Sime~Gen Roleplaying: District Controller's Office Scenario
Episode #5: Form Follows Fashion? (3/14/99)
see note 1
Kadi stands as Riyyh enters, switching her tail at the draft of cold air from the opened door.
Kadi: Mrupp?
Riyyh smiles at the cat and closes the door again.
Riyyh: Hello, Kadi, and how are you today?
Riyyh bends to pat her.
Kadi rubs against Riyyh's pants leg, depositing a few kitty hairs alongside the straw.
Kadi hopes this greeting will quickly result in a snack.
Riyyh continues up the stairs to his room.
Riyyh wasn't aware of the snack agenda.
Kadi sits down, tail twitching with annoyance.
Riyyh is already removing clothes by the time he hits the top of the stairs.
Tiarala comes out of the kitchen.
Tiarala: Riyyh?
Tiarala blinks at the disappearing figure, and starts up the stairs herself.
Tiarala: Riyyh, darling, what's the matter?
Riyyh inserts the plug and turns on the bath water, before beginning to remove clothes in earnest.
Tiarala catches an unexpected odor, looks down, and discovers some matter that is very much what. Specifically, what is left after a horse has digested its hay and oats.
Tiarala: Oh, dear.
Tiarala gathers from this sign that Riyyh has probably not been in his office filling out the form she brought.
Riyyh finally notices Tiarala's presence and comes to the door of the bathroom, now divested of all, er, coverings.
Riyyh: Hello, Tiarala.
Riyyh: ~apologetic~
Tiarala ~~ enjoys ~~ the sight.
Tiarala: Starting a new fashion?
Riyyh: I didn't realize you were here, I was just coming to wash up before going in to the office [explains]
Riyyh laughs sheepishly.
Tiarala: However did you get into such a state?
Riyyh: One must expect this sort of thing when living on a farm, after all.
Riyyh has been told this all his life, however he generally does a lot better job of avoiding it.
Tiarala: Well, yes, but one hopes to keep it out of one's home.
Tiarala: I hope there isn't anything seriously wrong?
Riyyh: Not that wasn't wrong the last time we spoke. ~~reassurance~~
Tiarala: Oh, dear. That bad?
Tiarala had hoped that whatever-it-was had been solved, so that Riyyh could cook his books and give her the form to take back to Arat.
Riyyh goes back in to check the temperature of the bath water.
Tiarala sort of trails after him, admiring the rear view.
Tiarala shakes her head at the straw-adorned pile of discarded clothing on the bathroom floor.
Riyyh: Care to join me? The water is perfect.
Tiarala brightens.
Tiarala: What a lovely idea.
Tiarala starts taking off her clothes.
Tiarala is reasonably well-preserved, for a woman of her years.
Tiarala dabbles a toe in the water to test the temperature.
Tiarala wiggles her toes, making bubbles.
Tiarala: Bubble bath! I haven't played in bubble bath for years.
Tiarala: ~~ pleasure ~~
Riyyh watches, smiling.
Tiarala slips into the water, grinning back.
see note 2
Darrel paces the small room nervously, trying to convince himself that things will work out.
Arat comes down the hallway alone.
Arat stops at the door to the room Darrel is in and signals formally.
Arat's expression and nager are unreadable, or would be if there were anybody in the hallway with him to try to read them.
Darrel jumps, then tries to collect himself.
Darrel: Come in.
Arat frowns to himself, then enters, making a perfect nageric transition without any particular effort.
Darrel feels a bit ~~ intimidated ~~ by the demonstration of control.
Arat: Hajene Darrel? I am Arat Farris, Controller of this facility. I trust you have been well cared for?
Darrel: Well enough.
Darrel zlins nervously behind Arat to determine if there is a First Order Donor following him, and relaxes marginally when there isn't.
Arat is a tall, lean channel with an obvious Farris look about him. His expression is remote, but the touch of his nager is ~~delicate~~
Darrel would be glad to zlin a Second Order Donor at the moment, however.
Arat does not appear to be harboring a 1st Order Donor or any other threat toward Darrel.
Darrel is not quite sure what to make of Arat.
Arat: I wanted to speak with you personally before assigning your therapists.
Darrel nods jerkily, his stomach knotting at the mention of therapists.
Arat's dark eyes flicker as he catalogues the reaction.
Arat: Shall we sit? [gestures at the two chairs and the table]
Darrel sits, wishing he had a cup of Narosian tea for comfort.
Arat sits also, regarding Darrel steadily.
Arat: Can you tell me what happened?
Darrel: What happened? To make me leave Bender Cove?
Arat nods.
Darrel hides his face in his hands.
Darrel: It's a long story.
Arat's laterals lick out, briefly.
Arat looks away, at the bare walls and floor.
Arat: Take your time.
Darrel: The short version is, I couldn't work there any more, and there seemed no hope of ever getting a position at another Center.
Arat: Is that all it was?
Arat looks at Darrel again, his voice and nager hinting at irony.
Darrel shudders.
