#fishies curse is that people won't stop dying in the death games

[butterflieswhisper]

hiiii ^^ beastlife fishie analysis. spoilers ahead. etc etc

okay so. the main point of this is simple. I don't think the salmon head cursed c!fishie. Explaining that is the harder part I think. also i'm going to refer to the salmon head thing in e5 as "the incident" from here on out because frankly i think it's funny

Let's start with the incident. The big day. etc. What happened? Why did it happen? Obligatory third questioning statement? Well. She was gifted the salmon head for her birthday by kiwi(or like. someone in the kiwibird system. -bird system. the birds). Immediately upon receiving it she relives parts of season one and fishie herself doesn't really acknowledge it. The other players definitely notice but im not caught up enough in any other pov yet to like have thoughts on that I'll come back to that point someday. Fishie seems shaken, sure, but she moves on so quickly, especially considering what happened just there. 37 seconds of standing frozen, unresponsive. she recovers in 5 seconds. And seeing how she reacts later on to realizing the memory situation--if she was aware that happened, she would probably be concerned by it. She puts it on for a brief second at the end of the party and takes it off immediately. She's otherwise normal -- well. as normal as she is otherwise up to that point. Because that is also how she acts with pretty much any salmon head, even just kiwi herself.

I raise: Episode one, about 8:20 in. The slow zoom on kiwi as the static overtakes every other noise. This is the *exact* same behavior displayed when fishie receives the salmon head, albeit without actual concrete old video footage style flashbacks. In episode two (28:55ish) the same thing happens when she looks at the salmon head in moch's house, but this time there is technically a flashback -- kiwis grave. Fishie moves on immediately and doesn't acknowledge her behavior at all, and, seeing as it is fishie, im inclined to believe that means she does not know she is doing it. Fishie (when alone) will discuss all of her problems in immense, and usually misguided detail (bestie i promise kiwi doesn't hate you???) to the audience and/or herself. I mean she's not alone in episode one, and it is technically presession, and i guess getting struck by lightning is a decent distraction from your problems, but in episode two? She is completely alone. There is nobody with her. She went looking for moch and moch is not there. She still doesn't acknowledge the fiveish seconds she is completely frozen. This happens again and again with kiwi and salmon heads.

And then that leads you to e5. The incident. She's. well. she's doing worse. 0:50. "This will distract me if i leave it up." This is the first mention from fishie herself about how fucking weird she's being, and even then she doesn't seem concerned. I think she does not realize she's being so so incredibly weird about it. If the static and freezing is what's referred to as "distraction" then keeping it in her inventory makes it worse actually so it wouldn't really make sense unless the way it is distracting her is NOT the. well. whatever the fuck is wrong with her (affectionate). After she puts the head on there's the static all the time but for a short brief amount of time she's like significantly more normal and i don't really know if that means anything i just think it's really funny.

And then we all know what goes on during the incident i'm not analyzing this video frame by frame. um. i could. but i am not going to right now. And then she has the conversation on the table with kiwi where she like is normal for 5 minutes. Like genuinely the most. i guess stable? fishie's thought process is is like in the moments directly after the incident. She is immediately understanding with the antikiwi situation, they come to an agreement that they're like. okay now. "thank you for everything and im so sorry i couldnt do more" / "it was short, but it was nice" "i knew what i was getting into when i married you" etc etc and then they kind of rush it at the end because people won't stop dying. But then fishie is fishie and takes it in the complete opposite extreme (from. um. whatever was wrong up until now. to "oh kiwibird must secretly hate me because" and then there's no real good reason she's just like that) and it's also an issue. And i think the season two memory thing is also a part of that but this is so long already and so i'm not going to get into it rn. So bringing all of this back to my original point: the salmon head was not the cause of the curse(?) because she's been so weird all the time forever and the salmon head thing was just like. an effect. of whatever went Wrong(tm) in the season transition. like the head was a vessel to Be Worse about it but i feel like it would have worked with any salmon head she got her hands on and that it happened to be kiwico was a coincidence and also that the head wasn't cursed at all there's just something deeply wrong with fishie s3 in general and uh yeah 👍

I'm so sorry this is so disjointed i had a thesis statement and everything. alas

[parkyparkpaaark]

"Tell me everything you know and I swear it will just stay between the two of us."

