Actually fuck it I'm gonna post some bullet point thoughts me and @gracefulgirl3 have ben working on for the Captain Colt AU (with Coltland twin AU as well hehehehe)! These are our basic ideas rn of a general timeline
Earth has gone to shit. Everyone living on space stations and astrophage is still a problem.
Stratt is above all of it and Invincible ships and colonizing planets stuffs
Stratt still wants to fix the problem so shit doesn’t get worse
Ryder was the one to cause Colts' accident during an EVA walk.
Colt gets his back injury from tether whiplash during thrust
Story starts 18 months after Colt's injury
Colt becomes a recluse, shutting out Ryland and Jody during this time
Ryland head researcher for astrophage and stuff
Eventually Colt lets Ryland in after Ryland expressed some crazy shit is going on and explains the astrophage stuff to Colt in full
Ryland gets forced onto the misson regardless
Gayle is the one to tell Colt about Ryland being sent on the mission.
Colt goes to Stratt fucking PISSED because Ryland didn’t go willingly
Gayle knew Stratt would find a way to get Colt out of the picture for knowing this.
Colt wasn’t supposed to know so Stratt messes with his memories like she did with Ryland.
Colt wouldn’t remember Ryland and has no clue what his role is until Stratt lies to him.
Stratt tells Colt he is the captain of the Invincible II, basically to just get him out of there so he doesn't learn anything else he's not supposed to.
Colt doesn't take the captain role super seriously, picking all the dumbass choices until later when he actually remembers shit.
Colt locks in more as he remembers Ryland went on a mission.
Mark starts to gain feelings for Colt during his time as captain.
Colt’s memories start to come back, he remembers Jody and his feelings for her.
Remembers he’s in love with Jody the same time he realizes he loves Mark
This makes him extremely conflicted about his feelings he's getting for Mark (bi panic???)
Colt remembers Ryland did NOT want to go on the mission
Colt has a choice to abandon the mission to find Ryland or continue the actual mission
I'm still working out how to make the whole Ryder and Gayle shit work- I'm trying to add plot points from both Fall Guy and PHM into this bc I feel like it'd be interesting to mess with!