The dropship just landed on the launchpad of the Mira HQ, the location where most of the groups would have their missions today since the Skeld's main ship still underwent its maintenance.
"Mack said something about three impostors, didn't he?" Pop said as she grabbed her pager and re-read this morning's message.
Good morning, crewmates! Today's mission was originally planned to have three impostors among your group, but since a few of your fellow crewmates are also currently struck with the common cold, I'll instead allow you to go on a mission as you wish, so you're not necessarily mandatory to go, but there will be fewer impostors as a result. I hope you don't mind, and have a nice mission! -Mack
That message had caused everyone to raise their eyebrows in disbelief. But it didn't take long before five crewmates decided to go, and the other seven decided to stay home.
Today, there were Lava, Squee, Yikk, Arnie and Pop. A small group at a fairly large location.
"You know what?" Lava had said once she and her four fellow crewmates were on the ship. "We should most likely take it easy this mission, and then eventually we'll see who the impostor is."
Those who stayed at the living building were Billy, Charlie, Navy, Vienna, the three 'mini-crewmates', Rice, Choco and Nori. They, too, took it easy, and mainly because Billy and Yuri were still sickly.
Physically, Billy only felt a little better. They could now walk short distances without getting a headache, but still sneezed tons and had very bad rhinitis, so tissues were still a must for them.
Yuri was being tended to by both their parents, and weren't in as much pain anymore as the first day, so the suppositories could simply be kissed goodbye for the time being, and were replaced with thin layers of menthol jelly on the chest instead.
The rest of everyone steered as clear from the cold sufferers as possible and spent their chores and free time wisely once the missionary crewmates were gone on a mission.
Now, back to the Mira HQ.
"It doesn't happen too often" Arnie said, "that Mack actually sends us on such, you know, free-ish missions. That one number of crewmates can go as they please."
"It most wikewy be fo' the best, too" Yikk stated, "since the common cold is vewy contagious, an' I dun wanna get it, an' neithah do you."
"Yeah, that's right. Who does want to get a common cold?"
A few chuckles sounded from everyone's vocal cords.
"Since we're with five" Pop said, "this means that there's only one impostor this time. Feels like ages ago, to be honest, with the fact that we often had two impostors among us until yesterday."
"That's okay too, right?" Squee said.
The girly girl nodded, and at the same time, the ship's door slowly rolled open.
Everyone's pagers went off, and Lava was the impostor. However, she didn't want anyone to notice it so soon, so she went away to her first fake task in the hallway, namely the fixing of the wires near the locker and communication rooms.
Squee helped Pop with refuelling the ship, while Yikk started the diagnostics on the other computer and subsequently followed Arnie towards the reactor room for their next and his first task respectively.
"We should stick together" Pop said. "Anyone could be the impostor, but I can trust you, Squee."
"Thanks" the dumb blonde said with a smile. "Will you help me with the more difficult tasks?"
"Sure, such as?"
"Wires."
"Oh, that's easier than a piece of cake to me."
"Neato."
The two crewmates then went off to the admin room, as they both also needed to insert the codes from the ID cards into the system.
While everyone else did their tasks like civilised crewmates, Lava was idly hanging around on the balcony, and she was really planning to use the vent there, but not now.
Instead, she took her sweet time smoking her favourite kind of cigarette at first, since she was the one to say that everyone should 'take it easy' during this mission. Plus, she felt such a sudden urge to smoke just now, and unlike on all of the other missions, she really didn't want to suppress that urge, as that felt very uneasy for her.
Some of the smoke was blown into the nearby vent as some sort of prank, but so far, none of the other crewmates had noticed it.
I wonder for how long that stuff will still linger in the vents, the snob thought before she took the last puff of her cigarette and subsequently threw its butt off of the balcony before finally getting into the vent for real.
Meanwhile at the medical bay…
"Did you hear something?" Squee asked.
"Not quite" Pop replied, "I'm a little too focused on my current scan."
"Can you help me with this task soon? It doesn't seem to work to me."
"Silly goose, that's because you didn't divert the power just yet. Once this scan is done, we'll head there together, alright?"
"Okay then."
Back in the living building, Billy had finally taken their first few steps outside of the medical room since the last few hours, even if they were still very wary to not infect anyone else with their cold.
"Cad I ask you a questiod, Davy?" they asked Navy.
"Sure" the dark blue crewmate replied, "ask away."
"Cad I get a few crackers ad sobe fruit salad? I ab hughry."
