Sime~Gen Roleplaying on IRC: Bender Cove Township Scenario
Episode #61: Services of Ill Repute (10/29/97)
Rache sits down at reception, giving the existing staff a break.
Alea is in her office, sleeping.
Rache folds her Householding cloak on the back of the chair, and rummages through files and the like, familiarizing herself with the setup.
Forrest flings the door open and storms in, dragging Val behind him. Their coats are soaked through from the freezing rain.
Rache hums softly to herself, flipping through files. She sings under her breath.
Forrest ignores the water dripping on the carpet; he's too furious to feel the cold.
Rache looks up at the pair, smiles welcome. "Good afternoon. What can I do for you?"
Forrest: You people have some explaining to do, and it had better be good!
Valrie tries to pull her hand free of her father's tight grasp.
Valrie: Daddy, let go, you're hurting me!
Jorgre comes down the hall, shuffling papers in his tentacles. Jorgre is a second order channel ambrov Carre.
Forrest: Silence!
Rache: Oh? [sets the files down, and tilts her head] Please explain?
Rache frowns slightly at the girl's pain, looks up at the man. She makes a wave of the hand under the desk, a gesture Jorgre can see from his angle, signaling him to get out of here.
Jorgre strides on into the room ignoring Rache.
Jorgre zlins.
Jorgre: What is going on here?
Forrest: I want to know why your Sime Center gave my child enough money for front row seats at a Torn By Tentacles concert--an event she was strictly forbidden to attend, I'll have you know.
Valrie: But Daddy, I told you they....
Forrest jerks on Val's wrist.
Forrest: I told you to be quiet!
Jorgre goes hypo.
Rache speaks calmly. "And your daughter is...?"
Rache holds her hand above the files, obviously planning to look the girl up in them.
Jorgre: If your daughter came here, then it isn't our right to to reveal why.
Jorgre: As you know, we practice patient client privilege... meaning, we don't give out information on our clients.
Jorgre says this coolly, watching Forrest's grip on Valrie.
Forrest looks down his nose at Jorgre.
Rache waits for a name.
Rache looks up the file. Nods quietly. "Tuib, our records show that that woman has Established, and thus is an adult by our laws."
Jorgre moves over to Rache's side, continuing to stay hypo.
Rache: I'm afraid that as soon as you brought her across the border, she became legally adult. Please let go of her.
Forrest: I don't care about your laws. My daughter is a child by our laws, and I won't have my child associating with Simes.
Valrie perks up at this news.
Jorgre: Yet you have donated, have you not Forrest?
Jorgre: Seems rather hypocritical, if you ask me.
Forrest: That is beside the point.
Jorgre remembers the picture in the newspaper and the story of Forrest donating... smiles smugly.
Rache nods thoughtfully. "Perhaps we can come to an arrangement. What disturbs you most is that she went to a... concert of some sort?"
Forrest's fists clench, tightening his grip on Val.
Rache winces at that.
Jorgre: I find it interesting that you come here and blame us for allowing her to go to a concert. Isn't that your responsibility, if she is still a child as you claim?
Jorgre frowns, allows himself duo to zlin.
Jorgre: Forrest, is it your practice to hurt your children?
Rache provides support for Jorgre, moving just slightly to the side to be in a better position.
Forrest: She is strictly forbidden to leave Eastcove, as she well knows. She will be punished appropriately for her disobedience, I assure you. What is at issue now is your Sime Center's role in encouraging her disobedience.
Rache: Encouraging?
Jorgre: What our Center does is of no concern to you.
Jorgre: Val....?
Rache: I assure you, the Center has no interest in encouraging children to disobey their parents.
Jorgre looks at her questioningly.
Jorgre zlins her.
Rache flicks her eyes ever so slightly towards Valrie on the word 'children'.
Valrie looks at Rache and Jorgre miserably.
Valrie: I didn't mean to cause you trouble.
Jorgre: It's no trouble. [reassures]
Jorgre smiles gently at Valrie and waves one of his tentacles.
Jorgre: Your father, is of course, worried. And we want this settled amicably.
Forrest: So, you admit that you intended to lure my daughter into your Sime Center, and feed her nonsense about being a Donor? She'd be better off as a prostitute.
Rache smiles at Valrie. "While you're living with your parents, try to keep their wishes in mind, hmm?"
