Sime~Gen Roleplaying on IRC: Snake River Dam Scenario
Episode #50: On the Stoop (10/6/00)
Nick is sitting on the steps of his (and Arat's and Jeniard's) quarters, resting after a long but productive work day.
Nick can't help taking the opportunity to people-watch when he's off duty; it's 75% inborn.
Nick is absently munching his way through a plate full of apple slices that Arat refused to eat earlier that day; they are now browned, and even Jeniard wouldn't hope to get them down Arat in such condition.
Nick is quite willing to dispose of the leftovers, rather than see them wasted.
Elte strolls towards the Controller's quarters, carrying a thick portfolio.
Nick spots Elte approaching.
Nick: Good evening, Elte. Nice sunset, isn't it?
Elte has learned the Controller dislikes unscheduled interruptions, but he personally hates having to wait for appointments.
Elte brightens, seeing the chance to buttonhole a top aide.
Elte: Good evening to you, Sosu Nick. Marvelous!
Nick nudges the fruit plate towards Elte.
Nick: Help yourself.
Elte glances at the darkening sky; it really is quite magnificent and he wishes he'd brought his camera along.
Elte: Thanks!
Elte picks up an apple slice and pops it in his mouth, luckily without really looking at it.
Elte has to admit that fresh produce is hard to come by in the camp, though fermented and distilled fruit juices flow freely when you're a guest of Mr. Birch.
Nick finally looks away from the sunset, reminding himself that Elte is supposed to be an Important Personage.
Elte: Who's your supplier? You must have some connections! Weren't those grapes I saw the other day?
Nick: Er, yes. As it turns out, I do have a few connections in the agricultural profession.
Nick prefers not to acknowledge just how many, or how closely related.
Elte: Really! Well, if you can pass along any... uh, special orders, I might be interested.
Nick: It would be rather expensive.
Elte: Not a problem, my man!
Elte feels that, as a media star, he is entitled to the best.
Nick names the outrageous fee he is forced to pay for fruit.
Nick: I wouldn't bother, but it's the only way to get food down Arat.
Nick: Even Simes have to eat, you know. Although many would just as soon not bother.
Elte: And that's part of your job? Feeding him?
Nick: I'm responsible for keeping my channel healthy. If he won't eat willingly, then yes, I have to take action.
Elte remembers Jeniard's sleight-of-hand with the plate of grapes. He hadn't realized the darn things cost a fortune.
Elte: Hajene Jeniard says he's risking his life, just trying to live in a place like this.
Nick: Channels run risks wherever they are, but it's true, Arat is very allergic to dust.
Nick: And he doesn't like the confusion of the construction site.
Nick compares the relative risks of Snake's Xylexion versus Neptude's insistence on the Pylor training program, and figures Arat came off about even risk-wise, in that respect.
Nick: He's used to a much more orderly life.
Elte: I had hoped to show him these samples. But since you're here, perhaps you can advise me.
Elte flips open the portfolio and pulls out a book of fabric squares in different weaves and colors.
Nick looks at the samples.
Nick: What are those for?
Elte: We had discussed designs for a new uniform that would protect him from all the dust, while projecting a more authoritative impression.
Nick inspects the fabrics alertly.
Elte leaves Nick holding the sample book and begins pulling sketches out of the portfolio.
Nick: These five won't do at all--he's allergic to them.
Nick: The others--what's this one made out of?
Elte: That one is linen.
Elte: Which is kind of light for winter, but does the cold bother him at all?
Nick: He's got a cape to keep him warm, although he'll require heavier socks.
Elte: He said he required arm veils as well as a face veil. These designs are all based on the attire of High Court judges, with hoods and flowing sleeves.
Nick: But linen won't work, unless you want to see him break out in nasty red welts.
Elte frowns.
Elte: What about cotton? And doesn't it bother him to cover his tentacles, even to keep out the dust?
Nick: Won't people be upset if Arat dresses as a judge, when he isn't?
Nick: He's not allergic to cotton. And of course it bothers him to cover his tentacles. Wouldn't it bother you to wear earplugs and a veil?
