Sime~Gen Roleplaying: Householding Naros Scenario
Episode #73: The Lesson (12/3/98)
Linn sits at a table in the teachers' lounge, sipping at tea while she grades student essays.
Linn gets to the bottom of an essay.
Linn: ~~ distress ~~
Linn picks up a red pen and starts making corrections.
Linn finishes her grading and picks up the next sheet ~~ hopefully ~~.
Linn's ~~ hope~~ diminishes as she plows through the effort.
Dennifa comes down the hall.
Linn fortifies herself with another sip of tea and picks up the red pen again.
Linn shakes her head as she corrects the grammar.
Dennifa comes into the room without seeing Linn there.
Dennifa goes over to the shelves of school supplies and starts digging around.
Linn looks up at the noise.
Linn: Oh, Dennifa.
Linn: How are you today?
Linn welcomes the respite from the essays.
Dennifa jumps. ~~startled ~~
Dennifa whirls around.
Dennifa: Oh! Linn.
Dennifa: I'm sorry.
Dennifa: I, uh, didn't see you there.
Linn smiles.
Linn: Are you looking for anything in particular?
Dennifa: Construction paper. I thought there might be some in here.
Linn: Try the top shelf over there.
Linn points.
Dennifa goes over to check.
Dennifa pulls out a pack of mixed colors of it.
Linn: Do you have a special project in mind for that?
Dennifa: I was thinking the younger children could make up some paper chains.
Dennifa: Make the classrooms a bit less drab.
Linn: Or you could have them do dioramas--that always keeps them occupied on cold, rainy days.
Dennifa: Dioramas?
Linn: Yes. Little scenes, three dimensional.
Dennifa is tempted to pretend she knows what those are, but doesn't try.
Dennifa: Oh. With like cut-out drawings standing up?
Linn: Yes.
Linn: Most of the time, it's easy enough to find an educational topic.
Dennifa: Yes. Maybe something related to Year's Turning.
Linn: Make it an historical scene or some such.
Dennifa: Well, we had a picture contest about the House's founding last year, so we can't do that again so soon.
Linn: Perhaps you could do scenes showing how the holiday is celebrated in various parts of the world?
Dennifa brightens. "Good idea!"
Linn: I'm glad to be of help.
Linn looks down at her stack of papers.
Linn: If only the older students' curriculum was that tractable.
Riyyh tiptoes past the door of the teacher's lounge, hoping to get in and out of his meeting with the school's coordinator without attracting the attention of any money-hungry teachers.
Linn catches a glimpse of the white-lined cape.
Linn: Riyyh!
Riyyh: ~~d'oh!~~
Riyyh turns back and enters the teacher's lounge.
Riyyh: Hello, Linn, Dennifa. [smiles kindly]
Linn: How are you today?
Dennifa: Hello, Sectuib.
Riyyh: Quite fine, quite fine, thank you for asking. And how are the two of you?
Linn: Well enough.
Dennifa: Things are going fine, yes.
Linn: Has there been any word about the books I ordered?
Dennifa remembers the last time she talked to Riyyh with a ~~ pang ~~.
Riyyh winces twice, though it only looks like one wince since they both happened at the same time.
Riyyh's tentacles begin to wave in an ~oh dear~ fashion.
Riyyh casts an apologetic glance at Dennifa.
Linn: I take it that means "no"?
Riyyh: Well, [nervously to Linn] I am not sure what exactly you mean about books you ordered... we did pick two or three off your list to order copies off, but that was only days ago.
Dennifa: Linn had a great idea for an activity for the younger children, Sectuib.
Riyyh: It will take weeks for them to arr.... oh, really?
Riyyh manages to avoid asking if it's cheap.
Riyyh: That's wonderful. [smiles]
Dennifa gestures with the pack of paper. "We're going to make biaramas about Year's Turning Ceremonies around the world."
Linn: Err... dioramas.
Dennifa flushes in ~~ shame ~~.
Linn: Three-dimensional scenes made with cut paper and other materials.
Dennifa: Err, dioramas, yes.
Dennifa wonders if the library will tell her much about what those ceremonies are. She's sure other Householding are covered, but otherwise....
Linn: Dennifa is so good at keeping the younger children interested.
Riyyh: How very interesting.
Riyyh: What a nice idea.
Linn: It will provide something for the parents to see when they stop by.
Dennifa feels ~~ better ~~ when Linn compliments her.
Linn nods in satisfaction as Dennifa recovers from the embarrassment of mispronunciation.
Dennifa: Was there something you wanted, Sectuib?
