Good morning. Your mission of today will be a little more short-lived due to the Skeld's main ship undergoing major maintenance afterwards. This'll last for at least one and a half day. Have a good mission! -Mack
That's what the message to today's missionary crewmates said.
"So that means that nobody will be able to go there after our very next mission, huh?" Charlie said. "This is surely going to be interesting."
"I kinda wonder what'll change during that maintenance, honestly" Choco said.
"Perhaps an improvement on the device-bound tasks? Which is most likely all of them, in this case."
"You mean the trash chutes, the scanner, the reactor and all that jazz?"
"Exactly."
"Then, I do wonder how they'll improve them."
The slight buzz in the main room was soon rudely interrupted by Yuri, who wept at quite the volume, causing nearly everyone to cover or plug their ears, and Bobby to hide underneath one of the sofas.
"What's with Yuri?!" Arnie exclaimed.
"They're most likely sick!" Vienna replied, as she desperately tried to comfort the screaming theyby. "Someone not missionary should babysit them while I'm on the mission along with just Neri!"
"I'll do it!" Billy shouted, "but at one condition: if you can actually silence them as soon as possible!"
"I hate to do this, as it's not always necessary, but okay!" The exhausted mother swiftly popped a soother into Yuri's mouth and handed them to the Latinx at the same pace, who rubbed their back in an attempt to make the theyby feel calmer.
Everyone else reluctantly uncovered and unplugged their ears, still fearing another massive wave of a decibels galore anytime soon.
"Oh my" Yikk softly squeaked as they saw Yuri's forehead glow and gently put the back of their hand on it, "that suwewy be a fevah. They definitewy be sick." They gently caressed the small child's glowing right cheek with their thumb. "Oh, you powe thing… you no desehve to be this sick…"
Billy gently got up and went towards Vienna.
"Could you please explain how exactly to tend to Yuri in case they're sick?" they asked. "Other than using occasional suppos… ugh, I'm already fearing the entire idea of those cursed things…"
"Come to the dining table with me" Vienna said. "Fellow missionary crewmates, I'll be in the dropship soon, too. Neri, be good and go with them, alright?"
"Yes, Mummy" Neri replied.
Lava, Yikk, Arnie, Charlie, Navy, Nika, Neri, Rice, Choco and Nori headed for their small spaceship and immediately changed into their spacesuits there.
Most of the crewmates immediately had a seat as their heads were still pounding due to their slightly ringing ears.
"Man…" Yikk sighed, "Yuwi be even woudah than that baby Gowon back in Zewda Majowa's Mask…"
"Aren't they?" Nori said. "I remember that part of that game as if it was yesterday…"
"Me, too. My ewdest bwothah an' I witewawy had to have ouh eahs pwugged by two of ouh othah sibwings back then…!" The childish crewmate chuckled a little.
"It wasn't as bad as when that creepy moon crushed us every hour or so because Nori and I were too stupid to even play the Song of Time every now and then" Rice said with a slight chuckle.
"Creepy moon?" Lava said. "Tell me more about it."
"Well…" The younger twin grabbed their phone and scrolled through their gallery. "Ah, found it. This thing." They showed the picture to the snob.
"Yuck, that's creepy indeed. Wouldn't want to have that thing crush on our living building."
"Then if you're ever planning to play Zelda Majora's Mask, then make sure to play the Song of Time on the ocarina quite often to prevent the moon from ending the world in the blink of an eye."
"I'm very clumsy at video games, so I'll pass on that one."
"Whatever floats your boat." Rice put their phone back into their pocket. "Feels like ages since we last played it, right, Nori?"
"It indeed does" the older twin replied. "I especially miss the fairy fountains and that one palace with those cute plant things. What was it called again? Izuku Palace?"
"No, Deku Palace, you silly goose, with those 'cute plant things' really being called Deku Scrubs. Yeah, that spot had a very catchy and cheery song that neither of us could get out of their head when we only just heard it for the first time."
A little later, Vienna finally got into the ship and hastily changed into her spacesuit.
