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

[simplestgift]

Now, that depends on the man. Some men will growl, others will turn up their noses and tell you it's terrible for your voice so they have paid someone to growl for them.

[herotypical]

...You know, it probably is terrible for the voice.

[ doesn't mean she doesn't growl anyway. metaphorically or not. ]

[simplestgift]

Nothing a hot drink won't cure.

[herotypical]

So what I'm getting from this conversation is that maybe I should invite William out for a coffee and break the news to him over a hot, comforting beverage.

[simplestgift]

Not at all. You might tell him first, then give him something hot to settle his nerves. He won't know what to do with a woman who can look after herself.

[herotypical]

I kinda got that impression. You know, he thinks I accidentally defeated the General.

[simplestgift]

He hasn't seen what the Third Party is like yet. He'll learn better.

[herotypical]

How is he in a fight?

[simplestgift]

He's...he's a sailor. Fearless. Very good, in the sense that he's managed to stay alive this long. A very good leader of men. You could hear him over a hundred earthquakes when he decides to shout. But he's no Jack Sparrow.

[herotypical]

...Not many people are. In fact, no one is. That's part of Jack's charm.

[simplestgift]

It's true. But I meant as a fighter, he's passable but not extraordinary, I suppose. Not very creative.

[herotypical]

I meant as a fighter, too.

[ in buffy's warped version of the world, that is certainly worth affection. ]

So William gets points for ability but not for imagination. I know the type. They're not lost causes in the creativity department.

[simplestgift]

...Of course not.

[He doesn't know, though. William?]

[herotypical]

Lemme know when he gets back. I'll come clean.

[simplestgift]

I didn't mean you must.

[herotypical]

I just had a nightmare flash-forward to a draft and an uncreative William Bush thinking he needed to put himself into any danger to protect a girl that doesn't need it.

If he's gonna end up going -- and we all almost do, eventually -- then I don't want him to have the wrong idea.

[simplestgift]

That's a very good point you have. It sounds like the sort of thing he'd do, as well, provided it didn't involve jumping into water.

[herotypical]

Occasionally, I have them.

What? Can't he swim?

[ jack has spoiled her for assumptions about sailors. he has become her golden example -- and he is an expert swimmer. ]

[simplestgift]

[Then allow Archie to shatter your illusions.]

No. Learned this on the way down from a cliff.

sob.

[herotypical]

...Whose brilliant idea was it to live and work on an ocean he couldn't swim in? His?

God.

[simplestgift]

Well, it's not the ocean, it's the ships. Of course it's damned stupid, but one can get by for a time, until one is jumping off a cliff and into the ocean to escape from rebelling blacks with guns.

[herotypical]

...But he didn't drown, did he?

[simplestgift]

Do you think we would let him?

[herotypical]

...It's not usually a case of letting, is it?

[simplestgift]

We were with him. Otherwise he'd've stood there and been slaughtered.