Sime~Gen Roleplaying: Householding Naros Scenario
Episode #112: Pud Doctor (2/6/99)
Lucia is sitting on top of the wall and sees somebody coming up to the gate.
Lucia: Hello!
Lucia knows she is supposed to be expecting somebody from town for Riyyh.
Lucia: Are you the plow lady?
Lucia is a Gen in her early 20's.
Bekka walks through the gate.
Bekka: Hi, there.
Bekka: Yes, I am... is that it over there?
Lucia hurries down.
Lucia: No, I don't think so.
Lucia: Er....
Lucia: Let me run get Sectuib.
Lucia: Or, you can come with.
Bekka: It died out in the field, then?
Lucia: Rather spectacularly, from what I hear.
Bekka: Sure, I'll follow you.
Lucia walks to the administration building.
Bekka follows Lucia closely, always looking around.
Lucia sees Bekka's curiosity.
Lucia: Is this your first time inside Naros?
Lucia has to admit she doesn't recognize Bekka personally, although she would never say so out loud.
Bekka: Yes, but I've heard a lot about you folks.
Lucia: I'll bet.
Lucia: So anyway, I guess the guy was just working away, and then, BAM! He hits this amazing rock. The horse slipped and fell flat on his face.
Lucia: And the combine... well....
Lucia: Can you say, 'complete loss'?
Lucia leads Bekka inside, and up some stairs.
Bekka grimaces.
Bekka really loves mechanical things and hopes she can repair the combine.
Lucia: Nubby, Feena, Mo, Naddlie and Porg spend four or five hours combing the furrows to get all the pieces.
Lucia: So it's pretty much all there, we think.
Lucia arrives at Riyyh's office and signals.
Bekka: Oh, no... 'all' the pieces?
Rapol wakes up from dozing on the couch.
Lucia: It was a pretty impressive rock.
Riyyh: Come in!
Lucia opens the door.
Lucia: The plow person... from town.
Bekka beings to think the combine is a total loss.
Lucia: Good luck [to Bekka]
Lucia leaves.
Riyyh rises to greet Bekka.
Riyyh: Hello, I am Riyyh, Sectuib in Naros. This is Rapol, my Companion.
Bekka blinks, clearly a little afraid to be left with Riyyh
Riyyh is a kind, gentle, fatherly Sectuib type, rather well preserved for his 55 years.
Bekka advances towards Riyyh, extending a hand cautiously.
Riyyh does have a bit of a reputation, also.
Riyyh smiles at Bekka, and touches her finger tips.
Riyyh: Please, sit down. Would you like any tea?
Bekka: Hello, I'm told you have a broken combine.
Rapol stands up, running his hands through his hair.
Riyyh: Yes, yes, we do.
Riyyh: [sadly]
Bekka: No, thank you.
Riyyh: To business, then?
Bekka is clearly a little uncomfortable.
Bekka sits on the edge of her chair.
Riyyh sits down also.
Riyyh: OK any more questions before we start?
Bekka: Yes, please.
Rapol moves over to stand behind Riyyh.
Riyyh automatically speaks as kindly and soothingly as possible, in response to Bekka's discomfort.
Bekka: I understand someone hit a rock and that several pieces broke off?
Rapol is a tall male brown-haired Gen with bright blue eyes.
Riyyh: Yes, that is what I have been told. The combine has been in fine repair and working condition since it was purchased when my grandfather was Sectuib.
Riyyh: However, last fall, an... incident... occurred which evidently caused some damage to the equipment, resulting in a requisition for a new machine.
Rapol sits down by Riyyh.
Riyyh's tentacles flutter.
Riyyh: Oh dear... at considerably expense, I might add.
Riyyh: If you could possibly have a look at the device and tell me whether there is any hope of repair...?
Bekka: Well, fine machines are never inexpensive.
Bekka wonders whether the machines have been properly cared for.
