Sime~Gen Roleplaying on IRC: Snake River Dam Scenario
Episode #158: Birch Repellant (4/23/01)
see note 1
Birch: ~~resolution to be diplomatic and patient dissolving into desperate boredom~~
Birch: Alain, that's very... interesting.
Arat feels a tremendous headache coming on.
Birch: I could listen to you talk all day, but I do have responsibilities on the project.
Birch: I wonder if you gentlemen would excuse me?
Jeniard, who is not as eager to save Arat's relationship with Birch as Arat is, jumps up in relief.
Jeniard: It was so nice to have you here, Mr. Birch. Let me help you find your coat.
Alain Ro turns his gaze to Birch with mild sorrow. He has tried to guide the man towards a broader understanding, but so far Birch remains fixated on the pragmatic.
Alain Ro accepts that enlightenment takes time.
Alain Ro: Certainly, Mr. Birch. I will touch base with you this evening.
Birch accepts the coat that Jeniard is pressing on him so eagerly.
Birch hopes that when his own history is written they will pass over his childhood and adolescence.
Birch: Good afternoon, all.
Jeniard opens the door and bundles Birch out, glad that there will be one less stress factor for Arat.
Birch tramps down the steps and, and heads for the Gen work camp. He considers whether he can afford a quick detour to visit to Miz Sayward in the infirmary.
Alain Ro watches the door swing shut behind Mr. Birch.
Jeniard goes to make sure the professor doesn't require more tea.
Alain Ro's cup has barely been touched, but the tea is cold.
Jeniard: Is there anything you would rather drink besides tea? Or can I warm this up for you?
Jeniard: [to Ro]
Alain Ro: That is fine, Hajene Jeniard.
Jeniard warms Alain Ro's cup and then goes to Arat.
Alain Ro watches Jeniard and Arat with calm interest.
Jeniard and Arat exchange a quiet murmur and Jeniard replaces the tea pot on the tray and goes into the tiny kitchenette.
Alain Ro: How do you find working with people from out-Territory?
Alain Ro: Interesting? Challenging?
Alain Ro: Or are people pretty much the same anywhere?
Arat considers.
Arat: It did not seem so different at first.
Arat: However, it soon came to my attention that people from out-Territory received a different impression of me than in-Territory people.
Alain Ro: What differences did you notice?
Arat: Mr. Birch relayed a number of complaints about my appearance, and about the behavior in general of the channelling and Donor staff.
Arat: It seems that certain persons found us less than... [tries to find the right simelan word and then says in Genlan:] ... macho.
Alain Ro: ~~amusement~~
Alain Ro reflects that he has endured the same kind of criticism himself in recent years.
Alain Ro appreciates how being rich and having important government connections tends to mute overt complaints.
Arat: A specialist was brought in, and the majority of the complaints ceased.
Arat: I have also noted a certain amount of fear of Simes among some of those from Gen Territory, although the extreme cases are few.
Alain Ro: So in order to be effective, you have had to make some adjustments.
Arat: Yes.
Alain Ro: How do you feel about that?
Alain Ro knows most aristocrats are raised to believe the world should adapt to them and not vice versa.
Alain Ro does not think Arat fits the typical mold in this regard.
Arat: It was unpleasant, but necessary.
Arat: I had not previously had a good deal of experience working with Out-Territory personnel, particularly in large groups.
Arat really can't tolerate not being effective. He'll do a lot to overcome a problem of that nature.
Alain Ro: And you are willing to do what is necessary?
Alain Ro: You don't think, for instance, that you should stand firm and refuse to cater to Gen prejudices?
Arat: In this case the Gens in question are all highly placed in the management of the construction project.
Arat: It was felt that the project would be compromised if I did not demand respect from Gen leaders on site.
Arat doesn't actually come out and say that it was Mr. Birch who had been doing the feeling.
Arat is not 100% certain of the relationship between Birch and Ro.
Arat: It is an unusual situation.
Arat: I would not have made such adjustments lightly.
Alain Ro is intrigued by this evidence of flexibility in a Farris. In his experience, the ones from Zeor were never swayed in any perceptible fashion by a wish to obtain the respect of Gen authorities.
