visiting_hours [Curious Coeurlian RP Repository]

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===== 06/11/21 - Visiting Hours =====

<fc #00008b>''[Pipino]''</fc>

It had been long enough now. Long enough for the guilt to start biting and nagging at her. Every evening she shared to herself with Langston in that small Ul'dahn apartment, every mention of Yuyuci watching Lorry, every time she prepared a meal now, she was thinking about how each and every one of these acts were being done in purposeful avoidance of Orchard. Langston had told her an discussion, perhaps an apology, was desired, yet she never made the effort to visit her even once. It had been much too long, stubbornness and pride pinning her to her selfish little life, glimpses of what it could possibly look like had it always just been the two of them. 

But that was not the arrangement. That was not the true circumstance all her compromises had wrought, and it would do no one well to keep soldiering on in ignorance. It was with that spirit that Pipino found herself in Limsa Lominsa at last, cradling a small bouquet of flowers in her arms as she made her way to the infirmary in the Aftcastle dressed smartly but not too smartly, suspicious of a town full of pirates. 

She checked in with the proper authorities and it wasn't long before a very sheepish Pipino walked toward Orchard's bed, looking anxious and uncertain, not knowing what kind of reaction her sudden appearance might bring.

<fc #f4a460>''[Orchard]''</fc>

Confined to a bed and under the ever watchful eyes of her own soldiers Orchard had resorted to doing the only thing that she could, or at the very least, was allowed to do in her current state. Having seen nor heard little from her Husband in regard to Pipino's arrival Orchard sat in bed. The large roegadyn sized infirmary cot providing ample space for piles of papers, stacks of scrolls, and the occasional bottle of rum that Orchard had thrown herself into.

Separated from the field but not from her duty she absorbed herself in the paperwork. Tedious at moments but more often something to whittle the hours away she sat in her white cotton medical gown. Her hair having become somewhat unruly before being braided possibly by a nurse or even one of her subordinates. She adjusted a large set of spectacles on her face as she scribbled something out in quill before looking up. Seeing a new face in the infirmary.

"Sure ye ain't got this backwards? You bein' the one ta bring me flowers instead of the other way round?" She asked, taking her glasses off and folding them up before laying them atop the stack of papers in her lap.

<fc #00008b>''[Pipino]''</fc>

Pipino keeps a graceful air, offering a small smile as she walks around to the side of the bed, the Lalafell unable to quite see Orchard properly as the paperwork was obscuring her from view. 

"Well, unless you live in a world where the sick and infirmed often frolic about delivering flowers to the hale and whole, I should think not," she says offering them up to Orchard to examine before, looking around to see if there was an empty vase about. "It has been while since you have been in here and I thought the likely too-familiar scenery might be getting at you and that these could perhaps liven things up a bit." Her sentiments were honestly meant, but one could tell their was a stiffness about her, as if she were prepared to undergo some kind of battle.

<fc #f4a460>''[Orchard]''</fc>

There was a lack of vases in the vicinity. Being the Maelstrom's infirmary visitors were not the most common, compounded by Limsa's significant distance from any front line and Orchard was the only present body in a bed. Save for a rather bored looking Temple Knight and Immortal Flames playing a game of cards at a table across the room Orchard and Pipino were the only others in the room.

She places a empty bottle of rum on the bedside table, it wasn't quite the most elegant of containers but it could manage a bouquet for a little while. "Aye, I suppose that's true. Not that I'm in any spot tae 'ave time to go out an' get ye an apology gift anyroad."

<fc #00008b>''[Pipino]''</fc>

"Well, allow me to fetch some water for them. I will leave them with you for the moment," she says, snatching up the bottle and disappearing from the area to presumably get the task finished. They were rather nice flowers and she wasn't often fond of buying them, but she would do her part in making them last for their intended purpose.

She returned shortly, the bottle filled with just about enough water, setting it on the table next to Orchard before finding a nearby chair and simply dragging it away from its current home so that she could sit next to the bed more properly. She gazes at the paperwork and decides to start somewhere easy. "My, they certainly are keeping you busy it seems...." She looks back to Orchard with an apologetic grin. "I would imagine it is all driving you a bit mad, becoming a bit of clerk in the moment. How is your recovery going?"

<fc #f4a460>''[Orchard]''</fc>

Orchard holds onto the flowers for the moment. It was probably the most color she had seen in a good few days. At least besides red. When Pipino returns and places the flowers in the bottle she takes a moment to rub her eyes and shakes her head. "Ah no ain't nobody makin' me do this. Ah'm jus' doing it to keep meself occupied. I'd go crazy if ah just laid 'ere all day." She said, idly twiddling the pair of spectacles in her hand about. "Doc says ah'll bounce back. Surprised ah can even be up an' talking, let alone doing paperwork. Said gettin' yer chest caved in like that innit somethin' that everyone can jus' recover from." She lets out a small laugh. "Still... must be gettin' old. A summer er two younger and ah would've been outta this bed days ago."

