"Wait, what?!" most of the crewmates said in disbelief upon having received a message on their pagers that they had a day off.

"Why am I the onwy one who must do a mission?!" Yikk exclaimed. "It's impossible to do so on youh own!" They frantically typed while replying to the message that Mack just sent.

"Whatever the response is" Arnie said, "you should most likely go, because otherwise, Mack will be cross with me for not letting you go on a mission."

"Oh, I dun have a good feewing about this…"

The pager beeped with a reply.

Even if you're the only crewmate who got this exact message, go anyway. You won't be on the mission all alone, though.

The youngster sighed, and got up from one of the sofas.

"Well, I guess I have no othah choice…"

They hugged Billy and Squee tightly before verbally saying goodbye to the rest of the others and heading outside, where a ship with different crewmates was about to launch.

"Hey" a red crewmate said. "You're not Marny, are you?" He wore a black fedora on his head, as well as rectangular glasses on his nose, and carried a young toddler on his arm, who also wore a red garb.

"Who that be?" Yikk asked, not being familiar with the name Marny.

"Are you new here?"

"I'm Yikk, what about you?"

"I'm Snippet, and this is my son Jeff. Fellow crewmates, please introduce yourselves."

"Hello" a yellow crewmate said, "I'm Dexter." He wore a plastic chunk of cheese on his head as an accessory, had quite the dark skin, and he wore his hair in dreadlocks.

"My name is Alph" a young Japanese crewmate dressed in cyan said. The front of his hair was dyed a bright hue of blue, his cheeks were dotted with tiny freckles, and he wore round goggles as an accessory.

"They call me Eggs" a fairly small purple crewmate said, "and this is my best friend Biscuits. She's more of the silent type" They put their hand on the muscular arm of a muscular crewmate in orange, who smiled and waved at Yikk in response.

Eggs had wavy purple hair that was slightly lighter than their suit, and wore… well, a nest with eggs as an accessory on their head.

Biscuits was obviously larger than Eggs, had quite the muscles, wore her curly, bubble-gum pink hair in two cutesy pigtails, and had a modest layer of blue eyeshadow, orange blush and red lipstick on. As an accessory, she wore a chef's hat.

"I'm Tereza" a crewmate in dark blue said, "and this is my best pal Aeris." She patted the shoulder of the dark green crewmate next to her.

Tereza wore a rubber cherry as an accessory, and with her short black hair and red shades, she also looked quite similar to Terezi Pyrope from Homestuck, just except for the fact that she was a human.

Aeris was a cool and confident-looking crewmate who wore their light brown hair in a long, singular braid, and donned a sheriff hat. They kindly smiled at the shy and unsure Yikk.

"They call me Goosey" a male crewmate in pink said. Suggesting from his pale skin, blonde hair, blue eyes and slightly thick accent, he would most likely be from Sweden. Furthermore, he wore a sticky note on the front of his helmet that had the text 'dum' written on it.

"You dun seem wike a 'dum' goose to me" Yikk chuckled shyly, pointing at that exact sticky note.

The young gentleman chuckled back and kindly patted the youngster's shoulder in response.

"So how did you end up here, young man Yikk?" Snippet asked.

"Fihst of all, I'm nonbinawy" the dark blonde replied as they showed their ID card and boarding pass for proof. "Second of all, I was the onwy one out of my gwoup to weceive a message fwom Mack, my manajah. Fo' some weason, all of the othahs got a day off."

"My apologies for misgendering you, young individual Yikk. So I think something went wrong while sending the messages. See, Mack also happens to be our manager, and I think he accidentally sent you a message, rather than Marny, who was actually supposed to receive it. Also, the group living in the building to the left of ours would actually have to get the day off today, and normally, Mack doesn't make such major mistakes."

"Yeah, even the weadah of my gwoup didn't get it. I hope things will be patched up soon an' that Mack will send us all a good apowogy…" Yikk looked through the 'wardrobe' at the back of the ship, and the lime green spacesuit that they found was only slightly larger than their own, but still fit perfectly otherwise. "So this suit bewongs to that Mahny pehson, huh? We awmost have the same size." They also grabbed a black hat with cat ears as their temporary accessory. "Hmm, this one awso wooks good on me."

"That's pretty neat, that you're only a few centimetres smaller than Marny and yet still fit into their suit."

"It be a bit heaviah, too, oh is that jus' me?"

"You'll get used to it, eventually, as we'll be going to the main spaceship of the Skeld today."

