Sime/Gen Roleplaying: Bender Cove Township Scenario
Episode #103: (12/17/97)
Yaga is a Second Order channel pausing in Bender
Cove for a day's rest before traveling out-T.
Peleg is her Escort.
Yaga has been on the road for the better part of three days, and is hoping to get some work before entran sets in.
Anquat marches up to the Sime Center, dragging Moa by the arm.
Anquat is a middle-aged renSime; Moa is a newly established Gen.
Peleg is a bit wary about working at Bender Cove's secondary Sime Center, having heard rumors about its staff and clientel.
Moa: Moooom, I don't wanna donate!
Anquat: Quiet! You're donating and that's final.
Anquat hauls Moa up the front steps.
Moa tries to grab onto the railing and gets splinters for her trouble.
Moa: Ow!! Mooommm!
Moa: Hey!
Yaga zlins a commotion outside, and casts Peleg a hopeful look.
Anquat flings open the front door and drags her daughter inside.
Anquat cursing under her breath.
Peleg does not think this looks promising.
Peleg steps between his channel and the new arrivals, projecting calm.
Moa sees she is in the Center and stops struggling; instead crosses her arms and pouts.
Peleg: Good morning. How can we help you today?
Yaga zlins the new arrivals.
Anquat looking rather disheviled and rumpled from the struggle, closes the door and tries to push strands of hair behind her ears.
Anquat: This is my daughter, Moa. She's here to donate.
Anquat pointed glare at Moa.
Yaga zlins Moa.
Moa: Uh, [mumble mumble... not quite a negative]
Moa is a newly established Gen and high-field.
Moa is decked out in all the latest "wear" favored by the coolest teen agers.
Anquat: What's that, missy? Speak up! [snaps]
Moa: Hmmmmble mumble donate.
Anquat: Don't you have to give her some, papers or something?
Yaga decides that she's never going to get anything out of the daughter when Mom is around.
Anquat wonders if the entire town is being consumed by apathy today or if it's just her.
Bosis comes out to the front desk. He looks at the group in the lobby.
Yaga looks up as Bosis returns.
Anquat: Finally somebody who looks like he knows which end of a horse goes forward!
Anquat: This is my daughter MOa. She's going to
Anquat grabs Moa by a shoulder and steers her to face Bosis.
Moa looks sulky and petulant.
Moa: Mom, this is dumb.
Peleg signals to Bosis to provide the forms.
Bosis: == make that Bosis ==
Bosis comes over with a clipboard. "Name?"
Peleg looks at Yaga and raises an eyebrow, having reached the same conclusion regarding Anquat.
Moa: Moa. [petulantly]
Bosis: Last name?
Anquat: Hey, we don't need no last name to donate, don't try to pull one over on me, mister.
Yaga looks around at the otherwise empty lobby, and decides that she can afford to spend more time on
Moa than she would normally do with a donation.
Anquat and Moa both have slight out-T accents.
Yaga wanders casually over and relieves Bosis of the clipboard.
Bosis: I assume that means no adress either. Age?
Any current illness.
Anquat: Of course we have an address!! Whaddaya think, we live out inna field?
Moa shifts around, embarassed.
Moa: Mom... geez.
Yaga: Moa, we really only require some of this information. Why don't you come back with me, and we can take care of it where it's quieter. Ma'am, why don't you wait here until we're done.
Anquat: It's about time!
Moa: Why don't you just chill, mom.
Moa rolls her eyes and follows Yaga.
Peleg brings up the rear.
Bosis: ~~ irritated ~~
Yaga shows Moa into a doantion room.
Anquat: Well, she sure jumped up fast to stick her nose in when I finally got someone else to help me.
Yaga looks at Moa measuringly.
Anquat: Before you walked in, she just stood there looking like she'd been hit between the ears with a board.
Yaga: So. Do you mind telling me what this is all about?
Moa is a young, fairly ripe looking sulky teenage girl, recently established.
Moa: Duh. My mom wants me to donate or get out of the house.
Yaga: Oh? And how do you feel about that?
Moa looks around the surroundings with profound disinterest.
Session Close: Wed Dec 17 20:30:37 1997
Session Start: Wed Dec 17 20:30:45 1997
Moa: She can't kick me out, [sullenly] I live there too.
Peleg: Well, actually, she can, now that you're grown up.
