#goodyear rambles

Ooh, interesting choices! Not sure if there’s much to say about biology grad school AU that I haven’t already spouted off about either here or on the SF Discord, tbh. It’s basically just a fictionalized montage of my experiences in evoeco research work from both my undergrad and masters degrees, really. Just self-indulgent nostalgic romanticizing of my time in academia... at least the good bits of it. Some extra notes, since you asked:

I either worked on, assisted with, or was lab/officemates with someone who worked on every study system and vague experiment description mentioned in the fic. Hopefully that doesn’t out me if there are any anons reading SF fanfic who also studied in this area because it’s a small world...

Oh, ha ha, and Deimos’ cell phone fears are basically what happened to my old flip phone. A season of field work eventually killed it and I had to get a new one. 

And the “storytelling podcast” referenced is a reference to The Moth, which, along with This American Life were mainstays in the labs I worked in for background noise while working on experiments.

I also went to school with someone who eventually became the assistant greenhouse manager at the school (same position as Praxis). Sadly he wasn’t nearly as dreamy. 

I agree with Phpbs’ opinion on teaching first year undergrads bio intro courses (among other things). Especially the ones who are adamant about becoming doctors while getting 60s on all their assignments and not even bothering with lab prep. One of my go-to introduction questions for the first lab session was always “What’s your favourite species?”. The ones who answered “I’m only interested in Homo sapiens, which is why I’m going into medicine” inevitably made me laugh, facepalm, and shake my head whenever I had to mark their reports XD

Ah ha ha ha ha, omg I forgot I just barely wrote Vicks into this one with the “Bees?” bit. Don’t mind me, re-reading my fics and laughing at my own jokes...

Population genetics reading group was great. Highly recommended experience. 

Also, we did have an office beta fish. All the ones up for adoption were given names already, and the one my officemate brought back was a pretty female fish with the same name as both me and another person in my lab. Because when you already have two of the same name in one lab group, why not make it three? And autoclave tape gets used for everything, even when it shouldn’t, because it’s usually the easiest tape to find in the lab. 

As for LOVE, MAINTENANCE, I imagine Ethos and Vicks would probably keep things on the dl for a while. If it got serious enough for them to tell other people (or if they were discovered), here are my expected responses: 

Praxis: Shock face, quickly smoothed out into an apologetic smile. Happy that Ethos has found someone to treat him right. Cries later and isn’t sure why. Prepares to glower menacingly if Vicks ever dumps Ethos. 

Phobos: Makes a disgusted face when he finds out Ethos is “slumming it” with a member of maintenance crew. Teases/heckles him about it for a little while, but eventually gives up because nobody else seems to care. 

Porthos: Secretly a bit jealous of Vicks, but doesn’t say anything. 

Abel: Cares for all of five seconds and is very supportive and encouraging before getting distracted by Cain and going back to being completely oblivious to anything outside of their relationship. 

Cain: If he bothers to say anything, it’s probably a joke at Praxis’ expense. 

Deimos: Also a little jealous of Vicks, but calms down when Ethos still sits with him at lunch and holds his usual one-sided conversation.

Keeler: Happy to see one of his navigators in a relationship with someone other than their fighter. Slips Ethos extra lube packets when he returns a report or something. 

Wedge (the other dude with Vicks in his one and only appearance): Doesn’t care as long as Vicks doesn’t get any more absent-minded in his work, because then he’d have to pick up the slack.

Hi there Anon! I must admit I’m not quite certain what you mean by AO3 requests. Are you asking if I accept writing prompts/suggestions for fics? Right now I’m pretty focused on my main longform AU fic (The Thistle and The Rose), and should probably be working on the dozen or so other WIPs I’ve got in my writing folder… but I am easily distracted. 

If you have a great SF fic idea that you think needs to exist in the world, I highly encourage you to take a stab at writing it yourself (channel your inner Deimos)! We’re a very friendly little fandom who are always happy to see new writers join our ranks :) 

Another option would be to submit theme and/or pairing ideas to the Starfighter Summer Challenge, which is accepting suggestions for another day or two. You can make an anonymous submission and there’s no requirement to participate in the writing/drawing later on (though it would be great). I’m super excited to see what comes out of this, and definitely recommend checking it out. 

Rules: Answer 21 questions about yourself and tag 21 people whom you want to get to know better :)  

Tagged by both @sparkly-things AND @slstarrycity <3

Nickname/Pet name: Don’t really have one. Whatever my partner has decided to refer to me as in a given span of time, I guess. Common fallbacks for that include “clumsy baby giraffe” and “monster”.

Zodiac: Aries/Snake, though I don’t subscribe to astrology of either kind.

