Chapter Text
If he was being honest, Beige was scared out of his fucking mind. This was his very first mission, and he was afraid he would mess something up. He was helpfully reassured that he would be fine by his newly-made friend, Burnt Umber, but still worried obsessively about it.
“Dude, calm down, you’re scared shitless for nothing. Everything’s gonna be fine, chill a little,” She insisted. Beige looked at her and pouted.
“What do I do?! I’m not cut out to be an astronaut! Umber, please…” Beige complained, drawing out the last word.
“We’re already here. Get over your stupid little fear and get on the damn ship,” Burnt Umber said menacingly, causing Beige to drop his bag of possessions, yelp, and run into the ship. As soon as he realized what he’d done he stopped dead in his tracks and looked at Burnt Umber, who had just walked into the ship with his bag.
Beige was beyond infuriated. “Burnt Umber, I hate you, you stupid, annoying motherf—”
“Oh! I didn’t realize you two had finally made it on. Sorry about that, I’m the leader here, Captain Ochre, at your service. Let’s get you two registered as present,” An orange crewmate named Ochre said. Beige looked at her, literally shaking in his soft brown boots. “Can you two tell me your MIRA color classifications?”
“Yes, I’m Burnt Umber and the short one over here is Beige. It’s nice to meet you, Captain Ochre,” Burnt Umber said. Ochre stared at Beige for a bit.
“Are you alright, Beige? Are you nervous?” She asked him calmly. Beige nodded slowly and fiddled with his fingers. She laughed softly and put a hand on his shoulder.
“You’re gonna be fine. You’ve got a great crew and the best captain, we’ll help you, yeah? Good.” She reassured him. He smiled softly at her. “Here are your MIRA-assigned tablets, please use them with good intentions.” Beige nodded at her instruction, but his attention was drawn away by an unfamiliar British accent drifting down the hallway.
“Captain Ochre? Has someone arrived?” A purple newcomer asked the captain.
“Yes! Heliotrope, this is Beige and Burnt Umber, they’re the O2 and Electricity…” Ochre replied, but Beige tuned her out. He was too busy staring at the purple crewmate to care.
Heliotrope was attractive—he was hot. His messy yet beautiful soft purple hair, his amethyst-shaded eyes, his pale skin…Beige was head over-fuckin’-heels. He could feel the heat crawl up his throat and flush his face.
“...Beige? Beige? Are you alright? Earth to Beige!” Burnt Umber called out, snapping her fingers in Beige’s face. Beige shook his daydream off and remembered where he was.
“S-Sorry, I got distracted…What’s going on?” Beige asked.
“You are the Electricity manager. Your tasks are mostly based in Electricity with a couple of wire tasks and other things here or there. Does that sound okay to you?” Ochre repeated herself. Beige found himself staring at Heliotrope again while she spoke.
“Yeah, of course. Thank you, Captain Ochre,” Beige thanked her sheepishly.
“It’s fine, we have the ship set up to depart already…We’re just missing our Medic and her assistant, otherwise, everyone else is here. Vice-Captain Heliotrope, could you show them to the living quarters, please?” Ochre asked the purple crewmember.
“Yes, of course. Burnt Umber, Beige, please follow me,” Heliotrope said, walking around the large boxes that sat in Storage. They followed him and stopped in Cafeteria, right in front of a ladder leading upwards. “This ladder leads up to the living quarters. You already have an assigned room to share with your roommate. The rooms are color-coded, kinda. Everyone else should be up there already, and please be nice. When we depart you will be briefed on your assignments.”
“Yessir,” Burnt Umber replied jokingly.
“Oh, and, don’t go up the ladder that’s just outside Admin. That’s the Captain and Vice-Captain’s quarters and we don’t like our rooms being disturbed,” Heliotrope added finally.
“Yeah, okay,” The dark brown crewmate said lazily. She started to climb the ladder, nearly leaving Beige behind. The pair reached the top, seeing several multicolored astronauts.
