bakerstreet | Stargazing

Stargazing

the stargazing meme

oo1. comment with your characters
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oo2. reply to others in character
oo3. use the rng and enter 1-10
oo4. play out what happens—anything goes!
oo5. profit? oh yeah!

prompts

one → meteor shower you just saw a falling star! and another! make a wish!
two → aliens what was that? was that really? omg no way a ufo!
three → lunar eclipse you've been sitting out for hours, waiting for this. it's so cool!
four → comet does it move fast or slow? either way, it's amazing.
five → full moon the moon is so huge! just don't look too long, it's really bright too.
six → star dust anything can happen in space. make up your own plot!
seven → solar eclipse this might be happening in the middle of the day!
eight → planet sighting is that a new star? nope, just a neighbor in the solar system!
nine → constellations do you know the stories behind these odd patterns?

taken from here

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[OTA gen, anything more serious 20+ OTA! Castmates (especially JINUS but also her girls and other Saja Boys too for anything + anyone for gen), crosscanon, crossmedium, assumed CR, AUs, OCs etc all always welcome!]

[on an aircraft carrier in the middle of the pacific that has the potential to cross at least ten time zones in the span of a week, time itself is more of a relative concept. not that time isn't always a relative concept, when it's split into those zones by completely arbitrary criteria, and time can also be fused into space, but, well — relative in the relative. of course there's nautical time, and a master ship clock that runs all the day to day activities, but, still, probably the most reliable is the sun: still shining, not completely dimmed by astrophage. yet.

anyway, regardless of how anyone would actually measure time, it's currently pretty late. most of the science team and other project crew had headed for their bunks at least two hours ago, and apart from the constant thrum of the ship's systems that everyone has more or less adapted to by now, it's quiet. maybe that is the problem, or maybe it's just him, but whatever the actual reason, ryland can't sleep. it's a rare occasion, when he can.

stratt never really seems to, either, so it's not exactly a shock to find her already standing by the railing when he makes his way out onto the deck. on the approach, he makes sure his steps are loud enough to be heard, just because he doesn't want to sneak up on her. (it'd be hard to, probably, he figures, but still, sneaking up on people is rude.)

she doesn't immediately greet him, which also isn't a surprise. he rests an elbow against the railing, looking up at a clear, cloudless sky. that can be hit or miss out here, where storms often brew, so he takes the time to just look. it's nice, he thinks.

after a time, he breaks the silence.]

That? [shifting which elbow he's resting against the railing, he lifts one hand above his head, and points toward the sky.] That's Crux, the Southern Cross. Which you probably already knew. [she's stratt, after all, so she knows almost everything. but —] Maybe what you didn't know, though, is the brightest point? [finger still pointing, he shifts it just slightly, from being directed toward some vague point in the middle of the visible constellation, to what he's explicitly referring to.] Acrux, also known as Alpha Crucis. To the naked eye, it looks like one star, but it's actually a multiple star system.

[he glances over his shoulder, checking to see if she's listening.]

People don't agree on exactly how many stars are in it, but there's evidence that there are maybe seven.

[ fact is, eva stratt is not a scientist.

she is a leader; she is a delegant; she is whatever the petrova task force needs. more to the point, she is whatever the world needs. her education, her capabilities, and her sex have all been called into question, when it came to her position. all inquiries have been dismissed as irrelevant. simply: that's what they are. she gets the job done. she will always get the job done. that is what she is here for.

fact is, there is only one metric of time that matters to her. the time that is running out, the sun that will lose its luminosity and leave the earth colder and colder. the bodies that will begin to pile up, that have already begun to pile up, because a microorganism has infected their star, and every star. because the sun is dying. she isn't cruel, exactly, though she has been cruel. the astronaut volunteers aren't corpses to her yet. but she is cold, exactly, because they are numbers to her. numbers to spend now, to save more later. it's basic math. so you see, she is cruel, exactly, and she will be again.

that there will be a world to condemn her after everything is over, is all the reward she will get. and that will be a damned fine one.

she knows when ryland approaches, fidgety and unquiet. and talkative — of course he'd broken the silence. he always does. but she gains nothing from ignoring his conversation, and doesn't want to, so she follows the point of his hand. she knows the southern cross, because stars are now her business. but the further information comes as a surprise. stars are now her business; but the publications she stays apprised of have to do with petrova phenomena and light composition and neutrino energy storage and xenomicrobiota. not something as simple as resolving the number of stars in a cluster.

she raises her eyebrows, slightly, when he looks at her. she isn't smiling, of course, isn't known for her easy smiles. but she's attentive, nonjudgmental, interested. ]

I didn't know that. How did they find out?