Height: Just shy of 6’ tall (182 cm).

Last Movie: Into the Spider-Verse. Highly recommended!

Last Thing Googled: “Shai Utoh shrine treasure” >> clearly a sign I’ve been doing nothing while sick except playing Breath of the Wild. Because I was having a frustrating time reaching the final treasure chest in that shrine and wanted to know what it had in it so I wasn’t needlessly beating my head against my controller over a shitty boomerang or something. Spoiler alert, it had an ancient core in it so I continued to struggle with the challenge of figuring out how to properly launch Link into the air at the correct height to paraglide onto the ledge containing it. But I succeeded in the end! [insert triumphant emoji here]

Favorite Musician: Single musician rather than group? Probably one of the greats from the jazz era. Count Basie or Duke Ellington or Django Reinhardt or Artie Shaw, perhaps.

Song Stuck in Head: Most recently Gaston’s song, but with the lyrics changed to fit Prince Sidon from BOTW (I fell down a YouTube hole of crack, don’t judge me), some of which I couldn’t remember so I just started making up new ones as I hummed it. I’m most proud of “No one thinks like Sidon / No one winks like Sidon / No one lusts after Hylian twinks like Sidon”. (Okay, you can totally judge me and my complete lack of musical talent).

Other Blogs: Nope, I just shove everything onto this one like the heathen I am. Sorry to anyone who follows me for/knows me from a fandom that I don’t post enough about (looking at you lovelies from the DS9 community – sorry y’all, I still love seeing your content, though).

Do I Get Asks: Usually only if I do an Ask Meme. Which I should do again sometime because they’re fun.

Following: 196. Wow, how did that get so large? I should probably go through and thin that out a bit…

Dream Trip: Travelling across Asia. I’ve never been to that part of the world but would love to go some day when I have enough money. I want to see the cultural sights, the natural sights, and eat lots of delicious street food!

Amount of Sleep: I miss being young and not needing it, but these days I do best with 6-9 hours. And then another hour or two lazing around in bed, if possible XD

Lucky Number: I’m super skeptical and don’t believe in the concept of “luck” per se…. but I’ll go with 38 (the number of my favourite Pokemon, and therefore near and dear to my nostalgic heart).

What I am Wearing: A green and blue plaid cotton house dress from the late ‘60s or ‘70s, a rainbow striped sweater, and black fleece-lined tights (because it’s winter, so fashion must also be at least somewhat practical.

Dream Job: Botanic garden curator. Or mad scientist.

Fave Food: All of them? It’s difficult to pick because I love eating. It’s hard to beat freshly-baked chocolate chip cookies, though. For savoury food, maybe dumplings (though that encompasses so many different types it’s almost cheating…  but I love them all!)

Play Any Instruments: Nope, never really had the talent for that.

Languages: English. Un peu (tres petit peu) de Français.

Fave Songs: Going by how frequently I’ve listened to them over the past little while:

Make Me Feel by Janelle Monae – Probably my song of 2018, and a fabulous video to boot.

Wild West by Lissie – First heard while watching the new season of Twin Peaks, but listened to incessantly while driving over the summer. Anyone who rode in my truck probably heard it at least once.

Thin Blue Flame by Josh Ritter – A rediscovered old favourite. So fucking powerful and it builds from such a quiet, unassuming start.

House by Patrick Wolf – Inspired by Liz’s inclusion of a Patrick Wolf song! I’ve been listening to his stuff for over 10 years now (wow, how time flies!) and love everything from his dark, emo-inspired phase to the happy, upbeat, ‘80s-influenced pop numbers. Putting this song in because the music video is just, so aesthetic.

Random Fact: I’m secretly a bit of a hoarder but I’m also fairly organized—as well as good at using available space and tidying up—so it doesn’t really look like I am.

Describe yourself as aesthetic things: Vintage dresses soaking in a handwash basin, the commingling scents of a glass of scotch and a cup of tea sitting on the side table together, the way a book’s deckled edges feel against your fingers, creamy lace paired with worn leather, the flickering of a neon sign with blackened burn out marks in the corners, that indescribable feeling of standing alone in the forest after the rain, an overflowing box of costume jewellery, the dull sheen of light reflecting off snake scales ready to shed, dirt clinging to the smooth metal spokes of a bicycle wheel.

I thought that last question would be harder, honestly, but once I had one or two, the rest just started to flow. Not sure how accurate they are as descriptors, but read into them what you will. I suppose…

Omggggggg, Jack Harkness crossovers are my favourite crossovers. Seriously. I have the starting ideas of a WIP for a Captain Jack/Captain America multi-decade fic somewhere in my documents…