Sime~Gen Roleplaying on IRC: Snake River Dam Scenario
Episode #124: Choice Gig (2/17/01)
Nick enters the Sime Shack with a sense of returning to (relatively) civilized surroundings.
Nick thinks that it is a measure of the primitive latrine facilities available on site that the Shack appears civilized, even by a relative measure.
Nick is, however, willing to give it full credit on the olfactory side.
Nick, himself, only gets partial credit on that front, despite a very long scrub in the bath house.
Nick wishes he didn't have to use scent-free soaps; at this point, any change in odor would be a distinct improvement.
Nick hangs his best coat in the entryway (the second-best one is currently being laundered, with a large tip promised if it can be salvaged) and enters the office proper.
Nick: Good morning, Arat.
Arat's nostrils curl as a very distinct smell wafts in with Nick.
Arat: Nick. [looking a bit suspicious]
Nick catches the nostril curl -- it's rather hard to miss it, given the dimensions of a Farris nose.
Nick grins weakly.
Arat had been looking over some unusual injury reports involving people getting hurt deep in the woods near the border, some day and a half travel from the Dam site on foot.
Arat had spotted the trend in his channels' reports and has gone to some work to assemble all of the paperwork involving the various cases. They all seem to have happened in the last week, under circumstances the injured were unwilling to discuss.
Nick: I was having a bit of trouble with my eyes, from glare on the snow, so Snake decided to work the latrines.
Arat: I see.
Arat more to the point, smells.
Arat considers finding an errand for Nick to go off on for much of the day.
Nick: I washed off as much as I could.
Nick: ~~ apologetic ~~
Nick moves over to the tea table, which is at least a bit farther away from Arat's nose.
Nick measures out tea into glasses: Moonlight Passion for himself, and a plain blend for Arat.
Nick: Arat, what will happen to Snake, when the snow thaws and travel is possible again?
Arat frowns.
Arat: I do not know what Seruffin intends.
Nick's nager doesn't have the intense protectiveness towards Snake that it used to, but he is concerned -- mostly about the supply of Arat's Xylexion-laced Tecton #3.
Arat has already told Seruffin that he feels he is not capable of handling Snake. It galled him to admit defeat, but he would rather be a failure than be murdered or worse.
Nick: If Seruffin orders her elsewhere, she might not choose to go.
Arat: I am prepared to cooperate with Seruffin's orders when he makes them clear.
Nick: If he orders you to ship her to Capitol, and she refuses to go, what then?
Arat: Then I will do whatever it takes to put her on that train.
Arat has actually considered what measures might be required to get a desperately unwilling Farris channel onto a train, in conjunction with some dreams he'd had the year before, but I digress.
Nick winces.
Nick: That could be very dangerous -- for all concerned.
Arat: Agreed.
Nick sets one steaming cup in front of Arat, then moves his own chair to almost twice the usual distance from Arat before sitting down.
Nick experiments briefly to find the best way to support Arat adequately at this more nose-friendly distance.
Arat fidgets uncomfortably as Nick's nager is placed just out of easy resting position.
Nick: Should I come closer?
Nick does so, watching carefully to compare relative degrees of nageric-discomfort squirming versus outraged nose flaring.
Nick can't, of course, zlin for comfort the way a Sime could, but Farris channels are pretty easy to read, most of the time.
Arat tries to decide whether he would most prefer to go without proper support or go without smelling the leavings of 10,000+ workers and homeless people.
Arat after a moment shifts to the question of whether he'd rather have clean air or a comfortable ambient.
Arat: Are you certain you bathed thoroughly?
Arat really doesn't want to know what Snake looks, and smells, like right now.
Nick: I soaked for over an hour, with two changes of water, and used almost an entire bar of soap.
Nick: It's much better than it was.
Nick can tell that much, even though his nose went numb partway through the first day.
Nick decides that a change of subject is in order.
Nick: If Snake must be sent back to Capitol, how will you get sufficient Xylexion?
Arat winces.
Arat: I have hoped to hear from Seruffin on that score.
Arat has fervently hoped that his use of the Sime Army to protect couriers and shipments would be enough to allow such communications to take place.
