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

[herotypical]

And I wasn't getting used to it there, either. Every morning I woke up and I looked out the castle window and I said how can one place be this dreary? Sunnydale was on top of a Hellmouth but at least it looked happy.

[simplestgift]

Oh come now. At least it's green where it rains.

[herotypical]

It's also green in places where it doesn't rain almost all the time.

[simplestgift]

[Archie just doesn't understand how someone can not love Scotland.] But it's Scotland, Buffy.

[herotypical]

If the next thing out of your mouth is anything pro-haggis, I might have to vomit. Just warning you.

[simplestgift]

What has haggis got to do with anything?

[herotypical]

Haggis. Scotland. It's...a thing.

[simplestgift]

I'm aware it is a thing, in fact that it is a food. [And in fact it sounds worse than it is.] I was speaking of Scotland herself, however, not the the...anotherness of her cuisine.

[herotypical]

It's just...Scotland? It's not home. And I don't like that when Dawnie comes back from college I can't say goodnight to her in her own bedroom. The same one mom used to tuck her into at night.

[simplestgift]

...Like how Luceti would quite pleasant without the Malnosso, but it's Luceti no matter how you wish it wasn't.

[herotypical]

Something like that.

Only not quite.

[simplestgift]

I mean it's not home.

[herotypical]

For me? It's less about a place not being home and more about -- well, home just doesn't exist, anymore. That bedroom that I can't say goodnight to her in? It doesn't exist.

[simplestgift]

I do understand, Buffy. I suppose Scotland still exists, but I can never return to it.

[herotypical]

...And I guess there's still the rest of California.

[ a forced silver lining. ]

[simplestgift]

But not your house. At least I know my family lives in the house I was a boy in.

[herotypical]

When was the last time you'd been back, Archie?

[simplestgift]

Three years.

[herotypical]

...And three for me, too. Kind of a sad way to match up, huh?

[simplestgift]

There are pleasanter ways. But at least we understand one another.

[herotypical]

For once.

[simplestgift]

[A sharp exhalation, like an ironic laugh.]

[herotypical]

...Can you do me a favour? If -- [ and she clearly doesn't like entertaining this possibility ] If you get to her first, when she comes back? Mum's the word on the Angel sitch. I'd like to break that news to her myself.

[simplestgift]

Mum's the word, then. And if that happens, I'll bring her straight to you.

[herotypical]

[ a breath of relief. ] Oh, thank God.