simplestgift | Seventeen Bells: [WRITTEN/ACTION]

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Seventeen Bells: [WRITTEN/ACTION]

On July the 4th, 1776, one Horatio Hornblower was born in Kent. If you see him, bid him many happy returns. He will most likely grump about it all day and act ungrateful, but don't allow it to discourage you. He does appreciate it, he simply does not know it.

[For most of the day, Archie will be running around trying to furnish a bedroom in the house for a new housemate. He'll end up in the library, Good Spirits, the grocery store, then finally the Battle Dome, mostly staring in bewilderment at the controls before deciding this is too scary and leaving. At some point, he'll also take a walk in the woods, rain or no rain, in shirtsleeves and waistcoat but no coat. After a while, he'll get back on the journals.]

[Filtered away from Grell, 44%]

If you wanted to surprise someone dear to you, to cheer her up when she returned from being kidnapped, what would you do for her?

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Same sorts of things they have back home. Some things from other worlds. The library has books from every world anyone here comes from.

[William scoffs.] Must be a Hell of a library. I can't imagine, Archie, really I can't. [He means... everything. The library, the wings, the people, the different worlds. All of it. Everything.]

It takes time. When I arrived, I didn't know anyone. It was a day or so before I even ventured out to eat.

[But talking, thinking, about those first few days after dying and before settling in is sort of uncomfortable, now that he's started.]

Well, I shan't be so shy as you, I'm afraid. [Any subtleties indicating that this is a delicate topic fly right past William.] I'll need a good tour of the place soon enough.

For now, though... [He shrugs, sips his coffee, and continues on packing away the groceries.] For now, I think I focus on that room of mine. [He says it with some pride; it is the biggest room he has ever been able to call 'his' with any amount of truth.]

[It wasn't just the adjustment to Luceti, it was grasping the fact that this is all there is for him now.]

Yes, the room. The shop has bedsheets and counterpanes, and all sorts of pillows. Any furnishings you like, I can help...

[Oh damn. He can't lift anything for two more weeks.]

Help you make a selection.

Make it sound right fancy, don't you? [He shakes his head.] I'll have a look later, certainly. When I can see straight again.

[The last of the groceries goes in the fridge, and Archie returns to his coffee.]

Of course. This is why I've only had Romulan ale twice.

So you think, oh, spring it on Bush, he's not doing anything with his bloody brain. [William is obviously joking; the clear giveaway is his smile.] Now, where's all this furnishing I've heard of kept?

I'll take you to the shop. They have most everything there.

And it's all free. Or not... free? Kennedy, God love you, but you were rubbish at explaining that bit.

It's free, but they are permitted to kidnap you and keep you in a cell and experiment on you as they please. Something of a trade-off, I suppose.

Hard luck, Kennedy, hard luck. So it's free for now. I daresay we think on the consequences later; no time for soul-searching.

It isn't as if we can simply refuse to eat their food and live in their houses.

You have it exactly, I could not agree more. [He nods, clearly satisfied. Kennedy, along with Hornblower, is the sort of man who, if you have them on your side, you know you're in the right.] By your leave, I've no clue where anything is in this damned place.

I'll have to show you about. It's high time.

Lead the way, Mr Kennedy, lead the way. I daresay I don't relish being caught in your shirts, but I'll survive somehow.

They look just like Horatio's, and like your own whenever they arrive. It might take them a day or two, but they should have your uniform in the shop before long.

Lord, my uniform. Well, I shan't complain about that. [He sips his coffee.] When you're ready.

[He downs the rest of his coffee.] I'm ready.

[William finishes his coffee likewise. He dusts himself off, coughs, and decides in that instant that he's ready for the day. Barely human before you have your coffee, really. Okay.] After you.

[Archie leads him out the door and ignores the path entirely, cutting through the grass to get to the square.] Where shall we begin? Clothes, or bedroom?

[Ohh, living on the edge, Archie. William follows.] I think I can manage to go clothes shopping myself; if you'll just tell me where it is, I'll get my own later. Bedroom's fine, for now.

[He goes against the flow, man. Non-conformism.]

Bedroom it is. [He steers them both in the direction of the general store.] I should forewarn you that there are some fairly perplexing things in these stores, and I can't rightly say what they all are, but I can make a guess.

[Rebel rebel. William shrugs:] Kennedy, I've seen a man blown all to pieces during a broadside; I don't think I can be much shocked anymore.

And I've seen more than one, Mister Bush. It's the future I'm talking about, centuries into it. They have very strange things, there. Why, Jilly was playing music for me on a device you can hold in your hand. She pressed a button and it came out, clear as daylight.

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