eros

Carl, the guy Grace built an entire hypothesis around.

Carl, the guy that learned to have fun with Grace while doing science.

Carl, the guy that fueled Grace's addiction to Skittles and Twizzlers.

Carl, the guy that was there every step of the way until the end. And then he was forced to stand by and watch as Grace was pinned to the ground, pleading for help, calling for him of all people.

Grace, on recording: I HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO CLUE WHAT I’M DOING.

Voice from back of room: welp, we’re fucked, it was nice having life on Eath while it lasted.

Stratt: Please remain silent. I assure you he has this under control. He’s got this.

Grace: *Retroactively freaking out about Doing A Misogyny™*

Laminated paper: WUBWUBWUBWUB

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

A lot of the organisms on Erid reside in the atmosphere, so just imagine Grace and Rocky are sitting on the beach one day and there’s a loud thunk on the biodime. Grace looks up and does the iconic high pitched gosling scream. It sort of resembles a human, but its limbs are all weird, its flesh is hard, and there are SO many things wrong about it. But it’s humanoid enough to give him nightmares for days.

“Rocky….what the FUDGE is THAT?!”

“Oh, is Erid flying organism! Name is ♫ ♪ ♫. Sort of looks like Grace, question?”

“Rock, I never want to see one of those again.”