Impostor Among Us
Chapter 4
by MagisterAthena
Tags:
#assimilation
#consensual_kink
#consensual_non-consent
#mystery
#no_sex_no_nudity
#realistic
#serial_recruitment
#resistance
The seven of them gathered around the table for the Emergency Meeting called by the Mesmerist. According to the app, four people were now Impostors — until they voted some Impostors off, the innocents were now in the minority.
The Vampire, Magician and Confuser were the last to arrive, so as soon as they sat down, the Mesmerist launched her accusation. “I saw the Technologist hypnotising the Trickster with a pair of headphones, giving them suggestions. It clearly wasn’t just her messing with him, so don’t try to get out of it that way!.”
The Technologist looked affronted. “No, it was you who hypnotised the Trickster! You just called this meeting because you knew I was onto you.”
The Vampire almost expected the Trickster to ask the logical next question — but realised in this situation that wasn’t going to be happening. “Trickster, what do you say?”
The Trickster said, somewhat mechanically, “I believe the Mesmerist, I think she’s telling the truth.”
The Conversationalist’s eyes narrowed suspiciously, picking up on their tone. “Hey, Trickster, who do you reckon’s more suspicious here?”
The Trickster repeated in the same tone of voice, his eyes slightly unfocused, “I believe the Mesmerist, I think she’s telling the truth.” Then they looked askance at the Conversationalist, his gaze sharpening. “Hey, why’re you asking me basically the same question?”
The Conversationalist turned to the rest of the table, ignoring the Trickster’s question. “I’d say this looks a lot like the Mesmerist is the Impostor here, given how the Trickster’s answering the questions mechanically and with the exact same words every time. Shall we vote?”
“Hang on!” the Confuser interjected. “We can’t be sure it’s the Mesmerist. Given how obvious it is, it could be the Technologist trying to lead us astray.”
The debate raged between the Conversationalist and the Confuser, with the rest of the table taking sides as one or the other’s arguments convinced them. The Vampire kept being pulled in either direction. How many layers of bluffing are happening here?
Eventually, the debate wound down, and the first vote came up — the one for the Trickster’s fate — though this time the Magician was the one to hit the tablet to start it. The Vampire voted, and the results came back almost instantly — all three innocents voted against them.
The Trickster, looking at their phone to see the results, gasped, his eyes wide for a moment, before they slumped down in their chair, having seen the screen that triggered the suggestions to take someone out of the game. A few moments later, he slowly rose back up out of trance, all suggestions cleared, no longer part of the game. The Vampire checked their phone again, seeing: The Trickster was An Impostor.
Everyone around the table nodded, glad to see that part at least had worked properly. Now for the more contentious issue. The Magician tapped on the tablet again, saying “Alright, now to vote for who hypnotised the Trickster.”
The Vampire voted once more — for the Technologist. They couldn’t quite pin down a reason, but reckoned it was unlikely to be the Mesmerist. The vote came back: two for the Technologist, one for the Mesmerist. A majority. The Technologist pouted for a moment before the suggestions on her phone screen took hold, and she sunk down into trance, before popping back up a few moments later. The Vampire felt a moment of satisfaction on seeing the message: The Technologist was An Impostor.
The innocents were back in the majority, with only two more Impostors left. However, they were right back to where they were before, with no more obvious information pointing to who it could be. So the party ended the meeting, splitting back up once again and scattering through the house.
Afterwards, the Vampire and the Confuser met up in the library. The Confuser sat in one of the chairs, while the Vampire leaned against one of the bookshelves.
“Do you have any ideas about who the other two Impostors could be?” the Vampire asked.
The Confuser got an amused grin on xir face. “How do you know I’m not one? Why do you trust me?”
“You pointed out the Technologist’s bluff — doesn’t seem like the sort of thing an Impostor would do,” the Vampire said, with a raised eyebrow. “So who were you with in the first two rounds? Did you see anyone with the Technologist who might have got her?”
“I didn’t see the Technologist for most of the first two rounds, but I did spend the first round talking with the Trickster. Then I spent the second round alone, down in the kitchen. Which unfortunately, doesn’t help anything.”
