"If you lot are looking for me" Arnie said, "I'll be at the neighbours', and my phone and pager are always on, alright? Take good care of Bobby in the meantime, too, and remember to not close the toilet door downstairs for the sake of him."
"Alright, Arnie" Nori, Rice and Charlie replied. "We will do our best, and have fun."
"Thank you guys." The former private closed the front door behind him and headed to the living building next door.
Bobby was a little devastated to see his owner leave, but he was lucky to still have some people around him to take care of him, at least.
The crewmates in white, black and cyan headed upstairs to spend some time in the recreation room, while the Brainslug simply went to take a brief nap on Arnie's bed in the dorm room.
"I envy the fact that you're able to play two instruments fluently, Charlie" Nori said. "I can play several instruments, but the only songs I can really play on them are Row, Row, Row Your Boat, Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star and Frère Jacques."
"That is at least something" Charlie replied. "Whereas you can only play that song, you know that Yikk said that they can only play the melody to Beware The Forest's Mushrooms on the piano, remember? That's also something."
"But that's such a difficult song!"
"Not to them and me."
"You can play it more fluently than them, I presume."
"Sort of." The tomboy sat down at her keyboard and easily played Beware The Forest's Mushrooms from her memory. "Now, don't comment on how I am significantly better at playing instruments than the rest of you."
Rice simply shook their head in response.
"I'll have you know that I also cannot read notes, yet I can still play a galore of those classical songs, but by ear instead."
"That's also a quality of yours" the younger twin stated. "It's absolutely okay to not be able to read notes."
"I know, but I've always envied those who can, and I most likely shouldn't, honestly." Charlie chuckled a little.
"Can you play that 'to be continued' song from Jojo's Bizarre Adventure?"
"I don't think I know that song."
"Oh, you definitely do, admit it." Rice grabbed their phone, opened YouTube and played the aforementioned song.
"Ah, right, that one. Who doesn't know it?"
The song was subsequently paused and re-enacted.
"Wow, I never really expected that!"
An applause subsequently came from the three pairs of hands that were present in the recreation room.
"Should I play the vibraphone now? Be wary, though, as it's a very loud instrument, so I'd recommend wearing some hearing protection like I will soon."
"Wait, it is?" the twins asked in unison.
"Yes. I've performed with it in public more often, and during that, people occasionally covered or plugged their ears because of how shrill the sound really is, no matter if I performed inside or outside."
"Well, alright then." Both the twins briefly headed out to grab themselves some earplugs, and Charlie made sure that she put her noise-cancelling headphones on to protect her own hearing as well.
Once everyone's ears were protected, Charlie grabbed four soft mallets and moved her seat over to the vibraphone.
"What should I play?" she asked.
"Surprise us" Nori replied. "We don't have much musical knowledge anyway."
"Well, alright…" The cyan crewmate thought for a while, and eventually chose a simple, improvised jazz piece.
"Neatooo" Rice softly said. "Sounds kinda jazzy, doesn't it?"
Their older brother simply nodded, with his face saying the exact same thing.
In the whole living building, only vibraphone sounds could be heard from the open window, and furthermore, nothing.
Two passer-by crewmates from one of the other living buildings in the area could hear it on their aimless wandering session, and they smiled upon doing so.
"I should remember this pad" the Japanese crewmate in pink said as she wrote the building number down in her notepad. "Maybe we can form a band someday, but it's not like I'm that good at playing the bass or anything."
"Oh, Natsuki" the Jamaican crewmate in dark green chuckled in response, "you're really eager to start a band, huh? Speaking of, I'm kind of wondering in what genre you'd want it to specialise?"
"That's a tricky one… several ones, perhaps? Dwight, you play the steel drums and the bongos, don't you?"
"I surely do, but I don't have two pairs of arms to play both, silly."
"I wasn't asking to do so. You could play them alternately."
"Then I'm most likely willing to be in the band, too."
"Good. We should think about it in the meantime before starting all willy-nilly, though."
"Seems like a very wise idea."
The two crewmates then went off to a different part of the area to discover the parts that they haven't seen or heard yet.
