Sime/Gen Roleplaying: Two Roads Diverged Scenario
Episode #90: Portable Dildoes R Us (9/22/98)
Tictoc goes up to Riyyh's house and signals.
Hero bounces out the door.
Hero: Hi!!!! I mean, Hi. ~nager demure... now.~
Tictoc: Hero, how is the Sectuib?
Hero: I have no idea.
Hero wonders why Wolfa has kept her out of the room.
Hero: Let's go find out! ~enthusiasm~
Tictoc walks in past Hero and heads to Riyyh's room. Strangely enough, she knows exactly where it is.
Hero follows excitedly.
Tictoc: Maybe she doesn't want you upsetting the ambient.
Hero: Maybe. [doubtfully]
Tictoc thinks that Hero entering a room is like throwing a huge boulder into a calm lake, only more so.
Hero thinks it's because Wolfa wants to get first dibs on all the good gossip about the Sectuib.
Hero: Maybe they're doing something private in there.
Tictoc: Well, at least you are well and don't have a headache.
Hero: A head ache?
Hero: ~perplexed~
Tictoc: Never mind.
Tictoc signals at the door.
Riyyh figures there is no way he'll be able to avoid facing people... trying to fall from the face of the earth didn't work.
Wolfa: Tictoc is here, can she come in Father?
Riyyh: OK. ~dispirited~
Riyyh at least has stopped flinching every time Wolfa says "Father".
Wolfa walks over and opens the door. "I'm glad you are here."
Hero bounces into the room.
Tictoc: Can you put some trin on please, Wolfa?
Hero: [or at least tries to]
Tictoc wants to check Riyyh alone.
Wolfa stops Hero with an arm across the doorway. "Of course Tictoc. Hero, come help me in the kitchen."
Hero: Urk!!
Hero: [as her neck connects with Wolfa's arm]
Hero: Of course, Wolfa!
Hero hurries after Wolfa.
Riyyh is sitting on the side of the bed, looking and zlinning really depressed.
Riyyh: Hello Tictoc.
Tictoc walks over to the bedside.
Tictoc: Riyyh, it's time to get up.
Tictoc: And go have a shower for goodness sake - you look dreadful.
Riyyh: You're right, of course.
Tictoc knows that.
Tictoc: You have appointments to keep in less than one and a half hours.
Tictoc opens his wardrobe and gets out some clothing for him.
Riyyh walks into the bathroom with less enthusiasm than usual.
Riyyh drags himself up as if the entire weight of Naros is hanging off him in wet seaweed.
Riyyh goes about the ritual of showering, grooming, etc. like a zombie.
Tictoc pulls out a top that clashes dreadfully with the pants, and a cloak that would look good maybe on a corpse.
Tictoc waits to see if Riyyh is going to put on the clothing she laid out for him or not.
Riyyh spends 18 minutes in the shower and 52 minutes standing in front of the mirror staring dejectedly at his reflection and only starting some sort of grooming activities towards the last 10 minutes or so.
Nick looks out the window.
Nick: Still no sign of Riyyh.
Nick: Isn't his first appointment due in half an hour or so?
Nick isn't looking forward to facing down a half dozen angry, rutabaga-wielding Narosites if Riyyh fails to show.
Nick turns back to see why Snake hasn't answered.
Wise Snake is frowning and staring into space.
Nick: Snake?
Wise Snake has been doing a lot of that as hard need sets in and as the inadequate cornerstone of her Naros plan seems to turn to cottage cheese before her eyes.
Nick carefully lets his field engage with hers as he walks closer, drawing her attention to him.
Wise Snake looks up.
Wise Snake: What?
Nick: Do you think Riyyh will be here in time for his appointments?
Nick: ~~ comforting support ~~
Wise Snake: Well, if isn't, I know where he lives.
Nick runs a hand over Snake's tentacles.
Wise Snake's hair stands on end.
Nick: You shouldn't have to be dealing with this sort of thing when you're in need.
Nick: After all, he was the one who asked you to help him.
Wise Snake: True....
Nick doesn't notice anything odd about Snake's hair, since it usually stands on end, more or less.
Nick shakes his head.
Nick: Was his transfer good enough to let him handle the interviews?
Wise Snake: I don't know. Tictoc went to go check on him.
Nick debates the balance between his duty and Snake's.
Nick: Well, I'm sure he'll want a bit of privacy for his interviews, and we're not scheduled for any transfers for a good two hours after that....
