Closed [Welcome Home Orphanage] A Rose By Any Other Name(Rosalina)

[Garland]

Winter 11 516AV

Today was bright, today was sunny, today was warm.

Everything Winter should not be.

Garland sighed as he sat down near the park, lazily watching passerby mill around, going about their days with nary a care in the world.

"This is all wrong..." Garland muttered to himself as a butterfly fluttered pass his head. "I should probably not panic..." As he said that, birds chirped above him on a branch of a tree.

He sighed, it was suppose to be his children's birthday, although it wasn't actually their birthday since he doesn't know when they were born, they did show up on his doorstep on the tenth of winter and he had been planning the day's activities since early fall, but he he was busy on the tenth sadly and had to move the date.

I use the word "plan" loosely, as the only thing he had actually written down on a piece of paper was.

"Build a shyke-ton of snowmen"

Garland was never one for plans, he just went along with whatever the world threw at him, but when he actually did plan for something and it all falls apart, he panics.

Mostly, Garland wouldn't panic wildly, he wouldn't go running around, yelling for some divine intervention, he would just some stress, thinking of someway to make his plan work.

This was important to him, he wanted to teach his twins how to make a snowman. He wanted to build a snowman, although it didn't have to be a snowman. He wanted his kids to experience snow, to have fun in the snow.

Last winter, it was too cold for babies to mess around outside, now that they're a year older, Garland wanted to let them play around in the frosty white blanket that the end of the year loves to cover the whole world in.

The twins couldn't care less about snow, they just wanted to have fun as all babies want. They wanted to have fun and get fed, and they had plenty of both.

Garland shot up from his seat. "Idea!" Garland rushed off to get his kids from his Patron that was babysitting them for him while he needlessly panicked for a few bells.

After he had gotten the twins, he rushed off to the orphanage. There was no way he could make snow short of trying to find Morwen or bribe a mage to coat the entire city in snow, he had neither the time or money, so instead he decided to make snowmen out of something else.

Sand was not an option, it was coarse and rough and got everywhere. Hopefully his plan didn't end up as a total petch up.

[Roselina]

Roselina was sat outside the orphanage, on the floor next to some of children. Some of them were running about happily, while some of them sat quietly.

The person who had been looking after them had headed inside the orphanage upon seeing Roselina, who was a familiar face here, because she came to see them often.

It had been a quiet day for her, and she had attempted to work earlier, something which hadn't worked out well, and no-one had fell for her tricks today, or even glanced at her. Perhaps people were growing wiser, or maybe it was the wrong time to work.

"Okay now, what hand is it in?"

She let the child see what hand she had hidden a miza in, before putting them behind her back. The child chose the one that she had 'accidentally' shown them, and she switched her hands before showing them that it wasn't in her hand.

The child frowned at her, almost as if they were catching onto the trick she had used, and then scampered away, off to play with the others.

Children, she had a soft spot for, especially orphans and poor kids like these. She was glad that they had somewhere to go, at a time where she had not. She came here to play with them, and ensure they were having a much better childhood than she had.

One of them fell over, and she ran over quickly to lift them back onto their feet with a small giggle. The child was fine, if a little upset, and after a few minutes they ran off to play with the others.

"Sweet Dreams."

[Garland]

When Garland finally made it to the orphanage, he ran to the door. He just stood there and looked.

The caretakers mostly just ignored Garland, they had known Garland since he was a wee babe, and known of his antics. "JESS!" Garland called out from the doorway.

Jessica, a girl around fourteen of age and just relaxing in her room on the second floor, she was the bad girl that did nothing without payment, and she just wanted to leave this place and find her own fortune.

But for now, she had a business of... procuring items for everyone. Some were innocent, some chocolate for kids, maybe some dessert hidden away in the pantries, others were a bit more... illegal, heavy drink for the older teens, occasionally some tobacco or other narcotics, except the actual illegal drugs.

At any sign of knights or squires in the orphanage, Jess would bolt, hide behind the bigger teens and slip away, but she knew Garland, in fact, he was one of her biggest customers when he was still stuck in the orphanage.

Some of the kids looked in Garland, from shock, most of the younger ones at least, the older ones were used to Garland's antics. Garland took off the cradleboard he had on his back where the twins were strapped on him and let them waddle around.

Aneeka and Phobos, the twins. The two of them were just confused as to why Garland was so stressed right now, but they didn't care too much. The adorable pudgy babies shakily stood up, grabbing onto Garland's pants for support and waddling off to Roselina.

Aneeka was the mischievous one while Phobos was the nicer one. The two of them just stared at Roselina, mostly captivated by her innocent and naive look.

