Fifteen Bells: [ACTION/WRITTEN]

[simplestgift]

[Archie woke up yesterday.  How is this new?  Well, after getting some fairly critical stab wounds from Grell, he was put on a ventilator and kept under sedation for a few days.  The ventilator was exchanged for a less impressive-looking concentrator yesterday and he was taken off sedation.  He spent yesterday sleeping anyway, since anesthesia doesn't generally leave you bright-eyed immediately afterward.

This morning, he is talking and eating Jell-o, which is a new experience. The most important bit comes written on the journal network in wobbly handwriting courtesy of the heart monitor clipped on his finger.]

I have been informed that I may have visitors. I'd like to know everyone is all right.

Kennedy

[Anyone who comes in will find him looking predictably weak and pale but lucid and in good spirits, or possibly catnapping after a dose of painkillers.

OOC: Purely for the sake of mercy, Archie is unaffected by the event.]

Comments

[intangible-girl.livejournal.com]

You're right about that.

What sort of poets were you thinking of?

[simplestgift]

Coleridge comes to mind. Lovely rhyme, but he could have brushed up on his seamanship.

[intangible-girl.livejournal.com]

Coleridge... [She's certain she knows the name, but where from...?] I'm afraid I've never read any of him. [lol geneticist here.]

[simplestgift]

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, he wrote. Extremely long, it might not have caught on after my time.

[intangible-girl.livejournal.com]

[Oh oh, pinging more brain cells-] The... one about the albatross?

[simplestgift]

The one about the albatross. So it did stick.

[intangible-girl.livejournal.com]

It must have stuck quite well if even I've heard of it. I was never much one for poetry.

[simplestgift]

Well, it's excellent poetry. I always used to try to memorize long poems and plays, and that one had a good meter to it.

[intangible-girl.livejournal.com]

What other things have you memorized?

['Cause that's pretty cool man.]

[simplestgift]

Most of Antony and Cleopatra and Macbeth and all of The Tempest. Parts of Richard III--I know the entire speech from the very beginning. [None of this is bragging, especially considering the fact that all of this was a coping mechanism and still sometimes is. He actually speaks very demurely about it, as if he's a little embarrassed to be such a geek.] Some of The Odyssey, a few of the Psalms. William Blake, Robert Burns--Burns especially.

[intangible-girl.livejournal.com]

That's amazing. [Ingrid never developed the literary side of her education beyond what was required in school, so she finds this very impressive.

Shyly:] Would you mind, uh, reciting something for me?

[simplestgift]

Why, certainly. [Adopting a perfect Scottish brogue--this is where he was born and raised, after all, though he doesn't sound it--he begins.]

Wee, sleekit, cowrin, tim'rous beastie,
O, what a panic's in thy breastie!
Thou need na start awa sae hasty
Wi bickering brattle!
I wad be laith to rin an' chase thee,
Wi' murdering pattle.

[He recites the entire poem from beginning to end.]

[intangible-girl.livejournal.com]

[Her face lights up slowly but surely as he recites, and though she can't understand more than one word in four, it's delightful to listen to.

When he's done she gives a small burst of applause:] That was wonderful!

[simplestgift]

[He's beaming. He might have, once upon a time, been a natural on stage, but that's been worn out of him significantly. Still, it shows in times like this.]

Thank you. But I'd give credit to Mr. Burns, who wrote it.

[intangible-girl.livejournal.com]

Still!

The only thing I ever managed to memorize was the Pledge of Allegiance and one verse of Der Erlkönig.

[simplestgift]

What's that?

[intangible-girl.livejournal.com]

Ah- which one? [Not like you'd know the Pledge of Allegiance any more than Der Erlkönig.]

[simplestgift]

The German one. [He figures the Pledge of Allegiance has to do with pledging allegiance, which, you know. England has stuff like that, too.]

[intangible-girl.livejournal.com]

Der Erlkönig [she repeats with long-suffering fondness.] It's this creepy song my father used to sing to me when he was trying to scare me, about a- tree spirit, or an elf, I suppose. [She hums a few notes under her breath almost without thinking.]

[simplestgift]

Sing it!

[intangible-girl.livejournal.com]

[Nervous laughter, and a bit of blushing.] I only know the one verse.

[simplestgift]

Doesn't matter! You were regaled with my terrible poetry-recitations, now it's your chance to make a fool of yourself.

[intangible-girl.livejournal.com]

I suppose that's only fair.

[Oh dear. She's silent for a moment, trying to see if she can remember any more, but sure enough, only the second to last verse (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Der_Erlk%C3%B6nig#Text) is clear in her mind. She swallows, and then starts singing (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IH3ILg9ogO8) in perfect German. If Archie has an ear for such things, he might be able to tell that she's had some voice training, and her voice itself is sweet and keening, but with her stage fright and lack of any recent practice, her technique is only so-so.]

[By the end of it she's blushing so hard even her forehead is bright red.]

HOLY CRAP THAT RECORDING IS FAST

[simplestgift]

[Ingrid, sweetie? When musicians are rare in your line of work and you're used to a bunch of dudes belting sea shanties off-key, it doesn't matter how "so-so" your technique is.]

That was wonderful! What did it mean?

is it? the piano line IS supposed to be fast, but the voice sounded normal to me

[intangible-girl.livejournal.com]

Ah- [She tugs on her ponytail again, but she does look up to meet Archie's eyes, still smiling with embarrassment.] Well, that verse is where the Erlkönig is trying to take the boy from his father by force. The boy cries out for his father one last time, but in the next verse he's dead.

It's... quite a strange old song.