Sime~Gen Roleplaying: District Controller's Office Scenario
Episode #160: Ear to the Floor (2/20/00)
Lalique is sitting in a corner of the cafeteria, toying with a remaining slice of cherry pie.
Lalique and Rifan were not scheduled to go on shift for another 40 minutes, but the jazzed-up channel insisted on running off and starting his shift early.
Lalique wonders if she should abandon her food and go after him, but she is still hungry.
Lalique is finding it difficult to manage both a Sime's natural aversion to food when past Turnover, made worse by the effect of stimulants.
Lalique can remember a time when this kind of work would have been a snap, but she is sadly out of practice.
Hero appears from the direction of the food line, balancing a tray piled so high she can't see over it.
Hero wanders this way and that, tacking toward the far corner of the cafeteria, which means passing Lalique's table.
Hero at age 14 (barely) is a fast-growing Gen and therefore takes full advantage of lunch.
Lalique: Hey, watch where you're going!
Hero is so startled by the exclamation, that she sets her tray down suddenly on Lalique's table, sending an apple rolling across the table and other items shifting around.
Hero: Whoa!
Hero: You startled me!
Lalique: Sorry!
Lalique: Quite a pile you've got there!
Hero: Hey, you're that rogue shiltpron lady!
Hero breaks into a beaming smile.
Hero: I am sooooo unbelievably hungry.
Hero pulls up a chair and plops down right there.
Lalique examines Hero, immediately noting the marked resemblance to both Riyyh and Nick.
Hero picks up a sandwich and starts munching.
Lalique compares the size of the pile of food with the size of the Gen and shakes her head dubiously.
Hero: I heard it's your turn tomorrow.
Lalique: Yes, I am a shiltpron player. My turn for what?
Hero: You know, to like get carved a new rear end and stuff.
Lalique glances behind her.
Lalique: Well, I have to admit I'm putting on a bit of weight, sitting around here in offices.
Lalique: I was in better shape when I was performing.
Hero looks ready to go the same route, as she enthusiastically bites into a carrot.
Hero's sandwich has by now been halved.
Lalique: Some kind of athletics program?
Hero giggles at what she assumes is an attempt at humor.
Lalique: Are you from Naros?
Hero: Yes!
Hero grins again at the mention of her House.
Hero holds up a finger to demonstrate that she wears the ring.
Lalique: It's not common to find members of your House doing Tecton work.
Lalique: How did you end up here?
Hero: Oh well, that's a long story!
Hero looks excited at the chance to tell it.
Hero: You see, first I was kidnapped by grandma Prunida.
Hero: Well, not my grandma Prunida you see, it was Nick Reckage's grandma Prunida.
Hero: She's like, my great-aunt sort of.
Hero: Anyway, she like dragged me into the mountains trying to find Snake.
Hero: She wanted to trade me for Nick, you see, although I could have told her that wouldn't work.
Hero could have told her if she hadn't been so perilously naive at the time.
Lalique: ~~ interested ~~
Lalique: I heard about Prunida.
Hero: Anyway, then there was like, this part where Snake like practically owned me, and tried to teach me stuff, and everything, although I was like totally bored because the only thing to do in town was to heal these... huh?
Hero: Oh yeah, what did you hear??
Hero is always keen to pick up new gossip.
Lalique: About how she brought Nick into Capitol. Old news.
Hero: Oh.
Hero: That happened after.
Lalique: Snake tried to teach you?
Hero: Then a whole pack of people from here went to clear out the town of all the rogues that were there, including me because I was still kinda trapped there, what?? Oh!
Hero: Yeah, she did.
Hero: I mean, it was really hard and stuff, and she was all "you are so like, immature and you really should learn to concentrate and stuff", but I mean everybody says that.
Hero may be paraphrasing when she quotes Snake.
Lalique: She was a rogue then, right? Why did she want to teach you at all?
Hero: I dunno it's like, compulsive or something.
Hero: You know that Donor, Linn Haskins? The 3rd?
Lalique: No, I don't think I've met her.
Hero: She used to be this schoolteacher in Gen Territory. She was a total Simephobe. Snake glommed her and started making her a Donor whether she wanted to or not!
Hero's eyes gleam with titillation.
Lalique: She's doing something like that with Pylor, now. He's a total Farrisphobe and she's training him up whether he wants to or not.
