Seventeen Bells: [WRITTEN/ACTION]

[simplestgift]

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?

Comments

[simplestgift]

He's traditional for my time, Buffy. If you think I'm old-fashioned, you'll have a lovely time learning about him.

[herotypical]

...He's not going to try and burn me at the stake for wearing jeans, is he?

[simplestgift]

Oh, he isn't hopeless. I daresay he'll learn a thing or two from women like you. Just pop him one if he ever offends you. But don't damage him too much, Horatio and I need him to carry things for at least two more weeks.

[herotypical]

...Oh, so instead he can try and burn me at the stake for being a Slayer. It wouldn't be the first time.

[ SHE IS STILL JOKING. ]

[simplestgift]

Don't be silly, Buffy. The navy doesn't practice burning at the stake--it would set the ship afire. No, we hang Slayers from the yardarm along with everybody else.

[herotypical]

...Points for originality. I've never been tried-to-be-killed in quite that way before.

[simplestgift]

Well, we don't have a gallows on a ship, so we use what we have available. A gallows would take up space.

Though I did know a Frenchman who carried around his own guillotine.

[herotypical]

...Yikes. Like -- how? I mean, I can't imagine it was pocket-sized.

[simplestgift]

I should say he had his men cart it about for him. It was his personal baggage. [The last two words in a French accent.]

[herotypical]

[ a laugh. very entertaining, troll-lieutenant. ]

Classy.

[simplestgift]

Yes. Very. [He ponders whether or not to tell her the Frenchman used it to slaughter half the people in his village. Talking with Buffy is a lot like talking with another military type, sometimes. He concludes that depressing Buffy is not the objective and takes another drink.]

Damned French.

[herotypical]

And their verbs. Those things are brutal to conjugate.

[ she pours herself a soda. and then she launches into part of her new let's be more fair and honest with archie regime: ] Someone from my home showed up too, by the way.

[simplestgift]

I'm happy for you. Who?

[herotypical]

Someone I haven't seen in a very, very long time. Angel. He -- [ hmm. they still sort of defied definition, really. ] He's the other vampire with a soul.

[simplestgift]

[Flashback to Spike threatening to eat Archie if he hurt Dawn.]

Is he anything like the other one?

[herotypical]

Spike? Oh, uhm...no. They're -- pretty different. Angel's had his for a lot longer. [ and unlike spike, angel was less than bestest buds with the tiniest summers. ]

[simplestgift]

Is he a friend?

[herotypical]

...I should be embarrassed by how difficult that question is to answer. He's -- he's an ally. With occasional friendly leanings. [ a beat before she jumps to clarify something that archie -- unaware of their history or the curse -- really didn't need to have clarified at all: ] But not too friendly!

[simplestgift]

[herotypical]

We dated.

[simplestgift]

Ah, yes. Part of your history.

[She was drunk when she spouted off her long list of failed romances, though.]

[herotypical]

Yes! And history's the best word for for it. Very much...in the past. And done with. And over. [ thought it's still odd and there's so much unspoken, there. ]

[simplestgift]

If truth could be judged by how emphatic one is about it, this would be the greatest truth of them all.

[herotypical]

...Your moral support is touching. [ ... ] And I think I need to fire whatever higher power is managing my social life because Jack comes back and then the next day Angel shows up. That's just -- that's cruel and unusual.

[simplestgift]

...I think it was very kind of said higher power to bring Jack back to us, regardless of the circumstances.