[Synopsis: So, about Bro. You know, the rude, stuck-up blue guy who never grew out of his "rebellious teen" phase? What kind of pet do you think someone like him would have? A pit bull? A scorpion? A tarantula? The correct answer may surprise you...]

[Location: MIRA HQ]

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"I swear, Charlie here is the greatest charmer this earth's ever seen!" Captain claimed. "He's so irresistibly lovable that he cured Dum's ophidiophobia!"

"A snake with charm? Puh-lease. Cheddar's a thousand times more popular with people than your slimy danger noodle could ever be," MrCheese sneered, his dog smirking confidently at the remark.

"For the last time, MrCheese, he's NOT SLIMY! Stop insulting my precious Charlie like that!" Captain snapped back, holding his beloved python closer. "Dum! Player! Back me up here!"

"I mean, it IS true, MrCheese," Dum nodded.

"Yeah, you are wrong about the slimy part," Player concurred. "And really, Cheddar doesn't seem all that pleasant compared to him. At least not to me...I will say this, though; I don't plan to introduce Charlie to Gerald any time soon."

"Ohhh, yea, that might not end well," Dum agreed, looking into the hamster ball at Player's side. "He might think your hamster's one of those dead mice Captain feeds him."

"As much as I trust Charlie, I wouldn't put it past him to make a mistake like that..." Captain said, cringing at the thought of such a gruesome fate for little Gerald. "It's a good thing he has a hamster ball!"

"Heh heh, yeah...You know, this whole 'Bring Your Pet to Work Day' thing turned out pretty interesting, didn't it?"

"Hey Sherrif!" Dum asked the brown-clad crewmember leaning against the wall. "Do you have some kinda pet?"

"Darn tootin'," he nodded, despite not appearing to have any with him. "But if I try draggin' a 16 hand Appaloosa onto the rooftop, I'd be given the old heave-ho in a jiff...I did bring a photo, though. Closest I can get, ain't it?"

He showed off a picture of the animal in question, and everyone marveled at it.

"What's its name?" Player asked.

"His name's Alamo. Mighty fine specimen, ain't he?"

He was indeed; the horse's coat had chestnut speckles and spots dotted all over its white background, and his legs and head were almost completely brown, save for the striking blaze running down his long face, breaking the spotted pattern.

"Hmf...Yeah, guess he's cool."

A new voice spoke up, and everyone looked over to see who'd joined them. A familiar blue-clad figure in a backwards cap now stood amongst them.

"Oh, hey Bro," Player greeted, not particularly excited by his arrival; everyone who knew him well enough agreed that he was a little bit of a jerk.

"Hi Bro!" Dum greeted him, sounding more pleased to see him, as she didn't know him quite that well. "You know today's Bring Your Pet to Work Day, right?"

"Heck yeah I do. But I, uh..."

Bro looked around at what the others had with them. MrCheese's dog, Player's hamster, Sherrif's horse(at least, the photo of it,) Happy's brain slug, Veteran's millipede, and...Captain and Dum had a snake!?  That was the last pet he expected a pair of naïve no-brainers like them to have.

He looked up at his hat for a moment before continuing.

"...I was afraid mine might be a handful if I brought him here," he finished.

"Why? What is he?" Veteran asked.

"He's, uh, he's a pit bull. His name's Ripper; light brown with a big white patch on his chest. LOVES to chew on stuff. I, uh...gotta make sure he's got plenty o' bones, y'know? I didn't think it'd be a good idea to bring him here because of all that, though."

"Oh. I see," Captain remarked, the mental image of Bro's dog making him shrink back a bit. "Yes, Bro, that was probably for the best."

"And he's REALLY aggressive with other dogs," Bro continued, eyeing Cheddar. "And I, uh, knew MrCheese had one, so...I'm not gonna have any lawsuits filed against me today...or whatever."

"Uh, yeah, smart move there Bro," MrCheese nodded in agreement. "If ANYTHING like that ever happened to Cheddar, I'd be on whoever was responsible like a bullet on a crewmate's brain."

"Jeez..." Veteran remarked, deciding to find an opportunity to ease some of the rising tension. "Hey, uh, Captain. You wanna start the game up?"

"Sure thing!" he smiled, starting the countdown. "Alright, everyone. Make sure you keep your pets with you while you're doing your tasks!"