Hero: Naw, he's not scared of 'em.
Hero giggles.
Lalique: No, he just hates them.
Hero: I heard he's in love with Arat.
Lalique: What?
Hero: Veema says that Jeshie says that Snake said that Pylor really loves him, and that's why he hates him.
Hero: Or like, it's this envy love hate possession rejection thing going on, all messed up in his head.
Hero: You heard what happened the other day?
Lalique: I heard Pylor tried to serve Arat who sent him away.
Lalique: That doesn't make sense.
Lalique: Pylor hates Arat and they weren't even scheduled.
Hero squirms with glee at being the first to let somebody know.
Hero: No no, it wasn't like that at all!
Hero scoots her chair closer.
Lalique sees the gleam of the Narosian gossip impulse at work.
Lalique believes in letting nature take its course.
Hero: You see, what happened was, Snake decided that Pylor was like, all love-hate like I said, right?
Lalique: Okay.
Hero: So she came and like, found him in the transfer suite where he was waiting for his real channel, and took him up there to Arat's office.
Hero: Then she told him, "you better serve him now or you'll never get over your obsession".
Lalique: Huh. Heard that line the first time in a Norlea shiltpron parlor in year 19.
Hero: I mean, I can kind of see where she gets this obsession theory. Pylor admitted he was digging through Arat's dumpster when he was 12 years old.
Hero: And he still has that award posted on his wall. The award from school, you know.
Hero doesn't realize she's being cryptic.
Lalique: Digging through a dumpster?
Hero: You didn't hear that one either??
Hero can't believe her luck.
Lalique: No.
Hero: Well, it turns out the reason why Pylor has hated Arat's guts all these years is because Arat won an award in children's school that Pylor wanted to win.
Hero: It was all about history, they had to make an essay or something.
Hero doesn't like school much so skips over that bit.
Hero: Anyway, so Arat won, and Pylor thought it was because of favoritism, because of Arat's parents being so famous.
Hero: So he thought the award should have been his. Then the next day he found the award in the dumpster behind the house Arat was staying in.
Hero: And he kept it!!
Lalique: Weird.
Hero: So he's all like totally obsessive and stuff.
Lalique: I thought everyone despised Arat's parents because they were juncts and Gen farmers.
Lalique: And Pylor himself told me he hated working with Farrises because they were so temperamental and hard to please.
Hero: Snake said he wants to be a peasant but he has all these ideas that everybody is equal, so he gets all conflicted when Arat lords it over him.
Hero rolls her eyes.
Hero: I don't know, I heard from my dad that Arat's parents weren't Gen farmers at all, they were just farmers.
Hero: But he's totally biased and stuff.
Hero considers anybody old enough to be adult pre-Unity to be biased in one way or another.
Lalique: So what does Snake care about all this ancient history?
Hero: Well, aside from Arat being her dad and all, she just likes to yank Pylor's tail.
Hero: And he did want Arat, I heard they had to practically pry him off of him with a stick.
Lalique: Really?
Lalique: Details, honey, details!
Hero quivers with excitement.
Hero: Well, Snake told Pylor he had to take Arat or she'd take Pylor herself.
Hero: You've heard what she's like, so naturally he looks at Arat.
Hero: Well, Arat doesn't want it at all, of course.
Hero: But Pylor is like, whoa! because he can totally feel his nager and everything!
Hero: Snake has been working with him and stuff so he has all this knowledge he didn't have before.
Hero: All of a sudden he wants to try it out, you know?
Lalique: Yeah.
Hero: So when Arat tells him to leave, he won't leave!
Hero: Neither will Snake.
Hero: So Arat tells Nick to go get Security.
Hero: Nick leaves, and Snake locks the door on him!!
Lalique: Uh-oh. Bad news.
Hero: So now it's just the 3 of them in there. Oh, man, can you imagine the ambient?
Hero and Lalique both have to imagine it, since they can't zlin, but that's beside the point.
Hero: So then Arat gets up to unlock the door again, and suddenly Pylor decides to go for it.
Hero: He gets Arat trapped against the wall! Arat doesn't even want to touch him.
Lalique shudders to think of it.
Hero: His hand is touching Arat's arm!
Hero: They're like an inch from really doing it.
