#;; the brains of the operation (sumu)

[jabbers-wild-world]

[jabbers-wild-world]

Hatari watched carefully, now eyeing the scratches at Scar’s heel. Something wasn’t right about that.. Mongooses didn’t use their claws in quite that way, and usually relied on their bite. At the same time though, there had been something in Sumu’s reaction to Simba that had the hyena curious, and.. perhaps a little worried. He’d seen animals lash out like that before.. Like they weren’t seeing what was actually ahead of them, and instead looking beyond what was there and seeing ghosts or something like that. He.. well, he himself dealt with it on occasion. Flashes of bad memories, and getting stuck in them just because something happened or something was said that brought those memories back so aggressively.

“Oy. Let ‘im up. I don’ think th’t.”

“Can it, Slackjaw!” Sumu snapped, glaring a bit. “This ain’t about you!” Scar did pause, however, a curious glance tossed over his shoulder at the striped hyena.

“Normally, I might agree with the mongoose, but you seem like perhaps you know something.” He acknowledged. “Care to elaborate? And.. please do speak up, you don’t make it easy to understand you.” Hatari shrugged, before limping over and sitting next to Simba with a huff.

“Jus’ th’t- ….” He paused, and cleared his throat. “It’s.. just that.. I don’t think things’re- are.. all that they seem. If you don’t mind my saying so.” Scar smirked, turning further attention to Hatari. Ah, so he could speak clearly. With near perfect diction at that, almost.. as if this hyena had more about him than there seemed to be.

“Oh? Do tell.”

“Stay outta this, three-legger! You don’t know what you’re talkin’ about!” Hatari turned to Sumu now, baring his teeth a bit.

“I know more’n you think, mongoose.” He huffed. “Like I know, y’ ain’t from these lands. Y’ came here from farther out. An’ you got some bad mem’ries keep comin’ flashin’ back to ya when y’ don’t want ‘em.” Scar’s ears perked all the way forward now. That was interesting. The hyena spoke as if he was familiar with such an affliction himself, and.. his words seemed to have fully silenced the mongoose. But the caracal, however…

“You don’t know! You don’t know what it’s like!” He was kicking at Scar now, trying to struggle loose. “Sumu’s got himself kicked out all the way from In- Ind..eeuh.”

“India..?” Scar prodded.

“Yeah, that. All because of a fire an’ his clan thinks he’s cursed-”

“Giza! Shut up! Shut up, shut up, shut up! You gonna tell them my whole life story?!”

“The kid asked-”

“That doesn’t mean you have to tell ‘em!” Sumu frowned, finally wriggling himself loose from under Scar’s paw. “Tch.. Idiot..” He didn’t make any other move to attack, just instead moved to the dark lion’s other paw and sat up on his haunches.

“You mind? Promise no more fighting, if you just let the moron loose?” Scar chuckled. He was actually growing to like this mongoose’s attitude. He was the type who got things done, wasn’t he. The brains of whatever operation these two had going. And as such was the case, Scar actually obliged, lifting his paw from Giza and letting the caracal up.

“So.. you come all the way from India, do you? Quite a long way, that is, or.. so I’ve heard from the migrating birds.”

“Tch.. what’s it to you if I’m not local..?”

“Oh, nothing. I just.. might like to speak with you on another occasion, regarding your homeland, if that wouldn’t be too much for you.”

“…Guess not..” Through this conversation now, Hatari turned his attention to Simba, giving a gentle nudge.

“Y’ get what’s goin’ on, or y’ need me t’ explain..?”

jabbers-wild-world​:

Looking for a den? Well, that didn’t mean the cub could go around poking his head into any den he found and start yelling in it. Some animals were trying to take a nap, after all! Sumu still huffed a bit, eying Simba carefully with his one good eye, and- he glanced at Giza, shaking his head a moment.

“Giza. Stand down.” He instructed him. “No harm’s been done yet. So let’s just hear them out.” As Simba mentioned being royalty, however, and basically implied that meant he could do whatever he wanted, Sumu was back to glaring at him with his fangs bared a bit.

