Sime/Gen Roleplaying: Two Roads Diverged Scenario
Episode #25: Twenty Questions (6/19/98)
Wise Snake walks into the Mayor's office grinning from ear to ear, like a tomcat.
Wise Snake is swaggering like a tomcat too.
Wise Snake opens the door and, treading softly to avoid disturbing Eliza and Tanzarra, seats herself once again at the Mayor's desk.
Wise Snake stretches out, hands behind her head, and sighs, still wearing a big, shit-eating grin.
Eliza opens her eyes and blinks, wondering where she is and what she is doing on the floor.
Wise Snake sighs beatifically.
Wise Snake puts her feet on the Mayor's desk and looks at his chandelier.
Eliza realises that Tanzarra is curled up next to her and keeps her field steady so she doesn't wake her.
Eliza: [miracles can happen]
Eliza slides to a sitting position and yawns at Snake.
Wise Snake is obviously no longer in need and wearing a big, stupid grin, staring at the ceiling and lolling on the chair.
Wise Snake seems really relaxed.
Eliza wonders what Snake is on and hopes there is a big supply.
Eliza wonders if she could have some too maybe.
Eliza gently gets to her feet and walks over to the desk.
Eliza: [softly] It's good to see you smiling, Snake.
Wise Snake looks at Eliza.
Wise Snake: Ah, hello Eliza. [still smiling]
Eliza rotates her shoulders to get the kinks out from sleeping on the floor.
Eliza: Beats me why we work in a town so we can sleep in beds and then end up sleeping on the floor anyway.
Eliza looks at Snake again.
Eliza: You aren't in need!
Wise Snake: No, Nick and I had transfer a few minutes ago.
Wise Snake checks the time.
Wise Snake: Well, a couple of hours ago.
Wise Snake: Er, 8 hours ago.
Eliza doesn't have to ask, it was obviously very satisfying.
Wise Snake: I trust you slept well?
Eliza: 8 Hours!
Eliza: Oh dear, is Zarra okay?
Wise Snake's smile gets wider. Yeah... 8.
Wise Snake zlins Tanzarra.
Eliza looks anxiously at the channel still asleep on the floor.
Wise Snake: She's doing as well as can be expected.
Wise Snake: Gently, Eliza. Don't display your anxiety.
Eliza: I guess she is stressed out.
Eliza: I'm sorry.
Wise Snake: Remember, she has gone through a trauma that most people can never know. She will be extremely delicate for a long time.
Eliza: I'm sorry about losing it before too. I don't know what got into me.
Wise Snake: She probably went without enough sleep for a long time. With you asleep there, it was natural for her to relax into sleep as well.
Wise Snake looks back at Eliza.
Wise Snake: If you want to become a Donor badly enough, Eliza, you will learn to control that wildness over time.
Eliza: Well, actually she was really upset and crying so I sort of put her to sleep. Then I dozed off too. Well I couldn't leave her!
Wise Snake: The key is the time.
Wise Snake waves her hands in a calming motion.
Wise Snake: Lower your voice, Eliza, and your nager.
Eliza: There is so much I don't know. Like now for example. Would we do better to go somewhere else to talk so we don't wake her, or should I stay close to her?
Eliza lowers everything.
Wise Snake: I am keeping the ambient stable. When you came over here near me, you made it possible for me to block you from her as necessary.
Wise Snake: Ideally, you should remain near her, but keep your field perfectly restful for her.
Wise Snake: She would no more be wakened by quiet speech than a Gen would be.
Eliza sighs.
Wise Snake: You are learning, if gradually.
Wise Snake: You can't expect to learn it all right away. Tecton Donors spend months in intensive training camps.
Wise Snake still isn't sure why Eliza wasn't sent to one, but isn't about to bring that up now.
Eliza: Before, when we found Joad, I was supporting her. When Nick came along should I have let him instead?
Wise Snake: Well, it really is difficult for me to say without having been there. What were the circumstances?
Wise Snake: Was your support of her adequate? Did she seem to mind your presence? Then no, you were right to remain supporting her.
Wise Snake: But if you found yourself in over your head, if you were losing it, you would better have passed it to him. Especially if she was in distress.
Eliza: I wasn't sure. I mean, she is always sort of in distress isn't she?
Eliza: Maybe if you don't need Nick so much this next week or so, he could work with her and help her over it?
Wise Snake: [a look of nervousness flickers across her Farris features at the mention of letting Nick go for a week]
Wise Snake: Unnh... well, anything is possible.
