Sime~Gen Roleplaying: Householding Naros Scenario
Episode #164: Fishing for an Angle (10/11/99)
Morca is waiting outside of Capitol's finest luxury hotel for a certain temporary resident to return.
Morca is well used to stake-outs, and doesn't betray any revealing impatience.
Riyyh has been out and about preventing Coalition excesses, and has just now returned.
Riyyh walks back from the livery stable where his horse has been quartered.
Riyyh is reasonably fresh, having used the stable's facilities to wash up.
Riyyh has made quite an impression on the stable employees over the last weeks.
Morca's attention fastens on Riyyh with sharklike eagerness.
Morca steps out of the doorway where she had been semi-concealed, right into Riyyh's path.
Morca: Sectuib Riyyh, might I have a moment of your time?
Morca smiles, showing very white teeth.
Riyyh starts.
Riyyh backs off a step, in a cowardly fashion.
Riyyh: Why... er... [smiles timidly]
Riyyh belatedly recognizes who she is, but this is only a marginal reassurance.
Morca: Thank you. Perhaps in one of the private meeting rooms?
Morca: I've reserved one. They'll bring us tea.
Morca takes Riyyh's elbow and starts walking inside.
Riyyh is understandably reluctant, but lets her propel him in.
Riyyh: Well, that sounds, er....
Riyyh: Oh, dear. [to himself]
Morca: I do appreciate it.
Riyyh wonders how he's going to get out of this.
Morca steers Riyyh into a private room, rather small but nicely furnished, with a couch and a small table.
Morca: Do have a seat.
Riyyh sits down.
Morca sits down, just out of arm's reach.
Morca has, of course, a rather good idea of how Riyyh usually operates, and has no intention of allowing the usual tactics to be used on her.
Morca: I am working on a book which describes the extent of nepotism in the Tecton.
Riyyh winces.
Morca: My research has uncovered some points that you can help clarify.
Morca: For instance, what is your relationship with the Audnes family?
Riyyh looks somewhat bewildered by what to him appears to be a change in topic.
Riyyh: Why, I'm not related to them at all.
Morca: You do have a long acquaintance with the family, however, do you not?
Morca: Extending pre-Unity?
Riyyh squirms a little bit, but answers.
Riyyh: I did have occasional contact with them pre-Unity, but not afterward.
Riyyh: There was not much to be in contact with afterward, of course.
Riyyh appears genuinely sympathetic to their tragedy.
Morca: This would have been with Controller Arat Farris's parents?
Riyyh: His grandparents.
Riyyh: His parents were children at the time, of course.
Riyyh realize this dates him badly, but then it isn't as if Morca wouldn't know those details already.
Morca: Could you give me your impressions of Family Audnes? What sort of people were they?
Riyyh wonders what this has to do with nepotism, since Arat has no relatives in the Tecton, unless you count Snake - or perhaps the Zeor Farrises, not that any of them have showed him anything remotely like favoritism.
Riyyh is starting to feel a bit more relaxed as the questions don't seem to be cutting very close to home.
Riyyh: They were very proud, very reserved, in terms of personality.
Riyyh: Their house and grounds were always impeccably clean, and their servants well-mannered.
Riyyh thinks it was actually a pleasure to visit, as long as it was infrequently enough.
Morca: They had a strong sense of family, did they not?
Riyyh: Oh, yes.
Morca: They used their influence, when necessary, to promote the interests of family members, even those not in the direct line, shall we say?
Riyyh tries to decide who she might be talking about.
Riyyh looks a bit vague as he rakes through 30-40 year old gossip.
Riyyh: Do you mean their Gen children?
Morca: Among other things, yes.
Riyyh: Well, yes. They traded influence for Fior's services.
Morca: I see. That is much more than most families of the time were willing to do for Gen offspring.
Riyyh thinks that Family Audnes was more open-minded than most about a number of things, like for example re-using Gens.
Morca: Do you think that this strong sense of family is extant in the current head of the Audnes clan?
Riyyh: It is difficult for me to tell. [confesses]
Riyyh: Although if his suing his own lifemate over Wise Snake's conception is any indication, I imagine that must be the case.
Morca decides that Riyyh has established a sufficient habit of giving truthful answers, and that it is therefore time to move on to more interesting matters.
Morca: I understand that you share the Audnes clan's interest in family.
Morca: Even members of your family who were raised outside of your House.
Riyyh: Of course.
Riyyh smiles.
Morca observes Riyyh much as an angler views a fat fish which has just taken the bait, and doesn't yet know it's been hooked.
