Vale_Wright42

100% he thinks grace has cabin fever

Simon gets turned into a monster by the blood ocean as we see but the glass in the Eden tree seed pendent cracks and it absorbs the nutrient rich blood and explodes in sudden rapid growth into a mighty bright red maple tree that gets nicknamed the Cain tree

The tree growth from the blood is so rapid that even when it seems to stop, it’s still growing at the speed of bamboo so you can constantly hear creaking when you’re near it

Enough of the blood ocean was absorbed to reveal some islands that COI can investigate and make a base on to monitor the tree and the blood ocean levels

Ava who only just survived the failed rescue mission (they call her the cockroach of women you just can’t kill her) finds a smaller fucked up blood monster that is surprisingly humanoid, lurking around the tree base watching the scientists with suspicion. Upon closer inspection she realised with horror that this is what remains of the convict she sent to die, reanimated and corrupted by the blood ocean into something feral and monstrous.

mer Simon seems feral and dangerous, even snatching one of the workers on the tree base who was trying to collect a bark sample. The team notice in horror that the blood ocean level rises some when mer Simon drags the body into the ocean

The team think he’s trying to feed the blood ocean but he’s actually protecting and feeding the Cain tree, that blood ocean is what’s feeding it after all and it’s gonna run out one day surely

No one is allowed to attempt to approach him without a harpoon incase of another… incident

Simon is still in there somewhere, back to his old butcher job ways, feeding his precious tree with bodies but the last shred of sanity in him has him watching and waiting to only kill those he deems worthy of his wrath

The sap from the tree is very rich in nutrition and calories but drinking too much induces madness that makes you want to kill yourself on or near the tree. mer Simon then gets to collect the body and add it to the blood ocean

Mer Simon always finishes off his victims on land before dragging the body to the blood ocean despite him being much stronger and faster in the blood, perhaps a mercy on his part to make his victims not suffer

Mer Simon does not like the scientists tapping his precious tree but the sap is incredibly useful and nutritious in small doses so they have a prison warden bring down another convict to offer the mer as a sacrifice to bargain with him. He watches and listens from the blood as they explain the deal and the bound convict begs for his life, he slowly emerges from the blood ocean towards the pair and looks over the offered convict before slashing his bounds with his claws and pouncing on the warden instead, killing him quickly and effectively. Ava does not give the order to shoot or stop this

The spared convict gets hired as a worker on the base keeping an eye out for the mer and doing whatever odd risky job the scientists don’t want to risk doing but he is alive at least

The convict tries talking to the mer and was surprised (and naturally terrified) when it emerged from the blood ocean to chill and listen to him. After hours of the convict talking, telling stories and thanking the mer for not killing him, the mer slowly as not to startle him, gives him the remains of the Eden glass token the maple tree burst from, connecting the dots of where the tree came from and upon sharing this with the scientists, the convict gains their respect and gratitude (still gotta work but the team are nicer about it and use his name ((I don’t know what that name is yet but I’m open to suggestions))

Ava tries talking to the mer to apologise to Simon incase he’s still in there and to try and get him to do some tests or gather samples on him to see how he became like this. She finds that he is very radioactive and that touching him without protection is a no go. Despite that he oddly enough seems to want to get close so she dons full radioactivity protection gear and manages to get “blood” and plasma and skin samples from the mer while he curls up on her lap while she (awkwardly as she’s not the most affectionate woman) pets his hair to distract him. She tries to give him food rations but he refuses, either because he doesn’t eat human food, he doesn’t trust it or he selflessly doesn’t want to take the limited resources when the blood ocean seems to keep him alive

After taking the samples to the lab, the team discover that he is made of the same stuff as the blood ocean and scientifically shouldn’t be alive with how much radiation he is full of but somehow that same radiation seems to have repelled the rest of the blood ocean from absorbing him fully into the hive mind. (that combined with his drive to survive and force of will perhaps? Who knows)

His left arm seems to come from the body of someone else, upon doing dna tests the arm got traced back to the previous convict sent down in the iron lung (the same one who left Simon the note and Eden seed pendent) it functions as an arm perfectly fine and was warped into a mer creature like the rest of his body, it just bends at a slightly different angle as if it was attached quickly and blindly by something much bigger

Floating in the the blood ocean is the black box attached to the life vest, upon Ava befriending him he disappears for a few days and returns with it to give as a gift! The team rejoice and seing the black box fixed to the lifejacket with Simon’s dagger hilt, Ava breaks down at the full realisation of Simon’s Sacrifice and thanks the Mer, desperately hoping that Simon in in there enough to hear her gratitude

Jack the welder escapes from the med bay he was put in after getting blasted with radiation (he has radiation poisoning and some kind of deadly cancer) to find and cuss out the mer he’s heard about for closure before he succumbs to his condition. He uses crutches and a chair to get to the blood ocean and upon the mer poking his head out the blood ocean by the shore, Jack ‘lets the sopping wet bastard have it’

Mer Simon watches and listens unreadingly from the blood as Jack cusses him out until he gets bopped on the head with one of the crutches. The Mer attacks

Mer Simon gets in some bites, Jack gets in some punches, they end up tussling until Jack passes out (from radiation or exhaustion he doesn’t know) the entire scuffle was seen and recorded by the people in the base and they send the convict over in radiation protection to break it up/retrieve Jack to put him back in the med bay

By the time the convict arrives the Mer was looming over the unconscious Jack chewing on him but scatters when the convict arives

They bangage up and scan Jack in med bay while he very dramatically recounts the tale of his fight with ‘the feral beast man’ and the doctors are absolutely flabbergasted! Not by the story, they saw the fight and know Jack got his radiation poisoned ass kicked, but at the scans showing that despite him taking in more radiation, he is by some miracle of science, cancer free!