"Aight."

"Wait, hold on" a still unknown crewmate in black said, suddenly making an eerie silence fall in the ship. He was very chubby, had platinum blonde hair that was combed backwards with quite some hair gel, and donned a wall guard hat as an accessory. His face also looked quite familiar.

For quite a while, all of the crewmates looked at each other without saying anything, even when the ship finally lifted off.

"Hey!" The eerie silence was suddenly broken. "You're that thumb-sucker named Yikk who emigrated to the Nether at the end of third grade!" Even his thick Irish accent was very remarkable at this point.

"Buggs?!" Yikk exclaimed in disbelief, not believing that they actually saw one of their former classmates as a crewmate in the same room. "Oh my gosh, it's been ages!"

"Why, I never knew they were apparently acquaintances in the past" Aeris commented in a surprised tone, their eyes being widened.

"The world seems way too small indeed" Dexter replied.

"Indeed it has! How are you nowadays? I had no idea you were a crewmate at this point!" Buggs came towards Yikk to glomp them quite tightly for a few seconds, in response of which he got one back.

"Neithah did I! But yeah, I be pwetty good. I have nice fewwow cwewmates, except fo' one nicknamed Wava, who be a big meanie, and my best fwiends be Squee and Biwwy."

"Wait, Billy Davies? Who was also in our class? How's his sister Lily doing nowadays?"

"No, no, a diff'went Biwwy. They be Watinx, awso nonbinawy, and they have bwown cuhwy haih wike a cwoud. Oh, and theih wast name not be Davies, but uh… Camacho… Wodwiguez, I think? They told me wecentwy."

"That's pretty neat… also to see you again after that school reunion when we were all about to go to 7th grade. Remember how we were all so glad that you could still make it?"

"Yeah, that was pwetty neat indeed."

A crab-like creature crawled down from Buggs's leg and seemed to have taken some interest in Yikk in the meantime.

"Aah! Oh, uh… hi?" They crouched down to pet it, of which it approved immediately, judging from the purr-like noises it suddenly started to make. "Aw, you be sweet!"

"So my Bedcrab has found you, I see? Yikk, meet Buggs jr., he's my pet."

"Neat. The weadah of my gwoup awso has a pet, but that be a Bwainswug named Bobby instead."

"I wonder how Buggs jr. will react to Bobby when they meet?"

"Yeah, me too."


"Salutations" Mack said once he closed the front door behind him. "So it appears that I apparently gave you lot a day off by mistake, and also accidentally sent a message to Yikk to go on a mission, rather than the crewmate in lime green that lives next door."

"Who was originally intended to have the day off?" Arnie asked.

"Those who live on the left of the neighbours on your left. My deepest apologies for making such a huge mistake. I usually never make such mistakes, but I blame the computers in my main office for it since they were suddenly so slow and laggy this morning."

"I can help you fix those computers" Vienna offered. "I think I know where the problem originates from."

"Why, that's a very nice offer of you, I appreciate your help, Miss Vienna."

"But Mummy" Neri said, "you fixing those computers takes too long!"

Mack, Navy, Vienna and Arnie were left laughing for a bit.

"Then you should stick with me and Daddy instead" Nika said. "We could play a little board game in the meantime, if you're interested. Mummy, do you think it's okay if Neri stays here?"

"Of course not" the mother replied. "Neri, if you really think it takes too long, feel free to stick with Nika. Also, don't worry about Yuri, they'll be just fine with me."

"Yay!" The little boy smiled widely and put his arm around his older sister's shoulder.

Having heard the name of their youngest child, Navy briefly rushed upstairs to grab the baby utility bag from his and his family's bedroom section to give it to his wife.

"Thanks, sweetie, I appreciate your effort." Vienna planted a smacker on her husband's cheek.

"Ah, so your youngest is interested in watching you fix the computers after all?" Mack said, before turning to Yuri and speaking to them in a sweet tone. "Are you going to watch Mummy fix the broken computers soon? Yes, you are!"

"Aguh!" Yuri cheerfully cooed in response, while trying to grab the manager's glasses with their chubby little hand.

"Hey, those are mine, you little rascal!" He bopped the baby's nose before turning back to Vienna. "Also, I have four kids of my own who are all raised since their mere babyhood, so don't be too concerned if I offer you to take care of Yuri in the meantime."

"Mack, will Yikk be alright on their sudden mission with different crewmates?" Arnie asked.

