Charley, Meet the Ransoms
Rob
[The Ransom’s home] is a lovely, rambling, painted Victorian house. The Ransoms moved there in 1968, so the décor is more late ‘60s than high ‘70s.
Archie & Melanie's tastes are undeniably wholesome and square, but there are hints of Archie's life in showbiz and advertising: some big framed blowups of award winning ad campaigns (Sharp Cereal, 7-Up, a literacy education PSA) that, by virtue of being blown up and framed, look like Warhol style pop art. The largest most noticeable decoration in the living room (as distinct from the rec room / TV room, which is a classic example of the genus) is a set of Chinese shadow puppets, framed under glass.
The kids have their own bedrooms, Archie has an office. "Charlie's room" isn't literally his room - the family only moved here after his death. But they set a bedroom up for him anyway. It hovers awkwardly between being a guest room and a shrine: fairly generic decor but a few of Charlie's things: cowboy bedspread, plastic horse, a picture of him dressed up as the Ransom Kid.
And up in the attic: all the puppets. Multiple versions of the Ransom Gang and others, along with several others in various states of construction/completion, and tools for making more.
Mike, you can portray/describe Jane and Eddie however you like. Archie is a well-meaning father, but often a distant one. He aims to be a perfect 1950s TV dad, genial and soft-spoken, steward to his family, but it's not 1956 anymore, and the family (and Archie) have been through some shit. Like Archie said before, they have 2 cats (Lehi & Nephi) and a beagle (Kolob).
Michael
OH MY GOD ROB ALL THIS STUFF
Rob
Yeah, I'm a little disturbed by how much I "know" about Archie. Make of that what you will.
Michael
It's perfect. Pretty much exactly as I'd pictured it. We'll make a wiki page later.
The "blowups of ad campaigns" element is perfection. That's so "earnestly trying to be hip in the late '60s/early '70s.
I'm reminded of Stan Rizzo's giant poster of Moshe Dayan in Mad Men, or the various blowups of '70s media figures that the Gen X hipsters in Microserfs hang in their apartment.
So around 5 o'clock, Archie gets into his Monaco for his usual commute home … but this time it's with a passenger. Sure, Archie's had some of the team back to his house before, but never from work and obviously not like this. (If there's any conversation you two want to have in the car before we get to dinner, by the way, feel free … this is just for mood-setting.)
And as Archie comes over the Bay Bridge (inadvertently following the trail of Jocasta right before she was accosted by a funkadelic UFO), and the city of San Francisco appears on the fog-dotted horizon, it's a glorious sight in the late March afternoon twilight. It's the first time Charley has ever seen a city.
Mel
How long is the drive?
Michael
And in a moment of HUGELY creepy synchronicity, an image of the Bay Bridge JUST came up on my Google Chromecast on random images.
How long is the drive?
About 45 minutes from door to door.
Bill
If you’re gonna have a first sighting of a city, the Emerald one is a winner.
Mel
Charley has been looking forward to going to the Ransoms all day. And now it is happening!! The excitement is a bit overwhelming for her, she sits in the back, her small head darting back and forth trying to take in ALL of the scenery. But she’s also sitting very formally hands on her lap, fingers laced together but clenched at the same time. A battle is waging between being on her best behavior and exploding with excitement.
Rob
In the car with Charley, Archie does his best to makes pleasant conversation, asks innocuous questions (what does Charley like to do for fun? does she have any favorite animals? what kind of music does she like?), tells her a bit about his family, points out the Bay Bridge, other points of interest. Generally he talks to her like she's a 6-year-old (which may be annoying to a super-intelligent 6-year-old, I don't know) but like he's an adult who takes 6-year-olds seriously (again, think Mr. Rogers). When they're almost home, he does say, "So, Charley: Melanie knows that you've been helping me at the office. But she, and Jane and Eddie, they don't know a lot about the kind of work we do there. It's probably best if we don't talk about any of that stuff at dinner tonight. Is that OK?"
Mel
Charley is enjoying the chat. "I will usually watch T.V. when I'm not training. But, I played Tarot cards with Agent Hort today. And, I quite enjoyed that. I don't have any cards but, if we had some we could read each others fortunes. Have you played? It's all about mysterious truths about life. Cats, are my favorite! But, I've never met any yet … I like most music, classical was what I liked the most when, I was a baby. But, now I really like the music of the future."
Charley is looking very pale and a little sweaty right around the time Archie brings up the family situation. She is moaning a little but manages to reply, "I understand Mr. Ransom. They are civilians."
