[Synopsis: Whenever Player is exceptionally tired, he tends to become clingier and more affectionate. Only his family ever really knew about this...until now, at least.]

[Location: Various different places]

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Beep beep beep beep beep beep beep

Player slowly, reluctantly pried his visor open, shifted his gaze to his nightstand and took a peek at his alarm clock...7:30 a.m., it read. He'd gotten barely three hours of sleep last night after finally finishing his portion of the group project he was in, and he'd been working on it ever since six the previous evening, siting sources, editing and proofreading his 1,500-word portion of the written segment before finally submitting it.

"Ohhh, God..." he groaned as he turned the alarm off. "I hope I at least get a 'B' on this thing after all that..."

He pushed the covers off of himself, and immediately a chill went up his spine as the warmth they gave him went off with them. Nonetheless, the red clad crewmate lifted himself upright and pushed himself off the edge of the bed and onto his bedroom floor. He staggered for a moment, then stretched as best he could to see if that would help at all...He felt a bit less stiff, but it didn't make him any less tired.

...The good news was that it was a Saturday, so he didn't have to worry about rushing to get anything done. But still, Player knew today was going to be one of those "no energy days."

Great...

Just then, there was a knock at his door. Player was jolted back to his senses for just long enough to mutter a coherent reply.

"Come in..."

The knob turned, and in peered the familiar pink head of his sister, a twinge of concern in her visor behind the sticky note.

"Mornin', Player," she greeted. "I heard you mumbling a lot in here last night, so I figured I'd check and make sure you were good."

"Oh...Yeah, that was me finishing up my written portion of the group project," he muttered in response. "Last thing that had to be done..."

"You look awful tired," Dum remarked, fully entering her brother's room and approaching him. "...Think some breakfast will perk you up? Mom's making strawberry pancakes!"

A faint smile came to Player's face; that was his favorite breakfast food.

"Hope so..." he nodded, eyelids growing heavy again. "...I don't know how much I'm gonna be able to do t'day, though..."

"Player?"

Without much in the way of warning, the red crewmate suddenly leaned forward and landed against Dum, nuzzling his visor into the crook of her neck slightly.

"...I'm just in that kinda mood."

"Heh heh...A snuggly mood?"

"...Yeah...Guess so..."

The pink crewmate lifted her hands up and squeezed him back, and she felt him go slightly limp where he stood.

"Don't fall asleep on me, okay?"

At that, Player slowly stood up straight again and looked her in the eye.

"...I'll try," he jeered, a weary, crooked smile forming across his face. Dum gave him one more smile before letting go of him and motioning for him to follow her downstairs.

After managing to make his way down to the kitchen without stumbling, he parked himself in one of the dining room chairs and melted I to it as best he could, vaguely aware of the fact that his mother was finishing up the fourth plate of pancakes and that his father's favorite coffee mug was at the Keurig station, slowly filling up with the bittersweet brown acid that provided the weary mind the means with which to function.

...He reminded himself twice within the next thirty seconds to not forget to make himself a cup once his dad had grabbed his own.

"Morning, sunshine," the purple crewmate chirped happily as she set Player's breakfast down before him on the table. "Heard you were up studying a lot last night. Think you did good?"

"Huh...?" Player asked, still pretty out of it. "Oh. Uh...Yeah. My part, at least...It's a group thing. There's this one guy in the group who's kind of a...y'know...talks out of his butt a lot."

"An airhead, huh?" the yellow crewmate in the room asked as he grabbed his coffee mug from the maker. "Yeah, I remember havin' to work with a guy like that; we didn't flunk the assignment, but he probably kept us from getting any higher than a B."

"B, huh? Well...That's not too bad, I guess."

As Player lethargically got up to fetch himself his own cup of black gold, his mother approached him.

"Just take it easy today, dear," she told Player as he readied the coffee maker and slid a mug underneath the fountain. "There's not much to do today anyway, so you should have plenty of time to recharge."

"Heh..."

Without even realizing what he was doing, Player leaned off to the side and landed softly against the purple figure to his left. 

"...Thanks, Mom."

She smiled at him tenderly, pulling her son in the rest of the way and enveloping him in her warm hold.

"Looks like he's in one of those moods today, huh?" Alan remarked from behind the two of them.

"Yeah..." Player replied quietly. "I'm just...yeah..."

"Player?" his mother addressed him.

"Hm...?"

"I hate to cut this short, but I've got to turn the stove off. Oh, and your coffee's finished."

"Oh. Heh...Sorry, thanks," he chortled lightly as he stood up straight again, grabbing his drink from the coffee maker. "And I gotta eat the breakfast you made, too, don't I?"

"Better hurry up Player, I just finished mine and I'm eyein' yours up!" Dum teased.

"Psh...Sure, sis."

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...

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"There we go. Finally finished..."

As Player walked away from the upload screen, his feet dragged along the ground slightly. He'd been doing alright ever since he ate breakfast, and he'd even just had lunch before entering the lobby and hopping aboard the Skeld, but now, several hours later, he was beginning to slow down again.

At least I don't have anything super rigorous on my task list... he said to himself as he made his way to the trash chute.

