Sime~Gen Roleplaying on IRC: Snake River Dam Scenario
Episode #170: A Rogue by Any Other Name (5/27/01)
Nick has taken advantage of Arat's immersion in paperwork to seek out Ro, in an attempt to moderate the effects of the inevitable next interrogation on the Audnes clan's history.
Alain Ro sits at a table in the Narosian tea house adjoining the baths, a pot of Blossom Garland blend at his elbow.
Alain Ro has two notebooks and other assorted papers spread out on the table in front of him, along with a plate with of strawberry tarts.
Nick heads for the Narosian bath house, where he understands Ro spends as much time as possible in the most civilized surroundings available.
Nick has not been in the tea room since Riyyh left, and he finds it rather lonely despite the smattering of occupied tables.
Alain Ro appreciated that Mr. Birch assigned him the largest suite of rooms to live in, but the most charitable adjective to describe the FluCon headquarters is that it is utilitarian.
Nick sees Ro and heads over to his paper-strewn table.
Nick: Professor Ro.
Alain Ro looks up at the greeting.
Alain Ro: Ah, Sosu Nick! Sit down, sit down.
Alain Ro notices that Nick's expression is rather grim.
Alain Ro: Have a strawberry tart.
Alain Ro thinks that Nick really needs to loosen up and relax a bit.
Nick brings his cup of Lilac Passion over to Ro's table and takes a seat opposite.
Nick: Thank you.
Alain Ro: I hope your charge is feeling better today?
Nick pushes a few notebooks out of the way to clear space for his tea, then reaches for a tart.
Alain Ro really does not want to make Arat ill, just to test him to find his limits.
Nick: Somewhat. He's trying to catch up with some paperwork. Now that the passes are clear, the monthly reports must be sent off on time.
Alain Ro is curious about Nick as well, and wonders if the Gen has come to issue any more heavy-handed injunctions.
Nick knows that Arat has been finishing the reports on time throughout the winter, despite the inability to send them out, but that's beside the point.
Alain Ro wonders if Nick ever thinks about anything but the channel he is taking care of. He wonders if Nick knows who he is dealing with in Professor Ro.
Alain Ro: How do you think those reports will be received?
Alain Ro: Will your superiors be satisfied with the situation here?
Nick shrugs.
Nick: I expect that will depend on how much they support the Dam project, and whether they want Arat to succeed.
Nick: One thing is sure, though: I doubt anyone will be volunteering to replace him here.
Alain Ro: They are your superiors also, are they not? Don't you know their attitudes and expectations?
Nick: Not well. I haven't spent nearly as long in the Tecton as Arat.
Alain Ro frowns. Well, if Nick doesn't know the reputations of his own superior officers, of course he would not know those of an out-T interloper.
Alain Ro thinks this kind of oblivious ignorance of social reality all to common among Gens raised in-T.
Alain Ro: But taking care of your Channel is obviously very important to you. Don't you think it would be wise to find out?
Nick: I suppose I'll get to know them better when our work here at the Dam is done.
Nick is not in any great hurry to get back to the big city.
Nick is no more fond of overflowing latrines than anyone else, particularly after Snake's solution to his eyestrain, but at least here, he can go outside and look at the mountains.
Nick is also still more than a little unsure about how well he is likely to be accepted by the Tecton higher-ups, when they discover that he still has doubts about certain Tecton policies.
Alain Ro: I understand that part of the reason Controller Arat accepted this assignment was to escape from political problems in Capitol.
Alain Ro wonders if Nick has inherited the Narosian gossip genes.
Nick: The primary reason for his assignment here was the request of your own government for his presence.
Nick fortunately is completely ignorant of Arat's role in generating that request.
Nick: But it's true that Arat didn't object as strenuously as he would have under other circumstances.
Alain Ro smiles to himself. Even he doesn't know all the details, but he knows more than Nick about the strings that were pulled to generate the request by the Gen government, and the reasons for it.
Nick: The misunderstandings he had with Controller Neptude were almost fatal. Literally.
Alain Ro: What did Controller Neptude misunderstand?
Alain Ro beams; he has already gotten Nick to spill more than Riyyh did.
Alain Ro particularly wants to know why Arat is afraid to discuss contemporary politics at all.
Nick: Mostly, Neptude kept assigning Arat Donors who were inadequate, and even one who outright hated him.
Nick: It almost killed him. If I'd returned a few hours later, it would have killed him.
Nick is using the word "kill" quite deliberately.
