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(A/N: For anyone reading, feel free to use the first names I give these characters in your own writings if you want. Heck, use the head-canons and backstories too if you like them. Or even any ideas in general. They're pretty open-source.)

Peter Hinkle, Ava Elheim, and Sarah Wilson

Peter Hinkle

Peter Hinkle had lived a mundane life. Or so he liked to tell himself. It was all work no play. He hadn't taken a vacation in his life. He couldn't. There were people who relied on him. Dad was deaf so had never been able to get a decent-paying job because Alterra considered him 'unfit to work'—they were ridiculous sometimes—and mom's income wasn't enough to support them all. Plus, that income dried up when she got hurt on the job and couldn't work anymore. He'd been all they had! Might as well have been a child labourer for everything he'd done workwise prior to adulthood. He'd kept it under wraps so Alterra couldn't get on his case though. They wouldn't have stood for child labour, which he guessed was a point in their favour. He stopped hiding his work when he reached the legal age for hiring.

He was a protégé when it came to engineering. Hadn't even needed secular education. He'd apprenticed for someone who saw his skill and took him on, and that experience had continued transferring throughout all his jobs in adulthood. It wasn't long before Alterra caught wind of him. They had a good eye for talent and a good eye for a strong work ethic. Those were two traits considered ultra-desirable in the Trans Gov, along with loyalty, and he had all three. The ideal worker. Unfortunately, it left little time for socializing, so his social intelligence was down the drain. He'd never had friends. Ever. He'd never had time for them. It wasn't that he wouldn't have liked to have them, it just wasn't practical for the lot he'd been given. It was an exhausting life, but he thrived on it. Or so he liked to tell himself.

Mom and dad had always felt so guilty. He hated that they felt guilty. He kept telling them he was doing this gladly and that he didn't mind it, but he guessed he could see why his reassurances hadn't meant anything to them. If he ever had a kid, the last thing he'd ever want was for them to have to play provider while he sat laid up at home unable help them or do his job of taking care of them, but it was him or it was nothing, and his family couldn't just do nothing! He didn't want to see his parents homeless and shoved into some pathetic little residence where Alterra hid all their poor so they could claim a zero percent homelessness rate. Those places had the bare minimum of necessities for the people that lived there and nothing more! One bedroom, one bathroom. Have a family? Hey, complimentary sleeping mats for the floor! No. That wasn't happening to his family. It just wasn't.

For a long time, Alterra had overlooked his lack of any kind of secular education. He'd been naïve enough to think they always would, but he wasn't one of the 'unfit' like his father. He could actually make something of himself. Oh he hated them sometimes. The point was, he'd had no excuse not to pursue a secular education, so why hadn't he? New management came in, his qualifications were called into question, and next thing he knew, he was in front of a panel looking like a mouse in a trap. A live trap, just to clarify.

"Peter Hinkle?" one of the panel members boredly said, skimming a file.

"Yes sir," he pathetically replied.

"You have quite the resume."

"Yes sir."

"Where is your education field?"

A beat. "I had none, sir," he said in the smallest voice he'd ever used. He hated the looks he'd gotten. "I'm naturally gifted," he lamely added as if that would buy him less scrutiny.

"Then you should have had no trouble obtaining a degree."

"Sir, we didn't have the money to put me through school. Dad couldn't work, Mom was injured at her job and couldn't go back after that."

"You can't work without a degree, Mr. Hinkle."

"I've been managing the last few years," he replied in some small measure of defiance. He regretted that defiance when they all gave him extra cold looks, but he didn't apologize for it.

"Without a degree, I'm afraid your work career ends here."

He felt like he'd been punched. "You do that and you've lost one of the best damn workers and technicians you've ever seen. I'll hire out my services elsewhere. I don't want to, my loyalty has always been to Alterra, but if I have no choice, I have no choice." Maybe the Mongolian States or the Sol Trans Gov would be more accommodating.

They considered this a moment. "We'll tell you what, Mr. Hinkle. We'll waive the degree requirement in your case if you do something for us."

He took a few seconds to try and puzzle out what they meant. He couldn't. "Elaborate," he said.

"We're in the market for some corporate flies on the wall, so to speak. Eyes and ears on rival Trans Govs. You on occasion hire out your services to them, you take note of what it is they're doing, you report back to Alterra if anything seems of particular interest."

He stared at them. "Corporate espionage?" he deadpanned.

"Espionage has such a negative connotation to it. More Corporate monitoring."

"And you somehow think I'd make a good spy."

"Monitor."

He could have face-palmed. "You somehow figure I'll make a good monitor."

"You said it yourself. If you have no choice, you have no choice."

He shifted a bit. "Fine," he said. Nothing too bad would come of that, right? It was just keeping an eye on some rival Trans Govs and sounding the alert if something seemed like it might be of interest to Alterra. Those other Trans Govs probably had their own spies doing the same thing anyway! He could one-hundred percent do this. There was nothing difficult about it. They sent him off happy with his response, and he went about his day-to-day with only the occasional break from pattern to report back to them.

