simplestgift | Twenty-Nine Bells: [Action/Voice/Written] FORWARD-DATED to the 19th and 20th

[Today, Archie is on the beach. He has a couple of homemade instruments with him that might look odd to someone who isn’t a sailor—a quadrant and a sextant. He also has a gigantic container, the type one might bring on picnics with lots of family, with some drink or another inside. Spread out on the dock is a tattered blanket, two large books lying open, and scattered forgotten foodstuffs and folded blankets. The one object which never leaves his hand is a watch.

Anyone with any sailing experience would see, when he’s using the tools, that he’s determining the sun’s altitude at varying times of the day, probably as a way to check his current latitude. He’s especially focused when the sun is at its zenith. He jots down observations and calculations in a small notebook.

Usually an experienced lieutenant wouldn’t sweat this much over a routine, but Kennedy always did this as little as he could even back home after moving from the midshipmen’s berth to the ward room, and hasn’t done it since coming to Luceti over a year ago. As the Britannia’s undisputed first lieutenant, however, he is suddenly worried he won’t be able to do this at all after so little practice. Therefore, he has to prove he can do this, as much as he hates it. Always he checks his watch, measuring the time throughout the day and night. This is why he brought so much coffee.

At around six in the evening, when he’s finished plotting his position upon the planet or given up on it, he’ll send out a spoken message.]

[To Elizabeth Swann; filtered 78%]

Elizabeth? The sun is about to set. Would you like to meet me at the docks?

[The next morning, he jots down his findings on the journal network. First is a set of numbers schoolkids and navigators could recognize as latitude and longitude. Then:]

A solar day here is the same length as one on Earth. On the other hand, our position doesn’t correspond with anything that would make sense on Earth. At least, not to my reckoning. I plotted it while standing on the beach, where there used to be a desert till it was flooded. Nevertheless, aren’t all planets possessing of different solar and lunar days? Why should this one correspond exactly with the one I’m from?

Have I done something wrong?

Besides assume the existence of Greenwich upon this planet, of course. Perhaps Luceti should be reckoned the prime meridian when we make further observations about the longitude of other locations?

[There is no way to determine whether or not the Barrier provides too much refraction of light for the measurements to be accurate, either--something he hasn't really considered, even though he's plenty aware of the phenomenon.]

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He turns the moment her feet sound on the wood. By the time she speaks, he is nearly to her already, reaching out both hands for hers. He doesn't tell her how hard it's been to keep still, knowing she was coming.

She takes his hands, casting her eyes down at the dock before looking at his bright smile.

"What, may I ask, is the occasion for your invitation? Not that I require one."

"I wanted to see you." Especially after, ugh, this last week. "And...perhaps the weather could be better for it, but I've packed us something to eat. I've been plotting our position all day and would like a little company, if...if you like, at any rate. Just for a little while. I must stay up all night, I'm afraid."

And he's turned into a babbling schoolboy around her again.

She gives his hands a small squeeze. "I am honoured to be your choice for company, and quite impressed at your preparations for the evening. Do tell me if I might help you with your plotting, and perhaps I may learn something more."

She beams.

"I'd be happy to teach you!" He tugs her gently to sit on the blanket. "While there's still light, anyway, which isn't long. Perhaps we should make it lessons. Midshipmen have them. I always hated them."

Really, any excuse to spend more time with her.

"Although first, I...have something for you."

She follows his lead and sits, not so quick to part with one of his hands just yet. She nearly said something about the idea of lessons, about how during her life she had been taught some things about the stars and using them for navigational purposes. Though her tutelage in the heavens was not a midshipman's!

She doesn't; the thought is suddenly gone with the mention of... a gift, perhaps?

"Oh?" Her eyebrows quirk upwards.

He sits with her, glad she's still holding his left hand in her right, as it suits his purpose perfectly. He slips his right hand into a basket and draws out something small.

"Just...just a little fairing. I've heard you speak so often of the Black Pearl, and I thought...well. She sounds like your home, and I wish she could be here with you. And well, so you might think of her..."

Without finishing, he slips a black pearl and silver ring on her finger, one he purchased with points earned from a mission. He might have chosen gold to suit her better, but silver made him think more of the sea, and of the grey fog of the English Channel, while the winding of it was like seaweed clinging to the pearl.

Edited 2012-03-01 03:43 (UTC)

Elizabeth's eyes are suddenly drawn to the gentle slide she feels run up one of her fingers. They grow wide when they behold the ring. It's elegant, and lovely, the pearl dark and yet there is the pale shimmer of the gem. The pearl floats on her finger, held buoyant by the silver which weaves a trail of diamonds.

She gasps, her mouth held open in a way that she knows is far less than ladylike but she can hardly even speak.

A reminder of 'home', a beautiful ring, an astoundingly generous gentleman...

It is a moment before she can finds words, and all her breath rushes out with them.

"It's beautiful..."

She can only tear her eyes away from it to look up at him, taken aback.

Oh, that was an even better face than he'd hoped for! His own splits into a smile of relief and joy. He still holds her right hand, raised, displaying the ring.

"You like it?"

"Oh Archie, I don't know what to say! I love it!" Her hand slightly turns in his grasp, the sunset's rays setting it all aglitter as she looks at it again.

"Far more than a fairing, sir!" She says the sir a bit teasingly, her voice bubbling up with shocked laughter.

He chuckles a little. Maybe it's a bit much to be called a fairing, yes. He watches her enjoy the ring, hands clasped behind his back.

Her voice becomes soft, the romance of the gesture not lost on her in the least. They both seem to know what it would mean in their time, and yet circumstances have the two seafarers in a mindset far more modern than they. Still, Elizabeth cannot help but think, at least for a moment, of this little pocket in time made comfortable and sweet by Archie Kennedy. It warms her.

Rather than finding something to say, she boldly wraps her arms around him in a hasty embrace. What better way to thank him than by wrapping her arms about him and giving a bit of a squeeze?

He wraps his arms around her and holds tight. Now that she's initiated it, he is more than willing, feeling her gently-curving body against his, the tender flutter of a heartbeat belying the strength of the heart. How delicate are her bones! He could keep her in the circle of his arms for ever and not add the slimmest gossamer thread of protection, however he may wish it. But he could hold her, a man and a woman, dear friends and lovers in the old-fashioned sense.

He could profess to love her this moment and it wouldn't be a lie. It would just be pale in comparison to how he'll feel--or really, grow might be a better word--a year from now.

If they have a year.

It is with a great amount of reluctance that she pulls away, her cheeks tinged pink and eyes still sparkling with delight.

"Thank you."

The sun was swiftly setting, and Elizabeth cast a look toward its descent. "Everything is so beautiful this night."

He doesn't stop looking at her. "Yes."

A flick of the eyes towards him and she knows he had not meant the sunset, or the fine weather, or the gentle roll of the sea. She smiles, looking down at her dress and pleats it between her fingers. Such easy flattery from her Lieutenant.

"Perhaps the night will remain so for your task."

"I do hope so, my Lady Pirate."

"Perhaps, as yours, you would be so willing to teach me what it is you plan to do with the stars."

She pushes against the dock, shifting herself closer to him. Intrigued, flirtatious.

"Sit with me and we may begin."

She does so, ever close, ever eager. Her shoulder brushes his. She finds him handsome, no less so than any other day but more so in this light. Archie's eyes and demeanour are marked in her mind for the way he feels beside her. She will want to remember it.

Tutelage has never made for giddy feelings like this.

Twenty-Nine Bells: [Action/Voice/Written] FORWARD-DATED to the 19th and 20th

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