Rache looks at Forrest. "I see. You consider me a prostitute, sir?"
Forrest looks Rache in the eye.
Forrest: No, most prostitutes are more respectable.
Jorgre: That's enough name calling.
Rache laughs in Forrest's face.
Jorgre: Now, did you come here to talk or just to fight?
Rache: Perhaps we could go into my office and discuss this?
Forrest: I came to let you know that if I ever learn that Val has been allowed into your Sime Center, or that you have contacted her in any way, I will personally call in every favor owed me by my many friends among the press, and see to it that every last taint of Sime influence is routed out of Eastcove.
Groupie staggers into a sleazy cafe by the docks, stoned on honeybee as usual, and wearing a brand new Torn By Tentacles T-shirt.
Wise Snake: There... that must be him.
Wise Snake points him out to Nick.
Nick: Yeah.
Nick shakes his head.
Wise Snake: He sure doesn't look like he has that kind of money... but I suppose looks can be deceiving.
Nick: I'll never understand how anyone can wear purple and orange.
Wise Snake gestures to get Groupie's attention.
Wise Snake chuckles.
Wise Snake: It's a Sime thing, Nick. He's wearing colors that look horrible to him because somebody told him Simes like the combination.
Groupie looks around, sees Snake wave, and staggers over.
Nick gives Snake an alarmed look.
Nick: Please, don't tell me you're going to start dressing in purple and orange.
Wise Snake: Please.
Wise Snake: Give me SOME credit for taste.
Nick sighs in exaggerated relief.
Groupie fumbles in his jeans pocket, and pulls out a flyer.
Groupie: Are you the channel who gives Torn By Tentacles Donations?
Groupie: Like in the song?
Wise Snake's nostrils twitch at the overly sweet smell coming from the guy.
Wise Snake: Uh... yeah.
Groupie begins humming, wayyyy off key.
Nick concentrates on Snake, trying to ignore the sound.
Wise Snake zlins for any signs of large wads of bills.
Groupie has quite a wad in his pocket, along with a vial or two of honeybee pills.
Wise Snake: Ahh.
Wise Snake is much more interested in him as a client now.
Wise Snake: So, you were saying... you want it like Torn by Tentacles sings about?
Groupie breaks off his humming.
Groupie: Yeah, like that!
Nick wonders vaguely why anyone would want such a thing, but has met too many of Snake's clients to be surprised.
Wise Snake: Well... do you have a place we can go?
Wise Snake looks forward to these, actually.
Groupie has not thought this far ahead.
Groupie: Well....
Wise Snake waits.
Groupie: There's a hotel down the street that rents rooms by the hour.
Groupie smiles with satisfaction at coming up with a solution.
Wise Snake: Okay.
Wise Snake: Let's go.
Nick falls in by Snake's shoulder, pulling his coat around himself against the freezing rain.
Groupie trails after them in his T-shirt, humming happily, ignoring the chill.
Wise Snake shakes her head.
Wise Snake trudges to the hotel.
Nick: Look at it this way, Snake. Next week you'll get to heal him from the flu.
Wise Snake grimaces.
Nick reflects that the recent rash of flu victims has done a great deal to help control Snake's entran.
Wise Snake tries to guess Groupie's age.
Groupie eagerly passes a few bills to the incurious clerk behind the desk and collects a key.
Wise Snake shrugs at Nick and follows Groupie to the room.
Groupie fumbles with the key and manages to get the door open on the third try.
Nick looks around at the room: Dirty sheets, prophylactic on the floor from the last customer, noise from next door suggesting either a very good time or very squeaking bedsprings, or both.
Nick concludes that Snake is going to require quite a bit of blocking of the interfering fields.
Wise Snake closes the door and locks it.
Groupie looks around at the room, which is better than the abandoned house where he and his buddies often crash.
Groupie: Cosmic!
Wise Snake removes her cloak and drapes it over a rather stained dresser.
Nick also removes his coat, placing it on the dresser with Snake's.
Groupie, having no coat to remove, is eager to begin.
Wise Snake: Okay... let me make sure I know what you're looking for here.
Wise Snake: Do you want pain?
Groupie grins.
Wise Snake: Do you want a near death experience?
Groupie: Yeah, a 'tearing, basic life-and-death moment'!
Groupie starts to hum again.
