If everyone on the crew were modern day internet influencers, what sort of content would they be making?
sorry this took 5 approximate forevers! (if y’all ever see my executive dysfunctioning no you don’t)
tysm for the ask! 💕
mal: handy diy hacks and tutorials for a variety of topics. because why the fuck is he gonna pay for anything he can do himself. he will teach you how to build a bookshelf and jumpstart or hotwire a car and paint your ceiling and pasteurize your own milk you can DO IT he BELIEVES IN U. really resents that he has to take ad deals for this to be a viable venture for him.
zoe: struggled with zoe so bad i’m so sorry zoe my love. i think what i’m landing on is athletics/physical challenge videos? it starts as a form of therapy exercise but she gets kinda big online? lots of rockclimbing and hiking and soccer and trying out those “impossible workout routines”. she likes showing people modifications they can do. her comment section is heavily moderated and she is NOT afraid to turn the option off bc it’s a privilege.
wash: based on my longstanding headcanon of wash as a music guy, music reviewer type! has an impressive vinyl collection. known for listening to ever kind if music that exists and his lasting love for weird al. has collaborations with the most RANDOM people.
inara: a little bit of beauty and a little bit of wellness, i think? makeup and perfume and lotion but also candles and tea. has a side channel where she does daily yoga vlogging. has this very elusive allure where people are so utterly enamored by her that they feel very personally attached even though she never says ANYTHING about her personal life!
jayne: guns. gun safety. aim training. antique guns. latest model reviews. would y’all be mad if i said i think he is well-known in the conservative-online community
book: cooking channel! he makes his favorite recipes and tries new things that people suggest and recounts stories from his travels, occasionally getting into spirituality mode. very known for being the kind of content that’s nice/comforting to fall asleep to.
simon: this man does not know work-life balance. medicine. debunking medical myths and general public education. some of those “real doctor reacts to [xyz]” videos. does a lot of sponsorship research and refuses to promote anything that makes unsubstantiated health claims. gets in into some internet beef over it with another influencer.
river: cryptic 4+ hour video essays where she never ever shows her face but they’re known for her voice captivating people. about just about anything you can name though mythology, literature, art, philosophy, and theoretical physics and its relationship to, well, everything are all common threads.
kaylee: repair videos!!! she likes fixing cars best but she will fix anything she can get her hands on that needs it and explain the process as best she can! it’s a niche-ish area of interest but the followers she does have are the kind to watch and comment on Everything, they’re just that dedicated. she likes it but sometimes feels a little boxed in bc she has other interests!! she meets inara who encourages her to explore those and she starts a fashiony channel - some of its reviews and some of its showing stuff she embroiders! then she and inara make out
Hi there! I'd love to know your Firefly headcanons if you want to share them!
oh god, i think i really only have one? and it's probably pretty vanilla but here you go:
shepherd book was a high-ranking military official in the alliance during the unification war. he was there at the battle of serenity valley, and because of all the carnage and death, was wracked with guilt and decided to retire (after receiving a medal for his leadership) to lead a life of atonement through god's forgiveness and spreading the good word. he "saw the light," so to speak.
the same battle where mal lost his faith, book found his.
If everyone in the crew taught a college course, what would be their discipline?
book: theology! seems obvious but like… yeah! people have a preconceived notion (because he’s fairly open about his own religion) that he’s going to primarily to focus on christianity with Maybe little nods to other faiths but he is actually very well-rounded and explores a Lot of different faiths in-depth. a very kindly man generally speaking, wakes students up after class and asks if they’re okay. so people don’t expect it when he can absolutely tear into some asshole who’s being prejudiced and cruel with that same friendly smile and somehow never crossing any potential boundaries. has office hours in which his favorite students come in and have philosophical debates with him. he adores this and serves them tea.
inara: art history! idk why i think this other than maybe the scene where she and mal talk about the mona lisa and just like. vibes. she is well-versed in many different schools and movements of art, but the baroque period is her biggest area of study. and every other semester, she also teaches an elective in calligraphy. bc she does do calligraphy in canon! idk why i love that sm but i do. she is perfectly polite and cordial to her students and welcomes any questions they have with grace but they know almost nothing about Her or her personal life. which is how she likes it. somehow word breaks out that she is, in fact, a quite notable artist herself. everyone’s a little intimidated until she snaps at them for it.