"Billy will try their utmost best to take care of Yuri" she said, "they promised that out loud."
"I hope it'll go well" Yikk said.
"Me too" Arnie said, "but we do know that Billy is quite good at taking care of and tending to others, right?"
The other crewmates nodded in agreement.
Soon, the ship slowly but surely departed, and before everyone knew it, they arrived at the main ship of the Skeld.
"Alright" Navy said, "before we go, has everyone made sure to have turned on their oxygen tanks?"
"Yes, Navy" the rest of the crewmates replied after swiftly having checked the oxygen tanks on their backs.
"Then we're good to go."
The doors of both the spaceships rolled up, and soon after, everyone's pagers beeped with their functions.
This time, Nori and Rice were the impostors once again, and they briefly got together to discuss their tactics.
"Last time" Nori said, "we mostly went together. How about we split up this time?"
"Not a bad idea" Rice said. "That way, we can easily hunt everyone down piece by piece, as everyone is scattered around the whole area anyway."
"But be wary, and be serious, too."
"Not if you don't do the same."
"I will, silly."
"Good. Then let's go."
"Phew" Billy sighed out loud when they crashed onto one of the sofas back-first, "that's that. Yuri's finally asleep for the time being, and I'd love to have some assistance once they wake back up."
"I could try" Pop said, "even if I'm not too fond of children myself, to be honest." She aimed her eyes at Squee. "As for Squee… I think they'll just fuck the whole thing up big time…!" She chuckled, making Billy chuckle along, too.
"Yeah, but that's what dumb blondes always do, huh?"
From Vienna's iPad that stood in a dock on one of the nearby tables, one could see the goings-on in the 'master' bedroom via a special baby monitor app. At the moment, Yuri was soundly sleeping – or, at least, at the verge of it – in their crib, while a last, slow and gentle round of the Shower Time Ballad softly played from the music box on the nightstand.
"So what do we do now?" Squee asked.
"Well, chores, I presume" Pop said. "We didn't have the time to do them, but we will have to be careful when doing them upstairs, though."
"Why don't we just do them upstairs when Yuri is downstairs instead?" Billy suggested. "Like, we can start with vacuuming and mopping downstairs now, and we won't bother Yuri that way."
"Sounds like a pretty good idea to me." The girly girl headed for the supply closet and got the vacuum cleaner from there first. "I'll do it all this time, Billy. You deserve to rest after all of the chaos."
"Muchas gracias, chica."
The pink crewmate then turned the vacuum cleaner on and started busting all of the dust in every single corner of every downstairs room at quite the tempo.
Subsequently, she mopped all of the same floors, and once done, she crashed on another sofa just as hard as Billy just did.
"OJ, anyone?" Squee then asked as they were in the kitchen, just about to pour themself a good glass of orange juice.
"Yes, please" it sounded from both the sofas.
"Alright then."
Soon, all three of the crewmates were slowly enjoying their orange juice.
"We surely deserved that after some hard work, huh?" Pop said.
"Sure did" Billy said.
Only just a few seconds later, someone knocked on the door.
"I'll get it" the dumb blonde said, as they headed for the door and opened it up. "Oh, hi Mack, please come in. Would you like some OJ, too?"
"Good day, Individual Squee" Mack said. "Also, OJ? What's that?"
"Well, it's OJ. It's really yummy stuff."
"Very clear of you, but sure, why not?"
The manager soon took a seat on one of the vacant sofas while Squee was back into the kitchen to pour a glass of orange juice for Mack.
"Good morning, Mack" Billy said. "No, Pop and I aren't always like this, mucking around on the sofas like neurotypical drunk college students who can only order pizza."
"I wasn't even going to say such a thing, Individual Billy!" the man in fortegreen chuckled, "besides, you look the most exhausted of the both of you on the sofas!"
"Pop has been vacuuming and mopping all of the ground floor, and Yuri is sick and a huge loudmouth, as well as a little difficult to get to sleep in such a case. I was the one responsible for Yuri since Vienna can't go on a mission and take care of a sick baby at the same time."
