☆•Reaper•☆

-Okay so with the fact that Simon has seen James before when James got thrown into the SM-13 by the wormhole before he got corrupted (or til it got to that point of being irreversible) which was my 'Doomed Narrative' fanfic I wrote, that means Simon already knows James but now the only difference is that James is all corrupted with his cracks and affect mentality from the paradox, because when they first met James wasn't at that point yet and it was in the begin and then Simon hadn't seen James since he got pulled back away from the wormhole.

-and I feel like James would get along well with Grace, they are pretty alike and I just know James would have a thought with meeting Grace and seeing how much they have in common with each other that Grace was like what he could have been if things were different for him, of course between them the dividing fact that James chose to go to space with doing all his training and then becoming a captain and he's in the middle of losing his memories and he's alone and this was all instead of being a college professor, while Grace was a teacher for middle schoolers and he was forced to space against his will to save the world and he lost his memories already when he first started on the Hail Mary and he's remembering things about himself as he is goes and he has Rocky eventually on his trip. Like Grace is similar to how James use to be before his paradox, and he lost that so he's more toned down compared to Grace. They have a lot of parallels and I think they can bond over that, plus it means Simon and Rocky are stuck with now two science nerds, everyone loves leaky science nerds that look like sad puppies

-As for how James gets on the Hail Mary Like I imagine James had gotten thrown into the Hail Mary after Grace had already found Rocky and saved Simon from the SM-13 and they are in the middle of heading to Erid, and he just get thrown out of a wormhole portal and crashes into an empty room that wasn't being used on the ship, causing a loud collection of noises both from things knocking over and James making noises like glass on glass and a collective of people cursing (which goes into James's collective hive mind of all his versions in this host body and the corrupted that causes it but thats a different story) and it sets off the systems of the ship with an foreign lifeform now on the ship. And like James is in his full suit, including his helmet on which the screen or viser of the helmet is cracked and broken so part of James cracked up face shows through when he angles his head and he is just covered in whats hard to tell if its blood or not and whether it was his or not. And like he just pulls himself out of the room and he would be bleeding if he was still human because I like to think he got thrown into the ship during a loop of his in which he was fighting someone (mostly Engie) and he was injured and then more so when he fell into the ship, but he can't bleed normally anymore due to the corruption so that area just cracks more like glass about to break and theres like an inky substance that has like an iridescent shine to it like oil but it's not, and it's very minimal amounts of it around the cracks that are more opened up and show the inside of him which is that blueish part of his scars/cracks. And he has like the blood of the other person on his hands too and he's just stumbling deeper into the ship knocking things down and causing the systems to go haywire. Rocky is like "what's that question? Is that human, question? Bad bad bad! Bad for ship! Grace Simon Rocky get thing out! Quick quick quick!"

-Grace and Simon are both like what the fuck is that thing and I imagine Simon actually has to fight off James at first because in his corrupted state James can be highly violent and aggressive, he doesn't know any better anymore because his paradox hha infected his brain a lot at this point. so Simon is like holding him down the best he can and James is letting out loud noises that sound like scrapping glass and multiple people yelling all at once like overlapping and distorted, which makes it hard to distinguish what he's saying (which they will need to make a way to translate to pick out the voice that's trying to speak because in normally speaking, James talking sounds like a group all talking over each other so it's like 10 different conversations at once, which does remind Grace of his students back on earth when they would all get noisy in class) and like Grace is like what do we do??? Why is it so mad?? All while Simon is try to keep James down so Grace and Rocky don't get hurt

-I also have a idea more a small thing where James had been there a bit after he arrived and they figured out how to help understand his speaking better (but they don't know how to help Rocky see him better because I hc that Rocky sees some of the other version of James in his vision, like a vibration so it makes James's imagine all weird and hard to make out more than it already is, so Rocky is like so not trusting of James because he can't see what he is) but anyways, like Grace is looking James's scarring and trying to study it with James's given permission while Simon sits off to the side to watch and make sure nothing happens because they can't trust James even when he's much calmer for now

-But like they are talking and Grace mentions he was a teacher for middle schoolers and James like perks up and states that he would've been one if not for other circumstances, and they start talking about their shared interest in their subjects all while Rocky and Simon are sitting together like they are like the same person... They see that right?

R: Grace teacher, strange man almost teacher... Grace become like that, question? Rocky does not approve, statement.

S: I don't think thats how that works, Ryland isn't gonna get all weird, cracked and spacey like that guy.

R: Grace, weird man both leaky, why are they leaky, question? Humans always leaky, statment.

S: what? Oh my God.. We left them alone for 2 minutes.. How are they already a mess?..

-And it's just Grace and James getting all emotional with each other, James in his calmer state just looking for comfort and Grace like panicked but still wanting human connections even with getting connection with Simon and Rocky

-Also eventually when they do get to Erid it actually helps stabilize James's paradox and corrupted, not necessarily stopping it but slowing it down enough and making it stable enough so James isn't in pain from it and he can speak more clearly and doesn't have as many flare ups and he isn't as aggressive anymore, and it helps stabilize James memory lose. It doesn't bring anything back but it slows down James forgetting more. And James would help Grace teach the pebbles the best he can, and I can imagine a few on the eridains are looking at like James like weird blue human?? Why look like shiny rock?