Elte: I said based on. Not copied from. We use Tecton colors and insignia, there'll be no problem, at least among the Gens.
Nick nods, accepting Elte's judgment on the matter of out-T mores.
Nick looks back at Elte's sketch, a bit dubiously.
Nick: It doesn't look much like a standard Tecton uniform.
Nick doesn't necessarily think that's a bad thing; he hasn't grown any fonder of the Tecton uniform since he pledged, and in fact has been known to wear civilian garb whenever he can get away with it.
Elte: Well, Arat said he could get it approved as such. But I don't want to solve a problem on our side of the border and create one on yours.
Nick: I don't think something like this would cause problems, at least among the renSimes. It won't change how Arat zlins, after all.
Elte: But it sure will change how he looks. And that's my concern.
Nick nods.
Elte: This business of how you two work together... I'm still trying to puzzle that out.
Elte: I understand you're supposed to be managing the nageric conditions in the vicinity.
Nick: Well, yes, that's a large part of it.
Nick: A channel can't work effectively, if there are fields interfering with what he's trying to zlin.
Elte: Sometimes you just sit there looking bored. Other times you've got your hands all over him. What makes the difference?
Nick: It depends on what's required to do the job.
Nick: If I'm just trying to keep him comfortable while he does paperwork, I can do that from just about anywhere in the room.
Nick: If it's something more than that, though, I have a lot more control when I'm touching him.
Elte: Sometimes you and Hajene Jeniard both have your hands all over him. Is all that contact really necessary?
Nick: It deepens the nageric link, you see.
Elte shakes his head, wonderingly.
Nick: The deepest link happens with a lateral contact--that's why it's used for diagnosis.
Elte: There's no way I can make that seem normal to the Gen-in-the-street.
Elte: Let alone to soldiers and captains of industry.
Nick: Well, it is a bit hard to master the details.
Nick remembers his months of intensive study and practice, when he first met Snake.
Nick then does his best to forget that, as Snake is rather a sore subject with him just now.
Elte brightens.
Elte: Well, if we can't make it seem familiar, we must make it seem exotic.
Nick: I don't know if I'd call it exotic.
Elte: I would... and I will.
Nick: Well, you're the expert on that.
Elte: What would you call it?
Nick considers.
Nick: Well, mostly I just think of it as making us both comfortable.
Elte: Comfortable? With Sime tentacles grabbing you all over?
Wise Snake strolls along the path through the (relatively) quiet glade surrounding Arat, Jeniard and Nick's house.
Nick: Of course.
Elte's eyes glint with curiosity.
Nick smiles in a very un-macho fashion.
Elte: What could possibly be comfortable about that?
Elte recalls a man he interviewed who claimed to be comfortable lying on a bed of nails. That was interesting too.
Wise Snake is looking extra disreputable today, with her hair blowing loose in a tangled tousle and a black cape flapping from her shoulders.
Nick is starting to realize just how big a gap in perspective he and Elte have on that subject.
Elte tried it and ended up with a bunch of punctures in his back. He had various words to describe the experience, but comfortable wasn't one of them.
Nick: It's a matter of security--of knowing my channel is safe and happy, and will keep me safe and happy, too.
Wise Snake overhears this last, and snorts.
Elte frowns.
Wise Snake: I see I've arrived in time for Nick's Happy World Hour.
Nick looks up, and his look hardens.
Nick: What are you doing here?
Elte glances up to see the new arrival.
Nick is in no mood to have any more of Snake's practical jokes land on Arat's head.
Elte finds the tangled hair and black cape quite impressive indeed, let alone the weirdly glowing white eyes.
Wise Snake notes Elte's interest and finds it more interesting than Nick's disapproval (which has, after all, become rather monotonous in the last few weeks).
Elte: I don't believe we've been introduced.
Wise Snake: You must be Elte.
Wise Snake: Wise Snake Farris. [eyes glint as she smiles a snakish smile]
Elte: Ah, yes. I've heard of you. I'm pleased to meet you.
Elte has mostly heard of her through articles in the gossip rags from Capitol.
Nick wonders if he should warn Elte about Snake's proclivities, then decides that he'd better not, as the warning is likely to have the opposite effect from that intended.
