SillyLittleStoryteller

When you have nothing better to do on a space ship than listen to some gossip.

search result 1, AI-generated article: Since the dawn of time, humans have wondered what kind of bike helmet is best for protecting their cranium and lower intestine. In the event that you find yourself with a bike helmet, you must find a way to save your family. Therefore, we have compiled a list of qualities to look for. First, sodium content is of great importance when biking your helmet.

search results 2, 3, and 4: sponsored ads for bike helmets on amazon

search result 5, reddit thread: bikeaholic363736: hey guys, do any of you have experience with the windslapper 30g helmet from spronklegear?

spokejunkie666: it's probably the best helmet on the market right now. if you're not using the windslapper you might as well just be riding your bike into a woodchipper

It isn't the nicest accommodation, that's for sure. He gets the same seat a venti coffee might get. It's not Grace's favorite spot to sit, but then again if he had his way he wouldn't be going in cars or planes or any vehicles nearly as often as he is.

But you're right that he also wouldn't really like most seatbelt-like options. The thought of being tied down or even stuck in a container for travel would only drive home how trapped he is basically all the time. At least in the cupholder he can pretend he's just traveling along with everyone else.

@sillylittlestoryteller Holy claustrophobia, batman.

This suggestion has come up before in a few forms, though mostly with Grace himself deciding to get into a Beetle before sending them off. The thought of his human crewmates trying to get him into one hadn't occurred to me. He might actually beg them not to trap him like that. It's not worth it to him.

The problem is he'd certainly fit in one of the beetles, but there wouldn't be much room at all for the amount of food he'd need. He'd end up more cramped than a human is on the Hail Mary. If he somehow survived the trip, Earth would end up with a borrower whose sanity is entirely gone.

(want me to make it worse? Because i can make it worse 😈)

What if something malfunctions and he wakes up on the journey back? In a tiny Beetle without windows, without knowing how far from Earth he is, without knowing if hes gonna land in the ocean, without knowing if something went wrong with the navigation and the Beetle passed Earth by and is now aimlessly drifting...

The silly shopping sequence. The matching glasses. The walkie talkies. Building venus (planet of love!! Hello!!) together. The juicy betrayal at the end of their relationship, with the heartbreaking thought that Carl is devastated but knows it has to be this way for the good of all humanity. And worse, that he is complicit in baja blasting Grace to space.

they are so starcrossed lovers coded

Just the mental image of Carl watching Grace get transported after being sedated. A man, who prior to that moment, his most vivid memory consists of them finding world changing discoveries with plywood, duck tape, and copious amounts of sour skittles. A man who he associates with the exhilarating feeling of wonder and life. A teacher teaching, a scientist finding, a man living.

But suddenly, that's not his most vivid memory. Suddenly, what first comes to mind when he thinks of Dr. Ryland Grace is the image of him running away, of chasing him through the compound, of the look on his face when they do inevitably catch up to him. He can't hear the excited laughter of the previous memories without them eliciting the desperate pleas for life.

I wonder if he ever gets to see the videos. How would he feel if he knew that his name was the first one that Grace remembers. Foggy like the thing he misses most about earth.

Grace sends this off as a "fuck you" to Stratt and unintentionally eases 40+ years of crippling guilt.

(40+ factoring in the Hail Mary mission, then the time it would take to get back to Erid and the time it would take for the message to get to Earth. Probably closer to 50+ actually).

I might translate this article later today. This one was the most complete one, even in Italian news it's not talked about that much.