These characters belong in the universe of the Among Us game by Innersloth.
This is a repository of presentations I made for the characters in The Taste of Betrayal / Battle Scars. Depending on the character, the interview can be set before the fics (in either timeline) or after Battle Scars.
This story is also available on AO3.
This character interview is set after Battle Scars.
I'm going by the name Lime. While it isn't my birth name, I'm more than happy to embrace it.
*looks around warily* *hesitates*
*sighs* Please don't react hastily, okay? *hesitates some more before answering in a cautious tone* I'm an Impostor. I was born on Polus before its discovery by Mira's crews. I'm 36, and I'm female.
*clenches fists and answers through gritted teeth* My entire family's dead. They were executed as punishment for my brother surviving a failed mission. I only survived through luck.
*slumps* *traces shapes idly on the table with her finger* With recent events, I grew more attached to Red than I'd expected. I'm… still undecided whether I'll break the relationship when we arrive, for her own safety. Both sides would kill me without a second thought: my kind, because I'm a defector, and hers, because I'm an Impostor.
But other than her, no, I don't have any friends. My fellow renegades and I interact as little as possible to avoid attracting suspicion; and obviously, I can't get close to people who'd eject me if they ever discovered the truth about me.
Under my disguise, that I'm a lime colour. I mean, with the suits on, Mira's crewmates don't exactly look much different from one another.
In my native form, well, I'm an Impostor. Cue the huge mouth with razor-sharp teeth in the middle of my body, the clawed forelimbs, the tentacles and three pairs of eyes.
I suppose I appear reserved and cautious, perhaps even paranoid. Of course, you know why.
I'm an Impostor. I can shapeshift, which is how I have this form to begin with. I can also manifest part or all of my natural form, or even different shapes. It's very convenient to crawl through the narrow vents, though I normally avoid doing it. There's always a risk of being caught. *fidgets for a few seconds before going on*
Being an Impostor, I'm somewhat stronger than you'd expect, I don't need oxygen, and I can see perfectly well in the dark. *tenses and continues grimly* And of course, I can open my real mouth and… Well, we're predators. I can use my hunting tongue like a pike and pierce through most materials, including a person's visor and skull. *lowers her gaze in guilt, then sighs* I also still have my Impostor weapons, though I don't plan on using them.
Finally, I have a specially designed tablet that fully interacts with Mira's systems while having access to Impostor hacks. It allows me to be assigned and fulfil tasks like the rest of the crew, while also being able to sabotage the systems. I've only ever closed doors or sabotaged communications; even cutting the lights is too dangerous if there are other Impostors around.
*bitter laugh* Daydreaming about peace, mostly. And while I wouldn't call it spare time, I often sneak to abandoned areas to supplement the meat I can afford to buy. Sewers may be the very opposite of appetising, rats and other vermin allow me to satiate my hunger.
*sighs* It's a long story... I was born on Polus before Mira's people came. When the troubles began, many of us fled and hid within bigger Mira colonies, my family among them. And then, of course, the cataclysm happened and destroyed most life on Polus. Whether it had been caused by a terrorist attack or an accident, most of our surviving people blamed the invaders. It was only a matter of a few years before the hardliners became our underground government and scooped us all under their rule, and began their gruesome war.
At first, my family was lucky to be considered more useful as breeders, but eventually one of my brothers was sent on missions, and soon afterwards I was supposed to be as well. *continues in a hard, clipped voice* One day, my brother survived a failed mission, and that meant execution for himself and our entire family. I survived by sheer chance, because it happened just before I embarked on my target ship.
*shakes her head* Since the regime had no more hold on me, I didn't attack the crew, obviously. Still, I was nearly found out, but I pleaded my case as a stowaway. I'll be ever grateful to the man who helped me divert the ship to a refuelling station. I hope he didn't get condemned because of me.