Eliza is glad Snake is in an "answering questions" mood.
Wise Snake: You won't get out of learning and practicing though, even if it's hard.
Wise Snake: Not if you want to stay with me.
Eliza: It's not that. I just don't want to hurt her.
Eliza: I don't mind work, Snake.
Eliza: Another thing I was thinking about while we were with Joad. I know you made me low field, but would a junct be able to kill me?
Wise Snake: Not if you refused to let your selyn flow.
Wise Snake: He would be shenned.
Eliza: Of course, there are other ways of killing people.
Wise Snake: Ummh.
Wise Snake looks vaguely disturbed by her words.
Wise Snake attempts to rally her previous blissful mood.
Eliza: I mean, I read stories about what the juncts use to do to Companions cause they didn't make good kills.
Wise Snake: Um, Eliza, did you know that juncts are actually quite rare?
Wise Snake: The chances of your being attacked by a junct, particularly if you don't encourage them, are very slim.
Eliza: Oh, this book was like a history book.
Wise Snake: Ah.
Eliza: Looks like it's more likely around here than most other places.
Eliza: Of course, where I grew up we only knew of juncts anyway.
Wise Snake: Because the adult Gens resisted the education of themselves and their children about changeover, yes.
Wise Snake already knew Eliza had an unhealthy fascination with juncts, and finds the re-manifestation of it in this locale rather alarming.
Eliza: Yeah [sigh]
Wise Snake: Look, if you just stay here in town, and serve Tanzarra, you won't have to worry about any juncts.
Eliza nods.
Wise Snake: Except for the ones who turn themselves in, and those won't be looking for kills.
Wise Snake removes her feet from the desk, chewing a thumbnail.
Wise Snake for some reason doesn't look as relaxed as before.
Eliza: The Gens, if they have any, wouldn't you be able to zlin their fear from some distance?
Wise Snake: They would be kept underground, to prevent their discovery.
Eliza: Oh! I hadn't thought of that.
Wise Snake: This guy smuggled over 9,000 Gens in the last 30 years. He has the secrecy bit down pat.
Eliza: ~ shock ~ that many!?
Wise Snake: Nothing sort of a full scale manhunt combing every foot of the forest will turn up those juncts and any Gens they may have.
Wise Snake: Well, think about it. 25 juncts, 12 Gens a year. 30 years.
Eliza looks at Tanzarra as she moves restlessly in her sleep, and quickly schools her nager.
Wise Snake: Of course, that number may have risen and fallen over the years... and that doesn't count the ones he sold before it became illegal. Before Unity.
Wise Snake: Back then he was serving the entire town.
Wise Snake: The man was a monster, Eliza. He deserved to die.
Wise Snake's pale eyes gleam.
Eliza: ~ total agreement ~
Eliza: And this was happening all over Sime territory?
Eliza: I mean, I knew it, but I didn't know it. Know what I mean?
Eliza: That's like, well genocide!
Wise Snake: Yes.
Wise Snake: And as you can imagine, the numbers don't work out at all. 9000 Gens for 25 Simes... the Gens would all have died out, and the Simes soon afterward, if it hadn't been for the wars and Unity.
Eliza: I heard a term for it, but don't remember what it was. Somebody's figures?
Wise Snake: Now do you understand why I threatened Bum Bum with his life? Forced him to stop?
Eliza: Snake, is Bumanuel still alive?
Wise Snake's pale eyes drift away.
Eliza: That you know of, that is?
Wise Snake: That I know of, yes.
Wise Snake: If he found a kill.
Eliza: Oh. That's not good.
Eliza: Should I have stayed with him?
Wise Snake: No.
Eliza: ~ relief ~
Wise Snake wishes she'd done what she had to at the time.
Wise Snake: I should have turned him in. Or put him out of his misery.
Eliza: I felt guilty about it all. But I didn't want to go with him.
Wise Snake thinks she was a fool to think she could remain hidden from the Tecton for long.
Eliza: Do you think I'll be able to give Tanzarra transfer one day? When she is better? I mean, I know it will be a while.
Wise Snake considers.
Wise Snake: Well, there are a lot of factors to be considered, of course.
Eliza: Like?
Eliza thinks this is great, answers on tap.
Wise Snake: Well, the two of you are a reasonably close match. Not terribly close, but you're both Seconds.
Eliza: And that's bad?
Wise Snake looks at Eliza oddly.
Wise Snake: No, that's considered good.
Eliza: Oh. What else?
