#saviorsofstars

Grace flinches as the ball of Xenonite lurches forward, nearly trampling his feet. Intellectually, he understands why they can't really do curved surfaces with that stuff. Still, it'd be nice if he could move a little more predictably.

...Come on, Ryland. If that's his biggest complaint about meeting a real life alien engineer, he's living pretty good. The thought alone makes him giddy every time he remembers. Real, sentient life. And he was so cool! Capable, brave, attentive- not even a scientist, but with so much insatiable curiosity that he easily matched any of his peers on earth.

Explaining comes naturally now. Nothing is granted when it comes to cultural differences. Just explain and move on, as they've had to do so many times before.

"It's a food humans eat when they're watching something entertaining. It's not very nutritious, but it tastes nice and it's fun to eat. There's a vegetable on earth that, when dried and exposed to heat, reacts chemically by puffing up with air. It makes a little pop noise when the outer shell cracks from the pressure. Usually, people cover it with other flavors to make it taste how they want. The dried corn is just there for the texture."

He tugs the bag of popcorn out of the sample furnace. The paper's a little burned, but it looks like the food mostly survived. Eh. Science is an art.

Out of all of the days of Dr. Ryland Grace's experiments, one of the more explosive reactions had to occur on the one day that Eva Stratt was required to entertain "guests". "Guests" as she thought of them, referred to government officials that wanted to stop by the facility to check on Project Hail Mary's progress and the Astrophage research progress.

Of course, as soon as she had taken the officials to Dr. Grace's area, to show how the Astrophage research was going, things exploded.

Of course they did.

The government officials look at Stratt with a mixture of panic and worry. Alarms were going off and the laboratory was a mess. Without missing a beat, she responds with an unflappable calm to the diplomats in Mandarin Chinese to reassure them, before turning back to face Dr. Grace. After seeing Dr. Grace clamp metal tongs onto a glowing red metal bowl, she asked the very obvious question.

At Ryland's response, she sighs and pulls out the walkie-talkie at her waist. She radios some people in English and gives quick statements, her voice slightly clipped.

"We're fine. Dr. Grace is safe. The explosion was from an experiment. Please reset the alarms."

She took her finger off the talk button, but then quickly pressed it and spoke into the radio again. "I also need laboratory two prepped and ready."

Immediately, the alarms stop. Then, she takes stock of Ryland. As annoyed as she might be that this event happened while people were checking in on her, she wasn't angry. Not at him. She knows that the nature of science is trial and error.

What's more concerning to her is Ryland's demeanor. Ryland's response and expression seem to suggest that his experiment likely didn't go the way he wanted. The fluorescent lights in the laboratory allows her to see the light wisps of smoke at the ends of his hair where he got singed from the heat. In addition, knowing what happened the first time he examined Astrophage, she can't afford for him to be demoralized. Her actions are limited at the moment, since she still has "guests" to entertain. But she can still do something.

It was fortunate that second laboratory facility was finished earlier than expected, and already outfitted with the necessary laboratory equipment. This way, no time was wasted. Another operable laboratory while the first one was being cleaned up.

Eva Stratt takes a breath before she talks to Ryland. She shoots him a stern gaze, a reminder to exercise caution considering the importance of his work and to (hopefully) assure him that despite the earlier explosion, she's fine letting him continue... to a point.

She's fairly certain that Dr. Grace will learn from the earlier explosive reaction in order to craft his next experiment with a little more care. But just to be safe, she is considering whether Dr. Grace should take a break before he continues his experiments.

It's not a suggestion.

"Take a break, Dr. Grace. When you return, laboratory two will be open to continue your experiments. I'll have the Astrophage brought there."

Her authoritative tone clearly lays out how she expects him to conduct himself once she leaves. She will be back later to ask about what happened, and to meet with him. She's hoping that when she comes back, his experiments will yield new information.

                       A  flush  spans  the  entire  length  of  her  neck  to  the  tips  of  her  ears.  Heart  thumps  in  her  ribcage,  and  very  slowly  does  hand  retreat  as  well.  Holly  really  had  been  more  concerned  with  cutting  him  off  at  first  rather  than  the  kiss  itself,  she  didn't  want  him  to  think  her  rude...  but  clearly  that  is  not  the  case.

                        Holly  blinks  a  moment,  gray  eyes  looking  up  at  the  expression  he  wears.  A  blush  spreading  to  his  cheeks  as  well.  The  woman  lets  out  a  shaky  breath,  a  nervous  laugh,  and  she  tears  gaze  away  from  his.

                       "  I-I'm  sorry,  I  don't  want  you  thinkin'  I'm  not  interested  in  what  you  had  t'say,  I  am  VERY  interested  in  gel  electrophoresis  and  molecules  and  DNA  and  RNA  and  proteins-  "  She'd  continue  on  about  everything  else  he  spoke  on  had  she  not  caught  herself.  Holly's  stalling.  "  I-  "  There's  another  pause,  and  this  time  eyes  find  Grace's  once  more.  "  I  don't  have  an  excuse.  "  'The  way  you  explain  things  with  such  an  excitement  to  teach  and  how  knowledgeable  and  smart  you  are  is  incredibly  attractive  to  me'  is  the  only  explanation  Holly  has,  but  it's  something  she  can't  voice  in  fear  of  rejection.  As  if  he  had  rejected  her.  He  had  not.  In  fact  he  could  not  have  been  any  clearer  to  her  about  liking  it  and  yet  here  she  is  still  terrified.  Though  she  would  not  say  no  to  another  kiss,  had  he  wanted,  but  she  lets  it  settle.

