KagekaNecavi

From that, they concluded that I must be able to see the Petrova line. They're smart. [pg.148] They connected my airlock to theirs, with a wall in the middle. Clever. [pg.166] "I like you, Rocky! You're a genius!" And he is! [pg.183] Brilliant. Simply brilliant. [pg.186] I bet Rocky's the captain! He puts himself at risk by talking to the scary alien. Everyone else stays back on the ship. That's what Captain Kirk would do. [pg.195] I've never seen him be wrong on arithmetic. [pg.211] Wow, he's quick. [pg.254] The closer we get, the more I respect Rocky's astronomy skills. [pg.278] "You're an amazing engineer." [pg.287] Rocky - ever the talented engineer [pg.309] He really is a genius. I wonder if all Eridians are like that, or if he's special. [pg.310] "Smart," I say. [pg.348] Rocky seems to be able to do pretty much anything. Either he's gifted, or all Eridians are like that. Either way, I'm incredibly lucky. [pg.365] the world's best engineer [pg.377] I don't doubt him for a second. The guy knows engineering. [pg.388] Rocky delivered on the testing apparatus as promised. As always, everything worked flawlessly. [pg.388] At this point I trust Rocky to do any engineering task. Heck, if he wanted to do open-heart surgery on me, I'd probably let him. [pg.410] Rocky's ad-hoc fuel bays are perfect, of course. [pg.419] "you're my best friend." [pg.425] I wish Rocky were here. [pg.438] I always wish Rocky were here. [pg.438] Rocky tends to find elegant solutions to complex problems. [pg.444] He's one of the most talented engineers on his entire planet! [pg.445] All of the hard stuff is already done, thanks to Rocky. [pg.451] There's nothing Rocky can't fix. [pg.454] Rocky could probably whip something up if he were here. [pg.457] I wish Rocky were here to help me save Rocky. [pg.457] "I have full faith in your abilities." [pg.488]

Grace isn’t depressed primarily because he’s woken up weak and alone and stranded in space. That part engages his scientific curiosity as much as primal fear. He’s much more overwhelmed by the astrophage situation, when it comes back to him; and he’s mourning his team. Every time he thinks of them, before he even remembers them properly, he starts to cry. His depression seems like loneliness at its core—he needs people to care for. Feels like that foreshadows how he’ll feel about Rocky.

He also thinks warmly of his friend Marissa (old roommate’s ex, still meets him regularly—he can keep a friend!), and Steve (the Carl prototype), and Dmitri, the Russian scientist who makes an astrophage pun—he immediately invites him out for drinks. He enjoys people. He gets annoyed easily but moves on easily too. His internal monologue on the Mary, pre-Rocky, is just constantly returning to everything he loved about his dead crewmates and wishing they could have seen what he’s seeing. It’s not even that he feels sorry for himself all alone—it’s that he adored them for themselves.

Grace is given first look at the astrophage specifically because he’s a middle school teacher; he’s not functionally important in the scientific community, and they need someone brilliant but expendable. Stratt is afraid astrophage might kill whoever works on it (is it radioactive? infectious?), and if that happens she wants it to happen to a lone guy who won’t be too missed, so they can learn from his death how to protect the more important people who work on it later.

And they had no intention of letting him go on working on it! Since he doesn’t become infected and the astrophage disproves his theory, they send him home. But then he has a panic attack teaching his class realizing that they’re all going to deal with the apocalypse. He storms back into the facility demanding they give him astrophage to work with, because he has to do something. I love that, and it feels like it makes his horror at being ordered to go himself even more poignant. He understands the stakes. He’d storm a high security facility for the stakes. He just doesn’t want to die.

He’s completely terrified of zero G—has a phobia of falling. He expects the fear and tries to psych himself up for it but as soon as the engines cut out he doesn’t just scream, he flails and curls up into fetal position and vomits into his jumpsuit (because even while having a full breakdown he remembers the dangers of free floating liquids and aspiration). But in twenty minutes he’s figured out how to get around while floating and is starting to have fun. Everything that terrifies him also wakens his curiosity, and that saves him over and over.

His mind moves a million steps a minute. He thinks of every possible outcome and wants to test them all. He’s deeply impatient—keeps skipping important steps in his science to move faster. The unbalanced centrifuge in the movie actually makes sense when you know he did things like freehand the nanosyringe which should have been attached to a precision machine because he was annoyed and “felt like getting stabby.” He’s also not fully aware how exceptional his mind is—repeatedly excuses his encyclopediac knowledge of physics and complex near-instantaneous mental math with “science teachers know things.”

Not only is he confused and embarrassed by other people’s sex lives, he doesn’t notice at all when people are into him. Dr. Lokken (book-only character) is constantly arguing with him but gets flustered when he smiles at her or praises her ideas, tries hard to convince him of her theories, and looks to him for grounding when shocking things happen; he is simply baffled at this.