"Of course. Would you also like something to drink?"
"A cup of fresh bidt tea with hodey would be dice, but hold the biscuit."
"Very well then. Just wait for me at the medical room, alright?"
The Latinx nodded before heading back towards their assigned spot.
To kill some time, they briefly took a bathroom break and browsed a few interesting web pages on their tablet back on their bed.
One of the web pages turned out to be an online store with all sorts of fun products, and at the moment, there was a massive clearance sale going on.
Neat, Billy thought, that way, I can buy anything for a small price, but should I even buy anything, and if so, what exactly?
They eventually got caught up in scrolling through the discounted products to the point where they didn't notice Navy standing next to their bed with their requested cup of fresh mint tea.
"Hellooo?" the father said. "Earth to Billy Camacho Rodriguez?"
"Wha-?" the sickly crewmate said as their eyes perked up to their fellow crewmate. "Oh, by cuppa tea. Thadk you, Davy." They wanted to reach their left hand out to accept the cup of tea with it, but Navy put a stop to that and gently placed it onto the nightstand instead.
"It's still piping hot, so it's for the best if you let it cool a little."
"Good poidt."
"May I ask what you've been doing that you were so distracted?"
"Well, I foud this web shop where a huge clearadce sale is goigh on, ad I wadt to buy sobethigh, but I dode dowe what exactly yet."
"Ooh, so you're finally going to buy your first love present for Yikk?"
"Davy, we're boirails, dot batesprits! But yeah, dow that you bedtioded it, I probably should. Dow, what would Yikk love…?" Billy sneezed just in time in a paper tissue.
"Bless you."
"Thadks."
"Take all of the time you need to look for the perfect present, alright?"
"I surely will."
"Alright, see you around." Navy left the medical room and quietly closed the door to not induce Billy's slight yet still ongoing headache.
The yellow crewmate carefully grabbed their cup of tea, gently blew some steam off of the top and took a teeny tiny sip, which slightly refreshed them in the process.
"Doh, but seriously, what kide of presedt would Yikk just love…?"
The scrolling continued. It seemed like an endless search.
Earlier this week, Yikk had told Billy that their weakness also happens to be cuteness, and not necessarily because they looked absolutely adorable themself.
Something cute, Billy thought as they started scrolling a little further.
Cute utensils and cups with cute-looking faces, cute T-shirts in every colour but lime green, adorable face masks… hey, what was that? Some kind of plushie that was never seen before in official merchandise…
Upon seeing the plushie, the Latinx smiled, and had now officially decided what to buy for their most beloved moirail.
At the Mira HQ, Yikk had briefly been separated from Arnie since they both had different subsequent tasks at different spots, and they both promised to see one another again soon.
This, however, was a huge advantage for Lava, who quickly decided that she wanted to prey on Arnie as he remained alone for a little longer now.
"Hewwo, guys!" Yikk said as they went to the greenhouse where Pop and Squee already were.
"Hi, Yikk" Squee said, "what are you going to do?"
"Oh, just watewing the pwants ovah thewe." They gently sprinkled a good amount of water over all four of the requested plants until their pager declared the task as done. "Thewe you guys go, all nice an' fwesh…"
"Silly goose, you know that plants cannot hear you, right?"
"Oh yeah? They suwewy can, Squee. Studies have pwoven that if one yells an' scweams at a pwant that is bawewy bein' watewed, that it dies a ton fastah than the pwant that is bein' spoken to in a sweet way an' watewed at a weguwah basis."
"Yup" Pop said, "I did the exact same for school nearly a decade ago, and what Yikk states is indeed true. However, one little difference with my equivalent of the experiment was that the parched 'being-yelled-at' plant was also forced to listen to slash metal, while the quenched 'being-spoken-nicely-at' plant was forced to listen to classical music. And guess what, the latter became more beautiful than the former, which practically wilted and almost died."
"Neat." The childish crewmate headed for the oxygen tank to clean its filter as their last task, only for the lights to suddenly die down. "Uh-oh, a sabotage…" They followed their two fellow crewmates towards the nearby office.
"Hey" Squee said once the threesome entered the office, "something's not right!"
"How so?"
The two more intelligent crewmates looked around the darkened office and could make out something different in place of the fuse box. It looked like some sort of art panel…?
"Where is that damn fuse box anyway?!" the dumb blonde exclaimed hysterically.
"Behind that awesome-wooking geometwic pattehn panel!" Yikk said.