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It came as a bit of a surprise at first that whoever the Impostors were didn't seem to be killing people very quickly, but they eventually concluded that it was because they had their pets with them that day, and they didn't want to upset the animals...Sheriff and Bro were deemed the two prime suspects since they had no pets with them and were still alive, meaning that an Impostor would have been able to target them without agitating their pet. But it was agreed upon that they wouldn't be voted out unless someone saw either of them kill, and in the meantime, the crew was to attempt a task win.

"Peaceful day, isn't it, Bro?" Captain mentioned to the blue-clad crewmember as he bought a dubious-looking yellow beverage in a beaker from the vending machine, trying and failing to punch in the right code for it over and over again. Charlie was wrapped loosely around his neck and oxygen tank, curiously watching his owner try to purchase the drink. "If my calculations are correct, when we hold a meeting, the task bar should be a good three-quarters full!"

Captain thought he heard an odd, high-pitched noise coming from Bro's direction, and he whipped his head around to look at him.

"You say something, Bro?"

Had Captain been more observant, he'd have noticed that Bro had tensed up, and his eyes had become slightly wider than before. But being Captain, this went unnoticed, because he was about as perceptive as a brick wall.

"No. Nothing. Nothing at all," he responded quickly.

The white crewmate simply shrugged it off, and Bro headed into the small storage unit to grab the watering can from there.

"Ha! Gotcha now!"

Captain finally punched in the correct code for his drink of choice, and he pulled it out of the drop box, popping the cork off and taking a swig of it...Fortunately, the beverage was nothing more than sparkling lemonade, contained in a lab beaker for the whole science aesthetic that the HQ had going on.

But before Captain could take another drink from the bottle, he heard the critical emergency alarm begin to blare.

"Reactor meltdown, huh?" he remarked as he looked up at his task list to see what the problem was. "Better get a move on."

Before he could leave the Cafeteria, he saw Bro rushing out of Storage, watering can in his left hand as he headed his way.

"Come on, Bro! We've got a reactor to fix! This isn't the Skeld, y'know! There's a decontamination hallway separating us from the problem, and we can't spend any more precious time than we have to!"

They both ran up the hallway, made a left turn down into the Locker Room and met a bigger portion of the crew in the decontamination hall just in time before the doors shut on them.

"Emergency protocol, gang! You know what to do, right?"

"Sure do, Captain," Player nodded, holding Gerald's ball in his hands; the hamster inside was obviously nervous due to the blaring siren, so he did his best to comfort him.

Once the doors opened up, they all made their way towards the reactor, the crowd splitting in half as each party went to stabilize a different side of the structure.

Once one person on each side of the reactor placed their hand on the scanner, the reactor was restabilized, and the alarms stopped...Order had been maintained, and with only three seconds to spare.

"Phew...Close call there, team. The place could have been blown to bits if we'd been a few seconds late."

"I don't wanna imagine that..." Bro mumbled, seeming to loosen his cap a bit.

"Well, gang, I've got a few tasks here in the lab," Captain continued, giving the python wrapped around him a boop on the snoot. "If anyone else has to stick around in here, why don't we all do them in a group? I know the Impostors haven't done much but sabotage this round, but you can never be-"

"Wh-what the...?"

Captain paused, then looked over at Bro again to see him fumbling with his hat even more, lifting it clean off his head and patting all over his head with his hands as though something on his head was amiss.

"What's the matter, Bro?"

He didn't seem to hear Captain's question.

"Oh, no, no no no no NO, where'd...!?"

He whipped his head around as he scanned the reactor, then ran into the lab and ran around there for a few seconds before coming back out into the main room.

"Pardon me, Bro," TheGentleman addressed. "Are you quite alright?"

The blue crewmate removed his hat again then scanned the reactor one more time. By the time he'd come to a stop, he was beginning to stagger on his feet, and he placed a hand over his chest to try and slow his increasingly rapid breathing, his visor wide as a dinner plate with horror.

"What's eatin' ya, man?" Veteran asked him, cautiously reaching out and placing a hand on his back to try and calm him. But Bro just shrunk back and pushed him away, severely lacking his usual energy and attitude.

"I...I-I-I lost something," he finally responded. "S-something important, and if I don't find it, I...B-bad things are gonna happen, okay!?"

"What'd you lose?"