kaylee: something in mechanical engineering?? but that’s like a whole degree hm… probably some intro course in that degree, though occasionally her students have a hard time understanding because there’s some stuff she just Gets intrinsically but doesn’t always know how to explain. tends to take a very hands-on approach and encourages all of her students to Learn By Doing, to mixed results. somehow knows Everyone’s name and Everyone on campus seems to know her too. if her students ever talk about their car problems in front of her she’s like “you’re gonna pay WHAT for that” and then fixes it herself instead. they do not get that much say in the matter and the only thing they have to pay for is if a new part is needed so… win?
simon: gross anatomy and physiology. obviously something medical/for pre-med students and these made a lot of sense to me since trauma surgery (i mean all surgery and medicine obviously but as a specialty it) requires a really basic foundational understanding of the human body and its processes. i think he is a really big believed in establishing that you know the basics really really well before ANYTHING else. i also think he finds anatomy a tinyyy bit boring (important! but he likes explaining the Processes, the Why and How - “suffocation’s not exactly the most dignified way to go. the human body will — “) and so he says fine to teaching anatomy but only if they let him teach physiology too. everyone knows he’s going to be head of the department once the current head retires. in the meantime, gets mistaken by his students for a ta at first. basically every semester. and his peers like to rag him for being a Baby. (yes some of them are jealous that the Baby zipped through med school and his residency before deciding to teach, and is way way way more published than any of them). also the guy who has like three caffeine sources on him. how much of a hardass he is depends entirely on how much he thinks his students are trying. some students are scared of him. but he tutors a lot outside of class if asked and is really patient with students who are putting in the effort but struggling for one reason or another, and good at helping students figure out what path would actually suit them in a blunt-but-compassionate way.
mal: history! i think some intro courses because i think mr. “half of history’s hiding the truth” (and he’s right!) really believes in, again, teaching the foundational aspects of Knowing Your History but also the kind of things that tend to get swept under the rug. he comes off grumbly and sarcastic with his students and threatens to fail them for the most minor bs but they pick up on the fact that he’s a big ole softie really quickly and bully him for it (affectionately!) constantly. you actually have to be trying really hard to fail his class. someone definitely gives him a “world’s okayest professor” mug. Will square up with a bigoted asshole in class and narrowly avoid getting fired. he does Not have book’s restraint. (book hears about this and tries to teach him. it doesn’t go great.) sure does seem to hang around in the building where most of the pre-med classes happen… hey are he and the anatomy and physiology professor friends i thought they hated each other? hey why do they both have hickies who said that
zoe: civics? ngl i struggled. maybe seems at odds with her Independence soldier thing but. i think she is someone who understands that in order to dismantle and/or be aware of the government’s bs you have to know how it works. and i think she would lean hard not into “here’s what you have to do to be a Good Citizen and the Most Law Abiding Person Ever” but “here are the Civil Responsibilities you have To Each Other.” very very well-known to not take late work and has a glare some students can be a little intimated by. but actual class is a lot of discussion and activities students like and she finds a way to make it fun and interesting. also known as the professor to go to if you’re trying to get an on-campus job you need a letter of recommendation from a professor for (not how it works everywhere or for every job on campus but! in my experience it does for some of them) because she Gets It and if she can speak to your work ethic she will. everyone foes eventually figure out she’s besties with softie history professor, which (along w letter writing) does bring down her intimidating street cred a Little.
jayne: really really struggled with jayne. i do agree with @homosexual--mothman that a trade school would probably work better for him but i have a whole university thing going here so uhhh. intro to animal tracking is what i came up with. he is good with guns and i think is implied to have hunted? and one of the skills mal sees in him aside from that IS tracking — “found you easy enough” “yeah you did didn’t you?” i rest my case. anyway. does NOT want to be there have the time but these kids ARE gonna learn safety protocols bc it he ever runs into them out in the woods he does NOT wanna have to deal with trying to help them lmao. i think 50/50 on whether students love him or hate him — because he’s crass and inappropriate, which some students find funny and some don’t, and because he doesn’t care about latework and is kinda lax about the actual schoolwork, which sometimes students like and some don’t. does actually have lot of a good practical information. regularly scene arguing with the physiology and anatomy professor bc they ACTUALLY hate each other. no one can tell whether he and river (see below) are friends or not.
