(insert something creative)

This user is anti-censorship

This user believes in “don’t like, don’t read”

This user believes in “ship and let ship”

One day Colt announces he’s bringing his brother to set, and Tom’s being being annoying about it. Bragging how Colt’s brother will be to busy being starstruck over him to watch Colt do stunts. The rest of the crew are kinda just going along and jokingly asking Colt if he’s sure his brother can handle being around such big movie stars.

Thinking about how it probably started as Leaky or Blob or Alien or Oxygen Breather or some such

Thinking about how it now probably means Answered prayer or Angel or Savior

Thinking about how when he was alone for FIFTY years, rocky probably at some point had a religious moment where he prayed to every Eridian god out there for help

Thinking about how Grace was born while rocky was already out there around Tau Ceti

Eridians don’t bury their dead because they don’t rot. Their dead fossilize and erode with time.

So imagine how horrible it would be for Rocky when some 40, 50 years have passed, and so has Grace. He went peacefully and in his sleep, his loved ones there to watch him go. They left his body there in his bed because although they understand decomposition, they don’t really know what it would look like for a fleshy being like Humans are. In the hours that pass, Grace has gone cold. His muscles have locked together, the softness Rocky used to tease him for is lost in rigor. He leaves for a while with family to make a death wreathe; a painstakingly woven crown of thread, wire, and jewelry to honor someone’s life.

When they come back to place it on Grace, they find that he is… different. His skin has started to slough and droop. He seems to almost be melting, or beginning to.

Because this is a simulated Earth and not real Earth, there wouldn’t be any of the same death-eating creatures to clear away Grace’s body unless they were to move his body out of the dome, let Erid’s creatures break him down. But that feels wrong. They could find a way to preserve him — they have read pf human practices of embalming and mummification. But that feels wrong too. Either he goes naturally, feeds into a different ecosystem than the one he was born from, or he is frozen forever and never laid to rest.

Nobody knows what to do.

I mean, isolateion confinemented is know to have effects in the psyche of people, humans are social animals after all, and I don't think that Stratt have accounted the possibility that only one of the astronauts would make it. I thing that even in her calculated mind, she was blind by the pressure of having to make the project work as fast as it could, or she was too confident about the solution she found with the induced coma (at least in the book she had the back up of the coma resistant gen). At least in the movie Grace's hads the "Don't go Crazy room", in the book Hail Mary is more minimalistic, it is a lab, the rooms, storage and the cabin of control, nothing more.

But in those first logs/videos Grace is completely alone, confuse and without a single memory, not able to remember why is he here, what is the mision, what was his task, all that been waste time, because he had to figure it out all by himself, and the plan was for someone to be there to guide him.

Eva Stratt must have been so stress out, what if the bettles doesn't have nothing more than videos/logs of Grace losing his mind in space?What if he just sent the bettles without thinking in a irrational episode? What if the solitude make him give up before he could find a solution for th astrophage problem?

Even a bright mind in solitude can get twisted, they can break and she would have see her only hope slowly lost himself before he could even do his job, his sacrifice would have meant for nothing, her actions would have meant for nothing.

And on the other side is Ryland's line saying, "I know I'm not going home, I know why, and it's okay."

Then Simon's line saying "Oh, Mom, please keep this safe. It's more than me. It's more than me."

From their perspective Grace is a been that comes beyond the stars, that saved them by not only cultivating the taumeba that would solve the astrophage problem, but also by willing giving his only chance to go home and even accepting his own dead in exchange of saving Rocky and bringing said taumeba to Erid.

He has a sense they do not have (sight) , he knows of dangers that they were ignorant to (radiation), his voice has to sound so strange for them that can do multiple notes at the same time, monotone and even lacking of emotion, or maybe in a frequency that for them is hard to hear.

He came in the moments of despair, when Rocky was losing hope of ever finding a solution, and later when Rocky thought that he wouldn't be able to go back home, condemning Erid.

Grace helped to save (at least) two planets, two stars and two species.

I think that is enough for perciving Grace at least as something holy, or the closest thing that Eridians have for holy.

They were invested in the mision and dying even before they could fulfill their roles for the Project Hail Mary must be reason enough for them to have uncomplete things to do.

I like to think that they were accompaning Grace through his mission, giving him strenght to not lose his mind. That those moments in which he learned something about himself out of nowhere, or those sparks that lead them to solutions related to how to navigate Hail Mary were motivated by the efforts of Yáo and Ilyukhina to guide and help him.

Imagine with me:

Yáo and Ilyukhina not understanding they are dead at the start and thinking that they just wake up earlier (Yáo die first so he realize first in thinking this, when Ilyukhina dies Yáo explains to her that she did not survive the induced coma).

Yáo and Ilyukhina knowing that is cruel to wish for Grace to wake up sound and safe, just for him to be complete alone, but he is the only hope they have left.

Yáo and Ilyukhina feeling more at ease after Grace gives their corpses to the stars.

Ilyukhina been the most excited one about Rocky apparition, because she was an engineer and is just fascinated by what Rocky can do.

Yáo and Ilyukhina been indignated to have lost their chance to be part of the first contact in life.

Yáo trying to pass his knowledge as a captain to Grace, to ease his way with the controls.

Ilyukina been that little voice in Grace head of giving a chance to the Blip- A, that maybe they are friendly.

Yáo been a quiet force that supports Grace. There is point, at least in the book in which Grace seems to think that maybe he was brave, but he doesn't remember it, maybe that thought came from Yáo who believed that anyone could be brave.

All those little moments of luck been Ilyukhina and Yáo trying to influence so Rocky and Grace can have a successful mission.

Both ghosts, but specially Yáo bringing bad energies the moment they realize that Grace was sent against his will.

Ilyukhina crossing to the other side in peace the moment that realize that Rocky is the new engineer and that Grace has made the taumeba been able to survive Venus and the eridiani-2 planet.

Yáo crossing to the other side in peace when Grace decides to go rescue Rocky, because he can finally see Grace been truly brave for someone he cares.

Extra + Rocky

If Grace has 2 ghosts taking care of him, Rocky has 22.

22 eridian ghosts noticing the Hail Mary first and making it more noticiable for Rocky (maybe they made subtle sounds or vibrations so Rocky would have a better picture of it).

The Blip-B and Blip-C having a perfect trajectory to the Hail Mary thanks to the 22 eridian ghosts.

22 eridian ghosts celebrating that their single survivor has been able to be part of the first contact.

The Hail Mary been the home of 22 eridian ghosts who come in all the sizes and shapes.

22 eridian ghosts been fascinated with the alien that Grace is and how leaky he is.

22 eridian ghosts concentrating their efforts so Rocky is able to recover after been burn by the oxygen.

22 eridian ghosts using their best clothes (they are ghosts they can wear whatever they want) as a celebration for having succed in doing the taumeba.

22 eridian ghosts not knowing what to do once Blip-A starts failing and Rocky is left without astrophage.

22 eridian ghosts crossing to the other side in peace once they hear the knock outside the Blip-A, because Grace is here.

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