Sime/Gen Roleplaying: Two Roads Diverged Scenario
Episode #16: Scattered (6/11/98)
Wise Snake walks back into camp, looking dejected.
Linn: What's wrong, Snake?
Wise Snake is surprised to see the various dead have finally risen.
Linn pours Snake some tea.
Wise Snake: Well, aside from having a thieving junct attached to our party and a pig-headed Donor run off high-field to who knows where, nothing.
Wise Snake sits down gloomily on a log and accepts the tea.
Wise Snake: Thank you. [belated and grouchy]
Linn: You're welcome.
Linn refills her own cup and sits beside Snake.
Linn: So Eliza ran off?
Wise Snake: Yeah.
Wise Snake checks to make sure Linn's luggage is all in place, then sighs.
Wise Snake: High field, with a junct renSime. [adds]
Linn looks around at their much reduced party.
Linn: Well, that's what she seems to want: a junct Sime of her own.
Wise Snake: Yeah, I guess so.
Wise Snake sips the tea.
Linn: Although she doesn't seem to have any idea how to handle one.
Linn: She was asking me questions about it.
Wise Snake: Oh?
Wise Snake looks up at Linn.
Wise Snake tries to determine whether Linn would have had anything to offer besides "avoid junct renSimes at all costs".
Linn: Yes. Nick apparently told her I was some sort of expert on transfer math.
Linn didn't quite have the nerve to mention the cure for constipation which involves taking down the field of a general-class donor while playing the shiltpron with one's feet.
Wise Snake: Ummh.
Wise Snake glances over at Nick, who as usual is still only halfway out of his sleeping bag.
Wise Snake: Well, compared to him I suppose you are.
Wise Snake: I hadn't realized Eliza was interested in transfer mathematics.
Linn: I don't think she was.
Wise Snake looks puzzled.
Wise Snake: She asked you about something she wasn't interested in?
Wise Snake: That must have been a short conversation.
Linn: She wasn't interested in the math, only in knowing how to keep Bum Bum stable.
Wise Snake: Ah.
Wise Snake: Well, if she keeps her own nager stable, that will be half the battle won.
Wise Snake: Well, would have been.
Wise Snake doesn't imagine they'll be seeing too much more of Bum Bum now.
Linn: She doesn't strike me as a particularly stable individual.
Wise Snake: Well, she went through a traumatic experience after Establishing.
Linn: And she's been at loose ends since we left Bum bum behind.
Wise Snake: She shot her own father to save her cousin, who took her in First Need and then raped her.
Linn winces in sympathy.
Wise Snake: Her cousin was later murdered by some townsfolk.
Linn: Leaving her with no one?
Wise Snake: She came to the Center knowing how to give transfers, but not too stable.
Wise Snake: Improvement since then has been... well, I am sure there has been some.
Linn isn't so sure.
Wise Snake: She's young. She'll even out in time.
Linn: Age does have that effect, among others.
Linn should know; sleeping on the ground is having its effect.
Wise Snake sips the tea, zlinning the forest for the missing Donor and the renSime thief.
Wise Snake: They're pretty well out of range.
Linn: Pretty well?
Wise Snake: Well. They ARE out of range.
Linn: Oh. You looked like you were zlinning someone.
Wise Snake: I was just...
Wise Snake sighs.
Linn puts an arm around Snake.
Pearcy: Linn: You're worried about her, I know.
Pearcy: Linn: ~~ sympathy ~~
Wise Snake: Yeah. I guess I am.
Wise Snake looks depressed.
Wise Snake: When we were in Bender Cove, I could take on somebody like Eliza and know I had the resources to deal with her, to make something of her.
Wise Snake: But here? Like this?
Wise Snake: I can't do anything for her, and she knows it.
Linn: Not without a channel for her, that's true.
What am I going to do, kidnap a channel?
Wise Snake says it sarcastically but of course the thought has occurred, more than once.
Linn doesn't see why Snake should hesitate; she seems to be kidnapping all sorts of people these days.
Linn wonders why channels should be so different.
Linn: Surely there are other non-Tecton channels besides Bum Bum.
Wise Snake: Ah, rogue channels are all next to useless, and usually difficult to deal with besides.
Wise Snake: She requires a Second, not a Third.
Wise Snake: Maybe a householding would accept her...?
Linn considers.
Wise Snake tries to decide if Eliza would go for the idea of joining a Householding.
Linn: Only if they have a lot of spare time for her. She's got problems.
Wise Snake: Well yes, but it seems like Householdings are more willing to give people individual attention than the Tecton.
Linn: I wouldn't know.
Wise Snake: Well, if she comes back this time, maybe I will ask her.
Wise Snake: And then, if we come upon a Householding, perhaps....
Linn: I see.
Wise Snake looks at Linn.
Wise Snake: Do you have an alternative suggestion?
Linn: No....
Linn: Problem children require stability most of all, and that's hard to come by when you're on the run.
Wise Snake: Well, she had stability of a sort while she was at the S.... ummh.
Wise Snake: True.
Linn looks at Nick, who is showing signs of evolving into at least the vertebrate stage.
Linn: I should start breakfast, and make some more tea.
Wise Snake nods.
Wise Snake figures Linn has better things to do than sit around hugging homeless, Houseless, futureless channels.