wash: flight safety and flight training in the aviation program! doesn’t like lecturing but knows the safety part is important. teaches best (and thinks students learn best) by first observing him and then having them get actual practical experience. BELOVED by students though some think his jokes are a little overrated. (wash i’m so sorry.) is really good at making things fun and engaging and being patient with any panicking students without assuming that doesn’t mean they can’t get the hang of it eventually. also! zoe doesn’t talk about her personal life at all in class. but wash does not shut tf about her. most think it’s cute! the ones in both classes only find it a little awkward. he and kaylee grab lunch a lot bc their schedules line up and buildings are pretty close.
river: existential philosophy—no, quantum physics—no, dance—no, theoretical mathematics—look river wants to teach everything and i’m going to let her. she somehow gets the university to let her teach something different every semester. she WAS a child prodigy after all, who is every bit as published as simon (who does also threaten to decline their offer, since he and river were both looking at the same time, if they don’t let her do this. river thought this was stupid. she was handling it!) they really really wanted her so… 🤷🏻♀️i also think she spends all the time she’s on campus and isn’t teaching auditing others classes. simon has to (very gently) kick her out a few times because she keeps answering before his students can. this is also how she meets book who she then goes to the office hours of to join philosphocal debate time. i think her students like her but don’t always know what to make of her her teaching methods are not bad but not always traditional, she murmurs to herself a lot, and is just generally not great at masking. most of them just roll with it because they know she’s a literal genius and she does make class interesting, though she does have a similar problem to kaylee (even moreso, probably) where because she just Gets some stuff, sometimes it’s hard to explain it. i also think anyone who’s taken a class with bother her and simon is not surprised to learn they’re siblings, even though in may ways they’re so different, because like…. it just makes sense, somehow.
If you had to assign each crew member a yearbook-style “most likely to—“, what would they be?
ty for the ask!! i couldn’t decide how silly to be but i landed on pretty silly. i am sorta thinking about this as like… what people would have said when they were in school, nit necessarily what the other crewmembers would say
mal: most likely to steal a spaceship. not buy! steal.
zoe: most likely to Be Right. just, like, about all of it
wash: most likely to come closest in their class to getting kicked out of flight school without actually getting kicked out
jayne: most likely to start a brawl he makes everyone else’s problem and leave before its over
inara: most likely to have just, like, so many candles. the best collection ever.
shepherd book: depends on the point in his life but for our purposes… most likely to just randomly have new skills you didn’t know he had but go off king??
simon: most likely to have a panic attack in the process of succeeding, which he will also do. probably.
river: most likely to stay the most cryptic shit ever. 50/50 chance on whether it’s wise/relevant or not.
edit: THANK you for pointing out i was forgetting kaylee literally how could i do this to my girl.
kaylee: most likely to make friends with literally anyone. how does she do it. the world may never know
Soooo.....which flower/plant do you think suits each crew member? (Either through symbolism or what you think they would like best)
LOVE this ask tysm!
a preface i do want to make on this is that (to my understanding) flower symbolismcan vary a lot based on the place, and things like the color of a flower can affect a lot too. (i only really picked a specific color if i felt pretty strongly about it though, for the most part.) there are also a lot of overlapping themes that they can and do share sometimes / so this is part symbolism, part vibes and what the flowers looks like, and all ultimately picking out what i like most for each character lmao.
book: blue bells! they are associated with humility, gratitude, and purity, which feels like it checks out - book's spirituality to me is very defined by his willingness to be humble.
kaylee: it's very hard for me to see kaylee as anything but a daisy to be honest - a yellow daisies in partiuclar. yellow daisies are commonly associated with joy, friendship, and optimism. that just feels too perfect for kaylee tbh
inara: i have two ideas for inara because she seems like she could be a good candidate for rose, ultimately i think i think orchids suit her better. associated with sex and beauty, but also mystery. very known as being graceful and standing out but also having a little bit of a shadowed side.
river: she was has hard but i think ultimately violets? violets are a little tricky because they in particular seem to have a lot of variety in interpretation. which can symbolize healing, dreams, and intuition. which feels like it works great for river. (they can also symbolize sapphic love but shh)
simon: blue hyacinths! these symbolize sincerity, devotion, and regret. one website i referenced in particular notes them as being a great symbol to let someone know you'll stick by them through hard times. enough said tbh.
