Graceful Orchid Extends Hand to Cheerful Idiot

Posted on Sun May 24th, 2020 @ 12:41am by Black Market Arturo Rosso & Civilian Xiulan Song
Edited on on Sun Jun 14th, 2020 @ 4:27am

Mission: Bright and Shiny things
Location: Lucky 38 Casino and Surrounding Area
Timeline: After The New Thief Taker

After being taught how to spot someone cheating, Arturo had been thrown into the deep end of the pool. Arturo had the advantage of blending in with the other patrons. He looked and sounded like some rich man’s bastard, a Fitzroy, banished to the colonies so he wouldn’t embarrass his father’s ‘real’ family, with an expense account to ease the sting of rejection. This allowed him to move through the casino largely unnoticed, right up until he laid hands on a cheater. Even in just the few days he’d been on the floor, word had spread that the handsome young man with the athletic build and bedroom eyes was Udinov’s man and Heaven help you if he caught you cheating his boss.

This particular night, as he walked the floor, counting the minutes until the end of his shift, he saw someone he thought looked familiar… could it be? Could it be her? Arturo hadn’t been near the roulette tables until just a few minutes earlier. He was covering for another pit boss. Arturo moved closer… it was her! Arturo smiled as he walked up behind her. “I guess I won’t have to go around plucking strange orchids in search of a graceful one, Miss Song Xiulan.” Arturo said her name in the traditional order. He could tell she’d Anglicized it when he found her listing in the Plex’s directory, but he liked the way it sounded in the traditional order. If she didn’t, Arturo had no doubt she would inform him… and everyone else in the casino…

Xiulan was leaning against the roulette table, idly chewing on a cocktail straw while she listened to the ball spin and skip around the wheel. Normally, she could predict what the ball would land on by the time the dealer made a last call for bets, although she couldn’t call any last second bouncing, but by far and large she had a fairly high accuracy rate. But not tonight. Either the casino had changed something up or she was really off her game, because her last few bets had been off. It was no matter, she only bet modestly so she wasn’t out too much, and at this point she was mostly still playing just to try to retune her ears to the wheel. Until he showed up!

“Had a feeling you’d figure out who I was,” Xiulan said, reaching over the table to place one last bet. “I’m surprised you haven’t already come knocking at my door,” she said with a grin as she leaned against the table again, listening to the ball skipping to find its final resting place.

“Surprised… and perhaps a bit, dare I hope, disappointed?” Arturo replied, a smile touching his lips. “My apologies, Bella Signora. My new employer has been very demanding of my time.” Arturo saw the woman he was covering for headed his way. “However, I am almost done for the evening, and I have been given the day off tomorrow. Would you care to join me for a drink? Or, if you are tired, perhaps I might escort you home?”

Arturo was still learning how not to be a fool or a cheerful idiot as Xiulan’s jiejie had called him, but he was learning fairly quickly. He wasn’t oblivious to Xiulan’s actions at the roulette table. He just didn’t think they amounted to cheating. He ardently hoped his colleagues felt the same way.

“Disappointed? Well, don’t you think highly of yourself!” Xiulan replied with a chuckle, but she did genuinely consider his offer. “But I guess I could go for a drink, so long as that’s not an issue for your boss; you know, conflict of interest and all...” And it seemed like her losing streak was over, as the ball stopped right where she hoped it would. “Yes!” Xiulan exclaimed softly, then collected her winnings. “Wanna meet me at the exchange once you’re off shift?”

“Of course,” Arturo said. “I’ll meet you in ten minutes.” At that moment his colleague arrived.

“Spacibo (thank you), Arturo Leonardovich,” the woman said, smiling at him. “I shall gladly return the favor at the first opportunity.” Then the woman looked at Xiulan. “Ona obmanyvayet? (Is she cheating?)”

“Net (no),” Arturo said. “Vse khorosho. (All is well.). Good night, Irina Ivanovna.”

Irina scowled once more at Xiulan, unaware that even if Xiulan was facing in her direction, the little Chinese woman wouldn’t be able to see the Russian’s icy stare.

“I can hear you scowling, Irina,” Xiulan said, even though there was no way she could actually hear a scowl, but she’d been pestered by this pit boss enough times to know what she was most likely scowling. “If your bosses could prove I was cheating, they’d have kicked me out long before today.”

