#kaesae

[kaesaaurelia]

soooo I just finished watching that star wars hotel video and oh my god the fire safety what the fuckkkk

BUT ALSO if you are some kind of weirdo who watched this (or the evermore video) and was like "man I wish that thing existed but was good," I... can't help you specifically with Star Wars (or generic high fantasy settings) but if you are an adult or a family with teens (who are okay with some mild references to sexuality in a coming-of-age context -- which honestly would go over the heads of most kids too young to deal with them?), don't have issues with darkness, flashing lights, or potential immune issues due to touching touchscreens, and enjoy a little light cosmic and/or implied body horror I highly highly suggest going to Omega Mart next time you are in Las Vegas. It is surreal and fun and while I definitely ran into some issues there with 1. going down the story path I didn't mean to go down and 2. LOSING MY EMPLOYEE ID CARD (to be clear I did not work there, in the fiction of the game all guests are Omega Mart employees), there were helpful (actual) employees there to jump in and help me without breaking immersion at all. They were great.

There are some pathways (physical pathways) that require an ability to climb stairs but there are ALWAYS multiple paths between two points so while you might not be able to crawl through the tunnel and then climb the rope from [spoiler place] to [other spoiler place] or do the slides, you can still physically get to the plot-important places and I think at most people who can't do stairs miss... some kind of pointless music machines? (Which I had fun with ngl but I fucked around with them for like 10 minutes more because I was in the area looking for my lost ID badge and asking if people had found it.) I haven't been to the other Meow Wolf installations but I would love to go given the chance.

And if you really want a themed hotel... well, you can't find an eldritch dimension-hopping supermarket-themed hotel, no, but if you stay on the strip there's going to be a lot of neon and trying to sell you things, and also optionally a theme, so like. That's not dissimilar.

Fire safety both at these Vegas hotels and at Omega Mart will be better than crawling into a small closet with 4 of your closest friends and hoping to not die, also. And a substantial amount of the story of Omega Mart is "wow corporate greed does ruin everything," so if you liked the video you probably will also like this.

[Edit: also to be clear I don't really think Omega Mart is small-child-friendly, but mostly because it's a lot of reading, and the bulk of it is either corporate memos or a teenage girl's diaries. A lot of the stuff I found most engaging was exploring the strained intergenerational family dynamic between the girl, her mom, and her grandfather, something that small children would find either boring or upsetting or both. It's not the sexuality that's the issue, it's some offscreen implied character death-but-not-really (that not-really doesn't make it better!) and just plain bad parenting, plus the broader theme of a greedy grocery chain turning ancient mystery and natural wonder into queasy reality-breaking horror.]

[kaeyapilled]

what's fun about asa and kaeya is that they have like nothing in common. there is no reason for me to be shipping this underdeveloped oc with kaeya beyond just the fact that i really like kaeya and i really like asa and itd be cool if they kissed

[13daysadvent]

Contributor Spotlight: A combination of wit and words: Kaesa!

Kaesa is writing monster descriptions, including those for the Illhveli and Leucrota. 🐳

You can find Kaesa on Tumblr and Twitter @kaesaaurelia and on AO3 as Kaesa.

[kaesaaurelia]

The other day at work I made a stupid joke about how eating someone's liver was a very traditional punishment for theft. (We had just suffered a rash of bag lunch disappearances and were talking about fake-threatening notes to leave on our lunches to deter theft.) 2 of the 3 people I was talking to had not heard of Prometheus and when I explained, one of them seemed to think I was talking about a real person at first.

I'm so sorry, OP, but most people are not ready to know about Loki's horsefucker phase.

I think the most unintentionally pretentious part of me is I genuinely forget that most people do not have a near-encyclopedic knowledge of mythology and folklore. I literally just assume most people know at least the name of every Greek god. My mom and I were watching the Banshees of Inisherin and at the start, she asked "Do you know what a banshee is?" and I was so stunned because it would never occur to me to ask that question because I would never assume the average person doesn't know what a banshee is. The average person knows what a banshee is right. You know what a banshee is right. You know the names of the greek gods right. You know that norse myth where loki fucked the horse right. Right. RIGHT

[kaesaaurelia]

Have a handful of alliances I'm totally normal about.

