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]

[She smiles genuinely back, and slips the cards out of the box.]

I'll try my best for both of us then. [And proceeds to spread all the cards out on the bed and move them around until they're all mixed up. Then she'll gather them carefully together using the pads of her fingers and deal by sliding out one card at a time and letting it drop onto the bed near Kennedy's good hand. It's clumsy, but it works.]

[simplestgift]

Brilliant. [The game begins, though he has some difficulty playing one-handed.] You're often in the clinic?

[intangible-girl.livejournal.com]

I sort of live here, actually.

Do you have any... sevens?

[simplestgift]

[He passes her a seven and draws a card to replace it. Oh, that makes a pair of fours! He puts them down.] That must be awful. Do you have any kings?

[intangible-girl.livejournal.com]

Go fish.

It's not so bad. It's better than the alternative. Do you have any threes?

[simplestgift]

Go fish. Do you have a delicate composition, somehow? Or, ah, any knaves?

[intangible-girl.livejournal.com]

Do I- [Oh, he's talking about cards. For a second she was trying to figure out what kind of disease knaves was. :T] Ah- no, go fish.

[She draws a six and makes a face at her hand.]

Extremely delicate. I'd probably die of a common cold, honestly.

[simplestgift]

And the suit helps to keep you alive. [So you can live normally. He wonders what sort of technology the future could develop against seizures.]

[intangible-girl.livejournal.com]

Yes. My father invented it. He called it his heart's greatest dream, seeing me walk around outside. [Wistful smile.]

[simplestgift]

He sounds like a great man. [How many young women with doting fathers does he run into around here? Well...this one and Alexis, who's quite a bit younger. He nods to her cards--her turn.]

[intangible-girl.livejournal.com]

He is.

Isn't it your turn? [She starts studying the discard pile, trying to figure out where they are.] It's been so long since I played...

[simplestgift]

Er..[Then he realizes what happened.] I believe you drew a card by mistake, Miss. You had no knaves, and that was the last turn.

[intangible-girl.livejournal.com]

Oh. Should... I put it back then?

[simplestgift]

At the bottom of the pile, if you please, Miss Ingrid. [It's spoken with exaggerated formality and good humor. He shifts a little.] Good God, I'll be a complete lunatic by the end of the week if I must stay trapped in here.

[intangible-girl.livejournal.com]

[She does as he instructs, unsuccessfully holding back a grin. Then she answers in kind.]

That's what I am for, good sir. I do more than play cards, you know. I also- [Leaning in, as if to divulge a great secret.] -play checkers.

[simplestgift]

Will wonders never cease? You shall have to teach me!

[He knows it. He just calls it something different.]

[intangible-girl.livejournal.com]

I'd be happy to, of course, but perhaps we should finish our hand here.

[simplestgift]

Of course! I'm afraid it's still your turn.

[intangible-girl.livejournal.com]

Oh! Ah... I didn't have any knaves, so... what do I do now?

[Seriously, she was like six the last time she played.]

[simplestgift]

[He draws a card.] Ask me if I have anything you want.

[intangible-girl.livejournal.com]

[She studies her hand.]

Do you have any tens?

[simplestgift]

[He slips her a ten.] Do you have any aces?

[intangible-girl.livejournal.com]

[Groaning good naturedly she hands him two such cards.

She's having to bite back questions about the circumstances of Archie's injuries. She knows he was attacked and not much else. But Giles told her not to get involved, and she figures it's a sore topic. So she casts about for a different topic of conversation. For now she just asks:]

Do I draw a card now?

[simplestgift]

[Not simply a sore topic, but a dangerous one. Ingrid does not want to get involved in this. Kennedy blinks at both cards, then hands them back.] Actually, if you have two of them, they're yours. You place them in front of you--they're a pair.

[intangible-girl.livejournal.com]

But don't you have to have four of them to lay them down? [But she still accepts them back.]