Arturo schooled his expression so that it did not betray the sheer panic he felt at that moment. Arturo had interacted with crazy gangsters before. The Sicilian branch of the Italian Mafia that was based on Osiris was as tough as they come. In Arturo’s brief time at Lucky 38, he’d learned that the Russians were a whole new level of batshit bananas crazy. What was Xiulan thinking?

Irina looked like she was going to do something, something that Irina would regret in the immediate, but that Xiulan and he would regret long term, or as long as their lives lasted after tonight… which would not be very long. He needed to think of something quickly.

“Irina Ivanovna,” Arturo said, cautiously. “She isn’t cheating, I swear to you.” Irina didn’t look convinced. She was a big, strong woman, near Arturo’s height and built like a weightlifter. And she could fight. Could Xiulan take her, maybe, but their size difference, all things being equal… Arturo had an idea. “Look at her, Irina. She’d a tiny thing. You can probably crush her, but… I’ve heard she can fight. How is this going to play out Irina? If you lose, you will have been beaten by a tiny person. If you win, you beat up someone tiny. Either way, you cause a disruption in business and Mister Udinov will not be happy about that. Irina! This doesn’t play well for you any way you look at it.”

Irina grunted, but she backed down. “She finishes her game and leaves, Arturo Leonardovich,” Irina said. “I have to spend the rest of the night here and I don’t want to spend it with her.”

“Of course, Irina Ivanovna,” Arturo said.

Irina turned on her heel and left. Arturo let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding.

“Ten minutes,” Arturo said. “Any longer than that and Irina might decide you really are cheating and that I’m in on it. I prefer my gāowán where they are and not severed and stuffed in the mouth of my dead body. Ten minutes.”

Arturo left to go and get his hat and cane. Five minutes later he was at the Exchange waiting for Xiulan.

Xiulan didn’t wait ten minutes, grabbing her chips as soon as the ball stopped and her bet was paid out. Her winnings were meager tonight, but at least she could get a few bottles of booze with it, so she cashed out quickly and left the casino to go find a pleasant spirit for the evening. About fifteen minutes later, she strolled casually by the casino with a couple of large bottles under her arm, the rhythmic tapping of her cane guiding her through the concourse safely.

By the time Xiulan breezed by the casino, Arturo was starting to sweat a bit. Arturo was not a cowardly man, but recently been a fool and started a battle he couldn’t win. This opened his eyes to a whole universe of battles he couldn’t win, such as a fight with the Bratva. He hated that he couldn’t just face Irina head on, but he realized that he had, in fact, won that battle. Both he and Xiulan escaped unharmed, he was free to return to work on his next shift, and Xiulan was free to return and continue to cheat the casino out of thousands of credits, which they could afford. If people thought the table was lucky, they’d play it. Since the table was only ‘lucky’ for Xiulan, they’d lose. A self-correcting problem solved with little effort… unless Xiulan didn’t get the Hell out of the casino within Irina’s timeframe.

“Fēngkuáng de rén!” (Crazy person!) Arturo muttered to himself. Then he heard the tapping of Xiulan’s cane. He whirled around and just barely caught a glimpse the xiǎo pōfù (little vixen). He took a deep, calming breath and set off after Xiulan, the Graceful Gorram Orchid.

Xiulan was many things, but tall wasn’t one of them. Arturo was certain she was smarter than him, and probably more cunning. But she didn’t have the length of stride he did. He quickly gained on Xiulan and then caught up to her. “That. Is. Enough.” he said, finally getting a head of her and turning around to face her, he stood directly in her path.

Xiulan stopped, tilted her head curiously, then held out a bottle for him to take. “Thought we were getting a drink?” she said.

Arturo glared at Xiulan for a moment, then sighed. She couldn’t see him glare, so there was no point in glaring. Maybe he had this all wrong? Maybe Xiulan was even more batshit bananas crazy than the Bratva?? He sighed again and took the bottle. He’d lost this round before it had started. He took the bottle she offered him. “I can’t decide if I should take you over my knee and spank you or get down on one knee and ask you to marry me.”

“You could try, but either way it won’t end well for you,” Xiulan replied, then proceeded to walk over to a nearby bench to sit down. “I didn’t need you to speak up for me, you know. Our beef is personal, I’m on decent terms with the rest of the staff,” she informed him, then uncorked her bottle and took a taste.