Rob
Archie is a little thrown, less by Charley's precociousness than by how it punctures his attempt to pretend this is all normal, hunky-dory. "Well, yes, that's exactly right. They are civilians." But he notices her discomfort. "Are you feeling OK, Charley? You look a little pale." Probably pulling into the driveway at this point.
Mel
“Yes, I’m OK. Sometimes the car makes me sick.”
Charley does say of Archie’s house. “Wow, this house is big?!”
Michael
Rob
(Rob, Melanie is the same age as Archie's given they were on mission at the same time, correct?)
Yeah, she and Archie would both be 43 or 44? ha ha I'm older than Archie, it's the 'cast of WKRP' thing all over again.
Michael
(yeah, she and Archie would both be 43 or 44? ha ha I'm older than Archie, it's the 'cast of WKRP' thing all over again)
Been thinking about this a lot given EVERY MEMBER OF URIEL IS YOUNGER THAN ME, OY.
Rob
I mean, after a certain point it's pretty typical to play younger PCs, if they're action-adventurers or warriors in a medieval fantasy realm, but being older than Archie is like being older than Les or Mr. Carlson.
As Archie opens the front door of his beautiful rambling old Pacific Heights home, the warm smell of cooking wafts forth. Melanie's in the kitchen, working on dinner, while the only "person" to greet Archie at the door is old Kolob. Melanie eventually comes out to the entryway, wiping her hands on an apron. "You made good time!" she says brightly, coming over to kiss Archie on the cheek. (Rob, Melanie is the same age as Archie's given they were on mission at the same time, correct?)
Melanie Ransom is a tall woman, only an inch or so shorter than Archie, with blonde hair cut in a conservative yet still short-ish style (picturing late-season Brady Bunch Florence Henderson). Her dress style is also a compromise between authentic prairie and mod San Francisco prairie chic; Melanie was a bit lucky that most of her old-fashioned Utah-influenced fashion choices are suddenly hip among the young people again! "And who might you be?" Melanie says with an open, inviting grin, bending down to say hello to who Archie's brought to dinner.
Mel
She smiles at Melanie and says, "I'm Charley! Where are your cats?"
Rob
(yeah I don't think I gave Melanie the headsup about Charley's name)
Michael
Melanie's facade, for just the briefest of moments, as Charley says her name, cracks. Just the most imperceptible look of hurt and pain. But she shakes it off very quickly. "Of course! I will see if I can round them up, but you know they're impossible to find most of the time … except when they get underfoot! Let's see if we can find them, huh?"
Melanie says to Archie, "Jane's in her room on the phone, of course, and Eddie's watching TV in the den."
Rob
Archie gives Melanie a quick kiss and what is hopefully a supportive, meaningful look, says, "Thanks for doing this, sweetheart." Heads into the house, puts his stuff down, changes from jacket to cardigan like straight-up Mr. Rogers, heads towards the den and calls out to both kids, "Hey Janey, hey Sport! We have a guest for dinner! Come on out and say hello."
Michael
Not a lot of movement from either room right away. Frickin' teens.
Rob
Yeah, the first call is kind of a "ten minute warning"
Michael
(Although Jane's probably saying to her friend on the phone, "gah, my DAD is calling me, I gotta go" and Eddie's eyes just slightly drifting away from, like, oh, I dunno, a Bonanza syndicated rerun, hardly watching it but eyes still glued to the Ransoms' very nice TV room set … )
Eventually Jane and Eddie make it to the living room, where guests are entertained. [/50s etiquette short film narrator] Melanie and Charley emerge from the kitchen, where Charley is now cradling a surprisingly docile Nephi.
Jane is a striking (also tall) young woman of 17, a junior in high school, and she wears her blonde hair long and straight. She wears a hippie-ish peasant top and very nice (not patched or embroidered) bell-bottom blue jeans. Eddie's 14, and dressed like you might expect a young teen in '73: ringer-T, jeans, maybe he has to be asked not to wear his Dodgers cap indoors (he's still an LA fan and he gets no lack of guff from the kids at school who all love the Giants). He has dark hair like his dad, in an unfashionable-in-'73 for a young teen bowl cut. He's obviously a little awkward.
Rob
Archie makes introductions: "Hi Peanut, hey Sport, there's someone here I'd like you to meet. This is -" pauses on the name "- well, this is Charley. She's in town for a few days as part of a study we're doing at the office. She's never been to San Francisco before. So tonight we're welcoming her into our home."
"Charley, this is my daughter Jane, and this is my son Eddie. And I see you've already met Nephi!"
