the cloud wants to read

One of your students is also one of Simon’s or Grace and they always forget their choir books and they always go down to your class to give them the book but it’s really just an excuse to see you.

Your apartment is full of different art projects that your students don’t take back once they’re graded but you never have the heart to throw away, so it serves as decor. Grace and Simon like it though.

Summary: Simon had a lot of questions about things ask a kid that he wouldn’t get answered when he was older.

Warnings: Gender neutral reader (as in no gender specific pronouns, features, gender identity, or anatomy). I think there’s like one use of name place holders. There could be more idk. A LOT of religious and biblical references like talk of heaven and angels. Canon does not exist here. It’s my fic, I get to choose what’s canon here. Rocky and Adrian are also here. You can decide if it’s BloodyMary on the rocks x reader too or not.

Author’s Snip: I don’t give a FUCK about canon. I threw canon in the Iron Lung and sent it to the blood ocean. I yeeted that bitch into the astrophage. This is solely vibes. This fic is an x reader for a crackship we made to make Markiplier and Ryan Gosling kiss each other. We were arguably moving more heinously back in the 2010s with the ancient texts (if you know you know). Don’t worry about the canon. She was never fucking invited. I listened to Mama Who Bore Me from Spring Awakening and RAN with this thought like a dog with forbidden food in its mouth. You can either run with me or get out of the way.

I’ll shut up now. Enjoy! And don’t be afraid to request. Reblogs appreciated but no pressure.

Word Count: 2.4k

“Mama, what do angels look like?” a little Simon asks.

Caught off guard by the question, she asks what he means. “Are they friendly or are they scary? Some people say they look scary.” he clarifies.

She thinks for a moment before answering, “They can be, if you don’t know what you’re looking at.”.

Simon backs himself into the corner of the stale white room as you and Grace try to calm him down. He wasn’t supposed to wake up this quick or have this much strength, you were slowly weaning him off the anesthesia to allow him to wake up properly, yes, but you were hoping that you could help him come off it. So much for calculations. He yells at you to stay away from him, screaming about the C.O.I., the eel, and demanding to know where he is. The loud beeping of the machines trying to alert that they can’t find his vitals because he somehow managed to get them off in his attempt to escape. You and Grace actually thought he was crashing only to finds him stumbling around frightened.

꒦꒷꒦꒦꒷꒦꒷꒷꒦꒦꒷꒦꒦꒷꒦꒷꒷꒦꒦꒷꒦꒦꒷꒦꒷꒷꒦꒦꒷꒦꒦꒷꒦꒷꒷꒦

Summary: After barely surviving an alien that took over your space crew’s bodies and turned them into grotesque monsters, you find yourself being rescued by more friendly rock-looking aliens who take care of you and tell you that you’ll have a fellow human companion once they know you’re okay. But in order to know that, you have to make friends with another, less conventional looking, one first.

Warnings: Gender neutral reader (as in there is no mention or specific gender, gendered pronouns, or anatomy). Mentions and description of violence, death, murder, and body horror, and the reader having witnessed it first hand. Reader has survivor’s guilt. Possibly ooc Simon near the end. Some use of “insert name here” abbreviations but thats because of how the Eridians talk, I swear its not the cringe kind. Simon and reader trauma dumping. Simon and reader needing therapy. We slow burning up in those bitch.

Author’s Snip: This was supposed to be based off of this idea I had where another fic inspired me, but the Simon portion of this was getting really long and I’m a little rusty with my fic writing so I wanted to be done with it. I will make a part 2 eventually if you guys really like it. But yeah this was supposed to be Bloodymary x reader but it’s just straight up a Simon x reader slow burn right now.

Notes: The reader is meant to be an homage/reference/based off of John Carpenter’s 1982 film The Thing but instead of it taking place in Antarctica it takes place on a ship like in the first Alien film. Just so nobody gets confused :)

I’ll shut up now. Enjoy! And don’t be afraid to request. Reblogs appreciated but no pressure.

