Sime~Gen Roleplaying on IRC: Snake River Dam Scenario
Episode #131: Bite Me (2/26/01)
Borgmann walks past Plum's guard, and draws closer to the bars.
Borgmann is delivering Plum's morning porridge personally today, mostly out of guilt that he let someone else take care of that chore last month.
Plum sits on his cot, gripping the edge with whitened fingers.
Borgmann: Josef, I've brought porridge for you.
Borgmann can't help but zlin Plum's distressed state, which doesn't make his task any easier.
Plum is trying to pray, but his eyes keep straying the the cover of the blasphemous and lurid piece of pornography lying on the stack of books in the corner of the cell.
Plum has been praying all night trying to keep his fears from overwhelming him.
Plum looks up to see Gideon's face through the bars.
Borgmann sees the direction in which Plum's attention is straying, but draws an understandable (if wrong) conclusion that it is the pamphlet on donating that is the cause of the distress.
Plum: I'm not hungry.
Plum has no intention of allowing himself to be drugged insensible again.
Borgmann opens the door to the cell long enough to set the bowl inside.
Plum eyes the bowl with disgust.
Borgmann closes the door gently.
Borgmann: Hajene Rifan will be by in an hour or so.
Plum knows that all too well.
Borgmann: If you eat all of that, you won't remember much of the next six hours or so. Eat half, and you'll be aware of what's happening, although it won't bother you, at least at the time.
Plum: Gideon, the sin is the same whether I know it is happening or not.
Borgmann doesn't tell Plum that the bath, haircut, shave, and delousing he has arranged are contingent upon Plum being sufficiently sedated to be easily handled.
Borgmann would hate to have Plum refuse assistance that he would otherwise choose, simply to avoid the appearance of accepting a bribe.
Borgmann looks at Plum, a bit sadly.
Borgmann: If that is true, then there is no reason not to choose the option which is least distressing to you.
Borgmann: Whatever that may be.
Plum: If I am to answer to God for my actions, I have to know what they are.
Borgmann: As you wish.
Borgmann turns and leaves, with a quick warning to the guard to be particularly alert.
Plum remembers some of the more racy scenes in the novel, like the one where the heroine is serviced by a Pen Gen stud, and wonders if more happened to him while he was unconscious than simply having his soul devoured.
Plum wouldn't have thought he could have sex while unconscious but he didn't think he could lose his soul without knowing it either.
Plum can't do anything to prevent being overwhelmed by physical force or drugged against his will, but he won't cooperate by making himself helpless.
Borgmann returns on schedule with Rifan and his Donor.
Rifan is a short, dark channel with quick, darting movements. His hair is tied in a neat pony tail and he smells like pine because his wife went after him with a pine bough after he confronted her about her obsession with Elte Andover.
Plum looks up to see what demon has come to abuse him this time.
Rifan has pine needles in his hair and in crevices of his uniform. He does not know this.
Berlynna is a confident, thirtysomething woman, quite good looking, in a Valkyrie sort of way, who has been pressed into service with Rifan because Pomma also caught a stray blow from the pine after interfering injudiciously.
Rifan thinks it is embarrassing to be paired with a great blond giant of a woman; she just makes him look twice as short as he really is, which is not that tall.
Borgmann zlins Plum hopefully for signs of either cooperation or sedation, then sighs.
Plum thinks the channel does not look particularly threatening, but then, neither does Gideon.
Borgmann: Hajene Rifan, Sosu Berlynna, this is Minister Plum.
Rifan however is glad to have a Donor at his side for this; Arat's "special" assignments, though intended as rewards for his favorites, could be viewed by an objective outsider as punishments.
Borgmann looks as harmless as a mouse. A middle aged, balding mouse, to be exact.
Plum thinks, that is if you ignore the tentacles and the weird crown of pine needles, obviously part of some eldritch ritual.
Rifan darts a glance at Plum. He is a bit hopped up, as is generally the case with him.
