Just a bunch of weird flavor (heh) for Abyssal Joy. May add/remove some of this later.
Abyssal Joy camouflaged himself in the asteroid belt. On sensors, and on sight he appeared as just another chunk of space rock. As long as he didn’t make a lot of noise, he could stay hidden forever. That was not the plan of course.
AJ’s consciousness went inward. He opened his eyes, now with attention focused through his avatar. He loved spending time with his guests. That was how he thought of them, he is a house, and the members of the crew were his guests.
Early intelligence reports from this earth included a book from a secondhand shop. The image showed a plastic spiral binding, with an image of a church in the center of a yellow cover. Beneath the image it read “Recipes & More from the First Methodist Church of Bremen, GA”. It included a lot of recipes, but also a section on “How to be a good hostess.” AJ used several of the tips to improve crew welfare. At first, he wasn’t sure how some tips applied – like how to hide your husband’s poor turkey carving. Then one of the Cecaelian crew members – Nirvek – tried to cook a meal for the few Corvus crew members. Corvus have incredibly specific etiquette regarding the pouring of sauces or gravy. Left to right, in a zig zag pattern, is acceptable. Right to left in a curving motion can turn the stomach of some more sensitive Corvus. Remembering the turkey carving, AJ performed a magic trick that included a lot of sparkles – something a Corvus couldn’t help but pay attention to. Nirvek’s faux pas went unnoticed, and AJ kindly informed him of the proper way at a later time.
Nirvek invited AJ to share a meal as a thank you for his help. AJ tried not to think deeply about eating. He loved eating, but he was always aware that everything he ate was generated, from him, and went back into him, in an indirect way. He gave his avatar taste buds to experience meals fully, but he had his own digestive tract, so building a secondary one felt a bit absurd. A few hours after a meal he would go to a private room he created for himself (at Quinn’s insistence that he required his own personal quarters) and reabsorb his avatar for a while.
Once he tried to develop a form of taste buds on his actual body. He thought it would be amazing to see what space tastes like. His biology allows him to absorb a mixture of light, space krill, and various elements from space debris found around any planetary system. All of this tastes like burnt metal, with a hint of iodine. AJ’s disappointment caused a 10 second brown out. The crew were, understandably, concerned. Quinn was furious, so AJ was unprepared for the cackle she released upon hearing his explanation.
AJ was a member of the crew. If another crew member caused this issue there would be consequences. AJ was put in charge of cleaning matter disintegrators for a week. It didn’t really bother him, and seemed to gain him a few friends among the crew. Seeing him treated similarly to how they would be was reassuring. More people saw him as one of them, especially in his now Human avatar.