Sime~Gen Roleplaying: District Controller's Office Scenario
Episode #158: An Unlikely Fixation (2/18/00)
see note 1
Pylor's tone is more than a little plaintive, because he's never been good with new and unexpected situations, and this is a doozy by his standards.
Pylor: ~~ disoriented and generally not comfy at all ~~
Arat, who is rather clear on how he feels about the situation, takes advantage of Pylor's distraction to shove past the Donor.
Pylor is sure of only one thing: It would not be a good idea to keep his attention on Arat at the moment.
Arat gets both hands on the door latch (which is about the only thing within arm's reach that would be a good idea to get both hands on at the moment) and unlocks it.
Wise Snake has made it very clear that she will have nothing but contempt for Pylor's weakness if he doesn't follow through, and doesn't really have that much more to say.
Nick has meanwhile run into some not entirely unexpected obstacles in his quest for Security, and is returning without the requested officers.
Wise Snake simply watches, looking both disgusted and somewhat disappointed.
Pylor manages to turn his attention to himself (something for which he actually has some talent).
Pylor starts to realize what he almost did.
Pylor: Oh, shen.
Pylor stumbles back to the chair and buries his head in his hands.
Arat has by that time flung the door open, realized there were no security people whatsoever waiting out side of it, and stalked down the hallway away from his office.
Nick strides briskly down the hall leading to Arat's office, kept from running only by the knowledge that it's an insane thing to do when high-field.
Nick hopes Snake's mischief has not been fatal, and curses himself for following Arat's orders.
Nick spots Arat ahead of him.
Nick: Arat!
Arat spots Nick coming down the hallway toward him, quite alone.
Nick notes the still-bulging ronaplin glands with ~~ heartfelt relief ~~
Arat: Where are my security guards? [snaps]
Nick: It appears that there was a small problem with some of the fire doors in the building.
Nick: They've called a locksmith, and expect Security to be freed in another hour or so.
Arat: I'm surrounded by incompetents.
Nick: Are you all right?
Nick: ~~ full, need-muffling support ~~
Arat: How - [stops; he was about to ask how all of the security guards for a complex this massive could be trapped in one room at once, then realizes he does not want to know, because the answer will only make him more angry]
Arat: Don't.
Arat waves Nick away.
Arat: Can I trust you to keep those two maniacs in my office or not?
Nick lightens up his support, a little.
Nick is not happy at being asked to be Snake's jailor, but he knows that she will have to face the consequences sooner or later, regardless of what he does.
Nick: Very well. If you're sure you don't require help yourself?
Arat: You don't seem to be capable of helping me. [poisonously]
Arat strides down the hallway, intending upon rounding up the nearest available able bodied persons for restraining the rogues.
Nick checks Arat over for more subtle Pylor-damage, as this level of toxicity is not typical of him, at least in Nick's experience.
Nick decides that Arat is in no mood to be reasonable just now, and goes on to the office.
Nick enters without signaling.
Wise Snake is lounging on the couch, reading a trade journal.
Nick is happy to see that she has not carried out her threat to take Pylor, whom he continues to regard with suspicion.
Pylor is sniffling into his hands, as his hopes for rehabilitation have been dashed.
Wise Snake glances at Pylor with a bored expression, and then looks at Nick.
Wise Snake: No security?
Wise Snake looks rather more innocent than she could really be, in that regards.
Nick looks at Pylor with disgust, then rolls his eyes at Snake.
Nick: They're calling a locksmith.
Nick perches on the edge of the desk.
Wise Snake: Do you think Arat really reads these?
Wise Snake holds up the trade journal.
Nick: Yes, he does. Cover to cover.
Wise Snake: Amazing.
Nick has to agree.
Nick: He's very upset by your prank.
Wise Snake: Poor Arat. [unsympathetically]
Nick is just a tad upset as well, given the setback it means to his own plan for all three of them.
Nick: Couldn't you have arranged something a bit less spectacular?
Snake: Shen, I didn't know Pylor was going to degenerate into handkerchief-spooge.
Wise Snake: It would have gone perfectly otherwise.
Nick: And then what? The penalties for unauthorized transfers are rather severe, and Arat couldn't have shielded you from the authorities when he was under investigation for the same crime, himself.
Wise Snake: He works his nager right, Arat falls into his arms, what do you know, instant mental housecleaning... oh, give me a break. Arat could have reassigned us all after the fact.
Wise Snake: Don't tell me it wouldn't occur to him, either. His hands aren't pristine.
Nick: I know. But it had to be his idea. He's too straight to do that if he took Pylor by accident.
Wise Snake waves that off.
Wise Snake: There's still time for that.
Wise Snake: If he decides Pylor was just the innocent victim, he could still take him on purpose to keep him from becoming completely useless.
Nick looks at the sniveling Pylor with disgust.
Nick: You mean he isn't?
Wise Snake: Ummmh.
Wise Snake follows Nick's glance.
Wise Snake: I hadn't thought so, but maybe he is.