"Behind that weird-looking geometric pattern panel!" Pop said through their fellow crewmate, before the two looked each other in the eyes.
"Wait, what the actual heck?!"
Before going into a further discussion, the two crewmates swiftly removed the art panel from the wall and fixed the lights at nearly the same speed.
"No" Squee said once the lights were back on, "but seriously, what even is that thing?"
"It's art" a voice not belonging to anyone in the office said. "Isn't it neat?" The person behind the voice turned out to be Lava. "I thought the office could use some neat decoration, so yeah."
"Hey, have you seen Arnie?" Pop asked in a slightly reluctant tone.
"I don't know."
"Indeed" Yikk stated, "he pwomised to meet me again a wittle waytah, but I haven't seen him since…" They made a gesture towards Squee and Pop to follow them. "We should wook fo' him."
The orange and pink crewmates nodded and came with the lime crewmate.
Behind their backs, Lava chuckled evilly, happy that her little trick just worked out well.
The search started at the launchpad, into the halls, the medical bay, the communications room…
In the locker room, Squee noticed that something was amiss once again.
"I feel the presence of…" they said. "I cannot exactly describe it, but it doesn't feel too good to me."
"I feel nothing" Yikk and Pop said in unison.
"We should call a meeting."
"Wait." The youngest crewmate placed a hand onto the dumb crewmate's shoulder. "Now that you mention it… I think Wava might be behind Ahnie's disappeawance."
"So should I call up a meeting or not?"
"Definitewy."
The three crewmates hurried towards the cafeteria, where the girly girl was the one to push the meet button as her two fellow crewmates were too unnerved to do so themselves.
Just as expected, only Lava subsequently showed up.
"Okay, so?" was her question.
"It's you!" Yikk and Squee exclaimed in unison while pointing at the snob. "You're behind Arnie's disappearance!"
"I am?"
"Oh, don't play dumb" Squee said, "because that's my job already!"
"How are you two so sure of that?"
"Well" Pop said, "you might've tricked us with that painting back in the office."
"And you might've been in the vent the other minute, too, because I'm sure I heard something in the medical bay while Poppy scanned, and she didn't hear anything of that."
"That's just Pop, thank you very much."
"Well" Yikk asked, "Wava, do you have anyfin to say in defence?"
The snob simply held her index fingers against her temples while looking at the two crewmates who just tattled on her, similarly to the movie Scanners.
"Don't be silly" Pop said, "you can't just blow up our heads with your mind. Fellow crewmates, vote her out." She grabbed her pager and voted Lava out.
Yikk and Squee simply followed suit and looked away from Lava's threatening-looking gaze.
"You be wasting youh pwecious voting time that way" the childish crewmate sceptically said in a voice tone that would usually not emit from their vocal cords.
The voting time slowly ticked by, and eventually, the three votes cast towards Lava were confirmed.
"Fine" the red crewmate simply replied to that, "have it your way. Don't go looking for and come crying to me on the impostor task floor or anything." She got up from the meeting table, headed for the launchpad and took the stairs to the aforementioned floor there.
"Literal cockroach" the three remaining crewmates scoffed once she was gone and before they went looking for Arnie's unconscious body.
"Bobby!" Pop exclaimed. "Where are you, boy?" She then turned to Yikk and Squee and spoke in a calmer tone. "Wherever Arnie is, Bobby is as well, right?"
"I be sure he be at the wab or the weactoh woom" Yikk said, as they pressed the button to open the door to the decontamination hall.
A little later, Arnie and Bobby were indeed to be found at the laboratory, but compared to many other times during which an unconscious body was found, the unconscious crewmate suddenly slowly woke up upon his finders' arrival.
His pet Brainslug was just as surprised at this fact.
"Arn?" Squee said.
"You guys" the dark green crewmate mumbled, "where am I?" He rubbed his eyes out and tried to sit up. "Ow, my spine… Don't worry, the pain's not that bad." He then looked around the room and also reacted to that in disbelief. "How did I regain my consciousness here, rather than at the medical bay?!"
"I don't know."
"Where's Lava at?"
"Doing her fake noodle things downstairs."
"Good, because I already had the feeling that she was tricking you guys somewhere."
"Well" Yikk said, "she hung an aht panel in the office, wight in fwont of the fuse box. Not the best spot, but that panel wooked pwetty nice…" They briefly glared at Pop for a polar opposite opinion to theirs.
