#mutated!simon

This one’s a bit rougher, but I hope it’s still a fun read. I decided to cut it off after a point tho, bc I could probably go on for a good while if I didn’t. But! This is a dip into how they got Simon and how that went. I can dive into the rest later. Spare me the editing lmao.

First part: Here

The man was heavy, but Grace managed to carry him to Armando. All the while, he simultaneously tried not to trip on Rocky, clothes, or corners and get a far better look at the man. He could feel the way he weakly breathed in hias arms, and now that he was close, he could see that aside from the teeth on his face, he seemed to have gills on the sides of his neck. I suppose that’s how he survived the ocean?

As soon as the blonde put the blood-covered man on the medical bed, Armando set to work removing the man’s ruined clothes and looking for wounds. Though, Grace didn’t leave the room. He didn’t let his eyes go further than the man’s pecs, but he did take some time to fully drink him in.

He could tell that the man was somewhere in his thirties, and when enough of the blood was wiped away, he could see that the man’s skin was a warmer tone than his and that his messy, shoulder-length hair was black. However, he didn’t dare look further to check for other identifying markers or mutations. He turned his eyes to the long pink-stained fangs on his face.

Grace wanted to feel them. He wanted to pull back the stranger’s lips and examine the set of teeth he could see between the fangs and poke at the gills on his neck. Yet, his common sense was stronger than his scientist’s curiosity. Helped a bit when Rocky finally broke the silence. “Why Grace stand over Grace-two. Question.” He asked, and the blonde snorted, “I’m just looking him over. He has impressive fangs across his cheek, and gills on his neck.” He reported, and the rock trilled. “What Grace mean. He looked human when carried. Statement.” So Grace traced his finger over his cheek so Rocky could see. “He has teeth here, and opening in his neck to let him filter air on his neck, here.” He traced over where the man’s gills were. Rocky still gave a confused trill, but he left it for the moment to roll around to the man’s other side and try to get his own look at him while Armando put a bandage on his cheek and gills.

Grace tried to reach out and remove the bandages, in case those gills were the only way the man could breathe, but a powerful hand snatched his wrist just as he peeled the bandage off. Mismatched, wild eyes met his for a brief moment before the blonde got yanked forward and slammed into the medical bed before he was shoved backwards.

The new man was up in a flash. He screamed something that Grace couldn’t make out through the rush of adrenaline that blurred his thoughts. Fear pulsed through the blonde as he laid on the solid floor of the Hail Mary, but he pushed himself up regardless of it when he saw the stranger kick Rocky away like a soccer ball. “Hold on!” He tried to yell, though the words came out more cowardly than intended. Easily drowned out when the ravenette screamed. “DON’TTOUCH ME! DON’T TOUCH THE BLOOD!” Though, he seemed to realize how overkill the scream was when he saw how Grace dropped to a knee and cowered. The blonde’s heart racing in his chest while he raised his hands to show his lack of weapons. A moment of heavy breathing and angry trilling passng between the three until Grace shakily tried again. “N-no one’s touching you.” He stammered out in a shakey, but quiet voice that seemed to ease a fraction of the ravenette’s tension. “I haven’t directly touched the blood. Please q-quit screaming.”

The man didn’t respond right away, but his mismatched eyes, one dark brown, the other a dark crimson, locked onto Rocky when the spider-like rock slowly rolled himself in front of the wide-eyed ex-teacher. His ball pressed against Grace’s gelatin legs as some form of comfort, while the new man asked with distrust thick in his calmer voice.

It wasn’t hard to tell that the man didn’t like the spider-like creature, but when Grace tried to answer, he was washed over with a woozy feeling. So, it was the spider-like creature that answered instead. “You are aboard Hail Mary ship. We heard signal and got you off of red planet.” Grace nodding along until he could assure without the threat of tears or vomit, “Y-you’re safe here. There’s no blood and I-I-I don’t know what a C.O.I is.” though that only got him eyed along with Rocky.

