Sime/Gen Roleplaying: Householding Naros Scenario
Episode #50: Dream Traveller (11/1/98)
Alea sits in the cafe of a stop not knowing where she is, but stopping for a meal and cup of tea.
Riyyh walks into the cafe where he agreed to wait for Mytag.
Riyyh peers and zlins into the bustling mess, trying to locate the counter.
Riyyh: [and earmark a table]
Riyyh: Oh dear.
Alea glances around and notes the very handsome channel more by field recognition than anything else.
Riyyh looks back, but Mytag is already gone.
Alea studies the person curiously, setting her tea back down...wondering if he's okay.
Alea feels her field respond as a Companion's field and cuts her eyes back up at him.
Riyyh is trying to make his way between the tables to what he hopes is the counter, and zlins a high level Donor's attention on him.
Riyyh looks at Alea.
Alea decides it's the least she can do, with no Companion at his side.
Alea: Would you care to join me, Hajene?
Alea ~~ offers a bubble of protection from the ambient ~~
Riyyh: ~surprise~
Riyyh doesn't seem to be able to locate this Donor's channel anywhere nearby.
Riyyh: Why, thank you.
Alea ~~ calm steady ~~
Alea smiles and waves at the waiter to bring some more tea.
Riyyh sits down with Alea.
Riyyh: Rather... crowded in here, isn't it?
Riyyh: ~nervously~
Alea: Yes, very.
Alea ~~ soothing ~~
Riyyh edges closer to Alea.
Alea: Are you here alone?
Riyyh: No, no, my Com... my Donor is here also, I am supposed to meet him here in a few minutes.
Riyyh smiles gratefully at Alea.
Alea reaches out with her field, offering the channel a calm haven of protection against the turbulence.
Riyyh is an extremely well preserved channel in his mid-fifties, wearing a Naros cloak.
Alea: Ah....
Riyyh is amazingly cute when he smiles... due to years of practice.
Alea is wearing pink with a black belt and tie, her blonde hair hanging down her back in haphazard waves.
Alea nods.
Riyyh: We are en route to Bender Cove Township for a ceremony and party, but we are running a bit behind schedule. [explains]
Alea: Bender Cove?
Alea ~~ surprise ~~
Riyyh: Do you know it? [politely]
Alea: I suppose....ah, the party. That must be today.
Alea: I live there.
Riyyh: Oh, I see. [smiles, pleased by the coincidence]
Alea: It's an interesting town, Hajene.
Riyyh: What brings you out this way?
Alea: Ummm... well....
Alea glances around.
Alea: Out this way?
Riyyh: Pardon me, I failed to introduce myself properly.
Riyyh: I am Riyyh, Sectuib in Naros.
Riyyh: Travelling with me is Mytag ambrov Naros.
Alea focuses on him.
Alea: And I am Alea Farris.
Alea: An honor.
Alea tilts her head.
Riyyh thinks he has surely met more than his quota of Farrises for the month.
Alea: Mytag... that name sounds vaguely familiar.
Riyyh: He was assigned in Bender Cove for a short time. Perhaps the two of you worked together?
Riyyh's expression alters subtly to alarm as he suddenly connects the name to some of Mytag's stories.
Alea: I don't think so.
Riyyh corrects his expression, telling himself Mytag is a worrywart.
Alea ~~ concern ~~
Alea: Are you okay, Hajene?
Riyyh: Oh dear.
Riyyh: Yes, yes, I am fine.
Alea: Yes?
Riyyh: I'm just not used to... [gestures at the crowded, noisy cafe around them]
Alea concentrates more fully on Riyyh, offering a soothing comfort.
Riyyh: I haven't done that much travelling recently.
Alea: Would you prefer to walk outside?
Alea: Ah... it can be disconcerting.
Riyyh considers what Mytag would have to say to him if he wasn't waiting right where promised.
Alea moves closer, trying to block out all the distractions for him.
Riyyh: No, no, I think I'll be fine. Thank you.
Riyyh smiles at her again.
Alea motions to his tea the waiter delivers.
Alea: That might help.
Riyyh: Oh... thank you.
Riyyh picks up the tea.
Alea picks her tea up and takes a sip.
Riyyh: And you, are you travelling alone?
Alea: Yes. Yes, I am.
Alea: By the way, can you tell me exactly where we are?
Riyyh: Oh... yes, we're in Deek's Junction.
Riyyh: About thirty-six hours out of Bender Cove to the West.
Alea: Deek's Junction.
Riyyh would be really broken up about missing the ceremony, except fortunately that's not their real reason for going to BC anyway.
Alea's e yes widen realizing she must have been on the train quite a while. No wonder she's starving.
