sndrew acott

Edit: I added image descriptions to the images. There is also a reblog with the image descriptions if that's easier for you. 😊

I really just have to summarize Thomas's entire life:

He was in a committed relationship with a male swan named Henry for 18-24 years before a female swan named Henrietta showed up and mated with Henry.

Thomas was initially jealous of the pair and attacked them, breaking 2 of the 5 eggs Henrietta had laid. However, once the remaining eggs hatched, Thomas warmed up to them and helped raise them.

Henry couldn't fly because of an injured wing, so Thomas taught the cygnets how to fly.

When they needed to reduce the goose population in the pond where Thomas and the swans lived, they dyed Thomas's feathers red so he wouldn't be separated from Henry.

Henry, Henrietta, and Thomas remained in their happy throuple for years and raised 68 cygnets before Henry died in 2009. After Henry's death, Henrietta found another swan and flew away, leaving Thomas alone.

Thomas finally met and mated with a female goose in 2011 and had his own babies. However, another goose named George stole them and raised them himself.

As Thomas grew elderly and blind, he was relocated to a wildlife center where he raised orphaned cygnets.

His caretaker at the center described him as "pretty high maintenance."

Thomas died in 2018 at the age of around 40. He had a funeral that included a small coffin and a procession that was led by a bagpiper. He was buried under the stone where Henry was buried, the two finally reunited in death.

Grace's "I belong in the classroom" excuse in the book is full of fascist dogwhistles. I can't find the exact quote, but it's something along the lines of western civilization being in decline because the children are being raised too soft and he cant go to space because he has to go back to teaching to toughen these kids up for a harsh future. Like, it's bad.

Grace, who has been Stratt's moral compass throughout the book (including, notably, helping her make the call to use comas rather than keep the astronauts awake) is not only refusing to do what's necessary, but he comes out with the absolute worst possible excuse to justify it. She's a history major. She knows what atrocities have been justified with those lines of thinking. And sure, logically, she knows he's grasping at straws to justify his own self preservation instinct, but I imagine part of her anger comes from fear that she's miscalculated by putting her trust in him and fear that she'll do the same once it's time to pay the piper for her own crimes against humanity. She promised herself she would be different from all the petty dictators she hates. But she can't be sure she really has it in her. Maybe she was wrong about Grace. About herself. About humanity. Maybe this was all for nothing.