<fc #00008b>''[Pipino]''</fc>

She clasps her gloved hands in her lap, her fingers squeezing together as she heard about more of the details of Orchard's injury, closing her eyes for a moment to stop herself from going into a rage. 

"I would say so. From the sounds of it, I certainly do not think I would have been formidable to withstand all you had been through. You are quite formidable and all." She looks into her lap, swallowing some kind of lump in her throat. "I expect you heard of Langston's recent injury as well? There must be something in the water, all the people in my life who are stronger than me being targeted in such a way. I am not sure my nerves were built to handle quite this much worry."

She looks back to Orchard, again, a bit timidly. "I am glad it seems I have a little less to worry over though. Your recovering well does much to ease my mind."

<fc #f4a460>''[Orchard]''</fc>

Orchard breaks out into a sudden coughing fit. "Langston's hurt!?" She shouted enough that the other people in the room jumped as if the Aftcastle had just been hit by a cannonball. "Nobody sent me ah message! Where is he? I have to go see him!" She starts to cough again, clutching her chest as she takes a moment to recover. "Seven hells... who did it? Who hurt him?"

 <fc #00008b>''[Pipino]''</fc>

Pipino stands up and moves to Orchard to try and get her to lay back down by laying her hands gently on her shoulders. "Oh! He is fine. Already back up and moving again. Some Brass Blades I suppose were sent after him for whatever reason. We are not sure yet, but he rested well and was back at it in a few days time. Just a bit of a nasty blow to the head. I thought he would have already let you know... but, well, you know him. He can be stupid about not communicating all his troubles, not wanting to worry others and all."

<fc #f4a460>''[Orchard]''</fc>

Orchard slumps back against the pillow after a moment. Placated, if not slightly worn out from the sudden coughing fit. She takes a few deep breathes and closes her eyes. "At least you could be there for him I suppose... always were better at that than me..." She murmurs.

<fc #00008b>''[Pipino]''</fc>

She looks at Orchard with a slightly guilty expression, stepping back and sitting down again. She lets a silence settle between them as she tries to figure out where to go from there. At last she looks over to the bed in a sidelong way. 

"In certain ways... perhaps. In others, I am hopelessly inept. And in this case, it was very possible that I would not have been there for him if not for a happenstance of timing and luck. And his current difficulties are trying enough that I daresay he could use the support of us both."

<fc #f4a460>''[Orchard]''</fc>

She opens her eyes after a moment, staring up at the ceiling. "He's everything that's important to me, him and Lorry... I promised I'd give Lorry a better life than I had. That I'd be there for him, that I'd be there for Lan... be the mum I never had. Lookit me, as trustworthy as a Shallowtail. Always runnin' off... gettin' into fights, shippin' off to war zones an' thinkin' I can solve everyone else's problems by tryin' tae beat the shite outta it... ah shoulda just shined Eligor in the eye first time ah met'em and have been done with it but I'm so bleedin' stubborn. Like ah got a fire under me arse that I just can't put out."

<fc #00008b>''[Pipino]''</fc>

"I will not pretend to be able to speak Langston's mind but... I would wager that that fire is one of the reasons he cherishes you. We all have our quirks that can make life difficult for one another. But to have had the privilege to meet someone and love someone who has such strong principles... I imagine that means a great deal to him.  And you certainly have been a much better mother than my own, whatever you believe." 

She fidgets a bit to turn more directly to her. "But...perhaps now that things have turned out like this... it might be time to perhaps think about them. I know it likely sounds like me simply phrasing my own stubbornness in a favorable light but I do not think Langston or Lorry would mind you taking it a bit easier. Besides, I have heard some rather...nasty rumors about the estate. Eligor is not exactly as he used to be these days. He is not in control of his faculties, and I trust the creature inside him less than trust the man himself, which is quite little now considering you are lying here. I am trying to find a way to wash my hands of all of this nonsense I've been involved in, to stop bringing the anguish of him into the lives of others. My own naivete led to this even being an issue, so I have failed those I care for in my own right."

<fc #f4a460>''[Orchard]''</fc>

Orchard looks down at her hands, curling her fingers up and then uncurling them slowly. "Might be time for me to hang up the armor... ah probably should counted myself lucky and hung me helmet up after I managed to survive bein' shot in the head... but I just kept goin' and now it's all catchin' up to me." She reaches up, rubbing her eye with one hand for a moment. She looks grim. "Can't keep hidin' it fer much longer at this rate anyways..."

"I think your right. I don't think I'll be going back to the field after this. Lan and Lorry are too important too me, to hells with the fire, it can burn me arse fer all I care. I never shoulda got mixed up in yer own problems. It just made a mess fer all of us."