And then it all went away when Aneeka pushed Phobos onto Roselina's lap, making him cry, not from getting pushed, but from the suddenness of it.

[Roselina]

She turned and glanced at the person who had yelled, seeing that they were just looking for the girl who got things for people. She rarely played with the other, so Roselina didn't see her much, but she had heard what the girl did from the other children.

She quickly settled the kids who had jumped from the yell, slightly annoyed at how easily disturbed they were, and she continued talking to one of the older children who had sat by her.

They were trying to get her to teach her how she managed to win every time on the games she played with them. She found it amusing how they couldn't tell that she just switched the miza in her hand behind her back.

Twins that had arrived with the person at the door waddled over to her, she assumed they were adopted by him, and continued the conversation. The child continued to try and guess, coming up with extravagant answers, which were often much more complex then the true one was. Well, the kids creative, she thought to herself, and shook her head, telling the child that they were wrong.

One of the twins pushed the other onto her, who promptly started crying. She sighed slightly, pondering to herself why she still came here, it wasn't as if she had to. Roselina stood the child up and smiled calmly at them.

"It's okay, that was only a little fall, you'll be fine." The child stopped crying and looked at her curiously, she smiled in relief, putting them down next to the other.

"Sweet Dreams."

[Garland]

Garland heard the cry and quickly turned around. He stared down at Aneeka, giving a very good 'angry parent' look, he had been on the receiving end from the look Garland is giving right now. He had seen this look many times from the caretakers, knights, and occasionally a few dozen adults scattered here and there. "Aneeka..."

Of course, Aneeka took after her father and the angry parent look was not very effective. The little girl giggled and ran to the only other adult figure in the area.

"Come here you little ankle-biter." Garland said and tried grabbing Aneeka, but the little girl used Roselina like cover and hid behind her.

Phobos stopped staring at the girl that stopped him from crying and turned his attention to the girl that made him cry. He grabbed Aneeka's longer hair and pulled her back while she ran, she stumbled back into Roselina's lap and started bawling herself.

Garland then turned the look to Phobos, the boy was a bit more meek, more timid and always felt bad after doing something naughty. Still, kids will be kids and he'd had his fair share of misadventures.

"Phobos..." Garland said as he picked up Aneeka and held her in his arms. "Two wrongs don't make a right." Garland then turned his attention to Aneeka and started wiping away her tears. "And you, a wrong might be fun, but make sure you can get away next time, eh?" With that he gave Aneeka a little kiss on the cheek.

Jessica pushed open her window and looked down on Garland. "Oy! How's my favorite costumer doing? Currently closed for business and grounded 'cause they found me trying to break into the cellar. Suppose to be just five days, but then they found my stash, I'll be out in a good ten days at the least."

"Should have hidden your stash better! There's that alleyway over there, really quiet and very discreet!" Garland yelled up to Jess.

Jess' eyes began to twitch, she had already known about that spot and had already marked it out for when she could reopen her illicit business. "Why don't you yell louder? I don't think the entire city heard you, you bleedin' idiot!"

With that she slammed her window shut with a loud thud.

Garland sat down beside Roselina. "Well this is going to be the worst belated first birthday ever." He looked over to Roselina. "Sorry, thank you for calming my son down. He's a bit of a cry baby. Come here."

Phobos made an adorable 'Nu!" sound and snuggled closer to Roselina, it seemed he was still upset at Aneeka for scaring him.

[Roselina]

She watched them run around her for a while, they avoided the man who she assumed was their caretaker. Then one of them began to very again. I feel a headache coming on..., she thought to herself, a slight frown on her face.

Jess had yelled down, disturbing some of the shy children again, and the man yelled back to her. Roselina wondered why someone with kids would come to see that girl, hopefully not to buy something, not so good, from her.

The man sat down next to her, apologising for his son and asking him to go to him. He then refused and got closer to her, she sighed, picking him up and removing him from herself, passing him back to Garland carefully.

"It's fine, its not like some of the other kids here aren't easily upset." She laughed slightly, looking around at all the kids who were running around or playing nearby. They were all happy to be able to play outside in the warm weather, and were making the most of it.

Curiosity getting the better of her, she spoke again. "How come someone with kids is coming to see Jess?" She smiled, "Not that it's any of my business of course, just wondering. She's quite a card, that girl."

Glancing around herself, she noticed the child who had quizzed her earlier on how to do a trick, was trying to do it on another of the orphans. They were failing, of course, as she had refused to tell them how she did it, but they would probably get it eventually.

"Oh, I forgot to introduce myself.", she chuckled softly, " I'm Roselina."

"Sweet Dreams."

