#awesomesquirrelstuff

Yes, there are non stimulant ADHD meds. 

Dialtone never appears ruffled under stress, but you know when she’s going through it because she will just be super mean for no reason. She’s not normally known for being a particularly sweet and gentle person, but if she’s really dressing people down, yelling, spitting “can you manage that.” at the end of every request--or saying stuff that crosses the line (like in vol. 2 when she’s like “what do I have to do to get something done around here, threaten mass decommissionings? it’s a bit late for that!”) it’s definitely because she’s under pressure. This gets better over time as she develops more of a support system, and she pretty much always apologizes for it as soon as the heat’s off, but for a long time she sees herself as the place where the buck stops and presumes she has to slog that buck the rest of the way alone, and she deals with it by lashing out. She’s incredibly self possessed--a rare trait among lux, and one that was instrumental in everything she’s done for the rebellion--but that also means that all the toxicity she’s internalized is sometimes directed outward, and even though she’s self-aware about it she’s less in control than she thinks she is sometimes.

Rugsy meanwhile isn’t particularly known for restraint under pressure either but she tends to save the fighting words for when there is actually something being fought about. She’s depressingly well-adapted to like, survival stress and is well known around Bell Town for being downright cheerful when she has a good excuse for a dangerous mission or close combat, but interpersonal stress and her own post-traumatic symptoms really make her shut down. And by shut down I mean like trouble talking, can’t handle input, barely processes what’s going on. Part of the reason she always has her knife (and her rug) is because it’s a grounding object that helps her stay calm when she feels disoriented or like her emotions are on a hair-trigger. This is all a pretty longwinded way of saying that Rugsy just...responds to stress like someone with cptsd, because, she is. 

For Shade, I would say her stress response is barely distinguishable from her default behavior. She really developed a complex growing up because the only thing stopping her from being “the perfect unit” was, you know, having emotions, so she became incredibly reserved no matter the situation and taught herself to look and act calm even when she’s having an absolute breakdown about things, which she is most of the time. By the time of vol. 2, with a lot of support from her friends and after a firsthand tour of Why This Is Not Healthy beginning with her prolonged freakout on earth and culminating in a very depressed period on the ship prior to arriving in Bell Town, she’s started to vent things a little, although intense displays of emotion tend to make her feel unsafe especially when she’s already under stress. So you see a lot of like, snappish comments followed by stony silence or just plain leaving a situation she doesn’t like. After leaving she will go sulk about the very fact that she left and ask Bolt to reassure her about...everything.

Which brings me to Boltie, whose first response to stress is usually to cling to somebody and implicitly or explicitly request protection in the cutest way she can. Which is not as prickly as the other ones here, but it’s a weird look on a (equivalent of) fifty-year-old woman with a fair bit of medical and combat experience under her belt, especially when it’s in response to, like, someone being mildly critical of her. Boltie’s main stressor is the possibility of not being liked, so she immediately puts on her most likable and sympathetic air. Shade is a real sucker for this routine and it’s actually Rugsy and DT (and herself of course) who start to get them both on board with helping her be a bit stronger in her own right. Bolt has anxiety issues that are explicitly medical, as in, she chooses without any real outside pressure to take medication for them, and she tends to always jump to a conclusion that she’s abandoned and helpless unless she gets a jump on the sort of panic spiral of that and then systematically talks herself out of it.

Aww, thanks love!!

The next chapter will have angst. It will have drama. It will have tears. It will have very private secrets revealed in a very public way.

But Carlos will have a happy ending with Mal, Jay and Evie :)

Who said “I love you” first

Pfft, Camilla. That even a question? 

Who would have the other’s picture as their phone background

Camilla for sure. Then Beruka would see that Camilla had her as her background and she’d likely switch over as well haha

Who leaves notes written in fog on the bathroom mirror

This is absolutely something Camilla would do

Who buys the other cheesy gifts

Camilla!!! Beruka’s concept of gifts would be like. Daggers.

