Sime~Gen Roleplaying on IRC: Snake River Dam Scenario
Episode #105: The Cultivation of Duty (1/15/01)
see note 1
Nick: When I was a child, I mostly learned to avoid my grandmother. Did you use what you learned to further your parents' dream, or did you work towards goals of your own?
Nick doesn't doubt Arat's current loyalty to the Tecton, but is rather curious as to when it began.
Arat: I was an obedient child. It was sometimes difficult to reconcile the differences between what my parents and the Tecton asked of me, but I did the best I could.
Arat is no better than anyone else at being two places at the same time, or pleasing everybody all of the time.
Nick: Was that enough, for either of them?
Nick is openly ~~ sympathetic ~~, having had quite enough experience with conflicting demands on his loyalties to last a lifetime.
Arat: I am certain each would have preferred my full attention.
Arat means, having him as their solely owned pawn.
Nick: Was there anyone you could turn to, when the tug of war became too much?
Nick had his mother to commiserate with him, although she was pretty useless when Prunida was on the warpath.
Arat: My parents employed a nanny to care for me. She was also a relative.
Nick: A relative?
Arat: My grandfather's sister.
Arat: She was the nearest to what you describe.
Nick: Was she more lenient than your parents?
Arat: No, not per se. [frowns]
Arat: But she was more a parent to me than they were. We were close.
Nick: Was it she who taught you about discipline and self-sacrifice? As much as your parents' example?
Arat wonders why Nick is grilling him about this.
Arat wonders if it has anything to do with his delegating the Nikki problem to Nick.
Arat had not heard anything further about that and had hoped it was dealt with.
Nick is, in fact, taking shameless advantage of Arat's rare willingness to talk about himself, in hopes of figuring out whether Arat's recent resignation to staying is a sign of mental health or mental breakdown.
Arat: I am certain she was a great influence on me in my childhood.
Nick: A good one, do you think?
Arat: I should think so.
Nick: What was she like?
Arat is growing increasingly puzzled by Nick's ravenous curiosity.
Arat tentatively shifts his theory about Nick's motives away from Nikki and toward a search for a well-rounded and competent mother-figure conspicuously absent in Nick's own life.
Nick's mother might have had a well-rounded figure, being a Gen, but her competence as a parent was debatable.
Arat: She was very old, of course. She'd been my father's nanny as well.
Arat: She was very kind, but she did as my parents asked, so there was no escaping their wishes.
Nick is, in fact, a bit curious about what being raised by a sane, competent parent or parent substitute would be like.
Arat: She was always willing to spend time with me and help me work out my problems. She was always sympathetic.
Arat has now latched onto Jeniard as a substitute, but that is a different story.
Nick: Was it she or your parents who taught you the most about discipline and self-sacrifice?
Arat thinks that they each had their own way of teaching the same thing. His parents just went about it from the standpoint of the inflictors, while Tethie taught him how to be a recipient.
Arat: Why do you ask?
Nick: I've never been able to reconcile the information about the Audnes family that's in the public records with people who could raise a dedicated Tecton channel like you.
Nick: If the Audnes were the monsters they are depicted as, they would never have had such a following.
Arat nods.
Arat: After Unity, they resisted Tecton organization of the lands that had been theirs.
Arat: But the same geographical and social factors that made it an ideal cross roads for the agricultural trade also made it an ideal point for bringing new people into Norwest Territory after the war.
Nick: New people who were not accustomed to Audnes leadership?
Arat frowns slightly.
Arat: New Othwol, as you know, is situated at the inland extreme of Norwest.
Nick nods.
Arat: I am referring to people travelling to all parts of Norwest.
Arat: Many of those who came from Sime Territories such as Nivet passed through New Othwol on their way to claiming land nearer to the coast or farther north.
Arat: My parents' influence in the New Othwol area was not of concern so much as what they used it for.
Arat: They were intent upon reclaiming the land New Othwol was built upon. The land, and all rights to those who lived upon it.
Nick: "Those who lived upon it"? You mean the Simes as well as the Gens?
Arat: Of course. Prior to Unity, the renSimes paid to live and work upon the land. They owed their loyalty to the Audnes.
Arat: Many of them had been born, or had relatives born, upon the Superfarm.
Nick thinks this goes a long way to explaining Arat's tendency to view the Tecton employees who work under him as his personal property.
Nick thinks that it is probably just as well that Arat doesn't have a personal life outside of his work for the Tecton, practically speaking, or the conflict could cause real trouble.
Arat does not, in point of fact, view his employees as his property. He views them as his responsibility, which is another thing entirely. However, Nick is right about where the instinct came from.
Arat: Much of what is believed about the Audnes now was fabricated by the Tecton for the purpose of preventing new people in the area from siding with them rather than the Tecton.
Arat: In the end, however, it does not matter.
