Sime~Gen Roleplaying: District Controller's Office Scenario
Episode #184: Aftertalk (3/28/00)
Rifan enters his office wearing a fresh uniform and a large bump on the forehead (partially self-healed).
Rifan is in rather early, as usual.
Lalique already has the tea on and is tidying up the office.
Lalique has already tidied certain items out the window.
Rifan zlins that Lalique is already there, and despairs of getting a fix right away.
Rifan thinks this morning has not gone well at all.
Rifan: Hello, Lalique, how are you?
Rifan: Get any sleep tonight, now that all the shouting's stopped?
Lalique turns to Rifan with a bright smile. Her eyes have huge, dark circles under them and her face is gaunt, but not a hint of that shows in her ripening nager.
Rifan goes to his desk and makes a half-hearted attempt to see if anything is still stashed there, but he knows he's not going to find any.
Rifan can respect her trying to do a good job and take care of her channel, but he wishes it didn't have to cramp his own style.
Lalique: Oh, good morning, Hajene. It's a wonderful day. I'm fine, thank you!
Rifan: That Lexus guy hasn't been snooping around here yet, has he?
Rifan looks about, as if expecting to find the 1st hidden behind a potted fern.
Lalique: No I haven't seen him.
Rifan: With Arat out of the building, he's probably going to be all over the place.
Rifan thinks of Lexus rather the way a person thinks of large dogs loose on the street. One doesn't want to encounter them unnecessarily.
Lalique: Where is Arat going?
Rifan looks at her in disbelief.
Rifan: And I thought I was bad about current events.
Rifan actually only knows about the choice of Arat as the "people's" representative because it was the subject of his wife's tirade this morning.
Rifan: They've chosen him to be some sort of negotiator, to end the riots.
Lalique: Do you think he can?
Rifan: I don't know, but from what I've heard, if Arat puts his mind to something, that something better get the shen out of his way if it doesn't want to get dealt with.
Lalique has dreaded the last few days at work; the demonstrators remind her of her experiences among the Distect agitators.
Lalique acquired deep-seated distaste for politics and ideology of every flavor.
Rifan: My wife says he's only using this to his advantage, and he hates the people.
Rifan's tone of voice shows how much weight he gives that opinion: very little.
Lalique considers what she has observed of Arat.
Lalique: He uses everything to his advantage and I don't know what he loves.
Rifan: Family first, then Jeniard, then New Othwol.
Rifan quotes the usual gossip line.
Rifan: Although if you ask me, it's Duty, Duty, and Duty, with Jeniard coming in as a guilty pleasure.
Rifan: Any word on where we're stationed today? ER backup again?
Lalique: Yes. Here are the updates to yesterday cases.
Lalique hands Rifan a stack of folders.
Rifan: Thanks.
Rifan: Any tea?
Rifan has actually started to look forward to the morning caffeine, poor a substitute as it is. It goes well with her nager.
Lalique: Yes, Hajene, I'll get it.
Lalique: ~~ confidence, joy, optimism ~~
Rifan wonders, not for the first time, why he couldn't have married somebody like Lalique, instead of Miz Projectile Rage.
Lalique measures out some of the Narosian Summer Sunshine.
Rifan rubs his forehead when she's not looking.
Rifan opens the first of the folders and looks through it.
Lalique frowns momentarily, the tea connecting to the memory of Nick's tirade, but puts the thought away.
Rifan looks curiously at Lalique's back.
Rifan: Something wrong?
Lalique: Oh, nothing. I'm just a worry-wart.
Lalique: Pay no attention.
Rifan: If you say so.
Lalique deftly carries the cups of tea to Rifan's desk.
Rifan: But it seems to me you've been extra quiet ever since you saw Nick.
Rifan: Want to talk about it?
Rifan didn't hear the whole conversation, as he had left in a hurry right about the time they both started shooting nageric daggers at each other.
Rifan thinks arguments between Simes are so much more nagerically civilized... like fencing matches, or dances.
Rifan thinks that Gens are like Sumo wrestlers that can't feel the impacts and can't fall down.
Lalique glances at Rifan uneasily. His report on her will determine whether she stays or is sent to prison.
Lalique thinks if Nick is repeating his opinions to Arat, and the other people here share his views, she won't make it.
Lalique wonders if it would be better to say that, or pretend it's not so.
Lalique: He is angry with me.
Rifan: Uh, yeah, I could tell. [wryly]
Lalique: I thought he was my friend, and I don't have many.
Lalique: So that makes me sad.
Rifan: Well, can you make up with him?
Lalique sighs.
Lalique: I don't think so.
Rifan: Oh.
Rifan: Well, what are you fighting about?
