Chapter Text
Two Crewmates sat next to each other a TV in front of them showing a very enthusiastic orange colored Crewmate on the screen.
“Hi! I’m Orange! Now don’t think of me as your HR rep, think of me as your HR family!”
“Woah!” The green colored Crewmate exclaimed.
“The good folks here at MIRA have discovered a brand new energy source that we like to call Ore+! Your mission, is to deliver the Ore+ from this asteroid—“ Orange pointed at the asteroid on screen, “—all the way to Industria!” They continued, “first things first, now is a good time to pause the tape, and introduce yourself to anyone else in the room with you.” The tape was paused by the green colored Crewmate, who turned towards a white colored one.
”Hi! I’m Green, you’re White aren’t you? I think I saw you on TV!” Green said.
”I get that a lot, because I’m on TV a lot! Probably because of all my hard work!” White replied, Green slightly tilted their head to the side.
”Hard work? Like what?”
”oh boy, let me tell you. One day, I was walking down the street, completely minding my own business, when suddenly—out of nowhere, my parents offered a board member role, at their pharmaceutical company! And while summering—as a verb, my sommelier, whose name I don’t recall, presented the cork and on the underside was—you guessed it! A winning ride on this very ship!” White turned towards Green, “so basically the same thing that happens to everyone, what’s your equally enterprising life story?”
”I’m an unpaid intern.”
”…Anything else?”
”Oh! And I grew up on a worm farm!”
”oh—how rustic.” White said, Green unpaused the TV and accidentally began to fast-forward. “Uh, that’s a lot of important information…”
”Just a sec.” Green finally managed to get the TV playing at normal speed.
”—By combining your sick and paid days!” Green wasn’t sure what Orange was saying before that, now Orange was holding up a red ball. “Finally, to give you a personalized tour of the ship, I want to introduce you to—“ The TV was moved to the side as the door slid open, smoke filled the room and the two grunted—probably in annoyance for White. Once the smoke cleared, Orange was now in front of them, tossing the red ball into the air and catching it again. “—Me! But now I’m real! Welcome to the Skeld! We’re so happy to have you amongst us! …or is it among us? I always forget which one is grammatically correct.” Green and White began clapping.
“That’s right, it’s me! Now, when you catch the trust ball, you have to say a fun fact about yourself.” Orange threw the trust ball up into the air before catching it. “My fun fact is that I have two pairs of shoes, one for normal day wear, and one for when I’m feeling sumptuous.” Orange tossed the trust ball over to White, who caught it.
”uh—it doesn’t matter how much sleep I get, I always get up feeling well rested and ready to start the day!” White then tossed the trust ball over to Green, who began to struggle with it before dropping it, they awkwardly bent over and picked it back up.
“Well, I grew up in a pretty poor area, and everyone back at home believed in my dream of becoming a captain, so the town pulled together all their meager resources to send me off to school a—“
”Wow what a unique dream to have.” Orange cut them off, resulting in a soft sigh from Green. “Now everyone already knows you’re coming so let’s start our meet and greet!” They started backing up with Green and White following behind. In what Green assumed was a storage room, Green nearly ran into a black colored Crewmate.
”Woah!”
”Excuse me.” The black Crewmate murmured, setting down a crate of Ore+.
”Sometimes, your unpaid internship will require you to work with Black and Cyan, our two geologists.” Orange explained, gesturing towards the two named Crewmates.
”Namaste.”
”I’m the geologist, Cyan is a gemologist.” Green titled their head at Black’s words, were those not the same thing? Green realized Orange must’ve upset Black, who had pulled out a pipe.
”Oh! Look at the time! Gotta go!” Orange quickly nudged Green and White out of the storage room, the three making their way towards another room. “And this is the reactor room, sometimes your duties will require you to—“ a lime colored Crewmate suddenly popped out of the vent, scaring the three.
”Finally! The reactor room! Those darn gremlins must be turnin’ the vents around! Gotta flush ‘em out with some holy water.” They lifted out a jar of water, setting to the side as Orange started speaking again.
”This is Lime, our engineer.”
“I’m also an oriented minister.” Green was about to say something when White started speaking.
”Oh—uh, why are you in the vents?” I was about to ask that!
”What are you, a cop?”
”No, but I’m friends with cops! I’m friends with all kinds of people; landlords, influencers, politicians’ children, people who green-lit live action versions of animated movies, oh an—“
”I ain’t got time for you jaw-waggers!” Lime crawled back into the vent, saying some nonsense that Green couldn’t make out.
”Uh, L-Lime is our most—unambiguous Crewmate.” I can tell Green though as they and White began rapidly nodding.
”Next up is Purple, who should be—“ Purple was not in the security room. “Oh well I guess not!” They then made their way to Medbay, “darn! I guess we’ll have to skip to the next Crewmate who I like the same amount as everyone else!” Why did they have to specify that? “Oh! Hello doctor.” Green peeked into Medbay to see who Orange was talking to. Oh…
”Hello.” The blue colored Crewmate turned around, Orange blushing at them.