Word Count: 2.1k

꒦꒷꒦꒦꒷꒦꒷꒷꒦꒦꒷꒦꒦꒷꒦꒷꒷꒦꒦꒷꒦꒦꒷꒦꒷꒷꒦꒦꒷꒦꒦꒷꒦꒷꒷꒦

It was awful. Horrible. A living nightmare. It all started when your crew found a lost spacecraft that went radio silent and shut off its tracking system a while back. It was a research and lab vessel, just like yours. It was weird. The second to last message sent was a rudimentary recap of its findings, claiming that they found “something” that they were unable to fully describe, but were currently evaluating it. Then the very last one was a panicked distress signal. The person sending it wasn’t making any sense. They just kept saying “This thing is killing us. This thing is taking us!” before it abruptly ended and went dark. You weren’t there to retrieve it. The protocol was just that all space vessels were to become recovery vessels upon discovering a distressed or lost one, so contact was made. It was an odd find. There was only one dead crew member found out of the supposed nine near the command board, a researcher. But it was reported that the ship's incinerator seemed to be hot from having been used. Your medic took the body in for an autopsy and your captain ordered that all data and logs be taken in for analysis to see what happened. That’s when all hell broke loose and things turned to shit. Once that Thing made itself known and started running rampant no one was to be trusted. Anyone could be infected and you would have no clue until they deformed into something grotesque and tried biting your head off. After a few run ins and deaths, your captain went crazy with paranoia. Maybe you all went crazy.

Like what if you have your own thing where you were sent off to space, experienced horrors beyond your comprehension and get traumatized, got found by the eridians and are taken care of, and Simon is there too. The plan is to assess you both and then release you into the biodome with Grace so he can have some fellow human companions as like a “We’re getting our human some humans so he’s not lonely” thing. But they also don’t want to run the risk of one of you being violent towards him so they see how you and Simon react to each other. It’s a little tricky at first because you’re both scared of each other but something happens where the traumatized look in your eyes let you know “Oh we’ve both been through some shit”. And so you two just sort of cohabitate until you two become really close and talk about your respective horrors.

But the eridians see that and are like “Oh good, they aren’t trying to kill each other and are being friendly. That means they can meet Grace!” and put you in the biodome. But like… Grace has a different flavor of trauma than you and Simon so it’s awkward.

Basically you and Simon are like two former-feral cat rescues who became bonded and don’t know what to do when you’re re-homed in a place where there’s an overly friendly golden retriever that wants to befriend you but like… is kind of a lot for you both right now. Did that analogy make any sense?

Simon becomes a regular napper after a while of living in the biodome and being with you and Grace. Once he accepts this as his regular life now he feels safe and secure enough that his body allows him to truly relax. He’ll usually have a nap between working on the gardens to get some of his energy back, when the three of you are relaxing together, and just whenever he has nothing better to do. He usually does it in the same room as either you and Grace, or Rocky and Adrian when they’re around. You and Grace because he finds the quiet sound of you working relaxing. Rocky and Adrian, mostly because of the whole “you need someone watching you while you sleep” thing but Simon finds that Rocky and Adrian are very comfortable to nap on.

Ryland has to ask permission from Simon to take samples from the plants for study. Simon has become a fiercely protective plant dad. When Ryland asks for a sample, Simon will look over the plant and point out ideal parts that Grace can take. He also prefers to be the one to harvest the crops because he knows when they’re ready. Yes, he talks to the plants and he uses a very gentle fatherly voice with them. He doesn’t do it around anyone because he knows it’s stupid and when you and Grace caught him doing it he was super embarrassed.

