Chapter Text
Plot outlines + the beginning of a chapter I scrapped
Chapter 1 - Tangent - “Solutions and Formulas”
- Sol is on the doctor route
- Sol solves the starvation and finds the cure for the shimmer
- Sol makes a lot of contributions to the food stores and the general understanding of the planet
- Sol is female to nonbinary trans and received gender affirming care as a teenager, and can directly relate to Tangent in that way.
- Tangent sometimes thinks about how easy it would be if she weren’t as smart as she was; or if she was one of the animals of Vertumna. She gets distracted by scientific discoveries and life sciences, and with Instance’s guidance, keeps pushing herself further and further without rest. Sol is a little stricter with her mental and physical health, and though both Tangent and Instance scold them for it, neither of them can deny that a healthier, happier Tangent receives better and more thought out results.
- Sol immediately joins Tangent in exterminating all life on Vertumna. Tangent finds this very odd, and is worried for Sol’s mental state because she’s never seen them act like this.
- Tangent sometimes just wants someone to tell he ‘no,’ no matter how much she might fight against it
- “Not everybody can afford to be objective. The human heart holds sympathy for that which it shouldn’t, Tangent reasoned, and I am just another victim of it. Part of her wished she could be as uncaring as Sol.”
- Sol’s insanity: Only shows through here as a flat acceptance to exterminate the animals of Vertumna.
Chapter 2 - Tammy - “Princess locked in a tower.”
- Similar themes to Prince Charming and Love is hard to unlearn
- This time, Tammy does end up with Cal, but the dynamic is different
- Tammy and Cal and Sol have this big conversation that results in their relationship development beginning no longer based on a fairy tale
- Aroace Sol?? It’s more likely than you think
- Sol falls in love with Cal, Cal loves Tammy
- “She felt awful for her, really, but there was nothing here for her. She would move on eventually, Tammy reasoned. She just wished it didn’t hurt as much as it did.”
- Sol’s insanity: Shows here as unrequited love that fades in and out from being directed towards Cal and being directed towards everyone else; Tammy catches her looking wistful in the direction of almost everyone before she snaps out of and remembers that she’s currently in love with Cal. Also, she’s aroace, so there’s that too.
Chapter 3 - Anemone - “Oversized chainmail and undersized spears.”
- The title is in reference to being put on a pedestal by Vace to be flaunted around and bragged about, and also connects with Anemone’s treatment by the Helios after she started dating Vace (people treating her like a hero even though she hadn’t done anything yet.)
- “Undersized spears' ' refers more to her being consistently put on defence despite being more than capable of being on the survey teams with Vace and Sol.
- Anemone and Sol figuring out her relationship with Vace and what to do about it
- Anemone decides to stick with him after he agrees to attend therapy
- Sol’s insanity: Sol is much more agitated than they would usually be when handling the Anemone/Vace relationship, and seems to have mood swings. They blame it on the lack of sleep, which Anemone seems to believe, but they’re actually just going crazy.
Chapter 4 - Cal - “Twitching stars are no good for directions.”
- Post-canon Sol works in the Geoponics with Cal, who, in this reset, views her as a best friend.
- Sol is the head of geoponics, much like her parents were, and most people look up to her and follow her direction without question
- Cal starts to notice that she’s getting more and more spacey recently, antsy and restless and overall not very leader-like, but he doesn’t know what’s wrong or how to fix it
- “Above, the stars of Vertumna twinkled in the sky. He thought he saw a few of them shift, twitching, as if they were itching to move across the blackened expanse of space. They wobbled in place as if they were threatening to fade, or to explode, threatening to do something. He wasn’t getting enough sleep, he reasoned, there was no reason for the stars to be twitching.”
- Sol’s insanity: Sol, after following the geoponics path to feel closer to her parents (who died in this reset), slowly begins to unravel again after receiving the head position. She starts spacing out more and more and can’t seem to make logical decisions; but she’s too well respected to be confronted about it, and later dies in a Glow attack (implied on purpose)
[A/N: The glitched memory thing that happened in this chapter was actually just me getting around writer’s block lmao]
Chapter 5 - Rex - “A good friend.”
- This is just Rex being a good person. Like a REALLY good person.
- Doubles as a Vace focused chapter as well.
