"I must ask, since when do feelings of powerlessness and insecurity justify the spilling of innocent blood?"
— Jeff sums up the story in a nutshell.
Extreme Prejudice
is a story written by SkyCat32 on Wattpad. It's also available at Google Drive.
Garth Mason is the son of Phoenix Police Officer Jeffrey Mason, who is investigating a drug chain. Garth, meanwhile, spends his time working at a department store in the Desert Sky Mall, and deals with hostility from disgruntled fellow employee Fraser Barton Colborne. Garth is attempting to help Fraser, who is being sexually harassed by rich girl Madison Craig, but Fraser will have none of it.
Warning: due to the nature of the story, all spoilers are unmarked.
Terminate the following examples with Extreme Prejudice:
- Abhorrent Admirer: Madison lusts after Fraser, who despises her.
- The Bad Guy Wins: Downplayed. Fraser ultimately got what he wanted; he got back at Madison for harassing him and got the opportunity to feel more powerful than others. And after being stopped, he could not care less about what happens to him. However, he fails in his final mission- to kill Garth.
- Badass Longcoat: Fraser wears a long leather coat during his shooting spree probably in order to hide one of the many guns he's carrying.
- Bed Trick: Fraser essentially commits rape by fraud against his Abhorrent Admirer, Madison, by seducing her under the pretence of having a photoshoot with guns; in reality, Fraser is both using Madison for his own sexual gratification, and more importantly, to obtain access to firearms. Madison finds out the hard way that Fraser's intentions for seducing her were less than pure when he shoots her.Madison: FRASER YOU ASSHOLE! WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT ABOUT!? I LET YOU CUM IN ME!
- Big Bad: Fraser Barton Colborne is Garth Mason's mean coworker who actively bars any attempts by Garth to help him with the sexual harassment by Madison Craig, and the conflict between the two is the focus of the story. His role as the primary antagonist is cemented when he, by the end of the story, becomes the perpetrator of a mass shooting which kills scores of people, and almost kills Garth.
- Big Brother Instinct: Matthew is understandably pissed when he learns that Fraser killed his sister Madison. Not that it helped.
- Blasphemous Boast: After being arrested, Fraser declares that nothing anyone else can do or say, "not even God himself", will make him regret his actions.
- Card-Carrying Villain: Fraser is fully aware of how petty his motive for a mass shooting is, but doesn't care. When called a psychopath, he responds that [psychopathy] is "entirely within the realm of possibility" for him.
- Cop Killer: A few of of Fraser's killing spree victims were Phoenix Police Officers. Their deaths are viewed as being just as senseless as those of the other civilians.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Aside from murdering a large number of shoppers due to some of them being rude customers, Fraser also kills a fast-food kiosk worker for misspelling his name.
- The Ditz: Madison is a vapid social media influencer.
- The Dog Bites Back: Deconstructed. While you may suffer a great deal, killing is still wrong, and you'll end up worse than whoever abused you. That point is shown with the cases of Jacob and Fraser.
- Double Standard Rape: Female on Male: Played With. Madison doesn't outright try to rape Fraser, but she still sexually harasses him and it's portrayed as bad as it should be. That being said, Drake sees her as one of his most profitable customers, and refuses to get rid of her, nor to get rid of Fraser, fully aware that one of the few, if not only, reasons she even goes to his store is to flirt with Fraser. He even threatens to fire Garth if he brings up the subject again.
- Dramatically Missing the Point: Madison thinks that Fraser is just joking when he makes misogynistic comments in an attempt to ward her off.
- Dumbass Has a Point: Madison may not have been a particularly bright girl, but her "The Reason You Suck" Speech towards Fraser was spot-on. Not that it helped as she was dying.
- Evil Parents Want Good Kids: El Tortuga had tried to keep his daughter Marisol out of the Cartel lifestyle in order to protect her.
- Evil Laugh: Fraser laughs psychotically after killing Matthew.
- Faux Affably Evil: Fraser plans to kill, and later actually kills, unruly customers and civilians in the mall while still talking to them in a polite, formal tone.
- For the Evulz: Downplayed. While Fraser is certainly driven by a desire to inflict pointless cruelty according to his journal, he is also driven by feelings of powerlessness and insecurity. Fraser believes that the more suffering a human being inflicts, the more powerful they are.
- Freudian Excuse:
- It's implied that Jacob has to deal in the high school where he works with extremely disrespectful kids. Why he went mad when drunk is understandable.
- Fraser dealt with a ton of crap thrown his way, being used alongside his foster siblings as a meal ticket, as cheap labour, and being forced to fend to themselves. That, and he was bullied as well, and later on dealt with Madison's sexual harassment.
- Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse:
- This is the key point of the whole story. Fraser may have suffered a great deal, being used alongside his foster siblings as a meal ticket, as cheap labour, and being forced to fend to themselves. That, and he was bullied as well. Madison sexually harrassing him doesn't help. However, that doesn't justify a mass shooting, and using that as a reason is ultimately petty. But Fraser is fully aware of that, and couldn't care less.
