Disclaimer: I don't own Hetalia.

CanZeal: Imposter Syndrome

Matthew checked his phone battery and his headphones before he joined the group. He smiled at Fletcher before he started up the game.

Their friend group had come together to play a little Among Us. They used to play this quite often a few years ago, but they hadn't really had a session together in a long time. Matthew and Fletcher would still play together every weekend, but it was the first time in a long time that they would do it in a large group. Most of them played with their phones, but Kiku was there with his laptop and Yong Soo had his Switch out.

"Let's just go over the rules again," Fletcher said.

"Dude, we already know the rules," Alfred said. "If you're a crewmate, do your tasks, fix sabotages and find the imposter. And if you're imposter, kill the crewmates and sabotage."

"Those are the basic rules of the game, but I was talking about our rules. Like, no talking unless it's a meeting, earphones in, and try to keep your face neutral."

"And if you're caught as imposter, don't tell the others who your fellow imposter is," Arthur added. "No one likes a sore loser."

"And no accessories," Yao added. "We all use the base characters."

"If everyone is agreed, I will create the lobby," Kiku said.

After a few seconds, Kiku announced the code. Matthew tapped the letters in, and after a few seconds of waiting, he was in the lobby with the others. But he noticed something wrong immediately.

"Why am I green?" he asked. "I'm supposed to be red."

"Dude, I hope you don't mind," Alfred said. "But I started to main red a few weeks ago. You know, since red is a heroic colour and all that."

"Red is supposed to be sus," Jett said.

"Dude, that's how it used to be. But red is totally heroic now!"

Matthew scowled. He knew that there was no way to convince Alfred to give him back his usual colour. And he also didn't want to be green, since that was Arthur's usual colour. So Matthew went to customise his character and chose maroon. It was close enough to red, but he was still mad about it.

Fletcher squeezed Matthew's hand, and Matthew turned to him and nodded. He understood that this wasn't exactly something that he should get upset about.

Except, after a while, he saw that it was something that he needed to get upset about.

Every time Alfred was imposter, he managed to convince the others that it was Matthew. He did it by asking them if they were sure that it was red they saw, especially when lights were sabotaged, and the others conceded that it could also be maroon. And because Matthew's defence wasn't good, he was voted out. There was only one time that Alfred didn't frame him, and that was because the other imposter killed him. But while he waited for someone to find his body, he chose to haunt Alfred, who he soon discovered was the shapeshifter, and both times that Alfred shifted, he shifted into Matthew.

Matthew glared at Alfred, trying not to be too obvious. They were still playing a game, and the game still had rules.

When someone finally managed to report a body, Matthew winced when the screen showed that there were four people dead.

"I saw Matthew killing Kiku!" Yao announced.

"Matthew's dead," Fletcher pointed out. "Either Yao's lying and self-reporting, or it was a shapeshifter."

Matthew squeezed Fletcher's hand. It was just insulting to be accused when you were already dead.

"Wait, Mattie's dead?" Alfred exclaimed.

"Alfred, are you the shapeshifter?" Arthur asked.

"Um, no, of course not. Why would you…?"

"Because there's no other reason for you to act like that over Matthew's death."

"Are we going to take a chance?" Jett asked. "I mean, two imposters and five players. If we're wrong, we lose."

"But if we don't take a chance, then the imposters only need to kill one person to win."

And so, three of the five remaining players voted for Alfred, with the other two voting for Arthur. When Alfred was ejected and confirmed to be the imposter, the game shifted. Arthur became the most trustworthy player after correctly pointing out the imposter, and Yao and Fletcher followed Arthur around the map. Eventually, they figured out that the imposter was Jett, because Jett didn't join the group.

"What the hell, Al?" Matthew demanded. "You shifted into me twice?"

"Yeah, sorry about that," Alfred said in a tone that suggested that he wasn't sorry at all. "But I was playing the game. You understand, right?"

Matthew's eye twitched, and Fletcher placed his hand on Matthew's shoulder.

"Don't worry," Fletcher whispered. "You'll be able to get your revenge eventually."

Matthew sighed. He knew that Fletcher was right due to the nature of the game, but it was so frustrating.

"Changing map," Kiku announced.

They changed the map every five rounds, just to prevent them from falling too deep in their routines. Matthew smiled softly when he saw that they would be playing on the Airship, his favourite map.

"Everyone ready?" Kiku asked.

Everyone nodded, and the game started. Matthew stared at the screen, waiting for his role to be announced. He had to stop himself from trying to share a look with Fletcher as the screen announced that they were both imposters.