Arturo joined Xiulan on the bench, uncorked his bottle, and took a drink before responding. “There are new variables in that equation that you are not taking into account,” he said. “You don’t exist in a vacuum. If Irina decided to lay hands on you right there, in that moment, in the middle of the casino, with me standing right there, I would have been forced to choose between helping Irina, and all of the others, who would have felt obligated to help Irina, and helping you. If I help Irina, I keep my livelihood and my life, but I lose you, and then probably my life, because your jiejie would kill me… and I’d let her. But if I help you, well, presuming we made it out of there alive, the Russians would eventually kill me, in which case, I lose you. Both choices were unacceptable, so I found a third solution. You’re alive, I’m alive, and Irina’s alive. She’ll go home tonight, take a bath, grab her oversized zhènzǐ, rub one or fifteen out, and come back to work in a much better mood. You can go back to cheating the casino tomorrow and I can go back to catching all of the cheaters except you, because you aren’t actually cheating, which is what I’ll explain to Udinov if the subject comes up.” Arturo took another drink.

With a chuckle and a shake of her head, Xiulan took a swig from her bottle. “I’d like to know how you know her ‘appliances’ are oversized,” she replied teasingly, then took another drink. “I know I don’t exist in a vacuum, but what you failed to recognize is that Irina already knows that it’s not good for business to go around starting fights with patrons. Maybe you know how the mafia operates, but you don’t fully understand how a casino operates, and Irina can’t go around bullying everyone. Yeah, she got mad that I called her bluff, but there’s really not much she can do about it. Yeah, there’s a chance I might get banned from the place, but they aren’t going to risk their credibility as a business beating me black and blue to make that point.”

By the time Xiulan was done speaking, Arturo was fuming. “So,” he said, evenly. “You were betting on Irina’s calm and rational analysis of the situation. You were betting not only that she wouldn’t attack you in the casino, but that she wouldn’t order me to help her ‘escort’ you to a back room and then order me to beat you until you learned respect, or that she wasn’t going to just wait until you were out of the casino and then tell me that I had to go with her to give you a little payback. And you won the bet… so far. But you weren’t just betting your life. You were betting mine. You put me in an untenable position.”

“You know, you sound really sexy when you’re angry,” Xiulan pointed out, smiling against the lip of her bottle as sipped from it. “Nice gravelly quality seeps in, it’s nice… And look, we both know that there’s nothing calm and rational about Irina, I was betting that she knew her place and how much trouble she would be in for causing a ruckus. And I dare say that what you did was even more dangerous than what I did. You vouched for me and revealed that we know each other, now I can’t come back any time you’re working there or they’ll suspect that you’re helping me cheat, which I’m not anyway, I’m just… winning creatively.”

Arturo wasn’t quite sure how to respond to anything Xiulan had just said, so he just took another drink, then another, then another.

“Sooo…” Arturo said. “What I am taking away from what you just said is that first of all, I should be angry as often as possible around you, and that you actually do care what happens to me as a result of your action… which I choose to think means you care about me… just a little… which I’ll take as a win.”

“Wǒ kào, you are such a guy,” Xiulan said with a shake of her head, then she chuckled. “Don’t let this go to your head.”

“I promise nothing,” Arturo said. He set his bottle down and, without warning lay his head in Xiulan’s lap and got comfortable, closed his eyes, and sighed. “You’re quite sexy when you’re angry, too. Frightening, but sexy. Of course, to be honest, I think you’re sexy all the time.”

“Comfortable enough?” Xiulan asked, shifting a bit so that she was more comfortable. “You’re really determined, you know… Never met anyone with such a deathwish!”

“I think we have established that I would prefer not to die,” Arturo replied. “Not even at your hands. Well, maybe la petite morte. That would be nice. Hopefully for both of us.”

“Maybe in your dreams,” Xiulan retorted with amusement.

“Every night and thrice during the day,” Arturo replied. “The daydreams are extremely distracting.”

“You have absolutely no shame, do you?” Xiulan asked, her amused grin so big it almost hurt.

Arturo shrugged. “I’ve been a blind fool for women in the past and it cost me,” he said. “So now I am a mindful fool, more aware of what I’m getting myself into, and yet still a fool. Perhaps I am, at times, the cheerful idiot your jiejie supposes me to be. But, like it or not, until you tell me to go away, I hope to be your cheerful, loving, idiot.”

Xiulan’s grin slowly faded as she tilted her head with a look of curious contemplation. At least he was honest, she could respect that. “But you don’t even know me,” she pointed out softly, genuinely curious with how he could be her ‘loving idiot’ without knowing her.

