Fanfic / Among Us in Character

The crew of the Skeld. ^note From left to right: Pink, Drama, Black, White, Purple, Red, Yellow, Orange, Green, and Brown.

A fanfiction based on the video game Among Us that focuses on the crew of the Skeld, a spaceship sailing through space for unexplained reasons. All is well among them...Until Drama discovers the dead body of Green. From there, the crew desperately attempts to whittle out who among them is the one responsible for the crime, as the body count slowly begins to rise.

Written by Archive of Our Own user, Dramana22, the story was released on September 22nd of 2020. A spin-off story called "Ejected", was released a mere two days later, which takes the focus off of Drama and places it on two other crewmates instead. A sequel, "Among Us in Polus", was also released.

"Among Us in Character" can be found here, while "Ejected" can be found here, and "Among Us in Polus" can be found here.

---

General Tropes

• Anyone Can Die: Doesn't matter who they are or what their role in the story is; if they're given a name, they're just as liable to be killed off as anyone else, including Drama herself.
• Author Avatar: Drama. Which only makes her Sanity Slippage and subsequent Face–Monster Turn all that more surprising.
• Expy: The four stories as a whole draw quite a few parallels with both Alien and The Thing (1982).
• No Name Given: Most of the cast is referred to by their colors instead of their names.

Among Us in Character

• Adapted Out: Cyan and Lime have no representation in the story in spite of also being colors in the game.
• Air-Vent Passageway: It's theorized by the crewmates that the killer has been making use of the vents throughout the ship to commit murders. This is never confirmed, as the one they blame for this turns out to be innocent, while the killer never explicitly states if they did indeed use them.
• Ambiguous Ending: The story ends moments before Drama and Purple engage in a Duel to the Death, with the audience being left guessing on who between them went on to survive.
• And Then John Was a Zombie: Drama is taken over by an alien parasite in the last few scenes of the story.
• The Atoner: After Black's death, Purple becomes more active in his attempts to catch the killer.
• Badass Normal: Drama, who shows quite a bit of skill in her fight against White. Only for it to be revealed later that she's not quite human by the time that occurs...
• Big Bad Ensemble: The imposter, a crewmate on the ship who is slowly killing off their friends for unknown reasons, and the parasite, an alien lifeform the crew picked up on their travels who is capable of bending their host's body to their will.
  • Big Bad: The imposter is ultimately revealed to be White, who planned to kill off everyone on board except for himself and Pink.
  • Final Boss: The parasite, who has its DNA injected into Drama, allowing it to warp her mind and body however it sees fit, and quickly gets to work killing the remaining crew.
• Big Guy Fatality Syndrome: Black, for what little we learn about him, is implied to be among the strongest of the crewmates, keeping Purple from attacking Drama during the first meeting and acting as his bodyguard while doing tasks. He's also the second victim of the killer.
• Black Dude Dies First: While technically not first, Black is the first character to die in the story proper.
• Bloodier and Gorier: Though not by much, the story is considerably more graphic than the game it's based on.
• Character Death: Besides Green getting killed prior to the story, Black is snuck up on and murdered while repairing the lights, Red is thrown out into space against his will, Brown is killed in the reactor, Pink takes credit for the murders and willingly ejects herself into space, Orange is stabbed by White to save Drama's life, White is practically butchered by Drama with a knife, and Yellow is choked to death by Drama when she is infected by a parasite.
• Characters Dropping Like Flies: By the end of the story, every character is either dead or about to be killed.
• Closed Circle: The entire story is entirely located on the Skeld spacecraft, with the only characters present being the crewmates working on it. There is also no way of contacting anyone from within the Skeld, meaning the cast is all on their own when it's revealed there's a killer among them.
• Disc-One Final Boss: The killer is dealt with about 3-quarters into the story, allowing the parasite to come forth as the Final Boss.
• Downer Ending: Five members of the crew are gruesomely murdered, two are unrightfully ejected into space, and the final survivors are stuck in a standoff that very easily could lead to both of their deaths as well. Basically the only good thing to come out of the story is that the killer is dead at least, but it's hard to say how good of a thing that truly is when everyone could potentially have died anyway.
• Duel to the Death: First a fairly nasty one between Drama and White, and then one that occurs off-screen in the ending between Drama and Purple, with the latter never having a confirmed winner. The sequel reveals they both survived.
• Dwindling Party: Following the death of Green, the body count quickly begins to rise as the story goes on. By the end of the story, the only characters who're still confirmed to be alive are Drama and Purple, and even then, it's made very clear that only one or neither will survive their encounter.
• Everyone Is a Suspect: The only confirmed innocent crewmate at the beginning of the story is Drama (as she's the POV character), and the rest of the story from there is the crew slowly confirming who could and couldn't have committed each of the murders.
• Face–Monster Turn: The final act of the story involves an alien parasite taking control of Drama, transforming her into its own personal puppet to kill the rest of the crew.
• Fate Worse than Death: Likely the fate of anyone who gets ejected from the Skeld.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: Purple is pretty swiftly identified as this, with nobody seemingly respecting him beyond his skill as a pilot, and everyone being so quick to turn on him in spite of very little evidence being presented early on. The only crewmates implied to not mind his presence are Black and Orange, and even then, his relationship with either is never expanded upon.
• Generic Doomsday Villain: The imposter (White) never has their motives revealed for the murders they commit.
• Gory Discretion Shot: For the first half of the story, none of the murders are shown happening on-screen, and whenever someone is ejected, they've got some time before they run out of air. This all goes out the window the second White is confirmed as the killer.
• A House Divided: A result of a killer being onboard; everybody has a hard time trusting each other, and the few that do trust each other continuously have said trust tested at every possible opportunity, making actually finding the killer far more difficult than it needs to be.
• Heroic Sacrifice: It's ultimately revealed at the end of the story Purple had set the Skeld on a crash course to the nearest planet, which would likely kill everyone on impact, due to being unwilling to allow the killer, and later on, the parasite, to return to Earth and potentially cause even more deaths. As he's the only one capable of disabling such a thing, it's made fairly clear either only he survives, or everyone dies for the rest of mankind's sake.