Morca: In particular, you have been spending a great deal of time with a rogue Donor named Nick Reckage, who has been undergoing a nominal rehabilitation under the tutelage of Arat Farris.
Riyyh nods.
Morca: And you also have connections with another young Donor who was also associated with Arat's daughter, Wise Snake.
Riyyh: Hero.
Morca: Controller Arat has said that you have been much more cooperative on administrative matters lately. Is this true?
Riyyh: Oh, dear.
Riyyh hadn't been aware he'd failed in his Tecton-fending-off attempts to the extent that the Tecton could tell.
Riyyh: I have been under a lot of stress lately. [explains]
Morca: Do you find it more possible to cooperate with Controller Arat, in part, because of your association with his grandparents?
Riyyh actually laughs.
Riyyh is amazingly good looking when he laughs, as it happens.
Morca has all the sexual awareness of a doorknob when conducting interviews.
Morca merely waits for an answer she can quote--or not, as suits her story.
Riyyh could arguably arouse a doorknob given enough time to work with it, but I digress....
Riyyh: I find Controller Arat very difficult to cooperate with.
Riyyh: It isn't that I bear him any ill will, it's just that we don't quite see eye to eye on certain issues. [explains]
Morca looks ~~ thoughtful ~~
Riyyh: And it is true that our offices are naturally opposing, in some ways, particularly given the activities of his predecessors.
Morca: And yet you have been more cooperative with him than with any of his predecessors.
Riyyh: Arat has been very persistent.
Riyyh means Arat has been a raging pain in the ass.
Riyyh: It is an admirable trait.
Riyyh just wishes he'd apply it to something closer to home.
Morca: I'm sure it is.
Morca should know, having a full measure of that enviable quality herself.
Morca: Naros has historically been rather isolated, has it not? Even after Unity?
Morca: Perhaps even inbred?
Riyyh: Perhaps. [smiles kindly]
Riyyh knows she knows, of course.
Morca: What sort of relationships with other Houses has Naros maintained?
Riyyh: At first it was relatively close. In the years after Unity, we have withdrawn somewhat.
Riyyh doesn't mention that it was mainly out of a lack of desire to participate in the new, all-powerful version of the Tecton.
Morca: As part of a general isolation from the Tecton?
Riyyh smiles at her with the fondness of the old for the not-quite-so-old.
Riyyh: I don't think of it that way, but perhaps it is because the Tecton as we know it today has been so recent a development.
Morca's nager fails to thaw at his charming expression.
Riyyh is starting to actually notice her stiffness.
Riyyh wonders if she would feel more relaxed if he was kinder to her.
Morca: And yet, I have heard that you hosted a group from Householding Zeor not too long ago, for an extended stay.
Riyyh moves his chair a little bit around the table toward her.
Riyyh: Yes, we did.
Riyyh looks and sounds as if he didn't enjoy it much, but is too nice to admit it.
Morca: Would you mind explaining the circumstances surrounding this change in policy?
Morca doesn't particularly care if Riyyh does mind, as long as he answers anyway.
Riyyh: Pardon me?
Riyyh wonders which change in policy she's speaking of.
Morca: The reason for this extended, and unprecedented, visit?
Riyyh: Ah, well, you see, a Farris was injured on our land, and we had no proper medical facilities or channels capable of treating a Farris.
Morca: And this Farris turned out to be an Audnes as well?
Riyyh: It was Wise Snake Farris.
Morca: I see.
Morca: Was Arat Farris--or Audnes, if you prefer--aware of her presence at Naros at that time?
Riyyh: I'm not sure.
Riyyh picks up his chair and sidles completely over to Morca's side.
Riyyh: You see, we didn't have much face to face contact until recently.
Riyyh smiles fetchingly.
Riyyh: Not out of any lack of desire of my own, of course.
Morca has heard quite a bit about Riyyh's desire, in the course of her preliminary research.
Morca: That was also when you became acquainted with Nick Reckage, was it not?
Riyyh: He had arrived earlier, of course.
Riyyh: With Wise Snake.
Morca nods.
Morca: And you recognized that he was your son?
Riyyh: Yes. [confesses]
Riyyh looks somewhat chagrined.
Riyyh's hand seeks hers for reassurance... or something.
Morca: Had he been aware of the connection previously?
Riyyh: Oh dear, no, his mother and grandmother had kept him quite in the dark, I'm afraid.
Morca shakes her hand loose, the better to take notes.
Morca: Was he aware of any other connection between his family and Naros? Of trade, or friendship?
Riyyh: No, he was not.
Riyyh: It is sad, isn't it?
Riyyh rises and puts his hands on her shoulders from behind, kneading thoughtfully.
