Coltland Gentry fic I will never write, but-
Quick characterizations that are only character relevant and not plot relevant
—-Six has psychopathy, and is aroace, sex neutral. He takes after their mother the most in personality
—-Grace has autism, and is aroace, sex negative. Grace has their father’s temper and their mom’s curiosity/a ton of shared interests
—-Colt is on the ADHD spectrum, demisexual, and the biggest romantic. (Colt could not wait to fall in love soooo bad that he took all the romance genes before their mother was out of diapers) Colt and the boys’ father had a lot of common interests, so for a while they had the least conflict between the pair. Then, Colt starts going through puberty and is cursed with “daddy’s bbg” syndrome, and suddenly Colt and the boys father are fighting over everything. (Possible characterization- Colt is afab, and for a short while, identified as a lesbian, and was a little heart broken when they found out they were a het man the whole time :( bonus-bonus, the reason Colt’s name doesn’t end in “-land” could be because when he changed it, he didn’t want to keep up the tradition ((for extra angst, Colt could really struggle with the idea of naming himself after Six, under the impression Six has or has not “died” in prison yet.)))
The rest is plot relevant or plot:
-Grace is the middle child, and cursed with being a “gifted child,” but it helped keep him out of the house a lot with afterschool programs
-Their mother gave Grace more of her attention than Colt and Six. The three of them have complicated feelings on the matter as adults, but at the time, it made Six and Colt resent Grace, and was the first of many walls Grace would start to develop around himself.
—there would be a paragraph from Grace’s pov like: I don’t know what set me apart from the rest of the family. I don’t know why talking to mom is easier. I don’t know why I can keep up a conversation with mom just fine, but everyone else gets mad at me for speaking. I don’t know why our house only feels like home when it’s just mom and me in the room.
-Their mother becomes unable to look after her children and herself around six months before “The Incident.” (The “why/how” their mother is no longer around is not clear, terminal illness, death, permanent need to be in a healthcare facility, whatever one you decide is sadder)
-Grace takes the forced absence of their mother the hardest, and puts another wall around himself and other people
-Grace was not home when “The Event” happened. He found out hours after, when he arrived home to see the coroner loading a body into a truck
-Colt was the brother Six had to save. Colt internalizes the negative consequences of The Event as what happens to his loved ones/sense of stability when he is vulnerable, and not in control of a situation.
-Part of the deal Fitzroy makes with Six is for Colt and Grace to be able to look after themselves as adults (Grace gets every scholarship he applied for, he was given generous grant money while working on his masters and doctorate.) (Colt also got any scholarship he applied too, but it was like one, but he a lot of gifted money from alleged family members. Colt also probably saw that the life he wanted wasn’t in college, and dropped out no later than four semesters in. (Bonus if you headcanon Colt as afab, his insurance doesn’t hesitate to pay in full for Colt’s transition to whatever degree you headcanon he transitioned) Colt’s insurance pay out from breaking his back is so huge, Colt could have stayed retired after recovering. He could have comfortably raised a family of two children + 1.5 spouses
-Grace and Colt were kept together in foster care immediately after The Event. Neither of them handled their grief about The Event, and the adults in their life fail to intervene in a meaningful enough way.
—Grace and Colt handled their misplaced aggression the way brothers often do in situations like theirs. Physically beating the shit out of each other.
—out of concern for their safety, Grace and Colt are separated, and neither of them make an attempt to reach out to each other. Until, Colt’s [adoptive] parents track down and reach out to Grace to invite him to Colt’s highschool graduation.
-Colt gets adopted fairly quickly
-Grace goes through a few foster homes before cps tracks down the boys’ maternal grandparents. Grace takes their last name. Because Grace has to suffer more than Jesus, (that’s what you get for being a Christ allegory, dumbass!) his grandparents want to adopt Grace, and Grace wants his grandparents to adopt him as well. But all of them were afraid bringing it up would be overstepping an unseen boundary. They do work it out, and Grace takes on his last name as we know it.
-Colt’s adoptive parents track down and reach out to Grace for Colt’s highschool graduation.
—It would actually be a rather tender sort of thing where Colt can talk to Grace about how he feels about going to college, and about why they aren’t close like they should be.
-When Colt breaks his back he crashes out on Grace the most. (Colt’s adoptive parents can be dead at this point or whatever gets your torture nexus swirling.) Grace sticks around the longest, but Colt says something like, “mom is the only one who stand being around, and it killed her” like, whatever rocks your sadomasochistic boat.
-The UNESCO incident happened post-Colt-surviving-attempted-murder by no sooner than two months but not later than eight months
-Grace spends time under psychiatric care and ends up gaining better coping mechanisms for temper.
-Grace begins teaching full time six months to a year before the events of The Gray Man (2022) conclude.
-The events of The Gray Man (2022) concluded six months to a year before the events of The Fall Guy (2024) conclude.
-After the events of The Gray Man (2022), Six tears himself apart about how Claire’s life is only in danger because of Six cares about her.