Out of everyone in the recreation room, only Rice seemed to have noticed the two passer-by crewmates in the meantime, but decided to not pay any further attention to that detail.
Meanwhile, the dropship successfully arrived at the Polus, where gentle snow fell this time, rather than an extended heavy blizzard, like previously.
"Good" Navy said upon seeing the current weather, "now we can actually do our tasks without being disrupted by heavy wind in the respect of sound, touch and sight."
"Doesn't mean we shouldn't take our helmets off and not provide ourselves with extra oxygen, though" Lava stated.
Soon, the door of the ship rolled open, and everyone's pagers went off.
This time, the impostors were Billy and Squee.
Oh no, Billy thought in response, this is going to be such a nightmare with Squee's lack of common sense and intelligence…
Most of the crewmates started the mission with inserting the keys into the ship, and two-sixth of them also charted the course afterwards.
Yikk headed for the storage shed to fill the first and best jerrycan up with fuel for the ship.
Choco headed for the weather node near the drill, which he had to fix.
Lava immediately headed for the electrical section to download some data and fix some wires… and also to fix the lights that were soon reluctantly sabotaged by Billy in the O2 canister room.
As soon as the lights were off, Yikk, Choco and Pop were also headed that way, even if they knew very little of Squee hiding in the vent hole near the security room in the pitch dark.
"Hey, hey" Lava said, "I was planning to fix those lights by myself."
"And we came to help" Pop said.
Yikk nodded in agreement as they turned one of the fuse box switches back on.
"Hands off of that, seaweed."
"I was hewping wike Pop said!" the lime crewmate retorted.
"Were you?"
"Of couwse I was, you wude Siwen Head! At weast wet me hewp!"
"I was here first, so I'm perfectly capable of doing this by myself!"
"Dun be so chiwdish, Wava!"
"Says the one who's childish themself!"
"And now, quit it!" Pop shouted as she stood in between the two bickering crewmates, "both of you!" Her exclamation drowned Squee out, who knocked Choco out in the meantime before jumping back into the vent. "What age do you think you are, Lava?"
"Nearly twenty-four, duh."
"Then behave that way, and respect the more vulnerable crewmates among us, too."
"Fine, have it your way."
In the meantime, Yikk had flipped two more switches, and let Lava do the last two before the lights were back on.
However, once the three crewmates headed out of the fuse box room, they suddenly saw Choco's unconscious body in the hall.
"I thought he fowwowed us to the fuse box…!" the lime crewmate whispered in a stressed tone.
"He did" Pop whispered back, "but apparently, he's now unconscious, and none of us knows about the real deal yet." She reported the unconscious body and calling up the first meeting of this mission.
"Where did you find it?" Squee asked.
"Electrical. Yikk and Lava were with me, and I suspect Lava, to be honest."
"Why me?" Lava said. "I suspect Yikk, as they were so rude to interrupt my job of getting the lights back on."
The childish crewmate gave the snobbish crewmate the look of a thousand deaths in response.
"Are you sure about that, Lava?" Vienna asked.
"I dunno whodunnit!" Yikk exclaimed in a distressed tone. "Choco be fowwowing me an' Pop to the fuse box, an' Wava be thewe alweady, an' when the wights be back on, Choco be unconscious! Pwease twust me!"
"I did see a glimpse of you on the cameras" Navy said, "and I did hear Choco being knocked out, and the sound of soft chuckling afterwards, but those were partly drowned out by two bickering crewmates nearby, so I honestly have no clue who did it."
"I couldn't see who did it either" Nika said, "it was way too dark to even make out everyone's suit colours. I think it was Squee, since I caught a brief whiff of orange perfume while peeking, but I'm not too sure."
Dammit, Squee thought, I could've knocked Navy out as well, how could I be so dumb to not see him?!
"I think it's Yikk, too" they then lied out loud. "Sorry, but you could've knocked Lava out as well while you were fighting with her."
Billy felt their heart ache at the whole thought of their one and only moirail being sussed while being a regular crewmate this time, and decided to vote for Lava instead.
"I trusted Yikk, you dumb animal!" Pop said to Lava as she also voted her out. "How dare you sus them?!"
