Supercoldsnow

[cheeseanonioncrisps]

Maybe an unpopular opinion, but I actually think I like the film Betrayal Scene better.

Like don't get me wrong, the book one is good (the idea of Grace having to spend multiple days locked up stewing about how he's gonna die before they even knock him out is deliciously angsty, as is Stratt's last attempt to beg him to understand why she has to do this) but fuck.

He like literally starts climbing the walls.

Like he came in there relatively composed. He had a rationalisation for what he was going to do, he probably rehearsed his little speech. He's putting the walls up because he knows he's not doing The Right Thing, but he doesn't want to let on that he knows that. He's probably pretending to himself as much as Stratt. He's doing it For The Kids.

And then the switch to just pure, animal terror when the doctor comes in. Like there's a degree of comedy to it. Grace is always slightly goofy, slightly immature (probably why his students like him so much) and now he's climbing and running like a kid playing tag. Except its not a game and it's not working.

Eva's tone when she tells him to “sit down, we'll do it different”. Like I know I'm murdering you, I know that you're not capable of seeing this any other way, but please at least see sense and spare yourself the trauma of having to be literally dragged kicking and screaming. Please.

The resignation when she says “he's running.” Like, she doesn't have to say who's running, or why. She knew this was a possibility. She knew this was a likely possibility but why couldn't he just fucking be the guy she needs him to be? Doesn't he know how hard this is??

The realisation that, if Carl is by the fence, then it's probably because they were concerned that Grace might actually outrun the guards and would need to be ambushed. The possibility that Carl specifically is there because, in that scenario, Grace would be more easy to catch if he trusted his pursuer.

Like I think one reason I'm attached to Ryland Grace is that I honestly couldn't tell you that I wouldn't behave like that in that scenario. Like sure, we all like to say we'd bravely sacrifice ourselves for humanity, but like it's not like I'm currently chaining myself to rainforest trees or throwing soup at paintings in museums or kidnapping oil execs or whatever it is I'm supposed to do. I don't even really attend protests.

There are significantly more things that I could be doing right now to make the world a better place that I don't do because they would involve upending my life and putting myself at more personal risk than I am comfortable with. I have no room to judge Ryland Grace.

I mean, just look at how scared he is.

[ceruleanheaven]

[looking at people younger than me] you have your whole life ahead of you [looking at people older than me] you have your whole life ahead of you [looking at myself] its over

[local-lesbian-tree-demon]

they should invent a body that feels normal to be inside of

[socialistexan]

Babe wake up, new all time great image just dropped

[homunculus-argument]

I enjoy experiencing surgery for the same reason I enjoy plane travel: I am not responsible for anything. As soon as I have stepped in and professionals have taken charge, I am in the hands of fate and my fate is in their hands. I have become cargo, the doer of jack shit. I am getting a good grade at being a faultless meat slab, something that is both normal to want, and possible to achieve.

[sunriseswell]

I think we need more stupid- and I mean stupid- PHM aus that keep the plot but change the profession. This is an untapped goldmine trust. Trust.

----

"I'm not a pop star!" He cries, not for the first time. "I can't carry a tune- I can't even carry a box without dropping it-"

"You've been present for every major rehearsal and choreography lesson," Stratt counters. "You know every song like the back of your hand."

"I can't even play an instrument. I took trumpet lessons when I was ten, but I was horrible at it."

"Perfect," Yao adds, a little too chipper for what they're all telling him to do. "You don't need to play, you just need to pretend."

"I'm not a pop star!" His hands hit the table in time with every syllable. "Some of us are failures, okay? We can't just walk out on a stage in front of- in front of the world, okay?"

"Grace, you'll be in very cool company," Ilyukhina quips, gesturing between herself and Yao.

"Do you think I kept you on this project so long because I needed a junior high school teacher around?"

Stratt's words are cold, sharp as glass. They cut through the room, hush falling in their wake.

"You know the setlist. You know the timing for every costume change. You've been around for every major meeting and discussion about the future of this group- I made sure of it. You had the face we need, so I made damn sure you had the knowledge we need. God knows I didn't want it to come to this, but here we are. You've been the understudy all along."

Aka an AU where Stratt drugs a schoolteacher, gives him amnesia, and glues a Hannah Montana wig to his head. For the bit.