“Are you kiddin’ me?! Bein’ royal doesn’t mean you can just go around doin’ whatever you want!” The mongoose snapped. “You can’t just strut around here and expect everyone to just get outta your way, or to just do whatever you want them to! You think we’re just gonna roll over and let you push us around?! It’s brat royals like you that are the reason I can’t go home!” Sumu charged at Simba again, this time almost seeming more panicked than angry, fangs bared as he aimed to bite the cub, but Scar was quicker on his feet as he rushed in and smacked the mongoose with a paw, sending him tumbling back down the den.

“‘ey! Don’t you go smackin’ Sumu! This’s our home!” Now Giza charged again, this time leaping onto Scar’s back and biting him hard. Scar gave a roar of pain, before Hatari moved in and grabbed Giza by the scruff, yanking him off and giving him a good shake. But.. while distracted with the caracal now, Sumu was already back out of the den and making his move. Teeth bit down on Scar’s heel, small claws tearing a few scratches across the lion’s pelt.

“I have had enough of this!” Scar growled, turning to smack Sumu again, before he charged after the mongoose and pinned him with one paw, grabbing the caracal from Hatari and pinning him too. “We are not trying to fight. We are only here for a discussion with a certain Cape fox. His name is Njozi. Perhaps you two know which den is his..?”

His eyes went between Scar and the mongoose, a growl escaping his throat as he spotted Sumu attacking his Uncle. “Leave ‘em alone!” Simba demanded already unsheathing his claws only for the fight to die down. Looks like his bravery had cause them nothing but trouble again…

Letting Scar speak, the golden cub went over visually inspecting his Uncle’s wounds. “Are you guys okay? I can tell Dad about it and maybe he can do something.” Simba suggested looking for some form of agreement though none came at the moment. How would Mufasa handle this? Padding over to the mongoose since he was the smaller of the two animals, the cub stared down at Sumu tilting his head.  “You were banished? How come?” Obviously something terrible must have been done for that to happen. But what? 

Simba didn’t know anything about mongooses nor caracals since Zazu hadn’t gone over any of their customs or the like in his lessons. “Were both of you banished or was it just…uh…what’re your names? You never told us.” 

@jabbers-wild-world

[warsofasoiaf]

Its been awhile since you've done any character analysis on Fallout New Vegas, but would you be willing to go into one for some of the minor characters? I'm actually curios of your opinion on Silus the captured centurion and his motivations.

I’m more than happy to, although this won’t be about Silus so much as it will be about the quest Silus Treatment. It’s one of my favorite quests in the game, since it does a great deal just with dialogue and some creative use with the engine to create an engaging quest that showcases some of the failures of the NCR and the Legion. Given that the central theme is about picking a faction, warts and all, having a quest that puts the two main faction of New Vegas on full display is an absolutely good idea. The game is too old for spoilers, but it’s a long analysis so I’ll put a cut in.

Silus Treatment starts off simple enough, going to Camp McCarran, in the old McCarran International Airport, now the regional command post of Colonel Hsu. McCarran is not in a great spot when you first get there; there are periodic Fiend attacks, tensions in Freeside are causing havoc for NCR civilians, the overstretched NCR supply lines are making it difficult even for their central point of operations, and there’s a strong possibility that they’ve been infiltrated. It’s all Colonel Hsu can do to keep order and function in the base. Perfect protagonist fodder, in other words, for a nice quest hub.

It’s a tough needle to thread in any RPG to build a quest hub where there’s stuff for a character to do. If everyone is incapable of solving even the most basic of problems, it gives a great deal of quests for the player to do but it makes the quest-givers look incompetent, especially if the quest-givers are supposed to be capable figures in their own right. Conversely, if the NPC’s are competent, then the quests would be solved and that would close out on content for the player. There’s plenty of ways to settle this, and the devs do an adequate job here. The war effort means prioritization, and Hsu is dealing with being torn from both angles. He can’t just hunt down the Fiends, because he needs to organize patrols and deal with NCR settlers in the area. He can’t just pacify Freeside because it will engender hostility with House and so he’s delaying the order from his butcher superiors like Moore to go in with fire and sword. He doesn’t have a solution to the Kings but he’s trying to find one, which as far as writing goes is a good solution. Hsu is a decent man but overworked. He’s hoping that he can develop a solution in time before Cassandra Moore decides to pull rank and go on the warpath against all who oppose the NCR, which leaves a convenient spot for the player.

