#outer wilds taco truck au

[poisonhemloc]

@mechafeef has been fleshing out the taco truck au more

The Vessel is a relatively new coffee shop in Dark Bramble district. They wanted to be in Brittle Hollow near the university or in Ash or Ember Twin. They did not want it to be in Dark Bramble. They ended up there anyway. They meant to advertise to the college age everyone, but, ended up with a predominately older Nomai customer base.

Khaya (he/him) and Tamarix (she/her) are the Nomai who own/operate it- Tamarix handles the business side of things and busses/cleans when it's busy, Khaya is the barrista. Tamarix will also make drinks but she's slower at it than Khaya is.

The first drinks made each day are theirs- Tamarix changes up what she drinks more than Khaya does, Khaya is a two coffee to wake up person. Both will/have tried everything on the menu, but for specialty drinks/things focused on Owlk or Hearthians they'll get friends to try it.

There's a number of coffee/tea drinks that are mostly for Nomai and Hearthians and a number of drinks made with Owlk being obligate carnivores in mind- bone marrow tea with fat, kinda stuff. There is a drink with blood in it- it's more popular with Owlk, but, technically everyone can drink it- it's usually a dare for Nomai, and Hearthians are a rough 50/50 split on if it sounds good or not. Also of note, it's a coffee bar, not a bar bar- there's no alcohol served.

There's little pods along the walls they (half jokingly) call escape pods- if one's free anyone's free to take their drink inside and close the door to focus on whatever they're working on.

Wilfre and Aster (part of The Quantum Eye (the newspaper)'s staff are a few years older than Khaya and Tamarix but they know each other- Aster made customized aprons for Khaya and Tamarix both when they opened.

Also. Marl's 'band'- they're younger than the Vessel's pair, so they don't know them well, but Orpheus will show up, get a coffee, and go sleep in the escape pods, when given a chance. (Orpheus is he/she- genderfluid but, she doesn't change very quickly? Mab is they/them, Orbi (the Nomai group member) is she/he- he's also genderfluid but her gender is... more fluid, I guess, than Orpheus')

[hatchetdraws]

@poisonhemloc come get some soup.

Tis Gabbro, i wanted to draw a whole scene but I am so ridiculously busy as of late. Hope it looks ok!

[poisonhemloc]

right so i did mention 'new hatchling' so

new hatchling(s) + (of course) how they're fitting into the taco truck au

So. Chrys. (short for Chrysotile)(its white asbestos you don't have to look it up). They decide on things quickly and don't change their mind easily. I think they've been talked into painting? They don't like how it doesn't last, but, they do like painting. They play a kazoo. Their favorite place in the system is the Stranger, but their favorite planet is Dark Bramble, which probably tells you all you need to know (Dark Bramble is the least changing planet in the game- once you know where things are you're set)

I think, they get two possible endings- one is from a fic I wrote, where they're the hatchling that ran to the Stranger, and the other... is one of two fics focusing on them I'm working on.

Taco Truck AU!Chrys is young enough they're still staying with an older Hearthian- Quartz, another OC who's rude and mean and not good at their job and i love them. Chrys is working part time at a brewery in Giant's Deep and part time at a tattoo parlor- they like tattooing, but they really gotta work on their people skills.

Chrys became a Character mostly for fic 2 of the two I'm working on for them- using 'the hatchling' gets bulky but it's something not in character for Granite or Graphite to do, so. Chrys.

Second hatchling is Potch! Who came into being because I sent a paragraph of writing to Buddy Feef and got several all caps replies about how Chrys is Mean To Gneiss and Potch is going to play an interesting flute. If the sun hits their skin right, their freckles have just a little bit of iridescence around them. (Potch is part of opals)

Potch needs to have a plan of some kind before they do things, even if it's a really bad plan, but, after a minute of panic they can come up with a new plan on the fly. And they tinker with things- not big things, like, they get Slate's help with big things, but like their flashlight/scout/translator. Potch's translator is specifically hooked up to their ship to record everything with is a really cool detail I wish I came up with months ago to explain the ship log better.

Taco Truck AU!Potch does tech repairs! They're also young enough to not be on their own fully yet, but, we're not sure who they're crashing with- I'm leaning towards an otherwise unknown intraspecies couple (Hearthian and either a Nomai or an Owlk. Or a throuple, honestly)

[poisonhemloc]

taco truck au stuff!

okay I'm gonna cover generic Hearthian thing/Feldspar first

Feldspar (sometimes with Gossan) takes a multi week trip once a year; just, to a lot of different places. Most adult hearthians will do something similar, but Feldspar's are on the longer end- Feldspar plans theirs around the trucks, so they'll usually go early summer, Gabbro has a (usually a week/five days) trip in the late summer/early fall before school starts, Chert and Hornfels both are wildly variable but tend to just take off when the weather is good for observing, Slate and Esker will both go for winter or fall.

Nomai will do similar trips, but, Nomai tend to go in family groups- think family vacation stuff, but, usually the entire extended family will go somewhere at once, for a few weeks. Owlk... usually will do shorter day trips, if they're out traveling. They don't wander too far from home, unless it's the entire extended family/friends have decided together that the vibes are Wrong we're all moving over Here

Of course, there's exceptions- Riebeck I think is going to take trips with the Nomai they're staying with, Kaepora will take longer trips alone when the mood hits them.

...Okay, second bit. Marl.

Marl is between Hal (beginning at the university) and Riebeck (somewhere in a masters program) in age, so firmly in 'crashing on another Hearthian's couch' area. That Hearthian is Gneiss. It is emphatically not Tektite, who lives in the same house, because Marl is Still trying to cut down a specific tree in the local park and Tektite is pushing off retirement again to stay on Marl watch.

But. Marl is in a little band- not a good or well known band, right now its a 'yeah those are all a bunch of kids playing together' type band without a proper name. And Gneiss likes seeing hatchlings playing music and is encouraging it.

Marl has a tambourine (because it was funny). Other band mates are Mab and Orpheus (Owlk) (Theramineque instrument and lyre, respectively) and Orbi (Nomai)(Hand drum type thing)

[poisonhemloc]

i've been fighting brain to cooperate and its not going the best it could go so uh have two chunks of writing

'Poison these read as unfinished' they kinda are I was just fleshing people out

“That’s interesting.” Slate focused on the Hearthian- the hatchling, really, they were definitely still living with someone- currently poking at the malfunctioning radio in the truck.

“What’s wrong?” They could fix the radio themself, but technically Feldspar and Gossan owned these trucks and Feldspar had insisted on calling an independent tech after two CDs got chewed up. 

