dhavsingh (dhavsingh) wrote in downfallrpg, @ 2010-03-18 01:27:00 |
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Entry tags: | 2015-08-29, dhaval, dhaval and tayne, tayne |
In Which the Tiger and the Scholar Converse
Who: Dhaval and Tayne
Where: The lobby, then Dhaval's room
When: Night, after the other thing
Dhaval was very good at trying not to feel. He'd come to know real, deep, bone-wrenching pain very well, to the point where he could almost step back and consider it logically. Why, exactly, was pain unpleasant? It was just a sensation. His brain of course regarded it as a warning, but his mind warned him against spicy food, too, and he still enjoyed that. Not that Dhaval had ever really made peace with pain, but he found the thought experiment interesting when he was feeling weak and shaky from a fresh injury. He didn't remember pain, exactly. The car accident, subsequent surgeries, complications, and infections were all unpleasant but nonspecific memories. He'd never broken a finger, so that was sort of new. It felt like after one had had limbs crushed to bits, one little digit shouldn't matter, but he was sweaty and shaky and almost wanted to pass out or vomit or scream just to have something to make of the waves of sharp agony running up his hand.
Not much to distract him, either. He would have gone back to his room, if only for the comfort of the little bits of his old world waiting for him there, but he needed his finger set, and no one would know to look for one dingy storage room with a cot, an old mirror, and a slightly broken desk hauled inside. Actually, he was pretty sure the desk had been there anyway. He'd already been through the stupid magazines and newspapers in the lobby, and though they held a macabre fascination, the concerns of a world gone, he could only read about celebrities and simplified politics so many times. And then there was the man who was dead because Dhaval had called for help. Yes, that made for a splendid way to occupy his mind. Maybe it'd be better to rivet his attention on the broken finger. Dhaval screwed his eyes shut, fighting down panic. He was incredibly lucky, even more so now, more than he deserved. He wouldn't lose his composure.
Tayne wasn't doing him any favors, either, having gone outside-- in tiger form, still-- to make an effort at changing back. Somewhere in his foggy, feline mind he knew he had something to do that required hands and a voice, and he knew he somehow had to get back to that state where he had hands and a voice. Knowing and doing were two different things, though, and it was only once he'd managed to paw open the door to the mini-camper on the back of his truck, surrounding himself with his past and his humanity and staring down at the eggs he'd left there, that he found himself changing back.
At least he did it someplace private, where he had the rest of his clothes, and he could change into them without embarrassing anyone. He got dressed as quickly as he could, checked the space heater under the blankets, and got out again, relieved that they'd chucked the dead animal skins along the way and hoping Terry could handle getting the dead bird out of the back. He wasn't at all sure how long he'd left poor Dhaval waiting since his sense of time as a tiger was a little flexible, and he didn't want to leave the guy waiting any longer while he dealt with it. So he hurried around to the truck cab itself to get the truck moved aside a little, so it wasn't blocking the door, and turn off the engine so he wouldn't waste battery or gasoline or anything.
That made it a lot darker outside, and he made his slower way back into the hotel, locking the door behind him, as his eyes adjusted. "Hey, Dav. Sorry to keep you waiting. I'm, uh, not so great at the changing thing yet...."
Dhaval looked up and smiled shakily. He hadn't really known what Tayne was doing or whether he was expected back. Sure, Terry had said something, but Dhaval's attention had been divided many ways. "Um, no need to apologize. I... I certainly wouldn't be able to... Guess what to do..." His eyes flickered up and down, searching for a trace of the tiger in Tayne. He saw nothing of the predator, but the grace and power, at least in echoes, remained. Once he realized what he was doing, Dhaval tore his eyes away. Whatever the excuse, he'd taught himself long ago not to dare admire another man. "Most, impressive, really. All of it. I, um, wasn't sure if you were... cogent of the conversation, so thank you again. That would have... been even worse." The wrong body was already lying lifeless. Another moment with the snake and there would have been two.
"You've, um, of course done more than enough. But... Do you perhaps know how to set a finger? It, well, feels like a clean break." He tried to hold up his hand, but the pain was starting to deepen now, and every movement sent white-hot waves up his arm. "I've always heard the wheels can do that, but, um, I don't think they anticipated, well, giant snake monsters being the culprit..."
"I could set it, I think," Tayne said with a slow nod, coming over to Dhaval's chair. "I've had to brace jammed and broken fingers before. My line of work, that kind of thing happened a lot. You wanna tell me where you're stayin', down here, so I can take you there?" No way in hell was he letting the guy wheel himself when he had a busted finger. He smiled a bit as he came around behind him to take the handles for pushing. "And you're welcome. Though I remember most of it. It gets a little fuzzy now and then, but I'm still me, and I still know what's going on, and shit."
Oh, so he was a self aware tiger. That would explain why Dhaval had felt so safe? But no, that wouldn't do. Despite the impossibility of the world around him, he wasn't a character in his own novels. He didn't have intrinsic intuition or happily correct guesses. He'd felt safe because he was dazed and loved tigers and had just gotten lucky. Still, it had been nice. "Um, sure. I'm down this hall. They moved a bed into a storage room for me. I didn't dare chance the elevators, um, which turned out to be a good choice. Considering. And I'm too heavy for anyone to carry." Sticking carefully to his left hand, he pointed the way. He usually hated being pushed, and he was plenty strong enough to make the short distance one-handed, but at this point, he just wanted his depressing little room back. "So you're a tiger with a functioning human mind? I don't know if I could ever bear to change back."
"Well, not quite a func-- functioning human mind," Tayne chuckled, stumbling a bit over the longer word as he started down the indicated hall. "I know who I am, and who you folks are, but I'm not really all that smart like that. Everything's now, there's no real planning much for the future, and everything's kind of black and white-- you're either friend to be protected, or enemy to be killed. Besides, I can't talk like that, or understand really complicated stuff, or have thumbs.... Which room is yours?" There were a couple doors on this hall, though not many.