Berlynna looks at Plum with frank curiosity; stories about him have been circulating for weeks, but few people have actually seen him.
Plum eyes the Gen woman and shudders to note the resemblance to the heroine on the novel's cover.
Rifan: Very well. Let us in, and we'll signal you when we are finished.
Plum wonders if these Sime-loving Gens are the end product of the Sime's Donor-breeding program.
Borgmann looks at Plum for a moment, then unlocks the door and steps aside to allow channel and Donor to enter.
Plum stands up, tense but ready to face his fate.
Rifan enters the cell.
Berlynna follows Rifan closely, managing the fields efficiently while keeping a sharp eye out for trouble.
Berlynna has read Plum's chart, and wouldn't put it past the minister to physically attack Rifan.
Plum: ~~dread~~
Rifan clearly finds the surroundings distasteful, but is trying to ignore them.
Rifan zlins Plum.
Plum scans the faces of Rifan and Berlynna, looking for some spark of humanity but not expecting anything.
Berlynna steps closer to Rifan and offers ~~ support ~~, as she places one hand on his arm.
Plum: Please leave me alone.
Rifan is 10 years past changeover, has children and a wife who loves a famous Gen columnist she has never met.
Rifan: Hello, you must be Plum.
Plum: Yes.
Berlynna has a professionally crisp, moderately reassuring expression on her face.
Rifan tries to crack a smile, although it's a sort of a quick one. Everything is quick with Rifan.
Rifan is also a bit nervous at the moment, despite Berlynna's efforts. This is after all one of Arat's special treats.
Rifan: As you know, we're here to take your donation today.
Plum wonders what he looks like to the Sime. The books Borgmann gave him implied that Simes were affected by Gen feelings, though he has seen little evidence of that.
Rifan: While I understand that doesn't exactly constitute leaving you alone, I think we can arrange things so that we take as little of your time as possible.
Berlynna wishes she had had more time to work with Rifan before they were given this assignment, but she's long since become used to rising to Arat's challenges.
Plum: I will not donate voluntarily.
Plum: I refuse.
Rifan shifts about, trying to find an ideal position between Plum's dread and Berlynna's competent, but totally unfamiliar handling.
Rifan: Ah, well. [spreads his hands and tentacles apologetically] That would get me in trouble with my boss.
Plum's nager hardens into firm resolve.
Rifan: We're going to have to make some kind of arrangement.
Berlynna: There is nothing to be alarmed about, really; it's a very simple and straightforward process.
Rifan doesn't think this is too promising so far. He wonders why he didn't just say to hell with Arat's opinion of him, and accept the option to have Plum drugged.
Plum knows it is hopeless to fight a Sime while held captive in a prison cell, but he doesn't see any alternative.
Plum: ~~the calm of complete but stubborn despair~~
Berlynna is perhaps a tad uninformed about the basis for Plum's refusal, but then, she was drafted for this task at the last moment.
Plum: I am not alarmed.
Plum: I have given my vow to God not to permit my body to be used for unholy purposes.
Rifan scratches his head. Dread has given away rather suddenly to despair. He wonders which words changed that.
Rifan wishes he had a bit more experience with this kind of thing. Of course, the only way he could have gained it was by doing this sort of assignment, so there's really no way out of it is there?
Rifan: Will you at least let me examine you?
Rifan has found that for some reluctant Gens, the examination loosens them up.
Plum: That will do you no good.
Berlynna has helped with donations from Gens who were new and timid, and even a few who had suffered transfer burns, but she hasn't yet been faced with a Gen who refused to donate at all -- they just don't show up at Sime Centers, for some reason.
Plum remembers how Controller Arat couldn't read his field properly even when he tried to curtail his disgust at a Sime's touch.
Rifan: Well, that's for me to decide don't you think?
Rifan: Come on, it won't be so bad.
Rifan: It'll be over before you know it.
Plum: I refuse to allow you to touch me with... those things.
Berlynna: They're called tentacles.