Peleg: Whether she'd actually do it is another matter.
Yaga: Why don't you want to donate, Moa?
Moa: Why should I?
Yaga shrugs.
Yaga: Well, it will keep you healthier, and earn you quite a bit of money. Money your mother can't control.
Moa: Who cares? She buys me everything anyway.
Moa: Why should I let her push me around?
Yaga: It will also prevent your field from irritating passing Simes.
Moa's field perks up with interest at the thought that she can irritate people with her field.
Moa subsides again.
Peleg sees impending mischief.
Moa: It's not like loads and loads of Simes come by our place anyway. It's way the shenned out in the
Boonies.
Moa sullen.
Yaga: Well, then, think. If you donate, that means your mother will have to let you come to town every month. Donating doesn't take long, and after that, you'll have plenty of time to explore.
Peleg: Of course, exploring town when you're high field can be dangerous. If your field provokes an incident, you could be arrested and put in jail.
Peleg: I understand the police chief here in Bender
Cove is a particularly unpleasant individual.
Moa looks undecided.
Moa: Yeah but I'm grown up now. If I let her push me around on this, she'll start nagging me about all kinds of other things, too.
Yaga: Moa, you're an adult now. If you decide not to donate, I can't and won't take your donation, no matter what your mother says.
Moa grins suddenly.
Moa: Really?
Yaga: Really. But if you refuse to donate just because your mother wants you to, aren't you letting her make the decision for you?
Yaga: I mean, how long is it going to take her to figure out that she can make you do anything, just by pretending she wants the opposite?
Anquat rolls her eyes.
Anquat: Gee, like my mom has enough brains to figure that one out.
Anquat: She just yells at me to do whatever she thinks I don't want to do.
Anquat: ==== that was Moa ====
Peleg: Have you ever thought that with the money you could earn donating, you could move out and find a place of your own?
Yaga shoots Peleg an admonitory glance for suggesting such a thing.
Moa stares supidly at Peleg.
Moa: That would be hard.
Moa: I don't know how to find a place.
Moa: Anyway my mom would take all the money.
Moa: That's why she wants me to donate, so she can get more money.
Yaga looks at Moa sympathetically.
Yaga: You're not a child any longer, Moa. You're an adult, and you've got a hard choice to make.
Yaga: If you decide not to donate, you'll have to go back to the lobby and face your mother.
Moa: Ew.
Moa: You mean if I donate, you'll let me out the back door without seeing her?
Yaga: If that's what you want. You're not a prisoner.
Moa: Okay!
Moa has in mind spending all the money on cool clothes, then hooking up with her mother again later.
Moa: What do I have to do?
Yaga: Well, then. Why don't you finish filling out this form [hands clipboard to Moa] and then we can begin.
Moa: Okay.
Moa takes clipboard and writes studiously.
Moa pauses.
Moa: What does it mean, cow moo nick... cowmoonick ub... ?
Moa points at the word "communicable diseases"
Ann-arbor.mi.us.undernet.org)
Yaga: Communicable. It means a disease you can catch from someone else, like a cold, instead of injuries and conditions like arthritis.
Moa: Oh, I don't have nothing like that.
Moa finishes writing up the form and hands the clipboard back to Yaga.
Yaga looks over the answers.
Yaga decides that the address is close enough to satisfy the paper pushers until she's out of town.
Yaga: All right, then. Did you learn about donating in school?
Moa: No, my friends told me.
Yaga: And what did they say?
Moa: They said you like grab my arms and kiss my mouth and suck out all my selyn and all.
Peleg wonders what wierd distortions the local teens have come up with.
Peleg decides that the local kids are better informed than he's likely to find out-Territory.
Moa doesn't seem super concerned or anything.
Moa is trying to be real cool about it.
Yaga: Well, that's not too far off, although I think we'll stick to your GN-3 level today. That way, you don't have to worry about feeling anything.
Moa: Yeah sure... whatever.
Moa wonders if her mom will pitch a fit when she zlins not all the selyn is gone.
Moa decides she'll be too busy pitching a fit over the money being gone to notice, at least at first.
Yaga: Is there anything you'd like to know before we begin?
Moa: No [facilely]
Yaga: Really?
Moa: Well uh,
Moa tries to think of something good to ask.
Moa: Oh yeah... what happens if my mom throws me out anyway, can I sue her?