Simon has “interesting” sleeping habits that are caused by his time as a convict. Simon can nap-sleep anywhere just fine but when it’s actually time to go to bed, he can only fall asleep if the room is super dark because the facility he was being held at would most likely do “lights out” when the inmate curfew comes. Simon also wakes up super early because of his prison’s scheduling protocols too. He tries to sleep in but he just can’t help it. His brain’s just gotten so used to it that he just accepts it and either gets up to start his day or lays there with you and Grace while you continue to sleep. Simon also doesn’t move much in his sleep because his bed back in his cell would have probably been tiny and he’s a big dude so he wouldn’t have a whole bunch of space for tossing and turning. It doesn’t matter if the Eridians gave you a california king sized bed, he just lies still and only shifts slightly to keep away from bed sores. He does open up in his sleep a bit more later on but not a whole lot. You would think he’s a corpse if it weren’t for his snoring.

You guys have your sides on the bed, and by sides I mean formation. It’s you and Grace on the sides and Simon in the middle. He likes to be held. This is canon Mark said so. Though you guys do swap places being the middle sometimes. It’s mostly between you and Simon. Grace doesn’t like it too much because it makes him feel trapped and occasionally reminds him of when he was forced on the Hail Mary. He always preferred to be big spoon anyways.

I already established in my original post that you and Grace are married, that you teach another form of science, and your classrooms are right next to each other. Like you have those joining doors that classrooms have right next to each other.

You two are sort of the school’s power couple. Everyone on the staff knows that you two are married even if you two might have kept your last names. not like you two are PDA in front of everybody, of course not! You two are just so married that everybody within visionary of you can look at you two together and be like “Yeah. these two are married.”. It does take your students a minute to realize that sometimes though. I do like to think that you two will pop into each other’s classrooms to ask a question or get a second opinion if you think the other would have more insight on a certain subject or maybe even have a playful rivalry between your classes where you try to see who’s classes gets better grades. (In high school there were two teachers like that where they were married and would do that. Granted they taught different subjects (math and history) but you get it.) I feel like you and Grace would do that. All that to say that they can see that you two are very close and maybe even ship you two together till one day they get such a casual answer. Like one of them notices his wedding ring and asks if he’s married, then jokingly ask if it’s you, and then be shocked when he says yes and you’ve been married this whole time. It happens every school year.

Anyways! Simon! In this au Simon is a former engineer and marine biologist, best known for discovering a new species of deep sea eel (wink), turned teacher after an incident on his last expedition where he was solo and his submarine failed, resulting in him losing his arm and some burns that went up his lost arm to his face. He managed to get good graft work done on his face that you can barely notice it. He can still see out of the effected eye even though it looks foggy. He just wears a custom contact that makes it look perfectly fine. Unless you saw him putting it in or taking it out, you’d never know. But the burn scars are more obvious on his neck, shoulder, and overall side of his body. His clothes normally cover it up though say for the skin peaking out of his shirt collars. The only noticeable thing is his prosthetic arm.

Simon’s new to this whole teaching thing. He didn’t really expect to ever find himself being any sort of professor let alone a middle school teacher. His main thing was marine biology and engineering new technology for the field until the incident that nearly killed him. He’s sort of still recovering from the incident. He didn’t want to give up on it entirely but he still isn’t ready to go back into the sea so he settled on teaching the possible future of it through the kids… even though he doesn’t really know how to interact with them… or anyone.

Simon is a very introverted guy. He’s not one for socialization and never really knows what to say when he has to unless it was talking about his research and discoveries and even then it was very to the point. He hates it when people find out that he’s THE Simon that discovered the newly discovered blood eel (as he’s named it) because it’s all they want to talk about and they ask all these questions, and he just hates it. He hates being the center of attention like that. Most of his lessons are to the point. He teaches them what they need to be taught, makes quizzes and tests about the material, and answers any questions and grades accordingly. He takes his lunch breaks alone. His classroom is sparsely decorated. Again, he just got here but he also still hasn’t found his style like you and Grace have. But you two will help with that.

It starts when he awkwardly asks you and Grace for help on something related to teaching. That’s when you notice him and just sort of keep noticing him. You tell him to not be afraid to come and ask anything of you two. Your doors are always open. And that you’ll gladly save a spot of him in the teacher’s lounge during your lunch breaks, which you just happen to share. And then you give him some tips and suggestions on how to decorate when he decides that his classroom is too empty. Or ideas for projects for his students to do for different lessons. And then suddenly he’s just in your little click and he’s been absorbed into relationship.

