A series of fanfiction based on the game Among Us, written by Archive of Our Own user Metatron. All three works in the series can be found here
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The first installment, they say the shadows have teeth, takes place on the Skeld. Two Impostors are running loose, but one of them begins to fall for Cyan, and seeks to protect him from the other killer. The first chapter was released on September 28th, 2020, and the fifth and final chapter was released on October 9th.
The second installment, like son, like father, takes place on a separate ship called the Reliant and features an unrelated set of characters, although it takes place in the same 'verse. When White is ejected from the ship on suspicion of being an Impostor, her Mini crewmate is left behind, and Orange unofficially adopts it. Unfortunately, he soon realises that 'Bean', as he names it, may be an Impostor itself. The first chapter was released on October 2nd 2020, and the fourth and final chapter was released on October 6th.
The third installment, and they say murder can't be a bonding activity, directly follows the events of like son, like father, focusing on Orange and Bean's journey after having to leave in the dropship, as well as White's backstory. It was begun on October 11th 2020, and at the time of writing was last updated on October 27th.
Tropes:
- all lowercase letters: The titles of each installment in the series are written in lowercase.
- The Captain: Yellow for the Skeld; Green for the Reliant.
- Colourful Theme Naming: Enforced by MIRA; employees aren't allowed to go by their birth names, only their colours, as it makes it easier to report back to HQ.
- Horror Hunger: The first thing that both Cyan and Orange notice after being bitten is the Hunger, always written with a capital H - Hunger for human flesh.
- Nameless Narrative: Employees of MIRA aren't allowed to go by their birth names, only their colours, as it makes it easier to report back to HQ. Even the viewpoint characters are only called by their colours. However, in and they say murder can't be a bonding activity we learn that White Reliant's real name was Rachel Zaera.
- Emergency Transformation: Since Impostors can heal faster than normal humans, Red bites Cyan to transform him into an Impostor after White shoots Cyan, as he would have died from the bulletwound otherwise.
- Faint in Shock: Cyan passes out upon seeing Purple's body, thanks to the gorey sight, the realisation that a killer is on board, and the stress of his crewmates shouting accusations around him.
- Air-Vent Passageway: To avoid being caught eating Blue's body, Orange escapes Medbay through a vent, going into Electrical.
- Baby Talk: Pink uses this to a sickening extent when talking to her Mini crewmate, Mr. Fluffykins.Pink: Say bwuh-bye to Mwster Owange, Fluffles! Bwuh- bye!!!!!!!
- Knight in Sour Armor: Orange is burnt out, cynical, and well aware he's living in a dystopia, but he's still a good guy.
- Mistaken for Masturbating: Grey assumes that's what Orange was doing when he went to eat Blue's body, and lies to cover for him.
- Papa Wolf: Orange quickly becomes fairly protective of Bean after unofficially adopting him, but the transformation into an Impostor is what really turns it into this trope. At the climax of the story, although Lime is about to kill everyone else, it's the moment he threatens Bean that makes Orange shift into his Impostor form and kill Lime.
- Pro-Human Transhuman: Orange is horrified by his transformation into an Impostor, and despite the Horror Hunger for his crewmates, he has no desire to kill anyone. He only eats Blue, who had already been killed by White, and the only person he kills is Lime, in order to save the rest of the crew.
- Apocalyptic Log: A large portion of the story - whats been released of it so far, anyway - consists of Orange reading White's data log, documenting experiments involving Minis and Impostors, how she got her Mini, and how she came to work on the Reliant.