Bonus very hostile game of Capture the Flag under the cut:

(Scar was so gleeful in escaping with that shield that I really wanted to use that pose for him.)

[kaesaaurelia]

started out trying to explain to a friend why I think they would like Pearl in the Life Series, ended up maybe saying a little too much about myself.

[kaesaaurelia]

Oh well, back to the hospital. (A different hospital. The other one had nurses who wouldn't even come when I called for them because they assumed I was an overdose patient.)

[kaesaaurelia]

Tbh the main reason I use behindthename NOW is the excellent search functions but the reason I STARTED using it in high school is that someone walking into my room and seeing me on YOUAREHAVINGSOMANYBABIES.OMG would have killed me stone dead.

The final stage of every OC's creation is having to go through websites like this to name it:

[fearandhatred]

what are your favorite good omens fics??

WOO REC TIME thank u for asking!! you may want to ask again after i've finished my resolution of reading all my mutuals' fics though because i've barely had the time to read anything these past few months... so i don't have much bookmarked lol but here are a few anyway! (from earliest read to most recent)

-----

mourning doves by sleepyimpulse (Words: 22,686 Chapters: 7/7)

“I’m sorry,” he registered himself saying between heaving sobs. “I’m so sorry, Crowley, I’m so sorry. Forgive me, please, please forgive me.” He hadn’t meant to say it like that, he knew the words were all wrong (he would never find the right ones). But the pain was coming at him in every direction and something, something had to give, and so he clung to Crowley like a life preserver. Crowley bent his body over Aziraphale’s and slowly, surely, pressed a kiss to his bloodied forehead. “I can’t,” he whispered, and Aziraphale went unconscious. (Aziraphale falls, post season 2)

this was one of the very first good omens fics i read and one thing about me is i LOVE this type of angst. so so good and such a nice exploration of crowley's struggle with what forgiveness is. gorgeous and so angsty. have i said that already. angst galore

say yes to me (i've got my eye on you) by thehappyyears (Words: 11,983 Chapters: 1/1)

It’s a pleasant evening much like many pleasant evenings this month, so Crowley doesn’t expect anything unusual when he makes himself comfortable on his side of the couch and lets Aziraphale select the wine. Which is why he’s resolutely caught off guard when Aziraphale disappears into a backroom, which Crowley always assumed was a wine cellar, and then turns around, darkness behind him and low, warm light gilding his hair and making his eyes bright. He’s breathtaking, he’s so beautiful, his eyes are so dark. “Crowley,” he breathes. Or, Crowley and Aziraphale have sex.

this is THE epitome of service top crowley. all hail service top crowley. also it's just so well-written and seamless. also i don't want this list to be too long so if smut is your thing then i recommend literally anything by focusfixated or zehwulf or Ineffably_Yours

Zmija by Himitsu_no (Words: 3,185 Chapters: 4/4)

He'd sigh in annoyance and hide his face in the angel's chest. "Said if they lived longer they'd have more time to become nasty and corrupted little shits, do all sorts of evil deeds and the likes. They never questioned it and went as far as warn me in advance of all the bigger natural disasters." Aziraphale would laugh and his fingers find their way into the red locks with practiced ease, and he'd bend to kiss the top of his head. "Did they do that, though? The evil deeds." Crowley would smile despite himself, eyes closed and leaning into the caress. "About a dozen, maybe. The rest were just... ordinary humans doing ordinary stuff." There'd be a long pause in which the angel would take it all in, and the demon would replay many of it in his mind with unease. Then Aziraphale would speak again, voice barely a whisper, "How long were you in Mesopotamia after the flood, my love?"