He doesn’t know how he got here. You all went out for dinner after the last day of school one year and things happened. Now he’s your boyfriend. Obviously you guys don’t talk about it at work. Everyone just knows you as this trio of science teachers who are close and two of you just happen to be married to each other, but little do they know that you’ve all moved in together and kiss each other.

(And now I’m going to spend the rest of this talking about my hc on teacher!Simon)

Over time Simon finds his style

So Simon teaches basic and advanced biology along with the extracurricular engineering class, and is the coach for the engineering team. He does perfectly fine teaching the entirety of biology but his classroom’s theme leans more towards marine biology with a few things from engineering. I actually like to think that he takes a picture with his engineering kids when they win tournaments each year and in every picture he starts looking prouder and fonder.

His midterm and final projects are a scientific paper about an animal of their choosing and a detailed slideshow presentation about one of the biomes and ecosystems they learned about that year including the plants, animals, geographic location and landscape, and any threats they might be facing. He’s pretty lenient on what animal and ecosystem they pick, like if a kid wants to present for a very specific biome related to one of the types of ecosystems they learned about then he let’s them. But he lets the kids know one thing. The blood eel is the only animal off limits for the paper because too many kids tried to get an “easy grade” by trying to flatter him. Furthermore, you don’t get bonus points if your ecosystem slideshow is about a marine one just because he was a marine biologist. He’s not dumb, don’t even think about it. It needs to be genuine. That’s how he knows his marine biology propaganda is working.

He seems really intimidating at first because his teaching style is very no nonsense on the surface. He knows he’s dealing with middle schoolers here and their attention tends to wander or they want to goof around a little, and thats okay. He doesn’t get mad if a kid doodles on their notes, chews gum (even though the school tries to enforce a no gum policy) as long as they’re not sticking it under the desks, or on the other kids, or popping and chewing it super loud, or can’t sit still. As long as they aren’t interrupting or ignoring his teaching. He can tell who’s paying attention and who’s not through the grades and their demeanor. And even then he can tell who’s getting bad grades because they’re struggling and who’s getting them because they haven’t been listening. He still tries to help them but some kids just don’t care and he can’t cure “I don’t care”. Some kids just aren’t science people and if their parents get mad then thats on them.

Simon can still be fun though. He likes to keep the stupid doodles that the kids do on scrap paper that he found funny. Someone once made a papier-mâché anglerfish for art class and gifted it to him as decoration afterwards. The hall pass is an eel plushie that you and Grace got him. He uses his prosthetic arm as an example in engineering class of what perusing it can do. He actually does this thing where if he catches kids passing notes in class he takes them and tapes them to a board where anyone can go and see them. He literally doesn’t care what’s in them but he knows that if the whole class has the ability to know your business it discourages it. He does however read it very briefly so that he doesn’t end up putting sensitive information out there like a female student asking another for a pad/tampon. If thats the case he just quietly says “You may go to the nurse.”.

He says that he doesn’t have favorites but thats a lie. He does. But it’s not obvious nor does he ever tell, not even you and Grace. But he totally does. No it’s not the teacher’s pet. Or the class clowns. Or the try hard kid. But if you look closely you can see it. It’s the kids that actually care about what they’re doing without expecting anything. Those are the kids he looks out for.

Thank you sm! I don't plan to stop EVERRR 🩷

Some bloodymary x reader rambles for your consideration

(CW: Gender neutral reader, medical stuff, Simon having symptoms of PTSD and self loathing tendencies, & a few religious themes)

The discovery of the Iron Lung and thus Simon in the ocean of blood was jarring. He was barely clinging to life and surely wouldn’t have survived the trip back to Erid if it weren’t for your efforts with Grace and Rocky. He was lucky that you were the desegnated medic of the Hail Mary that managed to survive. No offense to the boys but Simon needed all the medical attention he could get considering he was missing an arm, experiencing cell mutations, and needed to be placed under a medically endured coma to give him a chance to heal. During that period, the three of you were scratching your heads (and carapace). All you could confirm was his name. But how exactly does a submarine end up in an anomalous planet thats just an ocean of blood? You didn’t know, so you needed to hope that he remembered. Turns out Simon wasn’t too thrilled to wake up to two strangers and a weird rock spider in a hamster ball examining him when he the last thing he remembered was drowning in blood and condemned to die, let alone find out he’s on an alien planet.

