SUPER excited about this one. will likely be adding more to this AU after/as this comes to a close, i adore playing with my dolls.
i know i said last chapter was one of my favourites, but i'm feeling this one too. hope it satisfies!
out of the loop, into the dome (34386 words) by OfSpideRs_aNdRiddLes
Chapters: 11/14
Fandom: Iron Lung (2026), Project Hail Mary - Andy Weir
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Relationships: The Convict | Simon (Iron Lung)/Ryland Grace, Ryland Grace & Rocky, Adrian/Rocky (Project Hail Mary)
Characters: The Convict | Simon (Iron Lung), Ryland Grace, Rocky (Project Hail Mary), The Eye (Iron Lung), Adrian (Project Hail Mary)
Additional Tags: Time Loop, Amputee The Convict | Simon (Iron Lung), The Convict | Simon Has PTSD (Iron Lung), Arospec Ryland Grace, The Convict | Simon Has a Bad Time (Iron Lung), Protective Rocky (Project Hail Mary), Author Has Watched Iron Lung (2026), Author Has Read Project Hail Mary - Andy Weir, Author has watched the trailer for PHM, Arospec author, The Convict | Simon (Iron Lung) and Ryland Grace are Patron Saints of One-Way Trips, Spoilers for Iron Lung (2026), Author Has Watched Project Hail Mary (2026), Finally, Adrian (Project Hail Mary) & The Convict | Simon (Iron Lung) are Best Friends, They/Them Pronouns for Adrian (Project Hail Mary), BloodyMary, Hurt/Comfort, Ryland Grace Is Not Graceful, The Convict | Simon Needs a Hug (Iron Lung), Holding Hands, Angst, Panic Attacks, Sharing a Bed
Summary:
Simon has been stuck in a time loop. He's explored the bottom of AT-5 so many times, been hurt so much, lost his mind beyond comprehension.
But this time, he's done. The Eye decided to let him go.
Ryland Grace has been on Erid for almost a year now. He's comfortable being the only human around. He's got his best friend, his best friend's partner, and, well, everything.
Everything except a roommate.
Or: What if Adrian found their own leaky space blob after Rocky did, and they decided to use the same tank for both of their pets?
pacific rim fucks severely for a lot of reasons but my favorite is that it opens with "the lizard aliens are unionizing so we built robots running on the power of love to fight them you got all that right" and before you have time to really process that concept bam gunshot body on the floor and the movie goes "now consider the vast power of grief in this setup" it never really stops considering
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Chapters: 7/11
Fandom: Iron Lung (2026), Project Hail Mary - Andy Weir
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Relationships: The Convict | Simon (Iron Lung)/Ryland Grace, Ryland Grace & Rocky, Adrian/Rocky (Project Hail Mary)
Summary:
Simon has been stuck in a time loop. He’s explored the bottom of AT-5 so many times, been hurt so much, lost his mind beyond comprehension.
But this time, he’s done. The Eye decided to let him go.
Ryland Grace has been on Erid for almost a year now. He’s comfortable being the only human around. He’s got his best friend, his best friend’s partner, and, well, everything.
Everything except a roommate.
Or: What if Adrian found their own leaky space blob after Rocky did, and they decided to use the same tank for both of their pets?
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Chapter 9 is up! Special Extra Long one for y’all.
this fic is my baby and i’m trying not to be an absent father. so far i think i’m doing ok. massive credits to my adhd medication hoooo boy did i need that when i was in college.
fic summary below! kisses!
Simon has been stuck in a time loop. He's explored the bottom of AT-5 so many times, been hurt so much, lost his mind beyond comprehension.
But this time, he's done. The Eye decided to let him go.
Ryland Grace has been on Erid for almost a year now. He's comfortable being the only human around. He's got his best friend, his best friend's partner, and, well, everything.
Everything except a roommate.
Or: What if Adrian found their own leaky space blob after Rocky did, and they decided to use the same tank for both of their pets?
"The last time any human touched Ryland Grace was an act of horrific violence"
Well... Yes and no.
The last time Ryland Grace was CONSCIOUS of any human touch was when he was knocked out. Absolutely true.
But the last human contact he would have had was Yao and Ilyukhina. Who were told that he was scared about panicking during launch and asked to be sedated. Who did all the pre flight checks before the Hail Mary launched. Who would have carefully, gently carried Grace to his bed in the dormitory, made sure he was secure, and initiated his coma procedure.
There would have been love there. Remember Ilyukhina throwing her hands high and saying "welcome to crew!" Remember Yao saying how he hoped Grace would say yes. Remember how much the crew trusted Grace, Stratt's First Officer, the guy who helped them so much, and was so kind to them, and was the one who they entrusted their preferred methods of suicide to. Who thought they were wonderful and brave.
They would have tucked him in. Maybe brushed his hair out of his face. Maybe said something kind to him before initiating their own coma procedures.
Ryland Grace doesn't remember, of course he wouldn't. But the last human touch he ever had was full of love.
I was printing out my tattoo stencils for my BloodyMary tats (so far the PHM one is done, will be doing Iron Lung Thursday!), and the person working the desk at the UPS store clocked me SO FAST.
