Sophhhhh

All Ryland Grace wants is a peaceful campus life. Yet that picture of a peaceful campus life filled with skittles and rainbows shatters into pieces as a certain woman with strawberry-blonde hair and an infuriating attitude arrives at his university and decides to make his campus life revolve around her like how the Earth always revolves around the Sun.

Just posted my first strattland fic ❤️🥰

In the book, Eva most probably gets thrown to the ground by the explosion. As soon as she recovers, the very first person she calls out to is Grace, asking if he's okay.

Alright, maybe that's just because she knows he's the closest person to her.

But that's not what sticks with me.

What sticks with me is what she does next.

She physically goes to him before reaching for her radio to find out what actually happened.

And I kept asking myself: why?

Grace already answered. He said he was alright.

So why not grab the radio immediately? Why not assess the situation first?

Why did she have to go to him?

Because she needed to make sure he was actually okay.

Because she needed to see with her own eyes that he was still there.

Because maybe, no matter what had just happened, she knew she could deal with it as long as he was still there.

Before anything else, she needed to know that Grace was safe.

I actually can't with Eva.

Then there's the movie.

There's a small movement Sandra Hüller makes that you could interpret as Stratt checking on Ryland for a split second before she runs toward the explosion.

But what really gets me is Ryland.

Stratt takes off running without a second thought. It's dangerous. They don't even know what happened yet, but she runs toward the explosion like her life depends on it.

And Grace follows her.

This is the same man who's defined by his fear. The same man who believes he's a coward. The same man who couldn't willingly sacrifice himself for humanity.

Yet when Eva runs straight toward danger...

...he runs after her.

It's the first time we see him willingly throw himself into a dangerous situation without her forcing him or cornering him into it.

It's his own choice.

His instinct isn't to run away.

His instinct is to follow her.

Like when he was examining the Astrophage inside the argon filled lab.

This part, as this was Grace's POV, how does he even know that she's looking up at him sometimes? Unless he catches it, right? Unless he also looks at her from time to time or looking at her from the corner of his eyes. How could he have known that without paying attention to her too? Like he could've been so immersed at his job that he never even noticed Stratt is still there. Yet he does and I think he appreciates it somehow (He even said he gotta admire her patience even though she unapologetically displayed her impatience at first by urging him to do it faster). (Honestly if this was told in 3rd Person POV, I wouldn't be so delusional about that line. But it was First. Person)

And she never left him alone in the lab even everyone else left the observation room. She's there with him the entire time, replying to every single stupid thing he says. And it's just the two of them in the book almost that entire argon lab scene.

And the amounts of "I glared at her, she glared at me, I stared at her, she stared at me, I glanced at her, she glanced at me" in almost all of their book interaction convinces me they kept looking at each other most of the time. (kinda seeing why there were rumors about them in the book lol)

And may I add the sticky note on his forehead??

That was so funny 😆 Like you mean to tell me that this no nonsense woman who has no reservations about dragging eveyone out of their will and conveniences by force, came inside his room and instead of insensitively ruining his rest and waking him up, or sending him a text/email, or calling him later, she instead grabbed a sticky note, wrote her message, handwrote Chinese characters (a long one at that), and stucked it on his face out of all places? Haha she's actually a menace like him.

And also this line, again from Grace's perspective.

He notes things like her righting a strand of her hair that were blown to her face. He's so descriptive about that, it wasn't even necessary to point out lol I can't, I'm so delusional.

Because what do you mean Grace was dancing with a mop that has the exact shade of Stratt's hair color?

What do you mean that she only smiles when she's with him?

What do you mean the directors said Stratt never smiled again after the Hail Mary launched and only got her smile back when she watched Grace's video logs when the beetles returned?

What do you mean she had her tattoo 'life without parole' on the same spot where he was injected when he was sedated?

What do you mean he remembers her face along with Yao when he didn't have any pictures of her as reference?

What do you mean that when Stratt went to guide him to his seat after his "whoop there it is" he instinctively grabbed her hand?

What do you mean that he asked her "what are you going to do for the next twenty years, you got a plan?" on February 14th of all dates?

What do you mean the directors confirmed Stratt left him the fox keychain that were along his things that were packed when he went aboard the Hail Mary?

What do you mean Ryan Gosling said Hail Mary is bit of a RomCom in an interview?

What do you mean they were staring at each other with heart eyes throughout that karaoke scene?

What do you mean that the editors had a hard time cutting the some of their scenes because it was too romantic?

What do you mean that in 2022 draft she got him an ice cream soft serve machine aboard the Vat because he misses it and in the movie he got his supply of Twizzlers candies?

What do you mean that in 2022 draft she was the last thing he saw and her name is the last word he uttered before being sent into space?

What do you mean that in 2022 draft when Grace was in Erid and he heard that the sun/Sol survived, he looked up the sky and said 'Good work, Stratt'?

What do you mean that in 2022 draft Grace's final word to Stratt in his video logs was "Take care" with a warm look on his face?

What do you mean you casted Ryan Gosling and Sandra Huller who had so much chemistry on screen?

What do you mean with all of that huh? Screenplay, script writers, casting, director people??