In no manner or form do I feel the following is completely correct or even hit any of the nails on the head at all. In light of the absence of any other actual psychologist in or out of the Honorverse willing to act in the cat's best interest and mediate between cat and human, I thought I'd give it a go since I should be exempt from a malpractice suit. I hope the treecats will at least accept it as a palatable start to open a clear channel towards true understanding and communication between the treecat species and humanity. I certainly require assistance with this especially in light of my non-existent mastery of the human language. Some concepts may not have human counterparts—or if they do may manage to escape this quack of a psychologist and quack of a linguist who happen to reside in the same body—and in light of that same ill mastery of the human language, is therefore difficult to discuss, both a problem for me, and a problem for a Cat who is trying to relate.
There are certain mindglows that I instinctively imagine would be naturally repugnant to treecats. Some crossing the threshold of diminishing returns from the unlikelihood of evoking an equal and opposite treecat response. Death being imminent. Certainly the mindglow of the Maccabeans attacking Protector's Palace would represent such an unmistakable and clear-cut concept.
Relatedly, Pavel Young's mindglow in the vicinity of Harrington, for instance, has to have its own "signature whine" as unmistakable and distinctive as the whistle of a train and I suspect that its loudness would hit a treecat in increasing waves—nature incorporating the Doppler effect in the natural mechanics of a treecat's senses, if you will.
The instance of this Doppler effect being tentatively based on the strength of the mindglow emanating from a source and broadcasting the basic and primal emotions associated with an attack. In the manner of the four basic emotions of fear, anger, sadness and happiness that are thought to be associated with distinct patterns of cardiorespiratory activity.
I took the liberty to include a previous post of mine at the very end because it is the womb in which these thoughts were conceived; and also took the opportunity to clean it up because it beckons, and opportunity knocks. One idea from that post that I find so intriguing is the human concept of disrespect as assimilated by the cats. I shall lay the second brick, represented by this post, there...
Disrespect is a very powerful concept. Gangs get caught up and tripped up inside of the idea, inside of the inherent and perceived notion of it. It is so powerful of an ideology that when one gets it twisted unnecessarily and wrongfully, unnecessary and wrongful deaths tend to occur. Sometimes death—meted out in response to this transgression in the form of justice or punishment—is perhaps even warranted and naturally attributed to a certain level of disrespect. "An eye for an eye." Perhaps naturally so.
The notion seems to represent some innate breaking point—the crossing of an implied and inferred boundary where one cannot allow this particular level of a transgression to proceed unchecked. You cannot ignore it. Something primeval kicks in. Gangs may get it twisted as to what "inherent disrespect" really means and thus they fail to let the punishment fit the crime. I'd put my money on the likelihood of a treecat getting it right if adjudicated by a judge in a court of law.
Nonetheless, one has to answer to "total and threatening disrespect." It is akin to why the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev was wrong for thinking President Kennedy would go along with his placing missiles in Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis which totally disrespected the premiere Superpower, thread created.
What is the corresponding point of no return represented by the same level of disrespect towards the Cats?
Young was lucky that Honor was a baseborn bitch. Because if she had been born an aristocrat it would have placed her AND NIMITZ in his sphere. And there is no way in hell that the two-legs should ever have expected Nimitz to constantly endure interacting with Young, being incessantly bombarded with his mind glow. Pummeled by it! We all know this concept quite well. It is one which is glaringly present in our own everyday language in the form of "You are getting on my last nerve!" Young would have gotten on Nimitz' nerves as sure as schit stinks.
<Honor, I can't keep dialing this bastard down so he doesn't dial me up>
Sooner or later Nimitz would have had to give Young, AT LEAST, the equivalent of a backhand.
<WHACK! Shut the phuck up! You didn't get any claws, but I smacked the schit out of you, didn't I!>
In our social circles, would we as humans be expected to endure what Nimitz probably endured when he and Honor were at ground zero with Young—without cause to pause and knock the everloving hell out of someone?
Uh uh. I know what you are thinking. Let us not get it twisted, as gangs do, and confuse the level of disrespect that Nimitz would have endured from the likes of Pavel Young to mirror the equal and opposite and same disrespect we would have to endure to mirror it.
I'm not talking about appropriately handling a situation as would be befitting and proper of someone possessing a fair amount of couth—cultured, refined and well mannered, who may appropriately choose to walk away to defuse the situation or settle it with diplomacy and aplomb befitting such an impeccable upbringing in lieu of causing a scene. After all, resorting to fisticuffs to settle a minor disagreement or confrontation is not classy. However, that is not the same thing as what Nimitz would have endured from the likes of Pavel Young while he was in Honor's presence. Nimitz' senses are being punched incessantly while in the company of Young. And there is no way in hell that a human being, any one of us, would tolerate someone repeatedly, let alone incessantly hitting us upside our head, or on our back, irritating us all of the phucking time while in their company.