"It-I...It's a..." he stammered. "J-just look around the place, and if you see anything that doesn't look like it belongs there, let me know! I'm goin' back to look around!"

With that, Bro opened the door to the Decontamination hall and ran towards the locker room. Captain, Sheriff and Stoner all followed him into the hall.

"Well gang, you heard him," the white crewmate told his other two party members. "If you see anything out of place anywhere, report it."

"Sure thing, marshmallow man..." Stoner nodded lazily, giving a thumbs up.

"I'll search every nook and cranny of the rooftop if that need be," Sheriff promised.

As soon as the doors opened, Bro rushed out of the hallway and broke off from the crowd...The three remaining there heard him start to yell something, but he was already too far away for them to comprehend what he was shouting.

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...

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Several minutes passed by, and nobody had found anything particularly odd anywhere throughout the map. Bro was still running around the map in a frenzy, yelling something whenever he was by himself and stopping whenever he saw someone nearby...Some of the crewmembers thought that he might be hiding something. Perhaps he was an Impostor, and the item he lost was a knife or pistol? But he had other methods of killing at his disposal, number one, and number two was that if he had lost a weapon of some kind, he would absolutely not be going into a panic about it. He found loopholes to situations all the time; something like that would be no problem for him to find a way through.

"Doesn't make any sense..." Sheriff said to himself as he scanned the Cafeteria and Balcony for anything strange, deciding to clear the asteroids while he was there as well. "What on God's green earth could he have lost that was so important that if he don't find it, his whole-"

He stopped talking to himself when he heard a sharp, loud noise coming from somewhere back inside. He turned around and faced the sliding door, just finishing his task, and slowly stepped off the balcony and back into the Cafeteria, guard raised and curiosity piqued...Was that a scream he'd heard? Did one of the Impostors get someone?

"...Hello?" he called out, hoping for a response. "Someone there?"

The screech sounded off again, short, shrill and high-pitched...It sounded like it was coming from inside Storage.

"Now, what in tarnation...?"

Sheriff entered through the doorway to the closet and looked around. What was making those screeching noises? It didn't sound like a noise an Impostor would make, but he still hoped it wasn't something dangerous.

He looked behind a stack of books, then behind a metal crate, and then inside an open cardboard box full of white rags.

And in that rag box, he made a discovery.

"What the...?"

A tiny package of green, gold and reddish-orange feathers showed up against the white rags, nibbling on some of the terrycloth.

"Well, well, well..." the brown-clad crewmate remarked, his guard finally lowering. "What've we got here?"

He pointed his finger out towards the tiny parrot to see how it might react. It screeched a bit more at the sight of an unfamiliar hand, but once it realized Sheriff had no ill intent, it slowly raised its foot up and cautiously stepped up onto his index finger.

"Ain't you a little ray o' sunshine?"

The bird tilted its head a bit to get a better look at the crewmate holding it, seeming to analyze him by the gaze in his eyes...It decided that Sheriff was trustworthy, and relaxed where it was perched.

"I don't recall anyone bringin' a bird here today," he noted. "But I can't imagine that you flew all the way up here from somewhere. It's too high...Guess I'll have to ask around and see if-"

"Mango!? Come on, where are you!?"

Sheriff turned around to see someone else entering storage. It was Bro, and he looked more distressed than ever. He could have sworn he even saw tears starting to form in the corners of his visor at that point.

Who's Mango? he wondered, absentmindedly looking at the bird in his hand...And quickly noticing how its coloration strikingly resembled said fruit.

He put two and two together, and Sheriff immediately knew what the deal was.

"Bro?"

The blue crewmate jumped a bit at the sound of his name, but still made pretty quick eye contact with Sheriff once he saw him.

"Sheriff. Sheriff, d-did you have any luck finding anything?"

"As a matter of fact, I believe I did."

"Y-you did...?"

"Yeah, the thing you lost. Did it happen to look anything like this?"

He held the parrot up for him to see, and Bro went from worried sick to beaming with happiness in a split second.

"That's it! Mango, oh man, thank God you're okay...!"

The parrot hopped right into Bro's open hands, and he drew it right up to him in a soft embrace, gently stroking the top of his head as a tear flowed freely from his visor.

"Ah, Mango...I...D-don't ever go off on your own like that again!" he scolded, taking a moment to look the bird in the eye and point at it. But the very next moment, he was petting him again. "You scared the crap out o' me...Oh, man, I'm so glad you're okay."