Bekka: I'd be happy to look at it... and the pieces if they are near the machine
Riyyh: We have saved them all in one of the barns. [assures her]
Riyyh: Would you like to see it now?
Bekka: Oh, good. If someone could direct me to the right barn, I'll look it over and let you know whether I can do anything to help you.
Riyyh: Of course. I would be pleased to show you there myself.
Bekka: Yes, please.
Riyyh hasn't been able to interest any of the actual farm staff in participating in this little 2nd opinion exercise, actually.
Riyyh rises.
Riyyh: Rapol? Care to join us? [smiles]
Bekka actually cares more for machines than people.
Bekka: Thank you.
Rapol gets up and goes over to the coat rack.
Rapol: Certainly.
Rapol takes Riyyh's cloak and brings it over to him.
Riyyh: Thank you.
Riyyh slips the ornate Householding colors over his shoulders.
Riyyh: This way.
Bekka slides out of chair, clearly glad to be going to 'her' broken machine.
Rapol takes his coat and shrugs it on.
Riyyh leads a winding course through the administrative building out a different door than Lucia had brought Bekka in by.
Riyyh: I am sorry, what is your name? [to Bekka]
Bekka follows Rapol and Riyyh, never approaching too closely.
Rapol walks behind Riyyh.
Bekka: My name's Bekka.
Riyyh smiles.
Riyyh: I am pleased to make your acquaintance. You came very well recommended.
Rapol turns to nod. "Rapol."
Bekka is old, almost grizzled, but with strong arms and large callused hands.
Bekka: It's good to meet you, too. It's always good to hear that folks remember my work.
Riyyh leads Bekka outdoors, between some buildings, and to a small barn or toolshed.
Riyyh: I haven't seen it yet myself, [confesses]
Riyyh isn't exactly mechanical, or in fact particularly closely associated with the nitty gritty of the farming in general.
Bekka strides ahead, wanting to see broken machine
Rapol looks around ~~ curious ~~ at an area of Naros he hasn't been to before.
Riyyh opens the two doors, shedding light on the late lamented combine.
Riyyh: [it is about 100 years old, and was working and well kept up until the time of its rather sudden demise]
Riyyh: [it is laid out like a paleontology specimen, the pieces all in little rows corresponding to their approximate original locations]
Bekka rapidly approaches the pile of broken pieces and begins to pace around the machinery.
Riyyh's hands and tentacles worry each other as he awaits some word.
Bekka grunts.
Riyyh thinks it looks much worse than he had ever imagined, although he will be the first to admit he isn't an expert on hardware.
Riyyh: What do you think?
Rapol stares at the seemingly random assemblage of metal, trying to deduce what it was supposed to do.
Bekka stoops down and picks up three pieces of a long rod.
Riyyh: Is it repairable? ~~hope~~
Bekka continues to pace around
Riyyh notices a piece of straw on his cloak and removes it, temporarily distracted.
Bekka: It's just criminal what's happened to this beautiful piece of equipment!
Riyyh: Oh dear.
Riyyh gives Bekka his full attention.
Bekka: I know your people tried to salvage what they could, but....
Riyyh: What has happened?
Riyyh: Criminal?
Bekka: I know I can't repair it and I don't think anybody I know could ever put it back together again.
Rapol closes up to Riyyh in case emotional turmoil is imminent.
Riyyh is saved from anything too traumatic by Rapol's nearness.
Riyyh: Oh, dear. [again]
Riyyh: It is really that bad?
Riyyh: I had hoped... well.
Riyyh: ~~disappointment~~
Bekka: Whoever was guiding the horse just didn't see whatever it was they hit
Bekka: I'm afraid so!
Riyyh: It really was a bit of an odd incident, the field having been plowed for 300 years and the stone never turning up before.
Bekka is disappointed she couldn't save the precious machinery.
Bekka: The only thing you can do is to separate out the unbroken parts and save them for other repairs.
Bekka: I'm really sorry!
Riyyh: That is a good idea. Thank you.
