Sime~Gen Roleplaying: Householding Naros Scenario
Episode #180: The Singing Pawn (11/21/99)
Lalique is monopolizing the bathroom.
Lalique does not take as long to groom as Riyyh, but she is a lady.
Buggfa is sitting around reading a news paper.
Lalique emerges from the bathroom wrapped in a green velvet robe, with a towel wrapped around her wet hair.
Buggfa does not mind the being-watched-constantly, always under guard, always on somebody else's schedule part of being kidnapped; it's what he's lived with for years anyway.
Lalique: Hey, Buggfa, you know I lined up a gig for tonight.
Buggfa: Really?
Buggfa looks up from the funny papers.
Lalique: Yeah, Rainbow Room. Pretty crummy dive, but hey! We all can't be big stars.
Buggfa smiles half-heartedly.
Lalique: I had an idea, though.
Lalique: If you're interested
Lalique unwraps her hair and starts combing it out.
Lalique: I thought about what we were talking about the other day . . .
Lalique: Which is more important, the music or the ambient?
Buggfa: Uh-huh?
Lalique: Where I grew up, in-T, in Gulf, fifteen years ago, it was definitely the ambient.
Lalique: But I guess you have a point.
Lalique: Times have changed, and this is Nivet.
Lalique: The audiences are different here.
Lalique: There are lots of Gens and some of those are out-T immigrants.
Buggfa: Yeah, a lot of mixed crowds.
Lalique nods.
Buggfa: That's why we tour here more than back home.
Buggfa: TBT is all about the border between Sime and Gen, and the mixing together.
Buggfa: The deep home people just don't get it, they don't want to know.
Lalique: I've never been out-T.
Lalique: I'm sorry if I sounded like I was talking down to you, but I didn't understand.
Nick signals at Lalique's and Buggfa's door.
Lalique lets her robe drop to her waist as she surrounds herself in a cloud of perfumed powder.
Lalique signals for Nick to enter.
Nick opens the door.
Nick: Good morning.
Lalique: Morning, dear!
Nick: Have you had breakfast yet?
Lalique lets the robe drop to the floor and starts shimmying into her undergarments.
Buggfa's eyes automatically catalogue Lalique's wares.
Buggfa thinks, 'not bad'.
Lalique: Ahhh, not yet.
Nick blinks at Lalique's state of undress, then decides to be polite and not mention it.
Nick is well aware that he's in no position to criticize, thanks to Roosle's book.
Buggfa may have been born in Gen Territory, but he's been in enough dressing rooms since then to be somewhat blasé about people dressing in front of him.
Buggfa: I'm hungry.
Lalique tugs on her blue jeans.
Nick: I thought we might go downstairs and grab a bite.
Lalique: Be ready in just a minute!
Lalique wriggles into her blue angora sweater and shakes her hair out one last time.
Nick: Afterwards, Buggfa, Riyyh should have some time to work with you before we have to head off.
Nick watches closely, but unobtrusively, to gage Buggfa's reaction.
Buggfa: Oh... er... cool.
Buggfa at least will have some time to psych himself up for it.
Nick could have wished for a bit more genuine enthusiasm.
Lalique: Now, boys, I'm ready for anything!
Buggfa: You look nice.
Lalique shoots Buggfa a dazzling smile.
Lalique: Thank you!
Nick hasn't overlooked Buggfa's smooth change of subject.
Lalique strokes Buggfa's shoulder, soothingly.
Nick: Buggfa, there's no reason to be so alarmed. Riyyh wouldn't hurt a fly.
Buggfa looks at him oddly, because he wasn't alarmed at all.
Buggfa: Sure.
Buggfa: OK.
Lalique: Let's go chow down.
Nick is Gen enough to be distracted by the imminent availability of food, and starts moving towards the door.
Buggfa follows.
Lalique brings up the rear.
Lalique follows the pair into the warm, cheery serving room of the Comfy Corner Inn.
Nick leads the way to a moderately secluded booth.
Lalique slips into a seat.
Buggfa sticks with the herd.
Nick is already well acquainted with the menu, menus being an important part of traveling as a Gen.
Lalique peers around the room, observing what others are eating.
Lalique: Well, Buggfa, as I was saying, I think I need to update my act for this part of the country.
Buggfa: Oh yeah?
Nick: Really? You seemed to be getting a good response the other evening.
Nick's experience in judging the quality of musical acts is limited.
Lalique: Not like I would get back home.
Nick: What's different?
Lalique: The percentage of Gens in the audience, for one thing.
