Alioth

• Aeromorphs are essentially a super jacked autopilot. Their “anthro” bodies are stored inside their airframe (which is also sentient) and acts as either a first officer or a captain depending on experience/age/certification/etc. Their bodies can leave their airframe, but need to stay within a certain radius of it to function. They’re practically super computers, and only need a third of the training a human pilot does.

• Aeromorphs worked together with humans after gaining sentience to make cheap, eco-friendly fuel for airplanes. Oil companies are really salty about this. They try to make cheaper fuel to get their customers back, but keep getting beat.

• Aeromorphs go to flight school, similarly to humans. However, unlike human flight school, training focuses MUCH more on CRM and human factors rather than actual flying. Aeromorphs are practically immune to somatogravic illusions, hypoxia, etc. and as such learn how to identify and prevent these things in the humans they’re flying with.

• Most Aeromorphs do their own maintenance on both their airframe and bodies. Going to a mechanic is more like going to a doctor and is usually reserved for issues that can’t be self fixed. It’s few and far between, but it does happen.

• Because of their bodies ability to leave its airframe, hangars are designed to be both airframe storage and a living space. Aeromorphs really like to leave their airframes to stretch their legs and do human stuff. Neo himself is VERY obsessed with humans and human culture, initially deciding he doesn’t want to be an airliner and wants to go to college instead. Unfortunately, while it’s common for smaller planes to do this, college campuses aren’t very well equipped for airliners…

• Neo makes friends with two Vietnam veteran planes in College — an EA-6B Prowler and an F-4 Phantom. They don’t have names yet but they’re gay and in love 🌈

• Neo finally accepts his fate and enters flight school. After graduating and flying his first passenger flight from SFO to JFK, a mysterious mass grounding is suddenly ordered applying to ALL civilian airliners. There is much confusion surrounding this. All that’s known is type of plane is irrelevant — airliners of every make and model have been randomly losing control, before nose diving straight down into terrain or water.

• Each crash leaves very, very little evidence. All the NTSB has confirmed to the public is that it’s not bombs. Initially, the crashes start in one part of the US, before cases start to spread in an almost pandemic-like fashion to the rest of the world. Eventually, all countries of all nations are forced to ground their civilian fleets. Notably, military aircraft seem to be immune to whatever is happening.

• Being grounded is not at all fun for Aeromorphs — they start to get an antsy, cabin-fever type feeling after a while. And after being grounded for many months, some airliners start going for joyrides. While these flights typically had no passengers, it became a problem when many of them plummeted to their doom regardless. Now all airliners are required to wear what are essentially flap cuffs. Similar to a tire boot, they’re impossible to remove without causing extreme damage to the wing and prevent it from creating any lift.

yal-1 for @chloroformcurry

tgo for @prosteishiysputnik

lot for @/runomeeks

sls for @/zemuso