Part 116: Interview Three -Rooster

[BGM: Rooster Style]


...Ugh. This dream again. Either let me fully wake up or die, keeping me in this limbo is just lame.

Well, no use beating around the bush I guess. Hi there, it's me – Rooster. You're here for the interview I presume?

How did you get into acting?



How most people get into acting. I saw actors on the television, and just wanted to emulate them. It seemed like a fun job. A dream job. It's like any job you wanted to have as a kid – just like becoming a pop star, or an astronaut.

Only difference, I suppose, is that I never grew out of it.

Whether you want to chalk it up to naivety, stubbornness, or determination depends on how much credit you're willing to give me. To be fair, I clearly was up to the challenge. I was always a performer. I loved making people react how I wanted them to.

I also learned how to lie at a young age, which, er, helped.

My parents were more than willing to sign me up for acting lessons.

And I was good at it. I killed school plays, improv clubs, I even made very high-quality home videos. Also, if I'm being honest... while I'm not exactly dumb, I certainly didn't do good in school. So in a sense, it felt like acting was my only way forwards.

And I had no reason to believe that it wouldn't work. After all, I'd never really been faced with any real sense of adversity before in my life. Things would just continue to work out.

...Until that one argument.

With total honesty, how was your career going?



I hyped myself up, sure, but I definitely was on the right track.

To be clear, there was a real rough stretch in my life after I got cut off by my parents. Took a lot of odd jobs I might've considered “beneath me”. Really douchey way of viewing things, huh? Yeah, well... it was what it was.

Eventually though, I was able to get onto my feet. Landed a couple commercials. Small time shit, but even that was huge for me. At the time, I was also working with a bunch of people I met in film school.

I encouraged them to make their own projects, and landed starring roles in them. The films themselves didn't do entirely well, critically or commercially. However, my performances were legitimately praised.

There's not a lot I pride myself on. But I am a good actor. Don't get it twisted.

I had enough heat to start landing minor roles in actual shows. I even got to be a minor character in a pretty big movie. I was on my way up!

...Before I got in my own way.

But you know, I've never been the patient type.

In your own words, what happened with Amadeus Bowen?



Amadeus Bowen. That bastard. The first time I met with him, it was under the pretense of asking for a product placement deal in one of the smaller films I worked on. And... even if I didn't already know what I knew, I would've writtten him off as an asshole.

He spoke with an overwhelming sense of smugness. Entitlement. The worst part about it was that he seemed charming... at first. Beyond closed doors, he was a suave, funny, affable fellow. He treated me very kindly. ...At first.

But after negotiations began, after he completely wrote off my offer, my use? He stopped trying to hide the sense of superiority he felt.

I became... obsessed with that man. Online, I dug deep, found countless horror stories of his sins. Some of them, maybe most of them, they were probably made up, but I just wasn't seeing that at the time.

Far more concrete was the research I did on him. The private investigators I hired to dig around. The man hid his tracks well, I'll tell you that, but I had some backdoor savings I had kept ever since I was cut off, to be used at my lowest low point.

To me, researching Amadeus was a worthwhile way to spend that money. You get a good guy from outside Hightower, give them time, give them some leads, and they'll get quite a bit.

Not enough to go to the court, barely enough to go to the press, but enough to fit what I knew.

I don't know when I decided to murder him. It began as my personal 'investigation' of him, the next step. It was paramount to stalking. At some point... I saw a perfect opportunity coming up.

And by the time I followed him and Aaron to the bar, I felt like I couldn't turn back.

How did the Zodiac Trial plan come about?



… It wasn't about boosting my career. I... want that to be clear. I could've made it on my own. …

Hey, you know those shows where some plucky teenager, maybe a group of teenagers, they're faced with some horrible secret? Usually it's something they did, something they're responsible for.

And then for a number of episodes it creates drama, you know, 'will the secret come out?' And almost invariably, unless you're in a certain genre, the secret will be exposed, and then there will be fallout.

You know why that happens? It's because the writers want to give those teens 'good endings'.

You know what a true curse is? It's not getting your comeuppance. It's having to live, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Humans are great at adaptation. With most things, enough time passes, you forget about it. You live with it. But if you do what I did?

Commit a murder conspiracy on a high profile person like Amadeus, and get someone else executed for it? Not a day went by, not even a couple hours, where a pang of fear didn't randomly clutch at my heart.

I was constantly reminded of how fragile my existence was. How, at any moment, it could all come tumbling down. It was maddening.



I mean that literally, I was going insane hiding that secret. And when I thought of the person who saw me right in the act of stealing the card, the kid who knew something was wrong, the man who was one more detailed testimony from cracking open my plan?

You should know, once you kill one person, you're no longer a person. You're a killer. And you can kill again. Murder unlocks options in your brain.

When you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

And you know, who's gonna miss some criminal leading a violent gang? An old man who's got but so many years left? An unhinged teenager who was already off the deep end?

Those people seemed... I don't know. I don't even know why I'm still trying to justify myself...

Why are you even asking this question? Next one, please!

So... why didn't you get exploded when you failed to input your action in Round 3?



Oh, that. …

Wait, why didn't I? Now that you mention it, that's definitely strange. The whole thing was automated, so...

Maybe Monkey really cared about me, and never armed my bombs, because she never intended to kill me!

...yeah, right.

That said, I'm remembering now. That survival was in fact thanks to yours truly! See, I actually helped design those contraptions before the whole kidnapping thing. Monkey told me they were for dealing with the getaways.

Because of that, I knew how to safely disarm them, and so when I had some time to myself in Round 1, I did that promptly. Smart, right?

What do you think is going to happen next?



I mean, if I wake up?

I could try and fight the legal troubles. I'd probably do so quite well. The first death game was meticulously crafted.

Brian did 95% of it, and proving my involvement in any way – it'd be near impossible. The only testimony against me comes from a totally unreliable witness who, by the way, is dead now.

And the second death game I actually didn't have anything to do with. Monkey's death is legitimate self-defense, not just for me, but for Mouse and the whole group. No one could fight that.

And Amadeus Bowen's murder? The recovered knife with my DNA on it isn't great, I have to admit.

But you know, with how corrupted everything around that whole case is, good luck finding a court willing to convict without everything being blown up. Regardless of how the wind blows, the infection in this city is sure to be burned away.

And with that gone, I could easily call for a mistrial, and probably succeed. So really, I'm kind of home free.

...But nah, I don't think that's the route I'm taking.

Even if I don't get convicted, my life will be over if I wake up. And I've already had my share of hiding secrets. Of acting, 24/7. It'd be best for everyone if I just fessed up and played the repentant sinner.

Do you regret anything?



Are you kidding? I regret a whole hell of a lot.

I regret getting into the fight I did with my parents. I regret ever getting involved with Amadeus Bowen. I regret getting involved with Monkey.

…And I regret getting manipulated by her.

I regret letting the Zodiac Trial plan get as far as it did. I regret going along with it once it was in motion. I regret profiting from it when it was over. I regret allowing Monkey to clean up after everything, essentially signing the death warrants of Mouse, Snake, Dragon, and Dog.

….And I regret not immediately outing Monkey when the second death game began.

But you know, my two biggest sins? The two people I actually killed with my own hands? I don't think I regret either of those.

No more questions.

Let's talk again soon.