yeah i have this in my bookmarks but i have not touched it ever since i read it the first time because. it hurts me :) idk if it's because of my mommy and daddy issues but the whole crowley being good with kids tropes makes me so sad. and also this fic is just. devastating to me. i really should leave a comment but i don't want to read it again fr

when i knew love’s perfect ache by sugarskulled (Words: 1,834 Chapters: 1/1)

A demon can't touch that which has been made holy by God. Crowley knows this well as anyone. And Aziraphale? Aziraphale is so holy it burns.

this is definitely one of my favourite good omens fics of all time. angst again and so bittersweet i think about it so often

better to read and eat cake in a Soho bookshop than to reign in Hell by Kaesa (Words: 35,717 Chapters: 5/8)

When Aziraphale flees Heaven with the Book of Life, he's planned for it -- he's alerted other angels stationed on Earth to Heaven's plans, and asked them to take steps so that humans won't get caught up in the inevitable battle he faces with the other archangels. But Crowley shows up too, and he doesn't know the plan, and in the chaos Aziraphale leaps in front of a terrible blow meant for Crowley. And so, still very angry with him, Crowley must get him back to the bookshop (which is full of annoying angels) and help him heal, and try to figure out how to move past their previous fight, because, sure, he's mad at Aziraphale, but he doesn't want him to die. But soon enough it becomes clear that Aziraphale isn't necessarily dying. He is changing, and no one quite knows what to expect, because this situation has only happened once before, when Supreme Archangel Lucifer Fell and became Satan.

this fic has everything tbh and it's one i keep coming back to. the smut is great AND well-written and besides that the plot itself is so good??? the writing overall is just gorgeous tbh. slight body horror too :) the moment this updates i will be all over it like a rabid dog

Dear Angel by crowleys_bentley_and_plants (Words: 3,379 Chapters: 13/?)

A collection of emails addressed to a certain Aziraphale, found on the computer of a lonely demon.

poetic and hard-hitting and interconnected and also tells a story. through emails!! also the last lines of every chapter always knock me out lmaoo

to hold you like a bouquet by gravitron (Words: 10,676 Chapters: 1/1)

Crowley and Aziraphale, as told by history’s flowers.

can y'all read this fic oh my god i'm gonna fight everyone. so so beautifully written and well-structured. you know what i'm just gonna copy and paste part of my comment on here because yeah: i love your writing it's just. The Way Yo uWrite. The Words. your way with words. etc. and some of your sentences have a directness to them that's so effective. and the way you incorporated the flowers into every part of the story is like... so tastefully done I'm obsessed

[kaeso4ka]

Hey, everybody!

I understand it's customary on Tumblr to make a post with the rules, so here I am :)

My main nickname is kaesa. English is not my native language, so you may encounter strange turns of speech in my texts. I apologize for that.

I like dark content and writing eroguro. I really love yandere. I have NO restrictions on tags. I write literally anything that is not prohibited by the site rules. I love NSFW.

I write in the Transformers fandom. I've read all the comics, watched all the cartoons and movies, and played all the games, so I'd be happy to take requests on any Transformers universe!

My favorite character is Optimus Prime from TFP and Optimus Prime from the shattered glass universe. Well, and Optimus Prime himself as such in any of his incarnations. But I don't mind writing on other characters and peirings as well.

I like to write Optimus/fem! human! reader, but I can write something else as well, depending on the request.

I'd be happy to receive requests, ask from you, as well as chatting in person.

AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FaustaDea

[kaesaaurelia]

Me when I try anything new or spicy after the gallbladder surgery.

top tier gas station stickers spotted

[lordeasriel]

A Jedi's life is to struggle serve.

A portrait of my main Barsen'thor from SWTOR, Kaesa. Oldest sister to the Wrath, they were separated when the Wrath was just a baby and Kaesa was brought up by the Jedi Order, becoming one of its fiercest beacons of light and duty.

