Sime~Gen Roleplaying: Two Roads Diverged Scenario
Episode #74: The Path to Insanity (9/3/98)
Linn nudges her horse to a slightly faster amble.
Wise Snake notes that Freelance has become much calmer now that Flossie's... needs... have been attended to.
Wise Snake sighs and hopes they are off the road by the time any "results" become a problem.
Wise Snake hopes, failing that, that Eliza can be persuaded to give up the mare in favor of a swifter mount.
Linn draws alongside Snake.
Wise Snake: Ah, hello, Linn.
Linn: Hello. Do you have any idea of when we're going to be reaching this Naros place?
Wise Snake: A day or two, I hope.
Wise Snake has become wary of making exact estimates... it doesn't seem to work in this particular area.
Linn has gotten tired of listening to Bum Bum wonder, and knows he won't dare ask Snake himself.
Linn: Do you know anything about it? Is it like that V'lar town where you and Nick went?
Wise Snake: No, unfortunately, I don't know that much about it. They're mainly agricultural and their Sectuib is a low First.
Wise Snake: They're famous for sticking their noses into other people's business.
Wise Snake: Oh, and Ison and Mytag are ambrov Naros... did you ever meet them at the Sime Center?
Linn: I thought the Sectuibs were supposed to be the best channels?
Wise Snake: Linn, a First is a very good channel.
Wise Snake: I'm sure he's the best they can muster. They may have one or two other Firsts.
Wise Snake is afraid Linn may be under a misapprehension as to how common Firsts are, due to the overwhelming number of them at the Bender Cove Sime Center.
Wise Snake is, of course, totally unaware of the incident in which Mytag drugged Linn's tea at that very Center.
Linn, having had her exposure to channels defined by Snake, has unrealistic ideas of what an average First can accomplish.
Linn's nager displays ~~ anger ~~ at the mention of Mytag's name.
Linn: Yes, I have met Mytag and Ison.
Wise Snake looks surprised.
Linn: Tell me, do members of Naros commonly drug people for recreation?
Wise Snake: Was there... some prob... unh?
Wise Snake hopes so.
Wise Snake: Not that I am aware of.
Wise Snake: However, it is true that some Householdings have rather eccentric ways, stretching back into pre-Unity and even pre-Tecton times....
Linn doesn't stop to consider the irony of asking such a question of a habitual user of recreational pharmaceuticals.
Linn: Well, I can do without being drugged without warning.
Wise Snake frowns.
Wise Snake: Are you saying that...
Linn: I went to the Sime Center to donate, and there was some trouble in the lobby.
Wise Snake thinks that so far, this sounds like a typical donation.
Wise Snake: [at least for Bender Cove]
Linn: When it was resolved, Mytag took me to the cafeteria for some tea.
Wise Snake: He did?
Wise Snake thinks that does sound a bit odd.
Wise Snake wonders if randy Mytag had the hots for Linn.
Linn: During the course of our conversation, I told him some of the things that I had seen and experienced in that lobby.
Linn: Apparently, he concluded that I was suffering from delusions. He slipped something into my tea, and I woke up in the infirmary the next morning.
Wise Snake looks surprised.
Wise Snake: Just what did you tell him you saw?
Linn: I said that I had been stalked several times in the lobby, and that once it had been a channel doing the stalking.
Wise Snake: Ah... poor Mytag had evidently not been at the Center long, then.
Wise Snake thinks anybody who'd been there longer than a couple of weeks would probably have believed the story without blinking.
Wise Snake: It does sound a little far-fetched, objectively speaking, doesn't it?
Linn doesn't find it far-fetched at all, since she really doesn't know about any other kind of Sime Center.
Linn: Well... I haven't really noticed that the other Sime Centers we've visited have been that much different.
Linn: I mean, that channel in Vortez Lake looking the other way while people were being kidnapped and killed.
Linn: And the ones that never did figure out that Eliza wasn't the visitor they were expecting.
Linn: Are there really Sime Centers where things usually go smoothly?
Wise Snake: Of course.
Linn: Really? Where?
Wise Snake speaks with the absolute conviction of someone who passionately hopes so.
Wise Snake: Uhm, well, at Capitol... and,
Wise Snake: Look, I haven't exactly done a bunch of travelling.
Wise Snake: I've seen the same Sime Centers you have.
Wise Snake: Except maybe you haven't seen the upper Bender Cove one.
Linn: No, I haven't. Perhaps I should have gone there to donate, instead.
Wise Snake knows that one was fairly orderly mostly because they refused entry to anybody without "Esquire" or "III" after their name.
Wise Snake: Perhaps.
Linn studies Snake to see if she regrets sending Linn to the Tecton to donate for those months.
