I think my brain was playing some word association game with this one but subnautica au anyone??
Grace is a scientist working with Alterra (unfortunately) and the only survivor of the Aurora crash, but finds Rocky who also crashed here while trying to investigate a distress call coming from the planet :)
Grace and Rocky, giving a tour of the Hail Mary to fascinated Eridian scientists and diplomats.
Pointing at things and explaining what they are and how the ship works, lots of awed and appreciative noises are made.
Until one of the visiting Eridians points out a specific item. “And that?”
It’s a strange, circular thing, a xenonite disk mounted upright on some sort of pivot so it can spin freely, but around the edges it has… spokes? Pegs? Sticking out of it, that hit against a stiff flap that would slow down the spinning.
It is also separated into sections decorated with crude etchings of a human and an Eridian.
“Ah,” Grace says.
“That,” Rocky says.
“That’s. Um.” Grace seems somewhat embarrassed. “That’s the sacrifice wheel.”
The Eridian visitors clearly do not know what to make of that. “We think we misunderstood Savior Grace’s word,” they say, apparently hoping this is a vocabulary mix-up. “Explain (question, polite)?”
“Didn’t misunderstand,” says Rocky, sounding very sheepish. “That is sacrifice wheel.”
“So. While we were on our way to Erid, we might have gotten… anxious about each other’s well-being,” Grace says, which everyone is already very aware is a wild understatement. “And, well, you heard what happened at Tau Ceti, and after. There were a lot of unexpected dangers for the whole trip that required a lot of, at least, attempted self-sacrifice to solve. We ended up almost dying for each other several times. And we had an argument about what we’d do if another crisis like that came up. And we couldn't agree.”
“Grace argued that Grace already was unlikely to survive long-term on Erid, so he should be the one to do any potential deadly but necessary maneuvers to make sure I was able to bring taumoeba back,” Rocky says.
“Which made sense.”
“Did not make sense! Grace already sacrificed so much for me and for Erid, wouldn’t be fair to make you do it again—“ Rocky cuts himself off with a huff. They have obviously had this conversation before. “So sacrifice wheel was compromise.”
“Yeah,” Grace says. He spins it to demonstrate; it whirls around in a blur and a rattle of the flap hitting the pegs, then eventually slows down, and stops—pointing at the segment depicting a very bad but very clear image of an Eridian. “Rocky made the wheel, I spin the wheel, and whoever it lands on, that’s who gets to sacrifice themself to save the other and the other person does not get to argue. This way, we wouldn’t waste time debating who does the self-sacrifice and who survives, it’s just a plain fifty-fifty chance. Or, eighteen-eighteen chance in base six. But the point is it could be either of us and we would have to accept the outcome.”
Rocky started fidgeting while Grace was explaining. When Grace finishes, proud of the equitable solution they came up with to allow them to die for each other fairly, Rocky says, “Now that we are back and we don’t need sacrifice wheel anymore… I have confession to make. About the wheel.”
“What about the wheel?”
Rocky doesn’t answer. Grace frowns, first confused, then suspicious, and spins the wheel again.
It lands on Rocky again.
He spins the wheel again, and again, and again, and it lands on Rocky every single time.
“Rocky!”
“I weighted the wheel,” Rocky admits.
“Rocky the whole point was that it was equal, that was why we even made it—“
“Never was necessary so doesn’t matter anymore!”
“But you WOULD have!”
“And you never noticed because you were hungry and cranky and distracted and so would have done bad job on heroic self-sacrifice anyway!”
“I would not! I would have done fine!”
(The Eridian scientists and diplomats are still here watching this btw. Slowly dawning on them that 1) these two are extremely not normal about each other 2) if Erid ever does another space mission they NEED to send a therapist aboard because this is what happens when they don’t)
There's an assembly held in Grover Cleveland Middle School the day the Hail Mary launches to watch the launch together. Excited chatter is going through the gym, older kids telling the younger ones about Mr. Grace who was one of the scientists working on it and how he ran off one day to safe the world for them. He's the local legend. They miss him. They wonder if he'll come back once the rocket is in space.
The news anchor goes over the crew explaining their backgrounds and motivation. Most of the kids only listen with one ear, too caught up in their own conversations, theories, fears and hopes.
But then some of the kids gasp when a photo of their beloved teacher shows up on the projection. All their heads snap to it immediately, starring at it in disbelief. Even the teachers hold up hands to their mouths in shock, turning to eachother looking for guidance on what to say or do now.
"And lastly the scientist for this noble mission, a last minute addition after the original crew unfortunately passed in an accident."
"Yes Dr. Ryland Grace, the very person who first studied Astrophage, making him the first person to make contact with extraterrestrial life. He overall made the most notable and significant contributions to the field and is now completing the crew of the Hail Mary on this noble mission."
"Unfortunately we do not have a video message from him due to him stepping up so very last minute, but Eva Stratt told us that he wanted to join the mission for 'the children'".
"Dear viewers you should know that before being recruited for the project, Dr. Grace taught science at a middle school."
"Really an exceptional promotion..."
The voices on the broadcast are drowned out by the students loud and confused chatter.
"MR GRACE IS GOING TO SPACE?!"
"My dad told me the astronauts will DIE!"
"Is Mr Grace going to die???"
"MR GRACE CAN'T GO TO SPACE!!! HE HYPERVENTILATED IN THE ELEVATOR AT THE SPACE MUSEUM!!! HE'LL DIE IN SPACE!!!"
"THAT'S WHAT I'M SAYING!!!"
"HE'S GOING TO GET EATEN BY AN ALIEN!!!!"
"HE THREW UP THINKING ABOUT GOING ON THE ROLLERCOASTER ON OUR FIELD TRIP"
the "rip ___ you would have loved ___" meme is inherently more fun with ancient characters. rip clytemnestra you would have loved morse code. rip theseus you would have loved the airtag. rip callisto you would have loved wearing shorts.
once again these are all from like the same two canvas files in procreate judging from the same color background. also straight up had a dream where grace and rocky figured out how to make gnocchi out of taumoeba hence the making gnocchi over a bunsen burner
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