Arturo opened his eyes and looked up at… Xiulan’s chin. It was a nice chin. A truly beautiful example of chins that all chins should look up to, but…

Remembering that she couldn’t see his eyes so eye contact wasn’t going to be a thing, he closed his eyes again. “But I do want to know you,” Arturo said. “I want to know all about you. Your thoughts, ideas, feelings, beliefs. I want to know what makes you happy and what makes you sad. I want to know everything, as quickly or as slowly as you want to share it all with me.”

“I believe…” Xiulan started with another tilt of her head, “that you’ve been hurt, and to stop that hurt you’re trying to validate yourself through me. I believe you love the idea of being in love. And I think I’m not looking for love, but I could maybe use a friend?”

Again, Xiulan stung Arturo with honesty. “Your words hurt, but some ring true,” he said. “I was hurt. I do at least like the idea of being in love. And in the past I may have sought validation for others. But while I desire your approval and acceptance, I will not perish without it. I am my own man. I can stand on my own. But wanting to share my life with someone, even a friend, does not make me weak.” Arturo sighed. “I do not promise not to fall in love with you, Xiulan, but I would be your friend, if you would have me.”

“Dummy, how is it that I’m the one that’s blind, but I still see better than you?” Xiulan replied, then paused to take a drink. “Do you think I regularly let people who aren’t my friends lay their heads in my lap whilst carrying on deep and insightful conversation? You’re weird, but interesting, and I can get on board with that. Just no more going out on a limb for me until you have a better feel for how things work around here. Deal?”

Arturo smiled. “I accept your condition,” he said. He hesitated. “I would be lying if I didn’t say that I am interested in more than your friendship, but I will not push the issue. If something more develops, so be it. I will accept things as they are, in this moment, and let the future be what it may. ” What if Xiulan was right and he was being a romantic fool? This was all new ground to him now that he was trying to have a personality and be honestly interested in other people’s personalities. I am interested in Xiulan as a person, as much if not more so than I am in bedding her, Arturo thought to himself. I feel completely incompetent when trying to show that interest.

“Eh, try not to stress over it too much,” Xiulan remarked. “You’ve played ‘loverboy’ for so long, and it’s hard to break out of old habits…” The way she paused before taking a drink with those words hanging in the air seemed to indicate that there might be a story there, but she wasn’t ready to go there, not yet… “Although, I do find your antics to be quite amusing, so there’s that,” she offered, trying to lift his spirits.

Arturo chuckled. “I would offer to be your personal court jester,” he said. “But that might be considered forcing the issue.” He considered having another drink, but that would mean sitting up, and he was comfortable. Still, he managed to adjust his position temporarily so he could take a drink… then another… then a few more. The liquor burned his throat and relaxed him at the same time… or maybe the relaxed feeling was due to Xiulan. Arturo took another drink to test that theory. The results were inconclusive. “So,” he said when he was done drinking. “You seem to speak from experience when talking about the breaking from old habits. Would it be too forward of me to ask what old, bad habits you’ve beaten? Clearly we aren’t talking about drinking or gambling”

“Oh…” Xiulan started, then sighed. “I had a rough time getting along with my old man for a while. We started to turn things around after we fled Sihnon, but I was young and stupid and somestimes I said some… things I regret.” She paused to chug the last of her bottle, then gave the bottle a shake just to make sure it was truly empty. “He always forgave me; don’t know how he could with some of the dumb shit I said… Maybe ‘cause he knew how hard change could be; y’see, he also required forgiving a time or two.”

Arturo took Xiulan’s hand and held it, slipping his fingers between hers and letting it rest against his chest. He almost talked about himself, but quickly changed his mind. Instead he chose to focus on Xiulan. If he was going to have to develop a personality, it would be not only affectionate, but also compassionate. And selfless. Arturo felt strongly that selflessness should be part of this personality he was creating for himself. “I’m sure your father loves you,” he said, after a moment. “And knows that everyone says things in anger that they later regret.”

“I know, but that doesn’t take away the sting of guilt I feel everytime I think back to those days,” Xiulan replied; she had said some truly hurtful things… “So yeah, change is hard, really hard, and it definitely don’t happen overnight, so don’t beat yourself up about it. Yeah?”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Arturo said. “In fact, I’ve been thinking lately about just how tough changing is. I feel as though I’m trying to build a whole new person out of the salvageable parts of the old person and new parts I discover as I go. Some things fit, others do not. It’s confusing at times, and frightening… and lonely, though less so in this moment.”

