nevertheless we ball

Well... Yes and no.

The last time Ryland Grace was CONSCIOUS of any human touch was when he was knocked out. Absolutely true.

But the last human contact he would have had was Yao and Ilyukhina. Who were told that he was scared about panicking during launch and asked to be sedated. Who did all the pre flight checks before the Hail Mary launched. Who would have carefully, gently carried Grace to his bed in the dormitory, made sure he was secure, and initiated his coma procedure.

There would have been love there. Remember Ilyukhina throwing her hands high and saying "welcome to crew!" Remember Yao saying how he hoped Grace would say yes. Remember how much the crew trusted Grace, Stratt's First Officer, the guy who helped them so much, and was so kind to them, and was the one who they entrusted their preferred methods of suicide to. Who thought they were wonderful and brave.

They would have tucked him in. Maybe brushed his hair out of his face. Maybe said something kind to him before initiating their own coma procedures.

I imagine him practicing his gentle touch on a doll or a puppet he had made from frail materials because he needs a lot of finesse and motor control if he wants to come in contact with his favorite space oddity without tearing his skin off like the foil off a sandwitch.

Grace constantly covered in deep angry bruises because Rocky bumped into him too hard or reached to hold his hand too excitedly. Grace never telling Rocky because he was trying so hard to be controlled already.

Rocky deciding to keep himself as still as possible when Grace hugs him because a single wrong move could end up with Grace's delicate limbs under +300 kgs of solid mineral.

Ryland Grace: 🐐

When you have nothing better to do on a space ship than listen to some gossip.

bookrock - how dare you eat in front of me! disgust! you want to watch ME eat? you p-p-perv!!! but fine… for science…

Obviously this is going to be reflected in the amount of painkillers and general medicines he's been supplied with— enough for three astronauts to last several months to a few years max— but also… there's really no point in keeping any of those astronauts alive after they stop being useful to the mission.

Grace finds this out when he gets to a certain point in his starvation on the journey to Erid and, instead of offering medical advice, Armando announces that Doctor Grace is far too sick to continue being of use and so it’s recommended that his fellow crew members euthanise him to save on resources.