If you don't already know you have issues doing so, squat down real quick. Bend your knees all the way and touch the floor. Just make sure you can do it. Okay? For me? And then stand up all the way and make sure you can balance on one foot.
Like. You don't need to blow it into some huge thing. Just. Make sure all your bits and peices still work the way you think they do.
Can you turn your head to look behind you without twisting your shoulders? What about standing on your toes? If you sit down on the floor can you get back up without using your hands?
If there was ever a tumblr post worth sending to your mom, it's this one.
Just saying, bodies are a use it or lose it kinda thing.
okay so every time I see this post crop back up in queues and notifications I end up thinking about it. Because I made the post and even I'm still doing the thing where I read the post about maintaining range of motion in my delicate meatsuit and I nod and hmm and think yeah that's a good idea and then dont move from where I'm curled up shrimp style staring at the nightmare rectangle.
So like. Thinking real hard about moving doesn't count as moving. Major bummer. Anyways. Joints.
simon struggling with balance when he first wakes up. angst possibility: also not fully remembering the end of the movie and thinking Grace and Rocky cut it off.
Grace and rocky go looking for simons arm and or stumbled upon its blood-eaten remains. it only resembles an arm and hand in shape now as its covered in dried blood that won't come off, almost like the bloods melded with it.
phantom pain. Simon's freaking out thinking its the Eel or some eldritch mindfuckery and Grace has to race to pull up the Wikipedia article
phantom itching. rip brother maybe stratt downloaded a youtube video of the mirror scratching thing somewhere on the ship
rocky trying to make a prototype prosthetic but its kinda hard and simon finds it uncomfortable anyway so they just go nah nevermind asymmetry is in style on erid rn anyway
Simon calling his stump/amputated bicep area his "Not-Arm" humorously one day and Rocky thinks its a great self-explanatory name and uses it often. Simon loves it and it helps normalize missing an arm for him (Eridians still have "amputation" as a concept and have technical vocabulary, Rocky literally just chooses to use the sounds for "not" and "arm" together as a good casual/non-clinical name since Simon called it that first)
Okay I need to talk about Simon characterization a little bit. Because he is so so hard to write exactly correctly and as someone who reads a LOT of bloodmary... I have many thoughts.
You gotta understand that Simon is both A Mass Murderer who was raised in and thrived in a violent cult AND someone who hopes so desperately for a better world, who wants to change, and has never had a gentle touch in his life and wants it so bad without being able to put to words that's what he wants.
I feel like I'm going insane.
Because on one end people focus waaaayyyy to much on his anger. They make him an asshole for no reason who never opens up ever and always makes things more complicated. Like... you guys he was crying for at least half of the movie. Obviously he's not going to open up instantly but please that man had to have been repressing SO MANY emotions.
So many things there was never a chance to express because you cannot convince me that Eden did not have so much toxic masculinity with allllll of that biblical imagery. And when Simon finally had a chance to relax, the moment he realizes that Grace is a Safe Person, those emotions are coming out whether he likes it or not. It's too much to keep in ALL the time and we already know when he's having a Bad Time, he cries.
And on the other end... guys they are NOT going to be good communicators immediately, Simon has never had any therapy ever in his life and again. The raised in a violent cult thing. The only reason that Simon was able to survive in his world at all is because he adapted soooo well to the violence. He's angry, he throws shit around and swears like a sailor, he REFUSES to go down without a fight. In any fight or flight situation, his instinct is always going to be fight. He's not going to know how to properly comfort, at least not right away.
The only thing he knows is how to fight, to bare your teeth and puff yourself up. What do you even do when the monster is in your head? When Grace is having nightmares and there's nothing Simon can fight to fix that?
