Sime~Gen Roleplaying: Pooterville, Gen Territory Scenario
Episode #1: Our Church of the Eternal Light (8/15/99)
Masilda stands at the stove, frying pancakes in butter.
Masilda: Do you want a fried egg, too, Mack? The hen laid an extra this morning.
Masilda takes feeding her man rather seriously, a very Gen trait.
Mack: Yes, Ma'am.
Mack gives exaggerated courtesy to his wife, not as a joke, but because he's as in awe of her reputation as anybody else in town.
Masilda smiles smugly at the honorific, and cracks the egg neatly into the pan.
Masilda: Before you go to the mine, I wanted to talk to you about Kully's dress.
Masilda is referring to the large pile of oddly shaped cloth pieces in the sewing room.
Mack groans inwardly.
Kully smiles hopefully up at her father, while obeying the injunction that children should be seen and not heard.
Masilda: It's her first grown-up dress, now that she's a woman, and it needs something more than plain steel knobs for the buttons.
Mack: But the money....
Kully looks as charming as a sixteen-year-old can manage when wheedling Daddy for a treat.
Masilda: It'll be well spent, if it catches young Jerfy's interest.
Masilda is referring to the oldest son of the mine's manager, who is likely to follow in his footsteps as one of the most prosperous men in town.
Mack grimaces.
Mack think's the manager's son is a sissy.
Mack: If you're sure....
Kully: Jerfy won't be impressed if I wear old, worn buttons.
Kully looks completely tragic.
Masilda: I expect the peddler will have something appropriate.
Masilda dislikes availing herself of the services of the innkeeper, because of his dubious reputation.
Masilda is not unaware that the peddler charges twice the price, however.
Mack winces.
Masilda is planning meals with a high potato content for the next month, well supplemented from her kitchen garden.
Mack: Why don't you just go to Ogdun like everybody else?
Masilda looks shocked.
Masilda: But Mack! His reputation!
Mack thinks everybody makes way too big a deal of the innkeeper's supposed faults.
Masilda: You never know where his goods have come from!
Masilda: And he's rumored to be soft on Simes.
Mack: They're just buttons. [mutters]
Masilda: You can't ask me to do business with such a doubtful personage as Ogdun! What about my reputation? And Kully's, if she is seen wearing his goods!
Mack thinks if Masilda wanted the girl to marry the innkeeper it'd be a different story, but to buy buttons off him? What harm could it do?
Mack sighs.
Kully: Oh, Papa!
Mack: Well, you know best.
Mack says "you know best" when he means, "I give up, whether you know best or not".
Kully jumps to her feet and flings her arms around her father.
Mack: But we'll have to account for the extra money somehow. [adds, shortly before being tackled]
Kully: Thank you, Papa! It'll be the grandest dress in town!
Mack: Now, now. ~~embarrassed~~
Mack lives a curious dual life, constantly embarrassed at home, and the master of all he surveys in the mines.
Masilda rewards Mack's surrender with a perfectly fried egg and a fresh pancake or two.
Mack: Thank you, ma'am.
Mack chows down.
Masilda is at least tactful enough not to gloat, now that she's won.
Masilda: You finish up you breakfast and start clearing the table, Kully. We've got a busy day ahead of us.
Kully: Yes, Mama.
Kully is doing her best to be the model daughter, at least until the precious buttons have been purchased.
Masilda sees her husband off, sets her (unusually obedient, for some reason) daughter to work cleaning the house up, and puts on her more formidable bonnet for the trip to the church for her regular weekly meeting with the pastor.
Masilda takes her responsibilities as the head of the Ladies' Auxiliary very seriously.
Masilda would never dream, for instance, of referring to it as the "Ladies' Sewing Circle and Terrorist Society", as some of the less reverent souls in town have been heard to call it.
Masilda arrives in good time, which is to say, five minutes early, so she can make whoever she's meeting have to apologize for being late.
Masilda plans to occupy the wait by inspecting the flower arrangements, to see how well they have held up.
Masilda is rather hoping that she can find some drooping pieces; Lirra was rather disrespectful last week when Masilda attempted to correct an arrangement's placement, and it still rankles just a bit.
Dauget, the pastor, arrives at Our Church of the Eternal Light approximately ten minutes early, so that he can protest to Masilda that she shouldn't have hurried.
Masilda opens the church, only to find Dauget is already there.
Masilda: Oh! You're early.
Dauget: So are you. [beams]
Dauget: Well, as they say, the early bird gets the worm.
Masilda: Yes.
Masilda has never liked worms: Squishy things, too much like tentacles for her taste.
Dauget: And how are you today?
Dauget is always very nice, even when he's damning somebody to a flaming hell.
Masilda: Very well. I've been working with Kully on her first grown-up dress.
Masilda: It's all planned out, except for the buttons.
Masilda looks a bit disturbed.
Dauget: I'm so pleased, that your daughter has come of age safely in this dangerous world.
Masilda: We all are. I want her presentation to be perfect.
Masilda: But Mack....
Masilda: He wants to cut corners.
Masilda frowns.
Masilda: Pastor Dauget, how far is a person obligated to go, in order to avoid the appearance of sin?
Dauget: Well, it isn't the appearance of sin that damns one to a fiery eternity in the throes of agony, but actual sin.
