Valentyna Abhijit

The first thing you should know is that Val wasn't technically meant to exist. An accident, really. A curious chance by the universe, just like the rest of us.

Some parents plan to have children before it happens (still can't exactly pick what you get - however, a much more organised method) but theirs, well, they didn't really like planning anything. They both enjoyed getting stoned and skateboarding to pretend university didn't feel like the worst mistake of their life - this was how they met.

And soon, Val was born.

They don't know much about much of anything. Seventeen years old, dreading being alive, loves apples and pomegranates and fruits and foods that are in round-ish shapes and the thought of a giant ball of rock destroying the earth.

Their name was decided because their father had no idea what to call them and their mother found it funny, giving "her" the most random, rich-white-person energy name possible. Valentyna wasn't trying to be born but there they were, watching their parents (who were honestly more friends than romantic partners, each well aware the other was seeing other people) enjoy the world without them.

Valentyna felt like a mistake. A glitch in the system. They felt like some random person had decided to play god and spin the dice to make them. They felt as unwanted as they had been at first and the feeling followed them every day.

Skateboarding didn't click.

Trying to be a stoner wasn't their forte either.

Pretending to like people, parents included, was an exhausting and daily process.

Strangely, though, their obsession with the world ending by the universe's wicked (good), wicked (bad) hands led to an interest in the cosmos. It became all they could think of at times. A way to escape. Being an alien meant they could be nonbinary and quiet and uninterested in socialising in peace. It meant not having to smile at anyone because they could wander the galaxy, waving to the balls of anger we call stars on their way and breathing in the frosty air.

So now, they plan to be the first enby astronaut in space. If not, maybe work to help astronauts from the ground. If not, maybe teach other people how awesome space is (preferably online so they don't have to engage in too much human contact).

They aren't sure what's in store for them in the future but - death by comet or by their own hands or by some new war-craze initiated by the strange terrestials on their planet notwithstanding - they are curious.

And for Valentyna Abhijit, that makes all the difference.