Sime~Gen Roleplaying: Pooterville, Gen Territory Scenario
Episode #3: The Tilted Wheel (8/19/99)
Saukie sways towards Jerfy's table, a practiced saucy smile on her face.
Jerfy is having a beer at the Tilted Wheel, not because he enjoys the place's reputation, but because he is trying to get up his nerve to buy something for his hoped-to-be-girlfriend.
Saukie: Here's your ale, dear.
Jerfy's hoped-to-be-girlfriend is not at all like Saukie. Very tasteful, demure, refined.
Saukie leans over to place the foaming mug before Jerfy, not incidentally revealing a healthy expanse of cleavage.
Saukie: I do hope you will enjoy it.
Jerfy groans inwardly, while experiencing a contradictory and purely physical lust.
Jerfy: Uhh... thanks.
Jerfy shifts about in his chair.
Saukie: If there is... anything... else I can do for you, just let me know. Anything at all.
Jerfy: Sure thing, Saukie.
Saukie's smile broadens slowly, and she runs a finger lightly down Jerfy's arm.
Jerfy's arm hairs stand on end, also.
Saukie thinks any kid with a father that rich must have enough pocket money to feather her nest a bit, in exchange for the usual considerations.
Saukie feigns a reluctant look over her shoulder at Jerfy as she sashays back towards the kitchen.
Ogdun wipes glasses at the bar.
Ogdun pauses to adjust a necklace hanging on the wall with the other merchandise, hoping to attract Jerfy's attention and pocketbook.
Masilda steps through the door to the Tilted Wheel just in time to catch the end of Saukie's act.
Masilda snorts in the sort of outrage only a would-be mother in law can display when seeing her plans endangered.
Masilda looks rather like an enraged bull dressed in lace and long skirts.
Masilda sails towards Ogdun.
Jerfy sees what's coming and hides behind his beer glass.
Ogdun: Well hello, Masilda.
Ogdun puts down his glass and rag.
Ogdun knows she's trouble and nothing but, but not much is gained by being unfriendly, at least until she starts it.
Masilda: You ought to be ashamed of yourself, letting that girl of yours make such a shameless display!
Ogdun: I beg yer pardon, ma'am?
Masilda: Why, that blouse of hers was about to fall off!
Masilda: Have you ever thought what sort of influence she might have on innocent young men?
Ogdun tries to decide between "I hadn't noticed," and "Why should you care?" and settles for, "I don't reckon it's any of my business."
Masilda glances in Jerfy's direction, just to make sure he's not suddenly lapsed out of potential son-in-law status.
Masilda: Ah, but doesn't the Book of Light say that each person bears the responsibility to prevent his neighbors from falling into error?
Jerfy has his nose in his drink.
Ogdun thinks about that.
Ogdun: It says lack of toleratin' others was one of the Ten Great Mistakes of the Ancients.
Ogdun perhaps takes correcting that Mistake farther than the average Gen would think is reasonable.
Masilda: This is not about tolerance. We are instructed to bear no ill will towards those who err, but to point out their errors so that they can be corrected, for the good of everyone.
Ogdun wonders since when Masilda bears no ill will toward others.
Ogdun: Oh...?
Masilda has a crusader's gleam in her eyes, or maybe it's the particularly nice set of carved buttons hanging not far from a certain necklace.
Masilda: Yes. When you permit error to happen in your establishment, through the agency of your employee, you bear some of the responsibility for her mistake.
Masilda decides on second thought that the carving on the buttons isn't fancy enough, and fastens on some cloth-covered ones with flowers embroidered on them.
Masilda: Those buttons....
Masilda points towards her choice.
Ogdun blinks at the sudden change of subject, then turns to see what she's pointing to.
Masilda: The ones with the flowers. Are they Gen work?
Masilda sincerely hopes that Ogdun is shifty enough to lie about it if they are.
Ogdun: With embroidery like that? Not likely. [gruffly]
Ogdun: Not for that price.
Masilda: What? You trade with Simes?
Masilda manages to look truly shocked.
Ogdun: I don't, but I can't speak for everybody, and most things change hands many times before they get to me. Especially small items like jewelry.
