#the ark au

[kinetic-elaboration]

January 15: Monty/Raven, Accurate/Indefinite

As is so often the case with me, I don't know what this is. I didn't have a strong idea going in so I just went with Dramatic.

This is part of the Ark AU, and takes place before the beginning of that story.

Monty/Raven, ~660 words, written in about 20 minutes

For the prompt "accurate, and its antonyms (inaccurate, indefinite, unreliable, faulty)" from my July Break Bingo 2023 card.

*

One thing Raven and Monty have in common is an unerring desire for accuracy in all tasks and perfection in all results, paired with a stark understanding that such things will never be. Their ship is old and faulty, and it cannot ever be otherwise again. They are both only part of the shoestring and glue that holds the thing together—not that Raven would ever admit to Monty's face that she gives him as much credit as that.

Their relationship, too, is uncertain and stumbling: indefinite, and in that way, one might say faulty, too. Two months after the first time, she finally invited him back to her quarters on Mecha. But then they hardly knew what to do with each other in the privacy behind a locked door, in the space of a single bed. He showed a certain patience that she'd never felt in him before. She would not be so naive as to say it was love or even desire, because desire is something lofty and beautiful, and they've only ever been clawing and scratching in the dark. Still, he took his time and he stretched himself out and he kissed her slow. He left her with hollows of time in which to think—something she'd always avoided in the past, with him.

She's heard rumors that all his other girls are ex-Prison Station, which makes her wonder if she's special, if there's some sort of hidden meaning there. Maybe he knew Finn on the inside and figures, close enough. Or maybe Raven crept up on him in some unexpected way, and he intends this no more than she does, and is compelled to keep going like it's some kind of dare.

Sometimes she shows up on Go-Sci just to rag on him about the hole in the security system in Alpha Sector 4, something she shouldn't even know about except that any fool could see it, and sometimes he reminds her that the patch job in that section of family quarters on Farm is so weak, he could probably rip it apart with his bare hands. He grew up on Farm and knows that's always been a damn trouble spot. But if she's such a genius, why can't she figure something out?

"I am a damn genius," she answers.

He flicks his gaze all the way down her body, slow, then raises his eyebrows like a dare.

Maybe she is special.

Maybe they will always be indefinite, faltering, because they've been broken up in pieces and turned old before their time, and they cannot ever again be otherwise again. That's when she thinks when she catches sight of sweetness in him. When she spies him across the cafeteria at a crowded lunch hour, laughing and joking, hiding that laughter behind his hand. He's only twenty, looks young still, sometimes, for his age.

For a while, in her quarters, he slides himself down under the covers and just lies there, his breath hitting ragged and tired against the bare skin of her hip. She lets her hand fall down and cards her fingers through his hair. Her lungs are working hard, trying not to burst. Something's cracked up, uncertain, a story they could have had together but she just can't find the thread of it, doesn't know what she's doing. She’s thinking not about the Skybox girls but about the Station itself, how he never talks about it, how he'd up and leave now without a second-thought if she even said the word. She's the shoestring and the glue, sliding her fingers again and again through the soft strands of his hair. Holding them both together, somehow. He pokes his nose against her hip. Underneath the blanket, he must be hot, sticky with sweat, unable to ignore for a moment the lingering scent of them, too aware of the wrinkles on the sheets that, somehow, they've half-pulled off the mattress. Surrounded on all sides by the wreckage they've created and become.

[ark-fork]

[vulcan-moon]

dr maria au sketchbook lines bc ive been thinking of her so much these past couple of days

[bestjeanistmonster]

Dc au- lil scamps on the Ark who love dirt

I imagine they’d often go to the section of the ark that is specifically for growing plants and food to play in the dirt and plant apple seeds leftover from their lunches

They are often chased out but they always manage to sneak back in

[smallpwbbles]

based off my answer on this ask for the AU. I like to imagine most of the scientists working on project Shadow were a bunch of goobers who were insanely stoked to have made Shadow

[dhl-au]

[galacticghoste]

lil Sibling!!!!

[atinymexicanbird]

Family reunion.

Tap for better resolution, tumblr makes the preview so blurry :(

I edited the illustration bc i wanted it to look more clean jsajsj

[noisyghost]

assorted mermay things that turned into a beach episode at some point

[pastelspindash]

black arms maria for a very long and complicated fic i'm writing :3 stay tuned hehe

[pretzlforpresident]

they stole that newspaper

[gio-scrabbles]

Doodles of Maria Robotnik because she’s a good noodle and deserves it!

[ark-fork]

No apologies from me. I love glass.

[vulcan-moon]

what if they made it to earth together and she was happy even if it was only for a little bit what then

[bestjeanistmonster]

Dc au- even as baby, shadow was very small yet very talented

[smallpwbbles]

Just exploring a bit of the scary interactions with the scientists and Shadow, this Incident got them started on the design of the inhibiter rings and it was a “oh my god he could kill us if we aren’t careful” epiphany