Nick lets his hand slip suggestively over to rest on a swollen ronaplin gland.
Wise Snake: Shen, I can't leave the area during those intervyyyyeeeeeeoooooh.
Nick: ~~ leashed Gen desire ~~
Wise Snake's arms moisten themselves involuntarily.
Wise Snake: Nick, you're terrible.
Nick: Well, if we put the interviews in here--neutral ground, as it were--
Nick: We could adjourn to Riyyh's office.
Nick: The insulation is excellent, and there's a convenient couch.
Nick: And the shower.
Wise Snake: Ummmh.
Nick likes amenities like hot water on demand.
Wise Snake's tentacles ease out and explore Nick's arms.
Wise Snake: Then again, this office isn't that poorly insulated.
Wise Snake thinks, compared to the gutters of Bender Cove anyway.
Wise Snake: And we do have... 22 and a half minutes.
Nick's desire turns from a leashed Chihuahua to a leashed Doberman... with a smug cat taunting it from just out of biting range.
Wise Snake's intil flares.
Nick: Mmmmmm
Wise Snake grips his arms hard.
Nick ponders the things that can be done in 22.24 minutes and counting.
Nick then decides that pondering gets in the way of more important things and leans forward to make lip contact.
Nick: ~~ Gen need to feed Sime need ~~
Wise Snake locks her lips to his and draws voraciously.
Wise Snake: ~~yearning/need~~
Nick: ~~ feeding need ~~
Tictoc: Riyyh....
Tictoc: We have to go now.
Tictoc: ~ now ~
Riyyh sighs and drags himself from the bathroom.
Riyyh: Yes, Tictoc. Of course... you're right.
Riyyh: I'm sorry.
Nick feels the frustration of endless interviews about Riyyh's exploits disappear in the rush of selyn.
Riyyh looks at the clothes she's laid out.
Riyyh: ~faint shock~
Riyyh stands there trying to decide if he should just put them on or kick up a fuss.
Nick pours selyn into Snake as fast as he can.
Nick: ~~ rising joy ~~
Wise Snake seeks pain, but after a brief hopeless struggle, settles in to do what she can with the ~~joy~~
Wise Snake: ~~ rising on Nick's joy ~~
Nick feels Snake respond, which increases his ~~ ecstasy ~~
Wise Snake peaks.
Nick feels the flow back off, leaving behind ~~ satiation ~~
Wise Snake's lateral withdraw and she breaks the fifth contact, leaning heavily on Nick.
Tictoc waits for Riyyh to dress.
Riyyh: Oh... thank you, Tictoc. Actually I had thought to dress formally today.
Riyyh goes to the closet and gets out his formal robes of office.
Tictoc is pleased, Riyyh can't be that sick after all.
Tictoc: I'll go and tell Wolfa that we don't have time for the tea after all.
Riyyh: Thank you.
Nick leans forward again to kiss Snake.
Nick: ~~ ? ~~
Tictoc heads down to the kitchen much cheered by the Sectuib's choice in clothing.
Riyyh dresses in his Sectuibly robes, feeling very strange about doing so... like he is a thief.
Wise Snake lifts her head to look up at him.
Wise Snake: Thank you, Nick. That was nice.
Wise Snake: I'm glad we decided to do that now.
Nick supposes that "nice" isn't the worst adjective which could be applied, but had been hoping for "great".
Wise Snake: Oh.. I can spare you for a little while, if you want to, er, meet with any Naros people on your own.
Wise Snake claps him on the shoulder and goes back to her desk.
Nick gives a hurt frown.
Wise Snake remembers Linn's complaints about hygiene and takes a side detour toward the door, thinking to look for a sink.
Nick: You don't want to....?
Wise Snake pauses and looks at Nick.
Wise Snake: I don't want to... ??
Wise Snake: Oh!
Wise Snake: No, no thank you.
Wise Snake: But really, there are plenty of opportunities around, hey?
Wise Snake leaves the office in search of a sink.
Nick: Or is there someone you've met...?
Nick: ~~ jealously ~~
Nick trails after Snake in her pursuit of hygienic perfection (or at least hygienic adequacy).
Wise Snake notices Nick is following her and slows down to a reasonable Gen speed.
Wise Snake: Well, I thought I'd give their Sectuib Riyyh a shot.
Wise Snake: I mean, if he says yes.
Wise Snake likes to think just about anybody would say yes to her.