Elte: You're the Controller's daughter?
Wise Snake: Among other things.
Nick lists: rogue, murderer, drug addict, poisoner, lunatic....
Wise Snake leans against a small tree near Nick and Elte, and smiles cynically at Nick as she feels in her pockets for something.
Elte can see the resemblance, now that he looks, but the overall impression is very different indeed.
Elte: I believe I read that you were raised in Bender Cove?
Wise Snake: If you can call it that.
Wise Snake locates a small tin and retrieves it from her pocket.
Wise Snake opens the tin and offers it to Elte.
Wise Snake: Candy?
Elte is aware of Nick's tension, and wonders why a man who finds being grabbed by tentacles "comfortable" is so uncomfortable with this social chit-chat.
Wise Snake: They make it in Palisades. Granny Smith's, on Main Street.
Wise Snake has had many opportunities to shop in Palisades, since she started "coaching" poor, sad Klyzer.
Nick: What have you laced those with? Strychnine?
Elte reaches out for a piece and then pauses as he hears Nick's comment.
Wise Snake: No?
Wise Snake shrugs and takes one herself, then returns the tin to her pocket.
Wise Snake pops the candy in her mouth.
Nick is not completely reassured, knowing full well the sort of substances that Snake is willing to consume.
Wise Snake: So, have you been keeping entertained, here on the bald spot of nowhere?
Elte: I was telling Nick his work seemed quite exotic to me.
Wise Snake: Really? You should have seen what he used to do.
Elte: And what was that?
Wise Snake smirks at Nick, her lips slightly green from the green apple candy.
Wise Snake: He used to work for me.
Nick can't deny it.
Elte thinks the green lips give Wise Snake a truly witchy appearance. Exotic indeed!
Elte: As your Donor?
Wise Snake: Yes.
Wise Snake: I trained him, as a matter of fact.
Wise Snake: He didn't have the discipline to make it through the Tecton training program.
Wise Snake smiles not very nicely at Nick.
Wise Snake: It's nice to know he's benefitted from his time with me.
Nick: Yes. It's too bad that so few others have done so.
Wise Snake's smile becomes more genuinely delighted at this stab at insulting her.
Nick isn't really fit to compete, insult-wise, as he only has 25% of the necessary genes for meanness.
Elte: Hajene Jeniard tried to explain a bit to me about how Tecton assignments work. I'm not sure I understood it precisely, but it sounds rather like the military draft.
Nick: It's similar, in a way.
Nick: Although not everyone qualifies for the "draft".
Wise Snake is now searching in her pockets again.
Elte: And how was your training different than the standard program, Hajene Wise Snake?
Wise Snake withdraws, of all things, a long slender cigar case with gold working on it.
Wise Snake snaps it open and sniffs the contents appreciatively. She's no smoker, but she knows an expensive thing when she sees it.
Wise Snake: What? [looks up at Elte]
Elte's eyes alight on the cigar case. He has seen that before, somewhere.
Wise Snake: My training of Nick? [glances at Nick]
Wise Snake: Well, I just worked him until he dropped every day.
Elte: You implied it was more exotic than what he is doing now.
Wise Snake: Bad weather, good weather, rain, shine, well of course there were the illegal aspects.
Wise Snake: Cigar?
Wise Snake offers the box to Elte.
Wise Snake: From the south continent.
Wise Snake: Or thereabouts. [smiles]
Elte: Certainly.
Nick: The curriculum was necessarily a bit less systematic than at Tecton training camp.
Nick would rather not have Elte inquiring too closely as to how Snake got her tentacles on the cigars.
Elte can see Nick is a bit nervous of Wise Snake, but a good cigar is a good cigar.
Wise Snake: Nick became quite familiar with all manners of lawlessness under my care. Robbery, whoring, gangsterism, extortion, blackmail and of course, local municipal corruption.
Elte takes the proferred offering and runs it under his nose appreciatively.
Wise Snake is actually becoming quite nostalgic with the way the conversation is running.
Wise Snake returns the cigar case to its pocket.