"While I'm usually the tattletale among us" the girly girl said, "I really didn't notice anything suspicious this time, and in my honest opinion, that's quite strange."
"At least I'm glad that you guys found me and that I suddenly regained my consciousness upon your presence." Arnie carefully sat up, then stood up, and ruffled the hair of each of his fellow crewmates. "You guys are good eggs."
"Arnie, do you have any tasks to finish? Because I do."
"No, but I'll watch you carefully, I promise."
Bobby slithered onto his owner's shoulder via his leg.
"And my apprentice will watch you, too…!"
The four crewmates were left chuckling before Pop and Yikk finished their last few tasks before the full group would eventually go back home after the strange yet not-so-long-lasting mission of today.
"Phew, that's that" Nori and Rice sighed in unison and relief upon quietly having left the 'master' bedroom where they just successfully put a restless Yuri to sleep. "Never thought that'd actually work."
"Hewwo, Nowi and Wice" Yikk said as they exited the bathroom, now donning moist hair and being in their sleepshirt and matching pants. "What've you been up to?"
"Yuri's finally sleeping" Nori said. "Man, their cries are shrill."
"Shall I let you in on a little secret to how we got Yuri to sleep straight away?" Rice asked with a giggle.
"Does Yikk really have to know?"
"Of course, why wouldn't I tell them?"
"Yeah" the childish crewmate said, "pwease tell me on how you guys got Yuwi to sweep. I wanna do the same twick to them if it happens again soon."
The older twin simply rolled his eyes in slight disbelief.
The threesome briefly headed towards the dorm room in the process.
"You know that music box on Navy and Vienna's nightstand, right?" the younger twin asked.
Yikk simply nodded in response.
"It can pway sevewal diff'went tunes, wight?"
"That's right, and remember how we mentioned Zelda Majora's Mask yesterday?"
"Wait, awe you tewwing me that you-"
"Actually inserted the song cylinder with the Goron Lullaby into that music box? Yes, and much against my and Nori's expectations, it actually worked, too! Within no time, Yuri was as quiet as the sea, and they fell asleep nearly as quickly, too!"
"No way!"
"You should definitely try this next time Yuri has trouble falling asleep, it's kinda like magic!"
Nori handed his younger sibling's sleepwear to them before grabbing his own in the meantime.
"It could've been a mere coincidence" he said. "Do not guarantee that it'll always work, okay."
"Heeey, c'mon, a little optimism every now and then doesn't hurt, right?" The younger twin put their clothes down and poked and tickled their older brother a little.
"Alright, I'll admit it, the trick actually worked, and I do hope that it'll actually work more often."
"That's the spirit!"
"See you guys awound" Yikk said as they got up and left the dorm room. "I'll be downstaihs. Have a good showah."
"Thanks, I guess?" both the twins chuckled as they headed for the bathroom instead.
In the main room, a majority of the crewmates was watching the news on the TV, which ended as soon as the youngest crewmate entered and took a seat on their usual spot on one of the sofas.
Once they were comfortable enough, they grabbed their phone from their pocket and searched for a few good web shops, as they wanted to buy Billy a little gift to apologise for not interacting with them too much lately.
"What are you looking for?" Navy asked, as he saw his fellow crewmate browse their phone. "Something other than Tumblr?"
"I wanna window-shop" Yikk lied, "prefewably at somewhewe cheap."
"A little bird told me that Unusual Amusement is having a major clearance sale at the moment."
"Why, I nevah knew that, about time they had that sale! Thanks a bunch, Navy."
The dark blue crewmate winked at Vienna, who smiled back in approval.
"Any chance that little bird's name is Billy?" she whispered.
"Yes" Navy whispered back.
"I wonder what they'll possibly buy for one another."
"Same, really. They both do deserve a little present from each other in this tough time."
Yikk hummed in question and looked at the married couple.
"Oh, nothing, really, sweet little Deku Scrub" Vienna chuckled, as she ruffled her fellow crewmate's almost-dry hair.
"Aight then."
At the same time, they thought: why did Vienna just call me a sweet little Deku Scrub? Is that some sort of hint?
Not knowing how else to react to the cute nickname, the childish crewmate simply kissed Vienna's cheek in adoration before quickly turning back to scrolling through the web shop.
The mother was a little surprised, but still approved of the little gesture that she just received from her fellow crewmate.
The other crewmates who saw the brief happening pretended that nothing really happened, as it wasn't quite a big deal anyway.