Rifan glances over his shoulder in a show of looking to see if Borgmann is still lurking.
Plum: They're unclean.
Berlynna: Come now, there's no sense in putting off what can't be helped.
Plum is not exactly pristine himself.
Borgmann is, indeed, still lurking, and feeling ~~ guilty ~~ about the whole thing.
Plum: I will never cooperate of my own free will.
Rifan: Everything's fine, you can go now. [to Borgmann] We'll call if you're required.
Berlynna: Well, but your cooperation isn't required for this, you see.
Plum: I know. You have the power to force me.
Rifan thinks that with Borgmann out of the way and with no Sime prisoners, Plum will kinda have some privacy. Sort of.
Plum: You will have to use it.
Borgmann clears out the corridor, and hovers beyond its door, where his imagination provides a much worse view of what is going on in Plum's cell than the reality.
Plum thinks that if Simes really are aware of Gen emotions, he wants Rifan to experience the full force of his protest.
Berlynna is starting to suspect that Plum's objections to this donation are more than the usual.
Rifan turns back to Plum and Berlynna.
Plum thinks that stealing donations from Gens who are sleeping or drugged silly is pretty easy on the thieves.
Berlynna thinks she should have known, when Rifan told her it was an assignment directly from Arat.
Plum prays for strength against his enemies.
Berlynna looks at Rifan and raises an inquiring eyebrow as their client starts to mumble to himself.
Rifan gestures that he has no idea how to proceed, so if she has no ideas he is just going to jump in.
Rifan's gesture is sort of a cross between a shrug and a question.
Berlynna decides that she might as well give it try.
Berlynna steps closer to Plum, reaching out to pat him on the arm.
Plum finishes his prayer, which steadies him somewhat
Berlynna: Come now, we're just here doing our jobs. There's no reason to take out your objections with the penal codes on us, is there?
Plum edges away from the woman, wondering if she is going to try to seduce him first.
Plum remembers the book seemed to imply that the demons saved their uncontrollable sexual urges for after transfer.
Berlynna's arms, however, are a smooth as Plum's own.
Plum: I don't care about your penal code. Or your jobs.
Plum: My vows are to Heaven and supersede all earthly considerations.
Plum thinks, not to mention that both their code and their hierarchy are demonic in origin.
Berlynna: Well, I'm afraid that we are more concerned about the penal code and our jobs than about your vows -- and we outvote you by two to one.
Berlynna: Now that you've duly registered your protest, why don't we get on with this?
Rifan steps forward helpfully, recognizing his cue.
Berlynna reaches for Plum again, this time to take his hand.
Plum: Yes, use deception, and when your lies are revealed, use force.
Plum brushes her hand aside.
Berlynna looks faintly surprised.
Berlynna: Did someone tell you that we weren't here to take your donation?
Rifan: I hope you don't really expect me to use force.
Plum: Reveal yourselves for the Raiders you really are.
Berlynna straightens, eyes flashing.
Berlynna: If you think Hajene Rifan is behaving like a Raider, you've obviously never met a real one.
Rifan shakes his head. Nobody who knew Rifan well would ever refer to him as a raider. In fact his friends are usually telling him to stand up for himself more.
Plum smiles, thinking of Snake.
Plum: Yes, I have.
Berlynna is openly skeptical.
Berlynna: If you had, you'd be dead.
Plum: And if you were not Raiders, you would let me and my selyn alone.
Plum: If you force me, you prove what you are.
Plum meets Berlynna's eyes.
Plum: I would rather be dead, believe me, than used this way.
Berlynna: Such a fuss over a simple donation! It's not as if you haven't done it before, you know.
Plum: I have never consented to donate. I never will.
Berlynna looks at Rifan.
Berlynna: Haven't we heard this before?
Rifan glances at Berlynna.
Berlynna: He's repeating himself.
Rifan: Oh... yes.
Rifan had been afraid she was referring to the joke about the guy who refused to donate on three separate occasions, and then... but I digress.
