#ryderastrea

"... Since I did fuck all of them, we'll go with that."

The back and forth between Earth and Dolnoh was a little disconcerting to Daniel - he was enjoying both places well enough, but it did take some adjusting to be so regularly alternating between a setting where he could show his true appearance and talk about a fair number of things openly when he wasn't on the Prosperity, and one where he had to make sure he was sformed and didn't talk about anything alien anyplace he might be overheard. Still, he was taking it well enough in stride - leagues better than he'd been the last time he'd been on Earth in any case. In retrospect, it sort of felt like he'd hardly said a thing off the ship back then, for fear of letting slip something he shouldn't. He was much more comfortable now, but there were still some things that were better discussed on the ship, or otherwise saved for the next stop on Dolnoh... which was how he'd found himself anxiously awaiting the crew's next stop on the outpost planet for the last few days.

The time had come at last, and he'd been quick to ask Ryder on a date. Options were somewhat limited on Dolnoh as compared to planets like Kraysha or Kor'Sel'Koo, but there was still plenty to do - he'd ultimately asked his boyfriend on a date to the planetarium, deciding it to be the best balance of trying something novel that still invited conversation - and with minimal risk of slipping and falling in the process. Even without the risk of falling, he was still a little nervous, but he did his best to shake that as he waited for Ryder. Unsurprisingly, he ended up fidgeting anyway, fiddling with the sleeve of his shirt - had he dressed up too much for a planetarium date? Not enough? The answer to both of those questions was probably 'no', but he couldn't help but worry anyway. Still, it was progress that he was able to divert his attention to being a little nervous about that, instead of very nervous about what was soon to come... or maybe he was still rather nervous about that, as well.

"Oh - hello!" He stopped fiddling with the sleeve of his shirt at once as Ryder appeared in his field of vision, nerves somehow seeming to both dissipate and amplify at once. He stepped forward to kiss his boyfriend hello. Likely a better greeting than the hello he'd given before, which had somehow come out sounding a little surprised despite this being the location and time the two of them had decided to meet. He felt himself relaxing at that, which was good - it wouldn't be fair to Ryder to be nervous all through their date. "You look beautiful," he said after he pulled away, smile crossing his lips as he held out a hand for Ryder to take. "Are you ready to go?" It felt like a dumb question, but better to check now than to start leaving the ship if there was still anything Ryder needed here before heading off to the Stronghold's planetarium.

Date: Late March, 2023 Location: KBW - Observation Room

So far, working on a smuggling ship was shaping up to be a deeply confusing experience. It was quite thrilling (in a terrifying sort of way) to be able to say now that he had been to Earth, though the trip had hardly seemed focused on smuggling at all - instead, the crew had gone to see... a concert? Daniel had never heard of My Chemical Romance prior to joining up on the Prosperity, but he could now safely say that some of their music was a little frightening. He’d quite liked some of the theatricality seen on stage though, so it had been a good experience overall. Until the subsequent realization that the crew had accidentally smuggled a human, somehow. That had led to several days of solid panic, during which Daniel’s primary focus had been getting through the day with his work done and sanity in place. Knowing that there was some sort of plan that seemed likely to keep everyone out of jail had helped on that front, at least enough that he was able to start enjoying life somewhat again alongside being terrified of the turn his had taken.

Being at the Kuiper Belt Waystation again helped as well. It wasn’t solid land, not even close - but still, it was quite nice to have a bit more room to move around as compared to the typical living and working space on the Prosperity. With the plants on the ship tended to and the cleaning that was his responsibility done, Daniel had a bit of time to himself, and so he made his way over to one of the KBW’s observation rooms - viewing the galaxy was one of the activities at the waystation that was in the range of what he could afford (free). Better still, there was a good amount of open space - and with the smuggling event over, he had the observation room to himself for the time being. After looking out at the stars for a bit, he got out his comm and began playing some of the Taylor Swift music that Ryder had shown him, through his earbuds so as not to be a disturbance. Truly though, there wasn’t anyone around... maybe now would be a good time to get some dancing in. With space limited on the Prosperity, he’d have to take his opportunities when he could find them.

The downside to having his earbuds in was that he didn’t notice as quickly as he otherwise might have when he was no longer alone - he jumped, startled when he saw a fellow crew member, and promptly stopped dancing. “Oh - sorry! I hope I wasn’t in your way,” he said sheepishly. He had been between them and the observation window, technically, though there was still plenty of space to see around him.

Date: 12/11/2023 Location: The Prosperity (currently parked on Sturn, near the Theme Park Fan Club's Clubhouse)

Prior to joining the crew of the Prosperity, Daniel had never lived anywhere with such a strong culture of gift-giving for birthdays. It was quite a lot of fun, and he'd gotten quite a lot of wonderful things for his birthday - some of which were rather touching, coming from people he cared a quite a lot about. He was also finding that he really enjoyed the gift-giving side of it - coming up with something that someone he cared about would like, and then getting the chance to make them smile. It was admittedly a little challenging on a tight budget, but so far it didn't seem like anyone was disappointed with their gifts, which was quite a relief.

With Ian's birthday coming up quite soon now, he'd put quite a lot of thought into what to get them. In the end, he'd landed on a couple things. One of the gifts was ready to go, but the other - well, it might be close to ready, or there might be a lot of fixing left to do. Again, he was faced with a situation where he couldn't really tell on his own. Thankfully, he wasn't on his own. Things were still new enough with Ryder that he wasn't quite sure what to call said 'things', but he definitely felt comfortable inviting them to try home (ship)-made brownies. Ryder loved sweets after all, so surely it wouldn't be an imposition.

Leaving the brownies to cool, he set off in search of his -- in search of Ryder, pleasantly surprised when he found them quickly. "Ryder - hey!" He greeted cheerfully, raising a hand in a half-wave at the sight of them down the hall, and reminding himself that there probably wasn't a need to be too self-conscious about the fact that he was smiling so much, or that he'd quickened his pace to meet them sooner. "How's your afternoon going? I was wondering - do you have a little while free?" Again, these were perfectly fine and normal things to ask, and he didn't need to stress about being over-eager, most likely.

Date: October 25, 2023 Location: The Prosperity (currently on Sturn, outside the town of Ustust) Characters: Ryder Astrea (@ryderastrea), Daniel Eansworth Mentioned Characters: Skylar Clarke-Iz’an, Ian Solko, Blue Sreleku, Robin Astrea, Alioth Clarke-Iz’an Description: Ryder and Daniel do NOT watch a movie.

"It's a little difficult to give just one when the answer depends on the reason I'm dancing and how I'm feeling. For performing, Cool from West Side Story comes to mind, or perhaps Anything Goes... outside of musical theatre, Whitney Houston and Phil Collins are classics; it's always fun to dance to them. But if I'm just dancing for myself, I'll usually pick something that dancing is a help for working through how I'm feeling - as an example, I found myself dancing to Lose You to Love Me by Selena Gomez quite a bit after my last relationship.

There's so much music out there that I haven't really had access to until recently, too. There's this song, Shake It Out by an artist called Florence + The Machine that I've been drawn to lately. I've also had quite a lot of fun dancing to the songs from the High School Musical films, though that has at least as much to do with who showed them to me as the songs themselves.

Date: February 14, 2024 Location: The Prosperity - Ryder's Pod Characters: Daniel Eansworth, Ryder Astrea ( @ryderastrea ) Description:  Daniel listens to the playlist Ryder gave him.

Date: February 14, 2024 Location: The Prosperity - observation deck Characters: Daniel Eansworth, Ryder Astrea ( @ryderastrea ) Description: Daniel and Ryder have their Valentine’s Day date.