- Rex being the one to save Vace instead of Anemone or Sol is actually really important to me. Like this brings me a little bit of awe.
- Rex notices that Sol can’t seem to remember which of the two he’s supposed to be hanging out with, and talks to Vace about it because he’s really worried about their seemingly mutual friend
- Vace has anger issues and is still an asshole, but he’s not completely a dick because he does care about people, so he has a genuine conversation with Rex for the first time in like. A decade.
- Sol doesn’t stop being worrying, but at least Rex was able to convince Vace to go to therapy, right?
- “It was surprisingly easy to treat Vace like a friend, even after all their years of fighting. It was almost unsettling how quickly he put aside their differences, and Vace accepting even speaking to him in a civilized manner was insane, but Rex was nothing if not a good friend; even to those who were once his enemies.”
- Sol’s insanity: Here, Sol literally can’t remember who he’s supposed to be friends with in this reset, so he keeps bouncing back and forth between Rex’s friend group and Vace’s friend group; but he’s with both of them enough that they both formed a friendship with him and are both concerned for him when his issues start to get more and more prominent.
Chapter 6 - Nomi - “The spaces behind the corners. (Are they really so scary?)” (SCRAPPED)
- Nomi really doesn't know what to do with their life and keeps dolphin hopping from one hobby to another, scared to get tied down to a job that they might lose passion for
- Sol is an artist who offers them ideas and inspiration, and helps them build up their books and comics
- Sol’s drawings are always weirdly creepy, from the shading to the monsters, but they’re also really good; and the conversation about their pieces never fails to inspire the newest chapter of their novel.
- Sol is kind of losing their mind at this point and it’s a lot less subtle than it was in chapter 1, Nomi just isn’t that good at noticing it
- Sol’s insanity: They’re going crazy. They keep drawing the monsters from their dreams, unsure of if it’s actually the future or just some fucked up nightmare, and trying to figure out which parts of their freaky dreams are real, if any of it.
Chapter 7 - Marz - “Last night, a tree fell in a forest. Did anybody notice?” (SCRAPPED)
- This is about Marz preparing to cause the uproar at one of Lum’s speeches; she feels very nervous and anxious about if people were going to care or even listen to her, and has a conversation with Sol about it
- Sol tells her to go for it, if not a little desperately, and Marz knows there’s something wrong with him; but she leaves it alone, because it’s a problem that can be handled after her speech.
- Sol’s insanity: Sol is portrayed here as desperate for Marz to try and overthrow Lum, implying that they can’t stand another second with him up on the stage. Even though they know Marz’s interruption won’t work without the support of the council members, they’re desperate to get Lum off the podium, if just for a second
Chapter 8 - Dys - “Gardeners plant seeds. (They know more than they let on.)” (SCRAPPED)
- Dys doesn’t know what about Sol drags him in, but they’re kind of like a black hole, in that intriguing and dangerous way
- Dys is, so far, the only one to notice that Sol’s mental health goes far beyond the normal shitty stuff from Glow and being on Vertumna; he can see it in their eyes, and gets the sense that they know far more than they’re letting on.
- Dys tries to befriend Sol for that very reason, but in this reset, Sol is withdrawn and snappy to everyone, including Anemone, their best friend for the run.
- By the time the Heliopause lands, Anemone and Sol have all but split off, and Sol has no friends and no interaction; but actively refuses any attempt at contact and prefers to be alone.
- Dys always thought that was weird since Sol was incredibly sociable as a kid, but shrugs and joins the gardeners anyway, ignoring Sol’s knowing gaze.
- “Dys looked at the boy with the bright smile and the curiosity for the outside and thought ‘maybe.’ Years later, he looked at the man with a void expression, passionless and blank, and thought ‘maybe.’”
- Sol’s Insanity: Here, Sol is using this reset to be selfish; they break away from all of their friends in the hopes that less interaction with them will make them care less; this doesn't work, and Sol is an idiot. If anything, it makes them like 10x worse. Also, Sol knows all about the Gardeners and all that but refuses to say anything about it, keeping it to themselves. The isolation combined with the knowledge drives them half insane.
Chapter 9 - Sol - “Without all the nuance.”