Then after a few trips on different ships to throw my people off my scent, I settled in a colony. At first, I lived in slums among Mira's rejects. It was a shock, to be honest. Up until then, I'd believed Mira took care of all of the people under its rule. I survived by burgling butcher's shops and hunting vermin, and I slowly worked my way up society.
Eventually, I got a job at Mira, and as you might expect I often had to identify and expose Impostor agents. I never expected to meet other defectors until I caught two of my people exchanging documents instead of murdering a perfectly exposed victim. So instead of denouncing them, I confronted them in private, and I ended up joining their small resistance network.
Now, after our group has managed to secure top-secret documents from our leaders, I'm on my way to deliver them to Mira. If I succeed, we can bring down the regime, free my people, and end the war once and for all.
I'm so sorry. For everything.
This character interview is set before The Taste of Betrayal / Battle Scars.
Purple. At least, it's the name I use when infiltrating Mira's crews.
I'm a proud Polusian, also known as an Impostor. I'm male, and 52.
I go too often on missions to see the remaining members of my family much. And since aliens invaded my home planet when I was 21, I never got a chance to start a family of my own either: I quickly became more invested in making them pay.
I would consider some of my fellow Impostor agents friends if we weren't constantly sent to places dozens of light-years away. Not to mention it's hard to grow attached when the turnover is so high.
So I guess the answer is 'not really'.
Well my disguise is perfect, so they only see me as a crewmate in a purple suit. If you're including body language in your question, I've trained my movements to be neither too agitated nor too sluggish, the image of a calm, trustworthy, but legitimately cautious crewmate.
Depending on circumstances, my targets can see me open my real mouth, right before I impale their head with my tongue. In that case, it is, obviously, the last thing they ever see.
I'm smooth-talking without excess, which, as you can imagine, is particularly useful in my line of work. I play the perfect balance of seriousness and warmth.
Of course, it all changes when I kill them. When they do see me coming, they notice my absence of hesitation, my eagerness even. I thoroughly enjoy the brief shock of betrayal in their eyes before I extinguish their light once and for all.
I have all the abilities you'd expect from an Impostor: shapeshifting, including killing with my hunting tongue or ensnaring a prey in my tentacles when I can afford to play with them, experience in wielding a knife or a gun, and last but not least I can use my tablet to sabotage a variety of Mira systems.
Training, planning, and eagerly awaiting my next mission. *laughs* What, who said you can't combine business with pleasure? If I can get away with it, I'll hunt a few Mira employees here and there, but only when I don't risk exposing myself or other Impostors. What do you take me for, I'm a professional, I know when I can have my fun and when to lay low.
My existence was fairly uneventful before Mira invaded our planet. I was born, I grew up, I had dear friends and a loving family, I enjoyed hunting the then-abundant game... It's nothing but a half-forgotten memory now. I was 21 when the aliens first came, and I soon realised they were our enemies. I joined the early groups fighting their occupying forces, then, as it wasn't enough, we turned our efforts against their ships and their homes.
I was far from Polus when the cataclysm ravaged it and wiped out so many of our people, including most of my family and childhood friends. I gladly helped what was left of my kind organise and intensify the attacks. I've been on several missions since then, and I'm not afraid to call myself one of the best Impostor agents around.
I'm looking forward to this new mission, and many more after that, until the day we can be ourselves again. Mira's people invaded and destroyed our home and forced the survivors to live in their shadow. I may not live long enough to see it myself, but sooner or later, we'll regain what they denied us. I'm more than happy to play my part in it.
This character interview is set after Battle Scars.
*warm smile in her voice* Hi, I'm Red.
*starts sweating* I'm not an Impostor, you have to believe me!
*listens* *relaxes* Oh, alright then. Well, as I just said, I'm not an Impostor, just your normal Mira crewmate. I'm female, if the voice didn't give it away already, and I've just turned 33.
Sure. My parents are proud of my work at Mira, but my sister's always worrying for me. I love her, but sometimes, she can be really annoying. I mean, what else does she want me to do? It's work, and it pays well enough.