Alain Ro: Do you think that was a deliberate attempt to destroy a person seen as a danger to the State?
Nick considers that.
Alain Ro: Or an attack based on a personal grudge?
Alain Ro: Or simple incompetence?
Nick: I think it was mostly that Neptude didn't know anything about Farris channels, and didn't care to go to the effort of learning, either.
Alain Ro: Incompetence, then. Though it implies that the Controller was not viewed as a asset of any particular value, or else his superiors would take the trouble to keep him healthy.
Nick: Oh, I don't think it was any sort of conspiracy.
Alain Ro remembers that Riyyh claimed Neptude was very poor at channeling and that was why he focused on administrative work.
Nick thinks it was mostly a combination of Neptude's personal blind spots, and Arat's Farris pride, that prevented Neptude's superiors from intervening in Arat's favor.
Nick: I doubt even Neptude would have set out to murder Arat in such a way.
Alain Ro: And with the reassignment to this project, Controller Arat is no longer in this incompetent's jurisdiction.
Nick: Yes. Although a construction site poses an equally grave danger for him.
Alain Ro: So I understand.
Alain Ro: So I repeat, do you think this assignment is a deliberate attempt to destroy a person seen as a danger to the State?
Alain Ro: Are your superiors supporting your efforts to keep your channel in good health?
Alain Ro is quite familiar with the Machiavellian tricks that allow a person to be maneuvered into volunteering to jump from the frying pan into the fire.
Nick: They're doing the best that they can, given the conditions here. Arat was allowed to pick most of his staff, including myself and Sosu Beni.
Nick: No one predicted that so many extra people would arrive here, and be trapped over the winter.
Nick is not well acquainted with the attitude of Gen Territory towards the poor, and of speculations that many of them might conveniently freeze or starve while under Sime jurisdiction.
Alain Ro: So you are confident your current administrators want your mission to succeed?
Nick: If the old Dam crumbles before the new one is in place, much of NorWest Territory will be flooded out, and your own Territory loses a significant trade route. On the other hand, if the project is successful, both Territories can claim that the unprecedented cooperation has more than justified the money they've already spent on the project.
Alain Ro: True.
Alain Ro is pleased that Nick is adequately informed about the political context of the project he is working on. Perhaps there is hope for him after all.
Nick: I don't think even Neptude would consider damaging Arat more important than that.
Alain Ro: Then, if Arat no longer has to fear Neptude's retaliation, why is he afraid to voice his opinions?
Nick: He's not afraid, exactly. He just sees his personal opinions as a personal matter.
Alain Ro: He is afraid. I've interviewed thousands of subjects and I know fear when I see it.
Alain Ro: He willingly discussed many topics that he felt were extremely personal.
Nick: No. Not willingly.
Alain Ro: This, as you have pointed out, was stressful for him, but he did it.
Alain Ro: On the question of contemporary issues, he will not speak. And there is no doubt in my mind that he fears some kind of punishment.
Nick: There have always been people who have expected him to take up his parents' crusade. Or to crusade against it, for that matter.
Nick: Any opinion he expresses on contemporary issues will inevitably be seized upon by both groups.
Nick: He could survive it -- he spent his entire childhood surviving it -- but he has no wish to do so. I can't blame him, personally.
Alain Ro nods. He knows what it means to be in the limelight.
Alain Ro: So he refuses to discuss these issues. Do you feel yourself bound by the same restrictions?
Nick: Yes.
Alain Ro: You said you had not been with the Tecton as long as Controller Arat. You are, in fact, a fairly recent recruit?
Alain Ro has run across the stories of Nick's notorious conversion from a rogue in the tabloids, but has access to little information on him beyond those lurid accounts.
Nick: Yes. I started work as a Tecton Donor only a few months before we came here.
Alain Ro: And before that you were acting as an independent?
Alain Ro deplores the implications of the word "rogue".
Nick: More or less.
Alain Ro: Perhaps you could tell me why you decided to enter Tecton service?
Nick: I found I didn't care for the alternatives.
Alain Ro: What were your choices and the basis for your decision?
Nick doubts that an out-T non-Donor Gen like Ro could ever really understand the premium a Donor places on a decent transfer.
Alain Ro suspects that, although Nick was not his target subject, he may also have an interesting story to tell.
Nick: I could have joined Naros as Sectuib Riyyh's Companion, or found some other line of work.
Nick: Of course, either of those options would have left Arat dead.
