Ares’ Temper

Robin Hobb I’d give you my entire life for just one (1) book about young Chivalry, Patience and Burrich.

Things in the Blood Ocean become part of the Blood Ocean. The SM-13 has gone down more times than just with Simon in it. It has all of those who died in it within it, still, same as the SM-8, including the Eden member whose last wish was to leave some hope and guidance for the next of his brothers to face the same fate. That care, that love, and the care and affection that Simon treats the ship with, that congeals into something alive. An expression of that care and that hope, the same way the SM-8 became an expression of fear and regret.

It makes shadows and shapes to lead Simon to the computer. It sparks and flashes to help him find the crawlspace, then makes more shadows and noises to guide him to the engine restart and the push to close button.

As it becomes more organic, it holds down the camera button by growing an X of flesh over it, just like Simon tried to do with the tape, letting him see so he can escape the SM-8.

Even when it's growing over him, it's not malicious. It just is. And it is as it's perceived to be. As all things in the Blood Ocean are. Which, again and again, is something Simon trusts and cares about. Something that protects and provides for him. That sweats and bleeds as he sweats and bleeds. That both frees and imprisons him. That breathes for him.

There's something about a character who destroyed where he grew up, desperately saying that all he wants is to go home.

That the very porthole cover keeping him alive, the one he chooses to let shatter in the end to save humanity, is from that long gone home.

The fact that he's probably the lone survivor and he's demonized for it.

That in every single flashback he has to his home station, he is a child. And we don't know how long ago the explosion happened, really. We just know it's been long enough for people to call him a murderer his whole adult life.

That he never wanted to hurt anyone. That he's horrified and shocked when he discovers just what the camera is. That the eldritch forces and voices try to manipulate him by digging into those insecurities and dragging up the lifetime of abuse that he's faced for something that wasn't his fault.

You ever think about when he transitions into the fever dream of waking up in the blood ocean, his left wrist keeps him chained to something deep within the ocean even when he wants to escape.

A shackle you find comfort in. Simon and the familiarity of the cult that raised him even when they betrayed him. Eden and the belief of the Tree even as it demands atrocities against mankind. Consolidation and the ocean they can't turn away from despite the people they keep losing to it.