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]

Not a traitor, but it would still be best for Jack not to ask him to go against Horatio in, oh, almost anything.

"With that settled, how about a song?"

[all7seas]

"A song!" And Jack launched enthusiastically into Poor Bessie Was a Sailor's Bride.

"Poor Bessie was a sailor's bride, and he was off to sea,
Her only child was by her side and who so sad was she,
Forget me not, forget me not, when you are far away,
And whatsoever poor Bessie's lot, we will remember theeeee!"

[simplestgift]

"A twelve month scarce had passed away as it was told to me,
Poor Willie with a gladsome heart come home again from sea,
He bounded up a craggy rock and sought his cottage door,
But his poor wife and lovely child poor Willie saw no more."

[all7seas]

"Forget me not, forget me not,"
The words rung in his ear.
He asked the neighbors one by one.
Each answered with a tear.

They pointed to the old church-yard,
And there his youthful bride,
With the pretty child he loved so well,
Were resting side by side.

.........Kennedy? This song? Depressin'.

[simplestgift]

"Not that you were attempting to make a point with it, I assume."

[all7seas]

"I was. But then I realized that it applies to meself as well. Not-----not that I'm gettin' married. Pfft. The very thought!"

[simplestgift]

"You said yourself, Jack. You'll be married when I am. That's a challenge to rise to, it is." Albeit for the wrong reasons.

[all7seas]

"........Right. Married. Rising. Rising to it." He took a very long, studied swallow of rum.

[simplestgift]

"...I'm not actually going to hold you to it, you know. My god, I think you're sweating."

[all7seas]

"Sweating?! Captain Jack Sparrow, Kennedy, does NOT sweat. Not ever. Never ever!"

He was. Sweating. There was definitely sweat.

[simplestgift]

"Captain Jack Sparrow sweats like a landsman under a bosun's cat."

[all7seas]

"Kennedy? Don't make me gut you. I shouldn't like to have to explain your mangled corpse to our girls."

[simplestgift]

"Like a midshipman taking his examination for lieutenant. Like a young miss playing fortepiano for her potential mother-in-law."

[all7seas]

Kennedy, how do you of all people get under his skin like this? Jack---who is pretty drunk, now---tried to dive at the other man and knock him to the floor. "RIGHT! GET OVER HERE, YOU BILGE-FLAVORED MENACE!"

[simplestgift]

Jack succeeded in knocking over Kennedy's chair and therefore Kennedy himself, but they landed sort of perpendicular to each other on the floor, with Jack lying crossways atop him. But really, the joy of riling Jack up and getting him into fights again did not diminish. By now, Kennedy was drunk enough not to mind bumping his head a bit. Instead, he did what he could to keep Jack from actually hitting him.

[all7seas]

"Now before I manacle you to the wall inside the ladies' washroom, whelp, you shall retract and rescind all statements about Captain Sparrow's sweat. Savvy?"

Jack was making his best effort to pin the other man to the floor as he made this demand.

[simplestgift]

Archie being very much against being pinned, he put up a pretty firm struggle, trying to grab Sparrow's wrists and hold them away. "Never!"

[all7seas]

Struggle all you want, Kennedy. Jack has just coughed up some phlegm into his mouth and is going to slowly dangle it over your face.

[simplestgift]

That makes him wince. "What the hell, Jack? Stop that!" He tries to shove the pirate's face out of the way. "Sweating like a thief in church!"

[all7seas]

"No! You will receive this great glob of vile humor all over your face, Archie, unless you retract! RETRACT, man!" The loogie dangles closer.

[simplestgift]

In response, Kennedy simply lifts his hand and covers Jack's mouth.

[all7seas]

And Jack licks Kennedy's hand. A gross, slimy, mucus-lick.

[simplestgift]

Which gets a wince but no worse. At least it wasn't on his face. "What a fine gentleman you are, Captain Sparrow," he says congenially while wiping his hand on Jack's sleeve.

[all7seas]

"Your hand tastes vile, Kennedy. What on earth have you been using it for?"

Jack got off the other man, then, and stood unsteadily.

[simplestgift]

Some of the good humor goes out of Kennedy's face. "Why, for struggling against an unwashed pirate, nothing less."