Ressell finishes washing his hands, and steps out of the restroom. Nervousness, however tempered it is with attempts at bravery, doesn't do wonders for one's bladder.
Pollovic has been dreaming of the time he fell out of a tree as a boy. He was covered in bruises for weeks.
Pollovic: Hello?
Ressell: Who is it? ~~ suspicious ~~
Pollovic is still waking up, trying to remember where he is.
Pollovic: 's Brenn. Brenn Pollovic.
Ressell realizes, with more than a bit of discomfort, that this is the man he threatened to shoot earlier in the evening.
Pollovic opens his eyes and sees the sterile walls of the treatment room. Foggily, memory starts to return. The painkiller is definitely starting to wear off.
Pollovic: C'mon in.
Pollovic looks around, wondering where Pametta's disappeared to. Surely she wouldn't have left without waking him to say she's going?
Ressell advances into the doorway.
Ressell: Senator Pollovic, sir. I'm... glad to see that you survived. ~~ a bit of contrition ~~
Pollovic blearily studies the man, trying to figure out why he looks familiar. After a moment, he recognises him as the man whose horse he, er, "borrowed".
Pollovic: I'm sorry about your horse. It really was an emergency, but that doesn't really excuse what I did. If the horse is injured...
Ressell: I... do apologize for my behavior earlier in the evening, sir. It was dark, and I didn't recognize your voice. I'm not the sort of man who uses his gun to express his political discontent.
Pollovic manages a smile.
Pollovic: You were startled, and I was desperate. Shall we leave it at that, except to agree that if your horse is harmed, I'll pay whatever you think is reasonable?
Ressell still thinks Pollovic is an utter and complete fool for doing what he did, but also believes in the value of discretion.
Ressell: Sounds fair to me, sir.
Ressell comes closer to the bed, offering his hand for a shake to seal the agreement.
Pollovic reaches up to shake the offered hand. As he does so, he shifts his leg, making the broken length of chain on his ankle rattle loudly.
Ressell looks down at the noise, and notices the chain.
Ressell: What in all hell?
Pollovic: Hmm?
Pollovic is so used to the chain by now that he's forgotten about it.
Ressell: Did they have you chained to something?
Ressell notes the broken end of the chain, but still finds it mighty suspicious.
Pollovic: Oh. Um, that was attached to the boy.
Pollovic winces as he speaks; he could really use another dose of painkiller about now.
Ressell glances up and down Pollovic's bruised and bandaged form. He had assumed the man's condition to be the work of a berserker attack, but what rationale anyone would have for being chained to one, he thinks, is beyond the comprehension of any sane person.
Ressell: Who chained you to the boy?
Pollovic: Um...
Pollovic is thinking rather literally at the moment, and he can't actually remember whether he fastened the chain himself, or whether Pametta did it for him.
Pollovic: I guess... I'm not actually sure...
Ressell narrows his eyes.
Ressell: How in hell are you still alive?
Pollovic: More luck than I deserved, I guess. It was close.
Pollovic shudders, remembering the moment Seruffin scooped Naoyu's tentacles from his arms at the last possible split second.
Pollovic: Your horse made all the difference.
Ressell: How did you survive, if you don't mind my asking? I'm... assuming it attacked you.
Ressell gestures vaguely to Pollovic's bandaged chest.
Pollovic: Oh, that. That was from when I fell.
Pollovic isn't as coherent as he sounds; he's having trouble sticking with a topic.
Ressell: From my horse?
Pollovic: Yeah.
Pollovic is even more aware of his pain, now that he's thinking about his ribs.
Pollovic: I need...
Pollovic has slipped away from his carefully cultivated and relatively new habit of using the word "need" only for selyn hunger.
Ressell listens, noting the man's increasingly incoherent speech.
Ressell: What do you need, sir?
Ressell is fortunately accustomed to using the word "need" strictly in its English sense.
Pollovic needs another dose of the painkiller.
Pollovic: Need... help. Find someone?
Ressell: Help with what? If there's anything I can do for you...
Pollovic is also beginning to need either a bedpan or someone to help him down the hall.
Pollovic: Get me up? Get me to...
Pollovic moves injudiciously and gasps in ~~ pain ~~ instead of finishing the sentence. He raises one arm, gesturing vaguely towards the door.
Ressell notices the bluish tentacle-shaped bruises wrapping around Pollovic's arms, and frowns.
Pollovic had so many more serious injuries that Seruffin didn't take the time to worry about these.
Ressell: I thought you said the boy didn't go after you. What happened?
Ressell is not sure he wants to go and fetch any "help" right now.
Pollovic: No, I... he... He went for me.
Pollovic shudders again, remembering the moment he saw two sets of tentacles coming at him at once.
Pollovic: They both...
Ressell: Both? Who else was there, besides the... boy?
Pollovic realises he isn't being very coherent. he takes a deep breath to try again, then gasps and loses the thread of what he was trying to say as his ribs twinge again.
Pollovic: Tentacles. They both had...
Ressell glances around rapidly, and starts to wonder if he should make a serious effort at helping Pollovic escape. He's never really trusted the Tecton, despite its endless claims of allowing no harm to come to Gens, and it seems that the fraudulence of that claim is being thrown in his face right now.
Pollovic loses the thread of what he was going to say.
Pollovic: Uh... need to get... need to go...
Pollovic has reached the point where the one thing he can't forget for long is his bladder.
Ressell: Senator, can you walk? If I helped you get up, I mean.
Pollovic: Think so.
Ressell hurries over to Pollovic's bedside, helping him sit up and get to a point where he can stand unassisted.
Pollovic is very wobbly on his feet, and made more so by the stress on his ribs from getting up.
Ressell puts an arm around Pollovic, trying to support him so he can walk.