"Of course they will. Snippet, the leader of the crewmates next door, is an excellent leader as well, and I don't think he minds Individual Yikk's sudden presence at all. Today, they'll be at the main spaceship of the Skeld, with which they're already familiar, of course, so it'll be alright for sure."

"I certainly do hope those crewmates next door are nice people" Squee said. "I don't want to see Yikk return here with even their clothes all tear-stained."

"They are nice people. There are a few crewmates who are more like 'cool people', but I don't think that should be a problem, Individual Squee." The manager patted the dumb blonde's shoulder.

Nika and Neri went to their room upstairs to play some board games, as they were getting a little bored by all of everyone's yapping in the meantime.

"I think we should get started on those computers as well, Mackie" Vienna chuckled as she playfully pinched her manager's cheek. "You guys, take care in the meantime. I hope I won't be too long."

"Thank you very much on informing us on the reason why all of the messages were mis-sent this morning" Navy said. "I hope the computers will work properly again soon."

"Me too, Master Navy" Mack said. "You lot, take care."

That being said, he, Vienna and Yuri headed out of the front door, towards the main office.

"Mack has gotten me all curious on our neighbours" Pop said. "I think we should drop by their pad and say hello later today."

"I can't see why not" Choco said. "If Yikk gets to know most of them today, then we should as well, because otherwise, it won't be fair."

"I agree" Charlie added.

"This is sorta exciting" Billy chuckled, "our first neighbour meet-up in this area…! Should we have any preparations for that?"

"Not a bad idea" Rice said. "A group could gather and cook up a massive storm for dinner, but who knows where we should sit, rather than a cramped dinner table."

"Good point" Nori said, "we'll only find out in one way, and that's asking them for details by then."

"Now, that's a nice idea of a neighbour meet-up" Arnie said with a smile, "I think we indeed should do it like this."

Everyone else nodded, cheered and chuckled in full approval.


Meanwhile, on the main spaceship of the Skeld, the mission had only just started.

Eggs and Biscuits were the two impostors, and were secretly yet still obviously happy to be the impostors together again. They loved to work together as them.

"Wait" Yikk whispered in slight disbelief when seeing the display of their pager, "thewe be 2 impostahs? Is that even possible?"

"It sure is possible" Tereza replied. "Why, are you not used to it?"

"Don't think so, as on the missions that I've had, thewe onwy be one… guess I'll hafta ask Mack about it waytah today."

"Understandable. Have a good mission."

"You, too." The childish crewmate headed for the admin to swipe their card at first, along with Buggs, Aeris, Snippet, Biscuits (even if she only pretended to), Goosey and Dexter.

Tereza was busy shooting asteroids while nobody else was present around her, much to her disappointment as she had no other obviously visual tasks listed.

"Man, why must this always occur to me…?"

After downloading some data in the cafeteria, Alph headed for the admin room to upload them to the headquarters, while Eggs and Biscuits were bickering in the background.

"I'm going to punch him" Biscuits hissed.

"No, I will this time" Eggs replied. "You punched someone first previously."

"No way, you did."

"Shut up or I'll rat you out."

"Fine, have it your way, you butt."

The young engineer went to the electrical room for his next task, not even having noticed the bickering impostors.

While this happened, Eggs easily jumped into the nearby vent, while Biscuits sabotaged the oxygen, since they both had nobody near to punch at this point.

The muscular girl pretended to insert the code on one of the monitors, while the almost pint-sized impostor crawled their way towards the vent grid of the hallway near the navigation and the shields sections.

Tereza, who happened to be in the O2 room, quickly inserted the code on her side of the monitor, and impatiently trampled on the steel floor with her feet until someone would insert the code in the admin room.

Aeris swiftly arrived in the admin room, but just as they had stopped the oxygen sabotage by confirming the shown code, Biscuits punched their temple hard, making them unconscious.

"Thank goodness I stopped it just in time" Aeris's spirit sighed. "Aaah, my temple throbs so hard that it hurts…" They rubbed their sore spot while floating towards the upper engine for their next task.

Next up, Eggs, already being out of the vent again, came in action. They sneaked towards the navigation room, where Tereza was trying to figure out the course and were seemingly frustrated at not getting it.

"Boo!" the tiny crewmate suddenly exclaimed hard as they grabbed Tereza's hips hard.

The demi-girl screeched in shock and tried to get away, but it was too late: she tripped hard and was subsequently knocked out cold, with a bruise on her left upper cheek having all of the proof.

