Sime~Gen Roleplaying on IRC: Snake River Dam Scenario
Episode #10: Let's Eat (6/25/00)
Starlin thanks Hefin and Coder for their information and hurries to find the project officials.
Starlin speeds over the hill to where the Tecton has set up an insulated tent for channeling.
Starlin looks around for someone to take his report.
Nick is lounging in front of the tent with Sayward, waiting for customers to arrive for Snake.
Starlin spots the boss types and heads that way.
Starlin: Ah, Sosu Nick. Tuib Sayward. I have some Gens for you.
Sayward is worried a bit about the reactions of the Gens to being caught by Starlin and his friends.
Nick perks up at the news; he cleaned out Snake's supply of recreational pharmaceuticals the previous day, and that always makes her a bit short-tempered.
Starlin: They are camped over by Brambleberry Pond.
Sayward turns to Nick.
Starlin: I can show you where.
Nick: Perhaps we should go over and have a look?
Sayward: Sound like a plan.
Nick: Let me tell Snake where we're going.
Starlin: They've hidden in a spot I sure wouldn't want to go near.
Starlin: Thorn bushes all over.
Starlin: You might want some gloves or something.
Nick pokes his head inside, and there is a surly snarling noise, much like a stoat with a hangover.
Sayward: I've got a couple pair of work gloves if that will do.
Nick's head emerges more rapidly than it entered, and he gives Sayward a weak smile.
Nick: Let's go get some customers.
Starlin considers Sayward's attire; he decides her work clothes are tough enough to resist the thorns.
Starlin nods.
Starlin: Okay, follow me.
Starlin leads them out of the camp into trackless wilderness.
Lachi is nursing a fretful infant wrapped in rags, while using a stick to stir a thin soup bubbling in a rusted pot over a small fire that burns outside her improvised packing-crate-and-tarp dwelling.
Lachi is also muttering a monotonous commentary about worthless, drunken husbands who can't get work, and about how she could have starved more comfortably back home.
Starlin leads them up a pine-covered hill by the side of a silvery brook.
Lachi is oblivious to the scenery, as it isn't edible.
Soozy sits by the side of the pond, arms wrapped around her legs, gritting her teeth.
Soozy thinks that the baby's howling and Lachi's muttering together are going to drive her nuts.
Lachi has not noticed much of anything since Uller swept her away from her mother's side with a lot of romantic promises about how he'd reform his ways, and look where that got her.
Soozy can feel the sun beating on her shoulders already and knows her skin will start to blister before long at this rate.
Soozy wonders how long it will take to find a job here.
Soozy stares into the muddy algae-filled water at the edge of the pond and watches a flitting dragonfly.
Soozy swats a mosquito.
Soozy remembers that her mother warned her she would end up in the gutter; and figures that a mudbank in a pest-hole is pretty close.
Lorkees has been out of work and out of hope so long that there just doesn't seem to be any reason to keep going. He has been traveling for months or is it years? Doesn't much matter.
Starlin leads the group over the crest of the hill to where a small pond gleams at the center of a circular dip. The circumference of the circle is ringed by blackberry, wild rose and other thorny bushes.
Nick surveys the trio with a practiced eye. He's seen less prepossessing customers, but not since Bender Cove.
Nick is not put off by their ragged looks, as every bit of work helps, when Snake is in this kind of mood.
Starlin: Well, there they are.
Starlin: And I'm not going anywhere near them.
Starlin: I value my sheathes, thank you very much.
Lorkees can't believe how many people must be in the same boat. Traveling alone is one thing, but there are people with children and even a few babies. He plops down by the pond and stares at the trees.
Nick strips off the heavy work gloves Sayward loaned him, and hands them to Starlin.
Sayward looks at the brambles and puts on her gloves.
Sayward: I wouldn't do that if I were you.
Starlin reflexively covers his sheathes with his hands at the mere thought of adventuring in among all those sharp thorns.
Nick: Here. If you keep your tentacles retracted, these will protect your sheathes.
Starlin takes the gloves with distaste.
Sayward: What are you going to do for protection?
Nick has less caution regarding small injuries than many Gens, after living for several years with entran-prone Farris channels.
Nick: I'll manage.
Nick: They've made a path out of the thicket--see it?
Starlin: Shen! I hate having to wear these things.
