TearsofApophis



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  1. Public Bookmark *

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    Every screen in the room blazed with the same breaking news feed. An alien voice had just asked for him by name on live television.

    “Mr. Grace?” little Jamal whispered from the front row, eyes huge behind his glasses. “Is that really you they’re talking about? Like, you you?”

    Ryland’s mouth opened, but nothing came out. His heart slammed against his ribs like it wanted to escape and hide under the desk with the class hamster. He was just Mr. Grace. The guy who drew cartoon planets on the board, who stayed late helping kids glue together messy dioramas of the solar system, who once spent an entire lunch period comforting a sobbing girl because her goldfish had “gone to the great fishbowl in the sky.” He graded spelling tests on vocabulary words like photosynthesis and asteroid. Aliens did not know his name. Aliens did not ask for science teachers.

    The marker slipped from his fingers and clattered to the floor.

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    7/?
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    04 Jun 2026

    Bookmarker's Notes

    7:
    Grace is def totally completely calm but knows all the things now, about to talk to NASA again via suit

    Rocky Puppet Show, NASA is shitting themselves because Grace was like dis suit hot imma take it off

  2. Public Bookmark 98

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    Two survivors wake up aboard Hail Mary with no memory of how they got there: Dr Ryland Grace, and an engineer called Simon Fleischer. As they navigate their unique situation and the discoveries awaiting them at Tau Ceti, they uncover truths about themselves that would have, perhaps, been better left forgotten.

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    04 Jun 2026

    Bookmarker's Notes

    2

  3. Public Bookmark *

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    I lived with this hunger long before the Hail Mary. This is nothing new. I’m fine.

    Right up until Rocky asks another question.

    “When last time you touch other human person skin, question?”

    Oh. Oh no. “When I… a few days after I first woke up here.”

    Rocky starts to relax for a split second, but then tightens when something occurs to him.

    “Grace crewmates dead when you wake up. You said this, statement. You not even know your own name, remember nothing, see dead bodies, confirm?”

    I nod, because if I open my mouth I will gag.

    “When last time Grace touch ALIVE human person, question.”

    I swallow thickly. I don’t answer aloud because I know Rocky can hear the hitch in my breath. My stomach churns with fresh bile. He senses my vital signs tick over into stress patterns and goes very, very still again.

    “Grace. When last time, question.”

    I clench my jaw so hard my temples ache, and beg him with my eyes to just stop.

    “Grace. Please say not when… when Evil Stratt humans put you to sleep.”

    I can taste grass.

    ---

    AKA: Grace starves for more than just food on the journey to Erid.

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    03 Jun 2026

  4. Public Bookmark *

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    Mindy Park is rapidly realising that the first intelligent extraterrestrial to make contact with the human race thinks they’re fucking stupid. She’s pretty sure that Dr Grace isn’t accurately translating half the things Rocky is saying, but most of what he is telling her is that Rocky has a better way of doing what NASA wants them to do, and honestly, it seems like Rocky is mostly right. She probably doesn’t want to know what the other half of what Grace’s new alien friend is saying, if the things that are making it through what she’s calling the “middle school teacher filter” are “why would you do something the dumb way when you could do it the right way”.

    or,

    Mindy has a headache, Grace has trauma, Mark is confused and Rocky is wondering how humans made it in to space when they're all so, so dumb.

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    02 Jun 2026

  5. Public Bookmark *

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    Mark Watney has survived 118 sols on Mars, and he wouldn’t exactly say it’s been a cakewalk, but he only has about three more years of listening to disco to go (ugh) before Ares IV picks him up and take him home. But when something crashes on the Martian surface only a few kilometers from the Hab, NASA wants him to leave the safety of his little home on the Martian prairie to go investigate…what could possibly go wrong?

    Ryland Grace has survived a long time in space and almost a decade on Erid, but the anxiety of not knowing if the beetles made it to Earth finally drives him to try the dangerous journey back home, and Rocky and Adrian come with him. Everything was actually going pretty good…until a horrible accident leaves them hurtling through space (and time) with no choice but to crash land on the wrong planet.

    How is Watney going to deal with the unexpected company (and their weird secretiveness over why they were in space)? Is Grace going to be able to adjust to being around another human being again? And how are Rocky and Adrian going to handle the uncertainty of a reception to an Earth that’s never heard of aliens before?

    More importantly…how the fuck is NASA going to get them all home alive?

    Series
    Language:
    English
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    16,235
    Chapters:
    2/?
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    02 Jun 2026

    Bookmarker's Notes

    Finished 2: soooo we accidentally blasted ourselves faster than the speed of light and came out just in time to see mars approaching very very fast