It’s this person that gives us our introduction to the Silus Treatment questline. Hsu has a valuable prize: Silus, a captured Legion centurion! Typically centurions always commit suicide rather than be captured to deny any useful intelligence to the enemy, so to capture a centurion alive should be quite a find. But it’s not going so well. Lt Carrie Boyd, in charge of base security, can’t get Silus to talk. Again, perfect quest writing to get the PC involved in the plot. Normally such a sensitive operation would never be given to an unknown civilian contractor, even for a bureaucratic mess like the NCR. Frontier desperation, hitting a wall via official channels, and the fact that the character is the protagonist in a sprawling open world help it pass ludonarrative muster.

Boyd is a real piece of work, she’s openly sadistic hiding beneath of veneer of civility. She considers the humane treatment of POW’s as an impediment, and so looks for ways around it. Notably, while she wants information from Silus to deliver to her superiors, she’ll settle for just having Silus beaten so bloody that he can’t speak anymore, calling it “entertainment.” This is a person who simply should not be in charge of interrogating a prisoner, she is neither humane nor effective at her job, but here she is by virtue simply of being the chief MP on base.

Not that Silus, the prisoner and the other side of this duo, is better. He openly revels in the barbaric practices of the Legion’s slavery system, even trying to ensure that the slaves can never achieve some level of comfort by tightening the collars and making it difficult for them to feel at ease while eating or drinking. Even if Silus is mostly saying those things simply to get a rise out of Lieutenant Boyd, he knows what the Legion is up to and enjoys it. Silus is arrogant to an extreme degree, he is filled with confidence that he can outlast any interrogation by the feeble NCR without giving up any intelligence, that he could easily escape NCR confinement and that he is so valuable to the Legion that following Caesar’s order would be a waste. Good fodder then, for the protagonist to bring him down to size.

Silus Treatment as a quest is relatively simple. Boyd signs off on the Courier beating the ever-living tar out of Silus and then steps out for a smoke, letting the player do whatever he or she wants to the prisoner. Silus, sneering, dismisses the Courier as just another piece of NCR trash, and it’s up to the player with how to succeed. Violence is always an option, you can beat Silus, and eventually gets something useful, that the base itself will be the target of Legion destruction. Silus admits that his fantasy of escape was always a fantasy, he was dead to Caesar just as surely as he as if he had committed suicide before capture.��

Yet if the Courier has points in Speech or Intelligence, he can completely upend Boyd’s methods and actually deliver a worthwhile interrogation. The first technique, with speech, uses an interrogation technique known as Pride-and-ego-down, where the interrogator routinely belittles and demeans the prisoner, usually their technical competence or soldierly qualities, in an attempt to get the prisoner to “redeem” themselves by explaining a piece of useful intelligence that would explain the deficiency as opposed to it just being a terrible personal quality. The Courier mocks Silus as a coward (bravery being a key soldierly virtue) and he defends himself by stating his bravery and that suicide is a poor death for a soldier of his intelligence and caliber, then saying how good a soldier he is for a “self-appointed megalomaniacal dictator.” Silus then spills that Caesar held his unit for three days because of “headaches,” in actuality, it’s Caesar’s brain tumor. The technique works to an exceptionally high degree, not only does Silus divulge that McCarran has been infiltrated as in the violence ending, but also that the Legion is suffering a crisis of command due to Caesar’s illness. The Courier gets a lot of useful intelligence out of Silus and doesn’t compromise the humane treatment of prisoners in the process. If it actually caused some self-reflection in Boyd, that’d be a complete win, but I suppose we can’t have everything.