Friends, though... I used to. Since I've joined the army of front-line workers, not so much. Between the risk of Impostor attacks and the insistence of the higher-ups to move us around constantly, it's hard to form bonds. I like fraternising with my fellow crewmates --unless they turn out to be Impostors and try to kill us all...-- but it never really sticks. Probably why I'm still single.
*leans her head on her palm and sighs with a hint of a thoughtful smile* Although, there is someone now. It's complicated, with what happened and everything, but I really like Lime. And perhaps even more important in the world we live in, I trust her. Yes, even after what happened.
*chuckles* I wear a red suit. Also, when the crew goes along with it, I like to accessorise it with a black fedora, which I also wear when I'm not working.
I'm friendly and open-minded, I think? I've been told I'm careless because I don't like dwelling on who might be an Impostor or when they might strike, but really, spending all your energy worrying about what you can't know doesn't help anyone. If you can't hold onto the positive when you have a chance, you might as well curl up on the floor and wait to die already.
I can encourage people and help them see the bright side of the situation. You have no idea how often crews give in to paranoia and eject more of their own than actual Impostors.
On a different note, it may not seem much but I'm very efficient with most of the tasks, even those other people never seem to get right on the first try. Card swipe, here I come, ha ha!
*shuffles awkwardly* Please don't shout it from the rooftops, but... I spend an unhealthy amount of time scrapbooking. I take pictures of the crews I'm in before the mission starts, and I organise them in albums I customise myself. I want to remember the people I'll never see again once we're dispatched to different crews, and to honour the memory of those who died. Except when they turned out to be Impostors. Those, I'll gladly erase from my memory.
I was born and grew up on one of the several new colonies which were formed back then. Mine was somewhat of a backwater, away from most transit routes. The planet was gorgeous and life peaceful there, but it lacked opportunities for work beyond local development. So, my parents moved out and got hired in a refuelling station when I was a teen. I miss my old home sometimes... Still, they were simpler times, yes, but boring too.
Life really took a turn for the worse when Polus got destroyed not even a year later; attacks really became more frequent and awful after that. While my parents had a back-line job that didn't make them a prime target for Impostors, they lost several friends. It didn't stop me from getting hired at Mira's exploration branch after I graduated, though. Not just for the money: despite the dangers, I didn't want to be stuck in one place with always the same people. I like meeting new faces --provided they don't try to kill and eat me, that is.
*smiles* No, I'm good. I mean, I'm still processing everything that happened, but I feel more confident for the future than I have in years.
This character interview is set before The Taste of Betrayal / Battle Scars.
*guarded and suspicious* Blue. *only partly relaxes when he isn't murdered on the spot*
I'm genuine, not an Impostor, thank you very much. I'm male, 48 years old.
*shows a photo of a couple with two children, the parents wearing respectively blue and cyan, and answers fondly* I have the loveliest wife and two wonderful children. The older one is actually my wife's son from a first marriage, but I love him as much as our daughter.
*puts the photo away with care, then darkens* That's it as family goes. I used to have a brother and a sister: both were murdered by Impostors over the last decade. I haven't talked to my parents in years. Since my brother's funeral in fact.
As for friends, I have few. *sighs* It's my fault, I guess. I've grown away from those who work for Mira. I've lost too many people already, I couldn't go through it again.
I don't think I'm particularly remarkable. I wear a blue suit, and that's about it.
I never forget anyone could be an Impostor out for our blood, especially at work. I don't get why some people insist on 'bonding' with the crew they're assigned to --and anyway, half of these socialisers turn out to be Impostors, lying through their teeth to lull us into lowering our guard.
So yes, people call me paranoid, and guess what? I don't care. I just don't want to be murdered and devoured by monsters pretending to be people. *snorts huffily*
*mellows to continue with a soft smile* Then again, my wife and the few friends I still have would probably give a very different answer. I can finally relax when I'm safe among people I know I can trust; then I feel free to show them how much I care. I live for these moments when we can be happy together.