Plum glares at the Gen collaborator. Gens turncoats can be even worse than Simes, because they think more logically.
Rifan: Look, I'll be honest with you. [to Plum]
Rifan: I can drug you, if I have to.
Rifan: But you know, that won't look so good in my report.
Rifan: So I'd prefer it if you would cooperate.
Rifan: It's better for you too; the more experience you get, the more familiar you'll be with the procedure, and the more relaxed you'll be in the future.
Rifan: Now, I'm not a violent guy, and I certainly don't like the idea of drugging the patient.
Plum stares at Rifan. Yes, the Simes, with their mutated brains, are not really responsible for their actions.
Rifan: But I've done it before, with people who were not in control of their bodies, or in such pain they could scarcely remain conscious as it was.
Rifan: Patients. Injured people, ill people, that sort of thing.
Plum: Gideon... Borgmann, as you call him, gave me drugged food in that dish.
Plum: I did not eat it.
Plum: I won't take drugs to dull the horror of what you're doing to me.
Plum: I want to be awake and aware of the truth.
Rifan: Well, if you won't cooperate you'll leave me with no choice.
Rifan: I'm not going to wrestle with you.
Rifan doesn't even want to contemplate what a ridiculous picture that would pose.
Berlynna thinks that is all to the good, considering how unsuccessful Rifan is at wrestling with his wife.
Plum: If you are planning to force my cooperation, you will have to wrestle with me one way or another.
Plum: I won't make it easy for you. Why should I?
Berlynna: Why are you trying to make this as difficult as possible for yourself?
Plum: I refuse to donate. That is absolutely simple.
Rifan: OK. That's your choice.
Rifan turns to Berlynna.
Rifan: Please give me 5 cc's of the [incomprehensible Simelan gibberish] in the quick release needle please.
Plum realizes that they are going to try to drug him.
Plum determines to try to be aware and remember as much of what happens as possible.
Berlynna unslings her regulation satchel of regulations and opens it.
Plum edges backwards. There isn't much in the room that can be used as a weapon, but he stoops and picks up the racy novel, which has a bit of heft to it although it has a paper cover.
Berlynna reaches inside and withdraws an ominously large syringe and a needle.
Plum crouches, ready for them to rush him.
Plum: Traitor. Why are you helping him do this to me?
Berlynna methodically rips the sterile paper coverings, and attaches the needle to the syringe.
Berlynna spares Plum a glance.
Berlynna: For one thing, I'd like to be out of here in time for lunch.
Plum: Don't you see that you're helping a mutant subjugate your own kind?
Plum thinks it is hopeless talking to these Donors; they are as soul-less as the Simes they serve.
Berlynna: You're not my kind: I don't go around trying to slice open the throats of my friends.
Berlynna reaches into the satchel again, and takes out a glass ampule.
Plum throws the book at the ampule, knocking it to the ground.
Berlynna: That sort of tantrum will get you nowhere.
Plum reaches for more ammunition.
Plum picks up the pamphlet on childbirth. This unfortunately will not make as good a missile.
Berlynna motions for Rifan to block further missiles, then reaches for the ampule.
Berlynna pauses as she notices the cover.
Berlynna: I hadn't thought you were the type to be reading bodice-rippers.
Berlynna appears genuinely amused.
Plum steps forward, trying to crush the drug ampule under his heel.
Plum decides he might as well take the initiative, as there is nowhere to retreat to.
Berlynna notes Plum's approach.
Plum stomps on the ampule.
Berlynna: Rifan.
Berlynna waves Rifan to get between her and Plum.
Berlynna reaches into her satchel for a replacement ampule.
Rifan moves to intercept Plum.
Plum backs up at the Sime's approach.
Rifan may feel like a joke next to the blond bombshell, but he is Sime enough to defend his Donor.
Rifan: Come on, you're just making this as hard as possible on all three of us.
Plum's eyes dart around the cell, looking for another weapon.
