simplestgift | Eleven Bells: [Action/Written] Oddly Introverted Today

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Eleven Bells: [Action/Written] Oddly Introverted Today

[Tonight, Archie is out in the woods, walking along the river instead of the path toward the southern lake. Something about being away from the village, in the solitude of the woods, with the sky going on for miles above him, is closer than anything else to the openness of the sea. The strange thing is that Archie was never too poetic about the sea itself--it was the ships he loved, not the water they sailed on. But now that the sea is far away and there is no ship to sail upon it, he finds himself very homesick for that endless expanse. So he walks by moonlight, gathering his thoughts and finding as much tranquility as he can in the woods.

When he returns home through the village, it will be past midnight. He'll stare at the furnished, unlived-in bedroom in his apartment, set up for someone who never comes. In the morning, he'll wake up on the couch, beneath the mural of the Indefatigable. Eventually, he'll write an unsigned message on the journal network.]

When the wind embraces all the world between the sky and sea,
It speaks in my ear of the left-behind, dear friend, it speaks of thee.
I wish you a journey far and long and spirits high and free,
And hope that the wind still speaks to you, dear friend, and speaks of me.

[A few minutes later, he'll scribble the whole thing out.

In the morning, anyone will be able to find him about, grocery shopping mostly, but also just browsing the shelves idly. He'll hit Good Spirits a little earlier than usual and drink a little more than normal.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I've known him for over a year. I think I'm just about getting to the point where I can figure enough of him out for compelling argument's sake.

[ ...or not. sometimes it still feels like she hardly knows him at all. ]

Is he really so difficult to learn?

[But Archie comes from a world where each man is allowed eighteen inches of width in which to sleep, while other men have the eighteen inches to his right and left. At that kind of close quarters, people weren't that difficult to learn.]

Tougher than I first gave him credit for, that's for sure.

How so?

[ she pauses. how much should she try and say? at what point would her own feelings be betrayed? she doesn't really want archie to know how involved she is with jack, no matter how obvious it might be from the outside. it's the confirmation she doesn't want to give. ]

Just -- his first impression isn't really the right one, I don't think.

Would that not depend upon the circumstances under which the impression was made? Though I suppose there is more to him than I thought when I first met him. But the same is true of anyone.

[Although Jack and Archie...well. They have an innate understanding of each other simultaneously with the tendency to pass each other in the dark. A lot. Archie pegged Jack as not-quite-mad-but-certainly-a-feeling-human-being-under-it-all from their first meeting, which is more than some can say, but he can never quite define how far the man would go to save his own skin, or get the better of someone.]

[ meanwhile, archie has been the subject of many a conversation between the pirate and the slayer and each time buffy has been left quiet at the amount of thought jack seems to be putting into archie. if anyone was going to underestimate archie, it wasn't going to be jack. buffy believes this to the core.

and there have been other conversations -- not about archie, but about other things. so much talking. more talking, perhaps, than either of them is used to. but she keeps herself slightly aloof. cool and chill on the situation.

it's easiest to do in writing. ] Layers. Pirate layers.

As an onion, but not as well-hidden as he believes. He thinks himself cleverer than he is, and then he'll go and be too clever for his own good. You could know everything about him and never predict him. I think he takes pride in that.

His actions are easy enough to figure out. Maybe. It's the motives that get all...confused.

[ it had taken her so very long to see how many of jack's actions were actually out of affection for her, not malice. ]

You don't know his motives because he doesn't want anyone else to know them. A man's reputation meant everything in our time, remember. We'll say one thing and mean another and won't quite understand when you don't pick up our hidden meaning, because many, many things had to be delivered in hidden meanings and messages lest people see us the wrong way. Then he's suspicious about everyone, somehow. Everything has to be underhanded because he expects everyone else to be the same as he is, deep down.

It's all backwards, isn't it?

[ buffy doesn't find it backwards at all; she understands it. expects it. ]

Reputations still mean everything. It's not just in your time.

But from what I've read, it's different. You have other ways of knowing if someone is bad to sell to on credit, for example. We don't. We're always thinking on it because it affects every area of our lives. He's also thinking about your reputation, probably a great deal more than he's thinking about his own.

The only reputation of mine that he's thinking of is my one for cracking skulls.

[ does she believe that? not really. ]

My word on it, Buffy. Respectable women have a way of making any vagabond sit up and behave, and God help he who tries to lay a hand on her.

[ respectable woman? no. she doesn't believe that of herself. not deep down. ]

Because he'll get that hand broken. By me. Jack's more than aware that I don't need his protection.

[ except for when she does. the draft... ]

You think because he knows you're more capable of taking care of yourself than he is means he doesn't want to protect you.

Protect me? Come on. Pirate. [ she knows that archie knows the exact tone in jack's voice that she was referencing with that underlined word. ] He'd sooner steal my shoes.

[ but she thinks about the locket around the pirate's neck. protecting her is bound to be the problem. ]

[He does know the tone, and stifles a smile.]

Buffy, the man chased me down the street because I forgot my coat in Good Spirits. I think he's a bit fonder of you than he is of me.

[ hmm. she isn't sure what to say...the non-communication stretches out. almost a minute, perhaps. ]

I know. [ know what? that jack's fond of her? no. she's owning up to a much deeper knowledge. ]

I should very much hope so.

[Both that Buffy knows and that Jack is fonder of her than he is of Archie. Because Archie has more than an inkling of how fond Jack is of Buffy.]

Leave it to me to almost always attract the scoundrels.

At least this one won't harm you. If he does, he'll have the both of us to answer to, but I know he won't.

If he does? I don't need a knight in shining armour.

[ it's her semi-gentle way of saying please don't involve yourself. she's keeping this personal matter extra personal. ]

I know you don't, but very well.

[ ... ]

Let me clarify. I don't want one.

Eleven Bells: [Action/Written] Oddly Introverted Today

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