"I understand. If you'd like, I can help you take care of them once they wake back up. Don't worry, I have enough free time on my hands today so far. Also, I, myself, have four children who were also occasionally sick at Yuri's age, so I already know how a situation like or similar to this goes."
"Oh, thank you, that'd be such a weight off of my mind."
On the 'baby monitor', it was now completely quiet, minus Yuri's soft snoring, which sounded a little more congested at the moment, similarly to a cold.
Squee came out of the kitchen to hand Mack a glass of orange juice.
"Thank you, Squee. Oh, so OJ is orange juice? We never call it that back at home." The manager took a few slow sips of the fruity beverage. "Ah, this is nice after all of the coffee I've been drinking almost all day every day."
"Isn't it?" the dumb blonde said with a smile as they sat down next to their manager. "Also, do you know if there's any citrus-flavoured coffee in existence? Because I don't like coffee, but I might like it when it has any flavour in the way of orange, lemon or anything."
"There is, if you pay attention when wandering around the coffee and tea aisle at the nearest hypermarket from here, where all of the crewmates order their groceries."
"Got it, I'll write it down on the list of next grocery orders." The lover of oranges swiftly drained the rest of their orange juice, got up, headed to the kitchen and immediately wrote their wish on the order list.
"I think that the other crewmates will find it a tad strange that the next coffee will taste different, Squee" Billy said, "but we'll see about the rest of that."
"In fact" Pop said, "I am kinda curious about orange coffee, so I don't mind at all!"
The three crewmates talked a little more to their manager while Yuri still slept for a few dozens of minutes.
Back at the main ship of the Skeld, there was quite the chaos caused by the impostors in the meantime.
Nori was silently sneaking up to Yikk, who knew that he was behind them and felt slight dread in the process.
The latter was headed for the upper engine to refuel it, and at the same time, Rice and Charlie were there, too.
Out of sudden, Rice pounded their knee in between Charlie's legs, causing her to scream in pain and faint straight away.
Yikk, who saw it happening, reported their fellow crewmate's unconscious body, calling up the first meeting of the day.
"Where?" Lava asked.
"It was Wice" the childish crewmate replied. "They kicked Chahwie wight in fwont of me at the uppah engine."
"Rice is indeed sus" Vienna said. "I thought I saw them vent at the navigation, but I'm not sure."
"Oh, he did" Neri confirmed. "They told me to not tell anyone, but sorry Rice, I had to just now…"
"I indeed thought they were faking the card swipe as well earlier" Arnie said.
"Tch" Rice simply said, "I'm so not suspicious. Trust me."
"Oh yeah?" Lava retorted, albeit in quite a calm tone. "Then why did Yikk just say that you kicked Charlie?"
"Because they're sus themself."
"Wiyah, wiyah, pants on fiyah" Yikk teased the crewmate in white, poking them all over their body. "You know I saw you doing it jus' now…!" They subsequently tickled their fellow crewmate underneath their armpits, also known as their weakest spots.
"Haha, stop! Alright, I'll admit that it's me among someone else!"
"Good" Navy said, "at least you're being honest, and I admire that."
Everyone grabbed their pagers to vote Rice out, and the younger twin was soon sent outside to do their newly-assigned impostor tasks.
I'll be with you soon, sibling, is what Nori silently thought as he sabotaged the oxygen tanks soon after the meeting.
Rice was not unfamiliar with the impostor tasks outside of the ship by now, yet they still faced difficulties when trying to change the four smaller lightbulbs that were near the two glowing shields.
Those broken lightbulbs were too difficult to remove, as they were screwed in their sockets so tightly, but on the other hand, that was a mandatory thing, because otherwise, there would be random lightbulbs floating suddenly floating through space every now and then.
With the help of one pair of pliers that was able to get a grip as tight as possible, the broken lightbulbs were easily replaced with the new ones, and were glowing as soon as they were placed. Neato.