After the knockout, Eggs had jumped into the nearby vent, and was about to sabotage some of the doors when Aeris's body was suddenly reported by Dexter, causing an emergency meeting to take place.

"Where did you find it?" Snippet asked.

"Yeah, where?" nearly everyone else asked here and there.

"Admin" Dexter replied. "And nobody was near."

"Sounds like something an impostor would say" Eggs giggled, playing innocent.

"What? No, man, you need to chill here."

"That sounds so suspicious."

"Okay" Goosey said, "so it's Dexter?"

"Well, if y'all say so…" Yikk mumbled while voting Dexter out.

"Personally" Buggs whispered into his former classmate's ear, "I think it's Eggs, but I don't know. If it's not Dexter, then it's them."

"Buggs, don't whisper during meetings" Snippet said in a harsh tone. "Spill the beans out loud."

"I said, if it's not Dexter, then it's Eggs."

"How come you think it's Eggs?"

"They talk in that one annoying tone again, I seem to be the only one who can hear it!"

"You're not alone, Buggs" the spirits of Aeris and Tereza said, somewhat huffing in disapproval of the tone of the tiny crewmate's 'innocent' voice.

Dexter was voted out and sent for tasks outside of the ship, even if he didn't turn out to be the impostor.

Snippet, apparently stronger than he looked, easily brought the unconscious bodies of both Tereza and Aeris towards the medical bay for recovery.

"I happen to have a scan at the medbay, too" Goosey said. "You lot should come with me."

"Otay!" Yikk chimed enthusiastically, as they also happened to have that task.

"I happen to have the same task" Alph said. "As long as you'll be scanning, I'll watch."

Alph, Goosey, Buggs and Yikk went to the medical bay, where the four submitted a successful scan each, and subsequently stuck together for most of the time as they fully trusted each other.

The group of four was soon to be found at the storage, communications room and shields section for their next tasks. But just as they were busy with those tasks, Eggs sneakily went towards the reactor, and Biscuits sabotaged it.

Snippet happened to be at the reactor, and was the first one to scan his hand in an attempt to stop the sabotage.

"Dada, I wanna!" Jeff cooed in a frustrated tone, wanting to scan his hand as well.

"Not now, Jeff" the red crewmate calmly replied. "Maybe next time."

"I wanna!" The child sounded angry, as if about to throw a tantrum.

At the same time, Eggs arrived to scan their hand on the other scanner, and quickly checked if nobody else would be around by now. Subsequently, they took Snippet out as well before disappearing in yet another vent, leaving little Jeff shocked and crying helplessly.

Little did the tiny crewmate know that their shoes were briefly exposed to the eyes of Yikk and Buggs, who only just saw the vent grid close up around the corner.

"Oh no" the lime crewmate said in shock, "that powe sweet soul…!" They rushed towards the crying child, picked him up in their arms, gave him his soother that was conveniently attached to a cord on his shirt and tried to comfort him.

Buggs reported Snippet's unconscious body, and another emergency meeting was soon held.

"We found it at the reactor" he said, "and that nasty impostor just left poor Jeff in such a state of shock."

"Anyone suspicious over there?" Alph asked.

"Buggs and I saw someone vent" Yikk replied, "and we saw theih shoes. Evewyone, show youh shoes so we can see whodunnit!"

Biscuits, Alph, Eggs and Goosey immediately stood in a horizontal row to have their shoes checked.

"Man, they've got such a keen eye" the pink crewmate said. "But it definitely isn't me."

"Ah!" The childish youngster pointed at Eggs's feet. "So you be that sneaky wittle imp with those tiny puhple feet! Begone!" They grabbed their pager with their remaining hand and voted Eggs out.

"I knew it was you all along, Eggs" Buggs said in a sarcastic tone, as they followed suit with their former classmate.

"And you are a hundred per cent sure about this, Nick?" Alph asked.

"That be Yikk, thank you vewy much…" The lime crewmate facepalmed and sighed at the mispronunciation of their name. "But yes, I am fuwwy suwe of this!"

"Sorry, I've never heard your name before. Neither have I ever spelled it, so please show me the spelling of it soon." The cyan crewmate voted the purple impostor out.

Biscuits was the only one to skip out on her vote, but still the one to send her fellow impostor out of the ship to do tasks outside of it.

