Sime~Gen Roleplaying on IRC: Snake River Dam Scenario
Episode #46: In Through the Outdoors (9/28/00)
Elte grips the window ledge of the building where the Controller lives and scrabbles a few more inches up the cliff.
Elte has thoroughly enjoyed his week with Sgt. Edka learning about the hazardous life of cliff demolitions experts.
Elte is pleased to put some of his new-found information to use.
Elte brings his foot up to rest on the next piton and peers over the ledge into the window of what he hopes is Arat's personal suite.
Elte has found the Controller surprisingly elusive. Elte has not had the opportunity to offer even 15 minutes of the public relations coaching Mr. Birch wants so badly.
Elte has decided it is time to try Contingency Plan E.
Elte is pleased to find the window isn't locked on the side overlooking the cliff. Balancing precariously, he raises the window and crawls into the room.
Elte looks about curiously. The building itself is quite an elaborate structure for this far out in the sticks.
Elte notices that, while the room is extremely clean and neat, it lacks any personal embellishments by its inhabitant.
Elte is of course not satisfied with a cursory inspection and opens the closet to find a spotless assortment of Tecton uniforms.
Elte wanders over to the table, which is rather battered pre-Unity style, though it was an attractive piece of furniture once.
Elte lets his eyes wander over the neat piles of papers, journals and correspondence.
Arat descends the muddy slope towards his lodgings. The bit of forest surrounding it has been jealously defended by Tecton security; the rest of the area immediately surrounding the construction site has been denuded.
Elte notes this table seems to be the only portion of the room that actually seems to be in use. The bed is perfectly made and the dresser bare of all decoration.
Arat notices something odd about the chateau-cum-barn he inhabits, despite the trunks in the way.
Arat's bodyguards look alert as he stiffens.
Arat has zlinned an intruder in his home!
Elte wonders if Simes like to keep pictures of their family members like Gens do, or if such remembrances would not seem particularly evocative to people who depend on zlinning.
Zuvon is ready to signal his fellows to leap to any occasion, as soon as Arat tells them what to do. Or even before, if need be. They aren't paid to sit around wondering what to do.
Elte's research has told him that Arat has a woman and children and he wonders how the man feels about this separation.
Zuvon has been itching for a chance to show a few construction workers, homeless people, etc. who's boss. The constraints of his actual boss being more civilized have been frustrating.
Arat lifts a hand in the ages-old gesture of the nobility restraining the infantry.
Elte slides open a bureau drawer and sees the stack of perfectly pressed socks and underclothes.
Arat: I'll handle this myself.
Arat doesn't want Mr. Birch to freak out because his golden boy was clobbered by Arat's security.
Elte wonders if Tecton channels are much like military officers in their discipline and devotion to duty.
Arat is not at all pleased, however.
Elte has heard the Tecton's propaganda, of course, but as an old newspaper man he recognizes hype when he sees it.
Arat stalks the rest of the way to the chateau... well, lodge... and unlocks the front door. The body guards follow, ready for anything.
Elte hears a sound or two that warn him he may soon be expecting company. He quickly slides the drawer closed.
Elte glances around the room to see if there is any other evidence to destroy. He closes the door to the closet.
Arat nods to one of the bodyguard to enter first. The door to the bedroom is opened.
Arat is quite furious at the invasion, of course.
Arat: What is the meaning of this!
Arat: [to Elte, from the doorway]
Arat's bodyguards check the place out thoroughly, circling like police dogs.
Elte: Ah, Controller Arat! What a pleasure! I was hoping for a chance to speak with you, privately.
Elte regards the bodyguards with interest. He wonders how they'd stack up in competition with the New Washington Federal Police.
Elte sees that Arat is angry about having his personal territory invaded, but that is all in a day's work.
Arat: These are my private quarters!
Arat needn't ask how Elte got in; there is an open window with a climbing rope dangling through it and dust and small pebbles tracked all over the floor.
Elte: Exactly. Perfect for a private chat.
Elte: You are not an easy man to catch, Controller Arat.
Elte has heard that the Controller prefers being addressed by his formal title; Elte can't help but approve.
Arat is the tall, thin, large-nosed aristocratic type, and has had a good deal of practice holding his head high and flaring his nostrils in an affronted fashion.
Elte: Now, if you had been willing to meet with me in your office, I wouldn't have had to go to these lengths.
