imagine if Grace ever told Rocky what happened to him but kept Stratt completely separate from the experience. like, when Grace talks to Rocky about his time with Stratt working on the Astrophage problem, he's talking about someone who had to make impossible decisions for the sake of her planet, someone with a beautiful singing voice, someone who would put a reassuring hand around his arm to get on the elevator, and would even share one of her precious coffees with him (don't tell Carl). Rocky has opinions of all the people Grace talks about, like, "Rocky hate Mark," but Rocky likes the stories Grace tells about his friends, and has very high opinions of Marissa, and Ilyukhina, and Yao, and Carl, and Rocky especially likes Stratt. Stratt reminds Rocky of Adrian: determined, kind, intelligent, stern, but gentle. Rocky likes Stratt. Rocky does not like the way Grace describes how he ended up in space. hunted, sedated, forced. Grace always describes it at a distance, what happened to the people who were meant to go to Tau Ceti, how he was the only feasible option to give Project Hail Mary its best chance at working, his initial refusal, the drastic measures it took to get him on the ship. Rocky sees the aftermath in the way Grace sometimes sits and stares at nothing, hands pressed to his temples as he slowly, painfully tries to remember something, in the way Grace tosses and turns at night, his mind made restless by dreams, fragments of memories. Rocky hates, hates, hates what happened to Grace because it was cruel. Rocky likes Stratt because she very obviously cared about Grace. it isn't until much later that Grace lets slip that it was specifically Stratt's decision to have him forced onto the Hail Mary. what happened to Grace was more than just cruelty, it was betrayal, and it was also absolutely, irrefutably necessary for Earth's survival. Stratt loved Grace and killed him, and she was right on both accounts.
annaxmalina
vaporwave
turnnoffyourmind
izzy806
tangentwithtanner
origamiaround