Nick: If we use their path, we won't run into too many thorns.
Nick looks at Starlin.
Nick: Would you rather wear those retainer things?
Starlin grits his teeth and pulls the gloves on and slides them up his arms. The sensation of having his laterals covered gives him the willies.
Starlin has had to do this before, however, when milling lumber to avoid the sawdust.
Starlin: No thanks, I'll go with the fabric.
Sayward looks at the two men and tries to figure out why Starlin is having such a hard time with the gloves.
Sayward: Whenever you two are ready.
Nick nods his readiness and waves Sayward ahead.
Starlin: Okay. Let's get this over with.
Sayward: I go first.
Starlin is more than happy to let the Gens break a trail through the thorns.
Nick follows Sayward down the hill.
Starlin tries to go as hypo as he can.
Starlin follows.
Sayward starts through the mass of thorny vegetation. She makes sure to not let anything snap back and get to the men.
Soozy has become vaguely aware of the distant sound of voices mingled with the buzzing of the mosquitoes that are feeding so well on her arms and legs.
Sayward, after a few curses that she doesn't say out loud, gets through the last of it.
Lachi is not aware of anything much outside of the way her baby seems determined to chew her breast off, and the soup which has fewer ingredients every day.
Sayward holds a really large branch of thorns to the side for Nick and Starlin to get through.
Nick nods his thanks as he slips by the hazard.
Starlin approaches the Gens with trepidation. He is blocking out the ambient as best he can, but what he does zlin is very unpleasant indeed.
Sayward smiles and wonders how such a pretty fellow got a job that put him in the middle of the wilderness.
Nick 's looks are his grandmother's fault, not his own, as is his preference for roughing it, when that leaves him out of her clutches.
Soozy continues to stare at the water and wishes she could flit away like the dragonfly.
Sayward actually looks at the camp around the pond. This is the worse one she's seen yet. At least none of the others had such desperate looking people in them. And children! This is not good.
Lachi finally notices that someone has arrived, and looks up dully to see if it's her drunken lout of a husband.
Starlin braces himself for the Gens' emotional reactions. He hopes the Donor will remember to shield him if they panic.
Lachi blinks these newcomers are much better dressed than anyone she's seen for weeks.
Lachi associates well-dressed individuals with landlords, and make an understandable mistake.
Nick has, as a matter of course, assumed control of the ambient; a rather easy task for a Gen with his field strength.
Lachi decides that the best defense is to play ignorant.
Lachi: What do you want?
Sayward looks over at Starlin and realizes that with the gloves on no one will recognize him as Sime. This is at least something.
Lachi: This your land? It wasn't posted or nothing.
Lachi: We didn't mean no harm.
Lachi: ~~ whining ~~
Sayward: We aren't here to throw you out.
Lachi has, on occasion, whined so irritatingly that a landlord actually gave her a week's extension on her rent rather than sit through any more of it.
Sayward has to fight the urge to cover her ears. She hates whining.
Starlin is relieved that the first reaction is so mild, and that Nick is managing the fields. Having very little casual contact with Donors of any kind, he is astonished at Nick's control of the ambient.
Lachi: If you're looking for a camp spot, we were here first. You'll have to find somewhere else.
Sayward: We are trying to get everyone accounted for and to make sure that you are safe with so many Simes around.
Soozy is dimly aware that there has been an intrusion into the camp. She wonders if she cares.
Sayward: We already have a camp thank you.
Lachi: As for Simes, my granny always said thorns'd keep 'em away.
Sayward: If you want to stay here that is fine. But you are in Sime Territory.
Sayward decides to take a different tack.
Sayward: Anyone here want to earn some money?!
Soozy hears the mention of money and it catches her drifting attention. That is what she is here for, after all. At least, that was the plan.
Soozy raises her head.
Lorkees looks up at the words "earn some money".
Soozy looks around at the strangers.
Soozy: Yeah. I want money.
Sayward: We came down here to give you an easy way to get the money you need for basic supplies. Anyone interested?!
Soozy doesn't really care, but she reminds herself that she is supposed to want money; everybody does.
Lorkees get up and starts to walk over to the newcomers.
Soozy wonders if she will have to stand up to get the money.
Lorkees: How easy?
Lachi thinks it's just her luck that the only time in weeks that work is offered, her useless man is off getting drunk.
