5:42 PM

(48 minutes before the advisers' arrival)

Dream Team Territory

_________________________________________

"Hello!" Ant greeted Dream, a pleased smirk on his face.

"Oh!" Dream exclaimed happily. "You're early."

Antfrost nodded his head, suddenly hesitant to speak. "I have some kind of... unfortunate news..." He said, rubbing the back of his neck. "All the others bailed out, so I'm the only other person joining you from c-1."

"Aw, that's too bad," Dream said, smiling. He didn't want his friend to feel even more embarrassed, so he didn't mention that it was 'Dream Team' and not 'c-1'. He cleared his throat. "Well, why don't you come in? Bad is making something to tide us over for the meeting if you haven't eaten yet."

They walked over to the small island in the kitchen, taking a seat on two of the three bar stools lined by it. Bad placed a medium-sized platter of crackers, cheese, and green olives in front of them, saying a quick and friendly "hello" to Ant as he hastened to put things away.

"Remember back on earth when we left behind all those people...?" Antfrost started suddenly, looking down at an olive he held in between his index finger and thumb. Dream shot a glance over at him, concerned. Talking about Earth was a sensitive topic to pretty much anyone who'd left, but it wasn't forbidden.

"...Yeah, I remember," Dream responded, twiddling his thumbs. Bad nodded his head. Images of faces from forlorn and furious crowds flashed through their minds as they unpleasantly reminisced.

"What if we could have brought them with us?" Ant questioned, looking at his old friend.

Dream just sighed. "Some were stubborn and stayed, understandably. They considered Earth their home," he explained. "Earth was a gift, but so many just took it for granted and poisoned it. I guess whoever is left is just trying to fix it now."

"Or not. All the criminals were left there," Antfrost said pessimistically, shrugging his shoulders.

"True, but sometimes people can come together to fix problems if their lives depend on it," Bad countered Ant's argument. Dream nodded his head.

"I guess we'll never know..." Dream concluded.

"Until we do," Antfrost said, smirking. It caused them all to break out in laughter.

~~~~~

6:32 PM

(2 minutes after the advisers' arrival)

Dream Team Territory

_________________________________________

"You all must be wondering what we're going to be discussing at our meetings here," Dream said, clapping his hands together. There were some murmurs among the small group. "Today is your lucky day because we're just going to answer your questions! No long, boring talks." Dream looked at Bad, waiting for him to continue.

"So... Any questions?" BBH asked.

Phil's hand raised, and Dream told him to speak. "Will we be heading north, south, east, west, northwest, etc.?"

Dream chuckled. "Well, we can all decide on that right now, actually. What were your thoughts, though... what did you say your name was?"

"I'm Philza- or Phil."

"Nice to meet you, Philza."

"It's a pleasure." Phil smiled. "Anyways, I was thinking we could head north. While we were arriving on 454-1C, I was sure I saw some mountains directly north of us. Also, I'm a good mapper if no one else wants to take up that role..."

"Great!" Dream exclaimed, looking at the rest of the members. "Does anyone else have any different preferences?" Everyone looked at each other wonderingly, eventually just shaking their heads no.

"Any more questions?"

Skeppy raised his hand, and Dream nodded. "Do we meet in your territory every time, or do we rotate?"

Dream was kind of bitter with Skeppy for being a bit of a jerk to BBH before, so his smile was stiff as he responded. "Yes. That was what Captain Socks informed us to do, Skeppy. We'll meet at c-2's community next if they would have us," he said, looking at Phil for approval. Philza nodded, a grin on his face. "Good. Then that's resolved. Any more questions?"

"What's our main goal? Y'know... other than finding more land?" TapL asked, arms crossed.

"I'm glad you asked!" Bad took over. "We are also looking for life-forms and more bodies of water. The search team before us found no signs of life because of their quick search, but we're going to scrutinize everything. They didn't find any lakes or rivers, but on our way down here, I was sure I saw some. It's our job to find and mark them."

TapL smirked, glad that they would have a challenge.

-

The meeting finally finished after a few more questions, and Dream politely said goodbye to most of the people. Billy shook his hand, telling him how excited he was to work with them. Dream just chuckled, pleased with Billy's zealousness. Antfrost lingered behind.

One person remained: Fundy, an orange-haired man, stood with a duffle bag over his shoulder. Dream noticed his idling and approached him.

"Can I help you?"

"Uh, yes. I'm Fundy- an adviser from c-4. I was hoping I could spend the night in your territory- if that's alright?" He asked, messing with the strap of his bag.

"Of course!" Dream waved over Ant, who obeyed. "Could you find a house for Fundy to stay in tonight?"

"Sure thing. Follow me, Fundy," Antfrost directed him.

George and Sapnap came from downstairs once that had departed.

"Well handled, Dream!" Sapnap commended him, George grinning his agreement. Dream smiled brightly at their compliments, looking at BBH gratefully since he knew that Bad had handled most of it.

"You did great, Dream. I just... think you should have been a little kinder to Skeppy..." Bad suggested, a nervous smile wobbling on his face.

"Like he was kind to you?" Dream asked calmly, giving a sympathetic expression to his friend. "I had to stop myself from kicking him out of here." BBH glanced at the floor uncomfortably, and George and Sapnap exchanged glances.

"Well, I'm glad you value the feelings of your fellow advisers," Bad smiled sadly, turning away.