Back in the ship itself, Charlie was brought to the medical bay by Navy, and Arnie and Vienna were easily able to un-sabotage the oxygen tanks under the watchful eye of many fellow crewmates.
Choco, however, was to be found in the electrical room instead, doing his least favourite task: calibrating the distributors. Something he's always found difficult ever since becoming a crewmate.
This was quite the advantage for Nori, who cold-clocked him hard before jumping into the nearby vent.
"Damn!" the spirit of the crewmate in brown grumbled. "I should've known!"
"Wow, that was quick" Charlie's spirit said. "Pay attention next time, though."
"Sweetie, you know that I just loathe that whole calibration task, and that I had to do it over the oxygen sabotage."
"I know you do, but stopping sabotages have a priority, you know?"
"Fine, I'll think of that next time. Are we on good chemistry now?"
"Of course, when aren't we?"
The two crewmate spirits finished their remaining tasks under one another's watchful eyes.
Nori just vented into the medical bay, and once he heard footsteps coming that way, he swiftly pretended to start the sample inspector before heading off.
"Hi" he said as he saw Arnie and Yikk enter the room, "you know, just casually inspecting samples there."
"I don't quite trust you that way" Arnie said as he pulled Yikk a little closer to him.
"Sorry."
"I'll keep my eyes on you."
The two crewmates in green then alternately scanned to clear each other.
While Arnie scanned, Bobby looked at the process in wonder and curiosity, and when Yikk scanned, Digit did the same.
"Clear" both the crewmates then said after their scans, as they shook each other's hand before taking off to do their next task.
Soon after, though, Lava discovered Choco's unconscious body in the electrical room, and reported it.
After everyone asked the usual "where" which was answered quite soon…
"Where were you all?" the red crewmate asked.
"Uppah engine" Yikk replied.
"Well, here at the cafeteria" Arnie replied, "just about to watch the data being finished downloading."
"Well, I'm all done with my tasks" Navy said, "so I was at the security room."
Nika nodded in agreement with her father.
"I was at the reactor room with Neri" Vienna said, "and Nori was also there, trying to start the reactor."
"I really hate to say it" Lava said, "but I presume it's Arnie. He's acting a tad sus."
"What?!" both of the crewmates in green gasped. "We scanned!"
"Yeah" Nori said, "Arnie is indeed a little suspicious, even if he scanned."
"Now, now" Navy said, "I saw Yikk and Arnie shake hands near the medical bay on the cameras, and heard them both say 'clear' as well, so they must've watched each other scan. Am I correct?"
Both the eldest and youngest crewmates nodded in confirmation.
"I'd say we skip our votes."
Everyone grabbed their pagers and a majority of the crewmates skipped their votes, letting the mission resume as it was.
I'll get you for this, Arnie, is what Nori thought soon after the meeting as he sabotaged the reactor this time.
Mack was an amazing helper of Billy regarding Yuri's care. He was even willing to do the most explicit tasks that his underling genuinely feared to do, the most notable one being inserting a suppository at the verge of finishing up a change.
When the three were downstairs, Pop took her time to do the vacuuming and mopping upstairs this time, and was done just as quickly as when she did it downstairs.
"See?" Billy said, as they gently held on to Yuri. "That way, they won't get a headache or something due to the loud noise of the vacuum cleaner, or a jump-scare due to the door of the bedroom suddenly opening up."
"That surely is a good way to do chores when someone is sick" Mack said, "I praise you guys as a team like that."
"Thanks, Mack." Then suddenly, the Latinx let out several sneezes. "Oh no, I hope I'm not cold… Yuri, hands off of my face…" They gently pushed the theyby's arms back down, grabbed a set of toy keys from one of the coffee tables and handed it to them.
"Are you cold, Billy?" Squee asked.
"No, but Yuri definitely is, and not just for a little bit either!" Another sneeze. "Consarnit! Mack, have you ever experienced crewmates with a cold, and if so, what do they do?"