Sayward looks at the very sturdy young man coming towards them.
Sayward: Easy as a handshake.
Lorkees knows there is no such thing as a free lunch.
Lachi: My man'll be back soon. How many you hiring?
Starlin listens, trying to follow the Genlan.
Lorkees: So who I gotta shake hands with?
Lachi doesn't care if the work is hard or easy, that good-for-nothing lug can bloody well do it.
Sayward turns to Nick and smiles as if to say "your turn".
Nick gives her a "who, me?" look.
Nick is used to letting his channel do the talking, as both Snake and Arat much prefer it that way.
Sayward nods "yeah you".
Nick gulps, but rises to the occasion.
Nick: You shake hands with a channel.
Nick: And when you're lowfield, you get a nice donation payment, and you don't have to worry about Simes any more.
Lachi wonders if that's too complicated for her husband to manage.
Soozy stares at the handsome, curly-haired man in the odd clothes. He is almost as handsome as her beloved Steve, who she will never see again. Her eyes fill with tears.
Lorkees looks at the looks at the man in disbelief. Nothing is that easy.
Nick is careful to hold the ambient steady. Experience suggests that there is likely to be a nageric disturbance, once the offer is understood.
Lorkees looks at the newcomers.
Starlin cringes.
Lorkees: Nothing is that easy.
Sayward: Yes, it is that easy. I did it.
Sayward: Come back up to the main camp with us and you can have your money within the hour.
Nick estimates the Gens' physical conditions, adjusts for their nondonor status, and makes a quick calculation.
Sayward looks around at the blank faces.
Nick: You'll be able to earn enough to eat well for a week or more, even with the price of food here.
Nick thinks they might even earn a bit more, with the mood Snake is in--she tends to be a bit more thorough when she's in a nasty mood.
Sayward: How about it? Your children will have food and so will you.
Soozy: You're gonna take us to the Simes? To get the souls eaten out of us?
Soozy has been taught about donation using the standard Deep Territory curriculum.
Lachi couldn't care less if her husband loses his soul; it's not a very nice one, anyway.
Lachi: How long is the offer good for? I can't send my man over until he gets back.
Lachi has firm ideas about which member of the family is supposed to be the provider, and which the provided for.
Sayward: There's nothing stopping you from coming now. Then you can send him when he gets back.
Lorkees: I'll come. I haven't had a good meal in more time than I can remember.
Lachi: Me? I'm from a good family, I am, I'll have you know. I'm not a common laborer.
Sayward: Can you shake hands?
Lachi looks affronted.
Lachi: A lady doesn't accept familiarity from strangers.
Lorkees walks over to stand next to the skinny newcomer who hasn't said anything so far.
Starlin stares with trepidation as the Gen advances on him.
Starlin has been discovering that wild Gens can be very unpredictable.
Nick edges closer to Starlin and offers ~~ shielding support ~~
Sayward: Does a Lady not extend her hand in greeting as is only proper?
Sayward may be a high level grunt but she suffered through all the manners lessons that her mother deemed necessary.
Starlin: What you want?
Lachi looks at Sayward with ~~ open scorn ~~
Starlin gestures toward Sayward.
Starlin: She boss lady.
Lachi: Only when there has been a proper introduction.
Lorkees looks at the skinny fellow and shrugs. He walks over to the woman in charge.
Starlin is totally bewildered by the Genlan terms of etiquette.
Sayward: I will be most happy to provide you with a proper introduction.
Starlin can feel the scorn, though.
Sayward is fighting hard not to roll her eyes heavenward.
Starlin wonders what this Gen's problem is; he hasn't done anything.
Lachi looks at Sayward skeptically.
Lachi: You can't do that. We haven't been introduced.
Lachi is aware that etiquette does allow two ladies to introduce each other without a third party, as is required for men.
Lachi: I'm Lachi Yan.
Lachi holds out her hand to Sayward.
Sayward: Very true. I am Sayward Mullins.
Starlin got at least part of this.
Starlin doesn't like the look of the hand-shaking ritual, however.
Sayward: Honored to meet you. Miz Yan.
Lachi: Pleased to meet you, Miz Mullins. Who are your associates?
Sayward turns and indicates Nick.
Sayward: The gentleman is Sosu Nick Reckage.
