Part 82: On Impulse

_{content warning: discussion of child neglect/abuse, vague suicidal ideation}

[BGM: Constriction]


Ox stopped us in a nearby bathroom.

Holy shit! What was that about?!

I don't know.

What was Snake doing, bringing all that shit up to that psycho? It's like he was trying to get Tiger to snap!

Was everything he said true?

Most likely. It's very well possible that Tiger has killed in the past, and we're now simply dealing with an easily angered murderer.

What are we going to do now?



None of us can take down Tiger.

Take down?

All the weapons are in the other room, the room she's closest to. The only one who might stand a chance would be Horse, but who knows where he's at now.

But we have to do something about her!

Something about her? What are you two talking about? We need to come to an understanding.

'Come to an understanding'? She just clobbered the shit out of Snake for basically nothing! She's too dangerous. She can't be normally dealt with.

It'd be preferable if we could come to an understanding, but I don't find that too likely an outcome.



At this point, I think it likely she's realized that she's in for a penny, in for a pound. Once she calms down, it's very possible that she'll go into the weapons closet, grab two pistols, and start killing everyone.

If she can do that, it'll be easy to escape the race. And if she's the only survivor, she'll have plenty of time and leeway in spinning a narrative where she's done nothing wrong.

But wouldn't it be better if we worked together with her and all survived?

You want to work with her?

You're right, it'd be better, but it's not likely.

Look, I'll go out there. I've got experience as a policeman with talking to people with criminal tendencies in tense situations. I should be able to calm her down. Then I can handle it.

No, let me. I've talked with Tiger a lot, and I know I can come to an understanding with her.

...*sigh*



This is probably a mistake but... Mouse, I want you to go instead of Bunny.

What?

Look. Mouse has proven herself to be consistently on the ball. I know it's really dangerous, but I trust her. If she says she should be the one to go and talk Tiger down, she should be the one.

I don't like that.

Well too bad, that's what I'm saying. Do you want to waste any further time and argue about it?

Tch. Just go, Mouse.

I won't fail you!

You better not.

With those encouraging(?) words backing me up, I strode back to the lobby. If I was totally honest with myself, there was a large part of me that was terrified of Tiger. She was in an absolutely enraged state, and she already proved herself to be willing to kill in fits of anger. But... She was the core of our team. Always optimistic, always smiling.

I couldn't believe that she was an evil person. She didn't deserve to die. She wasn't blameless, far from it. But the true villain here was Brian. I couldn't forget that.

[BGM: That Pesky Rodent]


When I turned the corner, she was just staring at Snake's body, sweating. I averted my eyes from Snake. I didn't need to see too much of that to know there was no saving him.

Tiger!

…

Tiger, please, calm down. We can talk this out.

Talk this out? You think things can go back to normal after this?

They have to! I don't want anyone to die!

That's nice, but two people already have!

Sure, but that doesn't mean more people should! I bet if you come peacefully, I can convince the group to forgive you. This can all be like it never even happened.



You really want that?

Yes. Trust me!

…

I don't doubt you, Mouse. But Snake was right! I'm a murderer. Things can't just end peacefully now.

Why not?

Because bad people don't get to just walk away scot-free!

[BGM: Weak Pig]


When Dragon started attacking me, I just... I felt so betrayed by her! It was so cowardly that she'd try to attack me from behind like that, when I trusted her! We worked together, she told us about her life back in the gymnasium, and then she turns on the group?

And she didn't even try to fight me, she tried to brain me when I wasn't looking! How could I forgive that?

I was initially just going to incapacitate her. But when she poked at my eyes, it just hurt so damn much! I didn't even know what happened.

Next thing I knew, I was standing over her body. Snake was right. I'm a murderer by nature. The exact same blacking out thing happened when I started getting angry at him. And my mother...

Snake was just getting in your head. It was probably a lot scarier there, and you really were just defending yourself.

That's what I told myself. But no, that was murder too. If I wanted to, I could've taken her non-lethally. But she was a monster.



If it wasn't for her, Jaymin wouldn't have died!

Jaymin. Let me guess – your twin brother?

You don't know how much he got me through childhood. I used to be way more gloomy. He was such a positive kid.

He took everything that happened to us as a blessing. He already had one once-in-a-lifetime experience, so why stop there? If he had 100, his life would be worth 100 times more.

Always looking for new opportunities to do incredible things. But we were young, we were playing on a frozen lake, we didn't know better.

But if our eyes weren't ruined by that woman, we would've seen the cracks! He would've lived!

So that's why you pushed her over.



I didn't mean to push her over. But I let her fall.

That's not the same.

It is.

Since Jaymin's death, I've tried to pick up the slack and fulfill both our 100 experience quotas. In doing so, I've always been pretty impulsive. It's helpful a lot in life, just going with what you want. It led to plenty of once-in-a-lifetime experiences.

But I think... I'm afraid that it's come with a cost. Lately, I don't have any control over my emotions. My emotions have control over me. When I want to do something, I just do it.

