deranged

✦ Mark is a pretty decent cook. Ryland on the other hand is terrible. He’s tried to make dinner for them a couple times and almost burned the kitchen down. He wants to be good at it so bad but it just never works out well.

✦ When they moved in together, Mark, naturally, brought all his plants with him. They had to like sketch out a floor plan to figure out how to fit them all cause there were so many.

✦ While Mark’s whole thing is plants, he also just has terrible memory (an adhd thing) so half the time, he forgets to water them. Before the two lived together, it led to a lot of them dying cause Mark just wasn’t fully paying attention and then he’d get really sad when he accidentally killed one.

✦ They developed a system now though. Mark walked Ryland through everything that each plant needed and Grace put them all down in a little notebook. Then, he devised a system to make sure they were able to keep all the plants healthy. Once they got a routine going, the plants were all fine and Mark was so thrilled.

✦ And yes, all the plants have names, typically pop-culture related plant puns.

✦ Speaking of, they both thrive off of routine for a number of reasons. 1, neurodivergence obv. 2, routine helped both of them while they’re were in space. so, when anything is slightly off timing-wise, they both get antsy.

✦ “Mark, where are you? are you okay?”

✦ “Yeah baby, I was just helping a kid with something. I’ll be home in 15.”

✦ “Are you sure? ‘Cause with traffic, that could add on another 10 and then it another 2 minutes walk and-“

✦ “You don’t think i thought about that? Ry, 15 minutes tops, I promise.”

✦ Grace gets them a bunch of cheesy matching couples stuff: mugs, bracelets, shirts.

✦ Mark has a large collection of records he shuffles through on the daily. He started his collection in high school but went crazy with the nasa money he got once he returned cause man did he take music for granted before mars.

✦ He’s THE annoying 90s rock fan. He never shuts up about it.

✦ is really obsessed with blasting music (especially after mars) cause he hates silence.

✦ Mark Watney can fall asleep in like 5 seconds flat. The moment his head hits that pillow, he’s OUT. It takes Ryland a little while longer so most of the time, he’ll just watch Mark sleep. Not in a weird way, he just picked it up from his time with Rocky and the habit stuck.

✦ Experts at jeopardy. They both can get super competitive. I’m talking doing niche research in order to beat the other. Ryland is the reining champ though.

✦ Both get terrible nightmares/night terrors. Sleeping next to someone though really helped them both.

✦ It started off with Mark giving Grace his number and being like “text me whenever.” It was simple coworker stuff at first, then stupid jokes, then actual conversations. they’d start calling each other when they both got home and their apartments were especially quiet. Eventually though, ryland wakes up to a particularly bad one and the only thing he can think to do is call Mark. Mark’s able to talk him off the ledge, and starts distracting him with talking about random topics. Soon enough, it becomes a sort of routine with them.

✦ Mark is such a shit stirrer, loves doing random stuff just to get ryland flustered or jealous. He never takes it too far but he has a particular obsession with getting Grace hot and bothered.