My favorite option is the intelligence option, because the Courier goes full-on PSYOPS, posing as a Legion assassin sent to kill Silus for his failure to commit suicide on Caesar’s order. Silus denies it at first, but as the Courier continues to sell the performance, Silus begins to express real terror at the thought that the Courier is actually a frumentarius sent to kill Silus before he divulges anything to the NCR. The Courier fully sells the deal using Latin phrases as the language of Caesar’s elites. The Courier can quote Cicero, “legum servi sumus” - we are all slaves to the law, in what is perhaps a perfect example of Caesar’s philosophy of totalitarian obedience. The full quote "Legum servi sumus ut liberi esse possimus” - we are slaves to the law so that we might be free, means little in Caesar’s totalitarian state where all are subject to his whims and contingency plans for Caesar’s incapacity aren’t even considered. Of course, the Roman Republic was hardly a free state, but Caesar really takes the cake with his dictatorship. If Caesar’s dictum holds true: “Corruptio optimi pessima” - the corruption of the greatest is the worst outcome. how much worse is it when Caesar himself is corrupted? But totalitarians rarely raise the possibility that they themselves are corrupt, because the good of the dictator is the good of the state. After all, L'etat c'est moi is the dictum of any dictator, not just a Sun King.

Of course, fitting New Vegas, you can side with Silus, and facilitate his escape. There, you feign beating him to unconsciousness and slip him a silenced pistol, then Silus makes good his escape, killing the guard sent to bring him back to his cell and sneaking out. Of all the endings, this one isn’t as satisfying. Some of it, of course, is that you never interact or see Silus again, so there’s never any reward to the quest except for the knowledge that the base is infiltrated, which in the pro-Legion side of the quest I Put a Spell on You allows you to complete Curtis’s sabotage operation (and a far better Legion quest, in my opinion, with the NCR quest side being even better given the multiple outcomes), but also it’s not referenced again with Caesar. What would Caesar’s reaction be to the Courier springing Silus? He is quite fond of reciting a litany of the Courier’s accomplishments in Act 2 at Fortification Hill.

If I could improve Silus Treatment, I think I would have made it so the violent path wouldn’t have produced enough valuable intel, and the player needs to do some more detective work to actually get to I Put a Spell on You, or even being mislead by Curtis and becoming the unwitting patsy of the Legion. But overall, I think it was an incredible quest and a testament to the writing in the game.

Thanks for the question, Anon.

SomethingLikeALawyer, Hand of the King

[outcasts-of-the-pridelands-blog]

Misplaced. That was one word for it. Stranger was another.. And it wasn’t as if Sumu wasn’t very much aware of his status as a foreign animal in a strange land. But Giza had helped him.. Protected him when needed, and.. had befriended the mongoose.. It was unusual to say the least. A mongoose from an entirely different land.. And a caracal..

But Giza didn’t ever seem to think anything was strange about Sumu. To him, the mongoose was just the same as any other mongoose or meerkat around the Pridelands. But Giza wasn’t a complete idiot, contrary to what it may seem. He did know that Sumu was out of place here. He understood that Sumu didn’t have a place to go back to, and he had to be here. And that’s what bonded them. Giza didn’t have much of a place he fit in, either. So.. He stayed with Sumu. With the one animal he felt he mattered to.

And.. It had been a few seasons by now since Sumu had appeared from.. wherever it was he came from. And they’d only grown closer. They understood each other, worked well together. They had a partnership now, a mutually beneficial relationship. Sumu was of course the brains of the operation, while Giza was the muscle, but.. There was one problem in particular, that Sumu didn’t ever let Giza handle... Kifo.

“Please.. please, I’m begging you..” This was a conversation with an aardvark at the moment. “I just can’t feel safe with him around. Him and his games.. I can only keep playing for so long with him, and- and I’m scared!”

“I’d bet he knows that.” Sumu rolled his eyes. “That’s why he targets you, you know. He knows you’re scared of him, and that’s what’s fun for him.”

“It’s just games, though, right?” Giza cocked his head, confused. “What, is he like a kid? Games aren’t dangerous.” Sumu frowned, and smacked a paw against Giza’s nose.

“No, you idiot. This is Kifo we’re talking about, remember? I told you about his games already.” He shook his head, turning back to the aardvark. “I would tell you not to humor him anymore, but that’ll just make him kill you quicker.” The aardvark grimaced at the thought, shaking a bit.