Yikk had skipped their vote and thrown themself onto the ground in the meantime. Lava had made them angry to the point where a tantrum was absolutely mandatory to be thrown.
The rest of the crewmates voted the angry lime crewmate out, most of them feeling the worst of agony while doing so.
"I know what to do at this point" Billy sighed, as they grabbed their crying moirail's left leg and dragged them towards a more secluded part of the office section, in between one wall of the decontamination chamber and a bookshelf.
"This not be faiwh!" Yikk sobbed loudly and in a gross fashion. "Onwy Navy bwiefwy bewieved my stowy, and onwy you skipped!"
"Of course it's not fair." The Latinx pulled the angry crewmate up into a sitting position. "Now, you know what to do. Stay in the corner until the mission is over and someone tells you to leave, alright?"
"Yes, Biwwy…"
"Very well then." The yellow crewmate then left and stealthily sneaked towards the nearby vent hole, in which they jumped. "They didn't see it just now… they were facing the corner the entire time…"
Those who still had at least one task in the office couldn't help but feel sorry for how Yikk really didn't turn out to be the impostor, and especially not when they could hear their gross sobbing from somewhere nearby.
"At least their weeping isn't as shrill as Yuri's" Vienna said to Lava, who just came back from the medical bay where she put Choco to rest.
"But it is annoying" the red crewmate huffed, "but whose weeping isn't?"
"Please quit being so rude about your so-called arch-nemesis, Valentina. You know they're one of the more emotionally vulnerable crewmates, right? They cannot do anything about it."
"I… I do, Vienna…" The snob was shocked upon hearing their full first name.
"Then don't say that the sound of weeping overall is annoying either, unless you're talking about Yuri who has a fussy phase going on at the moment, or about someone from whom you really mean it, but definitely not from someone as emotionally vulnerable as Yikk, am I clear?"
"Yes… Vienna… I will continue my tasks, Vienna…"
"Very well then, and I don't want to hear another word of negativity from you."
"Neither do I" Neri said. "About no-one."
Lava quickly scanned her boarding pass before heading to the temperature measuring computer near the concoction that was also her nickname. Her heart was beating like crazy, the bottom of her stomach felt cold and sweat gushed off of her forehead, that's how shocked she was at how Vienna lectured her just now.
"Wow" Snippet said in a soft tone as he and Arnie quietly left the 'master' bedroom in the living building next door. "I never thought that such a simple video game song actually had such a grand effect! How did you get to know about that?"
In that bedroom, Jeff had successfully fallen asleep to the Goron Lullaby as played on Snippet's guitar just now. The song was apparently becoming a huge success among the young children of the crewmates that lived in that exact part of the Skeld area.
"Well" Arnie said, "a little bird told me and subsequently sent me the music sheet." He blushed as he chuckled.
"I'm glad I can read notes, because I recognised that song straight away. Do you have the link to the source where you found it?"
"I surely do." The former private grabbed his phone, browsed his messages and then forwarded the link to the aforementioned music sheet to the leader of the crewmates in red.
"Thanks. Do you mind if I forward it to the rest of the crewmates with children around Yuri and Jeff's age as well?"
"Of course, do whatever pleases you."
"Are you blushing?"
"What?!"
"Shh, don't wake little Jeff back up! C'mon, let's discuss it in the office here." Snippet opened the door across the 'master bedroom' door and entered it. "After you." He then put his guitar into a corner where the door couldn't crush it.
"Neat, a home office…! Well, kinda. We have ours next to the kitchen." Arnie gently closed the door behind him and inspected the office. "Ooh, it even has a coffee machine and a water cooler, nice!"
"That's what's always present in an office, right? Now, have a seat, Arn. Would you like some coffee, now that you just mentioned it?"
"Nah, I already had some just now." The dark green crewmate sat down on a chair that Snippet had rolled backwards. "Does the coffee machine also have hot chocolate? I'd like some of that instead."
"Of course, then I'll have some, too." The red crewmate rolled his desk chair towards the coffee machine, put two mugs underneath each 'tap' and chose the hot chocolate option for both. "It unfortunately doesn't include whipped cream, you'll have to get that yourself."
"That's alright, I'm not too fond of that anyway."
