Sime~Gen Roleplaying: Householding Naros Scenario
Episode #141: Remedial Education (6/24/99)
Prunida is in a more or less amiable mood--well, for her--due to an intense few days of... recreation.
Riyyh is as charming as always, but a bit exhausted. And not by coincidence, either.
Prunida's thoughts are starting to turn towards business.
Prunida turns over in the bed and fixes her attention on her vict... er, "lover".
Prunida: Riyyh....
Prunida traces a tentacle down his chest.
Riyyh is arrayed languidly amongst the cushions, not going anywhere very quickly.
Prunida tries to look charming, not one of her better looks (perhaps due to insufficient practice).
Riyyh: Yes, dear? [sleepily]
Prunida: This had been very entertaining, but I feel that I haven't made much progress towards learning how to gain Nick's cooperation.
Prunida tries a pout, which comes out a bit better than the charm.
Prunida: I can hardly play this kind of game with my grandson, after all.
Riyyh: Darling, you're so impatient. ~~affection~~
Riyyh rolls over to get a little nearer to her.
Prunida lets her eyes wander down past his chest, and concludes that at least for the moment, no amount of impatience will do much good.
Prunida: I've not got much time, Riyyh. I'll have much better luck if I approach Nick before he returns to Capitol.
Riyyh's hand returns the caress, a tentacle curling under her chin.
Riyyh: I quite agree.
Riyyh kisses her, gently, on the lips.
Prunida takes a moment to appreciate Riyyh's technique, then pulls back.
Riyyh pouts slightly himself, but allows her her space.
Prunida: You did say that you would teach me how to be a friend..
Riyyh: Of course.
Riyyh smiles, an altogether pleasing effect.
Riyyh: And I've been spending all this time thinking about how to go about it.
Prunida: Really?
Riyyh actually has been spending all this time doing something else entirely, but hopes Prunida will understand.
Riyyh: Of course. I do want to help you. [kindly]
Riyyh: Shall we begin, then?
Prunida: Oh, yes.
Prunida has never had much use for friends, and is therefore under the misapprehension that friendship can be learned in one easy lesson.
Riyyh: Very well.
Riyyh props himself up on his elbow and looks down at her, looking endearingly mussed and altogether better than most teachers look.
Prunida seriously debates postponing the friendship lesson for another hour or so, but decides to take care of business first.
Riyyh: I think friendship can be most easily summed up in five words.
Prunida thinks this sounds about right.
Riyyh: Kindness, sacrifice, loyalty, forgiveness and honesty.
Prunida thinks that that sounds harder than five words should be.
Prunida: Perhaps we could take them one at a time?
Riyyh: Certainly.
Riyyh smiles.
Riyyh: Which one shall we begin with, then?
Prunida thinks that kindness and loyalty sound like a waste of time, sacrifice is not her style, and forgiveness is against her principles.
Prunida: Perhaps the last one?
Riyyh: Honesty?
Prunida: Yes.
Prunida has heard that it can be good for business, so it won't be a total waste of time.
Riyyh thinks honesty without the others can be a bit brutal, making it a tricky lesson to get across correctly in Prunida's case.
Riyyh sighs.
Riyyh: We can begin with honesty.
Riyyh: All right. Now let us play a game. Let us pretend I am Nick, and you are yourself, and you are going to be perfectly honest with me.
Prunida: All right.
Riyyh: Not the way you're used to, but in a different way.
Riyyh: In a special way.
Prunida: Special? How?
Riyyh: You have to admit things that you wouldn't ordinarily admit to Nick... you have to show him that you trust him, that you are confiding in him.
Prunida frowns.
Riyyh: That's what friends do, [adds helpfully and encouragingly]. They confide in each other.
Riyyh: Perhaps I should start first?
Prunida: Confide? About what?
Riyyh: Well, perhaps part of Nick's seeming inability to care what happens to you, is simple lack of understanding of your point of view.
Prunida considers the possibility.
Riyyh: How can he know, for example, that you are terrified of a bad business year, if you have not told him?
Riyyh: All of his life you have been strong and decisive. It may be impossible for him to think of you as anything but an authority or a power.
Prunida rather likes that description of her abilities, actually.
Riyyh: If you are close, if you have a friendship with your grandson, these things will become clear to him gradually over time.
Prunida nods thoughtfully.
Prunida: Show me how it's done.
Riyyh: All right.
Riyyh moves a little closer, until his chest is resting pleasantly against her side, and he is looking into her eyes.
Riyyh: You shall be Nick, and I shall be you.
Prunida: Be Nick?
Prunida tries to imagine herself a feckless, high-powered Donor with a yen for slum rogues and no loyalty towards his long-suffering grandmother.
