm
“Stratt?!”
“Hey, something’s wrong!”
“Oh god, Stratt’s down!”
Cut to Director Stratt, doubled over, head bowed, one hand grasping a nearby surface, the other clutching her belly (AND IS SHE HAVING TROUBLE BREATHING?!)
She’s shaking, clearly the picture of pain and agony
Was she injured? Was there a virus on board? Contamination? Bioterrorism?!
There’s murmurs of alarm and speculation among Stratt’s collection of poached scientists. Someone’s called for medical help
And then Grace hurries over to have a closer look at Stratt, takes note of her flushed face, quivering shoulders, the way her whole body’s struggling to keep something within contained…
There’s a look of astonishment on Grace’s face
Before an honest to god smirk slowly forms
“C’mon, Stratt~ it’s okay! Let it out. You know you wannaaaaa~”
Was his smug tone gonna have him waking up tomorrow on his mattress floating out in open sea?
Maybe. Possibly
But the hard fought laughter he managed to coax out of her was worth it
Grace’s name is remembered on Erid long after he passes.
His story is told by Rocky, by Adrian, by the historians of Erid and the young he taught and the old who met him in passing.
His name becomes more elaborate, as time goes on. The Eridians consider changing the meaning, and it becomes something close to our version of “the Lord.” Not a king, or a ruler, but a prayer. A message of faith and well wishes.
A figure in the stars, or perhaps beyond it. A phrase said in passing, in Eridians wishing each other luck, praying for safety, continuing their astrophage research to ensuring the stars never go out once more.
“Thank Grace.” “May Grace guide you.” “By Grace.”
Eridian young are taught that Grace—a word that now more closely resembles something of bravery, of courage and perseverance, is a word—a person—worth remembering.
And he lives on.
yeah im just never getting over the fact that ryland grace will never be touched again. it really is the sort of thing you don't realize you need until you stop having it. even if he was never a particularly tactile person, a little physical contact can go a long way in a lot of directions. ground you. direct your attention. reassure you. protect you. there must have been a moment when grace tried to think back to the last time he was touched. when he realized the last person who touched him while he was conscious was holding his body down in the dirt. that the last time anyone held him it was to carry his motionless body onto a spaceship against his will. and he can never get a do-over. he can't paint over that memory. he can't rewrite that fact.
one day ryland grace will wake up and realize he's lived as long away from earth as he lived on it, and he hasn't had any physical contact since they sent him to die. and maybe rocky will make that articulated suit, and maybe it'll be kind of the same, and maybe he'll convince himself it doesn't matter, but he wasn't even awake the last time a human being touched him, and even if they were gentler and kinder towards him while he was knocked out, it doesn't matter. he'll never remember that. his last memory of physical touch and it was violent. and maybe sometimes he thinks that he would take violence over nothing. just to feel something. just to feel anything.
Grace tries copying the tones using the keyboard.
Rocky hums. “Close. Skip first note.”
“Why? You always include that.”
“This means… of Rocky, possessive. Of the speaker.”
“My.”
“Correct. But only for names.”
“So you’re calling me…?”
Rocky repeats the word: “My Grace. Yes.”
this morning i'm thinking about grace teaching the eridian scientists about evolution on earth, more specifically how some animals on earth have echolocation and that's why he had an easier time understanding their primary sense than they did his. and also that some animals that live in no light environments evolve to stop having light sensing entirely and animals who live in both high and low light environments can have both.
which makes grace wonder if there are eridian upper-atmosphere life forms that have light sense, and if any of the species that travel between the biomes have both.
the next thing rocky knows grace and the eridian scientists are conducting all kinds of experiments on upper-atmosphere life forms trying to see if there's something eridian biologists missed because they couldn't conceptualize a biological process.
rocky about to beat skulls in because they need to become human experts first so they can keep grace alive permanently and with confidence! the eridian scientists only survive because grace plays the "it's enrichment" card and rocky has to grumbly relent.