"Don't worry, Billy, I have." The manager put his hand onto the worried crewmate's shoulder. "Such crewmates still go on a mission nonetheless, but they should take it easy so they won't make their cold worse, or increase their headache, or something."
Pop soon came downstairs and headed for the kitchen to prepare some formula for Yuri to drink, just in case.
Mack took Yuri from Billy's gentle grasp for safety, as the latter was now highly afraid to catch – or, have already caught – the theyby's cold in the meantime.
"Please rest. You've already worked hard enough, even if it was only for a little bit."
Just as the yellow crewmate headed for the kitchen, the bottle of formula was done, and they wanted to bring it to Mack and Yuri, but Pop put a stop to that.
"He said that you should rest, Bill" she said, "so please give in."
"O-okay… sorry…"
"It's okay. Would you like some tea soon?"
"Sure."
Billy groggily sat down at the dining table, grabbed the nearest packet of mints and took one, in the hope to be able to breathe a little clearer.
Damn, they thought, I never thought a mere baby would infect me with a common cold within a very short time-span…
They briefly went in a trance-like state, but before they knew it, Pop handed them a good cup of fresh mint tea with a little biscuit.
"There you go" she said, "but be careful as it's still hot."
The Latinx smiled weakly as a thank-you, and decided to add a little honey to the natural concoction, as they always preferred such beverages a little sweeter.
"You did a great job taking care of Yuri. Mack will be taking it over from you now, if you don't mind."
"I don't, but I still am worried about Yuri's health. Will they feel better or worse anytime soon? At least I don't have to insert those creepy suppositories into them for now. I prefer changing diapers the regular way, to be honest."
"I know your opinion on the suppositories, the whole idea indeed sounds creepy already. If only there was some way to actually put a few drops of child-friendly painkillers in their drink instead! Without the bitter taste of the pill version, that is."
"Like those vitamin D drops that most of us got as kids?"
"Exactly!"
Billy blew some steam off of their tea and took a careful sip of it.
"Ah, that somewhat freshens me."
"Good to hear."
"Also, it's only for the best that we can measure others' temperatures with those neat no-touch thermometers as of over one decade now. God, I hated having those cold steel thermometers stuck up my nose, ears or worse when I was sick as a kid!"
"Tell me about it, I was so happy when my parents finally bought the first no-touch one 7 years ago, when we were regularly sick, but fortunately not with that whole unpopular worldwide virus back then."
"That's a relief to hear, I was so worried to get that as well back then! Fortunately, my parents, sibling and I fully stayed home from the first day of the lockdown already and solely ordered our groceries online, and we practically hoarded canned food and bottled water rather than toilet paper as well."
Pop burst into laughter.
"Ah, yes, the time when people thought that having hundreds and thousands of rolls of toilet paper at home was a must, while it really wasn't, in my honest opinion…!"
"Yeah, unless you have both the explosive runs and a Niagara Falls of nasal mucus flooding out of your nose the whole time, but that seems very unlikely to happen that often…!"
"I did have the runny nose often, but that was most likely because of my severe hay fever, too, so prepare yourself once spring comes again, even if there are barely any trees and grass in this area."
"Quite allergy-friendly for hay fever sufferers indeed. My moirail has hay fever as well, they told me that."
"Your what?"
"Moirail. Platonic partner."
"Who is that? Do I know them?"
"They're one of our fellow crewmates! The one who often greets everyone with a hearty 'hewwo'!"
"Oh, you mean Yikk! You could've said that sooner, silly!"
"Yeah, but imagine if I'd talk to someone else outside of our group of crewmates and I'm alone and they don't know Yikk yet?"
"Ah, then you're starting good."
"That's right."
Pop poured herself a glass of plain water and sat down next to Billy.
"You haven't touched your biscuit yet, are you sure you want it?"
"Nah, you can have it. I'm not too hungry for one of those right now."
"Thanks." The girly girl devoured the sweet treat in one go. "Just asking because you know that sweetness is my weakness."
The two crewmates at the table were left snickering a little.
