I've seen some confusion between my Cult of the Lamb AU and my own original story/passion project Where the Roots Burrow + their versions of Hastur so I made some distinctions between the two
I am a very big fan of bloodymary, especially AUs in which Simon is part of the initial/replacement crew of the Hail Mary. I have no shade to throw to those, and in fact relish the ones that come across my dash.
however
I do wonder why the general consensus for “Simon is part of the crew” fanwork has Simon as the engineer rather than the pilot.
Bear with me under the cut: (spoilers but yknow obviously)
- Simon is shown to be incredibly good with limited information for his piloting of the SM-13. (His map extensions, lack of crashes that aren’t outside his control, not even any “whoops, too far” backtracking, the hand thing he does, etc)
- Simon was not trained for use of the SM-13. At all. And yet by a few hours in, he’s capable and confident enough to leave a book on the accelerator while he takes pictures or checks things.
- Simon didn’t have much to fix on the SM-13. Sure, the fires didn’t help, and he did all that stuff with the terminal, and repairing the electrical systems, but that was more… macgyvering. Fire extinguisher for the fires, doing what he was told by the note (cross the wires) and while restarting the generator was good, it was once again listed in the manuals, proving Simon is smart, but that doesn’t exactly make him an engineer.
From a Bloodymary/Hail Mary standpoint, I can see how having a pilot might change the dynamics, (and I personally vibe with having Colt Seavers [The Fall Guy] because I think giving Ryland a twin is funny) but pilot Simon honestly wouldn’t change the stakes as much.
With an added Engineer in Simon, you gain:
1. A chance for funny moments about calculating voltage in equipment despite lack of memory, akin to Rylands “Why do I know that” fuel calc moment from the movie.
2. The chance to jury-rig more funny xenonite equipment and bonding interactions with Also Engineer Rocky (or Alien Scientist Adrian if that’s your jam for a swap au).
3. Ryland having a gay panic over Simon crawling out of a duct shirtless after doing the hard work of shop repair.
4. The dramatics of not having a pilot for the Astrophage Collection scene around planet Adrian, but you lose out on the dramatics of the astrophage leak or fuel tank blowout.
With Pilot Simon, you gain:
1. Funny moments where Simon calculates zero-g velocities, angles in the dark, or precise speed calcs, and asks how he knows that, akin to Rylands fuel calc moment.
2. Group Cohesion in Pilot Simon, Scientist Ryland, and Engineer Rocky, with plenty of Simon getting to yell at them during high-stress moments like how he yells at Ellie and at the speaker in Iron Lung.
3. Ryland having a gay panic about getting caught bridal-style by aware-of-zero-g-physics-and-also-strong-and-shirtless-Simon after getting launched across the ship by some science mishap once gravity is off.
4. STILL pilot dramatics as Simon hits some Initial D shit to drift them out of Adrian’s orbit.
Anyway that’s my piece, I think he’d do better as a pilot but then again I’m not the one writing the fics.
Again, no hate to the engineer Simon fics, they’re great.
titsay
tangentwithtanner
yousharknotpass
dededos
2087
andulkaphoto