Riyyh: How much do we owe you?
Riyyh thinks Turros is going to have a laugh at his expense over this.
Bekka: Nothing for this... just remember me when you have another problem.
Riyyh: Thank you. [grateful]
Riyyh: We will.
Bekka takes one last look at the bits and pieces of the combine and shaking her head walks out the door.
Rapol: ~~ support ~~
Riyyh: Would you like me to escort you to the gate? [to Bekka]
Riyyh: Or, you can just ask anybody along the way if you require directions. [smiles kindly]
Bekka: Thanks, I'll find my way.
Bekka waves.
Riyyh miles and nods.
Riyyh turns to Rapol.
Riyyh: That didn't go well at all. [sadly]
Rapol: ~~ sympathy ~~
Rapol: Can't use people?
Riyyh: Pardon?
Rapol: To work in the fields.
Riyyh: For some tasks, yes, of course. But for others, the horse-drawn technology is the most efficient.
Rapol nods. "Never seen before." ~~ gestures at equipment ~~
Rapol: Machines for farming.
Riyyh: Was it all hand labor where you were born? ~curiously~
Rapol: Yes.
Rapol: Everyone had to at harvest time.
Colleen is wandering around with a map.
Colleen is quite proud of the map of Naros she drew.
Colleen goes up to Bekka.
Colleen: Do you know how to get to the gate from here?
Bekka: I'm not sure, can you tell me where the gate is?
Bekka peers at the map in Colleen's hands.
Colleen: I think it's over this way [points left] By the way I'm Colleen.
Bekka: I'm Bekka, that's a handy thing to have
Colleen holds it out proudly.
Bekka gesturing towards map.
Colleen: Been working on it all night.
Bekka: You must have walked miles and miles to be able to do this!
Colleen: I decided to make it look like a building blue print. Easier to read, C'mom.
Colleen: Naw it's just a map of the household and surrounding areas.
Colleen: I think the gate is this way, do you have a horse?
Bekka: No, I walked.
Colleen is walking to her left toward the "gate"
Colleen: From where?
Bekka: Can you show me where the rock that ruined the plow is on the map?
Bekka: Just in from town.
Colleen: Plow? Rock? No one told me about them.
Colleen: How far is town? I've never been to a town in Sime territory.
Colleen has an out-Territory accent.
Colleen: Are you heading to town now?
Bekka: Yep, just finished my business. Nice to meet you!
Bekka: You can see the town from the top of the hill, points.
Colleen: What hill?
Bekka points at rise in path about one half mile ahead.
Bekka: You can almost see the town from here.
Colleen: Well, if you are going that way I could walk with you, I'd like to know where the town is.
Bekka: Sure.
Bekka strides off towards town
Colleen will walk with Bekka.
Colleen feels naked without her rifle.
Colleen wonders what if a bear wakes up hungry.
Bekka looks back.
Colleen is keeping up.
Bekka: Would you rather come into town another time? You can't miss my house... there's parts all around it. Stop by anytime!
Colleen: OK, I'd rather be walking around with all my "equipment" anyway and the Sectuib has it.
Colleen: Thanks for pointing the way, I'll come out of the Household better equipped next time.
Bekka: All right, then. I'll see you some day soon.
Bekka waves.
Colleen walks back through the gates nervously thinking about bears.
Colleen thinks about closing the gate behind her, but just runs back into the compound after spooking herself.
Colleen waves back still running.
Lucia closes the gate.
Lucia wonders what Colleen is in such a hurry for.
Lucia: ~~curious~~
Ansen hears the gate and moves over to peer around the corner of a building.
Moffy, his self-styled junior sidekick [a little girl with a shock of light brown hair] leans out behind him.
Moffy: Who is that???????
Ansen wants to see who is coming in.
Ansen reflects that it isn't as much fun sneaking around these days, without Hero to compete with.
Moffy: Let's go bother her.
Ansen: It's that lost lady.