I got the unstable arbiter's lightsaber a long time ago and i love using it in all my characters, so i decided to actually draw hers here. looks neat imo. I went for a stroky artstyle this time and this looks great

(im by.effie on instagram)

[13daysadvent]

Greetings to all our fellow monster lovers and fans! Our contributors have been creating all manner of creature and monster for our Monsters & Myths project this year!

Meet all our monstrous creators below!

For social media information about our contributors, read below the cut!

Illustrators 🎨

alchenart: alchenart

Amanda Brack: amandabrack (linktree)

Azuzel23: Azuzel23 (Twitter)

Bratzoid: bratzoid_art (Twitter)

Breeze: breezeharr (Twitter)

clockworkjellyfish: clockworkjellyfish (Twitter)

cosmopoliturtle: cosmopoliturtle

coyoteprince: coyoteprinceart (Twitter/IG)

desansen: desansen

Diane Ramic: dianeramic

Eliane T.: feusus

EVP Comics: EVPcomics

Feiyu: feiyufly

Gid!: gidmoji

JD Donnelly: paintingdragonfeathers

Junior: Vigoburrito

Mad Brake: madbrake

Maggie: magpied-illustration

Maria Ku (grrrenadine): grrrenadine

milomei: milohmei (Twitter/IG)

PanoramicPancake: panoramicpancake

Pewpewpew: pewpewpew

RabbitGuy: rabidguy

Saskia de Klerk (Saskle): saskle

ShaiHime: shaihime

Strange: strangeomens-sketch

thesmartbluebox: theartbluebox

Tihara Ezzo: TiharaEzzo (Twitter/IG)

V. Gagnon: wyrmsfornerves

Zephra: ArtByZephra (Twitter/IG)

Merch Artists 🔖

coyoteprince: coyoteprinceart (Twitter/IG)

Draco: dracooties (Twitter/IG)

Eldritchtoast: eldritchtoast

Freaky Farm: FreakyFarm

Liz Schmidt: lizard_Bitt (Twitter)

Mad Brake: madbrake

Maria Ku (grrrenadine): grrrenadine

Mattibee: mattibee-portfolio

PanoramicPancake: panoramicpancake​

Arachnida: arachnoidmater

Quiche: cuddlyquiche

ShaiHime: shaihime

Strange: strangeomens-sketch

Zach!: bitchfitch

Writers & Chef 🖊️🍽️

Arachnida: arachnoidmater

crescenttwins: crescenttwins

Ishnia: witheredbouquet

Jasper Y. Grace: jasperygrace

Kaesa: kaesaaurelia

Leigh / paxfacere: paxfacere

Recklessfiction: recklessfiction

Soul Starshine: soul_starshine (Twitter)

Zachtookthem: zachtookthem (Twitter)

[feusus]

My pages for @13daysadvent with @kaesaaurelia! I loved working on this medieval-like manuscript and learn about these crazy whales from Iceland! Leftovers are still available here: https://13daysadvent.bigcartel.com/

Full text by Kaesa:

The illhveli, or evil whales, patrol the waters surrounding Iceland in search of ships to sink. There are many kinds of illhveli, all strange, fearsome, and wicked. The Hrosshvalur, for example, is an enormous whale with the head and tail of a horse. It neighs like a horse, and when herds of them descend upon a ship, they bring a terrible smell and bad weather with them. And when they descend upon a ship, they do so literally—a Hrosshvalur may destroy a whole ship by leaping from the water and landing on it, crushing it.

Several other evil whales have a hybrid appearance like the horse-headed Hrosshvalur. The Katthveli, for example, has a cat's head, and like a cat, it plays with its food, diving beneath vessels and surfacing beneath them to break them apart from below. The cow-like Nauthveli, meanwhile, shatters ships with the sound of its deep, far-reaching underwater lowing.

The Hrosshvalur is not the only jumping evil whale, either; the Stökkull, which also leaps on ships to destroy them, has large flaps of skin growing from its face and over its eyes. It can only see when the flaps of skin fly upwards as it falls back into the water; as such, it is blind most of the time, although as it can jump a mile in one leap, it has plenty of time to study its prey while falling.