Buggfa looks through the menu. He has two sets of instructions regarding diet, one for public appearances (sensational rock star diet) and one for incognito and private meals (keep the livestock healthy and working diet).
Nick is interested because he figures that Buggfa is most reachable through music.
Nick: Is it more, or less?
Lalique: Oh, lots more. Where I grew up in Gulf, a Gen could hardly walk around the street without an escort.
Buggfa tentatively decides upon the rice-and-mushroom omelet.
Nick nods.
Lalique: And out-T Gens are different in ways I don't completely understand.
Buggfa turns the menu to study the fruit offerings.
Nick: The ones I've met act as if the ambient doesn't exist.
Lalique: Even the Simes are different. Nivet government's a lot more restrictive.
Lalique: Exactly.
Nick: So what do you do differently with your nager to reach them?
Nick is clueless about the music part of this discussion, but thinks Lalique might be able to help translate what Buggfa has to learn about nageric control into musical terms.
Lalique: Well, Buggfa was telling me that when he performs, he uses the music itself to reach the ones who have no nageric sensitivity.
Lalique: And uses nageric control to support the communication, not carry it.
Buggfa having disposed of a priority shared by Gens the world over, sets his menu aside and starts paying attention to the conversation.
Lalique: He says he works with an ambient designer, if you can believe that.
Nick looks at Buggfa curiously.
Nick: An ambient designer? What sort of training does an ambient designer have?
Lalique shrugs.
Nick wonders if it is anything like Donors or channels learn.
Buggfa: They have a degree from university.
Lalique: Anyway, Buggfa's nageric control is amazing considering he doesn't have Donor's training.
Lalique: If you demonstrate a pattern, he can copy it.
Nick: That's quite an accomplishment.
Nick is sincere enough about this, although he still thinks knowing what he was doing would be more help to Buggfa.
Buggfa listens. He isn't used to being talked about as if he wasn't there; usually he's either the focus of obsessive attentiveness, or else being talked about in a board room or office he has no access to.
Lalique: So I'm very encouraged. He should easily be able to pick up some tricks to keep himself out of trouble.
Buggfa finds it a curious sensation, like eavesdropping while invisible.
Nick turns to Buggfa.
Nick: Being lowfield will help a great deal, there.
Nick: Both in keeping you safe, and in letting you practice without driving nearby Simes nuts.
Lalique: So, Buggfa, here's my new proposal!
Buggfa looks apprehensive.
Buggfa: Oh?
Buggfa: What's that?
Lalique: Let me be your personal ambient designer. I'll show you the stuff we talked about to keep you safe when you're off-stage.
Lalique: But, if you're willing, I'd like you to be my music designer-- help me rework my act so it works in Nivet.
Buggfa: [now Buggfa looks alarmed]
Buggfa: Oh.
Buggfa: Oh, well... all right.
Lalique: Only if you want to. I realize you're on vacation!
Nick wonders what Riyyh knows about music, and how much therapy could be worked into such a format.
Buggfa really doesn't appreciate Lalique's nageric style (as opposed to skill) and the thought of doing what she does on stage appalls him.
Buggfa isn't personally familiar with the audience-model that assumes people want to feel wild emotional fluctuations for entertainment.
Buggfa tells himself, though, that anything she wants him to do won't warp him for life or anything, and he can just stop doing it when they part.
Buggfa nods.
Lalique: Oh, great!
Nick: Working through that scar tissue will be a challenge.
Nick: But I don't see any reason you can't pick up enough control to handle renSimes on your own.
Lalique: Oh, we won't do anything involving selyn movement.
Lalique: I'll leave that to you and Sectuib.
Nick nods.
Nick: That's probably best.
Buggfa's eyes had widened at the idea that Lalique could have been thinking of doing anything with selyn movement.
Buggfa of course hadn't been thinking anything of the sort.
Lalique: I'm just talking about ambient patterns, like a support projection, or a null projection, that could divert an attack.
Lalique: And of course when you magnify that with a shiltpron, you can affect a whole crowd.
Buggfa rubs his chin and wonders what the Powers that Be are doing right now, vis a vis Buggfa.
Buggfa is about 4 days late for his pick up point in Church Springs and word may have reached them by now.
Buggfa is less worried about remaining permanently kidnapped than he is about losing his gig because of bad press.
Buggfa can tell these people don't plan on holding onto him forever; if he's compliant, they'll let him go eventually.
Buggfa however can't count on his management to be so reasonable.
Lalique signals to the waitress.
Lalique orders pancakes with blueberries and coffee.
Nick sticks to trin tea, but makes up for it with an avocado omelet, bread, two eggs, and a side of fried potatoes.