"Oh, hey Player, how ya doin'?"

The red crewmate turned to see MrCheese exiting Weapons, hands folded neatly behind his back.

"Hey, MrCheese," he greeted tiredly. "Eh...Not too great, really. I stayed up really late last night working on a group assignment, and I'm just kind of low energy today."

"Group projects? Aw man, I used to love doin' those! I remember me and my assigned guys worked on a study about celestial bodies and the dos and don'ts of dealing with them in space, it was super fun! Heck, we got the highest score in the class, heh heh!"

Player frowned, then trudged toward the center table and plopped down onto one of the seats there.

"Well...At least you had a good experience. One of the guys in my group is just...a no-brainer."

"That so, huh?" the orange crewmate asked as he took a seat beside him. "Man, that's weird. I never really had anyone like that in any of my group projects."

"If that's the case, you don't know just how lucky you are."

"Guess you're right, heh heh...Sorry you gotta deal with stupid cwap like that. I might not have had anyone like that in a group project before, but I know when someone's uber stupid when I see 'em, and it just makes me wonder what it could be that possibly made 'em so stupid, y'know?"

"Heh...Guess there's always a reason, even if we never figure it out."

Player sighed, then folded his hands and lowered his head down onto the table.

"Taking out the trash is my last task...I'll get it done in just a minute or two."

"How 'bout I stick around and keep you some company then?" MrCheese offered. "Besides, with one of the Impostors still on the loose, it'd be good to have some extra protection, right? Heh heh."

In response, Player lifted his head up again and leaned right into the orange figure beside him.

"Good idea..."

"Sleepy, huh?"

"Yeah..."

MrCheese gave him a friendly smile as he pulled Player in closer, resting his hand against the red bean's back.

"You just chill for a bit. You probably won't be tired for too long, y'know?"

"Yeah...I..."

Player trailed off as he lokked off to the side and down at MrCheese's hand, which was still resting against him just past his oxygen tank.

"Uh...What's that?"

"What's what?"

Player blinked and squinted as he peered down at the orange crewmate's hand...Was his tired brain just playing tricks on him, or was MrCheese's hand covered in messy red specks?

"O-oh! That?" the orange figure asked, suddenly much more alert. "Oh, I just had a bit of a ketchup mishap when we were havin' our lunch here earlier, you know how it is, heh heh."

"I thought you said ketchup didn't go good on your Philly cheesesteak..."

He found himself looking back towards Weapons...And from just behind the far corner of the room, he saw more red splatter, and a black foot was sticking out from behind the chair in the room.

That was when, in just a split second, Player's eyes shot wide open, and just a moment afterward, they shot a piercing, venomous glare MrCheese's way.

"...You rotten milk hunk."

"Player, PLAYER WAIT-!"

It was too late. Player had already pressed the emergency button and summoned the other four remaining crewmates to the table.

"What seems to be the problem, Player?" MrEgg inquired.

"MrCheese," he huffed, still trying to get over the shock of the situation. But MrCheese was quick to counter Player's attempt to off him.

"Guys, guys, don't listen to him, it's HIM! I just saw him kill TheGentleman in Weapons!"

"Ugh...'m not in the mood for this, MrCheese," the red crewmate sighed.

"Hmmm...Judging by the reactions given, I'm willing to bet MrCheese is trying to frame," Engineer remarked.

"What!? What, no! I swear, you guys! I...What makes ME sus!?"

"First of all, Player called the meeting. Secondly, this was a meeting and not a report, which is what your most likely response would have been had Player actually killed TheGentleman."

"I thought we were havin' a nice buddy moment, man," the red bean said to MrCheese, glaring at him. "Were you seriously going to kill me like that?"

"W-well, I...Okay yeah, but it was partly 'cuz I thought if I made you a ghost, you wouldn't be so tired anymore. Y-you know, so you could have your cake, and I could eat mine!"

"Um...I'm not sure that's how the saying goes," Gnome replied.

"MrCheese, as much as I can tell you meant what you said about Player's predicament, I'm afraid we're going to have to vote you off," MrEgg said to him. "PoopyFarts, your input?"

"Pfffrt."

Judging by the brown crewmate's nod of approval, the decision was synonymous amongst the crew.

"Welp, all in favor of casting MrCheese out into the vacuum of space, say aye," Engineer shrugged.

"AYE!"

"Aw, come on guys!"

It wasn't much use, though. MrCheese was seized by most of the crew and dragged over to the airlock. Player stayed at the table, staring lackadaisically; the burst of energy and alertness that'd come with his realization about MrCheese had begun to wear off at that point.

Wonder how much longer his kill cooldown had... he said to himself as he continued to watch the orange crewmate get ejected into space.

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MrCheese was An Impostor.
0 Impostors remain.

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Just a moment later, the screen faded to black, and the crew's victory made itself clear. Usually, Player would have thought that round was too easy, as Captain had been more than obvious and MrCheese had been careless around him, but given that he wasn't up for using a lot of brain power at the time, he was grateful that it hadn't been too much of a challenge.

"Man, dude. Nice save!" Veteran said to him once he spawned back in. "Guess my rootin' for you in spirit did something, huh?"