However, the ravenette couldn’t seem to maintain his fear for much longer. No one had ran in to save the shaken blonde, and neither of them had moved to restrain or hurt him. So, he tentatively let his shoulders relax a bit, but kept his eyes sharp while he reached up to feel the bandage that he’d finally registered against his cheek. “What is that thing?” He asked with his chin shoved towards the alien. Grace’s heart able to slow slighty since the man had lost some of the animalistic light in his eyes. “I am Rocky. Rocky and Grace here to save stars. Statement.” He explained with a stubby limb gestured between himself and the blonde who finally felt less like aspic. “How about we have some food, and swap some stories? I can explain where I’m from, you can explain where you’re from, and we can all get answers.” He offered gently with his friendliest smile. And, after a few more heartbeats, the stranger nodded, but stayed pressed to the wall. “How about we start with names? Mine is Ryland Grace, I’m a science teacher.” The blonde introduced, Rocky adding, “Rocky is engineer from Erid. Statement.” And, with a tiny nod, the ravenette offered his own name, “My name’s Simon. Um...nice to meet you, I hope. And, I’m sorry for attacking you.” and an apology that Grace waved away. “Don’t worry about it. I understand. Come on now, I’ll get us some food.”

The man introduces himself as Captain David, but he stumbles over the title like it's new to him, and even Grace can tell he wears command like a hand-me-down jacket that's a touch too big. He's at times friendly and chatty, other times completely closed off. He seems to have no idea how the Hail Mary got here, either, just says that one minute they were the only ship orbiting the moon, and the next their sensors had picked up another ship nearby. Grace has his theories, each more wild than the last, but he keeps them to himself for now. All he knows is that one minute he'd been on Erid, preparing himself for another day of teaching pebbles, the next he'd been back on the Hail Mary, orbiting around a strange moon in a starless void.

He's very proud to say that his panicked breakdown only lasted a total of thirty minutes, thank you very much.

Grace feels himself go a bit pale when Captain David confirms that, yes, that red smear across the surface of the moon below them is a vast ocean of human blood. In a momentary lapse of his more stern demeanour, David admits that if it had been up to him, he would have taken his crew and ship and left the moon AT-5 far behind. Several former crew had lost their lives gaining evidence that AT-5 was more dangerous than it first appeared, and that there were monsters lurking in its depths that preyed on anyone who dared travel below the churning waves. But despite this evidence, the council that David serves has apparently ordered his ship to remain in orbit to study the moon further, so they've been forced to stay.

The only good thing, David says with a laugh that contains no humour at all, is that the worst of the monsters just recently washed up on one of the moon's shores, dead. He shows Grace pictures of a massive creature, with teeth longer than Grace is tall. Its body is so long that it rivals the Hail Mary herself, its tail a horrifying mass of human limbs where fins should be. Wrapped around its entire length, however, is a colossal tree, its roots twining through the monster's body while the trunk emerges straight through its skull. The tree's limbs spread wide over the rocky beach that the monster has washed up on, its branches full of leaves despite the fact that the moon should lack any atmosphere.

Then David explains that, somehow, the area around the tree has air, and Grace is suddenly having flashbacks to his first encounters with xenonite. Up is down all over again, apparently.

He eventually figured that stuff out, though, and his curiosity starts to take hold of him. Everything about this situation is just so strange. David and his crew have been studying AT-5 for months now, but with their limited supplies and equipment, they haven't had much luck with sorting anything out. Grace, however, has all of the Hail Mary's considerable lab space at his disposal. He needs to figure out a way to get back home, of course, but maybe he can solve the mystery of this strange moon and all of its oddities while he's at it.

He and David come to an agreement, and just like that Grace finds himself the head of research on AT-5.

I'm actually gonna start tho with the doodles i did BEFORE the movie came out! Back when it was known as "Confish" and...what can I say i love me some creature, but that explains why there's some inaccuracies in this bunch:

And now we got the ones i did AFTER the movie!! So these are much more accurate!