Wise Snake: She may be too battered now to survive on anybody's transfers.
Wise Snake: She had enough problems before this happened.
Eliza looks at the sleeping figure again.
Wise Snake: And she obviously had a lot of other problems she hasn't mentioned to us, or she wouldn't have fled the Tecton instead of sticking it out.
Eliza: You will help her though, won't you?
Wise Snake: If I can. While I can.
Eliza: ~ utter faith in Snake ~
Wise Snake: Then when the Tecton comes, she will be in their hands.
Eliza: She doesn't want to go back. She blames them for mishandling everything.
Wise Snake: That is a perfect example of one of the problems she hasn't mentioned.
Eliza: They are all rules and regulations and don't take people into consideration.
Wise Snake: She blames "them". But she is "them".
Wise Snake: As am I. As are you.
Eliza: She is them? I am? You are? What do you mean?
Wise Snake: A person can't succeed in life blaming "them" for all their problems.
Eliza: You mean that she has to take responsibility herself?
Wise Snake: Would you get anywhere if you blamed me for all your problems, or blamed D'cor, or blamed anybody?
Wise Snake: Yes. She has to accept that her problems are her own to solve.
Eliza: I see what you mean. I blamed my father for a long time until I realized he was as much a victim as anyone else.
Wise Snake: During that transfer, she made her problems mine. She gave up on life. I had to force her to live, hold her tentacles with mine and force selyn down her.
Wise Snake: Because all she wanted was Soli... the same Gen she blames the Tecton for forcing her to accept.
Wise Snake: Now, does that sound like a problem somebody else can fix for her?
Eliza: Won't that pass in time?
Wise Snake: Perhaps, perhaps not. It depends on how much time she has.
Wise Snake: There may come a month when there isn't somebody there to force her to live, and she better have learned how to live again herself by then.
Eliza: I know there are more physical things involved then I know about, but grief has to be an issue in that too, doesn't it?
Wise Snake: I don't know. It depends on if she loved Soli or not. She does make it sound as if they were forced upon each other.
Wise Snake: It may indeed be a purely physical and spiritual loss.
Eliza: Won't you be in danger of forming a dependency on Nick if he is your only Donor?
Wise Snake: Yes.
Eliza: Oh.
Eliza: What are you going to do about that?
Wise Snake: Donors like Nick don't grow on trees. There aren't any more than one in a million like him.
Wise Snake: I was very disappointed to lose Rapol.
Wise Snake: [this is the understatement of the century]
Eliza: So we need to find you another one.
Eliza: [that's the oversimplification of the century]
Wise Snake: The chances of finding another are... [gestures helplessly]
Eliza: What's the danger in a transfer dependency anyway? Unless one of the two dies, of course.
Eliza doesn't think Nick looks like he is going to die any time soon.
Wise Snake: That is the main danger.
Wise Snake: And given the lifestyle we are currently living, a very real one.
Eliza: Then why don't they just set up each Sime with their own Gen?
Wise Snake sighs.
Wise Snake: I thought you learned this back in Bender Cove, Eliza.
Eliza: ~ interested ~
Eliza: It didn't make sense then either.
Eliza sighs.
Eliza: I guess I still have a lot to learn.
Wise Snake: It's because that would be a logistical nightmare. In our society, in our culture, the Gens are not prepared to serve transfer safely. The way they are raised, everything they experience from birth, is wrong.
Wise Snake: You can take certain Gens aside, and train them for many months, and those with the talent will eventually learn.
Wise Snake: But most of them cannot be trained, it is too late for them.
Eliza: Why aren't they all trained, right from the cradle?
Wise Snake: Maybe one day, our society will be whole enough, and pure enough, that...
Wise Snake is getting shenned irritated by all these interruptions.
Wise Snake: Eliza, think about it.
Wise Snake: Why aren't we all trained to be good parents?
Wise Snake: Or to be brilliant scientists, or World controllers, or caring lovers?
Wise Snake: Because parents just don't teach their children everything.
Wise Snake: Children get taught what they get taught.
Wise Snake: We can't just tell people, order them "you are all going to teach your kids X and Y" and they'll do it.
Wise Snake: Even if we were to take every adult that is alive today how could we train all of them? WHO would train all of them?
Wise Snake: This isn't a problem that can be fixed overnight.
Eliza: I guess then the Tecton is needed just the way it is.
Wise Snake: The Tecton isn't perfect.
Wise Snake: All it is, is a... a temporary solution.
Wise Snake: At least it isn't all the Gens against all the Simes anymore. At least it isn't that.
