Chapter Text
You weren’t a violent being, honest. Sure, you killed people from time to time, but it was all for the sake of survival…or boredom…that didn’t necessarily make you violent.
Your current predicament, however, did make you feel what you could only describe as ‘insatiable bloodlust’.
You were travelling on a ship with a decently sized crew of eight; that wasn’t the issue though. The issue was the imposter in Lime.
It hadn’t taken you long to figure it out; he wasn’t exactly subtle about it. He’d blatantly stared at you during the very first meeting and then afterward had followed you until the two of you were alone to ask, without any sort of tact, “So, what’s up with your face?”
“What’s up with yours?” you’d retorted.
You thought you heard a very faint growl, but when he responded his voice was even, “I have a perfectly normal human face, thanks.”
“For now.”
He ignored that. He quickly glanced toward the hall, and when satisfied that no one was approaching, turned back and hissed under his breath, “You’re an impostor right? We may be on the same ‘team’ but I don’t need your help. Just stay out of my way and we won’t have any problems. Got it?”
You stared down at the upturned visor, unimpressed, and let the threat hang in the air for a bit before you gave an exaggerated shrug and a wide, beak-splitting yawn in your own subtle threat. “Whatever you say, bud.”
The impostor in Lime seemed to deflate slightly, but quickly recovered. He spun around to leave, and as he did he spat over his shoulder, “I’m not your ‘bud’.”
‘Testy.’ You thought to yourself, watching him go. Oh well, whatever. You didn’t really care what he did as long as he didn’t drag you into it.
Looking back now, you realize that hadn’t been entirely true.
You had been sitting in navigation with your Blue crewmate, watching and listening to them intently as they talked about charting courses, reading star maps, and just piloting the ship in general. You didn’t fully understand most of it, but it never hurt to learn. That is, until you’d heard a soft rattle from one of the vents behind you. You’d ignored it, and Blue seemed wrapped up in their tasks and explanations to notice.
With a slow creaking noise, the vent opened up and from it slithered the rather amorphous form of the impostor in Lime, which quickly pulled itself back together into the shape of a human. You’d turned your head slightly to fix an eye on him, willing him to leave with a tinge of annoyance.
He ignored you, unsurprisingly, and in an instant a barbed green tentacle had pierced straight through the back of Blue’s helmet and out of the visor in the front. The tendril wriggled in the air for a moment and then tore itself back out and disappeared back into the other’s body.
Blue gave little reaction, their words cutting off abruptly and with a final stuttering breath they slumped forward in their seat.
‘Irritating’, you thought, holding back the urge to snap at the impostor in Lime.
“Pretty good distraction; maybe you aren’t completely useless.” He sneered, “I already got Pink in Medbay too.”
It’s at that moment the alarm goes off for an emergency meeting. You glance back at the body of your Blue crewmate and tut to yourself, wondering how that will be explained.
Lime is already leaving; you’re quick to follow, showing up at the same time would likely work out better for you anyway.
The pair of you are among the first to arrive, only preceded by Cyan who called the meeting, and Orange. Green joins you not long after.
You see Cyan appear to do a head-count, “Where are -?” they don’t get to finish as White comes barreling in from Weapons.
The alarm quiets down as Cyan takes their hand off the button. All attention is on White.
They’re shaking, and between panting gasps they keep trying to choke out words. “B-Blue-! They-!” they have one hand clutching their chest and the other pointing back the way they came, “Dead!”
You wring your hands together in a purposeful, yet subtle display of unease, and try to gauge the reactions of your other crewmates. The impostor in Lime seems to be doing something similar.
Orange and Green appear more nervous, while Cyan now has their fist clenched on the table and is still looking at White. They turned to look over the gathered crew, “I called this meeting because Orange and I found Pink dead in Medbay,” White made a strangled noise, “but apparently Blue is as well.”
“Does that mean one of us is a murderer?” Green piped up, they looked shocked by their own question, glancing nervously between you all.
White really did look to be on the verge of fainting by this point.
“Where was the body, White?” asked Cyan.