Who initiated the first kiss

Camilla, for sure. Beruka is a nerd and new to these pesky emotions

Who kisses the other awake in the morning

Camilla, absolutely. 

Who starts tickle fights

Camilla!!!!!! Does Beruka even know what tickling is?

Who asks who if they can join the other in the shower

If you think Camilla wouldn’t ask anyone she’s dating to take a shower with them, you’re lying to yourself.

Who surprises the other in the middle of the day at work with lunch

Camilla would seem like the type, but she would be pretty busy, yeah? Plus, Beruka wouldn’t want to be interrupted in the middle of her work. It’s actually Beruka who does, upon advice from Charlotte, and Camilla just starts sobbing on the spot.

Who was nervous and shy on the first date

Beruka, mainly! Like she’s going on a date with Camilla, oh my gosh! Though while certainly not shy I think Camilla would secretly be a bit nervous too. She really wants them to work out.

Who kills/takes out the spiders

Camilla: Darling, can you kill that spider for me?

Beruka: I have been training my whole life for this very moment.

Who loudly proclaims their love when they’re drunk

Night of Musing

So a thing about the SC ‘verse in general is that while they are certainly very much in space and have orbiting megastructures and FTL ships and stuff, I wouldn’t describe the overall aesthetic as “space age.” You have to remember that astraeas have been in space longer than they’ve been on planets–powered spacecraft were their neolithic revolution, and the way they work is deeply connected with the chemistry and physics of astraeas and the other creatures that populate their worlds and with mechanical craftsmanship. I honestly think of the part of the progression of their civilization that the story takes place in as being like, their late 18th century.

HOWEVER, the other LGA civilizations are all at different points. The Perseans are in “their” mid-20th century. The Cadrians, thanks to their unregulated capitalism, have an intensely stratified society where a few live in a glittering futuristic dreamworld, but most people live in quasi-nineteenth-century villages or industrial centers. The Zephrians are borderline cyberpunk and don’t even know where their home planet is. So Bell Town is a hodgepodge! An anachronism stew if you will. There’s gas lanterns and digital displays, analog radio equipment and panels of salvage vitruvol (the glass-like material they build spaceships from)

I’m just starting to really describe it in depth for vol. 2 but what I look at for inspiration are usually places where there’s been a lot of building with little-to-no regulation or oversight, like (the now demolished) Kowloon Walled City in Hong Kong:

I really wanted to portray the path to revolution as beginning with the meeting of unfilled needs. There have been scattered acts of rebellion for as long as there’s been a lux class, and that’s important. In general they’ve really never chosen the lives they’re “made for.” And it’s important to note that legally, they’re perfectly free to leave–it’s just that there’s no protection for them outside of that, so it’s next to impossible to lead a safe, stable life outside their assignments. The only reason not to run, in other words, is that there’s nowhere to run to, and that’s why the establishment of Bell Town is such a turning point.

Throughout vol. 2, and in the shorts leading up to it, there’s a lot of debate about how much they can afford to “go topside” and organize in the public eye with a goal towards joining mainstream society, rather than in secret with a goal towards having their own society alongside it. They end up not having a lot of choice in the matter, but in the early days of the settlement even going out and actively rescuing units looking for escape was seen as a huge, dangerous step that could potentially risk everything. 

The fact that they pulled that off basically ensured the growth of the town held constant, and that led to other leaps–alliances with organized factory girls (basically space unions); missions to take and defend other relevant “territory,” including supply lines and asteroids where the labor force is majority rebel-sympathizing lux anyway; infiltration and liberation of the factories that actually manufacture their kind. I’ve talked about this before, but there’s a nice push and pull between DT, who’s interested in material sustainability; Bolt, who’s interested in easing suffering and preserving dignity; Rugsy, who’s interested in uncompromising freedom and justice; and Shade, who’s interested in KEEPING ALL OF THEM ALIVE, THANK YOU VERY MUCH–and that basically decides how and where the revolution moves forward.