Alain Ro: How so?
Alain Ro knows a Donor is responsible for a channel's well-being, but only when assigned.
Alain Ro understands that a guiding principle of the Tecton transfer assignment system is to substitute the system for the individual; a method borrowed from the Gen Territories.
Nick: That idiot Pylor had managed to half kill him, and Neptude was so sure of himself that he didn't have a competent backup on hand.
Nick: Not that it's easy to find a Donor who can handle a Farris channel who's in serious trouble.
Alain Ro congratulates him; more names and details.
Nick: Fortunately, I made it back to Capitol just in time.
Alain Ro: So you joined the Tecton to take care of Controller Arat?
Alain Ro: It was a personal commitment?
Nick: Of course. Aren't all commitments personal?
Alain Ro: They are all personal, but not necessarily to persons.
Alain Ro: One can commit to an institution, a tradition, an ideal.
Nick: Perhaps.
Alain Ro: Forgive me if I'm wrong, but doesn't the Tecton advocate commitment to the ideal of Unity specifically without the commitment to the person of a Sectuib as required in a Householding?
Nick himself is an incurable romantic, and thus his decision was motivated primarily by knight errantry and frustration from inadequate transfers.
Nick: I'm afraid I've never been much of a philosopher. I'm personally a great deal more interested in the practical matter of how actual people apply those ideals in their daily lives.
Alain Ro is an incurable romantic himself, and values ideals over individuals who, by their human nature, are inevitably fallible.
Alain Ro: So, as a practical matter, you pledged to the Tecton to keep your friend alive.
Nick: Well, that was one factor, certainly.
Alain Ro: What other factors entered into your decision?
Nick: As I said, neither of the other possibilities was as appealing.
Alain Ro: Why not? Certainly the status of First Companion in Naros would be equal to that of First Donor in a Tecton District.
Alain Ro: And you would probably have a good deal more freedom.
Nick thinks that Ro has no idea of the fishbowl existence at Naros, or what such lack of privacy does to one's exercise of any theoretical freedom that might exist on paper.
Nick: As I explained, I am less concerned with abstracts than with individuals. In that regard, Sectuib Riyyh and I were not really compatible in many ways.
Alain Ro: I respect your loyalty to Arat. But what if you were assigned to another channel, and a less skilled Gen sent here to take your place? What would you do then?
Alain Ro has found personal loyalty to be just as valuable and inconvenient in military and business organizations.
Nick: I am assigned to the other First Order channels regularly. Beni's learned a lot; he can handle Arat in most situations, so he doesn't have to call me in very often.
Alain Ro: But if you were transferred away from this project, and Pylor assigned to replace you?
Alain Ro has seen stranger assignments happen in the Gen Army.
Nick: That's not very likely. With two Farris channels here, they have to have at least one Donor trained to handle them -- it can't be learned overnight, you know.
Alain Ro bites his lip. This Gen seems not only to dislike thinking in abstract terms, he seems incapable of it.
Nick: And just about all of the other Donors with the training to handle Arat are Householders. Zeor much prefers to keep their Donors for their own channels.
Nick is not only inclined to think in terms of people instead of sweeping, impersonal ideas, he is almost as reluctant as Arat to tell this influential Gen about his political leanings.
Alain Ro: But if some blackballed Zeor misfit were assigned here, and you were assigned to a Zeor channel?
Alain Ro has never heard of Alea of course.
Nick: There is a blackballed Zeor misfit assigned here, and I give a Zeor channel transfer about every other month.
Nick's eyes are twinkling just a bit as he says this.
Alain Ro: Indeed?
Alain Ro can see that Nick is playing games with him.
Nick: Yes. So you see, Zeor has every reason to see that I remain here.
Nick innocently pops another (very expensive) strawberry tart into his mouth.
Alain Ro: And how do you like life as a Tecton Donor compared to your previous career as a so-called rogue?
Nick: Well, it's not that different, to tell the truth. A little more paperwork to fill out, but on the other hand, I can keep a supply of decent tea around. Other than that -- tramping through slums looking for frostbite victims is pretty much the same, whether or not you wear a ring under your gloves.
Alain Ro: So it's no different to you being in charge of your own life or following a channel's orders?
Nick: A Donor working with a channel always follows directions regarding field management. And gives orders concerning the channel's personal health, for that matter. It's a matter of biological necessity, not Tecton affiliation.
Alain Ro has not heard it described in quite these terms by other Donors he has spoken with. Nick may not be capable of abstract thought, but he is nevertheless refreshingly original.
