OOPs #229
May23
Narklet never really picked up on the unspoken rule around the enclave that you do NOT talk about Zeska, especially around Kattajak.
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Out-of-Placers
A story of inconvenient changes
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LMAO.
For a moment I thought the entire story was taking a very different turn. Interesting to hear about what happened with Zeska though. unfortunate. I wonder if she’ll ever show up in the story? Does she have her own mini enclave? It would make sense. I doubt she’d be giving female children up to the official enclaves if she’s gone rogue.
Ooookay, I think eugenics (because let’s be real, the ENTIRETY of their reproductive culture is a vast eugenics program) trying to refine for the perfect hunter might be a horrible idea on their side. The patriarch can control himself, but holy shit is this worrying.
It’s not that they’re trying for ‘the perfect hunter’ per se. With so much (and such quick) genetic variation, however, and with their species/culture trying not to remain so far behind that of humanity, they have a great need to prioritize *any* useful traits. It’s less “We need to breed perfectly for specific and/or noble reasons” and more “We have few females, so every clutch is *important*. Therefor, in order not to screw the entire race over, we’d best make the absolute most of these limited opportunities for everyone’s sake.”
They’re not after genetic purity, they don’t abandon those that don’t quite fit the mold, and they have no specific blueprint at all they’re trying to pursue. They just have to make their clutches count, because without any structure to it… there are way more males than females. There would be chaos, destruction, a collapse of society, *and* an increased chance of less-than-useful offspring.
Don’t forget that almost every yinglet ever gets to go do pretty much anything it wants to contribute to the enclave. There are few specific roles, nearly no concept of employment, and barely any standard the average yinglet is held to.
In short; since the pressure driving breeding selection is far more practical and social and far less ideological, and since it lacks a focus on any sort of genetic purity, ‘eugenics’ isn’t that suitable of a term.
As for the Kattajack in particular, if you’ve never had That Guy who you’d love to just shove down some stairs in your life because he routinely says things like “See, your family member should have just accepted God, then she wouldn’t have gotten in that car wreck”, then I kinda envy you. 😛
I can’t say as a Yinglet dat Patriarch Narklet (In English, a Nark is someone who sells out others for their benefit, was zhis intentional?) Is alive because of his own merits. Him talking zhis way to his Elder Patriarch deserves a beating at zhe minimum. But having been bozh baited and insulted zo, de ass had to have his synchophants on de ozher side of de door waiting for Kattajak to step an inch out of line.
De guy is slippery, but Kattajak knows zhat some hunts require more zhan de slash of a blade.
It makes you wonder what the real story of Zeska is. There’s no way Narklet isn’t gonna take the darkest view possible on events to discourage such rebellious thinking in the future. I’m with you, Kattajak, it’s time to cut the apron strings. Poak, you may need to be a friend and help hide the body…
Nah, as mentioned before, any harm that comes to Narklet at this point will be blamed on Vizlet and used as an excuse to remove her from power.
That’s why it’s so important to capture Brakka — if they can prove Nark has been conspiring with an exile, they can remove him in accordance with the Elders’ own rules. And if they can prove that he was doing it under the Elders’ orders, that gives Vizlet leverage.
…or a silent death so Vizlet can’t talk.
At this point if anybody that’s not Narklet or those directly under him in the colony were given the order to take down Vizlet, I’m pretty sure it ends something like the fantasy we just saw. Except probably additional bodies. Otherwise she’s got enough friends and resources that if they don’t take that swing when she doesn’t see it coming at all, that odds become very very poor. And she’s pretty smart so she’ll probably see it coming, and would certainly account for the possibility if she gets that kind of leverage.
so… How much of that initial dialog happened?
My guess? All of it. When Narklet’s speech cut off (“… only tragedy follows zis-“) was when Kattajak lost himself into the fantasy of slitting the young patriarch’s throat and feeling the blood spray on his face.
He loves his family, oh yes he do, take a stab at compassion or he’ll take a stab at you.
I think Poak knows more than he lets on.
Making Poak not smile is basically saying you deserve to go to hell when Patriarch Poak scowls at you. Notice dat Poak isn’t smiling in de presence of Narklet’s faux-pas or even stepping between the two to diffuse de situation. When Poak didn’t move to step in between dem, zhat was a clear message to Kattajak zhat it was up to him if he wanted to off de guy.
