More vatling hcs that's been floating around my brain:
- the speaker system on the vat is usually off save for announcements, but Stratt noticed that many had trouble adjusting to living on a ship with no clear timezone and started playing white noise every morning and night to help the crew adjust (birdsong to wake them/soft instrumentals at night)
- but one morning (well after April Fools) the entire ship woke to sea shanties blasting through the system (Ilyukhina swears she had nothing to do with it cause why would she ever disturb her own precious hours of rest, Stratt gave her a look but dismissed her, while somewhere on the ship, Hatch was bent over laughing over his success)
- when first arriving on the vat, it can be hard for vatlings to adjust to the rise and fall of the waves beneath them, but after a while it becomes easier to walk and work even during rough waters
- that doesn't stop the sea sickness, though, after a particularly bad storm much of the crew was left incapacitated and nauseous including Eva (who would never admit it, but for once replaced her third cup of coffee with ginger tea), Grace (who couldn't stomach anything longer than half an hour), and Lokken (Grace finds her doubled over and in a rare moment of civility held her hair back as she threw up in a Petrova Task Force sickness bag)
- that experience was so terrible that Lamai ended up developing an anti-nausea medication that didn't induce drowsiness (which was promptly sold to Big Pharma to help support the vatjectives)
- when the next storm arrives, she is hailed a hero and employee of the month (ending Grace's three month streak)
- there are two universal truths of Stratt's Vat: one, the vatccent posses all, and two, no matter how strong your core strength is, the curse of sea legs comes for all
- after months of not stepping on stable land, the flight crew and the primary team of the PTF are invited to a last minute gala mainly for pr sake (much to the chagrin of Eva) which of course meant relearning how to walk on dry land in their hotel rooms
- it was much easier for some more than others, years of training gave the astronauts an advantage (though that did not stop Shapiro and DuBois from holding the other up, if anything it gave them an excuse), but the primary team, however, struggled to keep their balance straight
- if you were to analyze the pictures taken that night, you'd notice how the second in command kept a steady arm hooked around his Director, the two rarely apart when standing (for all her capabilities, heels and sea legs do not mix well)
- each part of the vat is given a notice board to place complaints and requests, but over time this evolved into being a space to post pictures taken of one another, and a silent competition formed of vatlings attempting to take the most candid photo of each other
- many photos of crew members sleeping in wild positions or even on top each other are posted (including a flight crew dog pile, komorov and lokken after a long day of testing a mini astrophage-powered centrifuge, and one posted by Carl who, during a traffic pile up after yet another meeting with some world power, snapped a selfie of Ryland and Eva asleep in the back seat, Ryland's head on Eva's shoulder, who in turn rested her own head on his)
- that photo went missing soon after, tucked away in a certain office drawer containing a fox charm and rosary
- a cat somehow ended up on board the ship and was only discovered hours after it sailed from harbour by a poor member of security who thought he could escape his allergies, only to be assaulted by cat fur
- he failed to capture the animal, and hours later it is found sleeping and huddled up in Eva's office under her desk
- it quickly grew on her, and the vat did have some loose mice running around so she allowed it to stay
- Grace named it Sol since it was perfectly orange, but no one realized it was pregnant until Lamai caught a rare sight of it while giving a report to Eva
- she ended up giving birth to three healthy kittens right under Eva's desk, and votes were held throughout the ship to name them
- the white one was unsurprisingly named Luna, the black kitten was named Astro for its fiesty personality and love for biting people, and the orange one was originally named Garfield since it was mistaken as a boy
- but as it grew it became obvious as being the sole girl in the litter, and after spending so much time around Eva grew an attachment to the woman, and a running joke was spread of the kitten being like her daughter, where the name Eve quickly spread and was adopted
- the four cats now roam the ship and were given the official title of chief mice repellent
- Sol now rests in Grace's room the most, Luna in the break room, Astro in Little Russia, while Eve remains in Stratt's office and room, often making an appearance during her online meetings
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