"I see." Snippet handed one mug to Arnie and put his own in front of him to warm his cold hands onto. "Arn, you were definitely blushing just now."
"I was?"
"You shouldn't be ashamed of it. It's completely okay if you happen to fall for me. I'm bisexual, so I'm used to having men around me who get a crush on me."
Arnie's breath was briefly taken away in surprise.
"Even if my most recent spouse was female, but ever since I divorced and estranged her, I've suddenly started preferring men, and that's why I noticed it so quickly."
"O… okay…" The leader of the main cast of crewmates took a few deep breaths before speaking again. "Yeah… I… think I do? Someone pointed it out recently… that someone was the same little bird who sent me the music sheet."
"I see."
"They already have a moirail, though, and none of us is interested in one another in the respect of romantical quadrants, and that's most likely for the best, too, since we have an age gap of 9 years…"
"They're one of the crewmates under your leadership, right?"
"Yes, the youngest one, too."
"Ah, I know who you mean." Snippet took a small sip of his hot chocolate. "Yikk is a very nice someone, huh?"
"They are, and they notice things so quickly as well, like… well, my apparent crush on you, I guess." Arnie also took a careful sip of his drink. "Mmm, nothing beats some hot chocolate every now and then."
"So you have a crush on me, Arnie?"
"I guess I do. Well, I'm gay, and thus only able to fall in love with other men, so yeah."
"Then please shove your mug away, because I also have a major confession to make."
The former private did as he was asked and even turned his desk chair in a different way to not accidentally topple his mug over in case of shock.
"I, too, have a crush on you. Like… you're such a caring and civilised gentleman, and you can handle emotionally harsh situations so well…"
Arnie fell completely silent once again, and he blushed harder than he did just now.
"You may be very serious on your missions, but deep down, a positive flame flickers in you, and you always make sure to not let it stop burning… that's one of the most important things I like about you. As for the others… I simply cannot name those with words."
"I… you… th… that's exactly what I'm thinking of you, too… Lou. Despite your hardships, you're an amazing guy. An amazing leader of the crewmates under your wing. An amazing father to Jeff. Someone who performs his tasks in a serious fashion. That's all of the stuff I like about you."
The two crewmate leaders were left laughing for quite some time, and thank the King of all Cosmos that the office door didn't let any kind of sound pass through it, because otherwise, Jeff would be back awake at this point, and that wouldn't be any good.
"We should definitely become matesprits" Arnie said, as he carefully grabbed his mug back, blew some steam off of it and took a bigger swig of the chocolatey concoction. "What do you think?"
"But we barely see one another" Snippet said, "so it may easily become a long-distance matespritship."
"Oh, that's no big deal to me. It will be if a marriage will come and take a peek around the corner, though."
"Yeah, I guess you're right. The fact that we're neighbours shouldn't stop us from becoming matesprits. We could always pay one another a visit."
"And hope that the others in the dorm room won't mind my absence, and especially not when they need to talk to me when something is really bothering them."
"They could ask one of those others who also have children, what are their names again…?"
"The children's or the parents' names?"
"The parents' names of course, you silly goose."
"Navy and Vienna? Well, they could specifically ask and tell Navy, since Mack made him the secondary leader recently, after all."
"He did? Well, I know nothing about a secondary leader among my crewmates."
"Then ask." The dark green crewmate playfully poked his matesprit-to-be in his side.
"Yaah! Alright, I will." The red crewmate stuck his hand out. "Hereby, we should be matesprits and not let anything stop us from being that."
Arnie nodded in agreement and response, and rather than shaking hands, the two shared a good glomp and a brief kiss.
Shortly after, someone knocked on the door.
"Yes?" Snippet asked.
The door opened up, and Aeris stood there.
"Good day, Snippet and Arnie" they said, before they noticed the deep scarlet hue on both their faces. "Why are you two blushing?!"
"Shh!" the two crewmate leaders hissed. "Jeff's asleep across here, so please refrain from exclaiming…!"
"Sorry." The western-looking crewmate closed the door behind them and also had a seat at the desk. "Anyway, Mack just dropped by and aside of wondering about your whereabouts, Snippet, he also informed me, Marny, Rose and Buggs about the fact that starting from tomorrow, three impostors will be present on our next mission! Three, I tell you!"