Until Aurora.

Subnautica

He stared at the file in front of him in open horror, mouth agape and skin pale. "You seem shocked, Mr. Hinkle."

"Are you insane?!" he blurted before the man he was talking to had even finished the sentence. "I'm a corporate informant, not this!"

"It must be done."

"Alterra wants peace with the Mongolian States, not war! Who the hell authorized this? Because it certainly wasn't the board!"

"Let's just say not all of the board are in agreement with how to handle the Mongolian Independent States."

"Is there really a civil war brewing in Alterra?" Hinkle demanded. "We're supposed t' be in agreement. It's what makes us strong in the first place!"

"Alterra is going through a rough patch. No need to worry about civil war, it'll all be worked out in the end," the man said, having the decency to look a tad embarrassed about what was happening between him and his peers.

"There won't be any fixing it if this plan of yours succeeds!" Hinkle said, slapping the back of his hand against the file.

"That isn't your concern. We'll manage, that's all you need to know. Your job is exactly what I've given you. Don't worry. You'll have a partner in it."

"I'm not involving myself in this."

"You can't afford not to. It's this or be fired and lose everything. What happens to your family then?"

"You can't afford t' fire me," he sneered.

"Watch us."

"You expect me to believe for a second that after everything I've done for you, even outside of this side job, you'd be stupid enough to fire me?"

"As much as we like you here, everyone's replaceable, Mr. Hinkle. Even you. Think about it. Think about your parents too while you're at it." Hinkle stared at him, then deflated, bowing his head in defeat. What else was he supposed to do? He couldn't afford to lose this job. There were people who relied on him, and he couldn't let them down. He wouldn't. "You'll be on Aurora's maiden voyage. Prepare yourself for a long time in space. Don't worry. Your parents will be provided for in your absence."

"They'd better be," he bitterly replied.

Ava Elheim

Ava Elheim had be subjected to unrealistic expectations her entire life, held up to standards she couldn't possibly reach. Her sister had been a child prodigy who excelled at absolutely everything she'd ever done. She would have gone on to be great if she hadn't died of some illness or other in her teens. Enter her. The replacement child who couldn't hope to stand in the shadow of someone so amazing. She wished she'd known her sister, really she did, but she hated the legacy that said sister had left behind. Drowning in it was all she'd ever been able to do, because she wasn't a prodigy. She was just regular Ava with no special skills or particular proficiencies whatsoever. She'd never been anything of note to anyone, but so much had been expected of her. She wasn't as beautiful as her sister had been, she wasn't as smart as her sister had been, she wasn't as ambitious, she wasn't as exciting, she wasn't living up to her potential—read her sister's potential. It was so unfairly hard.

It wasn't that she hadn't tried to be all those things. She'd tried her best. Her best could never have hoped to be enough, though, and she'd been left floundering. She'd run away from home in her teens, so her parents ended up losing two daughters instead of one. She'd never really forgiven herself for that one. She'd tried to keep in contact with them, but they'd been so bitterly angry that eventually, she'd just given it up say for once in a while on special occasions. Sometimes they were warmer to her reaching out than at other times.

She'd gone to live with a school friend of hers, Sarah Wilson, and that had been the best thing to ever happen to her she thought, because it had culminated into a relationship she'd desperately needed to make herself feel validated. They'd even gotten into the same field! Looking back now, though, maybe that relationship had actually been the worst thing for them. At least it had started to seem that way as Sarah got more standoffish and bitter. Ava hadn't realized what she was doing to the woman until far too late for it to matter. She hadn't seen herself becoming like her parents—demanding more than should have been expected, holding her partner up to unrealistic expectations. Had it bordered on abuse, she vulnerably wondered? She hoped not. She hadn't meant for it too. Maybe it had though and that was why Sarah had finally left.

She felt a tap on her shoulder and snapped out of it, looking over. "Ava, you need t' stop blamin' yourself for what happened between you and Sarah. I mean it. This is starting to get embarrassing," Hinkle said, breaking into her thoughts.

She frowned. "Oh shut it, Hinkle."

"I'm serious. You need t' stop blamin' yourself. It's not doing you or anyone else any favours. Focus on work, keep putting one foot in front of the other, take things day by day, and eventually it'll take your mind off all of this. The world will start feeling better again, just work at it a bit."

She blinked at him then glanced away in some ashamedness. Hinkle was a surprisingly stable anchor in her life right now. He didn't consider himself one, in fact he probably thought he was just doing his job of keeping things running on this ship, but she really appreciated his grounding presence. He laid it out simply. There was nothing complex in the words he said, they were just based and clear. He let her rant, he let her cry, he listened to her woes—if in some annoyance—and he did what he could to reassure her. He really wasn't as bad a sort as others thought. He came across as indifferent and irritated, but clearly some part of him cared or he wouldn't still be staying close to her when he sensed she needed someone. He was good at picking up on what others required. It was a little surprising he wasn't more outgoing or friendly than he was. He could be.