Nick: What?
Nick: ~~ shock ~~
Wise Snake goes into a janitorial closet and turns on some cold water.
Wise Snake: Err....
Wise Snake digs in her pocket for the bar of Farris soap Linn brilliantly thought of making Snake carry around with her.
Wise Snake: I thought I'd give Riyyh a try.
Wise Snake: I mean, he must be a pretty good time don't you think? After all those women?
Wise Snake: ~academic curiosity~
Nick: I'm not good enough for you anymore?
Wise Snake's turn to look confused has arrived.
Nick is starting to get seriously upset.
Wise Snake: Good enough? Well, yes, you're perfectly good enough, but....
Wise Snake realizes Nick is upset.
Wise Snake: You don't want me to have sex with anybody besides you??
Wise Snake looks at him in amazement.
Wise Snake: But why not?
Nick: Well, I wouldn't mind if I weren't able or something.
Wise Snake looks perplexed.
Wise Snake: I thought you were always able.
Wise Snake: Look, Nick, why haven't you mentioned this before?
Wise Snake: Do you mean to say that to use your services at all I must be exclusive?
Nick: Well, I wouldn't have minded sharing you with Rapol, but Riyyh?
Nick: He's not one of us.
Wise Snake finishes scrubbing off her arms and starts rinsing them.
Wise Snake: That's your criteria?
Wise Snake seems genuinely bewildered by this new development.
Wise Snake: Don't you think I should be allowed a little wider range of experiences than that?
Nick: Is that all it is to you? An "experience"?
Wise Snake: I mean, there's no real reason to turn what could be pleasurable for all involved into -- [stops just short of saying "a chore"] --
Wise Snake: Look, Nick....
Wise Snake: Well, I,
Wise Snake: Not really, it's mostly trying to avoid the CD's. But since I have to do it anyway, I thought... I mean,
Wise Snake: I thought you were only doing it for me as a service, because nobody else was available.
Wise Snake: I had no idea you wanted....
Nick: Wanted what? A chance to share something with you that wasn't work?
Nick: Is that such a surprise?
Wise Snake: I had no idea you wanted me to share it only with you.
Wise Snake: Unless you'd be open to me trying out Bum Bum or Griff?
Wise Snake turns off the water and shakes the droplets off her arms, then heats them to evaporate the rest faster.
Nick: Oh, try out who you want. I obviously don't mean anything special to you, if you're grabbing the first substitute available.
Wise Snake starts back toward the office.
Wise Snake: What!
Wise Snake: Nick, you mean the world to me.
Wise Snake: I wouldn't even be alive if it wasn't for you.
Wise Snake: Do you think anybody else here could have done what you just did for me?
Nick: So I'm good enough to give you transfer, but you'd just as soon go somewhere else--anywhere else-- for a bedmate?
Wise Snake sits down at her desk and looks up at Nick in complete confusion.
Wise Snake: Well, I'm sorry Nick, I just didn't realize it was this important to you.
Wise Snake: I mean, I've only ever had two sexual partners in my life, and I haven't been post enough to perform that often.
Wise Snake: I thought it was expected of a young channel to be experimental.
Nick: Well, if I'm the last name on your list, I suppose I should be happy that there were at least a few occasions when there wasn't anybody else around.
Wise Snake: If you... [pauses at Nick's words]
Wise Snake makes herself zlin him, then immediately wishes she hadn't.
Wise Snake's tentacles crawl back into their sheathes with their tails between, er, well you get the idea.
Wise Snake: You aren't the last name... shen it, Nick.
Wise Snake: ~~annoyed~~
Nick: I stand corrected. You did pick me over Bum Bum.
Wise Snake looks into her hand and realizes she has just ripped out a clump of hair.
Wise Snake drops it.
Wise Snake: Nick, it's not that important. I'll just do without this month if you're this upset over it.
Wise Snake: The CD's aren't going to kill me in sixty days.
Wise Snake: Or I'll do it with you, or whatever.
Wise Snake: Shen, I have enough problems without fighting about coital stimulation.
Wise Snake: ~displeased~
Wise Snake picks up the schedule of appointments and looks through it.
Wise Snake: In fact, why don't you sit through the appointments with Riyyh by yourself.
Wise Snake: I need some air.
Wise Snake gets up and stomps out.
Griff is wandering the edges of the rutabaga fields, hoping to see something really ooky, like a farming accident.
