beware this is where i blog

the Eridians figure out how to extend Grace's life, cut to the future and Earth is making frequent contact, how does Grace deal with it, how they see him as a self sacrificing legend, but he knows the truth that he was a coward

possibly throw in Star Trek too since Vulcan is also within the Eridani star sytem

I don't know much about Star Trek so I'll have to watch that and revisit this but I think Grace would go through a bit of imposter syndrome because of how he got on the hail Mary to begin with -even though he did save Erid and Earth- I do also think the guilt of letting his bestie and the other Eridians think of him as this hero figure would eat him up inside because I just know the poor man has a good bit of self hatred. (sorry if anything isn't 100% correct, I'm still working through the book but I have watched the movie)

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The papers on Grace's desk sit abandoned, the cup of coffee next to them went cold a while ago. he doesn't know how long he had been sitting at his desk staring at the ceiling but it must have been a while considering the stiffness that began to settle into the muscles in his neck.

Lately his mind has been all over the place, the pit of dread in his stomach is more apparent now as his brain keeps asking "what if". Ever since the Eridians figured out interstellar communication 6 months ago he hasn't been able to shake the feeling that some how they would find out that his being on the Hail Mary wasn't the heroic story they thought it was.

He was a coward, he knew that, Stratt knew that, hell anyone who had intimate knowledge of the Hail Mary project knew that. But if they were still around would they tell Rocky? Would they tell the other Eridians? Stratt maybe, but only if it served a purpose, she wouldn't do that unless there was a good reason for it. Everyone else however? that was an unknown variable.

Eventually the stiffness in his neck becomes unbearable and the urge to walk around has him on his feet, his hand instinctively grabbing the cane by his desk. He doesn't need it as much anymore thanks to Erid's scientists but it helps to have something solid to hold onto.

Soon he's out the door and making his way to the shore. The sand is soft under his feet. Usually being out by the water helps him clear his mind but today he can't seem to escape the one question that's been plaguing him.

What would Rocky think?

The guilt gnaws at him as the pit in his stomach twists, for a moment he feels like he's going to be sick. What would he think? Would he hate him? Would Rocky resent him for letting him believe in this false narrative? He doesn't know and it's almost worse than actually knowing, the guilt eats away at him a little more as he settles into his usual spot.

He could run. it's the first idea to his situation his brain could come up with and of course it's a spineless one. The guilt hits him a little harder that time, it's not like he'd actually entertain the idea anyway, he'd be leaving his best friend just like he left his kids. Now the circumstances are different this time but the critical little voice in his head doesn't care, besides, where the hell would he go?.

Ultimately that train of thought leads him nowhere and he sits there on the beach, contemplating and stewing on his options until the early morning sun in his little bio-dome crests over the artificial horizon.

Even though he's spent his night thinking, the only logical solution he can come up with is a rather simple one, even if it changes how the Eridian sees him, he needs to come clean to Rocky.

It's not going to be a very pleasant conversation, he knows that, but as Grace is forced to return to his home he knows it's better than living with the constant cloud of dread that's been hanging over his head.

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We could’ve been living in a timeline where Phineas and Ferb was a 90s show with waves of nostalgia for it on BuzzFeed articles.

This one was made by working backwards from the idea of a hostage note.

Ask yourself, how does this piece make you feel? (No wrong answers)

Look for an artist statement nearby. What does it say about the artist and their relationship to their work? What does the artist say that they are trying to convey with their art? What contextual clues can you pick up from what they say about their background, or what they omit?

Look at the title of the piece. What is the artist saying about their work by naming it that, either explicitly or implicitly?

Look at the medium. Is there anything about the piece that stands out to you, knowing what it's made of?

Look at the year it was made. What cultural events might have been happening around this time? Was this piece part of a particular art movement? What was the purpose of that art movement, and what was it trying to say?

And like yeah, obviously there's more to it than that. They're a team, a Grace alone would have probably died trying to get the samples from Adrian. Or, tbh, might have never got out of his original Mental Breakdown phase and just gone fully crazy.

But from Rocky's perspective, this has to feel insane. Like we talk a lot about Grace feeling inferior to Rocky, but there's no way that Rocky wouldn't have a similar (or worse) complex about Grace.

And this isn't getting into the fact that (from Rocky's perspective) the moment he leaves Grace, everything goes to hell again. Goes to hell again because, as he later finds out, Grace bred the taumoeba in xenonite breeder tanks that Rocky designed.

Do we think he wondered, on the way back to Erid, whether things would have been fixed 46 years ago if it had been one of the Blip-A scientists who survived, and he'd just succumbed to the radiation?

Do we think Grace had to reassure him, over and over, that it was if anything Grace's fault for not foreseeing that the taumoeba would adapt to the xenonite, and that there was no way that Rocky could have designed the tanks better?

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