“In Nav.” They replied softly. They finally took the last few unsure steps forward and came to sit at the table. They immediately slumped forward leaning their helmet into their hands. “I-I don’t know what happened. There’s blood everywhere.”
Cyan sweeps a look over the table, “Black and Lime, you both came from that direction before White didn’t you?” it was just bordering on accusatory; Orange and Green seemed to draw closer together, leaning away from you and Lime. White didn’t move.
You make a show of looking shocked, giving a little jolt and glancing at the impostor in Lime for a quick read – shoulders slightly drawn, one hand on the table curling and uncurling, he looked defensive - before looking back to Cyan.
“I was in Nav with Blue for most of the day,” it was always best to stick as close to the truth as you could, you knew, “we were chatting, they were showing me how to do some of the tasks there. I left not long before you called the meeting, they were fine when I left.” You pause and glance away from Cyan, you let out a nervous hum. The rest of the crew were watching you and listening, including Lime, “I met up with Lime in O2 after I left and that’s about when the alarm went off. I-“ you give another visible start and slowly glance toward White, “I didn’t see White at all…”
Your collective gazes all shift to the crewmate in White, who jumps back up to their feet, “You- Are you trying to say that I killed them?!” their voice was rightfully outraged, but you could hear the fear bleeding through as well. “I found them!” they yelled, “I- Why would I out myself if I had done it?”
“You would have known that we would notice when Blue didn’t show up and telling on yourself might ease suspicion off of you…” you tap a finger to your chin, the only one that didn’t look entirely convinced was Cyan. You try to assuage those doubts with a little, “Oh! Uh, sorry, I just used to watch a lot of crime shows,” and a nervous laugh.
Cyan didn’t look impressed but they at least seemed less suspicious. “Where were you, White?”
White was frantic, “Im-! You can’t believe that! I didn’t-!” you could hear them gasping again.
“I’m only asking where-“ started Cyan.
“Yeah, where were you at, White? Me and Black didn’t see you at all!” piped Lime.
“Shut it.” Cyan snapped at him before turning back to White. You had to agree with them on that sentiment at least. “Where were you and what were you doing before this?”
“I was- I- was in Comms.” White explained, “I was doing a download, and then I- then I was going to go up to Nav next but that’s when the alarm went off.”
“Why did you stop at Nav on the way here then?” Cyan asked.
“I don’t know.” White squeaked miserably, “I don’t- I didn’t- I-“
You might have felt bad for them if you were a kinder being, distraught as they were, but as it was you found it pitiful at best.
Orange and Green seemed uncertain, Cyan thoughtful, and Lime somehow you could tell, was about to open his big fat mouth again. “Can anyone else vouch for them?” you ask.
Orange shook their head and Green replied, “I was in Electrical for a while, lotta tasks in there y’know, and I was just finishing up when the alarm went off, I came up through storage and Admin hall to get here but I didn’t see White either…”
“Well, I haven’t seen any of you either!” White sobbed.
“This is a pretty convincing performance if it is them,” you mutter loud enough for the others to hear.
Cyan sighs, “We’ll put it to a vote.”
“It isn’t me! I skip!” wails White.
“I’m skipping as well.” Cyan says.
Lime is the first to announce his vote for White, Green and Orange more hesitantly agree, and all eyes turn to you. You slowly glance around at each of the others before landing on your White crewmate, “I’m sorry, I vote White.”
There’s a long, pained wail from White; Lime jumps up eagerly to grab them and start tugging them toward the airlock. Cyan is more somber, they get up and walk toward the airlock doors the way one might walk in a funeral procession.
The remaining three of you all rise and head over as well to see them off.
White has fully broken down into tears now, between gasps and hiccups still protesting their innocence, but they don’t fight back even as Lime pushes them, more forcefully than is really needed, into the airlock.
No one speaks when Cyan pulls the lever to eject them.
You all split off again after that, but you find yourself in the reactor room with Green.
“Thanks for coming with me, Black. I mean, I know we threw out the killer and all already, but it’s still nice to have a buddy.” They chuckle and go back to their calibrations.