wash: landed on carnation - known to stand for love, fascination, and distinction. i like how Into Things wash seems (like his dinosaurs!) and maybe it's just the shirts but i do feel he stands out a little lmao. and love ofc <3 NOT a yellow carnation, though - i have no particular ideas about what color he would be but in victorian times yellow carnations represented disappointment. so no. maybe red?
zoe: a gladiolus flower! symbolizing strength, perseverance, and remembrance. strength and perserverence obviously check out, especially given her history in the war. tbh, no matter how sad wash's death in the film makes me, i can't seem to stop associating zoe with like, both remembrance/honoring a loved one and having to move forward anyway. something something zoe meaning 'life'. (also a fun fact that the name gladiolus comes from the latin word gladius, meaning sword. bc they look kinda like swords.) not sure about color - would maybe go purple.
mal: (why did i love the hardest two last) (there is no flower to symoblize 'secret softie') okay, i'm going dandelion - often dismissed as just a weed lmao, but notably can grow, very determinedly, in many places. associated with hope, strength, and transformation. not totally sold on this one tbh, but i don’t hate it. and i mean this as such a compliment fyi. i love dandelions!
jayne: black dahlia - in literature and music in particular, there’s an association with pain, crime, and betrayal. dahlias in general though also seem to be associated with the capacity for change. (they’re also a little misnamed because i think it’s usually actually dark purple or dark red.)
kaylee: strawberry daiquiri. (ofc!) rum, lime juice, strawberries, simple syrup. (this should mostly taste like a fruit smoothie in her ideal reality)
wash: sex on the beach (“maybe a naked beach?” this is basically canon) peach schnapps, orange juice, pineapple juice, vodka, cranberry juice, fruit garnishes.
simon: negroni. acquired taste (just like him!… i don’t like this but it’s okay i still love him) gin, campari, sweet vermouth, orange peel garnish
zoe: paloma! tequlia, freshly squeezed lime juice, fresh grapefruit juice, grapefruit soda, pinch of salt, lime wheel garnish. (good balance of sweet with a little bite)
book: sangria. (yum!) there are diff ways of doing this but. red wine, brandy, orange juice, brown sugar, chopped apples and oranges. (easy to like! unless you don’t, which is also fair.)
jayne: michaelada (lager, worcestershire sauce, tobasco or soy sauce) (why)
river: aviation (sorry wash) gin, maraschino liqueur, creme de violette, freshly squeezed lemon juice, brandied cherry. (ngl i’ve never had this i found it while doing this and it intrigues me. something special for beloved. it’s also a pretty lilac color which makes me think of her?)
In the vein of @fiollaigean, what's an underrated/underexplored interpersonal dynamic in the crew you would have been most interested in if Firefly had not been cancelled?
GETS ON MY SIMON & BOOK SOAPBOX.
i think something about this dynamic is sooo utterly subtly fascinating and while it's not the Focused relationship dynamic for either of them, they do get a really few interesting moments! we often credit (rightly!) wash with being the main defender of the 'hey let's maybe not kill the tam siblings squad' but book was also on that squad! there's also that really lovely scene where simon holds the flashlight for book while he reads over the dead in bushwhacked and i go back on forth on what i think about simon and religion, but asside from personal feelings i think he has a lot of respect for it as a cultural practice and mainly does it because he knows it's something book cares about and simon also is a big believer in not desecrating dead bodies, per the film, whether it's religious or just out of respect for them as people, so i think hearing book say "how we treat our dead is what makes us different than those who did the killing."
and simon clearly has a lot of trust in and respect for him!!! because it's implied he calms down considerably when book tells him to do what mal says at the end of the episode, is okay leaving river in his care in jaynestown, calls for his help when he sees more men coming war stories, and is utterly shocked when jubal early insinuates book is anything but a kindly shepherd (which is a bit silly bc war stories, but book has been a very good friend to the tam siblings and simon is great at compartmentalization and lying to himself lmao.)
