the neurodivergency department

I read in Finland they give you a doctoral sword for your PHD.

Dr. Lokken is Norwegian but I headcanon she got her phd in Finland with a badass sword.

and

“I commend your body to the stars.”

I literally don’t remember how Grace switched from being upset about the astrophage-made-up-of-water discovery to demanding to continue to work with it happened in the movie (my memory retention has been wack these past few weeks), but I love how here, it’s deliberately because of his kids—the realization that these innocent kids will be the ones to live through this impending apocalypse. And not all of them will survive.

Dr. Ryland Grace never change 🥹

Okay, but this part of the flashback helped put the coma situation into context—and kind of an “oh duh” moment regarding the 125 cubic meters of space to be shared between 3 people over 4 years… I’m trying to do some eyeball measurements around me to visualize how that would be and yeah… quarantine memories helped too with that image. Even if they’d somehow, somehow, not managed to kill each other, even with all the media in the world downloaded onto the Hail Mary, the lack of stimulation would also be enough to drive them crazy.

(And the coma-resistant genetic markers?? Even more interesting to see what more restrictive parameters Eva Stratt was working with—I’ve already seen all the posts discussing her character and role in all this and I’m here just seconding what a Decision rested on her shoulders)

Love how Grace is pretty curious and glazing (did I even use that right?) in this scene compared to the panicked chasing montage in the movie lol - he’s already accepted that this was a one-way trip so what else is he gonna do. Die? 😂

(I should really take a shot of water every time he tears up and cries—I’ll keep us both hydrated 😭

Nah, but jokes aside I am in love with how open and freely he expresses his emotions?? Especially over Ilyukhina and Yáo, whom he considers to have been friends even if he doesn’t remember? And his kids? This man is full of love and care and I love it)

Also find it fascinating that he’s also been trained for a lot of the stuff on board (the EVA suits, some unconscious understanding of the ship’s instrumentation, etc). Like of course he’d been working with the project for ages and all, but as I’d understood it, he’d focused on the astrophage breeding program and tossed in after the disaster taking out the science division. (Which is why I’d been so curious how a molecular biologist who’d been helping in that field without original expectation of being part of the mission know how anything works on the spaceship? I was stressed out during the movie on his behalf).

I mean, we’ll probably get into more of the details once the flashbacks get closer to the end, but I’m glad there’s some confirmation that he wasn’t tossed onto the spaceship completely blind to how to work things on it, even if they did have a pilot and engineer originally included too. (I’m imagining sticky notes all over the cockpit though too 😂)

LOLOLOLOL

I love love science being done with the realization and understanding of differences between perspectives and approaches (in communicating with Rocky and thus discovering the differences and similarities of their needs and existence) and just how accommodating? accepting? no, receptive, that’s the word, to learning this. You’re a scientist, discovering and interacting with an entirely new species of intelligence - and it just makes me so giddy to see the open and inquisitive and studious approach Grace has here.

^this plus all the tape he’s been using screams teacher being creative on a budget (it also screams me using duct tape on my car ‘cause it works lol)

VINDICATION FOR GACE AND HIS DISSERTATION!!!

(Was it a dissertation? Idk, but he’d made a point, called out people in his field, got laughed out of the scientific community, and he was right all along - he absolutely deserves this moment!)

Lololol

Also: “I may be anthropomorphizing a tad” and “my boy Rocky” my beloved

some more fun quotes:

Also the whole Intellectual Property Alliance v. Project Hail Mary trial is hilarious but also so reflective of Stratt and not only the power she’s been granted over everything regarding saving the human race, but how unapologetic she is in getting things done. (And also going into the whole idea we’ve been talking about regarding the ethical dilemma of power and saving lives—at what point do we forgo laws we’ve set up and allow absolute power to get things done, or do we hold onto the rules we have even at the cost of lives? Those aren’t the only questions and I probably phrased them pretty biased, but love how apolitical the story gnaws at these serious questions

(Not me also probably pissing off intellectual law by sharing my favorite stuff here too 🤫)

I think the bombing of Antártica hit most for me - you’ve got a climatologist and environmental activist who has been trying so hard to get people to listen and care about the planet and how our actions have been impacting it, who’s used to being dismissed but continues to try regardless, and now complicit in releasing tens of thousands of pounds of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere as a last ditch effort to prolong life on Earth for even just a few years. You’ve got Stratt who cannot afford to care about morality and good vs bad when she hasn’t the luxury to touch that, who knows she’ll eventually be used as a scapegoat once things settle down and someone needs to be blamed for the consequences of saving the world.

I love how they keep having conversations discussing how they each view the world. You’ve got Rocky asking about humans seeing and hearing light and you’ve got Grace trying to understand how Eridians function with all their sensory input. Just first contact curiosities has me 🥹

Grace: “No fair, when is it my turn to be inside an alien spaceship?”