Lava just finished her task of emptying the trash chute in the storage section under the watchful eye of Yikk, who then confirmed that she was safe.
However, little did the two know that Nori was spying on the two and was solely focusing on the childish crewmate, while he currently sabotaged all of the doors in the room. That was, until…
"Boo-hoo-hoo!" the older twin exclaimed, making the two crewmates at the trash chute yelp and jump.
"Stop creeping up on us, you creep!" Lava shouted. "Do you want me to pummel you or something?"
"Pummelling? That happens to be the impostor's job, and you seem to be one."
"Nuh-uh."
"Uh-huh."
"Quit it!" Yikk shouted as they stood in between the two bickering crewmates.
"It was a good thing that I was already aiming for you, Yikk. Your colour resembles Arnie's a lot, and I was already plotting revenge on him beforehand…!"
The crewmate in black edged closer to the lime crewmate with a menacing smile and an evil gleam in his eyes.
"No! P-pwease dun hahm me…!"
"Make me!"
Yikk's breath was practically shaking at this point, and the first few tears ran down their face as well, not wanting to be knocked out by the suspicious person.
"Dammit" Lava softly grumbled, "why must those goddamn doors be sabotaged now, too…?" She easily scooped the scared crewmate up into a bridal carry, and headed for the north door just in time, since it opened up just as she arrived there.
Nori wanted to chase the two crewmates and sabotage the cafeteria doors at the same time, but since he paid too much attention to his pager while running, he tripped over his shoe, fell hard and cussed loudly and for a long time.
Once in the cafeteria, Yikk frantically jumped out of Lava's arms and practically smashed the emergency button on the central table, calling up the very next meeting.
"And?" Arnie asked.
"Nowi!" the youngest crewmate shouted. "He twied to hahm me an' Wava in the stowage woom!"
"Indeed he did" Lava confirmed.
"I did not" Nori scoffed. "Lava chased me and wanted to pummel me. She literally said that!"
"Wava be cweah! She emptied the twash chute an' I saw it wif my own eyes, twust me!"
"Yikk is also clear, as they also emptied the trash chute before I did so. And Nori definitely tried to harm them after I did so... the trash, that is." The snob looked at the older twin with a somewhat menacing smile. "Good for you that you just slipped and fell while trying to sabotage the cafeteria doors, you dimwit."
"Okay, so it's Nori?" Vienna asked.
The lime and red crewmates nodded hard, while the crewmate in black shook his head just as hard.
Nearly everyone subsequently voted Nori, as he voted Lava instead, but was still sent outside to do his impostor tasks afterwards.
"I can't believe it" Lava mumbled, "I actually protected a fellow crewmate of mine…!"
"That's a good thing" Arnie said, "and you should be proud of it."
The red crewmate's entire face turned scarlet out of disbelief and the fact that she didn't even want to admit that she did something good just now. And her face only turned redder when Yikk gently and reluctantly wrapped their arms around her body as a thanks.
"Thanks fo' saving me jus' now…!" they whispered. "You should be pwoud of youhself…!"
Navy and Vienna, who were able to make out the whispers, nodded and smiled in very high approval.
Outside of the ship, Nori and Rice were both sad about their loss as impostors.
"You still know we can't always win, right?" Rice said.
"Yikk is waaay too alert" Nori said. "They knew that I was the impostor so quickly."
"Oh yeah? Well, in case you didn't know, I peeked through the window of the storage and saw you edge quiiite close to them in a menacing manner before they, Digit and Lava took off soon after."
"Well, fuck then… can't believe my own sibling was actually watching me lose…"
"Hey, it's no big deal, we both lost, and now I can help you with the impostor tasks that you find difficult."
"Yeah, I guess you're right."
With one another's help, the tasks were easily finished, and Arnie and Navy helped them back inside of the ship soon after, while Vienna escorted the now awake-again Charlie and Choco out of the medical bay as everyone needed to go back to their dropship swiftly since the mission was now done at the exact start of the noon.
