Sime~Gen Roleplaying: District Controller's Office Scenario
Episode #201: Mysteries (4/25/00)
Ali sits on the edge of the huge round bed, sinking into the down-filled, satin-covered, lace-ruffled bedspread, kicking his heels with impatience.
Ali knows that Sectuib Riyyh enjoys the elegance of the honeymoon suite, but Ali finds the opulence cloying and everything is just too serene and quiet to be endured.
Riyyh examines his look minutely, trying to decide if he requires a further touch up.
Riyyh has to be extra careful when in the position of seducing the same people over and over again.
Riyyh has succeeded in landing a new building for the Coalition, getting the old one demolished and the surviving possessions reclaimed, but not in freeing any of the members yet.
Riyyh: Now, now, Ali, please try to be patient. [kindly]
Riyyh gets flustered when his Companion is impatient, which only makes him all the more worried that everything is just so, requiring extra checking and rechecking.
Ali looks forward to another descent into the depths of the prison, filled with rioters and dangerous law-breakers, with Saig and Racknie being held in the deepest pit of all.
Riyyh smiles at Ali's enthusiasm.
Riyyh supposes that if the Coalition members shared his glamorous vision of the prison system before, they certainly don't anymore.
Riyyh doesn't doubt that at least some of them will rebound quickly, though.
Ali thought Saig looked grim and heroic in his prison greys.
Ali had always thought of Racknie as a bit dreamy for a Gen, but in prison he was developing the wild-eyed look of a genuine prophet.
Riyyh opens a bag on the counter and removes a small, specialized brush.
Riyyh uses it to tweak a curl that wasn't just right.
Ali has watched as the Sectuib has flattered, begged and threatened the prison officials to try to get the Naros members released.
Ali wonders what plot Riyyh will try today.
Ali: Sectuib....
Riyyh: Yes, Ali?
Ali: Saig and Racknie and Ozzie....
Ali: They're good people.
Riyyh smiles.
Riyyh: Yes, they are.
Riyyh examines a spot(!) on his lip, then looks around on the counter for a small jar with a pink cork.
Ali: Why won't they just let them go, then?
Riyyh: They're afraid that more unrest will occur if they let people go before there's a formal agreement. [explains]
Ali: But I read in the papers that those people just keep arguing and arguing.
Ali: Do you think they'll ever agree on anything?
Riyyh: I think so.
Riyyh thinks, he hopes so.
Riyyh: Sometimes it does take a while, when everybody is upset.
Ali: It's so stupid.
Riyyh smiles again. The young see everything so clearly, mainly because they don't realize there is such a thing as human nature, and how powerful that nature is.
Riyyh: It would be nice if they could agree right away. [agrees]
Riyyh: But at least they're negotiating now, instead of trying to blow each other up. [points out]
Ali: Why don't they just fix a nice pot of tea and some really fine almond pasties and go relax in the sauna?
Riyyh: That sounds quite pleasant.
Riyyh somehow can't quite see Arat choosing that route with the negotiating parties, however.
Ali: Then they wouldn't want to keep arguing.
Riyyh: They certainly wouldn't.
Ali: They'd probably fall asleep
Riyyh can just imagine the headlines now.
Ali thinks about how drowsiness conquered the Dark Adept's most evil magic.
Riyyh: Unfortunately, that wouldn't solve their problems.
Riyyh: After all, it isn't the people negotiating who are having an argument, it's the people they represent. Thousands of people.
Ali: What would happen if all the people they represent got in the argument? A war? Like when the Unity Treaty was signed?
Riyyh: Riots, like we had here in Capitol right before you came. I suppose it's like a tiny war.
Ali frowns.
Ali: And if there's a war, what would happen to Naros?
Riyyh: Well. I don't think there will be a war over this.
Ali: But even if it's only a riot, we're right in the middle of it.
Riyyh personally remembers the effects of the Unity War on Naros. While there was plenty of demand for food, nobody would pay gourmet prices for it. After the initial wave of raids and attacks from mobbed raiders, there followed several very lean financial years during which every renSime in the area had to be served, while not enough Gens existed to provide for them. The memories aren't pleasant.
Ali: Saig and Racknie are like prisoners of war. It's like they've been penned, or held in retainers or something out of history.
Riyyh smiles sadly, which also allows him to inspect his cover up job.