• Hysterical Woman: Pink, who spends a majority of her screentime panicking, crying, and leaning on White for emotional support.
• Jerkass: Purple, Red, and White all show themselves to be the biggest jerks of the crew, coming across as uncompromising and mean-spirited in the crew's attempts to find the imposter.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: After unintentionally causing Black's death, Purple puts his grudge against Drama aside, starts more actively working with the others to try and catch the killer, and even ultimately saves Drama's life in the end. This is taken up to eleven during the ending, where he's even willing to sacrifice himself if it means ensuring no further deaths.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: White is ultimately revealed to be the killer, and he has little to no sympathy for any of the murders he committed.
• Let's Split Up, Gang!: An explained example; the ship has to constantly be maintained in order to keep running, thus meaning for maximum efficiency that everybody should fan out across the ship to get their tasks done as quickly as possible.
• Minimalist Cast: The entire story focuses on the ten-member crew of the Skeld. The only other character in the entire story is an alien parasite, and even then, it's only revealed to exist long after taking control of Drama.
• Misplaced Retribution: White injected Drama with the alien parasite in an attempt to poison her. When she realizes this, she incorrectly blames Yellow, and promptly murders them on the spot.
• The Needs of the Many: The true reality of the ejections; in order to ensure the safety of the rest of the crew, everyone agrees that if the imposter is found that they'd be ejected into space. Ultimately, both crewmates who get ejected are proven innocent.
• No Ending: The story ends just before Drama and Purple fight to the death, with no clear answer of what happens after that.
• Not Evil, Just Misunderstood: Red and Pink are revealed to not have been the imposters soon after getting ejected.
• Odd Friendship: Red and Yellow spent the first two phases doing their tasks together, and the former even looks to her as his way of confirming his own innocence. This all goes out the window when Yellow accidentally sends him to his death along with the rest of the crew.
  • While more implied than anything, Black is among the few crewmates that seems to genuinely trust or respect Purple.
• Only Sane Man: Orange, who manages to be the only member of the crew to keep a clear head throughout the story.
• Poor Communication Kills: The presence of a killer immediately causes distrust between the crew, leading to several of them keeping details from the others, outright lying about what happened, barely defending even those they know couldn't have done anything, and constantly accusing each other. This leads to the potential deaths of Red and Pink, who are ejected into space after the crew becomes convinced they're the killers.
• Posthumous Character: Green, who dies mere moments before the story begins.
• Properly Paranoid: Considering the circumstances of the story, it's hard to really blame any of the cast for what ends up happening.
• The Protagonist: Drama, who spends the entire story desperately trying to catch the killer.
  • Villain Protagonist: After being infected by the parasite, she then turns into the story's Final Boss, while retaining being the story's primary character.
• Pyrrhic Victory: Sure, they catch and kill the killer, but the only survivors of the whole experience were Drama, Purple, and Yellow. And only moments later, Drama is revealed to be infected with an alien parasite anyways, effectively rendering the victory all but moot.
• The Quiet One: Both Yellow and Black are fairly silent during meetings, only speaking up when they have something to say, or in the latter's case, not even then.
• Rewatch Bonus: Rereading the story with the knowledge of White being the killer, Pink being an unwilling accomplice, and Drama being infected with an alien parasite can lead to quite the entertaining experience in its own right.
• The Rival: Drama and Purple seem to have known each other the longest prior to the story, and not only can't stand each other, but actively attempt to undermine and insult one another whenever they have the chance. In Drama's case, it's implied to be because Purple scored higher than her during the piloting trials. In Purple's, he just finds her annoying.
  • Fire-Forged Friends: As the story goes on, the two slowly come to mutually respect each other to some degree as they try to discover the killer. Even after Drama has been twisted into wanting to kill him by a parasite, the two's final conversation is one that feels very cordial and heartbreaking, as it's made quickly clear that neither of them wants to hurt the other one.
• Sanity Slippage: Pink's ejection quickly causes Drama to lose herself in her attempts to try and catch the killer, going so far as to lose sleep and worry the rest of the surviving crew. This is implied to be due to the alien parasite's influence, and after it finally takes over, it gets even worse and results in a Face–Monster Turn.
• Slasher Movie: In space! And it's not a movie, but the same general tropes apply.
• Small Role, Big Impact: Both Green and Black are the first to die in the story, and yet the former singlehandedly sets off the entire plot with their demise (and is later revealed to be the only reason Drama wasn't the first victim instead, while the latter acts as Purple's motivation to start working with the crew more actively, due to personally blaming himself for his death.
• Space Isolation Horror: It's determined by the crew that the only way to be safe if they discover who the imposter is, is to eject them out into space, where they'd likely drift endlessly for the rest of their lives. This is ultimately the fate that befalls Red and Pink.
• Sole Survivor: By the end of the story only either Drama or Purple survives the events of the Skeld, unless one subscribes to the theory that after the encounter both of them die.
• Surprisingly Sudden Death: Orange is killed instantly upon being stabbed in the heart by White.
• Ten Little Murder Victims: More like "Ten Little Crewmates", but the point still stands; there's ten characters, and one of them is a murderer killing them off one by one.
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill: After killing White, Drama makes sure he's dead with a few more stabs for good measure.
• Those Two Guys: Black and Purple are implied to have been this prior to the story, with the former even seeming to be Purple's Only Friend.
• Thrown Out the Airlock: How both Red and Pink exit the story, getting ejected by their crewmates when they're found to be suspicious and admit to false crimes respectively.
• Vasquez Always Dies: Downplayed; Drama, the most outwardly tomboyish between the three girls, is one of the only two alive by the ending, though considering her infection by the parasite and Purple guaranteeing she won't get off the ship alive, it still ultimately applies.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: Green, who is never introduced properly and spends the entire story already having died. The same could be said about Black, who ultimately dies fairly early on as well without too much characterization.