Berlynna wipes the second ampule's rubber stopper with an alcohol swab, then stands to take advantage of the light from the window.
Berlynna is not unaware that this gives Plum a very good view of her plunging the needle through the stopper.
Plum grabs the uneaten bowl of drugged grits that Borgmann left there.
Rifan follows Plum's attention and intentions carefully. He does have some experience with Gens throwing odd missiles.
Rifan doesn't usually try to intercept the missiles, of course.
Berlynna pulls slowly back on the plunger, filling the syringe.
Plum lets his fingers curl into the cold, gummy stuff gripping the wooden bowl. An awkward bludgeon, but better than nothing.
Berlynna is still hoping that the sight will convince Plum to forgo the histrionics and cooperate.
Rifan recognizes the non-missile type attack shaping up.
Plum: ~~revulsion~~
Rifan dons the wince he usually wears for such attacks.
Rifan's wince is helped along by the revulsion and the sensation of squishing that Plum is broadcasting.
Berlynna has noticed that the sight of a needle can sometimes get patients intimidated enough to cooperate, in order to avoid it.
Berlynna notes Rifan's distress and offers full ~~ support ~~
Plum remembers the scene in the book where the heroine is given fertility drugs in the Pen, and wonders what drugs she is mixing.
Plum wonders if Berlynna takes unholy pleasure in sex with helpless, unconscious imprisoned Gens?
Plum determines to try to remember if anything like that happens in the next few minutes.
Berlynna returns the ampule to her satchel and extends it for Rifan's inspection -- and not incidentally, Plum's.
Berlynna: Five cc's, quick release needle.
Rifan can't believe it; for some reason Plum is now feeling sexual arousal.
Rifan's wince becomes somewhat dumbfounded. (Yes, a dumbfounded wince is easily possible)
Plum has to admit that Berlynna isn't bad looking if you have to be forced to have sex with a mind-controlled Gen zombie.
Rifan shakes his head and reaches for the needle.
Plum: ~~ready to attack~~
Plum leaps forward and tries to smash the needle with the breakfast bowl as it is changing hands.
Rifan snatches the needle hastily and holds it out of reach, becoming entangled with Plum as the Gen lunges at them.
Rifan: What the... urgh!
Berlynna reaches for Plum, to try to halt his momentum.
Plum misses the needle and the bowl smashes against the door, showering their feet with cold congealed gruel.
Berlynna: Oh, no, you don't!
Rifan skids on cold oatmeal gel.
Plum feels Berlynna's strong hands grasping at his thin prison shirt.
Rifan seizes one of Plum's arms, both to restrain it and to keep his footing.
Plum sees the Sime coming for him and kicks with all his strength.
Rifan twists like a cat, taking only part of the blow. His grip on Plum's arm becomes his only support for a moment.
Rifan: Shen you! Ouch. ~~numbness in shin, surely will hurt like blazes in another moment~~
Rifan stabs at Plum's arm with the needle.
Plum jumps back, trying to escape Rifan's grasp.
Rifan loses his footing and falls, nearly dragging Plum down with him. The needle grazes Plum's skin without penetrating.
Rifan realizes that this is not going to be a pristine report.
Rifan is certain that Arat will want something more than "We had some difficulty in subduing the subject".
Plum frantically tries to pull his arm free.
Plum is panting with exertion.
Rifan scrabbles to his feet with unSimelike lack of grace. It has something to do with the fact that the floor is covered with oatmeal. Rifan's ponytail has popped loose and dabs of gray gunk join the sprinkling of pine needles on his head.
Rifan is augmenting with fingers and tentacles to not lose the arm he has.
Berlynna grabs Plum's free arm, firmly.
Berlynna may be only a Gen, but she is a large and healthy one.
Plum kicks Rifan in the midriff with all his strength.
Plum tries wildly to wrench free from Berlynna.
Plum: ~~fury~~
Rifan zlins it coming and is prepared. He is knocked back by the blow, but keeps his arm and the needle free. His sweaty hand and tentacles slip a bit on Plum's equally sweaty arm.