-Grace is conscripted into the Petrova Task Force a month or two before Colt flies out to Australia to join the film production of Metalstorm.
-When the Taskforce asks for volunteers for the mission, Six sees it as an opportunity to secure Claire’s safety, even at the cost of never seeing her again. (Like,,, a Sisyphean tasks??? The only way to take care of the people you care about, is to never see them again!!!)
—Six independently verifies whether or not he has the coma resistant gene, and after finding out he does, he reaches out to Stratt, volunteering for the mission under the condition that Claire be looked after.
-Six is either the primary or secondary commander for the Tau Ceti mission.
-Grace finds out his older brother is not dead. I imagine it’s like grabrieltrvlyn’s GrayMatter in terms of how they interact.
-Six def considers leaving Claire in Grace’s custody post launch.
-Colt reaches back out to Grace (who does not know about the events of The Fall Guy (2024)) to invite his brother to his wedding.
-Grace is still pretty torn up about the last time he and Colt talked.
-Six wrestles with the weight of the decision of if trying to see Colt again is worth the danger he risks putting Colt into, by virtue of showing that he cares about someone.
-they maybe go together, maybe only one of them goes, maybe Six goes under Grace’s identity, or Six goes as part of Grace security. I imagine it to be a heartfelt moment where Grace and Colt get to say goodbye to Six this time. Oh and I guess maybe feel like a family again for the first time in a long time.
-Anyway, our doomed yuri-hetslop power couple known as, “The primary and secondary science officers whose atoms instantaneously all became gas” die.
-Sorry Grace, you happen to be my prime blurbo atm and you must suffer more than Jesus because my parents didn’t hug me enough or something? TO SPACE with Grace!
-Six does agree that Grace is the best candidate earth has to offer for the mission.
—It’s isn’t Six loving Grace less, it’s Six ensuring Claire has a future.
-oh, and I find great catharsis when physically strong men struggle with emotional vulnerability.
-For levels of angst, Six can know, be present for, or intentionally absent in shame and grief, when Grace is asked by Stratt, when Grace says “no,” to going/getting kidnapped, and whether or not Six knows about the retrograde amnesia drug being used on Grace.
-Six would go as far as drugging and tying Colt down to insure Colt stays on earth. Probably asks/begs him to look after Claire, and give her the life she deserves.
-Then Six and Grace wake up in space!!! And Grace has a bad time and crashes out a little!!! And Six is silently crashing out .”I only bring the people I love misery.”
-Six is the better pilot, and Grace does have EVA training, so that’s the arrangement of the boys while they Go Fishing (bonus, Six and Grace can crack a joke between them about how it’s like the three of them are all camping around Adrian, and they’re about to “go fishing,” and it’s one of the most mundane bonding activities they’ve participated in.)
-Not without significant danger, does Grace collect the sampler, akin to how he does in the novel.
-The trio escapes their unstable orbit, with Rocky and Six buckled up in the control room, Grace is buckled up in the airlock.
-the first fuel ruptures while everyone is still strapped in.
-the second fuel tank ruptures after Grace has unstrapped himself, and secured the sampler in the lab. Grace is in the control room when the second fuel bay ruptures.
-Grace at least bruises a rib as the gravity slams him into one of the control room walls. (Not a big “fall” but enough to significantly daze him.)
-Six’s chair breaks and begins suffocating like it did Grace in the novel.
-Rocky exits his enclosure either how he did in the book or how he did in the novel, up to you, friend.
-Rocky launches the second fuel tank the way he did in the movie, frees Six, and takes him to the Nannybot as he did Grace in the movie.
-Grace is able to communicate that Six needs dire help, and Grace just needs a minute or two before dragging himself to safety.
-Grace helps Rocky into the airlock like he did in the book, but for much shorter distance.
-Grace receives his novel canon burns, and treatment.
-Six receives Movie Grace’s scars
-I guess wonderful and delightful taumeba ranching occurs
-Grace works out that he and Six can make it back to earth with their current food stores if they ration it right, but will be in desperate need of medical assistance upon arrival
-so…you can stop here, and probably be happy
-or the taumeba eat all of Rocky’s fuel and Six and Grace have to make a one-trip to Erid.
-and you could end it here
-or, knowing that they won’t make it, Grace and Six become Bill Nye for Erid. They gotta pass the time somehow. And they leave Colt and Claire a lot of video diaries, knowing that the intended recipient will never see them.
-Six leaves recordings going over how the CIA and similar organizations destabilize governments, and that humanity can be awesome, but they are also shifty motherfuckers sometimes.
-They could maybe make it. But it ends with Erid giving their three stars(40 Eridani is a three-star system) the names: Grace, Fitzroy, and Seavers(Or Rocky). Something sappy like that. For Erid to do their best to honor the sacrifice humanity made to save save their planet
But like,,,,I am not going to write this. So…here you go!
If I find out you fed this to a lllm, I will be very sad :(
2087
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