"Brother! Brother! Guess what? Guess what?"
Aspen put the book he was reading upside down on the bed as his energetic little sister bounded into the room. He loved her, but she could get incredibly loud every so often. "What is it, Ivy?"
"I did it, brother! I've been accepted!"
Aspen's blood ran cold, although he desperately tried to hide it. As mean as it might sound, he'd hoped his sister would fail. He hoped she'd not get accepted into MIRA. Hadn't the poor girl gone through enough danger and heartbreak in her life? The cold shoulder from their parents when she was diagnosed at such a young age, sneaking away just to be herself every once in a while. Even disregarding the massive rumor mill generated by that company, space exploration is a highly dangerous line of work, even with the major advances in technology.
At least if Ivy was denied, they could sue MIra for discrimination, report it to the news, do something to get that death trap of a company taken down. But no, MIRA was known for their inclusivity and accommodations, although Aspen had a sneaking suspicion they were only so generous as a desperate attempt to convince someone, anyone to work there.
Aspen would've tried to talk her out of it, heck, he'd already tried. But Ivy had her heart set on the stars, and she'd probably take a lukewarm reaction to the news of her acceptance as a lack of support.
So, for his little sister's sake, Aspen smiled. "That's great," he said.
Ivy is bouncing around so much that she has to hold on to her dark protective glasses to keep them from flying off her face. "It's gonna be so awesome! I'll get to be me all the time without anyone saying anything, and I'll make new friends! I might even get to meet an alien!"
Aspen holds back a scoff; he always tried to hold back the more unpleasant side of his personality around his sensitive little sister. Aliens didn't exist. He was almost certain of that fact. Or if they did, they were a long way off from finding them. But he wouldn't crush Ivy's dreams more than the world already had; let her come to this discovery on her own.
He listened to Ivy's excited ramblings for a few more minutes until she finally exhausted herself and went into her room to research and prepare. Aspen let out a long, heavy sigh and headed over to his computer. He knew what he had to do. So much for being a librarian…
Yellow woke up with a groan. Everything hurt. It felt as if she were run over by a truck. Maybe it was the unholy amount of soda she'd downed the day before, might be it was because Red was lying on top of her? Yeah, that was probably it.
"Red, Red," she called into their ear, poking and shaking them. "Red, wake up. You're crushing me."
The impostor jolted awake with a startled snort, rolling off Yellow, and the bed. They fall to the floor with a thud. "Owwww…"
Yellow quickly peaks over the bed at them, or she would if her limbs weren't tingling like crazy. So it was actually a more slow, slightly floppy peak in reality. "Are you okay?"
"Mmph… wha time's it?"
Red still sounded half asleep, so yellow rolls over to check her iMira for them. "Holy crap! It's past 3:00 in the afternoon!"
"What?" Red seems slightly more awake now. They push themself off the floor and back on the bed, perching on the foot of it. Yellow has to squish her legs against her butt, so her feet don't get sat on. Okay, what excuse does MIRA have to make these beds so flipping tiny?
"We slept late," Yellow groaned. "We slept very, very late. And this isn't even the first time we've done this."
Red grabs their own phone. "Is anyone else up?" Despite the tumble they'd just taken, the impostor still didn't sound quite awake. But their mood quickly shifted when they suddenly seemed to realize or remember something, and shot straight up as if electrocuted.
This sent Yellow's brain into overdrive, and soon, she was also awake. "What's wrong?"
"Is Cyan up?"
"Oh, crap!"
White was sitting at a table in the cafeteria, nursing a cup of black coffee. Blue, Purple and Green were also there. Cyan was nowhere to be seen.
White gave the vent buddies a tired smile when he noticed their arrival. "Good morning, Yellow and Red."
"It's afternoon, actually," Green corrected. He sounded even grumpier than usual.
Blue shrugs, they'd stuffed so much cereal in their mouth that they looked like a chipmunk. They motion for the duo to take the two empty seats next to them.
Red sits next to Blue, Yellow taking the seat near Green.
"So," the impostor began tentatively. Green was giving them a hard stare, which the impostor was doing their best to ignore, but yellow could tell it was unnerving them quite a bit. What is with him and impostors, anyway? It was normal for crewmates to dislike impostors, of course, but the crewman always seemed to go above and beyond. Yellow was very tempted to confront him about it, but barely held herself back, for she knew Cyan would almost certainly hear and that just wouldn't be good for anyone. So, she asked the more relevant question, saving her vent buddy the trouble.
"Has anyone seen Cyan?"
Everyone tensed. "Not this morning," purple replies. "I don't think they're up yet."
"You don't think?" Green's voice is hard as steel. "You don't know for sure? Purple, Cyan is—"
"A hard-working, reliable person that I'm happy to have on our crew," the captain finishes. Was it just Yellow, or did he just stab the other crewman in the side with his elbow? "Nonetheless, we should work out the buddy system of the day. I'm sure Cyan has had more than enough interaction, so for today we will allow them to work alone. That just leaves the rest of you…"
"Well obviously Red and I should be together because we're vent buddies," Yellow says immediately, throwing her arm around the impostor and earning a timid little smile for her trouble.
White nods. "That works."
"I wanna be with Purp," Blue pipes up. "She has that whole aura of calmness going on that I could really use at the moment."
Said medic looks a little bemused at this comment, but nods in approval.
"And that just leaves us," Green says through a sigh.
"That it does," the captain agrees.
This couldn't have been better timed in Yellow's opinion, for who should come confidently striding through the door than the current bane of the whole crew's existence. Besides the fact that they apparently slept even later than the rest of the crew, you'd be hard-pressed to tell Cyan had had a rough first night.
"Good morning everyone, the impostor greeted politely.
"It's afternoon," Green corrects yet again.
"Ah," cyan says simply, with no audible change in tone. "So, I suppose we will all be having a late start today."
"Yup," Blue replies, their mouth full of food yet again. "Cereal's over there if you want."
It felt like a bomb was about to explode as the crew waited for their newest member to fix themself breakfast. When they returned, there were three bowls in their hands, two of which they placed before Yellow and Red.
"Oh, thanks!" Yellow's voice sounded fake even to her ears. Only when Red took a bite from their bowl and gave her the tiniest of nods did she begin eating. The cereal was bland and a little stale, but besides that, it tasted fine.
"I sent you your actual task list a few hours ago, Cyan. If you need any help completing them, don't hesitate to ask."
Cyan gives the captain a polite nod as they sit down to eat their own cereal. "I couldn't help but notice the pantry was a bit bare bones," they casually remark, or as casually as Cyan could be anyway.
"Yeah," blue says with a pout. "For some reason, MIRA didn't bother to refill our food rations while we were at the spaceport."
"Perhaps we should've considered purchasing some snacks from the shop?"
"Are you kidding?" Yellow blurts out before she can stop herself. "All that stuff is completely novelty. Ancient astronaut food in tubes there hasn't been a need for in centuries. And the price? Don't get me started on the price! You're basically giving away your life savings to projectile vomit for hours on end."
"Really?" Red asks, genuinely curious.
"Yeah, I had some during training. It was disgusting! I wouldn't be surprised if it was the actual stuff from a while ago, it tasted expired."
"You know what expired food tasted like before that?" Blue butts in. "That's a little sus."
"Not really, I mean, little kids will put almost anything in their mouths."
Yellow was beginning to feel sick to her stomach at the memory of that awful astronaut food. This will be a long day…
A/N: Don't expect this buddy setup to be the same for the whole story. I've decided the crew will change buddies every day to give characters more of an opportunity to interact, and give all the crew more screen time. But don't worry, it's also relevant to the plot.