Sime~Gen Roleplaying on IRC: Snake River Dam Scenario
Episode #102: Kettle's Reprise (1/13/01)
Nick tramps through the snow in search of Sayward.
Nick is a great deal more thoroughly dressed than the last time they spoke, and carries an empty soup kettle.
Nick is understandably a bit nervous as he approaches the almost-completed building, after seeing the size of the accident-report stack that resulted from its construction.
Nick is glad to note that today there don't seem to be any bursting buttons--er, bolts, that is.
Bystander grins suddenly as Nick approaches the building.
Nick hopes that the soup kettle he is currently carrying doesn't inspire any episodes of gang rape.
Sayward watches the construction crew a lot more closely. The ice has been causing havoc and accidents.
Sayward thinks, and accident reports....
Bystander nods understandingly to Nick as Nick passes.
Nick nods back, wondering if he knows this person; even Narosian gossip genes don't let him keep track of every client that two Farris channels serve.
Sayward took a couple of days to get over the initial shock of what she had written -- on official forms no less. She had been grateful to Nick and Riyyh for keeping those forms out of official record but someone has blabbed.
Nick: Sayward! I've got something for you.
Sayward turns to see Nick approaching with her stew pot.
Sayward would be very glad to see him under other circumstances but after what Cris told her this morning....
Nick has no idea that the details of the accident reports have been publicized far and near, and thus, that soup kettles have suddenly become a symbol of sexual license in the camp.
Sayward tries to keep an eye on the crew and greet Nick as well.
Nick is not, of course, a channel, and therefore can't tell when Sayward blushes.
Sayward: Hello Sosu Reckage.
Nick blinks at this unusually formal address.
Sayward still forgets that Simes can tell when she is blushing. Two renSimes on one of the hauling teams are snickering. But she is unaware of it.
Nick thinks frantically back to see how he might have offended Sayward unintentionally.
Nick wonders if Sayward is upset that it has taken him so long to return her kettle.
Nick: I've brought back your soup kettle--the contents were delicious.
Nick: Sorry it took me so long: I just finished it yesterday.
Nick smiles in what he hopes is a suitably abject apology for an unintentional offense.
Sayward wonders why Nick would want to make her the butt of lewd jokes.
Nick's smile is fully 75% as seductive as Riyyh's, if a bit less practiced.
Sayward: Thank you, Sosu Reckage. You really didn't have to come all this way.
Nick thinks it's a fair assumption that Sayward's frosty demeanor isn't caused by the weather.
Sayward takes the offending pot, while watching her crews gang hauling more beams.
Nick: Sayward, what's the matter?
Nick: You haven't called me "Sosu Reckage" for months.
Sayward: [startled] You should know. I trusted you.
Nick: I should know what?
Nick looks confused.
Sayward looks closely at Nick. He seems genuinely confused.
Nick: Don't talk in riddles, please, Sayward; Arat's approaching need, and I've been getting by on a few hours' sleep a night.
Nick does indeed appear a bit sleep-deprived.
Sayward decides to be straight forward, a thing she usually is anyway.
Sayward: Why did you tell people what was on the forms I asked you to check?
Nick: Tell people?
Nick had, truth to tell, pretty much set the whole matter aside when Sayward left, being more concerned with other matters, like mulling over what 'decisions' Arat has made with regards to remaining at the Dam site.
Nick has found some of Sayward's mistakes in phrasing useful, when he requires a jolt of humor in his life, but that didn't include sharing them with others.
Sayward: How else would everybody and her grandma know what was on those forms?
Nick does "bewildered" very well, having had lots of practice in his life.
Nick: They do?
Nick has been left out of the loop, people being understandably reluctant to air such rumors in Arat's presence.
Sayward is angry and trying not to appear so. Nick's apparent lack of knowledge is at once infuriating and worrying.
Sayward: Yes, they do. Cris was telling me this morning that soup kettles are now considered a gift of intent.
Nick: Soup kettles?
Nick thinks that over for a moment, and the light slowly dawns.
Nick: ...Oh!
Nick: Oh, dear.
Sayward takes a deep breath and thinks calming thoughts. Who in the world thought up this junk!? It never seems to work!
Nick looks away in embarrassment, and his eyes light on a girder being set into place.
Nick blushes endearingly.
Nick: I suppose iron girders are now viewed as a symbol of virility?
Sayward casts an eye over her crews who seem to be very amused.
Sayward: Something like that, yes.