“Look, I don’t approve, but I will help you dig a shallow grave.”
Yes, that side-eye glance does suggest he can “read between the lines”.
I just noticed the quirk of the coloration of Kattajaks teeth. Wonder if it’s from a higher than usual iron intake. Wouldn’t surprise me…considering…him.
Or it is just genetic since Zally has it too.
You know who else has Ear Stripes, a dark Shelltoozh, and a penchant for stabbing zhings? Brakka, de guy dat stabbed Elim.
If Zeska ran off with exiles, wonder if she happens to have any involvement with Brakka. Not really related, but an interesting idea.
I get the impression from oops-92 that Brakka has no experience with females. That implies he isn’t one of the exiles that Zeska ran off with. So there’s no telling who or what Zeska is involved with, if she’s still alive.
For doze interested, de boss is experimenting wizh a new comic “Legendary Legend” if ya haven’t seen it yet.
https://www.deviantart.com/valsalia/art/Legendary-Legend-001-73372258
Errr… that appears to be from 2008.
Zhat is why it is so legendary! Plus deviantart kinda hid it from me until now, so new to me? Been looking zhere occasionally to see if zhere is anozher Lusty Argonian Maid’d, but mostly zhere is extra art of OOP characters lately.
I go to FurAffinity for that stuff.
Especially for the Lusty Argonian Maid’d.
I was able to find episodes 001, 004, 005, 006, 012 and 013 – is there any way to read everything and in order?
Every day is another test to see how long Kattajack can refrain from flaying Narklet and wearing him like a festive gown.
I had an “oh s—” moment with the fourth panel, so well played, storyteller!
Now I have to disagree with some of y’all about Narklet. I still don’t think he’s evil. He’s a bright, enthusiastic kid, fresh out of school with a head full of doctrine. He thinks he knows everything because he has the blessing of the elders, and he’s too young to know what he doesn’t know. He has good ears but the tact of a well-meaning fool. If he were some sort of evil mastermind, he wouldn’t be casually triggering Kattajak like this in front of Poak. He’s way too naïve to be a patriarch, and he doesn’t even realize he’s getting himself into trouble here.
And I still don’t think Poak has a violent bone in his body. That’s a look of worry on his face, not a scowl, because he knows it’s not a good laugh coming out of Kattajak. He’d better change the subject fast, before his friend runs out of self-control.
Yeah. There’s no way Narklet isn’t aware of what he is doing here by antagonizing Kattajak. He’s trying to be smart, imagining himself as a suave political player – but he isn’t as skilled as he imagines. It seems such an easy plan: He knows what angers Kattajak, and how a few pieces of ‘advice’ could lead to Kattajak striking out violently – leading to Kattajak’s exile and the removal of a powerful enemy from the patriarchs. But he hasn’t thought it all the way through. He hasn’t considered his personal safety if he could successfully goad Kattajak. And he has entirely discounted Poak from the scene: Someone who knows exactly what is going on here, as even the apolitical everyone-should-be-happy Poak can see through such a transparent ploy.
I also repeat something I said of Narklet in the past: He’s not evil. He’s something more dangerous: A true believer. A zealot. They can be the most terrible of all, because they will believe their cause is so great that anything can be justifed. The true believers are the ones who would burn down whole towns, then walk through the ashes and proclaim they were enacting the will of the gods. We don’t know to what lengths Narklet might go to protect Yinglet traditions – but there may not be any limit to them. He could easily justify exterminating the entire enclave as a price worth paying to protect the purity of Yinglet ways.
I could be wrong, but I really don’t Narklet is aware of what he’s doing here. I doubt he even realizes that anyone in the enclave dislikes him. The scavengers admire him because he’s good at his job leading them, and everyone else (that we know of) is hiding their true feelings about him to avoid a bad impression getting back to the elders down South. I could be totally wrong about this, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Narklet is some combination of shocked, confused, dismayed, and embarrassed, when he finally finds out how much Vizlet and the other patriarchs are bothered by his attitude. I kind of feel sorry for him, actually.
