~~~~~
Location: on the Skeld, heading to the planet Polus
Red
Red followed Maroon away from Navigation, and away from the others.
Wren followed them out, reaching for his father, and Red complied, picking Wren up.
While following Maroon, he allowed himself to have one quiet moment when he simply enjoyed having his son in his arms.
Wren snuggled into his shoulder comfortingly, and Red reciprocated the affection with a hug.
Ever since people started dying, the moments became quite rare, so Red savored this one while it lasted.
When he heard a sigh from Maroon after she checked Oxygen, Red knew the quiet moment was over, although his arms never left Wren.
He could tell she was emotionally shutting down, judging from her indifference to him and aggravation to the mild situation.
That can't be good.
He sighed, mentally bracing himself to talk to White. Their footsteps echoed through the hallway as they searched for where White had gone.
After checking Weapons and Cafeteria, they proceeded to MedBay, where they found White, starting the long task.
They entered the room, and without turning around, White said in a tired voice, "do you need something?"
Maroon looked completely and utterly done with White's attitude, so Red decided to take the lead: "White, are you feeling okay?"
"I think you can answer that question by yourself."
Red sighed deeply. "Look, if we're all going to work together on this ship, we need you to at least tolerate us, okay?"
Maroon gave Red a warning look. "I don't need you to do my job, Red."
Red held one hand up in surrender and backed away, hoping that Maroon would calm herself before saying anything that would make the situation worse.
To Red's relief, Maroon took a deep breath and assumed a perfectly calm persona. "White, listen. I get that you're stressed and on edge because of what happened to Indigo, but you need to stop taking it out on everyone else."
White sighed, and his face fell. "I just... If I get close to anyone else, I keep thinking that they're about to kill me, or that they're about to frame me for something they did. I just want to get home and forget all this."
Red felt a pang in his chest, his heart hurting for White.
He held Wren a bit closer, as if his son was a security blanket.
He could tell that Maroon was thinking of something to say, but he also knew that she wouldn't be giving encouragement in her current, shut-off state of mind.
So, he took the reins again.
"I- I feel the exact same way, White," Red said carefully. "But we still have to work together to find who did it, and make them pay for what they did. And we can't do that if you keep shutting everyone out - in fact, that makes everyone more suspicious of you."
Maroon gave Red another warning look, telling him to stand down and let her handle it, but in that moment, Red didn't care as much. It seems to be helping White, so I'm not going to step back this time.
Keeping himself and the others on Maroon's good side was important, but he also wanted to get on White's good side - or, at the very least, be on his neutral side.
After all, White didn't seem like he had a motive to kill Red, and besides - he could have killed Silver when he was alone with her.
White sighed, finally making eye contact with Red. "I guess you're right. Fine, I'll try... but I can't make any promises."
Red nodded, knowing that was the best response that he could have gotten. After glancing back at Maroon and seeing her expression, he knew he was in for quite the pleasant conversation.
S**t.
Worth it...? Probably not, he admitted to himself.
The MedBay sample task let out a beep, signaling that it was done, and White quickly finished up.
"Is there anything else?" White asked Red, without much abrasiveness in his voice, for once.
"Nope, that's it," Maroon answered for Red. "See you around."
After White left MedBay, Maroon turned on Red, and Red quickly set Wren down on one of the beds, in case things got ugly.
Maroon was silent for a long, agonizing minute, and Red debated slipping away before she could berate him. Deciding against it, he gave Wren a look telling him to stay put.
"Do you think I'm a fool?" she asked in a suspiciously calm voice.
Red felt like he was walking on eggshells.
... No, scratch that - explosive eggshells.
"Uh... no, definitely not," he said softly, feeling uncharacteristically timid.
He hadn't been in this position for a while, and now that he was, he was having some brief flashbacks.
"Why the h**l do you like to steal my job, Red? Why can't you learn your place and stay there?"
Red inhaled slowly, regulating his increasing heart rate. "Well, I-"
"You what?" Maroon demanded, whipping around to face him.
Her angry brown eyes held a lot of other, familiar emotions, and in that moment, Red was thrown back into the past.
She reminded him a lot of his ex-wife.
Red blinked hard, pushing those memories out of his consciousness, just like his therapist had taught him to do.
That happened already, that is not this.
This is the present, where I should be.
Red took a deep breath. "I helped with that conversation because I feel that you're not in a good headspace right now."
She stared him down for a long moment, her gaze unreadable. Red found himself holding his breath.
"Why do you think I'm not in a "good headspace"?"
"Because you're usually more patient, and you seem to have a short fuse right now. Something is definitely bothering you."
"What do you think is bothering me?" Maroon asked, a little more curious this time.
Red thought for a moment.
How the h**l do I answer that?
Well... what would Purple say? He thought, knowing that in this situation, Purple would probably have a good answer.
Pink? She wasn't enough of a people person to be a good example in this case.
Red racked his brain for every bit of information he'd ever gathered on Maroon.
Why is she so adamant about me not interfering with her job? Is she afraid I'll do it better than her? He pondered.
... She's a perfectionist, isn't she?
After a small eternity, Red slowly answered: "You're afraid of failing. Failing this mission, and letting more innocent people die. You're scared that I'll end up doing your job better than you, and that you'll slowly lose the control that you have over the situation; because if you don't have control, you feel helpless - like you can't do anything. And you hate that feeling."
Red made eye contact with Maroon, and he knew that he was right. However, Maroon apparently didn't like that.
Especially judging from the fact that happy people usually don't slam other people against walls.
Red was taken aback by Maroon's response to his analysis, and surprised by how much strength Maroon had in her small, short body.
For F**K'S sake, Maroon, I did what you asked, so what's up with the violence??
"You better watch yourself, Red," she growled. "I'm watching you."