“Uh—trust ball?” Orange tossed the trust ball over to Blue.
”After my time building structurally sound homes for the unhoused, I found that trust isn’t given, it’s built.” Blue tossed the trust ball back, Green barely flinched as the ball hit them in the visor.
”You are the most attractive person I’ve ever met.” Green let the words slip out of them.
”let’s not objectify the hot doctor.” Orange leaned over towards Green. They then headed off to the cafeteria.
”And this is the cafeteria! I think we can skip this very boring—very safe, working environment!”
”Oh wowie wawa!” Green looked around, catching a glimpse of two chefs in the kitchen, they could’ve swore they heard one of them talking.
”How many beans you being paid intern?” Green turned around to see the yellow colored Crewmate calling out to them.
”We don’t need to discuss our rate of beans!” Orange tried to put themselves in between Yellow and Green, though Yellow just climbed over the kitchen counter and ran up to Orange, jabbing at their chest with a finger.
”Discussion of wages is protected speech!” Yellow grabbed Orange by the collar and threw them into the kitchen. “C’mon Green, spill it on three.”
”Oh are you putting salt on this pizza? I love salt!” Orange said from the kitchen, Yellow just ignored them.
”one, two, three.” Yellow held up their hand and counted down.
”Nothing you’re an unpaid intern.”
”Nothing I’m an unpaid intern.” They said simultaneously, Yellow made some sort of noise before walking over to Orange.
”Give me that!” Yellow snatched the trust ball from Orange, turning back to Green.
“Unpaid internships favor the wealthy while being a capitalist exploitation under the guise of helping them achieve their personal and financial dreams.” Yellow threw the trust ball behind them, the brown colored Crewmate appearing behind them and catching the ball.
”Preach.” They said.
”That’s enough indoctrination for now! Bye!” Orange pushed Green and White out of the cafeteria.
”What’s a capitalist?” Green asked.
”Me!” White replied, Orange narrowed their visor at that.
”Okay you two! We’ve got the big one coming up!” Green’s visor lit up.
”Oh, you mean—?”
“That’s right! The captain!” Green sprinted ahead at Orange’s words, I can’t believe it! I’m gonna meet a captain!
”Sorry I’m just so excited my legs started moving without my brain’s input!” They skidded to a stop at the sight of a red colored Crewmate speaking to someone, Green paid no attention to the conversation as the captain saluted before sitting down in a chair. Pressing some buttons before the ship finally took off, Green took off their hat as they walked in, the captain turning around.
”Ahoy there!” Green didn’t know what to say.
”Uh—permission to come aboard?” Why did I ask that? Red chuckled, patting Green on the shoulder.
”Permission granted! Uh, here, I’ll take that trust ball.” Orange handed the trust ball to Red. “I’m Red, captain of the Skeld! Transporting Ore+ across the galaxy is a lot of responsibility, but someone has to do it, and that someone is me! Captain Red—captain of the Skeld.” Okay then. “Me!” Red squeezed the trust ball.
”I am so excited to be here! I want to fly a ship of my own one day!” Green watched Red stand up from the chair, moving to the side.
”Well why wait? Anyone in this room want to try piloting this ship?” Right when Green stepped forward, a purple colored Crewmate walked in as White got into the seat instead.
”Hey captain there seems to be—woah! Is the contest winner flying the ship?” Green turned around, when did White start piloting? Before anyone could respond, Purple stepped forward and yanked the steering wheel out of White’s hands. “Red, you should be piloting the ship! Not this guy!” They pulled White out of the seat.
”Awww.” White whined as they walked back over to Green and Orange.
”Oh! This is Purple! Our chief of security!” Orange gestured to Purple, who sighed and rolled their visor before briefly waving. “That concludes our little tour!” Orange said as they ushered Green and White out of Navigation, Green could’ve swore they heard Purple yelling at Red.
They were led towards a room with a bed on the two sides of the room. “This is your assigned sleeping quarters! You’ll be given some time to adjust before your first few tasks!” Orange walked off as Green and White entered, Green decided to choose the bed on the right side of the room while White chose the bed on the left side.
Green wandered off to explore the ship a bit more, coming across the Admin room Orange didn’t show this to us. They then went to Shelds, happily greeting Lime who briefly stuck their head out of the vent before climbing back in the moment they noticed Green. Well that was rude.
A few hours later, Green walked back into their sleeping quarters, greeting White who was sitting in the bed, Green sat in their own bed.
”What do you think about the ship?” Green asked.
”Y’know, I was hoping this ship wasn’t going to look like it’s being held together by nothing but duct tape, but it’ll do.” White muttered, Green laid down and looked up at the ceiling.
”Don’t worry White! I’m sure this’ll be fun!” White shrugged and laid down as well, I can’t wait for tomorrow! Green thought closing their visor and slowly falling asleep.