Jordi Dissonance question

[naraht]

Everyone focuses on the first half of Jordi's dissonance, treating Humans as better than Animals, *but* there is another part.

A Djinn of Dark Humor has been assigned to get a Malakite of Animals to take dissonance. The Malakite has an oath that he will stop any act of pollution that he sees. (or something similar). The Djinn of Dark Humor comes out to pollute a lake wearing Plate Mail with an opening over the stomach just large enough for the Malakite to tear out his intestines. Would this put the Jordite into a Choir vs. Superior dissonance situation due to his inability to make a quick kill?

[Dalillama]

You would be amazed at how quickly that can be fatal in the presence of an angry Malakite. After the intestines are out, there's the liver, the aorta, the spleen... (also, I wouldn't put it past plenty of Malakim to be able to bite through plate armor anyway).

[fwcain]

"Excuse me, did you say 'elephant tracks'??"

"Yes, over here, next to the remains...We still have to pry apart what appears to be articulated plate armor--"

"Woah."

"--to confirm the remains are human...Unless you'd prefer to wait until the DNA lab processes these swabs we've been collecting."

"So, what are we looking at? Some SCA dude ticks off his pet elephant, and gets trampled to death?"

"If it makes you feel any better, that does appear to be toxic waste he was carrying in that barrel."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(Edit: Just thought of a follow-up scene, along the same line...)

"Whaddyya mean, 'elephant hair?' Elephants don't have hair!...Do they?"

"Mammoths do."

"...Mammoths?"

"Or rather, they did."

"...Mammoths??"

"The long, coarse hairs we found at the scene, embedded in the elephant tracks, were not human. DNA testing was inconclusive, but did show the strongest correlation with elephant DNA. So, yeah, it was either the world's fuzziest elephant, or it was an animal that's been extinct for thousands of years... Any way, that's all we've got for now. 'Bye."

*(click)*

"...Mammoths?!?"

[naraht]

Originally Posted by fwcain

"Excuse me, did you say 'elephant tracks'??"

"Yes, over here, next to the remains...We still have to pry apart what appears to be articulated plate armor--"

"Woah."

"--to confirm the remains are human...Unless you'd prefer to wait until the DNA lab processes these swabs we've been collecting."

"So, what are we looking at? Some SCA dude ticks off his pet elephant, and gets trampled to death?"

"If it makes you feel any better, that does appear to be toxic waste he was carrying in that barrel."

I'm assuming that this Malakite only has a Wolf vessel. But *Funny* none the less..

[fwcain]

Originally Posted by naraht

I'm assuming that this Malakite only has a Wolf vessel. But *Funny* none the less..

Thanks! ;-)
I figured, with as much trouble as the Djinn went to, the Malakite might be courteous enough to respond in kind (as circumstances permit, of course)...
(Based on the various "wild animal" nature shows I recall from my youth, animal children can be just as playful as human children!)

[Omegonthesane]

Originally Posted by Dalillama

You would be amazed at how quickly that can be fatal in the presence of an angry Malakite. After the intestines are out, there's the liver, the aorta, the spleen... (also, I wouldn't put it past plenty of Malakim to be able to bite through plate armor anyway).

This, and generally the majority of angelic dissonance conditions have to be deliberately triggered. There isn't actually a way in nature to kill with literally no pain, so I'd have thought the only reasonable solution was that you had to kill as quickly and cleanly as possible rather than drawing it out. Which, in the case of Mr Plate Mail Sans Gutplate, would involve burrowing into their organs to eat their heart out, resulting in a quicker death than the more traditional tearing out of their throat.

Alternately, NC: Fangs and crush their throat through the gorget.

[Archangel Beth]

Originally Posted by Omegonthesane

There isn't actually a way in nature to kill with literally no pain, so I'd have thought the only reasonable solution was that you had to kill as quickly and cleanly as possible rather than drawing it out.

*nod*

The interesting thing is that, in nature, plenty of animals are pretty iffy on the whole "make a clean kill" thing. One of my housecats regards invading mice as squeaktoys, and he will -- absent my rescuing them -- play with them till they break. Then he sometimes eats half of them.

This is not what I'd call a "clean kill." (Well, they do bleed surprisingly little; the carpet is more-often stained by the cat discovering that mouse-feet don't agree with him, than by mouse-blood.)

This implies, to me, that the function of that part of the dissonance condition is actually a weird twist... It could be an issue of Free Will/Sapiency: angels know what they're doing, so any tormenting they do is knowingly tormenting, so it's forbidden. Or -- and possibly more in line with Jordi's word -- it is the nature of cats to play with mice till they break, whether the cat is hungry or not. It is NOT the nature of angels to do the same, and so they must remain true to their natures, even as animals are true to themselves.

Or something else someone else thinks of. (I think I like the idea that angelic nature is not to torment -- though of course you get the blackwings looking all sulky and pointing at the demons with "but-but-but" noises.)

[naraht]

Originally Posted by Archangel Beth

Or something else someone else thinks of. (I think I like the idea that angelic nature is not to torment -- though of course you get the blackwings looking all sulky and pointing at the demons with "but-but-but" noises.)

Makes you wonder what Jordi thinks of Grendel...
http://moelane.stormloader.com/innom...rs/Grendel.htm
(Psychopath Mercurian of Destiny)

[Archangel Beth]

Probably something like: "Not In My Pack; Good."

[William]

Although Jordi probably hates to think of it this way, the methods of Animals' killing being quick, clean, without hate or anger, never for fun...

...well, frankly that's an extremely humanocentric view of an idealized animal nature. The fact that it's sufficiently part of his Word to make it Dissonant or his angels might not even be his choice -- it's just human influence on his Word, like all other Words in the Symphony.