Hero pauses for dramatic effect.
Lalique: And??
Lalique is always happy to give a fellow performer her due and her cues.
Hero: Well, Dess says that she heard Pylor said he just snapped out of it.
Hero: He woke up and was like "oh man, what in the world did I just almost do?"
Hero: And then, I heard he started crying like a baby because he knew his ass is grass.
Lalique laughs.
Hero: He'll never get another assignment at all, just because of Snake!
Hero: Arat will be mad as shen of course.
Lalique: ~~ puzzled ~~
Hero: Oh yeah, and you know the riot in the East Wing, and the fire doors closing and all those people getting trapped?
Hero: That was all Snake's doing.
Hero: Nick wasn't able to find a single security guard to come help.
Lalique: Do you think they planned it together?
Hero: So when Arat finally managed to get loose of, Pylor, he had to go find a bunch of people himself, and bring them back to lock up... what? No way!
Hero: Snake and Nick never planned anything together even when they were together!
Hero: Snake decides everything and Nick just goes along with it.
Lalique: Well, yeah, I've seen that.
Hero: Oh yeah, so back to what I was saying.
Hero: You're next in line to be interro-mug-ated.
Lalique: Me?
Lalique: I didn't know anything about it.
Hero: Neptude has come down hard on Arat for wrecking Pylor and not being able to control Snake.
Hero: Don't you know, that's what this big investigation is about.
Hero: He's trying to find out how she could keep getting loose so often, and what she's done while she was out.
Hero: Everybody knows she helped you, when she was supposed to be locked up.
Lalique: I'd heard a bit about that part of it; yes.
Hero: So you're on the list of people to be questioned.
Lalique: Who says she helped me?
Hero: Shen, that one's been around forever.
Hero: First I heard it from this guy Delis, he's a groundskeeper.
Hero: Then I saw it in a tabloid, well, they didn't have the names right but they said 2 women had been seen climbing out a window and I figured out it was you guys.
Hero: Oh, and also this guy Chestir, he was the guard on the door at the time, he heard every word.
Hero: Although it took more experienced ears to translate it for him.
Hero: Anything that involves one of the Firsts, gets repeated.
Lalique: So, if they know what happened, why bother me about it?
Lalique: Or do they just love writing more reports?
Hero: Beats me, I guess they just want to find out what else you two have done.
Hero: Also Arat has to explain everything to Neptude, and nobody tells Arat any gossip so he has to find out the hard way.
Lalique frowns furiously. She does not want to get in trouble with either Arat or Snake.
Lalique thinks it over and concludes that nothing she can say will add anything to what everybody obviously knows already.
Lalique: That Snake, she's something else.
Lalique: Must be one shendi-flecking incredible therapist, to get Pylor going like that.
Hero: Yeah, but she's like, totally a nut basket.
Hero: She tried to murder my dad because she thought he was flirting with Nick.
Hero: Well, he was, but it's not like she had anything to worry about.
Hero: So like... kazing!!! [makes knife-pulling motion]
Hero: And then - hnnn! [makes strangling motion]
Hero: You know my dad, he was like totally terrified.
Hero giggles.
Hero: He hid behind me.
Hero: Well, and Wolfa, and then Tictoc.
Lalique is not particularly fazed by accounts of violence... especially over transfer.
Lalique has already had experience with Riyyh's particular style of cowering.
Hero: And well, everybody knows she had to leave Bender Cove because of like, rubbing some international druglord the wrong way.
Hero still finds that bit thrilling because she has never been able to find out any more about it, and is scared to try.
Hero: So I mean, she is a good therapist and all, but the rules just go completely out the window.
Lalique nods.
Lalique: But are you serious, that Neptude won't give Pylor another assignment, just because he was eager for transfer?
Lalique: I thought that's all Neptude wanted was for Pylor to want to serve Farrises.
Hero: No no, not because he just wanted to, because he tried to force himself on someone who didn't want it, and someone he wasn't assigned to.
Hero: See, if he'd just wanted to, and told them he wanted to, that would be different.
Hero: Anyway, his brain is like all totally muddled now that Snake has been tweaking his settings.
Lalique: Yeah, Snake's been working on him for months now.
Lalique: Gens are supposed to stay in control, but we're only human.
Hero: I heard he wanted it so bad he didn't even know what he was doing.
