Impostor Among Us
Chapter 1
by MagisterAthena
Tags:
#assimilation
#consensual_kink
#consensual_non-consent
#mystery
#no_sex_no_nudity
#realistic
#serial_recruitment
#resistance
The Cast (In Order of Appearance)
- The Vampire (they/them)
- The Mesmerist (she/her)
- The Technologist (she/her)
- The Trickster (they/he)
- The Conversationalist (he/him)
- The Magician (she/they)
- The Confuser (xe/xem)
Seven friends gathered in a house, excited to play the game that they’d all been scheming up over the past month. They’d all contributed to it, thinking up rules, writing code, preparing spaces, and were very excited to give it a go. They'd all gotten their inductions ready, in their favoured hypnosis styles, in some cases dressing up to match. Cards were dealt, a recording was set up, and they all closed their eyes and listened closely. And as they sunk into trance, their minds listened to the suggestions.
The Vampire woke up.
They looked around, seeing six other faces sitting around the table, all blinking just like the Vampire as they woke back up — out of trance, the Vampire remembered. They saw a laptop open at one end of the table, spooling through an audio recording. And the seven playing cards, one face-down in front of each of them at the table.
The recording on the laptop crackled back to life, a laconic drawl. “So, to summarise, one of you here is an Impostor, whose aim is to get everyone else under their control.” There was a brief snicker on the recording, and the Vampire realised whose voice it was. Their eyes flicked over to the Mesmerist, dressed up with her waistcoat and pocket watch.
The recording of the Mesmerist continued. “The goal of everyone else is to try and figure out who the Impostor is, while you still have your free will. So, everyone look at your card.” The Vampire automatically picked up their card, keeping the face hidden. Three of Diamonds. Some part of the Vampire knew this meant they weren’t the Impostor.
Another voice cut in on the recording, a quick, precise one — the Technologist. “Whenever someone goes into trance, you’ll all get a notification on the app so you can meet and discuss it. You’ve all got suggestions to keep track of your status.” The Vampire looked over at the Technologist, dressed in her lab coat and goggles like a mad scientist, grinning as she looked around the room, long strands of brightly-dyed hair flying around her. “You can all vote once the discussion is done — you can vote anyone off, but the innocents only win once the original Impostor is found.”
The fast and excitable voice of the Trickster replaced the Technologist. “You’ve also all been given a suggestion to keep splitting up and moving around — just like the old horror movies — so there’ll be plenty of opportunities to catch people off-guard.” The Trickster grinned broadly, recognising their contribution, as he fluttered his fingers, stimming with butterfly-like motions.
Then a final voice cut in, the smooth tones of the Conversationalist. “So, without any further ado, good luck!” The recording ended, and the Conversationalist took his cue from the recording, taking his laptop back.
The Vampire cast their gaze across the table, looking at the last two — the Magician and the Confuser — wondering which of the six others was the Impostor. And then, as they took in the number of people in the room, the Vampire felt a slight itch in the back of their mind, to be somewhere with fewer people. Ah, the Vampire thought, the ‘let’s split up, gang’ suggestion.
The Vampire stood up, and could see everyone else joining them, the suggestion taking hold equally. When they all came back again, someone would have been brought under the Impostor’s sway. The Vampire grinned. This is going to be fun.
Off in one of the bedrooms, the Vampire checked out their reflection in the mirror, baring their teeth. Fangs, check. They’d have to take them out to eat, but for now they looked the part. Makeup, check. The dark eyeshadow blended in with the perpetual bags under their eyes, making the eyes themselves stand out — perfect for eye fixation.
The Vampire cast an eye over the rest of their reflection, taking in their pale complexion — a result of their distaste for bright lights, including the sun — and their purple-dyed undercut. Perfect, the Vampire thought, for quite a modern brand of vampire.
A creak from the doorway made the Vampire’s head snap to the side, and they saw the Conversationalist coming in. He grinned, his smile bright amidst his cleanly-kept auburn beard, raising his hands in mock-surrender. “Suspicious already?” he asked, in his smooth, mellifluous voice.
“Well, someone here’s an Impostor. Can’t be too careful,” the Vampire shot back with a smile.
“What, are you worrying I’d get you to relax into a nice trance?” the Conversationalist asked, shifting his tone on the last few words, so the Vampire could almost feel each honeyed syllable. “That I’d talk to you about just how easily you could let my words slip past your conscious mind? How simple it would be for my words to sink deeper into your thoughts? It’d be nice to just let go and drift, wouldn’t it?”
The Vampire noticed their eyes fluttering from the Conversationalist’s embedded suggestions, and quickly shook their head to clear it. Their eyes refocused on the Conversationalist, standing there with an expression of studied innocence. A smile crept onto the Vampire’s face, even as they grew suspicious of the Conversationalist.
“Hey now, that seems like something an Impostor would do!” the Vampire pointed out.
“But wouldn’t an Impostor follow it through?” the Conversationalist answered, before ducking out of the room with a laugh.
Alone again, the Vampire shook their head. Was the Conversationalist actually trying to get them under, trying to deflect suspicion from himself, or just messing with them? It was impossible to tell.
He’d begun to snare the Vampire though — if he’d continued, it probably wouldn’t have taken long for him to bring them under his sway, even though his suggestions were a lot less subtle than his usual. Oh no, the Vampire thought sarcastically, getting sneakily hypnotised, what a terrible end to this day that nobody could have foreseen. A smile on their face, the Vampire headed out to try and find someone else.
As the Impostor picked up their card, seeing the Queen of Diamonds, they could feel their brain notice which one it was, suggestions taking hold. The Impostor grinned inwardly, already thinking about how they could catch the others off-guard and bring them into trance. This is going to be very entertaining…
Some time after everyone had left the table, the Impostor came across the Technologist. She was sitting on one end of a couch in the living room, tapping away swiftly at her laptop. A quick glance confirmed that nobody else was in eyeshot. The Technologist looked up, grinning. “Hey there! Having fun so far?”
“Well, it's a little early to tell,” the Impostor answered back breezily. They took a seat next to the Technologist, casting a glance over her laptop — she was busy tinkering with one of her websites. Not the one with all her hypnotic visuals, they noticed. She was probably trying to make sure she didn’t accidentally put herself under before an Impostor could get to her.
Allow me to oblige, the Impostor thought, carefully keeping the smile that was bubbling up off their face. “Hey,” they asked, frowning, “What’s that on your hand?”
The Technologist brought her hand up, turning it over. “I don’t see any—” The Impostor seized her arm, using light, ambiguous touches to keep her off balance.
“That’s right,” the Impostor started, speaking quickly, “feeling all those touches, giving your brain so many things to focus on. Pulling your attention, like your hand pulls closer to your face,” the Impostor continued, slowly pushing the Technologist’s hand, feeling no resistance, her confusion keeping her just enough off-balance.
“Oh,” the Technologist sighed, having just enough space to realise what was happening to her.
“And as that hand touches your face, you can drop into trance, now,” the Impostor finished, snapping their fingers on the last word, and the Technologist slumped over, her hand stuck to her forehead. The Impostor made sure that the Technologist’s laptop was safe — and that she knew it — before continuing.
“And now, as you listen to my words and drop even deeper, you can become another Impostor, ready to convert everyone else as well…”
Yeah, it doesn't exactly match the rules of Among Us... but this way's more fun when you add hypnosis to the mix!