Riyyh's tentacles wilt.
Riyyh: No, no, I just stopped in to say hello.
Riyyh smiles at them both, and backs out.
Linn notes the wilted tentacles.
Linn: Is something wrong?
Riyyh: No, not at all... I just... had some business to attend to in the office of the coordinator, I will speak to you both later.
Nick oooofs as Riyyh almost backs into him.
Riyyh doesn't want to make Dennifa any more uncomfortable, and certainly doesn't want Linn to remember they were talking about the books.
Riyyh: Excuse me. [to Nick]
Nick: Sectuib Riyyh! .
Riyyh: I'm terribly sorry, I was just on my way... er....
Nick looks down the hall in a somewhat guilty fashion.
Riyyh stops.
Nick: Are you hiding from Grandmother Prunida too?
Riyyh looks down the hall in some alarm.
Riyyh: Is she following you?
Dennifa wonders why Nick is being so disrespectful to his grandmother in public.
Nick: Well, she tried to corner me in the cafeteria, but I saw her coming in time and ducked out through the kitchen.
Nick: I thought it might be safe here--she doesn't like children much.
Dennifa: [Upon hearing the last, Dennifa thinks she may know some of the reason.]
Dennifa cannot understand not liking children.
Riyyh: She does care for you deeply, Nick. [attempts]
Nick is still ~~ hungry ~~ from his missed meal.
Nick: I know. I just wish she didn't show her caring by insisting that I follow her plans for me.
Dennifa is ~~ embarrassed ~~ at hearing this kind of intimate information.
Nick: And I do NOT want her to get into another argument with Snake about it.
Nick considers it something of a minor miracle that their initial encounter concluded without major injuries.
Riyyh: Well, yes, I can see that you'd, er,
Riyyh's tentacles flutter.
Nick: Has Grandmother said anything about how long she intends to stay?
Dennifa wonders why this wisesnake, who she hasn't met but has heard a lot about, is so touchy about everything. People are constantly either coping with her tantrums or trying to forestall them.
Nick is ~~ hopeful ~~ that he will be left in peace soon.
Riyyh's tentacles wilt once again.
Riyyh: No.
Nick wilts along with Riyyh's tentacles.
Nick: Oh.
Nick had hoped that Prunida would leave once her turnover hit.
Nick would rather not deal with her when she's cranky with approaching need.
Riyyh: Oh, I do hope... [hesitates; he'd almost said he hoped her turnover arrived soon]
Riyyh: I mean... I do, er, believe that she has responsibilities back home. [weakly]
Riyyh would like to get some sleep some day.
Nick: She does, but she's always placed family matters first.
Nick: ~~ glum ~~
Riyyh knew that!
Nick looks down the hall again.
Riyyh at least has been at ground zero for Prunida's family matters for going on 40 years now.
Nick: Is there a... scenic route... back to the guest cottages that might be, er, less visible than going through the garden?
Riyyh is momentarily confused by the combination of "scenic" and "less visible" but is of course able to guess that what Nick really doesn't want is for Prunida to notice him.
Nick is, of course, referring to the sorts of "scenic routes" taken by Gens, who lack the Sime orientation sense.
Riyyh: Perhaps a decoy?
Riyyh has been guilty of sending Hero to distract people while he slipped off in another direction, though he'd never admit this if it ever occurred to anybody to ask.
Nick: You would do that?
Nick: ~~ gratitude ~~
Riyyh takes a moment to really register what Nick just said.
Riyyh: ~alarm~
Nick: I really appreciate it.
Nick: She's probably staking out the garden, so that she can intercept me when I try to return to Snake.
Nick is getting itchy to do just that.
Riyyh's shoulders wilt as well as his tentacles.
Riyyh: Well... all right.
Nick smiles a charming, Riyyh-like smile.
Nick: Thank you.
Riyyh smiles a green, coward-like smile.
Riyyh gives a little wave to Linn and Dennifa and creeps out the door.
Dennifa waves goodbye to them.
Nick gives Riyyh a minute's head start, then goes in search of a back door to the school.
Linn looks after them, then returns to her grading.
Dennifa watches them go. "I never understand what channels and Companions are doing."
Linn: I don't, either, and I'm supposed to be a Companion, of sorts.
Dennifa looks over at Linn, surprised, impressed, and puzzled.
Linn is a bit surprised herself at Dennifa's reason.
Linn: You mean you didn't know?
Linn would have thought that every single member of Naros knew the whole story, in six different versions, by now.
