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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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.

No need to brag, Mr Kennedy. [Then he thinks of what Archie just said.] A- a button? [Like, the stuff that keeps jackets together?]

On the device. [He's picked up things in the last six months. Words. Definitions.]

Oh, enough of your cheek; explain what you mean, man! [Sigh, William hasn't time for you to screw around with him right now, really.]

It's difficult to explain! I'll have Jilly show you.

Of course, of course. [Sigh, whatever, you troll. William keeps walking in the general direction Archie's pointed out so far.] Music from buttons... Can't imagine, really, I can't.

Not from buttons, from--

[He shuts up. Never mind.]

[William shakes his head; he can't be having this. And onward they trudge towards the furniture store.]

[Le sigh.] What I meant to say is, if you have any questions about anything, I'll try to answer.

Well, I suppose I'll appreciate that more when we get there. I still can't see any of it shocking me.

I believe the word was perplexing, William.

[William knows what perplexing means. Dimly, but he does. Mostly, though, he's more struck by Archie using his first name. He doesn't comment on it, of course; that would be in poor taste. But he does note it down, somewhere in his mind.] Well, not that neither. No need to worry yourself.

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