Visiting Hours, Party Hours

[vocarrah]

Who: Ianchus, anyone coming by the clinic.
What: Visitation, beratement, and/or patient gossip.
Where: The Clinic.
When: Early-ish August, after this and this.
Warnings: Injuries and stuff? Probably not much.



Nothing injured but my pride. That was a common phrase he'd heard among the explorer-mercenaries after any sort of slip-up, their fault or not. Ianchus' favorite version of that would be to say he had no pride, so he had nothing to hurt.

And yet, there seemed an odd little ache now, in addition to the massive ache that was his whole body (his wounds had been fixed, his ribs wrapped, his cuts stitched, and he was on the way to mending, at the very least).

It looked like he had some sort of pride after all, that could be wounded, small as it was. And Ianchus realized that, despite his idiosyncracies...that for the time being, he was tired of wounds.


He'd been quite surprised at how many people had responded to his half-incoherent messages--even to just check if he was alright after seeing all the other responses. He was...grateful. Incredibly grateful. Everyone was trying to survive here, and yet nobody seemed to want to watch others die, no matter how foolish.

Ianchus had managed to find spare twine, cloth, rope, and other similar objects around the clinic, and he'd whiled away the hours once he was awake by making Cephean sailors' good-luck charms; braiding several different kinds of materials together into a thick rope was not only relaxing (and would keep him from going stir-crazy in his bed), but it was the only way he could think of to repay the people he was grateful to. A little luck would certainly be useful, wouldn't it?

Thankfully he's well enough now to receive visitors. Are you a fellow patient? Have you come to check on him? Admonish him, perhaps? God, but he could really use the company.

Comments

[vocarrah]

Ianchus bears the discomfort of shifting over a little, letting Edgar have more room on the bed--ah, anyone who's that open is someone he'll always appreciate.

It's hard to fool him when it comes to people--he's someone who loves dressing up as well, and there's much more to someone than their clothes. Cadence, movement...even just an aura. So he absolutely remembers Edgar.

"Ah, you saw that, then. It was quite bad at the bottom of the cliff. It's much better here, in a bed with bandages and visitors willing to bring me gifts."

He reaches behind his pillow, holding up the bottle of bourbon Atem had brought him.

[abbatis]

"I think everyone saw it. It was hard to miss," especially with how incoherent it was. It might not have been intentional but it definitely helped with gathering interests.

Edgar raises his brows curiously when he takes the bottle out, lips then settling into a grin. "Self-medicating already?" He laughs and leans closer to read the tag on it. "That can't be good for you, you know?"

[vocarrah]

"The doctor didn't order me not to," he says breezily, moving to stash it again.
"It's always worked like a charm for me. And if the empirical evidence confirms my theory..." A shrug.

"And what brings you here? Surely not to visit me?" That would be quite flattering, wouldn't it?

[abbatis]

"So will you try everything if doctor doesn't outright tell you not to?" He sneers, sounding cheeky like a kid with his jab.

He rolls his shoulders slightly at the question, head cocking to the side. "Why? Is it too hard to believe that I just wanted to see how you were doing, Ianchus."

[vocarrah]

Ianchus grins at the jab, and then shrugs, sitting back and returning the tease.

"I figured you'd have much more interesting things to do on the island than watch an old man's bones knit, ah?"

[abbatis]

Ah, Edgar grins right back at him, his expression gaining more confident look. "Who knows, maybe I enjoy company of old and sick. Maybe it flaunts my own beauty and youth." With that Edgar brings his hand to his hair and combs his dark curls with fingers. He's joking, of course. If anything their stark contrast serves as a reminder of what will never happen to him.

" Besides, there isn't much to do around here. In case you haven't noticed we do seem to have a shortage of people around my age."

[vocarrah]

"That's true, isn't it?" Ianchus had noticed that Edgar stands out. He taps his fingers on his chin.

"I know there are a few...Ah, they might be a little older than you, but..."
Of course, he's thinking of Yusuke and his friends...though he does remember a certain girl.

They're all rather serious though, aren't they? It seems like an odd match for Edgar's impish nature.

[abbatis]

"So you understand my struggle of being the youngest? The closest one to my age is this one weird girl. She's only a year or two older than me but very small built. I don't think I've ever met any girl like her before." She was so unique that she even refused to use a name like others. In many subtle ways she almost reminded him from a boy rather than a young girl. " Though if you call her a child she might as well kick you in the balls. " He laughs and crosses his legs on the bed.

"So with my options limited I might as well play with old man like you. Aren't you glad, though? I've heard that company of young men can spark the spirit within elderly."

[vocarrah]

Ianchus makes a snorting noise at that comment about being kicked in the balls--ah, nothing he has to worry about anymore, he supposes. Optimism has always been his strong suit.

