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Grace makes science videos for his students on YouTube!! They’re fun to watch, as Grace’s voice isn’t monotonous but rather cheery as he explains it easily, not using confusing metaphors, but explaining concepts simply then adding on more complex stuff slowly. He also makes funny jokes here and there, while telling the students which textbook or workbook they can read up more or to use as practice for exams. Even better, he’ll also put more links at the bio to informative websites too, because he knows how hard it is to find resources sometimes
Goes online to buy a whiteboard to stick onto his wall at home so he can teach properly and can draw all his diagrams clearly. He has terrible lighting at first, but he takes a quick crash course on how to make videos at 2 am and quickly rectifies it. You can also see his whiteboard handwriting improve to become neater, but also a little cursive. That’s his little quirk. His notes turn into more of a sketchnoting style to keep the notes fun to read and to capture attention
He posts it on YouTube and tells his students to check it out in case they need extra revision. (Like my own teacher!!) His username is Mr Graceful (a student named him that when he tripped over a thin wire and fell, which disconnected his computer to the projector. He has yet to live it down). His profile picture just shows a cute fox with edited glasses on and he never changes it, so it’s his staple and he’s recognisable on the internet.
Some of his students’ older siblings watch them and ask their little siblings if Grace also knows the higher level stuff to make vids for. And he does! He’s got a doctorate in molecular biology + he co-teaches all three science Olympiads in the school so he is updated on the most recent changes in the curriculum and has the wealth of information to teach them. He can’t sleep some nights and once made two videos in one night
Grace becomes one of the more popular study YouTubers as he somewhat blows up around COVID, where everyone couldn’t go to school and they’re all looking for ways to help them study after a three month break of laziness and they all discover the wonder that is Grace’s videos. It’s not enough that he gets a fandom, but for science teachers across the world he's a lifesaver.
His students say if he gets one million followers, they would get him a whole box of donuts from a local bakery. Unfortunately for him, his follower count stops exactly at 950k and doesn’t budge.
He’s recognisable by his usual greeting, science pun shirts or lab coats on haphazardly or inside out.
Of course, not everyone finds his videos compatible with how they learn, but that’s okay, he liked knowing that his videos helped many people anyway.
During the time where everyone was editing anything, someone makes a well edited but blurry edit of him that blows up and gets exactly a million likes. No edits of him spring up after, but it’s known as THE Mr Graceful edit
Time skip to PHM!! He is now the main expert on astrophage, and so is rightfully present at many conferences where world leaders and other politicians are. Unfortunately, they aren’t scientists and struggle to grasp and remember how the astrophage works, so Grace has to explain everything multiple times or answer a whole lot of questions every meeting. Which wastes time and makes Stratt irritated due to a whole lot of progress and precious time that they lose with each misunderstanding. Many world leaders don’t want to believe that the world is ending (not all of them are presidents, but just important politicians), and they keep questioning or just being an overall obstacle because some humans just hate to actually do good. Furthermore, people online are panicking about the whole “sun is dimming” situation as it’s getting worse VERY quickly. Misinformation and fake news about astrophage spread like fire, leading to anger, confusion and frustration among the populace. Another group of people say it's all fake, saying that the governments are making this up + a shit ton of conspiracy theorists are saying astrophage isn’t real.
So Grace tries making PowerPoints, simple and easy, for the people to understand. Until he realises he just can’t share a PowerPoint everywhere. So he takes a leaf from his teacher's book and decides to make a video. He’s got experience on that perfectly, with his years of teaching, and so sets up a camera, pulls Yáo and Ilyukhina to the room to help him because they were having a small break and DuBois and Shapiro were busy. Even though it’s 3am, Dimitri pulls up in the middle and gives a thumbs up through the window, Leclerc waves sadly alongside him, and Dr Lamai says hi around the end of the video.
