Among Us is, at its core, a game of deception and trust. Some matches are fun, some are frustrating — but every now and then, one sticks with you. This is the story of a game I’ll never forget.
A few games blew up during the COVID-19 pandemic, when everyone was isolating at home. While Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Fall Guys are good examples, there is another one Among Us (ba-dum-tss), created in 2018 by American game studio Innersloth.
Among Us is an online social deduction game set in outer space. Players assume one of two roles. Most are crewmates working on a spaceship, but a small number are murderous impostors disguised as crewmates.
The crewmates must perform tasks in different parts of the ship and identify the impostors, voting to eject them into the cold void of space.
The impostors, on the other hand, must kill enough crewmates to ensure that they equal the number of remaining crewmates, making a vote impossible.
To succeed in their malicious task, impostors must blend in and avoid being exposed. They do this by pretending to perform tasks (something only crewmates can do), and lying their way through discussions to stay aboard the spacecraft.
Impostors also have a few tricks up their sleeves. They can sabotage the ship, creating emergencies that, if not resolved in time, will doom the crew. Crewmates must then rush to fix the issues and survive, which slows down their progress on the regular tasks.
Finally, impostors can move through vents, quickly hopping between locations. This makes their movements more efficient, but suspiciously fast. Vents have to be used sparingly, as disappearing from a location and popping up at another leads to mistrust. Entering vents is an impostor-only ability, so if you’re caught doing it, there’s no room for doubt.
During quarantine, social isolation led many people to seek online connections, and gaming became a way to bridge the distance. While video calls were fine for a chat, playing together recreated the kind of moments we’d usually have in person, creating stories we’d remember.
There were many games to choose from, but some weren’t ideal for a virtual get-together. If they were too complex, my less gaming-inclined friends would feel discouraged.
Paid games were another obstacle, as most of my friends either had a limited budget for gaming or were casual players with little interest in spending money on online multiplayer.
This was not the case for Among Us: not only was it quick to play and easy to grasp, but it was also free on mobile and cheap on PC. People just needed to join a public match or create a private one to play with friends, quickly jumping into the fun.
It was common to play on voice chats, allowing for heated discussions about who was the impostor (and equally passionate lies to cover up the truth). While the game’s built-in text chat was an option, it lacked the charm of live debates and deception.
Many of my social circles embraced the game, and it was fascinating to see how different people approached strategy, deception, and the thrill of uncovering (or being) the impostor.
One particular match, however, is burned into my memory.
I had been chatting with three friends: Pedro, Helena, and Juliana, but let’s give them codenames to make the story cooler. Pedro is now Oregano, Helena is Paprika, and Juliana, Cinnamon.
We had been planning to play for a while, and four players was the minimum required for a match. To make things more interesting, though, we wanted more people. Since I was staying at my childhood home at the time, I invited my mom and my sister to join us.
My mom is not a hardcore gamer, but she’s no beginner, either. While she struggles in Don’t Starve Together, she shines in farming life sims. Her favourite games are Stardew Valley, Japan Rural Life Adventure, and My Time at Portia.
That was one of the first times she played Among Us. She already had a good grasp of the game’s rules, but a slightly tougher time completing the crewmate tasks. She had also played as an impostor before, but it had taken her an entire match to realise she could use the vents.
My sister, on the other hand, was a top-notch player. She was quick to spot faked tasks, completed her own swiftly, and spent the rest of the time spying on other crewmates.
This proactive approach, however, sometimes backfired. She was quick to accuse others — usually correctly, but not always. And since she was such a threat to impostors, she was often their first target.
As an impostor, she was a bold-faced liar, though not a particularly good one. She’d laugh nervously, deny everything, and point fingers at random people the moment she was accused. Since her crewmate behaviour wasn’t much different, it was always hard to tell whose side she was on.
More than once, she got ejected just for being too suspicious.
Meanwhile, Oregano, Paprika, Cinnamon and I (The Spices & I would be an amazing band name, by the way) were just okay players. We weren’t stellar, but we were efficient enough. Unlike my sister, we were hesitant to accuse others, and it was hard for us to decide on who was the impostor.
