Looks like the printing press is jammed up again from the sound of it—and the sound of Nat yelling at her to get out of bed and fix the damn thing, but that's an everyday occurrence.
Lazily, Piper Wright swings her feet off of her bed, rubs the sleep from her eyes. A messy swipe or two through her hair, the rest can be covered up by her trusty ol' newsy. In one elegant motion, her signature red coat is off of her desk chair and draped over her arms. She briefly considers grabbing a cigarette from next to her terminal before deciding it's not worth it, Nora'll pick her up and she won't get the chance to really enjoy the cigs. And if she doesn't get here soon, then Piper can always come back later.
This cycle of hers is basically the same thing, over and over again. Piper's managed to find a somewhat comfortable routine to settle into since Nora came into her life, but even then there's always a few… issues, for lack of a better term, that need to be worked out. She flies down the stairs and when she stops at the bottom, the breath she takes is involuntary.
Not that she'd ever admit it to Nat, but when Piper gets a real good look at the state of the presses, she wonders how many caps she's gonna have to shell out to buy a replacement. Sure, the old girl can keep churning for a while yet, but Piper's not exactly in the business of losing a finger trying to get the paper to run smooth again. Not quite in the mood to rip her hair out trying to figure how to solve the jam without breaking the damn thing either.
"Wonder how close she is to kicking the bucket," Nat remarks, peeking out from behind the corner. There's something like a smug look of knowing plastered on her face, and what Piper wouldn't do to wipe it right off. "Jam aside, that motor's loud enough to raise the dead. Y'sure we're not gonna be replacing it?"
Piper shrugs nonchalantly. "I'll fix it in my downtime. She'll be clunkin' for a while yet!" A jovial hand extends to ruffle Nat's hair. Looking miffed and somewhat offended, Nat smooths her hair back down. Piper laughs, because for how insufferable her smartass of a sister can be, it's moments like this that she truly enjoys. "Welp, I'm headin' out for the day. You be good when I'm not here, alright? I know you've got a penchant for trouble, just like your old sis, but try to keep out of it. We'll be back before you know it! Remember to ask the Rodriguez family if you need anything."
She's not quite sure why she's leaving so early. It's not like Nora's here, and it's definitely not like Piper's waiting for her in particular or anything like that. Piper could use the extra few minutes chatting it up with Takahashi. Oh, maybe she'll grab an extra pack of gumdrops from Myrna—She's already got a few stuffed in her coat for herself, but Nora seems to love those the most. God, look at her, taking note of what Nora likes and what she doesn't. It's almost a little silly, isn't it? Romantic in the most pathetic of ways.
"Yeah, yeah," Nat responds a little belatedly, only after she was sure that her hair was back in its proper position. "I'm gonna get all these papers handed out just so you'll be motivated to fix it faster," she decides with a proud puff of her chest.
"I'd like to see you try, squirt." And with that parting note, Piper strolls out the door, not a single care in the world.
Diamond City first thing in the morning is kind of the same as Diamond City the rest of the time, Piper finds. Good ol' DC; a reporter's haven, a tourist's nightmare. She kicks a stray pebble down her path and stuffs her hands into her pocket. Maybe she should have picked up the cig from back in her room, now that she thinks about it. Not that it would have mattered, she realizes, because her lighter's somewhere up in her room too. Her thumb presses into the leathery material of her gloves thoughtlessly.
She's about to truck it back to her room, but then the inevitable happens. She's already got one foot in the door when Blue speaks up, amused, "I only just arrived and you're already trying to run away from me?"
"Oh, 'course I am! With all the stuff you're putting poor ol' me through," Piper responds, pulling a 180 to face Blue. She smiles a toothy grin and immediately decides the smoke can wait. To be fair, just about anything can wait in the face of Blue. "Speaking of, what's on today's agenda?"
Blue always seems to have a destination in mind—a little funny, considering Piper's not even 100% sure she can tell Diamond City's ups from its downs—and she motions along to Piper to start following her. "Got a couple of folks in trouble in the downtown area. Hm. Let's see, would you rather beat up super mutants or deck a couple of raiders in the face? Take your time, they're both very tantalizing offers."
Piper thinks about it with a grin. "Hm. Whatever's furthest away; let's walk."
It's the journeying that Piper finds herself enjoying the most. Just the two of them, with a quiet, scratchy little tune playing on Blue's wrist. Sometimes she listens to Diamond City Radio, and "for variety," she'd say with a grin, she might turn the radio to some classical tunes for a bit. And while all things never do, Classical Radio hardly lasts at all.
And sure, the music is great, but it's not Piper's favourite part of exploration. Hell, with all the kind of shit they pull, it couldn't even really come close. Piper likes to think it's the familiarity they share when they're travelling. Her and Blue, out on the road, busting up bloatflies and mucking up mole rats. Sounds like a dream, maybe even a little poetic.
In retrospect, it was kind of funny. Piper doesn't usually think that people can bond over killing things—or people, for that matter. But in the moment, Piper feels real, alive and powerful. With Nora, with Blue by her side, she's unstoppable.
It shows when she's pistol whipping a super mutant in one moment and finishing the deed with a bullet the next. An ugly yell booms from somewhere behind her, and Piper almost laughs when she dodges out of the way. She thinks the super mutants would be a lot better at fighting if they didn't telegraph every attack with a battle-charging yell, but Piper knows she can't really say anything either with her own fair share of scars. Scars that Nora likes to chastise her for, but scars that Piper wears proudly, a sign of her victories.
Another bullet lodges itself into yet another super mutant, and soon enough they've got the floor cleaned. Or, more appropriately, the water soaked. … With super mutant blood, that is.