Oh and uh bonus Convineer at the last doodle cause I say so >:/

Tbh, I’m not super sure what this is. It was originally supposed to be a simple oneshot going into how I imagine Grace and Rocky get Simon, but I decided to split it into two chapters for the sake of my sanity during editing, so I dunno anymore. I doubt this’ll be a full fanfiction, so it’s in a bit of a weird area lol. So, uh, just put your brains aside a bit and enjoy this neat look into Grace’s brush with Iron Lung’s world.

CW: Mutations, I think they could count as body horror, teeth/face, blood, I think that’s it.

Next part: Here

Ryland Grace woke up to the frantic tumble of Rocky as the alien did his best to circle the blonde’s bed in his excitement. His computer-provided voice informed the groggy man, “Wake up, Grace. Wake up. There’s a signal. A signal, Grace.” while he rolled around. “A signal?…From who?” Grace muttered while he rubbed his eyes and sat up to grab his glasses from where he’d left them at the edge of his bed. “Don’t know. Just know that there is a signal.” Rocky replied, quick to lead the way back to the cockpit when Grace’s feet hit the floor.

The blonde stretched as he followed his best friend through the halls of the ship. Once he was in the pilot’s seat, he looked around and hit play on screen that displayed the mystery signal. However, the sound that was played made him clap his hands over his ears. The shrill shrieks and crackles of technology filled the cockpit until he slammed his finger into the screen to turn it off. “Did you catch any of that, Rock?” The blonde asked once sweet silence had returned to the Hail Mary. “No. Didn’t sound Eridian.” The spider-like rock said, and Grace pursed his lips to think. That didn’t sound human. Is that the space ship SOS signal? He asked himself, taking a moment to weigh the options before he moved over to look out into the ocean of darkness.

He could see a small planet of violent red not too far below, but no ships. As far as the teacher could tell, the Hail Mary was the only one around. That’s not good...Mary can’t withstand entering an atmosphere, and I don’t know if we could risk another drive by like we did at Adrien. He thought while he stared down at the planet. If it’s another intelligent lifeform in need of help, though, I can’t just abandon them. So, how do I go about this?

He chewed on the question for a long moment before Rocky trilled. “Will go make chain longer. Then lower rocky down to investigate. Statement.” But, Grace ran to get ahead of the alien’s hamster ball. “Absolutely not. If we lower anyone down, it should be me. I’d have an easier time using my hands than you would in your ball.” “You need oxygen, and space suit not built for strange atmospheres. Safer if Rocky goes. Statement.” The spider-like creature argued, but when he went to go around Grace, the blonde scooted to block again. “You’re also stronger than me, and I’m lighter than you. You’d have a far easier time pulling me back in then I would you.” “Grace is strong, but too squishy, and Grace is needed for navigation back to Erid. Rocky go.” The stone spider insisted with a stomp of his blunt foot. But, Grace put his foot down. “No. You have a mate, you are not expenda-” “Neither is Grace. Statement.” Rocky cut him off with a forceful stomp of his foot to communicate his anger through the text-to-speech. But, the blonde shook his head stubbornly. The two at a stand still for what felt like an hour until Rocky finally conceded with a stiff, “Fine.” and stomped off to work on the chain. Sure to add with a claw jabbed at Grace, “But only because you have better thumbs. Statement.” before he turned a corner.

The two didn’t talk while the alien worked and the teacher pulled on his space suit, with the sole exception of when they came together to do the math for the chain length, then the additional length to accommodate whether or not they’d miss the source of the signal. When they deemed the chain long enough, Grace secured it around his chest and took a deep, slow breath to try to slow the way his heart thundered against his ribs. Then, he let Rocky lower him onto the planet as if he were a spy in a movie.

Miraculously, maybe due to the slow pace, or maybe because of something about the atmosphere, Grace didn’t combust as he was lowered down from the safest-yet-closest distance he could get the ship to. As a consequence, he was given plenty of time to drink in the new planet while he was lowered. “It looks like it’s some sort of red dirt. The sky also seems to be red, though that might be a misconception on my part.” He reported back to Rocky. His blue eyes scanned over the surface while he approached. “I don’t feel any insane warmth, either, so that’s good.” “Make sure your suit does not tear.” Rocky reminded him, and Grace snorted. His heart still pounded painfully in his chest, but so long as he fed what he saw back to Rocky, he could keep the anxiety at bay.

