reach for the stars

reach for the stars is a puyo puyo tetris au that includes characters that are not in the original story, namely yagami takayuki from judgement, his partner kaito, and my best friend's puyo oc wye. it takes place in a universe where extraterrestrial life an travel exists, handled the same way its handled in super sentai, where there are different star systems full of inhabitable planets and life.

among these star systems, there are people known as starsurfers who don't come from any particular planet or system and live on starships, constantly traveling between the different planets and systems on missions and the like. ex in this au is a starsurfer.

yagami, mainly referred to as "tak" in this au (as he will be in most), is originally from earth in the solar system, which is both the smallest and farthest system compared to all the rest. it's rare that anyone from other systems visit earth because of how far away it is, especially considering its the only planet with life in the entire system and surrounding area.

the au begins when tak is 15, a few months after his parents have been murdered. he's living alone on the kamurocho streets, hurt and angry, when ex, who has just become captain of his own ship, decides that the solar system, and earth, is worth a visit. the two find each other, and eventually, tak decides to join ex's crew, becoming the ship's first mate. the two grow up with each other from then on out, picking up more crewmates (many of which end up being adopted children.) and then things go wrong.

main characters!

eventually you'll be able to click on the character's name for more details about them.

• ex arcturus: captain of the starship tetra. starsurfer, father from the libra system. he/they pronouns. married to wye. becomes the keeper of dimensions. source is puyo puyo tetris.
• yagami "tak" takayuki: first mate of the s.s. tetra. earthling, from japan. they/he pronouns. transmasculine and nonbinary. type one diabetic. kaito's partner. becomes captain of the tetra after ex's total disappearance. originally from judge eyes.
• wye arcturus: chief engineer of the s.s. tetra. originally from izao, a planet in the chameleon system. has sticky pads on her fingers for climbing and a natural cloaking ability. she/her pronouns. married to ex.my best friend's puyo oc.
• kaito masaharu. chief of security and bodyguard of the s.s. tetra. half-starsurfer, half-earthling, grew up in japan. mother has family in the lupus and leo star systems, giving him his animal-like senses (primal eye, primal ear, primal nose), and his rapid healing process (like how he recovers from gunshot and stab wounds within days and slept off being lethally poisoned. these are canon things). he/him, trans man. tak's partner. originally from judge eyes.

timeline

teenage years

tak's parents died in november 1998, when tak was fifteen. he ran away from the people taking care of him in january 1999, and lived alone on the streets of kamurocho for a couple of months. i imagine ex found him in march or early april.

during those few months on the streets, while tak was very angry and very, very sad, he picked a lot of of fights with this big tough-looking yakuza dude who didn't seem to be too much older than him. tak often started fights with the guy to blow off steam, as well as… for self destructive purposes. the night ex found tak, tak had had a particularly bad day and a particularly rough fight with this yakuza, landing them with lots of bruises and a broken nose.

ex, being concerned for the kid as well as sensing some sort of strange connection to him, offered to help. tak, who already had a really bad day and a severe (and justified) lack of trust tried to push ex away, and while ex did give him space, he didn't feel right entirely leaving and stayed nearby. when tak was jumped by some thugs planning on mugging him, ex stepped in to help him defend himself. they took down the thugs together, but tak had taken a few hard hits during the fight, and since he was already hurt, it sorta entirely knocked him out of commission. ex brought him back to his ship to patch him up, and tak confided what him about happened to his parents. ex offered for tak to join his starsurfer crew and live on the ship with him. after spending a night thinking on it, tak accepted the offer, becoming the ex's first crew member and first mate.

is diagnosed with type one diabetes at 16 after almost dying and giving ex a heart attack.

visits izao (a planet in the chameleon system) with ex during one of their festivals while 17, and pick up wye, who becomes their chief engineer and medic

young adulthood

when they were 22, ex, tak, and wye where hired by another starsurfer named daring to find and check on her son, kaito masaharu, who lives on earth in kamurocho. during this trip, tak gets the blue jacket that they wear for the rest of the au. they also recognize kaito immediately as that yakuza they used to pick fights with, but he doesn't recognize them. kaito, at the time, is really butting heads with his yakuza family's captain, and after an attempt on his life, decides to leave earth and join ex and tak's crew as well. eventually, he and tak become partners.

ex and wye get married. they have a daughter (scary situation with birth complications but it works out) when they're 25. about three years later, they pick up a runt from a lupus system planet, named ai, and adopt him. three years after that they adopt tee, a young boy running from other members of the ophiuchus system, who broke onto their ship to challenge ex to a tetris battle, since he's the tetris king. after another three years, they adopt the twins jay and elle, who were exiled and abandoned by their village for being twins, which are believed to be cursed, even though they were only 2 and a half years old.

the four of them raised the kids together, as well as continuing to go on missions.

losing ex / becoming captain

of course, this absolutely wrecks tak. they feel like they owe their entire life to ex, and the two of them are impossibly close, so losing him like this devastates them. they also don't think they're cut out to be captain, and become terrified of failing ex and their crew. this leads to a lot of guilt and shame, as well as some pretty severe anxiety, depression, and ocd, and intesne grief. they try desperately not to forget ex, even going as for as to have his magic brand emblazoned on their jacket, but there's no escaping it. their memory of ex inevitably fades, but the negative emotions surrounding it remain forever.