forty7

They just started Star Trek.

The most explored Iron Lung relationship when you filter out PHM is Ava & Simon with less than 150 fics on ao3. Iron Lung fans even had to create a new tag just to avoid the ship since solo Iron Lung content is practically nonexistent on Tumblr since Bloodymary blew up.

I have this headcanon that in Eden giving your name, your real name not your nickname, is something very intimidate, because it is your the only possession that you keep through all your life and it is yours only. It is not like us that we have a name and a last name or more, for example I have two names and two last names.

In Eden you only have one name and thats it, and they wouldn't want everyone to call them by their only name, that is more special people, so they use the nicknames.

The nicknames in Eden are base in you role, in what you represent, Simon gets the Butcher, because his job is to dismembers the corpses of those who had die to feed the Last Tree, and because he has show to be violent in fights, he represents the violence needed to survive.

The last time that Simon give his name, when he gave it to Ava, was out of fear that no one would remember him, that he would pass through all that hell just to be refered as a convict without name.

The Eel has been the last person to call Simon by his name, but he didn't choose to give her his name, she stole it from him. Somehow, she was able to take it from his mind and twist what is suppose to be something just use by people who you select to give, and yet, she ripped it out of your mind.

Extra Grace + Rocky:

I think that when Simon meets Grace and Rocky he would introduce himself as The Convict or The Butcher. This nicknames may carry bad memories on them, but at least there are not as vulnerable as Simon. In addition, they also tell who he is, what he has done, and he can use them as a warning of what he capable to do.

Grace and Rocky, think is a little weird, but the play along at the start, "if that is what The Butcher wants, well we are refering him like The Butcher". Rocky present himself as Rocky, not trying to translate his whole Eridian name, and Grace, who has been referring to himself as Grace for a long time, just presents himself with his last name without thinking to much of it.

With time Simon grows out of those nicknames, he feel uncomfortable with them, because he has become something more than than a criminal and a bloody man. Rocky gives him an Eridian nickname, which Grace translate, maybe something in the lines of "survivor", "fighter" or "plants caretaker" something possitive, and it becomes its whole new nickname for Simon, who is quite happy and sensible of having gain another nickname, this time a nice one.

It is not until months, later that Simon looks Grace in the eyes and tells him that his name is Simon, and Grace, who may have forgot that he has another name by this point, confess that his first name is Ryland, and Simon feels even more close to Grace because he has also choose to give him his name in return.

Extra Extra:

I think that at some point Rocky and Adrian should translate their names, like all of it, using the equivalent of human names or words, it would be funny, I think, like maybe Rocky's real name is translated to "the most persistant eridian" or just eridian equivalent to John.

Extra Extra Extra:

-It can be fluffy, angsty, freaky, or all of them at the drop of a hat

-You can do whatever you want with it

-All AUs are welcome

-Aside from tag flooding issues and characterization complaints, this is the chillest ship most people have experienced

But the trend of making Simon super religious and view Grace as an angel, or something divine, has very much been noted. And I'm not really sure where it comes from besides taking an idea someone suggested and the entire fandom running with it

Simon himself states he's not really religious. He comes from what is arguably a death cult, which he already displayed some doubt in and questions regarding Eden's beliefs as a child in flashbacks, and has been out of the cult (technically, at least physically) for over a decade. While we can argue that while physically out, he may not mentally have made that jump, and I can understand if that's part of it. He still holds certain aspects in high regard, such as the tree seed/ sprout. He has a connection to The Guy That Told Him to Cross The Wires through them both being of Eden. He feels abandoned by the people of Eden.

But in a death cult, more than anything, Simon wants to live, and that says a great deal about how involved he is now. Which is to say, he isn't.

He states he is not religious, and when the conversation revolves around God, he says he'd rather not go there. Simon likely has very complicated feelings about religion and god and angels and divinity on a good day. And Simon hasn't really had a good day, like, *ever*.

Plus we're factoring in his time on the Iron Lung? Where his closest brush with divinity is the Eye. The pinhole god. The possible origin of the Quiet Rapture. He sees something terrible and horrific and immense and beyond comprehension, and while it helps, it also condemns him to a different fate. It has condemned them all.

I do not think Simon would worship Ryland Grace. I do not think he'd revere him as an angel. I don't think he'd have the near fanatical view regarding him that I've seen in some fics. And nothing against those. I know we're all having fun, and I know I am. I'm reading fics I come across with reckless abandon and glee

But I don't think he'd see Grace as something divine. On a pedestal? Oh yes, absolutely, at least until much later

But if we say he did see Grace as something divine? If he saw him as an angel?