It’s a slow process on developing trust. It takes Simon a while to realize that, no, you are not there to bring him back to the people who sent him to die. You have no clue what he’s even talking about. And, no, you and Grace are not angels and Erid/the biodome is in fact not heaven. He’s 100% alive and safe.

Even when he was in the “I’m dead, this is heaven” phase, Simon was a little reluctant to let you tend to him at all. It was like he was a scared animal that still didn’t know if he was safe or not. You and Grace tell him he is but how is he supposed to confirm that? If you’re not going to send him back and you’re not angels then what are you? Why would you want to help him? He’s a convict! He’s done terrible things! He’s even surprised he lets himself think that he would earn the right to be in heaven. You try to give him space. Grace might try his best to worm his way into being friendly a little too hard but you let Simon take his time.

It starts with you providing simple check ups where you regularly ask if he’s okay and wants to continue and helping dress his amputation with little to no attempts at small talk from you. The most you do is ask if he’s feeling well, has any symptoms, feels any different, or has any pain. You let the ball be in his court if he wants to talk at all. It takes a while and Simon tries to fight it but the fact that he can tell that you’re allowing him the choice coupled with how gentle you are with him starts getting to him. It’s been so long since he’s been treated like a human being rather than a dangerous animal and he can see that you, Grace, and the Eridians care about his comfort that nearly makes him cry.

The ball gets rolling more after it finally clicks for Simon that he truly is safe. He joins you and Grace on your walks around the biodome that serves as both “physical therapy” and showing him around his new home. He eats with you instead of just taking his food and eating in his living space that you gave him. He partakes in conversation. It takes him a long time to tell you everything because he’s scared that if he admits to what he is and what he did then you and Grace will actually turn on him and shun him. But then again, he feels like he must because it eats away at him to see you being so kind and considerate to him. He feels like he’s taking advantage of your kindness and he hates it. It comes as a shock when you and Grace don’t freak out. You listen to him. And what really tips him over the edge is when you and Grace basically tell him “Well, you haven’t done anything bad since you got here so either something changed within you or you just fell down the wrong path.”. You’re still continuing to care for him and see him as a person??? A person who can change??? Who’s allowed to change??? To be complex and have the chance to redeem themself instead of solely seeing him as either good or evil and aren’t scared of him???

Can you tell Simon’s been trapped in the guilty convict mindset for a long time?

Simon doesn’t ask to become you and Grace’s third. He can clearly see that you and Ryland are a couple and tries not to get in the way of that. He tries not to see the little moments he has with both you and Grace as anything romantic and will even reprimand himself when he does. He lets himself stay as your friend and third wheel. Furthermore, you and Grace don’t really mean to make Simon your third… it just kind of… happens??? Like you just absorb him into your relationship till he’s both of your boyfriends. Simon just finds himself in the cuddle pile and you’re just sort of forced into having that “What are we” conversation and you all confess that you have feelings for each other and awkwardly decide to give it a go.

I love the idea of Simon taking on the care of the plants and gardening in the biodome. After he opens up about his life before being placed in the Iron Lung, you and Grace find that the task is very healing for him. It gives him peace to not only see plants but be the one tending to them. And if he’s ever having a rough time but doesn’t want to talk about it, he uses it as a way of grounding himself till it’s passed or he’s ready to talk.