Dhaval still thought it sounded very fine, but maybe he'd just had enough of complexity to last a lifetime. "Here." The storage room was small, though it had been crafted into a sort of approximation of room elsewhere in the hotel. A spare cot from the desk had been dragged inside (which made Dhaval nervous, considering how hard it was to hoist himself from bed to chair without proper handholds, and he'd been sleeping less as a result). A desk with a lot of dents and one missing drawer had been in the room to begin with, along with a cracked mirror and some faded generic hotel art. Dhaval had hung that on the wall the best he could so the place would look less dreary, but the effect wasn't much. The desk was piled with the printed stories Dhaval had brought from home, guarded by the two bronze figures he'd managed to snatch. A gray flannel square lay on the bed, Dhaval's baby blanket, and a few bottles of Vitamin Water (his poison of choice) were lined up on the floor. The personal touches didn't help much, making the large, dingy room rather more than less gloomy, especially in the thin light of the high, frosted window.
As he pushed open the door, Tayne looked around the little room with growing dismay. "This is where you're living?" he asked incredulously. "Shit, man-- can you even get into that bed without knocking it over?" This was entirely unacceptable. Nobody should have to live in a room this bad, this shoddy, not even after the apocalypse or rapture or whatever this was. Especially not when right above their heads were much better proportioned rooms. With bathrooms. How was the poor guy even showering?
"Well, it takes a bit of maneuvering." Dhaval shrugged. "I use the desk and the wall for lift, and at least, um, it doesn't really wobble much." Dhaval didn't like his room much, but he was trying to be as fatalistic about it as he'd had to be about everything. "I don't seem, um, to need as much sleep lately. So not a big deal, usually. "And what're my options, you know? There aren't real rooms down here. Ground floors usually don't get equipped for residence. One of the, um, most annoying things about getting an apartment." And he was alive and healthy except for his finger. Couldn't forget that. All things considered, his lousy little storeroom was the lap of luxury. "And, well, the kitchen and gym are right on this level. Could be worse."
"Actually, most ground floors usually have rooms on them," Tayne grumbled, pushing Dhaval the rest of the way in and letting the door fall shut behind them, making the room a lot darker. The last light from dusk was coming in through the window. He could see well enough, himself, at least. "I've been in enough hotels to know that. This is stupid. At the very least, you need a better bed. This's a modern hotel. There oughta be some handi-- hand-- some other rooms I can get shit out of for you. And where the hell've you been showering? Does the fitness center have showers?"
Maybe it was just that he was still so keyed up over the snake-guy's attack, but Tayne actually felt angry about this. That no one had seen fit to check in with Dhaval and make sure he had what he needed, not even himself. That just wasn't right.
"Yeah, it does." Dhaval couldn't see why this was important. Someone had just died, a snake monster had attacked them, the lights were out and food was going to be harder and harder to come by... And Tayne was fretting about his bed? It was sort of sweet, in a strange way, but he didn't know what to make of it. Dhaval hadn't had much experience with kindness from anyone but his parents, cut off as he'd let himself become. "And they're built with the less fit in mind. You know, those little seats. If I maneuver myself up to the door, I can manage the one step it takes to reach those. It's awkward, but everything has, um, been awkward since I woke up without use of my legs, you know? This isn't really worse..." All things considered, anyway. Dhaval swallowed. "And... um, handicapped. It's fine. Say it. I can't afford to be tetchy when, um, my legs don't work."
This was something Tayne could do something about. The snake and the death... maybe not so much. But this, yes. This he could fix. At least the poor guy had a halfway-decent shower, so that was something. "It's actually that I can't say it, man. Wasn't me trying to be polite. Was me having issues with long words. But hey, I'll keep that in mind." He moved Dhaval over to the cot, so he could sit down on it himself to get at that finger. "All right, first, the finger. Then? I get you a fucking bed that works for you, instead of this piece of shit. I don't think I would want to sleep on this thing." He held out a hand without another word, silently requesting the injured hand.
Dhaval extended the hand with a smooth, slow movement, ignoring the deep ache that came with the mere introduction of gravity to his damaged digit. It'd be much worse if he winced and jolted that. "Thank you." Dhaval was embarrassed now. He was so used to dealing with everyone else's excessive sensitivity and so generally annoyed by it that it hadn't occurred to him there might be another reason for Tayne's hesitance to use the word. A stutter wasn't in the same category as useless legs, but he of all people should respond well. Especially when Tayne had already told him, and in such a casual way he rather envied the man. Well, apologizing would make it worse. "It feels a lot like, um, a hospital bed, but that's... not really what I want to be nostalgic about, is it?" He smiled thinly.
Distracted and annoyed as he was already, Tayne didn't take offense. After all, he was used to being corrected when he messed up a word. It happened. He took Dhaval's hand carefully, warned, "This is gonna hurt," and gently felt around the break to see where the edges were. It was already swelling, so he imagined it hurt like a bitch.... "Definitely don't wanna be reminded of hospital beds at a time like this, I think," he said, a bit absently, but wanting to keep conversation going for Dhaval's sake. "Don't figure it would take me long to take apart a bed on the second floor and get it down here for ya tonight."
"I'd appreciate that," he said as warmly as he dared. Dhaval had successfully convinced himself that he had no reason under heaven to wish for more than what he had, so Tayne's insistence felt distinctly above and beyond the call of duty. The conversation didn't matter much to Dhav beyond giving him something to think about beyond his snapped finger and the mess his hand must be. It kept him from wondering what would become of him if the wound went infected, whether he could possibly expect to have a working hand again, ever. After today, death seemed likely to arrive long before a healed finger. "It's not, um, a huge priority. If you've got more to do tonight."