Peleg shakes his head.
Moa: Oh.
Peleg: Since you're grown up now, she doesn't have to support you.
Moa: Bogus.
Peleg: On the other hand, you'll earn enough money donating to support yourself, if you're careful.
Peleg: So you won't starve either way.
Moa seems to have no clue about the facts of life or any idea what surviving on her own would entail.
Yaga: Why don't you sit down on the lounge there,
Moa, and we can begin.
Yaga can feel the impending entran headache, and would like to avoid it if possible.
Moa moves reluctantly to go sit down on the lounge.
Not because she's actually reluctant to donate, but because she habitually moves about as if being dragged against her will.
Yaga sits down in the channel's place.
Yaga: All right. That shirt of yours is going to get in the way. Could you roll up the sleeves for me?
Moa slips off her oversized flannel shirt, revealing a black and white striped tube top and bare shoulders.
Moa drops the shirt on the floor and holds her arms out ingeniously.
Yaga takes Moa's hands and extends her handling tentacles to secure the grip.
Moa's pouting lipstick-covered lips are ready.
Yaga lets her laterals extend between the handling tentacles.
Moa watches then looks up at Yaga again.
Yaga: Hold still for a moment, now.
Moa: ~~finally starting to show some interest despite herself~~
Moa: Ok.
Yaga leans forward for the fifth contact point.
Peleg drops into a support linkage, in case this virgin donor does something weird.
Yaga deep-zlins Moa, checking for potential problems.
Moa holds her field close, in a state of sort of permanent recalcitrance.
Yaga decides that teenage moodiness doesn't come under the heading of medical problems requiring refusal of a donation, and starts to draw slowly and steadily from the GN-3 level.
Moa waits.
Yaga empties the GN-3 level, gleaning an average amount of selyn for a first donation, and then dismantles the contact.
Moa: Wow that was like, no trouble at all.
Yaga: You did very well, Moa.
Moa wonders why her mom was making such a big, hairy deal over it.
Yaga scribbles on a voucher form.
Moa: I thought it was gonna be like, this big production.
Yaga: No, donating is very simple.
Yaga hands Moa the voucher.
Yaga: If you'll take this to the bursar's office down the hall, she'll get you your donation payment and you can be on your way.
Moa: Okay. [takes slip]
Yaga sees Moa on her way, then returns to the lobby.
Anquat jumps up.
Anquat: Hey!
Anquat: Where.
Anquat looks around.
Anquat: What did you do with my daughter?
Yaga: Your daughter is collecting her donation payment.
Yaga: It's right down the hall there, next to the back door.
Anquat: Finally! It's about time she started pulling her own weight!
Anquat marches down the hallway in the direction
Yaga indicated, intending to collar her daughter.
Yaga shrugs, unwilling to mediate between mother and daughter.
Yaga: [to Peleg] Well, we were warned that this
Center seldom gets a normal case.
Wise Snake and B'cal climb the Center's front steps.
Wise Snake knows better than to hold the door for
B'cal by now.
Yaga looks up as a pair of Firsts enter the Center.
B'cal shoves into the Sime Center.
B'cal looks Yaga up and down, snorts, and continues on toward the stairs to quarters.
Yaga ducks behind Peleg for cover.
Yaga: [to Peleg] What was that all about?
Wise Snake: See you tonight... ? [after B'cal's departing back]
Wise Snake: Oh... well.
Yaga notices that the First Order channel isn't in uniform.
Wise Snake studies the unfamiliar Seconds.
Wise Snake is a weaselly little channel with a black cape and whitish eyes.
Wise Snake: Is Briel around?
Yaga: I'm afraid we're strangers here.
Wise Snake blinks.
Yaga: I haven't met Acting Controller Briel.
Wise Snake: Really.
Wise Snake zlins yaga and peleg.
Wise Snake: When did you start here?
Peleg: We're just passing through. We got in this morning, and our train doesn't leave until after supper, so Yaga decided to work a shift to avoid entran.
Wise Snake zlins them both again, appraisingly.
Wise Snake: Hmmm.
Yaga: Not that entran is all that dangerous for a
Second like me, but it's uncomfortable.
Wise Snake decides this opportunity is too good to pass up and walks behind the receptionist's desk to the filing cabinets.
Wise Snake tries one of the drawers, finds it locked, and produces a set of lockpicks from a pocket.