Simon is a man of few words. Originally it was because no one ever asked how he felt or what he thought. But now it’s just manifested as him just preferring to be the listener rather than the speaker. Which perfectly contrasts to Grace being a chatterbox when he’s talking about his research and discoveries. It is a bit intimidating at first because he’s this completely silent big string guy with this deeply brooding and intimidating resting face, but that’s literally just how his face is. He just sort of forgets to display emotions sometimes. Grace and you are sort of the one’s in charge of being those displays.

He’s still getting used to physical affection. He still jumps and stiffens up when you and Grace hug him, cuddle up with him, or lean your head on him but almost immediately melts once the shock leaves. But trust me, he secretly wants to be held in you and Grace’s arms when settling into bed. Give him a little peck on the cheek to make him feel loved. Simon mostly displays his affection through quality time. He’s like a cat. He just sort of goes off to maintain the garden and comes in and quietly bundles up with you two when the day is done.

Simon still has a ways to go. He still has his moments. Still gets nightmares that he’s either back in the lung drowning or he’s back in his cell rotting away and this was all just a dream. Things that trigger flashback and his flight or fight response. Sometime he’ll even relapse into moments where he’s just so full of anger and rage, though he never aims any of it at you and Grace. You give him his space when he needs it, but you also stay by him and help him come down. Remind him that it’s over. He’s safe. He’s changed. He’s redeemed. He’s earned his freedom.

Simon knows that this isn’t heaven.

(CW: Gender neutral reader, medical stuff, Simon having symptoms of PTSD and self loathing tendencies, & a few religious themes)

The discovery of the Iron Lung and thus Simon in the ocean of blood was jarring. He was barely clinging to life and surely wouldn’t have survived the trip back to Erid if it weren’t for your efforts with Grace and Rocky. He was lucky that you were the desegnated medic of the Hail Mary that managed to survive. No offense to the boys but Simon needed all the medical attention he could get considering he was missing an arm, experiencing cell mutations, and needed to be placed under a medically endured coma to give him a chance to heal. During that period, the three of you were scratching your heads (and carapace). All you could confirm was his name. But how exactly does a submarine end up in an anomalous planet thats just an ocean of blood? You didn’t know, so you needed to hope that he remembered. Turns out Simon wasn’t too thrilled to wake up to two strangers and a weird rock spider in a hamster ball examining him when he the last thing he remembered was drowning in blood and condemned to die, let alone find out he’s on an alien planet.

It’s a slow process on developing trust. It takes Simon a while to realize that, no, you are not there to bring him back to the people who sent him to die. You have no clue what he’s even talking about. And, no, you and Grace are not angels and Erid/the biodome is in fact not heaven. He’s 100% alive and safe.

Even when he was in the “I’m dead, this is heaven” phase, Simon was a little reluctant to let you tend to him at all. It was like he was a scared animal that still didn’t know if he was safe or not. You and Grace tell him he is but how is he supposed to confirm that? If you’re not going to send him back and you’re not angels then what are you? Why would you want to help him? He’s a convict! He’s done terrible things! He’s even surprised he lets himself think that he would earn the right to be in heaven. You try to give him space. Grace might try his best to worm his way into being friendly a little too hard but you let Simon take his time.

It starts with you providing simple check ups where you regularly ask if he’s okay and wants to continue and helping dress his amputation with little to no attempts at small talk from you. The most you do is ask if he’s feeling well, has any symptoms, feels any different, or has any pain. You let the ball be in his court if he wants to talk at all. It takes a while and Simon tries to fight it but the fact that he can tell that you’re allowing him the choice coupled with how gentle you are with him starts getting to him. It’s been so long since he’s been treated like a human being rather than a dangerous animal and he can see that you, Grace, and the Eridians care about his comfort that nearly makes him cry.

