i see so many concepts for simonās mutations but you wanna know a concept i havenāt seen? the idea that simon can control blood now.
like imagine how simon even figured this out. heās trying to pull his own weight on the hail mary, when he accidentally cuts himself on some mechanism. those voices in his head, heās almost grown used to all of them. theyāre chattering and talking and telling him that he needs to go back to the ocean of blood (yeah FUCK THAT), normal stuff. for him. hell, heād even say heās found comfort the constant voices. now when grace sees him just nodding or shaking his head to seemingly nothing, he doesnāt bat an eye at it.
but when he cuts himself, itās across his palm. he curses and grace immediately goes over and before he can even start fussing, simon says heās okay and itās just a surface level wound. it wasnāt even bleeding that bad by his standards. heāll just go disinfect and clean and bandage it, and then heāll be right back to work. heās walks away, closes himself in the bathroom. heās about to patch himself up when the blood justā¦rises. literally rises. in small little warbled bubbles. but the gravityās on the ship, so it canāt be the low gravity. he hears those voices getting louder and louder and he feels his breathing quicken and oh god why did it have to be blood, hasnāt he seen enough fucking blood, he doesnāt want to go back, please, he doesnāt want to go backā
enter ryland grace, coming in to check on simon when simon yelps and the blood zooms past. it nearly cuts grace but grace dodges it in time and it lands as a solid jagged piece in the wall. they both hear rocky yell, āIS GRACE AND SIMON OKAY, QUESTION?!ā and grace yells, āyeah buddy, weāre fine! were okay!ā they are NOT.
grace so clearly thinks simon NEEDS to experiment with these newfound abilities because this is everything against when heās learned in his lifetime while simon doesnāt want to go near it with a ten foot pole. why would he? heās seen enough blood in his lifetime. he doesnāt want to give that giant eel monster the satisfaction, regardless of it being apart of him now. but he can feel the ability like an itch if he doesnāt use it. annoyingly persistent and chipping away at his stubbornness and fear by the day. paired with those voices? yeah.
so when simon finally agrees, grace is ecstatic. he hasnāt had something as wonderful as this since astrophage! he makes himself a very willing test subject (since where else is simon supposed to get blood), simon scared to even do so not just because of the goddamn horror he experienced but the idea that he could kill grace if he makes one wrong move. one wrong flick of the wrist or passing thought and he could fucking explode the guyās brain stem. so heās says no, at first.
noāhe needs to practice on himself first. he doesnāt even have a good idea of human anatomy, he just canā¦feel it. and hear it. like rocky can hear graceās heartbeat, but simon can feel the blood going into graceās heart. he can hear every breath he takes and feel his lungs expanding, and those goddamn voices in his head reminds him that he knows almost instinctively how to steal the breath out of those lungs without grace ever knowing he was holding it captive.
he starts with slow things. healing cuts or bruises, playing around with his own blood and body. then, slowing a heartbeat, slowing a pulse, calming chemicals in the brain, anatomy study. then, knocking grace out. reducing oxygen and blood flow, a painless ticket to unconsciousness. and itās slow, but simon gets more comfortable. he gets a little more accepting of this part of him, just like the recent teeth on the side of his face or the webbed ears. just another thing he has, another thing he can do.
unfortunately, when simon gets comfortable about something, he has a tendency to start making jokes about it. which means grace will get snippy with him and simon will reply, āyou realize i could just wiggle my fingers and make you piss yourself, right?ā
Ohhhhhh this is delicious!
Simon essentially being able to do blood bending would be SO cool! Also Simon would definitely joke about it or even threaten to make Grace pass out when he sees that Grace hasnāt been giving himself a break to rest