"Not really. Just fret over that snake guy, and possibly talk myself into doing him some kinda hurt," Tayne shrugged, looking around the room for something he could use to straighten and then splint the fracture with. He doubted there'd be any popsicle sticks in the room, but anything small and straight that he could tie up would do. He got up again to rummage around in the drawer. "Aha, pencils! And rubber bands, for now, but I think we'd better get you a real splint later, with tape and shit." He headed back to the cot and carefully took Dhaval's hand again. "This can hold until the real doctor in the place can look atcha, though."
"It'll help." He remembered the doctor from that rather awkward dinner. "There's nothing that feels nastier than a bone that has to, well, be rebroken once it's already begun to heal. It's..." He frowned, not really interested in elaborating. And maybe Tayne knew. Army and a lot of physical labor? He'd probably broken a bone or two. "So, um, not to harp on it, but... I could use something to pay attention to... What's it like to change, um, in such a way?" That was probably a really unwelcome question. He would guess it was either a perfectly natural or a very unpleasant sensation, and either way, hard to discuss. "...You know, I, well, wouldn't want to answer that question. So, um, feel free to disregard. I'm just... just blathering."
The tiger subject was probably easier than the subject of broken bones and rebreaking bones and the like. Tayne glanced up at him to grin reassuringly, then focused back down on his finger, very quickly breaking the pencils off short enough that Dhaval wouldn't be poking things with the pointy ends or anything. "I don't mind. Seriously, ask whatever you like." He was feeling a little better about the whole thing, after sleeping on the revelation of it. He'd feel even better once he felt like he had some measure of control over the change, but he'd get there. Hopefully.
Lining one of the pencil-pieces up along Dhaval's broken finger, he continued, "When I'm like that, all tiger-fied, it's the most natural thing in the world. It feels a little weird to think about it now, but then it just feels like me. Like it's how things're supposed to be."
Dhaval felt like Tayne would have to laugh if he claimed to understand, but he really felt like he did. At least he understood the wonder of leaving his usual self behind and becoming something separate and better. A place in his mind where everything did make sense, where the world worked out right, that he could only reach at particular, perfect times. Usually deep in the swing of a story when he left Dhaval behind and entered the wider, wonderful world inside his head.
But he'd already learned Tayne had little patience for those odd, author-y things that came to mind, so he didn't voice the thought. Or he meant not to. No wonder his mind wasn't that on top of itself, but he still felt silly as he heard himself say, "Like all the pieces have lined up at once and it's all, from just that one angle, clear? I think maybe I know what you mean..." Dhaval looked bashful, pulling out of the silly statement the best he could.
Glancing up again, Tayne gave Dhaval a distractedly curious look before getting back to the task at hand. "Guess so. It is weirdly... right-feeling. But I think some of that's cuz I don't have the brain-power to really question anything, when I'm tiger-fied. I think I've made that a word, now. Tiger-fied. Okay, I'm gonna be setting this now, so just brace yourself, okay?"
He only gave Dhaval that and a second's more of warning before he pushed the finger-- slowly but inexorably-- against the pencil until it was straight again, and immediately he set the second pencil piece against its other side, and another pencil piece along the top, creating a three-way brace that he held in place with one hand while he fumbled for the rubber bands. It was the best he could manage for support, with what he had.
Dhaval meant to answer. He never could knock off the pontificating once he'd gotten started. Probably the only reason he had no real friends that he couldn't blame on plain antisocial tendencies. And Tayne had... well, he hadn't expressed nothing but irritation. Far short of real interest, but a promising display, perhaps. But before he could even agree that "tiger-fied" should definitely be a word, Tayne started on his finger, and he could only grit his teeth. He'd felt a lot worse, of course. Dhaval managed not to make a sound until the end, holding his breath as he felt the bone scrape within him until a soft whimper burst out just as Tayne finished.
Tayne was sympathetic, but he also knew this had to be done. And it was going to hurt worse once he wrapped the rubber bands around it. He didn't use them as rubber bands, but more like string, wrapping them around without actually twisting them over on top of themselves, the way one usually did. That would wind up making them too tight. Instead, he just wrapped several around, and used a last one to tie them off. "There. Now, we probably oughta get that under some cold water. I'd say ice, but I don't think we got any, anymore." He frowned. Life without ice... too bad they didn't have somebody who froze things. How useful would that be?
"That will help. I'm, uh, sure the stocks are low, but a few asprin would be, well, appreciated." His voice was strained, but he was determined to keep talking, not to wallow in his poor little hurt finger. "Or, actually, ibuprofen is as good or better. The muscle relaxant helps... I've had a lot of time to think about these things," he volunteered with the best smile he could manage just now. "I'm sure we'll have a lot more ice than we'll want, um, come winter. In the meantime, well... Anyway, thanks." He was pretty sure Tayne had done an excellent job juryrigging his splint, though he hadn't had anyone attempt improvised first aid on him since before the accident. Any little thing was an emergency in his condition.
"Winter's a long ways off," Tayne sighed. And they had plenty of problems to figure out before it came, too. "C'mon, let's get you wheeled to the nearest sink so you can soak that for a while, and I'll see about getting you something from the stores. Or my truck, I probably got some in the truck." Along with... uh... eggs. Yeah. He stood up, then paused to add with a sympathetic sort of grin, "And you're welcome, man. Any time."
"I can move around one-handed..." Dhaval trailed off and gave another weak smile. "But, well, that's not wise, is it? Hard to steer, too. Well, at least I don't have one of those ridiculous, heavy-duty fancy chairs. Or, well, I'd never have gotten this far, probably." Disquieting notion. "Can't go chipping away at the painkillers too long. We need those. Maybe after the worst edge wears off I'll switch to beer. There's more than enough of that..." That was mostly a joke. Mostly. Dhaval wished he could offer to keep Tayne both company and a bit safer, but he'd be a liability outside. Though he made a good makeshift cart.