Arat: This is intolerable.
Arat can't remember if he'd already said that, so he says it for good measure.
Elte: But I enjoyed the exercise... and the rock-climbing practice.
Elte: You never know when some tidbit of information you thought was trivial will come in very handy.
Elte: Which brings us to the matter of image management.
Arat is the very image of an outraged prince who is barely managing his temper.
Arat can't very well have Elte thrown out by his guards, however. Mr. Birch would make Arat's life even more difficult than before. This is why Arat had been simply avoiding Elte, rather than openly spurning him.
Elte gazes on Arat's ferocious countenance, impressed by his barely-leashed passion.
Elte does so like people who care!
Elte thinks, and they make such good copy.
Arat realizes that far from frightening Elte, he is entertaining him.
Arat turns his back on Elte and walks towards the "chateau"'s small kitchen. If he has to endure a guest, he should at least be able to have a cup of tea during it.
Arat glowers at a defenseless wall on his way there.
Arat had known that he would be forced to speak to Elte at some point, of course.
Arat had known that if Elte didn't catch up to him himself, then Mr. Birch would have become more persistent on the subject.
Arat of course does not have to believe or like anything that Elte says, only listen to it.
Elte is rather sorry not to have been dressed down by the offended Tecton official. He has been cursed out by the best, and enjoys comparing technique of invective.
Elte fondly remembers an old Sergeant in the Casey 49th Battalion.
Elte: Now, I've been observing Channels and Donors working, getting a better sense of your organizational mission.
Elte sees that he is addressing Arat's back, as the channel makes tea in little nook that passes for a kitchen.
Elte: And that's fine for general public relations.
Elte moves closer to Arat. He doesn't like being ignored.
Elte: But a personal image is-- well, personal.
Elte: It has to be customized.
Elte: And to manage your image I have to know more about you.
Arat feels like he is being trapped.
Arat doesn't like close interpersonal contact under the best of circumstances, and these are definitely not those.
Arat turns around carrying two tea cups, a small gas brazier holding a teakettle, and a package of tea.
Arat: If you would please? [stiffly]
Arat refuses to push past the man.
Arat does not need a "customized personal image". He is a Farris.
Elte grins up into Arat's stiff expression.
Elte steps back, not conceding anything but the space.
Elte: How you do your job, how you live your life, what matters to you....
Arat walks out into the room, unable of course to escape Elte completely in the enclosed space.
Elte: Not the perfect Tecton official, or the perfect Farris channel, but you, yourself.
Arat places the brazier on a low table between some rustic couches. All that is missing from the place is a pig's head as in Mr. Birch's inner sanctum.
Elte: That's what makes the story.
Arat casts a look at Elte that is somewhere between reproach and defensiveness.
Arat lights the brazier, fortunately on the first try.
Elte prepares himself for another Sime tea ceremony.
Elte thinks the custom is rather charming, really.
Arat puts the two cups and the tea down beside the brazier and then seats himself on one of the (leather) couches.
Arat looks at Elte.
Arat: Very well, then. What is it you want to know?
Arat suspects Elte will not find what he is looking for, if he is looking for something besides a Tecton Controller. Many, many others have looked for the same thing and never found it.
Elte strolls forward, standing over the Sime and the tea things on the coffee table.
Elte: Why are you here, Controller Arat?
Elte lets his long legs collapse bonelessly into an adjoining armchair.
Arat looks aside to avoid having to look at the odious intruder. However, there is no avoiding zlinning him.
Arat: I was assigned the post by the Regional Controller.
Arat: Controller Seruffin. [in case Elte does not know]
Arat: I cannot know all of his reasons, but there were several, largely political in nature.
Elte settles back in the huge chair, steepling his fingers, watching the Sime avoid his gaze.
Elte: And those were?
Elte has read the relevant in-Territory news articles, but he is curious to hear Arat's view of the situation.
Arat: Your government requested me.
Arat knows that is what decided Seruffin; the Controller had told him as much.
Arat: There had been some labor unrest in Capitol, and it was my role in helping to negotiate a settlement between labor leaders and the city government that drew their attention.
Arat rather wishes he had never met Fragga at this point.
Arat had thought it was a necessary evil at the time, but he hadn't fully comprehended just how awful the Dam site would be.
Arat in fact wishes Prunida had never dumped Nick in his office, leading to the rediscovery of Wise Snake, but like the bit about Fragga there are some things that just can't be undone.