Ogdun: Besides, if people want to buy them, what harm is there?
Masilda remembers Pastor Dauget's answer to that question, and the recommendation he gave on the best way to handle the problem in a moral fashion.
Masilda decides that it is better for the buttons to go to someone as spiritually advanced as herself, who is unlikely to be corrupted, rather than a weaker individual like Dovela, whose daughter is also coming of age.
Masilda would hate for Kully to loose out to Dovela's inferior offspring, and all for want of buttons.
Masilda: Well....
Masilda: Did you buy them from a Gen?
Ogdun smiles, sensing a sale.
Ogdun: Of course.
Masilda: Well, then, I suppose they could be considered Gen buttons, by right of ownership.
Ogdun: You can call 'em whatever you want, lady.
Masilda: What do you want for them?
Masilda's mouth is already pursed in an anticipatory frown, ready to be shocked and amazed at the outrageous sum Ogdun is sure to name.
Ogdun: 15.
Masilda is not disappointed.
Masilda: Fifteen??!!
Masilda: Eight, and I'm doing you a favor.
Ogdun picks up his rag and glass and starts polishing again.
Ogdun: You are, are you?
Ogdun spits on the glass to add a little moisture for polishing.
Ogdun: Widow Dovela was looking at them there buttons just the other day.
Masilda: Ten, then.
Masilda casts a longing look at the buttons.
Ogdun looks sly.
Ogdun: Thirteen, and you work your wiles to keep that military man from snooping around here.
Ogdun knows Masilda enjoys a challenge, especially when it's a challenge over territory.
Jerfy is all ears.
Masilda discards the idea of a second set of buttons for her own dress.
Masilda: Eleven, and a young cockerel. That's my final offer--and it's better than Dovela can manage, with her man gone.
Masilda: Eleven, and a young cockerel from my best laying hen.
Masilda: And what military man is that?
Masilda doesn't want to commit herself to anything with regards to young men until she's had time to assess their husband potential, with regards to Kully.
Ogdun: You don't know? He's come down from the Pass to ask what he can do to stick his nose in the town business.
Ogdun: Everybody's buzzing about it.
Ogdun doesn't realize the Lieutenant has been literally, if accidentally, one stop behind Masilda all the way through town.
Masilda: I make no promises until I've met the man. Twelve and the cockerel, and that's my last offer.
Masilda happens to know that Dovela can't afford more than 10 for buttons, after buying the cloth for her daughter's dress.
Masilda is still grinding her teeth about that; it was very nice material.
Masilda thinks, however, that the embroidered buttons can dress up the second-best material well enough to compete.
Masilda is aware, however, that it will be a much fairer competition than she had planned for.
Ogdun: Oh, very well.
Ogdun turns around to carefully detach the ribbon bearing the buttons from the wall.
Masilda opens her purse and counts out the coins--twice, just to make sure that she hasn't put an extra one in the pile by mistake.
Ogdun: I'll send my son around to pick up the cock when he gets home.
Masilda puts the precious buttons in her purse, vowing to make sure Kully is safely out of reach in the sewing room when the young man arrives.
Masilda: Very well. I'll expect him before dinner, mind.
Masilda knows how much her husband Mack loves her fried chicken, and doesn't want recriminations for the loss of the plump bird.
Masilda: And Ogdun....
Ogdun: Yessm?
Masilda reaches into the pocket on her apron and pulls out several pamphlets.
Masilda: Perhaps these might be of interest to your... girl. And your suppliers.
Masilda hands Ogdun the pamphlets, which she swiped from the church.
Masilda then turns and sweeps towards the door, errand and mandatory proselytization accomplished.
Ogdun looks dubiously at the pamphlets, which neither he or his employee can read.
Ogdun picks them up and tucks them into an unused customer tab pigeonhole.
Jerfy gets ready to slink out the door, once Masilda is gone.
Jerfy has totally lost any desire to buy anything today.
Jerfy tends, generally, to totally lose desire when he sees Masilda.
Lieutenant Leigh decides to take a break from the hard work of interviewing community leaders, and wet his whistle.