Dennifa: No, I hadn't heard. I knew you were one of Wise Snake's ... came here with her.
Linn: Yes. She was training me as a Companion for Bum Bum--Hajene Altavista..
Linn: We were preparing for our qualifying transfer when Bum Bum decided to join Naros instead.
Linn: Last month, Sectuib Riyyh offered to let me qualify with Hajene Mostan, but I ended up getting attacked by a disjunction candidate instead.
Dennifa gasps.
Linn: I suppose Snake will take my field down this month, now that she's back on her feet.
Dennifa nods.
Dennifa: And you can still teach at the same time?
Linn: Well, to the extent I'm a Companion at all, I'm one without a channel.
Linn: And I was a teacher for years, before Snake hit on the idea of making a Companion out of me.
Dennifa confesses "They always told me I wasn't controlled enough for any work around Simes."
Riyyh goes out into the garden.
Prunida has staked out the gazebo.
Linn: Well, it does take some practice to avoid hurting a channel.
Dennifa: How do you practice not feeling?
Prunida zlins Riyyh, and decides that his greater sensitivity might be useful.
Prunida: Oh, Riyyh!
Linn considers.
Linn: It's not "not feeling" so much as choosing what to feel. On demand.
Riyyh: Hello, Prunida.
Riyyh is unable to appear surprised, but manages to muster a smile.
Prunida: Have you seen Nick? I'd swear the boy is trying to avoid me.
Dennifa looks perplexed. "Yeah, that's what they tell me, but I still don't get it."
Linn, a teacher to the core, rises to the challenge.
Prunida manages to muster a creditable ~~ indignation ~~ at the thought.
Linn: Well, suppose you were, say, in the middle of a Torn By Tentacles concert. Lots of drugged youngsters, and the sort that prey on gatherings like that.
Riyyh: Nick? Well,
Riyyh hopes that by being vague enough he'll cause Prunida to become impatient and interrupt him, thereby releasing him from the obligation to answer the question.
Linn: Your channel is trying to give a transfer, though, and your normal reaction to the surroundings would disrupt that.
Prunida looks at Riyyh sharply.
Riyyh's body language becomes somewhat submissive.
Riyyh: Er, no? ~~showfield of truth~~
Linn looks at Dennifa to see if she's following so far.
Prunida: That boy!
Dennifa nods.
Prunida: You'd think he'd have learned by now that I have only his best interests at heart.
Linn: So, you decide what feelings will most help your channel, and you think of whatever it takes to make you feel that way.
Linn: And you try not to look around at the stoned kids, or you'll lose it and drop your support.
Dennifa: OK.
Riyyh tries to look cute and harmless.
Riyyh: Well, er, he is rather busy, perhaps you and he are just not connecting...?
Prunida snorts in the patented, old-lady fashion.
Prunida: Busy with that hussy of a rogue channel.
Prunida: She leads him around by the nager, it's plain to zlin.
Riyyh looks around reflexively at the maligning of Snake's name.
Riyyh: They are rather attached. [agrees cautiously]
Prunida: Humph!
Dennifa: Anyway, Thank you for the suggestions for [careful pronunciation ] dioramas.
Prunida: I ought to wash my hands of the boy.
Linn: You're quite welcome.
Linn smiles.
Riyyh nods politely, knowing Prunida never will, alas.
Prunida: I don't suppose he's done something useful and sired a child while he was here, has he?
Linn: I wish my curriculum problems were as tractable.
Linn looks dolefully at her pile of half-corrected essays.
Riyyh: Not that I am aware of. [confesses]
Riyyh: I'm sorry.
Prunida wonders how many generations the breeding program will have to go on before it creates something useful.
Riyyh is pretty sure he'd take care to not know even if he did know.
Riyyh is glad Nick is a boy and he himself is sterile, so Prunida can't get any further ideas about linebreeding him into her family.
Prunida: What a waste.
Riyyh makes a sympathetic noise, and suitably matching nager.
Prunida: Ungrateful, that's what he is, ungrate....
Prunida staggers as her turnover hits.
Dennifa goes over to look at Linn's essays.
Prunida clutches at the gazebo for support.
Riyyh is flabbergasted that he neither saw it coming or proved competent to support Prunida through it.
Riyyh: Oh, I'm terribly sorry.
Riyyh: ~many apologies~
Riyyh offers her a supportive nager.
Linn: I had my most advanced class write an essay about "A Day in Gen Territory".
Dennifa reads over one, and sees a large number of corrections she wouldn't have made. Because she does see anything wrong with them.
