Simon Fairchild

Simon Fairchild is an avatar of The Vast and the head of the Fairchilds.
==Description==
Simon Fairchild is an old man, described as pushing 100 years and as "a tiny, pink skeleton of a man".MAG 51: High Pressure He walks with a cane, although he does not actually need one. Personality-wise, Simon consistently puts up the facade of a friendly and charming old man even when being threatening or malicious, something even his enemies have noted.MAG 174: "Because he was nice to you? Because he was charming, because he was fun?"..."he may look like a harmless old man, but..."
== History==
In a statement he gives to Martin, Simon reveals that he is hundreds of years old. He was apprenticed to the Venetian painter Tintoretto before he became an avatar of The Vast, which puts his birth somewhere in the mid-1500s.
In the 1930s, a con artist and fence used the name Simon Fairchild on several business listings. This was not his real name but one of many aliases. He was at one point thrown out a 4th story window by an irate customer into a crowded street in midday, however none of the people on the other side reported seeing him fall. In 2012, a jewellery shop in Hackney that he had owned reported cases being cracked in the night as if a heavy weight had been dropped upon them.
The following appearances all precede the person in contact with the Fairchild(s) having an experience with The Vast.
In the early 2000s, Robert Kelly took a job as a skydiving instructor for a company named "Open Skydiving", though no official records indicate its existence except a few news articles in late 2000. One of his fellow flight instructor colleagues was Harriet Fairchild. In June 2002, an 85-year old man named Simon, presumably Simon Fairchild, was doing a tandem jump with Harriet supposedly for charity in memory of his wife. Right before Harriet and Simon jumped out of the plane, Simon turned to Robert and shouted something that may have been "enjoy sky blue", causing him to feel a rush of dizziness. Harriet greeted Robert when he landed.MAG 21: Freefall
In August 2006, Simon Fairchild paid a large amount of money to a diving company to dive down in a dangerous place to a sunken boat called the Maria Fairchild, which he claimed to be his great-grandfather's. He shouted something indistinct at the divers just before they went into the water. 
Pinnacle Aerospace, majority-owned by the Fairchild family, was a member of the Stratosphere Group that launched the space station Daedalus in 2007.MAG 57: Personal Space A Mr. Fairchild, presumably Simon, interviewed one of the astronauts, Jan Kilbride, mentioning his psychiatric profile a few times in the interview.MAG 106: A Matter Of Perspective
In 2012, an old man presumed to be Simon Fairchild got into a cable car in Austria with two other passengers, and jumped out of it partway through the ride, dramatically winking at one of them.MAG 124: Left Hanging
In 2018, Simon is sent to the Archives to answer any questions that Martin has about The Extinction, due to a bet lost with Peter Lukas and because Peter does not like answering questions.MAG 151: Big Picture
After The Change, Simon Fairchild rules over his domain, The Great Beast. He encounters John and Martin on their trek to London and escapes before The Archivist can kill him. 
When the world changes back, however, Simon does not fare so well: avatars are now powerless and he is found and attacked by people who are understandably angry at him. It is unclear if he survives this event.
== Known Powers ==
* The Vast - Simon Fairchild is able to send people into The Vast at will.
* Flight - After The Change, Simon is implied to have some sort of ability to fly, which he presumably uses to watch over his enormous domain. Based on sound effects, Simon uses this ability when he encounters John and Martin, as well as when he escapes before The Archivist can kill him. Whether he had this ability before The Change or if he can actually fly or instead "teleports" by travelling through The Vast is unclear.
*Extreme Durability - Simon noted that his ritual failing in 1860 entailed him being sent plummeting to the bottom of the ocean, an event which he presumably survived unimpeded. In the present day, Simon is capable of surviving titanic falls and producing craters completely unharmed.
== Episode Appearances ==
Note: episodes where the Fairchild family is mentioned as a whole are not listed
Bold marks episodes where Simon has given a statement.
Appearances
*MAG 21: Freefall
*MAG 51: High Pressure
*MAG 106: A Matter of Perspective (mentioned)
*MAG 124: Left Hanging
*MAG 151: Big Picture
*MAG 174: The Great Beast
*MAG 200: Last Words (mentioned)
==Trivia==
*In the post season 5 Q&A, part 3, Jonny Sims states that Simon was killed by people throwing him off something high.MAG Season 5 Q&A - Part 3Alex: "What exactly did the apocalypse survivors do to Simon Fairchild?"
Jonny: "I mean, what do you think they did? They threw him off something high!"
== References ==
Category:Avatars