Thank god fish aren't into cash...

ryland does become your boyfriend. He’s at his college, you’re at yours, and a stunt job takes Colt to where your school is, so the two of you get together for coffee pretty often. It does not help the childhood crush he had on you, which reignites in his chest like a wildfire. You’re so funny and smart, smarter than he could ever be, which is why you’re perfect for his brother…

but.

it soon becomes apparent Ryland is not treating you well. You’re always his second thought, his backup plan if there’s no frat party or sorority rager. You’re pretty sure he sleeps around without you there to keep an eye on him but his honeyed words keep you around. It feels like a knife in Colt’s heart every time your eyes drop and your smile fades when you mention your boyfriend.

eventually the shoot wraps and he has to go, but he makes more of an effort to keep in contact with you. Waking up to your texts is the best part of his day. You swap memes, pictures of your little lives, voice notes just rambling.

the three of you converge for Christmas. You’re over for the meal and their mum (who’s alive and well don’t @ me lol) is fussing over you and Ry, who seems… embarrassed and disinterested in you. Colt is furious. If you were his, he’d never stop talking about what an angel you were. Things get worse when he hears you having a fight with Ryland, who definitely DID cheat on you, more than once this semester. You rush out in tears, Colt confronts Ryland.

“not your business, colt. Why, do you wanna fuck her or something?”

Colt swings. His brothers nose ends up broken. You don’t go to the ER with him and their mum. You do lay into Colt for acting like that when he’s gone, though, what was he thinking, how dare he—

Colt catches your hand as it’s about to slap him.

“you deserve better.”

oh, and you melt. Because it’s been him, hasn’t it? It’s always been him, the twin who’s really made you smile, who cares. The two of you fuck on Ryland’s bed while his nose is being reset. Then you break up with him when he gets back. A few months later you and Colt announce your official relationship and everyone who knows you both is over the moon.

You get married, have five kids, and Ryland gets shot into space. THE END LMAO

IDK WHAT HAPPEND MY FINGER SLIPPED

heheh firing up the 3d printers now to print a hammer to paint and off to find some driving gloves...

The leather company that made the gloves for the movie still makes replicas but they're $250... If I had the money OOOUGH a pair of those babies would be MINE. one day y'all... One day... So I settled with the $30 pair 🫪

- 🐢

hello little tortoise!! i Love this idea.

i’ve thought about it a little bit before in terms of my half-baked drivinglessons au where they’re both involved with project hail mary — namely, i think driver would volunteer. his life doesn’t matter, he is utterly disposable, it’s the one thing he’s been taught his entire life between his birth family and foster care. it doesn’t matter if he dies, if he never comes home, he’s got less than nothing to lose. he’s the perfect candidate for a suicide mission.

it’s the perfect foil of the scene where grace is “asked” to go. because, really, i think stratt wouldn’t want driver — he’s young, for one thing, but also she’d definitely know about his past, this string of trauma and instability and violence dragging behind him. he’s a terrible candidate for a mission where she’s considering the astronauts killing each other as a genuine concern. i think driver would be the one forcing her hand, begging for her to consider him as something disposable but potentially useful where grace was begging for his life.

“i don’t have any family. i don’t even have a dog.”

although, if he is forced on — because i also think that stratt Could want him, were the circumstances and his training right, were she given the chance to know him in the right way and recognise his intelligence and adaptability and potential, if he could be her solution (or part of it) — dare i say he’s even more laika-coded than grace.

laika was a stray. driver’s a stray. young and homeless and without any family or ties, with laika’s sweet temperament and willingness to go along with the people using and killing her. driver doesn’t bite her, even when she’s made the decision for him, because he knows he’s worth nothing and it’s not even a decision to make, really — him weighed against the entire rest of the world. they could shoot him outright and it wouldn’t matter. at least this way he gets the chance to be useful.

the mission itself is where it gets. tough. because driver is obviously not a scientist (although i could make an argument for him being recruited especially young and receiving years of intense education within the project, he still lacks the baseline of education that would make him truly ideal. he’s years behind any other scientist on the project), and he’s not grace. whatever happens though, whether driver’s waking up with the rest of his crew, waking up with a corpse or two and grace (cough as is my au #myau), or waking up alone without a single memory, he is practical and devoted and adaptable. he’ll do whatever he has to.

he’s not having grace’s (understandable) meltdown when he wakes up afraid, he’s locking right in to figure this out. he remembers the details of the mission long before he remembers any personal memories. he does the entire mission without ever remembering his name.