simplestgift | Thirty-One Bells: [Action/Written]

[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.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Not hitting me because we're friends isn't the same thing as not hitting me because I'm a woman.

It's both. [He swallows.] The only woman I ever hit was trying to kill me.

...and if you hadn't hit her, I would've hit you again.

[Which is to say, Amelia approves of Archie defending himself.]

Alright. Since that isn't going to happen, I guess I can let it go. You should at least try and block next time though. You're lucky you didn't bleed.

[Judging from the angry welt on his face, he's going to bruise. But he shrugs.]

We're taught not to harm a woman. Any man taught otherwise is a coward and a scoundrel at the very least, as women are scarcely taught to defend themselves.

[He can't quite meet her eyes, like he's ashamed of his own time period, for once.]

[Amelia's almost harsh in her reply--almost, except she sees how Archie can't look her head on. It makes her think for a second, more carefully pick her words.]

I had to learn. My mom died when I was a kid, and my father--[Her expression turns hard for a second, and she shakes her head quickly. That thought can go unsaid.]

No one was going to help me. Women get taken advantage of plenty where I'm from, unless they're strong enough to take care of themselves. And I decided to be a bounty hunter on top of that. So I figured it out.

[He nods, speaking softly.] This...notion, of protecting women, in my world...it only works if every man would rather protect them than harm them. All the same, it is men who teach women to be helpless, so we can hardly criticize them when they behave as such, nor congratulate ourselves for being different from them.

[Even as he says it, Amelia's having to hold back an urge to scoff--which she does. Mostly.]

Your notion sounds doomed to fail.

[But then she's looking away again, thinking of something else. Something that'd come much more recently.]

But not all of it is bad. You were--good to me. Back when...

[She makes a vague motion with her hand. Him, to her. And silently she hopes he knows what it means without her having to say it, because her cheeks are already starting to feel hot.]

[He clears his throat, feeling the awkwardness.] Not every man shares the same notion.

I know.

Not every man is like the ones I'm used to either. It's weird.

[Not in a bad way. But very different.]

Thirty-One Bells: [Action/Written]

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