Riyyh: Would you allow me to buy you lunch?
Riyyh: ~~please!~~
Alea: Oh well....certainly.
Alea: Forgive me, hajene [murmurs softly]
Alea: I didn't even think about how my hunger must be affecting you.
Riyyh: And where are you headed? A reassignment?
Alea: My mind, unfortunately isn't totally centered on Donoring.
Alea blushes.
Alea: Actually, well....
Riyyh gestures to the waiter to bring a Gen menu.
Alea: I just went for a um... ride.
Riyyh asks for a Sime menu too, come to think of it.
Riyyh: ~surprised~
Alea thinks great she is going to look like a fool in front of this channel.
Riyyh thought she meant vacation, but she sure doesn't zlin like she's on vacation.
Alea: So, you're from Naros?
Riyyh sighs unhappily.
Alea: I've haven't heard a lot about it.
Riyyh: Oh... yes, I am.
Alea reaches out and touches his hand, worried at the sigh.
Riyyh: We do not have much contact with the Tecton. [confesses]
Alea nods.
Alea: I see.
Alea ~~ soothing comfort ~~
Riyyh is afraid that is going to change rather suddenly once the news that every Gen in the place was fathered by a 1st Order Channel manages to trickle up to the higher levels.
Riyyh's tentacles curl about Alea's wrist as he squeezes her hand gratefully.
Alea: I'm sure your Companion will be back soon.
Alea ~~ reassurance ~~
Riyyh: Yes, of course.
Riyyh: Thank you.
Riyyh looks into her eyes.
Riyyh: ~gratitude~
Alea is a bit disconcerted by that look.
Alea smiles her own gratitude that he doesn't think her a total incompetent.
Riyyh zlins her disconcertion and realizes he may have stepped over that invisible boundary Tictoc was talking about.
Alea: So, tell me about Naros.
Riyyh carefully removes his hand.
Riyyh: Well, we are primarily agricultural.
Alea: Oh!
Alea flushes and quickly slips her hand into her lap.
Alea: Interesting.
Alea: What do you grow there?
Riyyh: Foodstuffs, trin, and some exotics.
Riyyh: We grow our own food, and the cash crops are all high end specialty items.
Alea: Oh fascinating.
Alea: I'm surprised the Tecton doesn't know about you.
Riyyh: We also have a very old, and well established disjunction program...
Riyyh: Oh, we are not unknown to the Tecton.
Alea: Really?
Alea: Ah.
Riyyh: We have... [tries to think of best way to say it] been involved with our own programs for the most part.
Alea grins.
Alea: Something the Tecton doesn't approve of much, unless you're a Farris.
Alea winks.
Riyyh: Er, yes. [relief]
Alea: Please, Riyyh, relax.
Alea: I'm not 100% Tecton.
Alea: I am 100% Farris... but not Tecton.
Alea: In my opinion there are things that take priority over the Tecton bureaucracy.
Alea: And each person must make those decisions for him or herself.
Riyyh nods thoughtfully.
Riyyh thinks that some people have to make those decisions for their entire House.
Alea accepts the food when it arrives.
Alea ~~ allows her hunger to overwhelm her for a moment before pulling it back under control ~~
Alea: Please, why don't you join me, Sectuib?
Alea picks up her fork and takes a bite of food, hand trembling from hunger.
Alea: I um....
Alea laughs.
Alea: Forgot to eat so it's been 36 hours since I've had anything.
Alea: As I said, my mind hasn't been on Donoring.
Riyyh: ~concern~
Riyyh picks up his fork.
Riyyh: May I ask... are you all right?
Alea takes a bite of her food and chews.
Riyyh thinks it sounds like Alea is in some sort of trouble, but he certainly doesn't trust anything he zlins or doesn't zlin in a Farris.
Alea glances at Riyyh and starts to tell him what she has everyone else: to go... well... instead, she pauses.
Alea: Tell me, what is your vision of the future?
Riyyh tastes the food, which isn't exactly gourmet but he is sitting next to a starving Farris Gen.
Alea: Of being a channel, of your place in the whole scheme of things?
Riyyh winces.
Alea takes another bite and the flavors explode in her senses, the taste of eggs and cheese, the sweet taste of tomatoes....~~ total pure pleasure of taste ~~
Riyyh savors his food (well, Alea's food) as he ponders the question.
Riyyh: I have been forced to re-examine that, lately. [confesses at last]
Alea nods.
Alea: As have I.
Riyyh: I used to see myself as the friend, or confidant, of my members.
Alea smiles sadly.
Alea: There's nothing wrong with that.