(I'm supposed to be working on my finals, can't you tell?)

[atimesfeeler]

My favorite thing about the Project Hail Mary fandom is that everyone heard the line “you have no immediate family you don’t even have a dog” and went “give that man found family!!!!”

Whether it’s a crossover with a bloody YouTuber, giving him a twin or multiple, or making Eridian ocs that love him. It’s so amazing. You are not alone. You don’t need to have the traditional white picket fence to be loved and have meaningful connections.

[partywithponies]

Strange racists and homophobes on the internet seem to have access to an alternate way cooler version of TV than me. "every white character on TV is in an interracial relationship" "every show has a gay couple in it" "main characters keep having to secretly be bisexual and nonbinary" "every show has gratuitous full frontal nudity" like damn promise?? What channel???

[vulpinesaint]

saying "question mark?" and "however comma," out loud are game changers. punctuation on the go. and it's always the funniest thing that anyone around you has ever heard

[dragon-in-a-fez]

the thing about being "good with kids" is all it takes is literally just not trying to control and mould them with every interaction. it's just being a normal person and engaging with them through normal interactions like having conversations and playing games. it's just being genuine and friendly and not perceiving them as lumps of wet clay you are there to shape. "oh you're so good with kids" thanks it's because I think they are people

[llamasocks-lou]

Twice, Ryland Grace is faced with the same pivotal decision: to save himself, or to save an entire planet.

The first time:

He is surrounded by white (bravery) and is wearing yellow (cowardice)

The world is telling him to be brave, but he can’t, not yet, because he is a coward.

He has lost his identity and autonomy

The decision is already made (he must die)

He is all alone (he doesn’t have the bravery gene)

The second time:

He is surrounded by yellow (cowardice) and is wearing white (bravery)

He is in the middle of his namesake: a field of rye. The field is the yellow of cowardice; that is who he was, but he can’t be that, not anymore, because he is brave.

You know who you are. You’ll do great.

The decision is already made (Rocky must live)

Rocky’s ball is beside him (he has found someone to be brave for)

[brothermouse-skeleton]

Rocky: we built our spaceship by unifying every mind on the planet to create a super hive mind, pooling out collective knowledge and problem solving skills to come up with a plan.

Grace: we gave the scariest woman I've ever met two coffees every morning, an unlimited budget, and enough legal immunity to cuss out any world leaders she wanted to and boy did she want to.

[redstonedust]

my aunt is watching some generic daytime tv talkshow and the hosts are very cheerfully going "yknow this AI thing isnt actually as cool as i thought it was- i keep noticing the google overview getting facts wrong! isnt that weird?" and its very funny watching regular middle aged people finally catch on. we did it lads it took long enough.

[byjove]

I think the biphobic misconception that bisexual women only date men and bisexual men only date men may have a correlation to the fact that there is always a man freaky and horny in your DMs no matter what. It isn’t that bisexual women are secretly straight or that bisexual men are secretly gay, it’s that men are out there behaving like starving dogs and you feel so bad you end up feeding one, you know? Anyway, this coffee is a medium and I ordered a large. It’s okay, it’s busy in here, I get it.

[tboylucifer]

Imagine being Rocky in your spaceship when the first errors begin and you realize that the predator is eating your fuel and you have absolutely no way to stop it. Imagine thinking that even after all this, the death of your crew, the unlikely partnership, the wild success, the almost self sacrifice, you're never actually going to make it home. Everyone you love is going to die a slow and painful death.

Or almost everyone. The only bright spark is the friend you made along the way, the one you gave just enough fuel to make it home. You have to hope that he's not in the same predicament, but you know that his ship is made of strange material that could resist the amoeba better. You couldn't save your own world, but you could save his, and maybe that was all you could ever do.

You settle in, you make peace, as Grace would say, and just as you lay down you hear an impossible sound. A sound you think at first you might be imagining. A sound that is achingly familiar. A sound only possible because you insisted that you both make it out alive.

There is a knock at the door.

[mawofthemagnetar]

What do you mean “chat” is now referring to ChatGPT and not twitch chat? What? What? What the fuck? No?

When I address chat I am speaking to a presumed Greek chorus of real human people shitposting on their lunch break, not a machine that devours lakes to covert electricity into slop.

[cookieekun]