Books stuff

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

The Animals - House of the Rising Sun (1964)

Silver Jews - New Orleans (1994)

[flashback to the space program prep phases]

Rocky: [wholly focused on building the ship itself and does not care where the astrophage to power it comes from]

Eridian!Francois Leclerc: [having a total emotional breakdown because breeding however many million kilograms of astrophage in the oceans is an extinction level event for marine environments with massive and unpredictable effects on the ecosystems of Erid but it's also undeniably the fastest way to get enough of it to power a spaceship]

Ryland Grace has made it all the way to his bike with Eva Stratt at his heels, so her trusted security team has correctly assessed it's time to move in the cars, and Carl is approaching off-screen.

Grace comes out of the little "I don't know why that makes me such a nut!" rant, and there Carl is, stepping up into frame exactly next to Stratt. Tall, broad, unimpressed, unmistakably a force to be reckoned with, unmistakably a trusted professional.

But also a nameless goon at this point. An extension of the threat Stratt seems to represent to Grace. A depersonalized tool.

Grace clocks the cars, his presence, the unfolding situation, instantly and incredulously. And he does something clever, something he always does, which is to call attention to the absurdity of the unspoken threat by trying to force the situation into a normal mold.

"I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name."

Turning Eva's nameless goon into a person with agency. Trying to force a relationship that hinders coercion.

Ideally, this would force them all to acknowledge how abnormal they are acting and retreat a little to keep up the appearance of normality. Or admit to what they are doing by refusing. Either way, the ball shifts out of Ryland's court into theirs.

Neither happens, though.

Carl sees exactly what he's trying to do with that and interrupts him mid-question. "Carl." And then keeps staring at him the same way as before. One word, and we already know so much about him.

He is not a nameless goon. He is an individual named Carl.

And he fully supports what is happening there. Because nothing is normal and it's stupid to pretend that what is happening isn't happening.

So yes, while he bonds with Grace over silliness and is the astrophage-coparent and instigator of Carl's Hypothesis... he is also entirely introduced to us as the man who will wish Grace the best of success on the mission while he's being sedated on the ground. Because Carl has a personal opinion about what is at stake.

"Sun's really dying, isn't it?"