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It was a few days after Simon had somehow managed to get on the Hail Mary and Grace couldn’t deny he was curious. Rocky let him run some experiments on him in exchange for Grace allowing Rocky to move everything from his ship into the Hail Mary, but Simon didn't allow him to experiment at all! It was annoying and he hated it. Could you really blame him for being curious? This random guy randomly shows up on the ship and then starts coughing up blood without ever explaining. He also keeps saying something about an eel. It’s weird really.
Grace didn't have time to really dwell on it though because there was a lot of work to do. He had no idea how he got here, the only thing he really remembered was Eva Stratt coming up to him in the school to ask about the really dumb paper he wrote once and then being thrown into a lab to figure out what the astrophage was. And then he was apparently on a boat and was supposed to speak to a bunch of people.
Right now he was working with Rocky on something important to the mission and Rocky would not stop complaining.
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Ryland allowed Simon to do a lot of stuff on the ship. For example, he was allowed to use the projection room whenever he wanted. He also got all the plants that were on the ship. Ryland has told him multiple times that he's a Biologist and not a Botanic and that it's a wonder the plants didn't die under his watch.
However Simon felt like Ryland trusted him a little too much. While he was happy that Ryland didn't lock him up in a room somewhere- It was still... weird. Simon had this much trust from this guy he just met. What if he was trying to bait him into trusting him? And after he finally gets Simons trust he'll betray him and throw him straight back into the blood ocean! No- Ryland would never do that, he doesn't even know what the blood ocean is let alone where it's located.
Simon sometimes feels like Ryland was sent to him as an angel, with his last name being Grace and all. Ryland looked like he was glowing when he first saw him, it was either the light that was behind him or it was an actual halo. Ryland does look kind of like an angel to be honest, with his blonde hair and everything.
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Simon was exploring while Grace was working on something in the lab with Rocky. Rocky at one point asked Grace “Why Grace dumb, question?” after he almost dropped a beaker. Grace excused himself for a second, running off to a different room and Rocky followed him even though Grace had asked him to stay in the room.
Simon moved through the now empty room, the only sound really being the hum of all the machines, the chittering that Rocky was making and Grace explaining why Rocky can’t follow him. His plan was that he was gonna work on the plants and make sure that none of them died and he was about to do it! But the computer had something open on it. It looked like video logs? And on them was a man with long-ish blonde hair. He wondered who it could be since the man didn't look like Ryland. He sat down near the computer, reaching over with his arm and playing the video.
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“Please record video diary” “No!”
The man climbed up into the control room, and started talking… and whoah- this was actually Ryland!
“Can I please speak to the person in charge-” He sputtered “The uh.. Captain!”
“Captain Yáo Li-Jie is Deceased” the robotic voice of Mary said.
Simon skipped through the logs a bit before finding another moment that looked like it could be amusing and this time Ryland actually looked like the Ryland Simon saw a few seconds ago.
“I am not a pilot!” Ryland yelled out before the engine cut off and the ship was in zero gravity. He looked at his shoelaces in horror before screaming and Simon couldn't help but laugh at the high pitched scream Ryland let out.
Another thing that Simon thought was funny was how Ryland outright refused to swear, instead yelling out something like “What the fudging- Fudger!”.
Apparently the loud high pitched scream and Simon’s laughter attracted someone back up to the lab.
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“This is a one man mission Rocky! You can't follow me-” Grace said
“Rocky not man!” Rocky argued back.
“Okay- well this is a one person mission!”
“Rocky not person either, statement!”
Grace was about to respond before he heard a high pitched scream. At first he thought it was Simon, but that didn't make sense, that guy had a really deep voice. Then it clicked.
Grace abandoned his mission of retrieving something and quickly climbed up the ladder, nearly falling twice. Rocky had no idea what was happening and was really quick to protest but Grace paid no mind to it and pushed his little ammonia filled ball to the side. He almost tripped on his way to the lab in his hurry. To his absolute horror Simon found all the logs. As in ALL of them.
“I am a single male.. I'm in my thirties… i have no kids but i really-” Grace stopped the video before it got to the really embarrassing part.
“Didn’t you say that you were gonna check the plants?!” Grace asked in a sort of high pitchy voice. His face was almost completely red and his glasses in the peculiar position he usually had them in when they weren't on his face.
“I was gonna do that-”
Grace cut him off with “Then do it!” he exclaimed, his face was still red as he hid it with his hands and wished for the ground to swallow him whole.