[there are a lot of signs that people show when you've got their attention. that's probably not something most think about a lot, and ryland hadn't himself, in earnest, until he'd started teaching, but standing in front of a classroom and looking out at twenty, thirty faces behind desks day after day means noticing a lot of subtleties. attention doesn't always mean smiling or nodding, or even pure eye contact; the kid doodling in the back row is usually fully engaged (that's a mistake a lot of teachers make), and the others wiggling and fidgeting often aren't doing so because they're bored.

for this moment, he has eva stratt's undivided attention. that's not an easy thing to win, he knows, and he also knows that his job now is to make himself worthy of it.

he smiles, lightly and easily enough for the both of them. the stars will still be there when he finishes his explanation, so for now, he keeps looking at her.]

They used data from ESO, from their observatory in Chile, and they were looking at multiplicity and orbital architecture. When they looked at interferometry — imaging with superimposed waves — and radial velocities, there were misalignments in what would be expected in the stars' orbits around each other. Unless there was the mass and gravity of another star involved.

[here, he takes a pause for a breath, for another quick glance at the sky, before turning back to her.]

Anyway, the hypothesis checks out. There's another star nearby that's been missed, and that explains everything. Pretty cool, huh?

[ Things Rocky can perceive: that the atmosphere here is light. It's lethal, too, but he doesn't need to perceive it to know that. He already knows.

Things that Rocky can't perceive: just about everything else, including the fact that, apparently, above, it is beautiful. Beautiful enough to inspire her kind to reach for it, even though it is just as deadly to all of them as her mere oxygen is to him. Reach for it, and let whatever happens, happen.

Rocky should not be here. It's a tightrope of unease and gratitude to walk; with astrophage supplies limited and their position in the galaxy, Earth was the only option. Send four beetles to Erid, reinforced for its atmosphere and with detailed, detailed instructions. A promise to return, to explain even more if need be, but belief. (He is putting his everything into these probes; belief is a requirement, just the same as it would have been for Grace, had their positions been reversed. He understands.) Messages for the families of the departed crew. A message for Adrian.

And then a hostile atmosphere, a hostile environment, but for Grace.

And now her.

Unease, because even if there's some stuff that he knows — Grace finally admitting that he did not go to Tau Ceti by choice, Grace trying to placate the fact that he was supposed to die with the additional facts that Earth genuinely gave them as much as it could — Rocky still suspects that there has been a lot left out. And he knows enough to know that she is, if not at the very centre of it, really fucking important.

There are so many questions that should take priority. Is your star being saved, because Sol's recovery bodes possibility for 40 Eridani. Are you going to give me enough astrophage to get home, because even if it will take years to make that amount ... he can still spend those years with Grace. Are you going to let me stay with Grace, actually, because this is the farthest apart they've been in years and it feels strange, unnatural. Are you going to let me go home, because actually, who even knows with this species. It hasn't been long since meeting others, but Grace is the exception, Rocky is quickly deciding.

But, instead, tilting his carapace upwards — to her, to the sky, whatever; he doesn't need to, but humans tend to like body language, he has long since discovered — and observing nothing beyond an outline, the soft squish that makes up humans' outer shells, the fluid underneath, ] Why you do it to him.

[ Question, but too flat to really be interpreted as such. A single tap of one of his claws on the ground instead of two. Accusation, maybe. His own voice is low, wary, and even though he'd gotten used to no longer hearing his human voice courtesy of the translator — even though it's back now — it always did a good job of reflecting his intonations, at least. ]

[ the alien had been less of a surprise than seeing dr. grace again.

it's really quite simple: once you begin dealing with extraterrestrial existence, you have to accept all of it or you waste time drawing pointless lines in the sand. once you encounter alien microbes, why not alien amoebae? why not aliens from distant stars and incomprehensible biologies?

not so incomprehensible, the scientists would say. they've been having a field day talking to dr. grace, talking to the eridian himself, taking feverish notes and comparing observations. she doubts any of them sleep, though they need it. she needs minds focused on breeding the so-called taumoeba and getting it to venus; but simply blocking them from a living, talking alien life-form isn't the way to get what she needs. that would only breed anger, resentment, and rule-breaking. it'd be inefficient.

and she can't deny her own curiosity. she can, and will, deny so many other things that stir within her chest, but this? is easy to admit. who wouldn't feel the same? and from her position leading the petrova task force, alive and thriving with the return of the hail mary, it'd frankly be irregular for her not to take part in this "rocky"'s introduction to earth. in his...care, if you will.