Ansen: The one who thinks this is Gulf territory.
Ansen chortles.
Ansen is not real happy to let Moffy call the shots, but it is a good idea.
Ansen: Ok. Let's!
Moffy scampers after Colleen.
Ansen saunters out from behind the building towards Colleen.
Moffy: It's the lost lady!! The lost lady!!
Ansen hurries to keep up.
Moffy is too young to appreciate just how difficult it is to carry off a "hurried saunter".
Colleen turns.
Moffy skids to a stop.
Colleen: The name's Colleen and you are?
Moffy puts her finger in her mouth and looks awed.
Colleen smiles.
Colleen: What's the matter honey, didn't you ever see an out-Territory Gen before?
Ansen: I'm Ansen, and this is Moffy.
Moffy looks up at Colleen.
Moffy: No... yes.
Moffy scuffs her shoe in the snow.
Colleen: Well either you did or you didn't.
Moffy grabs Ansen's hand.
Colleen: Your child? [to Ansen]
Moffy: He's just a kid.
Moffy: Still.
Ansen is about 11 years old.
Ansen: As if!
Colleen laughs.
Ansen: My kids'll be much more cosmic than her!
Moffy: Hey!
Colleen: You must have a great deal of patience.
Moffy lets go of Ansen's hand and punches his side.
Moffy: You're mean.
Ansen: Ow!
Colleen raises her eyebrows at the violence.
Ansen: For your own good. Make you tough, so you can face the world.
Colleen has heard people say that before.
Ansen heard that somewhere, and hopes it fits the situation.
Moffy scratches her head, having never heard that one before.
Colleen: Well, I just think it makes you anti-social.
Colleen: Don't you kids go to school?
Moffy: Yes.
Ansen: Of course! [scornful]
Moffy: Want to hear my ABC's?
Colleen: Sure, let's hear it.
Moffy: A, B, C... [inane chanting]
Ansen: Dennifa is teaching us Genlan!
Ansen waits while Moffy is a showoff.
Moffy: .... Emanemo X, Y, Z.
Colleen: Oh, really? What can you say in Genlan?
Colleen is curious as to how they are mangling her native tongue.
Moffy: "Escuse me! Where is the pud doctor?" [Genlan]
Colleen: Pud doctor??
Ansen: It's 'Fud dacter' stupid!
Moffy: Is not! ~hurt~
Colleen laughs out loud.
Moffy looks at Colleen.
Colleen: Can you tell me what you are trying to say in Simelan?
Moffy: No....
Moffy: "Ma'am, I am in desperate requirement of the Biffy, might you direct me thereupon?"
Moffy: [Genlan]
Colleen: I don't know what you are trying to say.
Colleen looks confused.
Moffy: Bum Bum taught Ansen special words.
Moffy: ~envy~
Colleen: Those are not words in Genlan.
Colleen: Well some of them are but what you said I can't understand.
Ansen: Yeah. but Sethan said I can't say'em around girls.
Moffy: Can too! You told me --
Moffy stops, not wanting to spill Ansen's secret.
Ansen is surprised, he thought Moffy was right with the last bit.
Colleen: Are you learning this from a Gen from Gen territory??
Moffy: Dunno.
Ansen: Pens! Don't go telling everyone!
Ansen looks around to see who else knows now.
Moffy: Sorry Ansen.
Moffy: Dennifa teaches us.
Moffy: And Linn, but she's gone.
Colleen: OK Ansen, please explain what she is talking about.
Colleen: What's this talk of pens?
Ansen: Anyway, can I see your map? Can I? Huh?
Ansen: Dennifa is our teacher. She lives here. Linn was this lady from Bender Cove. Nice, but real strict.
Ansen looks down and mutters something.
Ansen: ~~ shame ~~
Colleen: What map?
Moffy: You made it. [proudly]
Moffy is learning how to pick up gossip.
Moffy: Ansen said so.
Ansen: Didn't you make a map of Naros?