Buggfa orders the omelet and some apple compote.
Buggfa has coffee as well.
Nick looks at the brown liquid curiously.
Nick: I never could understand how anyone could drink that stuff.
Nick: It smells nice, but the taste....
Buggfa eyes Lalique, since he has not met many other people who can stand the stuff.
Lalique: [bravely] Well, if I am going to learn about out-T culture, I might as well start right away!
Nick automatically takes a quick look around to locate the nearest Simes, in hopes of shielding them from the effects of Lalique's first taste of coffee.
Lalique sips gingerly.
Buggfa: It's kind of an acquired taste.
Buggfa thinks, and once you have acquired it, it's terribly hard to get rid of it.
Buggfa's managers have gone through various phases regarding Buggfa's coffee habit, ranging from complete intolerance to acceptance, depending on how public views change.
Lalique: Hmmm. Actually, they used to have something like this down in Norlea made from chicory. It was even worse.
Nick: And people drank it anyway?
Nick: ~~ disbelief ~~
Nick: Why didn't they stick to trin?
Lalique shrugs.
Nick: Even that stuff Snake likes is better than that.
Lalique: Tradition, I think.
Nick: There are some traditions that aren't worth keeping.
Lalique sips a bit more.
Nick drinks his tea, so as to have an excuse to avoid watching Lalique engage in self-torture.
Buggfa sips his own coffee in obvious enjoyment.
Lalique: Definitely better than chicory.
Nick had heard that artists are eccentric, but this is going a bit too far.
Buggfa: I've often thought the best is a combination of the two. You get the taste of the coffee but the chicory makes it less abrasive.
Lalique: Hmmm. I'll have to try that.
Nick swallows quickly, and clamps down on his control so that the Simes in the dining room won't get nauseated, too.
Lalique is starting to get used to the bracingly bitter flavor.
Lalique: Buggfa, you were saying you sang about things that the people in deep territory didn't want to know.
Buggfa: Well, you know, it's just boring to them.
Buggfa: It's not real life.
Buggfa: There aren't any Simes there.
Buggfa: They want to hear about maybe changeovers and even berserkers and such, but we don't cover to much of that. It's a different scene.
Lalique: Not real life? ~~~ disbelief ~~~
Nick's stomach has settled a bit as the conversation turns from exotic beverages to music, so he starts in on his food.
Buggfa is sure the band's manager would have them all over deep Gen Territory if there was a way to make more money that way, but right now the money is all in mixed-Sime/Gen communities.
Lalique: Did you grow up in Deep Territory or on the border?
Buggfa: Well, I lived in Cago until I was seven.
Nick: How'd you get into shiltpron concerts, with a background like that?
Nick assumes shiltprons aren't exactly plentiful deep in Gen Territory.
Buggfa: I won a talent contest in Cago, for singers.
Buggfa: I got a contract for a recording and then a tour as a solo act, and then got into a child star supergroup, the Pre's.
Buggfa: When I Established I couldn't do that anymore, and they were looking for a new singer for TBT so I went for it.
Buggfa: It was the only way to keep going up instead of falling back.
Lalique: So who came up with the TBT concept?
Lalique: Another designer?
Buggfa: No, they started out as a small act, three friends from First Year school. T and Rocky and the drummer. It's a different drummer now, though.
Buggfa: They got discovered by an agent from Screaming Productions but they were having a tough time finding a singer who could work with the group. They'd always been instrumental before, you see.
Lalique: So Rocky and T are the shiltpron players?
Buggfa: Yeah, Rocky and Tarzan.
Buggfa needn't point out that these are stage names.
Lalique: And where did they train? Not much call for shiltpron out-T, is there?
Lalique: I mean, with no Simes except in retainers.
Buggfa: Oh, these guys were obsessed. They learned it just by practicing.
Buggfa: And any time they could get their hands on people to experiment with, they'd do it.
Buggfa: They played shiltpron 6 hours a day for years and years and it really shows.
Buggfa is obviously impressed by his bandmates' skills.
Nick raises an eyebrow.
Buggfa doesn't mention that the other 12 hours of each day were spent listening to records.
Lalique: And how much does an all-Gen audience pick up on?
Buggfa: It really depends on the audience I think.
Lalique nods.
Buggfa: I mean, how receptive they are, where they're from, what condition they're in.
Buggfa: Well, and I mean, a lot of that is really my job.
Buggfa: In an all Gen audience, I'm expected to keep their attention.
Buggfa is expected, in fact, to keep 60% of the audience's attention 100% of the time, and 80% of the audience's attention 40% of the time, as determined by employees planted for measuring purposes.
