simplestgift | Fifteen Bells: [ACTION/WRITTEN]

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Fifteen Bells: [ACTION/WRITTEN]

[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.]

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Nowhere in particular, as far as I know. Perhaps we'll circle a bit and return. It'll be good to be at sea again, anyway. [He can adapt to her strategy pretty well--officer, you know.]

[Grr, she never wins at checkers. She moves another piece.]

That sounds nice. I wish you well. Will you tell me how it went when you return?

Of course. I take it you don't get many visitors.

[He captures one of her pieces.]

No. Though now that I have this [she indicates the suit] it's easier for me to visit other people.

[Darn it! She moves another piece recklessly, and realizes too late that it's in danger of being captured.]

[He does capture it.] Is there any reason you can't wear it constantly?

Mmm. I'll show you the main reason. [And she stands up so that her feet are planted on the floor, makes a loose fist with one hand, and then passes the other through the back of the chair she was just sitting in.]

[Okay, he wasn't expecting that. At all. He'll sit with his mouth open for a second, then try to even his face out. But...what to say to that? He's almost ready to forget he saw the whole thing. This is a lot for one drugged brain to take in.]

[And Ingrid, who is used to that sort of reaction, sits down again and makes a double jump, putting her piece dangerously close to getting kinged.]

It's your turn, I believe.

[She is not above using your shock to win at checkers.]

[Okay, that was dirty, and now he's thinking it was a trick.]

How did you do that?

[In a lighter mood she'd say something about a magician never revealing her tricks, but Archie is from a long time ago, and she figures it's best to be candid.] This suit- the way it keeps me healthy is to make me intangible, allowing germs and other pathogens to simply pass through me. These [she rubs the pads of her fingers together again, making more sparks] allow me to touch things if I wish. But I can turn them off if I need to.

[Give him a second.

Okay, a few seconds.]

You can touch things, but they can't touch you.

[Ingrid opens her mouth to correct him, hesitates, and then does so anyway. This is probably taking his mind off the pain, right?] Not exactly. Ah- here. Just- [She holds out her hand.] You won't be able to touch anywhere there isn't a bit of metal. [It will just go right through. If he does touch the bits of metal, though, he'll feel a sensation somewhere between a slight tingle and a static shock; slightly unpleasant, but not painful.]

[He tries skin first, and immediately pulls away. His skin crawls, and he won't even touch the metal.]

It takes some getting used to, [she says, dropping her hand and looking back down at the board.]

[Weird. He blows out his breath and moves a piece to jump her nearly-kinged piece.] That'll unnerve a man, it will.

[She quirks her mouth at the thwarted move.] It took my father four months to convince me to use it. [Her hand hesitates over the board. What move to make?]

I can understand that. [He glances at her, thinking. Sure, he had seizures for a few years, but clearly it could have been much, much worse.] You're very even about it all, aren't you?

Edited 2011-06-23 01:45 (UTC)

[Her hand draws back slightly as her mind goes from checkers to thinking about her own attitude.]

I suppose. I've never seen the point in lamenting my lot in life when obviously I was born to die and then didn't. Every day is a gift, etc.

[Her tone is light, but her feelings are very complicated. Sure she hated living in the bubble from time to time (well, a lot of the time. Okay, most of the time) but it was a hate tinged heavily with love, since it was an expression of her father's devotion to her as well as the only thing keeping her alive. She has similar feelings for the device.

In the end she just moves one of the pieces she hasn't moved yet.]

[Archie, for the matter, blanks out. It wasn't as if he wasn't already feeling shame over his own reaction to the attack, but now it's suddenly worse because Ingrid has it worse than he ever could, surely. He doesn't even see the chess board, and after a moment, he suddenly blinks and takes a breath, as if he just rebooted.]

You're very brave.

[She laughs dismissively, a light sound that's almost more like a snort.]

Hardly. It's easy to accept something that's been there your whole life. Going to sea, now- that, I think, requires some bravery. [She can't even imagine being on a boat, much less a ship on the high sea. The idea of sea-sickness alone makes her nervous.]

[That breaks him out of his thoughts and he gives a smile.]

Easy to accept something that's been there your whole life. My grandfather told me stories until I was shivering to stow away aboard the next ship. He was in the navy as well, and had nothing but adventures to talk about. I'm fairly certain they were most of them true, mind you, he just didn't tell much about the endless waiting in between adventures, the sickness, the accidents, the flogging, it was all tidied up for a young boy's ears. But once I was in, there wasn't a very good way to get out, you know.

How old were you when you went to sea for the first time?

Edited 2011-06-23 02:36 (UTC)

Eleven. A volunteer for three years, usually running powder, then I was rated midshipman. An officer-candidate, if you will. I was acting-lieutenant at...[his face screws up to remember]...eighteen, I believe.

Wow. You must be quite the sailor, then. [Dude, eighteen? Also, she doesn't really know what acting-lieutenant means, so she might be more impressed than Archie deserves.]

Well, no. Most everyone joined round eleven or so. [That's usually the part he gets funny reactions to.] And fourteen was a common starting age for a midshipman.

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