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

Entry tags:

Thirty-Six Bells: [Written/Action]

[Written:]

In light of my new duties as first lieutenant of the LES Britannia, impending matrimony, and being bloody terrible at running a foodhouse, I shall soon retire as the owner of Cloud Nine. I'd like to continue to work a few shifts, of course, but the club will need new management. Which brave soul will shoulder the task?

-A. Kennedy

[Action only: He is enjoying the last night of the voyage, simply meditating upon the lovely roll of the ship beneath him. It's chilly out, and he can see his breath, but he doesn't mind, wrapped up tightly in his heavy wool greatcoat. Softly he sings a song swallowed by the night, evidenced mainly by the mist of it in the air around his lips.]

The maiden, oh, the maiden oh.
The sailor loves the maiden, oh!
So early in the morning,
The sailor loves the maiden, oh!
A maid that is young,
A maid that is fair,
A maid that is kind and pleasant, oh,
So early in the morning,
The sailor loves the maiden, oh!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Dawn never seemed unhappy to me. [And therefore it cannot be true.] Was over the moon about you, you daft sailor!

Elizabeth, now -- she's a girl what knows what she wants. Knows it and grabs it.

And despite my best efforts to shake her off, never lets go. I'm the luckiest man alive. [A beat.] Alive-ish.

You're as alive as myself, Kennedy. Just not so lucky. Oi: did you know, mate, that on your wedding night, the number of times you belch equals the number of little Kennedys what will be running about someday?

Don't drink TOO much champagne, eh?

[Jack has entirely made up this tradition but has come to believe in it wholeheartedly.]

[Success. Jack gets a chuckle out of him.]

God, Jack. Children in this place.

Eh. Children, eh? A sort of immortality, right there.

[Lovely golden curls. Or were they dark curls? Sometimes they were.]

Yes. Doomed to go mad. And at any moment, orphaned.

[A gaggle of golden-haired children with big wings, capable of flight but incapable of escaping.]

Oi -- we don't know that for certain, mad! We don't know for certain! Sometimes children aren't mad! Sometimes they don't....

[End up like their parents.]

Do you really think it'd be a good idea? As badly as I want them, Jack...

Buffy doesn't. [That's a cagey answer.] She drinks a tea, you know. The tea keeps the babies away.

I suppose for yourself? It's not my business what sort of idea it is.

[And now he regrets bringing it up. Because, really, it's a lovely fantasy, but how tenable is it here?]

Has she...shared this tea with Elizabeth?

Mmmmm......dunno! Have you asked her? [he means Elizabeth.]

That isn't at all invasive, is it?

Well you've got to TALK about such things, haven't you?

I don't know! Women like keeping such things to themselves, don't they?

......Not Buffy.

First off, I need to know as little about that as possible. Second, Elizabeth isn't Buffy. We haven't discussed any such thing.

You know, lad? You should feel that out for yourself, then. My lady isn't like other ladies. More than happy to let me know how very much she doesn't want them, Buffy is. But maybe your lady will feel differentlike?

...I think she does. But...but this place, Jack.

How's this, Kennedy? If you and your beloved have a bitty baby? I'll play fairy godpirate. Go on missions, savvy? Save up points. All the points.

He'll never want for points, bitty thing. You'll never have to worry.

[That was a guarantee -- nothing perfect, but at least enough to keep Kennedy's lads and lasses out of drafts and such. Protect them. He could offer that much.

A wedding gift, maybe. Or a gift for life.]

Will points stop him from going mad?

[Assuming the baby is a boy, of course. Doesn't Wolfwood have a baby? Does he go frantic about this sort of thing?]

[He can only deal with one devil at a time, really. And madness is a devil that Jack has dealt with all his life, considering the state of his mother and grandmother.]

We only know what we're told. We don't...we don't know that for certain.

The Third Party would seem evidence enough.

Or so we're allowed to think. Either way, Kennedy -- you'd best sound out Elizabeth on it all sooner rather than later.

...I know. I believe the question would be "when" more than anything, if we've a choice about it.

I'm...turning one year older soon, me. [Tomorrow, actually.] Gets a man thinking about his progeny. 'Bout posterity and carrying on and so forth.

[voice]

[voice]

[voice]

[voice]

[voice]

[voice]

[voice]

[voice]

[voice]

[voice]

[voice]

[voice]

[voice]

[voice]

[voice]

[voice]

[voice]

[voice]

[voice]

[voice]

[voice]

[voice]

[voice]

[voice]

[voice]