Part 53: True Colors

_{content warning: police violence/brutality}

[BGM: Silence]


After knocking him to the ground, I started to re-run away. Bunny sprung back up and tried to grab my foot. Luckily, a pissed Dragon reeled back and gave him a solid kick to the head. Dragon's attack sent Bunny tumbling to a nearby column.

[BGM: Fire Breath]


AAGH! Fucking bitch!

That's what you get for trying to fuck with me!

So these are your true colors. Disgusting.

Well what the fuck was I supposed to do? Curl over and die?



I've put up with so much shit, done so much shit, and it all led up to me dying in some shitty high school?

Fuck that! This whole thing's totally unfair! Why the hell am I being punished? For arresting the right guy? For doing my job? It's bullshit and you know it Brian! Tell me, why do I have to go through this? I don't deserve to die like this!

And anyone else did?

If they didn't want to die, they should've done something about it. Like I did.

And how'd that work out for you?

It's unfair, unfair, unfair! Why am I here for catching a criminal? Doing my job?



Is that why you're here?

What?

I didn't think it particularly pertinent before this, so I didn't bring it up, but I saw that there was an article ripped out and posted on the board in a Global Studies classroom. It talked about a controversial police shooting.

The police officer in it apparently had very little justification for firing and killing a low-level felon who was later revealed to be unarmed. But ultimately, nothing came of it.

[BGM: Weak Pig]


That's talking about you, isn't it Gerry Braxton?

Tch.

For real? That's you?

I heard that story. Just another instance of this city's systems being completely fucked.

Ha! Makes sense that this trash would be so open to reckless murder.



Bunny? Nah, you should've been the one we called Pig, pig.

That wasn't me.

What?

Yes, I was the officer talked about in the story, but the story's wrong. I never shot anyone.

You think we'll buy that?



Look... I learned how to make people like me from a very young age. I got a lot of practice learning to appease my parents.

The secret is to just go along with whatever other people want. If you let them have control, then they appreciate you.

In school, I was pretty popular. I had a lot of friends. Everyone liked me. I was actually feeling pretty good about myself.

But then I heard that some of my closer friends were actually acting like dicks to other kids at school.

I confronted them about it. And just like that, it all fractured. The slightest bit of opposition, and all of the sudden I was 'the enemy'.

People I thought were close turned on me, bullied me incessantly. And its not like I had allies from the other kids, because in their eyes, they were my friends for a long time.



I was complicit. In an instant, I fell from heaven to hell.

Why are you telling us this?

Because it's important to know that I learned from early on how cruel things were when society turns against you.



How quickly your relationships can break. I spent two and a half years learning that lesson.

So when I finally joined the police force, I knew not to fuck things up.

Being candid, the force is in a pretty shitty state. There's a lot of corruption, malpractice, and frankly shitty people working there.

Chief of Police Bowen is either incredibly incompetent, or behind the atmosphere. It was a station full of assholes.

But to fit in, you had to assimilate. I learned my lesson about making my move early. I went along with them. ...Maybe I went along with them a little too much.



To the point where they got me on camera joining in on things like planting illegal drugs at a crime scene.

Fucker.

It wasn't my idea! I just had to go along with my senior officers.



I knew it was fucked. I was only still working there because I thought I could help combat it in the long run.

But then, one of Bowen's top men fucked up. They shot someone they shouldn't have shot.

And I was asked to take the fall.

You went along with that?

I was assured that nothing would come of it. And if I went against the force, there was no telling what footage might get out. How the media might spin things.

[BGM: Silence]


Are you saying the Chief of Police is blackmailing his police officers? Why didn't you fight against this?

Who do you think has more influence? Who would win this fight?

And you kept working there?

And leaving the force would've fixed anything?

Staying definitely wasn't the right option!

Heh. I don't think you get how things work, Mouse.



Unless you let groups control you, you don't get to control the group.

It's a give-and-take relationship. If you go along with what other people say, they're far more likely in turn to be influenced by you.

There really wasn't a choice for me.

[BGM: The Undying]


I don't know if you thought your story would've made me sympathetic to you, but it only made me hate your guts more. Let's end this.

Wait, wait, wait!

What?

You don't have to do this.

Yeah, we do.

No, you don't.

Yes, I'll admit it, I'm the victorious personality. Which means that I can win with two other people.



Monkey, Mouse, there's two of you!

If you just turn against Dragon, the rest of us can get out together!

Are you seriously proposing that?

Why would we want to work with a murderer?

Don't be so dramatic, all I did was push some buttons.

Dragon's an actual criminal! A gang leader!

I'm a good cop who's trying to reform a broken system!

Think about it, who should really get out of this situation?



Oh go fuck yourself.

Dragon picked up the knife Bunny had dropped on the floor.

Wait, wait!

Bunny tried to protest, but Dragon walked up to Bunny with a threatening look in her eyes. In response, Bunny threw a punch at her. It missed, and with an uppercut, Dragon stuck the knife up Bunny's jaw. She pulled it out, and blood splattered out. Bunny's eyes shot open, and he tried to speak out something. The wound, however, punctured some part of his vocal chord, and all he could do was sputter.

The final, most brutal death of this race. Not an execution, but a lynching.

[BGM: Silence]


Dragon stood over Bunny as he collapsed, covered in blood. She turned over to look at me and Monkey. We looked at each other and said nothing. I could hardly condone what just happened. But I certainly wasn't going to do anything about it.

The rest of the race went by quickly. We used the Minor Trinkets to race towards the end. It would've been close if just the three of us used Trinkets. However, we operated the dead people's tablets and had them use Trinkets as well. It took 3 rounds to reach the finish line.

There wasn't much discussion or celebration amongst us survivors. How could there be? There were only three of us. My eyes kept wandering to Bunny's sad corpse. He had fought so hard to survive. And for what? Monkey, Dragon, and myself were the only survivors. I bet Brian was cackling in the viewing room right now. We had well and truly broke down and killed each other until there was almost no one left.

Exactly what he wanted.

This wasn't a victory. We had lost too many people to call it that. The only one satisfied with this ending was Brian. And if Brian was satisfied, that means we lost.



[Ending – 5 of Spades]

If the Second Caw is found in the first three rounds, Bunny will be assigned a role that forces him to act. If he finds the Prayer Statue, he will definitely use it.

Bunny is an incredibly sly, social player, and will be able to make the most of the voting system. On a good day, Mouse might be able to deduce the two traitors and stop Bunny from dominating.

However, any race where the Prayer Statue is activated is a race which will end incredibly bloodily. That's not the story we're aiming for.