It was sunset by the time Dee Jengo got back to the camp. His gut served him well in battle but was of little use outside of smothering reptiles. His newfound limp didn't help matters either. Whenever he returned from his victories there was a cheering crowd or a celebratory feast. On good days he got both.
Today was an exceptionally good day.
Rabid cries of "Dee! Jengo! Dee! Jengo! Dee! Jengo!" were punctuated with cheers of. "Foulair! Foulair! Foulair!" as he settled down for a hearty, hard-earned meal. As much as he enjoyed making others uncomfortable, the one thing he liked more was making himself comfortable. As a fabled Brother of the Ring he had plenty of opportunities to indulge himself. After all, it would be rude of him to refuse the gifts of the beasts he worked so hard to protect.
"There were four of them of course, some of Gash's best warriors from the looks of things," the skunk was saying through a mouthful of a savoury cactus stew. "And they were all on top of me but I managed to throw one into the canyon and get my arm around another and just like that I managed to-"
The rest of the skunk's tale was cut short by the timely arrival of Dee Jengo's favourite sibling. "You lizard loving slimeball!" Krogan snarled, marching up to the skunk and knocking the stew out of his paws.
The hare was everything Dee Jengo was not. Short, red and prickly, the skunk often joked that he was part cactus.
"Hey don't waste the food!" Dee Jengo exclaimed, trying to lighten the sudden tension that came over the clanbeasts. "These beasts worked hard for that!"
"It's wasted on you," the hare snarled. "Traitor."
"Bit of a hefty accusation you got there, brother," the skunk sucked the stray splashes of stew off his fingers. "Got any proof or can I continue ignoring you?"
"I followed your scent," Krogan smiled smugly. "And I found the gila you let go."
Dee Jengo feigned surprise. "And you know I let them go... because?"
The hare faltered. "They... said you did."
"And then you cut out their tongue for lying about your brother like that?"
"No they… got away."
It was always a pleasure to see Krogan's accusations blow up in his face. "Ah! So you happened to decide that this one random gila was more trustworthy than me."
"He wore the robe of an Interpreter. You know they don't lie."
"They just don't tell the truth." Dee Jengo yawned. "Sorry folks, bad case of sibling rivalry. Krogan over here's just sore he missed out on all the fun."
The hush came to an end with a nervous chuckle as the crowd's enthusiasm returned.
Krogan, however, seemed determined to ruin the mood.
"Do you know what Dee Jengo did before Kango broke his chains? He was a champion pit fighter! For none other than Gash Geelah himself!"
There were gasps from the crowd, looks of horror, betrayal. Dee Jengo had seen it all before. The lizard's name was like a curse and whenever it rose it's ugly head smiles turned to frowns.
"Yes! He was their champion!" Krogan went on, relishing in the looks of horror he was creating. "Their beloved Foulair! It was the Gilas that gave him his name!"
Dee Jengo stood up so fast that the hare was stunned into silence. For a moment he considered wrapping his chains around his brother's neck and squeezing until he'd proven every last accusation. The moment ended when he burped.
"We all toiled under their whips." Dee Jengo made his voice solemn. "Some of us bear more scars than others but that doesn't mean that we didn't suffer." He threw in a little sob for good measure. Krogan rolled his eyes but the crowd made noises of sympathy. "Before… before Kango I lost hope. I didn't think there was any way out for me. I didn't belong in the desert. I'm not built for it. I don't know where those lizards stole me from. All I knew was the whip and the work. It was all I had. So I… I made the best of a bad bargain." He let the silence hold for a while longer, let it seem like he was truly ashamed of his past. Before Krogan could break it he put a glint of his usual ferocity in his eyes. "But you're wrong about one thing, brother. When Kango rose up, I was the one who broke my own chains. And I was the one who wrapped them around Gash's neck and squeezed the life out of him. On that day I swore loyalty to our King and our Brother and I vowed I would take these off when I've squeezed the life out of every last Gila to terrorise the clans!"
The crowds bought it, as they always did. Nothing was sweeter than the look of outrage on the hare's face.
When the feasting was over, Dee Jengo retired to his tent. He would have to do something about the hare. But how to get rid of him without arousing suspicion...
He was interrupted by the arrival of Choblin, a young mouse the Chainbreaker had, in all his lack of wisdom, entrusted to Dee Jengo for guidance. An apprentice of the Ring and in the skunk's own opinion, a giant pain in the behind.
"Krogan was telling the truth wasn't he... you... you let them live?" It wasn't an accusation, if anything the mouse sounded hurt.