Alain Ro: It is an unprecedented situation. That's what makes it so fascinating.
Alain Ro: If I might try to put your actions in perspective....
Alain Ro has always liked that word -- perspective.
Alain Ro: I'd like to return to the history of the Audnes family.
Arat nods.
Jeniard emerges from the kitchenette with a new cup of tea for Arat and brings it to him.
Alain Ro: Where does the story start? Who founded your dynasty?
Jeniard sits down beside Arat again after handing it to him.
Alain Ro takes note of the ruler-servant relationship between the two channels.
Arat: The recorded history goes back seven generations.
Arat realizes that this may not sound like much to someone from Gen territory, but it's pretty impressive for junct culture.
Arat: Othwol -- the farm that is -- was founded by my great-great grandfather, who was already wealthy at the time.
Arat: It was intended specifically to service the government Pen system in its last incarnation.
Alain Ro has done his homework and knows that this type of continuity is exceptional for junct Simes.
Alain Ro: What stories are told of the founder of the line?
Arat: Hassan Audnes was the son of a Sime Territory refugee, a woman who Established and escaped to Gen Territory.
Arat: She lived near enough the border that he was able to cross over after changing over.
Arat: He made his fortune in agricultural raiding... equipment, expert labor, animals, seed and so forth.
Arat: He was... reported to be intimidating and difficult to say no to.
Arat doesn't know if this is the sort of thing Ro is wanting, or not.
Alain Ro: So there we have a maverick, a refugee. Rejected by his birth clan, fighting to find a place among strangers.
Arat frowns. He doesn't know that much about Hassan Audnes, but he had always thought of him as a founding father and the root of the Audnes tree -- not a fighting maverick.
Arat's knowledge of his ancestor was taught him at an early age, of course.
Alain Ro catches the frown.
Alain Ro: What have I missed, then?
Arat: That is just not how I have thought of him.
Arat will readily admit that his own impression was not based upon fact, however.
Alain Ro: How do you think of him?
Arat: He always seemed... stable. The first to catch hold and decide to leave a legacy.
Arat: That was unusual in his time.
Arat: He had unusual vision. His investments in the technical secrets of food farming were the beginnings of the true Audnes wealth.
Arat: Without that wealth, and knowledge not fully revealed to others over the years, it would not have been possible for his grandchildren to found the Othwol farm successfully.
Alain Ro: He was the first Audnes Sime to leave a legacy, but you say he was out-Territory bred.
Alain Ro: Is there anything known of the heritage he brought over the border?
Arat: His mother, as I say, was from Norwest. It is said she taught him far more of her home land than of the Gen village they lived near.
Arat: I do not know more than that.
Alain Ro rubs his chin distractedly.
Arat supposes he must have learned quite a bit about Gen farming techniques to have been able to take advantage of it in such a way.
Arat wouldn't rule out Hassan having captured a master farmer in a lucky raid and used his knowledge forever after, however. There is too little information to know for sure.
Alain Ro: Now of course, you are a Farris, and there has been much speculation as to whether your line diverged from that of the Zeor Farrises.
Alain Ro: I've read the literature; but I'd be curious to know your own opinion on that subject.
Arat: We feel that the split occurred well before the founding of Zeor. Perhaps even before the time of Rimon Farris.
Arat finally gives in and has a sip of the adulterated #3.
Arat: However, records of that era are scanty, even in Zeor's archives.
Arat: It is not an issue of deep importance to me.
Arat finds it somewhat interesting, but shies away from the obsessive interest shown by Farris fetishists.
Arat might actually find it more interesting if those kinds of people didn't exist, actually.
Alain Ro: And I know you are the only channel in your generation. Is there anything in the records that would mark certain of your ancestors as channels?
Arat: The family history is riddled with childbirth and changeover deaths.
Arat: It is certain that some of them involved channels.
Arat: If my own children had not been born of mothers with the channel and Donor bloodlines, there might have been more renSimes among them.
Arat's children have not changed over yet, of course. Their future larity has only been speculated upon based upon their birth characteristics.