Nick bows courteously, in-Territory style, not being completely comfortable with the hand-shaking business.
Lachi: What sort of a name is "Sosu"?
Lachi is even more ignorant of in-Territory honorifics than Nick is of out-Territory courtesy.
Sayward: The other gentleman is --
Sayward: Oh, sorry. Sosu is a title like Mr. or Miz. He works for the Tecton.
Lachi: The Tecton, eh?
Lachi wonders if that disqualifies him as a gentleman.
Sayward: Yes, he is quite highly placed from what Cris tells me.
Lachi can't remember any etiquette lessons which covered the subject, at least not explicitly.
Nick shrugs disarmingly.
Nick never really did believe what Arat told him about his Tecton rank, and has happily forgotten it in these more rustic surroundings.
Sayward indicates Starlin.
Sayward: This gentleman is Union Delegate Starlin Hightop.
Sayward: He represents the workers here.
Starlin signals a greeting, then remembers the Gens can't zlin.
Sayward intentionally leaves out that he only represents the Sime workers.
Starlin is not about to offer a hand to this wild thing.
Starlin bows rather stiffly.
Sayward: Now that you have been properly introduce to Sosu Reckage he can introduce you to Hajene Farris.
Soozy totters to her feet.
Soozy: You'll pay money for my soul? Cash money?
Nick: Not for your soul. For your selyn.
Sayward: You get to keep your soul.
Soozy: Preacher said that's a lie.
Sayward never has believed in souls in the first place.
Soozy laughs wildly.
Nick: You'll make more selyn to replace what's taken. In four weeks, you'll be as high field as ever.
Nick is not being completely honest; when stripped as closely as Snake does it when in a bad mood, a donor will show a small but noticeable increase in capacity.
Soozy lacks the key vocabulary to make sense of this.
Soozy: That's okay. You can have my soul. I don't want it any more.
Lorkees: I don't care what they want, I'm tired of being hungry.
Soozy figures she is already damned forever for making love to a married man.
Sayward: Well all you have to do is come up to the main camp with us.
Soozy would do it again, too, if he didn't throw her out when his wife came home from staying with her mother when she had her baby.
Nick: It won't take long. You'll be able to buy groceries in time for lunch.
Lachi perks up at the mention of lunch.
Lachi then slumps.
Lachi: I can't leave the baby.
Lachi doesn't particularly care about the baby any more, but looks after him out of habit.
Lorkees is so happy at the thought of a good lunch he turns and punches Starlin on the arm.
Starlin: Acchhkk!
Nick turns to see what the matter is.
Starlin jumps back about four feet, into a thorn bush, clutching his arm where the hearty punch reverberated all the way down.
Sayward: You don't have to. In fact Hajene Farris will be happy to check the baby to see if he is healthy.
Nick: Shen!
Sayward turns to see what's going on.
Starlin: ~~shooting pains~~
Starlin cowers in the middle of the thornbush.
Lorkees looks at the skinny fellow in amazement.
Lorkees: I didn't hit him hard. I just tapped him near his shoulder. Is he sick or something?
Sayward looks at Nick and then at Starlin. She doesn't understand anymore than the Gen who says he hit him.
Sayward: What's the matter with him?
Lorkees: I'm sorry fella. I didn't mean to hurt you. Here let me help you outta that bush.
Nick steps between them, firmly.
Starlin: No!
Nick: Let me. Starlin, did you snag a tentacle?
Lorkees, crestfallen, backs away.
Nick's nager reaches out with Farris-precise ~~ concern and comfort ~~
Starlin uncowers under the calming influence of Nick's concern.
Lachi frowns at the foreign lingo.
Lachi: What are they saying, anyway? [to Sayward] It ain't polite to talk so others can't understand.
Starlin: I think the thorns are trying to come right through these gloves.
Nick: Well, let's get you untangled, then.
Nick reaches carefully for the worst offender among the branches, and starts to work it clear of the gloves.
Starlin: There, that's it.
Sayward: We are in Sime Territory. That is their language.
Lachi looks at Nick's arms, which his Donor's uniform leave bare.
Lachi: He ain't no Sime.
Starlin: Don't worry about the dorsals; just keep that branch away from my sheathes.
Sayward watches as Nick tries to get Starlin untangled.
