⭐ obvs but also: Love, Maintenance and The Birdsfoot Trefoil and the Bees. I'm really curious about how Ethos and Vicks' respective peers are going to react to their relationship (if they find out).
Ooh, interesting choices! Not sure if there’s much to say about biology grad school AU that I haven’t already spouted off about either here or on the SF Discord, tbh. It’s basically just a fictionalized montage of my experiences in evoeco research work from both my undergrad and masters degrees, really. Just self-indulgent nostalgic romanticizing of my time in academia... at least the good bits of it. Some extra notes, since you asked:
I either worked on, assisted with, or was lab/officemates with someone who worked on every study system and vague experiment description mentioned in the fic. Hopefully that doesn’t out me if there are any anons reading SF fanfic who also studied in this area because it’s a small world...
Oh, ha ha, and Deimos’ cell phone fears are basically what happened to my old flip phone. A season of field work eventually killed it and I had to get a new one.
And the “storytelling podcast” referenced is a reference to The Moth, which, along with This American Life were mainstays in the labs I worked in for background noise while working on experiments.
I also went to school with someone who eventually became the assistant greenhouse manager at the school (same position as Praxis). Sadly he wasn’t nearly as dreamy.
I agree with Phpbs’ opinion on teaching first year undergrads bio intro courses (among other things). Especially the ones who are adamant about becoming doctors while getting 60s on all their assignments and not even bothering with lab prep. One of my go-to introduction questions for the first lab session was always “What’s your favourite species?”. The ones who answered “I’m only interested in Homo sapiens, which is why I’m going into medicine” inevitably made me laugh, facepalm, and shake my head whenever I had to mark their reports XD
Ah ha ha ha ha, omg I forgot I just barely wrote Vicks into this one with the “Bees?” bit. Don’t mind me, re-reading my fics and laughing at my own jokes...
Population genetics reading group was great. Highly recommended experience.
Also, we did have an office beta fish. All the ones up for adoption were given names already, and the one my officemate brought back was a pretty female fish with the same name as both me and another person in my lab. Because when you already have two of the same name in one lab group, why not make it three? And autoclave tape gets used for everything, even when it shouldn’t, because it’s usually the easiest tape to find in the lab.
As for LOVE, MAINTENANCE, I imagine Ethos and Vicks would probably keep things on the dl for a while. If it got serious enough for them to tell other people (or if they were discovered), here are my expected responses:
Praxis: Shock face, quickly smoothed out into an apologetic smile. Happy that Ethos has found someone to treat him right. Cries later and isn’t sure why. Prepares to glower menacingly if Vicks ever dumps Ethos.
Phobos: Makes a disgusted face when he finds out Ethos is “slumming it” with a member of maintenance crew. Teases/heckles him about it for a little while, but eventually gives up because nobody else seems to care.
Porthos: Secretly a bit jealous of Vicks, but doesn’t say anything.
Abel: Cares for all of five seconds and is very supportive and encouraging before getting distracted by Cain and going back to being completely oblivious to anything outside of their relationship.
Cain: If he bothers to say anything, it’s probably a joke at Praxis’ expense.
Deimos: Also a little jealous of Vicks, but calms down when Ethos still sits with him at lunch and holds his usual one-sided conversation.
Keeler: Happy to see one of his navigators in a relationship with someone other than their fighter. Slips Ethos extra lube packets when he returns a report or something.
Wedge (the other dude with Vicks in his one and only appearance): Doesn’t care as long as Vicks doesn’t get any more absent-minded in his work, because then he’d have to pick up the slack.
Badass maintenance ladies: I’m merging the Kepler and Sleipnir crews again. Sue me. Or just assume there are some Higgins/Orlova/Morena equivalents hidden somewhere on the ship that we haven’t seen in the comic. Anyway, much good-natured teasing ensues over Vicks’ cute new boyfriend. Higgins (or whoever her token bisexual equivalent is) is extra interested in hearing about Ethos, making Vicks slightly uneasy. dammit now i’m thinking of Higgins/Ethos fic ideas