Berlynna hangs on, hauling on the arm to twist Plum to an angle where kicking her and Rifan is more difficult.
Rifan augments to pull himself to Plum and stabs him in the upper arm with the needle.
Plum: [shouts] Glory!!
Rifan winces as the shout enters his ear from a distance of about 1 inch.
Plum feels the needle penetrate and leans forward and bites Rifan in the part of the appendage that is closest.
Rifan: Eeowww!!!!
Plum tastes Sime blood.
Rifan's ear explodes in agony as the plunger goes in.
Rifan yanks the needle out, throws it aside, and seizes Plum by both shoulders.
Rifan shoves Plum violently away from him.
Plum: ~~berserker frenzy~~
Berlynna wonders just what is glorious about wrestling down a madman in an oatmeal-strewn IDAS cell.
Plum leaps at Rifan in a murderous fit, clawing for his eyes.
Rifan seizes both arms this time.
Plum knows he has only a few moments of consciousness left and he will go down fighting.
Rifan has neither the traction or the mass to prevent Plum's blind charge, but at least his arms will be controlled.
Plum struggles helplessly.
Plum screams incoherently.
Berlynna: Oh, do be quiet.
Rifan's face is pale (well relatively speaking) with stress.
Plum feels his strength begin to ebb away.
Plum feels the whole room start to blur around the edges.
Berlynna is offering Rifan all the ~~ support ~~ she can, given the way Plum is struggling, as they wait for the drug to take effect.
Rifan shifts his stance to support Plum physically as the struggling weakens.
Plum keeps fighting but it feels as if his arms are weighted with cement.
Rifan: Help me get him over to the cot.
Plum seems to be hanging in mid-air and he can't remember how he got here although he thinks he ought to go somewhere else.
Berlynna helps steer the much subdued Plum over to his cot.
Rifan lowers him down and collects the various arms and legs and puts them in place.
Berlynna sighs in relief.
Berlynna: At last.
Berlynna would happily have embroidered her feelings with a description of Plum's morals, dubious parentage, and probable destination in the afterlife, but she is a professional, and the patient is still more or less conscious.
Rifan sags onto the edge of the bed. He is blocking pain in his leg, his body and his ear. He is blocking bleeding in his ear, although it has already bled all over everything.
Plum is lying down now, and that feels pretty good.
Rifan looks at the blood on Plum's mouth, and shakes his head.
Berlynna: Are you all right, Hajene?
Rifan: Yes, but don't let me forget to make a note that I recommend all future donations be made drugged.
Berlynna: I won't, believe me.
Plum sees faces hovering over him.
Rifan zlins Plum for injuries and doesn't find anything worse than a sore arm from being twisted by Berlynna, and a bruised other arm from being desperately seized by Rifan.
Plum hears the faces speaking, but what they say doesn't seem to matter much.
Rifan: Well, we may as well get this over with. That won't last long.
Rifan: Is that water clean? [pointing at a portable basin]
Berlynna wonders why in these sorts of cases, the channels always come out more injured than the patients.
Plum remembers he had promised to pay attention to something, but it is hard to concentrate.
Berlynna picks up the basin.
Berlynna: Clean enough.
Berlynna brings it over to the cot.
Rifan uses the water to rinse off both Plum's arms and his own.
Plum's eyes follow the faint flow of light as it glints on Berlynna's hair.
Rifan fastidiously rinses Plum's face as well. Somehow the idea of drinking his own blood doesn't appeal to him in the least.
Plum feels water trickling on his face. He remembers when he was a child and his mother washed his face. But this is somewhere else.
Plum sees a young man frowning at him.
Rifan finishes up with the water and signals to Berlynna that he is ready to take the donation.
Berlynna stands close behind Rifan, with a hand on each shoulder.
Berlynna: ~~ support ~~
Plum sees the man and woman staring down at him. He tries to remember their names.
Rifan takes Plum's arms, seating the laterals.