                       It's  odd,  watching  this  little  alien  do  things  he'll  never  understand.  He's  lived  through  a  lot,  done  a  lot.  He  gets  numbers  and  angles  and  things,  knows  metric  units,  but  he  couldn't  tell  you  anything  about  how  metric  follows  base  ten  and  imperial  does  not.  He  could  not  tell  you  why  Americans  follow  imperial  instead  of  metric.  He  just  knows  that's  how  it  is.

                        Like  Rocky.  That's  just  how  he  is.  He  won't  pretend  to  understand  much  of  him,  he  won't  pretend  to  understand  how  he  works  or  where  he's  from  or  what's  going  on  at  all  ever  with  them,  why  they're  tapping  as  much  as  he  is.

                       "  Grace  ??  I  look  nothing  like  him.  "  Not  that  Rocky  could  see,  but  Noah  doesn't  know  that.  What  the  alien  doesn't  understand  is  outwardly  they  have  their  differences.  Noah's  hair  is  a  little  longer,  he's  covered  in  tattoos,  perhaps  a  little  musclier  if  you  look  under  the  hood  a  bit,  but  to  Rocky  they  seem  almost  the  same.  Science  is  weird  and  he  doesn't  like  it.

                       Holly's  smart.  Not  Doctor  Ryland  Grace  smart,  that's  for  damn  sure,  but  mostly  everything  he  throws  at  her,  she  understands,  for  the  most  part.  However,  she  wasn't  built  for  science.  His  head  is  filled  with  numbers  and  calculations  and  the  periodic  table,  hers  is  filled  with  music  notes  and  the  regulars  orders  she's  had  to  remember.  It's  a  wonder  she  even  remembered  neutrinos,  the  ghost  particle,  and  how  there's  three  different  types.  Electron,  muon,  and  tau.  The  face  he  made  was  worth  remembering  that  much,  she'll  admit.

u should send in "lights, cameras, action!" so i can tell you how ur muse would be introduced in their debut scene in aisling's tv show/movie series (i.e. the build-up, the hints, the music, the little easter eggs) even if we haven't interacted yet! ( ALWAYS ACCEPTING! )

S3 E1: LAOCH ( TRANS: HERO )

so first, sponsorship w NASA to provide people with discounted vouchers and tickets to attend astronomy clubs, seminars and space-related viewings, AND a raffle to win a telescope. we're going all out, we're also airing season 3's opening episode on the heels of an extremely successful release of PHM, right, so like, mutual benefits for ALL involved.

now! in the season 2 finale, we are given an exceptionally rare event with the portal in the corridor; namely that it delivers twice. ilyukhina and yao in the first event, dubois and shapiro in the second (which happens five minutes after ilyukhina and yao). the fans have an entire summer of CHAOS. what the hell just happened?! aren't they from project ha.il mary?! what's happening??? chaos reigns supreme, polls are tied, the actors have to avoid social media completely, people are rewatching the episode frantically looking for a CRUMB of information. people are losing their minds over this, and with good reason, because IMDB confirms the casting, and suddenly it's inarguable.

Random Acts of Kindness: 22. sender offers receiver a snack

From her views of the expense reports and general observation (particularly from the security staff) on the project, she knew that Dr. Grace liked Sour Skittles. The light green packaging was hard to miss. Candies in general weren't something she often ate. So when she found herself on the receiving end of his offer, she was confused. She wasn't sure what she had done to warrant this. Dr. Grace's warm, earnest, and expectant expression, suggested that he wanted to share something he enjoyed with her.

Under his watchful eye, she coaxed a pink skittle out of the package and into her hand. The first thing she noticed was a dusty white coating that she hadn't seen before. it made the texture of the skittle more grittier than she remembered, and a good bit stickier as well.

She placed it into her mouth, and rubbed her pointer and thumb together to get the powder off of it. The sour taste hit her immediately. Her face puckered a bit, and she brought a hand to her mouth to nonchalantly hide that reaction and to soothe her nose as well. The skittle was a lot more sour and the flavor was more artificial than she remembered... until she realized that Dr. Ryland Grace was American. It was probably American Skittles that he had. That would explain why it tasted and felt different than she remembered.

She took a sip from her coffee, using its bitter taste to mitigate the sour taste. It helped a bit. At the very least, his kind offer was a nice break to focus on something else for a bit.

"Thank you, Dr. Grace," she said, keeping her tone even.

While she understood now why he was a fan of such candies, this wouldn't be something she would seek out for herself. While she appreciated his gesture, she will likely pass on the opportunity next time.

The station they were on was a wildly popular hub for galactic trade, with people from well over a dozen systems coming to buy, sell and barter goods you couldn't get anywhere else. Gwen loved visiting, always finding something cute to add to her wardrobe or another piece of tech for her lab and she made sure to let her companions know they could buy whatever they wanted while they were there too.

Even though her arms were bogged down with bags from shopping over the last hour that wasn't the only reason she wanted to bring them out here. Grace, specifically.

She stops at a rest area, straightening her arms out to dramatically drop everything and leans against the railing while looking down at the multi-layered decks and out towards the large window that had a spectacular view of the purple marble they were orbiting.

❝ I read your dissertation, y'know. ❞ Gwen admits finally after a moment, resting her elbows on the railings, chin in her palms. Her eyes scan the crowds before nodding her head in the direction of a family two decks down buying food - they were humanoid in shape, blocky, crystallized body, each one a different colour. ❝ Petrosapiens. Silicon-based lifeforms and highly toxic to water. Just so you know. ❞