long distance friends pets feel like celebrities because you can only be parasocial with them

can we talk about the fact that grace & rocky (platonically or romantically) are literally the epitome of "loved to the point of invention" i feel sick whenever i think about them. inventing ways to communicate. inventing ways to live together. inventing ways to save the planet. inventing ways to save each other. inventing ways to almost touch. inventing ways to send each other home. it never ends. they love each other so fucking much i feel like throwing up

yes yes stratt is very scary and whatnot but i feel like we are overlooking how intimiadting grace made her too (largely in the book). because you expect the leader of the petrova task force to be cold and ruthless and scary, but then her... assistant? second officer? her guy walks in with her and he's very sweet, personable, and incredibly smart. and there's so much dissonance because you're talking with stratt about the biggest ethical decision of your lifetime and he's, like, annotating papers for her in the background. or you accuse her of being cold and calculated and this ray of sunshine just matter-of-factly goes "yep! she'll do whatever it takes!". and at the end of your meeting, probably the worst day of your life, the dictator of the world who has just calmly convinced you to do some atrocity or another stands up, gestures to him, and they casually walk out together chattering about something else like they've already forgotten you're there. that's so terrifying