Arat: Telling me what happened is your way to control what happens to you next. [softly]
Arat: Are you going to tell me?
Darrel: Well, there were a lot of things happening at Bender Cove that shouldn't have been happening.
Darrel: What do you know about the place?
Arat: I know quite a bit about Bender Cove.
Arat's expression and nager reveal little of the details.
Arat: Most of what its own District Controller knows, I'd imagine.
Darrel: Oh.
Darrel: Well, then, you probably got the sanitized version.
Arat looks mildly surprised at the statement, but gestures for Darrel to continue.
Arat's nager remains ~~neutral, but closely observant~~
Darrel: It's not in the best part of town, and the clientele is what you would expect. Muggings, poorly trained changeovers, or some with no training at all. Drug addicts trying to trash the place looking for drugs, and of course a good smattering of Gens from across the border.
Darrel: It's a Center which required a top-notch staff, and instead it got a collection of misfits.
Darrel is fair enough to include himself in that generalization, at least recently.
Arat waits; none of this is news to him.
Darrel: I don't mind challenging work, but it's another thing to face it without a Donor's support.
Darrel: And without the backup I should have had from the Firsts.
Darrel: And then there were the First Order Donors.
Arat watches Darrel, skating on the surface of hyperconsciousness, listening but studying Darrel's nager at the same time.
Darrel is unable to control a frisson of fear.
Darrel: Have you ever been slammed around by a Gen hugely more powerful than yourself?
Arat: No.
Darrel: It's not fun.
Arat nods, and awaits further explanation.
Darrel: Nor is trying to work while a much stronger Donor is projecting raving lust at you instead of support.
Darrel: When I tried to report what had happened, no one believed me. Or else they didn't think it was important; I never was quite sure which.
Darrel: I asked to be send somewhere else--anywhere else--but neither Veraik nor the Assistant Controller would process my request.
Darrel: I wrote to the District office, and never heard back.
Arat: Did they specify why they did not want to lose you?
Darrel: They said I was good with the clients.
Darrel: Personally, I think that they just couldn't readily find another Second who was both minimally competent and lacked the political pull to get out of a Bender Cove assignment.
Arat shows a trace of emotion for the first time, a faint contempt.
Arat: I see.
Darrel wilts under the contempt.
Arat allows it to fade away.
Arat: What do you see as the biggest problem facing you now, if you were to be placed in another Sime Center?
Darrel considers.
Darrel: Learning to trust again.
Darrel: In myself, my colleagues, the clients....
Darrel decides it's best to omit garden statuary from the list.
Darrel is indeed woefully short of self-confidence.
Darrel isn't exactly brimming with confidence in Arat, either, although he still has a modicum of hope.
Arat zlins Darrel for a few moments.
Darrel zlins of need, recent and prolonged psychological trauma, and a touch of discomfort from reduced work in the past two weeks, and none in the past two days.
Arat: [when he is finished, as if there were never an interruption in the first place] And how would you propose we handle your case?
Darrel slumps.
Darrel: Just don't send me back to Bender Cove. Anywhere but there.
Darrel doubts he'll ever be in line for a plum assignment, but figures anything has to be an improvement over the Dreaded Lobby.
Arat: You speak as if you'd be placed directly back into service. [quietly]
Arat: Is that what you expect to happen?
Darrel's head jerks up in ~~ alarm ~~
Darrel: If you were planning to retire me, why couldn't you have just left me at Naros?
Darrel really doesn't want to die an early and ugly death from forced retirement.
Arat flinches almost imperceptibly at the flare of alarm, but otherwise remains still and calm, his nager ~~precisely balanced/ready to support but not touching~~
Arat: Nothing has been said about retirement. Not yet. You will be given ample opportunity to recover from this.
Arat's voice places a slight emphasis on 'opportunity'.
Darrel is more concerned about the implied threat of the "yet".
Arat: You will begin here, and if you progress to the point of working with the public again, then an outside assignment can be discussed.
Darrel nods, glad that at least he isn't going to be summarily sent back to Bender Cove.
Arat meets Darrel's eyes, his nager neutral, yet giving the impression of leashed power.
Darrel forces himself not to look away, even though Arat's leashed power reminds him of Alea's similarly Farris-flavored nager which was, alas, not leashed at all.
Arat considers Darrel's reaction, tasting it.
Arat: Do you have anything else to say before I make my decision?
Darrel figures that's Controller-speak for "I've made my decision, don't waste more of my time", and shakes his head.
Arat's eyes narrow, and he looks away.
Arat: Very well then.
Arat: Somebody will come for you within the hour.
Darrel sincerely hopes that person will be his Donor.
Arat rises from the chair, smoothing out his uniform..
Arat throws a last, unreadable glance in Darrel's direction, and then leaves the room.
Darrel zlins the last outside selyn source disappear down the hall, then buries his face in his hands.
Darrel: What have I done?
Notes:
1) To see how Riyyh came to be in this condition, see the beginning of HHN #131. [return]
2) Meanwhile, back in Capital.... [return]