Nick slumps in his chair and starts to cry.
Hero pops out of nowhere near Griff.
Hero: Hi!!!
Hero is a 12 year old Gen who looks like a 12 year old hyperactive kid.
Hero is Wolfa's Donor although you won't hear Wolfa admit that without a grimace.
Griff turns his head.
Griff: Hullo.
Griff: Where is everybody?
Griff: Aren't farmers supposed to be in the fields?
Hero wonders what he's talking about.
Griff is rather ignorant on the subject, being a city boy himself.
Hero: Not all the time! Anyway, there are one or two, see?
Hero points.
Hero: What are you doing all the way out here?
Hero: It's so boring!
Griff: That's for sure.
Hero: So?
Hero kicks a rock.
Hero: What are you doing out here?
Hero: Doesn't Hajene Farris make you do stuff?
Griff shakes his head.
Griff: She just wants me to read a lot of boring books.
Hero: Ew.
Griff: Some of them have ooky stuff in them, but it's not all that exciting.
Griff: I'm supposed to be learning how to help channels and Donors, but there are already plenty of people to do that here.
Griff: They don't want me around.
Riyyh has been dropped off at the admin building by Tictoc and is now heading up to his office, slightly early for the first of the appointments.
Riyyh pauses as he zlins somebody's misery coming out of Snake's office.
Hero: Don't I know how that feels.
Hero rolls her eyes.
Hero: Just because I'm young and they're ooooollld they think I have too much energy.
Hero: Anyway, I already know how to be a Donor.
Griff: You do?
Hero: Yeah I've been trained.
Hero: ~~nyah nyah nyah~~
Hero: What's "ooky stuff"?
Griff: You help the channels with changeovers, and flu, and broken bones, and bloody cuts and stuff?
Nick hears footsteps outside the office and tries to stop snuffling.
Griff remembers all the delightfully ooky stuff he saw in Bender Cove.
Griff: And if somebody get stabbed with a knife and all?
Riyyh pokes his head in the open door.
Nick: ~~ utter misery ~~
Hero: Oh sure. All the time.
Hero: I mean, all the times it happens.
Hero thinks the last time anybody had an injury involving blood, not counting Lotta's suicide, was this time last year.
Hero: You wanna go to the infirmary and see all the sick people?
Griff: Sure!
Hero: Maybe we can steal the genetics tests.
Hero's eyes light up.
Hero: I've been trying to get in there for days but nobody will let me in.
Griff thinks that sounds more interesting than rotten rutabagas.
Hero: If we can be the first to get our hands on that... [rubs her hands together]
Riyyh: Sosu Nick?
Riyyh: ~concerned~
Griff: Genetics tests?
Hero: You know, to say who's Sectuib's kids.
Nick turns reddened eyes on Riyyh.
Riyyh comes farther into the office.
Riyyh is dressed in his finest ornate Naros robes, and other than that looks really gloomy and depressed.
Riyyh: [and concerned]
Hero: Come on!
Nick: Oh. It's you.
Hero bounces off across the fields.
Griff bounces along in her wake.
Riyyh can't even summon a wince for that.
Riyyh: Are you all right?
Riyyh: What's happened?
Riyyh can zlin that Nick is low-field and wonders if their transfer went bad.
Riyyh tries to imagine Hajene Farris on a bad transfer and does manage to wince that time.
Nick: I'm well enough. Gens don't suffer from the CD's, after all.
Riyyh takes a moment to track that last.
Riyyh: The CD's....
Riyyh: Oh.
Nick: I haven't got a thing to worry about.
Nick: ~~ bitter ~~
Riyyh: But you... you do seem to be depressed, bitter and crying.
Nick: That doesn't matter to Snake. Why should it matter to you?
Nick is really not in any mood to be even marginally fair about this subject.
Nick: Now that we've had transfer, I'm disposable until she's ready to work again.
Griff peers into the infirmary.
Griff: Good, there's only one person there.
Griff: Where are the genetics tests?
Hero: Shh!! Keep your voice down. We're going to get caught.
Hero thinks Griff is a dope.
Nick: At least, I am here, where there are... alternatives available.
Nick surveys Snake's alternative-of-choice from head to foot.
Riyyh was probably devastatingly handsome as a younger man and, well, the ladies haven't complained lately either.
Nick wonders how a mere compatible Donor can compete with that sort of attraction, even with a 25 year advantage.