“...Apparently the Skeld’s medics aren’t here yet, when are they gonna get here? This is delaying our departure…”
“I heard that the Electricity and O2 managers finally got here! It’s just the medics then. I wonder where they are.”
Burnt Umber cleared her throat and most of the crewmates jumped and turned to look at her.
“Oh! Are you the new O2 and Electricity managers?” A soft green crewmate asked. She grabbed the taller woman’s hand and squeezed it tightly. “I’m Emerald, by the way! Nice to meet you!”
“N-Nice to meet you too…I’m Burnt Umber, the shy one here is Beige,” Burnt Umber said. “I’m the O2 manager…Beige is the Electricity manager.”
“Cool! I’m working security, so if you ever think you’re in danger, just jump in front of a camera and I’ll be right there!” Emerald beamed, Burnt Umber made an attempt at a smile which Emerald happily accepted.
“Hey, guys! Let’s focus on finding our rooms please!” A hot-pink crewmember said.
“Oh, yeah, Carmine’s right! C’mon Burnt Umber, let’s look for yours!” Emerald insisted, pulling the chocolatey-brown crewmate along. Burnt Umber shot a “I can’t help it!” glance at Beige before being dragged away.
Beige kinda stood there for a moment before being snapped back to reality by a soft yellow crewmate. “Hey, Beige? Are you alright? C’mon, let’s help you find your room. I’m Lemon, by the way! I’m your new chef.”
“Oh, hi Lemon. Yeah, let’s go find my room. I’m a little nervous still,” Beige replied honestly. Lemon smiled at him and led him through the final hallway of the three on the right. There were 2 rooms in this hallway, and each room held two people. The first room had a nameplate that read “Lemon and Burgundy”. Lemon smiled.
“This is me and my husband’s room. He’s a good guy, and I think you’d be really good friends with him,” Lemon explained. Beige smiled and continued walking with Lemon to view the next nameplate. This one read “Platinum and Silver”, and Lemon explained that Platinum was also working in Security and Silver was his younger brother. Silver worked as a Communications officer.
“Look’s like your room’s not here. Let’s move to the next hallway,” Lemon said softly as they turned around to travel down the middle hallway. This hallway had 3 rooms but the third room only held one person and was smaller than the others. The first room read “Lavender and Metallic Rose”, to which Lemon explained that they were the currently absent medics. The second read “Carmine and Gold”. Carmine is the Weapons specialist and Gold is the Navigations coordinator. The smaller room read “Aquamarine”, and Beige found out that she was in charge of data collection.
“Your room must be in the last hallway then,” Lemon said. “Too bad it took us two hallways to finally find that out, huh?” Beige nodded. In this final hallway the rooms returned to only two. The first nameplate belonged to Burnt Umber and Emerald, quite lucky considering that Emerald and Burnt Umber already seemed to be attached to each other. When they reached the final nameplate, Lemon smiled again.
“You got paired up with Cornflower. He’s more of a quiet, shy type, so try not to scare him much. His close friends Platinum and Silver told us that he was assigned as the clean-up officer,” Lemon explained. Beige nodded and listened. “I’ll leave you here now, as I have to go make lunch in the Cafeteria. I’ll make sure to ping everyone’s tablets as soon as I’m done, alright? Be nice to your roommate, hun. See you!”
Beige watched Lemon walk off and turned to the door of the room. He scanned his ID and entered the room, where he saw a person similar to his own height. He looked at Beige and waved shyly, quickly looking back to the floor. He seemed to have been fiddling with his tablet before Beige had arrived.
“Hi! Cornflower, right? It’s nice to meet you. I’m Beige, I’m your roommate,” Beige explained to the soft blue crewmate.
“H-Hi…N-Nice to-to me-et y-you too…” Cornflower said quietly, his stutter causing his sentences to come out incredibly butchered. Beige smiled.
“I heard you’re friends with Platinum and Silver. I have yet to meet them, but I’m sure they’re great people!”
Cornflower’s face turned a soft pink and he smiled softly. Beige suspected that Cornflower may have had a crush on one of them. Beige decided to stay on the right foot with everyone. “I want to become good friends with you!”
