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Sebek |
History"When I was smal I lived with a pack of other VELOCIRAPTORS on a plane with lots of trees and firns. We ate other dinasores who were stupid and couldent run away fast enoufh. Then TRISTAN came along and all of a suden we new we had to go and hunt crimnals for him. So we ran off to look for trales, and then the world changed and we werent on the plane any mor, but there were lots of peeple to eat wile we hunted. I saw a big mettle charoit which I chased, and that was wen I lost the rest of the pack. Sum times I wander what hapened to them. But I was clever and found a trale all on my oan, witch led to a city ful of big stone bildings with little rivers between them. The crimnal that TRISTAN wanted me to kill was hidding there, so I riped him open and ate him. Then NITOCRIS and DAMIEN found me, and NITOCRIS sang a song and I desided that I wanted to stay with her and DAMIEN. That was wen I found out that my name is SEBEK. So we went to live in Shadow Memfs were NITOCRIS was Quen, and she gave me more bad peeple to eat and lots of preists and preistses worshiped me becuase I was the god of the Nil. But one day NITOCRIS and DAMIEN went away, and only DAMIEN came back bicuase NITOCRIS had bean turnd into sumone else by NYARLATHOTEPEP. Then DAMIEN took me to Amber and now I live in the Priery with AGRIPPINA. She and DAMIEN teech me things, and sum times I go on expeditions and win games at the circus. Now I would like sum dormice for riting my story."
DescriptionSebek is a Velociraptor antirrhopus (aka Deinonychus antirrhopus, the misnamed "raptors" of Jurassic Park). He stands about 5' high in his normal posture, but can stand taller, and is about 10' long. He weighs in at about 180 pounds. He is bipedal, with a compact torso and a long, narrow head on the end of a flexible neck. His counterbalancing tail, stiffened by bony rods along the vertebrae, is used as a dynamic stabiliser, enabling him to turn and pivot at lightning speed. His forelimbs are quite long, with viciously-clawed three-digit hands, and are usually held folded back against his torso, partly like the wings of a bird, partly like the claws of a praying mantis. His hind limbs are also long and muscular, and the second toe of each foot bears his main offensive weapon, a razor-sharp sickle claw 6" long, which is held off the ground when he runs. His senses are sharp, especially sight and smell, and his eyes are partly forward-facing, Sebek is considerably stronger, faster and more agile than ordinary raptors - he can outrun a cheetah, and can jump about 20' vertically and over 60' horizontally. He is also quite dexterous, although his lack of opposable thumbs limits his ability to manipulate objects. While his movements tend to be poised and graceful, he has an exaggerated idea of his own abilities, and so tends to get careless and/or to over-reach himself, sometimes making him look clumsier than he really is (he is particularly good at knocking things and people over with his tail when he turns round too quickly). Physiologically, he is warm-blooded, generally more bird-like than reptilian. Unlike velociraptors in some Shadows, however, he has no covering of downy feathers. His toughened hide seems to provide him with some insulation, but on the whole he dislikes the cold. To maintain his high rate of metabolic activity, he needs to eat the equivalent of a goat every two days. HabitatSebek lives at the Priory, in a specially constructed greenhouse about 120' across which has become known as the Velocidrome (EsmŽe's coinage). As well as an abundance of Cretaceous flora, the Velocidrome boasts a hypocaust heating system and a small artificial lake, which is regularly restocked with fish. There are also statues and mirrors to liven the place up. Sebek's nest lies in one sheltered corner of the Drome, marked out by an old blue blanket and the chewed remains of stuffed toys sent in by children who have read the stories that Damien has written about him. Other facilities include Sebek's "Museum", various music-making devices (including music boxes, a small pipe-organ and an old-fashioned wind-up jukebox), a number of gladiatorial training devices, and a large double-sided blackboard. And last but not least, he has a bell-pull, which he can use to summon Agrippina if he needs anything. Beyond the Velocidrome is a quarter of a square mile of fenced-off parkland for him to run about in - once part of the Priory's landscaped gardens, it has since been left to grow wild. The fences are made of forty foot high rods of titanium steel, hooked inwards at the top, and on the outside is a ten foot wide trench, to prevent sightseers from getting too close. Inside the enclosure are woods and shrubs as well as open spaces, plus a maze, the layout of which Damien changes regularly, and a meandering stream that feeds the lake in the Velocidrome. Sebek is free to move about the Velocidrome, the enclosure, and some sections of the Priory. Otherwise he is allowed out only in the company of Damien, one of Damien's friends, or one of his handlers. Sebek's "Museum" is a former stable turned trophy room, where Sebek keeps a mixture of junk and genuine treasures he has accumulated over the years. These include laurels and other prizes he has won at the Circus Maximus, and objects he has found on collecting trips with Damien. Pride of place goes to a small votive figurine of himself from Shadow Memphis. The walls are covered in pictures of himself, some done professionally, but many sent in by fans of the Sebek stories. One shaky stick-figure in green crayon is a self-portrait. Also stored here is his adventuring gear (basically a harness with a backpack and a few basic tools he has learned to use), his cold-weather garments, and the customised weapons that Agrippina has designed for him. Agrippina is Sebek's personal trainer, the person in charge of looking after him. She comes from a Roman Shadow outside the Golden Circle which Damien had dubbed Shadow Plinius. She was a gladiator during the reign of Nero, but subsequently took to training velociraptors and other wild beasts for the Circus. She has been with Sebek for over seven years