Wise Snake of course isn't even thinking about that.
Linn therefore concludes that Snake didn't particularly regret leaving Linn to the mercies of the (lower) Bender Cove Center and its staff.
Linn had thought Snake cared more for her than that, but then recalls that she has now been given to Bum Bum.
Linn wonders if she'll be passed around again at Naros.
Wise Snake: Well, I think that Mytag probably just misunderstood, and had your best interests in mind.
Wise Snake: I mean, even if all the Sime Centers are that bad, the Householdings aren't.
Linn: You mean they don't have lots of crazy people running around causing trouble?
Wise Snake: Nope.
Linn considers.
Linn: Snake, how many Householdings have you actually visited?
Wise Snake: Err...
Wise Snake: two.
Linn: Zeor, with all the assassins running about?
Wise Snake frowns.
Wise Snake: Well, I was never aware of any assassins.
Linn: And V'lar, with that crazy B'cal drugging Nick for fun?
Wise Snake: She did that on the train.
Wise Snake: Although there was that cat at V'lar... and the maid washing up with non-Farris safe cleansers. That was a nasty combination.
Wise Snake: But hardly what you'd call a bunch of crazies running around.
Linn: Still, it doesn't say much for the "normal" life of a Householding.
Wise Snake looks annoyed.
Wise Snake: They seemed to have perfectly normal lives there.
Wise Snake: I mean, they had no Farrises. Why would they use Farris-safe cleansers?
Wise Snake thinks if she moved to a Householding, the first thing she would do is order all Farris-safe cleansers and have the rest thrown out.
Wise Snake decides everybody should use Farris-safe armpit deodorant, also.
Wise Snake nods to herself.
Linn is a bit surprised at Snake's vehemence, then realizes that Snake went from being a street child, to Zeor, to Bender Cove, then lived as a rogue channel.
Linn decides that Snake probably wouldn't know a normal life from a Torn By Tentacles concert.
Wise Snake: You doubt me?
Wise Snake wonders when Linn became so cynical.
Linn: Well... you haven't exactly lived a normal life.
Wise Snake looks puzzled.
Wise Snake: Don't you think I've seen people leading normal lives?
Linn: You have? Who?
Wise Snake: Well, I had over a thousand houses and apartments in my rotation in Bender Cove. They weren't all weirdoes.
Wise Snake thinks, granted they were all either poverty-stricken, lawbreakers, or free-thinkers, but they weren't necessarily all weirdoes.
Linn wouldn't necessarily know a normal in-T life if she saw one, any more than Snake.
Linn: They weren't?
Linn is relieved to hear that.
Wise Snake: Not at all. They had kids, and jobs, and so forth.
Wise Snake zlins Linn's relief and is glad she still has "what it takes".
Linn: How do the normal folks manage to survive the crazies?
Wise Snake: Linn, the actual percentage of crazy people to normal is actually very low. The normal people just aren't as colorful.
Wise Snake: If you walk around getting distracted by the loud obnoxious weird people, you'll miss hundreds of quiet, normal people flitting through the background.
Linn smiles wryly.
Linn: Then I have to wonder why I always had the bad luck to run into the crazies every time I went to the Bender Cover Center.
Wise Snake: Well, that's different.
Wise Snake: I told them this when they opened it - a Sime Center in a bad neighborhood is a perfect magnet for crazies.
Wise Snake: Free food, free tea, free money for nothing but selyn, it's got a walk in medical clinic, and it's open 24 hours a day.
Wise Snake: I mean, it's a huge lit up invitation to come on in.
Linn: Oh. well, I'm glad to know that it isn't just my imagination.
Wise Snake: Well, I'm afraid your nager, as it was back then, was much the same.
Wise Snake: Big, bright, full of lots of selyn, and just radiating enticing fear.
Linn: Oh.
Linn: So that's why I kept getting attacked?
Wise Snake: Of course.
Wise Snake: Your nager can take over a Sime and control him like a puppet.
Linn: I thought only Donors could do that.
Wise Snake: Um, Linn, you have the field of a Donor.
Wise Snake: You just haven't always used it like a Donor.
Wise Snake: And actually any Gen fear can force a Sime to lose control.
Wise Snake: That's why nervous Gens never get counter jobs.
Linn: So they won't get attacked by the customers?
Wise Snake: So they won't force a renSime to lose control.
Wise Snake: It's considered extremely rude, as well as dangerous.
Wise Snake: Like going over to the neighbor's yard and throwing rocks at a dog that isn't chained up.
Linn: I see.
Linn reflects that only in Sime Territory would getting killed be considered a breach of etiquette on the victim's part.