Seven Bells: [ACTION/WRITTEN] Hat Day.

[simplestgift]

[Citizens of Luceti may see Archie Kennedy wandering around with a new hat today. It looks a little like something a magician would pull a rabbit out of, but he seems to be enjoying it. He'll be around town today--the library and grocery store during the day, and Good Spirits in the evening. In the afternoon, he'll sit at the fountain to pen a few words.]

I believe morale might improve if we had some sort of goodbye ceremony for those who were returned home. Not a funeral, mind you, just an occasion to remember them, celebrate their return, and hope to join them soon. Perhaps once a month or so, for everyone who left during the month. It's the little things that help one cope, sometimes.

Also, who left a note under my door? I'm afraid I can't read it, or indeed tell if it was even meant for me. I live in Building One, in the first flat on the first floor.

Comments

[simplestgift]

[After a quiet, blinky moment, he opens his journal and passes it to her so she can read his new entry.]

[herotypical]

[ ...she reads. she smiles. ]

Bones and Scotty and me kinda did that. We lit this cake on fire and...that kinda doesn't sound nice at all but we said some words and it was very comforting.

[simplestgift]

Maybe it should become a tradition, then. [He takes the journal back, closing it carefully.] Not everyone has the chance to say goodbye.

[herotypical]

This was the second time Willow's been and left. I...it's kind of weird to get used to it.

[simplestgift]

...Would you rather she stayed away? [It's an honest question.]

[herotypical]

...Do I have to answer that? 'Cause I honestly don't know.

1/2

[simplestgift]

[A moment more of silence.]

2/2

[simplestgift]

Well. Perhaps you'll see her soon, on the correct side this time.

[herotypical]

Maybe. [ she isn't holding out much hope for that and not just because the thought of leaving and forgetting so many of these dearly loved people is painful. ]

Hey...we gotta rescue this conversation. I can't talk seriously in this hat.

[simplestgift]

[A chuckle.] Then never take it off.

[herotypical]

I'm not sure it'll go with all my outfits. Plus the vampires would just laugh and I really aim to inspire fear and terror, you know?

[simplestgift]

It would only require a shift in tactics. Speaking of, did you teach Dawn to fight?

[herotypical]

I might've had a hand in that. Plus, you know, experience.

[ she's playing it coy. come their last year in sunnydale, buffy was much more open with teaching dawn directly. ]

[simplestgift]

She's very good. [He speaks with a lot of admiration.]

[herotypical]

When she was younger, I was usually juggling patrol and looking after her. She picked stuff up. You kinda have to, where we're from.

[simplestgift]

I'm glad she knows how to defend herself. I always thought it backwards that women of my time were never taught that, then criticized for being fragile.

[herotypical]

Us Summers women are proud to redefine fragile.

[simplestgift]

Good. [At least, he's thought this way since he was about fourteen.] What is its new definition?

[herotypical]

...Pretty much the complete opposite of fragile, normally.

[simplestgift]

Then you've excised the word altogether. Sounds preferable to the opposite.

[herotypical]

Girl power. [ it might be a buzz-word that belongs in her century, but still. ]

[simplestgift]

[And it would sound almost oxymoronic in his, although women who took power had power.] Did I ever tell you about Catherine Cobham?

[herotypical]

...No?

[simplestgift]

Well. Horatio once had to ferry a very pushy duchess back to England. Unfortunately, on their way, they were captured and sent to a Spanish prison. Since the duchess was the only person on board who wasn't about to be a prisoner of war, he took a risk and entrusted her with dispatches he'd been told to put at the bottom of the sea if they were taken. She was so very flippant, always, but if she'd been found out, she'd have been hanged as a spy. To make matters worse, it was discovered that she wasn't a duchess at all, but an actress. She'd put on the farce because she didn't think Horatio would have trusted the dispatches to a mere actress. She was the bravest woman I ever knew.

[herotypical]

Stories like that always remind me of, uhm...the older slayers. From years and years ago -- living in a time when it would've been even harder to keep up the ruse.