The jingly celebration outfit that Rocky wore was probably Extremely Slutty by Eridian culture (going by what I know of them from the book I’ve yet to read)

I for one, fully subscribe to the idea that Rocky went a bit crazy in his decades of solitude and became a nudist as a result. He fully set himself free from the buttoned up collar modesty of Eridian society, eating included.

Because Eridians all normally wearing clothing makes total sense for echolocation rock folk. The texture and shape of the fabric ‘blurs’ the 3d image others hear. Even more so if the fabric is thick and sound absorbing. So him wearing a sweater in the books makes sense.

Now, for a eridian to dress up and want be the center of attention, they would want to wear something that is literally loud. Crinkly fabrics, lots of jewelry. A chain mail dress to them would be a sequin dress to us. But to wear such outfits ‘respectably’ is wear them while still wearing underwear. Be cause if you let the decoration bounce against your core, the metal colliding with the stone body will echo and show everyone your hole by sound alone.

And to wear Only the loudest jewelry ever while totally naked?? That’s down right public indecency. The kinda stunt pulled by streakers running across a public sports field for the attention.

The truth comes out about this aspect of Eridian culture over half way to Erid. When it fully hits Rocky that he’s going home and gonna be surrounded by Eridians again. So he should probably start wearing cloths again.

Rocky does not say anything to Grace about it at first, just starts slowly wearing more and more cloths again. Until the day that Grace asks Rocky if he made himself these little outfits to emulate human culture. Something Grace thinks is a really sweet gesture of friendship between species.

I think this ship (spaceship) is really funny

Let's take away the Butcher. Totally cut that out of the picture.

Let's take away Eden's fanaticism and the C.O.I.'s "reconditioning" and the Iron Lung ever being a thing.

Let's give Simon the time to shine. He has nothing else to focus on but himself for a long enough time to be okay with that.

Who would Simon be?

Well, the obvious answer is "oh he's Markiplier." Here's a link for my reasoning behind this take. Let me plead my case!

Simon didn't get Earth, though. He got Mars on the horizon for a few years of his life, and a space station (Eden) that might as well have been shot back into medieval times.

So, what do we do?

We sci-fi-ify Markiplier, sprinkle in some dirt, half a tablespoon of Never Went To Therapy, and shake it around in a jar.

Examples:

Mark's van project -> Simon's (definitely stolen) starspeeder project

Mark builds computers -> Simon brute forces his old tech to keep working because he's too stubborn to stop messing with it

Mark loves space -> Simon loves space (too bad it's gone)

Mark is totally not a masochist -> Simon is totally not a sadist (uneasy about this one since the movie came out on streaming but I think hurting people for so long crossed a Singular Wire in his head)

Mark's ADHD -> Simon's ADHD (space edition)

Mark can't drink -> Alcohol makes Simon unbearably sick (it doesn't stop him)

Mark occasionally needs reading glasses -> Guess who's blind because he never saw an optometrist once in his life

Also, people like to imagine Simon with a dog, so hear me out on this evil idea of mine: Simon has heard about animals via his basic schooling, through textbooks and his elders (the ones still alive to tell tales of the planets.)

But Simon just becomes enraptured with this so-called man's best friend. Eden's lonely as fuck. So, he makes one up. A fabrication when things get hard.

Simon doesn't really know what a dog looks like though, so he'd imagine it maybe a little wrong.

Yes, I'm whump-ifying your dog fix-it fics *evil laugh*

You all saw how fast he adapted to getting lost in the tunnels.

Anyway,

Some platonic Bloodymary except Simon gets to finally be allowed to nerd out at the things he's been dying to for years, and Grace gets to watch his spark come back in real time.

It's Mark's nerdy, enthusiastic, contagious love for oddly specific but incredibly fascinating things that never got to see the light of day. His optimistic approach to things mixed with his ego causes him to dive head-first into everything he can, the moment he realizes he won't be shunned for it.

Simon would love to get into real education on his own time. Eden didn't do much with him because they didn't need a thinking individual, they needed a strong-arm.

