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)
Hear me out, Grace with chronic issues, Rocky being his service dog, and Simon being the most loving husband ever; could be any au but I think streamer x part time streamer would fit it best since 1. It could be another thing preventing him for streaming full time (besides being a teacher), and 2. Simon I feel like would be able to relate (being an amputee himself) and be able to just tell when he's maybe having issues (also bc Rocky is very good at alerting when issues).
I think Grace would be like a Bill Nye/Mark Rober science channel that also does knitting and crochet (I have a headcannon that he knits and crochets a bunch and he makes his own patterns). Simon is almost always, more often than not, wearing something his husband made, whether is be a bracelet, a hat, anything. Chat really wants Grace to start his own crochet/knitting business selling his creations because despite him having videos on things he makes with their patterns, they want to buy items from him since he's so talented.
Yes!!! They both take care of each other when needed. Grace always apologises when he can’t stream because he’s had a bad flare up and Simon makes sure to say “hey guys, just a YouTube video today, no live streaming as my husband needs me.” And they’re always so understanding. Rocky is an amazing service dog!
Grace does sell the patterns of the stuff he makes and he’s started making science themed crochet kits to help teach people not only about science but also how to crochet! He crochets Simon this absolutely gorgeous jumper (sweater if you’re American which I’m not-) and he always shows it off to stream and says “it’s my outfit of the day. It’s one of a kind. Never gonna be able to buy this baby!”
Streamer Simon headcanons because I know you all love it (I do too)
- Simon 100% loves all the fanart of him and he will make streams where he reacts to it.
- before Grace shows his face on camera for the first time, people make fanart of what they think he looks like and him and Simon scroll looking through them all in bed and they panic at one fanart because holy shit that’s actually so close to what Grace looks like it’s a little scary. Grace assumes that it’s one of his students who created it (it wasn’t.)
- The day Grace finally reveals his face in camera in a video he does with Simon, that artist freaks the fuck out and goes viral because “WHAT DO YOU MEAN I WAS CLOSE?!”
- Simon 1000% reads fanfiction about himself because in chat one day, someone asks him if he’s seen the fanfiction people have written about him and his husband. It started off as a joke to see if they got Grace accurate but some of the stuff he reads actually has him sobbing because it’s so sweet but also “yes that is 100% something you do, Star! Don’t deny it!”
- Simon jokes that his husband is taller than him one stream and his chat 100% types “isn’t everybody though?” Simon swears he can hear Grace laugh from the other room.
- Grace in this AU does have an account he uses to watch Simon stream on and when he comments in the chat (his username is The_Papa_Star_27) everyone goes crazy. Especially when Simon reads the flirty chats Grace sends his way and Simon goes absolutely feral.
- sometimes grace mods his streams for Simon when he’s not busy doing paperwork, if not, someone else does it.
- Simon one day whilst streaming, hears Grace coming into the house and says “chat hang on a second.” And he rushes to go see Grace who’s holding a makeup bag and Grace tells him shyly and a little nervously that he wanted to try some lipstick. He puts it on and Simon volunteers happily for him to test it out on him. Needless to say, Simon strolls back into his streaming room with lipstick marks all over his face with a dazed look and saying “my husband brought this lipstick. It works.”
- speaking of, in my mind Grace AND Simon test out makeup for fun because fuck gender ok?!
- Simon has been banned from rage games. Don’t ask.