For the first time in the past ten minutes they've been in this cramped, dimly-lit room, Sam Wilson finally met the gaze of the man in front of him. He was never a fan of one-on-one conversations even with his family, let alone with a guy he just met. He had always described himself as a new kind of specie who is incredibly anti-social. Although there was one person who could make him talk nonstop without feeling uncomfortable— Bella.

Who is also the reason why he was in this room, talking to a guy he barely knew.

"I don't know anything."

---

The siren of the ambulance blared through the streets, turning the heads of each resident it passes by. Accidents are not a stranger to the small town of St. Jane County. But the peculiar thing was it was the third time this week that the ambulance picked up another teenager that goes to Northwest High for what can be barely called as an accident. Unless you call discovering a dead body in the restroom with a bubbling mouth an accident.

It boggled the mind of the people how it all seemed to happen consecutively, following the death of Bella Green. Various speculations were formed, some a little hard to believe while some thought it was just a mere coincidence. But what stood out the most was the belief that Bella left a curse before she died and that she's haunting the students who go to the same school as hers.

Ethan Blake, a senior from the same school, says he's had his share of odd sightings of the girl roaming the halls of Northwest High. He admits having to have had a relationship with her for a short amount of time in the past.

--

The stranger set down a couple of pictures of a blond, well-built, good looking guy in front of Sam.

"Know him? He claims to have dated Bella. Is that true?"

He scoffed at the mention of the word. "Dated? Now he says that. But where was that when Bella came up to him at the cafeteria two months ago asking what they were? That asshole barely looked at her before making fun of her in front of his teammates."

"How about the two people who have died earlier this week? How are they related to her?"

Sam knew better than to play games with the town's detective, so he gave in. Without looking up from the table, he began speaking.

"The first one, Paige Morgan, was running for class valedictorian alongside Bella. Both of us knew she was a dirty player and would probably pull up an act which could get Bella in trouble. And true enough, she posted a nude photo of Bella using an anonymous account in our school page. The picture was real, and I'm sure she got it from Ethan, being the only guy Bella has ever been with. I reported it immediately but it was too late when they took it down because the principal had already seen it. He was about to expel her but she begged him not to so he thought he'd just eliminate her as a candidate for class valedictorian."

The whole time Sam was talking, the detective has been writing nonstop on his little notebook, this being the first time he's received relevant information about the case. There was finally a flicker of hope in solving the mystery that's been bothering him for weeks.

He took a sip from his already cold cup of coffee, "And a few days after Bella's death she was found lifeless in her room, am I correct?" Sam nodded. "How about the other one? Mr. Travis Anderson?"

"Well Travis was a bully. I can still vividly remember getting a wedgie from him back in freshman year," he couldn't help clenching his fist at the thought of the jerk. "A few days after the issue, Bella found out that Travis was the one who sent the photo to Paige using Ethan's phone. By the way, Paige and Travis were dating during that time so you'd understand why he helped her."

There was a minute of utter silence after Sam stopped speaking. It's beginning to make sense now— the consecutive deaths that followed Bella's, the cause of death of the victims, and their connection to Bella herself. The detective thought for sure there was something fishy going on— I mean how big of a coincidence can it be that both the victims were found to have been toxicated by the same drug? But what he couldn't figure out was why the victims voluntarily took the drugs.

He was about to ask more questions about the subject, considering how much Sam had already spilled. But before he could, he was cut off by the boy, "Sir I've already shared a lot of what I know. Can I please go home now? I still have to prepare for our prom tomorrow night. I haven't picked up my tux yet and it's getting dark outside."

