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

Something that size is really almost insulting small, isn't it?

[He chuckles lightly, but his eyes are alight with the possibility.

Not of a first-rate frigate or the like, no. He knows the jest there. But the core of the idea. There probably aren't cannons here, at least not cannons enough, but it would have to be a warship, even if she wasn't armed.

Unbeknownst to him, his hand is moving, tracing figures in the air close to him, the lines of a ship as he envisions several, considering the plausibility of making one...

If nothing else, it's a dream, and he has precious few of those here.]

We'll need a proper dock for her.

They have a couple of docks there already. They look a bit odd, but they service.

We could manage a twenty or twenty-two...

[The library in this town would sure have books about the subject. Models. Suggestions.

Horatio felt keenly aware of his own lack of knowledge in the area. He knew what to order to repair a ship, but even the repairs himself, he'd never really done. There were carpenters, carpenters' mates, sailmakers... There were hands that knew how to work word and canvas, how to make it into a ship. He'd never done that sort of task before...

But damned if he wasn't willing to try. He could not bear sitting idle, and perhaps the work would help him organize the other thoughts in his mind.]

...I'm sure we could.

A sloop of war? No guns, but that doesn't mean she can't have ports. [He ducks into the kitchen to pour himself a glass of Scotch. It's always that telltale drink; it's brandy when he's celebrating and Scotch when he's not so okay as he could be.] Imagine the Third Party raiding by sea and we have the only ship that can do battle.

[Horatio nods, well aware of the Scotch.

Which makes him like Archie's idea all the more. It would be something productive.]

Besides, stranger things have happened than ship cannons showing up in this place.

[It might never happen, but... Strange as this place was, Horatio realized it wasn't impossible.]

[Archie returns and sits on the couch with a sigh, putting one foot up on the coffee table.]

Well, the Malnosso gave me cannons to fight the Third Party. Perhaps they'll supply them when we need them, as well.

[Horatio pauses. It's a fatal step. One that can't be undone once it's taken.]

Do you think-- Let's suppose they do. That there's cause for them, and the Malnosso supplies them. Do you think they would remain? After the fighting was done?

[Something is going on in that head of his.]

Well, no. They wouldn't want us to begin a revolution, would they? [A subject he's thought about many times, but Archie Kennedy is not the most productive at these things.] We would have to be subtler than that if we did.

Revolution.

[He doesn't like the word. Doesn't like the taste or the way it lingers on his tongue.

Yet it's true enough. That is what it would be.

And then...]

We would have to be much more subtle.

[There's an undeniable gravity to his voice.]

It couldn't be a war. It would be more akin to a mutiny, Mister Hornblower. Have you been thinking much on this?

[Because it sounds to him like you have, just from that tone of voice. It makes the brooding lately make a great deal of sense, too.]

That's the difficulty, isn't it?

[He's half talking to Archie, half to the million fears in his head.]

It couldn't be a war, but if the slightest thing goes wrong... it could turn into one. One that would be impossible for the Malnosso to lose.

[So, to answer the question: yes, he has.]

[There's a long pause.]

I'm your lieutenant.

[And I would follow you into a hopeless battle and consider myself fortunate to do so, win or lose--and Horatio Hornblower does not lose.]

[He looks surprised.

Honestly, he'd been prepared for the worst. Prepared for arguments and a refusal. The first, he'd counter, more for his sake than anything else, and he'd been prepared to take the latter.

After all, Archie has faced the worst at his side.

But to hear what he does...

His reply is almost sheepish.]

Can't promise I'm not just going to get us killed.

[A breath.] You can't.

[Unspoken: But I would die by your side anyway.]

[You are all damned sheep. And like sheep, you will be slaughtered.

He heard the words echo in his mind and drew a thin breath. Another old ghost. Another voice he'd never be entirely free from.

Horatio knows he won't talk Archie out of his support. Selfish as it is, he doesn't want to talk Archie out of his support.

If he's going to do something this stupid, he at least wants Kennedy at his side.]

Thank you.

[There's a soft shake of the head. No need for that, Horatio. There's no other place for him.]

[But it's still all too appreciated. He settles a hand on Archie's shoulder.]

I don't think I could do it without you.

[Not in so strange a place where he can be certain of so little. Archie's support means the world.]

[A pause.] Well, of course you could. It wouldn't be a very good idea, is all. [A smile.]

Well, I certainly wouldn't want to. I know that much.

Not without me to pull you off bridges and such. [He's saved your life so many times, Horatio. Well. Twice. But still.]

Pull me off bridges, jump off cliffs with me... [He has to chuckle.]

[He chuckles, too, and falls silent. This is nice. Remembering old times. Thinking about making new memories. Actually being Horatio's lieutenant for real instead of in theory.]

I'll have to think of other help. The lieutenant hires the crew, doesn't he?

You and I can manage it together, I think. Though you know the people here better than I do.

[...And here is the captain, the result of all the quiet contemplation Horatio has been often lost in as of late.]

We'll need cause to meet-- whist games, perhaps building this boat you suggested. Little things that it doesn't seem suspicious if a group is together.

The wi-- journals I don't trust. I want as little use of them as possible. And when we talk? I want them in another room. Just to be safe.

[He nods.] Of course. Buffy would be good to have on our side. [He's thinking.] Probably...God, I'm not sure. [His mind clicks through recent faces, and lands on one.] Derek Bliss. He was in the army, I believe. Quiet fellow, but Buffy trusts him, and that's all I need to know.

[He gets a bit of a look on his face at Buffy's name, but... He won't argue. If Archie wants her in... Well. He knows this place and its people better than he does.

And then he chuckles.]

Army experience. We could certainly use that. [A faint smile, amused despite the real threat his words underline.] This won't be much like a sea battle, certainly.

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