Hero: Do you think it's possible? For a Gen?
Hero looks intrigued by the idea.
Lalique: Oh, absolutely.
Hero: I heard the only reason it didn't happen was because Arat refused to take the bait and had the control to make it stick. Well, and Pylor never got a 2nd hand on him.
Hero grins mischievously.
Hero: Meanwhile, Snake is standing there cheering Pylor on.
Hero: I wish I'd been there to see!
Lalique: I'm glad I wasn't.
Hero: But then another thing is, Neptude is making all kinds of trouble over this.
Hero: Or so the rumors say.
Hero acts as if all the rest of what she'd said was something else.
Hero: There's a rumor Arat might be sent away over it.
Hero: Can you imagine??
Lalique: Why blame Arat? He's the one who had the strength of will to resist a transfer-crazed Gen.
Hero: I am sure my dad would try to talk me into going home again if that happened, although I don't know either way, because on the one hand it would be nice to be back home again, but on the other hand it's kind of cool to be....
Hero: Oh!
Hero: Well, he is supposed to be keeping Snake under control.
Hero: And supposedly it was his idea to let Snake rehabilitate Pylor in the first place.
Hero: Plus, Arat is always in trouble for not getting along with Donors, so anything that makes a Donor hate him more, even if it is love-hate, is bad.
Hero chatters merrily onward.
Lalique: But supposedly it was Neptude's idea to try to train Pylor up past where he was comfortable.
Lalique: And Snake was succeeding....
Hero: Oh yeah! She has been like flogging him along.
Hero: You know those horses that pull the barges down the canals?
Lalique: Yeah.
Hero grins, and mimics a whip motion.
Hero: They don't work hard at all compared to Pylor the last 2 months.
Lalique: Farrises always work their Gens too hard, or so I hear.
Hero: You know what they say.
Hero: "Farris: Hard to work for, harder to be."
Lalique makes a gesture of playing a mournful violin solo.
Hero: Or in Pylor's case, harder to wanna be.
Hero giggles.
Lalique: So Neptude's gonna let Arat and Pylor take the fall for his poor judgment?
Lalique: And discipline them both?
Hero: I don't know if they're going to bother with Pylor, I think they're just going to let his butt go.
Hero: He's already been disciplined like 3 times.
Lalique: They'll retire him? Or just demote him?
Hero: Well, there is no demotion, right?
Hero: And if Arat's in as much trouble as the rumors say, he's not going to be thinking about Pylor.
Lalique: Last time I talked to Pylor, he said something about getting assigned out in the sticks if he screwed up again.
Hero: With Arat, it's Arat first; [counting on fingers] then Jeniard, then his best workers, then his friends, and then it's the leftovers....
Hero: Oh yeah, that's what they're talking about doing with Arat.
Hero: Only with Pylor, it would probably be a tiny town waayyy out there.
Hero grins.
Hero: I don't know, if I were Pylor I would think that sounded pretty good compared to working with Snake.
Lalique: But now that he's gotten the taste for a big nager, he'll never be satisfied again. I think that's cruel.
Lalique: Since it was his trainer who messed him up.
Hero: Some say Pylor is cruel himself. So who knows, maybe he's just getting his rewards.
Hero: Everybody knows how he tormented Arat when they were assigned.
Hero leaves out the bit where everybody traded gossip about it gleefully.
Lalique: And Arat might not stay as Controller here?
Hero: Well, it's just a rumor.
Hero: But, yeah, they're saying he might get sent to this one horrible assignment way up North.
Hero: Like, hazard duty for a bunch of prison inmates and paid laborers putting in a dam in Norwest.
Hero: Wow! I only wish I could be there to see that!
Hero hasn't yet learned the art of being careful about what one wishes for.
Lalique: He's not exactly Mr. Congeniality, but he's treated me well enough.
Lalique: Who would take over his responsibilities if he left?
Lalique thinks maybe she better not take her time about pledging; the next Controller might not offer her as good a deal.
Lalique thinks, yeah, but if she accepts Arat's deal and pledges and the next Controller reneges on the terms, she will be in even worse shape.
Lalique knows that agreements on paper are only as good as the integrity of the people making them.
Hero: They're saying maybe Tiarala although also there is Hajene Okada from the City offices.
