Stellage

Stellage is the het ship between Stella and Garbage from the Dogs in Space fandom.

Fetch
After Garbage, Stella is the second dog introduced to the show. Garbage is nearly eaten by an alien when Stella rescues him, kicking it away. Stella continues to protect him throughout the battle. While the crew tries to escape to the ship, Stella says to Nomi, "Trust me, [Garbage]'ll be fine."

Later, the crew is eating lunch at the Real Dog's Diner. Garbage sits next to Stella for a few brief moments while discussing his plan to evade the council. While in the ship, Garbage remarks to Stella, "I'm kind of surprised you're with us on this." Stella replies, "Well, if it's a choice between feeling guilty about disobeying orders or feeling guilty about your certain death without me, um...uh..." As Stella trails off, Garbage smiles and tells Stella that she's a good friend. She glares at him in response.

Here, Girl!
While Stella, Chonies, and Kira are swamped in Kira's trap, Garbage runs over to Stella and, grabbing her paw, attempts to free her (unsuccessfully). Once freed, Stella grabs Kira's blaster and points it at her, attempting to shoot. Garbage blocks the shot, and Stella finally agrees to give Kira a chance. While exploring Kira's hideout, Stella finds the scratched-out drawing of Kira and her owner. She grabs Garbage and pulls him close, wondering if they should be worried about such a drawing. Garbage confidently says that "faces are hard to draw" and walks away. Stella follows him, albeit reluctantly.

While the crew is approaching their buried ship, the crew is discussing battle tactics. Garbage proclaims that he is the "perfect weapon" before making a heroically chiseled face. Kira sighs and she and Nomi quickly hurry on. Chonies and Stella stay; while Chonies stares off into space, Stella stares at Garbage the entire time. While Garbage is monologuing about Kira, Stella reaches out a hand and shushes him, seeing something moving in the darkness. While they are being attacked by the Emulick, Stella and Garbage retaliate together by throwing pastries into the monster's mouth.

Attempting to convince Kira to join the M-Bark and get help for her injured arm, Stella puts an arm on Garbage's shoulder and smiles, telling Kira that "dogs look out for each other." Finally, when Garbage is ordered to be trained by Penny, the dog trainer, Stella reacts in surprise, putting both paws to her mouth.

Spin
While Nomi is discussing the possibility of Kira staying at the M-Bark, showing Kira her new private room, Stella and Garbage once again stand next to each other. When Garbage laughs and spreads his arms for a group hug, yelling "Bring it in, everyone!" Stella looks at him and smiles awkwardly. When Kira ducks into her room, avoiding the hug, Stella drops her arms, along the rest of the crew, and stares at Garbage in confusion.

Who's a Good Boy?
While the pungent monster Gooey wonders whether the humans would want to live on his planet with him, Stella begins to say that "humans [are] anti-stink." Garbage shoos her away, anxiously correcting her words as the humans being "anti-extinction." Later, Garbage and Kira are arguing about whether or not it's ethical to deprive Gooey of his home. Stella drops in on the conversation, looking highly annoyed. They continue to discuss Gooey until Stella admits that Garbage is right. Garbage grins, starts singing, and shakes his behind in an elated victory dance. Both Kira and Stella look away in embarrassed annoyance. Stella, however, opens one eye to look.

When Gooey leaves the planet, it starts to shrink up, deprived of its moisture. The dogs huddle together in a hug; Garbage and Chonies are the first to do so, and Stella is the third, closing her eyes and hugging Garbage's back.

Settle Down
Before exploring the planet, Stella takes Garbage and explains to him that she needs to study for her captains' review. Garbage grins, winks at her, and says coyly, "You've got this, Stella. If anything, you're too prepared." Stella immediately freaks out. He quickly puts his paw on her arm and clarifies that he meant it in a good way. Stella requests to stay on the M-Bark, and Garbage loudly spreads out his arms, shouting, "Of course! In fact, it's an order. No fun for you." Stella looks surprised, smiles, and then stares at Garbage with a grateful expression on her face.

In Stella's training montage, she is shown in her room exercising. On a dresser, she has a photo of Garbage in her otherwise martial room. He is grinning, his paws are in the shape of finger guns, and he has a suave expression on his face. Scribbled on the photo is "Happy bday," presumably written by Garbage.

