Part 4: Animal Abilities

[BGM: Silence]


We all started walking off to separate rooms. Dragon, Snake and I walked down the left hallway.

Still... Who the fuck would want to put me in this bullshit?

I wonder... could it be him?

Before I could ask what Snake was musing about, he entered the library alone. Dragon entered a teacher's office to the left, so I went a little further and found a laboratory. After checking to make sure no one else was in the room with me, I tried turning my tablet on.

[BGM: Rat's Awakening]


Sure enough, I was brought to a fairly standard looking screen. Usefully, the top right actually displayed the time left before the end of the round. There were a number of buttons... RUN, ACTION, CONFESS, and ITEM. And at the top, there was an Information button. That was what I wanted for now. I clicked on it, and it brought me to a separate page.

'Personality – Clever'? What did that mean? Whatever, it was probably some dumb flavor text this psycho had included. More importantly, I looked at the section titled 'Mouse Ability'.



SNEAKY RIDE, huh? Apparently, every turn I could target another animal. Then, during their actions, I would move the same number of spaces in the same direction as them. I guess that could be useful. Though, it seemed like I couldn't do much by myself.

At any rate, now that I knew my ability, I decided to return to the cafeteria. It wasn't long before everyone else was gathered, too.

[BGM: See No Evil]


So, was everyone able to manage their tablet properly?

It was a bit of a trial, I must admit, but it was no match for me.

It's a pretty good coding job. This wasn't just thrown together, whoever made it clearly spent quite a bit of time on it.

What are you talking about? It's just a few buttons!

Th-That's, um...

Tiger, I think you're underestimating the work coders do. Even something as simple as creating a clean, well-working UI with nothing but custom code can be a real challenge. Plus, it's apparently connected to this system which will move our animals around.



That's not even mentioning how it was modded onto a pre-established tablet, which tends to have a hell of a lot of firewalls to stop stuff like that. I mean, it's not like it's the most amazing invention of all time, but there's definitely a bit of work that went into it.

No shit. A lot of work also went into kidnapping 12 people and decking a whole school out to be a fucked up killing game.

Is this discussion fruitful? Surely our time would be better spent discussing the abilities we each possess.

That's an excellent point Monkey, we ought to start talking about that. In fact, I'll start. My ability is called Sneaky Ride. It allows me to choose an animal, and then later when that animal moves, I move the same number of spaces.

A reference to the original fable, no doubt.

That's a pretty handy ability.

I guess, but it's kind of dependant on other people.

That's why it's so handy. It's a perfect example of 'Mirrored Play'.

'Mirrored Play'?



It's a concept that comes up in a lot of places, though most frequently in gambling.

Just as an example, let's say you and Rooster had a little bet going. You two were at a casino, and you were competing to see who could win the most money at a roulette table in an hour.

Ha! I'm down.

Rooster, this is just an example.

Now let's say with 15 minutes left, Mouse you've got 45 chips and Rooster has 30 chips.

What! I rule at roulette, why would I be losing?

Like Mouse said, it's a hypothetical.



Well your hypothetical sucks if it involves me losing.

Fine, you're at 45 and she's at 30, happy?

Yes, that fits much better.

Great. Now let's say Mouse bets all 30 of her chips on Black. What would you do?

Easy. I'd bet 45 chips on Red.

Why?

Because I'm not to be outdone. And red's my lucky color.

You sound like you'd be fun to gamble with.



But no, the right choice would be to also bet 30 on black. If the roulette ends up on red, she'd be out and you'd be left with 15. Whereas if the roulette ends up on black, you'd still be leading 90 chips to 60.

Yeah, but if you bet 45 on red and it winds up on red you'd have 90 and stupid Mouse would have nothing.

You realize that in the context of the bet it doesn't matter if you win by 90 or if you win by 15, right?

Maybe if you're playing a coward's game.

Okay well I think Rooster's not going to get it, but I hope my overall point is clear. Mirrored Play refers to the strategy where if you're in the lead, sometimes your best bet is to just copy what your opponent does.

That way, they'll never be able to catch up to you. In the context of the race, if Mouse only had one opponent, and she was in the lead, this ability would guarantee her victory.