Masilda: Isn't abetting a sin a sin itself, though?
Masilda: Particularly if it serves as an example to lead others to error?
Dauget looks rather concerned, as if he is genuinely worried that Masilda might be headed that way herself from the sound of the question.
Dauget: If you literally abet the sin, agreeing that it was a right and just act, and proclaiming that you would have done the same, then you tread perilously close to the line.
Masilda: Oh, dear.
Masilda: You see, Mack wants me to buy the buttons for Kully's dress from Ogdun.
Masilda: Because they're cheaper than the peddler's goods.
Dauget listens sagely.
Masilda: But Ogdun is not exactly a pious man, and you know the rumors about where he gets his more exotic goods.
Masilda: If I buy from Ogdun, aren't I putting my stamp of approval on the actions which gave him the goods to sell in the first place?
Dauget ponders the situation.
Masilda has a very large opinion of the value of her stamp of approval--perhaps justified.
Dauget: On the one hand, what you say is true. But on the other hand, the less trade Ogden receives from the townspeople, the more trade with outsiders he will be forced to do.
Dauget: Perhaps Ogdun has been placed here so that you will be tested.
Dauget considers.
Dauget: Go to him, and explain to him your concerns about his eternal soul.
Masilda is not unaware that the price differential is large enough to allow her to purchase two sets of buttons from Ogdun, for the price of one from the peddler.
Masilda imagines her best dress, refurbished for her daughter's celebration with fancy buttons of its own.
Dauget: Try to reach him... and when you buy, make sure that the buttons you select are some which you know must have been made by Gens.
Masilda: It can be hard to tell, sometimes.
Dauget is a bit cynical, and is pretty sure Masilda prefers the peddler because the peddler sells Sime-made goods without the stigma attached to Ogdun's similar goods.
Dauget: It is more important that you help Ogdun to see the Eternal Light, than you get the buttons you desire most. [points out]
Masilda: Well, of course.
Dauget: After all, coveting material goods is one of the Disastrous Mistakes of the Ancients.
Masilda in fact cares far more about her buttons than about a lowlife like Ogdun, but she's not about to admit that to the pastor.
Masilda: We must never repeat their mistakes.
Dauget beams, glad to have clarified things for Masilda, and made her squirm as well.
Masilda: I'll will go and see Ogdun, then.
Dauget: Very well. Good day, Masilda. I'll see you again tomorrow.
Masilda throws back her shoulders into her most formidable appearance.
Masilda: Until tomorrow, Pastor.
Masilda turns and leaves the church, like a battleship leaving port in search of prey.
Lieutenant Liegh ties his horse in front of the sheriff's office and enters briskly.
Lieutenant Liegh makes up in spit-and-polish what he lacks in experience and knowledge of the local conditions.
Lieutenant Liegh nods in Pernier's direction.
Lieutenant Liegh: Sheriff.
Pernier suppresses a ridiculous instinct to salute the Lieutenant.
Pernier: Lt. Liegh. What can I do for you?
Pernier is a lanky, but pot-bellied, mustachioed Sheriff type wearing the Ancient and revered Smokey hat.
Lieutenant Liegh: I have been visiting all the authorities in the area, to get acquainted and discuss any local problems.
Lieutenant Liegh believes in working by the book, and the book recommends forging ties with local resources.
Pernier winces internally as the Lieutenant practically quotes the book in question.
Lieutenant Liegh views Pernier's non-military facial hair with disappointment.
Lieutenant Liegh reminds himself that town sheriffs are civilians, more or less.
Pernier: Well, we're more than happy to cooperate in every way, Lieutenant.
Lieutenant Liegh: Thank you.
Lieutenant Liegh indicates the empty chair in front of the desk.
Pernier gestures for the Lieutenant to go right ahead.
Lieutenant Liegh: Is this a convenient time?
Lieutenant Liegh sits, but of course, would never dream of slouching.
Lieutenant Liegh: What do you see as the largest security risk in the area?
Lieutenant Liegh gives Pernier his full attention, as required by the manual.
Pernier considers.
Pernier: Well, I'd have to say it's those damned raiders coming over in the springtime.
Lieutenant Liegh nods thoughtfully.
Pernier: Any other time of the year, it's highwaymen preying on the traders going the other way through the pass.
Lieutenant Liegh: I understand they have done some damage?
Lieutenant Liegh: Highwaymen?
Pernier: Yep.
Lieutenant Liegh: Is anything known about the identities of these highwaymen?
Pernier: Well, they all have aliases or two. I can get a list together for you.
Lieutenant Liegh nods.
Pernier: The worst of them is Red Rex. He's been a menace from here to Dener for about three years now.
Pernier: We think he's Shanne Parkar of Dener, who escaped prison around four years ago.
Lieutenant Liegh pulls a notebook from the pocket of his starched shirt and writes down the names.
Pernier wonders if the notebook is regulation.
Lieutenant Liegh: Is he working alone, or has he gathered a gang together?
Pernier: He's got a gang of eight to ten men with him.
Pernier: They sometimes work in two groups, one East of here, the other West.
Lieutenant Liegh: It might be possible to provide an escort for some of the traders, when the border is quiet.
Lieutenant Liegh: I will know when I have finished visiting all the towns in the area.
see note 1
Notes:
1) This scene was never finished. [return]