Sayward: No but he grew up here.
Sayward: So did Starlin.
Nick secures his branch carefully by placing it behind another, then reaches for another and works it free.
Starlin: Okay, I think I can get clear, but keep that maniac away from me, please!
Nick: He was just trying to be friendly. I think.
Starlin augments slightly to vault out of the bushes into the clearing.
Nick hopes so, in any case, if Snake's going to have to handle the fellow.
Starlin: I know. I would have dodged if I had the slightest warning in his nager.
Lachi lets out a yelp, and backpedals, almost stepping on her fire.
Lachi: A Sime! He's a Sime!
Lachi looks around for her husband to shoot the attacker, but the useless idiot is never around when she wants him.
Nick mutters a curse, and pursues Starlin, wishing the idiot would stay close enough for Nick to protect him.
Sayward: Everyone calm down!!!
Sayward years of working construction lets her be heard over anything.
Starlin: ~~intil~~
Sayward: Now, he hasn't hurt anyone and he isn't going to!
Starlin fights down the reaction and tries to put Nick between him and the panicking Gen.
Lorkees backs up wide-eyed.
Nick catches up with Starlin and ensures the truth of Sayward's promise by sending his intil plummeting.
Sayward: You came into Sime Territory. You have to expect to run into Simes.
Lachi: That's why we were camping in the brambles.
Starlin trembles, clinging to Nick.
Nick adds some spine-stiffening to his projection.
Sayward: This is why it is so important that you come and let Hajene Farris take your extra selyn. So the Simes will leave you alone.
Sayward: They don't want to bother you any more than you want to bother them.
Starlin gathers together the shards of his fractured self-control.
Starlin: Thank you.
Sayward: You have to help by shaking hands with Hajene Farris.
Lachi: My daddy used to say that about rattlesnakes, until one bit him. He died the next day.
Sayward: He must have bothered it.
Soozy wonders why all these idiots are yelling and jumping around.
Sayward curses her temper for getting the better of her.
Soozy wishes that if they plan to take her soul, they would get it over with.
Sayward: If you give your extra selyn you get money and the knowledge that the Simes won't bother you.
Soozy doesn't understand why people who deliberately go to Hell are surprised to find demons there.
Lachi is becoming more skeptical about this whole offer.
Sayward: Come on, lets get going.
Lachi: You're saying that all I have to do to keep Simes from bothering me is to let a Sime bother me?
Sayward points the way toward the main camp.
Sayward: That Sime will pay you for the bother.
Sayward: If you don't the next Sime to bother you may just bother you to death.
Lachi grudgingly allows the distinction.
Lachi: Well, I suppose you have a point.
Sayward: Good. Let get going.
Soozy gazes with faint curiosity at Starlin. He is the first real Sime she has ever seen.
Lachi thinks about leaving her man a note, in case he comes back while she's gone, but then decides that it would serve the fool right if he had to sit around worrying about where she's gone. Not that he would.
Soozy thinks he doesn't look very frightening compared to the pictures in the Preacher's books.
Lorkees looks at the Starlin ~~ sorry!
Starlin senses Soozy's attention on him and hides behind Nick.
Lachi shifts her baby to the other shoulder in preparation for the hike.
Lorkees: I didn't mean to hurt you.
Starlin senses two Gens' attention on him and wishes he had an insulated barrel or something.
Sayward notices Starlin trying to crawl onto Nicks back. Well maybe not.
Starlin: Just... don't... hit... arms.
Nick's build is more slender than barrel-like, but his nager more than makes up for that.
Starlin appreciates the nageric protection, but at least one of the assaults today was physical.
Sayward: You folks want a good lunch or not? I'm hungry. Let's move it!
Soozy follows Sayward listlessly.
Sayward goes over to the brambles and holds back that same large thorny branch as the Gens file by.
Lachi looks at her soup, which was upset during her near-miss with the fire, shrugs, and follows Soozy.
Lorkees: Lunch sounds good to me.
Nick takes the branch carefully from Sayward, and motions her ahead.
Nick wants as many trustworthy Gens--and as much distance--between Starlin and their new recruits as is practical.
Starlin stays at the rear of the group. He wonders how he is going to justify the day's events to his fellow union members.
Sayward bows slightly and leads the pack back toward the main camp.