“Please.. Please help me.”

“Already working on it.” Sumu shrugged. “Kifo’s been my target for a while. So of course I’ll handle it. Just do your best to keep out of his interest while I handle him. Oh, and you know the deal, right?” The aardvark nodded.

“Yes, of course. I’ll have the beetles to pay you with once you’ve gotten rid of him.” Sumu nodded in approval.

“Good.” A brief moment to groom his fur, and then, “Come on, Giza. We’ve got a job to do.” Not another moment to hesitate, and the mongoose took off into the grass, the caracal close behind. It was time to hunt a snake..

[jabbers-wild-world]

Jabber’s TLK OCs

[jabbers-wild-world]

Looking for a den? Well, that didn’t mean the cub could go around poking his head into any den he found and start yelling in it. Some animals were trying to take a nap, after all! Sumu still huffed a bit, eying Simba carefully with his one good eye, and- he glanced at Giza, shaking his head a moment.

“Giza. Stand down.” He instructed him. “No harm’s been done yet. So let’s just hear them out.” As Simba mentioned being royalty, however, and basically implied that meant he could do whatever he wanted, Sumu was back to glaring at him with his fangs bared a bit.

“Are you kiddin’ me?! Bein’ royal doesn’t mean you can just go around doin’ whatever you want!” The mongoose snapped. “You can’t just strut around here and expect everyone to just get outta your way, or to just do whatever you want them to! You think we’re just gonna roll over and let you push us around?! It’s brat royals like you that are the reason I can’t go home!” Sumu charged at Simba again, this time almost seeming more panicked than angry, fangs bared as he aimed to bite the cub, but Scar was quicker on his feet as he rushed in and smacked the mongoose with a paw, sending him tumbling back down the den.

“‘ey! Don’t you go smackin’ Sumu! This’s our home!” Now Giza charged again, this time leaping onto Scar’s back and biting him hard. Scar gave a roar of pain, before Hatari moved in and grabbed Giza by the scruff, yanking him off and giving him a good shake. But.. while distracted with the caracal now, Sumu was already back out of the den and making his move. Teeth bit down on Scar’s heel, small claws tearing a few scratches across the lion’s pelt.

“I have had enough of this!” Scar growled, turning to smack Sumu again, before he charged after the mongoose and pinned him with one paw, grabbing the caracal from Hatari and pinning him too. “We are not trying to fight. We are only here for a discussion with a certain Cape fox. His name is Njozi. Perhaps you two know which den is his..?”

jabbers-wild-world​:​

Simba leaving the two adults more or less alone resulted only in more tension between the two. A bit of huffing and grunting from the striped hyena, as he trotted ahead a little ways, but of course that led to a light shove to the side from Scar as the lion pulled ahead further. Hatari stumbled and fell to the ground as he lost balance, and for a moment he considered biting Scar’s leg in retaliation. But.. instead he kept that to himself, only getting back on his feet and shaking himself off a bit.

“Oh. So sorry. I forgot for a moment that you’re crippled..” Scar remarked, almost a little too smug for Hatari’s liking, but then- They were both distracted by Simba and his very forward investigation of a nearby den.

“That’s not the den we’re looking for, Simba.” Scar called. “That one isn’t occupi-” An abrupt shuffling from within the den, however, followed by the very rapid appearance of an agitated mongoose, one Simba hadn’t ever met before, stopped the elder lion’s words short. Sumu hissed and snarled as he charged forth from the den, his fur on end.

“What are you doin’, kid?! Get your head outta my den!” Both Scar and Hatari moved forward to defend Simba from the mongoose, but hearing Sumu’s shouting had attracted another’s attention as a caracal came running.

“Hey! You bothering Sumu?!” Giza hissed, baring his teeth and claws. “Back off or I’ll make you!”

They were looking for a den to begin with? Why wasn’t he told that? Well, at least he could use it as an alibi if needed.