Eliza: We always thought it was the Simes against the Gens.
Eliza: Where I grew up it was like the Unity wars never happened. It's too far away from the border physically to have had much effect yet.
Eliza: I guess things moved quicker here because you already had the Tecton running.
Eliza: And the Households.
Eliza: If we had had just one channel, just one, so many kids could have been saved.
Wise Snake: There are out-Territory Sime Centers.
Wise Snake: A few more every year. Mostly near the border, in towns like Eastcove.
Wise Snake: My little clinic in the hospital was, essentially, a small Sime Center.
Eliza: I wish....
Eliza: Ah, my uncle use to say "if wishes were fishes we'd all spoil the broth."
Eliza: I don't know what he was talking about.
Eliza: It must be wonderful to grow up and know it doesn't matter if you are Sime or Gen.
Eliza: Just one more question, Snake.
Wise Snake looks at Eliza.
Eliza: Do you think I'll make it?
Wise Snake: What do you mean?
Eliza: The last few days, since we came to town, I have been really careful. And then today, all in one go, I blow it!
Wise Snake considers.
Eliza: ~ not very happy about it ~
Wise Snake: Well, part of the emotional ah, burstiness may fade naturally as you age.
Wise Snake: How old are you... 15?
Wise Snake: That isn't an easy time for a Gen.
Wise Snake: And you have been under a lot of stress.
Wise Snake: It's possible that the problem can't be solved but until you have spent the years working against it, you'll never know.
Eliza is relieved that Snake is prepared, once again, to forgive her.
Wise Snake: Now that there is Tanzarra, though, you have more than just yourself to think about.
Eliza: I'll keep working at it Snake. I never realized it could be so exhausting though, just doing nothing.
Wise Snake: It isn't nothing.
Wise Snake: If it seems like nothing now, it's because you aren't yet experienced enough to know what you're doing.
Wise Snake: That awareness will come in time.
Wise Snake: You are working, or rather, your field is.
Eliza: ~ brightens up ~
Wise Snake: You probably will never actually sense the fields, that is very rare, but you will become experienced enough to know what you are doing anyway.
Wise Snake: Like Mytag, and Frutata.
Wise Snake names the only really competent Donors she remembers from the Sime Center, besides B'cal.
Wise Snake didn't want to use B'cal's name for fear Eliza would look up to B'cal as someone to emulate... including personality-wise.
Wise Snake: Or Tamlen.
Eliza nods.
Eliza: I'll keep trying.
Eliza: Hey! Do you think there are any books here about Donors and things?
Wise Snake: Probably not, but I can make sure and get some brought along when the Tecton people arrive.
Eliza: Maybe in the channel's house - Oh.
Eliza remembers that the channel's house is now mostly all over 5th street.
Wise Snake: Or we can find some in a store if we go to a major city.
Wise Snake thinks one positive thing about this distasteful business with the Tecton is she could dare show her nose in a city.
Eliza: We could buy books?
Eliza: You would really buy books for me?
Wise Snake looks perplexed.
Wise Snake: Why wouldn't I?
Eliza is so touched.
Wise Snake: You should see all of the books I bought for Nick and Rapol.
Wise Snake: They filled 3 rooms at the Ferry Building.
Eliza: I never saw them!
Wise Snake: What were you doing all that time you were complaining about being bored?
Eliza: Oh I would have loved to see them.
Eliza: Well, I was working with Nick, and I had my book.
Wise Snake: I even told you I would find you something to study if you were bored.
Wise Snake sighs and shakes her head.
Eliza: Yeah and I had that little blue book.
Eliza: I don't read Simelan very fast.
Wise Snake: Ah... well, that too will come with time.
Eliza starts thinking about breakfast.
Wise Snake gets up and picks up the package for Zeor.
Wise Snake: I have to go, it's going to take a few hours and I want to do it while it's still early.
Wise Snake: Can you and Tanzarra handle any cases that come in before I return?
Eliza: Should I wake her if necessary?
Wise Snake: Yes.
Wise Snake hopes no cases turn up before she returns.
Eliza: Ok. We will mind the shop then.
Wise Snake: I should be back before noon.
Eliza: And Snake?
Wise Snake looks back at Eliza, questioningly.
Eliza: Thanks.
Eliza smiles.
Wise Snake looks faintly puzzled.
Wise Snake: Er... you're welcome.
Wise Snake nods.
Wise Snake turns and leaves, to bring the package to the nearest town with access to a Tecton courier.