n7axw wrote:Somehow, I don't see treecats popping off in uncontrolled rage. Yes Clean Killer in angry, but he is also intelligent enough to know he can't automaticly go bonkers and that he can be more helpful to his person by leashing his anger and channeling it into helping his person with whatever mission is at hand.
In the Honorverse, I can remember twice when a treecat "lost it." One was that clan elder in Treecat Wars in the aftermath of fireseason who engineered an attack on another clan. The other time was Nimitz on Tepes when he perceived is person vulnerable and in danger. That was the incident where he lost his mindvoice.
Not a bad record, really.
Don
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How could you forget the most famous incident of all? That of Nimitz discombobulating Maccabeus?
Consider the video textev in UH. Everyone knows full well that there's going to be Mesan blood shed by treecat as soon as complicity is detected. They will not pass go, they will not collect $200 or a trial by jury. It will be a trial by treecat.
That is why that whole scene with Clean Killer bonding with Harahap worked so well to cause such a panic and ruckus, because everyone expects swift treecat justice.
I'm thinking that somebody better have a real long talk with Clean Killer.
Also, I think you must consider that asking Clean Killer not to instantly react to such an offending mindglow may be unfair and unrealistic. I think it is part and parcel to why Honor chose to leave Nimitz in his quarters the many times she was to meet with Pavel Young. I think Honor knew it was too much to ask of Nimitz not to sever his head from his body.
It is akin to this notion I suggested in the Trinity post of the "Honor, Nimitz and Pavel Young" thread...
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.