"Yeah, yeah gg, I guess," MrCheese shrugged. "Man, guess I'm kind of out of it today too, huh? Heh heh."

"Better luck next round, compadre," Captain said to him, then approaching the red and yellow crewmates.

"Player, Veteran, I had an idea for later, if you two are keen on it. How about after dinner today, we all meet up back here in my quarters for some hang time?"

"Sounds like a plan," Veteran nodded. "Player, you game?"

"Sure thing," he replied, stifling a yawn in the process. As tired as he was, he thought coming back later and meeting up again then would be fun. "But, uh...I gotta log off for a little while before I meet up with you guys again. Got just a couple more things to do around the house, and I'm s'posed to be eating dinner with my family."

"Ah, I see. Think you could meet back up with us sometime between 7 and 8?"

"That sounds good," Player figured. "...Guess I'll see you guys then, 'kay? I gotta head off for now."

"You sure you don't wanna stay for one more round?" Veteran asked him. "This was just our first one."

"Thanks man, but I'm sure...See you two later, though."

"Well...Alright. See ya, dude."

Player left the game.

As soon as he logged off, Player stretched his hands out, then slowly got up out of his chair and made his way out of his room, thinking about making himself a second cup of coffee to give him a bit more of a boost. All he really had left to do was vacuum his room and sweep the kitchen, so he figured that as soon as those two things were out of the way, he'd be able to conserve his energy more.

Besides, he had plans for later too, and he wasn't about to tire himself out too much for that.

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...

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"Y'know, for your first survival world, you ain't doin' too bad, Cap," Veteran remarked.

"Well, I did my research before diving right in; can't just do things blindly...No creeper's gonna want to mess with my enchanted bow, that's for sure!"

"Didja find any wolves in that spruce forest...?" Player drawled.

"Sure did! I, uh...didn't have any bones on me, though. Gonna have to go back when I do."

"Hey, speaking of wolves," Veteran asked. "...Isn't tonight a full moon?"

"Oh...Yeah, it is, isn't it?" the white crewmate nodded in confirmation. "Here, lemme see what time it is..."

He pulled his phone out of his pocket and booted it up, peered down at the time, then blinked a few times in surprise.

"Oh man, we've been at this for way longer than I thought," Captain told them "Clock says 11:59!"

"Whoa, dude, already?!"

"Well...In that case, I should be turning any second now-"

GONG

GONG

GONG

The clock struck midnight, and the chimes sounded off.

"...Bro, is that your alarm sound?" Veteran asked. "That sounds awesome."

"Yeah, I figured it'd get me in the zone for when and if I'd ever be awake at this time," Captain replied, scratching the back of his head slightly as his pelt began to grow in. "...The one thing I'm not a fan of is the itch at the start, though."

"I've been there...I tried to grow a mustache once. Couldn't stand it, so I gave up after a week. At least for you it's quick."

Captain grunted in mild discomfort as the rest of the transformation took its course, his ears and feet lengthening and his long claws and tail sprouting into view. It only took a few seconds for everything to stop, but when it did, Captain appeared relieved.

"...Can't say the same about that part though, can ya?"

"Gotta say, you got me beat there, Cap'. Hey Player, you catch any of that?"

Veteran got no response.

"...Dude?"

"Hm, what...?"

He and Captain both turned to look down at their red-clad companion just in time to see him pry his visor open and try to sit up straight.

"Sorry...Dozed off for a sec' there."

"You good, Player?" Veteran asked. "You've been kinda sluggish today."

He sighed deeply, then settled back down into the beanbag chair.

"...I just...didn't get much in the way of sleep last night. Had to submit a paper for a group project," he replied, just barely coherent. "Didn't wanna bum you guys out...uh...Guess it's pretty late now, though..."

"Ouch...That's rough," the yellow crewmate replied. "Jeez, I'm surprised you were able to stay awake for this long, considering."

"Me too...Heh...I, uh...think it's about time I call it quits, though...I think I'm gonna sleep in tomorrow morning."

"Good call...I'm getting kinda tired myself at this point, to be honest."

"Same here," Captain nodded. "Well, guess we'd better wrap it up here and head to our quarters for the-"

Before Captain could finish, Player suddenly leaned into his side and nuzzled up against his white fur coat, falling slightly limp in the process.

"...Do we gotta get up...?" he rasped. "I just...kinda wanna stay this way..."

Captain and Veteran exchanged looks with one another, and the former shrugged.

"Welp...Guess I'm stuck like this."

"Seems that way...Eh. If you two are staying here, maybe I'll stick around myself, huh?"

The yellow crewmate saved and quit out of the game for everyone, then booted down the console and the television itself. As soon as everything was powered off, Veteran nestled further into the massive coral-colored beanbag chair that the three of them were sharing and made himself comfortable.

"Nothin' like a best friend sandwich to end the day off with, am I right?" Captain jeered.

"Heh...You said it..." Player agreed, just barely still conscious. "...G'night, you guys."

With that, the three of them nodded off into a long, peaceful slumber, not to awaken until well into the next morning.

...Player needed it, after all.