Thirty Bells: [Action/Written]

[simplestgift]

[Archie Kennedy opens his eyes with his back against something hard, his wings spread out over solidness even as he grows aware of the prickle of grass underneath him. He is curled up on his side, wearing new feather trousers and shivering horribly. He hugs himself for warmth, and movement brings the rain to his attention. He is soaked.

My God, what did I lose? His hand grasps for the St. Michael pendant Horatio gave him for his birthday last year, only to find empty air.

He left it at home.

His wings twitch, and he twists to find himself pressed against a tall rock, probably near one of the lakes. His disorientation in full swing, he doesn’t even bother to try to figure out which lake it is. He sits up, waits for the world to stop whirling, and takes a shaky, hasty inventory.

Arms and legs. Nose and ears and eyes. Touch, taste, smell, sight, hearing. Ten fingers, ten toes, a wild mass of blond hair unbound and sticking to his damp neck and forehead.

What did he lose?

Still trembling, he curls against the rock and tries breathing for a bit.

Memories, maybe? Any holes in his memory? How is he to know?

Horatio. He remembers Horatio, thank God. Buffy, Jilly, Jack, Leonard, Elizabeth. Father is Finley Kennedy, mother is Elspeth, siblings Finley, Neil, and Abigail. His grandfather pushed him into the Navy. His first ship was the Swiftsure. Is everything important there?

Off on a mission, and now he's back as if he'd never left. Nothing hurts. The only pain now is in finding out what he paid to come back to life. And in telling…

No. He is not going to tell Horatio about another instance where he wasn’t able to protect him, especially from death. He can’t call for help, because anyone who finds him in this state will know, and no one can know.

His wings shiver, shaking off water, then wrap around his body as well as they can. He’s always so inclined to forget they exist, but they do help to stave off the rain and warm him a little. Then, weakly, his knees threatening to buckle under him, he stands up. It’s a long walk home, and he has to make it alone.

The next two hours pass in a haze as he finds the road and follows it, limiting himself to two thoughts every quarter-hour if he can help it. After a while, he doesn’t feel especially cold anymore, which he vaguely knows from his first appearance in Luceti is a bad sign. Sheltering in the tree village won’t help him get dry when he’s already soaked, so he continues at the quickest pace he can manage. It’d be even worse to die of hypothermia just after coming back from the dead.

In the village, he steals quietly toward the clothes shop, shivering hard and pale as a ghost.

It’s going to have to be a matter of putting on the face again. No one can suspect something is wrong. Those who aren’t scornful will be compassionate, and he doesn’t think he can take compassion right now.

The door to house 36 opens very, very quietly, and the lieutenant slips inside as if he doesn’t want anyone to know he’s there. As quickly as he can, he’ll find the St. Michael pendant and slip it on.

It takes some time, but in the evening, over a cup of tea in the tea shop, he writes on the journals, shortly:]

I’m back from my mission.

-AK

[At night, he goes out for a drink. He doesn't make it to Good Spirits.]

[OOC: First chronological tag goes to Amelia, last to John Watson.]

Comments

[greenjacketed]

[ even still... ] You're taking it a damn sight better than I did. Better than I still am.

[ at least, his casual treatment of timeline differences seems to say so. ]

[simplestgift]

Maybe because I expect to wake up any moment. [There's a slight tremor to his voice he can't quite even out. He hopes Sharpe will think it's because he's still shivering.]

[greenjacketed]

A dream. Aye. [ harry dresden had talked him into that. ] Ain't the sort of thing I usually see as I sleep. But the scenery's nothing to complain about.

[simplestgift]

It isn't. [A relieved Archie raises the trousers in something like a salute.] Begging your pardon, Major.

[greenjacketed]

[ another rigid gesture with his hand. ]

Go get your kit on, Kennedy. [ it's a suggestion. not an order. after all, the army and the navy were two different beasts. but sharpe is just gruff and awkward enough that even suggestions sound a little bit like orders when he's not being outranked himself. ] You're dripping all over the damn floor.