Arat will just have to live with the last year and a half of his life as-is.
Elte: Why did you become involved in negotiating a labor settlement? That seems rather far from a Channel's usual responsibilities.
Arat: While it was difficult, at the time it seemed the only reasonable course of action.
Elte sits forward, eyes gleaming.
Elte: The only reasonable course of action.
Elte: You stepped forward and took a stand. Others did nothing.
Arat: After the District Center was broken into and some channelling staff injured, I wrote a letter to the major newspapers calling for a compromise between the city and the workers.
Arat: After that, the leader of one of the labor groups, SWAT, requested that I act as mediator during talks.
Elte of course has read the commentary on the labor crisis in the Capitol papers. He found the commentary intriguing but cynical.
Arat must neither tell a lie or give his true role in all of this away. Seldom has he had to parse his words so carefully. He finds it stressful.
Arat however has had some opportunities to practice, as many people have wanted to know about this and some have even dared to ask.
Elte: So you cared about the attacks on the channeling staff and the unrest in the city. You wanted to end the crisis?
Arat: Yes.
Arat had been quite disturbed by the attack on the Sime Center, which he had not anticipated.
Arat: The violence had gone on more than long enough.
Elte: And you were called upon to mediate. To stop the violence.
Arat: Yes.
Elte: Now I understand you come from an old family. An aristocratic family. Why should the affairs of workers and civil servants matter to you?
Arat: When the Sime Center was attacked, preventing renSimes from obtaining their transfers and putting Gens in physical danger, I was obligated to act.
Arat thinks it was a stroke of brilliance on the part of Fragga and her scheming huddle, although he would not have permitted it if they had asked in advance.
Arat still wouldn't, if he had it to do again. There are some things Arat won't do for any reason, and destruction of Tecton property and disruption of selyn schedules are two of them.
Elte is perhaps more familiar with Gen aristocrats, whose established webs of land, money, power and influence were not so badly disrupted by the reorganization after the Unity War.
Elte: So you saw protecting these renSimes and Gens as your duty?
Arat considers the question.
Arat: I could not stand by when violence spread to the Sime Center.
Arat never made any promises as to duty to the people of Capitol, beyond that of a District Controller. His real duty lies to the people of New Othwol and its surrounding areas.
Elte: It was the Tecton you were protecting, then, as opposed to the city? Or the people?
Arat: A Sime Center must be involiable. It is the pillar upon which Unity has been built.
Elte: So you were protecting your nation, then. And the principles upon which it is built.
Arat: You might say that.
Arat knows other people who would insist that he was reflexively protecting that which had saved his life, the Tecton bureaucracy itself.
Elte: How would you say it better?
Elte leans back, alert to every nuance of expression in Arat's face.
Elte likes what he has heard so far. Put the right way, it will play well with the generals whose good will Birch seeks.
Arat's wonderfully expressive Farris features attempt to be stony, but betray any number of alternative emotions including resentment, furtiveness, discomfort, pride and of course, anger. Arat is always angry.
Arat: I would say that any moral and reasonable person could have written the letter that I wrote, and it was only my circumstances and my position that led me to write it rather than someone else.
Arat certainly tried to make it seem that way when he wrote the letter, anyway. And of course, it is true in many ways.
Arat: Of course, once they requested that I act as negotiator, I could hardly say no.
Arat: Particularly as my superiors reluctantly agreed to it.
Arat gives a good impression of having to be dragged forcibly into the role like an angry and imperiously balking mule. This is particularly believable to people who know him well and know he has been like that about most things his entire life.
Elte: And would you say any moral and reasonable person could have negotiated an end to the riots?
Arat: The actual mediation was quite difficult. I am certain there were others with the skills and the patience to have done it. I was, however, the one the SWAT leadership were willing to accept.
Arat thinks the most difficult bit about the negotiations was feeling that all of the people involved were complete idiots and wishing he could have nothing to do with any of them.
Arat has rarely subjected himself to the company of lay people he loathed so completely for such an extensive time. He usually manages to arrange things so most non-Tecton people have little to no contact with him at all.
Arat's rank in the Tecton makes relations there quite a bit more natural for him.
see note 1
Notes:
1) This scene continues in the next episode. [return]
Go on to Episode #47: There'll be Elte Pay
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