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2023-07-16
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The Scapegoat

Summary:

Everyone knows of the impostors that have been following the crew through various different places. Skeld, Mira HQ, and now Polus. Along with the shapeshifters, who make it hard to distinguish from friend or foe. There are also the engineers and the scientists and just the average crew mates that do select tasks. But there is one more role no one talks about.

Notes:

Based on a real life game I had the infuriated the hell out of me until the ghosts explained that it was rose and banana using me as a scapegoat because they wanted to fuck with me and make me go crazy.

All characters use they/them pronouns except for one.
Uses a little bit of lore

Sorry, very short story

Work Text:

Strange things have been happening on the ship. It started with malfunctions. Lights repeatedly go out, communication goes down, stuff like that. Then there were the bodies.

It started with cyan

“Where did you find the body, purple?” Asks the yellow crew mate. No one refers to names on the planet. The corporation didn’t give them any. All they were told is to go on the ship and do their tasks. After some mishaps on the ship, they took refuge in Mira HQ. Somehow, the impostors followed them there. Now they were on Polus, where only a handful remained.

“The body was in the Lab by the drill.” Purple replied. There were 15 left. One was found dead, with vitals showing another one was also down. No one was suspicious of anyone. Purple said that they swear gray was there, but gray was with blue in near lights. Everyone skipped the vote, deciding it was a shapeshifter.

That’s when red started acting strange. They have almost found every corpse since then. One was in canisters when they were coming down from the lights. Still, no one had a clue and skipped. This marked 12 players.

Next, there was the one in admin near the table that showed what rooms had people in it. This was also found by red who swore they were with someone who wasn’t there before, believing it to be coral. They were doing the wheel task with the water and stumbled upon the body. This marked 10 players as someone went missing around the same time.

Red claimed to have finished all their tasks and went over to vitals to make sure everything was ok. That’s when yellow died. After leaving vitals to go find the body, that’s when they noticed it right near where the last body was found. People started to notice that Red had found three bodies in a row and had to keep explaining that one was an accident and the other one was because they actively looked for it. They skipped this vote, marking 7 players because another was murdered in electric and another went missing.

Red did the same thing as before, except there was a change. The buddy system was involved. So someone who they thought was coral stood by vitals with red. After what seemed like forever, they flat lined. That was when rose stood next to red as they stood looking at coral. This was a mess because it led to a disaster of a situation for red.

“You want to explain why you keep finding the bodies, red?” Asked gray.

“I keep telling you I am on vitals when they die and I look for them. The first two were by mistake.” Red, defending themselves, yelled at gray for accusing them.

“I think it’s a self report.” Red started to shake their head. It didn’t make sense. That’s when they realized they were a scapegoat.

“I’m being framed.” A bunch of the crew members scoffed at the phrase. They have heard it so many times because of the shapeshifter. “Listen, every time there has been a body, I have been with someone. This time it was rose, the first time it was banana and last time it was rose. It has to be them setting me up. After the first one, they thought they could use me as a scapegoat.” Players seemed to have rolled their eyes. Of course red would say anything not to be thrown into the pit of lava outside of admin. “Guys, you have to believe me. If you do this then you will lose. There are 6 people left. If you vote me out, then there's 5, which means one kill and you're done.”

The crew members looked between each other. They have gone through so much. Red has always been the trustworthy one. On the Skeld, on Mira HQ, but even as they stood there trying to defend their honor, the members doubted their role in the team.

“Please.” They could hear the tears coming down, they break in red’s voice as they knew what they were going to do.

“Red I’m sorry, but there’s too much evidence.” Blue said. Blue has always been red’s friend, and it breaks their heart to have to do this. “If you think it’s red, say I.”

And that was when the betrayal hit. Every person at that table voted for red to die.

“Please, don’t do this. Blue,” Blue didn’t make eye contact. He told rose, banana, pink and gray to take red to the lava. Red pleaded for them to stop, but they were too strong.

Blue wasn’t there to witness red get thrown into the lava, which averages 315 degrees Fahrenheit. Blue already felt pain for having to do it. They went around the rest of the ship, taking in all of what was left. That’s when there was an incoming transmission from someone from the corporation.

“Blue, is everything ok over there?” A commander asked.

“No, not really. There have been two impostors here but we think we got rid of one. We are down to 5 people.” Blue said with a heavy sigh.
“No blue, there are still 2 impostors.” Blue’s eyes widened. They didn’t listen to the commander. They only got a few words through before Blue broke down.

They voted out red for nothing. Their best friend died a horrible and painful death because of them. That’s when they turned around and saw rose and banana coming towards them. Blue got up and bolted towards the emergency meeting button and barely got there.

Everyone was notified that blue called for an emergency meeting.

“What’s up blue?” Gray asked. Blue finished catching their breath before talking.

“I got a message from the commander.” All the members looked at each other. “There are still 2 impostors on Polus. Red wasn’t it. They were right, it was banana and rose. We have to get them out.”

Everyone looked at each other around the table. Pink sighed and confirmed that rose was acting suspicious around them since red died. Blue looked over at gray.

“Everyone in favor of voting out rose, say I.” Blue held in a breath.

“I,” Blue heard, looking up to see gray. They smiled and turned to pink.

“I,” They said.

“I,” Blue said, sealing off the final vote needed for rose to get kicked.

“It can’t be, they were with me the whole time.” Banana stated.

“And that’s how we know it’s you too.” Gray said. “You made us vote out our friend.” Gray had betrayal in his voice as he looked at banana, someone he was becoming close to. Rose and banana have only been on since Mira HQ, but it’s almost confirmed that they are the ones that have been killing everyone.

Rose has already accepted their fate, but Banana still kept trying to convince everyone.

“It’s useless banana, it’s a 2/3 majority. I’m sorry, but Rose is sentenced to get thrown into lava for murder.” Banana stood there, shocked, as the 3 crew mates took rose away. Once returned, gray called the final emergency meeting, finally ejecting yellow and securing Polus.

“We did blue.” Gray said. He seemed proud but sorrow also plagued his tone. “Did the commander say anything else?”

Blue took a breath trying to remember. “I think he said something about an airship coming to pick us up. He thinks that being in the air would help protect us until they figure more about the impostors considering they’re different for every location.”

Blue felt a little strange after all of that. They didn’t know that it was because their friends are dead or if it was just the feel of being on a new planet, but something felt odd.

The airship soon arrived, symbolizing their safety. The three crew mates made their way onto the ship, meeting a new crew to help them for their research. Everyone split up to explore and do some tasks when the commander pulled blue over to talk.

“I know the red was close to you, and I’m sorry you had to do that.” He said, full sincerity in his voice.

“Well he was used as a scapegoat, how could I not know?” Blue shifted a little bit, which made the commander a little suspicious.

“I’m sorry to report that the impostor is controlled by an alien parasite, and it has been traveling with you. It clings on and destroys a person’s insides until it becomes a monster.” Blue’s eyes widened a little bit. they didn’t consider this to be an option since they only ever tried to completely destroy and eliminate the body.

“So you think it’s still with us?” Blue asked, terror sketching their voice.

“Yes.” Just then, something deep inside stirred within them, and then it happened. A giant tongue came out of blue and pierced right through the commander’s visor, leaving his corpse on the floor. Blue shrugged it off and left, going to find others to destroy.