lost in the sauce

[*slaps roof of car* this baby can fit so many symbolisms in it]

Deep appreciation art for Iron Lung and the character of Simon - you indomitable human spirit character, you.

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* Astrophage is more like a virus that either alters people, causing them to commit crimes or violent acts, or a power that supervillains are starting to use.

* Grace is still a middle school teacher who got bitten by the spider, obviously.

* Adrian is the one who stitched up the suit (the Aunt May of this universe).

* He has all the perks of a normal Spider-Man, but he's still Grace, so he's incredibly clumsy. He does have a super-strong spider sense, and that's what saves him 100% of the time, but he absolutely does not have the agility. When adrenaline kicks in, he can do anything, but otherwise he'll trip over the most ridiculous things.

* He was wearing his yellow raincoat the first time he saved someone, so now he wears it over his suit (along with his white Converse).

* The spider was discovered by SHIELD (which is undercover as a scientific research facility that Grace works for part-time). After the original test subjects (who were only able to survive the spider mutations if they possessed a specific gene) were killed in an attack, Eva delivered the spider to Grace so he could be bitten before other villains got their hands on that power. (My boy gets unwillingly turned into a savior in every universe.)

* Simon is still an ex-convict who, in exchange for his freedom, is asked by the evil company of the day to test a series of mines infected by what appears to be blood from a meteorite (which eventually turns out to be the symbiote Ellie!).

SUMMARY:

Grace and Rocky find Simon preserved half alive in the tree that grows from his pendant, and they take him back to the ship under quarantine, heavily irradiated, but Grace is desperately hopeful he might be able to save the only other human he might ever see again. Rocky is VERY unsure if this is a good choice. Simon is convinced the two of them are an elaborate, maybe indulgent, hallucination.

After weeks of tests and medical checkups, Simon is cleared from quarantine, still technically WITH radiation symptoms, but nothing that will hurt the others. Grace shows him the stars, and Simon feels very conflicted about it.

The longer Simon spends on the ship, the more signs of The Blood Ocean begin showing up through the Hail Mary, and though Grace was convinced he could help Simon work through HIS hallucinations, he wasn't prepared to start experiencing a very similar reality.