Wise Snake: But along with all of that, there was plenty of starvation, disease, attrition and injury to be dealt with. That, I suppose, is the point of it all.
Elte: Why, Nick, I had no idea.
Nick shrugs.
Nick: At the time, it was the only way for me to have a channel.
Elte's eyes glint.
Elte: And did that make you feel comfortable?
Nick looks out at the last of the sunset.
Nick: I was happy at the time.
Elte wishes he had a lighter.
Wise Snake: That was before he made a career of moping and blaming others for his predicaments. [notes]
Elte: Gangsters and corruption, starvation and disease, but having a channel made you happy?
Nick: ...Yes.
Elte blinks.
Elte: And here I thought perhaps you had led a sheltered life under a Sime's care.
Wise Snake laughs.
Elte: You have a strange idea of comfortable, Sosu Nick.
Wise Snake bends down and picks up a piece of flint.
Wise Snake: Give me. [to Elte]
Nick: Would you be comfortable, if you spent your life locked up in an office somewhere?
Elte holds out the cigar.
Elte: Not for an instant.
Wise Snake takes the cigar and draws what appears to be either a large knife or a small dagger from her belt.
Elte: But in-Territory Gens are different.
Wise Snake cuts off the end of the cigar and applies steel to flint in a maneuver that seems suspiciously well-practiced.
Elte: Now Hajene Wise Snake, you do not strike me as someone who is contented.
Wise Snake hands it back to him on fire but unpuffed; she's not directly suicidal, just reckless.
Elte: But I notice that you seem... ah, healthier, and less fragile... than your father.
Wise Snake: Is it possible to be otherwise?
Elte takes the cigar.
Wise Snake resheaths the knife(?) and tosses the piece of flint casually over the treeline.
Elte: You are both Farrises. I have been told Farrises can hardly survive outside a hermetically sealed environment.
Nick would have intervened before the cigar was lit, a few weeks before, but contents himself with keeping an eye on Snake in case she collapses from the fumes.
Wise Snake: So have I.
Wise Snake: But I've given up fearing my life would be over within the month, after being proven wrong with dreary regularity.
Nick gathers from Snake's practiced handling of the materials that she has survived the task before.
Wise Snake: I do have one advantage over my dear pa pa.
Wise Snake smiles slyly.
Wise Snake: I can take care of myself.
Elte remembers hearing that Arat nearly collapsed when Mr. Birch lit up a pipe in his office.
Nick: Fortunate, isn't it?
Elte: Yes, that's what I've been trying to understand.
Nick well knows that Beni, like himself, has not provided Snake with any more care than absolutely required during working hours.
Elte figures that Wise Snake gave him the cigar and thus obviously intended him to make use of it. He takes a deep draw.
Elte: Why does the Controller require attendants at his side all the time?
Nick moves so that the smoke will blow away from him.
Elte: Apparently you don't.
Wise Snake: Arat is constitutionally incapable of standing on his own or surviving on his own. It's a matter of his upbringing combined with what the Tecton did to him to bring him under its power.
Nick remembers that before her capture, Snake had been just as insistent on having a Donor attending her at all times as Arat.
Wise Snake: They wanted a puppet that would do anything they asked, at any cost, and that's what they have. But a puppet is only that.
Nick: It can't be just his upbringing--or have you forgotten why you latched onto Rapol, so you could have a Donor for both shifts?
Wise Snake glances at Nick in irritation; that isn't the sort of thing she was talking about, and Nick ought to have known it.
Wise Snake: I haven't forgotten at all. I did it because I feared there would be no one to serve my transfer at the end of the month.
Wise Snake: That was before I learned that there will be people to serve transfer for far many more months than I would want there to be months.
Wise Snake: But that isn't what I meant.
Wise Snake: This goes beyond simple support.
Elte: But the survival of everyone here depends on the Controller... controlling.
Wise Snake: Oh, he'll control. As long as everything else is in place.
Wise Snake's Farris lips curl into another, even more snakely smile.
Elte: But you say he's just a puppet? He can't even control his own life?
Wise Snake: He can control it. He just can't live it.