"Don't worry, Jeff" Goosey said to the little red crewmate, whose eyes were still full of tears. "I bet lime here will take the best of care of you in the meantime." He ruffled the child's blonde hair before heading to the lower engine with a jerry can of fuel.

"Okay" Buggs said to Yikk. "It's now or never to find out who the other impostor is. What is your next task?"

"Emptying the twash chute with the cafetewia's contents" Yikk replied. "An' Jeff will hewp me wif that, as he seems quite eagah to do so. Isn't that wight?"

"I wanna!" the toddler exclaimed.

"Yes, Jeff, you can empty the twash."

"Yay!"

The two crewmates and the child went towards the storage, where little Jeff got hold of the handle of the trash chute and pushed it down the best he could, which went surprisingly well for someone of the age of one-and-a-half.

"Good job!" Yikk and Buggs said in unison with different smiles each, making the toddler giggle in the process.

At the same time, a brief screech was heard from a distance, followed by something in the way of "a-ha!" and a third emergency meeting.

"It's Biscuits" Goosey said, while holding on to the muscular arm of the second impostor, who looked towards the ground and had a completely red head out of shame. "She's not too smart…"

After the remaining crewmates voted the now exposed Biscuits out, Goosey and Buggs sent her outside for her newly assigned 'impostor tasks', and also helped Dexter get back inside of the ship.

"Thank you guys" the yellow crewmate said with a smile, "I was already starting to feel reeeaaally uncomfortable out there…!"

Yikk had brought Alph's unconscious body towards the medical bay in the meantime, and subsequently headed back towards the cafeteria to get something to eat for themself and Jeff.

"I just keep on telling you guys that these two are never smart as impostors" Alph's spirit chuckled.

"I know, right?" the spirits of Aeris and Tereza chuckled back.

"And I'm glad that Yikk is able to take care of my Jeff so well" Snippet's spirit said, who also couldn't help but chuckle a little. "I wonder where they possibly learned that, to be honest."


"Good day" a crewmate dressed in brown said, "please come in." She spoke with a slight Russian-sounding accent.

Arnie was the first to enter the neighbours' living building and take his shoes off, followed by Bobby, his 10 fellow crewmates, and Navy and Vienna's offspring.

"I'm Arnie Kane" the leader said as he shook hands with the neighbour, "the leader of the group of crewmates on your right side."

"My name is Anastasia Ivanov, but they call me Beanie." The young lady pointed at her hat, the only red thing she wore aside of everything brown. "Both because beans are usually brown, and this hat."

"One of our fellow crewmates was accidentally sent to most of your fellow crewmates on a mission, and the rest of us accidentally got a day off, rather than your neighbours on the left side."

"Ah, so that's why Marny didn't receive a message on their pager?"

"Did someone say my name?" a middle-pitched voice asked before its source came towards everyone at the door. They had a dark brown shag haircut, bluish-grey eyes that were quite enlarged by their round, thick glasses, wore a fez and a lime green tracksuit, and sat in a manual wheelchair. "Ah, I presume you lot are our neighbours? Nice to meet you, I'm Marny."

"Good day, Marny" Arnie said, "I'm Arnie. Hey, that rhymes!" He turned to the rest of the crewmates behind him. "Guys, introduce yourselves, please."

The ten crewmates said their names each, and little Yuri was manually introduced by Vienna.

"I'm Nika" Nika said, "and this is my younger brother Neri, who's a tad shy."

Neri simply smiled and waved at Beanie and Marny before blushing hard and hiding his face into both his hands.

"The others should come back soon" Beanie said as she looked at her watch. "Most of the missions usually end at this time of day. It's 3:30 p.m. right now."

"I am still dying to hear how Yikk did back there" Billy said, "and how the others reacted to them."

"Is that someone who's dressed in lime green as well?"

"How do you know?"

"Because Marny is dressed in the same colour, but didn't receive a message from Mack to go on a mission."

"That's right, it accidentally got sent to Yikk because the computers that usually send the messages were slow and corrupted this morning."

"But I managed to fix them as well as possible" Vienna said with a smile and a cutesy wink, "and if I'm not mistaken, the messages will be sent correctly again by tomorrow."

"Please come further" Marny said, as they turned their wheelchair towards the entrance of the main room, "could I get you lot something to drink?"

"Why, that doesn't sound like a bad idea at all."

The group of eleven followed the nerdy crewmate towards the dining table, where they all got something to drink each.

