Thirty-One Bells: [Action/Written]

[simplestgift]

[It’s been over a month since Archie Kennedy died and had his worst fears realized.

It’s been over a month since his first seizure in almost eight years.

Ever since, he has barely left the house, barely spoken to anyone. But last night, he opened the window before falling asleep. Somehow, it made all the difference.

In the prison at Ferrol, it had been a drink of water, soothing his parched mouth and throat and letting him sleep easier so he woke hungry. Eating strengthened him, and he slept even better after breakfast, waking with the strength to live the rest of the day. Little by little, small things, and most of all Horatio, had coaxed him back into health and the belief that things can be good again.

Today, it’s the sun and a light breeze waking him after a long sleep. Fresh spring air and the promise of warm light make him want to leave the house at last. So after showering, shaving, and trimming his hair, he dresses in something decidedly civilian but still native to his period and steps outside.

Anyone who sees him as he wanders the village, if they knew him before, will notice he has lost a good ten or fifteen pounds in the last month, and is pale as a ghost. Others might see how loosely his clothing fits him. Provided no one intercepts him and makes him eat first, he starts at Seventh Heaven with a hearty breakfast platter, regaining his appetite as he replenishes the nutrients in his body. Feeling much better, he heads to the barracks for some shooting practice, then his own backyard to try to get back in shape with swordplay. The drills Jack taught him are even more exhausting now than they were when he first started, but the exercise feels good for about half an hour.

After another shower and a quick library trip, by which point he has reached a somewhat manic state (he’ll be going back and forth between manic and depressive in the months to come), he walks out of the grocery store with what seems to be enough food to feed Kent (or possibly Rhode Island, if you’re American). He then spends the rest of the afternoon cooking up a Proper British Dinner on board the Britannia the way Jack Aubrey used to do. A simple message alerts his housemates, James Norrington, and, as an afterthought, Richard Sharpe, to dinner in the captain’s cabin right around four o’clock, promising wine, cider, and brandy, steak and turnip pie (but not for you, William), salmagundi, lobster, spinage toasts, a shoulder of beef, asparagus, mushroom catsup (which resembles Worcestershire sauce), a spiced steamed pudding, and peach tarts with heavy cream. The leftovers, he will take to Jack Sparrow at his house.

Boy needed a calling. This may as well be it.

After cleaning up and washing the dishes and an impromptu nap in the grass behind his house with an open book on his chest, he thinks he has finally worked up the courage to visit Jilly at House 7 and Buffy at Good Spirits and write a message to Amelia McFly to meet him somewhere. Time to come clean about some things. Telling Horatio about recent events lifted a huge weight from his chest, so maybe telling everyone else will enable him to fly.

Lastly, he writes a message to Elizabeth Swann to meet him behind house 36 and to wear something comfortable. When she arrives, there will be a campfire in the backyard, and Archie will have a bottle of whisky and makings for s’mores.

Feel free to run into him at any point during the day. Housemates can catch him in the morning and late at night as well as at dinner.]

Comments

[simplestgift]

A nervous nod.

[herotypical]

"I never knew you had..."

Buffy shook her head. "It doesn't matter. Knowing or not knowing doesn't matter. Knowing now, though? Much more...mattery.

Are they often?"

[simplestgift]

"It depends. Something has to happen first, like pulling a trigger."

[herotypical]

"H-how can I avoid it?"

I don't want to pull your trigger.

[simplestgift]

"I don't think you have anything to worry about."

[herotypical]

"...That's the thing the Hollywood hero says right before there's a whole lot of something to worry about."

[simplestgift]

"Buffy, the...well. Simpson caused them, before. Grell causes them. As I said, I don't think you have anything to worry about."

[herotypical]

"Until one of these days a Shift turns me into an evil psychobitch oh wait that just happened..."

Buffy breathed out. Medical problems were never a thing she handled with grace. They worried her. She'd crumbled under the weight of not being able to help her mother with her own non-supernatural condition.

And they scared her because she could never fix them. There were no spells to do or bad guys to pummel and she reached for Archie's hand once again.

"If Bones was still..."

[simplestgift]

"Three more months." He takes her hand with a sigh. "It's more specific than that, Buffy. I was chased by your vampire in the woods and never had a fit from it. Dunno if I can explain it."

[herotypical]

Her eyes widened.

"Drusilla chased you?"

Of course, she wouldn't have had a chance to hear about this until now. Shifts and missions and her own efforts against the vamp.

[simplestgift]

Was that a squirm? That was a little squirm.

"She had...notions that disagreed with me."

Is it a compliment or an insult when a vampire wants to turn you?

wow i lost this notif somehow sorry.

[herotypical]

"...They always do. It's like some sort of benchmark for being undead and creepy."

1/2

[simplestgift]

"Well, I could only be so frightened of her, knowing you would..."

He hesitates.

Done

[simplestgift]

"You would have ended it had she succeeded, wouldn't you?"

1/??

[herotypical]

"Hmm?" She looked up at him. Head tilted. "Succeeded at...?"

2/3

[herotypical]

Notions. Successes. Vampires. Creepy, creepy undead. He was asking if she would slay him should he ever have been turned. The question sent her stomach into tight, unhappy knots. Buffy's one free hand scrubbed across her face. Chasing tears that certainly did not exist.

She thought about staking Ford, back home. About staking Andrew here. And now being asked whether she would stake Archie just moments after learning that he had recently re-died.

That was a lot of unspent, hypothetical grief for even her heart.

done

[herotypical]

But that was what she was here for. It was what she had always done. She took the love and the pain and the tangles in her gut and shored them up into a kind of strength. An internal tower of certainty.

"I'd make sure you couldn't hurt anyone. If that means putting a s-stake in your heart? I can do that. I would do that. Have done that. Not in your heart, specifically. And I guess it wouldn't have to be a stake to the heart it could also be deca--"

Buffy's mouth snapped shut. "You can depend on me."

[simplestgift]

He nods somewhat nervously. "Good. I...thought so, at the time, and it helped."

[herotypical]

She stammered: "I mean, i-it's what I'm good at. Right? Buffy Summers, purpose-built for slaying."

A beat. "She didn't, uhm...say anything that might've led you to believe she's staying anywhere in particular, did she?"

[simplestgift]

He shakes his head.

[herotypical]

"Figuring out that it's Drusilla..." Buffy shrugged. This topic allowed her to collect some composure. This was her element. "She's not the worst vamp we could've gotten but she...used to run with a pretty bad crowd. Before they..." Died. Got souls. Fell in love with Buffy Summers.

"I haven't been able to find where she's hiding out during the days, yet. D-did she hurt you?"

[simplestgift]

He shakes his head again. "Not a scratch."

[herotypical]

"Then you're lucky. I got quite a few. Scratches."

She waggled an arm at him. "All healed up by now, of course. But her nails are like knives."

[simplestgift]

"I run very fast." He still scans her arm to make sure she's telling the truth. She seems fine.

[herotypical]

"And Drusilla's never been much of a runner. Most of her time in Sunnydale was spent being looked after by...other vamps. The fact that she's here alone is probably our biggest asset."