Pylor looks up slowly, bottom lip pouting.
Wise Snake: You should have zlinned his nager when he realized I wanted him to take Arat. It's like the world dropped out from under his feet.
Wise Snake: I've never known anybody who was so hopelessly fixated on one person, in such a twisted way.
Pylor: I'm not a rogue!
Wise Snake sounds like she actually finds it a bit intriguing.
Pylor sounds as if he's trying to convince himself of this, in hopes that it will help to convince Security when they arrive.
Pylor looks at Snake ~~ accusingly ~~
Pylor: You did that on purpose, did you?
Wise Snake: Did what? Tried to get you what you really wanted?
Wise Snake: Tried to prepare you, so you wouldn't turn to jell-o when the time came? Or so I thought, anyway....
Pylor: I never wanted Arat like that before!
Wise Snake: You weren't ready before, that's why.
Pylor: It doesn't matter. Now, I'll be lucky if they let me take a job in some minor Center out in the middle of nowhere.
Pylor: More likely, they'll decide they can't use me at all.
Pylor finds this particularly depressing, as he is still high-field.
Nick is less sure of that; if Pylor's incompetence didn't get him kicked out, Nick is skeptical that a failed attempt at an illegal transfer will do the trick.
Wise Snake: A pity you were too much of a coward.
Wise Snake turns to Nick.
Wise Snake: What about you?
Pylor imagines life without transfer, and starts crying again.
Wise Snake forgets about the puddle that was Pylor.
Nick: Arat is furious at me. More than he is at you, I expect.
Wise Snake: Of course. I can't be held accountable for my actions, I'm insane. [pleasantly]
Wise Snake: There's a certain advantage to being looked down upon, I've found.
Pylor has never been able to view it that way, which is a pity, actually.
Nick sighs.
Nick: I don't know whether he'll be able to go through with a transfer with me, now. If he even wants to.
Wise Snake: Would that be your fault? [snorts]
Nick: ~~ loss ~~
Wise Snake scowls at Nick's ~~loss~~.
Wise Snake: Don't feel sorry for yourself. Either take charge, or let it go.
Nick has always been more adept at letting someone else take charge of the situation, than in running things himself--by about a 3:1 ratio, actually.
Nick thinks about that for a moment, and nods.
Nick: I guess I owe him that much, anyway.
Nick is pretty sure that if he takes charge, the letting go will happen immediately after the transfer, on a permanent basis, but he's got to live with himself.
Arat strides back down the hall toward his office, this time at the head of a group of brawny Gen orderlies, mid-level channels and Donors he has pulled from their duties to handle the situation.
Arat is not certain how much trouble either of the two is going to be, so erred on the side of caution.
Arat would rather not be front-and-center this time, though, since he still bears a mark on his neck from the last time he was involved in physically subduing Snake.
Arat therefore stops in the hallway outside the room and directs everybody else to barge in.
Wise Snake looks up at them, contriving to look as harmless as possible.
Pylor barely notices the intrusion, as he is too busy feeling sorry for herself.
Nick turns to look as the cavalry arrives.
Wise Snake: Got to go, [to Nick, as she and the trade journal are whisked out of the room]
Nick has by now ascertained that the group trying to get Pylor's attention does not include Arat.
Nick heads out into the hall in search of him.
Arat is standing in the hallway, still looking (not uncharacteristically) furious.
Nick's spine has been stiffened by Snake's pep talk, and he is not about to accept more delays to a transfer that is now overdue.
Arat's fury has moderated from the fiery rage sort of fury to a cold determination.
Nick is enough of a realist to know that attempting transfer with a channel in such a mood would be a disaster.
Nick: It's over, Arat. Neither one of them is going to give any more trouble today.
Nick has known Snake too long to make any promises for tomorrow.
Nick moves closer and reaches out with ~~ steady support ~~
Arat finally looks down.
Arat ignores the people leading Pylor out of the office and passing by them.
Nick reaches out to put a hand on Arat's arm, adding some ~~ calm ~~ to the support.
Arat doesn't say anything, but he doesn't pull away from Nick's hand, either.
Nick thinks briefly about the transfer suite he so carefully reserved and prepped, then rejects the idea and starts leading Arat back inside his office, where at least it's well insulated.
Arat responds stiffly, but does not actually balk at being led. After all, where else would he get transfer? And he does need transfer.
Arat at least knows that whatever else Nick is, he can deliver a decent transfer.
Arat's transfer assignments often can't.
Nick closes the door decisively behind them, locks the door, and starts working on Arat's mood and intil as he moves towards the couch.
Arat takes deep breaths, trying to nerve himself to trust a Donor. It is difficult enough normally, without the stress of what has just happened.
Nick tuts absently to himself.
Nick: Arat, I'm not Pylor. You're not going to be shorted, or shenned.
Arat: This is an unbelievable setback.
Nick sits down on the couch, leaving plenty of space for Arat beside him.
Nick wonders if Arat was referring to Snake's rehabilitation, Pylor's retraining, or their own ability to work together.