Hero: And then some think it will be Neptude's nephew, Lexus.
Hero: Personally that's my bet, because blood is thicker than water.
Hero may be a bit biased on that account considering where she grew up.
Lalique thinks Neptude is a fool and his nephew will likely be a worse one.
Hero: I heard he's like totally power hungry too, which is about the only reason a person would want to be a Controller.
Hero: Usually you have to be it.
Lalique thinks Tiarala is on her own personal blacklist and there is still a score to be settled there for screwing up Lalique's life for no reason whatsoever.
Lalique promises herself that she will make sure Tiarala pays for that, though there is no particular urgency in collecting on the debt.
Lalique: What's Neptude really after, anyway?
Hero scratches her head.
Hero: Well, there's the different theories there too.
Hero: My friend Geffini says Neptude just wants to keep his own butt covered so he doesn't lose his job.
Hero: But I heard some people say Neptude got his job because they had to bump him out of the way to put Arat here.
Hero: They wanted to get Arat away from New Othwol, you see.
Hero: And Neptude has to prove that he can keep his post even with a lesser channel holding this one.
Hero winks.
Hero: I know my dad for one would like to see Neptude back in the 53rd District....
Lalique: So these people don't care what happens to Arat, as long as he's not in new Othwol?
Hero: They supposedly care.
Hero: Although maybe they don't know. He used to be a big deal back when there were a lot of problem with renSimes, or so I hear.
Lalique: Yeah, that "undertow" stuff.
Hero: My dad says they had to keep him in New Othwol to prevent mob scenes, but then when the old juncts died out, they didn't want him there because he had too much influence.
Hero: But they didn't want to waste him, you know, and he'd kind of been wasted in New Othwol except for that political stuff.
Hero: So, they put him here.
Hero: But the rumors say he's too hard to handle, even with what he can give them.
Lalique: So they're willing to toss him down this river with the dam.
Hero spreads her hands.
Hero: They just started talking about this stuff like 2 days ago.
Hero: It's like, totally new news.
Lalique grins at Hero.
Lalique: And I heard it here first!
Hero smiles brilliantly, strongly resembling her father.
Hero like all Narosians, lives to be helpful.
Lalique knows enough about the Tecton to know that its vast bureaucracy can't nurture individuals with the care of a Sectuib in a Householding.
Lalique reminds herself that, if she pledges, she will have to get some leverage that will work on the organization and not just a few individuals.
Lalique: And how does Arat feel about all this?
Hero: He's scared shitless. [grins]
Hero: Why do you think things have gotten so tight around here?
Hero: It's not just the investigation.
Hero: Also, I heard that Jeniard has missed three days of shifts.
Hero: You know what that means.
Lalique presumes it means that Nick has his hands full, so to speak.
Lalique thinks, or worse, that Arat has banished Nick entirely from his presence because he sided with Snake again.
Lalique: Is Nick in trouble, too, over all this?
Hero: Oh, yeah. But only with Arat. Neptude nobody knows about, although you'd think he'd want to trade him here in town, to get the brownie points.
Lalique nods. Well, certainly Nick was quick enough to dump Riyyh for Arat. Too bad it's not working out.
Hero: Arat's mostly PO'd at Nick for not doing anything to help him when Snake set Pylor on him.
Hero: If he says exactly how it happened in his report, then Neptude will surely have him on the black list too.
Hero: I mean, Neptude will not want to hear that Nick has been helping Snake do roguish stuff.
Hero seems to find this all very entertaining. She is, after all, viewing it mainly from afar.
Lalique: Well, she did train him. That's not something a Companion can just shrug off.
Hero: Yeah.
Hero still remembers Wolfa with some regret.
Hero wasn't exactly fully trained, and Wolfa is no longer wrapped too tightly, so it's a mild regret.
Lalique will never forget the channel who trained and qualified her.
Lalique lets a few bars of the "Lament" that she composed for that channel play through her mind, but then firmly cuts off the memory before she starts to cry.
Lalique: And what will happen to the rest of the so-called Rogue Rehabilitation project if Arat leaves?
Lalique: I believe you are a graduate of the program?
Hero giggles at Lalique's question.
Hero: There isn't any such thing, not really.
Hero: They just started piling all these rogues on Arat.
Hero: He sure didn't appreciate it.
