simplestgift | Nineteen Bells: [WRITTEN/ACTION/VOICE]

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Nineteen Bells: [WRITTEN/ACTION/VOICE]

[Filtered from known villains and Grell, 100% unhackable]

[Written in a disguised hand, with the picture obscured.]

To anyone who is new, I would like to let you know that if, for any reason, you feel unsafe in your own home, you may go to the Welcome Center and ask to be placed with someone known to be safe until you are back on your feet. There does not have to be a reason--perhaps you were kidnapped recently or someone is threatening you. You do not need to tell why.

That said, I am in need of more women as volunteers. If any of you have a spare bed, your help would be most welcome. Even if you can be dispatched as a bodyguard, we would be glad of your assistance. A trusted member of the community must be able to vouch for you.

[/Filter]

[Tonight Archie will be waiting tables at Cloud 9. When he gets off, he will take an unusually long time coming home. At some point, he'll be perched on one of the docks on the ocean, staring blankly out to sea, oblivious to the world.

There isn't really one specific reason. It's everything, really, from the draft to William's disappearance. Archie is as bottled as they come, and...

Bottles.

Around one in the morning, a gunshot and shattering glass is heard. This is because Mr. Kennedy has set up a line of empty bottles from the night club on the fountain and is using them for target practice. Wine, beer, as long as it's empty and glass it gets used. If you are having difficulty sleeping because you keep hearing gunshots and shattering glass every thirty-one seconds (gotta take time to reload), this may be why.

For housemates, he'll be at close to three in the morning, looking like he's gotten a little bit of something out of his system.

He will then, late at night, make a voice post.]

If anyone would like to play a game of whist during whatever you call your midday meal tomorrow, you would be welcome. I cannot vouch for my cooking, but I'll make a game attempt.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[When Archie stops to reload, at some point, he simply stops altogether and sets the pistol down on the ground, sitting there and looking up at the stars. This hasn't been the experience he was trying for. Maybe it worked for his grandfather, but not for him.]

[she reaches the fountain as the weapon goes quiet. It's only as he moves to sit that she recognizes him and, instantly, the tension rushes out of her]

Archie-

[a deep breath] I wondered who that was.

[It's damp on the cobblestones, but he doesn't move. He heaves a sigh that moves his shoulders.]

I don't know what's wrong with me.

[she doesn't say anything at first. Moving to close the distance between them, she'll drop down to sit beside him, mindless of the damp]

[Just having her there puts him in a better state, and he can breathe a little easier. For a long time, it's silence.]

[she doesn't mind silence and she lets it linger for awhile, watching the remaining clouds whisping across the moon. Eventually though, she'll speak up, gaze still fixed on the stars]

What were you shooting at?

Bottles.

Did they commit some terrible crime? [lightly]

They were only empty bottles. Left from Cloud Nine. Although I believe they were planning to mutiny.

Well, I personally feel much safer knowing you stopped that plan in its tracks.

[leaning slightly, she'll nudge his shoulder with hers]

...so what's going on?

[Hestitation.]

Nothing. I don't know.

...Is it helpful or hurting if I tell you that you're a bad liar?

[The pause that follows does not indicate an answer.]

I almost died. And nothing is stopping it from happening again. Not to me, and not to you.

[And that's only the beginning.]

[she's slow to answer, but it's more because she wants him to realize she's not rushing into an answer without thinking than from any kind of uncertainty]

That's true.

...But that would always have been true. Wherever we were. You're a soldier. I could have been hit by a car. Or struck by lightening.

All we can do is try to control the risks we can.

But we're not. [He lets out a breath.] She said to me she would give anything for the chance to kill me. I don't think our hold over her is going to last, and after, I don't think she'll be happy with just one.

[her brow furrows, worried]

So then we need to find a way to stop her. Even if we wanted to act now...could we?

I heard her being kidnapped over the journals. I don't know if she's returned. If we're to expose her, this may be the time.

Maybe.

[she's not shooting him down. It's not something she feels comfortable weighing in on right away. Silence for a crime bothers her immensely. But moving on if the person has let it go holds equal importance for her. She's torn, afraid for Archie...and afraid that, either way they go, they'll end up with a large number of people hurt]

[There's a pause.] The trouble is...I'm not angry with her. I'm angry with Buffy, and even a little with Jack. Isn't that odd?

[He's starting to see his misplaced anger for what it is, or at least wondering about it, and that's a step.]

[she shakes her head] That's not odd. That...happens. A lot.

...What's upsetting you with Buffy and Jack?

They're the ones who want to do nothing about her. They might as well have forgotten.

Jack...

Jack hasn't forgotten. He's afraid.

[she can't speak for Buffy. She still only knows the surface when it comes to the Slayer. But she can't imagine that they just don't care. Not with how Jack had panicked at the thought of Grell attacking his friends. Not the way they'd come by the clinic while Archie was healing.]

Everyone is afraid, Jilly. Just as everyone was afraid of Simpson.

[No one did anything about that, either.]

[reaching out, she puts her smaller hand over his, eyes sad]

I know.

[He turns his hand up to clasp hers, already feeling a little less weight on his back.]

I can't remember if I was ever angry with Simpson. I don't understand it. I was afraid of him, and of course I hated him, but I was angry with Eccleston. And all Eccleston did was...nothing.

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