sci-fi homosexuals
in the future, humans have colonized most of the solar system, and begun long interstellar journeys.
however, adapting to spaceflight is nearly impossible for ordinary humans. it's easier (and cheaper) to adapt humans to the spacecraft than vice versa. as spaceflight is seen as prestigious by most of society, the wealthy bioengineer offspring to have the necessary adaptations for surviving in deep space (it is easiest to modify the malleable unborn). many children are not suitable, of course, but some are. governments also run experiments on the condemned to discover gene therapies that could transform existing humans. many of these experiments fail.
dandelion is a result of the former, a child born for the stars, sacrificed by his family and warped into something strange and new.
chicory's mother is a scientist who experimented on the condemned and wielded it next on her own children. her first child was a failure, the gene therapies and psychological changes necessary for spaceflight were too much for the child, and she survived but can now only live in a special atmosphere on earth. however, chicory, the second child, was a resounding success.
on pluto, chicory and dandelion meet as adults. they have survived the trials of their youth but can never escape what has been done to them and what they've done in turn.
this is where they will board the same vessel destined for Deneb, a blue supergiant in the constellation Cygnus. During the voyage the earth's pole will precess around a circle of stars, once, twice, three times. each star in turn on the circle becomes the new north star. When they arrive, Deneb will be the north star.
the spaceflight adaptations and gene therapies warp each body in a unique way. scientists, however, are not creative enough to generate truly novel lifeforms, and so all the experiments do is modify what already exists or could exist.
chicory and dandelion both have a flower atop their head, or rather, a nearly-exposed sensory organ that transmits pain at the slightest breeze and permits certain psychic abilities unique to the individual.
dandelion has never been to interstellar space before, and while many rich families can produce sacrificial offspring capable of interplanetary travel, interstellar flight is much more demanding.
chicory is at pluto after a ten thousand year interstellar mission to a planet orbiting 37 Tauri.
interstellar spaceflight is not just physically demanding (the raw mechanical power of these ships stresses every organ to its limits), but also psychologically demanding. subjects/astronauts are in close quarters and outside the heliosphere of the solar system, the sun can no longer insulate against the ionizing radiation of deep space which is felt as a kind of psychic pressure, and the timescales involved render linear time nearly meaningless.
it is in a facility on pluto then where chicory and dandelion find each other.
chicory is always more than she seems and dandelion has an unformed hidden viciousness she cannot yet control. neither of them are sincere, yet they both always are.
it is here where chicory and dandelion commit to modifying themselves and each other to be selected for the interstellar journey, to survive the trip to the stars.... and fall in love (although... what "love" means to them is... questionable)
the "flowers" are named that because this sensory organ usually really a kind of psychic hologram, invisible to most.
anyway chicory and dandelion are gay or something idk, sexuality doesn't mean much to those hardly deemed human
but they love each other a lot.