the initial pov is simon waking up directly after his last moment of consciousness before Is Become Tree in the movie, then reliving each time loop over and over and over again with varying levels of confusion, panic, determination, and defeatism, trying to change things, but his loop starts ALREADY WELDED INTO THE SUB; nothing he does (seems) to change anything, he blames the eel he blames the ocean he blames the coi and eden and god and the light and the stars and everything and everyone and-
eventually the eel - whom has progressively gotten subtly and then dramatically LESS aggressive as the loops go on - says "actually im pretty sure these loops are your fault based on how you're the outlier here and i wasn't looping before you lol #eatme" and simon starts genuinely shutting down
but then the sub explodes when the eel is mid-taunt and the loop resets with simon really confused because that felt "too soon" and "but i didn't do anything this time" and the chapter ends - right after a linebreak, where the pov changes to grace and rocky, on not-the-hail-mary-but-close-enough-to-keep-grace-alive (erid-earth hybrid tech with four small chambers, each equally-split between earth and erid atmospheres, built by eridian scientists), with rocky screaming "TOO CLOSE TOO CLOSE BROKE IT BROKE IT BROKE IT-" and grace screaming "OH GOD NO-" and then the chapter ends
the very next chapter starts with grace pov at the very beginning of his and rocky's loops (which they all determine later were much, much longer than simon's loops but also much, much LESS than simon's loops, due to i-need-to-justify-their-ability-to-convince-erid-to-deveolop-and-build-a-hybrid-ship and also grace-use-eyes-help-find-origin-of-screaming-dying-man-in-space-ROCKY-THATS-A-WORMHOLE-what-why-did-humans-name-it-that-wtf as well as how they get to it).
grace and rocky actually get through the wormhole a few times before they "make contact" with simon and the loops sync, changing to instead start for both sides at the point in time right after grace and rocky (and adrian, whom cannot perceive the loops but if you think they're staying behind this time then they will YEET you to that wormhole mfer, and actually also two to three more eridian-oc crew members because this is a planned mission and they're all smart enough people to not let grace drive even one more time in his life) entered the coordinates that popped them INTO simon that first time, but until they "make contact" with simon the loops don't change and they STILL have to start all over again after the radio eventually go silent (simon dies) or they pop into other non-simon solid objects (four times; unpleasant)
"descriptions of our various random unpleasant deaths" ends up being the one thing that eventually dampens the oc-eridians' excitement to be there on a space adventure with Grace The Human Who Saved The Stars, especially once the two time loops are synchronized and all of them (and also ava and jack) start to remember the new loops
early into the new, synchronized loops simon peer-pressures/convinces the phm crew to help him get ava killed "just once, so she REMEMBERS IT just like i have to," and because i'm NOT a 100% softboy!grace enjoyer (specific preferred blend is 99.5% soft warm edges, 0.5% "they killed me. they killed me after i said no. they killed me after i kicked and screamed and ran. they pinned me to the last clear memory of green grass and earth's air and real sunshine i'll ever have and then they killed me.") grace eventually is convinced to agree that IN THIS SITUATION ONLY!!!!! simon can have a little murder. as a treat.
the "inciting incident" for simon's loops ends up being traced to simon ramming into the light while desperately begging to be "away from here GET ME AWAY"; the inciting incident for grace and rocky's loops was an eridian scientist successfully creating and testing the Magic Eridian Radio that picked up simon's terrible screams
idk what this would eventually resolve into other than possibly "simon leaves with the phm crew to the phm side of the wormhole, and while he never goes back and ava puts a stop to all pursuit, they don't actually know how to close the wormhole and grace IS genuinely a nice person, so they periodically send care packages through the wormhole via eridians who asked for "sample exchange" as payment, which helps biologically enrich grace and simon's biodome life
and then the ~wooing~ happens! potentially. i actually just realized this is a neutral enough scenario that it could easily be platonic for everyone, barring actual-eridian-married rocky and adrian.
or its a fucked-up enough scenario that the wooing starts over the radio without anyone noticing/recognizing it until simon is jailbreak-rescued by the phm crew and simon collapses into grace (number of arms is dealer's choice but i feel like after so many loops to practice on he'd end up with 2) and they get Really Gay
