MY REVERSE BLOODYMARY AU, TAKE IT GO GO GO!!! I really want to lean into Ryland Grace mad scientist for this thank you very much.
RYLAND GRACE GETS HIS GLASSES REVERSE AU COMIC 👀
In this AU Simon and Adrian get stuck in their progress as neither of them have the expert6 that Grace and Rocky have. When Grace gets there he's able to start piecing together the notes left by strats team and then there's another blip- LOOOL ROCKY IS HERE!!! Adrian and their crew is taking too long so hes on a rescue mission. Then it's GRACE AND ROCKY SAVE STARSSSS and a one way trip to Erid 😮💨♥️
Reverse bloodymary au but instead of putting Grace in the iron lung and Simon in the hail mary they stay in their universe but the outcomes are different. Grace goes through the horrors, tormented by rocky and Simon has all the happy moments with Eli. In the end simon makes the blood moon his home and the hailmary crashes onto it one day.
(Above is possibly placeholders as I’m trying to make all the names references to pop culture or to Christianity as both iron lung and project Hail Mary have lowkey Christian bases) I like my stories where I will get the title by the end of the story/chapter
Also I can pitch a summery to you guys if you want
Simon was originally a military aerospace engineer designing what turns out to be WMDs. After an seeing his creations in the hands of horrible people, a la Tony Stark, he quit. Nearly broke him.
He later becomes a pilot for a private company. (Eden Airlines lmao)
Eden Airlines turns out to be a cult thats does some domestic terrorism. Simon was unaware of it, but as the only survivor he get blamed and incarcerated.
The Patrova line is still a problem. Ava, who's in charge of IRoN (Intersteller Relations of Nations) comes to visit his cell. Gives him an ultimatum. Work with her and he can walk free.
"You ready to do good for a change?"
The ship is officially the SM-8, the Solar Maiden- 8th iteration, but everyone lovingly calls it the Iron Lung.
Simon: Why is an Intersteller ship is called the "Iron Lung?"
Ave: If the mission is a success, we can all breath a little easier.
Simon: ... thats fucking stupid.
Simon was brought onto the team as an engineer. He wasn't trusted by the rest of IRoN, but his experience and expertise was sorely needed. He points out many flaws through each design iteration, comes up with improvements and solutions.
A flaw that wasn't caught in testing results in the mission engineers (prime and back up) getting blasted with radiation. (Don't worry Jack and David fine :] ) They're immediately taken off the mission. Simon is wracked with (even more) guilt.
Ava pulls an Eva on Simon, sending him to space.
Simon: You said work with you and then I'm free! We had a deal!
Ava: For what it's worth... I'm sorry.
Unknown to Simon he was the back up engineer and pilot if needed.
Part of me wants Ava to be on the ship too, but passes away durring her coma to add to the the angst. The other part wants Ava to remain on Earth alive and well.
At Tau Ceti, Simon gets jumpscared by this wet, kinda mean creature. It looked like a horror movie, Elli's dark shape swimming in what looks to be blood.
Elli is an Axolotl Eel cat looking motherfucker. Theres a lot of amazing concepts of her out there already! I love her little blood orb.
To me she's the size of a mid sized dog (like a Labrador), with the general body of an Axolotl (especially the tendrils), sinuous tail/body, and a bunch of little cat like legs.
Her environment is some weird mix of red Sulfuric acid and oxygen.
They get off to a rocky start, Simon with trust issues and Elli suffering from isolation. But they warm up to each other pretty quick.
She can talk telepathicly, but Simon really hates it (horror movie vibes), so she talk through the speakers instead. Simon does get use to the telepathy though.
I like to think her species is semi hiveminded. She uses "we" instead of "I". Maybe more like how a teacher says " We don't stuff in our mouth"
Simon has to build her a habitat on the Lung so she can do ✨️Science✨️
"Where do you want these weird ass tubes??"
"Fuck this alien shit..."
Simon lovingly annoys the fuck out of her
Canon happends from here.
Simon: So it's like fishing?
Elli: What is "fishing"?
Elli in the don't go crazy room :... We hate fishing.
She learns that Simon was sent to die in space and has *opinions*
"I don't want to die, Elli. I deserve it, but I don't want to die. Elli, I hurt so many people, killed so many people. It's my penance... Do you think I deserve this?"
Even with all his pilot experience, the fishing trip goes wrong.
Simon has to dunk Elli back into her enviroment. He losing his arm. (Or less angsty burns the everloving fuck out of it).
Again canon happends. This time is Simon's recovering and Elli goes on a science binge to save their stars. She comes up with a solution and tries to make breeder tanks.
When Simon wakes up he improves the design using a coral like substance from her ship.
Elli gives Simon a way to go back home, they tearfully part ways, the Taumoeba escapes, and Simon has to make a decision. Go home to a planet that doesn't want him or save the only person in recent memory to love him.
He sends all the information through the Life Vests, little probes made for this purpose.
"Hello everybody, My name is Simon and my friend Elli discovered a solution to save all your asses."
He lived happily in Space Atlantis in a little under "water" biodome. He's loved, spends all his time with his best friend, and is a respected engineer that brings a plethora of advancements to Erid.
Then Grace, in all his boney geode glory, shows up on Erid and they fall in love.
Grace, with bony exoskeleton plates on parts on his body, crystalline fragments along his face, and kicked puppy wet eye.
Simon, with thinly veiled insatiable xenofucker lust.