He would probably be terrified

Like, the universe blinks and some space/time phenomenon runs afoul of Simon's elder god moment and the next thing he knows, he's waking up inside some kind of space ship(?) that appears to be running on autopilot.

It's weird and the tech looks both dated and brand new, expensive and advanced but also extremely retro, like someone using a diamond-encrusted rotary phone to check their emails. Luckily it's all mostly in language that Simon can comprehend, unluckily a lot of the equipment still seems like it would require several degrees of expertise to operate. But eventually Simon figures out enough to find the ship's crew, and... it's not looking good for them.

Two of them are dead. Have been for a while. Whatever stasis system(?) they have has preserved the corpses pretty well, but it's past the point of being able to try and revive them. The other is still alive, but Simon's not sure how to safely wake him up or what to do if that starts to change. He decides to just keep an eye on the situation, presumably there's a system that will wake the guy up whenever the ship reaches its destination, and if he starts to look bad before that point then Simon can always try to manually revive him and hope for the best.

Anyway, the ship has medicine and supplies, which he desperately needs. He figures the other two crewmen weren't planning on dying, so they can probably spare enough of said supplies for him. He figures out the AI well enough to start asking questions and eventually puts together that he's time traveled(?) or crossed into another dimension, that this ship is on a mission to figure out why the stars are going dim, or rather why there's one star that isn't, and he's not sure what to make of it but it seems he's also landed on another one-way trip.

When Grace wakes up, confused and without his memories, Simon panics and because Grace assumes he must've been part of the crew he just... goes with that. Grace thinks that he woke up from stasis early and that his weirdness is a result of isolation. He's a little surprised that there's an amputee aboard but it would be insensitive to ask, right? Not that a one-armed guy can't be an astronaut, yeah? Although Simon is also weirdly cagey about what his specialty is supposed to be and seems vague on the mission too, Grace assumes his memory also suffered some kind of an issue from being in stasis, he's just glad he's not alone.

Then they run into Blip-A and they're even more not alone, Rocky moves in, everyone does science, Simon still doesn't really seem to have an area of expertise per se, Grace keeps waiting to remember the part where Simon joined the mission (he's sure he'd remember him), Simon's kind of sweating bullets still wondering how he's supposed to explain anything, and then the whole fishing trip on Adrian goes pear-shaped and Simon uses like. Eldritch blood magic...?

Grace is having trouble computing that but he definitely saw it. So. Guess that explains why he's on the mission, if someone found a literal space wizard they would want them on the Mankind-saving mission, if ever there was a time for some kind of secret cult society of wizards living under the radar to come out in the open it would be now, yeah. But Grace can also see where explaining that to an amnesiac would be awkward and seem too hard to believe.

He has connected the dots!

Anyway he doesn't really notice that his Simon Joins the Mission and Reveals Wizards memories never arrive, he's too distracted by the revelation that Stratt forced him to go on the mission and he didn't volunteer, and then there's the whole issue with the taumoeba breaking containment and turning back to rescue Rocky and save Erid, which they both agree to do. By that point Simon has established himself as a presence in Grace's mind and Grace no longer considers him that much of a mystery to be solved (Simon's abilities are, Simon himself is not), whenever Simon lets slip something about like, competing for food or being in prison or in a cult, Grace just assumes he himself was pretty sheltered from how bad the situation on Earth was getting due to being in the Project Hail Mary bubble, and is like yeah okay Stratt double fair play to you, I didn't realize it was getting quite so Mad Max out there.

Now up until this point, Simon has done a good job of staying out of Grace's logs. Grace has mentioned him but in such a way that everyone on Earth probably thinks he's hallucinated an imaginary friend in the isolation and stress, like well damn he's cracked but at least the science seems sound.

Yes sure Dr Ryland Grace, your good friend Simon the One-Armed Blood Wizard is up there with you and the aliens, and for that matter so are all of us in spirit. Godspeed and thank you for your noble sacrifice.

Grace himself thinks that Simon is making his own reports, but when they go to send the beetles he's like, no we should do one together to make it clear that we're both agreeing to this and have come to this decision as a team. At which point Simon is just like, well... okay? Still just kind of avoiding conflict by going with the path of least resistance. So he smiles and nods and waves at the camera, and is like Hello Earth, Simon the One-Armed Blood Wizard here. Um. Yeah I'm good with going back to save Rocky and Erid too. Best wishes, and all that.