Wise Snake: Do you want some markings on your arms to show your friends?
Groupie: Yeah!
Groupie is thinking how much his friends will envy him.
Wise Snake: Yes, it sounds like you are looking for the basic Torn by Tentacles donation.
Nick reflects that this sort of stupidity is to be expected from people with the lack of basic intelligence to pop honeybee and wear purple and green.
Wise Snake: Okay. One other question. Where are you going to be staying for the next few days?
Groupie: I'm flopping with some friends of mine, in that flophouse down by the Jolly Roger.
Groupie: Cosmic place, the Jolly Roger.
Wise Snake: Uhm, you do understand you're going to be more or less disabled for a few days... will they be willing to take care of you?
Groupie looks a bit astonished at the implication that any true Torn By Tentacles fan would pass up the opportunity to care for a fellow fan who had actually had a real Near-Death Donation.
Groupie: Of course they will.
Groupie: They'll want to know all about it.
Wise Snake: Ah... that's great. Just to let you know... if I bring you there and they say they're not interested, you're going to wake up at Greda Treemarm's Home for Battered Gens... and believe me, it won't be what you're used to.
Groupie pretty much ignores the warning, as he ignores most parts of the world that he doesn't like.
Wise Snake shrugs.
Wise Snake: Have a seat. [indicates side of bed]
Groupie sits on the well-used bed.
Wise Snake thinks at least this guy didn't insist on having the album cranked at full blast during it like the last one.
Nick raises a questioning eye at Snake, to see if she has any specific instructions.
Wise Snake's subtle tentacle gestures direct Nick to a good position for helping cut the outside ambient and supplying support during the donation.
Wise Snake sits near Groupie.
Nick moves reasonably smoothly into position and focuses his attention firmly on Snake.
Wise Snake looks into Groupie's eyes and offers her arms to him.
Wise Snake: Whenever you're ready.
Groupie reaches eagerly for Snake's arms, threatening to grab her tentacle sheaths instead of her wrists.
Wise Snake's handling tentacles guide Groupie's hands to the correct position and secure the hold.
Wise Snake breaks out in a sweat.
Groupie starts to hum again, his anticipation rising.
Wise Snake resecures her grip on his arms and pulls him toward her for a fifth contact.
Nick watches closely for signs of trouble.
Wise Snake's lips touch his, with an electric tingle.
Groupie is strung tight with anticipation, random phrases from Torn by Tentacles songs drifting through all two more-or-less functional synapses in his brain.
Wise Snake draws gently at first, gauging his system's responses.
Groupie feels the 'drain like life being sucked down a black hole' and thinks, Cosmic!
Wise Snake increases speed, feeling for where his threshold is.
Wise Snake: ~~wicked and experimental delight~~
Nick sees Snake's pleasure and is glad that they've found at least some work she can enjoy.
Wise Snake finishes toying with Groupie's system.
Groupie feels the beginning of the promised pain, somewhat diffuse because of the honeybee.
Wise Snake simulates junct killmode.
Wise Snake attacks Groupie at what for him will be a fiercely scorching rate of draw.
Groupie feels Snake's tentacles suddenly clench down on his arms, and the draining become a full-fledged torrent.
Groupie's pain increases, and he feels the sort of delighted terror that horror movie fans seek--the ones who really get into the story.
Wise Snake: ~~~ junct greed ~~~
Wise Snake pushes him as far and as fast as she judges he can definitely survive, then ends it.
Groupie's mouth is twisted in a grimace remarkably like that of a junct after a kill.
Wise Snake lets Groupie go.
Groupie manages to smile as Snake lets him go.
Groupie: Cosmic!
Groupie falls back onto the bed in a dead faint.
Wise Snake shakes her head.
Wise Snake examines Groupie's arms.
Wise Snake: Well, his friends ought to be impressed, anyway.
Nick inspects the bruises.
Nick: I expect they will be.
Wise Snake gets up and goes to the rickety washroom to rinse off all traces of Groupie's touch... not because she likes water, which she doesn't, but because Honeybee gives her a rash like nobody's business.
Nick waits patiently.
Wise Snake avoids the rudely stained hand towel and returns to the room.
Wise Snake fishes Groupie's money out of his pocket with a tentacle, avoiding the two vials of Honeybee.
Wise Snake counts it.
Wise Snake: Wha! It's all ones. [mad]
Nick shrugs.
