simplestgift | 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

I will. I suppose...perhaps it's all we can do to protect everyone. Exposing her would only make things more dangerous.

[Feeling like not everyone has forgotten what happened seems to have calmed him down quite a bit.]

I don't know that it's all we can do. And I don't think we should assume it is.

It's a dangerous line to walk, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't. I just wouldn't want to rush.

[a small sigh] Or wait to long.

No. [This is comfortable, talking to her. That's not something he could often say about anyone.] I suppose the moment she gives us an excuse...

We don't need much of one. [they couldn't wait until someone else was hurt like Archie. Or worse, killed.

But it felt off, doing anything without giving her a chance to change]

No. We do not. [Hopefully Buffy agrees. Hopefully if someone else is hurt, she won't preach the same sermon about waiting.]

[she doesn't say anything else immediately. It's a safe silence, sitting with Archie, and they both need it to puzzle over the dilemma.

If he had more he wanted to say? Well...she trusted him to say it without her prying.]

[After a moment, he will thread an arm around her shoulders and tug her into a half-hug.]

[and she'll lean into the hug, head resting on his shoulder. It's a comfort and something that causes a brief wave of homesickness as well.

Sometimes she really misses having Geordie around]

...If...if she never did give us the excuse, it would be even better.

It would.

Change is possible. I just...hope she wants it.

[He shakes his head softly in bewilderment.] She said she would kill me. Next thing I know, she flings my journal at me and tells me to call for help before I bleed to death.

[He doesn't remember giving details about that night before.]

[it's hard not to flinch, hearing. It's hard not to picture him lying there with all that blood. She pulls away a little, crossing her arms over herself]

She's not stable.

No. But she isn't the worst monster we've dealt with. [By "we," he means himself and Jilly, not their entire circle of friends. Maybe Grell is the most powerful, but she's not the worst.]

No. Definitely not the worst.

[she doesn't have to ask what he means]

And yet...she may be the only one no one can really stop.

Unless she chooses to stop herself.

That may be our only hope, God help us.

It's not an impossible hope.

Not impossible, no. Much more possible than it would be for some.

Nineteen Bells: [WRITTEN/ACTION/VOICE]

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