"WHACK! CUT IT OUT"
Why can't treecats have an emotional breaking point as well? The point where they've had enough?
IF the response to Joan River's "Can we talk" is true...
Then this particular level of disrespect is a universally recognized one. If a creep walks up to a woman and shoves his hand up her skirt finding its mark, then no court in the land would prosecute her if she instinctively slits his throat as a reflex action to such an appalling transgression of disrespect, if she happens to be holding a razor. This is the level I imagine Pavel Young would have represented to Nimitz' senses when he is in the company of Honor fueled by the sordid things Pavel Young is thinking, sordid and repugnant things which he thinks are hidden and buried from prying eyes. And likewise, Nimitz is packing razors too.
As previously stated, the emotions of Young's that would have been incessantly pummeling Nimitz might have been downright confrontational, as much like threatening blows as you can get to a telempathic species which would have slammed into Nimitz like the waves of a blast front, as close to verbal abuse as you can get. Honor may have known to protect Nimitz from what she knew Young's emotions might make Nimitz do.
What level of disrespect might Young's mindglow represent to a treecat or does it call for another word not found in the human language? I'm not so certain the concept even exists in our world to the same degree, therefore no counterpart found in our language except to throw two words together. "Blatant disrespect," "Confrontational disrespect?" Neither of which seem to adequately convey the travesty of the transgression.
I am not certain that humanity is ever in a position where we incessantly have to endure "confrontational disrespect." I am asking for help with this concept because I am drowning here. It may as well be tasteless and odorless to the senses of a human compared to the onslaught committed against a cat's senses. Apparently the treecats need a professional psychologist to unravel the many related overtones that appear to be numerous. Only a shrink could explain to us the dangerous social faux pas humans may commit on a daily basis against a cat, of how close they come to stepping on a land mine. Innate disrespect that you get away with in human circles may not cut it around a cat. Treecats may not like the arbitrary line drawn where human emotions cut like a knife. Little wonder they do not decide to do some cutting of their own.
Would a treecat's senses naturally be able to weed out who deserves to live and die? In the concept of right or wrong, I'm certain they have their own opinion on the point of no return, or where there would be diminishing returns in allowing some particular asshole to live.
<Kill him already. Per his emotions he is beyond repair>
A treecat knows the emotions associated with kill and may be able to walk the corridors of a prison...
<Never give this one parole. All he thinks about is killing>
The Hannibal Lecters and Jack the Rippers of the Honorverse should have a very distintive and unmistakable imprint of a mindglow as loud and distinctive as the whistle of a train. And that imprint should be able to be lifted by any treecat forensics expert. Not a partial print either.
As a thought experiment...
If Hannibal Lecter were encased in an emotional barrier, similar to a kryptonite version of a lead case,
then quickly exposed to a treecat at kissing distance might represent as frightening as an unknown as detonating the first atomic bomb. Nimitz may not have the time needed to assuage the emotional pummeling assaulting his senses before he has to launch himself on a trajectory towards the nest-of-a-toupee to split the egg underneath.
I can only imagine how a treecat clan would handle a hexapuma or his family with this same level of total disrespect.
I wonder if treecats first had to learn to correctly assimilate and parse human emotions before they could decide to "mingle" with us. Human emotions may be complex because they are so confusing. We often do not have a handle on our own emotions or know why we feel the way that we do or even know exactly how we feel. We may have ill will towards someone but wish them no actual physical harm. I imagine that if an untamed beast in the wild, lets say a Hexapuma, is emanating malevolence then an attack may be imminent, clearcut. With humans that may not necessarily ring true. So how does a treecat discern the difference? Is it the amplitude of a received mindglow? Is there a threshold that is crossed that causes a treecat to launch himself on a trajectory?
I imagine the treecats are rather partial to Grayson and like their mindglows better as a whole. Probably the closest thing to a Negro spiritual the cats can get as a reprieve from the offensive mindglows...
<Kumbaya My Lord Kumbaya>
The Trinity
by cthia
For a blue-ribbon of an understatement, there are some very interesting psychological undertones regarding this particular trinity. The entire relationship is one for Freud and the more modern psychologists to bask in and kill each other over.
I'm always talking about the human element. And I know it probably wears many of you thin. Does me too. Yet it is always there, smiling.
The problem is that truthfully, if we are honest with ourselves, Honor couldn't handle Young. She couldn't. He was, and is, the only one in the Honorverse who ever got the best of her (Tourville notwithstanding). And he did it constantly. Honor didn't win a single engagement with Young before she finally killed him in-between beating his ass. But even in that, she lost. Lost because Young forced that ugly side out of her and lost because she couldn't and wouldn't bring herself to turn him in and see real justice done. But from that point on, Young owned her, in Honor's mind.