Nick thinks that Arat did a much better job of controlling his life before Snake dosed him with Xylexion.
Wise Snake: You can ask Nick. The man has no hobbies, no friends, no goals or ambitions, no dreams, no past times or interests. He is simply a tool. And an expensive one at that.
Elte considers. He has spent some time now trying to define the "real" Arat, without much success.
Nick: I wouldn't care for Arat's idea of the good life, but he likes it.
Wise Snake snorts.
Wise Snake: Arat wouldn't know "like" if it bit him on the nose.
Nick: He knows when he's comfortable--and he likes that well enough.
Elte: Hajene Jeniard describes him as a man compelled to sacrifice himself for others.
Wise Snake: Compulsion isn't likable.
Elte: Jeniard said it was his Farris heritage that compelled him... but you are not so driven?
Nick: It's true that Arat is better at inspiring loyalty than friendship.
Elte politely directs his smoke rings away from the other parties in the discussion.
Wise Snake: Sure. I just have a broader view of the world than Arat does.
Elte thinks compulsion is, however, interesting.
Wise Snake: I don't let one person's, or one organization's idea of right and wrong determine to whom and how I'll dispense my compulsions.
Elte regards the wild-haired, white-eyed, green-lipped apparition before him.
Elte: And what interests you, Hajene?
Wise Snake's pale eyes gleam at the question.
Wise Snake: Experimentation. Changes in key factors to bring about greater changes. Making a difference in all the different subtle and unsubtle ways it can be done.
Wise Snake: Of course I want to affect the world for the better.
Wise Snake: But does that mean affecting each and every person that I meet for some prescribed "better" every time I meet them? I think not.
Elte is a sucker for people with grandiose visions.
Nick: You enjoy tormenting people far too much for that.
Wise Snake shrugs, in a "you say torment, I say experiment, let's call the whole thing off" fashion.
Elte: And self-sacrifice for the goal of Unity--that falls short of your ideal?
Nick has been trying to call the whole thing off, as much as he can when he is one of two Donors available to match Snake
Wise Snake: Unity as seen by Klyd Farris, or Unity as seen by Arat Farris?
Wise Snake: Unity as Risa Tigue envisioned it, or Unity as envisioned by your average renSime?
Elte: What is Unity as seen by Wise Snake Farris?
Wise Snake: I'm only three years old. I'm still learning that.
Elte: I didn't expect such... humility.
Nick is sure that whatever vision Snake eventually forms will have destruction at the heart of it.
Wise Snake doesn't know where he got humility - she hasn't known humility in her life.
Elte: Where does Arat's vision fall short, then?
Elte is eager to compare what Wise Snake has to say with Jeniard.
Wise Snake: Arat will do whatever it takes to survive.
Wise Snake: Why do you think Zeor turned him down?
Wise Snake: He doesn't strive for excellence. He endures.
Wise Snake: And everything that he is, is what his keepers have told him to be.
Wise Snake: Everything that you can't see, that happens behind the scenes, is how he fights it.
Nick looks at Snake thoughtfully; he hadn't thought about it that way.
Elte: And who are these keepers? Who can tell a Controller, a Farris, what to do?
Nick wonders if getting Arat to loosen up might help the allergies and other problems.
Wise Snake: Why, Nick and Beni, because the Tecton has given them the authority to. As his transfer equals, or nearly so, they share his rank.
Nick then decides that he might as well concentrate on possibilities, rather than fantasies.
Wise Snake: And Jeniard, for no other reason than that he's achieved more success than most.
Wise Snake: Once you reach that level power, the results are more important than the rules. And never mind what they've told you on that score.
Elte: Sosu Nick, what do you say to that? Is Arat your puppet? Do you manage him for your own comfort?
Nick shrugs.
Nick: Sometimes I do. But at least half the time, it's the other way around.
Wise Snake watches and zlins Nick with intent curiosity.
Nick: It's... a partnership.
Nick's nager warms a bit at the word.
Elte can see that Nick, at least, is not a man who wants to move the world and shake it.
Wise Snake has zlinned how Arat feels and acts around Nick, and thinks that if Nick truly believes it is a partnership, he has a few more things to learn about Arat.