The team theorise that perhaps some kind of makeshift chemotherapy happened from the radioactive mer bites but they are all very confused.

Jack rings the bell they have on the ship and in the distance the mer listens.

After resting and the radiation poisoning fading with help from the doctors, Jack returns to the blood ocean shore to declare to mer Simon that they can call it a draw

Mer Simon hisses at him

Mer Simon has Fins and gills and powerful muscles for swimming through blood with relative ease. Can crawl and jump on land but is seemingly bothered by being out of the blood ocean for too long but seems able to breath just fine on land

Many Sharp teeth and an unhinging jaw with rows of more teeth like the eel

Red pigment on mer features but human parts are mostly human colour, if a bit blood stained and scarred from the painful transformation

He’s unable to talk but can make noises, point to things and press buttons to communicate eventually. Seems able to understand others but a bit slower to understand complicated instructions (or bored of long winded explanations it’s hard to tell)

They one day find him on shore investigating one of the computers and pressing buttons seemingly at random. Ava shoos him off incase he breaks or deletes something. She sees that he’s added to the captains log she was going to write for the day and out of sheer amusement she reads what he wrote:

————

Captains log | day 2753 | Cain tree base

FSGCDHVHBBCBN?/(£((;&(,(£(321)&£

H

JJGGJ&):?£&&

UUUUUUUUUYFGGUIIEFJIYDFGU(:£’bd

GGHVHJGVHJKKBBVSSSSNIIAMKONSSSSSSMON S IMON. SIMON

———-

Simon is in there.

After getting him to understand that it is not safe to touch him or be close to him without radiation protection he starts hanging out near where they keep the safety suits when he wants attention or if he has something to bring them from the blood ocean (usually a piece of iron, glass or computer parts from a ship but sometimes it’s something gross or terrifying like a giant bone with an even bigger bite taken out of it like it’s a cheese string to remind them what’s down there)

A bored worker who got dog vibes from mer Simon (who is a deadly, terrifying killing machine don’t forget) tries to play fetch with him by throwing something into the blood ocean that Mer Simon retrieves cause he was feeling helpful but when it gets thrown again and he catches on to the disrespect, a severed arm is added to the blood ocean and a new rule is added to the COI Code of conduct [DONT PATRONISE THE DEADLY BLOOD MERMAID]

As the COI continue their work and gain more of mer Simon’s trust and cooperation, they set him up with an old keyboard and cracked monitor that wouldn’t be too missed if it broke or had to be recycled. He only occasionally bothers typing on it and for a long time it’s just keyboard smashes and his name but he slowly seems to practice and remember words and how to type them, although it often takes him a lot of tries to get it right and the keyboards back space doesn’t work. This has a bonus however in monitoring how good his mental faculties seem to be working in this state. the convict one day sits with him and essentially reminds him/re-teaches him how to type and spell. It takes him a while but eventually he is able to share his thoughts and knowledge with the team in broken words such as:

———-

TREA TREE SAPP BLOOD BAD KILL YOU DONT TAKE

EDIN EDEN EDEN HOME EDEN HOME MISS HOME EDEN

NOT HURT TREE TREE LAST EDEN TREE MINE NEED SOIL NEED BLOOD LIKE EDEN SORRY

SORRY

DEAD CROO FGSGDFG CREW DEAD CREW SENT DOWN IS BIG MONSTER BLOOD EEL MONSTER EEL MONSTER TALK TO ME DONT TRUST EEL MONSTER WANTS MORE CREW TO JOIN MONSTER

BLOOD HUMAN HUMAN BLOOD OSHIEN VC DDF TY FGG OCIEN);??,((? BLOOD OCEAN OCEAN IS HUMANS

————

The team are confused and shocked by all the things mer Simon is able to type but for Ava the most shocking thing he ever types happens when she sits with him one evening to talk about the mission and her regrets and the impossible task she has on her shoulders and how very sorry she is that things didn’t turn out better for Simon.

Mer Simon leads her to the keyboard and types

————-

FORGIV FORGIVE YO HFVF YOU

I FORGIVE YOU

———-

He dives away into the ocean and Ava for once lets herself cry…

The next day Jack teaches mer Simon how to spell swears and insults.

—————-

FUCK YOU GUY IM NOT A DOG KILL YOU KILL YOU ARM GONE NO ARM HAVING BASTARD FUCK YOU BITCH

FUCK YOU JACK WHY YOU WELD WITH NO GLOVES ON YOU CRAZY BASTARD YOU TASTE LIKE SHIT FIGHT ME

FUCK THE IRON LUNGE LUNG IRON LUNG COFFIN WHO MADE IT SUCKS AT MAKING THINGS NOT KILL PEOPLE

SORRY ABOWT ABOUT RADEATIO(:6;;;((

RADIATON>#%^>%%%

BAD LIGHT

DIDNT KNOW SORRY

FUCK THE IRON LUNG NO MORE IRON LUNG FOR ANYONE AGAIN OR I FEED THE TREE AGAIN FUCK THAT

————-