"No way, Dav," Tayne said firmly, moving around behind him to get at the handles and turn him around. "Long's I'm down here and not sleepin', I'm your ride. Last thing we need is you fuckin' up that finger worse cuz somebody wasn't around to help you get around." He pushed him towards the door, and paused to let Dhaval open it for them both, himself. "I'll stick to my truck's supply, for now. But not because you don't need it. A broken finger is a big deal, and you deserve painkillers as much as the next guy who hurts themselves. A'ight?"
"I guess it would be, for most people. Even little breaks can turn complicated." He sighed. "I have kind of a skewed idea of serious, I guess." He wondered how long Tayne meant to insist on pushing him. He couldn't be downstairs often. Tayne seemed to be involved, one of the people who held the place together. He didn't have time to waste hanging around on the ground floor. "But this could turn into a bone infection, I guess, or just wind up healing crooked. I'd rather not." Dhaval reminded himself to pay attention to the wound, whatever the impulse to ignore it. "...And, um, I'll stop being gruesome now."
"If there's any sign of problems, Zane'll find 'em," Tayne said with confidence. His only intentions for pushing lasted through tonight, though he was admittedly tempted to figure out another storage room he could make into his own cozy little den. He wanted to be on the ground floor. He wanted to be the first line of defense, and the first sound of alarm, if something was going wrong, and he couldn't do that on the second floor. Or first floor. Or whatever the hell it was. "Be positive, Dav," he added with a smile, loosing one of the handles long enough to pat the guy's shoulder. "We'll take care of you." He meant that in regards to the finger, rather than everything in general, of course.
Ah, vague reassurances. Nothing wrong with those, of course, especially when meant kindly. "So a tiger will be defending me from the horrors of damaged digits? I feel very special all of a sudden." The touch on his shoulder surprised him a little, but not in an unpleasant way. "This is, um, going to make trips to the fitness center a huge pain. I think there are some of those strap-on weights for this arm, but I, well, don't even dare for the first couple of days. It's at that stage where, uh, everything hurts. You move the other arm and somehow it travels down to... Well, actually, um, I hope you have no idea what I'm talking about."
"I've never broken a finger," Tayne admitted, though he was grinning at the sally about the tiger-protection, "but I've broken other stuff. So I kinda know, I guess? I don't think you should be working that arm for a few days, though, no. That'd be more of that 'fucking up of the finger' that we don't want, I think." The fitness center wasn't far, and again he let Dhaval open the door. Hey, it gave the guy something to do, right? And he was in front, so it worked logically.
"It's almost relaxing to have it be a finger." As with last time he'd spoken with Tayne, his usual hesitations and stammering were becoming less frequent as he grew more at ease. The man was just so easy to talk to. "It'd have been a big problem, well, just a week ago. I bet this would make it impossible to type. Both jobs in trouble, there, hmm? But for now, I'm not doing anything that requires a lot of, well, fine manipulation." Dhaval didn't mind getting the doors at all. It was actually much easier than usual with someone else steering and moving him along.
"You know, we really should find somethin' you can do," Tayne frowned, pushing him through the door and across the fitness center, towards the doors in the back that were pretty obviously bathrooms, presumably with showers attached. Nobody should be left to feel useless, that led to all sorts of things, and they really should use everything they had available, even if it was just a set of idle hands. "Bet I could teach you to shoot a gun proper. Don't need legs for that. Or fixin' shit that's small-- clothes or somethin'."
The fitness center showed ample signs of activity. Dhaval thought it was probably most him, killing time with the hand weights or doing his best with the upper body machines. No more of that for a while. "I have my Dad's old Browning, and I know the gist of how to use it. He insisted I bring it when I move out. I wouldn't shoot except in an absolute emergency, though. It's small, but there's still a kind of a kickback... If I didn't have my brake on tight I'd worry about rolling backward." Just the kind of thing that happened to him. "I can sew a little. Enough to get by. I don't really have... um, a useful skill set, though. Data entry and novel writing... Not really the careers of choice for an apocalypse survivor."
"It's called 'learning', man," Tayne said with a grin, pausing at the men's bathroom's door to let him open it again. "You can learn shit that's useful, now. You didn't have any need to before, but now you do. I'm sure there's folks who could teach you things you might wanna know to help out with, like me for one, and I bet we could work around the kickback issue. Mostly, though, I'd just have you, like, on a watch or somethin'. That idea to have people kinda patrolling the building's a good idea, and you can roll on a patrol as easy as you can walk. But you'd need a gun for that, if just for emergencies."
"As long as the ground is even, I'm as effective as anyone at prowling around. And I really don't seem to sleep as much, so there's that." Dhaval was rather mortified to realize he hadn't considered the possibility of acquiring new skills. Everyone going around the table, it seemed, had had something useful to contribute, even if it was just the ability to shoot or organize. He'd felt like a bit of a waste of survivor. "I guess I'll show it to you later? It's a perfectly good gun as far as I know, but I, well, haven't had a reason to fire it. And it's getting on in years. It's from my Dad's military days, way before I was born." The bathroom wasn't very big and Dhaval's chair was a pain, but it wasn't hard to reach a sink and find a plastic cup to soak his finger in.
"If you've got some spare rounds for it, or we can find some rounds that'll work, we can do some target practice once your finger heals up," Tayne suggested, smiling and letting Dhaval handle the sink and his finger. "You could probably hold that under running water, too. Might hurt more, but I think it'll help get the swelling down." He straightened up a bit from the pushing position and gave Dhaval's shoulder another little pat. "You okay here for a bit? I'm gonna go find that advil." That was what ibuprofen was, right? He was pretty sure he had that.
