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independent scifi / horror original character  :  DR. RAVI EKLUND,  glaciologist on intergalactic research mission: albatross.    inspired by samuel taylor coleridge’s the rime of the ancient mariner.    penned by silas  ( he/him,  21+,  gmt ).    sideblog to @toussaintes / @vejrtok .

mission albatross has two hundred people in total, but i'm gonna keep it short and sweet and introduce you to three of the most important:

PRADEEP MISHRA, a marine microbiologist and ravi's kind-of boyfriend for a time. he's a sweet dude and was the first in their team to try and get to know ravi, being the kind of guy who figures everyone could use a friend. he's perceptive enough to see that ravi's having a hard time adjusting and cuts him a little slack for that, but also self-respecting enough not to let him get away with any crap; a do no harm and take no shit kind of person. absolutely kicks ass at karaoke night.

LORNA RUSSELL, the captain who oversees mission albatross in its entirety. perpetually tired but well-respected by her crew, she's the type who started out with good intentions that fell a little by the wayside in favour of making it through the day in one piece. she truly does want to explore these new planets, but she's also turned a blind eye to waste being dumped on a fieldwork expedition, authorised the off-loading of excess fuel in the atmosphere of another planet, made a lot of decisions justified with nobody's ever going to know. she does feel bad about it, probably not as much as she should.

ANN FARTHING, a paramedic and pradeep's best friend on the ship. this sometimes makes her ravi's friend too, though not initially by choice. little bit of a smartass, plays the cello, makes a mean grilled cheese sandwich but only if she likes you or you're having a really, really bad day. she has four younger sisters back at home and likes making little vlogs of life around the ship to show them when she goes back, which she usually ropes her crewmates ( almost always pradeep at the very least ) into helping her with.

❛  feels worse than it looks.  ❜ fuck this planet. he's covered in scratches, his uniform is filthy, and ravi doesn't even want to know what's dripping down the back of his neck. the only thing he can think of is getting to a shower immediately, even though ten other people have been through first and the water's probably cold by now. goddamn fieldwork expedition days. they're always his least favourite times.

and then there's ravi, five or six years later, with a new crew, because even having been rescued and brought back to his home galaxy, he ended up signing up for another mission anyway what else is he supposed to do with himself now. and how this time he's the one who plays ridiculous music first thing in the morning to wake everyone up and has coffee and breakfast ready in the kitchen, he's the first to offer to help someone, he organises 90% of social activity, most of his off-time is spent trying to make life on an isolated research base a little more bearable for everyone else and people adore him.

here's the thing: he still hates waking up before 11 am and has to force himself to smile and make jokes with the crew and has about a million and one things he'd rather do than listen to everyone sing off-key karaoke on their night off, sometime it's all he can do not to lock himself away in his lab until everyone leaves him alone. the thing is, the man he loved ( pradeep, his name was pradeep ) would play music and make coffee every morning for anyone who wanted it. it was the most reliable way to track the months on the ship; most people stopped bothering but pradeep checked off the days diligently so he could be sure to wake everyone up to the right music on major holidays, just because. the other crew members on ravi's work detail loved to drink and "go dancing" on their free nights even when there was nowhere to go but the common area, and had a competition to see who could mix up the best cocktail with just the flavour packets they had stocked in the kitchen. he could tell you a dozen more stories just like that, about the team he was never really part of and whose deaths he caused anyway.

he tries to do what he should have done then, and what they would do if they were here now. one hundred and ninety-nine people didn't get to go home because of ravi, and he can't change that, but he makes sure their actions live on through him instead. takes care of his new crew the way his old crew had taken care of each other.