"That's rather unusual. We mostly have two, but three? Never experienced that before, but we will soon." The red crewmate took another swig of his now slightly cooled down hot chocolate.
"I also kind of wonder how that'll go" Arnie said, "as well as if my group of crewmates will experience the same anytime soon?"
"I knew it!" Nika exclaimed when she saw Squee knock Pop out mercilessly. "Refrain from putting on your entire flask of perfume next time, Squee!"
The same dumb blonde impostor just sabotaged the seismic stabilisers before idly waiting at the weather node near the storage shed just to knock a passer-by crewmate out.
"Very well noted, Nika" Navy said as he petted his daughter's helmet and then reported Pop's unconscious body.
Vienna and Lava also saw it happen, but were too late to report, so they just headed for the left side of the office for the next meeting.
"Where did you lot find it?" Squee asked, pretending to know nothing.
"Oh, you know that very well" Lava said, "you dumb animal."
"Hey!" Yikk exclaimed from the corner where they still sat, "that be my insult!" They had very sharp ears from even a few feet away, and also currently sounded as if they were almost drunk, since their speech was slightly slurred. Fatigue, perhaps?
"Yes" Vienna said, "it's definitely Squee."
Neri nodded in confirmation.
"I knew they were the source of that strong orange perfume" Nika stated.
"Better not knock anyone out in everyone's sight next time" Navy said. "What you call stealthy is definitely not stealthy, Alistair."
Squee simply moaned loudly out of shame and skipped their vote.
"Why does this always have to occur to me?!"
Billy also skipped their vote, leaned their head on their left hand and sighed loudly.
Once the dumb blonde was sent out to do impostor tasks, Billy felt completely futile and helpless as the only remaining impostor.
"I give up" they said. "You guys win the mission this time, as I'm a terrible impostor, and especially with Squee by my side. I come in peace, though."
"That's alright" Navy said. "Do you want to come and help me tend to Choco and Pop?"
"I will." The Latinx stood up, headed for the same weather node where Pop was knocked out, and carried her towards the medical bay.
Lava still had one task left, which was looking for a certain space embodiment via the telescope in the laboratory, with which she was also done quite swiftly.
Vienna also finished her task of fixing the wires in the office with which Neri eagerly helped her out.
"Well done, son" she said once they were all done. "Now, I want you to have a seat in the meet room of the office and wait there. Do you promise to refrain from touching the emergency meeting button?"
"Yes, mother" the little boy said.
"Yuri will be with me, since they are way too curious about their surroundings and don't quite understand the next situation anyway."
"That's fine by me, and I mean it."
"Very well." Vienna placed Yuri in the seat on her helmet and headed to the corner where Yikk still sat. "Yikk, you can come out now."
The lime crewmate didn't respond.
"Yikk Brannigan, you're now allowed to come out of the corner."
Still no response. Vienna was a little concerned and tried to look her fellow crewmate in the eyes… which were closed. Paired with the familiar thumb and the slow breathing. They had fallen asleep in the corner once again.
"No wonder your speech was so slurred the other minute…" She grabbed the sleeping crewmate's shoulder and gently shook them in an attempt to wake them up, which worked out straight away.
"Wh… whewe am I?" Yikk mumbled, as their eyes slowly opened. "Oh, wight, the cohnah." They took their thumb out, rubbed the 'sleep' out of their eyes and looked at the source of the hand on their shoulder. "Oh, hewwo, Vienna an' Yuwi."
"The mission's over, so you can come out."
"Who be the othah impostah?"
"Billy, who gave up. They most likely hated having to work with Squee."
"Yeah, Squee as the impostah not be the most intewwigent of them all, that be why I ahways watch them if we both be impostahs."
"Also, how did you know that Squee was the impostor?"
"I ovewheawd Nika an' Navy about it, an' caught a bit of it when you guys had the next meeting befowe dwifting off to sweep."
"I also deeply regret voting you out the other minute. I'm very sorry for believing Lava. She's just one rude creature for most of the time, huh?"
"Yeah, especiawwy to me an' Pop. But she be twying hah best to stop it, that be what Ahnie said."