He’s dressed in one of his funny science shirts, lab coat wrapped around him, looking like he hasn’t slept in two days but has a bright manic light in his eyes as he explains, entirely in his element. He has lab goggles on top of his messy hair and glasses sticking out underneath his right ear with a twizzler is behind his left. He looks the least like a proper scientist or researcher that’s would be a second in command of the most important project in the world
He begins the video with the same greeting as always. “Hello scholars! It’s going to be a little different, but today we’re gonna be learning about Astrophage!! Yes, they’re “eating” the sun, BUT I’m here to explain HOW. In this lesson, I’m gonna go in depth on what Astrophage is, what it does to the sun and the effects of it. I’ll also be explaining more about what Project Hail Mary is for anyone who is curious. If anyone is worried about false information, you don’t have to worry, because I’m one of the leading experts in Astrophage, I think NASA will confirm it. I hope. Uh. Alrightyyy, let’s get started! …”
Once they’re all done with the vid he conks out and Yáo brings the video to Stratt and suggests why they should let him post it on Youtube. He’s seen her headaches while dealing with the officials and uses that to explain why they should post it.
He caught her when she’s not having enough sleep either, so she agrees, BUT it has to be posted under NASA’s official account that would also add Grace’s public YouTube account on it. A lot of scientists at NASA watched it before approving it to be posted. Not many scientists have patience and the skill to teach properly for the general public to understand, so they like it a lot. It’s informative without confusing everyone or sounding too complicated that it’s fake. They get a person who is good with Pinterest and photoshop to slap a cute collage together of Grace’s face taking up half of it and the title “Astrophage EXPLAINED with Dr Grace” taking up the other half. When they post it, NASA immediately puts a comment, “Dr Grace is our leading expert of Astrophage, having first contact with it and naming the organism. Here is how he explains their structure and how they affect the sun.” So no one would doubt the legitimacy of the video.
It gets 100 000 views within the first thirty minutes of being posted. Then five million within six hours. Grace wakes up feeling all normal, gets breakfast shoved at him by Ilyukhina, and they all talk about the video. Yáo tells him it’s posted, and Dimitri casually mentions that six million people have already seen it while the numbers are still rising.
He spits out his drink. “WHAT? SIX MILLION? it hasn’t been a day?!”
It shows the people love it, of course. They’re getting a crash course of information on the one thing that is going to be Earth’s downfall if they don’t do anything about it, and clear knowledge of what it does and what’s gonna happen in the next. It’s also easier to grasp than poring through scattered news articles about Astrophage throughout the months since the Arclight probe came back. Some dudes make actual notes about Astrophage like it’s an exam topic, drawing out all of Grace’s whiteboard scribbles.
The PR teams of NASA and the Petrova Taskforce see how popular he is and wants to capitalise on it. Stratt reluctantly hired a PR person sometime ago when the public attention got too much and they smoothed things over pretty quickly and shared necessary information pertaining to the project so Stratt doesn't have to do it. They have Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, even a Rednote account. All share information carefully chosen to the public, along with some trendy videos here and there.
The PR person then starts to post a whole lot of Ryland after that when before the public only had three blurry pictures and a last name. Their total views shoot through the millions (not like they hadn’t been doing good though) as the public love Ryland and Astronauts content. They find Yáo hot (which the Taskforce have been hiding from him, much to Ilyukhina’s dismay). Ilyukhina is popular among the queer community (which she loves, because she's bi!!) DuBois is endearing due to his straightforwardness.
Of course, edits are made of all of them. It’s social media. Grace and Ilyukhina are the most popular and are tied.
It’s not just the PR bringing out more Grace, but almost everyone else. They bring him to the UN when the final details about the project is broadcasted. He’s clearly there for every major turn, every discovery, every meeting and most of the astronaut training sessions.
In this story, DuBois and Shapiro still does, and Grace still gets sent to space, but the world knows him more now. He’s not just a statue with a name plate. But a funny, smart middle school teacher who learned everything about astrophage and taught others, who went off to space on the off chance that Earth could be saved.