Grace theorizes that an ancestor of astrophage is the source of interstellar life—that as it traveled between planets and stars to breed it shed cells onto planets capable of supporting water-based life, which evolved into humans, Eridians (yes, they’re also water-based), and whatever else may be out there. Rocky says that only the two of them met because any other planet with life less advanced wouldn’t be able to travel in space, and more advanced planets could solve the problem without leaving. Eridians and humans are both at the stage of development where they needed to go see Tau Ceti for themselves to learn the answer.

Grace is not just a yapper but a very good listener, when he doesn’t have a theory to prove. He’s gentle with Marissa on the day astrophage is identified, with Stratt when she’s panicking about putting the crew in comas, with the climate scientist grieving the changes to earth needed to survive, with Rocky when he’s asking for help in sleeping and explaining the crew deaths. He’s the one who puts a hand on the divider and tells Rocky he doesn’t have to be alone anymore. Grace may be blunt but he’s deeply empathetic—profoundly good traits both for first contact and for a middle school teacher.

--

Shapiro drowning in Dubois’ EVA suit. Dubois with Shapiro's suit taped to him and her helmet balanced on top of his head

Grace looking at the camera confused while the core time circle around him like the one girl surrounded by five guys meme

Stratt reclined on a couch looking demure with a coffee mug and using Grace's legs as a lap board for her tablet. Grace is dead asleep, obviously snoring with his mouth wide open and covered in reports. His glasses are on Stratt's head.

Carl walking by the camera with Grace thrown over his shoulder. Grace is visibly pleased and yapping.

Illyukhina walking by the camera with Grace thrown over her shoulder. Grace looks vaguely ill.

Yao passionately doing karaoke with each of the core staff members.

Lamai asleep on a prototype coma bed.

Steve Hatch maternity shoot with the Beatles.

Grace and Dimtri using a centrifuge to make butter.

Grace and Dimitri getting yelled at by Lokken for using a centrifuge to make butter.

Dubois carrying Grace and Shapiro under each arm to the cafeteria. They all are talking like this is a normal occurrence.

Yao hanging upside down from a simulator that glitched with a straight face while Illyukhina is crying laughing on the floor below him.

Compilation video of the world's greatest minds dropping tools, tripping, and running into the glass walls.

Videos of the astronauts defeatedly drifting away from the mock ship in the buoyancy tank after losing their grip. The others are dramatically reaching out for them.

Redell teaching the Russians about New Zealand bombing dives in the training pools.

Shapiro, in formal wear, standing next to a slideshow titled “How I Cloned and Replaced the World Leaders”

Dubois - “My Alien Seduction Tactics"

Grace - “Middle Schooler vs Scientist”

Dimitri - “Using the Incorrect Equipment for Correct Results"

Hatch - “Yoko Ono: First Contact?”

Lamai - “How Not to Use a Coma Robot”

Lokken - “Grace is an Idiot”

Leclerc - “The Ice Age and You”

Stratt - “Things I DO NOT Have Time For”

Carl - “Securing a Home Depot for Idiots”

Yao - “Worst Times to Make a Joke”

Illyukhina - "Benefits of Vodka in Space”

Reddell - “What I Did in 1989”

Illyukhina passed out on top of Dmitri (also passed out) surrounded by a minefield of bottles none of which are for alcohol.

Leclerc looking upset and holding a penguin plushy.

As you know, he was a key board member for us at PAaCLPoG Inc. Always played well with the team; always in tune with employee morale.

He never hesitated to pull his weight. The company's gone through some rough spots, but he forged ahead and truly proved his mettle at every turn.

Rocky: Can do.

(later)

Grace: …Uh, Rocky, not that I’m not always happy to spend time with you, but why are we sitting in… is this like, an Eridian sound booth?

Rocky: I’m going to step out this door. Once it closes, we need you to put your mouth near these microphones and make absolutely every different weird human noise that you are capable of making.

Grace: …

Logic: Characters, just like real people, are mallable. There is typically very little that's so truly, heinously out of character that you absolutely cannot make it work under any circumstance. In addition, most fans are also willing to accept characterization stretches if it makes the fic work. Yeah, we all know the villain and the hero wouldn't cuddle for warmth in canon. But if they did do that, how would they do it?

What counts is often not so much 'would the character do this?' and more 'if the character did do this, how would they do it?' If you get 'how' part right, your readers will probably be willing to buy the rest, because it will still feel like their favourite character. But if it doesn't feel like the character anymore, why are they even reading the fic?

But it was along the lines of "instead of asking whether something is out of character, ask 'what would it take for this character to do this'"

In light of some of the many things happening across the world this year, I thought this Pride Month needed a special illustration.