"Yes, I'll sit tight and commune with the wall tiles." One thing Dhaval would have to get better at was being bored. He couldn't expect the kind of constant stimulation life had allowed him when he had the library and the internet and TV whenever he wanted. He was a little lost without constant stimulation. "Sure, I'll give running water a try." He doubted that would help much. Running water was for defrosting chickens faster, not treating wounds, but it didn't seem like a bad idea. Just not an especially good one. Maybe the water would at least be cooler? He should also try a salt bath. Kept off infections. "Be careful. I'm, uh, sure you don't need to be told that, but it's gotten to be habit every time someone wants to go outside..."
"It's a good habit to be in," Tayne assured him. Reminding people to be careful, while maybe not necessary for some, might be for others. Nobody should be wandering around outside without thinking about the possible consequences. "I'll be back in a few minutes." He gave the shoulder under his hand one more pat, and headed out of the room, in the direction of the lobby. Maybe he'd take this chance to bring in a few things-- painkillers included, but mostly more clothes, a flashlight, the food, if there was any left....
Dhaval spent the time keeping his finger as cool as he could, refusing to pull it out of the moving water, which, as predicted, made it hurt worse. Funny how just the touch of air could become painful with enough swelling. The events of the evening rolled over in his mind, but he couldn't put together any more clear information than he'd given Terry at first. It made no more sense than the car accident ever had, but he had a feeling it would remain just as strong in memory. Oh, nightmare fuel. He was increasingly glad for less need to sleep. He'd have to find out if the man who'd died had had friends or family here. If he did, an apology would be necessary, and Dhaval could only hope that he'd come with someone. They'd have to feel the loss, but at least the poor man wouldn't just disappear. With so many people completely vanished from the world, dead or twisted, memory was the only shelter, and Dhaval didn't even know the guy's name.
It was an hour later when Tayne and Dhaval were actually in the same place long enough for a conversation. After rounding up at least some of the shit in his truck, checking on the eggs again and making sure he'd locked the camper this time, and then making a quick trip upstairs to his room with it-- and belatedly collecting his room key and the remains of his clothing, in the lobby-- he brought down the three advil he thought appropriate for Dhaval and his finger, but then left him in his room again so Tayne could hunt down a bed for him. At least this time he left the guy with a light, in the form of a camping lantern from his truck. Thank got the bird-monster hadn't managed to break it.
It really wasn't that hard to find what he wanted. There were lots of empty rooms, and one of the ones on the 100-floor-- that still threw Tayne off like crazy, having the "first floor" be different than the "ground floor", and he thought maybe thinking of it as the 100-floor might help-- was handicap-equipped. The hard part was dismantling the bed and man-handling the pieces and, even worse, the mattress down those stairs. That was what took the hour, and by the end of it, Tayne was really kind of tired.
And yet he still had to put the thing together. He shoved the useless cot out of the tiny room and got to work, Dhaval wheeled out of the way in a corner but still close enough for conversation.
Dhaval had wished there was something he could do to help, but he was of course perfectly helpless. Now he might pass nuts and screws, perhaps, but that was all. He'd ducked over to the kitchen and bar in the intervening hour to make sure Tayne would have his choice of snacks or drinks while he worked, but that was his only viable contribution. "Um, if you want to maybe rest a while before you get right to work? Carrying all that around without, well, any help must have been a pain." It wasn't that he thought Tayne couldn't handle the work, just that maybe he shouldn't, since he didn't have to.
"Rather rest when I'm done and can bask in the glow of 'nothing else to do tonight'," Tayne grunted lightly, tugging the bedframe pieces into some semblance of order. "And, you know, go to bed." He chuckled a bit, and paused to turn up the lamp he'd brought with him. Having all the camping supplies one could ever want was kind of a boon, right now. "I'm all right. I haven't even been working lately like I used to, when I actually got paid for it. So this really isn't that bad, at all."
"I can understand that. Just trying, um, to be hospitable. And the options are kind of limited." Dhaval was very used, of course, to sitting still, but not to idle hands. He'd normally have been at least scratching random ideas or quotes down in a notebook. He picked up one of his little bronze figures and twirled it around, but that was no substitute for actual engagement. "My, you're well equipped. Remind me to have you around next time the world ends." It was surprising how much more tolerable the room was with someone else there. He'd been so antisocial up until the catastrophe hit. Dhaval felt terribly guilty every time he realized he was almost happier now than he'd been with his old life. At least he was getting out more.
"I've lived out of my truck before," Tayne shrugged. "Sometimes there's no decent hotels nearby to a job, and tents suck. Though I've got one of those, too. I've got all sorts of camping shit. You can keep this one, if you want it." He didn't really need it, except when it was full dark-- like it was, now, well after nine'o'clock-- and he was trying to do something fiddly-- like put together a bed. So he didn't imagine he'd need it much in the future. He settled back down on the floor and started on the bed with a screwdriver.
"If you're not using it. I don't have much to do after it gets really dark, after all. This place doesn't have anything to read and now I can't even try to write." It had to be his right hand that took the hit. "I loved camping when I was a kid. You, um, don't like tents?" For the first few years after the accident, he'd been eaten up with guilt for not being able to go out on exciting, manly trips with his dad anymore, and he'd romanticized the bugs and cold and horrifying toilet facilities right out of his memories. "I guess they wouldn't do any good right now."
"Tents mean sleeping on rocky ground," Tayne chuckled. "And often getting cold, cuz they don't really hold in heat as well as a truck camper does, and usually getting wet, when it rains or groundwater seeps up or somethin'." Which was, of course, the very worse part. "I got a mattress-- a small one, but still a mattress-- and a space heater and a good, solid roof, in my truck." He didn't honestly mind the horrifying toilet facilities, especially since he could usually find an outhouse or restaurant or office building for that, but the camper protected him from bugs and cold pretty damn well.
