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]

Maybe that's it, then. It isn't very different from prison. You read if you have a book. You plan to escape but you never will. Either the war will end or you'll be released, if you don't die in the meantime, and you can only wait. Although at least here there are no walls to speak of. They hardly need them, and they hardly need the barrier.

[tehoniongirl.livejournal.com]

It makes sense....wanting more than this.

[wanting what he'd had]

[simplestgift]

...I have Dawn. I have people here I care very much about. I didn't have a sweetheart back home. Never courted anyone, really. The only true friend I had was Horatio.

[And he still is, to a great extent. There will never be another Horatio.]

[tehoniongirl.livejournal.com]

Liking what you have doesn't mean you can't miss what you had.

It was your life, Archie.

[she's not sure why she's arguing with him. She wants him to be happy here. Except... he's already admitted that he isn't. And, in the same breath, tried to blame himself for it. She can't make him magically happy (though she wishes she could), but she wishes she could at least help him see that it was okay not to be.]

[simplestgift]

[But that's doing more good than she knows. So much bad in navy life was glossed over with the pretense that it was okay, and hearing that he's not crazy for feeling this way is...it's surprisingly liberating. Tears appear in his eyes again but do not fall. After a second, he wipes them away.]

Yes. It was.

[He clears his throat, the tightness in his chest easing as something inside him finally, finally says goodbye, embracing the past but not clinging to it.]

And so is this, now.

[tehoniongirl.livejournal.com]

[reaching out, she'll rest her hand on his. Just a silent connection]

[simplestgift]

[With a smile, he'll take her hand in a light, friendly squeeze.]

[tehoniongirl.livejournal.com]

[she's slow to pull away. When she does, it's to look back at the nearly finished mural of the ship] You know.. I should probably keep my word and finish this.

[simplestgift]

I should like that very much. [After an uneasy moment, he takes a deep breath.] You won't tell anyone, will you?

[tehoniongirl.livejournal.com]

I would never.