Matthew was playing as the phantom, which meant that Fletcher was the shapeshifter. He wouldn't be able to do what Alfred did the previous round, but they could still make this work.

The two worked great together. They fell into a pattern of easy sabotage, though Matthew avoided shutting the doors, as the phantom couldn't open doors when they were invisible, which was a nuisance when he needed to get away from a body.

At one point, Matthew and Fletcher arrived together at the viewing deck, where Arthur and Yao were doing the task. Matthew glanced in Fletcher's direction, who was also looking at Matthew with a smile on his face, and Matthew nodded just slightly. Fletcher shut the door to the viewing deck, and the two approached the other two.

"Double kill on the viewing deck!" Mathias exclaimed about a minute later.

"Any idea how old the bodies are?" Lukas asked.

"They were dead for a while," Kiku said. "I was on vitals and saw them dead. I was trying to find them, but I went to the right."

In the end, they skipped that round. Matthew spawned in the cargo bay and pretended to open the safe. He was just about to sabotage the lights when he noticed someone else arrive. His kill cooldown ran down, and he waited for the other person to approach the task. His finger hovered over the kill button, but before he could tap it, the screen flashed as a body was reported.

"I saw Alfred kill Matthias!" Jett announced. "Records."

"Dude, that has to be a shifter," Alfred said. "I was in the kitchen."

"I can confirm," Yong Soo said. "Alfred looked like he was making a burger."

Matthew tried not to wince. Shapeshifting was a good play, as long as the player the shifter shifted as didn't have an alibi. It had the unfortunate consequence of making the other player more trustworthy.

"And it wasn't Matthew," Kiku said. "He was in the cargo bay. It looked like he was doing the safe task."

"Yeah," Matthew said, happy to receive the alibi. "Whoever made that task is a sadist."

"Okay, so there are six of us now," Yong Soo said. "And unless Jett was self-reporting, that means five of us are safe for this kill. Which leaves one person."

"Fletcher, where were you?" Kiku asked.

Fletcher jumped, before he looked around at the others.

"Are you saying that I'm the imposter?" Fletcher asked.

This wasn't good. Fletcher didn't do well when he was directly accused. But Matthew couldn't defend Fletcher. He would only end up implicating himself.

"Okay, where were you?" Jett asked.

"I was in the gap room, doing a download," Fletcher said.

"You mean, you were in the room that is right next to the place where I saw the shapeshifter kill someone?"

"Uh…"

"I think it's Fletcher," Alfred announced.

Matthew bit his lip. He didn't want Fletcher to be voted out, but anything he said at this point would only make things difficult for them. Perhaps they could get lucky. Matthew chose to skip the vote.

They weren't lucky, and Matthew watched Fletcher's cyan character be ejected. He now had to attempt to kill three people on his own.

This would not be easy.

He spawned in the kitchen this time, and he made his way to the security room. He checked the cameras quickly, seeing if he could find the other players. Then he noticed Kiku entering the security room as well.

It would be easy, killing Kiku. But he would still need to kill two other players, and it would be better if he had someone that trusted him. Kiku would have seen Matthew on the cams before he started his task, which appeared to be rewinding the tapes. And so, Matthew decided to call a sabotage to give himself an excuse to leave the security room.

After fixing his sabotage, Matthew went into the lounge, where he pretended to clean the toilet while thinking about his strategy. And then he saw Yong Soo's lime character on the screen. Yong Soo was the one that provided Alfred's alibi, which led to Fletcher being voted out. Matthew had no problem with getting rid of Yong Soo.

But unfortunately, the moment he killed Yong Soo was the moment another person came on the screen. Matthew had just enough time to notice that it was Alfred before he looked up. Alfred looked just as shocked as Matthew, and before Matthew could do anything, Alfred tapped report.

Matthew would need to think fast.

"Dude, I just saw Mattie kill Yong!" Alfred exclaimed.

"N-no," Matthew stammered, his eyes widening. "Alfred was the one who killed, and then he self-reported. He didn't see me coming in."

"Dude, you are so caught! Just admit it!"

"Where was this?" Kiku asked.

"What does it matter?"

"In the lounge, at the bathroom," Matthew said. "I was on my way to finish the safe task. I decided to leave that for last."

"Dude, you are so the imposter. Just admit it!"

"I saw Matthew in the security room," Kiku said. "He could have killed me, but he didn't."

"He was on cooldown!"

"It was near the beginning of the round. I did consider it, but since there is only one person dead, I don't think so."