"I guess. It's not like I've been able to do it since... Well, middle-school boys don't mind rocks so much." And back then he'd been very gung-ho about anything his father suggested. One wouldn't know it from the shy, card-game obsessed, straight-A student, but Dhaval had been most determined to be the tough, military son his father wanted. He'd sincerely believed he'd be going into the air force special ops, probably come home a decorated hero, save the world for democracy. Mostly because he had 20/15 vision, which seemed like a sign to twelve-year-old Dhaval. Born to fly fighter planes.
"It'd probably be a bit of a pain now, yeah," Tayne agreed, moving around to the other side of the bedframe to get another end screwed in. "Hell, I think I enjoyed it more as a kid, too. Camping out in the backyard or outside town or somethin'. I did that a lot, now that I think about it. But I also wasn't working chopping down trees or welding pipeline then, just being a kid goofing off.... You think you can wheel yourself over here and hold these pieces together for me, or you need me over there?" He could stand an extra hand or two, honestly.
"I'm fine." As long as he didn't move his bad hand the tiniest bit. He'd found a mostly comfortable way to rest it on his lap, and there it would stay. It was such a short distance he really was essentially fine. He had a little more trouble getting himself situated to not be in the way but still be able to lend a hand. "True, it was a lot nicer when sleeping on the ground was, well, the whole point. Trying to do it after a hard day just, um, added insult to injury." Dhaval shrugged with one shoulder.
Tayne helped with the situating, a little, pushing a wheel sideways a little, then he held the bed pieces where he wanted Dhaval to hold them. It required the guy to bend down a little, but it shouldn't have been too bad, he hoped. He set about screwing those together, next, once Dhaval had them. "Exactly," he agreed good-naturedly. "And apparently, yeah, it does help out a bit when the world goes crazy.... I managed to get out from the boonies, to here, because of that truck."
"Perfectly equipped to save the day? So it's the vehicle equivalent of you, then. Fitting." Dhaval didn't mean to gush. He barely even meant that as a compliment, more statement of fact. Every time he'd seen Tayne, it was hard at work on someone else's behalf, solutions up his sleeve and ready to dive into whatever odd-to-horrible situation had arisen. The man seemed to belong to his casual effectiveness, and Dhaval would have been surprised to see Tayne at all unable to cope. "Where in, um, the boonies? Were you working?"
Compliment or fact, it still made Tayne blush, and he was kind of glad the room was still pretty dim, lantern or not. "Um, thanks...." He didn't really think he'd done that well at saving the day, for, well, anybody. "I was working with a logging company, about two day's drive that way." He gestured vaguely west, focusing back down on his work. "Took me a little longer than that to get here, of course. But it was kind of a mess."
Dhaval had a good sense of direction (another trick that would have made a good pilot from him, he reminded himself at those times when stewing over depressing memories was about all he was up for), and mentally calculated. There was nothing to really say about that, of course. People didn't go logging places where there were more topics of conversation than the trees. "I can imagine. I couldn't even get down the hall until, um, Pepper came and helped clear the space." Of corpses, mostly. He tried not to think about that. He wondered if Tayne knew Pepper. She was hard to miss.
The mention of Pepper made Tayne smile. She might've been kind of horrifying-looking, but she was really pretty awesome. From the morning he'd spent in her company, anyway. "Yeah, she mentioned that she got you out of wherever you were at. She came with us yesterday morning, to the grocery store, and talked some about how she met you. Where were you, anyhow?" Somewhere with a hall, anyway. "Here, let's head over to the other corner, and you can hold those two pieces together, too...." He got up to shuffle over, himself.
Dhaval very carefully adjusted himself, moving as quickly as he dared. If he seemed to be having too much trouble, Tayne would just tell him not to bother, and he was eager to be busy. And useful, if at all possible. "Oh, is that where she was? Yes, she, um, straight-up rescued me. I was... Well, compared to your dramatic escape, um, dead boring. I was just in my apartment. I lived alone except for my hamster, which died. Just as well I couldn't have a real pet. With my luck it would have turned and eaten me." Though he still wished he'd been able to have a dog or cat. "I just locked my door and stayed quiet. The monsters in my building, well, left eventually. I saw Pepper out the window and she came and, uh, extracted me."
"Well, I'm glad she did." Tayne shot Dhaval a quick grin, and held the pieces together for him to hold for him. "Just these two, like that. We've almost got the frame put together." He'd left the headboard piece upstairs. It had just been a pain, and not really worth it, when he still had the box springs and heavy mattress to haul down. "I never really had a pet, after I left the farm, either. Kinda hard to when you're traveling all the time."
"Got it. ...About as hard as when you can't possibly travel, I bet." Dhaval would have loved something furry and dumb enough to love him unconditionally, a small shadow of the exotic, powerful creatures he was so drawn to, but even a small dog needed walks, cats needed their litter changed, and trips to the vet would have been terribly difficult to manage. And who would watch his little friend when he was at work or down for some new surgery? A proper pet would have been irresponsible, so he'd contented himself with a fat rodent to talk to. "You lived on a farm?"
"Yep," Tayne answered. "My parents owned one. Mostly vegetables, both for ourselves and to sell, and a few animals. We made ends meet, just barely, but it was nice being mostly self-sufficient." And after everything, a farm was probably the only way to make a living, anymore. He was still pretty much convinced of that, he just had to find a way to make it viable in a hotel, with rival gangs and monsters all around....
"Wow." Dhaval didn't think Tayne could be older than he was, and he hadn't thought subsistence farming had still been an option so recently. He'd always been given to understand (by his handful of relatives who'd made it to America) that the country had dismantled family farms. It struck him as a very picturesque, charming notion that suited his impression of Tayne well. "So you'd be the one to talk to when we start rooftop gardens or set up grow lights, then." Dhaval hadn't asked if any such projects were underway. The plan seemed self-evident to him. Every little bit would help. He'd always been ecologically minded, though he didn't know the specifics of the various alternatives at hand.
