So I guess im emo now

teenagers citing his videos and data as primary sources on their school projects (how do you make an mla citation for a home video filmed in space?)

grace's final goodbye to earth getting billions of views on youtube

sexy edits of grace ALL OVER tiktok and instagram

grace becomes a whole scientific field unto himself. teams of scientists dedicate their lives to the study of his research and his contributions. maybe some of those scientists were his students once upon a time.

grace x rocky ALL OVER ao3

books on eridian language and culture hit the shelves and sell out immediately

eridian culture reignites conversations about the construct of gender, eridians become nonbinary/agender symbols

space is suddenly back at the forefront of the public mind. space-travel units are introduced to grade school science curriculum worldwide. entire classes are taught solely on grace and his scientific discoveries. EVERYONE wants to be an astronaut

of course, hollywood makes a big-budget Dr. Ryland Grace biopic. it's a box office hit. a huge online movement results in ryan gosling playing grace, and everyone agrees the likeness is uncanny. stratt is the villain of the story.

a series of heartfelt videos from grace to stratt, in which he says hello and goodbye and i hate you and thank you and i miss you, are found in the database and reposted online. there's suddenly a massive outcry of support for her, which results in her release from prison. some youtuber makes a gritty but surprisingly touching short film about her story

people coming together to make earth better. trying to repair the damages from the sun's dimming, trying to repair the environment, trying to repair global relations. they want to be an earth worth saving, an earth that grace would be proud of

space travel becomes a huge global priority, the nations of the world pool resources and there are huge advances in technology (especially with scientists studying xenonite!)

the project hail mary launch date becomes a huge global holiday. there's a parade in almost every city all over the world in honor of the hail mary. people lay candles and flowers at memorials for yao, ilyukhina, annie, and dubois. murals of grace and rocky cover building sides. people gather in the streets and remember those who saved them, and banners that read "grace rocky save stars" flutter in the wind above the crowds.

coca cola airs a VERY insensitive commercial with some low quality eridian puppets. the commercial is slammed online and company stocks plummet

Grace decided to have a type of field day with his students and explains the two games to them. They tell him they already know how to play, since they have basically the same games on Erid. They choose to play tag first per flip of coin. Grace is “it”, and the pebbles immediately start going in all different directions. They are fast in the beginning, but it doesn’t take long for them to lose stamina and slow down. Grace easily catches up to the slow students and chase after them until they practically collapse. They are a bit terrified by his stamina. The pebbles who are it, however, find it almost impossible to get Grace. How is he able to be so fast for so long? They give up on him after a while and go after the other Eridians instead. Grace notices that the pebbles play tag a lot slower than children on Earth do in order to keep their energy. How intriguing!

Next is hide-n-seek. Grace is “it” again, per the pebbles’ request. They are playing in a very rocky area in the biodome. He counts to 20 and opens his eyes. Grace looks around and sees about three students immediately, but only because they are wearing the clear xenonite suits. They are perched up against the rock formations, almost perfectly laying themselves over them in a way that they become part of the rocks. If they didn’t have the suits on, Grace doubts he could’ve found them as easily. It was a bit scary how well they blend in. Later on in the game, he finds all the pebbles, but not without extreme struggle. God, they are pros at hiding effortlessly! Grace now gets to hide, and he is found immediately. He guessed as much, but it was as fun to try.

Grace goes home after their field day and yaps to Rocky about all his observations on the persistence hunter humans and ambush predator Eridians. Rocky tells him that as Eridians get older and larger, they can barely play tag anymore. Also, it is so hard to find pebbles during hide-n-seek that there have been occasionally been children who just get forgotten. Eridian echolocation(?) doesn’t pick the hiders up, and instead “sees” them as part of the rocks. Their hard carapace blocks any sound of their insides.

“Hi dr captain ryland grace, I’m asexual, I love being asexual and my best friend is a rock! We did some science stuff, now I live in a biodome on his planet and I’m happier than ever!”

or,

“Hi im Grace, sometimes I’m ace, sometimes I’m in a qpr with my best friend and his spouse, but sometimes we’re just in a gay polyamorous relationship, and also I have a twin brother, well I actually have like 17 brothers and we all look alike, also I’m Spider-Man sometimes? But depending on the day I also am a normal guy that never got sent to space- And- HOLY SHIT IS THAT MARKIPLIER COVERED IN RECORD BREAKING AMOUNTS OF BLOOD?!? (They kiss a lot and are gay for each other)”

and if they did sleep together it would be like this probably

i got the business casual intimacy bit from this post! of @ooh-khamil