where I hoard my favourite nonsense

given what i've argued about his sense of belonging being strongly tied to people, it stands to reason that the places he would feel drawn to would be the places his friends live. o'brien, of course, is on earth, but considering his tenuous relationship with his parents and his past trauma, and how much he has been able to let go of all that and actually be himself on ds9, i can't imagine it being a place he would be drawn to return to long term. what's more, a human dominated post-scarcity planet would hardly be a challenging environment for him medically. turning to his other strongest relationship brings us to garak on cardassia.

i think cardassia itself would appeal to julian somewhat after spending years slowly learning about their literature and culture through garak. i also think an alien planet would be oddly freeing for him, giving him a chance to live among a population who consider him strange by virtue of being human rather than because he's an augment or because he is (unbeknownst to them) quite an odd human so to speak. I've always seen julian and garak as providing each other a space free of the typical judgements they face from everyone else, and i can totally imagine julian having that association with the planet because of it.

my favourite reason, however, goes back to the ds9 pilot and julian's infamous 'frontier medicine' line. because post-war cardassia, with its bombed out infrastructure and millions dead and displaced, is exactly the kind of situation that would challenge him in that way. except now, julian is older, wiser, and has years of combat experience under his belt. his time on ds9 is what changed him into the person he dreamed of being, and while the reality is much grimmer than he ever imagined, he's now ready to be the person who can go to this devastated planet and help them rebuild from the ground up. in the Our Man Bashir episode of the Delta Flyers podcast, alexander siddig mentioned how the show watches julian grow up over its course. ds9 was a transitional period for julian, and moving on to cardassia is exactly the sort of thing that would allow those changes to be put to use.

“Which is why you now live on a boat in the middle of the ocean, in case of” *mimes explosion* Stratt is 1000 times more expressive than I remember from the first watch I knew I was obsessed with her for a reason

The amount of flailing around Grace does

“Nope nope, nope, nope, nope.”

Grace nope-ing out of the space walk and then accidently slingshotting hismelf out of the ship

If can’t understand, slam against table strategy, brought to you by Dr. Ryland Grace

Getting startled by Rocky’s solar system and then slamming back up against the glass a second later to get a better look at it

POV you’re Rocky in the middle of constructing a breathable tunnel for this alien dude and he knocks on your window before your ready and when you tell him to get the heck back in his ship and out of the tunnel it’s not finished yet he responds with “But I just got here…”

The tango/ballroom music playing while Rocky adjusts lines up the ships took me OUT

Grace holding up his hand in a peace sign when he sees fullbody Rocky

“Face’s are overrated.”

How annoyed Rocky sounds when Grace doesn’t realize he’s pointing initially

The fact Grace takes his helmet off trusting this rock lookin alien did oxygen right is crazy, not just because trusting an alien not to have intent to harm but also trusting an alien to actually know what it’s doing and know enough about him to do it right

The fact he doesn’t figure out the other thing Rocky sent him is“It’s the patrova line” until this point they did not have to add that and I’m so glad they did

Grace interrupts Rocky right in the middle of his name when he’s introducing himself

I don’t know if Grace and Rocky realize how much the other talks at the start since they don’t understand each other, neither of them shut up

Rocky laughing at Grace

Rocky building Grace a place to sit in the wall

Grace getting more and more crammed into the tunnel and closer to Rocky the more relaxed he gets

Grace getting more clumsy the sleepier he is

The really dumb “Good night sir” bow he does to Rocky (he also bows to the astronauts when he firsts meets them)

Grace trusts Rocky quickly yeah but the way Rocky trusts Grace even more quickly is crazy

Grace and his stupid permanant licorice in his mouth instead of a cigarette or toothpick or something

The way Eva Stratt is always watching Grace

The way you can see how the astronauts opinion of Grace changes when they show the astrophage from humouring the dishevelled unassuming sweater guy to respecting the world’s leading expert in astrophage

Grace remembers the people on the boat as his friends so says his whiteboard nobody touch me

Mary trying to coach Rocky and Grace through their Ikea bed set-up argument

Rocky slamming his head against his ball repeatedly, then accusing Grace of being grumpy because he hasn’t napped

Rocky and Grace filing in the gaps that the other has in skills and knowledge i am face in hands bro

Grace is smart but he needs a Carl or a Rocky to help him be the most smart he needs someone to point out the obvious

Mary interrupting Grace when he’s trying to say how long travelling will take

Grace making Rocky ball and all a seatbelt

“Hanging ten”

Rocky holding his screen translator thing like a microphone during Karaoke

“I miss the fog.” I’m obsessed with you

The ending of Adrian’s name sounding like when you come to a screeching halt

Grace’s swagless ADHD vs Stratt’s soft logic Cringefail social skills

Ryland Grace is the most swagless fail of a man

“You don’t bother me.”

I need to analyze every facial expression Eva Stratt makes when she looks at Ryland Grace your honor

The soldiers in the hallway listening to Stratt’s karaoke

eye-contact with Grace while singing

Stratt out here looking like she’s mourning the life she won’t have since she knows she’s gonna spend life in prison after saving the world (if this works)

Stratt and Grace mattering to each other is making me mentally ill wdym Grace is Stratt’s softness and Stratt is Grace’s confidence wdym

I’m convinced Rocky tapping his foot twice whenever he asks a question is a tone indicator, like when we pitch our voices up to indicate a question, not neccesarily the word ‘question’, and Grace just put ‘tapping foot twice’ as the word ‘question’ in the translator which is why all Rocky’s questions end with the word question.