Rifan: Can't be about your past, that's pot calling kettle black if I ever heard it.
Lalique shrugs.
Lalique: That's not the way he sees it.
Lalique: And I can't change who I am or what I've done.
Lalique: I would prefer to focus on the present--and the future.
Rifan sips his tea.
Rifan: Yeah, me too.
Rifan: Mostly the present, actually.
Lalique rubs Rifan's shoulders.
Rifan relaxes as Lalique's hands and nager do their magic.
Lalique hands move up to his neck and then she catches sight of the bump.
Lalique: Hajene, what happened to your head?
Lalique peers closer.
Rifan: Oh, that.
Lalique: Why didn't you tell me?
Rifan has been thanking his stars that Lalique has either not been noticing, or choosing not to notice, various injuries he's traipsed in with over the last month and a half. Until now.
Rifan: Oh, it'll be OK.
Rifan: I ran into a door this morning.
Lalique moves her fingers up lightly to the sore spot, focusing on it in a healing pattern.
Lalique: Must have been a pretty tall door.
Rifan sighs as the pain eases noticeably.
Lalique was really very rusty with her healing skills, which she hardly ever used even when she was working rogue, but she has been practicing for the last month.
Lalique: Are you sure one of the rioters didn't catch you?
Rifan: No, it was at home. The streets were actually amazingly quiet today, for once.
Rifan supposes all the rioters have gone home to take out their frustrations on their spouses.
Rifan: Maybe the negotiations are working.
Lalique: You're not supposed to run into doors. We Gens are supposed to be the clumsy ones.
Rifan: Yeah, that was pretty stupid wasn't it?
Lalique: Or were you running around hyper.
Rifan: No, nothing like that.
Rifan squirms a little as she probes his lies as well as his wound.
Lalique catches the slight guilty quirk and the indirect response.
Lalique: You're supposed to save that for when I'm around.
Lalique sparkles her nager for him as she used to do on-stage.
Lalique is feeling possessive of her channel today.
Rifan: OK, I'll try to remember that for the future.
Lalique considers Arat and the rioters, Lexus and his spying and Nick with his self-righteous anger. All in all, she figures the prison train may pull into the station at any time.
Lalique kisses the once bruised spot.
Rifan looks up at Lalique, wondering at her mood.
Lalique: There. All better.
Rifan: Thank you.
Ozzie ambrov Naros shifts uncomfortably in the crowded, dank and dirty prison cell. 1
Ozzie has discovered that Sectuib Riyyh was right; there are no flowers in prison, and it is hard to spread the word when you're incarcerated.
Ozzie has been earnestly lecturing the other people who share the cell with her on the benefits of cold-resistant artichokes, community gardens and medicinal herbs, but only one seems interested.
Swiggin listens to Ozzie continue with her impassioned lecture on the details of artichoke cultivation.
Swiggin doesn't understand one word in three, but thinks the tall, frizzy-haired gal's just as pretty as any wildflower ever hatched.
Swiggin doesn't know much about artichokes, birds or bees either; he's a coal miner.
Riyyh has totally failed to free any Narosian prisoners, but he has managed to beg, wheedle and... ahem... bribe... his way into an opportunity to talk to one of them.
Riyyh doesn't know which one it is, or where the others are, but he is grateful for the opportunity nonetheless.
Riyyh follow the prison guard to the appropriate cell.
Ozzie's nasal voice pierces the ambient of grumbling and whispering.
Riyyh is a little bit nervous about having to enter the cell with a large number of other captive rioters, but then, how can he leave a Naros member uncomforted?
Ozzie: When the buds start to open, that's when the temperature really matters.
Riyyh waits as the guard looks through the keys, finally locating the correct one. It's a combination key and augmentation lock.
Ozzie: There's only one variety that will bloom north of Yellow Stone.
Swiggin particularly loves the ink spots all over Ozzie's tentacles; almost like coal dust.
Riyyh finally is allowed to slip into the cell, with a warning that he only has a few minutes to talk.
Swiggin notices another ink spot on her forehead by her right eyebrow.
Swiggin: I love the way you talk, Miz.
Riyyh sees that his granddaughter and another prisoner are so enrapt with each other they haven't even noticed Riyyh has appeared.
Riyyh: [Sadly, this is not true of the other prisoners.]
Riyyh smiles apologetically and nervously at those.
Riyyh: Excuse me. [works his way through the others until he reaches Ozzie]
Ozzie beams at the appreciation, then starts as she recognizes the Sectuib in the dim light. She was staying hypo because of all the pain and misery in the ambient.
Ozzie: Sectuib Riyyh!
Ozzie: Oh, thank goodness you're here!
Riyyh smiles kindly at Ozzie.