for book's part, i do think he thinks highly of simon as particularly noted in the train job when he talks about simon being brave for it. there's also an element to it though where i think book feels (probably bc he doesn't have any defined role on the ship) like it's sort of his job to try to guide the crew morally etc with whatever they might be struggling with. i find it fascinating that he's the one who encourages (in the deleted scene) simon to look more into the history of 'serenity' and get the lay of the land. more broadly, he kind of functions as a moral compass (or at least a moral mirror) back to both jayne and mal and i think that was possibly a direction they were going with simon as well eventually? i wrote a long-ass post at one point about how book is doing some of his own philosophical probing at simon at the start of war stories in part in response to the events of ariel - he seems to express a little disapproval for simon's heisting lol? it's funny because obviously that's what they do on this ship, but the difference is that SIMON hasn't really been very involved with the crime side of things until now, and there are different measures of what he would consider moral slipping for different crew members based on what he knows there are own values are. he's known simon to be someone to care about propriety and be (y'know, other than his whole fugitive thing, which was circumstancial lol) relatively law-abiding. seeing simon get more involved in that side of things i think worries book a little, both as someone familiar with the realities of that world and violence where it can lead, and as a moral consience for the ship. and this only gets extended in the dead or alive script (shhh it's canon in my heart) where he's the one who finds simon post possibly morally ambiguous choice and simon seems a little ashamed later? like in some ways firefly is about simon tam getting corrupted lmao. and i think book is worried about it.
Do you have headcanons/A Vision for what a Saylee future established relationship would look like?
this post. LMAO. simon would have been B by season 3, s4 at the latest, i know and perceive this. (it’s a little bit of imperfect parallel bc kaylee is not pining Quietly/suppressing Anything, but she is Pining and i also think probably would have taken a step back for a while.)
okay to add onto that before more specific saylee headcanons:
(this got long hence the cut)
the thing we need to remember about simon tam is that he is not normal lol. (mostly a joke but) this will become more about saylee in a minute.
like i DO think he loves river in a way unique to her specifically and that his academy rescue was a show of very deep unconditional sibling love.
but i also think simon is a very all or nothing kind of guy in general. no matter how angry he was with his parents about their (non) reactions to river’s letters, it doesn’t seem to have occurred to him to drop them until they dropped him bc he couldn’t give up on river. like it’s not Just that he loves river specifically unconditionally (though that too!!!) it’s that he fundamentally is incapable of abandoning someone he loves. and it seems like in the flashbacks he was still in Convincing mode, especially if we look at the shooting script for safe - it really seems like he just. thought he could get them to come around.
and sure he takes some time to adjust to life on the rim and on the ship and doesn’t entirely know what he’s doing with the crew or what his role is… but he also is in line with mal’s definition of crew loyalty pretty much right away. he’s trying to Help in the train job even though he has No Idea what he should be doing bc well. this is what he does now! and he is the first one to voice a suggestion for a rescue mission mal in shindig at like, the drop of the hat. and sure everyone is on board but like! it’s significant the writing had him say it first!
ANYWAY all this to say, once he knows he loves kaylee and doesn’t feel anything is in the way of that it’s at 300% that is just Who He Is to the degree it’s almost a little overwhelming for kaylee to be on the receiving end of.
a timeline vision except some parts are really vague and some parts are really dramatic and it did accidentally turn into a romcom by the end
(i should acknowledge this is like, focused on Them specifically/their Relationship and in my ideal reality there should be Plot going on in all of this and both of them should be having individual character arcs of their own)
i think for the first little while they’re Sort Of together it’s kind of confusing and unofficial because like… lowkey they seemed like, on that path already by the end of the show proper’s run? like in the message i can only describe what they are doing as a test-run date of sorts (that simon fumbles horribly lol but it’s cute until it isn’t!), they really really seem like they almost are going to kiss in objects before book accidentally interrupts? and just like the casual intimacy of the opening couch scene… anyway. i think that would have continued to the point where people do think they’re dating but they’re not really denying or confirming it.
at some point kaylee starts to get frustrated bc she Does want to have a clearer understanding of Where They Are and simon like, wants to be able to give her that and has mostly gotten past the thinking he had to Only being focused on river at all times. and he almost gets to the point (after a talk with,, wash maybe??? since he is friends with kaylee and friendly with simon and seems like he’d be amenable to the conversation. or inara! i’m just feeling more simonwash friendship 2k26) where he is like Okay Let’s Do This. but something dangerous happens to remind him he is still a Wanted Fugitive being Actively Hunted and could have to leave pretty much all the time and is putting her in danger so instead. breaks whatever they do have going on off. tries to do it very gently and his wording is better than it could have been? still very awkward. and it doesn’t really matter bc the content of what he’s saying sucks for her. (yes he thinks he’s protecting her/saving her the heartbreak yes he is being an idiot yes he is taking a page put of mal’s well-meaning but slightly paternalistic book yes river thwacks him for it.) this is end of season one-ish stuff i think.