Colleen: I take it you don't have a Genlan teacher anymore in the Household?
Colleen: Yep. Made a map Gen blue print style.
Ansen: Well, Dennifa does it, but they say she's not very good at it.
Ansen is a bit boggled because he thought Dennifa knew everything.
Colleen: Ansen what is wrong? You seem upset.
Ansen: Sorry I used a bad word.
Colleen: Well, perhaps I could talk to someone about teaching Genlan and a few other things while I'm here.
Colleen: I didn't hear any bad word, unless you were speaking Genlan. [laughs]
Moffy wasn't able to follow most of this but listens cutely.
Ansen sizes Colleen up in the role of teacher.
Ansen: That'd be cosmic!
Ansen smiles, realizing he got away with it.
Colleen: Why don't you kids take me over to the Sectuib's office, and I'll ask the lady who delegates tasks, now what was her name?
Moffy: Wolfa. She's having a nervous breakdown.
Moffy repeats what she has heard, like a good child.
Colleen can imagine these kids in Gen territory saying things like 'please don't eat door'.
Ansen: 'cause she misses Hero.
Colleen: Oh, where is Hero?
Ansen: She went off with Miz Linn.
Colleen: Is he coming back?
Moffy giggles.
Moffy: Hero is a girl!!
Ansen: Looking for that lady with the funny hair.
Moffy: The scary lady.
Colleen: OK.
Ansen: I hope so. She's a girl it's fun to play with!
Colleen: What is Hero to Wolfa?
Ansen: I wasn't scared of her. ~~ lie ~~
Moffy: Hero was her Compan-in.
Colleen: Who is the scary lady?
Colleen: Why are you scared of her?
Moffy: Snake.
Moffy: He was too scared.
Colleen: Wolfa's?
Ansen: Was not!!
Colleen is totally confused.
Colleen: Who is Snake?
Moffy: Snake is the scary lady.
Moffy: With big hair.
Ansen: She was the lady with the weird hair. And black clothes.
Colleen: Where are these people now?
Moffy: Lost. [wide eyed]
Ansen: She was one who found out about the Sectuib!
Ansen: Snake ran away, and then all sorts of people chased her.
Colleen: What was it about the Sectuib that she found out?
Moffy: He's a daddy.
Moffy: But she didn't find that out.
Moffy pokes Ansen accusatorially.
Colleen: Who is a daddy?
Ansen: Oh, yeah? Who did then, smarty-pants?
Moffy: He just said so.
Moffy: [to Colleen] Sectuib is a daddy.
Colleen: OK let me get this straight, the Sectuib is a daddy, which got Snake angry enough to run off with Hero right?
Moffy: Hero and Prunida.
Moffy is giggling at all of Colleen's mistakes.
Colleen: So they are part of this Household and they ran away?
Ansen is ashamed he forgot her.
Colleen sighs deeply.
Moffy is too young to be entirely clear on who belonged to what House.
Moffy: Iunno!
Ansen: Only Hero was from Naros.
Ansen: The rest were strangers.
Colleen: Trying to follow all this has given me a headache. You kids will have to excuse me, I'm going to go to my cabin and lay down with a cold compress on my forehead.
Moffy: Bye bye, Colleen.
Moffy waves at the nice lady who doesn't understand Genlan.
Ansen: Ok map lady. see you later!
Colleen walks away rubbing her head.
Moffy: If she is the map lady, why is she the lost lady too? [to Ansen]
Ansen: She doesn't have a Sime to know the way.
Ansen: Foreign Gens need maps because there are no Simes there.
Ansen: When I'm a Sime, I'll never need a map.
Moffy: I thought you were going to be Gen. [suspicious]
Moffy: You said....
Ansen is scornful "That was last week. Ancient History."
Moffy: Oh.
Moffy accepts the change in larity.
Ansen: They say channels always know they'll be Sime.
Ansen: So if I'm sure, I'll be Sime. I'm real sure.
