So My BFF Made Me Make A Page

I actually wanna toy around with the idea that Simon’s fear for Grace overpowers any discomfort he has for Rocky. Simon has faced way worse, he can handle a rock trapped in some ball (What he thinks anyway). I never see these two allowed to be friends pre-Erid so boom, unlikely besties. Now they don’t become friends immediately, but Simon was able to warm up to Rocky significantly sooner. Rocky is just so inhuman looking but also so non threatening appearing that Simon’s mind kinda tricks him into acting like Rocky is an inanimate object. So he’s able to let his guard down.

Other tidbits:

- For the first month, Simon preferred that Rocky’s translator was turned off whenever they were to be alone together for a long time. Anything to make Rocky as non human as possible. And he also just enjoys how Rocky sounds.

- Rocky having no definitive face brings Simon comfort.

- Ryland becomes a little envious of Rocky after a while because he so desperately wants to connect with Simon but can’t. Meanwhile Rocky does it with ease.

- Simon laughs for the first time after sticking a bunch of sticky notes on Rocky.

- The first time Simon looks at Ryland’s face, post his awakening, was by total accident. He and Rocky got into a playful argument when Rocky suddenly left to find Ryland to get his opinion. Simon followed and begun to argue his case, unaware he was consistently looking at Ryland. Once he realizes he quickly left. Panicked but not necessarily scared. This was also the first time Ryland saw Simon smile.

- Simon actually really wanted to bond with Ryland, but his paranoia was stronger.

- Ryland started to leave notes for Simon to limit how much they needed to talk.

- They both 100% cried whenever they first hugged. At least like an hour of just hugs and tears.

I'm really happy with how Mark's head turned out

Patron saints of one way voyages try the cake challenge

SUMMARY:

Grace and Rocky find Simon preserved half alive in the tree that grows from his pendant, and they take him back to the ship under quarantine, heavily irradiated, but Grace is desperately hopeful he might be able to save the only other human he might ever see again. Rocky is VERY unsure if this is a good choice. Simon is convinced the two of them are an elaborate, maybe indulgent, hallucination.

After weeks of tests and medical checkups, Simon is cleared from quarantine, still technically WITH radiation symptoms, but nothing that will hurt the others. Grace shows him the stars, and Simon feels very conflicted about it.

The longer Simon spends on the ship, the more signs of The Blood Ocean begin showing up through the Hail Mary, and though Grace was convinced he could help Simon work through HIS hallucinations, he wasn't prepared to start experiencing a very similar reality.