"Thank you, Peter. Really," she said. He stared at her a moment like he was trying to figure out what that meant, then shrugged and went back to work. She couldn't help but smile a little. Maybe breaking him out of that shell of his was possible after all. Yu had been at him in that respect, she knew. It couldn't hurt to help the CTO out with it. Admittedly she was getting curious too, and maybe it would help her take her mind off Sarah for good.

Sarah Wilson

Sarah Wilson had lived a relatively stable life. Supportive parents who helped her be the best she could be, carefully selected friends who wouldn't be a bad influence on her… it seemed everything was going her way. Then she met Ava Elheim. She hadn't liked her at first, but Ava had been something so different from what she was used to that she couldn't help but be drawn to her. She wasn't used to having friends with not-so-stable family lives, so the prospect of expanding her horizons and getting a better understanding of people and their challenges had been tempting. Exciting even.

Ava had always been a handful, Sarah had known that going into the friendship, but she couldn't let the girl be homeless on the streets when she heard Ava had run away, so she'd talked to her parents about it, and they'd agreed to let Ava stay. It had been good, really it had. Ava had been an interesting study and a good friend. How she could be so nice coming from a house that had held her up to a pedestal she couldn't reach was something amazing to Sarah, and she really respected Ava for holding onto that good side of her even despite her struggles.

The relationship had been inevitable. She'd known it would be difficult, really she did, and she'd been so ready for that. For a year it had been so great! Then Ava had gone back to see her parents and when she'd returned, well, she'd never quite been the same. She remembered how devastated her partner had looked when she'd come home. They'd spent the night cuddling and Sarah had figured it would all be good. The next day marked the beginning of the end. Suddenly Ava was becoming a lot more demanding and starting to hold her to unrealistic expectations. Take time off work to be with her in her time of need. Blow off important meetings to come home and spend time with her. Sure those all seemed reasonable at the surface, but it was like Ava wanted her to completely break off all her work commitments just to stay home and be what? An emotional crutch? Did Ava even want her to work anymore at all? She loved working and wasn't about to give it up. She noticed toxic traits building up but she blew them off because she knew Ava didn't mean to be this way, but they got worse and worse and eventually, she just couldn't anymore.

The last year of their relationship had been a strained one. She got harsher with Ava, she started spending more time away from her than with her, she began pushing her aside and she'd felt terrible about it, but each time she tried to go back to the way things were, it ended in a fight and tears and it was just… maybe some people could have handled that, but she wasn't one of them. High-maintenance and her had never worked well together. Maybe because she worked with high-maintenance clients daily, and going home was supposed to be a relief instead of more work that hit even closer to home. She'd known the relationship had to end. She had wanted to try a bit more before it came to that, she'd even talked to Ava about it. Ava had tried, so she'd stayed a little longer because she knew as much, but ultimately it had been pointless. In her heart it had been over for a long time, and she couldn't go back. It was for the best, she told herself. It would be a separation Ava needed to get herself together, and it would be freedom for her from a life she just couldn't see herself sharing with the woman anymore. All Ava ever wanted to do anyway, aside from work, was sit at home. No desire to explore anything or go anywhere or have any sort of fun. You'd think Sarah would be the boring one given the way she dressed and acted, but no. She wanted so much more than that. She hadn't expected to find it on Aurora.

Subnautica

Victor Huggins had been Ava Elheim's opposite in every way—bold, daring, exciting, laid back. He wasn't jealous or clingy, he didn't get unnecessarily annoyed when she couldn't make a meetup, he didn't hold her to unrealistic expectations and in fact encouraged her to do whatever she set her heart on because he knew how it felt to be stifled and didn't want that for her. He'd never tried for a romantic relationship even though she'd known he'd been interested. He'd been perfectly fine staying just friends! She probably started looking for something more even sooner than he did. His letter to her about the prawn suits had been the second to last nail in the coffin for her and Ava's relationship. The following night she'd spent out with him playing catch with meteors and sitting together watching the vast beauty of space. That had been the final nail. The next day she'd called an end to it with Ava. She felt like scum doing so, but there was no future for them. If they stuck to it, they'd both just be miserable and she knew that Ava knew it too, just had been in denial. It had been harder for her than she liked to pretend. She'd gone to Victor and cried in his arms but hadn't wanted to talk about it. He hadn't pried like Ava would have, just held her and stayed there with her until she was feeling better.

She wished the best for Ava, she really did. Maybe somewhere up here she'd find the one for her. She deserved to have someone, but that someone couldn't be her. Whoever it was, they'd have to be good with high-maintenance people. They'd need to be tolerant and willing to handle the emotional scars. They'd need to be willing to put in the work Sarah had never been able to, and one day maybe Ava would find stability in her life again. That wasn't Sarah's to ponder over anymore, though. Her purpose now was to keep moving forward in her own life and hope Ava moved ahead in hers.

"Mornin' beautiful. Up for another space walk?" Victor asked, meeting up with her at breakfast in Ozzy's Cafe.

"Hinkle's going to kill you, you know," she replied with a smile.

"Hinkle owes me now," he said with a wink. She grinned at him and nodded in agreement.