The form of the mongoose surprised the cub causing Simba to back out with a bit of effort on his end. “S-sorry!” he apologized stepping out from underneath Scar’s form since the Prince could defend himself. Sort of. At least he wanted to prove his bravery to the others around him since Kings as he knew needed to be brave when the time called for it. “I’m n-” Then a caracal made an appearance.  “I’m not doing anything to anybody!” Simba shot back as his ears folded back in agitation. “We’re looking for a den and I thought this was it.” The cub took a step towards the caracal sizing him up. He was bigger, yes, but Simba also had two adults for back up. 

“Besides, I don’t smell anything so how do we know if this is actually your den or not?” Now the lion cub was growing cocky. “And we’re royalty so you can’t make us do anything we don’t want to either.” 

[jabbers-wild-world]

Simba leaving the two adults more or less alone resulted only in more tension between the two. A bit of huffing and grunting from the striped hyena, as he trotted ahead a little ways, but of course that led to a light shove to the side from Scar as the lion pulled ahead further. Hatari stumbled and fell to the ground as he lost balance, and for a moment he considered biting Scar’s leg in retaliation. But.. instead he kept that to himself, only getting back on his feet and shaking himself off a bit.

“Oh. So sorry. I forgot for a moment that you’re crippled..” Scar remarked, almost a little too smug for Hatari’s liking, but then- They were both distracted by Simba and his very forward investigation of a nearby den.

“That’s not the den we’re looking for, Simba.” Scar called. “That one isn’t occupi-” An abrupt shuffling from within the den, however, followed by the very rapid appearance of an agitated mongoose, one Simba hadn’t ever met before, stopped the elder lion’s words short. Sumu hissed and snarled as he charged forth from the den, his fur on end.

“What are you doin’, kid?! Get your head outta my den!” Both Scar and Hatari moved forward to defend Simba from the mongoose, but hearing Sumu’s shouting had attracted another’s attention as a caracal came running.

“Hey! You bothering Sumu?!” Giza hissed, baring his teeth and claws. “Back off or I’ll make you!”

jabbers-wild-world​:

“Simba.. Everybody knows about that.” Scar chuckled a bit, tail swaying behind him as he walked. Another glance at the striped hyena, and ever so subtly as though perhaps by accident, he flicked his tail and lightly smacked Hatari across the muzzle with it. Of course that earned a rather indignant huff and a slight growl from the hyena, but Scar ignored him.

“As I was told, it was this particular hyena that apparently caught you from falling to your death off the cliff.” He acknowledged. “So, it isn’t up to me whether he joins us or not. Your father sent him along in place of Zazu for today.”

“Aye. Majordomo’s with th’ king f’r th’ meetin’.” Hatari grunted. He was keeping pace well enough, since Scar wasn’t actually walking that fast. The tail to the face was an annoyance though, but for the moment he was going to keep that to himself. Hearing Simba’s introduction of his uncle though, brought a small smirk to the hyena’s muzzle. Bad back, eh? Good to know. Scar, however, cast another disdainful glance his way, frowning just a touch.

“Sorry? Couldn’t quite make sense of that.” The lion countered. “You really should learn to speak more.. clearly, or you’ll never get far living among lions.”

“They do? Really?” Great. The news would probably even make its way back to Mufasa himself eventually if that dumb Banana Beak hadn’t blabbed it already in his Morning Report. As for the rescue, Simba couldn’t help but smile at the memory. Hatari had certainly been at the right place at the right time that was for sure. “Uncle Scar probably just didn’t hear you.” the cub whispered to the hyena giving him a smile. “He’s old and probably misses stuff sometimes.” 

Deciding to leave the two adults alone for a time since he was growing bored with just walking, Simba bounded forward still within the vision line of the two adult animals, leaping through the grass keeping his eyes trained on a bug that was flying about. His paws batted at the insect until it flew away leaving the Prince to gaze about wondering what to do next. “Hey, look!” Simba called out spotting a hole nearby. “There’s some kind of cave over here.” 

Curiosity got the better of him, and soon the Prince was poking his front hal inside wondering if anybody was even home to begin with. “Anybody here?” he called only to be greeted by a small amount of dirt falling on top of his head since his body was widening the opening a bit thanks to his shoulders. “Hello?”

@jabbers-wild-world​