Ressell: I'll take you out to the coach that's waiting outside.
Pollovic tries to pull away from Ressell at those words, but teeters and almost falls. He grunts.
Ressell holds on to Pollovic, making sure he doesn't fall over.
Pollovic: Need... t'go...
Ressell assumes Pollovic means he needs to leave the Sime Center, and is trying to act accordingly.
Seruffin has settled Naoyu at last, and returns to check on his other patient.
Pollovic has not been to a washroom since partway through the wedding reception, which seems several lifetimes ago by now.
Pollovic: Right... away. Hurry.
Ressell tries to guide him out of the room, supporting him firmly. He's just hoping they can make it out of the building without being intercepted by staff on the way.
Seruffin is ~~ alarmed ~~ to zlin the injured Pollovic walking around.
Pollovic leans heavily against Ressell, assuming the man knows where the nearest washroom is.
Ressell tries to remember the route he took to get here in the first place, through the corridors from the lobby.
Seruffin: Senator! What are you doing walking around? You should be lying down and resting.
Ressell grits his teeth and mutters a few impolite words under his breath as the snake intercepts them.
Pollovic: Gotta... go. Help.
Pollovic is also gritting his teeth, though for entirely different reasons.
Seruffin hurries to help support the Gen on the side opposite from Ressell.
Pollovic, having just been reminded of that awful moment, flinches away from the sight of Seruffin's tentacled forearms.
Ressell: What are you doing? Can't you see he wants to get out of here? ~~ outrage ~~
Seruffin: Please, sir, relax. The bathroom is right here.
Seruffin, of course, can zlin exactly what is sparking Pollovic's desperation.
Ressell, who cannot, finds himself utterly confused at the mention of a bathroom.
Seruffin: Let me help you in, then we can get you back to bed.
Pollovic resolutely lets the Sime take hold of him.
Seruffin steers towards the door in question.
Seruffin: We'll get you something for the pain, too.
Pollovic gives a tight nod; most of his attention is on his goal, and on staying upright.
Ressell finds his estimations of Senator Pollovic's sanity driven even further into the ground by the slow realization that all this muddled talk about needing to "go" had to do with a bathroom, and he has no apparent desire to leave the Sime Center. At least he had the good sense to flinch at the tentacles.
Ressell had never imagined that his quiet evening would culminate in helping some snake walk Senator Pollovic to a restroom.
Pollovic spots his destination, and tries to move a bit faster.
Seruffin maneuvers the trio through the door, then looks at Ressell.
Seruffin: Sir, perhaps you would give him some privacy?
Pollovic no longer cares about such niceties. As soon as the porcelain is within range, he unbuttons and lets it happen.
Ressell is not particularly interested in watching the Senator do his business, and steps politely away, so that it's out of his line of sight.
Pollovic finishes and sags, weak with relief. He almost lands face down in the toilet before Seruffin catches him and hauls him back upright.
Seruffin: Careful. You really should have used the pot in your room.
Pollovic: There... was one in my...?
Seruffin: Yes. I should have showed you.
Pollovic bites back a rude comment. ~~ annoyance ~~
Pollovic: Just... get me back.
Seruffin: Your legs are jelly. Here, let me carry you.
Pollovic doesn't protest as the channel picks him up. Some part of his mind is grateful that at least Ressell isn't one of his own constituents. ~~ distant embarrassment ~~
Ressell steps back, feeling some kind of ~~ revulsion ~~ that isn't entirely rational at the sight of Pollovic being carried around by a Sime.
Seruffin has been a physician for a long time, and is used to patients who feel awkward about necessities.
Pollovic has forgotten about the tentacles for the moment. He's embarrassed about being carried at all, not by the fact that it's a channel doing it.
Pollovic: 't least... it's you... 'n not Pam... etta.
Pollovic squeezes the words out past the renewed pain in his ribs.
Seruffin: I think Pametta would have a bit of trouble carrying you.
Seruffin gets Pollovic back to bed.
Pollovic focuses on the tentacles again as the channel settles him in. ~~ faint echoing panic ~~
Seruffin: Relax, Brenn. You're fine. Pametta will be back soon -- I believe she's talking to Naoyu's mother.
Pollovic: Ah. Y' mentioned... painkiller?
Seruffin: Yes.
Pollovic: Please? 's wearing off.
Ressell thinks to himself that painkillers would explain a certain amount of the behavior he just witnessed, at least. He snorts faintly under his breath.
Seruffin goes to a cabinet and extracts a pill, which he presents to Pollovic along with some water.
Pollovic: Thanks.
Pollovic turns his head to address Ressell.
Pollovic: 'n thank you.
Ressell: You're... welcome, sir.
Ressell decides that sticking around to attempt to pry Pollovic out of the Tecton's clutches, for the time being, is a lost cause; he may lose his ride home in the process. He heads down towards the end of the corridor where he remembers the lobby being.
Pollovic's last coherent thought, as the drug kicks in, is to wonder how he's ever going to manage a honeymoon in Nivet if he can't face even Seruffin's tentacles any more.
Ressell finds his way back to the lobby, hoping that, if nothing else, the snakes are as good as their word about returning his gun to him.
Pametta is making her way back to her husband's room.
Ressell notices Pametta, and quickly moves to intercept her.
Ressell: Did you find Bethida?
Pametta: Why, yes. She's down there.
Pametta points down the corridor.
Ressell: Good. I'll be on my way, then.
Ressell is being a bit curt with her and he knows it, but isn't feeling particularly charitable right now.
Ressell heads in the direction she pointed towards, thinking that if he ever does make it home, he'll have the most well-earned sleep of his life.
Pametta doesn't notice the rudeness; she's dismissed anything but her ailing husband from her awareness.