"You don't think it was the mutants that messed with the supply, do you?" Piper asks, staring down at her fingers before she decides to wipe the sweat off her brow (because blood is decidedly worse to have on her face).
"It probably was," Blue replies with a long sigh, stretching out her limbs. She takes a moment to reload her gun, "Don't know why they'd need to stop the supply, though. Does it even really matter? Well, whatever, just prepare yourself for one hell of an asskicking once we get inside."
Blue's saying that only makes her more wary when they're inside the treatment plant. It's dead silent, and dead silence rarely means anything good when there's super mutants involved. Sure, Piper knows a lot of things, but the fact that super mutants are obnoxiously loud is just plain common knowledge.
When they descend, Piper suddenly understands. "Ah, fuck."
"Huh?"
"Mirelurks," Piper says with a face. She peers into the glass and makes out the scuttling forms underneath the water. Blue looks into the glass after her and nods in a vague form of understanding. "Real nasty critters. You ever get into a tussle with one of them?"
"God, wouldn't you know it." Blue steps away from the glass. "I was out with Cait once—" Piper knows Cait, though she can't exactly say that she's pleased with the fact that she's been getting out with Nora more often. She's not quite sure why, though a reason that she doesn't like is tossed around in the back of her mind. "—and we were in the middle of some excavation gig in Goodneighbor. Nasty is right; thought they'd cut me straight in half. Funny too, considering they were Nate's favourite snack before he, uh. Well… Point is, the hunter becomes the hunted and it was supposed to be funnier than it actually came out, swearsies."
Blue does this thing a lot, mentioning her husband (ex-husband? Piper isn't even really sure if she's allowed to make that call) and then instantly recoiling. Piper tries not to comment on it too much out aloud, simply nod like she doesn't notice anything and then pretend everything's all hunky-dory. It's not, obviously, but it's the least Piper can do, right?
"Haven't decided if I hate fighting these things more than I hate fighting super mutants," Piper says instead. It's easier to fill up the awkward spaces with anecdotal comments than it is to actually suffer through them.
"Super mutants that can swim. Now that's a scary thought," Blue remarks with the half-amused lilt that Piper has come to love so much. She smiles. "If we know what we're dealing with, at least we have an idea of how to move forward. How are you feeling?"
Piper examines her pistol. She looks to Blue, whose smile can even light up a run-down place like this. She reaches into her pocket and grabs a pack of gumdrops and drops them into Nora's hand. She winks, and that says enough.
Time really does fly when you're having fun. Or when you're killing mirelurks, but then again, Piper finds that both have a very similar meaning.
Blue groans when they step outside again. The sun's setting off in the distance, and Piper knows exactly why Blue is so apprehensive. She's mentioned it before, that she's never been good in the dark. Always more on edge, checking for the next thing that would startle her. Blue's as diurnal as they come. Piper used to make jokes about how she seems to be solar-powered, and although she stopped—Blue never seemed comfortable with them—she can't help but think there's more truth to those jokes than she thinks.
"I think I saw a few sleeping bags rolled out where the mutants were camping around," Piper says absentmindedly, holstering her weapon. There's some mirelurk blood that's caked on her skin, but considering the fact that a super mutant body is currently floating by them, Piper decides she'll wash up in a much cleaner body of water later. "If you don't mind sleeping in a place like this, that is."
"I'm pre-war, not a coward," Blue scoffs with mock offense. "I've slept in the Glowing Sea before, this can't be much worse than that."
"The Glowing Sea?" Piper repeats, incredulous. "Y'know what? The fact you made it to the actual, literal Crater of Atom is surprising on it's own, I don't know why I'm so shocked that you found a bed to sleep in. Really, I don't."
They climb up to observational tower (or what might have been one, if Piper felt that mutants had the ability to sit down and observe at all) and Nora slumps into one of the off-kilter chairs with a relieved groan. "Christ, sitting in one of these babies after hours of that really makes you appreciate chairs, doesn't it?"
Piper laughs. "Imagine how it's gonna feel when your ass is in bed." She gestures to the single, pitifully small sleeping bag that sits in the middle of the room. "This is as good as it's gonna get."
"I'm surprised you're not jumping at the opportunity to get into this ol' thing," Blue says, jutting her finger in the direction of it. "You don't mind if we sleep in shifts, do you?"
Piper decides she doesn't need the sleep. "Not at all. I've got some note taking stuff I wanna do anyways, so get some sleep."
The last thing that Piper hears from Nora is a grateful 'thank you' muttered under her breath, then the rustling of her climbing into the sleeping bag. She's out like a light, almost instantly. That's another thing that Piper can admire about her, how she works herself to the bone for good causes. Never stopping until she's at her absolute limit.
Piper's also very appreciative of how cute Nora looks in her sleep.
Well. Piper rams the pen she produced from her sleeve against her forehead. Not to be a mess or anything like that, but Nora does always look particularly cute. And look at her go, being the exact thing she had sought out not to be—a total blithering idiot. She watches the rise and fall of Nora's chest, even from where she sits and finds that when she wishes to write about today's experiences, she can't.
Journalists aren't supposed to get writer's block, so Piper figures she's distracted. Or tired. Or both, and considering the way things had been going for her, both is a pretty fair description of the situation. Piper leans over and grabs the chair that Blue'd been previously sitting in, arranging it into a makeshift chair. If she woke up and saw her, then Nora might be mad.
Personally, Piper's fine with it. She's slept in some pretty uncomfortable places (Diamond City jail comes to mind) and it's not like a row of chairs is gonna be any worse than a couch. A bony couch. A really uncomfortable, bony couch.
Piper finds a way to fall asleep anyways.