*curt shrug* I only took this job for the money. It isn't like our tasks require high skill anyway: just about anyone could do them.
*hesitates* Ah, you include personal activities? *becomes more lively* Well I love tinkering and building stuff with my hands. I don't do anything fancy, mind you, I'm just an amateur. But you should see the stars in my kids' eyes when I offer them home-made models for their favourite shows or electronic gadgets!
*grins* Like I said, I craft models and gadgets! Actually, once I've earned enough money to assure my children's future, I intend to resign and dedicate myself full-time to my passion.
I grew up in a fairly average home, the middle child between an older brother and a younger sister. I still remember when Mira discovered Polus, and of course the creatures that lived there and had the ability to mimic people. It sounded exciting at the time: we'd found an intelligent alien species! No other planet we'd colonised before had been already inhabited. Sure, these aliens were predatory and had the spooky ability to disguise themselves as our own people, but surely we could get along?
Ha. If I'd known. It wasn't long until troubles erupted on Polus, and ships and isolated outposts elsewhere started facing the occasional Impostor attack. It still seemed distant at the time, if worrying; but then one of their attacks nearly sterilised their own planet. Instead of calming down, their acts of aggression increased tenfold and became even more barbarous.
*clenches fists* Twelve years ago --just five years after the Polus cataclysm--, I went on a mission to Polus with the woman I was engaged to. I'd known her since childhood; after a decade and a half of on-again, off-again relationship with her, I finally felt ready to commit. We sympathised with one of the other crewmates and even invited her to the wedding.
Except that was an Impostor. She murdered my fiancee and tried to frame me for it. Somehow it didn't work, she was found out and ejected. The memory's fuzzy. I was too far gone to care.
It took me years to recover, especially with my sister's murder adding to it. *weak smile* My current wife, also a war widow, helped me learn to live with the grief. Once I felt stable enough to give her and her son a good home, we married and had our daughter. *darkens again* Then my brother was murdered too, and I had one too many arguments with my parents. Hopefully, once I've earned enough money, I can finally put all that behind me and give my wife and children the attention they deserve.
If only Mira had never discovered Polus. If only Impostors had been wiped out for good along with their cursed planet. If only Mira took actual measures to get rid of them!
Will my children ever know a world where they can be safe?
This character interview is set either before or after The Taste of Betrayal / Battle Scars.
I'm Yellow.
I'm 34, male, and not an Impostor.
I have a husband and a son, although, as my husband and I both work for Mira's exploration branch, we see each other all too rarely. Long-distance relationships with little possible communication are hard, doubly so when you're constantly afraid the other won't make it back. *sighs* I miss them, but that's life, right?
I also have my mother. I'm a single child, so no siblings, and my father died years ago in an Impostor attack. I'm glad my mother retired into a back-line job and is safer now; I try to visit her when I get the chance.
Outside of family, I only have acquaintances nowadays. Some of my former friends died, and I've lost touch with the rest. There simply aren't enough opportunities for a Mira crewmate to cultivate friendships.
I'm taller than average, and I wear yellow. Of course, the suits make it hard to tell people apart except with the colour.
*chuckles* I have my head firmly set on my shoulders! I don't let my emotions cloud my judgement with either excessive paranoia or baseless trust, and I go through available evidence rationally. I'm also a firm believer in buddy systems to make it harder for potential Impostors to get us, even if I accept to split up if need be for practical reasons.
I keep a cool head under pressure. I often become the de facto leader during emergency meetings, just because I thrive to assess known facts as exhaustively as possible.
Of course, I'm not infallible either --nobody is. When new evidence contradicts my previous understanding of the situation, I reevaluate my beliefs to fit with the new information.
I spend as much time as I can with my husband and our son, obviously, though you have no idea how hard it is to get our days off in the same place at the same time. And I visit my mother when I pass by the station where she lives.
The rest of the time, I... well, actually, I'm studying whatever I can find about the role of ship captain, back when ships had captains. I wish Mira would create official leading positions within its crews; I think I'd have a good chance of being promoted to the role.