"Yes, I've met her. Briefly. Quite the distrustful one, isn't she?"
He was never that serious as a boy. Nor as serious as Yusuke, for that matter.

"In that case, I'll accept your youthful presence. Perhaps it'll help me remember the sweet old days."

[abbatis]

"You have no idea." Especially after his latest prank he'll be lucky if she ever trusts him again.

"So you aren't going to drive me away for not bringing you a get-away gift? Good to hear. Did you do a lot falling off the cliffs during your adventurous youth?"

[vocarrah]

"Unfortunately, no. I had to grow into falling off cliffs. But I did visit many other places that probably would have gotten me killed. After, though! After!"

Ianchus sits up a little, with a grin.

"I've been chased off cliffs by plenty of beasts."

[abbatis]

Edgar moves when Ianchus changes his position to give him more room.

"Ah, sounds pretty dangerous life? Didn't you have bodyguards or other staff to look after you?" He laughs a little. So his assumptions about his masochistic nature, after all. "Were they beast that walked on two legs?"

[vocarrah]

Ianchus gives Edgar a look--not too long, but quite close.

"Ah, aren't you the astute one," He says, amusement clear in his voice and eyes.

[abbatis]

Edgar holds his gaze, looking back into his eyes with one curious brow arched up. Then he laughs lightly and changes his position on the bed, bending his knee up and resting his arm on it.

"Hah, I try. Though out of curiosity: what makes you say that?"

[vocarrah]

"With the native monsters running around Hadriel--ah, and the ones that occasionally come through the door--it's hard to forget about the ones that walk and talk. WOuld you happen to know much about them?"

[abbatis]

"Who, me?" Edgar continues to laugh, sounding light and more child-like than usually.

"Not really. I do try to stay out of the harms way after all. However, when I was small the woman who raised me once told me that there is nothing as dangerous as humans." A lesson that Edgar has learned the hard way. His own stubbornness and refusal to see humans as a threat has cost him lives of his loved ones. "But here, in Hadriel, however? I think there are some creatures that are even more fearful."

[vocarrah]

"Ah? And what would you find fearful?" The boy's mother seems like a smart woman, he thinks, if, perhaps, somewhat melodramatic. Humans are the true monsters.

He'd thought if he'd had to be killed, he'd prefer something that could look him in the eyes and acknowledge him, but...perhaps there's something secure in the anonymity of being killed by something with no capacity for higher thought.

Or perhaps now he's thinking too much.

[abbatis]

"Those who look like humans but are something much more," he says with a knowing tone. It is quite hypocritical for him to say this but Ianchus doesn't know about any of that.

"Humans themselves are already capable of unspeakable horrors. But you'll learn to know their physical limits, right? There are some things that they simply can't do so you can at least try to prepare for the worst. But with those who aren't human?" He shakes his head.

"You didn't answer my question, though."

[vocarrah]

"About your astuteness? Just listen to yourself talk." Ianchus sits back with a huff. "You certainly sound like someone who's had firsthand experience. Else you're remarkably good at understanding the minds of those a little less than human."

But after a pause, he gives him a somewhat straight answer.

"I suppose in knowing how to listen for those who know nothing of what they talk of...one learns to hear when someone is quite the opposite."

[abbatis]

"The latter one might be closer one, I think. After all, I'm still so very young so I possibly couldn't have that much experience." He rolls his shoulders nonchalantly. "I just read a lot and like to listen to others. Though I do believe that wisdom can be found from the unexpected places." Like from mouth of a child for an example.

"But that isn't the question I meant. You never said if you've been chased off the cliffs by the monsters that walk on two legs."

[vocarrah]

"MMmmmmmm. Astute and curious." Ianchus makes a massive show of stretching and thinking about it, and then, simply:

"Yes."

[abbatis]

"Is that bad?" He asks, making his voice sound oh so young and innocent as he bats his eyelashes twice. "You interest me."

And as for his answer? Well, it only works as an affirmation to his previous thoughts. He thinks he's already managed to paint a good picture of just what kind of man he is, which has been correct so far. His expression doesn't change nor does he seem to react to his words in any particular way.

"I suppose it wasn't a tag gone wrong?"

[vocarrah]

"A tag?" There's a lot of words that Ianchus isn't familiar with that the residents of Hadriel use--this is one of them. He is rather amused at being an object of interest, though. Not that he minds.

[abbatis]

"The game." He explains. "It's one where you chase someone as they run away from you. Once you catch them they become 'tag' and have to chase you. It's pretty popular where I'm from."

At least he and Allan loved playing it. Although their rules were a bit different from the norm.

[vocarrah]

"Ah! I see. No, I wouldn't have minded nearly as much if it was a game gone wrong, I imagine." He chuckles at the thought. "And I imagine anyone I was playing with would be here, groveling in apology."

He'd overestimated how likely people would be to want to get along here, perhaps. Ah, a shame.