Check Me Out, I'm Young and Ravishing

i am always a little bit thinking about the hail mary as a haunted house. yao and ilyukhina of course, but stratt’s vague but undeniable presence too. and ryland’s own entirely unknown past. his own invisible self. eventually rocky’s crew too, and their memories

i can’t allow myself to think too much about sensory differences on the erid road trip or i throw up and die. grace can look out at the stars any time he wants. if he wants to fuck around with his telescope, grace can see erid and grace can see earth. grace has a sense of place. for rocky, however, the universe is four rooms wide and there are two people in it

it is completely morally neutral to let your friends lay their eggs in your apartment. it's fine

grace was calling himself stratts "little science lapdog" out of a love for the game. nobody else called him that shit. which is to say that he'd absolutely also refer to himself as rockys pet alien and that he'd absolutely call the biodome his endangered species exhibit slash enclosure slash terrarium. grace enjoys petplay that degrades him but simultaneously posits him as the specialest most pampered boy

always thinking about eva stratt going through the thriller / heist torture nexus back on earth while 16 lightyears away or whatever grace gets his tummy rubbed by a rock alien because he ate a meburger too fast for the 4th time this week

my take on the au "Rocky/eridian scientists secretly extend Grace's lifespan" is that. It would mean that once again, Grace has medical experiences decided FOR him, out of his control, re the forced coma or (if we go by book canon), the amnesia drugs. I enjoy the au not for wholesome reasons but for decidedly evil ones lolol. Would Rocky, traumatised by loss, so co-dependent with Grace that he cannot bear losing him, and desperate to "fix" every problem, go against Grace's knowledge? Maybe. Would Grace, on learning what was done to him, have the biggest blow up since the Denmark incident? Oh yeah baby. And this time, alllllll directed at his best friend in the universe. Because, deep down (probably subconsciously), Grace will always have those doubts. "I trusted someone before and they violated my autonomy in every possible way. What's the chances it'll happen again? I'm at the mercy of the Eridians here in the bio-dome, but they'd never abuse that power dynamic... right?" Oooohhh it's the opposite of a sweet, funny au. It's Grace's nightmares come alive. Crucially, even if Grace WANTS to live longer, it would be such a manifestation of his trauma that I feel it would create a massive rift between him and Rocky. But also, it would force them to both recognise why this has happened: Rocky, unable to let go, and Grace, unable to trust.