Riyyh pauses to use a tentacle to brush a strand of hair from her face, probably not part of Prunida's potential future talk with Nick.
Riyyh looks sincerely into her eyes, something he is rather good at.
Riyyh: Nick,
Riyyh has no trouble thinking of Prunida and Nick in the same sentence, for some reason.
Riyyh: I want to be honest with you.
Riyyh: Times have not been good.
Riyyh: The business makes ends meet, but if there were one bad year, we would all be penniless - your mother, her husband, all of us.
Riyyh: I know I have been hard on you in the past, but it's only because I care deeply about you and didn't want you to compromise your own future...
Prunida thinks that it was primarily her own future she was concerned about.
Riyyh: And compromise ours. Because you see, you are our only child.
Riyyh: If you do not succeed, our lives will have been for nothing.
Riyyh: All the mistakes we have made through the years, we have tried to prevent you from making as well.
Riyyh can do a pretty damn good job of "sincere" when he tries.
Riyyh: That is what it means to raise a child.
Prunida: And the boy chose a whole new set of mistakes to make, instead!
Riyyh smiles.
Riyyh brushes her hair back from her forehead gently.
Riyyh: I know I have made your life hell recently, and there is no undoing that now.
Riyyh: But I want you to know that we are all very proud of the changes you have gone through.
Prunida frowns at the bit about making Nick's life hell.
Riyyh: And I hope that despite all that has gone before us, that we can be friends.
Prunida: All I did was remind him of his duty.
Prunida: ~~ protest ~~
Riyyh: You did. [agrees] But you also did harass him just a little bit, didn't you?
Prunida: I was supposed to stand by while he wasted himself on a rogue?
Riyyh: Of course not. But you must accept that from his point of view, it was making his life hell.
Riyyh: When you accept these truths, unpleasant as they are, it is possible to be honest when speaking to him.
Riyyh: In the same way, you must be honest about your own motivations.
Riyyh: You told me you were afraid for the future.
Riyyh: Have you ever intimated this to him?
Riyyh: [gently]
Prunida: Well, not as such.
Prunida finds the admission distressing.
Riyyh lets her know nagerically that he is ~~there for her~~ without preventing her from feeling the emotions.
Prunida: Still, he's been around enough to know just what sort of profit margin there is--and isn't--in our line of work.
Riyyh: That may be so. But what's more important, what will really affect his feelings towards you, will be if he knows you are being honest with him.
Riyyh thinks, among other things.
Prunida: Why would he care more about this sort of honesty than about the sort of things I've been telling him for years?
Prunida: They are true, also.
Riyyh: Because saying these things to him is admitting feelings. When you display to Nick your feelings that you would rather keep private, you prove to him gradually over time that you consider him a friend.
Prunida: So friends tell each other things they don't want anyone to know?
Prunida thinks that seems like a stupid way to keep a secret.
Riyyh zlins her reaction and sighs.
Riyyh: They tell each other special things that would make a difference to their friend.
Riyyh: Even if it exposes themselves to tell it.
Prunida frowns.
Prunida: I see.
Prunida wonders if she can get away with skimping on the honesty part.
Riyyh: Friendship is a balance of give and take. Honesty is, essentially, a kind of giving.
Riyyh: A giving of yourself.
Prunida: What about kindness?
Prunida thinks that must be easier, since wimps are alleged to do a lot of it.
Riyyh smiles.
Riyyh enjoys being kind to people.
Riyyh actually enjoys all aspects of friendship.
Riyyh: Kindness is simply choosing to be gentle in all words and actions, towards the person.
Riyyh: To smile at others, even strangers, is kindness.
Prunida: Oh. Well, it's been years since I've hit Nick.
Prunida feels ~~ satisfaction ~~ at having mastered an important part of this friend business.
Riyyh: To endeavor in every way to not harm or distress a person, is kindness.
Prunida: I've always wanted what's best for Nick.
Riyyh: Yes, you have, but have you always been gentle with him?
Riyyh: Have you always been soft of word, and benign of expression?
Prunida: ~~ confusion ~~
Prunida: But he would have ignored me completely, if I'd done that!
Riyyh: Perhaps at first. But over time, over weeks and months, kindness is more powerful than any harshness.
Prunida: But Snake would never have tolerated my presence long enough for that to happen.
Riyyh: Snake wasn't always there.
Riyyh knows perfectly well that Prunida had alienated Nick years before he met Snake.
Prunida: I know, but when he disappeared from the Tecton training camp, he did a very good job of it.
Prunida is perversely ~ proud ~ of her grandson.
Riyyh sighs.
Prunida: I didn't get wind of his location until he'd joined up with that no-good rogue.
