even more vatling headcanons because the saviours of the world deserve to be silly:
-A flag war started between the vatlings, whoever could hide their country's flag the longest won an hour of time off. Ryland was disqualified as he used Eva's office—and since nobody was allowed to snoop there, was found out by her. Dimitri's was found by Olesya, who was very quick to rat out her own countryman. Steve engraved his into a prototype beetle, which Lokken quickly discovered. Lamai won since she hid her's under the monkey enclosure
-The team, though consisting of the smartest minds on Earth, very often forgot basic words and grammar rules. In a meeting, since English has been dubbed the common tongue, one vatling may start a sentence before trailing off as they forget the word they were trying to say
-Lokken is a big victim of this, and since there are little other Norwegians on board, she would glare at the object she's trying to name. It takes several other vatlings, Eva, Dimitri and Steve mainly, following her pointed stare, listing off several items in her line of sight until she gets it
-This sometimes turns into charades or a game of pictionary, unfortunately none of team are artists
-Ryland, having experience with his middle schoolers, is the best at figuring out Lokken's shitty drawings (a fleeting moment of civility between them)
-Eva sometimes brain glitched as she switched between her six different languages, and when its time to speak to Ryland again, may still be in that language mode. He joked once that she was a robot having a system malfunction after she gave him an order in Mandarin, which she did not find funny and made him stay in his lab during their usually scheduled lunch
-He pouted the entire time, since it's a rare chance he got to spend with Eva alone outside of the extremely late nights, barely touching the food brought to him. (Eva felt terrible after and never took away her Ryland time again, the two are way too attached than either had realised)
-On the same train of thoughts, having to stay up all hours of the day and well into the night is inevitably a horrible idea with said smartest people
-One day, Ryland, Annie and Martin were all finishing up on an experiment, choosing to explore the Vat while they waited on some results. That's when they poked their heads into the engineering department to find Steve duct taped to a chair, hands behind his back, one on his mouth—faintly they could hear him humming a Beatles song
-Redell said the man was getting on their nerves as he went through the entire discography. Lokken looked two seconds away from strangling the Canadian
-Olesya was trying to free Steve but was held back by Dimitri—who then duct taped her and Steve's hands together. she joined, badly butchering Here Comes The Sun, which felt more like punishment for the rest of the team than it was for her and Hatch
-Whenever Eva made her rounds across the labs, no matter how little time she spends, she was yelled at by one of her team leads to wear protective gear. As expected, Lokken and Olesya were the ones that made her stop at the entrance before slapping on a hard hat and a high visibility vest
-She hated the bright yellow, but was never allowed in unless she complied, dictator or not, her scientists refused to let her through despite her threats of throwing them overboard. (She would never, but hearing how she could make them laugh was enough to keep the act up, morale boosting and all)
-When Eva visited Ryland, he handed her gloves and a lab coat, and she wasn't sure which was worse. She was greatful that the most Lamai would do is make her wear a mask
-She made a comment that she looked like a nerd to them, Olesya and Ryland faked gasped, demanding that science is cool, which did not help their case
-That then led to a series of images of Eva in different scientific gear, usually frowning, and a whiteboard stating, which dictator are you, that other vatlings would a tally mark too—the happiest she looked was one in only a safety glasses watching Ryland explain astrophage energy conversation. Another one showed her with a deep scowl surrounded by a happy Dimitri and Lokken as she was in the full bright getup
-After LeClerc had to bomb Antarctica, Eva and Ryland found him under a table in the command center, looking more depressed than either expected. She gave the man the day off, and tried getting him to move, but he refused, so they brought him a blanket and a pillow
-Whatever quick briefing they had scheduled was moved so that LeClerc could hear it from where he sat
-Actually, sleeping in random places were not uncommon, and another photo album was dedicated soley for this
-Examples include Carl asleep on Eva's sofa, Ryland in front the couch, Carl's hand bracing his neck from falling. Eva tipped back on her chair, Ryland standing behind her holding her shoulders in place as she power naps. Annie and Martin laying on the side of the astronauts training pool, while Olesya was submerged. Yáo's shoulders being used by Annie and Olesya, him being trapped between the two, wearing a proud dad smile
-Lamai on one of the Hail Mary's coma pods, looking so peaceful, everyone joked she was in a coma herself. Redell being used as a pillow by Steve and Dimitri, Lokken slapping them with a report, trying to wake the men after another all nighter. Even one of Lokken and Ryland asleep in a conference room post meeting, heads near each other—Eva did not bother the two, staying until both awoke, laughing at the sound of them scampering away from each other