ThinksMarkedly wrote:cthia wrote:Albeit, since I don't know the timeline that the MA was interested in acquiring two Cats of their own, this exiled Cat may have had the notion to trade them for some unknown gain??? Unlikely, since he should have been unable to communicate with the MA, but I have to allow for the possibility, however remote. I guess I should also consider that he might have just wanted a starter family of his own.
I don't think this is a plausible scenario.
First, the MAlign wouldn't pass up the opportunity for capturing this treecat itself.
I thought about that, and you may be right. And they very well could've planned to capture that Cat and many more.
But they may have passed on capturing a single Cat if it was after they had already lost the one in captivity. More than one Cat would appeal to them because the cats could support each other. And of course, several is better than one. Plus, younger Cats may be easier to work with. Easier to mold.
ThinksMarkedly wrote:And the treecat, unless is so far gone, would have realised the danger and not engaged with the MAlign at all. (If he were so far gone, he wouldn't be rational enough to think so far ahead)
True, but the Cat could be in a very unhealthy emotional state, being that he was exiled. And he could be vengeful. Caution be damned. Besides, his options were limited. If he saw the MA kill a hexapuma, he could have been thinking about a comrade.
ThinksMarkedly wrote:Second, treecats don't seem to share this type of long-term reward thinking. Nimitz had trouble understanding the concept of firing a pulser from here and hitting something way over there. They do understand long-term planning, but it has to have some basis in their past, shared history: action in the past has resulted in consequences multiple times, so repeating is a good idea. Without having had this type of exchange in the first place, the treecat wouldn't have conceived of the possibility.
True again. But again, consider the exiled Cat's emotional state and options. As far as we know, the exiled Cat could have been the reason the MA was successful at capturing the one Cat who died in captivity.
ThinksMarkedly wrote:Third, if the MAlign had agents with sufficient access to contact the rogue treecat, they wouldn't have needed much more to actually kidnap a few. We know from the SK stories that subduing treecats was possible multiple times, so the fact that none have been successfully kidnapped and extracted from Sphinx tells us that they and the SFS have learned and have closed those gaps.
I can't imagine Cats being snuck up on. They should be able to taste any other animal's mindglow before it gets too close. But initially they may not understand how close is too close without understanding two-leg weaponry and tech. So you have a point.
ThinksMarkedly wrote:Fourth, timing. We know that Manpower did try to acquire them early on, when they were only recently discovered. But it appears after that, they like the rest of the Galaxy dismissed them as a simple curious type of pet. We are unsure whether they've realised the treecats are responsible for roping up their intel networks (doesn't look like they are), so it doesn't look like they've revised their assessment yet. And of course, now there's a logistical issue: how to get them to a MAlign lab?
If you hadn't brought it up, I would have never considered getting them to the lab a problem, once captured. They got that one to the lab.
cthia wrote:I wonder why the Cat was exiled. That must have been one smelly cat. However, I can't swallow there has not been more criminally minded Cats. Since the incident was reported in A Beautiful Friendship, Cats hadn't yet met two-legs. So I wonder if meeting tasty mindglows would have mellowed the miscreant Cat.
Thinksmarkedly wrote:As others have said, it seems treecats have very good early detection and healing techniques, so the incidence ratio of criminal minds must be very low. Their population is low too -- we know there were only 12 million of them in the 20th century. This is 4 centuries after they'd acquired tools and support from the SFS; they don't die from starvation any more and the fire seasons and other natural dangers must be well-controlled. We also know that treecats only have two categories for enemies, so leaving rogue treecats alive must mean that they were not considered a danger to any clans at the time of banishment.
Criminal mindglows might also be very unattractive to treecats, however their own inclination towards deviant behaviour might be. It doesn't follow that a criminal will like another criminal.
No doubt a criminal mindglow is not tasty at all. But about this healing technique. Some sort of brainwashing?
Holding steadfastly to how felines operate, some sort of mass purring is likely. The closest thing to religious chanting that a Cat knows? The hive, they are one with the collective.
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