"Wow, are you that insecure about yourself?" Red said, not realizing what he was saying until after it came out.
Maroon blinked, and then her gaze turned into a piercing glare.
... S**t.
That was the WRONG thing to say.
Red let out a short, humorless laugh, not liking where the conversation had gone.
When Maroon aimed a punch straight at his head, Red jerked to the side, making her punch the wall instead, evoking a hiss of pain.
He used his body weight to shove her backwards, freeing him from being pinned against the wall. She came back at him, and he ended up catching both her fists in his hands. They grappled for a moment, both of them struggling to gain the upper hand.
Just then, the doors opened, revealing Lavender and Lime.
Maroon and Red froze in place.
"Um, are we... interrupting something?" Lavender asked cautiously.
"No," Maroon and Red said simultaneously.
"We were... practicing our defense skills. You can never be too careful with an imposter around, right? Always good to stay sharp," Red said casually, letting go of Maroon.
"... right," Lavender eyed them both suspiciously, and then came into MedBay to do tasks, Lime following close behind.
Maroon and Red promptly left MedBay, only stopping for Red to pick up Wren once again.
After they went into the hallway, Red heard Lavender's voice say, "yo... what do you think that was about?"
"They were probably fighting over the last mashed potatoes in Cafeteria," Lime's voice said, obviously thoroughly believing his theory. "Those were really good, and we were running low last night."
"So... it was a food fight."
"Wait, what if WE started a food fight?"
"... but why??"
Red raised his eyebrows at that, but decided that was a problem for future Red to deal with.
Once they were out of earshot, Maroon sighed. "I mean, you were right about all that. Sorry I overreacted."
You think?
Red kept that to himself, and simply nodded at Maroon. "I understand. I'm not here to steal your job or try to do it better, I'm just trying to help."
Maroon nodded thoughtfully. "Oh, by the way, we'll be arriving at Polus very soon. I'm worried that the killer will strike again there, with the numerous hiding spots and more free, open space. Just... when we get there, please be on your guard."
Red sighed. "Will do."
After the interaction ceased, Red took Wren back to Navigation, where he had last seen the others.
To his surprise, they were still waiting for him.
"So, did it go well?" Pink asked.
"... Perfectly."
"Okay, so what do we all have on everyone so far?" Pink asked everyone. "Black? Purple?"
Purple spoke up. "Well, Lavender is a normal, chill guy, and Lime is strange, but definitely seems good. I doubt he has a bad bone in his body. Silver also seems pretty normal, but what about White?"
"White is fine, he's just paranoid and mistrusting of everyone after what happened to Indigo. Frankly, I don't blame him," Red reported.
Pink processed that information. "Well, they're not prime suspects, but don't rule any of them out just yet, all right?"
Purple nodded. "Well, we've done almost everyone, we just have Smalt and Peach."
Pink grimaced. "Not looking forward to that."
Black held up her tablet with an irritated expression. After interacting with Peach, I doubt I'll ever wanna eat a peach again.
Red let out a laugh for the first time in days, startling Wren. "Well... the sooner we talk to him, the sooner we can be done with the initial runthrough of suspects."
"And after that, we can get down to real business," Pink said determinedly.
Purple's eyes widened. "Wait, this wasn't real business already?"
"It's called investigating, you nitwit."
~~~~~
Location: Mira HQ
Green
Green and Blue had managed to assimilate into the crew without suspicion, and now they were officially off to another Mira HQ.
After they landed, Green assessed their targets.
Ten of them, two of us.
However, he kept getting distracted - he couldn't stop thinking of what Maelstrom had in store for them when they got back.
Something inside told him that they were in deep trouble, but there wasn't a lot he could do without attracting too much attention.
Blue also seemed distracted, even more so than Green.
But why are we in trouble? Is it because I brought Blue back with me?
I did everything right... how could we be in such trouble?
He didn't know where he went wrong. Amidst his confusion, only one thing was clear: Maelstrom was not happy with them.
He just didn't know why.
The crewmates all gathered around Cafeteria, and Lapis Lazuli gave the whole intro spiel that Green was certain everyone got sick of by the time they had gone on more than two missions.
While Lapis talked, Green subtly observed their soon-to-be victims, searching for any weaknesses to be exploited or any bonds that needed to be severed.
Cadmium and Scarlet seemed close - probably a couple.
Gray seemed to be the outcast of the group - no surprise there - so Green decided that she would definitely be the first target.
... And also because Blue and I both agree that she's f**king annoying.
An idea came to him: what if only one of them killed Gray, so that it looked like there was only one imposter at first?
He smiled at that, knowing that it would certainly take the others off guard.
Lapis Lazuli, the mission leader, kept glancing toward Violet as he spoke, signaling to Green that there was a definite bond there.
Glaucous and Titanium were also paired, as well as Dandelion and Cochineal.
The only loners were Onyx, who seemed like the quiet type, and Gray, who was just the crew outcast - for obvious reasons.
Looking around, Green realized that almost everyone was bonded with someone else.
Well... this is unusual.
After we kill off Gray and Onyx... we either have to do only double kills, or kill one member of a pair and frame the other.
This might just get tricky. And difficult.
Well, if I didn't have Blue, it would be a whole lot MORE difficult, he thought to himself.
But, even still... it is a lot harder to break two sticks than it is to break just one.
~~~~~
A/N: first chapter of 2021!
Fun fact: that whole scene with Maroon and Red was written at 1 AM, and I don't regret it.
Updates are slowly becoming weekly things... I'm gonna try to change that.
Well, I hope everyone had an enjoyable holiday season! And, for everyone that lives in the USA, please stay safe. Things aren't looking that good in Washington D.C. (as of January 7th, 2021).
Question of the chapter: what sort of things/character arcs/events do you want to see happen in this story, and why?