Riyyh: Prunida, I know how you can learn kindness, if you would like to.
Riyyh: It takes time, but is not difficult.
Prunida: How much time?
Prunida is well aware that she is working under a deadline.
Riyyh: That depends entirely upon you.
Prunida is firmly convinced that she can manage anything if she applies herself--even get through to Nick.
Prunida: I'd best get started, then.
Prunida: ~~ impatient ~~
Riyyh: Very well.
Riyyh kisses her on the forehead, and slides out of bed.
Prunida enjoys the sight, and regrets that she is too busy to take advantage of it--or rather, of Riyyh.
Riyyh: I'll return shortly. [promises]
Riyyh disappears briefly down the hall.
Prunida wraps herself in a robe (spattered with whipped cream here and there) and waits.
Riyyh returns after a few moments, carrying a wire cage with a white dove in it.
Riyyh puts down the cage and disappears again.
Riyyh returns twice more with a smaller cage containing a mouse, and an even smaller cage containing a finch.
Riyyh arranges them in a row on a desk.
Kadi wakes up, and saunters over to the desk chair to inspect more closely.
Prunida: Riyyh, I've never known anyone who had so many pets.
Riyyh: These are Anmyn's. [explains]
Prunida: The porcelain doll's?
Kadi chitters, then reaches a paw towards the finch.
Riyyh picks up Kadi gently and deposits her in the hallway, then closes the bedroom door.
Kadi yowls her distress at being deprived of such interesting toys.
Riyyh returns to Prunida's side.
Riyyh: These animals are all trained to come into Anmyn's hand when she opens the cage door.
Prunida: Really? Why?
Prunida has never seen the point to having a pet--at least, not the kind that don't earn their keep through mousing or some such.
Riyyh: Because she enjoys stroking them, and it gives her pleasure to know that they trust her.
Riyyh: These are all very timid animals, and to gain their trust requires great gentleness and patience.
Riyyh: And... kindness.
Prunida looks at the caged critters again.
Prunida: I think I see.
Prunida: You think I should practice on them?
Riyyh: I think that if you learn enough to succeed in this, you will have learned skills that can be applied to being kind to a human being.
Riyyh: But you must be very cautious.
Riyyh: You see, if you grab one of them with your hand, or augment, they might never trust you.
Prunida: I expect your doll would be upset if her pets escaped?
Riyyh: I would appreciate it if you could close the doors and windows and put the cat out before opening the cages. [agrees]
Riyyh: They can be recaptured if they escape within a closed room.
Prunida: Very well.
Prunida checks the windows (closed) and shuts the bathroom door.
Prunida: There.
Prunida surveys the cages one more time, trying to select an appropriate starting point.
Prunida decides on the mouse, and sets the cage beside her on the bed.
Riyyh notices himself in a mirror and takes a minute to push back his hair and otherwise increase the fetchingly tousled aspect of being tousled.
Prunida: Hmm, I don't think I've seen such a plump rodent since I trapped out the ones that set up housekeeping in my larder a few years back.
Riyyh automatically inspects himself for signs of plumpness, and notes with relief she was referring to the mouse, not the rabbit.
Prunida reaches for the cage and opens it.
Prunida: Come on out, you pampered piece of cat food.
Riyyh frowns at the tone of voice used, and turns to supervise.
Prunida has, possibly, not quite mastered the idea of the exercise.
Riyyh: Remember, be gentle in words and actions.
Riyyh: Praise the mouse, cajole it. Don't be harsh.
Prunida adapts a totally artificial, sickeningly sweet tone.
Prunida: Come here, little mousie.
Prunida wiggles a tentacle in what she thinks might be a coaxing manner.
Prunida is a little more accomplished at coaxing rabbits.
Riyyh waits a short time, then says, "That is probably enough for today."
Prunida closes the cage door.
Prunida: Stubborn creature.
Riyyh: Not stubborn, but frightened.
Riyyh: The mouse has many predators in the wild.
Prunida: And a good thing, too.
Riyyh: Only experience will teach it that you mean no harm... and that experience must come over many days, and with much patience.
Riyyh thinks perhaps when hell freezes over.
Riyyh sighs.
Prunida is losing patience with the kindness lesson already.
Prunida decides that rabbits are more easily corralled than mice, and more fun, too.
Prunida: Come here, Riyyh.
Riyyh looks at her in question, then walks nearer.
Prunida wishes the stupid mouse was as good at obeying.
Riyyh is quite delightfully in the nude, and with his hair just so. It is important to be prepared, after all.
Prunida decides to practice some of that honesty business.
Prunida: Hop in, I'm ready for recess.
Riyyh: Oh, Prunida. [smiles sadly, but complies not unwillingly!]