~~~~~

Though the night was drawing closer, Philza chose to trek back to Sleepy Boys' territory, finally making it back just after the sunset. He could see the silhouette of Tommy laying on the ground outside the advisers' home just looking up at the sky as the colors faded into each other. Another, taller silhouette that belonged to Techno sat beside him, dimly lit by the last sliver of the sun with a faint smile showing on his face- something that was pretty unusual. Wilbur sat on the stairs behind the two, watching with them. Philza grinned as he approached.

"Are we going to watch the stars come out tonight?" He asked once he was in ear-shot, surprising all three of them.

"Phil!" Techno cheered, his smile growing even more.

"You're back!?" Tommy shouted happily, hopping up and racing over to Phil.

"We should really do that!" Wilbur responded to Philza's comment. "I'll go get Schlatt."

As soon as Jschlatt's name was mentioned, Techno's face visibly darkened, and Tommy looked unsettled. Phil led Tommy back next to Techno and sat down, throwing his hat on Tommy's head.

"It'll be fun, don't worry," he tried to convince Tommy, who nodded his head politely. A couple of minutes later, Wilbur came out with Schlatt behind him.

The sky had turned into a pure black canvas, and as stars appeared, the scene was even more breathtaking. Jschlatt stood behind the others, his hands in the pockets of his suit, admiring the stars.

"...We should do this every night," he finally proposed, breaking the quiet. Tommy turned around to face him.

The boy grinned, getting over his fear. "I think so, too!"

~~~~~

Skeppy dragged his feet as they headed back to the iDot's territory, and the sound of his shoes scraping about the soil aggravated Zelk, who let out an exasperated sigh.

"We wouldn't have to walk if you would have accepted their offer to stay the night," Zelk told his friend, who just shook his head. Zelk thought harder for a moment. "Oh- I know you're bummed out from seeing Bad, but he's really better off there," he told him. Skeppy said nothing, looking down at his feet. "Be happy for him, all right?"

Skeppy halted. "How dare you." He glared at Zelk, who slowly turned to face his fellow adviser, knowing he said something wrong. "He was my best friend."

Zelk was very tempted to tell the other it was his fault, but he held his tongue, inhaling deeply. After staring at each other for some time, Zelk turned away, heading toward their community.

"You're not even going to say anything!?" Skeppy shouted, balling his fists.

"I'd rather not argue, Skeppy," Zelk sighed. He was keeping his cool right then, but it was getting more difficult. A bitter memory of him encouraging Skeppy to keep "trolling" BBH passed through his mind, and Zelk closed his eyes, wrapping his arms around his stomach in an attempt to shield himself from the pain. Maybe Skeppy would still be happy if he hadn't given him such bad advice. "We... We have a lot of people to look after, so we probably shouldn't start fighting among ourselves."

"Well, it's your fault," Skeppy burst out, pushing past him.

"...I know," Zelk whispered.

~~~~~

There was no chatter as the advisers of c-5 traveled back to their territory. Once the lights of the houses from c-5 were visible, TapL spoke.

"As soon as we get home, we need to go right to sleep. We have a lot of things to get done tomorrow, so be prepared to get up early," TapL ordered. Wisp and Billy nodded, too afraid to say anything.

As soon as they got into the house, TapL swung the door open and stomped upstairs. When they were inside, Wisp turned to Billy, who was already cleaning up plates they had left from dinner.

"Good job today, Billy," Wisp smiled, patting him on the back, then heading upstairs.

Billy blinked, watching Wisp walk away. A grin grew on his face as he realized at least one of the advisers accepted him.