Soon after the drinks were all served, another young lady showed up. She had short dark brown hair, as well as hearing aids which could only be seen if one paid the closest of attention to her ears, and wore a comfy, ankle-length white dress.

"Why" she said, "it's nice to meet some neighbours. I'm Rose."

"Rose" Rice said, "your name sounds a lot like my nickname, which is Rice, by the way. My real name? Oh, that's not important now."

"C'mon, you got me curious at this point…!" She sat down at one of the few free chairs.

"Are you a hundred per cent dying to know?"

"As of just now, yes."

"Alrighty then. It's Pollux. In case you're wondering if my brother's real name is Castor… guilty! But in this case, he often goes by the nickname of Nori."

"That's right" Nori chuckled kindly with a slight blush.

"Oh, Pollux and Castor, like in the mythology! That's quite nice." The gentle young lady poured herself a little water to drink. "What brought you guys here?"

"Curiosity" Squee said. "One of our fellow crewmates accidentally got sent on a mission with most of yours."

"A few messages got mis-sent this morning" Arnie explained, "and every one of us but Yikk got a day off. Yikk got sent on a mission with most of your crewmates, rather than Marny."

"And I honestly thought Mack was suddenly being ableist" Marny stated. "Just because I'm paralysed from the navel down, and thus confined to this wheelchair, doesn't mean I cannot go on missions at all! It only means that I cannot vent as an impostor, though, since there are no such things as adapted vents for wheelchair users."

Most of the others chuckled with a hint of reluctance in their voice, since they didn't want to harm Marny too much.

"Mack? Ableist?" Charlie said with a slight frown. "He's too nice to be that way! I, myself, am neurodivergent, but that's not the reason why I get to stay home quite often – in fact, it's because the number of crewmates is often randomly determined, and the crewmates themselves are also randomly determined per time of mission."

"It was just the computers that totally didn't go haywire" Lava said with obvious sarcasm in her voice.

"They did?" Vienna said as she cocked her head. "Why else did Mack send me in to fix them?"


Meanwhile, the dropship gently landed on its assigned spot again.

Yikk suddenly heard their pager beep with a tiny message.

If you're looking for us, we're at the pad of the crewmates with whom you went on the mission today. -Arnie

Hmm, they thought, this is going to be very interesting…

Everyone took their spacesuits and oxygen tanks off and headed towards the living building.

"Hey, Yikk?" Goosey asked. "Aren't you supposed to be in your own living building?"

"My fewwow cwewmates be hewe wight now. That's what my weadah said, at weast."

"They planned a neighbour meet-up without our knowledge?!" Eggs exclaimed at the top of their lungs.

"Bro, chill" Dexter said as he put his hand on Eggs's shoulder, "have a biscuit." From his hood, he grabbed a bag of miniature biscuits, of which he handed one to his fellow crewmate.

The tiny crewmate wolfed the sweet treat down within one bite, still not understanding what was going on at the moment.

"I wanna!" Jeff exclaimed as he saw the bag of biscuits. "I wanna!"

"Alrighty, one for little mister, too."

"Pass us all a biscuit, please" Biscuits said, and said so, made so.

Next up, everyone entered the living building, and were all surprised to see a huge number of strange pairs of shoes at the window.

"Oh my gosh" Yikk squeaked, "they weawy be hewe! Hey, Ahnie! Biwwy! Squee! Evewyone!" They swiftly took their wellies off and sprinted towards the dining room. "Oh, I missed y'all sooo much!" They enthusiastically jumped onto Arnie's lap with ease and hugged him tightly.

"So you had fun on your last mission?" the former private asked, as he ruffled his fellow crewmate's dark blonde hair.

"Suwe did! Thewe be two impostahs, wathah than one, an' it be a bit hahd to figuwe out at fihst, but I eventuawwy wecognised the shoes of Eggs ovah thewe…" The childish crewmate pointed at the pint-sized crewmate and their tiny feet. "…as Buggs an' I saw them jump into a vent at the vewy wast second!" They jumped off of Arnie's lap and headed for their former classmate. "This be Buggs, by the way. He be my cwassmate fwom kindahgahten to thiwd gwade."

"Why, that's quite a coincidence to suddenly see a former classmate of yours back" Pop said. "You guys didn't even know that you were both crewmates and neighbours, huh?"

Buggs shook his head and chuckled a little before turning back to Yikk.

"Aren't you going to introduce me to your usual fellow crewmates?"