Hero: But yeah, he did pull me out of school when I wasn't doing so good, and gave me a tutor here.
Hero: It's a lot more fun working than going to that boring old school, but they do say I have a lot to learn so maybe I'm not graduated yet.
Lalique: So if Arat gets sent down the river, will the rogues go with him or get reassigned to the Controllers here?
Hero: Gosh, it really depends on who wants them and exactly how they send him down.
Hero: I mean, if Arat is totally in disgrace and all, he won't be in any position to take them with - or refuse them if they are sent along.
Hero: But if he isn't, he'd probably bring his favorites, that's what everybody says he always does.
Hero: Now who his favorites are now, when it comes to rogues, is kind of hard to say right at the moment!
Hero: Seeing as how he's PO'd at both Snake and Nick.
Hero looks at Lalique speculatively.
Lalique: I certainly don't qualify.
Lalique: I am on probation, at best.
Hero: You might be able to wriggle in if he thinks you're on his side instead of Snake's.
Hero: That is, if Snake goes too.
Hero: I don't see who would be crazy enough to keep Snake without Arat. The only time she behaves herself is when he's there to supervise.
Hero: And then not always!
Lalique: But why should I want to be sent to a muddy, nasty, primitive construction site?
Hero: Beats me!
Lalique: I am a shiltpron player, an artiste!
Hero laughs.
Hero: Hey, you don't see me volunteering either!
Hero: But I mean, my situation is a lot different, because I never did anything rogue.
Hero: I'm just in training.
Lalique: I'd prefer to keep Arat as my Controller because he's treating me with some respect.
Lalique: If he falls out of grace, I don't know what will happen.
Hero thinks.
Hero: If you went up to that nasty camp, maybe you could....
Hero doesn't say the final word.
Hero casts a significant look at Lalique instead.
Lalique lowers her voice to an intimate murmur.
Lalique: Could what?
Hero looks innocent.
Hero: Well, I mean, it'll be chaos up there.
Hero: They say all the workers and stuff will be prisoners, and homeless, and jobless from all over the Territories.
Hero: There won't even be a real town, only a work town.
Hero: And all around that - nothing but mountains.
Hero: Nothing but mountains.
Lalique: Almost as good as that internment camp for itinerant rogues they threatened me with.
Hero: Yeah, but with no guards.
Hero: I mean, they'd only be for watching the supplies and the dam and stuff.
Lalique: And no channels... except for the ones the Tecton sends.
Lalique: If I wanted out of here, I'd be gone already.
Lalique: I've got an assignment with a channel who matches me.
Hero: Yeah... Rifan.
Hero giggles impishly.
Lalique: Yeah, he's no charmer, but he's better than I've had in years.
Lalique: He's healthy and sane and non-junct and clean.
Hero thinks about her time "on the road" with Prunida and Snake, and then shrugs.
Hero: Well, yeah.
Lalique: You know, I wanted to pledge to Naros.
Lalique: I asked Riyyh... I begged him... but he turned me down.
Lalique: He was afraid of me.
Hero rolls her eyes.
Hero: Who isn't my dad afraid of?
Hero: Anyway, there aren't any new members. That's all over with.
Hero: Before that whole thing happened, there wasn't a single new person in my whole entire life!
Hero: And then when they did let new people in, it was only for about 3 months, and all selective and everything.
Lalique: [bitterly] Yeah.
Lalique: But that's what I want, really.
Hero turns her ring around on her finger, thoughtfully.
Lalique: A House to pledge to, a channel to serve, a home where I can be safe.
Hero: Well, that's what the Tecton is supposed to be, only for more people.
Hero: Like, you serve channels in general, not just one though.
Lalique: You know it's not the same.
Lalique: But if I can't get what I want, I'll settle for what I can get.
Lalique: [wry smile] Like Rifan.
Hero nods wisely.
Lalique: Speaking of which....
Lalique checks the time.
Lalique: I'm due back on shift now.
Lalique: It's been good talking with you, Hero.
Hero grins as Lalique knows her name.
Hero: Nice meeting you too.
Hero pulls her dessert in front of her and gets back to work too.
Lalique waves as she speeds out of the cafeteria towards the medical wing. She knows Rifan will report every lapsed second of her shift that is not spent working with obsessive efficiency.