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.
grace was not particularly dark skinned to begin with, and then spent years in a coma with literally no sunlight. he is downright vampiric by the time that he wakes up, and upon seeing his white ass skin, assumes that he is in his own words, a Caucasian male.
unfortunately for him, this fits in really well with his theme of lack of identity and lack of connection. i think for most Black people it would be extremely hard to forget that we’re Black regardless of how light or dark our skin tone is. but throughout the book, even when Grace is thinking about his old, slowly resurfacing memories, he never thinks about family, he never thinks about friends. except for his students and Project Hail Mary, he is completely unmoored.
i’ve seen a few different headcanons for why this might be: he was an only child whose single parent died young, he was cut off by his parents for some reason or another, he just isn’t ever triggered to remember. but no matter the reason, grace is disconnected from crucial aspects of himself. i think that by making him Black, and his Blackness something he can’t remember, it add an extra heartbreaking layer to his characterization. Blackness is such a communal experience, and when it’s not, it leaves behind an ache. growing up Black in White Suburbia i know well both the experience of clinging to one’s own in a hostile world AND the hurt that comes with being severed from one’s community. grace loses so much of himself with the amnesia, unable to recall who he is at the deepest of levels, and i think if he could remember to grieve it, it would devastate him.
i do think he would remember eventually, either when his hair starts growing out (because in the book Armando shaves him iirc), or when he can finally catch a glimpse of his reflection clearly, or when he has a memory of someone in his family. my personal belief is he has a memory beamed directly into his brain of asking “Mama, am I white?” and his poor, long-suffering mom saying, “Now who the hell told you that?”
and then it still never becomes relevant because he has negative desire to explain the nuances of human racial categories to an alien who quite literally cannot see color.
Celebrating stories of our legendary Heroes in turtle shells!
we will have the following categories:
Extra Mutations (Returning)
double mutated turtles
mutated from the start
Krang (Returning)
they are krang
they've been krang and are still affected
Deity
gods of their domain
forces of nature
their power affects/changes the world
they are their power
their power changes them
Mythology
yokai
mythical creatures
based on mythologies
folklore
Mystic
magic
ninpo
Urban
modern myths
cryptids
super heros
hidden heros
Time
time travel
different dimension
time loop
We will have spotlight events, Con hosted events, spaces to talk and text and dance! Something to do with minecraft wink wink
While we don't have a date, we know FOR SURE it's happening the second week of July!
The submission form will come out on 6/7/2026 and participants will be invited a week before the start of the con
I'm goin thru and makin lil merc designs so i have a set base fer fanart
This was supposed to be both Scouts but BLU boi ended up bein iz own piece
Evyones gonna have a weapon wit em
Gets me figurin out loadouts fer em too :3
Went on a lil deep dive fer how army(personal jrotc bias) dog tags were formatted n that turned into me namin all of Scouts bros and making a name n birthday doc
Naming traditions in different countries be very interesting :D