Berlynna is already trying to figure out how to word her report to make it clear that Plum's uncooperative attitude was not a response to anything Rifan did, or didn't, do.
Plum's whole body feel as limp as water weed.
Plum sees the tentacles creeping up his arms and feels their hot wet touch. He knows that isn't right.
Rifan continues to hold Plum's cold, wet, flaccid arms as he bends down to take a fifth contact.
Rifan draws gently and smoothly, taking Plum's field down the recommended amount.
Plum passively allows the young man to press hot lips to his own.
Berlynna watches carefully for signs of trouble; Rifan has been through an awful lot.
Plum smells pine needles and blood.
Rifan straightens, when it is finished.
Plum knows he should be doing something, but he can't seem to muster the strength to move or even think.
Rifan carefully disentangles his arms from Plum's.
Plum watches the man's face recede and the tentacles withdraw.
Rifan sighs and leans on Berlynna's support.
Rifan: Let's just hope he stays under long enough to do some healing as well.
Rifan hadn't counted on having to do any healing work on the Gen when he ordered the dosage, of course.
Berlynna rubs Rifan's shoulders.
Plum watches the light patterns on the ceiling and the shadows shift as the people move about him in the room.
Berlynna: I'm sure he'd rather stay all bruised, just so he could feel he accomplished something.
Berlynna: Instead of making a big fuss over nothing, and with nothing to show for it.
Berlynna does what she can to speed Rifan's recovery, nonetheless.
Plum hears the annoyed tone in the woman's voice, but that doesn't mean very much either.
see note 1
Borgmann is just putting the finishing touches on a close, louse-discouraging haircut some time later, when things start having meaning again for Plum.
Borgmann has been working rather nervously, racing against time to finish before the drug wears off completely.
Plum slowly lifts his arms and stares at the place where the channel touched him with his laterals.
Borgmann really doesn't want to be in the same cell with an undrugged Plum and a pair of scissors, particularly not after zlinning Rifan's post-donation condition.
Plum feels the pit of his stomach drop with the horror he didn't feel at the time because he was floating.
Borgmann zlins the horror and takes one last, hasty snip.
Borgmann then prudently places the scissors in his pocket.
Plum realizes he is still being touched by a Sime; in fact Gideon is barbering him.
Borgmann: You're back with us, I zlin.
Rifan is still doing some healing on the forearm that had been bruised. He had done the wrenched shoulder first, taking that to be the more difficult task.
Rifan and Berlynna have had plenty of time to discuss, and elaborate upon, the wording of the report Berlynna is filling out.
Plum realizes that the channel still is grasping his arm.
Plum weakly tries to pull his arm away.
Berlynna hastily sets the report aside and moves closer to Rifan.
Plum: You!
Rifan lets go. He had been almost done anyway.
Plum goes limp with relief.
Plum: Aren't you done with me yet?
Plum tries to remember just what other body parts were poked by tentacles.
Plum has read that Simes derive a perverse pleasure from touching Gens.
Borgmann hovers, trying to figure out how to reassure his former friend.
Plum found the bodice-ripper quite explicit in that regard.
Rifan: Well, I was just healing your bruises.
Borgmann: They finished taking your donation long ago, Josef.
Plum: Healing my bruises? Cutting my hair?
Plum: What else did you do to me?
Borgmann: Er, well, I did give you a bit of a shave, as well.
Plum wonders if he will be able to tell if his underclothes have been disarrayed.
Borgmann thinks that Plum looks much more like himself, with the last month's growth of hair off his face.
Plum actually doesn't mind a shave; for obvious reasons they refused to let him have a razor.
Plum would prefer not to have Simes touching him at all, but all things considered the barbering is a minor transgression.
Rifan: And you've had a full check up. You're quite healthy, although you don't get enough exercise and you could use some nutritional supplements.
Rifan is not referring to human blood either.
Berlynna inspects Plum for signs of returning violent tendencies.