Of course, the issue with this strategy both here and elsewhere is that other people exist. It's not like you can copy all 11 people's moves. But if you knew who would move the most spaces each turn, you can guarantee a joint win at least.

I see what you mean. Still, I don't know how helpful it will be for getting a 12-way joint win.



I don't think my ability is going to be any more useful. I've got a thing called Stampede. Basically, it allows me to move to the space behind the animal currently in first place.

That doesn't sound that bad. If you're way behind, that could move you way further up.

Sure, but it never lets me actually take the lead. Plus, thanks to the movement order, it'll always work out so that after I Stampede, the person in first will be able to move again.



My ability's super cool!

It's called Dive. It lets me instantly move to the nearest river.

With that, you could take an early lead and move 8 spaces forward on the first turn!

Yeah, but it doesn't seem to be the most consistent ability. After all, it's the closest river, yeah? I'll need to move forward a bit before I could use it again if I don't want to jump back to the first river.

And after I pass the second river, it's completely useless.



At least your ability is consistent. Mine's called Lucky Bounce. It moves my animal either 1, 2, or 3 spaces forwards at random.

At random? That's odd.

Why?

Well, all the other abilities seem consistent. It's an odd design choice to add a single piece of randomness.

Yeah, well, I think it's probably based on the idea of a lucky rabbit's foot. It's pretty useless, though.



My ability is pretty kick ass!

At least this Jade fuck had the good sense to let me fuck shit up.

I've got Dragon Breath. I can choose any lane to breathe fire on. At the end of the turn, anyone on that lane gets burned, and they won't be able to move for the next 3 turns.

An offensive ability?

Won't be able to move, huh? So that means abilities that don't involve you moving would still be active.

Seems like.

That might be useful if someone tries to rush to first place.

Or if Dragon wanted to rush to first place.

Oh, quit your whining, will ya?



I know I might've... I might come across bad, but I'm not some scum who'd sacrifice others to save herself.

I was just, ya know, angry at the fact that I was kidnapped and put in this situation.

It's alright Dragon, we forgive you.

Yo, I'm not apologizing for shit, get that thought out of your head. I'm just saying I'm not looking to kill anyone today.

Well, we'll leave it at that then. Snake, what about you?

[BGM: Dance of the Snakes]


Ah, my turn to divulge my ability, yes?

I believe it would be prudent for me to not say it at this moment.

What?!

Snake, are you serious right now?

I ask that you trust me when I say that I doubt it would be of much use in this situation.

That's not the point, Snake. We all agreed that we'd share our abilities.

As a matter of fact, I don't believe anyone ever said that, merely that we should all check them and reconvene.

But either way, I don't hide my ability for no good reason. While I would love for everyone to work together and get out smoothly, I somehow doubt that the Jade Emperor would go through all of this if it would be so simple.

There is a real chance we'll end up having some among us who betray the group's trust and attempt to win alone. In that case, my ability may be a last minute tool to prevent such a scenario.



However, I must admit my ability is highly conditional. If a potential betrayer knew it ahead of time, they'd easily be able to counteract it. Therefore, for the sake of the group, I believe it best to keep this ability to myself until further notice.

Well, that... it makes sense, I guess.

You make a convincing argument, I must admit.

I don't like it.

Me neither. How do we know anything this fuck just said is even true?

Look, if I really had nefarious intentions, I could simply make up an ability of not much use and claim it as my own. Does the fact that I am outwardly withholding my ability not in itself imply I am trustworthy?

Seems like some backwards logic to me, but whatever floats your boat.

Whatever, we don't have time to go back and forth like this. We can't start doubting each other this early. If Snake says he has a good reason for withholding his ability, I'm going to trust him.

I appreciate that, Mouse. Know your trust is not misplaced.



Well if that's settled, should I go next?

Yeah, go ahead.

I've got a move called Steady Gallop. It lets me move 3 spaces.

That's it?

That's it.

So I guess it's just a better RUN then.

It's simple. I like it.

Would you look at that, Bunny. It appears Horse simply got a better version of your ability.

Hey, I guess you're right. How unfair is that! Who's balancing this thing??

I don't know, maybe there are situations where it's better for your movements to be random.