now, and is fiercely devoted to him. She is always quick to criticise what she sees as Damien's frequent neglect of her charge. Despite this, she and Damien have developed an on-off affair over recent years (or at least when Damien isn't moping over Nitocris) - they argue about Sebek, get drunk together, fall into bed, and then pretend it never happened the next morning. She lives in one wing of the Priory, furnished in the Roman style. She is well known around Amber, and often takes other animal training jobs in her spare time (although she is rich enough not to need to). She probably knows Jaheira. Agrippina is about 5'4", with short black curly hair, in her late twenties. Agrippina has two assistants, Kerinne and Barvald, both local to Amber. While Sebek treats Agrippina as a friend, he treats her assistants as servants, and generally runs them ragged. They are consequently almost as well paid as Agrippina herself. The other servants at the Priory tend to avoid the Velocidrome if they can. PersonalitySebek is probably best thought of as an egocentric and excitable child in the body of a highly evolved killing machine that can reduce a human being to chutney in less than five seconds. By now Sebek is at least semi-domesticated, in that he has developed new interests and learned alternatives to killing and eating everything that moves. He has a child-like curiosity about the world, and if let loose on a city street is far more likely to run off to explore than to run amok. He is also easily distracted, and is prone to dropping whatever he is doing if something more exciting comes along. He also likes to be the centre of attention - Damien has sometimes entered him for races and gladiatorial contests at the Circus Maximus in Shadow Plinius, and there are few things he likes more than a cheering crowd chanting his name. On a related note, Sebek's sense of humour is not very sophisticated, and he has no sense of the ridiculous, especially in himself. If people laugh at him, he thinks that it is because they like him. All attention is good, in his eyes. On the whole, Sebek is vain, selfish, greedy and prone to sulking if he doesn't get his way. He has a magpie-like tendency to collect interesting and glittery objects, whether they belong to other people or not. He has been incredibly spoilt in the past, especially by Nitocris and her priests, and continues to expect the same sort of treatment from others. Damien and Agrippina also spoil him in their own way, but at least expect some standards of behaviour in return. He is particularly vain about his intellectual achievements - "stupid" is his greatest insult, and although he uses it freely of others, he hates being called it himself. Another manifestation of his egotism is an occasional bullying streak - he likes to scare people, usually by chasing them or jumping out at them from behind cover. Against that, velociraptors are social animals, and he gets lonely without companionship, which means that he can be friendly and even obliging when he tries. He has acquired the habit of waving to people by way of both greeting and farewell. He tends to sulk if you don't wave back, although cheering and shouting "Long live Sebek!" is an exceptable substitute. He likes his food delivered to him live, so that he can kill it himself. His favourite treat is a cage of live rodents, especially dormice (a taste picked up in Shadow Plinius). He also likes to drink sherbet (fruit juice, not the fizzy stuff), Egyptian beer and pomegranate wine. However, he has virtually no capacity for alcohol, so Damien never allows him anything stronger than weak beer, and only one bowl at a time. His favourite games are things like hide-and-seek, and variants in which the contestants take turns to stalk each other. He has mastered a number of simple board games, such as draughts, senet (a kind of Egyptian backgammon) and mehen (a kind of Egyptian snakes and ladders with only one snake and no ladders). He is also, be warned, a very poor loser. Other likes include chasing large moving objects and riding on top of said objects when he catches them (in general, he prefers to perch on top of a carriage or a chariot rather than run alongside, even though he can usually move faster on his own). His main quirk, however, is a love of music. Music fascinates him, and one of the best ways of making friends with him is to sing him a song, play him a tune, or to bring him a new music box for his collection. How to Tell the Moods of a Velociraptor
Sebek is a lot brighter than ordinary velociraptors, but still rather dim by human standards. He can understand most simple instructions, but sometimes gets confused by complicated ones. He can't actually speak (mainly he just says "Ark", or "Grurk"), but he can count up to six (the total number of digits on his forelimbs) - anything over this is "lots" (or "Ark"). Damien has recently been trying to teach him to read and write (the latter in a non-opposable-thumb-type scrawl). The most successful lesson was the first, in which Sebek learned how to recognise and to write his own name. He has shown rather less interest in subsequent lessons, and the Velocidrome suffered a brief graffiti problem until he got autographing everything in sight out of his system. However, Damien has persevered, and Sebek now has an effective literary vocabulary of almost two hundred words, but his spelling remains atrocious. Now that he has provided him with a mode of self-expression that forces him to think about what he wants to say, Damien's next plan is to teach him how to talk. Sebek is deadly in combat, especially against Shadow dwellers. His ability to leap over the heads of ranked infantry and right into their midst has in the past turned the tide of battles. Agrippina has trained him in a variety of gladiatorial techniques, so he knows how to duck and dodge against armed opponents, even though his hide protects him from most normal weapons. He can also use a few weapons himself, although not very well (that lack of opposable thumbs again). Accordingly, Agrippina has designed some customised weapons for him, such as a manople- or katar-like weapon with a long hooked blade and a crossbar which he can grip