Three Bells: [WRITTEN] - New Horizons in Lit Appreciation

[simplestgift]

They have everything Shakespeare ever wrote in the library.  Everything!  It's a fountain of gold.  I could spend days here.  I'd sleep here if they'd let me.  I don't think I've ever been happier.  And there's no theatre group here?  None?  Do people here not realize what they have?  What kind of a world is this?

In case anyone asks, I'll be in the library for the rest of my life.

[Or really just the rest of the day.   At some point he'll have to come up for air and grab something to eat at the 7th Heaven, where he'll be buried in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.  It'll be dark before he goes home, carrying only a single book.]

Comments

[written]

[simplestgift]

I don't know, Buffy. I died because someone wanted to protect the good name of a mad captain. Now that I have it all back, I'm not sure I want to lose it in the same way by joining a force. I did speak with the captain of the Blue Rogues, and he seemed a decent man, but many of them do at first.

[written]

[herotypical]

Well, you haven't been here for even a month yet. No need to jump.

[written]

[simplestgift]

[A pause as it occurs to him that jumping was one of those things Horatio was always around to keep him from doing.]

You're right. Let me know what you need.

[written]

[herotypical]

Be careful. Give a girl an inch and she'll take a mile -- next I'll be calling you up and begging you to change a lightbulb for me.

[ says the girl with the superpowers and the familiarity with electricity. ]

[written]

[simplestgift]

[Again, the response doesn't come immediately.]

Light bulbs need to be changed?

[This is clearly worrying news.]

[written]

[herotypical]

They only last so long before they burn out.

[written]

[simplestgift]

Then I think it more likely that I will be begging you to change a lightbulb for me.

[He's a veteran of the French Revolutionary Wars and an ex-POW, but this...this...is intimidating.]

[written]

[herotypical]

And I just might give in as long as you promise to make no funny remarks about my height.

[written]

[simplestgift]

[There's another pause.]

None at all?

[written]

[herotypical]

You'd be sensitive too if you were this vertically challenged.

[written]

[simplestgift]

[Another pause. Every so often, a dot appears, as if he's placed the pen down hesitantly, then changed his mind.]

Very well, but if I die of utter, broken despair in a few months because I've no one to make fun of, I hope you will understand who is to blame and feel properly crushed by the weight of your guilt.

[written]

[herotypical]

[ by comparison, buffy's responses are quick and scribbled. she generally dislikes written conversations: ] A whole village of people and I'm the only one who can fulfill that part? Lame.

[written]

[simplestgift]

Always.

[written]

[herotypical]

Think about it -- do you really want to tease the girl who pours your beers?

[written]

[simplestgift]

Can I answer that in a way that won't earn a socking?

[written]

[herotypical]

You can certainly try to.

[written]

[simplestgift]

[More hesitation.]

No?

[written]

[herotypical]

I'm not going to hit you, Archie. Cool your worry jets.

[ unless of course you hurt dawn. then she might hit you three times. ]

[written]

[simplestgift]

Then I got the right answer?

[written]

[herotypical]

You make it sound like a pop quiz! Also, how did you ye olde types manage it in the pre-phone days. All this handwriting is giving me a cramp.

[written]

[simplestgift]

Then switch to voice. It comes a bit easier to someone as ancient and obsolete as I am to write notes instead of talking to something that isn't even alive. And to answer your question, we don't write letters constantly.

[written]

[herotypical]

[ and because now this feels like a challenge, she keeps writing. ]

Ancient =/= obsolete, Archie. But that's okay -- at least your writing is neat.

[written]

[simplestgift]

It comes with practice, which seems to be in short supply in your time.

Now, back to the part where I'm ancient.

[written]

[herotypical]

Okay, so maybe I've met ancienter.

[written]

[simplestgift]

I'm not quite twenty-six!