Riyyh: Er... Nick,
Riyyh feels kind of uncomfortable giving this kind of talk to somebody this close to Snake, who he has come to see as kind of the anti-Sectuib of the house.
Griff: Can you create a distraction?
Hero: Can I!
Hero bursts into the room, startling the technician.
Hero: Oh my god!!! Right in the courtyard of all places!!
Hero: No no don't look.... wait!!
Hero tries to keep the technician from rushing out of the room to go look, but she doesn't try very hard.
Hero locks the door behind the hapless tech.
Griff follows Hero into the room.
Riyyh: Do I understand that you have... romantic feelings for your channel?
Hero: Where do we go now!
Hero doesn't have any idea what genetics information looks like or how it's stored.
Hero: How about where Mytag and Tictoc were working?
Hero: It's got to be there.
Griff: Well, first we make sure he doesn't climb out the window and walk right in after us.
Hero rushes to one of the lab benches which is strewn with plastic sheets and pads of paper.
Griff secures the doors with locks and chairs.
Griff then starts to assist Hero with the search.
Nick: Not the way Rapol did, but I thought she'd enjoyed what we did.
Nick: Now I learn that she'd just as soon have somebody--anybody--else.
Nick: "Coital stimulation".... Garon's whores were more interested in their clients!
Riyyh: Oh, Nick.
Riyyh comes closer to him, filled with compassion for Nick's unhappiness despite his own problems.
Griff has spent enough time in hospitals to look in the fattest folder first.
Hero: Don't mess anything up!
Griff wonders how anybody could tell, since the place is such a mess.
Hero jumps up and down and looks over Griff's shoulder, not touching anything herself.
Griff has conveniently forgotten the usual state of his childhood room, and how easy it was for him to know when his siblings had been through it.
Riyyh: There are so many people here who are desperate for lovers who are not related to them.
Riyyh: ~sorrow~
Riyyh: With so many requests, perhaps she lost sight of, of what she has with you, for just a brief time.
Riyyh has no idea what Snake has with Nick, so he's kind of operating in the dark here.
Griff finds that the top sheet has a woman's name at the top, followed by a lot of jargon, and at the bottom, it says that Riyyh was her father.
Riyyh: But Nick, that doesn't mean she doesn't care for you, and care for you deeply.
Hero: That's it!! That's it!!!!! [adolescent squeal]
Hero hugs Griff.
Nick snorts skeptically.
Nick: Well, I'm sure she'll find plenty of volunteers to "service" her, if her first choice isn't interested.
Nick: She made it plain enough that I wasn't ever under consideration.
Nick: ~~ bitter frustration ~~
Griff backs away from the "mushy stuff".
Griff: Hey!
Nick isn't too optimistic about the chances of said volunteers, though, since it's obvious that Riyyh doesn't make a habit of turning down propositions.
Riyyh: So much anger... Nick, is it right to feel such anger toward your own transfer partner?
Hero: Sorry.
Hero: Come on! What do they say? Go through them all.
Riyyh: [uncertain]
Griff looks at Hero in disgust.
Griff: Here? I thought you didn't want to be discovered.
Riyyh: Have you talked with her about your feelings?
Hero: Well we can't take the actual papers... can we?
Hero looks at Griff with a new respect... now this is chutzpah.
Hero: I mean, won't we, like, totally get in trouble and all?
Nick: Oh, yes, I told her how I felt about being treated like a prostitute, to be used when nothing better's around.
Nick: That's when she stalked out.
Riyyh places a kindly hand on Nick's shoulder.
Riyyh: [this is made possible in part by his lowered sensitivity post-transfer]
Griff: Only if they know we took them.
Riyyh: Nick, Nick. You're feeling bitter and unloved. But don't assume all is lost.
Griff thinks that the technician will probably be able to finger Hero, but that's why he had her create the disturbance.
Hero: Well... OK.
Hero: You go out that way, and I'll go out this way, and we'll pretend we didn't come in together.
Hero: Meet me behind the plow shed in... a half hour.
Hero: OK?
Griff: No, I'll take the papers, so you can say you didn't take them without lying.
Hero: Of course!!
Hero had not planned on touching the things even once.
Griff: You go let the technician out--pretend the lock stuck or something.
Hero: I was going to.
Hero: [pouts]
Hero: Don't tell me what to do!
Griff: With luck, no one will notice the papers have gone until a dozen more people have been and gone.
Hero thinks this Griff is no fun after all.