“There’s a bit in here that’s destroying the CDs, wild. It must have gotten jarred loose in a weird way, it looks deliberate.” Slate watched them very carefully, waiting for the follow up “you said you do all the maintenance on these, did you-?” But it didn’t come. 

“Do you have a diagram of this radio and all?” 

“Somewhere. Why?”

“There’s like, extra parts in here, I think. Wild.” The hatchling dug around in the backpack they brought. “I can fix it, if you take it out of the truck and give me a week, but Feldspar wanted a fast fix, and I think that’s this.” They held up a cable. “Just bypass the player entirely, they can hook a phone up to this. At least until there’s time to let me take the player out.” 

Slate watched them for a second longer than they should- the unwavering little smile was good enough, they probably wouldn’t point fingers- and nodded. “Sounds good, Potch, I’ll pass that along.”

“I’ll call Feldspar later to tell them, I think I missed their call window.” They hopped down from the truck and looked up at Slate. “But otherwise I think I’m done for today! The cable can stay in the truck ‘til they’re ready for a more permanent fix.” The light behind them gave a little iridescent outline to the freckles scattered across their face and arms. 

“Thanks, Potch. I’ll keep your number in case something else happens.”

~

Granite and Hal walked into the tattoo shop, Granite calm, Hal anxious.

“It’s just color.”

“I know, I know, it’s fine, just-“

“Hal?” A hatchling appeared from the back- just a normal Hearthian, except, they’d managed to avoid any of the little jagged injuries every Hearthian Granite had ever met got in their ears growing up. 

“I’m Hal.” 

“Magalor is just cleaning everything, xe’ll be right up. Go ahead and take a seat.” 

“Okay, thanks.” They didn’t vanish into the back again, but turned to look at Granite. 

“Moral support?”

“Yeah.” 

“Thought so.” They looked like they’d add something for a moment, but didn’t, and walked back to whatever they were doing. 

Magalor appeared after a minute. “Hal, good to see you. Come right back.” They looked down and grinned, feathers shifting. “Granite, are we getting you into my chair anytime soon?”

“Maybe, but, not right now.”

“Fair, fair, come along.”

“Do you have a new apprentice?”

“Oh, Chrys? Not a new apprentice, but they’re only here part time.” A blink, as xe pulled on gloves. “We’re working on their people skills.”

“…is that-“

“Excellent artist, tends to make judgements of people and never change their mind. I will convince them of the benefits of change in time.”

“Don’t you do permanent art on people’s skin?”

“Well, yes, however, there is always a time where someone may wish to change or cover up or redo a tattoo. Or even have it removed. There is very little in life that is always unchanging and they do not like that.”

[poisonhemloc]

im gonna start tagging this as the taco truck au

(mostly from conversation with Feef)

Tektite is a retired (volunteer) firefighter, and an active park ranger. The reason they’re still active is Marl, local Issue who has Issues with One Specific Tree. Tektite is the only person capable of talking them out.

Gneiss is a retired doctor. The two are on again/off again, and live in Gabbro’s apartment/condo complex (Granite is Gabbro’s new roommate so that area gets more attention)(they needed a place and Gabbro’s other other other hobby is taking in strays)

(Don’t remember if I said it already)(this is from Hollows on discord and you have a tumblr and for the life of me i dont remember what it is) Rutile runs the parks and rec in the area- they’ll put on festivals and events that the taco truck goes to.

There’s, three trucks, now? The first one is the smallest, no one really loves working in it except Feldspar, no one is comfortable working in it except Feldspar, Gossan and Chert. The other two are larger- Chert and Riebeck work together (Chert is in charge, is the chef, is the driver, Riebeck has the neatest hand to write things down and is good once they get into the flow of it) and Gabbro and Granite work together (newbie with the most experienced person who isn’t Feldspar Gossan or Esker) Gabbro and Chert can work together (Gabbro takes cooking and Chert has to deal with people) but Chert and Granite or Gabbro and Riebeck all work fine. Riebeck and Granite barely manage to keep their heads above water but since Chert and Gabbro are both part time sometimes that’s just how it goes (Granite cooks, Riebeck takes orders, because Riebeck burns things when they’re nervous)

Gossan is still down an eye, here. There was a manufacturer’s defect with the truck (brake line wasn’t attached correctly) and it failed while Feldspar was driving them. Truck hit a tree, Gossan lost an eye and broke an arm and several ribs, Feldspar got ejected from  the truck entirely. Gossan was awake after a couple days, and no one knew where Feldspar was for three weeks (assumed they were dead)(was going to be brought to the morgue soon to maybe id a body?) until Gossan recognized a scar on a Mx Doe in the coma ward (medically induced coma). Feldspar was woken up a week after, and still isn’t medically cleared to drive

Buddy Feef’s hatchling Graphite is an aquarium employee with an unhealthy fixation on Feldspar and Slate, who they see as Immortal and a Mechanical God (Feldspar used to do (illegal) drag racing and they did crash but never badly enough to take them off the track more than a month, they won money but they would have done it for free)(Slate hot rodded their cars). Feldspar is fond of them, in a ‘hey so if you go totally limp right before you hit you won’t break every bone in your body’ ‘I know i was just doing that but don’t you dare’ kinda way.

Graphite and Granite both are learning parkour because Feldspar is still doing it (more carefully)

I do have. Rough permanent menu figured out. And Feef wants to draw one of the trucks and this has taken over my brain

[poisonhemloc]

not stuck in [REDACTED] overnight but i will be spending the night in a different, closer airport so uh

i didn't edit this here's how i worked Feldspar goes missing/Gossan loses an eye into the taco truck au if you're confused message me/hunt through the unorganized tag i'm using for this its probably somewhere

Gabbro ignored their phone going off. Not even halfway through this pile of tests, they just couldn’t make themself focus on it but they’d said it would be in the gradebook tomorrow. 

The phone went off again. It was… late. Too late for someone to be calling them.

Third time. 

It was Hornfels? Why was Hornfels calling them. They didn’t have a class heading up into the mountains to stargaze, Feldspar and Gossan were working- had been working, they’d probably packed up for the night- Chert was at their normal job, Esker and Slate didn’t work this late. What was going on.

Gabbro gently let themself rest their forehead on the test, reached up and turned on their hearing aid, then reached over and grabbed the phone. At least this was a minor distraction. 

“Hey Hornfels, I’m grading tests, what’s-” Hornfels was crying, sobbing, it was hard to make out; but Gabbro heard ‘crash’ and ‘truck’ and was already getting up and grabbing their keys.

“I’m coming, I’m on my way, where?”

“Bramble district, that big hill outside the park area. T-they don’t know what happened, so they’re taking the truck in, and, Gossan and Feldspar are in the hospital-”

“Do you have a ride.” 