The Raudkembingur, the most bloodthirsty of the illhveli, has a crest the color of blood, and is so cruel that if a vessel escapes it, it must find and destroy another one that day or it will kill itself in despair. It is not very bright, however, and can be fooled by dressing a log up in sailor's clothes and throwing it into the sea; it will pounce upon the log and be frustrated that this strange sailor always floats.

The Múshveli has the head and forelegs of a mouse, which may not sound very fearsome, but because of its mouse legs, it can clamber up onto land after a ship's crew. And the massive Lyngbakur makes land feel even less safe! The largest of the illhveli, the Lyngbakur hunts by floating motionless on the surface of the water, where its hairy back looks just like an island overgrown with heather. Once unsuspecting sailors have left their ship to explore, the whale submerges, drowning them.

All illhveli are drawn to the sound of their own names, and a sailor should never speak of them at sea lest they be summoned. Even whaling vessels avoid these monsters; some have poisonous flesh, and others' flesh will melt away in cooking, but none are good for eating.

[kaesaaurelia]

Just want to argue with one thing (and sorry OP I'm sure you've already gotten 500 iterations of this, but this is the version of the post I saw and am reblogging, so I'm saying it probably again): AO3 is NOT just a fanfiction archive and it IS totally okay to post essays on insights and theories. It is not okay to post things like liveblogs or requests for promts, but you can post any kind of fanwork that isn't considered "fannish ephemera." The line between what is/isn't "fannish ephemera" is kind of hard to clarify but if you've written an essay with like a thesis and everything, I think that's pretty solidly fannish meta and permitted. Fanvids, art, podfic, and even recipes inspired by characters are also fine. It is probably going to lean more towards fic because unfortunately you can't HOST non-textual media on AO3, as hosting images, videos, and audio files gets expensive fast. But you can link/embed those files if you'd like to put them up there, and I like it when people do this.

I also think most people have their own particular standards for what merits kudos, commenting, etc. and since the feature was introduced there have been people who won't kudos WIPs, or only kudos porn logged out, or whatever. As an author I have given up on the practice of kudomancy and do not really care as long as you aren't mean to me in the comments or somewhere else where my attention will be drawn to it. (I do look at my fics' bookmarks but you can be mean to me in the bookmarks if you want, they're your bookmarks, I don't get emailed bookmarks or anything, I'll probably just mute you.)

A couple more notes on tags:

My rule of thumb for tagging things is that if someone is LOOKING FOR STUFF featuring that tag and they'd be disappointed when they found what you posted, you shouldn't tag it that. If it heavily features dog sledding, tag Dog Sledding; if chapter 3 of 87 has an in-depth discussion of the movie Balto and dog sledding ceases to be relevant afterwards, don't tag it. If the fic is heavily about Blorbo, tag them; if Blorbo has one line or is just mentioned, please do not. If you're writing something based solely or mostly on a TV or film adaptation of a book, please don't tag the book "for exposure." If you're writing the characters from one fandom and using a single worldbuilding concept from another fandom, it's also good manners not to tag the other fandom; instead put "Other Fandom Fusion" in the freeforms.

Tags that mean the same thing all get "synned" (made synonyms of each other) by people called tag wranglers. These are real actual people who are volunteers. There is no algorithm involved.

Because of this, you do NOT HAVE TO INCLUDE MORE THAN ONE TAG THAT MEANS THE SAME THING. You can tag Aziraphale/Crowley OR Ineffable Spouses OR Azicrow OR Crowley/Aziraphale OR . You don't have to tag all of them. They're all functionally only one tag.