Alea takes another bite, forcing her enjoyment of a meal under control so as not to irritate the channel next to her.
Riyyh glances at Alea again.
Riyyh: I have had to come to terms with a new role, one that isn't very easy for me.
Alea glances up at Riyyh.
Alea: Oh?
Riyyh: That of father and protector.
Alea smiles.
Alea: A wonderful role.
Alea's smile fades and her world turns to one of dark bleakness.
Alea: I have a daughter.
Alea: She's back in Bender Cove with her Nanny.
Riyyh: ~concern~
Alea: Being a parent can be one of the most fulfilling and yet one of the most responsible you'll ever experience.
Riyyh: Yes. [agrees]
Riyyh: I am a parent myself. [kindly]
Riyyh has just uttered the understatement of the century, but oh well.
Alea: Tell me about your child - or is it children?
Alea smiles warmly.
Riyyh smiles painfully.
Riyyh: All right....
Riyyh: Well, I have several children from various mothers who are members of my House.
Riyyh thinks it's best to keep it simple.
Riyyh: One of them is Hero, she is a young Donor and very promising.
Riyyh smiles as he thinks of Hero.
Riyyh: And Mytag is my son.
Alea is surprised.
Riyyh thinks Mytag was surprised too.
Alea: You don't look old enough to have children that age.
Riyyh beams happily.
Riyyh: Why thank you.
Alea finds herself returning the smile.
Riyyh: You are so charming.
Alea turns her attention back to her food.
Alea: You must be very proud of them.
Alea: Why, thank you.
Alea is totally surprised by the kind words from a total stranger.
Riyyh sips his tea(?).
Alea: I am very proud of my daughter.
Alea: She is trying to pull up and walk now.
Riyyh's Narosian gossip-instinct is burning to know why Alea is so far afield, now that she's avoided the question twice.
Alea: She doesn't have a father, however she's Farris so that doesn't matter.
Alea smiles at him.
Riyyh: Oh, I see.
Alea: Yes, she is a doll.
Riyyh: What is her name?
Alea: Aiesha.
Alea: She does have two very special people though....
Alea: Rabharm, who is like a father to me, loves her and then she has a cousin, though I'm not sure where her cousin is.
Riyyh: What a beautiful name.
Alea: Thank you.
Alea: I hated to leave her, but I felt I had to get away. Needed time to seek my vision.
Alea: I miss her terribly.
Alea finishes her food and pushes the plate away.
Alea ~~ sated ~~
Riyyh: Your vision?
Riyyh: ~curiously~
Alea: A vision each person has. You know, their vision that compels them, leads them onward in life.
Alea: At one time Zeor was my vision.
Alea: Everything that had to be done had to be done for the good of the future of what Zeor needed.
Riyyh thinks that sounds reasonable for the member of a House.
Alea: Somehow, since Muryin's disappearance my entire life has crashed down around me, leaving nothing but an empty shell.
Riyyh: Ah. ~understanding~
Alea: I have no idea what direction I'm suppose to be going.
Alea reaches into her pocket.
Riyyh: ~compassion~
Alea: I spent a week in the inner memorial, fasting and seeking.
Alea lays a paper out before him.
Alea: When I went to my room to shower after no real answer, that was on my desk.
Alea: It is Zelerod's Doom, personalized.
Riyyh picks up the paper.
Alea doesn't tell him it's in Klyd Farris's handwriting knowing he'd probably think she's crazy.
Alea quotes.
Alea: If you are a Companion to a Channel who gives transfer to four renSimes a day for a year, how many lives have you saved?
Riyyh lays the paper back down.
Riyyh: And when you saw it...?
Alea: In other words, as a Donor supporting a channel, there is a reason for me to have a vision.
Alea: I cried and walked out of the Center.
Alea: And kept walking until I ended up on a train... until I got hungry and ended up here.
Riyyh reaches out and gently takes Alea's hands.
Alea: And I thought about this note, and thought, and thought.
Riyyh: Alea... Alea. [softly]
Alea squeezes them.
Alea feels fresh tears fill her eyes.
Riyyh: I know it's hard.
Alea works to bring her field under strict control so as not to hurt this channel who is waiting on his Donor.
Riyyh: Sometimes simply being important, being needed, isn't enough.
Alea: Yes... well... I've come to the conclusion that my screwed up past...well it's never going to go away.
Alea: It'll always shadow me wherever I go.
Riyyh thinks 'you can say that again!'
Alea: But I just have to be the best Donor, the best Companion I can be, and accept it.
Riyyh: Alea. [kindly]
Alea: Yes?
Riyyh: That is not all there is to it, though... is it?
