oc posting hours

All character tags are formatted as "oc: [name]" (the only one that stands out to any degree is Lurker's, whose tag is "oc: lurker/kanauq")

the only story tags I currently have are "unnamed coyote grimdark" and "unnamed ev:hh circus au" (I may or may not add more tags for other AUs and stories and such, idk)

":!☄️🪐", ":!🥾🏜️", and ":!🌱🧭" are alternative tags for Jakrin/Jackie, Milo, and Fernweh respectively, these tags are a little more focused on them as my sonas versus them as my characters. ":!sona posting 🤍" is the general Sona Tag for all of them

":!fireworks n cookie dough 🌟💌" and ":!within the array 🎭🎙️" are both tags for the group of Cory, Atlantis, Sy, and Jackie. the first one is more oriented towards an AU where they are teens, and the latter more oriented towards canon, or generally their Younger Vibes™ versus Older Vibes™

aaaaaaand a list of every other duo/trio/group tag I have (will keep updated as I create more):

":!a space child and an earthling 🌌🏜️" — Milo & Jackie

":!couple of hotheads 🎸💫" — Cory & Jackie

":!crew 2.0 🌀" — Maeguriek, Owaeshik, Sahkoa, & Kynnige

":!doomed siblings 🪶" — Kaiser & Jakrin

":!mirror mirror 🌑🌕" — Syzygy & Jakrin

":!moon and the stars 🌒🌌" — Astrophel & Jackie

":!pyyrin 🫀" — Pyyri & Jakrin

":!tdlt gang 🎪" — Harlow, Theo, & Elkan

":!the boys 🎶" — Cory, Atlantis, & Jackie

":!the crew 🛸" — Syzygy, Chirp, Pyyri, & Jakrin

":!twins in soup 🍜🍀" — Cory & Paige

":!unwanted bastards 🐈🐈‍⬛" — Charlie & Jackie

okay. first. who's human and who's Eridian. this was very easy for me for some reason and I got this figured out in like three seconds. Chirp and Jakrin are humans, Pyyri and Syzygy are Eridians.

now obviously I want this to be a. more than one human and one Eridian survive this. because I want my crew shenanigans. so this is both an Insert My Characters AU™ and also a Everyone Not Being Dead AU™.

and I think all of them will fall into the same roles too! Jakrin is an engineer, Syzygy is the captain/pilot, Pyyri is a navigator, and Chirp— well. there wasn't exactly a communicator on the human crew in PHM. BUT. I do think Chirp would very well be a scientist (ESPECIALLY one studying theoretical xenobiology like Grace was) AND! they do end up needing to learn an alien language! so Chirp helps SO MUCH with the beginnings of human-Eridian communication. it probably helps a lot honestly that there's two language obsessed nerds within the human crew, that whole learning the languages process probably goes pretty fast once it gets started.

okay and now. the big question(s). how is more than one Eridian alive (especially with neither Pyyri or Syzygy being engineers) and who is the captain/pilot for the humans?

and this is where angst comes in. because I am incapable of making an AU and not making angst within the first five minutes of it existing.

Eridians first- I imagine most of the Eridians DID still die. and that Pyyri and Syzygy are both sick. we don't know what the layout of the Blip-A is. we know where Rocky stayed is near the engines, and that's it. it would make sense for any sort of navigator to reside nearby the pilot, but we don't know where the pilot would be either. human ships tend to have control rooms in the front of the ship because we need to see. Eridians do not. which actually results in it making sense for a control room to be near the engines and the thrusters because that means there is less wiring/technology/whatever Eridians used to have the chance to break! so basically, I imagine that out of the 23 Eridians aboard the Blip-A, three of them survived. Syzygy, Pyyri, and the engineer. and, as I said previously, at least Syzygy and Pyyri are sick as they did not spend as much time protected by astrophage as Rocky did in the movie, or whoever the engineer on the crew in this AU did.

aaaand the humans. I imagine that Chirp and Jakrin were first choice for scientist and engineer respectively. and that their respective captain, in some way, just as DuBois and Shapiro were in PHM, was killed. unlike in the original story, their backup was not.

in this I want to keep the coma-resistant gene idea from the book because I think it is fun. I imagine both Chirp and Jakrin have it, helping them be boosted up to top choice for their respective fields.

theoretically, this gene is also more likely to exist within individuals whose families have a history of it. which, obviously, results in offspring of those who have it being more likely to have it themself.

aand this is leading me to the concept of Maeguriek being the backup pilot. Jakrin has the gene, it's not unlikely for him to have passed it on to her, and with how much she looks up to her father she would absolutely follow his footsteps towards being an astronaut, plus in the original story she is the pilot and captain of her crew.

I don't think Jakrin would have been aware of this. in fact, I think whoever is in charge (the Stratt-equivalent) would try their damnedest to ensure Jakrin didn't hear a peep about his daughter being the backup pilot. because they knew he would be protective and angry about this.

which is exactly what happens when she's brought into the conversation and the forefront of the mission after the first choice is put out of commission. I think Jakrin absolutely fucking loses it. he is FURIOUS. he's angry at everyone who knew and kept it from him, he's about ready to attack the person in charge, he's upset with Maeguriek herself for not telling him, for doing this (< which ABSOLUTELY is an argument they end up having aboard the Hail Mary. Jakrin is frustrated and says something about the fact she should be home on Earth happy and living her life and she tearfully snaps back that she couldn't do that with her father dead)

this also ends up with Jakrin being put into a similar situation that Grace was in, without the amnesia—he's put under early or kept in solitary confinement until go time, so he can't sabotage the mission prior to taking off to keep Maeguriek on Earth. they don't induce any amnesia simply because they know for a fact that once they're in the Hail Mary a couple light years away, he's not going to do anything but his best to do what he was sent there to do. there would be no point in not doing that, Maeguriek's fate is sealed alongside his at this point, and they and Chirp all desperately want to save their home (and later, Erid).

anyways the making of this post was interrupted by a Few Hours via me needing to go to my work (I've spent my entire break continuing it yayyyy) and I've since thought of the idea of Lurker being the Eridian engineer and I kind of love it. she gets her name because the humans don't realize she's there for the first like. several hours and then one of them spots her and is just "WHO THE FUCK IS THAT LURKING BACK THERE" and they name her Lurker

I like to imagine Syzygy is named because she has several spots somewhere on her carapace lined up and Jakrin was like "it's like a syzygy!"

Pyyri. I have utterly no clue.

also don't question the humans names. Maeguriek will probably just be Mae. I don't know about Jakrin and Chirp. maybe they can be last names. who knows.