simplestgift | Thirty Bells: [Action/Written]

[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.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Oh, Jack. You made him laugh. What a gift.]

I met one Major Sharpe today. He said you have been introduced already.

Sharpe! Aye! I took a liking to him, actually, even though he were looking a bit too longingly at Buffy down the pub. Sharpe's alright.

I like him.

I wasn't aware you and the admiral were living together.

He stalks about upstairs, I stalk about downstairs. [And insulting passive-aggressive notes were left everywhere.]

And little Kate still stalks about the attic?

Erm...Kennedy, she DOES, mate, but...I haven't heard or seen her, lately. She hasn't been down to breakfast. [Jack sounds very unsure; there is a bit of worry in his voice as well. He doesn't think she's been sent home because her things are still there.]

[Damn you, Jack. Now even if he keeps writing back, he'll seem off. His voice sounds very tired and a little tight, but that's all.]

Has she been kidnapped?

Maybe, but if she has I haven't heard the droids about. It might have happened in the village...or the forest. I'll...search for her. Or. Compass, I suppose...

That compass of yours...I don't think you've ever said exactly what it does.

It's a special compass, lad. Very, very special. That compass points to what a man wants most. Magic, like.

Does it work?

If a man is decisive in his brain? Always! That's the magic of it.

Well then, if you want to find Kate, what if you want something else even more? Doesn't that interfere?

Aye; there, as they say, is the rub. It sometimes takes a deal of concentration. And it helps if I have a bottle of rum already in hand, actually...

[Archie knows an invitation when he hears one. Any other time in the world, he'd leap at the chance to go pooka-hunting with Jack and his magic compass. Now, he remains silent.]

So........right. [Maybe he hadn't made the invitation obvious enough. This was Kennedy, after all; he didn't understand Pig Latin.] Ahem: you want to find a heading with me?

[The same silence. He's thinking about how to refuse as tactfully as possible and in a way that doesn't arouse Jack's curiosity.]

[Oh, God -- how could he have been such a lummox?]

Bugger -- Kennedy -- I get it. You haven't been with her in days and days. Just -- right. I'll have a look round myself, shall I?

[That makes him curious. His voice is low, unsteady, and distant.]

Been with whom?

[Too late. Dammit, he should have just said yes, that was it.]

Edited 2012-03-19 01:54 (UTC)

Elizabeth!

[A slow blink.

Elizabeth.

It's a joy and a pain to think of the name. Beautiful, amazing Elizabeth. She'd never judge him, but she wouldn't hesitate to do whatever she deemed best for him, up to and including telling Horatio about this.

What is he missing?]

Have you seen her today?

Nah, not today. [Jack hasn't noticed any slow-moments with Kennedy. He is too preoccupied with his compass, which he is holding in the palm of his hand -- and which is spinning uncontrollably. This means Katie is not, at present, in the barrier. Bugger.]

Did she tell you, then?

Hmmmm? [That snaps him out of it.] Tell me what? [So, no, apparently.]

Nothing.

[Kept one secret, blew another.]

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