#1 Ortolan Bunting Enjoyer

I get it. It's cute. It's a sweet nickname, in isolation. For any other couple, it'd be fine. Great, even. I'd call it adorable. But in the context of Simon Iron Lung.

So many times.. in Iron Lung, does Simon completely reject talking about religion entirely. And when someone does bring it up, he is INTENSELY irritated.

Quote: "Do you believe in God?" - "Uh, let's not get into that. I hear enough of that talk on Eden."

I want to just start with a question: Why would Simon "RELIGIOUS TRAUMA" Iron Lung.. want to be reminded of his trauma. Because clearly even the subject of it is uncomfortable for him, and he clearly does not buy into eden when it comes to their teachings. He does everything possible to remove himself from Eden, in fact.

Maybe sometimes he parrots some of Eden's teachings, but I don't think it's meant with any sort of genuine "believing in it" as much as he is just referencing it.

Not once in this movie does he pray to any sort of god or saint. The only thing AT ALL similar TO EVEN THE CONCEPT OF PRAYER that he did was at the end, and that wasn't to a god. That was to his fucking MOTHER. And forgive me but it rubs me WAY the wrong way when in these fics Simon is "worshipping" Grace. It just seems so intensely uncomfortable to me.

Why would Grace be attracted to that? I'm decently sure that in the book and movie, Grace seems pretty neutral in terms of religious affiliation? I don't think he would be at all inticed by the idea of that intense glorification. He's just a man, a scientist. He is a man of logic. It doesn't feel "fun" or "kinky", it feels disturbing. He would NOT want to play into that.

Also, POWER IMBALANCE. If you are genuinely viewing your partner as higher than you, as some sort of actual angel, that's INCREDIBLY unhealthy! For Simon and Grace both!

And I know what I am, I am a white person- but this entire obsession with this idea of Grace as an angel and a savior to simon-- It's a bit "white savior".

That's all I have for now, but if anyone has absolutely anything they'd like to add, whether it be agreeing or disagreeing, just sharing a different perspective, feel free.

I would like to remind you - what I say does not matter. You do not have to change anything just because I'm saying something. You can do whatever the fuck you want. I am not attempting to police anyone on anything, or speak down on people. I may go on about this, but I have no disdain for people that do choose to do this trope.

but rocky and grace put the whole diplomacy thing in jeopardy by being too best buddy with it. like they're both really low level members of the mission. some engineer necessary for ship maintenance, and an obligatory molecular biologist they brought along in case they found more alien cells out in space. and these two guys like, somehow keep ending up hanging out essentially "at the back of the classroom." consistently left out of the actually important negotiations, and well, they're bored!

grace steals some laptops and starts jury-rigging his own personal translator for rocky, despite the fact that the official translation software is way quicker to learn and much more nuanced. rocky starts learning english, simplifies his eridian, and immediately starts mocking grace for needing the software. they start blabbing to each other about all the weird quirks of their respective cultures and advanced science their planets can do. the whole time they are ribbing each other about culture stuff. grace eats in front of rocky. rocky forces grace to sleep in a corridor somewhere so he can keep watch.

then stratt and the eridian leader find out and it's like

stratt: you. you've been meeting in private with a member of the eridian deligation?

grace: ... yyyes.

stratt: and you shared with them classified scientific documents?

grace: i... maybe gave him. a laptop. he's so smart! what was i supposed to do?

stratt: HIM? you've assigned male pronouns to a genderless species?

grace: he said he likes to match!

stratt: do you even know the name of this eridian?!

grace: i call him rocky :)

stratt: 😰

then on rocky's side of things it's like

eridian leader: sorry did you say you called the human after one of its digestive noises?

rocky: yeah :)

eridian leader: and. you've been telling it about how to make xenonite. one of our most vital trading resources.

rocky: yes yes, grace is very ignorant about basic chemistry 🙄

eridian leader: right. and you watch it sleep. despite the fact that all the human beings we have spoken to have described this as a cultural violation?

rocky: well he didn't like it at first but he came around!!

anyway both sides of the delegation are sweating profusely (metaphorically speaking) until they see rocky and grace in action and are like ohh! they're both freaks. we are not to blame for this. these two are just really bad at navigating cultural norms.

Like, Grace is in the bathroom, shaving, the curtain pulled to the side and suddenly he stops and says "stop touching my stuff". Rocky, frozen, somewhere behind him, can't fathom how Grace sensed that. He was so quiet. The razor is so loud. Grace's still facing away from him. What the fuck.