Logos

• He hails from a planet of psychics. Through an interconnected, intangible “web,” members of his species can communicate telepathically, read each other's emotions, and share information with each other. Thanks to his curse he is mostly excluded from this web. Others can still read his thoughts, but not the other way around.
• The ship follows a specific path through the stars, based on the orbital patterns of the planets they visit. It’s all very precise, so they have to stick closely to their schedule. The path is more or less a straight line, and at each end of the line the whole crew gets a long break. One of these ends is Logos’s home planet, so he stays with his family during that time. The company provides lodgings as well, so on the other end he stays in those.
• The star system has thousands of spoken languages, so to better facilitate interstellar travel world leaders developed a script called “Universal Characters” (or just UC) that is meant to be readable for everyone. It’s designed so that you can hypothetically write in any language, just substituting that language’s characters for UC instead. It meshes well with Logos’s language, but he’s one of the very few lucky ones. For most, it’s just needlessly confusing.

Though he’ll never claim to be unhappy aloud, there was a reason he was so set on working a job that had him traveling away from home. Thanks to his curse ripping him out of his species’ mental “web” at such a young age, he was bullied a lot by his peers. Instead of talking behind his back they did it right in front of him, just telepathically. He couldn’t hear it due to his lack of psychic abilities, but he could feel their stares. Over time he withdrew more and more, until his thoughts were all but whispers and his classmates grew bored of him. He never had close friends due to fears that they’d find him weird and push him away. He only needed himself after all, so why even get others involved?

He was anxious to get out. His family had connections with a ship captain who worked for an interstellar travel company called Psyche Starlines, and Logos did everything in his power to get on the crew and get off his planet. It was surprisingly easy due to his aptitude, and he was welcomed with open arms by the sole mechanic of the crew. However, despite his skill he was too used to insecurity, to feeling inferior to others. While his mechanic mentor reassured him that the captain wouldn’t have taken him in if he wasn’t skilled, Logos constantly felt the need to prove himself. Otherwise, wasn’t this cheating? Taking advantage of his family’s friendships and the captain’s kindness? If he ever failed, they had no reason to keep him on board.

His inferiority complex made him defer severely to those who even slightly outranked him, and also caused him to act harsher than necessary to those he even slightly outranked. Though his skill was unquestionable, his personality made him hard to be around. But they needed him, one mechanic wasn’t enough for a ship of that size.

His mentor eventually retired. They were getting old and they felt confident enough to leave the ship in Logos’s care. As one might expect Logos did not agree with this, and his anxieties grew as did his responsibilities. He was skilled, sure, but the ship was too big even for him to handle on his own.

Then he appeared, Logos’s savior. Lacuna, the new hire from a different planet, who’s situation was not too unlike his own. As per the captain’s wishes Logos took Lacuna under his wing and began training him. What better way to prove himself, than to train up someone else? He felt truly needed for once, and he relished in the feeling.

However, Lacuna’s confidence scared him—how could someone so new act so…brazen? For every time Logos mentioned how he outranked Lacuna, Lacuna would just as enthusiastically remind him that they were the same age, so none of that mattered. And yet his blatant subordination went unpunished. In fact, despite being newer to the crew than Logos, it seemed Lacuna was getting along way better with everyone! Though he was loath to admit it, Logos respected how freely Lacuna could talk to others. He was still irritating though, and he tried his hardest to scold him into submission. It only made Lacuna more irritating, of course.

Despite himself, he slowly grew to like Lacuna. Quite a bit, in fact! More than he even thought possible.

• His species is sexless, and they don’t have gendered 3rd person pronouns in their language. Logos uses the male pronouns from Lacuna’s language instead.
• Psychic powers don’t work well across species, although most people can detect and identify strong emotions regardless of species. Other species are less prone to guarding their thoughts and feelings, so their strong emotions come off especially loud.
• He speaks his home’s language and is trying to learn Lacuna’s as well. He’s good enough that they can hold simple conversations, or the two of them can each speak their own languages but still hold a conversation that way. UC is super easy for him, but only in his own language.
• His two siblings are in charge of the house. Typically on his planet (or his home at least) people live with their siblings unless they decide to go off and have kids. Although parents only stick around for so long, and will most likely eventually go back to their siblings. It’s good form to keep in contact with one’s children though, so they don’t completely disappear. People without siblings probably have it rough.