I’m more wizh Birdy on dis one, Narklet perhaps is ignorant to what de council truly is, or why dey resist change in Yinglet culture so. It is de nature of a zealot to act on faith zhough. He likely was warned about de horrors of de ValSalians, and steels himself against corruption, knowing zhat he is in de right.
As for being shocked, or otherwise, he has gone behind the backs of de ozher patriarchs and recruited his own group of males, some not even of de Valsalian enclave despite supposedly being a Patriarch. How would he, a conservative yinglet justify zhat? Simple, he is zhere to end de enclave, and its leadership. If Vislet’s people are already enemies of de Council, zhen dere is nozhing dat is too taboo as long as it leads to de end of Vislet’s heresy and de continuation of bringing more of “zhat zhing” to de council.
I’d wonder how much even Narklet knows of the wider plans in which he is a useful pawn. In particular, I think he is not aware of exactly what Zhat Zhing is. I base this conclusion on him so easily buying Kass’s shoddy, off-the-cuff ‘origin story.’ If he /knew/ that a human-to-yinglett transformation device was given to a human, and a few days later a new yinglet appears out of nowhere who instantly rises to a position of importance… well, I’m sure he could make the connection. But he doesn’t. Conclusion: Narklet does not know the full nature of Zhat Zhing. Perhaps he does not know anything about it, other than that he has orders to retrieve it. But, is this information the Council withheld from him, or are they not aware of it either?
This speculation is made with absolutely no idea where it comes from. But Narklet’s gap-in-knowledge is insightful. I characterize him as such:
– A zealot, who may go to great lengths for the cause he believes in.
– He imagines himself to be a great manipulator. He overestimates himself: He plays the game moderately well.
– A willing pawn in the Council’s plans, but perhaps not trusted with the full picture. The council chose him for this mission because of his absolute loyalty and conviction, even though he is not the most skillful of spies. He is someone they can trust to do what is ordered and not question why.
– Like many zealots, a hypocrite. He will violate his principles in the short term, to defend them in the long. Working with exiles being an obvious example. This makes him all the more dangerous.
– Also like many zealots, and one of his greatest weaknesses: Can’t keep his mouth shut. He struggles to resist a brag or a goad. He wants everyone to understand why he is right, and that means telling them why he is right whenever opportunity permits. At length.
– Has access to some mysterious information source, the nature of which is barely hinted at, and which likely ties in to an area of world lore which has yet to be explained.
And his mission? I don’t think he is there to end the enclave. He is there on two missions for the council. First, there is the ‘secret’ mission that everyone knows about: Monitor the situation, see that the enclave is not overly influenced by close proximity to a majority-human city, and take whatever action he feels is required to ensure this. He’d rather not resort to a violent overthrow of the current leadership, but he will he if feels he must. Secondly, the ‘actually secret’ mission that hardly anyone else is aware of: This mission’s purpose is unknown, other than that Zhat Zhing is central to it.
Keep in mind zhat de Council is likely playing the long game too, courting favor wizh de powerful military nation Beletan by selling information to zhem to save zheir own hides. Nobody zhinks about seeing a Yinglet or two, ozher zhan a kick in de guts, or wanting us as servants. Never as equals. Even de Trademaster is playing politics wizh Vislet, but dere is no Yinglet born as a citizen of Valsalia, always kept seperate are we, not given true equality.
What Narklet says about zhere being no true friendship between us and Humanity resonates among us as we see nozhing but squalor and injury despite living wizhin sight to wealzh and comfort. Readers of dis comic see Vislet’s efforts to end zhat, but her actions have to remain hidden, at least until de Council is dealt wizh, one way or de ozher. De average Yinglet has only traditon and eachozher as comfort. Narklet’s words reinforces zhis in de hearts of Yinglets who hear it.
If Narklet’s mission isn’t to destroy de Enclave, it’s to subvert it back to being controlled by de Council, which amounts to de same zhing, ending de Trademaster and Vislet’s heresy. And if Kass survives de fall of ValSalia, she will be made to act as a Feemale should, or killed to make a example of her having recieved training in fighting. Her and Zally bozh have deazh sentances hanging over zheir heads like de proverbial sword of Damocles if narklet and his faction wins, and if Beletan is involved, it don’t look good for our heroes, unless de Trademaster’s hot GF has a kick ass army hidden under her skirt somewhere.
