Grace and Rocky, giving a tour of the Hail Mary to fascinated Eridian scientists and diplomats.
Pointing at things and explaining what they are and how the ship works, lots of awed and appreciative noises are made.
Until one of the visiting Eridians points out a specific item. “And that?”
It’s a strange, circular thing, a xenonite disk mounted upright on some sort of pivot so it can spin freely, but around the edges it has… spokes? Pegs? Sticking out of it, that hit against a stiff flap that would slow down the spinning.
It is also separated into sections decorated with crude etchings of a human and an Eridian.
“Ah,” Grace says.
“That,” Rocky says.
“That’s. Um.” Grace seems somewhat embarrassed. “That’s the sacrifice wheel.”
The Eridian visitors clearly do not know what to make of that. “We think we misunderstood Savior Grace’s word,” they say, apparently hoping this is a vocabulary mix-up. “Explain (question, polite)?”
“Didn’t misunderstand,” says Rocky, sounding very sheepish. “That is sacrifice wheel.”
“So. While we were on our way to Erid, we might have gotten… anxious about each other’s well-being,” Grace says, which everyone is already very aware is a wild understatement. “And, well, you heard what happened at Tau Ceti, and after. There were a lot of unexpected dangers for the whole trip that required a lot of, at least, attempted self-sacrifice to solve. We ended up almost dying for each other several times. And we had an argument about what we’d do if another crisis like that came up. And we couldn't agree.”
“Grace argued that Grace already was unlikely to survive long-term on Erid, so he should be the one to do any potential deadly but necessary maneuvers to make sure I was able to bring taumoeba back,” Rocky says.
“Which made sense.”
“Did not make sense! Grace already sacrificed so much for me and for Erid, wouldn’t be fair to make you do it again—“ Rocky cuts himself off with a huff. They have obviously had this conversation before. “So sacrifice wheel was compromise.”
“Yeah,” Grace says. He spins it to demonstrate; it whirls around in a blur and a rattle of the flap hitting the pegs, then eventually slows down, and stops—pointing at the segment depicting a very bad but very clear image of an Eridian. “Rocky made the wheel, I spin the wheel, and whoever it lands on, that’s who gets to sacrifice themself to save the other and the other person does not get to argue. This way, we wouldn’t waste time debating who does the self-sacrifice and who survives, it’s just a plain fifty-fifty chance. Or, eighteen-eighteen chance in base six. But the point is it could be either of us and we would have to accept the outcome.”
Rocky started fidgeting while Grace was explaining. When Grace finishes, proud of the equitable solution they came up with to allow them to die for each other fairly, Rocky says, “Now that we are back and we don’t need sacrifice wheel anymore… I have confession to make. About the wheel.”
“What about the wheel?”
Rocky doesn’t answer. Grace frowns, first confused, then suspicious, and spins the wheel again.
It lands on Rocky again.
He spins the wheel again, and again, and again, and it lands on Rocky every single time.
“Rocky!”
“I weighted the wheel,” Rocky admits.
“Rocky the whole point was that it was equal, that was why we even made it—“
“Never was necessary so doesn’t matter anymore!”
“But you WOULD have!”
“And you never noticed because you were hungry and cranky and distracted and so would have done bad job on heroic self-sacrifice anyway!”
“I would not! I would have done fine!”
(The Eridian scientists and diplomats are still here watching this btw. Slowly dawning on them that 1) these two are extremely not normal about each other 2) if Erid ever does another space mission they NEED to send a therapist aboard because this is what happens when they don’t)
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Finally done this after a couple days! I love drawing movie stills.
When I initially started this I hadn't seen any art of Grace as the sun with planets orbiting him, now I see so many!!! It's an obvious idea so I was wondering why no one had done it. People had LOL. Anyway, here he is <3
I tried very hard to make the constellations Canis Major and Vulpecula (Greater Hound and Little Fox) (accidentally said that the constellation was Sirius whoops.)
The playground toy design is a mix of the book's Hail Mary design and the movie's gems like "shields up!" and "pilot detected" as well as Erid and Adrian's planet designs.