It wasn't popular, and it didn't make them any profit really, but they got by. Tayne finished with the last leg of the bedframe, tightening the bolt as tight as he could with a little grunt. The last one was always the hardest to get closed, on things like these. "I was kinda hoping to, yeah. Rooftop might be all we get, no way we can get power for lights." If they got power somehow, he'd strongly recommend reserving it for heat, stairwell lights, and the refrigerator, not power-sinks like heat lamps for indoor gardens. Maybe they could reserve a room somewhere with really good window-lighting, for potted veggies.... "Or hunting down gardens behind locked doors, I'm sure there's some around the city we could get into."
Of course. He felt silly for not thinking of the electricity, especially in a room lit by camping lantern. "This isn't a great city for green space, but yes, I guess there'd have to be some. Finding them might be more trouble than it's worth." Unless someone had an inside tip, randomly poking around the streets in search of vegetables seemed unwise. "Searching without even an idea of where to look seems more risk than it's worth. It's be more efficient to look for the grocery sections of convenience stores. More common, anyway." If dusty and a bit gross.
"Naw, see," Tayne grinned a bit, "urban gardening? Big thing. Seriously. Was a huge trend a couple years back, and a lot of people stuck with it. You'd be surprised how many people turn tiny plots of land and big-ass pots on their porch into gardens. Really, it'd probably get us a lot of fresh fruits and veggies to go hunting for things like that." He dusted off his hands, tossed the screwdriver across the room towards the tool box-- it missed, of course-- and pushed himself to his feet. "Box springs time!"
"Oh, I guess I didn't realize. Since, um, can't really get too involved." He shrugged again. Even one-arms, it was a little uncomfortable. He should stop doing that, though like just about any other gesture or word of self-deprecation, it was well hardwired into him. "I guess we'll be sure not to get scurvy, then." He winced a little at the sound of the screwdriver bouncing off the wall, still jumpy after today's horror. "Now, uh, that I can help with. I make a great little human cart." Tayne had had to drag the stupid thing down all those stairs. He shouldn't have the awkward job of hoisting on his own, too.
"We'll get you some pots in the fitness center under a window to make solely your responsibility," Tayne teased, grinning. He headed out to the hall, where he'd left the box springs and the mattress, and the bundle of bed-linens. "Can you act as a cart for something this big and heavy, man? I don't wannt go breaking your legs or something. You don't need more broken bones."
"Oh, what's one more little crack? They're already pretty wrecked." It felt very odd to kid about his ruin of a body, but must just be another symptom of how easy it was to talk with Tayne. "Well, since, um, I've got to be careful... Just give me an end. I can at least make it a little, well, smoother. It's a, well, fairly good chair." He hadn't exactly gone top of the line last time he'd replaced his chair, but it would be unwise to go too cheap on something he essentially lived in. "It can take another, oh, hundred-thirty pounds."
"If you're sure," Tayne shrugged, coming back in to wheel Dhaval out, since it seemed like a long ways to go with one hand. Dhaval would know his body and the limits thereof better than Tayne would, so he'd take his word for it. Once Dhaval was in place to get the end, he got one booted toe under the box springs, levered an end up into his hands, and let Dhaval take it from him, the other end still resting on the ground. Tayne'd get that one. "I can probably just push from my end, and you can roll-- then you don't have to try'n steer. That good?"
"I contest that. If you, um, bumped your knuckles into as many doorframes as I have, you'd know steering is very important. But... at its minimum for now." Dhaval carefully balanced the box spring, inching his legs apart to make sure it would be steady and distribute the weight. His finger didn't care for the shift, but he ignored that. Nasty little twinges of pain were just a matter of course. "At least the door is pretty wide here." He'd have just plain felt cheated by fate if he'd had to contest with squeaking through the doorway on top of his dingy, lonely room.
"Keep your fingers out of the way, then. And don't you dare use your bad hand, man, or I'll hafta swat you." Tayne hefted the other end, carrying it tall-wise so they could get it through the door, and pushed gently, until the edge of the huge box pushed into Dhaval's chest, and then into the back of his chair, pushing him slowly back and into the room. If he angled things right, he could wind them up right next to the bedframe.
Dhaval frowned awkwardly, though the heavy box between them quite hid the sheepish expression from view. "I don't actually intentionally inflict harm on myself. It just... has an unfortunate tendency to find me." Dhaval smiled as Tayne began to push. Despite the slightly uncomfortable pressure, coasting backward was a novel sensation. It was like a very slow amusement park ride. Or maybe like being a shuffleboard puck. He wasn't sure. Either way it was kind of fun. "Whee!" Oh, he hadn't meant to say that out loud.
Tayne laughed. "That exciting, huh?" he asked, peering around the box springs to grin at the guy, still pushing slowly. It kind of tickled him that the guy was enjoying himself, even if it was a kind of silly enjoyment. Or maybe especially because it was. They all needed silly in their lives, especially somebody like Dhaval who got so down on himself so much. "Slowin' up here," he added, as they got to the optimal spot for moving over. "Let's turn this, so the springs are down and we can slide it over onto the bed...."
"I'm, um, easily entertained?" Dhaval kept rolling a little too far and had to grab at the side of the bed. With his good hand, of course, but the sudden movement hurt just enough to cause a sharp intake of breath. He'd really appreciate it if his finger could move past this hypersensitivity... soon. "Right, I've got it." Eyeballing, he could see the bed was the right height for his chair. The added comfort would make resting a pleasant option again, though he was afraid he might try and spend half his time sleeping like he had before Pepper rescued him. He'd just have to find something to do with himself.