I doubt there can be any collusion between the council and Beletam. Just no reason. The council has no reason to engage in human politicking – yinglets get treated like vermin regardless of who is in power. And they have little to offer Beletam – it’s not as if they have any great intelligence network. Besides, there are almost no yinglets in Beletam: The Val Salia enclave is the northernmost Yinglet settlement, and Beletam is some way north of that. There may be a few explorers, scouts, and traveling exiles that far north, but not in any great number.
As a military threat, Beletam is something to worry about in years to come. Right now they are still consolidating power over their new occupied territory, and any attack on Val Salia would need to either march over Indrel-controlled mountains (bad idea) or through Akalos (Doable, but would give plenty of warning and stretch their supply lines). And Val Salia itsself is no pushover: Ridiculously fortified and self-sufficient enough to endure even a long siege. While Beletam might play a lot of cloak-and-dagger games in the long term, it would be foolish of them to start an open war with Val Salia. Even if they won it would be at a cost they can’t afford. That’s why so many refugees seek safety there.
As for taking control, I think Narklet would need to be very, very careful even if he succeeded: This isn’t the wilderness. There’s a human city right next door, with an established exile population and a leadership that is remarkably open to cross-species cooperation. If enough yinglets are unhappy with Narklet’s policies, they may simply abscond and seek sanctuary there. If he is to depose Vislet and her supporting Patriarchs, it’s not enough for him to simply take power. Or even a bit of assassination – that just creates martyrs. He would need to ensure him and his supporters were seen as legitimate leaders of the enclave, and opponents in disgrace. He can’t afford to use half the enclave holding the other half at spearpoint.
*offers a clam to Birdy* Um, some of what you said I disagree wizh, zhough I do like your spirit! Valsalia’s defensive strategy is laid out in OOP168, having de Baxxid take out a enemies water supply by burrowing under zhem. FG #1 has a overview of ValSalia, which has no defensive walls or parapets around de city. Zhis makes it ridiculously easy to get into and out of de place wizh whatever or whoever. It is also why dey can’t keep de Yinglet exiles out of town easily!
De “cost” of confronting Valsalia, and de Trademaster would be as simple as holding some of de Drinnish refugees families captive for zheir cooperation in undermining de Trademaster. Information, sabotage, assassination, and cooperation wizh Beletan’s assets. De worst zhing de Trademaster could have done was take in de refugees if he don’t want to be infiltrated in de face of conflict. He’s a good man for doing so, but de road to hell is paved wizh good intentions.
De council having nozhing to offer Beletan? How about uncontested landings for ships? Places to bring supplies to wizhout worry of being stabbed in de back for it? Or not having to bring a bunch of servants or slaves wizh dem when dey travel. Having a cooperative ally at your enemies doorstep is a gift to a invader, ask the Aztecs how zhat went for zhem in Humani Earzh history. For de direction of movement, de Sea would be most likely Valsalia’s great weakness. By keeping de important zhings on ships to supply a Army, de Baxxid would be rendered ineffective in destroying zhem.
For Dere not being a lot of Yinglets in Beletan, well zhat actually works out for de Council’s favor. I mean, have you seen Yinglets? We are kind of ridiculous barbarian rat bird zhings! Only someone who DIDN’T know us would agree to work wizh us on a serious level :p
We are more capable zhan where we are currently as a people. I just don’t see Vislet having de influence to change zhings for Yingletkind, even if she does save her friends in Valsalia. Is it in de best interests of Yingletkind to upset de balance of where zhings are now? We currently have de choice of being pets, servants, or slaves, or living as barbarians in de current system dat zhanks to sea travel means we don’t even get to sell zhings to travelling merchants who happily bypass our lands by boat.