- Sol POV, finally, and this chapter is literally just Sol descending into madness. Written much like Spider Web of Guilt but with little differences here and there
- Sol starts this chapter hiding their knowledge and all the resets pretty easily and changing the course of the years subtly, such as guiding Tangent towards the shimmer cure or bee-lining to the sponge-dirt when they’re scavenging.
- Over the course of the chapter (many many many resets, the events of the other 8 chapters will be mentioned in passing as well as many other little snippets from unwritten segments of their life), Sol slowly loses their sanity and their ability separate each life from another, losing all the nuance they previously had when it came to this kind of stuff. Things start to blur together in their head, and it gets worse and worse as they go along.
- “White silhouettes stood tall over the wall, and Sol could have sworn that they were ghosts. Ghosts of what? The past? The future? The present? The ghosts hidden in their closet next to the skeletons and every buried secret they’d tried to protect? Colours blending into stitched seams, lives bleeding into lives, skills and occupations and friends and information mixing in their head until they felt like they’d been put in a blender, circling the drain, round and round and round and round and– They were missing the point. They were sure of it. The ghosts, ghouls, skeletons, secrets, the silhouettes, disappeared. In their place were Anemone and Vace, hand in hand, looking out over the walls. Emotions mixed in the air, and for a moment, Sol fell in love with them. Then, the moment faded and the warmth was replaced by the harsh edge of hatred, and abuse rang in their head like a bell, and the urge to save was back, an itching under their skin so intense that they took half a step forward.”
Unfinished Dys chapter:
Dys didn’t know why he did it. He wasn’t close with any of these people, not even his own sister, and yet when he saw Sol standing up to Uncle Tonin, proclaiming how tough they were, something in him shifted.
‘ Maybe, ’ he thought, and when Tonin wasn’t looking, he called Sol over. They have curious eyes , he thought, curious eyes and a wondrous smile . He led them outside through the drainage pipe. ‘ Maybe, ’ he thought as they wandered through pink-coloured forests and interacted with small fluffy critters and little clouds of dust. He wasn’t even close with Sol, and yet, when he looked at them through bitter eyes, all he saw was what could be. He saw visions of colony walls blown to pieces and tall beautiful aliens, and he glanced at Sol. ‘ Maybe, ’ he thought, and didn’t let himself think about it further.
They didn’t belong here. He knew that. Deep down, everyone knew that. Tangent, always the researcher, told him that they would grow to belong here. They just needed to understand the planet and its resources. But Tangent didn’t fully believe that; they might have been apart recently, but she was still his sister, and he could still read that look in her eye. On the days where the temperature dropped and the acidic snow started to fall, Dys could feel her begin to slip further away. She’d always be with Instance or Hal, and he would be here, on the edge of the colony, wondering about aliens and monsters.
‘ Maybe, ’ he thought, watching Sol from a distance. Sol was different. Sol was more like he was, bright-eyed and curious about the new planet, but still cautious of its dangers. They showed an urge to understand, different from Tangent and different from Cal; They didn’t want to build over the planet, they wanted to be part of it. All the adults were stupid and naive, but Dys couldn’t help looking at Sol, wonderful, curious, empathetic Sol, and thinking ‘ maybe. ’
The Heliopause landed when they were fifteen. Through the smoke and the clouds of dust, soldiers charge out of its doors holding guns. A big man with a ridiculous haircut sauntered out, strutting like he owned the place, and announced new leadership in the colony. The cheers of the Helio soldiers drowned out Strato complaints. Dys sunk quietly to the back and snuck out.
A/N about the idea behind this fic:
Basically a longer version of Spider-Web of Guilt that focuses more on how Sol’s insanity affects their relationships and how the characters react and try to help. And, of course, the ‘nuance’ in the title just refers to how Sol going crazy is becoming less and less subtle as their lives drag on.
A/N about the whole system thing I have going on:
Originally, this fic wasn't going to have that kind of format, but during Cal's chapter I hit a WALL of writer's block and lack of inspiration, so I sat back in my chair and thought to myself "how can I weasel my way out of writing this and still include what I already have?" Boom. File corruption. [ PAUSE / PLAY ]. Who would have known? I hope that wasn't too noticeable lmao.
If you have any questions or comments about the fic, feel free to leave them on this chapter! I'll try my best to respond to each and every one :)