While I grew up hearing about Impostors and the occasional attack on our people, I didn't feel it concerned me at the time. Even when they rose up on Polus or when the accident ravaged their planet, it seemed very distant. Almost theoretical, you know? I knew it was real, but I didn't feel it.
It changed when they upped their attacks against our ships and bases. Suddenly, I feared for my parents' life and my own future. I even considered dropping my studies and taking a safer job. But I didn't want to disappoint my parents, and let's be honest, Mira's exploration branch is the only source of well-paying work with any hope of making a career for oneself. So I stayed.
I actually met my husband during our first mission, though we didn't become involved romantically until two years later. Thankfully, there were no Impostors among us that time, which gave us the opportunity to bond. We kept in touch afterwards and grew closer by sharing our experiences. You have no idea how good it feels to confide in someone you know you can trust when you've narrowly escaped death.
He helped me deal with the grief of my father's death, a few months after our wedding, and then last year, he took in the son of one of his fellow crewmates who'd been wrongfully ejected. We applied for adoption, and as all the boy's close relatives were dead, it was accepted.
I'm naturally level-headed and a good organiser, why can't Mira make better use of my strengths?
This character interview is set either before or after The Taste of Betrayal / Battle Scars.
Orange here. *smiles*
I'm a 45 years old woman, and not an Impostor. Trust me, I get other people to confirm I'm innocent whenever I can.
Too few. Frankly, I'm lonely. I only have one person truly close to me, a childhood friend I keep coming back to --a friend with benefits nowadays, even if it's too occasional to call him my lover. My parents and siblings all live in different parts of colonised space, and our respective jobs don't allow us to see each other often.
*looks into the distance and taps her fingers on the table distractedly* Officially... *hesitates* *sighs* Officially, I'm a widow. The truth is my husband left with our two children six years ago, and I never heard from them again. I don't even know whether they're still alive. I miss them, and I hope with all my heart they're all right. The thing is, though... As hard as it was, it also took a weight off my chest. Worrying constantly for them isn't my responsibility anymore.
*sighs* So yes, I'm mostly alone. While I do sympathise with colleagues during missions, I see them as strictly temporary acquaintances. I don't want to invest in long-term relationships which might end in their death; fearing I might one day come back to learn of my old friend's death is already hard enough. In the end, even if I feel the weight of loneliness, it's better than being consumed by constant fear.
You mean, besides my orange suit? There isn't much to be noticed with the suits on, you know.
I'm calm, open without naivety, and I much prefer the safety of groups. I try to prove my innocence early and, if I have a chance, to several people. *smiles* Basically, I do what it takes to keep myself alive without falling into paranoia.
I'm a survivor, if the quiet variety. I endure in a world plagued by the constant menace of Impostors. There are several aspects to this: I pair up with other people and make sure everyone knows whom I'm with to limit the risk of being targeted directly; I get others to confirm my medscans or watch me do actual work to avoid appearing suspicious and getting ejected; and last but not least, I don't let fear and despair destroy me. Staying grounded despite murderers out to get you is as important as protecting yourself physically, and so is rebounding quickly once the Impostors have been found and ejected.
It implies not letting myself get attached. While I'm friendly to my fellow crewmates, I don't need Mira's rules to know bonding with your coworkers is a recipe for disaster. Remember, while pairing up improves your chances of survival considerably, you mustn't think of your partner as a friend. Always remember they may be an Impostor, or a future victim, or even an innocent about to be wrongfully ejected. It's much better for your sanity if you only care about bringing the mission to completion while keeping yourself alive.
I enjoy gardening even if I don't really have green fingers. For some reason, I find it soothing to plunge my hands in dirt and try to make something grow. I even talk to my plants and call them my children. *chuckles wistfully*
Of course, plants don't fulfil my need for companionship. I spend some of my leave time with the friend I mentioned earlier: sometimes for platonic activities, sometimes for mutual relief. Since it tends to be irregular, I also frequent singles clubs, provided they take precautions against Impostors. Safe sex takes a whole different meaning when you could be spending the night with a killer.
