Atlas was Here

like. imagine you are grace. you have a life you enjoy where you get to teach kids you’re fond of about a subject you love. you’ve been hanging out with your friend marissa weekly for years (!) and you have a lot of peers on project hail mary who you respect and even have fun with. but! you’re also like 40, and you know how the world works - at the end of the day, at the end of the project, all of those people will go back to their parents and families and partners. the people whose names are on their emergency contact forms and birth certificates and marriage licenses and apartment leases. no matter how much you care about them, and no matter how much they care about you, there is always someone else in their life who is Above you, and Before you, because That’s How The World Works.

so like… yeah. lmao. aroace grace not opening himself up all the way because he anticipates pain and wants to avoid that is a kind of protective hedging that i find very likely for him to engage in? even if he opens himself up to the people around him, the fact is that most of those people will only reciprocate to whatever degree they/society deem acceptable for friendship, even if they like him a lot.

tumblr is full of dimwitted reactionaries but ive also read a lot of things that have fundamentally changed how i think about justice, mental health, etc.

despite the best efforts of the site's staff and its manbaby ceo, there continues to be a contingent of people here who are committed to understanding things better, to doing better, and to changing the world for the better.

Memories of being thrown around like a ragdoll, banging against the walls, heat burning through his clothes and blood seeping into his skin. That feeling of being dropped into the blood ocean the second time and subconsciously knowing he'd never come back up. Weightlessness being a fun form of movement for Grace, but a reminder of losing control for Simon.

But Grace is there now. He gently calms Simon down, reminds him over and over that this weightlessness is under their control. He helps strap Simon into one of the chairs in the cockpit and demonstrates the slow come down, the careful stabilization of the centrifugal system instead of the violent slamming of the SM-13.

The next time they have to turn off the gravity, Grace offers Simon to stay in the chair this time, but he declines. Simon's the one to pull the switch, to make the choice for zero gravity. He learns to move around using Grace's weird webbing system, actually has a little fun with everything floating around. Grace and Rocky have a spinning contest and they only learn Eridians don't have a central balance system once Grace nearly throws up and loses. Rocky's < Victory victory victory, Rocky always win with Grace !!! > gets Simon to truly laugh.

Simon clings to Grace once it comes time to turn the gravity back on. Rocky was okay with flipping the switch, and Simon didn't want the chair again. Grace has him at arm's length by the shoulders, Simon's one hand holding tightly onto him.

Simon can feel the change this time. The slow pull to their relative floor is relayed to him every step of the way. The floor is cool when his feet naturally reconnect with it, and the weight of his own body is gentle on his legs as he rests. Things fall carefully, nothing breaks, and Grace never lets go.

He's okay... He's okay.

Simon's not entirely used to his own legs just yet, when he tries to take a step forward and fumbles. But Grace is still there, catching him, chuckling at his own memory of the same thing happening to him the first time.