"So, uh..." Sheriff spoke up, raising an eyebrow. "...Is this your pet?"

"Huh?"

Bro looked up at his brown-clad colleague, looking a bit startled by the question.

"Thought you said you had one o' them rotten pit bulls?"

Knowing he'd been caught in a lie, Bro lowered his head and sighed in defeat.

"...No. I don't," he admitted. "I just...I guess I just said that to prop up my tough face to the rest of the crew."

"So why'd you bring your bird anyways?"

"I didn't wanna have to leave him home alone on Bring Your Pet to Work Day! I just...I thought I could keep him under my hat, like I usually do at home without there bein' a problem. He has a habit of landing on my head, wedging himself under my hat and just...stayin' there for hours. But I guess he got too curious about the place and wandered off at some point."

"Well, you got him back now," Sherrif nodded as they both headed back out of Storage, re-entering the Cafeteria. "He's a fine-lookin' lil' feller, gotta say. What kind is he?"

"Lovebird," Bro replied, removing his hat and sticking Mango back on his head. "He's a Nyasa Lovebird."

"Int'restin'...Y'know, the rest of the crew would probably like him a lot better than that imaginary pit bull you say you have back home."

"What-Oh, no, I...I can't tell the others about this now, they'll think I'm some kinda lyin' chump."

"Ya think so, do ya? Well...Guess I can understand that."

"You do...?"

"Sure I do."

Just as Bro was about to heave a sigh of relief, Sheriff reached out for the emergency button and smashed it with his palm, calling everyone to the meeting table.

EMERGENCY MEETING

"Hey, y'all!" he hollered once the crowd had formed. "I found what Bro was lookin' for! He's got a dang bird with 'im!"

Everyone immediately turned to look at Bro, who did indeed have a bird sitting on his head in place of his cap...The blue crewmate froze where he stood, eyes wide and unblinking.

Dum was the first one to respond, letting out a long, loud gasp as a huge smile appeared on her face.

"Oh my God, that's SO CUTE~!"

"It looks like a little piece of feather fruit!" Captain chimed in.

"Ha ha, cheese louise!" MrCheese piped up. "Where the heck didja find that, Bro?"

"Uh...Petco?"

"Wait, so...It's your bird?" Player asked him. Bro's blue face turned purple with embarrassment in barely a second.

"Uh...Yeah."

"Thought you said you had a bulldog, or something," Veteran remarked as Jeff absentmindedly crawled around on his open hands.

"Pit bull. And, uh...Yeah, I did say that. But I was just tryin' to put on a show, I guess...I ain't got a dog like that. I ain't got any dog...Just this little guy up here."

"Soooo, the whole thing about Ripper was just a big fat fib?" MrCheese asked.

"...Yeah."

"Wow, that's...kind of a stupid thing to lie about," Player remarked.

"I know..."

"Yes, especially considering that none of us were particularly impressed by your supposed havoc-wreaking, overly aggressive pit bull," TheGentleman added.

"You weren't?"

"Heavens no. Your fabricated pet sounded like something that crawled out of the dark pits of the underworld...The reality of the situation is far more appealing to us than what you first described!"

"Seriously?"

"I should say so myself!" Happy chimed in. "You've got yourself a fine pet! Of course, not as fine as Balthazar, but still impressive!"

"Wow...Well, uh...Alright then. Forget everything I said about the dog."

He placed the lovebird on the table and put his cap back on.

"This here's Mango. We clicked the day I saw him at the pet store, and he's been there for me ever since...I don't take him out of the house much, since he, uh...has a tendency to explore. But I went and decided to make an exception today...Sorry he caused a bit of a ruckus; I guess he found a few things in Storage interesting, and decided to squirm out from under his hiding spot to check 'em out."

"He's a beautiful specimen indeed," TheGentleman complimented. "How long have you had him?"

"Like, almost a year."

"Does he know any tricks?" Player asked.

"Fam...This bird can beatbox."

"Really?" Veteran remarked, raising an eyebrow. "I'd like to see somethin' like THAT with my own two eyes."

"Care to give us a demonstration?" Happy urged.

"Don't mind if I DO..."

Bro got Mango's attention, then started to bob his head up and down at him...The lovebird took this as a signal to start, and he started to do the same as he brought home the beat.