Cornflower smiled at him. Beige smiled back as he went over to the unoccupied bunk and dropped his bag onto it. Cornflower seemed nice enough, what could be so bad about this?
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After a while, Cornflower and Beige’s tablets chimed, bringing up a notification from Lemon.
“Lunch’s ready, everyone! Come to Cafeteria!” It read. They went with each other to the ladder down to Cafeteria, Beige trying to keep a small conversation. Cornflower would respond here and there, but usually only nodded or shook his head. As soon as they reached the ladder, a couple other pairs of crewmates were already there. Beige quickly spotted Burnt Umber and Emerald, both engrossed in their conversation, Beige unaware of the topic.
“Oh, Beige! Sorry I walked away earlier,” Burnt Umber said. “Well, more like dragged away, but…”
“Yeah, sorry about that!” Emerald said. Beige shook his head.
“You should know better than to leave me alone! Lemon had to show me around and help me find my room,” Beige explained.
“Oh, you’re roommate is Cornflower? Cool!” Emerald complimented. Beige was going to respond but was distracted by that familiar British accent.
“Enough chatting and get down here! You all have to be there for a briefing before departure!” Heliotrope called from the bottom of the ladder.
“Yes, sir!” Emerald said enthusiastically. She quickly climbed down the ladder, motioning for Burnt Umber to follow. Eventually, they all reached the bottom of the ladder. Most of the crewmates were already at the central table of Cafeteria, so the four joined them.
Apparently, the crew was seated in a color-coded order. This excluded the Captain, Vice-Captain, and another dark green crewmember. In order—excluding those few people and the absent medics—were Burgundy, Lemon, Emerald, Cornflower, Aquamarine, Carmine, Silver, Platinum, Gold, Beige, and Burnt Umber.
“Good, you’re all here. Before I brief you, I’m informing you that our medic Lavender and her assistant Metallic Rose were delayed due to an emergency that took place near them. They have since returned and are setting up Medbay and will join us soon,” Ochre explained to the group of crewmates. “I am also introducing you to this ship’s Administrator and my husband, Olive. If you have any questions about your tasks, you can ask him and he’ll help you. Don’t go looking for Heliotrope and I while you have tasks to do, because we’re busy, too. Olive’ll also be a monitor for you all to make sure you guys don’t break ship or MIRA rules.”
“Hi!” Olive waved at them all cheerfully. The reply was a chorus of ‘hello’ variations from the crew.
“Great to see everyone likes each other already, better times to be had,” Heliotrope told the crew, his cheek resting on his palm. The soft smile on his face outlined all of his beauty. Beige stared at him, pink dusting his face. Though, Beige’s infatuation with Heliotrope was disturbed as he noticed his surroundings.
Not only was he blushing at Heliotrope, but two other crewmates were blushing furiously as well. Those being Silver and Gold.
Did he really have competition?
Well, he couldn’t really get his hopes up. Heliotrope didn’t belong to him, and he was sure that he would never even have a chance with him. Heliotrope was way too far out of his league, why was he hoping for something so impossible for him? He sighed and looked back at Heliotrope, but nearly jumped backward when he saw Heliotrope staring back at him. Heliotrope smiled at him and Beige smiled back, though it seemed more like a grimace. Even though there was a fair amount of chatter in the crowded Cafeteria, Beige could still hear the small chuckle of Heliotrope. He giggled quietly and rested his chin on his hand. Heliotrope’s smile was still on his face, even after he turned to focus on the other meaningless chatter in the room.
“Ah, sorry we’re late for lunch! We just finished up in Medbay, Captain Ochre,” A soft purple crewmate said from the hallway on the left of Cafeteria.
“Oh, Lavender! Good, come sit after Aquamarine here. Metallic Rose, you sit next to Carmine,” Ochre told them.
“Of course, Captain,” Lavender said, settling down in her seat.