Arat: Although they did not do everything they have been accused of, they did commit crimes against the Tecton.
Arat: And it was necessary to eliminate the Audnes influence in the area to secure the trade routes and flow of pioneers that allowed the Tecton to take and hold the greater Norwest Territory.
Nick: Which of the common accusations are false?
Arat: They were not common juncts. They did not kill each month, nor did they run a Genfarm before or after Unity.
Arat: And they did not junct me on purpose.
Arat: That was an accident.
Arat: The kill was a powerful weapon against the minds of the people in those days.
Arat: Now it has been forgotten somewhat, but then it was still one of society's fears.
Nick thinks of Plum, and is reminded that fear of the kill is still influencing parts of Norwest Territory's political dealings.
Nick: Your parents didn't kill "each month"?
Arat: No, they did not.
Arat: They were junct, but so were most who changed over before Unity.
Arat: There was no truth to the claim.
Arat: However, it inflamed the minds of the fearful.
Arat: It did not help that they refused involvement in the Tecton selyn transport system.
Arat: This meant that there was no public record of where their selyn was obtained.
Nick: Where was it obtained?
Nick has heard various stories, many of them obviously absurd.
Arat: There were Gens living among them that provided it. It was an arrangement not so different from many that existed before Unity.
Arat: No doubt they would have been left alone had they not attempted to prevent the Tecton's taking hold of the New Othwol land.
Nick: Avoiding the kill wasn't exactly encouraged most places, before Unity. How did they avoid being viewed as perverts?
Arat has, since changeover, learned that much of his parents' self-destructive and obsessive idealism was purely genetic in nature.
Arat: Before Unity, hardly anyone was privy to the details of their domestic life.
Arat: Those few who knew were allies.
Arat: For the most part; and those who weren't were in no position to act against them.
Arat has given up on attempting to impress Nick as to the different way in which the rich and powerful are viewed by the proletariat. The Gen just plain refuses to see it, even when it hits him on the head occasionally.
Arat has resigned himself to wincing at the impact.
Nick thinks back over some of the things Riyyh told him, on a visit to Naros.
Nick rubs his head as the thought attempts to penetrate.
Nick: I think Riyyh knew. At least, he told me about visiting your grandparents.
Arat's displeasure at the mention of Riyyh is not difficult to detect.
Arat: That would have been before I was born.
Arat hopes that will be sufficient to end the Riyyh line of conversation.
Nick wonders if Arat's hostility towards Riyyh is a longstanding family feud, or something more recent and personal.
Nick can think of quite a few personal things about Riyyh that would displease a person like Arat.
Nick: Did your parents train their own Gens?
Arat: No, they had them trained.
Arat: For the most part, they were of Audnes blood.
Arat: They were sent away to Fior for their training.
Arat: It was a considerable investment, even for a family of wealth.
Arat refrains from adding that on a purely practical basis, the Audnes saw the advantage in reusing the Gens rather than paying for Prime Kills.
Nick: I've heard about Fior, but I expect much of what I've heard was not entirely accurate.
Nick feels safe in saying this, as Riyyh's description was that of an outside observer, for the most part.
Arat: No doubt.
Nick is starting to suspect that Arat's knowledge of Fior might be a great deal more personal.
Arat in fact has never been to Fior (aside from having been born there) and though he learned a great deal of it from his Nanny, he has always viewed it with the sort of wary appalled fascination seen in small cats viewing large snakes.
Arat: It is perhaps simplest to describe it as a Householding and leave it at that.
Nick: I don't think many Householdings would approve of being compared with Fior, if half of the stories are true.
Arat has no comment.
Nick: What I haven't heard, is how they viewed themselves.
Arat: The Garlenists saw themselves as the eventual salvation of mankind.
Arat: The founder of the faith knew nothing of Householdings. He was born in Gen Territory and saw the rift between parent and child as the greatest hurdle humanity had to overcome to find peace.
Nick could personal find more peace if the rift between grandparent and child were less, or at least the distance more, but it is obvious that Arat is speaking in a metaphorical sense.
Arat: Such a thing as Unity would have never occurred to him. He believed the key to survival was peaceful and separate coexistence.
Nick: How did they apply that ideal in their daily lives?
Arat: Most Garlenists take roles as the protectors of children.
Arat: Pre-unity, this also meant the protection of parent from child.
Arat: It also meant the smuggling of children across the border if they did not turn out to be the larity hoped for.
Arat: Fior still operates somewhat as it did before in Gen Territory. Sime Territory has become so much different, however, that the Garlenist role here has changed.
Arat: Fior trains Donors, provides training for those wishing to move to new Territories, and facilitates cross border adoptions.
see note 2
Notes:
1) This episode is a continuation of Episode #103. [return]
2) This scene was never finished. [return]
Go on to Episode #106: Nice... Towel
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