The ball gets rolling more after it finally clicks for Simon that he truly is safe. He joins you and Grace on your walks around the biodome that serves as both “physical therapy” and showing him around his new home. He eats with you instead of just taking his food and eating in his living space that you gave him. He partakes in conversation. It takes him a long time to tell you everything because he’s scared that if he admits to what he is and what he did then you and Grace will actually turn on him and shun him. But then again, he feels like he must because it eats away at him to see you being so kind and considerate to him. He feels like he’s taking advantage of your kindness and he hates it. It comes as a shock when you and Grace don’t freak out. You listen to him. And what really tips him over the edge is when you and Grace basically tell him “Well, you haven’t done anything bad since you got here so either something changed within you or you just fell down the wrong path.”. You’re still continuing to care for him and see him as a person??? A person who can change??? Who’s allowed to change??? To be complex and have the chance to redeem themself instead of solely seeing him as either good or evil and aren’t scared of him???

Can you tell Simon’s been trapped in the guilty convict mindset for a long time?

Simon doesn’t ask to become you and Grace’s third. He can clearly see that you and Ryland are a couple and tries not to get in the way of that. He tries not to see the little moments he has with both you and Grace as anything romantic and will even reprimand himself when he does. He lets himself stay as your friend and third wheel. Furthermore, you and Grace don’t really mean to make Simon your third… it just kind of… happens??? Like you just absorb him into your relationship till he’s both of your boyfriends. Simon just finds himself in the cuddle pile and you’re just sort of forced into having that “What are we” conversation and you all confess that you have feelings for each other and awkwardly decide to give it a go.

I love the idea of Simon taking on the care of the plants and gardening in the biodome. After he opens up about his life before being placed in the Iron Lung, you and Grace find that the task is very healing for him. It gives him peace to not only see plants but be the one tending to them. And if he’s ever having a rough time but doesn’t want to talk about it, he uses it as a way of grounding himself till it’s passed or he’s ready to talk.

Simon is a man of few words. Originally it was because no one ever asked how he felt or what he thought. But now it’s just manifested as him just preferring to be the listener rather than the speaker. Which perfectly contrasts to Grace being a chatterbox when he’s talking about his research and discoveries. It is a bit intimidating at first because he’s this completely silent big string guy with this deeply brooding and intimidating resting face, but that’s literally just how his face is. He just sort of forgets to display emotions sometimes. Grace and you are sort of the one’s in charge of being those displays.

He’s still getting used to physical affection. He still jumps and stiffens up when you and Grace hug him, cuddle up with him, or lean your head on him but almost immediately melts once the shock leaves. But trust me, he secretly wants to be held in you and Grace’s arms when settling into bed. Give him a little peck on the cheek to make him feel loved. Simon mostly displays his affection through quality time. He’s like a cat. He just sort of goes off to maintain the garden and comes in and quietly bundles up with you two when the day is done.

Simon still has a ways to go. He still has his moments. Still gets nightmares that he’s either back in the lung drowning or he’s back in his cell rotting away and this was all just a dream. Things that trigger flashback and his flight or fight response. Sometime he’ll even relapse into moments where he’s just so full of anger and rage, though he never aims any of it at you and Grace. You give him his space when he needs it, but you also stay by him and help him come down. Remind him that it’s over. He’s safe. He’s changed. He’s redeemed. He’s earned his freedom.

Simon knows that this isn’t heaven.

When you and Ryland found Simon, he was injured, screaming, and feeble attempting to fight you off.

It took approaching him like a wild animal, showing him your lack of weapons, and sending Ryland out of the room to get him to let you look at him.

Once he was back on the hail mary and his wounds were clean and bandaged, he slept.

He slept a lot. You checked on him frequently, his vitals. You explained amputation to Rocky ("where friend arm question?") Moved him as he slept to keep bedsores and atrophy away.

When he woke, he was delirious. You were gentle, introduced him to Ryland and rocky (who he genuinely believes for a while is a hallucination for a while)

He thinks the two of you are angels. His saviors.

You do frequent medical checks on Simon, Ryland there to keep him calm and distract him as you examine him.

Eventually he starts leaning into the touches, tailing you guys around the ship. Simon cries in his sleep unless the three of you are crammed into one bed, so now they've been pushed together.

You and Ryland love it, curling into the worshipful convict and showing him how to be gentle.

