Sam

Also adding two cents from my self-defense classes (11 years doing it this year), because I'm at a belt that we see how to defend from knife slashes, and before saw how to defend from attempts to stab, from overhead and under and straight as if "rapier" movement: a slash is a movement that is messy and can be used to create distance and keep someone at bay by instigating fear; even if the main goal is cut someone and try to kill, it's not *practical*, specially in open spaces, because there's distance between who hold the knife and the other one; it demands the arm to be extended, with the knife held in a way that is not as secure, with the blade moving in an arch: it's all about *reach*, being fairly difficult to hit sensitive points (aka most likely throat). A stab, on the other hand is way more up close and personal and always has the goal to get up close, you're holding the knife close, intends to get close so you can hit all the most sensitive points in the stomach and torso, possibly again and againt.

If Simon first instinct with a knife is indeed to slash, well, there's a possibility that kills he caused before Filament Station started more as attempts of self defense, slashing before to try and keep distance and dissuage, and then needing to do more once it failed.

... And since I'm on the subject, I jumped the movie ahead to get how he acts when he sees the Shadowman in the chair.

First Simon lowers himself. Thinking logically, if you don't know when an enemy is coming, and you have no weapons, he was probably thinking to both make himself a smaller target and to have the possibility to go for the legs (Not something I would do, but I can see the logic), and then added in searching for weapons close to his feet. When he finds the medical scissors, he holds them in his left hand.

01:26:52. From a self defense standpoint, this makes a lot of sense: his left side was the closest to from where the Shadowman would be coming. Attacking with his right hand from there would leave his front and head *wide open* for an attack. Attacking with his left hand, with the swing he did, at the height of his face, on the other hand, protects his head at least, even if back exposed for one moment. Also, paying attention to how he swung his hand and how he's holding the scissors, he wasn't trying to slash or stab downwards from this position: it reads more as a sudden movement to scare, and, if lucky, hit someone's temple or put him close enough to use the scissors on the eyes. Overall very "desperate need to defend myself".

These are all *extrapolations* of what would make sense with how Simon went at it in these moments, based on my own knowledge of self-defense (not nearly as extensive as my professor) and in my opinion, they read more as desperate scrappy attempts from someone to defend themselves, learned by trial and mistake to keep oneself alive.

What's happened so far?

Simon's initial wake-up call was pretty rough, to say the least. He remembers the all-consuming pain and terror, fighting against an unknown threat in the darkness before being pinned down and sedated... but not before an alien medic was injured in the chaos.

Due to the assault, Simon is deemed dangerous and banned from the surface of Erid for the duration of a lengthy (and rather unprecedented) judicial process. Grace originally planned for him to recover in the dome, but that's now off the table... and there's only one other sovereign human 'territory' available.

This is how the Hail Mary becomes a jail cell parked at the top of a space elevator.

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Grace feels horrible about what happened. He ensures the Hail Mary has everything available that Simon could possibly need and does his best to advocate for Simon (such as explaining that it's not reasonable to keep a human on house arrest for a "short" 30-50 year proceeding). All Simon has to do is recover and provide his testimony, then Grace can prove he's not actually dangerous. Easy, right?

Wrong. Simon speaks an unfamiliar dialect that doesn't exist (according to the archives) and will barely give Grace the time of day. All they know is his name, that he's originally from Mars (??), and that he apparently went through something horrible (but definitely doesn't want to talk about it). Worse, the language barrier makes miscommunication... alarmingly easy.

Simon is much more comfortable interacting with the ship's computer, Mary. Since she can't translate Simon's language without a decent database, Rocky hatches a plan. He knows that Grace's students have expressed their curiosity about the second human. Why not let them ask the questions?

Grace is skeptical, but he figures it can't hurt to try. He leaves a note for Simon, then consults the pebbles and lets them ask their questions. After a few clarifications and translations, he sends them up to the Hail Mary's onboard messaging system.

‧₊˚🟠˚₊‧

For Simon, being a "prisoner" is a familiar role in a situation that is otherwise throwing him for a loop. His warden is a madman who not only lives alone with an alien species (and apparently has been for some time), but asks far too many questions and... is generally strange.

Surely this alien species and their pet human wouldn't be keeping Simon alive unless they wanted something from him, right? Better offer and accept only the bare minimum, just to be safe.

But nothing has happened for the last few weeks, and Simon is frustrated and bored. He's exhausted Mary's conversational scripts and Grace now leaves for days at a time doing who knows what (he always reassures Simon he'll return soon, despite no sign that Simon even cares).

This time, Grace left a note that said something like, "Going to let the young aliens ask questions so they stop pestering me - you can ignore if you want." After asking Mary about a couple of the words, Simon scoffed and threw the sticky note in the trash. As if he was going to fall for that.

When the messages pop up on the computer a few days later, he goes against his better judgment. The novelty is just too tempting. He should at least open them and see what information his captors were trying to get out of him, right?

He catches enough meaning to understand the questions are... innocent. Almost child-like. They ask after his well-being, about his interests, what his life on Mars was like... some seem to think he's on Mars right now.

Maybe they actually are from students.

Maybe it's safe to answer a couple of them...