you know i think one reason grace and carl get along so well so quickly is because carl is willing to get a little silly with it, so long as everyone is safe and their trip to the hardware store still fits within mission parameters.
and grace, as a certified cool ™️ middle school teacher, is absolutely willing to get silly with his students, so long as everybody stays safe and it fits within the lesson. i love that phm says “you can study science and solve real world problems and still have fun with people!”
Grace finds brand new shoes packed with his things, as he wears them he gets more memories of him and Carl spending time together outside of work and eventually to when he tried them on in the store. He didn't buy them so comes to the conclusion that Carl
1. Remembered the shoes
2. Went back to buy them
3. Put them with his things before getting shipped off
Carl post Hail Mary launch clutching one of Ryland's stupid shirts they accidentally left behind, apologising because he knows he was the last thing Grace ever saw on Earth. When he remembers he might remember Carl as the man who sent him.
It's twenty five years later, the shirt is sewn into little accessories. Pocket handkerchief, little fabric covered buttons, maybe a little fox plushie. The beetles come back, and Eva deposits a box to his home. Inside is a video and a gift wrapped box, quite obviously wrapped in several sheets of standard letter paper.
The video is all of the time Grace mentioned Carl during his science rambles, even momentarily. There's at least two videos addressed to Carl.
One is a compilation of non-mission related times he talks about Carl. "He was nice" "I could never tell if he loved Skittles, or tolerated them for me" "Carl if you ever see this, I'm still getting my memories back but I just got the sentence "We're father's Carl" back. Are we!? I don't think I'm gay... I COULD BE." "Carl I'm so sorry I just got the rest of that last memory"
Second is a video from Grace just about to leave for Rocky, addressed directly to him on the duct tape around the usb stick. Carl doesn't watch it yet. He couldn't.
So he opens the gift instead. Inside, is a package of unopened Skittles labeled "Space Skittles :)", and a proper paper on Astrophage breeding "Co-written by Dr Ryland Grace, and Mr Carl Bodyguard." There's an apology for not knowing his last name.
The paper is published with Carl as the co-writer, and he hangs the one with the "Mr Bodyguard" on his wall in a frame. Maybe one day he'll watch the second tape, but for now, he's alright not knowing. He does eat the Skittles though.
Astrofathers option...
Kissing the shirt, even though Grace admitted to him that he doesn't really know what romance feels like. It's one sided, he knows that, but Grace is gone, and Carl is the last thing he saw, so how much more harm can it do?
Hi so. Why the fuck have we stopped talking about Carl
Grace taught him to stop pretending to be so serious. He used government money to buy Grace candy and duct tape. He's funny. He spoke back into the walkie talkie when he didn't need to. He wants that scientist to top him BAD. He probably helped pack Grace's things aboard the Hail Mary. "You know who you are." "You'll do great."
Doomed yaoi of all time and you're sleeping on it because he's a Black guy
sometimes i imagine grace outrunning the people after him after knowing they're putting him on the ship whether he wants to or not, but as he's trying to escape, he sees carl in the distance- with seemingly no other people around him, and who is walking across the grass instead of running- and all grace sees is his friend. his lab partner. safety. he'll practically throw himself at carl, grabbing onto his arms, frantic and terrfied, Carl! You have to help me! They're going to kill me! I can't-!
If Carl's heart wasn't already in a million pieces after Stratt told him the news, if it wasn't already sawdust when she told him he'll have to be prepared to catch him if he ran too far because he'll be more likely to seek out a person he trusts, then it was nothing but ash when he had to listen to Grace's cries and watch the wild, terrified look come back to his eyes from the way he held his arms in a vice grip. he couldn't escape if he tried.
the stars are really dying. if there's any chance at saving them, he'd take that chance.
imagine carl wrapping his arms around grace, to restrain him without pinning him to the ground, to keep him from getting grabbed at too harshly by the rapidly approaching staff, and to say goodbye.
Carl looks so fucking sad in the room where Grace is being told he’s expected to be the new science specialist. Like. That man’s heart is BREAKING. Whether you see it as platonically or romantically, Grace was IMPORTANT to Carl and it makes me tear up to think about.
Imagine Ryland and Carl are out walking around San Francisco when they happen to run into a group of Ryland's students. They stop for a moment to chat, and then one of the kids looks at Carl and asks, completely out of nowhere and with no filter: "Are you Mr. Grace's husband?" Ryland nearly chokes on his own spit. Carl doesn't miss a beat and just says: "Working on it."
The students think this is hilarious and immediately decide that their science teacher has the coolest boyfriend ever. Ryland spends the rest of the day pondering whether that was basically a proposal.