The playground is supposed to look kinda cold and "alien", while Erid's beach looks cozy and just like home. :3 with adequate amounts of fog <3
The constellations turned out to look a bit like xenonite which I like :3 as if rocky drew them in the sky
grace, who has been alone for five minutes: oh my god. an alien! im not alone anymore! i hope he wants to be friends :)
rocky, coming up on 50 years of solitude, imprinting on grace in ways baby ducklings can only dream of: if you leave me to sleep where i can't watch your heart beat i am blowing up this tunnel with us both in it
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rocky hunting grace while hes working like heh. going to pull big prank on grace. stupid human hearing so bad very bad and only 'see' with light-sense organ in one direction at a time. eridian best hunter on all erid, evolved best hunting veeeery quiet. scare grace a lot. very funny.
rocky is HORRIFIED mid stalk when grace suddenly stiffens and turns around to stare directly at him. HOW GRACE DO THAT HOW GRACE KNOW HOW GRACE KNOW
One thing I really like about movie!Stratt is her leadership style. Which, I think, is pretty distinct from her book counterpart.
Because, basically, I'm not sure I find it realistic that a woman (or man) appointed to this role would last long if she was terribly abrasive or confrontational. It would be counterproductive and distracting for everyone involved. (It serves a purpose in the book, but I prefer how the movie did it.)
Movie!Stratt creates the appearance of being very consensus-oriented. She doesn't even acknowledge the concept of power games or sexism for that matter. Authority doesn't live in confrontation or visible status markers but in the visible support and deference of everyone around her, because she made sure they are all pulling in the same direction to begin with.
She's absolutely has a lot of power but she's keeping it understated. Nothing flashy. Business casual, always moving, flat shoes, calm voice, always questions, honest answers. She's consulting the room (while leading the conversation), she is to the point but reasonably polite, she works in tandem with others, creates a sense of shared experience. "Applause!" Carl knows exactly when to jump into the conversation while deferring to her authority, "Talk to her", "Just answer the question", "I would take the three". He clearly really knows her and can pick up his end of that game. The "We don't know" chorus. The "What's the alternative" centrifuge discussion. "Thank you so much" to the underling with the coffees. Seemingly flat hierarchies.
She lets people talk and then gleans what she needs. She gives credit.
Her job is to make the decisions and take responsibility, to keep the momentum going. People are unsurprisingly okay with handing it off. She points, they march.
No one considers opposing her because they all trust her. Because they feel involved in the process. It's not hard to ask, after all, when everyone knows what it's for.
Even in the end, she has the entire team on her side when confronting Grace with his choice. Because none of it is about power or ego. Only about the mission.
The lack of future international cooperation gets her most emotional utterance out of the entire film. "Which they won't."
At every point she is pulling for a team effort. And it works. (Except one time.)
Agree - consensus and being able to work with people are key drivers of success in big international orgs. Abrasive and confrontational folk make enemies, which gets in the way of achieving objectives.
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"believe in the hail mary" existing as an in-universe tagline but not from any official source. graffiti on a wall just outside the perimeter, the launch site visible in the background. uncredited but the photo goes viral online. publication of a formal notice that the graffiti has been removed so will people please stop coming to take photos of/with it. the backup crew and some of the team retweet the photo. #believeinthehailmary starts appearing on bios and bumper stickers and t-shirts. someone hacks the taipei 101's LED wall to say 相信聖母號 on the one year launch anniversary. next year there's more, dots of light all over the world. buildings lit in blue-white-orange. drones spelling it mid-air. and yet it all remains unrecognised until the end of stratt's interminable trial, when they ask if she has any last words before the verdict and there is no smile as she leans into the mic and says "just this: believe in the hail mary." and the court breaks out in uproar even as she repeats it in every language she speaks. the clip gets uploaded online in near-real time and people start stitching clips of themselves saying it too, in different languages and different lives. scientists working on climate-resistant species. ryland grace's students. the world is cold but still there is hope, always hope.
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