Matthew smiled at Kiku, making it look like a relieved smile. He knew that it would be a good idea to leave Kiku alive.

"And didn't Alfred try to frame Matthew in the last game?" Jett asked.

"He also framed me three other times," Matthew said.

"Dude, what's going on?" Alfred asked, looking between the three of them.

"Sorry, Al," Jett said. "If we're wrong, then we call an emergency meeting and vote Matthew out."

Matthew had to keep his expression under control as he voted for Alfred, along with Jett and Kiku. Even with anonymous votes turned on, it was clear who voted for whom.

"No!" Alfred exclaimed. "What did you do?!"

Matthew's mouth twitched as Alfred was ejected, but now he had to work fast. When the prompt arrived for where he wanted to spawn in, he saw that one of his options was records. Good. He immediately spawned in, only for a sabotage to immediately happen. He nudged Fletcher in thanks, before he went to the gap room and down the ladder, where he waited for either Jett or Kiku. This was why this sabotage was the best for this point of the game: two people had to fix it, and they had to split up.

He just needed them to arrive after his kill cooldown ran out.

As soon as his kill cooldown reached zero, he entered the vent, just as Kiku arrived. As soon as Kiku went down the ladder, Matthew popped out of the vent and tapped the kill button. Kiku jumped as the screen turned black and the two imposters were revealed.

"What did I tell you?" Alfred exclaimed. "I told you it was Mattie!"

"But to be fair, you did frame him a few times," Arthur said.

"I can't believe you forgot that I cleared Al," Yong Soo said.

"Oh yeah," Alfred said. "I should have pointed that out."

"It wouldn't have worked," Matthew said. "I could have said that you were marinating him, like I did with Kiku."

"I can't believe that worked," Kiku said. "You played that game very well, Matthew."

Fletcher squeezed Matthew's hand, and the two smiled at each other.

"I told you you'd have your revenge," Fletcher said.

"Wait, was that why you were shifted as Alfred?" Jett said.

"Hey, I should have pointed that out too!" Alfred exclaimed.

"Too late," Fletcher said. "So, next game?"

The prompt is: 'Person A and B play the video game Among Us with others, including A's sibling. A and B are both assigned as impostors. A and B find this an advantage since A is constantly mistaken for A's sibling. A and B kill other crewmates, sabotage but fail, lock doors, and blame other crewmates causing some of them of get ejected. B eventually gets ejected first but A managed to still have others trusting A. Suddenly, A's sibling accidentally catches A killing a crewmate and reports the body. A's sibling accuses A for being an impostor, but luckily none of the crewmates believed sibling and voted sibling out. Then, A makes the last kill and wins the game.'

At least the prompt was for a video game I can go into detail about, even though it's been two months since I last played.

I main maroon, and the number of times maroon has been confused for red, brown and purple (first two I can understand, but purple?) is insane, and frustrating, especially if there's a French or Spanish player (marron and marrón, respectively, which mean 'brown'). Since I play in public lobbies, this happens a lot, and I often try to clarify if they mean brown. I hate being falsely accused due to a translation error, but the confusion of colours is even worse. And in public lobbies, it's easier to refer to a player by their colour than to attempt the names. But the colour blindness has worked to my advantage at least once. Another player saw me, but they confused maroon and purple. The player who had purple was already dead, and accusing a dead player makes you look suspicious. It didn't help that they continued to insist. By the time they realised their mistake, it was too late. That was a very sweet victory.

My favourite map to play is the Airship, so I can go into quite a lot of details about that one. And the open safe task is a pest. If there is one task that players new to the map ask about, it's that one. I usually take the time to explain to them how to do that task, even as imposter. And if there's one task on that map that I would recommend for imposters to fake, it's that one. And on two other maps, the difficult task is swipe card, but it's actually quite easy if you play on the Switch, as it becomes a matter of muscle memory.

There are seven official roles in Among Us, and a mod to play other roles. I prefer to play with the roles, as it makes the game interesting. The two imposter roles are shapeshifter, who can shift into another player for a limited amount of time (but only if that player had been alive at the beginning of the round), and phantom, who can become invisible for a certain amount of time. Phantoms can't kill while invisible, nor can they use doors, which I discovered the hard way, after I sabotaged the doors while in one of the few rooms without a vent, which they can still use.

Marinating someone refers to an imposter refraining from killing a specific crewmate in order to gain trust. It's happened to me a few times, and I've done it a few times. I even managed to marinate my friend who was literally playing in the same room as me, even after I killed her. She decided that she never wants to play poker with me.