Griff goes over to the window and opens it.
Griff: Half an hour, behind the plow shed.
Hero: Yeah... perfect.
Hero goes and moves the things from the door, clearing it.
Hero waits until Griff is safely down the wall into the courtyard.
Hero unlocks the door, whips it open and rushes out again, startling the technician [and other passers-by] badly.
Griff jumps from the window, puts the folder under his shirt, and saunters boldly across the courtyard.
Hero: Did you see!! Did you see!!! Griff Gussleson is in the courtyard with all the records!!
Hero doesn't try to stop them from rushing to see this time.
Riyyh: Have you told her that you want to marry? [gently]
Nick: Marry? Who said anything about marriage?
Nick thinks that Riyyh, of all people, should understand that marriage has little to do with random sleeping around.
Riyyh pauses.
Riyyh: Perhaps I misunderstand. [admits]
Riyyh: I had thought you wanted your union to be complete... a marriage of nager and body, as we do here in Naros.
Nick: I'd just like to be treated like something more than a portable dildo for use when desperate.
Riyyh chokes.
Riyyh: Ahh... well,
Riyyh is afraid Nick will have trouble finding somebody who isn't desperate around here.
Riyyh: Perhaps one of the ladies in the town, down below?
Nick looks at Riyyh in disgust.
Riyyh zlins Nick's disgust and removes his hand.
Nick: I don't sleep with prostitutes.
Nick: What's the point, when they don't even try to enjoy it?
Riyyh: No! There are no prostitutes there.
Riyyh: It is only a small town. With normal girls from normal families.
Riyyh is somewhat injured that Nick would think such a thing of their little flock of villagers.
Nick: And looking for normal husbands, which I'm not.
Riyyh: What would make you happy, Nick?
Nick looks at Riyyh.
Riyyh seems genuinely concerned for Nick, or at least distressed by his unhappiness.
Nick: I want Snake to want me. As something more than a temporary convenience.
Nick: Is that really too much to expect?
Riyyh: You want her to want you sexually instead of nagerically?
Riyyh recognizes that situation.
Riyyh is still raw from Ruby's rejection of him as a channel because he would not take her as wife.
Nick: Until an hour ago, I had every reason to believe she wanted me both ways.
Nick: And then, right after transfer, she announced that she was off to find a substitute. And not because she particularly cared for him, either!
Nick: She just thought it might be less of a chore with someone else.
Nick almost chokes on the word "chore".
Nick: ~~ deep hurt ~~
Riyyh can't help but take up both of Nick's hands at the stab of ~~deep hurt~~.
Riyyh: Nick... surely she doesn't feel you are a chore.
Riyyh: You are her Companion.
Riyyh: ~~pity~~
Riyyh: Are you sure she understands the depths of your love and respect for her as a woman?
Nick's ego is at an all-time low as he sees Riyyh's pity.
Nick: That's not the sort of thing you can hide from a Farris channel.
Riyyh: So she simply does not love you? [sadly]
Nick: Not as a man. Though she was willing to use me that way, when it was convenient.
Nick: As a Gen...well, who's to say what she would do, if another Donor appeared who could serve her?
Riyyh squeezes Nick's hands, entwining the tentacles around Nick's wrists.
Riyyh: Then it is up to you to change her mind.
Riyyh: It's not as if she has chosen another permanently... has she?
Riyyh: You could prove yourself... win her.
Nick reclaims his hands.
Riyyh looks searchingly into Nick's eyes.
Nick: I thought I had. At least, I wasn't getting any complaints.
Riyyh: Nick, what you had was simply the first stage of a true bonding. Not the permanent part of it.
Nick: Well, you're certainly right about it not being permanent.
Riyyh: Nick, please.
Nick: She walked away the second there was an opportunity.
Riyyh: You're so bitter. How can you feel love for a woman when you are so angry at her?
Riyyh: [soothing]
Riyyh: Look at me, Nick. Look.
Riyyh: Don't be angry.
Riyyh: [coaxing]
Nick has never been subjected to a channel's coaxing before, since Snake doesn't bother with such niceties, and is unprepared for its effect.
Nick finds his anger fading to mere desolation.
Riyyh: You feel terrible, yes, but think of what this means.
Riyyh: You know what means everything to you, now.
Riyyh: Knowing makes it possible to fight for what you want.
Riyyh: Think of it... as her Companion you have every advantage in this.