Nick notes the onlookers with some trepidation.
Sayward looks at the kettle she has just accepted from Nick.
Nick: It really was a very tasty stew.
Sayward: I'm glad you enjoyed it, Nick.
Nick is glad that he has apparently been readmitted to first-name status with Sayward.
Sayward sighs at the new rumors that will start circulating at the public "gift of intent". Why did she try to fill out those stupid forms in Simelan?!
Nick: Jeniard liked it, too.
Sayward: That's good. He could use some fattening up.
Sayward: You all could actually.
Sayward: If you didn't tell anyone, who did? I know I burned those forms as soon as I filled out the English ones.
Nick: There are several possibilities, I suppose. I assume you told Cris? Someone could have been eavesdropping.
Nick: Or perhaps... it wasn't just the two of us reading those forms.
Sayward remembers the other person who read the forms. No way.
Nick: Although Riyyh wouldn't do anyone harm, at least not intentionally.
Nick: Are you sure that no one could have entered your tent and seen the forms before you burned them?
Sayward: Cris has been catching my Simelan gaffes since she got here. She is the soul of discretion.
Sayward: As for anyone else seeing them, I had them the whole time and no one came into my office.
Nick: It's next to impossible to keep anything really secure here--look at what happened to Minister Plum.
Sayward looks at Nick quizzically.
Sayward: What happened to the Minister?
Sayward knows that the last time she saw him he had been fine, if a bit pompous.
Nick had thought that was common knowledge, or he'd never have brought it up, given how badly it reflects on the Tecton's efforts to maintain an orderly selyn-delivery system.
Nick: It appears that he had an encounter with a channel, which he doesn't remember. Or at least, that's what he says.
Nick: He hasn't been cooperating with the investigation into how he became low field.
Sayward is now confused even more. What does that have to do with her forms?
Sayward: Uh, Nick, what does that have to do with the content of the forms being noised about?
Sayward: I mean the Minister is safely at home now. What could that have to do with this?
Nick: If someone managed to take down Plum's field without him realizing it, think how much easier it would be for someone to sneak access to some forms on your desk.
Nick: Before we talked, you didn't take any particular precautions against people seeing them, did you?
Sayward: Well, no actually.
Sayward is still trying to reconcile selyn with forms. It makes no sense to her.
Sayward considers for a moment. She was rather distracted by Snake's news that she could bare children if she wanted to. Maybe she had missed something.
Nick: See? They were even on the top of your stack of forms. Anyone shuffling through the stack in hopes of finding the records for a particular accident would have seen them.
Sayward shakes her head. That still didn't make sense though.
Sayward: Did something happen to the Minister other than having his field taken down?
Sayward is distracted by Nick mentioning Minister Plum in this context. Perhaps she is trying not to deal with who among her staff might have been reading her reports and forms.
Nick: He was detained by the IDAS, after he tried to go back across the lake without papers.
Nick: They're still trying to sort out the mess.
Sayward: What? Is he still in detention?
Sayward is now completely distracted from her plight.
Nick: I'm afraid so. And likely to be so for quite a while; he attempted to murder Borgmann.
Nick: The IDAS understandably takes a dim view to such things.
Sayward closes her eyes and shakes her head she couldn't possibly have heard what she thought she heard.
Sayward: Murder? He tried to kill Mr. Borgmann? But I thought they were old friends.
Sayward wonders how she could have been that distracted.
Nick: They were, by all accounts.
Nick: There is some question whether Plum is legally sane.
Sayward: Keefer! Take up the slack on that number two line!
Sayward: Sorry.
Nick: I shouldn't be distracting you while you're working.
Sayward: It's okay. I can do this without having to concentrate too hard on it.
Sayward: I'm sorry I blamed you for my problem with the rumors. Can the Minister have visitors?
Nick: You'd have to ask Borgmann about that.
Sayward: I will.
Nick: And Sayward--don't worry too much about the rumors. Something else will happen in a week or so, and people will be talking about that, instead.
Sayward: You're right about the rumors. I was just embarrassed.
Sayward: I'm making flapjacks in the morning. Want some?
Nick: Embarrassing situations are much like head colds: they may make you want to die, but the actual fatality rate is surprisingly low.
Sayward chuckles.
Nick: Thanks for the invitation to breakfast. I'm not sure if I can make it, but I'll try.
Sayward: Good.
Sayward will also be looking into who on her staff likes to carry tales.
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