[simplestgift]

Aye-aye, sir. At l-least it's not your floor, sir. [But Archie nods and ducks back into a dressing room, aiming to be behind the door before Sharpe has a chance to gripe at him for being cheeky.]

[greenjacketed]

[ being along offers sharpe the chance to laugh -- quietly and to himself. a shaking in his shoulders and an upturn in his lips.

never had a floor of my own, lieutenant. it's the sort of joke he could've made had he not just met the man today. as it was? he simply waited. the problem of the jacket set aside for now -- he was far more interested in finding someone from his own damned time.

when archie returns, sharpe's face will have gone back to a rigid neutrality. ]

[simplestgift]

[When Archie comes back out, he's rather surprised to see Sharpe waiting for him. When he thinks about it, though, and remembers the painful homesickness of his first days here, he relaxes. The sopping newfeather pants are discarded in a trash bin.]

Sir.

[greenjacketed]

As I'd said, Lieutenant...[ richard turns away from a clothing rack to address the sailor. ] I've been told of other Navy men in town. An Admiral and a Captain, at least.

[ he gives these specifics because he thinks the man would appreciate them. he would've appreciated any information that might have been from home...just as he's appreciating meeting kennedy. even if he's a little behind in the times. ] British, too.

[simplestgift]

You've not met them?

[greenjacketed]

Nah. Met a sailor by another trade instead. [ the pirate has caught the major's attention in a couple of ways. not least of all for ruining his imaginary chances with that pretty little barmaid. D: ]

[simplestgift]

Merchant?

[greenjacketed]

Pirate.

[simplestgift]

[So he's met one of the pirates. Could be Law or someone from his world, but chances are, it's Jack.]

What face should I be avoiding?

[greenjacketed]

A whiskered one. [ coming from the british army whose ranks are swelled with thieves and killers (both boxes sharpe can tick), he isn't so perturbed by sparrow's pirate status. ]

Goes by Sparrow. [ and then without batting a lid: ] Lives with the Admiral, apparently.

[simplestgift]

[Hunh. Archie didn't know Norrington is living with Jack now. He wishes them joy of each other.

Then, he gets a very bad idea. Very bad. He knows it's a bad idea just before his mouth speaks.]

Not...Captain Jack Sparrow? Who sacked Nassau without firing a shot?

[He tries to act properly awed, as if a legend has come to life. Then, a sudden laugh.]

You're pulling my leg, sir, very funny.

[He can sound so guileless sometimes.]

[greenjacketed]

No jest, Kennedy.

[ maybe these sailor folks know more about each other than he does. that makes sense. sure. still... ] But. Aye. Captain Jack Sparrow.

[ a beat. ] Nassau, you say?

[simplestgift]

Yes, Nassau. Every tale I've heard of it is different. But Jack Sparrow? Here?

[greenjacketed]

Here. [ he confirms. ] And here for a while, as he tells it.

[simplestgift]

Good God! [A disbelieving laugh.] I wonder if half the legends about him are true. Surely not those about him going head to head with Davy Jones himself, of course, but I'd like to meet him, and ask for his version of events.

[greenjacketed]

[ bloody hell. this whipper-snapper's just arrived and already knows more about the local folks than sharpe does. typical.

with a sniff: ] It's no strange feat, here. Being legendary. There's a man what claims to be Camelot's king.

[simplestgift]

[Now Archie's disbelief is genuine.] Who, Arthur? You can't be serious.

[greenjacketed]

He was serious. Him who told me.

[simplestgift]

King Arthur. Here. [He’s not sure what to do with that. Go find the lad and bow? Start fanboying? Did King Arthur even exist? If so, what does that mean for Archie as a military man?] Perhaps I was mistaken about serving no one at the moment.

[greenjacketed]

Seemed a strange sort. Didn't want to be scraped and bowed at.

[ and sharpe hadn't complained. ]