“How about you?” the Confuser asked back. “I presume you didn’t see anything with the Technologist, but maybe you can give some of the others alibis.”
“First round, I spent a bit of time with the Conversationalist. Second round, with the Mesmerist. But that doesn’t clear either of them — they could have converted the Technologist in the other round.”
The Confuser shook xir head. “All the intrigue of a murder mystery, but with the added confusion of multiple culprits who convert others into more culprits! We might need to re-balance the rules next time, it feels too easy for the Impostors.”
The Vampire snickered. “Isn’t that the entire point of this game? To try — and then fail — to keep our free will as we all get converted one by one?”
“Yeah, but we’ve got to have some chance!”
The Vampire laughed, heading for the door. “Well, saddle up — I’m sure you’ll get an opportunity soon enough.”
A minute later, the Vampire was walking along next to a closed door, and heard a very distinctive tone of voice from inside. They listened closer, and their eyes widened. They quickly grabbed their phone, hitting the Emergency Meeting button. The voice inside cut off with the sound of the Emergency Meeting notification, and the Vampire quickly headed back to the table, ready to level their accusation.
There was a silence as the conversation between the Impostor and the Mesmerist finished up with a topic, in that moment before they switched to another. The Impostor took that chance to steer the conversation in the way they’d carefully planned.
“I actually found out something really interesting about how stuff like satellites and space stations stay in orbit. Turns out, they have to go really fast sideways to stay up there.”
The Mesmerist nodded for the Impostor to continue, looking interested — or at least, her usually deadpan expression had a fair tinge of interest.
“So, the way it works is that as they go sideways, they’re being pulled by Earth’s gravity. But they’re going so fast that by the time they get pulled down, they’re actually far enough around the Earth that the ground has fallen away at the same speed.”
“Huh,” the Mesmerist nodded, growing more curious.
“It turns out that the Space Station actually feels about the same amount of gravity as we do, they’re just all falling at the same speed as the station. So the astronauts feel all weightless, able to just drift around inside, even though they’re feeling the same gravity. I imagine it’d feel pretty nice, just being able to drift around like that, just being able to let go and not have to worry about gravity.”
The Mesmerist nodded absently. The Impostor could see her blinks getting just a bit slower, and her expression softening into relaxation, and made sure to hide their satisfaction at the covert induction working.
“And those orbits just follow that same trajectory, just falling constantly, unless something else acts on them. So anything that’s orbiting just gets to drift peacefully, caught in the Earth’s gravity. They’re just always falling, not needing to do anything, automatically following that path.”
The Mesmerist was just staring off into the distance now, her shoulders relaxing and expression softening. The Impostor almost had her completely snared, but couldn’t resist one last challenge.
“A bit like how you’re caught by the gravity of my words, feeling your thoughts pulled around by those words that I say,” the Impostor continued, deliberately using more obvious language.
After a moment, the Impostor watched the Mesmerist blinking rapidly, the gears of her mind struggling to spin up through the blanket of trance draped across them. “H-hey,” she said, softly and fuzzily, “w-what are you doing?”
“Why,” the Impostor replied with a playful smirk, “I’m hypnotising you, of course. Can’t you tell from how soft and hypnotised your words sound? How relaxed you feel? How sluggish your thoughts are?”
Colour flushed through the Mesmerist’s face as her eyelids fluttered. “I— You—” she stammered.
“Shhhhh,” the Impostor soothed, and the Mesmerist grew an even brighter red. “Don’t fight it. You don’t really want to, after all. So just sink.”
The emphasis on the final word made it slip inside the Mesmerist’s mind, bringing all the machinery of her thoughts to a stop. The Mesmerist’s shoulders slumped as her eyes closed, finally letting go into trance.
The Impostor let out a shaky breath, the mingled adrenaline and excitement of what they’d just done coursing through their veins. The covert induction was fun to watch working, but it was even better when they’d tipped the Mesmerist off, and used her flustering at the idea of being hypnotised to push her that last bit down.
The Impostor felt the suggestion to convert the Mesmerist engage, and they rubbed their hands together as they started. “As you just listen to my voice, let it seep inside your thoughts, you can feel yourself becoming yet another Impostor…”