“N-no, I got a taxi-”

“Stay put, I’ll get you and we can go to the hospital.” 

Hornfels was pacing near a tree that had a big chunk of bark missing, bits of metal and similar scattered around, as Gabbro pulled up. They weren’t crying anymore, but they still looked like they had been. Gabbro offered the water bottle that lived in the car. 

“Thank you.”

“What happened, do you know?”

“I just got a call, I’m the emergency response for the truck. They were already, the ambulances took them before I got here, and I couldn’t tell anyone anything useful-”

“Hey, deep breaths, it’ll be okay. Feldspar’s been in worse, Gossan’s just as tough as they are.”

“You didn’t see the truck before they peeled it off the tree.”  ~

“Let me check.” The receptionist started typing into their computer, Hornfels and Gabbro watching, more and more nervously the longer they took.

“Gossan is in surgery. If you wait in here, we’ll get you once they’re in recovery.”

“And Feldspar?”

“...I’ve double checked, I don’t see that name at all. They may have gone straight to surgery, if it was a serious crash. Or they may have gone to a different hospital. I’ll call around for you, it’s a slow night.” 

“They’re gonna be fine, Hornfels.” 

“I- I know, just-” Their phone started vibrating. “Slate.” 

“Stay here, it’s not like anyone else is here.” Gabbro listened to the half conversation, watching the few people walking around. It was a quiet night, it looked like, why would Feldspar have been sent to a different hospital?

“Slate’s on their way. They were busy and didn’t hear my call earlier.” 

Slate showed up before any nurses came. “They crashed?”

“Right into a tree. Gossan’s still in surgery, they haven’t come to get us yet. Receptionist doesn’t know where Feldspar is. They called a couple different hospitals, nothing.”

“How do you not know where someone is.” 

One of the doors opened, and a nurse walked directly up to the group. “Gossan’s people, right?”

“Yeah.”

“They’re doing well, out of surgery. They probably won’t wake up today.” They paused, just for a second. “Come on, I’ll walk you to their room.” 

Gossan was still asleep, left arm in a sling- their upper left eye had a patch over it, and they were bruised up, but nothing else was immediately obvious. 

“Careful, they have two broken ribs.” Hornfels drew their hand away, looking back at the nurse. Gabbro looked up and over from the chart.

“The chart says their eye was-”

“Too damaged to be saved, yes. If you have other questions, the surgeon will be checking on them in a few hours.”

“You got another person in at the same time, right?” Slate was also watching the nurse. “From the accident?”

“I’m not sure, I’ve been helping the surgeon with them. If you’ll excuse me.” 

Hornfels was in the chair next to them, hand on their shoulder. Slate crouched uncomfortably on the other side.

Gabbro went to perch on the window sill, and saw the sun peaking over the horizon.

They didn’t have those tests graded. 

“Hornfels, what’s your- nevermind, I found it.” They hadn’t changed their password for the university portal since the last time Gabbro had borrowed it.

“What do you need?”

“Nothing from you, I’m letting your class today know it’s canceled.” A slow look. “You probably shoulda changed your password.” 

“Later. Thank you.” They sent out the same email to their classes- ‘won’t be in, emergency, no the tests aren’t in, i’ll figure out an apology later’ and looked out, blankly. The constant beep of Gossan’s heart monitor was a little comforting despite starting to play poorly with their hearing aids, but it was also a reminder that there should have been two monitors in here. 

“I’m gonna go check again, maybe they figured out their system.” Hornfels nodded. Slate got up and followed wordlessly. 

Still no record of Feldspar, and a description to a nurse got them nowhere. Slate had barely spoken with the search, but spoke up as they walked back. 

“The car had a mechanical issue.”

“And you just, know that how?”

“Feldspar would have been driving, they’re not the type to stop focusing when they’re driving for anything. Hornfels said they hit a tree, that’s not like them. And no one else involved. If it was a problem with something in the back of the truck or Gossan they would have stopped first. But they hit a tree. Mechanical issue.”

“First time for everything.”

“First time for me to miss that kinda thing.” Gabbro looked over. Slate wasn’t meeting their eyes. 

“It’s not your fault.”

“That’s what they say about, struck by lightning. It was a car crash. I saw that truck recently. Whatever failed, I didn’t catch. That makes it my fault.” 

“We’ll ask when they wake up.”

“Feldspar’s probably in the morgue.”

“Don’t talk like that.” This time they met Gabbro’s eyes. “At least not to Hornfels.”

The surgeon’s check was uneventful- they were recovering, it had been a rough crash by the look of it, they’d removed all the foreign debris they could find but there might be some left around where their eye had been so they would do another check in a week- and they left. Gossan hadn’t woken up. 

Gossan started waking up closer to noon. 

“Gossan? How are you feeling?”

“Hornfels? I’m- Ow.” They started to sit up, winced, and let themself lay back down, then look around. “Why am I in the hospital.”

“Well-”

“The truck crashed.” Hornfels glared at Slate, who was staring at nothing. Gossan looked at them, and then started looking around the room with a little more urgency. 

“The truck- Feldspar’s not in here. They would have been driving-”

“We don’t know where they are.” 

“How do we not know where they are?”

“Hey, deep- well, shallow breath. If you start shouting someone’s gonna come knock you back out.” That got Gabbro a glare, but they did settle again. “We’ve been all over this hospital, where they’ll let us, we’ve called others, we asked the ambulance people, and two of you were brought here and then Feldspar vanished.”

“...The truck crashed?”

“They took it in, and Esker told me they were in the shop this morning looking at the other truck and everything else we had there overnight.”

“Why did Esker have to tell you?”

“...None of us have left since we got here, except to check if they found Feldspar.” Slate was still staring at the opposite wall. Gossan leaned back. Gabbro was the newcomer in the room- only with the trucks for a couple years, not since it started- but from the way Gossan kept reflexively grabbing their blankets, they were mad and trying not to show it. 

Slate must have guessed. 

“I’ll go, see what they didn’t destroy. Tell Esker to get the other truck back in order so you can get them and Chert out on it. Or… Riebeck’s the new kid, right?”

“I can rearrange the schedule. But I cleared everything for the next few days.”

“When?”

“After you emailed my classes.”

Slate got up and left. Gabbro saw the glance. 

“Text me when you need a ride? 102 is going to kill me for not having their tests done today. Don’t call, my ears are done.” Hornfels nodded, Gossan waved tiredly, and Gabbro left. 

They turned the hearing aids off as soon as they were inside their door. 

And someone was texting them. 