Now, to be accurate, she got the best of him in the way she played her cards in the Basilisk System when he tried to set her up but that was at a less than perfect remove, a dish NOT served cold.
Strategically, she didn't know how to deal with him. He wasn't a Peep enemy in an inferior ship. Every confrontation she had with him Honor ended up tucking her tail between her legs and walking away. She had to. He embarrassed, taunted, disrespected, humiliated and every other thing he could think of to do to her. Her achievements were nothing to Young. That hurt her too. Young never recognized Honor as an equal in spite of all of her accomplishments, especially in spite of her accomplishments. To Pavel Young Harrington was a baseborn bitch socially beneath him and always would be. Young constantly pulled at the frayed little Yeomen string. And Honor knew that.
And this is where I see Nimitz coming into play. Nimitz would have picked up on all of that in her mindglow, where she was constantly being berated and humiliated by Young. Nimitz would have known the truth of the psychological defeats Honor constantly suffered internally at the hands of her arch nemesis. It wasn't just a question of physical danger from Young. That wasn't a question, though it was a possibility if the creep played very unfairly as he did in poisoning Nimitz. If he would have somehow slipped Honor a Mickey, he could have had his way with her.
Of course Nimitz knew that if it ever came to blows that Honor could deal with Young physically, but that was never what was at stake. It was her sanity. It was her emotions, raw and unbalanced and always flayed open by Young with a dusting of salt. Honor's emotions—a plane of existence that treecats have no problem assimilating and by relation Nimitz is always conscious of Honor's emotional health—is on many levels vastly more important. In fact, the importance of her emotional health, which took an accumulative beating, rang true when she ended up on Grayson an emotional wreck, a mere shell of a woman at her breaking point having endured accumulative harassment from Young. It was her self respect, her self esteem, her self worth and it was all taking a serious beating which again would have constantly bombarded Nimitz at a very native level. The love between Nimitz and Honor runs deep and that alone would have made it rather difficult for Nimitz, emotionally, to honor some of his person's two-legged requests.
<Rubs me the wrong way Honor>
On the mat in the ring of life, Young was kicking Honor's ass every round. I only imagine Nimitz not wanting to be left in his quarters because well, the human element of wanting to end Honor's emotional nightmare. The telempathic onslaught just couldn't have been a walk in the park for Nimitz, exacerbated by an accompanying feeling of helplessness. I imagine that Nimitz had an emotional breaking point as well. Imagine seeing someone you intensely love constantly dragged through emotional hell. Emotional hell that your natural senses just so happen to broadcast to you quite clearly and loudly. I really agree with my niece that it's a wonder Nimitz never needed therapy.
<Honor, let me deal with the asshole>
With Nimitz there, none would have been another occasion for Young to intimidate Honor. That's like trying to intimidate Tarzan with his lion there.
Under the surface of things, it seems that Honor was aware of the emotional beating that Nimitz repeatedly endured and that he wanted to end it for her. Or she wouldn't have constantly left him in her quarters. Why didn't she trust that Nimitz could and would maintain? Is it because she knew internally that it was a bit much for her to even require it of him?
I know Nimitz has a hard time with many two-leg concepts; many of the intangibles like embarrassment and privacy and the like wouldn't be an issue in a world of telempaths. This fact also makes it rather difficult for Nimitz to shelve his own natural tendencies. Like the innate charge to protect someone he loves.
I don't quite know how the treecats assimilate a human emotion like disrespect. But I'm fairly certain they have a related concept in their own world. And I cannot see the cats allowing an enemy to get away with it. It would rub a treecat against the grain in a very primal way. Allowing that same disrespect to bombard one's mated half from one's mated half's enemy would be as naturally irritating to Nimitz as scraping his claws against a blackboard.
<Can't do it>
Having a chance at further consideration, absolutely repugnant I'd tend to think.
It would not have been all that difficult for Nimitz to give in on other points. But the level of disrespect that Pavel Young represented in light of the obvious emotional toll it was exacting on Honor would seem to have been too basic and primal of a transgression for Nimitz to suffer. At any rate, he naturally would have wanted to handle the light work.
<Why are you letting that SOB intimidate you? He is getting to you, Honor. Let me get to him. I'll show him intimidation and I promise not to lay a claw on him. It won't be necessary. I'll just look lovingly into his eyes and ensure that he sees death. The coward that he is will simply flip his end and run. Simple>
Thank Tester for Samantha. I'm sure Nimitz needed some emotional recharging after constantly dealing with the overtones of Honor and Pavel Young.
<Sam, I need some crooning babe>
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