GRACE CLICKING HIS HEELS TOGETHER BEFORE GOING BACK INSIDE AFTER NAMING THE PLANET AFTER ADRIAN

Rocky mimicking Grace checking his watch even though he doesn’t have one

Rocky just waiting while Grace studies the astrophage

Grace getting clumsy when he’s sleepy or panicked vs Rocky getting clumsy when he’s excited about something they trip so much in this movie

Grace playing catch with Rocky/himself on the glass while he’s brainstorming and Rocky just has to deal with that

“Thumps uuuppp babyyy” —Rocky the Eridian

Rocky doing a puppet show for Earth

Rocky gives driving directions like my dad

Rocky assuming Grace has been in direct contact with earth this whole time hurts me for unknown reasons Huston

“Thumbs up?” / “No.”

Grace’s voice cracking when he says “We got stars to save.”

Rocky using his fingers when he does math

“I didn’t mean any of that—“

Rocky picking up on Grace’s way of speaking

“Can you take a compliment, please?” / “No.” / “That’s an order.”

Grace’s toque looking like he’s got cat ears or something

Grace’s bright yellow jacket being like the only colour the fact it’s yellow the colour associate with the sun

“That’s not half bad.” / “It’s full good.” Just admit when something’s going well Grace

Grace’s pained sound morphing into Rocky’s worried chittering that they don’t have translated words for I’m FINE about this movie’s editing i swear

“EVERYBODY CALM DOWN.”

Grace’s vocal fry when he screams for Rocky I’m FINE

That one shot of Carl looking at him like he’s a friend he’s losing

After dragging Grace to the medbay, Rocky would have had to drag himself to his bubble, break into it, and re-seal it again, this dude is crazy

Grace making Rocky a heat lamp even though his atmosphere is so hot that it would probably be totally useless

Ryland Grace physically shaking with relief when he figures out the taumoeba

Grace walking Rocky through everything while he’s unconscious

You ever think about how if Grace died Erid and Earth would die it wouldn’t matter if Rocky survived because Grace is the scientist and Rocky isn’t and if Rocky died just Erid would die and not earth too i’M FINE

Grace not wearing his own spacesuit under the suit rocky made him, trust is CRAZY

Rocky and Grace’s spaceships both having the story of their planets welded into the walls of their ships

Eva Stratt i am obsessed with you, she’s realistic but she still gives the most optimistic prediction and mourns that it can’t be true

Ryland Grace crying over the fact that he doesn’t think he has it in him to go to space. Not because he’s getting sent because he doesn’t know that yet but because “I don’t have it in me.” Crying over the fact that he’s not more than he is. This man’s view of himself my GUYS.

It’s not hard to ask people to die and then when she tells Grace he is she looks like she’s going to cry

Stratt flinching when Grace moves the chair to try escaping

It’s only once Grace is out of the room that Stratt’s voice is level again wdym she looks him in the face and gets choked up but when his back is turned she can be stoic wdym

Rocky and Grace dragging out their goodbyes as long as they can looking for any excuse to linger a little longer

Rocky continuing to say goodbye while Grace is walking away

Grace cutting through the tunnel to detach their ships and Rocky watching the whole time

Grace dreaming about earth

Someone in a lab coat rocking back and forth with their hands clasped tightly together while Grace is unconscious in the dream/flashback who IS that—

Grace not dismantling Rocky’s space even though he didn’t need it anymore and then using it to avoid gettingf blown out of the ship while it’s depressurizing

Grace punching the screen when he finds the leak

Rocky’s handprint scar on Grace’s arm

Grace counting down the days to get to Rocky and playing with Rocky’s spaceship models

The lyrics / We’re on our way home / we’re going home / playing while Grace is floating back towards Rocky’s ship and not when he was on his way back to earth shut uUUUUP

Grace accepting Rocky is probably dead, then raising the wrench to keep knocking or try to break through anyway to go get him

“I’m here buddy”

Stupid forehead touch through the wall I’m FINE

Grace sending the video dairy of him introducing Rocky instead of just the Taumoeba findings

Rockys’ model of Grace being modeled after how Grace was flailing in space when catching the solar system model capsule. First impressions, guys

Stratt doing the Eridian goodbye just once

The Petrova line slowly disappearing instead of having the screen fade to black OUGH this mOVIE, MAN

Rocky reminding him to close the door because I made you a door you better use the freaking door.

Adrian being either one of the scientists that built Grace’s bio-dome or one of the people in charge of maintaining it

I’m not sure if the beetles home trip would take the same amount of time as Mary’s prediction for the ship itself, but going off of that and if this picks up chronologically after Stratt receives the probes, then Grace has been on Erid for over four years at the time of the ending and they are STILL working on getting the temperature right in Grace’s bio dome

The way the domes walls don’t quite line up so the simulated rocks don’t connect to each other

The way the colour of the stripes on Grace’s shirt don’t seem as saturated as they have in previous scenes and his sweater looks more distressed and worn