Porphy. ‘hey the truck cancelled everything ok?’ They stared at it for a second then video called Porphy back. 

Porphy started talking, until Gabbro started signing back. “Ears are done. Hearing aids are almost dead. Gossan’s still alive but in the hospital. The truck crashed.”

“Hearth.” Porphy paced out of screen, then back. “Who else was in the truck? You said you were teaching yesterday?”

“Feldspar.” They sighed. “We don’t know where they went.”

“They vanished?”

“Yeah.”

Gossan was quiet for a few minutes after Gabbro left. Hornfels knew better than to say anything no matter how much they wanted to. 

“They- no, but…-“

“I don’t know how they lost a patient.”

“Slate just checked that truck. Two months ago. And you’re telling me it crashed?”

“You don’t remember?”

“No, just calling it for the night at Red Nest.”

“You hit that old tree at the base of the hill next to the old fishing building.”

“That thing is huge.”

“Yeah. It won.”

~

Slate and Esker still had to run the shop. Porphy had taken time off from their brewery but they had a new batch they had to deal with this week. Hornfels and Gabbro taught. Chert had their observatory job. Riebeck was in school. So Gossan was alone, most of the days after they woke up.

They’d seen the incident report. Feldspar had apparently been thrown out of the truck, and vanished.

One of the nurses was going to come up, later today, two weeks after they’d been brought here, and they were going to check the morgue. There were a few unidentified bodies, and Hornfels was too busy and Slate hadn’t looked at them and Gossan refused to let themself be the bigger person right now, Slate had just lost their best friend but Gossan had just lost their older sibling that they’d been with and helped and been helped by for years they’d gotten an EMT license, they’d said for money for the trucks but to patch up Feldspar after a race, they’d worked to make this happen because Feldspar had always wanted to but they didn’t have the head for long term planning and now they were… 

Gossan’s phone buzzed. 

Hornfels, in the group message for the trucks.

There was a recall, on every brand of truck that their truck had been built out of. 

The brake lines were poorly made, and they broke in a weird way after several thousand miles. 

It hadn’t been, Slate missing something. If anything they were the reason the truck hadn’t failed yet. There’d been cases, many cases, but this was the most severe crash associated and now there was a recall.

…They could be a bigger person now, and apologize.

Tomorrow, maybe. Gossan looked up as a nurse came in with a wheelchair. 

“I can walk.”

“Sorry, it’s policy. I…” They bit their lip, and moved the wheelchair closer and started helping Gossan into it. “I’m hoping we don’t find them down there.”

“I don’t know where else they could be.”  ~

Gossan looked around as they were pushed. This was a coma ward, it looked like, but windows were open and blinds were up and it felt too cheerful except for the handful of unmoving bodies in rooms. 

Wait.

“Can you, stop-”

“What’s wrong?”

“That, person, in the last room, they had, a burn scar on their arm? Shaped like a pine tree, and, Feldspar, my sibling, they had the same thing from a cr-accident.” The nurse backed them up, and there was a someone, unconscious, with a lot of wires and tubes and splints around them…

And the one arm visible, with that pine tree shaped burn they’d gotten after winning their first race and immediately bailing out of the car that had gotten hot enough the doorframe had left that.

“This is… Carbon? No, that’s… Placeholder name. We don’t know who this is.” They looked up, slightly hopeful, and saw Gossan’s expression. “Do you have anything else that can help, that we can be sure of? I’ll ask one of the nurses in this section to check.”

“They have… I didn’t say this cause they’ll get mad, it’s freckles that’re kinda shaped like a star system? One big one and concentricish rings with individual freckles breaking it up, just, it’s on their butt.” 

The nurse snorted, and nodded. “I’ll pass that along. But, sorry, until we’re sure-”

“I understand. But, if we don’t have to go down-” “No, we don’t. Not today.” 

Not an hour after the nurse had brought them back, another one practically ran in.

“It’s Feldspar.” Gossan let out the breath they didn’t realize they were holding and laughed in relief and then started crying when they actually realized. “It’s, I can bring you back down to them.”

“Please, yeah.”  ~

The chart was a laundry list of issues- they’d been, fully ejected from the truck. This was, no driving for… a long time, probably, no parkour for nearly as long, the risk of serious issues even following the serious issues was high enough even when they woke up they weren’t going to be able to live by themself for a while. 

Feldspar was sleeping more peacefully than they had in their entire life, usually they were moving around everywhere. They had some new scars crossing their face, but hadn’t had a tree branch take out their eye directly like Gossan had. They had splints on their neck, their far arm, a leg, it looked like their back, stitches in a bunch of places, but they were still alive.

Gossan wasn’t going to let themself think about, they’d been unconscious for the better part of two weeks now. The doctor in charge was keeping them in the coma; they could bring them out once it was safe.

Something left to do, what was it… 

Oh. Gossan dug their newly cracked phone out of the shallow pocket in the gown. 

‘Found Feldspar. medically induced coma. didnt have any id on them- probably was in the console, so they’ve been ‘carbon’ in the coma ward.’

‘Oh thank hearth’ Chert was looking at their phone apparently. Everyone started texting in, relieved; Riebeck might have been crying, they had a lot of spelling errors. 

…Slate wasn’t responding.

Gossan called.

“Gossan? You okay?” They sounded like they just woke up.

“Feldspar’s alive. They’re in a coma. Doctor thinks they can wake them up in a week.” They heard Slate breath out, shakily. “Sorry I was, well. Like that.”

“This happened because of m-”

“Have you been asleep all day? There’s a recall on the trucks now. The brake line is bad. If anything it took so long to crash because of the maintenance you’ve been doing.” Slate didn’t respond to that. “Do you wanna come down? They’re not awake, but they’re here.”

“Yea-yeah, I wanna come down. Sho-can I grab Hornfels? And Esker? Is that too-“

“If you want to grab them, yes. I’ll be here.”  ~

Despite all four of them being clustered around Feldspar’s bed it was quiet. The constant beeping from the heart monitor was reassuring, but everything else was a glowing neon sign saying ‘nothing is going to be the same.’  

“Doctor’s notes say they’re gonna need help once they’re out of the hospital.” The real chance that they wouldn’t leave even after all this was taboo to mention. 

“I’m being discharged in a few days, once they’re happy about my eye. I can get my apartment rearranged to move them in.”

“I can help.” Esker was nodding as well; after a second Slate leaned forward and into their field of view, also nodding. 

“They’re gonna be mad.”

“They’re here to be mad.”

~

Gossan settled into their chair, watching their sibling. Their apartment was ready, but, despite how much easier it would be the four of them had agreed they weren’t moving Feldspar’s things until they were awake and out of the hospital. 