Simon not getting taught past age 15 since that was the year the Quiet Rapture happened, and Eden Station fell into psychosis/cult behavior

Simon's anger issues getting in the way of him learning sometimes (we all know how homework can be infuriating!) But his determination outweighs his anger most times.

There are other times where he genuinely has to walk away to cool off at a problem he is struggling with, but he always tries again later.

He'd be more mad at himself fucking up during the learning process rather than the actual challenge, because mistakes were unacceptable on Eden and that mindset bleeds over into the mundane.

Grace basically having to make an IEP for Simon because of his conduct disorder and ADHD (<- I took this trait from Mark, sue me)

Grace telling him he has ADHD and Simon not knowing what the hell that means

"Does it mean I'm stupid" "...No?" "Does it mean I'm sick" "Also no"

Simon not having ANY idea of most health conditions because in Eden, you just died if you were sick. Nobody came to help you. Death was sacred and not to be meddled with.

Grace getting caught up in yapping, Simon nodding along with a piece of paper writing as fast as he can, and it's super sloppy but gets the job done

Grace letting Simon watch him do Science Stuff (I have not seen PHM forgive me lol), and Simon actually, genuinely tries to follow along, despite not understanding much

Grace stopping and slowing down his work to explain more complex things in detail for him, so Simon doesn't feel left out

Simon with a flimsy cheap cardboard notebook absolutely stuffed full of chicken scratch, rudimentary doodles, totally messed up pages full of numbers from him attempting to do the same math problem for way, way too long

Simon chewing on his pencils and Grace having to tell him to stop repeatedly

Diving into things head-first because he assumes knowing the bare minimum about something makes him the expert. Simon definitely accidentally breaking some machinery because of this.

Simon's not the brooding one, it's Grace. Simon's actually a pretty chill, optimistic dude when he's not in a life-or-death survival apocalypse land.

Simon who likes things bright and open vs cozy-seeker Grace

Eden isn't his entire personality. Killing wasn't something he really did voluntarily even though he is so scared that he might have at one point enjoyed that outlet for his anger. As stated before, he drew the short stick one too many times.

Taking some creative liberty from my own interpretation but Simon would have been SO chill about me-burgers. I think cannibalism got to a point where it was on the down-low. Simon didn't partake but he's definitely seen that line get crossed among desperate, starving people.

Simon not having fingerprints. Grace being Very Weary About That.

Dead-eyes Simon with no shine to them vs Grace who still has his sparkle, who watches to see if that sparkle will ever come back in Simon

Simon with anti-social / socially adverse traits but that doesn't make him un-friendly or Evil

Grace who tends to be the boisterous free thinker, and Simon who keeps trying to step up to meet him, because he was never allowed to. Simon being the Planner Guy and Grace being the Idea Guy.

Simon who just Doesn't Talk for long periods of time, but can get really into a topic and refuse to shut up about it (speak when spoken to doctrine vs internalized ADHD, go my scarab)

Grace getting Simon back into education, and Simon loving it so much that he bites off more he can chew, sometimes. The study reminds him of home, but in a good way. Gives him a purpose.

Simon who CANNOT sit still, who chews on his pens and fucks with things in his living quarters non-stop, and has to keep busy or else he'll just simply explode... the dude loves decorating with simple things, now that he's allowed.

Post-it notes everywhere between the two loving to scribble and take notes on things.

Simon being silly and sarcastic and a huge nerd about engineering, and how he was only confused about the Lung because of how rudimentary it was.

Simon being a standard Car Guy but with spaceships, who draws diagrams of them for Grace, who has never seen such absolutely wild technology

I don't see enough people do the culture swap thing with Simon telling Grace about things. Grace might have stories of a paradise compared to Simon's world, but Simon knows about future technology and at least hearsay about other planetary colonies that Grace would love to hear about

Simon who repeatedly demonstrates to Grace that he is extremely skilled in things that he never expected. He's incredibly handy.

Grace introducing Simon to the idea of religious freedom, and letting Simon come to his own conclusions about what he wants to do from there.

Simon lowkey being the yapper and not letting the language barrier stop him, so Grace has become a master at picking out meaning from word salad rantings (he fails on multiple occasions to know what the fuck is going on)