Lieutenant Leigh has a firm belief in the capacity of soldiers to consume unlimited amounts of alcohol without being affected, even though for some reason he hasn't quite gotten the hang of it, yet.
Lieutenant Leigh salves his conscience by reminding himself that innkeepers are often community leaders in themselves.
Lieutenant Leigh enters the Tilted Wheel, and finds a spot at the bar.
Lieutenant Leigh looks around; being in a real bar is more exciting than going to the officer's pub on the base, even if there don't seem to be any other customers at present.
Lieutenant Leigh hasn't done anything this illicit since he stole a pie cooling on a neighbor's windowsill, when he was still a boy.
Lieutenant Leigh wipes sweaty palms on his creased trousers.
Ogdun: Yeah?
Lieutenant Leigh: Bartender, bring me a dark ale, please.
Ogdun inspects a glass and then goes to draw the ale.
Lieutenant Leigh has never been able to really distinguish between beers, perhaps through lack of experience, but he knows that several men in his troop have talked about dark ale.
Lieutenant Leigh is well aware that the officer's training manual encourages officers to learn from their men.
Ogdun puts it on the bar in front of the Lieutenant.
Ogdun: That'll be five.
Lieutenant Leigh reaches into his pocket and pulls out ten.
Ogdun thinks there's a sucker born every minute.
Lieutenant Leigh holds the ten in clear view.
Lieutenant Leigh: I expect that a man of your profession has quite a sense for the problems of the local community.
Ogdun: Maybe I do. [guarded]
Lieutenant Leigh raises an interrogative eyebrow, as taught in his Interviewing Techniques class.
Ogdun lowers a big lower lip, as he learned in his Brutish Truculence class in the "school of hard knocks".
Lieutenant Leigh: I have heard quite a few people today express concern about bandits in the pass.
Ogdun: Yeah, I reckon they've caused some trouble.
Lieutenant Leigh: I don't have the men to patrol the pass and all the likely roads, not and keep the Simes off as well.
Lieutenant Leigh: However, there must be concerned individuals who would be willing to assist on such a project.
Ogdun tries to look not quite smart enough to really get what the Lieutenant is getting at.
Lieutenant Leigh: Either by augmenting my patrols, or by contributing materials to other volunteers.
Ogdun: Yeah...?
Ogdun thinks this sounds suspiciously like a call for volunteering or donations.
Ogdun as a businessman finds such activities counterproductive.
Lieutenant Leigh: I am sure that an upstanding community leader like yourself would know who would be interested in participating in the project.
Lieutenant Leigh figures that the pastor and other leaders can be hit up for horses and weapons, but his otherwise vivid imagination is unable to go so far as to picture them riding patrols.
Ogdun: I kin ask around.
Ogdun means, he might mention it to the hard luck cases who come to the bar.
Lieutenant Leigh: You do that.
Lieutenant Leigh pushes the ten farther towards Ogdun.
Ogdun picks it up.
Lieutenant Leigh: Just think how much more business your inn will get, if travelers don't have to worry about bandits.
Lieutenant Leigh has not caught on that actual travelers aren't where Ogdun's profit margin resides.
Ogdun thinks they'll travel right through Pooterville and push on to Edgarton, knowing they can travel safely past dusk - but doesn't say so.
Ogdun shrugs.
Ogdun: Maybe so.
Lieutenant Leigh's knowledge of local geography and conditions is perhaps not yet what it should be.
Lieutenant Leigh: I have placed a notice in the Pooterville Times, as well.
Lieutenant Leigh: I expect that the first group of volunteers will be organized within a week or so.
Lieutenant Leigh has always had sergeants to worry about logistics, or he wouldn't be saying such things.
Ogdun: Good luck to you.
Ogdun wonders exactly how the Lieutenant defines "organized".
Lieutenant Leigh smiles and raises his ale for a sip.
Ogdun smiles back, a bit sardonically.
Lieutenant Leigh's eyes cross at the bitterness, but he manages to swallow with an heroic effort.
Ogdun looks somewhat puzzled after that.
Go on to Episode #4: (under construction)