Michael
"Hi," Jane says. "Nice to meet you." She extends her hand. Eddie says, "Hey" sort of bashfully.
Melanie says, "Jane, Eddie, why don't you bring Charley into the TV room and I'll bring you all some snacks. Glass of milk sound good, Charley?"
Mel
Charley looks up at the older kids but, Nephi has her full attention.”Hi.” But with the suggestion of milk, snacks and TV the kitty spell is broken. “Oh, yes! Thank you!” She’ll follow the Teens to the den with Nephi trailing behind her.”
Michael
The reason why Melanie has had the kids take Charley into the den is because Melanie wants to speak with Archie, in the kitchen, alone. She says, somewhat coldly, "You can fill the chip-and-dip with the chips, celery, and cottage cheese, I'll pour the milk." Melanie gets to the (terracotta? avocado?)-hued fridge and her shoulders sort of slump. Archie can tell that something is wrong.
"Oh, Archie," Melanie says to her husband. "That girl. She's so sweet but she told me she'd never held a cat before. What kind of life does she have in that orphanage? And what can she expect when she goes back after she's done with your study?"
Meanwhile, in the den, the 6 o'clock news is coming on, and Jane actually requests that the three of them watch it. After Eddie protests (loudly), Jane says, "It's for SCHOOL, dum-dum. It's for my Civics class, I have to watch the news all week and take notes on how it's biased." Meanwhile, Jane is playing with the rabbit ears on the TV to get the best reception.
Mel
Charley see that Jane is struggling with the antennas. And she’ll come over to adjust them for her.
Michael
(lol) Give me a Remote Control roll.
Actually, you know what, Remote Control isn't the right skill.
It's Electronics Operation (Media), which is a 14.
Remote Control is for remote control of computers and machines, like actually accessing data and turning things off and on remotely. Remote Control would be what you want to use if you wanted to turn the TV on or change frequencies while not touching it.
>>>> SUCCESS
So Charley gets the antennae, points them in the right direction to take advantage of the nearest transmitter towers (Cartography) and gets perfect reception the first time. Eddie is stunned.
"How did you do that? We haven't been able to get Channel 4 that clear since we moved in!" Eddie is definitely looking at Charley with something approaching awe.
Meanwhile, Jane takes out her school notebook (with all kinds of wild psychedelic scribbles and graffiti on the cover) and her pen and starts taking notes on the news.
This isn't from the exact day of our game but it should give you the vibe for a 1973 news report in San Francisco.
Mel
“Oh, I don’t know?” She says casually to Eddie and goes back to her Milk.
Michael
"I don't know why that CROOK gets to have all his dirty laundry looked at behind closed doors," Jane mutters to herself. "Congress should do their JOB and have it all out in public." Jane continues to scribble.
Eddie seems completely nonplussed by all this and just eats more potato chips; he absolutely leaves the celery
Mel
Charley will take note that, Jane said she was going take notes on the news. But, she can tell by the motion that, she is scribbling and doing it a lot. She’s wondering why and goes over to look.
Michael
Her notes contain a pretty detailed analysis of how the local news portrays a national news story — "network footage and voiceover for W'Gate story, NO analysis by local anchor"; "national news section lasts 4 min 30 secs, local news 5 minutes with commentary/discussion. What is the role of local news when it comes to national issues?" etc.
Mel
What Charley sees seems normal to her. She goes to wake up the cat.
Michael
Yeah, Jane's just a really good student with a burgeoning late-teenage sense of political right and wrong.
Rob
"Oh, Archie," Melanie says to her husband. "That girl. She's so sweet but she told me she'd never held a cat before. What kind of life does she have in that orphanage? And what can she expect when she goes back after she's done with your study?"
Archie pats her shoulder. "I know, honey, I know. It's very sad. The orphanage the foundation runs, I know they mean well, and they're well funded, but it's not a home, is it? It's not a family."
Yeah, Jane's just a really good student with a burgeoning late-teenage sense of political right and wrong. Sounds like a budding memeticist to me!
Michael
"I don't know why that CROOK gets to have all his dirty laundry looked at behind closed doors," Jane mutters to herself. "Congress should do their JOB and have it all out in public." Jane continues to scribble.
A memeticist, but for which side?
Melanie, responding to Archie. "No. No it's not." She purses her lips and listens for the kids in the TV room. "Please … please keep tabs on her, all right? Once she's done with the focus group work, once she goes back. I don't know, maybe I'm being silly, maybe it's just having a younger child in the house again, but … " Melanie hesitates.