Moffy: I'm going to be Sime. [trying to be like Ansen]
Ansen: Yeah like that!
Ansen is confident he has solved a problem that humanity has wrestled with for centuries.
Moffy: Where do you think Hero is now?
Ansen has no idea, but doesn't want to admit that.
Ansen: Maple Leaf Territory.
Moffy looks at him goggling.
Ansen: They got real cold winters there.
Moffy has no more idea of where Maple Leaf Territory is than where Gulf Territory is, but she is suitably awed anyway.
Moffy: Really, really cold?
Ansen: So Snake could wear hats all the time to hide her hair.
Moffy giggles.
Ansen: Yup. It gets so cold that your words freeze before they get out of your mouth.
Moffy squints at Ansen.
Moffy: Really???
Moffy: Doesn't that hurt your tongue?
Ansen: Uh, huh. You gotta pull them out with pliers and thaw them by the stove to see what people are saying.
Moffy grimaces.
Ansen nods. "Yup."
Moffy: Hero is going to talk a lot less there.
Ansen: They don't talk much there. They are all dour and faciturn.
Moffy: What's faciturn?
Moffy pronounces the word clumsily.
Ansen: It's when you go around all quiet and sour-faced all the time.
Moffy rubs her own face.
Moffy: I'm a faci-turn, I'm a faci-turn.
Ansen: And you get all [with difficulty] phil-o-soficul.
Moffy starts to bump into Ansen playfully, holding onto her face.
Moffy: I'm all phil up with faci-turn!
Ansen smiles and bumps her back.
Ansen holds his face.
Moffy: I'm going to talk like this all day.
Ansen: I'm more faci-turn than you!
Moffy: So people think I'm soficul.
Moffy: Shut up, are not.
Moffy: Look.
Moffy stretches her face white and blunders around stiff legged.
Ansen watches her.
Moffy trips over a snowdrift and tumbles into a giggling pile, failing the faci-turn demonstration.
Ansen laughs.
Moffy: I meant to do that.
Ansen runs over to stand over Moffy. "Oh, sure!"
Moffy: Do you think that Rapol and Sectuib are going to get married?
Moffy sometimes fails to realize that 11 year old boys are not generally interested in the subject.
Ansen: Of course not! Why would they want to go do that for?
Moffy scrambles into a sitting position, looking indignant.
Moffy: Why not?
Ansen: They can't get married! Neither one of them is a girl.
Moffy: Oh.
Ansen: And Riyyh is too old for Rapol, anyway.
Moffy: He's really old.
Moffy thinks everybody over about 13 is really old.
Ansen: Yeah. I bet Riyyh met Rimon Farris.
Moffy: Rimon Farris, really????
Moffy is impressed with Ansen's knowledge.
Ansen: Yeah, but he's too modest to say so.
Ansen: Rimon Farris was the first channel, back right after the Ancients put the Man in the Moon.
Moffy: Do you think he was really Zeth's daddy?
Ansen: Who's Zeth?
Moffy: Rimon Farris' son Zeth! From Nanny Nelly's Book of Householding Fables.
Moffy used to obsess on that book big time.
Moffy would be outraged if anybody ever suggested THE BOOK wasn't a definitive history text.
Ansen: Well, I dunno. Maybe Zeth was really Riyyh's son, like everyone else.
Ansen: They never read that one to me.
Moffy: It's the best book.
Moffy: You [hesitates] can borrow mine sometime if you want.
Ansen: Any Freebanders in it?
Moffy: Yes.
Moffy: It has everything.
Ansen: Well, maybe sometime.
Ansen: Really? Giant Killer Gens and all?
Moffy: Especially those.
Ansen: Wow!
Ansen: Can we go look at it?
Moffy: Okay.
Moffy bounces up.
Ansen: You got snow all over your back.
Moffy turns around so Ansen can brush it off.
Ansen brushes her off. "Come on!"
Moffy walks off with Ansen.