It will take a looooong time for Simon to even believe this is real, to think that for once there's nothing to fight, nothing to defend against, no battle to win. All that anger still in him that now has no place to go. It's going to come out somehow, and even if he has on some surface level acknowledged that Eden was wrong (we see in the movie he rejects both the COI's and Eden's philosophy in some way), detangling all of that trauma is going to be a lot of work. See when he's arguing with Ava, even when he disagrees with Eden's philosophy, he still falls back on their reasoning out of habit ("At least they're not deluding themselves with some biiiggg future for humanity if we all just believe hard enough") Yes he was the one to stand against them once he started to "grow a conscience" and yes, he still carries over a lot of those violent tendencies from y'know. The ENTIRETY of his life?
I feel like I yapped way too much but just. I have so many thoughts. This isn't directed at any one fic or person in particular, it's just something that's been on my mind a bit.
Feel free to yap with me on the comments! Am I onto something or going crazy for no reason?
(Also feel free to leave fic recs that you think do this particularly well in the comments, I love bloodymary but I fw any version of Simon lives fics give them to me please please please-)
I know it's a bit vague exactly how the timeline of Iron Lung compares to the timeline of PHM, especially given they're in different universes and such. But I kind of love the idea of Simon actually being from the distant future in an alternate timeline compared to Grace. Like, Grace is from 2023ish, and Simon is from like 2300s or something.
Mostly because that much time means that the languages humans speak would definitely have shifted. Probably to the point that whatever Simon speaks would be completely incomprehensible to Grace. Especially given that Simon was born on a whole other planet. Sure, they have a few words that are the same. Enough that they can tell that they're both speaking languages that are probably related to each other. But nothing close enough to be able to communicate easily.
(Except for the swear words. Those definitely haven't changed, there's just more of them now and Simon is more than happy to demonstrate that :D)
So Simon shows up, completely feral, and he and Grace can't even talk to each other. Grace is stuck pantomiming and drawing pictures and putting on puppet shows with Rocky's models to try to explain things to Simon, who is definitely freaking the fuck out. He's backed into a corner, shooting Armando looks like if the robot comes near him he'll try to bite its mechanical limbs off.
And then Grace has an idea. Music! Music is soothing, and tunes can stick around for centuries and still be recognizable. Maybe this will be how they communicate! So he quickly grabs one of his many laptops and starts frantically searching through the vast media library, trying to find a song that he thinks might still be around and recognizable in 300 years.
He starts off with "Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star," because the tune has been around for centuries and is taught to ever child he's ever met. Simon goes still when the first notes echo out of the laptop speakers, his eyes going wide with recognition. Encouraged, Grace tries another song. And then another. And another. Some Simon reacts to like he recognizes them, others get a blank stare. Slowly Grace moves through music history, as Simon starts to relax.
And then, spotting one song in particular, Grace hesitates. It's definitely more modern, and it's in English, so there's a chance that this strange human that's somehow landed in their laps won't know it. But hey, it's a great song. Worth a shot, right?
The first strains of "Bohemian Rhapsody" fill the room, and Simon's jaw drops open. He listens to it for a moment, all the way to the first verse, his brow furrowing in concentration. And then, to Grace's shock, he starts to sing. Only, it's not in English. It's in whatever version of English Simon speaks.
(Holy Moly, he has a nice voice, Grace thinks absently)
Thinking quickly, Grace starts recording Simon. Simon makes it through about half of the song before he has a coughing fit, but it's enough for Grace to get started on his second language translation program. It's not hard. He mostly copies what he made for Rocky and duplicates it for Simon.
And that's how they learn to communicate. Grace finds songs that Simon knows, and Simon sings them. Sometimes Simon starts singing a song, and if Grace recognizes it, he sings along. From this, Grace can start to create their shared dictionary.
Through the power of music, two very different people from very different times and places slowly learn to understand each other and grow closer together.
people don’t enjoy shipping anymore. the point of shipping isn’t the catharsis of watching them kiss onscreen, it’s grabbing the characters and mashing their faces together like you’re five years old playing Barbie in your room again. it’s to take one moment of eye contact in canon and read that over and over and over again with twenty different writers’ interpretations of the characters internal monologues if they were in love. it’s to see the characters interact and cheer because you know that’s another moment to add to your list of canon compliant fic ideas. you’re stressing yourself out, this is supposed to be fun!
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