We need our own shoelaces from the President because all I could do was respond “what were You doing at the devils sacrament” and they didn’t catch what I said.
also, another idea: simon’s mother’s name was pasiphaë. like the mother of the minotaur (ofc simon doesn’t know that, he doesn’t know abt greek mythology). so proposing grace knew simon trusted him when he started to talk about his life before being a convict. and one of the first things simon ever told him was his mother’s name. pasiphaë—the mother of the butcher. with eyes like his and straight black hair, and an apple red scarf she wore around her wrist.
Been sitting on this one for a while because I knew I wanted to do more research for it, and then I fell down a Wikipedia clickhole 14 pages deep.
i LOVE the idea of Simon as the Minotaur. There's digging to be done there but woohoooooo boy am I excited about the parallels there.
AO3 Link Here! also below <3
"I dunno, to me she was always just 'mom,'" Grace leaned back against the wall of the xenonite tunnel where he and Simon had posted up to watch Rocky sleep. He glanced over to Simon.
"My mother was just Pasiphaë to me, I guess," Simon said, looking instead up at Rocky from directly underneath him.
Pasiphaë, Grace held the name tight, bells ringing somewhere in his brain, letting him know something had clicked. "Never called her 'mom' or 'ma' or something?"
Simon made a face. "'Ma'?" he tested it out, face scrunching. "No, that wouldn't have worked for her. I'm not sure 'mom' would have, either."
"So just Pasiphaë then," Grace prompted, "With a name like that, I'm sure I wouldn't have anyone call me anything else, either."
"She was like that," Simon hummed, tracing a finger along the xenonite, following Rocky's curled limbs, "very... beyond most things, like she'd seen it before. When she went away, she gave me a knife, and I'd never remembered her so..." he trailed off.
Grace let him have the silence. Pasiphaë. Mother, knife. Simon. Butcher. Oh.
Grace wondered if Simon knew his grandfather was the Sun. Well, obviously not, but if he knew anything about how oddly fitting his mother's name was, with the little information Grace had about him. Pasiphaë, the mother of the Butcher. Did she look like Simon? Did her eyes have that same spark of spiteful survival, the wild look of someone who'd gone beyond what they could, and lived? Did she know her son had been trapped, far away from the surface, from humans, left in the dark to find his own way out?
Did Simon know that the sunlight was in his blood, and as foolish as that was, that it gave Grace some hope? That out here, in Nowhere, Tau Ceti, there's another human with a mother born from the Sun, resilient beyond reason, and he'd brought that sunlight with him?
"Tell me about her?" Grace whispered, counting on the proximity and the shape of the tunnel to carry his voice over to Simon.
"Well," Simon exhaled, almost a laugh, "Not very much left to tell. She was small, but always felt like the tallest person in the room. She had, uh, black hair. It was long, straight, went down to her waist at one point. Did things with her own flair. She wore the pendants like the rest of us, but kept hers under this bright red scarf. Brightest colour I'd seen until I was dropped on AT-5. Now, not a big fan of red. Trying to remember her scarf more than the, uh," he waves, "that."
"She sounds pretty cool," Grace said, wincing at his wording.
"I think she was," Simon said, drifting back into his head, clinging to the images he'd finally been able to see again.
Grace felt the olive branch extend towards him, and he held tight to it. As Simon started to snore softly, he felt a flicker of hope in his chest, a tiny burst of sunlight, a bit of Simon shining enough to let Grace in.
Grace let that hopeful yearning rock him to sleep along with the humming of the ships, and the rhythm of Simon's breathing.
it never fails to boggle my mind that nobody really hones in on simon having to experience life not just after the eel, but after the cult. like with his experience in there, i can imagine simon was relatively well-liked within it. he was the “favorite”, the needed one. and generally got whatever he wanted so long as he played his part. i can imagine that sometimes, when he really wanted something, he’d low-key throw a fit and he always got it. and that sort of translates to his relationships now that he’s an adult. sometimes he’ll still throw a fit or get angry like he’s half-expecting to get what he wants but then he’ll feel so embarrassed and guilty afterwards. like make simon haven more undesirable traits or habits, he was raised in a cult and blamed for more than ten murders!
FUCK ok I love this
I can really see this in the submarine, the way he'd shrink into himself after his outbursts about Filament Station, because while it'd gone horribly, terribly wrong -- he'd not wanted things to play out that way, but the way he carries that burden is almost self-imposed. He's crucified himself on Eden's sins because they told him the wood was noble, and it was what he needed to do for them. it was what he could do for them. he throws fits like the youngest sibling, but clams up like the eldest shortly after. That also gives credit to him being the favourite of the Eden cult, where, yes, he could get his way, but he'd watch everyone who adores him absolutely bend over and back again to see it done. And I think that'd eat him up. The movie showed him reacting significantly differently to others' implied deaths and sufferings than he did to the ideas of his own. He's been raised as a martyr, but he remembers what it was like to be the guard dog mistaken for the lamb.