Tags come in several varieties -- Fandom, Character, Relationships, and Freeform. These tags are all different tags that function a little bit differently, so, for example, it actually IS okay to tag a pairing that isn't an important main pairing in the freeforms. If you tag "Bert/Ernie (mentioned)" in the Relationships tag in your fic about Elmo's epic journey, it will be synned to the main Bert/Ernie tag, show up when people look for Bert/Ernie, and all the Bert/Ernie shippers will think you're annoying. If you put it in the Freeforms category, it will NOT get synned to the main relationships tag but will get synned to the freeform Bert/Ernie tag, and people who hate Bert/Ernie with a fiery passion will be able to filter it out, or at least be forewarned in the tags that at one point in your epic Elmo fic, Elmo calls Bert and Ernie and the conversation indicates they're definitely married.

There are tags that pop up in the dropdown menu when you're tagging before posting. These are called "canonical" tags. You do not have to use them, although there is a chance that if you don't, it'll take a bit for the tag you use to be synned, if there is in fact a canonical tag at all. I see this a lot with like, female characters who get married within a continuity and take their husband's last names, where people will tag, like, "Jane Jones (I can't believe I can't tag her Jane Jones it just says Jane Jones Smith smh like she's only relevant if she's a wife)." It's understandable that you wouldn't want to tag "Jane Jones Smith" if you're writing an AU where she gets together with her bff Jill and they live happily ever after in a cottage by the sea and she never marries Sam Smith, but, to be clear... if you just type "Jane Jones" into the box.... that is probably already synned to Jane Jones Smith. However, if you tag a long rambling vent at the tag wranglers... the tag wranglers will see it, and also they will have to syn it to "Jane Jones Smith." If you want the rant attached to your fic, that's fine, but if you just want to tag it Jane Jones, you can still do that, it's just not in the dropdown menu. Same goes for if you're tagging for Jane's superhero name, secret identity as Casimira Castillo, etc. You can even -- if you have an AU, say, where she's named Joan Janes -- tag it "Joan Janes (AU evil!Jane)" and it will eventually be synned to Jane Jones Smith. (This may also present a problem for you or the wranglers eventually, depending on what you and your fandom like to do with AUs, but in that case it's also probably good that you know this.)

That said, if you go really minimalist and just tag her as "Jane," it will be hard to find your fic. She will be mixed in with all the other Janes -- Jane Eyre, Jane Crocker, Jane Fonda, Dick and Jane Jane, Whatever Happened to Baby Jane, and a handful of Jane Does will all be swirling around in that tag. (There is already a Jane Jones tag for a character from a movie I haven't seen, so in this particular situation for this hypothetical other Jane Jones if you're dedicated to your Jane Jones tagging you might want to tag her "Jane Jones (Hypothetical Fandom)" to keep her from being mixed up with "Jane Jones (Movie I Haven't Seen)" or any other Janes Jones that may pop up.)

If you're curious about a tag's synonyms, you can look at the tag and its relationships by clicking on it. For example, I recently opted to tag something "Not Season 2 Compliant" even though the canonical tag is "Not Season/Series 02 Compliant," because the fandom I was writing for has Seasons, not Serieses, and I thought it looked better. I found the canonical tag, clicked on it, saw all the tags that are synonyms of that canonical tag, and went with the one I preferred. I could have made a new tag, say, "lol this is not remotely compliant w/season 2," that would have been fine, it just would've taken a while for people to be able to filter for non-S2 compliant fic (either to filter it out, because they, like I, NEEDED fixit fic asap, or because they did not want to think about S2 and wanted to live in happier times for a while).

(For an amazing example of how ridiculously varied synonyms of tags can get when a fandom is large and old enough to go through several iterations of ship naming conventions I suggest checking out the tag for Hermione Granger/Harry Potter, which contains no-longer-standard shipname forms like "Pumpkin Pie" and "Harmony," as well as about a thousand renamed AU versions of the characters and a lot of misspellings.)

AO3 Etiquette

It would seem a whole new kind of AO3 reader/writer is emerging and it is becoming clear not everyone quite understands how the website community works. Here is some basic guidance on how most people expect you to go about using AO3 to keep this a fun community archive that funtions correctly:

Kudos is for when the story was interesting enough to make you finish reading. If it sucked or was badly written, you probably left. If you finished - you kudos.