And hopefully, the first part of that would be today. The doctor had eased off the meds keeping them sleeping, they could breath on their own so that was out, so now it was just a matter of waiting. 

Footsteps- Slate. 

“I thought you wouldn’t get here in time.”

“Would’ve been earlier, Mica was in trouble at school, I had to grab them.”

“Aren’t they-“

“Still in the hatchling house? Sure, but I know them better than the caretakers. Esker’ll keep an eye on them this afternoon, they’re practicing welding.”

“Still making those fish?”

“Yeah.” They settled on Feldspar’s other side. 

Feldspar was just sleeping, still. 

They should have started to wake up. One of the nurses was checking every few minutes, and they were starting to frown. 

“How’d you find them down here? You were going to the- going to look at some people and then you just, went here instead?”

“Yeah. Recognized the burn on their arm.”

“And that was all we have to go on?”

“There’s something else I had the nurses check but I’m not gonna be that person if they haven’t told you about it.”

“I guarantee they’ve told me.”

“Then you can ask them once they’re up about what I could’ve used. If I just tell you they’ll kill me.” 

They both stayed quiet for a while, trying to ignore the nurses starting to check more frequently. 

Gossan noticed the movement first. 

“Feldspar? You there?” Only one eye was open; Slate leaned forward, silent. “Feldspar?”

“Where’d that snake thing go, we almost had it.” 

“Snake thing?”

“The- Gossan? That you?” All four eyes opened, the upper left one only halfway. “Slate?”

“Hey, there you are. We’re here.” Feldspar was quiet for a minute, looking around. 

“Last I remember was leaving the Red Nest for the night. Did we get hit or did I get into an accident next day?”

“Brake lines failed. The trucks’ under recall, it’s a manufacturer issue.”

“Your eye…”

“You’ve been out for three weeks. I got discharged last week. You got thrown from the truck, I just got stabbed by a tree.” 

Feldspar was uncharacteristically quiet for a few minutes, then groaned. “I have won a ton of races in whatever wheeled thing Slate throws together-“

“Wow, really feeling the respect for my craft there-“

“-and I’ve competed in even more and never had anything you could splint or stitch up but my day job is what puts me in the hospital! I’m never hearing the end of this.”

“At least we found you to keep reminding you. Where was your ID, do you know?”

“Console. Probably. Why?”

“First two weeks you were ‘Carbon’ cause they didn’t know who you were and we thought you vanished.” A nurse checked again, and smiled, relaxing, to see Feldspar moving a little. 

“Oof. Wait, first two weeks?”

“You’ve been out for three.”

“That explains why I’ve got stuff holding me in place.” Then they groaned. “I forfeited that race, didn’t I, it was… two weeks ago now.”

“I found Supernova a few days before and told them you couldn’t make it due to your day job. Got her phone number too so we’ll see how long it is before she’s asking me to work on that ugly vehicle of hers.”

“You have her number? Good, text her that I’ll defend my title once I'm walking.”

“Once the doctor lets you.”

“That’s probably not gonna be for a while though.”

“Nope.” Slate leaned back and snapped a picture, then showed it to the siblings. Feldspar was giving a thumbs up with the one hand they could move, Gossan was smiling slightly but trying not to crease the eye socket still covered with a patch. 