kaylee is obviously mad/hurt for a while. (thinking a range of weeks to months because she needed some time to be allowed to actually be angry at simon instead of the one episode resolve and it’s just jucier and more interesting if there’s some fallout)
. simon wants to make it better but doesn’t know how because all his reasons for it still apply and he doesn’t feel like he can take it back or say anything will change,, but. sadness
and honestly this period of time is just awful for both of them because they were also like. friends. i am a firm believer in the saylee flirty strangers to awkward peers with awkward crushes to slightly less awkward friends to best (by some measure of the word! you can have more than one in my personal belief system) friends to accidental situationship to pseudo-exes to lovers pipeline. and like… the romantic stuff is rough but at heart they now also both are literally just missing their friend that they had before and now feel like they can’t really talk to.
at some point it just,, eases up the way things sometimes naturally do? kaylee and simon are also in the unfortunate situation where they are in a confined space where they have to live and work together still lol. she eventually gives up on trying to literally not talk to him at all because that was Absolutely a phase for a while. they start having casual conversations As friends and being able to work together without mal getting a migraine again. at some point they are working together and simon manages to apologize for having let things be ambiguous between them when he wasn’t sure bc it’s not like he didn’t Know he was a fugitive before. it’s just that he feels comfortable with her and likes her and with the chaos of Everything about his new life it was easy to be drawn to that. sweet friendship hug at the end of this yayy. and a close-up on simon’s face as he watches her walk away…
…. cue simon’s turn to be pining very very quietly to himself for a while but he can’t say it because nothing’s still changed and he doesn’t want to hurt her more but they do start to be friendly again
(somewhere in the simon pining i need a simon saffron odd team up where she Does Her Thing and accurately assesses his feelings for (her words) ‘that cloyingly cheery mechanic girl’ and him steadfastly ignoring her as she makes fun of him the rest of the b plot.)
okay hear me out: we are in the season 2a midseason finale (sh. i am normal). a bunch of dramatic stuff is happening. for this to work simon may also have to think river is dead (she isn’t, don’t worry about it) (he is obviously also not in a good headspace at this point) there is some big fight with alliance officials that have found them and at some point simon looks around and realizes it’s happening Because Of him and then very specifically sees kaylee in danger and is just like Okay and offers himself up to be taken if they’ll leave the rest of the crew alone, so they arrest him. the whole vibe as he’s being cuffed is very “i’ll be okay dw” with a smile that says he very obviously knows he Will Not be okay. etc
kaylee, naturally, freaks the fuck out because of course she still Cares even if even since being friends again she’s tried to distance herself a bit. the feelings don’t just Go Away and she feels incredibly guilty bc she knows it was for her. jayne has to quite literally hold her back as simon’s being dragged off
anyways by like the next episode kaylee is storming onto the bridge Demanding they go rescue him. is frantically ranting as mal zoe and wash all repeatedly try interrupt until finally mal is like “Literally What Do You Think We’re Doing Right Now” and is like motioning to their route
eventually simon is rescued, river is alive (yayy) and simon and kaylee kiss upon rescue pretty mutually, which is awkward bc a) they’re both pretty injured from Plot, b) they should probably talk about some stuff c) the rest of the crew is right there. simon’s a little too out of it to be mortified
they talk and kaylee’s Does express she needs him to be In It and willing to actually Say they’re in a relationship. he just has a huge grin on his face the entire time as she is rambling nervously and is like. “okay sounds good”
there’s been a lot of learning and he ultimately just does kind of realize he can’t Uninvolve her from the danger and her life is dangerous anyway and all they can do with their lives is live them.
and they are dating through the reast of season 2! yay!
they spend a lot of time with each other but tney also spend a lot of time with river and each other bc kaylee and river are also friends so it just kind of makes sense.
a sidenote of this is that it’s very very important go me there is never any “river is getting in the way” or weird jealousy. kaylee very inherently understands that they are a package deal and she just doesn’t Tolerate it she Likes it and Loves them.