"Bub bub CHH, bub bub-bub CHH, bub bub CHH, bub bub-bub CHH..."

The crowd was impressed; they knew parrots could learn to speak and whistle, but beatboxing? This was definitely impressive.

"What'd I tell ya?" Bro told them, letting his bird step back up onto his finger. "This bird's got the skills to pay the bills. Now take a bow, Mango."

The parrot dipped his head down for a second, then brought it back up. The crowd gave him an applause.

"Okay, that was awesome," Veteran remarked. "...Say, does he like stuff like diced apples? I brought some treats for Jeff here today, and I figured 'hey, that seems like somethin' a bird would eat,' so..."

"Oh yeah, he loves fruit. I feed him stuff like grapes and banana slices all the time."

"You feed him any mangoes yet?" MrCheese inquired.

"Ain't that cannibalism?"

"Well, guess Cheddar and I are cannibals, because we eat lotsa cheese on a daily basis. Ain't that right, bud?"

"Ruff."

"Heh heh, yeah, I know. I just haven't bought any yet. I'll have to see 'bout that..."

The conversation continued for a long time after that; the other pets were eventually incorporated into the discussion, but for a long while, the focus was mainly on Mango. And as with long group conversations, time flew by quickly. By the time everything had about wrapped up, the sun had already set, and it was time for everyone to pack up and head back out.

"Man...Guess we'll have to get back up tomorrow, huh?" Player remarked. "Man, we didn't even figure out who the Impostors were."

"Nope. They didn't even kill anybody," Captain nodded. "Gotta admit, though, that was a nice change for once. It feels good not having to look over your shoulder every other second to make sure someone isn't coming after you, ha...And, ah, we've got Bro and his awesome bird to thank in part for that."

"Ey, it was nothin'," the blue crewmate replied. "Man, and for a while, I was actually afraid you'd think he was lame...Guess that was kinda dumb."

"Oh, yeah, it was pretty dumb," MrCheese giggled, Cheddar joining him.

"Don't push it, you two cheese heads..."

"Welp, it was fun, everyone!" Captain bid the crew. "Dum and I are gonna head out; Charlie has to eat tonight, and she wanted me to show her how to feed him and not freak out!"

"Pffft, Captain...!" Dum laughed. "Hee hee hee hee hee hee...!"

Captain left the game.

Dum left the game.

"Later, guys. Gerald's probably gotta be put back in his cage, and...*yawn,* I'm getting kinda tired myself. I'll go to bed once he's taken care of."

"G'night, Player," Veteran told his best friend.

Player left the game.

"Yeah, same thing goes for me and Jeff. Catch you guys tomorrow."

Veteran left the game.

"Yeah, Alamo's gonna need some hay. Might give 'im a peppermint while I'm at it. Same time, same place, fellas."

Sheriff left the game.

"Well, I suppose I should be getting home myself," Happy announced. "I've been working on getting Balthazar here to eat normal food so he doesn't have to feed off of brainwaves and induce mind control while attached to my head!"

Happy left the game.

"Yeah, you go do that," MrCheese remarked...Happy might have been his protégé, but that didn't mean he was any less weird than the rest of the crew. In fact, he was quite a bit MORE weird than most of them. "Hey, Cheddar, TheGentleman. You wanna watch a movie when we head home?"

"That sounds like a lovely way to wind down for the evening, MrCheese! What did you have in mind?"

"After today? Anything but Marley and Me."

"Runf?"

"No, we're not watching Old Yeller either, Cheddar. If you wanna watch a dog movie, we're watching Beethoven, because he doesn't fweakin' DIE in the end."

MrCheese left the game.

TheGentleman left the game.

Bro looked around...Everyone else was gone.

"Welp...guess it's just you and me, Mango," he said to his lovebird. "...Hey, whadaya say I stop at the neighborhood market tomorrow and pick up an actual mango and see if you like it?"

"Sounds like a plan to me. Now let's head back to our pad and grab some grub; the millet's callin' my name."

"...what..."

"I mean, uh...Bub bub CHH, bub bub-bub CHH."

"Oh, oh thank God...Man, my brain must be fried from all the panic you put me through today, I could've sworn you just...Nah, that's ridiculous."

Bro left the game.

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Hope you fellas enjoyed this one! Bro's character needs a bit more fleshing out, no?