[Garland]

Garland took Phobos and as soon as Garland held the two in his arms, they started trying to slap each other, with Garland's head stuck in the middle to stop them from fighting.

Garland seemed unfazed by the barrage of tiny hands slapping on his face. "Well, Jess is the best at procuring certain items, some... questionable, others innocent, I want these two to experience a white winter."

Aneeka then started pulling on Garland's hair, again, the man was unfazed. "I thought 'what's the next best thing? Build a snowman, with what?' I ask, well along the line of thought everything got muddled while I ran here and what I ended up was a having pots and pans stacked up on each other with a face on top. They'll more or less say 'no' if I ask for all the pots and pans so I can make a snowman made of kitchenware."

"I've lived here for most of my early life, occasionally stopping by, letting the kids play with a few others in the nursery. They know me here, I was an orphan here for a good long while of my life, fairly boring here." Phobos started trying to climb around Garland's head to get to his sister, mostly in vain, while Aneeka just jammed her hand up Garland's nose.

Garland just gave that deadpan look. "Do you mind helping out with this? I have my hands full." When Aneeka's hand was finally pulled out of Garland's nostril, he gave a sigh of relief. "I should probably introduce myself as well. My name is Garland, the one that's trying to climb my head is Phobos, the one that had her hand up my nose is Aneeka. I haven't met you before, are you a new caretaker here, or are you here to adopt?"

[Roselina]

Chucking upon hearing that he had planned to build a snowman out of kitchenware, she smiled. "I'm sure they wouldn't want to give all of their kitchenware away."

She listened to him talk about how they knew him here, and she wasn't surprised that he was an orphan. She was too, at least that's how she thought about it.

She laughed at his next question, taking one of the twins of off him and sitting them down in front of her. The child looked up at her, curious and confused at how they had suddenly been moved.

"I'm neither actually, they know me quite well here because I was extremely good at evading them when I was a child. I was an orphan as well, sort of." She paused for a moment and then continued.

"I come here to play with them sometimes, as i know the caretakers can't all the time. I wish I could adopt one, but I can't afford, and my apartment wouldn't be a good place for a child to live in."

She smiled at the child who had decided to climb on her before continuing. "What's your plan now if you can't build a snowman with pots and pans?"

"Sweet Dreams."

[Garland]

Garland smiled when the little boy Rose took started climbing and pulling her hair. "Phobos, try not pull her hairs out."

"I was a bit of a troublemaker myself here. Oh the pranks I would pull when I was a kid." Garland sighed blissfully, remembering his childhood, at least the good parts. Then Aneeka shoved her fist up Garland's nose again.

Garland pulled the fist out and just gave the scolding look and started kissing Aneeka's neck, making her giggle and laugh uncontrollably.

"I try to come here when I have time, let the kids play with other kids, though I do admit they do play roughly..." Phobos started babbling, a few words here and there.

"Papap, papap! Pbbbrft" Phobos just did a raspberry on Roselina's face. He then said another word he was not sure how he'd learn. "Aun- auntie!"

"Huh... where'd he learn that word." Garland said, and Aneeka on the ground to roam around a bit.

The little girl babbled away, occasionally you would hear her say "auntie" or "papap" but never "mother" or any of it's variants.

"I'll be honest, I'm the most unfit parent in Syliras I feel. I never have time for them I leave them with my Patron most of the time." Garland looked over to Aneeka and Phobos, they both seemed happy and healthy.

"I don't even have a plan anymore." Garland sighed and rested his elbow on his knee and rested his head on his hand. "We could go to the docks and just sit by the pier, maybe find a small beach and make a sandman instead, it's pretty hard to make a sandman instead of a snowman, let me tell ya."

Phobos then started just chewing on his own hand, and started making adorable sucking and biting sounds.

[Roselina]

She laughed as the boy climbed over her, moving him so he was out of reach of her hair. She listened to the person speak about his childhood.

Pranks, huh. They were likely of a very different nature than the tricks she pulled as a child. She preferred not to think about what she did though. It wasn't as if she could even look back on them and think that she was a better person now.

She chuckled as he said he was an awful parent. "I wouldn't say you're a bad parent, your kids seem happy to see you, and they're not getting hurt. I think your fine."

Awful people lived in this city, as she knew. A lot of which were parents, he was definetly on the better side.

"I'm sure you'll figure out something to make it out of, but I think your kids would likely be happy either way. You could make a snowman out of anything really, I'm sure you'll figure something
out."

She paused for a second, moving the kid away from her hair again, as he seemed to have became fascinated with pulling it.

"If you need help with it anyway, feel free to ask me. I'll probably just be here for a while now."

"Sweet Dreams."