“Race is on once the doctor clears them.” Slate tucked their phone back in a pocket, grinning. 

~~~

“There’s a race on tonight.” Feldspar didn’t respond, sunk into the chair they’d claimed. “You wanna go watch?”

“Why? I can’t race. I can barely walk without help.” They'd been mad since they’d woken up enough to understand what had happened and just how badly they’d been hurt. 

“But you like watching the races you’re not in? Supernova’s taking on that Owlk tonight.”

“I’m not going.”

“Alright.” Gossan started digging through their box of gear. Suit, gloves, helmet, the med kit was somewhere… they wandered out into the main room in the suit. 

“Hey.” Feldspar was leaning forward in their chair, glaring. “I said-“

“You’re not going but I can. Some idiot is gonna flip their car trying to speed through that second turn and someone has to stabilize them before the ambulance shows up.” No response; Gossan found the box their other supplies were in and dragged it down. 

Feldspar was staring at the wall. Gossan debated pulling their suit out, but if they didn’t think it was totally their idea that Gossan hadn’t anticipated they wouldn’t go. 

“…you know what, yeah. I shouldn’t stay cooped up in here anyway. Did my suit make it over here or is it in the storage unit?” Gossan grinned and pulled out the other box.

“Got all your stuff.” It took a little longer than they’d thought to help Feldspar into the heavy suit- they were getting irritated, but, they’d calm down once they were at the race. 

Helmets, gloves, and Gossan’s med kit all went into a bag and they got into Gossan’s sturdy old car. 

“Feels weird to be taking this.”

“And not riding with Slate towing their new project?”

“Yeah.”  ~

They both pulled their helmets on before getting out of the car, and Feldspar stood up and grabbed the crutches they were going to keep needing for a few months. 

“We- no. I should just, wait in the car, I can’t crutch over like-“

“You are already here and we’re gonna go.”

“Gossan.” They held the eye contact through the helmets, Feldspar’s half open eye meeting Gossan’s remaining upper eye. “They’re gonna be expecting The Astronaut, not. Me on crutches. A big dramatic reappearance and I take to the track with a car we just towed in and join whatever this first race is. Like after I flipped it last year and was out a week. I can’t just show up on crutches and sit in the bleachers and wave.”

“It’s been two solid months with neither of us showing up. You showing up on crutches is gonna be more than they’re expecting now, people probably think you’re dead.” They breathed out, and nodded. 

“Yeah, you’re right, let’s. Just get this over with.” Gossan stayed by their side, crutching in to the little ramshackle stands. 

There was a bit of a crowd, two racers making sure their cars were ready, a couple more people looking out for authorities. 

Someone- Gossan had seen this hatchling around, the unmatching plaid kilt and scarf were distinctive- looked, did a double take, and-

“It’s the Astronaut!” Just for a moment, all the chatter died, and people turned to look, to see Gossan and Feldspar on crutches.

Feldspar was standing as tall as they could, but Gossan knew the only reason they hadn’t flinched was the racer persona they had for this, but this was a rare time they weren’t happy to be the center of attention.

And then, everyone started yelling at once. 

It was hard to make sense of most of it, but it sounded positive. 

Gossan helped Feldspar sit, and the noise quieted again- Supernova had vaulted a fence and raised her arms for silence, green racing suit glinting from the gold thread she’d quietly told Feldspar a few years back she’d embroidered with to make it flashy. 

“You’re not supposed to crash at your day job.”

“You tell that to the faulty brake lines they shipped the truck with.” And she leaned back and laughed.

“Our race is on as soon as you’re cleared to drive, unless you want to forfeit now and not lose on your first race back.”

“Are you kidding? You need this time to learn what you’re doing, and I’ll still win!” She laughed again and jumped the railing to get back to her car. 

Gossan stayed nearby, watching for injuries, as Feldspar relaxed and talked with the rest of the audience. 

“I think I’m gonna start going back to the gym tomorrow.” Gossan pulled off their helmet and started driving. 

“If you slip or-“

“I’m not gonna be doing stuff calm down. But they always needed another set of eyes on the newbies. And the newbies who don’t think they’re newbies. It’ll get me out of your apartment, which is the important point, I think. Get me to start actually trying to recover.”

“Good.”

“Gossan?”

“Hm?”

“Thank you.”

[poisonhemloc]

im procrastinating working on Gabbro (next step is transfer pattern to Bigger Paper and hoping) and lemur quilt (i hate ironing but! i gotta iron it!) so

this is a very rough map of the taco truck au's city. Boundaries are very rough- like most cities it does just kinda fade out into farm land. The weird blue is the main river/lakes in the area, but there are more on the right side of the map, just, not as Big

1 is Sol, the city center- all of the, courthouse and political stuff and all that jazz is there. It's also a very busy hub cause it's one of the fastest routes to other districts. Yarrow (the mayor) works there.

2 is Timber Hearth district. It's a hub for a lot of farms in the area, and the major concentration of Hearthians in the city. Lots of small businesses and trees. 2.5 is the Attlerock, which isnt the official name but its been called that long enough its unofficially the official name. There's a big skate park called the Crater there, and a lot of hiking and such around it. Outer Wilds Taco and Outer Wilds Mechanics are based there, and the majority of the Hearthian cast lives there.

3 is Ash Twin district, it's the major transportation hub of the area (it might be, crept up a bit more on one side, to have a port on the river, looking at it again but). The train comes into here, trams leave from here, there's some important work (all of the energy plants are in Ash Twin, tucked in a corner) but it's mostly known for transport. 3.5 is Ember Twin, which is a lot quieter; it's one of two major Nomai hubs in the city. Greek Food (the Nomai food trucks Solanum works for) is based out of Ember Twin. Yarrow and Clary live here.

4 is Dark Bramble, once a bustling industrial area, currently kinda. Dead. There's work going on to revive it, but it's a Lot. There is a newish bar called the Interloper in there, but, it's maybe, not totally up to code. 4.5 is Stranger (...which will probably be renamed but) and it's the major Owlk hub in the city. Stranger Sausages are... mostly based out of there, but they're not a handful of distinct trucks, it's a series of different Owlks each owning their own carts. There are (illegal) drag races in the area semi frequently- The Astronaut and Supernova are two of the more well known racers.

5 is Giant's Deep district, home to a lot of parks and lakes. Gabbro (and Granite), Gneiss and Tektite live there. Kaepora runs a float in/drive in movie theater on the lakeside.

6 is Brittle Hollow district, it's the home of the university and it's the other major hub of Nomai in the city. Pye and Poke live here, but overall it is a little quiet.

[poisonhemloc]

very minor taco truck au update courtesy of @mechafeef

The city's newspaper is called the Quantum Eye. Wilfre is an Owlk and one of the newspaper's photographers; they're friendly and personable but not overbearing, and they're Not someone who will put their life on the line for the job.

Their main coworkers are Lime and Aster.

Aster is a Nomai and the main journalist Wilfre works with. Aster has niblings and dotes on the niblings.

Lime is a middle aged Hearthian, and is one of the editors, and the main one who works with Aster. They almost always have one or two new adults crashing at their house.

[poisonhemloc]

i am at work today and im fairly certain my entire afternoon is coming but come talk to me about the taco truck au i have going on my brain’s been in shambles and im trying to get it cooperating (or just outer wilds in general but be aware there’s a thesis in here that is gonna spill out with the wrong prompt)

[poisonhemloc]

what do you mean its not the solstice anymore (taco truck stuff)(mostly)

I'm gonna shamelessly lift some of my family's holiday games to give to Hearthians/the truck crew for Winter Solstice games

cause listen 'pick up as many marshmallows in a minute and put them into a box with chopsticks' is a hearthian thing

'hold a candy cane in your mouth and grab other candy canes to move from one bowl to another' isn't but it was fun and chaotic and thats hearthian enough i think

but hearthian winter solstice parties tend to be game and food heavy.