Nick: Do you want me to take the honeybee as well? There's enough to make up the difference.
Wise Snake sighs, peels off a few ones to stick back in Groupie's pocket, then keeps the rest.
Wise Snake: Might as well. Just don't get it on me is all I ask.
Wise Snake: We don't want a repeat of what happened that other time.
Nick nods and retrieves the vials, puts them in his own pocket, and goes to wash his hands.
Nick: Buglumps will make up the rest of your fee for this; honeybee is becoming more popular these days.
Wise Snake pulls the yukko sheets and blankets from the bed and wraps up Groupie in them so he won't get too chilled on the trip to his house.. or wherever.
Wise Snake shakes her head.
Wise Snake: I honestly don't see what people like about that stuff.
Wise Snake: But... who am I to question what other people are willing to pay for?
Wise Snake gestures at Groupie.
Nick: Indeed.
Wise Snake: Well... shall we? [after donning her cloak]
Wise Snake picks up the bundle containing Groupie.
Nick puts on his coat, and leaves the key on the dresser.
Wise Snake carries Groupie down the stairs and through the front lobby.
Nick follows, waving casually at the incurious desk clerk.
Wise Snake leaves the hotel and starts trudging in the direction of Groupie's flophouse.
Linn is hurrying home through the freezing rain, after a teaching session with the prisoners, when she encounters Nick and Snake, with burden.
Linn: Snake!
Wise Snake looks taken aback.
Wise Snake looks in both directions, realizes there's no escape, and clutches the bundle.
Nick covers smoothly.
Piotr is pacing around his room.
Nick: Hello, Linn. How did today's session go?
Linn: I think Heather is ready to go home; the others are being stubborn.
Linn looks at Groupie.
Wise Snake zlins Linn surreptitiously.
Linn: What's the matter with him?
Wise Snake: Um... Sime attack. [deadpan]
Linn looks at Groupie with sympathy.
Linn: Poor kid.
Piotr puts his cloak on and heads out of the door.
Wise Snake: Yeah, well... you get these kids on the fashionable drugs... sometimes their judgment flies right out the door.
Nick turns a snort into a polite sneeze.
Linn nods. Wise Snake zlins Linn more openly.
Linn: I've seen it before.
Wise Snake: You went to the Center. [not a question]
Linn: Yes. I had to find out if Veraik had kept his promise to me.
Wise Snake edges over until she and her bundle are underneath an overhanging building, out of the freezing rain.
Nick and Linn follow.
Wise Snake: And he healed you.
Piotr heads down the dingy stairs of this flophouse to the street.
Linn sighs.
Linn: Yes. He kept asking, and I thought about your advice, and decided there was no real reason besides my fear to refuse.
Piotr pauses when struck by the cold rain and bundles tighter.
Piotr wanders the streets, taking in all the squalor and shady characters.
Wise Snake: Huh.
Wise Snake shifts her grip on the limp Gen.
Linn: I'd much rather it had been you, but I couldn't ask that of you when you've made it clear that you'd rather not.
Wise Snake grimaces.
Wise Snake: Is that what was made clear?
Linn: Snake, I'm starting to get better at controlling the fear, but I couldn't have promised you that it wouldn't have flared up again.
Wise Snake thinks Linn just doesn't understand.
Linn: To Veraik, I'm just another patient. He didn't mind.
Wise Snake: Yeah.
Wise Snake: He wouldn't.
Wise Snake avoids zlinning Linn further, which is not easy to do at this short range.
Linn looks down at Groupie.
Linn: Shouldn't he be gotten inside, out of this rain?
Wise Snake: Uh... yes, actually. I was on my way to take him home just now.
Nick: I believe he's staying just down the street there.
Wise Snake shoots Nick a look.
Wise Snake does a doubletake as a Gen with a really weird nager walks past the group.
Wise Snake is hampered in getting a really good zlin by the fact that she is carrying one Gen in her arms, has a Donor standing right next to her, and a high field Gen standing right in front of her.
Piotr felt something just now, but he decides to go on.
Piotr turns down another, even seedier alleyway.
Wise Snake cranes her neck trying to see what the person looked like but is too short.
Wise Snake: Huh.
Linn: Who was that?
Wise Snake: I don't know.
Wise Snake: I couldn't really get much of him, too much interference.