Rob
I dunno, she's making it very easy for Archie to go down a dangerous road. I think for now he just agrees with her: "I know, honey, I know" again.
Michael
Melanie has pulled out all the stops for tonight's meal: YES, her casserole-making skills will be on display. Time for her award-winning au gratin funeral potatoes with cubed ham and corn flake topping!
(I kept trying to avoid the stereotype until it just became too much to bear: YES if she's asked to feed a guest at short notice, Melanie is going down to the root cellar and grabbing some potatoes and a couple of cans of Campbell's cream of mushroom)
Mel
Charley is HUNGRY!!!
Michael
After everyone is settled in (not sure if we're saying grace, that's the patriarch's prerogative, I think), Melanie will try to include Charley in the pleasant dinner conversation. "So, Charley, what are your favorite things to study and learn about in school?"
Mel
Charley thinks about what might be the safest answer. "Well, umm … I like mathematics and science. But music class is probably my favorite."
Michael
"Oh, that's wonderful. I used to play the piano as a girl. Are you learning to play an instrument?"
Mel
"I love the piano! Do you have a favorite composer? I love, Mussorgsky. He was very ahead of his time."
Michael
"My goodness! Why … yes, Mussorgsky was indeed quite a modern composer for his time." Melanie supposes that precocious Charley saw Fantasia and asked about the music.
Mel
Charley, will look over at Archie to check her feeling that things are going really well!
Rob
Yes, let's assume that Archie has said grace by this point. He's smiling benevolently through most of these exchanges, complimenting Melanie on the award-winning corn flake potatoes, asking his own kids about their days. If things go really sideways he'll step in, but he won't try to smooth over minor weirdness (like how does this 6 year old know Mussorgsky?), because he's kind of just decided that Charley is a normal kid and is sort of in denial about evidence to the contrary. He does keep an eye on Jane and Eddie, though, to try and read how they're feeling about this guest.
Michael
I actually think a Leadership roll would be right now for Archie. But aside from that, if Archie does ask the kids what they're doing in school, Jane will talk about her Civics project.
Jane: "So Mr. Bernard, our Civics teacher, says that in order to be responsible citizens we have to watch television with a critical eye and look for the ways the news and current events are reflected on TV that might favor certain points of view. So we're assigned to watch the local news for all three channels in the Bay Area and see if there are biases, if certain views are favored over others, if local news is given short attention compared to national. It's been interesting," she says sort of neutrally as she heaps some casserole on her fork.
Rob
(Here's a leadership roll)
>>>> SUCCESS
15. Not exactly a commanding success.
Michael
Hah, just the barest level of patriarchal authority reigning at the Ransom dinner table. But yes, still a success! The Ransom kids seem … a little distant, honestly! Whether that's just teenage anomie or the presence of Charley at the table, Archie's not exactly sure. But Melanie is rapt with Charley.
Rob
Archie's interested in Jane's project, though. "And what are you finding as you watch the news?"
Michael
Jane looks very clearly at her dad, very levelly. "There's an eagerness to 'see both sides,' especially in situations where, as far as I can tell, there is no second side. Like Nixon and Watergate. What possible reason should there be for the Congressional investigations to be behind closed doors? The people deserve to know what's going on and if the President was involved." This is probably a fair bit more political than the Ransom dinner table gets.
"And yet there the anchors and newsmen go, giving the Republican Senators all the time in the world at the microphone. And that network report, my research told me, goes to every affiliate all over the country, not just here. So now people everywhere in America think there's some … vague reason that we can't see the results of the investigation." Again, Jane is usually a sort of moody teenager. It's obvious that she has some real feelings about Watergate.
The phone rings. Melanie excuses herself from the table to answer it; it's an unspoken rule in the house that if a call comes through, even at dinner, it should get answered. "Hello?" Melanie listens and says, "Yes, all right. One moment. Honey? It's for you. It's work."
On the phone, it's Sophie. "Mr. Ransom. Jo just arrived and we need to call an all-hands meeting tomorrow morning. It's urgent. Also, I need to know if Charley will be returning to Livermore or not. The personnel preparing her on-site quarters need to know whether to go forward."
Rob
I have a strong impulse to steer into the skid and have Archie tell Jane that sometimes we have to trust our elected officials to act in our best interests, we wouldn't want such serious deliberations being turned into a television circus … but I won't really be online much more between now and 9, so maybe it's just as well Sophie called when she did. On the phone, Archie tells Sophie that he and Charley will be there bright and early tomorrow morning.
Michael
"Very well. We'll see you both tomorrow morning."