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

[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."

[all7seas]

"Unwashed. Ha. Buffy's washed me up, you know. I'm clean. Ish. Sort of. Also? Drunk."

[simplestgift]

"Quite drunk. You haven't even got off me, yet." Hint, hint.

[all7seas]

"Oh, bugger." Jack rolled off Archie and somehow got to his feet, swaying. "Free rum will be the end of me."

[simplestgift]

With a look of distaste, Archie got up, still wiping his hand on his breeches. "I need another drink."

[all7seas]

"As do I.


You think I could be married, Kennedy? That SHE could? We're...not that sort of people.


Are we?"

[simplestgift]

He shook his head in exasperation, letting out a sigh. "Good God, Jack, I couldn't tell you, and I'm only taking the piss anyway. You shouldn't let it rouse you so."

[all7seas]

"Discussin' Buffy's a subject rather close to my heart. She rouses me, savvy?"

He...didn't mean it like that, Kennedy.

[simplestgift]

"And the very thought of marrying her angers you?"

[all7seas]

"What?...........No. It's not that at all, Kennedy." And in his efforts to reach over the bar for a fresh bottle, Jack topples and disappears head-first behind it.

He continues speaking, however.

"Buffy's....odd about things like that. 'Short and brutal' is a Slayer's life and all."

[simplestgift]

"The same can and is said of a sailor's life. Between me and Buffy, I'm the dead one, remember."

[all7seas]

An arm pops up from the other side of the counter, clutching a bottle of Scotch.

".....Drink up, Lieutenant."

[simplestgift]

Kennedy nabs the bottle from Jack's hand and pours himself a glass as he sits. "Thank you."

[all7seas]

Jack simply stays on the floor behind the bar, where he can lean against one of the shelves, and has a bit of whiskey. "Anytime, Kennedy."

[simplestgift]

Archie took a thoughtful swallow, then tried another song which, hopefully, Jack knew.

"Up jumps the eel with his slippery tail,
Climbs up aloft and he reefs the topsail..."

[all7seas]

No. He doesn't.


"........Eels?"