Xiulan nodded knowingly. “I can’t even begin to imagine what it’s like for you; I only had to repair my relationship with my father through which we both changed, and that was no easy task, but at least we had a foundation to work off of, and we had each other. I don’t envy the challenge ahead of you. I found what helped me was to keep busy, but also to find a place or a task where everything unimportant just kinda falls away. For me, that was doing forms with my dad out in the fields; it helped bring us together, but it also saved me from worrying over every little thing bothering me because in that calm and stillness within, it all just fell away and it was like I could finally breathe. It was in those moments where I discovered who I really was.”

“Yes!” Arturo said. “The forms I learned, of course, are different than yours, but I experience that same calm when practicing. Going through the drills, especially with a weapon in my hand, feeling my body flow through the motions, attack, parry, counter, having the weapon become an extension of my hand, it almost becomes a dance and, well, I can lose myself for hours in such exercise and when I am done, the world seems more… manageable. I’ve found a place I can practice, at least I can solo with my weapons and go through solo forms of Abrazare, our open hand style. I’ve been training there a bit. It has eased my mind when I get impatient with my progress.”

“That calm is the core of the discipline my father taught; when fighting, you can’t let ego guide your hand.” Xiulan gave a half laugh with a lopsided grin. “I know that I probably seemed like nothing but ego during the fight at the bakery, but that discipline was still there, it was merely a conscious choice to enjoy the fight. Thankfully, my father recognized this in me and taught me the forms that denoted my mastery of our style. My point is, to master your skills, you must master yourself and embrace this stillness. At least that was how I was taught.”

“I was taught the same way,” Arturo replied. “I just hadn’t realized until I came here how important that calm at the center of the storm was to other parts of my life.” Arturo finished the last of the liquor in his bottle. “I can practice certain forms and freestyle work alone, but it would be helpful to find a partner at some point, even if I have to train them myself.”

“Maybe tomorrow I can show you around; I know a few places where you might find some people willing to spar with you, and I can help from time to time, but I keep really weird hours, so I definitely couldn’t work with you everytime you wanted to spar,” Xiulan offered.

Arturo smiled, but said nothing that would betray his joy at the idea of spending time with Xiulan. “Excellent,” he said. “As I said, I have the day off. I’m assuming you’re going to sleep in? Perhaps tomorrow afternoon sometime?”

“We’ll see,” Xiulan teased with a coy grin, and before either of them could say anything more, there was a notification from her encyclopedia. Digging the device out of her coat pocket and setting it on his chest where she could run her fingers over the device, she checked the notification and her expression fell. “I gotta go,” she said in a dull tone, then pocketed her encyclopedia and felt around for her cane.

The moment Arturo realized what Xiulan was looking for he sat up, grabbed her cane. He almost handed it to her, then he remembered she couldn’t see. “Here,” he said, placing it in her hand. “Is everything alright?”

“No, not even the littlest bit… might have to kill someone tonight,” Xiulan said as she stood and regained her bearings. “Uhhh, by kill I mean fire…” She stood there awkwardly for a moment, then started to walk away without saying goodbye.

“Wait, I could escort you wherever you’re headed,” Arturo said. “Not that you can’t take care of yourself. Otherwise, goodnight and thank you for sharing more of yourself with me. This was a very enjoyable evening.”

Arturo had no idea if he was saying the right things. He’d never met anyone like Xiulan. He wasn’t sure what to say and do around her. The gentlemanly thing to do would be to escort her home, and Arturo did consider himself a gentleman. And, to be honest, he would enjoy escorting her home. Not to bed her, though that was still on his mind, but to simply spend just a little more time in her presence. But Xiulan was a very independent person and might take offense at his offer, which is why he didn’t insist or push the issue.

Xiulan stopped, only momentarily; she took no offense from his offer, but she didn’t want him asking any questions. “I’m alright, just going to my apartment,” she clarified, then took a few more steps, only to pause once again. “Thanks,” she said simply, then continued on her way.

Arturo watched Xiulan walk away. She was remarkably graceful for someone who couldn’t see where they were going. Once she was out of sight, he grinned from ear to ear and did a backflip. He felt happier than he had since leaving Osiris. He put on his hat and picked up his sword cane and walked to his own small apartment, whistling a happy tune, a noticeable spring in his step.