Linn: The grammar they'll learn, eventually, but I'd hoped they'd learned more of the culture than these suggest.
Prunida leans on Riyyh's supportive nager.
Prunida: Thank you. I think that gets rougher every time.
Dennifa is mortified. "I'm sorry, I should have done a better job...."
Prunida forces herself to breathe slowly as the world stops spinning.
Prunida: It goes away much faster with a channel around, though.
Prunida comes as close to ~~ gratitude ~~ as she is capable of.
Linn: It's not your fault, Dennifa.
Linn: Have you ever lived in Gen Territory?
Riyyh: I was meaning to ask you....
Prunida looks at Riyyh.
Prunida: Yes?
Prunida is quite willing to prolong the conversation--and the support.
Dennifa: Not exactly. I went there for a few months once about 10 - 15 years ago.
Linn: Oh? What for?
Riyyh: Don't you have to go home, eventually? I mean, your business, your house... surely you hadn't meant to be gone this long?
Dennifa tries unsuccessfully to conceal the painful memories that dredges up.
Linn: If you'd rather not talk about it....
Prunida: I got a letter from my daughter this morning, and it looks like she's got things under control for now.
Prunida: And if I leave, Nick's likely to slip away again, and it could be years before I can track him down again.
Dennifa: It was one of those programs to try and help promote understanding between in- and out-T.
Dennifa: But it... I wasn't suited to the task.
Linn: I see.
Linn: What happened?
Riyyh: Well, er....
Riyyh is pretty sure Nick will slip away even faster with Prunida staying around.
Riyyh tries, unsuccessfully, to decide which is the lesser of 2 evils between Snake and Prunida.
Prunida: Unless he and his rogue channel have decided to join Naros?
Riyyh: No, they haven't.
Riyyh: ~good~
Prunida frowns.
Prunida: It's not the Tecton, but I'd hoped....
Riyyh: But Prunida, they wouldn't be happy here.
Prunida: The boy requires some stability in his life.
Dennifa sighs. "I just couldn't get through to people there. Never really figured out why."
Prunida: Do you think they'd be happier wandering the roads in this weather?
Riyyh: Probably. [confesses]
Riyyh: They did that willingly when they were in Bender Cove.
Riyyh: Hajene Farris is used to the big city, Prunida, and Nick will always go where she goes.
Riyyh: They would be stifled here.
Linn: Perhaps you were concentrating so hard on getting through to them that you didn't take enough time to get to know them first? [gently]
Prunida slumps.
Prunida: Is it really that hopeless?
Dennifa looks away. "Could be."
Riyyh: I'm sorry.
Riyyh: ~sympathy~
Linn: That's what my students here are doing, you know.
Riyyh touches her cheek with a tentacle.
Riyyh: Some things things just... don't work out.
Riyyh means that in all senses, profound and superficial.
Linn: I asked them to describe a typical day in Gen Territory, and they all wrote essays on how they think Gen Territory interacts with Simes.
Prunida: Riyyh, I spent 40 years or more making Nick. ~~ devastation ~~
Riyyh hugs Prunida gently, enfolding her in a gentle, supportive field.
Riyyh: I know....
Linn: I can correct their grammar easily, but how do I teach them that life in Gen Territory doesn't usually include any meaningful interaction with Simes?
Dennifa nods, though she hadn't paid attention to the content for the grammar and spelling corrections.
Dennifa: I... I don't know. That always sounds too much like like saying men and women don't have any dealing with each other. At least to us.
Linn: Exactly. Interaction between Simes and Gens is so basic to life here that my students have a terrible time imagining any other way.
Linn: That's why I wanted the new books--to show them a Gen Territory view of life.
Linn: And not just on the subject of Simes, either.
Dennifa: Ah. Yeah, I suppose books from out-T might be good for that.
Linn: Whenever they arrive.
Linn: Oh, well, I suppose nothing will make the mail travel quickly in winter.
Dennifa nods.
Dennifa has always wondered about the "mail delays" that seem to plague school supplies.
Linn lifts her tea for a sip, and makes a face when she discovers that it's stone cold.
Dennifa: I'm sorry, I've been taking too much of your time, haven't I?
Linn: Not at all.
Linn: It's very helpful to have a chance to try out ideas on someone else before introducing them in the classroom.
Dennifa smiles. "It's very nice of you to say that."
Linn looks at her tea.
Linn: Would you care to join me in the cafeteria for a warmer cup?
Dennifa: Yes, I'd love to.
Linn: There are several ideas I've been meaning to run past someone....