At least, until he was close enough to realize that what he looked down at wasn’t red dirt like they’d found on Mars, but instead a ruby-colored ocean that swished and swayed. “O-oh, looks like it’s some sort of water planet. Cool.” He said with a small, somewhat tense laugh that Rocky picked up on in an instant. “Do you need to come back. Question.” but Grace shook his head. “No. No, I’ll be fine. I don’t see any gasses coming off of it, and no bubbles, so it’s not acidic.” Hopefully.

At that point, he was close enough to take a better look around at the surface of the water, and while he didn’t find any islands, or land at all, he did spot a particularly dark spot about twenty feet away. Something bobbed at the surface of the water, ninety-five percent submerged, but the rough way the light bounced off of it gave it away. “Rocky! I think I found the source of the signal! I just need to swim to it!” He reported to Rocky through his helmet and sank into the ocean.

Thankfully, the liquid didn’t cook him alive or melt him into a puddle like he’d feared, but it did feel disgustingly viscous. Grace could feel the way the thick fluid lapped at the material of his space suit while he bobbed, and he quickly felt how much more effort it took to swim through it. It’s not blood, don’t think of it as blood. He tried to tell himself as he made his way towards the metal thing. Yet, it was impossible to ignore reality when the sickly sweet stench of sugar syrup and pennies wiggled its way into his helmet to make his mouth taste sour and his heart rate spike. Okay, new plan. Don’t throw up on yourself.

As soon as he reached the metal thing, Grace scrambled onto it as if it were the only piece of driftwood after a capsize. Once he was safely straddling the middle of the tin can, he took a moment to stare up at the sky and let his queasy stomach settle a bit before he looked the vessel over.

If Grace had the balance, and walked across the top of the small ship, he could’ve walked from one end to the other in about five steps. He couldn’t estimate the diameter from his spot, but it was still easy to tell that the thing wasn’t very big in that are either. All around, the battered ‘ship’ was more of a tin can that had been slapped together before it had been slapped around and chewed on by what Grace chose to believe was a gigantic, over-eager puppy and not some nightmare creature that lived in an ocean of blood. “Did Grace make it to signal source. Question.” Rocky asked after a moment, and Grace nodded. “Yeah, I did. It’s full of...water.” He reported. Then, he carefully got up to crawl forward and peer into one of the holes. Able to watch his own reflection dance in the surface while Rocky waited a moment, then asked, “Have you found signal sender. Question.” Though, before Grace could decide how to answer, a different face bobbed up to disrupt his reflection.

Grace had to clamp his jaw and eyes shut to hold back the scream that nearly escaped him. Don’t scare Rocky. Don’t scare Rocky, he’ll rip my ribcage out of my back if he panics right now. He told himself a couple of times, then, slowly let out the breath he’d held in. Only once he was sure his voice wouldn’t shake, Grace replied. “Yeah, I-I think so. I think it’s another alien.” and got an odd noise from the Eridian. Then, he opened his eyes again to look back at the humanoid face that was still there. The man’s eyes half open, rolled back in his head. Grace could make out that he had hair glued to his forehead, and the teacher could see how large fangs grew out of his left cheek to extend his otherwise-normal mouth. Was this a human at some point? Or, a mimic? He looks like me, either way… Grace thought as he reached down and hoisted the humanoid up with his hands under his arms- Arm. When the blonde pulled him out of the thick liquid, Grace could see that the man only had one arm and soggy clothes. Okay, so, yes. He was some sort of human. So, is this a parasite’s host, or a mutated man? How’d he mutate?

Grace shook the questions from his head. No. Questions later, get him out first. “I’ve got him, Rocky! Start pulling me up! He declared, and the Eridian was happy to do so. The teacher, meanwhile, gathered the stranger up in his arms and kept a tight grip on him while he moved back and got back into the water. He kept him tight to his chest while he paddled back the way he’d come until the chain went taut and he was fished out of the ocean at last.