Nick's ambitions are indeed limited to having a channel who matches him, and access to the great outdoors.
Nick really doesn't care about how the rest of his life is organized, which is probably just as well for a Donor with Farris capacity.
Elte: If all that matters to Arat is his own survival, why did he volunteer to come here to a place where the very dirt underfoot is poison to him?
Elte doesn't fault people for acting out of self-preservation, but the Controller's actions don't seem to fit that model.
Wise Snake is glad to have a chance to air a theory only recently formed.
Wise Snake: Because the alternative was worse. [smiles]
Wise Snake: Neptude was setting him up for a fall, and he opted out.
Nick can only agree: any amount of dust is better than Pylor and Neptude.
Elte recalls the name Neptude, a Tecton official in Capitol.
Wise Snake: And besides, what blue-blooded Farris wouldn't leap at the chance to do something fantastically dangerous in order to save the world?
Wise Snake: The only wonder is that such an opportunity presented itself at the right time.
Wise Snake of course doesn't know that it wasn't a coincidence.
Elte: If he was such a malleable puppet, such a valuable tool, why should his superiors destroy him?
Nick: Envy. Spite. Ignorance.
Nick is willing to grant that Snake's motivations do not include the last.
Wise Snake: Yes. Neptude was placed in the unbearable situation of being his inferior yet placed superior to him in the Tecton system.
Wise Snake is pleased that Nick is, however accidentally, on her side of the conversation now.
Wise Snake finds that amusing, and touching.
Elte thinks the blue-blooded Farris saving the world version of this tale is much more exciting. The petty spite of bureaucrats is an old story and utterly mundane.
Wise Snake's stomach turns as a stray gust of wind sends the cigar smoke in her direction. Fortunately, the green of the candy provides a handy visual disguise.
Elte: So you're saying the Controller didn't volunteer to come here out of sheer altruism. He had to sidestep a messy political situation, that was bad enough to justify the current risks.
Wise Snake prudently moves to a different tree, a bit farther away from Nick and Elte.
Nick does not have Farris allergies to worry about, and merely wrinkles his nose in distaste at the smell.
Elte thinks however the hapless officer given an impossible command by his superiors is also a time-tested favorite.
Nick: He couldn't stay where he was, that's true. Neptude would probably have succeeded in causing his death by misadventure, by now.
Elte: A powerful official in the Capitol city was in danger of being murdered by his superiors?
Wise Snake: Or killed. [adds]
Elte decides he will definitely have to get some staffers working to research this allegation.
Nick: Not murdered, exactly. Neptude wasn't able to find a compatible Donor for Arat, and then he wanted Arat to train a particularly inept Donor.
Wise Snake had been thinking of Pylor when she said "killed".
Nick: Without proper support--well, let's just say that Arat's escape came none too soon.
Elte: So all the perils of the wilderness here are less dangerous than what he was enduring in Tecton headquarters?
Nick: Well, most of them.
Nick looks pointedly at Snake.
Wise Snake: He does not get invited to as many dinner parties.
Wise Snake smiles, and pushes herself away from the tree.
Wise Snake: That ought to count for something.
Nick thinks that comparing Pylor to Xylexion addiction is pointless; dead is dead, and preference for method is a personal thing.
Elte now has some inklings of an explanation of Jeniard's anger about Arat's assignment.
Wise Snake brushes her hands off and walks nonchalantly back to the head of the trail.
Wise Snake: You should thank me, Nick. I ran off two tree poachers on my way here.
Wise Snake: So you see, I have your channel's precious "likes" in mind too.
Nick is sure Snake does. How better to torment him?
Elte concludes that this Arat has more facets than a fly's eye and no one seems to agree on what he is like, really.
Wise Snake smiles tenderly (or as if she is biting into something tender, anyway) at them both, and departs.
Elte: [to Nick] What's the beef between you two?
Nick looks after Snake and sighs.
Nick: It's much too long a story for tonight. I really must be getting inside.
Nick makes no move to leave, however, but continues to look at the path down which Snake disappeared.
Go on to Episode #51: Preferences
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