Once she's finished training, Stella finds the rest of the crew now all magicked into puppies. Waking up, puppy Garbage runs to Stella and shakes her pant leg, then ducks behind her, shouting "Stella! Look at me!" as Chonies races after him in pursuit. Telling his story, Garbage is keen to impress Stella, and when Chonies requests that she scratch his nose, Garbage angrily bounds up to Stella and climbs over Chonies to stand snout-to-snout with her, demanding that his nose be scratched instead. As the crew escapes into the ship's main room, he smears peanut butter on Stella's forehead and climbs up beside her.

Struggling to battle the winged aliens attacking the ship, Stella returns to the main room, grabs Garbage, and buckles him into the Captain's seat. He giggles, yelling "I am the captain!" She rubs his head and says, "Yeah, you are!" Upon returning to the M-Bark, Duchess informs Stella that she'd missed her review, and that she'd just take it now. Watching an anxious Stella leave, Garbage flashes two thumbs up and a huge grin. She arrives at the Real Dog's Diner, where Garbage and the rest of the crew cheer for her loudly. Stella says that she hasn't even told them about the results yet. Garbage says that she didn't have to. Discovering that the crew remembered everything that had happened as puppies, Stella seems nervous, but Garbage hands her a card that the crew had made while she was gone. It depicts Stella blushing and with hearts surrounding her. As she takes a seat next to Garbage, he grabs an onion ring and toasts to "Future Captain Stella."

Speak
Pleading the crew's case to the Elder Shrubdub, Stella pops up beside Garbage. In Ed's dream sequence, she is also beside Garbage (albeit squashed into a hot dog).

Stay
Upon discovering that the Shmoops were actually exploiting the Crumpulons for their happiness, the crew attempts to flee the planet. The Shmoops ask Garbage if his crew will make him happy. One Shmoop transforms into a bug-eyed Stella, who tries to grab him and chases him blindly, wrapping him in what appears to be a hug but really turns out to be an attempt to rip him apart. A fake Garbage cuts off the video transmission of the scene, but Kira and Garbage see past his disguise and throw him off the ship. At the near end of the episode, the crew reunites in one big hug.

Drop It
As Kira and Garbage fight, Stella, in feral form, jumps in the way in an attempt to save him. Kira kicks her in the stomach and she falls limp. Once the battle is over, Garbage hugs Kira, but Duchess storms into the room and picks her up, causing Garbage to fall down. Stella, now back to normal, walks over and picks him up, leaning heavily into him and even squishing his cheek. As the crew wave goodbye to Kira, Stella stands next to Garbage. In the episode's final scene, Stella enters Garbage's room nervously. She reveals that she was chosen as a ship captain. Cheering loudly, Garbage hugs Chonies, jumping up and down. Stella reveals that she has been chosen as captain of the Pluto, and, in other words, Garbage's replacement.

Fanon
Stellage is a fairly popular pairing. Fans of the ship can be hard to find, but there is nevertheless a good slew of people who ship the pair. Most fans of the ship prize the amount of character interaction between Stella and Garbage, which is often perceived to far exceed that of other characters'. Many fans began shipping the two after the second season released, in which their interactions became much more in-depth. With their relationship being thoroughly explored in the second season, many shippers see the pairing's interactions as romantic in nature, while some people interpret their bond as sibling-like or platonic.

A few Stellage shippers see the attraction as one-sided, namely on Stella's side. It rivals Garbage's other ships, namely Garbonies (Garbage x Chonies), Happage (Happy x Garbage), and Kirbage (Kira x Garbage). However, it is one of Stella's most popular ships.

Fandom

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Trivia

 * One of the earliest known usages of the ship name was in a Scratch studio titled "THE STELLAGE CULT". The studio was created November 8, 2022 by plantbee and tinysootypaws (or DarkFangIceWolf), with the description "Stella x Garbage is supreme". The latter of the users likely coined the ship name, and it has been used since.
 * Interestingly enough, in Leave It, Stella claimed that no one knew her birthday, "not even [her]." Somehow, Garbage knew her birthday anyway. This is likely a continuity error.