Who's to say?

Alexa, play "Halo" by Beyoncé

Uncensored on Bluesky

Then, one day, Grace goes to sleep and suddenly wakes up on the Hail Mary, with no memory on how he got there. He only remembers his life up to the point where he went to sleep and nothing more. But when he eventually goes back to sleep on the hail mary he just wakes up in his old life. At first he thinks it was just a dream, but than it keeps happening. Every time he goes to sleep in one world, he wakes up in the other. And he also slowly starts remembering the petrova task force, even though in his normal life on earth astrophage doesn't exist.

So he pretty much starts playing out the plot of PHM in one universe while he tries to keep a normal life in the other and tries not to lose his growing relationship with Simon, even though he feels like he is going insane.

Eventually it becomes too much (probably right after they went fishing and he didn't know if Rocky will survive) and he tells Simon everything.

Simon tells Grace that the exact same thing has been happening to him since he was a teenager, only that his second life is in a much crueler universe, where he's currently sitting in the COI prison. Because of how hard his life in the second universe is, he's really messed up, even in the normal one, and struggles a lot, not wanting to go to sleep and go back there.

They learn how to help each other in the normal universe and grow even closer.

Shortly after that the events from Iron Lung happen and after he has died, Simon wakes up in the normal universe completely messed up from what he just went through. He completly refuses to sleep, knowing that he has just died in the other universe and convinced he will die for good if he ever went back there. Grace stays by his side the entire time, bit eventually they both fall asleep due to exhaustion.

Grace wakes up on the hail mary, wanting to go back to help Simon. Except now there is a strange looking ship right next to Mary that he and Rocky take a closer look at. And when they finally manage to get inside, he finds Simone in it, who wakes up shortly after being rescued.

are loved

deserve to eat

are needed & valued

should take care of yourself

have a future

"The hat is customizable," he said, struggling with the velcro patch on the front. "If I need it, I have an ICE one too. I pick based off the business i walk into."

"Customizable is an important hat descriptor," I said. "what can I get you?"

"You wouldn't believe how offended people get these days," he said. "And I'm supposed to do something about it if you're offended? You chose to be offended!"

"We all have hundreds of thousands of decisions everyday," I said. I thickened my accent. "That's what my stepdad always said. But I can make one easier - we have a delicious Ethiopian roast available."

"Like if I told you you have a bull ring," he said, "because bulls have rings in their noses. Is that offensive?"

I laughed. "I've heard that before."

"It's a joke, but people get offended. Maybe you're offended."

I looked at him. I smiled. "You aren't trying to offend me though, right?"

Of course he was. I was being friendly and the friendlier I was, the faster he switched topics. He was saying anything inflammatory he could think of to see if I'd take the bait. After about 20 minutes of my redirecting and deescalating, he settled into a more normal interaction. He took up too much of my time showing me a product I'd feigned mild interest in to get him to stop talking about getting accused of inappropriate behavior at work. When we finally disengaged, he spent 10 minutes trying to catch my eye again. When he failed, he left.

There's this new breed of customer who insists on trying to incite political conversation through their clothing and, when that doesnt work, their snide little comments. If I owned my own business, maybe I would have given the guy the fight he wanted. But I work for a corporation and I love paying my bills so I deescalated.