Plum slowly raises his hand to his cheek. Now he can recall all too vividly the hot touch of Rifan's lips.
Plum: Yes, like any good ranchers, you like to keep your stock in good condition.
Rifan hopes Berlynna will not mind if he takes some time off to clean up and self-heal a bit before they return to his regular duties. He is a mess.
Plum does not see their ensuring the health of their selyn generators as any sign of altruism.
Rifan tries not to look at Plum like 'man, this guy is loco' but is not 100% successful.
Rifan: Well, there's nothing else to do here.
Plum guesses he should not be surprised that Simes have no appreciation of any values but the material ones.
Rifan pushes himself to his feet.
Berlynna steadies Rifan.
Rifan: Thanks.
Berlynna: You could use some attention, yourself.
Rifan smiles lopsidedly at Berlynna.
Berlynna: You've had quite an energetic day, all in all.
Plum thinks Rifan has done quite enough.
Berlynna sounds much like a mother hen scolding an erring chick.
Plum is bemused by the sight of the Gen fussing over the Demon.
Plum shakes his head.
Borgmann, on the other hand, is a Demon who is inclined to fuss over Gens, in this case Plum himself.
Plum is still a bit light-headed. He lost his fight, but then he knew he couldn't win a physical battle with a Sime.
Plum tries to remember what happened, and while it is a bit fuzzy, he is certain he resisted with every once of strength and will he had.
Plum isn't sure that's enough, but he doesn't know what more God can expect of him.
Borgmann zlins Plum's remaining wooziness, and also a bit of thirst.
Borgmann fetches a dipper of water from the (newly cleaned and replenished) basin.
Borgmann holds the dipper out to Plum.
Borgmann: Here, Josef, have a drink.
Berlynna shakes her head at the Sime capacity to dote on the most unlikely Gens, then goes back to fussing over Rifan as she leads him towards the door.
Plum stares up at Borgmann. The dipper actually would make a better weapon than the bowl did, but he has used up all the fight in him. And he is thirsty.
Plum: Thanks.
Plum sips.
Plum: ~~thirsty~~
Borgmann 's face brightens with pleasure at the thanks.
Borgmann: You're welcome, Josef.
Plum figures he is overmatched and so he has to pick his fights. Resisting donation is worth it. Resisting food and water just weakens him for the battles that matter.
Plum's eyebrows raise in surprise at Gideon's smile.
Plum wonders why Gideon continues to make these meaningless gestures of kindness while refusing to help in any way that would really matter.
Borgmann has probably suffered at least as much anguish over Plum's donation than Plum himself, if not as much as Rifan, and he is immensely gratified to find Plum in such good psychological shape afterwards.
Plum has seen farmer's wives smile when their chickens eat corn, and then wring their necks for dinner, so perhaps it's not as strange as all that.
Borgmann would, indeed, probably have given up on Plum long ago, if Plum weren't a Gen.
Plum: I suppose they'll add assault to the list of my crimes, now.
Plum: Or is there a special category for kicking and biting?
Borgmann: Did you have to attack him like that, when you knew that there was nothing to be gained by it?
Borgmann's voice sounds rather plaintive.
Plum: Of course, I had to attack him. And there was something to be gained by it.
Borgmann: A two-hour nap?
Borgmann: I hadn't realized you were that desperate for sleep.
Plum: I kept my promise.
Borgmann: I wish it had been a promise worthy of being kept.
Plum fixes a brooding and somehow predatory gaze on Borgmann.
Plum: I'm not someone who goes back on my word.
Plum: Even if I've nothing to gain.
Plum: There's a principle involved.
Borgmann: Perhaps you should re-examine your principles, then.
Borgmann slips out of Plum's cell, and closes the door softly behind him.
Plum: My principles are fine, though perhaps I am not worthy of them.
Plum privately wonders, though, if fighting a losing battle every month is the best he can do to save himself.
Notes:
1) A short time elapses. [return]
Go on to Episode #132: What's Eating You?
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