Alain Ro: But of course, in Hassan's time, these channels would not have known what they were.
Arat: No.
Arat: Not at all, until after Unity.
Alain Ro: Yet you say that even before Unity, the Audnes Simes were semi-junct and made use of Donors. How did that come about?
Arat remembers Nick's warning about discussion of the Garlenists. He still has not decided how to handle it. Surely any old-money family in inner Gen Territory would at least know rumors of Garlenists already.
Arat: Are you familiar with the Garlenists of pre-Unity Fior?
Alain Ro frowns.
Alain Ro: Garlen's people? The mother's helpers?
Alain Ro remembers the scandalous discussions conducted in whispers at the time of the birth of his own son.
Arat: My family was aware of Garlen and the services provided in Sime Territory. They arranged, through payment and favor, to have the Gen children of their blood trained by Garlen to serve the family.
Alain Ro: ~~puzzled~~
Alain Ro: To serve the family?
Arat: Sime Garlenists operated much the same as Gen. In this case, however, instead of strangers brought from Sime territory, they were Gens. Their own Gen children.
Arat: They served much the way that your own Garlenists did.
Arat doesn't want to come out and say that they were either killed or became Donors, but he will if he has to.
Alain Ro is not well informed about the Sime version of Garlen's service.
Alain Ro knew that mother's helpers could be hired to guard children and protect the parents if they changed over.
Alain Ro's father had laid down the law when the subject came up; no responsible parent could abdicate responsibility for their offspring to a stranger.
Alain Ro: But... what did Simes have to fear from children changing over?
Alain Ro turns a bit pale.
Alain Ro: And wasn't it considered wrong to offer blood kin for the Kill?
Alain Ro knows that this was taboo for most juncts, at least the civilized ones.
Arat: Simes did not fear their children changing over. They feared Establishment.
Arat: When a child Established it was necessary to give him or her up to government to be sold in another city.
Arat: It was not, as you point out, considered appropriate to remain in contact.
Arat: It was considered illegal and immoral to transport your Gen child to the border for escape.
Arat: However, if the Garlenist were to do so, then the family could present the case that their employee had done it, not themselves.
Arat: And if they were caught, it would be the employee who would be punished.
Arat: Quite often by death.
Arat: Therefore Garlenists in Sime territory were Simes.
Arat: Simes who had been born in Gen Territory to Gen parents.
Alain Ro pulls at a wisp of hair by his ear. He reminds himself to shave when he gets back to his suite.
Alain Ro: And like the Gen mother's helpers, they assisted children over the border.
Arat: Yes.
Alain Ro: But the Audnes received back their own Gen children?
Arat: Yes.
Arat: It was, as I say, a special arrangement.
Arat: They would not have wished their grown Gen offspring to die by any other hands. Nor to have their pre-Sime children raised by the hands of any but family.
Alain Ro finds this arrangement bewildering indeed.
Alain Ro: So they allowed family Gens to raise their pre-Simes? And then serve them in changeover?
Arat: Yes.
Arat: Some of them remained with the family for generations.
Arat means two or three generations.
Arat: It is they who were referred to as "rogue Donors" after Unity.
Alain Ro has heard that Farris Gens often show Donor talent, but the whole arrangement sounds insanely dangerous. Not that he knows enough about Donoring to judge. Certainly scandalous, by the standards of both Householder and junct societies.
Alain Ro: So the Audnes family legacy involved more than stability and vision and planning....
Alain Ro: It involved the physiological and psychological differences that set channels apart from other Simes.
Alain Ro: And social adaptations to those differences.
Arat considers that interpretation.
Arat: They were renSimes, [observes] but they were Farris renSimes.
Alain Ro thinks that Arat has already admitted that he has no idea how many in the seven generations were channels, though a lot of those may not have survived very long.
Arat: Certainly much of the behavior deemed characteristic of the family could be explained as accommodations forced by their mutation.
Arat: The traditional foods and medicines, the privacy, and so forth.
Alain Ro eyes glint with interest.
Alain Ro: Tell me more about that.
Notes:
1) This scene is continued from the previous episode. [return]
Go on to Episode #159: As One Cog to Another
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