Beth Johanssen Headcanons
okay so i have many headcanons for ALL the characters in The Martian, it’s my favourite book, and i love the entire ares3 crew very much, but Beth is my favourite so i’m starting with her
She’s not the space nerd you’d expect
Like you really want her to, but her first love was computers, and she never had a space phase (no pun intended) as a kid, so she doesn’t know that much about the history of spaceflight or other planets
obviously she knows a lot about space, she’s an astronaut but she only knows what she NEEDS to know
She is a true crime nerd tho
She ADORES Agatha Christie, and that brought her into the true crime community
Podcasts are her BITCH and she will listen to them all the time, but especially when she’s on runs
she got into them in college but they really carried her through astronaut training
Anglophile
This girl FUCKING loves England. The Beatles are just one example of her weird obsession with that country
She wanted so badly to meet the queen when she was younger
She specifically asked NASA for royalty news while she was up in space, but they said no
VERY attached to her tech
Like gives a name to every computer or gaming system she owns.
Her in-space computer was Candice, her work laptop is Johnathan, her gaming computer is Sam and her personal is Kyle. (yes she does have three) and her pc is COVERED in stickers.
When her last laptop died (Gregory) she cried. Like literally cried. That computer got her undergrad and had been with her for too long not to.
Coffee snob
She won’t buy it from Dunkin, it has to be at least Starbucks but she actually prefers local, and will spend at least 15 minutes searching for an independent before resorting to a chain.
She got a premium coffee maker (with all the bells and whistles) for her birthday one year and it is one of her most prized possessions
Is definitely addicted to caffeine and got headaches if she didn’t get her fix, but when NASA found out they made her detox on decaf for three weeks, and was confined to two cups a day for the remainder of time as an astronaut
Once she got back tho, she was right back to her old ways.
Night owl
Obviously not a morning person, she HATES waking up, but she also loves staying up.
It’s something about being awake while the rest of the world sleeps
Also it’s just fun to stay awake
She’d work for hours into the night before she became an astronaut
let’s be honest, she still does even after she’s back from space
Chris hates when she does this, because “sleep is vital to good health”
she gradually stops for Chris’ sake, but when he’s gone for whatever reason, she’s up until 3am
She has an extreme morning routine
Will not be productive if she does not follow this routine to T
It goes: hit snooze at least three times, drag herself out of bed, make coffee, drink coffee, 20 minute workout, shower, get ready for the day, stop for coffee on the way to work, go to work.
It takes her like 2 hours to get fully awake.
No one can talk to her until at least her second cup of coffee
Also when in training, she hated the schedule so much but never complained to her team, (only to friends, and the crew was shocked to find out she hated it)