He tries to be helpful, he really does. But hes clumsy, unused to the handicap of missing an arm and knowing next to nothing about science or medicine. But he's very supportive.

Simon is convinced that you and Ryland can do anything, that you're the strongest, smartest people in the universe.

He thinks of rocky as a threat at first, because rocky often teases you guys (calling you weird/gross/stupid) and you have to be really patient with him and explain thats just the relationship you have with the eridian.

Rocky not understanding that Simon doesnt like him that much making him a robot arm ("friend simon small arm inefficient. Rocky fix") and Simon crying and because he's realizing that nobody's angry at him here and theres no cruelty on your ship

He gathers you and Ryland (and rocky, who refuses to let such a meeting take place without him, for science)

But then...you don't. Youve been through so much between the two of you that you accept it with open arms and curiosity.

he'd rub the back of his neck, shuffling his feet, ect. Nervous, sure this is where you dump him off somewhere as he explains it, the space station, accidentally signing Jack's death warrant, being the butcher.

You rub his back, reassuring him that it was okay, that you still love him. But you had questions.

Mostly about the science of everything, and about why he did what he did, his experiences. Which he gives, its like weight off his chest.

Ryland is curious about the quiet rapture, Rocky wants to know what the words he said meant and about the ocean, you wanted to know why (and consistently reassured him that no matter the situation he was in or what he did that he was loved and cared for)

He thinks it again staring out the hull window, he seemed to be counting the stars. He hadn't ever seen so many before, he asks Ryland if theres always that many and Ryland explains the "birth" of stars to him, that there will always be stars like this.

And again when he's given painkillers, he was still hurting, aching from where his arm was pulled away. He had been trying to brave through it but you noticed, and offered him some medicine. He insisted he wasnt sick, you promised there was enough and he wasnt wasting any.

Its much the same with rations, upon discovering how little he was taking to eat and drink. You and Ryland assured him that it was okay, that the ship was stocked for 4 human crew members, he could eat.

He was sure he was dead when he watched Ryland burn himself and run to you, rocky ribbing him and all of you laughing. He watched how sure Ryland was that despite how small and preventable the injury was and how you called him stupid, that you would help him.

More sure when you let him crawl into bed with you, let him curl up to chase the night terrors away. Rubbing his back as he whimpered and mumbled unintelligible pleas for you not to leave.

And when Ryland comes to curl up in bed and finds his spot taken, he laughs, ruffles Simon's hair, and pushes another bed over to make space.

When you and Ryland found Simon, he was injured, screaming, and feeble attempting to fight you off.

It took approaching him like a wild animal, showing him your lack of weapons, and sending Ryland out of the room to get him to let you look at him.

Once he was back on the hail mary and his wounds were clean and bandaged, he slept.

He slept a lot. You checked on him frequently, his vitals. You explained amputation to Rocky ("where friend arm question?") Moved him as he slept to keep bedsores and atrophy away.

When he woke, he was delirious. You were gentle, introduced him to Ryland and rocky (who he genuinely believes for a while is a hallucination for a while)

He thinks the two of you are angels. His saviors.

You do frequent medical checks on Simon, Ryland there to keep him calm and distract him as you examine him.

Eventually he starts leaning into the touches, tailing you guys around the ship. Simon cries in his sleep unless the three of you are crammed into one bed, so now they've been pushed together.

You and Ryland love it, curling into the worshipful convict and showing him how to be gentle.

He tries to be helpful, he really does. But hes clumsy, unused to the handicap of missing an arm and knowing next to nothing about science or medicine. But he's very supportive.

Simon is convinced that you and Ryland can do anything, that you're the strongest, smartest people in the universe.

He thinks of rocky as a threat at first, because rocky often teases you guys (calling you weird/gross/stupid) and you have to be really patient with him and explain thats just the relationship you have with the eridian.

Rocky not understanding that Simon doesnt like him that much making him a robot arm ("friend simon small arm inefficient. Rocky fix") and Simon crying and because he's realizing that nobody's angry at him here and theres no cruelty on your ship