Linn: It is beginning to mist over.
Wise Snake wants to bring Groupie home quickly, but is reluctant to do so with Linn following along for fear one of Groupie's friends will blurt out something that will compromise their friendship forever.
Nick rolls his eyes in Snake's direction at the obvious misunderstanding.
Wise Snake decides in favor of improvisation and begins to walk towards the flophouse again.
Wise Snake sees the... um... place-of-entertainment the house is reputed to be next door to, on the corner up ahead.
Nick and Linn follow Snake and her burden.
Wise Snake carries the limp Gen up the front steps of what she hopes is the right crummy house and uses a spare tentacle to bang the tilted knocker.
Nick cocks his head at the sound of footsteps.
Nick smiles an even more charming smile, discreetly offering the cash.
A Mean Gen's face grows even meaner and narrower, as her fingers automatically grope for the money, looking at Linn.
Linn hopes Nick's charm will win the argument, whatever it is.
A Mean Gen: Well. [grudgingly]
A Mean Gen: Fine. Bring him in. [stands back from the door... the house behind her is dark and mysterious]
Nick: Thank you.
Nick slips through the door before she can change her mind, and holds the door for Snake and Linn.
Wise Snake follows, carrying Groupie.
A Mean Gen wordlessly leads them down a long narrow hallway with doors along both sides.
Nick cocks his head as the exclamation "Cosmic!" echoes down the hall.
Wise Snake: Uh... Linn... would you feel better if you waited outside?
Linn shakes his head.
Linn: At least it's almost dry in here.
Linn: Besides, I want to make sure the kid's friends are in condition to care for him.
Wise Snake: Uh...yeah.
A Mean Gen leads them through a large kitchen (the floor of which has not been mopped in nearly thirty years) to a closed door.
A Mean Gen points to the door. Sounds of young people's voices, and the smell of funny smoke, coming from behind the closed door.
Nick winces as the latest Torn By Tentacles album is added to the noise at full volume.
Wise Snake whose nerves are a little on edge, jumps when the music starts blasting.
Linn shakes her head, strides to the door, and opens it.
Linn: Turn that down!
Linn looks the occupants over.
Linn: Sandra, that means you!
A Mean Gen wonders if Linn has also been a landlady... she has the Voice down pat. ~~feels a little better about Linn~~
Nick shoots Snake a nervous glance as Sandra looks at Linn, gives a little shriek, and rushes to turn the music down.
Wise Snake's hope for a pleasant resolution to this situation disappears with Linn's recognition of one of the kids.
Wise Snake exchanges looks with Nick and wonders if now would be a good time to beat a hasty retreat.
Linn: That's better.
Linn looks around at the youngsters.
Wise Snake grips the bundled Groupie and steps cautiously into the room.
Wise Snake looks for the bed; sees it is covered in magazines and paraphernalia.
Linn: Your friend has been hurt. Sandra, clean off that bed. Greg, you can help her.
Nick watches, amazed, as the two obey, swaying a bit due to the lingering effects of honeybee.
Wise Snake keeps her eyes down, hopes none of the kids can recognize her on sight. And if they do, hopes they keep their mouths shut!
Wise Snake waits until the bed is cleared, then carries Groupie to it and lays him down.
A Mean Gen decides everything is under control and leaves to another part of the house.
Linn: Find a blanket for him.
Linn taps her foot impatiently as the kids scramble, and finally produce three large bath towels.
Nick wonders if these kids' parents were ever able to get that kind of instant obedience from them.
Wise Snake surreptitiously zlins the kids for any signs of recognition of her.
Linn nods in satisfaction as Groupie is covered.
Linn: Snake, is there anything in particular they should be doing for him?
Nick tries not to wince too obviously as the Torn by Tentacles fans show increased interest in Snake.
Wise Snake does not like the attention she is suddenly getting from all the kids.
Wise Snake clears throat.
Wise Snake: Uh.
Wise Snake: Yeah.
Wise Snake: Make sure to let him get plenty of sleep. And try to keep him off drugs for at least two weeks... except painkillers.
Wise Snake: Make sure he eats... drinks lots of fluids... keep him warm...
Wise Snake: ~~what a nightmare~~
Sandra looks at Snake.
Sandra: Are you really the channel who does the donations?
Wise Snake avoids Sandra's look.