Ozzie envelopes Riyyh in a frantic hug.
Riyyh returns the hug, gently.
Riyyh: There, there.
Ozzie: You were right, Sectuib. This place is awful!
Ozzie: No flowers anywhere.
Ozzie: Except... this is Swiggin.
Ozzie introduces the Sime next to her.
Ozzie: He's a very kind person.
Ozzie: He believes in our principles.
Riyyh: I am pleased to meet you.
Swiggin is very impressed to see the little lady embraced by a channel, and a Sectuib at that.
Swiggin: This is an honor.
Swiggin: Yes, Swiggin's my name.
Riyyh beams at Swiggin's reaction.
Swiggin: Coal miner.
Swiggin: Champion of the working Sime, that's me.
Riyyh: Oh, my.
Swiggin: But I like artichokes too.
Swiggin hastens to reassure the Sectuib that he is capable of more than one passion in life.
Riyyh blinks at the non sequitur, but lets it pass.
Riyyh: Darling, [to Ozzie] I can only stay for a short time.
Riyyh: The man at the desk was ever so kind to allow me even a visit.
Ozzie: Oh, Sectuib, you must take me away from this awful place.
Ozzie: And Swiggin, too.
Riyyh: Of course, I'm working on that as best as I can. [soothingly]
Riyyh realizes he just promised to try to get Swiggin out of jail too, and sighs internally. As if he hasn't enough problems already!
Ozzie: When the police came, they tied us up and threw us in a cart, as if we were animals... goats or chickens.
Riyyh: Can you tell me what happened? How did you become involved in the riots? What has become of the others?
Ozzie: Well....
Ozzie pulls herself together. She is a journalist, after all. Well, maybe just a pamphleteer. But it's the thought that counts.
Ozzie: Well, they were arguing, Racknie and Donal, where to start.
Ozzie: There were so many issues to protest.
Ozzie: Possible food shortages, and the need for community gardens.
Ozzie: How to preserve the Teton artichoke experimental project if the Snake River Reservoir is destroyed.
Riyyh listens attentively.
Ozzie: And of course the use of turf and hemp fiber matting to reconstruct damaged buildings.
Riyyh: Of course.
Riyyh can see things had gone wrong right from the beginning.
Ozzie: So Racknie said we should approach the Department of the Interior, because they maintain the Dam.
Ozzie: But Donal said no, the Department of Public Works, because they handle new construction.
Ozzie: I agreed with Donal; hemp fiber construction is so progressive.
Ozzie: But certainly artichokes matter too.
Riyyh: Oh, dear.
Ozzie: Anyway, the artichoke advocates went with Racknie.
Ozzie: I haven't seen them.
Ozzie: Donal led the progressive constructionists to the Public Works Building.
Ozzie: There was a real big demonstration over there.
Ozzie: People throwing bricks, setting fires.
Ozzie: It was so exciting!
Ozzie: But then the police came.
Riyyh: They often do. [sadly]
Ozzie: Big, hulking Gens with nagers like thunderstorms and gas grenades.
Ozzie: They'd fill the air with this horrible smoke that makes your laterals sting.
Ozzie: And then everyone rushed around in pain and the police grabbed them and tied them up and put them in the cart like I said.
Ozzie: And we ended up here.
Swiggin nods proudly.
Riyyh sighs.
Swiggin: Yeah, we made a stand.
Swiggin: Sime Workers All Together.
Riyyh: Do you know what became of the others?
Ozzie: Donal and the others are here in this building.
Ozzie: In the other wing, I think.
Riyyh: They told me they weren't. [puzzled]
Riyyh: I will have to speak to the sergeant again.
Ozzie: I zlinned them at lunch.
Ozzie: The put us all in a long chow line and fed us like horses or something.
Ozzie: Disgusting. I couldn't touch a bite.
Riyyh wonders what the sergeant wants more than monetary bribes. Sexual favors for himself or a relative? Riyyh doesn't want to get entangled in any obligations that will keep him in town for a long time, not so near to planting.
Riyyh: Of course not. [pats her hand]
Ozzie: And I think they took the Gens to a different building. There weren't too many of them.
Riyyh: Well, dear, I really must return. The guard is signaling me.
Riyyh: But I am glad that you and your friend here, are all right.
Riyyh: And I'll be working just as hard as I can to get you freed.
Ozzie: Oh, no, please don't go.
Ozzie: Or, go quickly, and come back and take me home as fast as you can!
Riyyh: All right. I will. [smiles]
Riyyh: As soon as I possibly can.
Note:
1) This is the same Ozzie as was seen in HHN #184. She has travelled to Capitol out of a desire to participate in the civil disobedience. [return]