“Alright, first, we’ll eat this lunch prepared by Lemon. Thank you, Lemon. Afterward, I’ll brief you all for departure and explain all the rules,” Ochre explained. “Sound acceptable?”
The crew gave a unanimous sound of agreement and Ochre smiled. “Alrighty then, let’s eat, shall we?” The crew cheered and started digging into their food.
After an hour or so of eating, everyone had finally finished their lunch.
“Alright, now that you’re all done,” Ochre said, standing up and picking up a manila folder. “I suppose I’ll start briefing you. Lets see…”
The crew paid attention silently, even Heliotrope and Olive—despite having been told previously. Most of the crew understood up until a specific rule in the middle of the briefing.
“All Impostors must openly admit that they are one. If they retain this information, it could lead to serious consequences and will be marked with several infractions involving human health and rights. If you are an Impostor, please mention it now,” Ochre directed. “Any drop of Impostor blood inside of you will be documented as a different level of Impostor. Once again, please mention your Impostor status now.”
Heliotrope stood up. “Well, I suppose to get us started, I will admit that I am an Impostor. I mean no harm and I haven’t meant any for a long while. I hope that you can all feel safe despite me being around.”
Beige froze. Heliotrope was an Impostor? He didn’t know how he felt. He found it kind of…
Hot?
“Remember, all, that the Human-Impostor Equality Treaty by MIRA has already been passed for a while. Heliotrope got into his position by spending many years studying and training relentlessly. You don’t need to be worried,” Ochre reminded.
Olive stood up. “My grandfather was an Impostor,” he explained softly. “But my father was a half-Impostor, and my mother was a human. I suppose that makes me a little bit less than a half-Impostor.”
“How do we know you guys are actually Impostors, though?” Beige asked.
“Allow me to show you,” Heliotrope said with a smirk. Something emerged from his back, dark purple tentacles. They were long and seemed to be coated in a thin film of some type of slime. A large maw in his torse opened up, revealing rows and rows of sharp teeth and an elongated tongue.
“Oh, wow. That’s so cool!” Silver exclaimed, astonishment in his eyes. “Can you do that, Olive?”
“No, I can’t do that because of the minimal amount of Impostor blood in me, but I assure you, I still have other Impostor-like things,” Olive said. He paused for a moment. “No, I will not elaborate for my own sake.”
“Surely, there are other Impostors aboard, yeah? Please stand and reveal yourselves,” Ochre commanded the crew.
Soon, three other Impostors stood up, and Beige was shocked to see…
Burnt Umber.
“Umber?! Wh—Why didn’t you tell me?!” Beige exclaimed, shock evident on his face.
“Sorry, Beige, I was planning on it but I was kind of afraid to do it…” Burnt Umber explained. Her dark brown tentacles emerged from her back and swayed slowly. She looked at Emerald and caught her trying to touch her tentacles. Beige wasn’t scared, per se, he was just sad that he was left in the dark.
The other two Impostors that stood were Gold and Burgundy. They let their golden and deep red tentacles loose to prove their statements.
All the while, Beige noticed that Cornflower looked worried. Maybe it was just the nearby-Impostor nerves building up. He would be fine, he hoped.
“Is that all?” Ochre asked. Nobody else stood up. “Alright then, 5 registered Impostors. Unknown amount of unregistered Impostors. Just so you all know, the punishment is far more lenient if you come forward yourself. I hope I don’t have to shoot anyone.”
Everyone suddenly became very nervous.
“I’m just kidding. Anyway, here are your task lists based on your individual skills and placements,” Ochre said.
As everyone received their tasks, Beige looked over his. Calibrate the distributor, fix wiring, distribute power…everything seemed like he was perfectly capable of doing it.
After another hour or so of comparing tasks and chatting, Ochre dismissed everyone to prepare for takeoff. Beige and Cornflower returned to their room. Beige flopped down onto his bunk and smiled.
His childhood dream to go to space was coming true! And not to mention there were a couple of cute guys here…
Wait…a couple? Since when did he find anyone other than Heliotrope attractive? He was confused yet ecstatic at the same time.
This was going to be great!