Generally (this started as an Owlk holiday but) theres also. Every adult hearthian is bringing in A Ton of food. Everyone eats. Everyone- but mostly younger or older hearthians- gets a lot of food to take home. Feldspar deliberately makes things less spicy than normal (and cooks for Slate who Can't- they do good marshmallows and burn everything else)

for owlks, usually there's quieter (some times religious sometimes not- depends on the family/group) celebrations, they tend to do more singing, have a smaller meal, have a few small gifts for hatchlings.

Nomai tend to have parties with more gift giving- sometimes religious, sometimes not

which. On an individual level, like anyone, how religious a person is varies a lot- but, by species, Owlk tend to be more, then Nomai, then Hearthians (Riebeck and Hal are probably more religious out of the main hearthians- and thats also probably because Riebeck's rooming with Nomai and Hal's adult they moved in with after leaving the hatchling school system was Coleus rather than a hearthian)

Not solstice themed bars and such do trivia nights to draw in people on slow nights- if Gabbro's not working at a truck and not exhausted from their day job, there's a few they like to go to, and they'll bring along whoever wants to come

Feldspar and Graphite have the bad habit of shouting the answer (Feldspar has started making sure they eat something as the question is asked so they can't do that). Granite will if they know the answer And are excited about knowing the answer.

Whatever team goes usually doesn't do awful, but, they don't generally win.

Also. Sometimes. While Being The Astronaut (Feldspar's racing name)'s pit crew. Slate or Esker will get lit on fire accidentally. They wear fireproof suits jic, so. Esker will put the fire out.

Slate will ignore it. Esker is used to that and will extinguish them while they're ignoring it.

[poisonhemloc]

Alright, so in your taco truck AU, what is the state of the owlks?

They're the second most populous species in the city, so they're doing a lot of different stuff

With regards to trucks specifically, there's a group of them running 'Stranger Sausages' which is essentially really fancy (and slightly suspicious) hot dog carts. They do have. a vegetarian dog option (Nomai are the most populous species and uh. They're herbivores)(Like most herbivores they will eat animal protein if offered but most Nomai stick with insect protein for that and not all of them are willing) but they don't really like. Offering that. The owlk involved are not part of the mob. definitely not. (My owlk are obligate carnivores- they can eat. some not meat stuff. but too much or for too long will make them sick)

But normal owlk are all over the map! General demographics-wise they tend to be more... i guess 'more owlk observe their holidays overal than the other species' (major holidays (equinoxes and solstices)are all owlk holidays), and they tend to like movies/shows/videos/etc over other forms of media. The biggest population of them is in the Dark Bramble/Giant's Deep boundary area, but they do live everywhere in various amounts. I think the 'cross the lake/river on a boat' arm of public transportation is almost entirely owlk run.

...more specifically, at the start of the au, Kae (The Prisoner) is kinda. Doesn't have a ton of friends (I'm thinking, was doing astronomy but burnt out somehow and had to drop out- I'd like them to go back to it at some point, but, this is the beginning of everything) but is running a drive in/float in outdoor movie theater right on a nice beach on the lake, next to a spot where a river joins it. It's not super popular, until Granite and Graphite wander in by chance and convince Feldspar and Gossan it's worth it to set the truck up a few nights and business starts picking up (...maybe important, for this, if asked their pronouns, Kae is just. gonna refuse to answer. Figure something out it is not Kae's problem.)

[poisonhemloc]

'is this the taco truck au again-' yes its the taco truck au again its mostly just more world building

Festivals/holidays in the city-

The Nomai have a harvest festival for batatas (similar to a sweet potato)(Overall this au has the same food as the real world but I'm porting over some of my fanfic foods I like) that’s in mid/late fall. It’s more of a dessert type thing than sweet potato is. It's, just a fair, focused around the food, and there's people selling the Highlighted Food and people selling Random Other Things Like Kitchen Knives and probably whatever the local school's ag programs have competitions.

I’m gonna say there’s at least two big harvest festival things per year- the other one is probably in spring but I haven't decided the other major crop.

The fair is in the summer. That's, maybe unsafe carnival rides and lots of unhealthy food and people selling stuff and all that jazz. The taco truck will switch up its menu to reflect the harvest festival it's at (travelers taco (the dessert one) changes especially) but it’s standard menu for the fair.

Hearthians have big potlucks sometime in the first week of chera (shellfish, think between a lobster and crawdad for size) harvest. It's not really a big thing- it's always more Hearthians doing it than Nomai or Owlk participating. And it's pretty much a Make Sure The Hatchlings/Recently Not Hatchlings And The Older Folk Eat type of thing, which, is most of the Hearthian holidays.

So the owlk have holidays on equinoxs and solstices. The Owlk's solstice festivals are the bigger holidays in the city- it’s been adopted by everyone more or less- they’re not huge gift giving occasions, the winter solstice is usually a get together with friends/family and play games inside (…and a new year thing; I’m putting the calendar so the winter solstice is the last day of the year). Summer solstice is a get together and do outdoors things- games, hiking, skate park, so on. Generally almost everything's closed those two days- pack food, prepare before hand, because a lot of people will be at home with friends and family and not. Working. Unless they have to be.

There is. A Halloween equivalent. It’s still a dress up and get candy but also a drive out the bad spirits type of thing. Slate always turns the (safe) part of their shop into a big haunted house; the truck crew doesn’t all go to help, Slate pulls in other acquaintances. You go through the haunted car shop, and you get full sized candy bars on the other end. Feldspar, Esker, and (now)Mica usually help (Mica is worryingly enthusiastic). Slate keeps the layout/plans pretty quiet so it’s a surprise each year. Despite all the effort put into it, Slate usually has some variation of the same costume- hockey mask and overalls splattered with fake blood with a wrench or tire iron. (whoever is helping has themed costumes inside, I do think everyone dresses up to some degree.)

[poisonhemloc]

taco truck au with limited amount of actual taco truck mentions- eventually i’ll write up a proper ‘dragging oc from game into au’ thing but right now its cliff notes version

‘why does this go here’ so i can not lose it in discord

‘why not make it one long reblog chain from you’ cause then im not sure if im inflicting this on other people

~

Granite gets into town from a long distance bus, with about forty bucks and a backpack with some clothes. They do not have, a computer, an easy way to charge their phone, a place to stay, or a way to get more money, but they find a gym with a cheap membership and showers and sign up, assuming they’ll do some classes to make it look like they’re here for the actual gym and not the showers until they find a job and a place

It’s a parkour gym frequented by Feldspar, who’s helping keep an eye on the newbies while they’re still not allowed to do difficult physical activity (it’s been a couple years since Crash but, that’s not a lot) and Graphite, who’s lowkey idolizing Feldspar. Granite and Graphite are not related. They do look very similar, though, just Granite’s taller. (Are you two twins becomes a running joke, very fast) Granite does not have success finding a place but is actually enjoying the gym, and then when Feldspar leaves a flier up for the taco truck they run, they apply, and manage to get the job.

They’re paired with Gabbro (after training with Gossan and Feldspar at Sap). Granite doesn’t realize, but Gossan, Feldspar, Hornfels, Gabbro and Chert (not Riebeck because they’re the next newest person) have been having an on and off ‘hey I don’t think the new kid has a house’ conversation and while Hornfels’ ‘just let them talk and try to figure out where they are’ method is prevailing Gabbro decided a month ago to just. Stalk Granite after work to figure out where they’re going. And finally figure it out the first day they get a fall downpour, and show up with ‘hey you don’t actually get a choice, pack your backpack you’re staying at my place’