I guess I can count myself lucky compared to other people, as I led a stable and mostly happy life for 35 years before things went wrong. I was the image of someone who gets on in life: a good education, a stable job at Mira, a loving marriage and two wonderful children...
I've often tried to identify the turning point, but I couldn't really find one. Even when the Impostors launched their war on us, it didn't affect us immediately despite both my husband and I working for Mira. We even felt safe enough to have children. *looks away in thought* Or perhaps it was our way to persuade ourselves life would go on as normal.
But as the attacks became more and more frequent and more and more horrifying, we began to feel the stress. At first, it drove us closer. Our children were too young for boarding, so we had no choice but to take them with us on our missions. The relief of all making it home safely erased any potential disagreement.
*massages her arm* As the years went on, we started arguing, until we couldn't have a normal conversation anymore. My husband wanted me to resign and stay at home with our children, I wanted to send them to a boarding school. Until one day, I came back from a mission to find a goodbye letter and the three of them gone. Mira authorities couldn't find them, there simply are too many places for people to disappear, so they were presumed dead.
*shakes her head* That was six years ago. The first months were... difficult to say the least, but eventually I moved on. In a way, it felt liberating. It's much easier to have only yourself to worry for.
I do my best to keep myself safe, and so should you. *sighs, refusing to allow herself to send wishes to her husband and children*
This character interview is set before The Taste of Betrayal / Battle Scars.
*waves awkwardly* Hello! I'm Brown.
*smiles* Not an Impostor, I pinkie swear. I wouldn't hurt a fly! I'm female, and still a baby fresh out of training: I'm only 25.
I've got my father, my stepmother, my big sister and my boyfriend back home, plus a few close school friends. My biological mother and my little sister were murdered by Impostors back when I was too young to remember. It happened in one of their early attacks, a year before the uprising on Polus.
I wear brown, as you can see, plus I'm a bit on the short side. So people might notice I'm kind of harder to notice than others, if that makes sense? I don't yet know whether it'll make me more or less suspicious, or whether people won't really care.
This is my first actual mission, and it shows. I'm... not shy as such, but easily spooked, and of course it's very stressful to know some of your fellow crewmates might not be your fellow crewmates at all, but actually Impostors out to get you.
Something else people notice is that I often seem to be distracted. The thing is, I'm too concentrated on what I'm doing or thinking at the time to register what else is going on around me. It's even worse when I force myself to focus on one of the more mind-numbing tasks: there's such thing as too easy. My mind starts going off a tangent, and bam, I make a mistake and have to start again.
I have a good memory, and linking all known facts together into a plausible conclusion comes easily to me. It might seem contradictory with what I said about attention, but really, it isn't: I may not notice stuff happening, but if I do see it or if someone tells me something, it remains in the back of my mind for potential future use.
*crosses her arms defensively* I know what you're going to say but I like studying for work. Not the tasks themselves, of course, they're easy and boring, but how all this tech we're using works underneath. It's surprisingly hard to find detailed information, but hey, I'm just starting. Even if I still find some stuff confusing, I'm sure it'll make sense to me eventually.
As I mentioned, my mother and my little sister were murdered when I was five. For a long time, we actually believed it was an accident --I think Mira was trying to keep it hush-hush at the time. We only learnt the truth when Impostor attacks became commonplace, a few years after the Polus cataclysm.
My father remarried a few years after my mother's death and while my sister had trouble accepting our stepmother, it went more smoothly for me. Unlike my sister, there isn't much to say about my life. I mean, I got good grades, studied to join Mira, and now here I am, going to space for real! Along the way, I met my boyfriend at uni and we bonded over our shared passion to learn how stuff works underneath. *giggles*
I'm equally scared and excited for my first mission. Wish me luck!
THE END
Among Us fanfictions.
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Last update: 23rd May 2021.