Since they were alone the skunk didn't bother lying. "They won't bother us again," Dee Jengo gave an exaggerated yawn, throwing his arms to the side and tucking them behind his head.
Choblin fell back as if struck. "Y-you showed them mercy!?"
"I got one right in the face, probably not the most merciful thing I've done." Try as he might to chuckle away the entire thing, Dee Jengo could not abide the look of betrayal on the mouse's face. "Besides it wasn't just any Gila. I knew this one ever since he was smaller than you."
Judging from the size of his eyeballs, the mouse was still struggling to understand.
With a hefty sigh, the skunk sat up. "Look, ya gotta understand everybeast's life was awful before Kango. Krogan's. Your parent's. Kango's. All of them... 'Cept mine. Those cheers you're hearin' now? I got 'em even when I wore chains. Alright? All things considered, the lizards weren't too bad to me so I ain't gonna be worse to them than I need to be."
It was too much for Choblin, who lost his footing altogether and fell on his rump. "B-but they're evil?"
"Lil' Ring Bro, ya gotta understand. I love ya. Love Kango. Love the rest of our lil' family. But I loved the lizards too. When I didn't get anyone to look out for me, the lizards did- just like I do for ya. Love and loyalty is fantastic. Beautiful." The skunk extended a paw to help the mouse up. "But at the end of the day staying alive is what really matters."
"B-but I don't understand-"
"Don't worry, it's not something that's easy to grasp. A lot of beasts don't get it." And now time for the emotional manipulation. "Look, kid, I don't want to scare you but I'm responsible for you so I'm not gonna lie either. We haven't won this war yet. If the gilas do win in the end I want to be in a position where I can protect you and I can't do that if I'm dead. Now Krogan's never spared a gila so they'll definetly kill him, but they might think a little before they do the same to me. You understand now?"
Choblin's eyes were wider than ever now. It was almost worrying to look at. "Y-you did it f-for me?"
"I do everything for you lil' bro. You're our future."
Choblin finally accepted the paw and let Dee Jengo pull him to his footpaws. "Sorry," he squeaked, suddenly very embarassed. "It's just Krogan said-"
"Don't worry about your big bro's silly arguments." Dee Jengo ruffled the fur between his ears. "Now get some rest. I'm going to teach you something new tomorrow."
"O-okay!"
Dee Jengo fell back into his own bed with a sigh. If only Krogan were so gullible...
Footnote: So I think you can tell why I thought this was a better version of last week's Dee Jengo app. It still has a fair amount of flaws don't get me wrong but it's a simpler scene that I think digs a little deeper into who Dee Jengo is and I also thought I could maybe do something really clever by playing with the idea of the audience not knowing whether or not he did let the Gila/Nameless Bandits go or not.
My issues were mostly that I feel he was being a bit too honest with his apprentice mouse here- the 'real' Dee Jengo doesn't have the emotional capacity to care too much about the nuisance 'child' Kango is making him babysit. But I also really wasn't sure how to go about explaining his thought process outside of dialogue. If I could bring that all to life via clever use of implication and mystery (so kind of like the way Gilhert Greysand wrote his app in a way that doesn't exactly explicitly tell the audience what's up, but lets them draw their own conclusion) I would have definetly thrown him into the Ring.
The reasons I did not do so, despite how amazing I think this character is, are threefold. One, I feel like Dee Jengo was a little too obviously... 'me'. Survivor Contests are anonymous by nature and I feel like Dee Jengo was so blatantly written by me that it would be too obvious if I submitted him, y'know. (And this is a very hilarious reason in hindsight considering the two apps I did end up submitting, Wilder and Scorpio, had 'Grey' written all over them, and while I did also think Wilder was 'obviously' me, I genuinely thought I was being subtle as hell with Scorpio (turns out I wasn't, but oh well :P)) And two, I think I was suffering from burnout a little bit. Like I said before half the total time I spent working on apps was spent working on Dee Jengo and I wrote fifteen or so apps, so let that sink in. My third reason is I honestly have no idea what he would do in a full on contest like Warpath. I didn't have much of an idea for a character arc (was he gonna stay selfish? was he gonna learn to care about others) or any scenes in particular and while I liked the idea of him maybe finding loyalty to the North when he realizes there are other things like him it never really developed further than that.
Still quite proud of him and I don't think the time I spent crafting Dee Jengo were wasted by any means. Next week I have a super fun thing I wrote and you have all definetly seen the drawing by now so I'll just tell you straight up what it is.
The Wind And The Rain II: Exploding Canyon Boogaloo, Dee Jengo Foulair Vs Scorpio, Lord of Rain, Bringer Of Floods