(maybe it can be called care. she refuses all talk of invasive experiments, specimen collection without express consent from rocky and from dr. grace, sets her brightest minds on putting together the most comfortable temporary habitat they can make in a feasibly short timeframe. she doesn't need to pull strings when she holds the goddamn strings, but she tugs on a few to quietly remind them what they owe her, get running estimates for large batch astrophage production. she has her reasons. she always has reasons.)

she's calm as she hears his question. she hadn't expected it. she had expected it. her breathing is steady; her heartbeat is even; her step deliberate, high heels clicking on the flooring as she contemplates. the question, her answer, the fact that he asked, the fact that he prioritized it so, his tone, the reports and readings from the hail mary after it'd reappeared in orbit like a strange miracle. ]

Because he was our best chance at saving the planet. [ the clicks stop, as she nears the pod maintaining rocky's optimal pressure and environmental conditions. ] Because he would get the job done, if anyone could. And he did.

Edited 2026-04-25 22:13 (UTC)

[ info/permissions! ]

Edited 2026-04-25 19:25 (UTC)

[ooc: played anywhere from S2-S4. prose preferred, but can match regardless.]

[F/M for shipping but otherwise OTA!]

[ Voice testing! ]

Edited 2026-04-25 19:56 (UTC)

[ looking for some replies to help with some samples for an application! please throw yourself at him ]

[ Not a big fan of aliens ~~(Rocky is an outlier and should not be counted)~~ - but open to all else! ]

[ not really here for aliens; anything else is fine! feel free to suggest a canon point (especially castmates). ]

[Catch her staring at the sky like she hasn't seen it in years. There's a real chance she hasn't.]

[ OTA gen, 26+ shipping. AUs/crosscanon/crossmedium ok. cws/prefs here. ]

( gently voice-testing, ota cross-canon/medium. )

(ota for gen, m/f for shipping and only crosscanon.)

[ be prepared to be told a lot of star facts he's a big space and physics nerd

(meanwhile I, his player, will be Wikipedia-ing everything)]

[ She likes the peaceful life of a rural/small Japanese town where there's not a lot of light pollution, so the night sky is always packed with stars. She's happy to hang out and lie down on the grass, on a hill or under a tree. Fine with all scenarios! ]

[ look he's just a daydreamer who doesn't get enough quiet time in his life, okay? ]

{ooc; still voicetesting!}

( info. )

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Stargazing

Rumi | KPop Demon Hunters | OTA

Nami | One Piece Live Action | OTA

eva stratt, project hail mary, ota

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guess we can't avoid 2 huh. spoilers spoilers spoilers

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jiji, dandadan, ota

Anthony Bridgerton ❀ Bridgerton

nicole demara ( zzz )

nefertari vivi ( opla )

Baby Saja ( KPDH )

Aether | Genshin Impact | ota

Carol Danvers | MCU

dr. mel king | the pitt | ota

Ichiban Kasuga | Yakuza

esther moreau / original / ota

chloe decker | lucifer

steve harrington / stranger things & dead by daylight.

lady amalthea — the last unicorn

priya tsetsang / "sierra" | dollhouse | ota

Kabal | Mortal Kombat | OTA

sazanami hakuri | kagurabachi

Levi Ackerman // Attack On Titan

Ilya Rozanov- Heated Rivalry

Juste Belmont | Castlevania: Nocturne | OTA

pope cody | animal kingdom

Rocky | Project Hail Mary

aemond targaryen . house of the dragon

clark kent / superman || superman (2025) || ota

diva — blood+

euphemia li britannia | code geass

Elijah Moreau | OC | OTA

warren graham ( life is strange )

ange ushiromiya 🦋 umineko

rosemary winters / resident evil

zoey | kpop demon hunters | ota

quistis trepe | final fantasy viii | ota

Ayame Sasaki | OC

zack fair | final fantasy vii | ota

easthies / witch hat atelier

Tim Drake | DC Comics

mira | kpop demon hunters | ota

belle | as old as time (a twisted tale) | ota

Doujimaru | A Terrified Teacher at Ghoul School! (Yohaji!)

Jim Hawkins | Treasure Planet | OTA