Nick sadly concludes that the statement is equally applicable to all three situations.
Arat allows Nick to tug him down to the couch.
Nick lets his nager shift from solid support to ~~ warm greeting ~~
Nick shifts his hands, too, the better to run his fingers lightly down Arat's tentacle sheaths.
Arat: Please. Let us... take it slowly.
Nick assesses Arat's condition, then nods, and stills his hands.
Nick does not actually remove them from Arat's arms, however.
Nick: If that's what you want.
Arat normally requires fifteen or twenty minutes to prepare himself mentally for transfer, and that is on a good day.
Arat nods.
Arat's ronaplin glands, of course, have their own idea about what the proximity of Nick's hands means for the schedule of the transfer.
Nick lets his nager become more soothing, although not necessarily less tempting.
Arat's shoulders hunch as he tries to calm himself with Nick's help. The process is somewhat inhibited by the fact that he can't get rid of the image of a glaze-eyed Pylor caught between an unnatural need-to-give and his usual hate/love obsession.
Nick: Relax, Arat. What's wrong?
Nick has a sudden leap of intuition, or maybe simple Gen possessiveness.
Nick: You're not fixed on Pylor, are you?
Arat: I don't think it's irreversible.
Arat sounds tired.
Arat had been very nearly fixed on Nick when the interruption came, after all, and this is little more than that.
Nick mentally curses Snake's bad timing, and Pylor's ineptitude.
Nick: Just lean on me for a few minutes, then.
Arat does so.
Arat: He tried to... [stops, because he is not sure how much of it was by Pylor's own volition]
Arat: Well, they tried to force him on me.
Nick works on Arat's inhibitions, with some care so as not to break through Arat's control until the Pylor-fixation is gone.
Arat: He had me against the wall, and he reached out and touched my arm, just wanting....
Nick shakes his head, letting his own touch on Arat's arm firm just a bit.
Nick: He was that fixed on you? I wouldn't have thought it possible.
Arat: It wasn't all him.
Arat: She wanted it more than he did.
Arat shudders.
Arat: I was wrong to think she could be rehabilitated.
Arat: Or at least, that I might be the one to do it.
Arat overlooks the fact that he didn't exactly volunteer for the job.
Nick soothes the shudder.
Nick: You've gotten much farther than I would have thought possible, when she was brought in.
Nick: I don't think even Zeor could have done as well.
Nick is quite sincere about this.
Arat: And Pylor... how did Neptude ever think that Snake should be allowed to work with him?
Arat: He was bad enough as he was.
Arat: Granted, his control seems to have improved markedly.
Nick smiles a bit crookedly.
Nick: Whatever other problems Snake's training methods may have, they do develop a Donor's ability.
Nick: But I think Neptude was simply too busy trying to run the Region and the District both, to pay attention to Pylor's training.
Nick does not bring up the subject of certain forged training assignments at the moment.
Nick: Is Pylor really ready for a Farris transfer?
Nick does not consider, at the moment, how upset Snake would be if she heard Nick asking Arat to confirm her judgment.
Arat: He's mentally unstable. He shouldn't be giving transfer to any working channel.
Arat: Nick, he attacked me. Me!
Nick ~~ calms ~~ Arat.
Nick: He didn't carry through with it, though, did he?
Arat: If I'd had less control, he would have.
Arat: As it was, it came very close.
Nick: Did he back down because he changed his mind, or was it just more of his general inability to carry through with anything?
Arat: Shen, Nick, I don't know.
Arat: If it had been anyone but me, the transfer would have happened.
Arat overlooks the fact that Snake probably wouldn't have manipulated Pylor into attacking anybody else.
Nick: Would he? Or was it part of his old obsession with you taking a new form now that he's got the physical capacity to be attracted to you?
Nick is not unaware of his own attraction in that direction.
Nick lets it reach his nager, so that Arat can be aware of it, too.
Arat: I don't know, but the way he expressed it was unacceptable.
Arat finds the way Nick is expressing it right at the moment to be quite acceptable, however.
Nick: What will you do with Pylor?
Nick lets his fingers start to tease Arat's tentacle sheaths again.
Arat lets go of Nick, and rubs his eyes.
Arat: I don't know.
Arat: It will be Neptude's decision.
Arat hasn't been able to enforce any decisions regarding Pylor for months - or at least, not until a few minutes ago.
Arat hadn't been 100% sure of that until the last minute, either.
Nick recaptures Arat's hands.
Nick: Let him deal with it, then.
Nick entwines his fingers in Arat's tentacles.
Arat nods. What other choice does he have?
Nick steps up the seductiveness of his nager.
Nick wonders idly whether Neptude will dismiss Pylor from the ranks of Tecton Donors.
Nick wonders, if that should occur, whether Riyyh would be interested in Pylor as a substitute for Ali.
Nick decides that wonder has its place, but that the here and now is much more interesting, at present.
Notes:
1) This scene is continued from DCO #157. [return]