If you liked it, you should comment. It can be long and detailed or a literal keysmash. Writers don't care, we just love comments.

No critisism unless the author has specifically asked or agreed to hear it. Even constructive critisism is a no-no unless an author note tells you it's okay. Many people write as a fun hobby or a way to cope with, among other things, insecurity. Don't ruin that for them.

Do not comment to ask the author to write/update something else. It's tacky and off-putting and will probably have the opposite effect than the one you want.

There is no algorithm, it's an archive. Use the search and filter function to add/remove the pairings/characters/tropes etc. you want to read about and it will find you the fics that fit the bill.

For this to work, writers must tag and rate stories. This avoids readers finding the wrong things and missing the stuff they want. I don't care how cringy that trope is in your eyes - it gets tagged.

Character A/Character B means a ROMANTIC or SEXUAL relationship of some kind. Character A&Character B is PLANTONIC, like friendship or family.

Nothing is banned. This is an implicit rule because banning one thing is a slipperly slope to banning another and another, until nothing is allowed anymore. Do not expect anyone to censor for you. Because of the tags system, you are responsible for your own reading experience.

People can create new chapters and sequels/fic series any time after they "complete" a story. So it's considered perfectly normal to subscribe, even to a finished story. You can even subscribe to the author instead just to cover your bases.

Do not repost stories or change the publishing date without an extremely good reason (like a complete top to bottom rewrite). It's an archive, not social media. No one cares what's the most recent, only what fits their tag needs.

Avoid deleting a story you wrote if you hate it - orphan it so others can still enjoy it, without it being connected to you anymore.

This is a creative fanfiction archive. No essays on your insights or theories please. There are other places for that.

I KNOW there's plenty more I missed but I'm trying to cover most of the basics that people seem to be struggling with.

I invite anyone to add to this, but please explain, don't berate.

[kaesaaurelia]

Some Hero Forge designs for my 3rd Life space colonists AU!

Martyn is the ship's doctor -- a generalist with a lot of emergency experience in situations that you don't get much on populated planets. He's coolheaded in a crisis and good at putting people at their ease even if he's got to use sharp things on them. As long as they like hearing stupid jokes while they're bleeding out, anyway.

Grian is the ship's doctor in that this is one of those science fiction universes where FTL travel is achieved via a pilot controlling the ship through direct neural interface, so the line between the pilot and the ship can get very blurry. It's Grian's job to fix issues that might arise with the interface and with the pilot's neurology, and to protect the pilot's life at all costs.

Scar's the pilot. He's very, very good, but to be successful at this kind of thing you have to be able to put up with your brain giving you sensations that say THIS IS GOING TO HURT THE WHOLE TIME YOU'RE DYING and just lean into them, or you might miss your mark and come out of hyperspace in the middle of a sun. He can be pretty accident-prone planetside, because at this point he's used to ignoring his instinctive sense of self-preservation, and to moving absurdly fast in a low- to no-gravity environment.

Ren's a weird one, because for most of the 3rd Life ensemble I could figure out some kind of specific job they'd be doing as space colonists either aboard ship or when they finally got to the alien planet, but "starts a small business in magic, crowns himself king, and then asks to be ritually slaughtered for the sake of protecting his kingdom" is a real stumper when it comes to career counseling. So I decided to go with what would be the funniest rather than what made the most sense, which is that he's Martyn's house-husband and a relatively popular fantasy author who can't figure out how to finish the last book of his doorstopper fantasy trilogy. Martyn WAS considering dropping all space travel longer than a week or so in order to spend more time at home, but Ren was like "I don't think I can finish this book help" and now he and Martyn are moving to another solar system indefinitely. Who among us has not started something they could not finish and wished to just quietly vacate the planet over it?

(Don't let the cozy domesticity fool you, I will still be putting them through The Horrors™️; these fools are still doomed by the narrative. Space wants nothing more or less than to kill you and reduce your remains to a fine particulate.)