Arat's brief investigation into procuring the synthetic drug on his own convinced him that there were no non-government-contracted manufacturers of it he'd be willing to be associated with, even anonymously.
Nick: Snake hasn't let me discover who her supplier might be.
Nick is not as picky as Arat about the legitimacy of the source.
Arat had found the safety issues to be far more alarming than the legitimacy issues when it came to street sources.
Nick: We can't count on her to make other arrangements if she has to leave here, particularly if the leaving is involuntary.
Arat nods.
Arat: Certainly Seruffin will have found a solution before he would order such a thing.
Arat was rather hoping Seruffin would order Arat's transfer elsewhere, leaving Snake on the Dam site.
Arat is resigned to the reality of the situation, though; that would never happen.
Nick: I hope so. But that would create dangers of its own.
Nick: If Snake learns that you are no longer in her power, she might act injudiciously, particularly if she was to be sent back to Capitol anyway.
Arat frowns again.
Arat: I trust you would not reveal such a fact to her, were it to become true.
Arat zlins Nick carefully.
Nick: I would not.
Nick: ~~ no hint of dissembling ~~
Arat nods.
Nick: But Snake has a habit of finding out things that she isn't supposed to know.
Nick: If Neptude does find a solution, I would recommend burning the letter immediately, and telling no one. Not even Jeniard.
Nick includes himself in that proscription.
Arat nods. Indeed, he has done that with many other letters in his life.
Arat for example has burned 25 or 30 letters from Prunida. (And that's just since arriving at the Dam site!)
Nick: And if and when it becomes necessary to remove Snake, even more caution will be necessary. She is quite capable of running away, and the border is within easy reach.
Arat finds the thought of Snake making an extended stay in the wilds of Gen Territory profoundly disturbing.
Nick hopes that if the moment comes, Arat will use a sensible means, such as lacing some of the standard Farris drugs in Nick's travel medkit with a powerful sedative, and not letting Nick know.
Nick makes a mental note to contact Arat immediately if Snake unexpectedly loses consciousness after taking medications that he prescribes.
Arat: I assure you, I intend to be cautious with regards to Wise Snake. Under all circumstances.
Nick nods; certainly Arat has more reason to treat Snake with caution than anyone else around.
Arat: And now, I wish you to investigate something for me today.
Arat collects the papers on his desk back into their folders and puts the folders in a neat stack.
Arat offers the stack to Nick.
Nick gives Arat an inquiring look.
Arat: These are a series of semi-related injury reports involving mysterious circumstances in the woods near the border.
Arat: The injured are all Gens.
Arat: Some of them are still present on the Dam site for now. I would like you to put together whatever sort of team you feel necessary, and investigate each of these claims.
Arat: You may choose to make it seem any sort of investigation that seems appropriate, but what I would like to know is what the common factor is in these injuries.
Arat: The patients were not open with the channels who treated them; I would suggest finding at least one Gen with extensive OT experience to speak to them.
Nick: Very well.
Arat: Although the areas in which these incidents occurred is quite far away, it is still within our area of responsibility.
Arat is certain that this project will take Nick out of his area of scent awareness for a full day.
Nick: The patients might be more forthcoming to a Gen. Although I'd want a reasonably sensitive Sime along, to zlin for truth.
Arat nods.
Nick makes a mental list of who among the lesser-known channels might be tapped for such duty.
Nick holds a well-scrubbed (if somewhat odorous) hand out for the files.
Arat gives the files to Nick.
Nick: And, hmm, perhaps a bit of a bribe might persuade some of them to be more forthcoming. I'll find something suitable.
Arat: Very well.
Arat hopes Nick will not regale him with too many more details; there is a reason he usually delegates that sort of thing, which is that he finds close examination of what motivates the proletariat to be both exhausting and somewhat distasteful.
Nick takes the folders -- and the hint -- and leaves, taking his accompanying effluvia with him.
Arat sighs in relief, having gotten rid of two nagging problems at once. Not that there are any shortage of additional greater ones, as the conversation with Nick pointed out.
Go on to Episode #125: How to Rip Bodices Without Hurting your Back
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