You nod, assuring them it’s no problem, and you coax them into telling you more about what they’re doing while you watch.
They don’t know as much about running the reactor as some of the other crewmates might, but you paid close attention to all the fine details and motions they made with their hands on the machinery anyway.
You catch a glimpse of lime out of the corner of your eye.
“That was really good, earlier! Pretty quick thinking.” Lime says sounding impressed.
Green startles, then starts to laugh, “Oh, Lime you scared m-“
That quick barbed tendril shoots out from somewhere on the impostor’s back and easily shreds through the front of Green’s chest before wrapping itself around their throat and shearing their head clean off their body.
“So anyway, maybe you aren’t so bad.” He continued, “Cyan and Orange are the only ones left now.”
You sort of lost the thread of whatever it was he was on about, you were too busy trying to keep yourself from doing something that you’d likely regret.
You don’t think you’d ever encountered a creature so thoroughly irritating as this. He had no subtlety, no finesse, no patience, no respect. He was tactless and arrogant, stupid and dangerous. You hated him.
“Hello?” fingers snapped impatiently in your face, “are you listening?”
You refocus, setting the hate aside for now and you offer a toothy smile, “Sorry, mind repeating that?”
He gave a derisive snort, “I said we should get a double kill and finish them off. Cyan and Orange are both in Admin right now. We finish up, we win, we go home. Good?”
“Ah, yes. That sounds good, how about you go for Cyan and I’ll get Orange.” Your mind is already working at a plan, trying to come up with something, anything that might work for you. You couldn’t be stuck on a ship with only this horrible green bastard for who knows how long. You don’t think you would survive that.
“Works for me, let’s go and get this over with.” Says Lime.
What a waste of a trip, you lamented as the pair of you made your way to Admin. You’d hardly learned a thing and you hadn’t even gotten a chance to do anything fun.
Lime stopped just before the doorway to Admin and looked up at you, “Ready?”
You stifle a sigh and nod.
You enter the room and find Cyan and Orange watching the doorway from the other side of the admin table.
“Well, looks like it’s just the four of us left,” Lime says with a grin in his voice, “don’t worry, it’ll be down to two soon.”
You roll your eyes.
Cyan is tense, but resigned, “Get it over with then.”
Orange appears to be trembling.
“Whatever you say,” Lime hums as the pair of you approach the remaining two crewmates.
You place your hands on either side of Orange’s helmet, holding tight enough to keep them still but nothing more.
Lime seems too intent on Cyan to really notice anyway, a wide toothy mouth opens vertically down the front of him, lime green peeling away to reveal darker, richer green insides.
You have to give Cyan credit, they don’t flinch away at all.
Inspiration strikes you, you’ve no idea if it’ll work but you’re going to try anyway. You wait until the impostor in Lime has his mouth full, then you part your beak and fire your needle-like tongue into him and inject as much venom as you can before quickly retracting it.
“Hey!” he growls, “What, did you change your mind? You trying to kill me now?”
You watch, readying yourself to move quickly if need be, but to your surprise, nothing happens.
Lime’s form seems to wobble, the half-chewed body of Cyan slides out of his now very…gooey torso.
You both hear and feel Orange gag, reminding you to release them.
“What the fuck did you do to me?” Lime asks sounding somewhere between enraged, bewildered, and terrified. His body wavers more forcefully, but again nothing happens.
Well, he wasn’t paralyzed, but this seemed to work just as well, if not better. “Orange, come help me, I don’t know how long this will last.”
“Don’t touch me!” Lime snarls as he starts to back away toward the doorway.
Orange seems too stunned to obey at first, but once you’ve grabbed the oddly fluctuating form of the impostor in Lime they seem to snap out of it and quickly they hurry over.
It was strange, you mused as the pair of you dragged a kicking and screaming impostor toward the airlock, he was still solid in a way, even though he seemed to have lost control over his form and it didn’t seem to know what to do with itself.
Maybe the trip wasn’t a total loss after all. You can’t help but give a wide toothy grin and wave as you pull the lever for the airlock and watch the impostor in Lime drift away.