"Oh, wight." The cutesy crewmate stood at Arnie's chair again. "This be Ahnie, the weadah. An' hewe, we have Biwwy, Pop, Chahwie, Choco, Wava, Wice, Nowi, Vienna, Navy, theih kids Nika, Newi an' Yuwi… an' of couwse Squee."

"So you're the leader of the crewmates next door?" Snippet said as he looked Arnie in the eyes and went towards him to shake hands. "Good day, I'm Snippet, and this is my son Jeff."

"Hewwo" Jeff cooed.

"Wait!" Beanie exclaimed. "Milyy lime over there hasn't introduced themself yet! Who are you, anyway? I'm Beanie."

"Oh, haha, awmost fohgot." Yikk blushed a little as they giggled with their right hand covering their mouth. "I'm Yikk."

Marny suddenly burst out in laughter.

"Yikk?! Who names their child Yikk?!"

"Well, my Mum an' Dad did. They came with that name when they wehe on howiday in Mushwoom Kingdom thwee months befowe my bihth. If you think my name be widicuwous, then just call me Powawis, that be my middle name."

"They mean Polaris" Billy said. "Also, they don't talk like this on purpose, it's just the typical them."

"Thanks, Biwwy." The childish youngster went towards their best friend and gave them a glomp and a kiss.

"So this is Billy Camacho Rodriguez?" Buggs said. "Yikk told me your surnames because starting from kindergarten, we also had a classmate named Billy, who is male and whose surname is Davies instead, which got me confused at first."

"I see, thanks for informing me on that. Nice to meet you too, by the way." The Latinx stood up to shake hands with the bad-looking guy.

All of the crewmates had started talking to each other in the meantime, and they mainly talked to those with whom they shared a signature colour, as they were all eager to get to know that exact person.

"Does Jeff also have a mother?" Lava asked. "Or does he just have you?"

"He does" Snippet replied, "but she's a mean Siren Head who can only think of drugs and alcohol. It's no wonder I immediately divorced and estranged her and subsequently got awarded full custody when Jeff was only just there."

Little Jeff was afraid of Lava, and had huddled in his father's chest to seek comfort.

"You're a literal polar opposite of me!" Eggs said. "You look like you can do a lot!"

"I'm quite the handy woman too" Vienna chuckled. "I can fix devices, chart courses, blast asteroids, and feed my children at the same time." She adjusted Yuri into a more comfortable position in her arms.

Yuri themself just aimlessly looked around the room while firmly holding on to a soft rattle.

"In a little while" Neri softly said, "I'll be a bit bigger than you." He smiled and giggled.

"Nice outfit and daughter you got there" Tereza said.

"Thanks a ton, I guess?" Navy chuckled. "Nika is a true daddy's girl who loves me a bunch, that's for sure."

"For a full hundred per cent" Nika confirmed.

"I never heard of the name Yikk before" Marny pondered. "Unless…? You just mentioned the Mushroom Kingdom… Ah! You're named after the inventor of that iconic tower at Blubble Lake in the northern region, aren't you?! That's pretty neat, actually!"

"That be wight!" Yikk giggled cutely.

"So what is the thing you like doing the most?" Charlie asked.

"Engineering" Alph replied. "Whenever I'm not on missions, or all done with tasks on one of those, I take online classes to improve my theoretic skills. If I hadn't received that letter from the Skeld company on my exact eighteenth birthday, I would've already been at the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Tokyo. Yes, I actually lived in Japan prior to being a crewmate, since my father is Japanese."

Some of the crewmates had already sneaked into the kitchen to cook up a humongous storm for dinner. Fortunately for everyone, the freezer and fridge were jammed with enough ingredients to feed a whopping 28 mouths with.

"So what's the Surinamese kitchen like?" Billy asked. "I never tried it, actually. But the Mexican kitchen is divine!" They chopped up two carrots at the same time at quite the speed.

"You should definitely try it" Dexter replied, "it's amazing as ever! As for the Mexican kitchen? Never tried that one either. Guess I should try that one myself as well."

"How did you guys come with the nicknames of Nori and Rice anyway?" Rose asked, as she was busy sifting the peas underneath the faucet.

"It started as an inside joke at a Japanese restaurant when we both turned thirteen" Rice replied, "where I played the part of the rice being 'protected' by the nori, which is quite fitting as I'm the younger twin. It got stuck with us ever since, and because of that, we even couldn't help but write those names down on the registration forms once we contacted the Skeld that we wanted to become crewmates."