Gabbro sends a bad 2 minute sketch to the text chain everyone is in for coordinating the trucks of a bad drawing of Granite like they’re a shaky crying shelter dog in the rain captioned ‘picked up a stray’ and is ignored because that’s just how Gabbro is

Chert, who would have done this weeks ago in person but they’re rarely scheduled to work with Granite, finally sends a ‘hey Granite where are you living again I missed it’ And gets a ‘Oh yeah I have a new place! Giant’s Deep district’ and a bad 2 minute sketch that’s more recognizable as Gabbro looking stoned in their beat to hell car going ‘heeey need a place?”

which sets off a ‘oh no who picked them up are they safe’ discussion in the chat that’s been worrying and Gabbro gives them twenty bucks for the sketch, frames it, and puts it on their desk at their day job.

Hornfels stops by a few days later, ‘hey we gotta talk about- what is that on your- are you KIDDING me, Gabbro, you knew-’ and texts the full chat on accident ‘Gabbro is who picked Granite up they’re not in danger and they were just letting us worry-’ and chaos breaks lose

[poisonhemloc]

This started with body mod stuff and ended with Pye's taco truck au backstory

Hearthians can and do get tattoos- they've got flat skin, mostly, and raised freckles (which. aren't all of them) are either incorporated into the design or avoided. (Hal, Chert, and Tektite (minimum) all have tattoos in this universe)

Nomai will dye/cut/braid their longer fur or shave designs into the shorter fur, and they'll carve designs into their horns. They can do tattoos, but, since they're covered in fur those get hidden if they're not very focused on it. Since they have horns, those are permanent; carvings are similar to tattoos. They'll also attach metal shapes or other jewelry to their horns with different degrees of permanence.

Owlk will dye feathers/carve designs on their antlers (they shed those) and can tattoo hands. Sometimes they'll carve their hooves, but, that can have more serious issues if its not carefully done.

Different topic- Nomai tend to writers, Owlk tend to be filmmakers- it's not a hard and fast rule by any means. It's a bit of a cultural difference. Hearthians tend to be musicians.

Pye's backstory

Pye (her racing name is Supernova) is always. She wants to be Doing Things- I think. She’s a lesser thrill seeker than Feldspar but! She’s still a thrill seeker! She likes engineering/high energy work so she works for the city’s power plants- Poke and Clary (aka wife and sister in law) are in the transportation section. Raime and Pye work together, also with Idaea who’s. A lot more duty focused and uptight. Raime is a hobby mechanic, they don't make money from it really they just like tinkering with engines; I think, the races started as a joke but Pye had fun and Raime likes messing with the car so the two of them. Kept doing it. Raime Poke and Clary are the pit crew- Clary with. A lot more caution, because her husband is the mayor and that’s a Maybe Bad PR move.

Raime Poke and Clary have less flashy suits than Pye- but. Nomai inventions. They’re way safer than what the Hearthians have. The race car is also safer but at the expense of Supernova is Not the fastest racer. But. She also has Never gotten seriously hurt racing

Probably got into it closer to her 30s v Feldspar has been since younger? I’m. Not totally set on the Nomai’s ages here, but, I could see she’s been racing longer or Feldspar has. Not sure yet

[poisonhemloc]

misc taco truck rambles and also some overall demographic/how life works stuff

...if you know anything about sailor moon scroll down to the bottom and give me an opinion please i do not

Starting with the city's demographics- It's majority Nomai, then there's a smaller Owlk population and a slightly smaller than that Hearthian population.

Nomai raise children in their family units, Owlk will have all the kids in a block or two are kinda raised communally- they go home to parent/egg layer at night but there's multiple adults keeping eyes out.

Hearthians... grew out of me going 'this is how I handle this in fic, so how do I scale that for a city?' so there's hatchling houses, usually one to two depending on population size. They're not fast breeders so you only see two in a large, Hearthian majority city. There's staff in charge of the hatchlings and school, but it's expected the hatchlings will explore around and the adults know who they are and will keep eyes out for them.

(Besides the pheromone thing I talk about here hatchlings will get pictures and names of egg layer and any other involved parties- its downplayed enough they don't usually go hunting for them specifically)

When hatchlings graduate- usually when they can drink sap wine- all the adults in the area get a 'heads up Shale is leaving! And you may run into them' message, which is mostly so they can prepare.

A lot of younger Hearthians in the 'I'm an adult but I have very little life experience besides what the hatchling house tried to teach' end up couch surfing/temporarily in someone's spare room for a while before they really get their feet under them. This is considered normal and preferred; they get different outlooks on life and cleaning, older Hearthians might get someone who can bend to help with things, and they end up doing better alone than they would have otherwise.

Some hatchlings do leave early- Graphite (and Gabbro, years ago) left with permission. Granite left without permission, which is part of why they're having trouble in the story of the au. Usually you're returned to your hatchling house or a nearby one if you left without permission and you're found, rather than just let you run around homeless.

When Gabbro left they ended up crashing on Feldspar's couch (Porphy was with an older Hearthian named Nickel). Chert ended up with Hornfels, Riebeck landed with Gabbro after they ran into each other at the university Riebeck goes to and Gabbro teaches at. As a not taco truck, Marl was and still is at Tektite and Gneiss's, on and off.

I think all four founders ended up at Esker's, one right after another.

Generally a Hearthian's expected to start hosting hatchlings when they're (equivalent of) early/mid 30s. Sometimes it happens younger (Esker was in their 20s)

Okay, now, the actual. slightly unhinged stuff that's not worldbuilding

Gabbro, despite appearances, actions, and general demeanor isn't really a drugs person. They'll drink periodically but, that's kinda it. however. they will happily supervise anyone wanting to try anything because they think you need a nonjudemental chaperone for that kinda thing.

...after i said that, the two messages sent between me and Feef were 'making sure no one ends up at Porphy's with a public indecency charge' and then he sent back 'if you do drugs you gotta get in the safety onesie.' (...a onesie, jic, is a garment that covers you ankles to wrists to neck and usually has a hood and a zipper and is made of fleece. It's a sleepover/bedtime and its cold type thing)

So. That turned into Gabbro has onesies for anyone who might happen to be coming over; they get fun ones. If you're staying at their house overnight as a sleepover type thing (very common for Hearthians- they're very much so your family is your friends and more physical 'five of us will be sleeping Right Here') you gotta be wearing your onesie.

...this is where the sailor moon stuff comes in. Riebeck, Gneiss, and Moraine all get sailor onesies (meaning its patterned to look like they're wearing the uniform and idk why it doesn't appear to actually exist) and the only anime I've seen is gundam 00 and I don't know who'd they go for (...or how the show works in this universe that doesn't have humans but, details I don't wanna hammer out)

Graphite has a sailor jupiter onesie. Chert has sailor saturn. Riebeck has a different sailor. Feldspar and Granite both have (different) generic space suit ones. Gossan once walked in the door and was assigned a bear onesie and just assumed they had to stay overnight. Slate and Mica both have knights. Hornfels has batman (equivalent). Esker has a cowboy one. Tektite and Gneiss are Gabbro's neighbors; they think the onesie thing is funny, so Gneiss took one of the sailor scouts and Tektite has a big cat one. Hal takes a while before they come over but they get a butterfly.

The hatchlings are in some form of 'friends with Mica so know Slate and Moraine is doing stuff at the observatory so they know Chert and a little Hornfels' and that's enough for them to show up. Moraine has another sailor scout, Arkose and Tephra have generic racer suits, Galena has some kinda fish.

After Graphite found out that only Chert and Riebeck had seen any sailor moon they forced everyone they could to sit down and watch with them; the hatchlings got really into it, the adults were various levels of 'okay I'll watch an episode or two' Tektite got really into it once Gneiss forced them to sit down and watch