okay so currently very bloodymarypilled but I though of something: Simon's relationship with food must be so weird
basically, imo if Simon turned up on Erid (either picked up by grace and rocky on the way there, by Adrian before they get there, or by all three after they get there), he would be really cautious with taking food. first of all, he still isnt exactly sure they arent poisoning him or slipping sedatives or wtv, and secondly, and this is especially true if there is no kind human saviour grace to be reassuring and kind, he really doesnt want to step out of line too much. he doesnt want to demand or ask, because he's scared to provoke a negative reaction from his saviours? captors? whatever. so at first he eats basically just enough to survive from the portions he's given, and by the time he's at least 90% sure they arent dosing him with Tree-knows-what, the eridians just assume that this weird leaky alien just doesnt need to eat that much. so basically from that point up until he lwk realizes he isnt being experimented on or kept hostage or used, and that the aliens actually want to keep him in comfort, he feels hunger p much constantly. it would actually be even worse if its pre-erid-return of grace and rocky, since the Eridians have no clue how to translate eridian into human, simon cant understand shit, and their human isnt a very curious and trusting scientist willing to mcgyver communication devices out of two laptops excel spreadsheet note register and a dream.
so now imagine: grace and rocky finally arrive, and rocky is promptly horrified that a) the first food they tried giving him was lwk very very very toxic to him (in the book it is outright stated that eridian food contains a lot of heavy metals (and not the fun music kind) and is very toxic to humans) b) they were (very unintentionally) starving him. the entire eridian science team is horrified, but hey, at least their human's cloned meat (they figured that out somehow) actually could serve as food for new very malnourished and sick human!!! amaze amaze amaze!!!
and so, as grace becomes healthy again and the two humand are introduced like cats through a door and bond pretty quickly (loneliness </3), they end up hanging out a lot. and the first time SImon stays over for a meal, he tentatively takes a small portion and eats it quickly, while grace is munching away and probably yapping about something, when he notices that this ridiculously beefy man is NOT eating as much as expected.
"Hey, you know you can take some more, right?" he asks, looking into Simon's eyes. The latter's gaze darts away.
The loud grumbling of his stomach interrups him, and he looks away in shame. Oh tree what if grace hates him now??? what if he thinks he's taking up too much space, too much resources, while providing absolutely nothing of value-
he is then promptly broken from his spiral by grace placing a plate with another, much larger portion.
"Eat," he says. Simon doesn't need to be told twice.
And as he's done eating, he feels a sensation he hasn't felt in years, probably since he was a child, before the quiet rapture.
Not not hungry. Not mildly satiated.
he then promptly escapes to break down crying because holy fuck the amount of endorphins in his brain from finally feeding it correctly feels better than anything in his entire life post-rapture.
also alt version: instead of miscommunication with Eridians, source of willing starvation could be rationing food on the Hail Mary after being picked up from floating in space. He does the thing with eating just barely enough to not take up resources, and rocky feels good about the new human immediately understanding the need to ration (if simon knew he would eat even less. he's the butcher, the convict. he doesn't deserve to have such limited resources wasted on him when there are better people to feed. he can manage. the stomach pains are almost ignorable by now)
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