do any of you want to hear abt my Black Ryland Grace headcanon
excellent. i am enabled once more.
this post is inspired in part by this one by @cheshirepirouette and sponsored in part by convos w @asteriis and @indouscurse here’s to y’all!! this post also goes out to my brothers, who are pale as hell for reasons unbeknownst to all of us (this is a joke).
like any good headcanon, this started as a joke because i thought to myself: Ryland sounds like the type of name that somebody’s Black child would have and only use on church sundays. nobody actually has ever called him that in his whole entire life, except maybe his mama SOMETIMES and that’s why he doesn’t remember it right away. i feel like every Black person knows somebody who is called literally anything except their god given name. people call him lil r, lil grace, gracie, ry, ryry, riri, RG, lando, mr. grace, dr. grace, but nobody calls him Ryland, which is part of why he Can’t Remember for so long.
so of course i went back to the source material to see if he ever actually mentioned being white anywhere and unfortunately it is very much at the beginning of the book. so THEN i started to think about how i could get around that while remaining at least largely canon compliant (as a little treat for myself). what i came up with is what i have affectionately dubbed my “litebrite baby” headcanon.
@shadeslayer YOU GET IT!!!
@therealjendavis i didn’t even think about that you’re so right
RE: this ⬆️ @sharonz-arty-corner03 pointed this ⬇️ out to me the other day and im choosing to take it #outofcontext for my own purposes
You and I are birds of a feather, it would seem. Black scientists who have been successful despite it all. men who are willing to put our fear and distrust of The System to the side to try to do what’s right. men who know how my story ends. i know what i am, Dr. Grace, you don’t have to shy away from it. do you know who you are? what you are?
and grace says “okay!! let’s bring it back to science, buddy!!”
and dubois says, “no.”
as mentioned in my last post abt him, i think grace in this AU is so. put off by dubois. in part bc the niche they fill is too similar. they cannot both survive in this environment, they can’t both be the Smart and Useful Black. but i think in part as well because dubois is always looking to him, looking at him.