Rocky is literally Sharpay moving in with countless of luggage boxes and snapping her fingers to get everything situated ‘cause her hands are full with the Precious™️

And more heavier moments:

So fascinating to see the contrast being made here: we have proof that there are people fully knowing and willing to commit to a suicide mission to save Earth. And yet we eventually know that the only one who will be able to go is the one qualified person who doesn’t. And ooooooof, the comparisons keep growing.

🥺🥺🥺 THEMMMMM

Also Rocky being the one to choose name planet Adrian after his spouse is so fricken sweet - like I know the jokes from the movie with Grace choosing the name, but in the book, it was a joint effort: Rocky choosing and Grace translating it 🥹🥹

Rocky bouncing around the walls and his voice rising several octaves in excitement literally makes me so happy

Rocky and Grace snipping and bantering and being sarcastic with each other my beloved 😂

STOP DOING THINGS WHEN YOU’RE EEPY IT WILL NOT HELP

Okay, but the whole scene where they’re choosing how they want to die, while heavy and emotional, is also very funny because of course when you’re faced with the knowledge that you’re choosing to die to save your entire planet and you’ve kinda made peace with that, you kind of have the right to be a bit unhinged and silly and nonchalant in your approach to death. You’re gonna die anyways, might as well have a good time at it. (Commander Yáo my beloved)

Absolutely wild that the section ends and starts like this. Grace in the present like: “I must’ve volunteered somehow even knowing it was a survive mission, but that’s all we got now” and then we’re hit with “well actually…”

OKAY we all know the “You’re murdering me! I don’t want to die! Don’t send me off to die! Please!” scene that was cut from the movie (immaculate emotions with the shrieking and voice cracks and wheezing though it was perfect 😭), but I found this part so interesting compared to how the movie did it:

Stratt calls him out on his bs and honestly, I think she had a point. And moreover, despite that there’s hard answers and no good choices, I’m really with her on this one. It was never about the kids, it was never about being a martyr for his career or anything else. He’s just a coward who wants respect and awe from others without all the risk that comes from earning it. “I miss the respect” that the classroom gives him. Yes, he does care about the kids, yes, he does care about the earth not dying, but it simply isn’t enough to make it worth it for him—who is their last certain option—to choose to save them.

I think book!Grace and movie!Grace are different in similar ways—movie!Grace is definitely softer around the edges regarding this arrogance, choosing to run and try to escape while you see it a lot more in book!Grace with him snarling and biting back, but fundamentally, they simply don’t want to die. And I don’t think it’s a bad thing, of course. I just find it interesting how that fear is portrayed in each version.

I absolutely love moments of sheer scientific joy 🥹

Also this whole moment, between Rocky telling Grace to sleep and all, is just… Rocky going: “I can fix. I’ll do it. I can fix this. I can do this for you. I fix. I fix.” And I’m 😭😭😭

It’s always missing Rocky hours for Grace 🥺🥺🥺

And AHHHHHHHH THE WAY HE GOES THROUGH HIS OPTIONS BETWEEN GOING BACK TO EARTH OR SAVING ROCKY

Sobbing crying over Rocky being grateful to Grace for coming back to save him but still hopeful and adamant that Grace Has To Live

‘You can’t die. We are friends.’ 😭🥺😭

Forgot a while back about this line but the whole “I’m un-suiciding this suicide mission” had me snorting on my water lol

Anyway—Rocky calling Grace “old man” my beloved. Grace absolutely should be allowed to call him “you little punk” now 😂

Yes, Grace is a teacher again and he’s back in the classroom where he belongs BUT LET’S TALK ABOUT HOW HE CAN SPEAK TO THEM IN THEIR OWN LANGUAGE NOW! HE WENT FROM LEARNING TO UNDERSTAND WITHOUT THE LAPTOP TO PRACTICALLY FLUENT NOW WITH ASSISTANCE I LOVE IT SO MUCH 🥹 (and ahhhhhh the way the last chapter heading was using Eridian numbers too I see you)

Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a mission he doesn't remember volunteering for. Alone on a ship scaled far too large for a borrower, he has to try to figure out why he's so far from home, and what he's supposed to do. On top of that, he needs to figure out why this mission is so prepared to have a borrower on the crew--standing at only six inches tall, it's easy to think none of this was meant for him. And yet, everywhere he looks he finds evidence that whoever built this ship built it with both humans and borrowers in mind. An impossible task looms over him. A scientific mystery has somehow sent him hurtling through space, impossibly far from any other human or borrower, and it's on him to surpass an extinction-level threat that doesn't care how big someone is. It will end the world all the same if he doesn't do something about it. But, despite what he thinks, he's not alone.

Saw this image and said oh. That’s them

but then someone leaks the Full Unadultered Ryland Grace diaries and there's gonna be various Realisations along the lines of

oh my god he didn't volunteer. oh god he was so angry & miserable and lonely up there. they just sent this sweet man to die in space against his will. oh we're all alive because they killed this poor man. okay.