Nineteen Bells: [WRITTEN/ACTION/VOICE]

[simplestgift]

[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.

Comments

[herotypical]

It's not the de-assifying that I'm thanking you for. It's the calling me by what I wanna be called.

[ she hefts the bag of shot a little experimentally. looking at it almost as though it were some sort of very distasteful thing. like a moldy old piece of bread. or a tarantula. ]

[simplestgift]

I can call another man man and it isn't so terrible.

[Not a point of argument, just a prompt for clarification. He's being non-confrontational tonight.]

[herotypical]

If I were a man you could call me 'man' and I'd still want you to call me Buffy.

[ ...convoluted, but she thinks she's made her point. ]

[simplestgift]

Fair enough. [He holds his hand out for the bag of shot.] It won't go off on its own, you know. It's only lead.

[herotypical]

...It's nothing like the bullets we've got. That's probably a good thing.

[ she gives in. hands it over. ]

[simplestgift]

[It goes in a pocket.] It's the sound. And the smell. Gunpowder, it...the smoke, it has a smell.

[It's therapeutic.]

[herotypical]

...And a distinctive spatter pattern after the fact.

[ she taps a space all too close to her heart. ]

[simplestgift]

[And he taps one by his stomach. Like two veterans comparing scars.]

Sometimes it happens.

[herotypical]

...I tried to learn how to shoot one, you know. I figured that what doesn't kill us makes us stronger but -- nope. Still don't like them.

[simplestgift]

It's a tool, the same as a sword. Except this one only gives you one shot. You have to wait for the, the opportune moment, as Jack might say. After that, it's only a very pretty-looking club.

[herotypical]

He tried to teach me, y'know. The night after you two cool kids had your little duel. But we were both too drunk. Those things should come with a warning.

[ a shrug. ] The one we were using was more from my time. More than one shot.

[simplestgift]

Good men die being shot by accident by drunks. I wouldn't suggest it.

[herotypical]

I don't think there's any concern. Me? I won't be picking up one of those again.

[simplestgift]

There isn't anything wrong with that, but don't think ill of those of us who do.

[herotypical]

I didn't say I did.

[ but she didn't have to, either. each gunman would have to prove his ability not to be useless with the thing. it took her right up until the last draft to offer jack sparrow any sort of respect for his marksmanship. but archie had proved his own abilities in that same battle.

no, her poor regard on this evening had much more to do with the genuine fear she had felt on hearing those shots from such a distance. she had been certain someone was being attacked. ]

[simplestgift]

I wasn't chastising you, Buffy. [He'd been advising her, but he somehow thinks saying that will only make things worse.]

[herotypical]

Oh.

[ lame duck. lame duck. ]

[simplestgift]

...It feels like they've had him longer than they have. William.

[herotypical]

...Time's sorta tricky like that. Now and then.

[simplestgift]

He was there, the last few days. Helped me, where he could, even though he was wounded as well. He's a good man.

[herotypical]

...He seems like it, in spite of all the rest. I like him. Or I like what I've seen of him.

He probably thinks I'm ten ways beyond crazy.

[simplestgift]

He thinks I'm "ten ways beyond crazy" trying to tell him you're ten times as strong as any man. You could always prove it to him, you know.

[herotypical]

...That might possibly because I haven't actually told him. He seems like the kind of person who'd freak out if he, y'know, knew. And I kinda like him not freaking out at me.

[simplestgift]

I would think it would make him respect you.

[But he doesn't know Bush that well, tell the truth.]

[herotypical]

[ that actually gets a smile. ]

Not all the men react like you did when they figure out I can do the things I can do.