Riyyh: Yes, it has caught you by surprise that she didn't feel the way you thought she did.... but now you know how she does feel.
Nick: Oh, yes. I could use my nager to twist her feelings, make her want me even more than I want her.
Nick: I could make her come begging to me.
Riyyh: No no... not that way.
Riyyh: Never do that.
Nick: ~~ disgust at the thought ~~
Riyyh: Nick... listen to me.
Riyyh: When I say "fight", I don't mean "force".
Riyyh: If you used her in that way it would be no better than the way you describe her using you.
Riyyh: I would never ask you to compromise yourself in that way.
Riyyh: ~~soothing~~
Riyyh: You can bring her to you in more gentle ways.
Riyyh: Do the things she likes... give her what she needs.
Riyyh: Why does she go to these other men?
Riyyh: Is it to use them like "portable dildoes" for convenience?
Riyyh: Or do they have something you haven't got?
Riyyh: Whatever that thing is, you must get it.
Nick somehow doubts that Snake would come back to him if he managed to father an entire Householding worth of bastards.
Riyyh: She is your channel. She is with you most of every day.
Riyyh: Surely you can examine her mind and heart and come to understand what is is she seeks.
Riyyh: For all you know, your new understanding of her desires may be as wrong as your original misapprehension.
Nick: She said she wanted variety. Experimentation.
Riyyh: Ah...
Riyyh: Ah yes, but Nick, she is nearly a child.
Riyyh: You must explain to her why she does not require this experimentation.
Riyyh: If you truly believe she does not require it, she will zlin that in you and believe you.
Nick: I can't even explain to her why taking three horse tranquilizers isn't a good idea.
Nick: She doesn't ask for my advice, or want it when I offer it.
Nick: All she seems to want from me is selyn, shielding, and support.
Nick stares glumly at his hands.
Riyyh reaches tentatively for Nick's hands again.
Riyyh: Do you know why that is, Nick?
Riyyh: [softly]
Nick: She doesn't want a Companion. Not really.
Nick: She has to have the services only a trained Gen can provide, but she doesn't want anything outside of that.
Nick's fingers tighten on Riyyh's hands.
Riyyh: She is a strong, independent-minded woman.
Riyyh: Perhaps the idea of being dependent on another human being for life terrifies her.
Riyyh: Would it not terrify you?
Riyyh: While there is yet the illusion of incomplete dependence, there is a shield against the fear.
Nick: When I was learning, my life was in Snake's hands daily.
Riyyh: But you chose that... didn't you?
Riyyh has not actually heard the story of how Nick came to be in Snake's company, although there have been rumors that some of the others were kidnapped.
Riyyh: Hajene Farris did not choose to be Sime.
Riyyh: And if it weren't for you, she'd be dependent on another Gen for life.
Riyyh: There is no other way, for a Sime.
Nick: If she had stayed with the Tecton, there would have been more than one potential Donor for her. She wouldn't have been dependent on any one Gen.
Riyyh meets Nick's eyes, trying to show him without zlinning.
Riyyh: But now she is, and maybe it is hard for her to become dependent on him for the "little need" as well.
Nick: She told me when we met that she wanted a Companion, not a Donor. Someone to share her life as well as give her selyn.
Nick: I guess she didn't really mean that.
Riyyh tries to take stock.
Riyyh: Look... Nick...
Nick: ~~ depression ~~
Riyyh: Are you sure that she knows how much this means to you?
Nick: Yeah....it was zlinning that that made her run off in a huff.
Riyyh: I'm sorry.
Riyyh pulls Nick toward him into an embrace.
Riyyh: ~~sympathy for the other's obvious pain~~
Nick: ~~ desolation ~~
Delvage barges into Snake's office.
Delvage: There you are!
Delvage points at Riyyh.
Delvage stops in confusion as he sees his Sectuib in the embrace of another man.
Delvage, being a Gen, doesn't realize how dolorous the ambient is.
Nick groans and automatically tries to pull himself together.
Delvage: I have a right to an apology and I'm damn well going to get one! [after he has found his voice again]
Nick pulls back.
Riyyh sighs and lets Nick go.
Riyyh: I'm sorry, Nick. I have these appointments, you see.
Riyyh: ~regret~
Nick: Go on, you have your House to attend to.
Riyyh stands and turns to Delvage.
Riyyh: Come with me to my office. You will get your apology.
Delvage leaves the office with an odd look at Nick.
Nick slumps back into his chair.
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