Lalique: Did your band play the border from the start? Or start in deep Gen Territory and move to mixed crowds?
Buggfa: TBT, you mean? It was still mostly Cago area when I joined up with them. Part of the reason they wanted to add a singer was because they wanted to tour them in border and Sime Territory areas, and were trying to shape it to fit the bill.
Buggfa: In Gen Territory it was more of an oddball act with a cult following. The label thought they had potential in different markets as a mainstream act.
Lalique: I would imagine that you really had to adjust the act when you started playing the border.
Buggfa: Well, actually, it's more like what they'd been doing all along suddenly became much more accessible by the audience.
Buggfa: It was really a brilliant move on the part of the label, to spot that and take advantage of it.
Buggfa: That's how it got so big so fast.
Buggfa had in fact been afraid his stardom was over when he had to leave the Pre's, and had been desperately grateful when it turned out so well.
Nick: Did you change your music when you made the transition, or did you just change how you performed it?
Buggfa: Well, like I say, it wasn't much of a change of them, but it was a really big change for me.
Buggfa: I didn't work with them at all in Cago. It was the recording of the first album with lyrics, and then the border tour.
Buggfa: So I had to learn the tunes, and learn the ambient stuff, and learn their style, all at once.
Buggfa considers rising to that challenge one of his better accomplishments, partially making up for the setback in ego suffered when he met real actual shiltpron players after years of dabbling on his own.
Lalique: So a lot of the approach wasn't originally your idea. But the song about getting burned, that was yours?
Buggfa: Yeah. I write a lot of the lyrics to the songs.
Buggfa: Then they get some guys to look them over and change a few things so they fit in the program. Some of what I write they can't use at all.
Lalique: The one about the teacher?
Buggfa: Oh, the teacher song, yeah I wrote that one.
Nick: Linn never liked that one.
Buggfa: The chorus isn't mine, but the verses are.
Lalique: Do the Gens in Deep Territory like that one? You said they liked stuff about berserkers.
Nick could testify that the Sime Territory crowd appreciate the schoolteacher song.
Buggfa: Oh yeah, they eat it up.
Buggfa: The idea of a teacher so horrible everybody wanted her to get killed.
Buggfa: I mean, a lot of kids hate their teachers, but there's a kind of fascination in the idea that a teacher could be hated that much.
Nick isn't sure whether it's the berserker element, or the teacher-hatred element that's the most important hook.
Lalique: Ahhh... now I understand.
Lalique: Would they like a song about a kid who shot his teacher too?
Buggfa: Yeah, some of the great classics are about that.
Buggfa: There's even a children's rhyme about it.
Buggfa clearly is more interested in the technical aspects of people's interest than the actual subject matter involved.
Lalique: And the song about your accident, do they just like the horror of a Gen getting burned, or is it the part about being fooled by the Sime that really gets them?
Buggfa: Well I've gotten a lot of different letters on that one.
Buggfa: Most of them groove on the idea of going and hanging out somewhere really dangerous like the nightclub in the song.
Buggfa: You know, and the song just illustrates what could happen, adding to the thrill of being bad and hanging out there.
Buggfa: But there is a certain set who get into the idea of getting hurt literally. They're a small subset, you know, they're just sickos.
Nick: They are.
Nick ought to know, since he and Snake provided what those sickos wanted.
Lalique: So they like the idea of taking risks.
Buggfa: Most kids want to take risks, or at least they want to want to.
Buggfa: It's just part of growing up.
Lalique: Is that how you felt, when you let that lorsh lay tentacles on you?
Buggfa: I thought I was pretty cool before that.
Buggfa: But he made me nervous.
Buggfa: I didn't want to do it really.
Lalique: How did he talk you around?
Buggfa: Sort of. I mean, he sort of talked me into submission.
Buggfa: I can't say I ever wanted it... maybe that's part of why it went so bad.
Lalique: I'll bet. Kid, always pay attention to the vibes when you're dealing with a Sime.
Lalique sighs.
Buggfa: It's not like I had much of a choice, nobody else was there.
Buggfa has been much less cavalier about breaking the security rules since.
Lalique: You had a choice, but you didn't know it. The stuff I'm gonna show you will give you the choice.
Lalique: Speaking of which, you know, Riyyh might be out of the bathroom by now.
Buggfa looks down at his emptied plate.
Buggfa: Yeah I guess I'd better go up there, huh.
Lalique nods.
Lalique: Time for your next session.
Buggfa nods to Nick and Lalique, then puts money for his share of breakfast on the table and leaves.
Nick quirks a smile at Lalique and follows.