Wise Snake: So... where are you bound.
Wise Snake: ?
Yaga blinks at the lockpicks.
Wise Snake behaves with perfect casualness as she begins to twiddle the lock on one of the drawers.
Yaga: Out-Territory. We'll be spending six months doing diplomatic duty in New Washington.
Wise Snake: How interesting. Have you spent much time in Gen Territory before?
Wise Snake is zlinning and twiddling all the while.
Yaga: No, although my teachers said my English is pretty good. Should you be doing that?
Wise Snake looks confused for a moment.
Wise Snake: Should I be doing...? Oh. This?
Wise Snake: Do you happen to have the keys?
Yaga: Of course not. Why don't you have a set, as a
First working here?
Wise Snake pops the drawer open and pockets the picks.
Wise Snake: Well it's interesting that you ask that... [removing Briel's folder and pushing the drawer mostly closed again]
Wise Snake: I suppose it's because I don't spend as many hours in this actual building as some of the other people technically employed here.
Yaga tries to decipher that confusing statement.
Wise Snake opens Briel's folder and catches up on the channel's situation and condition.
Wise Snake's eyebrows rise as she reads through it.
Wise Snake: Huh.
Wise Snake returns the file to the cabinet.
Wise Snake pulls Veraik's file.
Yaga has long since concluded that Firsts are all crazy, so she isn't particularly suprised by
Snake's odd behavior.
Wise Snake: Would you look at that. Doesn't even mention the guy is on "vacation"...
Wise Snake never believed this was Veraik's real file anyway.
Wise Snake puts it back.
Yaga contents herself with watching to make sure that all the files are returned.
Wise Snake smiles pleasantly [she thinks] at Yaga.
Wise Snake pulls out her own file, which she notices somebody has added a black stripe to.
Wise Snake opens the folder cautiously and reads to see what slander has been put in there recently.
Wise Snake's eyebrows shoot up.. various sightings, reports of what people think she has been doing for work, etc.
Yaga shudders at the unsettling "smile", and decides that the rumors about this place were for omce understated.
Wise Snake: This thing reads like a supermarket tabloid. Don't these people have anything better to do than write down gossip?
Wise Snake: Snake sightings, egads.
Wise Snake considers adding her own comments to those already there, then decides against it and puts the folder back.
Yaga: Snake?
Wise Snake closes the drawer, allowing it to re-lock.
Wise Snake looks at Yaga.
Wise Snake: What?
Peleg: ==that's Peleg==
Wise Snake: ==then I looked at Peleg===
Peleg recalls hearing some particularly nasty rumors about an individual by that name.
Wise Snake zlins the change in Peleg's nager and her eyes narrow.
Peleg finds the reptilian gaze disconcerting.
Peleg: Your reputation has spread.
Wise Snake: Ah.
Wise Snake relaxes a hair.
Wise Snake: That I wouldn't doubt.
Wise Snake seats herself at the front desk and starts going through the drawers.
Yaga finds herself unwilling to interfere with an individual rumored to be so dangerous.
Wise Snake finds that since Tarsh was moved into a back office, the contents of this desk are much less interesting.
Yaga: [mutters] They didn't train me to be a security guard.
Peleg decides, upon reflection, that he wasn't trained as a security guard, either.
Wise Snake glances up at Yaga's muttered words.
Wise Snake abandons the desk and gets up to approach
Yaga, walking around her to zlin her better.
Wise Snake: Hmmm.. 2nd order... how long have you had that flutter?
Yaga: Flutter?
Wise Snake: Nobody ever mentioned it before?
Wise Snake: [dubious]
Yaga: No.
Wise Snake: Huh. Well I don't imagine you work with a lot of Firsts.
Wise Snake turns to Peleg.
Wise Snake zlins Peleg.
Wise Snake: You two aren't assigned this month are you?
Peleg: No. I'm just Escorting her to New
Washington.
Peleg: Why?
Wise Snake: Oh, good.
Wise Snake ignores Peleg's question, but looks relieved.
Wise Snake: Well, tell Briel I want to talk to her about her transfer this month, okay?
Yaga: I'll pass on the message.
Wise Snake leaves the Center, leaving the ambient in a decidedly greasy state.
Yaga looks at Peleg.
Yaga: Who was that greased weasel?