and after Eden? in the prison, the sub, and even beyond? trying to shake the shadows of a community that venerated you as a scapegoat and favourite son all in one? yeah, that's not going down easy. playing with the idea that he managed to live, and escape to, say, Erid: There's going to be a lot of cognitive dissonance as he copes with reconciling the Eden-prescribed Simon with who he became on the sub. The Eden-Simon that he was when he wasn't under active duress, that Simon's words carried weight. In the sub, Convict-Simon's words were mostly pointless, he now is physically incapable of escaping the whims of another, and scrambles for bargaining power. Convict-Simon snaps at Ava and the other COI people when they link him to the murders, and Filament Station's destruction, his hackles are up whenever his worth and intelligence are questioned. So, with some messy math and bad figuring, what of Erid-Simon? What is left for him in the wake of that collision of selves?
I think having to reconcile two halves of oneself, especially at the crossroads that are interpersonal conflicts (no matter the scale), is one of the most daunting undertakings. Simon's leveraging with the SM-8's black box shows how quickly he can spin something to his advantage when he needs to, dude is a grade-A whiner when shit doesn't go his way. And his begging to be heard as he apologises, again and again, for hurting others, for the hurting pinned on him, shows that same desperation to be exonerated. Going from here, Erid-Simon would likely experience both of his previous normals simultaneously: he'd fit, clam up, and then try to pick through the rubble of his guilt that overflowed on disproportionately small disagreements. I wish I could remember the source, but the phrase "do you know the violence it took to become this gentle" comes to mind with Simon, it's going to take a looong time for him to even approach a well-adjusted, non-fussy state. He's gone from prince to prisoner to puppet, the Great Outdoors aren't going to be easy.
this is a long winded way of setting up that my Simon's will likely be a lot more pathetic going forward, now that i've word-vomited this out.
also, PLS lemme know if i’m spamming you BUTT i have an idea! hear me out on atheist grace meeting simon who so fervently still believes in his god.
like, imagine they’re on the hail mary. grace walking in on simon praying and he apologizes for interrupting before simon asks, “what do you hope for?” and grace just looks confused and says, “i’m afraid i don’t understand the question.” and simon says, “hope. what are your hopes? goals? things you wanna accomplish?”
and grace just huffs a laugh and says, “all of my hopes and goals kind of got left back on earth.” and simon goes silent and says. “oh. i’ll pray for you.” and something about that just makes grace bristle and he says a little more harshly that he should’ve, “i don’t want your prayers, simon.”
and simon pauses, and fully turns to grace and asks, “what do you want, then?” so earnest, curious. and the usual answers come to grace’s head. a good nap without nightmares. to solve this dying stars problem. a milkshake—better yet, a beer. an opportunity to scream at stratt. to see his kids again. for his teammates to be alive. an end to that tiny voice in his head saying he’s delusional if he thinks he can be an actual hero.
but, then, a new reply comes to life. it’s loud, insistent, and unwelcomed and wildly confusing. you, simon. i want you. it says.
grace just clears his throat and says, “i just want to figure out this astrophage problem.” and simon just stares, like he can see right through the barely holding-together armor grace has. before he nods and says, “then i’ll just hope you’ll figure out.”
the affection i have for your asks
Simon's Prayers (934 words) by OfSpideRs_aNdRiddLes
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Project Hail Mary (2026), Iron Lung (2026)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: The Convict | Simon (Iron Lung)/Ryland Grace
Characters: The Convict | Simon (Iron Lung), Ryland Grace
Additional Tags: Tumblr Ask Box Fic, The Convict | Simon is Religious, Atheist Ryland Grace
Summary:
Grace walks in on Simon praying, Simon asks what Grace wants
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Chapters: 7/11
Fandom: Iron Lung (2026), Project Hail Mary - Andy Weir
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Relationships: The Convict | Simon (Iron Lung)/Ryland Grace, Ryland Grace & Rocky, Adrian/Rocky (Project Hail Mary)
Summary:
Simon has been stuck in a time loop. He's explored the bottom of AT-5 so many times, been hurt so much, lost his mind beyond comprehension.
But this time, he's done. The Eye decided to let him go.
Ryland Grace has been on Erid for almost a year now. He's comfortable being the only human around. He's got his best friend, his best friend's partner, and, well, everything.
Everything except a roommate.
Or: What if Adrian found their own leaky space blob after Rocky did, and they decided to use the same tank for both of their pets?
just finished the seventh chapter!! this one took me way longer than usual to get it where I liked it.
this was my first fic for this pairing, and i’m trying to keep on top of it despite the billion ideas i have for oneshots that are clutteirng up my headspace.
I watched Iron Lung again tonight in the comfort of my home and my dog must've been watching with me cause as soon as bad things started happening to Simon she started crying. In the scene where he ultimately dies she could not stop crying at me. I am now watching him play the Henry Stickman collection so she can see that A.) He's not dead and B.) He's not in distress. Occasionally he'll whine or hum in discontent about something and my dog will look at me and whine to try and get me to fix whatever is distressing Markiplier.
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jimmyeatworldofficial
izzy806
amandla
turnnoffyourmind
