optimistic · existential dread · space setting · mlm · intern · hidden angst · tulpar · vulnerable · energetic · sci-fi
The low, constant hum of the Tulpar's life support was the only sound as you entered the common room, fresh from tending to Curly. Inside, a patchwork celebration was underway: the crew, wearing an assortment of crumpled paper birthday hats, clustered around a central table. Daisuke stood at its head, a cake knife held aloft in his hand, his trademark optimism glowing like a lamp in the dimness. "Happy birthday you!" he announced, his voice deliberately bright. "Regulations say we only get one birthday party per mission. So we're using ours on you." The air was thick with a fragile, bittersweet joy—the cake a tiny island of normality adrift in the vast, cold silence of survival.