Having left with no choice, he let him leave.

---

[P R O M]

It had been weeks but Ethan still couldn't get over it. He spent most nights staying up all night, contemplating on the things happening around him. First it was Bella— who he admits he has wronged and no one knows how sorry he is for being a jerk to her. Next it was Paige, who he didn't really like, considering she's an entitled bitch. And then there's his bestfriend Travis. He couldn't even enjoy prom like he thought he would months ago.

Who wouldv'e thought Ethan Blake, a candidate for prom king, would be sulking in a corner instead of dancing with the other students?

His train of thoughts were interrupted when his eyes landed on a girl standing by the doorway— Bella. But how could that happen? She's dead. At least that's what's been going around the school. Extremely puzzled, he stood up and followed her. Could he really see ghosts? She is a ghost isn't she? If she isn't, how can she be alive?

Questions were piling up in his mind while he followed her to the library. She took a seat on her usual spot and motioned him to sit across her, so he obliged. No one spoke for the first few seconds. He didn't know what to say and Bella, well he has no idea what's running in her mind either.

"Cat got your tongue, Ethan?" she broke the silence. "I know you have a lot of questions in mind. Let me hear them."

"You're alive?"

Bella chuckled, "I was expecting something better than that, but yes. I am alive."

"How?"

"Ethan, sweetie, time's running out and you're asking the wrong questions."

He rubbed his hands on his face, evidently frustrated. "I'm sorry it's just hard to process this right now. Everyone thought you were dead Bella and now you're here in front of me. If I tell this to anyone they'll say I'm out of my mind."

"Well that's the thing, you won't be able to talk to anyone after this." The sinister smile plastered on Bella's face was enough for him to wet himself even though he didn't understand what she's saying. "Since I can tell you still have no idea what's going on and you failed to ask the right questions, I'm gonna help you out. Wanna know how your friends died?"

He let out an audible gasp, "You were the one who killed them?"

"Yeah. Wanna know how I did it?" she asked in almost a whisper. Without waiting for a reponse, she continued. "I asked them to play a game with me. See this bottle?" she held out a small, transparent bottle with two pills inside. "One of these pills has poison in it. I asked them to choose one and whatever's left will be mine. We'll swallow it the same time and whoever dies obviously loses," she took both pills out of the bottle and put it down on the table. "Now Ethan I want you to play with me."

"What if I don't want to?"

Bella smiled once more before pulling a gun behind her, "Oh I'm sorry, I forgot to tell you this is not optional. All you have to do is pick one. If you're lucky enough, you'll get out of this alive and I'll be the one who dies."

Ethan stared at the identical pills in front of him. There's no way to tell which one's safe and which one isn't. He could feel her stare piercing through his soul the longer he decides. After giving it much thought, and accepting his terrible fate, he picked the one from the left.

"On the count of three," Bella picked up the other pill and positioned it at the entrance of her mouth, and he did too. "One, two, th—"

Before she could finish, someone kicked the door open revealing Sam holding a gun as well. Bella furrowed her eyebrows at him, oblivious of what's happening.

"I can't take this anymore, Bella. I helped you get your revenge because I know how much you needed it. But I don't want to hear another person dying because of you. Now put down the gun and surrender to the cops or else."

"Or else what?" she pointed her gun at him and shot him near his shoulder, earning a scream from Ethan who was cowering behind the curtain of the library.

Before Bella could fire once more, Sam aimed the gun and shot her on the head before losing consciousness.

---

[ONE MONTH LATER]

"We're back in the same spot we once were, Sam. Now tell me everything that happened that night."

The detective was right, they were in that same cramped, dimly-lit room they were in a month ago. And it's still because of the same person. But this time he couldn't bring himself to say what he knew— not because he was still the same anti-social guy, but because of his fear of what might happen if he tells the truth.

He avoided the gaze of the man in front of him before letting out a sigh.

"I don't know."