Riyyh: Oh dear, it sounds so dramatic when you say it that way.
Riyyh: I am sure everything will be just fine.
Ali: They could be executed.
Ali: ~~thrilled and excited~~
Ali: Of course, we could rescue them.
Riyyh turns to look at Ali in fond exasperation.
Riyyh: We had better just wait until they can be released, unless we want to end up joining them.
Riyyh: After all, they did break the law.
Ali: But we can't wait, Sectuib. Something might happen.
Ali: How can we get them out?
Ali kicks the edge of the bed in frustration.
Riyyh: I know it's difficult to wait. I wish we could get them out too. But sometimes it's better to wait and be cautious than to rush into things with a passion.
Riyyh: They're in jail for setting fires, and even if they felt pretty brave and powerful and action-oriented while they were doing it, I'm afraid it was still wrong.
Riyyh does share Ali's worry that something might befall one of them in jail, though, and not just because Ali is projecting it.
Ali: You know, I've been burning feathers every night, hoping they would be set free with the smoke.
Riyyh smiles at Ali.
Ali: Sympathic magic. Dr. Roosle said the ritual was right.
Riyyh: Is that so? [kindly]
Ali: I suppose you think that is wrong, too. Or silly.
Riyyh: Well, it can't harm anything. [temporizes]
Ali: I can tell when you think I'm being silly.
Ali: I don't have to zlin it to tell, you know.
Ali: ~~discouraged, frustrated~~
Riyyh: I'm sorry, Ali, I don't mean to seem that way.
Riyyh: [sincerely]
Riyyh: It's just that in all my life, I've never seen any evidence of this magic, nor have I intentionally practiced it.
Riyyh: When Dr. Roosle calls me a master of it, it seems... well, it seems almost as if he's playing a joke on me.
Ali: But you are the Master.
Riyyh: But if I am, it's without saying or doing any of the things that Dr. Roosle holds dear.
Ali: You're... Sectuib. You've lived... well, about forever, and you know everything and everyone.
Ali: And what I want is to be able to make things happen!
Ali: So show me how to do it!
Riyyh smiles, trying not to wince too badly at the "forever" bit.
Riyyh: Well, it's really very simple, Ali.
Riyyh: I always try to make everybody happy.
Riyyh: People are always willing to help, when they're happy.
Riyyh: And kindness and gentleness are more powerful than anger and blows.
Ali blinks in surprise.
Ali: It can't be that simple.
Riyyh: It is a simple idea, but difficult to practice.
Ali thinks back.
Ali: Well, certainly Saig and them made people unhappy when they lit stuff on fire.
Ali: And that's why they're in jail.
Riyyh: Yes. They could have helped people instead, and then they wouldn't be in jail.
Riyyh: Nobody was arrested for feeding homeless people or helping to put out fires.
Riyyh: Yet, many people would have remembered them for their kindness.
Ali: But they were trying to help people, with the urban farms.
Ali: And other people wouldn't allow them to make people happy.
Riyyh: Well, that is no reason to set fires. [gently]
Ali thinks some more.
Riyyh: When excitement and destructive feelings are at their height, is the very time we should be thinking of caring, and giving, and sharing.
Riyyh: Do you think, in all my life, that I have ever hit anybody or set a fire in anger?
Ali: When the Evil Adept came, I defied her, but she was stronger.
Ali: You overcame her with kindness, I remember.
Riyyh smiles.
Ali: That worked better than all of Dr. Roosle's candles.
Riyyh: Oh, dear. [to himself, as he remembers the candles, and all the trouble they caused]
Ali: But Sectuib, there are just the two of us here.
Ali: How can we give enough love to all the angry people to make them let Saig and the others go?
Ali: Or can they be kind in jail? Would that work?
Riyyh: Well, by being friends with the people at the jail, we make life easier for our people while they are imprisoned. And, yes, they can be kind to each other and to their fellow prisoners, and that will make life more pleasant for them all.
Riyyh: But I think that we must trust in the negotiations to free our people, ultimately.
Ali remembers some instances in which Sectuib Riyyh spent time with some of the jail officials, presumably to show them special caring and loving-kindness.
Riyyh: Anything we can do that would encourage the people of Capitol to accept the compromise the negotiators make will help also, of course.
Ali determines that from now on he will be the epitome of the Narosian values.
Riyyh smiles at Ali's surge of youthful idealism.