Zorskish

No ref just pure vibes

My drawing without filters :

Love your iron lung analysis and stuff about Simon’s characterization. It’s definitely been helpful in my writing process!

What is your personal theory/headcanon for what the in-universe explanation for the harness Simon wears?

Thanks!

My personal idea on the harness has been mentioned repeatedly in The Other Side, my Just Blood Fix-It While Simultaneously Making It Worse™ fanfic:

It's also been confirmed that the harness was, indeed, straight up kink gear. It served a movie production purpose of holding microphones and wires, but in-universe, it serves no purpose other than making him feel like he isn't a piece of shit, sometimes.

(Been sitting on this one for about a week trying to find a solution with the variables available to me, and failing!)

At timestamp 00:31:49, the manual's radiation warning regarding the SM-13's x ray camera is on screen:

From the manual: "Upon activation, the camera discharges 7,400 millisieverts of radiation per ignition."

That's 7,400 millisieverts of radiation at the point of ignition. The fun thing about radiation is that it follows the inverse square law; double the distance from the source and the dosage received is quartered. So if Jack got the full 7,400 millisieverts (he didn't, there was at least some distance between him and the point of ignition so the dosage he received was probably slightly less than the full 7,400. But for now, I'm going to fudge it and say that he did to avoid the headache) then what dosage did Ava and David receive?

First have to figure out how far away Ava and David were from the camera. The only "definitive" point of reference that I have is David's/Troy Baker's height, which is 6'3"~ or 190.5 cm for my own sanity.

My first instinct would be to do a height/distance calculation by taking that 190.5 cm and dividing by the tangent of the angle from the camera to the top of David's head, however I don't have enough information to get that angle. I've been toying around with a few other ways to calculate the distance, but I'm usually missing at least one necessary variable.

Not giving up just yet, just taking a moment to bang my head against the wall.

Notably, if we establish that Jack was about 0.1 meters away from the camera and got hit with that full 7400 mSv, then if Ava and David were standing just 1 meter away from the camera, they'd only have gotten hit with about 74 mSv of radiation. That's about... 11-12 chest CT scans at once. For reference, your risk for cancer raises about 5.5% upon receiving a dosage of 1000 mSv.

Silence melts the super glue // Now you have to know I care

@bronzeplates’s fics virtual insanity & rearranging furniture have been making me insane for like the past two weeks, and I got struck with a vision to make a piece inspired by the latest chapter.

Close ups under the cut!

He has a big nose, but it’s not thin or hooked. His nose is bulbous with a thick bridge to it. There isn’t any sharpness to it, but still is defined by the hard bone and cartilage.

Eve, the mother of sin, who held the world in her hands and was cursed for not knowing.

Eva, director of the task force, who now holds the world, and still must curse man to save it.

Dr. Ryland Grace is part of the crew of the SM-7, one of the last science teams to be sent down before the COI switched to utilizing convicts after the equally-tragic loss of the SM-8.

He fought the whole way down, an involuntary position yet one he adapted to immediately in a fit to survive. When supernatural happenings beat out science for the final time, Ryland Grace perishes to the ocean, but not without having documented every moment for the sake of data. For the sake—the hope— of being heard.

Some months later, the SM-13 is hoisted down. Simon comes across the SM-7's black box, seemingly hot-wired to auto-transfer its data to whoever goes near it, thanks to the quick-thinking of its late pilot.

Simon spends the majority of his time down in the ocean listening to Dr. Grace's brilliant recordings, letting them play in the background as he works the deck.

Simon witnesses Grace's ups and downs, his fascination with finding life in the blood ocean, his distress when things go wrong, Grace crying and pacing the sub, Grace laughing to himself in an attempt to self-soothe, Grace finding failsafes in the submersible that save Simon's ass once or twice.

They're his only solace. The only human connection he has. The recordings and Simon's experiences eerily align. Things get more dire for Grace as things ramp up for Simon. They get scared together, they root for each other, even across a screen.

Simon, after being isolated for so long (or perhaps from a lack of oxygen), finds himself talking back to the recordings. Sometimes, he sees things that disturb him, and he walks away for a bit, but he keeps getting drawn back in to see more.

Dr. Grace is a great comfort to Simon, until one of the recordings address him by name. It's subtle—an accident—in the middle of a rant while he's distracted with navigating...

but it was clear as day.

Holding down a panic attack, Simon investigates the SM-13's terminal, opening the computer panel to check inside, only to discover that the terminal's speaker was never plugged in.

Anyway, psychological arthouse Hivemind!Ryland x Simon whump where Simon befriends a ghost via recounted stories and shared experience.

Simon: Huh? Oh— been doing spacewalks since I was a kid. This is nothin'.

Grace: ... wait you were going out there in what, a child-sized suit? Why not make an adult do it?

Simon: It was something we jerry-rigged. Kinda...

Grace: Seriously?

Simon: Yeah, I mean, it was logical to send me out there as much as I hated it. I breathed less oxygen which bought us time to keep the station together for longer. All the kids on board took turns doing the shit work on the outer shell, me included. It wasn't that bad.

Grace, holding in school teacher wrath: What could possibly be worse than sending a child out into space?!

Simon, scoffing: Oh, you poor thing. What, were you a late bloomer?

like grace looks at simon and sees someone who doesnt hesitate. someone who's strong, resiliant, confident, and resourceful. puts himself first. all things that grace thinks he doesnt have. maybe, if he were more like simon, he wouldn't have ended up here

vs simon who thinks grace might be the most selfless, kindest person he's ever met. the guy who volunteered to die in space of it meant earth would be saved. the school teacher who learned how to pilot a spaceship and communicate with an alien. the goofy fuck who befriends everyone like its simply default for people to just...like him.

He used the whole Buldak packet... Someone help him 💀 inspired by a textpost by @ctrl-shift-alt-9 (post is under the cut)! I absolutely think he would like spicy food lmao

On Eden, it spawns sin. Can't have that.

In prison, he was sandwiched with a lot of other prisoners, some who had that Eden ideology drilled into their head.

He didn't get a lot of time among the C.O.I. before they threw him into the Lung, so . . .

Yeah dude doesn't know the concept of privacy basically at all. Rocky watching Simon is just run-of-the-mill stuff to him.

"Rocky watch sleep."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." *rolls over*

"Friend careful. Not die."

"...what?"

--

Also the idea of Simon Not Giving A Fuck about the privacy taboos that Grace grew up with. Like it's not even a second thought to him to consider it at first.

PHM focuses on dying worlds. Iron Lung is filled with dead worlds.

If you put Simon (the convict) next to Rhyland Grace you'd have a hardened war criminal/terrorist staring down a middle-school science teacher.

They shouldn't make sense but both characters are shown to be the kindest, most empathetic characters in their narrative-who put a great deal of emphasis on life.

Ryland accidentally, unknowingly teaching Simon that fear is OK and can sometimes even be funny, even if it's in situations where Simon has no choice but to laugh at Ryland and call him a pussy, is so important. OMG.

He might not agree with the cult ideals anymore, but I don't think he ever truly lost faith. The Tree was unshakeably Good, unlike its followers. He converted because he was finally shown that Eden was evil, not because his faith broke.

I think to see it again... I mean it's not even about the prospect of "my symbol of hope brought to life," that's his DEITY. COME TO LIFE BEFORE HIS EYES.