"That's right." Vienna grabbed Yikk's hand and helped them stand up before heading to the office, where Neri still sat in a civilised fashion. "Would you like some water?"
"Yes, pwease."
"What about you, Neri?"
"Yes, please, Mummy" Neri replied.
In response, the purple crewmate filled three plastic cups with water from the nearby water cooler, as well as a sippy cup for Yuri that she kept in one of the compartments of her spacesuit.
"Whewe Biwwy an' the othahs be at?" Yikk asked after having drained all of their water.
"The medical bay" Vienna replied, "and Squee is most likely scrubbing the nearby toilets. They hate that task, but they're still mandatory to do it, even if they're not that stained this time."
"It be the simpwest task fo' impostahs, too. Squee would definitewy bweak the science fwasks, petwi dishes an' micwoscopes at the specimen woom while twying to cwean them."
"That's true, and also why we mostly assign such tasks to people who are not as clumsy as them."
The youngest crewmate refilled their water and drained it just as quickly.
"Man, I be weawy thihsty all outta nowhewe…"
"Make sure not to drink too much if Squee is still cleaning the toilets at this point."
"No, no, I won't, but if I did and thewe be shwubs, I'd just go in the shwubs. A whole hassle wif my suit, though…"
Vienna simply chuckled and ruffled her fellow crewmate's highlighted fringe in adoration.
In the medical bay, Choco and Pop had regained their consciousness, and immediately started a conversation upon noticing each other.
"That was very mean of you-know-who to just sus poor little Yikk like that, huh?" Choco started.
"I know" Pop replied with a nod. "I hope they are feeling a little better in the meantime, though." She then snapped her fingers twice while looking Navy in the eyes. "Could I please have some fruit juice? I'm feeling very thirsty over here."
"Ah, so you guys are awake again?" Navy said. "Very nice. Choco, what would you like to drink? Water? Also fruit juice? Or perhaps some cold chocolate milk?"
"Ooh, cold chocolate milk sounds like a good idea" the chubby crewmate chuckled. "I am feeling a little sweaty now, so I think a nice cooling drink could easily soothe my inner heat." He folded the covers of his temporary bed onto the rest that resided on his lower legs and knees.
The dark blue crewmate soon served the crewmates in their beds their requested drinks, and got thanked for them to the fullest.
In the meantime, Squee was also all done with their impostor tasks, and briefly went into the nearby decontamination chamber to fully sanitise themself before heading for their usual seat in the laboratory.
"That was lame once again!" they huffed as they wiped the sweat from their forehead with a random small towel that laid nearby. "I also fully decontamined myself just now."
"Decontaminated" Billy corrected them. "Would you like some orange juice for your intense effort?"
"Yes please, I could surely use that."
The Latinx grabbed the dumb blonde's requested drink from the nearby miniature fridge, and the latter was pleased soon after.
About 15 minutes later, all of the missionary crewmates gathered together to finally step back into their dropship and head home after another long and eventful mission.
"Oh, Biwwy" Yikk said upon seeing their moirail again, "I be so gwad that you not be the impostah anymowe now…!" They grabbed them into a tight glomp and rubbed their cheek against the other's.
"I'm also glad that this mission is now over" Billy said as they hugged the childish crewmate back. "And glad to see you again."
"I fell asweep in the cohnah again, an' Vienna woke me up."
"You always fall asleep at the least convenient spots and the least convenient moments, huh?" The yellow crewmate tickled the lime crewmate all over their body, making them giggle all the way.
"Glad that the mission is over indeed" Lava confirmed to Choco, Pop, Navy and Vienna. "Squee took way too long to even find a good time to punch some sense out of the others."
"They did it to me in the pitch dark" Choco said. "That was the only time when they were nearly as stealthy as a cat… and subsequently pounced when I didn't pay attention." He chuckled at his own joke.
"Next time they're the impostor with someone else, they should definitely be watched over at all times, just like many missions ago when they were the impostor along with Yikk, who's definitely more intelligent than them."
The fat crewmate nodded in agreement.
And before the crewmates knew it, the dropship had landed back onto its usual landing base, and they were finally back home.