"Our clothing and spacesuit colours may match those of the ingredients" Nori added, "but the accessories we wear are the polar opposite: I don a paper hat while Rice dons a top hat."

"That is pretty neat" Buggs said with a slight chuckle, as he poured the boiling water into the pan of dry pasta.

About half an hour later, the dining table was packed with a whopping 28 people who both enjoyed the food that was made and talked about whatever subject one could imagine.

"And you know what?" Lava then suddenly said. "My crewmates are really a bunch of worthless protoplasms, to be honest."

"Now, that's not very nice of you to say" Snippet said in a strict tone. "You should respect your crewmates for whom they are."

"That's right, Lava" Arnie said. "And as your leader, I feel highly offended to have heard this, too. You should at least be glad that I'm your leader who tries to protect you and the others from any form of negativity."

"See?" Yikk said to Buggs. "Wava be a big meanie."

"I cannot agree more" Marny added with their mouth full.

"You're not a worthless protoplasm" Buggs said as he put a hand on Yikk's shoulder. "Even I know that by now. The only worthless protoplasm was me for consistently picking on everyone in kindergarten, no wonder why I had to repeat it."

"Now, don't say that" Dexter said, "believe it or not, but I also used to pick on a selective number of people back in elementary school, and that made me realise that that behaviour was worthless, not me."

"Very wise words" Billy said, "I praise you."

"Now to hope that Snob McRude will also keep this in mind" Squee scoffed before taking their next spoonful.

A few others at the table laughed about the snob's new nickname as said by the dumb blonde.

"Fine" Lava sighed, "I will try, but do not guarantee that I'll do this the whole time…"

"I'll be keeping all of my senses on you, ma'am" Arnie said, as he pointed to his eyes with his index and middle fingers before doing the same to the red crewmate.

"Now" Pop asked Goosey, "are there any crewmates among you guys who are kind of like Lava?"

"Ooh, that's a tricky one" Goosey replied. "Well, Buggs, Aeris and Tereza can occasionally be a tad too 'cool', but they're not as nasty as your Lava."

"Hey, aren't you forgetting about me and Biscuits?" Eggs said. "As impostors, we can be really big meanies."

Biscuits nodded and winked at her best friend in agreement.

"Aren't you a big meanie as a crewmate, too?" Alph teased.

"Hey!"

"Relax, I was only just kidding."

"You'd better be." The tiny crewmate ate their last spoonful of pasta and leaned back on their chair. "Well, I'm satisfied enough."

"Same" Charlie said as she also leaned back a little.

Everyone turned out to be satisfied enough, and that was only a good thing since there was no more food left, which was also a good sign since everyone genuinely enjoyed it.

The same people who cooked also insisted on doing everyone's dishes, which was a thing that they came up with by themselves.

"It's always this way when it comes to our group" Snippet said. "Whoever cooked, also has to do the dishes." He licked his index finger and cleaned some tomato sauce stains off of Jeff's cheeks.

"Then, we obviously do it differently" Arnie replied. "We always do our own dishes, and whoever cooked only has to wash the utilities that were used to cook and serve with."

"Isn't it funny how every group of crewmates has a different way of doing their tasks?"

"Sure is. In our case, the crewmates who stay home, rather than going on a mission, often automatically do the cleaning, even if nobody ever asked them to."

"Why, how do you do that? It didn't seem like Marny, Rose and Beanie have cleaned everything up when the rest of us were gone."

"I don't know, I guess it just originated out of nowhere."

Once the clock hit 7 p.m., Arnie and his fellow crewmates thanked everyone else for an amazing evening.

"It surely was a nice neighbour meet-up" Aeris said, "we should do this more often! Plus, it's only a good thing that we live so close to one another."

"Hey" Yikk said, "I should thank you guys, too… fo' havin' me on youh mission today! I had a gweat time despite the cihcumstances!"

"I'm only glad you did" Snippet said with a smile, "because I honestly expected you or Marny to panic!"

"What?! I'm definitewy not the kinda pehson that panics!" The childish youngster was left laughing.

"And frankly, neither am I" Marny chuckled.

"We should definitely keep in touch with one another" Biscuits said, surprising Arnie and his group of crewmates as they barely heard her speak before.

After saying goodbye for one more time, the guest crewmates left for their own home and immediately decided that it should be their free time, judging from how everyone from the dorm room immediately went to grab their leisurewear and put it on a few individual bathroom shelves before taking a well-deserved shower.