"Just rest it on the arms of your chair," Tayne suggested. "Don't try'n hold it, you don't got enough lev-- leverage and support and shit to try holding it, 'specially with only one hand." He lowered the boxsprings gently to the level of Dhaval's chair's armrests, so Dhaval could do just that. "I can slide it from there." This seemed to be working pretty well, actually. They could get the actual mattress in the same way.
"Huzzah, I'm a portable jack." He didn't try to assist further. His good hand was in the wrong place to do any good. Dhaval had always thought box springs looked far too comfortable. The bed looked like he could fall into it already. Or maybe he was being extremely silly, which he could probably blame on the three asprin. He usually didn't use more than one. Dhaval was always afraid of getting dependent on pain meds, a distinctly real danger for him, and was wary of even over-the-counter stuff. Something more along the lines of percocet was usually in order for broken bones, and that was a familiar swimmy sensation.
Maybe it was his own tiredness, but that made Tayne have to pause and duck his head, snorting with probably juvenile laughter. "Sorry, sorry," he managed, sliding the boxsprings over slowly and carefully even while he continue to chuckle. "My brain is apparently thirteen again, I toooootally thought the wrong thing there...." Which he probably shouldn't have said, but he was getting pretty comfortable with this guy, and they could just be guys together without him thinking about the whole gay thing. Right?
Dhaval had to think for a long moment before he got that one, and he was glad his complexion didn't show much of a blush. It didn't help that he'd had to strenuously remind himself a few times already that finding Tayne rather striking should be the last of all possible things on his mind. "Uh... huh... Yeah. Um, thirteen." And here he'd been communicating so freely, too. Dhaval wished he had the option of kicking himself. "That... That doesn't even quite work..." He covered his mouth as he laughed, finding the situation too absurd to be embarrassed by all of a sudden.
"It does if you're thirteen," Tayne snickered. "Makes perfect sense. Sorry, man, my bad. Seriously. Not yours, mine." He even held up a hand to try to wave it off, grinning amiably, then he slid the boxsprings home and straightened. "We're almost there. Just got a mattress and blankets, and you'll be set for the first decent night's sleep you've had since you got here, huh?"
"Oh, everything made sense when I was thirteen. Well, no, twelve. Thirteen was kind of confusing, with the coma and wheelchair and weird drugs..." His favorite thing about Tayne, he decided, was the way he really dared to make light of his bad luck. "I was, well, a horrible little smartass." Not that anyone had ever known, as he didn't so much as open his mouth at school and always toed the line with his strict parents, but he'd always been thinking something self-satisfied and snarky. "Sleeping with broken bones... Well, it sucks. Actually, I'll... owe you another favor I can't really possibly make good on if you could steal me another pillow. Helps keep it still."
"I can steal you as many pillows as you like," Tayne told him warmly, and headed over to wheel him back to the doorway, so he could hand over the end of the mattress, next. "I mean, I think there's more pillows than anyone could ever want in this place. There's, like, hundreds of extras. I could make you a nest of pillows, if you really wanted." Which reminded him of the bird-monster eggs again, for the first time, really, since this whole conversation got started, even if he'd just been jesting. Actually, a pillow-nest sounded kind of nice about now.
Anything soft where he could lay down sounded kind of nice about now, actually.
Almost done, Tay. He hefted the end of the mattress and lifted it into Dhaval's waiting grasp.
"Or build forts. I loved pillow forts, way back when." Dhaval adjusted himself the best he could and braced the mattress the best he could with just one hand. "Sounds fun, though. Maybe a project for... when my hand works right." Heh. Dhaval settled back, discovering that pressing into the back of his chair made for the most comfortable ride. Seeing as Tayne hadn't seemed annoyed by his goofing off last time, he imitated the sound of a truck backing up. Way too familiar for comfort, considering his apartment had faced an alley where deliveries were made a lot.
"You totally don't need both hands to deal with pillows. They're just pillows." Goofing off was what people were supposed to do, and Tayne liked the signs of normalcy. Besides, it meant Dhaval was comfortable with him, and he liked that, too. He laughed again as he pushed. "Anything behind you is well warned to get out of the way," he said. He stopped them at the same spot as before, or maybe a couple inches past it, and warned, "Sideways time," before starting to turn the mattress the way it was supposed to go.
He was continuously saying stupid things, of course, but Tayne seemed not to mind a bit while not condescending, either. Of course Dhaval was comfortable. He wasn't even too self-aware as he groped for something else to say that'd be amusing and clever to make up for treating pillow fort construction as a strenuous activity. He tried to keep out of the way the best he could for Tayne to get the mattress down. "No wonder hotel beds always feel so squishy." He preferred a pretty firm mattress. Made moving easier. "This thing feels like a stack of pancakes."
"Depends on the hotel," Tayne commented with a grunt, sliding the mattress aside and on top of the boxsprings. At least this one didn't have very far to fall, and would just... land where it belonged, pretty much. He moved around to the end Dhaval was at and gave it a good shove the rest of the way off the arms of the wheelchair, and it slumped into place. He stood back with a sigh of relief. "I've been in hotels where it was like sleeping on boards, too. It's like they don't ever have anything inbetween, it's weird."
"Huh. I guess I'd kind of prefer that to squish, funnily enough. It's nice to have kind of a solid springboard, but that's probably more a thing when you rely on your arms to get in and out of bed." Oh, wait. how was he going to move? He could probably spend a night or two in the chair without it doing too much damage, even if his neck might get a little funny, but that seemed a waste of Tayne's hard work. It wasn't really something he could do one-handed, since it wasn't a matter of strength. He'd overbalance. Well, this would be a fun experiment. Maybe he could wait until Pepper wandered downstairs. She could lift him for a second...