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

For having my leisurely vacationy reading scribbled away? Oh. Gladness aplenty. [ actually, here is doodled a little happy face. just to hit home the fact that she's not actually being hurtful-sarcastic. ]

If you would actually like to read it, I will take no responsibility for the consequences.

Consequences? How very dire sounding.

[ perhaps the tongue-in-cheek language usage is the teensiest familiar. summers girls, at least, have a trademark kind of snark. ]

[It is sounding familiar, but even if he knows this person, does she have any way of knowing it's him? So he hastily re-writes the verse.]

[ after a moment: ] It's...it's a pretty thought. Lost someone?

[He scribbles it out again now that she's read it.] Left someone behind.

So not lost at all. Just...temporarily misplaced.

[It takes so long to reply that he just...doesn't.]

[ eventually: ] ...hello?

I'm sorry.

It's fine. I didn't mean to strike a nerve or anything.

You didn't.

[He can lie when he's writing.]

Because all that radio silence was so very non-nerve-strikey. Right.

[Non-nerve-strikey?]

I had to turn round and do something.

Well, if I'm keeping you from anything...

Just dinner on the stove. [How did he manage to offend this person?] You have my full attention.

[ not offended so much as curious. and she has so much time to be curious, out here on the seaside. jack's off doing something or another and it's just her and the sand and the chill spring air. ]

What's for dinner?

[A pause while he makes something up.]

Stew.

Oh, yum. [ she made one with mccoy not too long ago; it was nice not to suffer culinary disaster for once. ]

I hope it is, yes. [Cooking lessons from Sayo, for the win!] Although it is barely worthwhile to cook for oneself.

That's where mac-and-cheese comes in handy.

As well as canned soup. One can have enough of it.

See, this is why finding someone who can cook and attaching yourself to them is a great thing.

Is that what you did?

Maybe not on purpose. But that was the result.

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