3038 The Mighty Meegs
on May 24, 2017
Chapter: 069 - A Snake in my Pocket
Characters: Meegs
Location: Stronghold of Ranna's Hob Glory, The Ancient Ruins
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Somehow it isn’t surprising at all that Meegs broke before they could even lay a finger on her
That is, what intelligent people do when they’re facing torture.
The fantasy that you are so incredibly tough that can hold out forever is absurd. Let’s say you’re mind is a completely un-human-like fortress, even if you COULD refuse to give any information indefinitely, all you’re really accomplishing is damaging your body further and further, possibly crippling it forever or being killed (some debate which is worse) so if an opportunity comes for escape or rescue, you’re far too messed up to take advantage of it.
The military actually has counter-torture strategies. Two main ones that I can think of:
1-don’t tell the soldiers anything useful. This requires training them to obey orders without thinking or asking questions (what can I say? Not everyone is cut out to be a soldier). Oh sure, some basic information about what his unit HAS been doing up until now, a frontline soldier can’t help but be aware of, but where is his unit marching next week? What are other units up to, and where are they located? Only his commanding officer should have that information. The common soldiers shouldn’t know anything very important, so if they get captured and interrogated, it really doesn’t matter if they break.
2- Three day rule. Not sure how many different countries or divisions of the military use this rule specifically, but some variation of it is common. Since there’s no non-fictional person on the planet immune to torture, military command adjusts their expectations. Hold out, for just three days, before giving away your information. If your unit knows you’ve been captured, they should consider any information you had to be in enemy hands already, and adjust their strategies accordingly. Three days gives them time to do that. Holding out against torture FOREVER is humanly impossible, and not a reasonable expectation. Hold out for just three days, brave soldier… and then sing like a bird, so that your unit can finish their current mission successfully, and so that hopefully, when rescue comes, you’re in good enough shape to walk out.
So they’re continuing with the deception that she’s still Meegs then and not a Rannite creature?
Which implies Meegs has a low Wisdom – arcane casters are supposed to have good Will saves.
@Kogan, I’d say she’s both. She’s Meegs, who is now a Rannite creature. They’re not mutually exclusive.
Also, I’m personally of Meegs’s mentality. Why take the whip when you can avoid it in the first place.
… You can also try and slip a lie in there somewhere, if you spill it all, but their guards may be up.
Maybe. But the personality takes such a 180 after the change it doesn’t say anything good about the character if there’s anything of them left in there and they STILL betray people they were friends with, family, or loved ones. Hopefully Ranna gets what she deserves soon…something to REALLY make her suffer. Preferably eternally.
I wouldn’t mind letting Jone at her.
Well, yes… But all those who took a 180° change had also had full snake-hair. So maybe Meegs just dind’t get a full dose, or it just didn’t have such a strong effect on her.
As for her actions… In my opinion she always had a tendency to grab her opportunities, sometimes with low regards to others than herself. She might doesn’t want to serve Ranna, or does not intend to betray her allies, but still would use her best chance and the best way she can come up with to 1) not to get tortured, 2) escape from the rannites, 3) simply survive.
Also, for me she did not seemed to be content with betraying the others, but as such Bob also doesn’t seem to be content with what he is up to now, yet one wouldn’t label him as a rannite. Right?
Actually I would say whatever’s in control of her right now IS content with what it’s doing. It attacked the grell when there was no real need to do so. There’s also the fact that every convert has had the same personality, regardless of who they were before. That suggests to me possession rather than conversion. Right now, they might as well just be Ranna with a different face. And if it turns out any of them are in control and betrayed their friends, family and allies willingly, they deserve to rot in the same Hell I hope Ranna is eventually tossed into, alongside every other traitor that joined willingly.
Maybe she WAS aware that her gaze would have no effect on the grell?
A ruse to get out of this?
Maybe she was, and also she would know how Bob would react to the reveal of Gorgon!! given how he was feeling at the time.
"AHA!!" *Gorgon reveal!!*
"Dammit Meegs, I liked you…" *ZAAAAAAAP!!*
*poof of dust*
Heh. She folded faster than a poker player with a bad hand…
Jeez, a Master of origami couldn’t fold her any faster than that.
So, she is either a good actress, or she is not (entirely) Rannite after all. Everyone else who got the cocktail seemed to swop their sides extremly quick. Also, they all had full snake-hair. Its like if she was not fully gorgonized.
Raises an interesting question. If the convert resists, the convert must be broken, and then you pour the new personality into an empty hole. But if the convert isn’t resisting, you wouldn’t know when that hole is empty, and so you might fill it with less, making the conversion incomplete.
Metaphorically.
And possibly metaphysically.
t!
Generally the more resistant the person is, the more likely it will be broken all the way down. Victims who turn easily would easily turn back given a chance. In other words those who turn seeing reason, not having no power left to fight.
All that would mean is they willingly betrayed their allies and friends and deserve no better than any other Rannite loyalist.
The keenness of your sense of nuance is better suited for YouTube comments.
t!
Anyone that willingly sided with the Rannites (no, coercion isn’t willing) out of selfish reasons, betrayed everyone on the plane. There’s no amount of atonement or apologies that’ll ever be enough to redeem them. This isn’t like betraying a city or a town, she is literally out to enslave and convert the entire world. Joining the Rannites is a moral event horizon from which there is no turning back.
On the other hand, my impression was that Sahar was converted almost immediately – in the space of three strips with frantic action. There simply hadn’t been time to break her with actual torture. http://yafgc.net/comic/2880-the-serpents-vengeance/
So if your theory were true, she shouldn’t have changed enough to be willing to betray her own *mother*.