Everywhere you look, it seems, everyone is playing Among Us. The popularity of the digital multi-player space game has grown far and wide, and has transcended boundaries of age, background, and even 19th century gothic poetry. While doing our research on Among Us in preparation for our upcoming Teen After Hours, we stumbled across this account by Edgar Allan Poe of his experiences in playing the game.

Among Us

Quoth the Raven

Once inside a spaceship dreary, while I labored, weak and weary,
Over a task I had performed many times before
While I hurried through the lobby, suddenly I found a body
A dead body which I found upon the chamber floor

Ah distinctly I remember it was the face of red crew member
And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor
Eagerly I called a meeting; vainly I sought entreating
Justice for my friend was all my bosom’s core
Justice for my dearest friend whom the angels named Lenore

All my soul within me burning, all the crew against me turning
Though red was dead before I only found her, nothing more!
Not the least credence they gave me; not a minute stopped or stayed they
Though up and down the Airship Skeld it wasn’t me I swore
It was not me—I tell you, truly—believe me, I implore!
Quoth the Raven,

“SUS”

Ghost Chat

I can speak with the dead
At last my love and I are free to speak 
about anything and everything that our two souls have longed to say in life but which fate or circumstances prevented
Tell me everything you see
Tell me everything you think
I want to know what you feel
Open your heart, bare your soul, speak my name, let me hear it upon your lips
We can talk about our final moments together
It was such a precious and romantic moment 
right before
you impaled
my banana skin hat with a knife
and then you were kicked off the ship
and perhaps if you’re feeling remorseful
we can talk about that now
Or we can talk about nothing, that’s fine too
I love nothing
Or you can continue to sabotage with your fellow impostors
while I try over and over and over and over again 
with no success
to
swipe
this
card

Emergency

It was many and many a year ago in a spaceship by the sea
That a crew member there lived whom you may know by the name of—

EMERGENCY MEETING

Your Tasks

Task 1: Buy and drink every beverage
Task 2: Purge the spaceship of impurity (empty the garbage)
Task 3: Identify that faint ticking sound
Task 4: Nail a dead cat to the engine
Task 5: THE TICKING IS LOUDER! Measure its volume
Task 6: Sabotage yourself
Task 7: Why does everyone say you are mad? Complete a medical scan to show how sane you are
Task 8: Record the temperature (is it super hot? It feels super hot, you are sweating profusely)
Task 9: THE SOUND IS EVERYWHERE
Task 10: SET YOURSELF ON FIRE
Task 11: THROW YOURSELF OVERBOARD

Masque of the Red Impostor

The scene: Someone has been murdered. Green, Black, and Red gather to discuss.
Red: It wasn’t me
Black: The Red Death came like a thief in the night
Red: Black you were with me in Admin
Black: I saw scarlet—a deep blood color 
Red: We were both there, we both saw Green do it 
Black: I saw Darkness and Decay and Red
Red: Green literally went thru a vent
Green: Red is acting sus
Black: His vesture was dabbled in blood and his brow besprinkled with the scarlet horror 
Red: (is murdered)
Green: Victory! I mean, ILLIMITABLE DOMINION OVER ALL

Report a Murder

Yes I’d like to report a murder
No not in the game just a murder
Yes murder 
No not a gathering of crows
Although now that you mention it 
There is also a gathering of crows
outside my window
It is unclear whether or not the murders are related 
Hold up
I have to go
I have just been murdered

Yellow is Sus

Where’s Yellow?
Yellow has been gone a long time.
Found him!
He’s digging a hole in the spaceship. 
No wait, he’s just filling in a hole. Great work, Yellow.
What task are you working on, Yellow? The Vulture Eye? I haven’t heard of that one before. Is it in Security?
Yellow is following me. But when I close my eyes, he goes away.
Did you finish your task, Yellow? 
Now he’s working on something called the Hellish Tattoo. 
Yellow is currently being followed by a dead cat covered in blood with an axe stuck into its back.
Nice costume upgrade, Yellow.

Lenore was not the Impostor

Let the burial rite be read—the funeral song be sung!
An anthem for the queenliest dead that ever died so young.
Wretches! ye loved her for her flamingo hat and hated her for her pride,
And when she was voted out, ye blessed her—that she died!
How shall the ritual, then, be read?—the requiem how be sung? 
By you—by yours, the evil eye—by yours, the slanderous tongue
That did to death the innocent that died, and died so young.

Among Us

Can’t get enough of the online space game of treachery and card-swiping that is Among Us? Join us for our next Teen After Hours on January 23 at 7 PM. Click below and sign up by January 22 at 5 PM. An app download of Among Us is required to play the game. This event is for teens ages 12–18.