Alain Ro: You mentioned other career options. What other ways of life did you consider?
Nick: Well, I'd have had to move back to Gen Territory, because of my grandmother. It's easy enough to get work as a laborer.
Alain Ro rubs his chin.
Alain Ro: You've lived on the Gen side of the border, then?
Nick: Oh, yes. For about ten years, actually.
Alain Ro: And why did you return in-T?
Alain Ro knows how unusual it is for a talented Gen to leave Sime Territory, or for a settled Gen to cross the border again.
Nick: I'd heard a rumor that my grandmother was ill.
Alain Ro: You said you left because of her. Did she send you away at establishment?
Alain Ro knows, despite all efforts to persuade Sime families that their Gen children were human, old ways die slowly.
Nick: Yes, she did.
Nick's face takes on a hard expression that really emphasizes the 25% relationship with Prunida.
Alain Ro: And by the time you came back, you must have been a mature man. How did you end up a Donor, then?
Alain Ro has heard that Donors usually have to be trained at establishment.
Nick: A friend of a friend suggested that I meet a young lady.
Nick: It seemed like an interesting opportunity.
Alain Ro: Opportunity?
Alain Ro thinks Nick is being deliberately obscure.
Nick: What she was doing was very worthwhile, and... well, how could I turn her down, once we'd met?
Nick isn't being deliberately obscure; it's just that there's no way to explain the attraction between a Donor and a compatible channel to a Gen who's never felt it.
Alain Ro is puzzled.
Alain Ro: What young lady? What was she doing?
Nick: She was an unwashed, wild-haired young channel, more than a little insane, and she intended to make sure that the poor of Bender Cover had access to all of the services that the Tecton was failing to provide.
Alain Ro: Ah... Snake.
Nick: Yes.
Alain Ro has read at least part of this story in the newspapers.
Alain Ro: And her plan seemed... worthwhile... to you?
Nick: Of course. When you've lived as an itinerant agricultural laborer, you tend to take the availability of care for the poor very seriously indeed. And unlike the usual charities, she had the connections -- and the sheer ability -- to carry it off.
Alain Ro: So her plan was practical. Not... abstract.
Nick: It was very practical. And it worked, as the relief efforts don't.
Alain Ro: Worked better than the relief efforts you are engaged in now?
Nick: In many ways, yes.
Nick: Although the aid required was somewhat different.
Alain Ro takes another bite of strawberry tart in an attempt to mask the intensity of his interest.
Alain Ro: Different how?
Nick: The Dam site is a temporary and artificial community. Its problems are severe but transient. Bender Cove has been settled for generations, and its problems reflect that history.
Nick: We could prevent starvation here by importing one winter's worth of food and distributing it as required. The same solution doesn't work in a city's slums.
Alain Ro: What does?
Nick: For immediate aid, anonymity and trust are important. Few people in a slum are willing to give the authorities any more information than they already possess.
Nick: And then, for a permanent solution, one has to attack the reasons why people don't have the means of supporting themselves.
Alain Ro notices how the remembrance of his life as an independent seems to have loosened Nick's tongue.
Nick: That requires creative thinking about means of employment, and convincing employers to pay a living wage.
Nick recalls that Snake could be quite convincing, when she chose.
Nick wishes that the Snake he first met was still in existence, instead of the vicious poisoner who replaced her.
Nick is perhaps not quite as objective about Snake (former or current) as he should be.
Alain Ro: And what creative solutions did you implement?
Nick: That story is not mine to tell.
Alain Ro rubs his chin.
Alain Ro: Whose then?
Nick: Mostly, the story belongs to those who were helped. I doubt many of them would want it publicized.
Alain Ro reassesses Nick; the man only pretends to be a Tecton flunky; he is in fact quite an independent thinker and, what's more, a doer.
Alain Ro: But I suppose Hajene Snake could tell me some of it? If she chose to?
Alain Ro wonders if keeping secrets is an Audnes genetic trait.
Alain Ro: Because it's a story that interests me.
Alain Ro thinks, and really a continuation of the Audnes saga into the latest generation.
Nick imagines the sorts of games that Snake could play with this out-Territory Professor, who seems to be so confident of his own importance that he can't imagine anyone failing to respect it.
Nick knows that Snake has no respect for anyone, not even herself, really.
Nick: Some secrets are safer, left unpursued.
Go on to Episode #171: Donors is Donors
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