Riyyh: I think his grandmother was concerned that he would not consider the Tecton an option if he knew he could come to Naros.
Riyyh is pretty firm on the part about Prunida being concerned Nick wouldn't consider the Tecton an option, anyway.
Morca: But his ignorance has not prevented Naros, and you, from following his progress in the Tecton, under Arat Audnes?
Riyyh: Pardon me?
Riyyh once again is thrown for a loop by her unfathomable chain of logic.
Riyyh makes up for it by continuing to rub her shoulders very expertly.
Riyyh: I must say, you are most passionate about your work.
Riyyh: I find it... invigorating.
Riyyh finds the adrenaline surge that comes with being hit with 20 questions gives him a zing, anyway.
Morca: You have come to Capitol, for the first time in years, you have been seen talking to Reckage frequently, and Controller Arat mentioned that you had plans to... take over custody of him.
Riyyh: Arat said this? ~~ surprised ~~
Morca ignores all statements that are not in answer to her questions, although the shoulder rub is allowing her notetaking speed to increase.
Riyyh's hands might have dithered, had they not been otherwise occupied.
Morca: Yes. Although he didn't seem to think that the arrangement would last for very long.
Riyyh: Probably not, [admits]
Riyyh: Although of course Nick is welcome for as long as he likes.
Morca: So you are cooperating with Arat's rehabilitation program?
Riyyh's hands pause.
Riyyh is genuinely confused by the question, and what chain of thought might have suggested it.
Riyyh: Well, I, no, except perhaps by coincidence.
Riyyh: Not that I am aware of.
Morca plans to base her book on coincidence, if she can't get anything better.
Riyyh: I consider Nick a friend, as well as a son, and when he asked me for help I couldn't refuse him.
Riyyh: And of course, there are considerable advantages for me as well.
Riyyh: It's hardly a burden to be associated with such a fine Donor.
Morca accepts this, provisionally.
Morca: And where does Householding Zeor fit into this?
Riyyh removes his hands from Morca's shoulders and sits down beside her again.
Riyyh's posture is extremely friendly, as if they've been platonic best friends for, oh, 300 years or so.
Riyyh: Well, I confess I don't see how it fits into it at all.
Riyyh: ~~ honesty ~~
Morca: Controller Arat's daughter is ambrov Zeor, is she not?
Riyyh: Technically.
Morca: And so is Controller Arat's recently assigned Donor, Alea Farris ambrov Zeor.
Riyyh looks politely confused, having no idea where this is going.
Riyyh is put in mind of the raving conspiracy fanatics in Downtown Capitol, who try to string together fantastic chains of events to create perilous danger.
Riyyh: Yes, Alea Farris. I met her once.
Riyyh can't think of anything else to say about Alea.
Riyyh: In Bender Cove. [adds, after a pause]
Morca: And yet, Zeor has been rather successful at keeping its Farris Donors for its own channels, in which category Arat does not, alas, qualify, much as he has tried to alter that.
Morca: Is it possible that the assignment was made to keep an eye on Wise Snake Farris?
Riyyh: It's possible.
Riyyh: There are some at Zeor who seem quite interested in Wise Snake.
Morca: Interested enough to apply pressure to gain and keep access to her?
Riyyh spreads his tentacles and hands in an elegant, and elaborate, shrug.
Riyyh: I couldn't possibly know.
Morca appears slightly skeptical of this denial.
Morca: You haven't heard any indications?
Riyyh: Well, there are endless speculations and rumors of course.
Riyyh: They cover the entire gamut of possibilities.
Riyyh: I don't follow the rumors about her very closely, you must understand.
Riyyh has enough to handle keeping track of Naros, all Narosians afield, the outreach programs, the various city officials and other famous people he associates with as a matter of necessity, and of course, himself.
Morca is aware of fully a third of the parties Riyyh has attended in the past week or so.
Riyyh: It has been months, and she's not exactly front page news at the moment.
Morca: I understand that your son, Nick Reckage, has a continuing interest in her, however.
Riyyh: Understandably.
Morca: You don't anticipate, say, becoming Wise Snake Farris's father-in-law?
Riyyh smiles.
Morca: Which would make you, hmm, a relative by marriage to Arat Audnes.
Riyyh: Nick hasn't mentioned any plans of marriage, or even of a non-transfer relationship.
Morca: I see.
Riyyh doesn't consider Nick's lament at Snake's lack of feelings for him as a person, or his more recent complaint that she didn't trust him any more, as signs things have been heading in a marriage type direction.
see note 1
Notes:
1) This scene continues in the next episode. [return]