with his claws. He is quite effective with these, but still prefers to bite and slash with his natural arsenal. He has a predator's natural grasp of tactics, excelling especially in those involving stalking and ambush, or breaking up large formations to pick off his opponents individually. He retains a pack hunter's sense of the value of co-operative fighting, and can follow reasonably straightforward plans, but just as often his vanity and short attention span will send him off on a glory-seeking mission of his own. His main weakness in combat is a vulnerability to Psyche-based magick, and so Damien usually casts a protective warding spell on him before letting him fight. Sebek's other accomplishments include climbing, his unbreakable claws making excellent pitons, although he is a lot better going up (when he can see where he is going) than coming down (when he can't). He can swim, although his frantic doggy-paddle is neither elegant nor particularly fast. He can also play very simple tunes on a keyboard, albeit only one note at a time. And he can dance, after a fashion, a kind of bird-like spinning and bobbing on the spot. Damien thinks this is probably based on mating and dominance displays from his former life with other velociraptors. Agrippina just thinks it is very sad. Training Velociraptors the Mortlake WayOver the years, Sebek has had the following rules drilled into him:
Of these six rules, the first is really the only one that has been impressed upon him successfully - it has been a long time since he last killed someone he wasn't allowed to. However, he has added his own further qualification, apparently reasoning that since Tristan has already given him permission to kill escaped prisoners, he doesn't need to ask Damien before tucking in whenever he chances across one. The other strictures he obeys most of the time, until he forgets. A velociraptor that can shrug off most small arms fire is not particularly amenable to physical discipline if he misbehaves. Damien, as an old Etonian, does not believe in corporal punishment anyway, and so has devised a system of rewards and punishments based on the granting and withdrawal of privileges. Good behaviour results in dormice and sherbet (beer if he is very good), presents and expeditions into Shadow. Infractions and misdemeanours result in sanctions such as not being allowed to kill his own food, or having his jukebox removed or his Museum locked up, or the cancellation of visits and excursions. One of the Priory's cellars has also been set aside for periods of solitary detention if he really misbehaves. The ultimate sanction (existing only as a threat, and never put into practice) is to leave him on his own in a Shadow from which he cannot escape. This regime actually seems to work most of the time, and Sebek is generally well-behaved. Except when he isn't. FriendsAs a former pack hunter, Sebek seems to recognise the following as dominant males and females: Nitocris (except when she's a zombie); Agrippina; Damien; and of course Tristan. Most of the time, it's usually just Agrippina and Damien. Agrippina he is always happy to see, and does his best to do what she tells him to do. Damien he is almost always happy to see, and does what he tells him, although on balance he is more likely to get fractious with Damien than with Agrippina. Damien for his part tries to visit Sebek at least once a week, and frequently takes him hunting in Garnath and in Shadow. From 113 PPF onwards, after the defeat of the Council for Victory, he has taken Sebek on all his collecting trips as well. The two of them are rather closer now than they were when Damien first brought him to Amber. Sebek seems to have divided people into three groups: people he isn't allowed to eat (nearly everyone); people he is allowed to eat (very few); and people he doesn't want to eat anyway (his friends). Admission to the third group is actually relatively easy - Sebek tends to like people who take an interest in him, especially if they bring him food or presents. If they can sing or play an instrument or are willing to show him interesting new things or take him to interesting new places, then so much the better. There is, incidentally, a simple way of telling who he likes and dislikes - he makes a point of trying to spell the names of people he likes correctly, while the names of people he doesn't like he will deliberately misspell. The only problem arises when he accidentally misspells the names of people he does like. "The Adventures of Sebek"Damien actually started writing these stories as a way of entertaining Sebek himself. Sebek often had problems following the plots, but didn't seem to mind - the important thing was that they were about him. Damien then adapted the idea for Eleanor, Angelique, Luther, Beatrice, Carl and Octavius (with added life lessons), and later published the tales for general public consumption. These stories of an impulsive but well-meaning velociraptor who sneaks off to have adventures behind adults' backs have proved surprisingly popular amongst children in Amber and the Golden Circle. They sometimes send stuffed toys and drawings to the Priory, and Kerinne, one of Sebek's assistant handlers, has also taken on the role of his secretary, trying to sort out gifts, address replies, and occasionally coax a shaky autograph out of the star himself. Agrippina disapproves of the stories, reckoning that they only feed Sebek's ego and encourage him to misbehave. Damien argues that they actually improve his behaviour as he tries to think like and emulate his literary doppelganger. Any outsiders will probably reckon that they have made no discernible difference either way. Post-ScriptSince this background was first written, Sebek has acquired the ability to talk, a pair of opposable thumbs, a lot of new friends, the right to leave the Velocidrome on his own, and the ability to travel through Shadow unaided. None of these developments has been entirely trouble-free. Some of these difficulties may be discerned by consulting the following documents: The Sebek Files For further misadventures, see also:
The Memphite Raptor - An Illustrated Short Story |
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