- Averted with Jacob. He works in Trevor G. Browne High School, where he is constantly abused and disrespected by the kids. However, unlike Fraser's case, Jeff, while still arresting Jacob, expresses sympathy for what he went through, admitting that he went through similar stuff, but that it's hard to stay righteous with the load of crap thrown his way.
- Gunman with Three Names: After the Desert Sky Massacre, the perpetrator, Fraser Barton Colborne, identifies himself by his full name when Officer Jeffrey Mason interrogates him.
- Hate Sink:
- Fraser Barton Colborne is intended as a prick who regularly abuses others and eventually massacres people en masse, driven by a desire to inflict needless cruelty. Any charisma he may have is supposed to underscore how unpleasant he is as a person.
- Drake Ward, the manager of the department store, is intended to be a profiteer who ignores the wellbeing of his employees.
- The unnamed radio host is meant as a potshot at media personalities who push a sympathetic narrative towards murderers, as opposed to showing any regard for the victims.
- Hates Everyone Equally: Fraser has contempt for people at large.
- Hypocrite: Averted. Fraser believes all humans are worthless, but he includes himself as well.
- Jerkass:
- Fraser is a throughly unpleasant person, notably trying to provoke Madison with misogynistic rhetoric, insult Garth when he tries to defend him and forcing a cashier to redo his order when she spells his name wrong. He then graduates from simple jerk to monster by shooting up the mall where he works.
- Drake refuses to prevent Madison from entering his shop purely out of profit, despite being aware that she flirts with his employee Fraser against his will. He even threatens to fire Garth if he brings up the subject again.
- Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Fraser seems to reveal a softer side when he mentions his troubled past to Madison. Keyword is "seems", as Madison finds out the hard way, when he shoots her.
- Karma Houdini: Downplayed: While Fraser is executed in the final notes of the story, Fraser nonetheless sees himself as having accomplished his goals, and states that "not even God Himself" will make him regret his actions, making it as if Fraser evaded justice from a narrative standpoint.
- Kids Are Cruel:
- Offscreen case with several kids in the Trevor G. Browne High School, who treated Jacob so badly that he almost killed Gretchen in a drunken rage.
- Averted with Madeline, who is a sweet girl through and through.
- Lack of Empathy: Played with. Fraser is fully capable of empathy, but suppresses it to accomplish his goals.
- Misanthrope Supreme: Fraser has come to the conclusion that all humans are inherently worthless.
- Mocking the Mourner: When Garth Mason tells Fraser Barton Colborne off for telling the former to commit suicide, Fraser responds by telling him to go cry to his dead mother.
- Nasty to the Waitress: One of the many ways that the antagonist Fraser Barton Colborne establishes himself as antisocial is by verbally abusing a foodservice worker for misspelling his name. Fraser eventually murders her in retaliation.
- No Social Skills: Due to his Freudian Excuse, Fraser is a Jerkass who has trouble interacting with people.
- No Sympathy:
- Despite his Freudian Excuse, it's made clear that Fraser went beyond any sympathy the second he chose to slaughter innocent people.
- When a radio host does show sympathy for Fraser, going as far as to blame society, Jo-Ann calls him out for lacking sympathy for Fraser's victims, and refusing to hold Fraser accountable.
- Oblivious to Hatred: Madison constantly fails to realize that Fraser loathes her and ignores his misogynistic comments. It's only when he seduces her and then guns her down when she finally realizes.
- Older Hero Versus Younger Villain: Played with; Fraser is younger than Jeff, who ends up arresting him, but is older than Garth, whom he primarily antagonizes.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Played with; Fraser shows shades of intolerance towards anyone who isn't the same gender or ethnicity as him, berating a Hispanic fast food worker for misspelling his name, and being misogynistic towards his Abhorrent Admirer Madison. However, as his mistreatment of Garth, journal entry, and mass shooting show, Fraser doesn't treat people of his own gender or ethnicity any better.
- "Ray of Hope" Ending: While Fraser succeeds at achieving most of his goals, save for killing Garth, having killed scores of people, the survivors are shown persevering with their lives, and paying tribute to the fallen, with Jeff noting that each and every individual can improve society.
- Society Is to Blame: Defied. Jo-Ann calls out a radio host for blaming society for Fraser's mass shooting and not holding Fraser accountable for what he did.
- Suicide Dare: Fraser tells Garth to kill himself when the latter tries and fails to encourage their boss to fix the Madison situation.
- Spree Killer: Over the course of a day, Fraser kills scores of people using a semi-automatic rifle, a handgun, a shotgun, and a knife. By the end, his kill count is 76 civilians, 6 police officers, and 2 other people away from the mall.
- Spy Speak: When Jeff discusses the activities of a local drug dealer, "El Tortuga", with the informant "Dollar Bill", they use several euphemisms involving convenience stores and instant coffee to refer to drug-related activities.
- Too Dumb to Live: Madison doesn't see anything wrong with Fraser (the guy who until then constantly rejected her advances) when he asks to come to Matthew's basement upon learning that Matthew has guns. This proves to be her undoing.
- The Vamp: Fraser is a Rare Male Example, seducing Madison and later killing her.
- Would Hurt a Child: Fraser has no problem shooting children whatsoever.