Alea: What do you mean?
Riyyh: You save people's lives by even existing. People want you and need you. But does that satisfy you?
Alea shakes her head.
Alea: No.
Riyyh: Or do you require... a hope, a dream, that is outside of your simple existence?
Alea nods.
Alea: Exactly [whispers]
Alea: A vision for the future.
Riyyh: It is natural for the member of a House to live her life for that House.
Riyyh: But your faith in Zeor was shaken when it lost its Sectuib, your Sectuib.
Alea thinks, and lost my lover and was kicked out of Second Companion in Zeor....
Riyyh thinks, and when all that other stuff happened.
Riyyh is glad Naros is obscure enough that he rarely ends up on the fronts of the gossip papers.
Riyyh hopes Alea hasn't read back on page 6 where the bit about his fathering his Householding was printed.
Alea: Most of all, I suppose is my faith in myself has been shaken.
Alea: I'm sure you know who I am simply from my name and have been kind enough not to mention it.
Riyyh: Do you feel you do not deserve Zeor membership anymore?
Alea pulls a hand away and strokes the tie.
Alea: Yes, I suppose that's it.
Alea: I have failed them.
Alea: I'll never be able to make up my failure. It will follow me now and forever.
Alea: You know how it is. Farrises are big headlines.
Riyyh: Yes.
Riyyh uses the free hand to touch her shoulder, briefly.
Riyyh: I'm sorry, I have of course heard of this, but I do understand what you're going through.
Alea: Really?
Riyyh: I went through something... rather similar, at least from my perspective, recently myself.
Alea is surprised since everyone else had one of two opinions: either that it wasn't a big deal, or that she should simply walk away to save Zeor future embarrassment.
Alea: Oh dear.
Alea ~~ empathy ~~
Riyyh has never felt anyone empathize with him about his fatherhood problem before.
Riyyh feels released, from a bondage of aloneness.
Riyyh: And it has been very difficult to recover from it, but with enough hard work on my part, and on the part of the members of my House, we will overcome it.
Riyyh: ~determination~
Alea: In your position I imagine you live in a glass house as well.
Alea: Yes, you will. ~~ belief in her words ~~
Riyyh: I lost my Companion, and I lost the faith of my members, and I lost their respect.
Alea: It's very hard, judged on only one part of your being when there are so many other facets of your personality, of your life, your job....
Alea: I'm so sorry.
Alea lost her lover, the faith of many and the respect of almost all and completely understands.
Riyyh: They told me, my advisors told me, that I should walk away, that I should take myself away from Naros.
Alea: And that's why you're going to Bender Cove?
Riyyh: But I refused. I - I couldn't leave Naros, it is my life, my love, and everything I have ever known.
Alea: Yes, I know....
Riyyh: No! Oh no.
Riyyh: This is a business trip.
Alea sees Zeor and a faraway look comes into her eyes.
Riyyh: Only for two or three days.
Riyyh retrieves his hands in order to wring them.
Alea: How can you leave your heart, your being, what's within you? You can't separate the two.
Riyyh: Yes, exactly.
Alea glances at Riyyh and realizes she isn't focusing properly on him ~~ soothing gentleness ~~
Riyyh's nervously waving tentacles relax.
Alea smiles.
Alea: It's so important, that vision. You can't give it up, no matter how wounded or hurt you are, no matter the ridicule.
Alea: You simply have to weather it because of that inner vision.
Alea: Because you have no...other...choice.
Alea: Oh, Riyyh... thank you so much.
Alea leans forward and kisses him on the cheek, cupping the other one gently.
Alea: You have helped me so much.
Alea: I'm forever indebted to you.
Riyyh embraces her gently.
Riyyh releases her.
Alea: I should be going.
Alea pulls back.
Riyyh: Yes, yes, Mytag should be here any moment...
Alea: I hate to leave you, but I think I'm going to get a ticket and return to Bender Cove as soon as possible.
Riyyh looks attractively indecisive. [a tricky combination but he has years of practice]
Riyyh: I should walk you to your train... but then, Mytag may return at any moment....
Alea: Oh please, stay here.
Alea: I'd hate for you to miss your Companion.
Riyyh: Of course.
Riyyh: You're right, thank you.
Alea: Thank you again.
Alea: If you get a chance, look me up while you're in Bender Cove.
Riyyh: Why thank you. I would love to meet your daughter. [smiles]
Alea stands.
Alea: Goodbye, Riyyh.
Riyyh: Good bye.
Alea heads out to the train.
Riyyh wakes up on a train with Mytag asleep in the bunk below.
Riyyh falls back to the mattress, in disbelief at the oddness of the dream.