<fc #00008b>''[Pipino]''</fc>

She looks to her and smiles a bit of a bittersweet smile on her behalf, tilting her head in consideration. "If it was not for the fact that I knew him to be a touch too dangerous, I would have thought you quite gallant," she jokes. "Your fervor is fueled by good intentions. Though I cannot pretend to fully understand them, I do know that now. Langston has helped me see that much at the very least." 

She pauses and laughs to herself. "I will still stand by my assessment that there was a lot of stupidity involved, but... well, once you are recovered and back home, things can perhaps start feeling more like the usual chaos. I never thought I would miss being in such a...boistrous home. I grew up with quite a bit of privacy after all... but things just feel empty without you about."

<fc #f4a460>''[Orchard]''</fc>

"I thought I could... ah don't know, I thought I could help him. With what's inside of him. I know what it's like, to have that sort of thing going on inside of you. The bleedin' chaos of it all but... I can't help someone what don't want to be helped. I should have realized that."

"I've done bad in the past Pip, I suppose I'm just trying to make up for it. Even if I am a bit thick in the head to not realize when I'm barking up the wrong tree."

<fc #00008b>''[Pipino]''</fc>

She lets out a small breath of a laugh, nodding her head as she listens to the reasoning. "You know, that is how I got into trouble with him in the first place. I just...could not leave him alone. I met him when he was face down in Fesca's Wash, seemingly drowning, and I helped him. And then I was given the chance to get strong, and I was determined to kill him myself because he was so monstrous but... I backed away from that rage, deciding that I thought he just... he needed help. I thought I might like to get strong to help him. I am not even sure why I bothered. Curiosity maybe, I am not sure. A foolhardy desire for adventure after escaping that dreary Monetarist cage of mine. But... He showed me once what that chaos was like within him. Touched his forehead to mine, that crystal of his, and showed me what it is like for him and... well, now I am working for his daughter which... she is her own sort of mess of my own folly. And yet, I keep helping. He asked me to watch over her recently and I have done an admittedly poor job of that. But that desire to help him find is way still exists within me somewhere."

<fc #f4a460>''[Orchard]''</fc>

"The road to hell is paved with good intentions." Orchard sinks into her pillow and returns to staring up at the ceiling. "Still, there is just one more bit of business I have to see to the end before I can really hang up the hat. I don't know how much you've heard but Bozja is still fighting tooth and nail. I know I don't have any real stake in it, it's on the other side of the bleedin' world but... well I fought alongside those men and women and it just wouldn't feel right to not see it through to the end with them, especially now that they're on the final push."

"I hope ye can tolerate this one last bit of stubbornness from me before I come home... I promise you won't have to be the only shoulder for Lan to lean on forever."

<fc #00008b>''[Pipino]''</fc>

She smiles, the expression complex with unsaid sentiment. 

"Well... By my wager, I feel like you perhaps will go about it with a different mindset. So long as you promise not to do anything foolhardy, you have my blessing, not that you require it. But it does seem to be the Honorable thing to do and I would not deprive you of that."

<fc #f4a460>''[Orchard]''</fc>

"I'm not the spry lass I use to be but my soldier will tell you there ain't nothing the Garleans could throw at me that'll keep me down. Don't you worry Pip. I'll come home soon and we can all be back together again..." She closes her eyes for a moment before she reaches down and puts the spectacles back on. It's certainly a odd look for her. "Well... this paperwork won't finish itself I suppose. And it probably ain't a good idea to leave Langston alone, Twelve knows he'll be the one getting into trouble if there isn't at least one lady to keep him grounded."

<fc #00008b>''[Pipino]''</fc>

"Ah, yes, of course. I suppose you are right," she says, taking the signal and standing up, approaching bed to lay her hand on her shoulder in a familial way. "We shall count down the days." She gives her an encouraging smile and steps back from the bed. "Do let me know if there is anything you would like from us. I could always bring Lorry to visit, perhaps some of Langston's cooking...? As it stands, Langston is working quite a lot these days and might not be able to swing the visit as easily as I can."

<fc #f4a460>''[Orchard]''</fc>

Orchard thinks for a moment. She would like to see Lorry and Lan but perhaps this still wasn’t the time. “Just keep and eye on Lan. I should be at the house in a few days time I’m sure.” Something hung in her gut, not quite a knot but a sense of unease looming in the future. “No need to jump straight too it right after getting out of the infirmary after all, aye?” She laughs softly. “Ah thank you for the flowers, you have a safe trip back and try not to worry about me too much. You’ll wind up with a silver streak like Lan at that rate.”

<fc #00008b>''[Pipino]''</fc>

"Perhaps I already have one! The perks of dyeing hair are numerous," she jokes, stepping back. "And besides, I think I would carry it off quite fashionably if I do say so myself! But I am not the one who deserves the worry right now. I look forward to seeing you soon, hale and whole." 

She steps around the bed and offers a final little wave and a smile before stepping out and into the world once more.

----

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