There were only a few foolproof ways to identify an impostor—such as catching them kill someone or entering the vents. But even then, the impostor could still try to lie and frame you instead.
And so, the match began.
At first, everything seemed normal, as is the rule in Among Us matches — well, except for one thing. My mom narrated every task she was doing in voice chat.
"Now I’m matching the wires. Oh no, I missed. Wait, let me try again... Okay, got it. Now I need to swipe my card…? Huh. Is there a trick to it? I failed. This is so frustrating! I’ll come back later."
We were all focused on our own assignments, so my mom’s detailed narration was an extra challenge. But we helped when we could, explaining the tasks and how to complete them more efficiently.
For a while, things were relatively calm. A few sabotages here and there disrupted our work — oxygen nearly ran out once, and the lights cut off at one point — but we handled them quickly. My sister, ever efficient, had already completed most of her tasks and was moving through the ship, keeping a watchful eye on everyone.
I had just finished diverting power in Electrical when I saw my mom in Admin. She stood near the card swipe task, pausing.
"You still didn’t figure out the card swipe, right?” I asked.
“It’s hard to do it… I just fail every time! I still have one more task, so I’ll come back later.”
She walked away.
A few moments later, the lights flickered and went out again.
This wasn’t unusual — it was a common sabotage.
Still, I had a job to do. Oregano was handling the issue, so I continued on my path, running toward MedBay, where my final task was waiting. As I entered, I saw my sister at the scanner.
“She’s safe. No deaths so far… but is she getting a scan or faking it?” I wondered.
She still hadn’t accused anyone, which was odd. She was usually quick to judge and could have easily spotted someone faking a task. I finally thought that she could have been the impostor all along.
I voiced my suspicions in the voice chat.
She was MAD. “Oh, so I’m the impostor now? How come there are no deaths, then? I’m fast, okay. If I were the impostor, people would already be dead! YOU are the suspicious one, pointing your finger at me.”
Cinnamon agreed. “Yeah, I think it’s strange that you’re just randomly accusing her…”
And then, it happened.
Out of nowhere, my mom appeared in the doorway.
Before I could react — BAM.
My sister collapsed. My mom stood over her body, completely still.
No hesitation. No attempt to hide it. Just a cold-blooded betrayal.
For a second, I was too stunned to move. Everything she had been narrating — it was all a lie. There were no tasks; she simply memorised them from other matches to describe them well enough and pretend she had been working on them.
Shocked, I slammed the report button and yelled in the voice chat: "It’s my MOM! She killed my sister! Right in front of me!"
I was met with silence.
Then, my mom’s voice. Calm and measured. No frantic defences, no wild accusations. Just a smooth, calculated counterplay
"What? No, I didn’t! You’re making that up!"
Again, Cinnamon was the first to answer: "Hmm, are we sure it’s not you? I mean, you were literally just accusing your sister a few seconds ago. Seems pretty convenient to me; you killed her for talking back at you and then said your mom did it."
"Yeah, you’re just trying to frame her," Oregano added.
“I don’t know…” Paprika hesitated; she was more diplomatic than her friends and abstained from voting.
I protested, but the vote came in: I was ejected.
I floated off into the void, now reduced to a mere spectator. A ghost, powerless to warn them before it was too late, I could just listen in horror as it all fell apart.
Paranoia took over. Oregano got voted out next. Then, Cinnamon was mysteriously eliminated.
That left just my mom and Paprika. No voting majority. Crewmates lost.
And just like that, my mom won the game.
No one saw it coming. She was so nice. So innocent. Just a mom being cool and playing video games with her kids and their friends. And yet… the impostor of a lifetime.
— The detective ghost who’s not that good at investigating,
almoghost.exe (or André Almo if you’re feeling serious) 👻
I was the best impostor in this game 😎👾
Hahahahaha!! Melhor texto!!! Adorei a narrativa e as memórias!! 😊