Ejected

• Ascended Extra: Red and Pink are given far larger roles as the main characters of the story, due to their role as the ejected crewmates from the prior story.
• Foregone Conclusion: Due to the events of the last story, it's made clear that no matter what, Red and Pink are never saved or seen again by the rest of their crew.
• Hope Spot: Red desperately clings onto the hope that Drama and his other friends will come to save him after they realize the error of their actions. This never happens.
• Uncertain Doom: Confirms both Red and Pink didn't die instantly upon being Thrown Out the Airlock, only while the latter quickly accepts her death, the former holds onto hope that he'll eventually be rescued. Neither of their fates is confirmed afterward. Considering the circumstances, however, it's unlikely either survived.

Among Us in Polus

• Adaptational Late Appearance: Cyan and Lime make their appearance after having been absent from the previous two stories.
• Adaptation Deviation: This story introduces Maroon, Gold, and Grey, colors that don't exist in the base Among Us game as of its release.
• Aliens Speaking English: An oddly explained version; the humans never bothered attempting to learn the alien's language, so instead, they developed translators to act as a method of two-way communication between different species.
• Ax-Crazy: Drama has completely lost it, and alternates between feelings of guilt, sadism, gloating, and unhinged delusions.
• The Bad Guy Wins: Drama not only bested Purple in the duel, but ultimately survived the Skeld crashing anyways, meaning in the end his attempt at a Heroic Sacrifice was completely meaningless. She appropriately gloats about it while he's in a coma.
• Big Bad: Drama, who is still infected with an alien parasite.
• Death of Personality: Purple comes to believe this about Drama. By this point, it's true, since she's been almost completely subsumed by the parasite, and after her body dies, the parasite takes over completely.
• Downer Beginning: The story opens with the climax of the Duel to the Death between Drama and Purple, which the former ultimately wins. While it's shown not much later that the latter survived as well, he was placed in critical condition as a result of the fight.
• Higher-Tech Species: The alien crew of Polus is noted as having far superior technology to that of the crew of the Skeld.
• Human Aliens: The crew of Polus act and look the same as humans, with the exception of strange skin and hair colors.
• Immediate Sequel: Takes place only minutes after the events of the first story.
• Innocent Aliens: While they have their moments, the crew of Polus as a whole are presented as friendly, well-meaning creatures.
• Made of Iron: Purple is back up and walking only a couple days after surviving both a vicious beating and a spaceship crash.
• Not Quite Dead: Purple, who miraculously manages to survive both Drama beating him within an inch of his life, and the Skeld crashing into Polus.
• Token Human: As the crew of Polus are all aliens, Drama and Purple are the only humans in the story.
• True Companions: The Polus Crew. Unlike the Skeld Crew, they get along quite well and genuinely care about each other, something Drama even notes while following Black and White.

Mira HQ: Final Stand

• Downer Ending: Earth has secretly been infiltrated by Impostors, and one of them murders Purple before he can tell anyone, or even realizes it.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: Purple, who has become old, grizzled, and haunted by his past.