I’d really like to know your thoughts on how the people in the iron lung-verse adapt to the change, now that they’re back into a universe that has stars and planets
Back to a universe where the can go to earth again
We saw a glimpse when grace contacted Ava, with everyone understandably freaking out because again planets! ✨STARS✨!
And while I know that some wouldn’t mind staying on erid or colonising the nearby planet- I’d love to see how they’d act being able to see and walk on earth again, being able to feel the sun (even if it’s still recovering) and being able to eat actual food.
There’d probably be lots of tears involved.
I’d also like to see how you’d imagine their lives once they’ve reached earth? I haven’t actually watched iron lung yet ( wanted to watch the film with my siblings but things kept happening ;-;) but from what I’ve heard I’d see many of them working to colonise mars, becoming engineers or following in grace’s footsteps to honour him.
oh eden would 100% want to colonize mars, i think they'd be in constant debates w/ earth on it bc technically it doesn't belong to earth so who's stopping them if they get there first but also rude but also it was theirs on their timeline so what's even going on. they'd have their work cut out for them bc i imagine the mars the eden folks came from had been...... i guess if not terraformed (that's not the correct word but ykwim) then very well adapted to human needs.
the coi n the others would be more inclined to try and stay w/ earth. like i mentioned i imagine the most feasible arrangement at the start would be for their stations to just orbit earth n for them to be treated like new countries who just happen to be located closer to the iss than they do any other land country. once they can trade resources i assume living in those stations would stop being as precarious as it is atm.
but yeah there would be a lot of travelling involved. ppl from earth would love to visit the stations n the folks from the stations would absolutely like to at least visit earth once. i know i made it a bit under 40 years in the fic since the quiet rapture (in canon it's been less, like around 20 i believe??) so there's absolutely a good portion of their population that has never felt the sun once. i imagine that would be something for them to watch out for. earth might probably want to run some tests on them ofc n i think they'd take that as a chance to get leverage over them.
a good bunch of them would indeed go into the sciences for grace, yeah, if not straight to like- school. like formal schools. like tales from salvager would spread n the knowledge that savior doctor grace had given out his wisdom freely in his last days on their universe would push a lot of people to want to pursue higher educations n realize they deserve to have that. i think more than sciences, there would be a lot of would-be teachers honestly.
but those who wouldn't go study would probably find work with like. idk how to say it. humanitary aid? like if there's two things everyone in that universe got very good at it was 1) keeping tech alive n going w/o any updates n w/ minimal resources and 2) surviving under STRENUOUS conditions. ignoring their little hiccup w/ the brains, those rations were some masterful work, n so was their water recycling. like i do think there's a lot earth could learn from them on those fronts. if they still have documentation on their futuristic technology, even better.
i think once earth gets over the shock n awe n accepts that they now have a handful of new countries that just happen to be located in space, they would be very invested in getting their knowledge, so the people from the stations would have a lot of chances to go visit earth n work there n potentially move there (for work or just for living). i can also imagine some people from earth would want to move into the stations (i imagine they would get expanded just a little overtime). even if they never settle who tf mars belongs to, the folks of eden absolutely must still have documentation on how the mars colony worked, so if nothing else, they already know how to go about setting that shit up, they just need help to do it. if earth can get its shit together they could have a very fruitful collaboration. i think that's the main sentiment abt all of this tbh