Here I agree with Bird: any conspiracy that Narklet is up to isn’t as big as international politics. He doesn’t want to get involved in human politics at all. I’m honestly surprised that he didn’t seem to be bothered by Vizlet’s introduction of Kass, the human-cultured yinglet diplomat from a human city. Whatever the “something shitty” he’s up to is, it’s most likely limited to what he’s doing as a scavenger of artifacts. And I also doubt he knows what “that thing” was capable of doing, or he’d have figured out Kass’s secret by now. He does know it was a valuable artifact, and therefore possibly a source of power for his people. Brakka’s motive to work with him was the chance to “get back in” to yinglet society. I guess Narklet was willing to hire an exile to scavenge for him because exiles and matriarchs don’t talk to each other?
It’s kind of obvious dat Narklet is a tool (in bozh meanings) but wizh de interference of de Trademaster wizh Yinglet culture and aiding Vislet’s heresy, it already is a international zhing, and one de Council is unable to directly deal wizh by demselves. Vislet’s truzh is a cancer dat will eat away at zhier auzhority if unchecked. But, she alone isn’t charismatic enouzh to alter zhings even within her own domain as I see it, minus ending up a exile unless Narklet is eizher brought to her side, or Patriarch Kattajak gets some wish fulfillment.
Perhaps Narklet is not concerned about Kass because he believes that his plans will come to completion soon enough. What does it matter if there’s a new diplomat for now? He’ll be in power soon enough and can expel her then.
For de presence of Brakka, and his being employed by Narklet, and attempting to assassinate Valsalian personnel, and kidnap a officer, zhat is a act of war. De Valsalians zhough just don’t know it quite yet. Why Narklet would recruit from de exiles is simple. He has as many eyes, ears and paws as he needs to aquire what de council needs. If de ozher patriarchs didn’t fall in wizh de council’s wishes, he had to find de resources to do so. By promising to remove any banishment once de Council’s task is done (Removing de one dat banished him) it gave Brakka a powerful incentive, and his actions and ability to readily recruit from de ozher exiles means dat for Valsalia, de exiles are a population wizhin de city whoze needs have not been met, and thus are not loyal to eizher enclave, or ValSalia.
That’s another reason exiles are useful agents: Deniability. If they screw up or get caught, there’s no provable link to either Narklet or the Enclave, so no blowback. It’s not an act of war: It’s just a mugging-gone-wrong, and no-one can prove otherwise. Even if Brakka gets caught, Narklet can simply deny all knowledge. Brakka’s story about secret artifact smuggling can be dismissed as the delusional ravings of a yinglet (exiles not being known for their mental reliability) or a desperate story made up to escape execution. Not only is Narklet safe personally, but the enclave avoids any potential retribution.
This is basic cloak-and-dagger stuff. “If you are caught, we will deny all knowledge of you and your mission.”
I went back and read through all the scenes with Brakka in them, and all the scenes with Narklet in them, to get a better feel for both characters. Here’s what I see: Narklet respects Vizlet as a wise, well-meaning matriarch whose resistance to his advice is frustrating but not (yet) grounds for ousting her; Brakka found “That Thing” on his own, without Narklet telling him where to look, and without anyone else present, which is why he’s the only person alive (for now) who knows where he found it; Brakka believes that WHERE he found “That Thing” is much more important than WHAT it is.
I also believe Brakka really was acting on his own, without orders from Narklet, when he tried to murder Elim. I come to this conclusion for two reasons: first, Brakka was desperately avoiding any contact with Narklet until he could recover “That Thing,” to avoid having to admit he lost it; second, Narklet considers Brakka’s attack on Elim to be a “disaster” that could undo his whole operation, and plans to give Brakka a punishment worse than death if he’s found alive. So sure, Narklet is capable of violent wrath, but I don’t think he’s corrupt enough to condone violence against innocent bystanders like Elim (attempted murder) or Kass (kidnapping and attempted rape).
Also, before suggesting Narklet might decide to assassinate Vizlet or Kass, remember how valuable and protected yinglet females are. Deposing Vizlet and extracting Kass from House Ivenmoth might be on the table, but murdering them or subjecting them to violence almost certainly isn’t. The worst that could happen to them, by Narklet’s hand, is they’d be stripped of their offices and sent off to some other enclave. The only yinglet I could imagine trying to assassinate Vizlet or Kass is Brakka.
Nothing excuses being a jerk like that. What a see you next tuesday.