Skill one: Placebo effect

[bigbosshard]

Skill: Placebo effect
Earned: Game 54
Summary: Naked Snake can be so gullible, sometimes he can be convinced a thing will work and it really will. God I don't even know why I left this in here, no one needs a skill to Rule of Funny. Expect Snake to actually try some very stupid things.

In MGS 3, Snake is gullible enough that when he's convinced that eating a glowing mushroom will recharge his batteries, it actually does. Para-medic also convinces him that certain Kabuki facepaints will give him special powers, but SIGINT ruins it.

Like so:

Sigint: "Snake, what's that face paint you're wearing?"
Snake: "Kabuki."
Sigint: "Kabuki?"
Snake: "Right. It's used in traditional Japanese theater. Apparently, it gives whoever's wearing it some kind of mystical power."
Sigint: "Get out of here."
Snake: "That's what I heard."
Sigint: "From who?"
Snake: "Para-Medic."
Sigint: "Figures. Well, wahtever it does, it doesn't make very good camouflage.
Snake: "Really?"
Sigint: "Yeah. You should switch to another kind of paint."
Snake: "But I was just starting to like it..."
Sigint: "..."

--

Para-Medic: "Snake, there's a mushroom called the Russian glowcap growing in
that area. The Russian glowcap is a kind of luminescent fungus -
a mushroom that glows in the dark."
Snake: "Why would a mushroom glow in the dark?"
Para-Medic: "It's bioluminescent, just like a firefly. It uses the so called
luciferin-luciferase reaction. To put it simply, luciferin reacts
with luciferase in the present of magnesium two plus ions, breaks
it down into oxyluciferin and carbon dioxide. The carbonyl groups
in the oxyluciferin are initially in an electrically excited state.
When they return to their base state, they give off light. Did you
get all that?"
Snake: "Not really."
Para-Medic: "Oh."
Snake: By the way, does that mushroom recharge your batteries when
you eat it?"
Para-Medic: "Huh?"
Snake: "I mean, it seems like if you ate a glowing mushroom, it might
recharge your batteries or something.
Para-Medic: "Snake, your batteries are
organic batteries. They produce electricity by utilizing the
potential difference between cells. Organic batteries are known
for their highly efficient energy conversion, but they still rely
on chemical reactions between proteins and enzymes to..."
Snake: "So you're saying they'll get recharged?"
Para-Medic: "Believe what you want."
Snake: "Great!"

[NOM]

Snake: "Para-Medic."
Para-Medic: "What's up?"
Snake: "You were right."
Para-Medic: "About what?"
Snake: "I ate a Russian glowcap and it charged up my batteries."
Para-Medic: "Huh!?"
Snake: "What's wrong?"
Para-Medic: "I, uh...that's...that's great! Um, Snake, can you excuse me for
a second?"
Snake: "Sure."
[-She goes to talk to someone, and Snake can overhear.]
Para-Medic: "Did you just hear that?"
??????????: "Yeah. There's no way eating a bioluminescent mushroom would cause
your batteries to recharge."
Para-Medic: "What do you think it means?"
??????????: "Beats me...maybe it's all in his mind."
Para-Medic: "You mean like a placebo effect?"
??????????: "Why not? You've seen how gullible he is."
Para-Medic: "I guess there's no harm done. Should we let him keep believing it?
??????????: "Sounds good to me."
Para-Medic: "OK, Snake, I'm back. Yes, the Russian glowcap is a glowing
mushroom, so it'll recharge your batteries when you eat it."
Snake: "???"