It's impulsive, it's not like it's something I can control. ...And because of that, I've killed two people.



I'm not even that concerned that I wasn't able to control my emotions enough to not kill them. It's the fact that murder was my impulse that gets to me.

Tiger hung her head down, the life drained from her. At some point during our conversation, Tiger's desire had shifted from wanting to survive to wanting to die. I wasn't going to go along with that.

Tiger. If you really feel all that way, then help us all escape. Then, when you get out of here, get better.

Get... better?

Snake and Dragon were both incredibly pragmatic people. I'm sure if they were here, they'd prefer it if the rest of us got out alive, and you ended up going on to do good in the world. ...They'd certainly like it more than you pointlessly dying.

…

So what do you say? Join me, and we'll just talk to everyone. Does that sound good?

… Okay.

[BGM: Bullfighter]


I ended up bringing Tiger in peacefully. Eventually, the entire group met up, and we had a big discussion in the cafeteria. There was a lot of debate about what should happen next. Eventually, everyone settled on having everybody cross the finish line as a group. Tiger's murders would be framed in the best possible light, but would still be reported to the police. Many were unhappy with this agreement for one reason or another, but it's what we settled on.

After that, we were faced with a minor miracle. We checked Snake's tablet, and it turned out he had the 'ambitious' personality. To turn a phrase from Snake himself, it made me feel better about the whole thing. I still mourned his death... but, effectively speaking, the only victims were ones who couldn't survive anyway. Through a mix of guiding factors and sheer coincidence, Tiger hadn't decreased the net people who'd survive the race by a one.

...This would sound particularly blackhearted to say aloud, but it actually ended up a help. With the threat of traitors gone, the group could completely focus the search on Minor Trinkets. Eventually, we found 10 of them, and began using them to advance as a group. From there, there wasn't much to do but wait.



But man, are we lucky that the traitors got offed like that. Gee Tiger, you sure know how to pick 'em.

…

Woof, tough crowd.

You will be going to anger management when we get out, correct?

In the off chance I don't get sent to jail for life, yes, I promise I will.

Actually, I don't think prison is necessarily in the cards for you. Snake laid it on pretty thick there, but the truth of the matter is we're in pretty uncharted territory here. There are a number of factors I could think of bringing up that would strengthen your case.



In fact, if you claimed you had reasonable suspicion that Snake and Dragon were their respective personalities and planned to commit violence, you could get away with it scot-free.

But that's not what happened.

It might've been. It'd be hard to disprove, and that's usually what matters in court.

Mouse, you said you were going to become a defense attorney? You should know this stuff already.

I actually plan to be a principled defense attorney.

Hmph. I only know a handful of those, and they're pretty shit at their jobs.

Anyways, all I'm saying is that if I were the prosecutor on this, I wouldn't feel too confident in this case. At the bare minimum, you could probably get a plea deal for an amount of years you could count on one hand.

…



I suppose the real reason Brian brought you here was the whole incident with your mother, then? I mean, obviously it's rooted in the fact that you played a part in the trial, but I guess that backstory was why he felt moral justification in sending you here.

...Maybe. I'm not sure if that's it, though.

Why wouldn't it be? Is there a different reason it could be?

...If I'm laying all the cards out on the table, I might as well come clean about my testimony. I never lied. I would never lie, let me be clear. But... I might not have gotten as clear a look at the murder weapon in his back pocket as I initially led the court to believe.

What?!

Don't get me wrong, it definitely looked like the weapon! But it might not have been it.

Then why did you testify so certainly that it was?



Look, the cops got all up in my face about it, they really wanted me to say I had seen it. They were saying that if I couldn't positively identify that, this guy who was obviously the killer might get away.

Giving the definitive testimony to lock up a slimy killer escaping justice sounded pretty once-in-a-lifetime to me, so I agreed.

Wow. I'm starting to sympathize with Brian.

I didn't lie, I exaggerated. And it's not like it matters!

He was still clearly guilty.

I suppose that's correct. Even without that one testimony, the mountain of evidence was pretty conclusive. All you did was help the courts tighten the noose one notch closer.

…

[BGM: Silence]


Something felt off about what Tiger had told me. But I didn't have time to think about it. Soon, the round ended, and we all crossed the finish line. Our collars came off, and we escaped the school.

In the end, myself, Ox, Tiger, Bunny, Sheep, Horse, Rooster, Monkey, Dog, and Pig escaped alive.



[Ending – 4 of Spades]

If nothing is found in the first three rounds but weapons and Trinkets, Dragon will be assigned a role that forces her to act. However, the most likely situation is that Tiger ends up guarding the weapons.

Dragon will definitely try to strike Tiger down, and Tiger will definitely kill her in retaliation. But Tiger will try to stop that from coming out, and complicate things further.

If Mouse manages to gain her trust while also being competent enough to figure things out, she should be able to settle things peacefully before it devolves too much.

In that scenario, likely the only victims will be Dragon and Snake. An almost flawless victory. Theoretically ideal. However, this scenario is highly unstable. Let's find a more solid path to walk.