Next up, it was very quiet at the living building of the main group, as all of the missionary crewmates were tuckered out quite a lot by the intense mission, and Billy and Yuri were now both struck with a cold and had to rest up as much as possible.
"But I'b dot severely cold to the poidt where I deed a doctor" Billy said before letting out their umpteenth sneeze. "Please, I deed a paidkiller ad a tissue box dow…!"
Navy went to the cupboard and grabbed the requested items, as well as a disposable cup of water at the sink so the painkiller could be taken easily.
"Yuri infected you indirectly, huh?" he said as he put the items on the nightstand next to the yellow crewmate's bed.
"Thadks. Yeah, they did, but at least I'b glad that Back could help be out in the beadtibe… I especially hated the part with the creepy suppository…" They slowly took their painkiller with the water and subsequently blew their nose hard. "Yuck, I hate beigh cold…"
"Yeah, Vienna already told me that, but so far, the painkiller drops are still in development, so we'll still have to wait for that to come."
"Oh, good, because I was already wodderigh if they'd actually exist… for Yuri to drop id their forbula, but without the bitter taste, of course…"
"So you don't have to give them suppositories since you find those creepy? Very wise thinking of you, also for the rest of the people who know your feeling and idea." The dark blue crewmate then grabbed the no-touch thermometer from the cupboard and measured Billy's temperature. "Good, no fever."
"Good iddeed." The Latinx grabbed another tissue to blow their nose in, and subsequently got a little tin of mineral jelly from their pocket and applied some of the stuff to their nostrils. "Blowigh your dose often dries your dostrils out a lot…!" They then took their phone out of their pocket, placed it on the nightstand, turned to their left side and closed their eyes. "If you're lookigh for be, I'll be restigh by eyes for a bit…"
"Very well. Rest well, Billy."
Navy ruffled the sickly crewmate's curly hair and quietly left the medical room for the sake of their headache.
"Powe Biwwy…" Yikk sighed as they scrolled through their Tumblr feed on their phone, "they be cohd now, an' now I sweep without them next to me…"
"You still have me by the other side of your bed" Squee said, as they rubbed their fellow crewmate's shoulder. "I'm a very good friend of yours too, right?"
"Yeah, but you not be my moiwail…"
"That's right, but if you need anyone to talk to, then you can see me, even if you want to talk nonsense, which is my favourite subject."
"Then I guess I be bettah off wif Ahnie instead…"
Bobby sadly whined as he edged closer to the disappointed crewmate, and Digit already softly rubbed their head against their owner's left side in sympathy.
"But at weast I still have Digit an' Bobby to keep me company now." The childish crewmate put their phone onto their lap and petted both the Brainslug and the robot over their heads.
Arnie edged a little closer to his fellow crewmate as well and ruffled their hair a little.
"I know you often have serious stuff to talk about" he said, "so I indeed am a better person to discuss it with."
"Thanks, Ex- I mean, Ahn." Yikk facepalmed. "Dammit, why did I wanna cawh you by my ehdest bwothah's name…?" On their phone, they swiftly switched to the contacts app and showed their fellow crewmate their eldest brother's name.
"Exor, you say? That's quite a unique name. What age is he?"
"Twenty-seven."
"Ah, a little younger than me? From what date of birth?"
"Juwy sixteenth… wait, you be twenty-eight? Neat. You guys couhd make good fwiends, then."
"Maybe. And I'm from January, so I'm about half a year older than him. Aight then."
"This pwobabwy be why I confused you guys jus' now." The youngest crewmate burst out in awkward laughter.
"That's alright, I occasionally tend to mix up names as well. Recently, I accidentally referred to Snippet as Jeff, while Jeff is really his son's name."
"You weawy wike Snippet, huh?"
"I guess I do, but just as friends. Even if I am solely able to fall in love with men, he's not my crush or anything."
"That be otay. Jus' wait an' see how it'll eventuawwy go, otay?"
"I definitely will, green beanie." Arnie ruffled Yikk's hair a little harder to the point where it wasn't too tidy anymore, making them giggle a little in the process.