at some point in this period simon actually casually describes kaylee as a prodigy with machines and she’s like ???? more kaylee being a wild genius appreciation is also important to me
i think they are pretty solidly dating for most of season 3. and (along with actual plot stuff lol going on lol) there’s still a Learning Curve because they’re still two different people with very different modes of being and ways of thinking sometimes. so there’s that stuff but they’ve kinda gotten better at it bc they’ve just realized that this is part of what their relationship entails and that every relationship has something or another. a lot of what they start to work through becomes very logistical boring stuff that sometimes literally just happens in throwaway lines “hey so the engine room is hot as hell and sometimes i can’t sleep in there sorry” “hey i need you to take breaks from whatever medical research you’re doing rn and pay attention to me.” etc. kind of shit.
and look. i’ve gotta be real. they break up again at least once. shoutout @stonedtheology’s on and off saylee headcanon lmaoo. in real life i am a firm believer that most on-and-off relationships are not usually very healthy and both people would be probably better off not trying to force it with someone it hasn’t worked with before. however tv rules are different and i am not immune to the lure of human drama! also the first “break up” was kind of vague because the relationship was kind of vague so.
this could happen for any number of reasons but i do think at this point, considering some learning and evolution has happened, it shouldn’t be another simon fumbles moment. i Do think it makes sense for them to be like, still struggling with some of the ways they are different, but moreso the mental processing stuff at this point bc they’ve dealt a fair amount with the class stuff by now. i think it’s very like, about two very different but well-meaning approaches to an emergent situation of some kind. my pitch for this is at Some Point simon is having to do surgery on someone and they have a loved one (wife?) kaylee is waiting with and checking in on and just obviously feeling very connected to hee and all she wants is to be able to be with her husband so kaylee tries to convince him and there’s a thing of “i don’t understand how you can not understand the pain she is in” “i don’t understand how you cannot understand that i’m human and will get distracted if there is a crying woman in here and i’d rather she hate me and have an alive husband.”
this ^ specific fight is not like, Why the split happens but indicative of tinier cracks there have been that have just now boiled over. the vibe is ultimately more “i need to know you Hear Me and Take Me Seriously when we talk even it we don’t agree” (kaylee) and “i need to know that you’re not always going to Assume The Worst Of Me when i’m doing something differently than you would.” (simon)
i think the break-up this time is pretty mutual and (ironically, despite saying some Not Great things to each other) the aftermath is pretty amicable?? they’re both just like yeah i was not at my best there sorry.
,,, this makes it very clear to Most that they will probably get back together pretty quickly. ship’s got a running pool on how long it takes. river obviously wins. mal who “wasn’t getting involved in this” also does.
i do think this break-up is pretty short. they give it a couple of weeks and both are just. “okay so i actually hated that. let’s just be different sometimes and cover each other’s blindspots ig??”
idk what happens after that but by season 4 and onwards they are established and in love and simon’s biting people about it.
headcanons i don’t have a specific place in the timeline for:
if kaylee ever meets gabriel tam he is getting yelled at. if he tries to interrupt he is getting yelled at harder. this is at a public function. and it is about BOTH of her beloved tams tyvm. at some point gabriel is like “do you wanna do something about this???” and simon just shrugs. “no i think she’s got it.” river is outside but hears it in her mind and is very amused about it tbh.
at some point there is another ball episode (dw about how and why simon’s there without getting Made) and it’s a different situation but kaylee is still not quite in her element and and not understanding she is being made fun of at one point but simon understands the social machinations here and Does and glares at everyone involved until they go away and then asks her to dance. (i am in my fluffy indulgent era now okay)
at one point simon has to do CPR on kaylee and Everyone has a rough time about it. my personal preference for this is simon s2 pining era but could happen anywhere.
at one point she sees like a bracelet or something and is like oh that’s pretty! and then very immediately moves on. it’s highkey too expensive at the time but he Tries to remake it for her birthday. what he makes is ugly as hell. she loves it and makes him show everyone at dinner when that was Not the plan lmao.
they either have the kinkiest wildest or most simple vanilla sex ever and it truly just depends on the day and the vibe.
their favorite activity together is parallel play. but like. just all tangled up on the couch like they were in objects. once they’re comfortable with each other they are casually touching ALL the time. it’s not even usually PDA? it’s just like. the casual intimacy of it all. but anyway. couch time is important to them. kaylee’s got her legs propped up simon while he’s reading and sheMs fiddling with something mechanical or sewing patches on her clothes.
