idk if anyone's ever done this before, but hear me out on very cult!Eden based au
Like.... idk shenanigans something something, Eden is a cult, and Grace somehow either gets kidnapped by them to be turned into soil for the Last Tree or he just accidentally stumbled upon them and needs shelter or something- Maybe he's like running away from Stratt and the others to avoid going on the Project Hail Mary shenanigans?
And Simon's role would like be to kill him so the Last Tree could be fertilized
But he catches feelings, and Grace does too, and Simon doesn't want to kill Grace
So one day he's like "Hey wanna run away together?"
And then they run away into the sunset <3
(bonus if they get yoinked by Stratt and her team and sent on the Hail Mary mission shenanigans)
I've been giggling and kicking my feet thinking about this ask literally all day bc you may not know this, Anon, but I actually have IRL, Personal experience with Cults and more specifically, people who've just gotten out of cults.
SO THIS IS REALLY FUCKING YUMMY TO ME. Bc the slowburn on this could go CRAZY. Bc imagine it's not that they fall in love and then Simon realizes he wants to leave, but rather Grace breaking down Simon's world view and making Simon realize that he wants to see the outside world, AND THEN NNNNN they fall in love
Bc Grace would be the perfect person to challenge Simon's world beliefs. Grace is a scientist, and someone who is very good at breaking down barriers in communication. Simon would introduce himself as the Butcher, and explain his place within the cult & how Grace is going to essentially be used as a sacrifice for the Tree. And Grace, ever curious, would start asking questions, understanding the inner workings of Eden. Over days and weeks, he would start asking questions that Simon doesn't have answers to. Questions that Simon had never even considered. He hadn't been raised to ask questions, after all. But here was a man named Grace, being oh so kind to him, and taking a genuine interest in him, all while slowly deconstructing Simon's religious worldviews. He's gentle, and funny, and caring, and he has a quiet fire burning behind a carefully curated mask. Simon wants to know more about that fire, wants to know more about Grace as a whole. And when Simon has questions for him, he always answers.
Those are Simon's favorite days. When he brings a tray of food to Grace- he wasn't sure why Father was keeping him alive, rather than simply sacrificing him from the get-go, but Simon wasn't exactly complaining- and he would sit on the other side of whatever cell Grace was being kept in. And Simon would ask small, unintrusive questions that would launch Grace into stories of the outside world, of his students, of the work he used to do. Sometimes Grace would talk for hours, and Simon would just listen. And it's through this delicate, kind exchange of information and curiosities that Simon starts to find holes in Father's ideology. He'd think about Grace's questions- the ones without answers- long into the night, and when he decided to actually fall asleep, it was wondering about the outside world that lulled him.
And at a point, he starts to devise a way to get Grace out, and to leave with him. They could run away together, and while the thought terrified him, he did trust Grace. He trusted the things Grace told him, trusted that Grace would be able to navigate the outside world once Simon got them out. And its only when they DO escape that Simon starts seeing the light return to Grace's eyes. Starts to see more of the spark that makes Grace Grace. And its only far from Eden's influence that he starts to fall in love with Ryland Grace.