I struggle to think of such a situation.



Um... I don't know if my ability is any good. It's called Sweet Sleep. It does nothing on its own, but it lets me make two extra actions next turn.

Hey, that could be good!

It's not exactly a very fast-paced or flashy ability though.



My ability is also conditional, however, I find that it may be of use to the group. It's called Monkey See, Monkey Do. It allows me to use any of the abilities used last turn as if they were my own.

Wow. That's really powerful.

So basically you get to use anyone's ability? That's like, wicked busted man. That's an ability fit for a main character, not some supporting role.

Am I merely a supporting role?

Uh, you're a therapist. You support people. That's your role.

I don't know if it's actually all that powerful. I mean, don't get me wrong, in the right context it could be great. But it's only ever going to be useful if other people are using their abilities.

You can never fire the first shot, as you will. Instead you're entirely dependant on the actions of others.

But if things get to a point where most people are using their abilities frequently, she'll be in a powerful position.

Hopefully it won't get to that point.



Alright, alright, let's get to my ability already.

And man, you guys are gonna love this. Seriously, you better start kissing my ass now, trying to win me over.

Just get on with it.

I've got a thing called Encouraging Crow. It moves any other animal 4 spaces forwards.

Four spaces, huh? That could be pretty good.

But you can't use it on yourself, right? Only other people.

Yes, well, I imagine people will be begging for me to give them this blessing.

Seems to me like out of anyone, you're the one with the most 'supporting' role in all of this.

Well, you know what they say. If you shine the brightest, you only shine slightly brighter than everyone else's brightness.

We... don't have time to try deconstructing that. Dog, could you tell us your ability?



Sure thing. Not that it's much of anything. It's called Rabid Leap. I jump over the closest person in front of me. And by 'jumping', I basically mirror my position in relationship to theirs.

Like, if someone was 1 space in front of me, I'd move 2 spaces. But if someone was 3 spaces in front of me, I'd move 6.

The ability's not great unless I'm really far behind.

But then again, since I come almost last in the moving order, it's basically a guaranteed 2 spaces at least.



That's all, right? Then should I say what I can do?

Sure, go ahead.

Okay, so my ability is called Loser's Desperation for some reason. It's not a very good name.

But it is a good ability! I can move one space for every person ahead of me. Which means I can catch up if I'm far behind.

Actually, considering that you come last in the animal movements, it's not improbable that you could use it to move 11 spaces.

Maybe, but even if I got a lead like that, I can't do anything when I'm ahead. It's worse than just running when I'm in first.

[BGM: Hear No Evil]


So that's that, then, that's everyone's abilities?

And what was the point of that, exactly? It felt like I was in class or something.

It gave us peace of mind, and a greater perspective.

True, but I don't know if it answered the question of what we should do now.

We all need to cross the finish line at the same time, right?

It's simple then! Let's all promise to Run every time. That way, we'll move at the same rate and finish at the same time.

Moron! Weren't you listening to the damn rules? We've only got 12 turns to cross, and there's 24 spaces to move. If we ran each turn, we'd only get halfway there.



So that's it then? We're screwed?!

Calm down everyone! I'm sure we can come to some sort of solution here. We have a lot of abilities at our disposal. Maybe we can work something out!

Curses! We're really being undone by this stupid game? Who on earth would put us through something this childish?



Actually... I think I might know who the Jade Emperor is.



WHAT?!?

For real?

Seriously? You're not messing with us, are you?

So it seems I was not the only to notice.

Wait, Snake, you knew too? Why didn't you say anything earlier?

What good would it do?

What good? I think I've got the god damn right to know who's putting us through this bullshit!

I don't think talking about it is wise.



Well at this point I think we're all going to demand to know.

Monkey, who do you think it is?

To be clear, I'm not certain.

However, there's a piece of evidence which strongly leads to this conclusion. As some of you might have noticed, the Jade Emperor had what looked like part of a butterfly tattoo exposed on his hand.

Monkey was right. I had seen that, too.

There's someone I know who also has a butterfly tattoo there on his body. And this person is... disturbed. Someone I've warned about. A patient of mine.

Who?



Brian Morris.

Morris?! That last name. He... no.