Twenty Bells: [Action/Voice]

[simplestgift]

[He'd won her a stuffed penguin. She'd been hanging on his arm and squeezing it with a giant grin on her face. Everything felt, finally, like it was going to be okay. Like this trouble between them since sleeping together was just a little thing.

He turns away to grab a strawberry daiquiri for her, still holding her hand. When he turns back, she's gone.

He wanders Lucetiland for a while, looking for her, shaking, still holding the drink, but he knows what's happened. When someone dematerializes while you are touching them...

She was just there, grinning, cheeks rosy. The warmth of her hand hasn't quite faded yet.

He sits on a bench in the middle of the park, staring into space, and nothing in the world draws his attention until, mechanically, he draws out his journal. He's shaking too badly to write, so he has to voice it, and he sounds weak.]

Dawn Summers was sent home.

Comments

[ voice ]

[herotypical]

...Huh?

[ this barely registers. ] What? What about Dawn? Is she okay?

[ voice ]

[simplestgift]

[There's a long pause. How can he reiterate this to Buffy?

Like an officer.

He clears his throat, his voice going low, but cracking a little.]

She-she went home.

[ voice ]

[herotypical]

No.

[ instantly, her voice gets thick. ] No. She can't have. I just -- we just talked. She came by the castle and we talked, dammit. She's here. You just...you lost track of her.

[voice]

[captainhornblower]

Archie.

[What else is there to say? At least right now.]

[voice]

[simplestgift]

[There's a long pause, as if he doesn't know he's being spoken to. Then, belatedly:]

Yes?

[voice]

[captainhornblower]

Where are you?

[Voice]

[consultmybooks]

[Everything just goes...so very quiet and still.

Giles sinks down against a booth, and the noise of the festival just...fades. It's meaningless. It means absolutely nothing, and Giles can't remember the last time he felt so alone.

And just like that, she's gone from being the bright, shiny twenty year old girl at a birthday party, aghast that he couldn't dance, to a pale, still form but for the blood trickling from her head, and he'd never know if she lived or died.

He'd never gotten the chance to tell her that he'd been considering asking Ginia to teach him...

...two to go.

Needless to say, Giles is trying so very hard not to cry when he replies.]

Th-Thank you for telling us.

[Voice]

[simplestgift]

[Archie doesn't respond. He lets the message wash over him along with the rest of the noise. But he'll be sitting on this bench until Horatio comes to take him home.]

[Voice]

[boomchucka.livejournal.com]

[These announcements are never easy but Archie sounds so down, that Selphie just can't leave him alone. Some people need time to be alone but sometimes, you have to be around others too. It makes the pain easier.]

Archie, where are you?

[Voice]

[simplestgift]

[Blinkblink. Selphie?]

At-at the park.

[Voice]

[boomchucka.livejournal.com]

I'll be there soon, okay?

( voice; )

[magnifien.livejournal.com]

...what?

( voice; )

[simplestgift]

....What? [He is so out of it, Caroline.]

[tehoniongirl.livejournal.com]

[she can hear the sounds of the park in the background of his announcement, so she looks for him in the crowd...but there are too many people. Too many places for him to linger out of sight. When she's exhausted the places she can think of in Lucetiland, she goes to the place she knows he'll have gone next. Home.

She knocks when she reaches the sailors' house, but she doesn't wait, quietly opening the door and slipping inside.]

[simplestgift]

[Archie's sitting on the couch with a cup of tea in his hands and a strawberry daiquiri, untouched and thawing, on the coffee table. He glances up as Jilly comes in, surprised but so grateful to see her.]

Jilly.

written;

[iron-grover.livejournal.com]

[...He's let down. Sure, let's put it like that. He liked Dawn. She was clever, and could match par with his snark--that took talent. And guts.]

That's a shame.

written;

[simplestgift]

[It's much later, but he picks up his journal and thinks he recognizes that handwriting.]

It is. She made Luceti a bit brighter.

[abidinglaw.livejournal.com]

[Archie does not want to see Norrington right now. He knows this. He doesn't want to hear from him, or read a single word that he might care to write. The admiral has done this himself, of course. Put himself in a position from which he can do no good.

He can only sit and watch.

Does he have the right to do even that?]

[simplestgift]

[Archie is out of it. So out of it, and so shocked, that when he glances up, he actually registers that Norrington is there, but simply doesn't care. Any grievance he had with this man is too petty to consider right now. He meets his eyes briefly, then looks back down.]

voice--next day okay?

[all7seas]

Kennedy? [Jack has had time to hear about this new loss and process it a bit since the night before. And he knows that he will probably be no help at all, but he has to say something to the lad.]

[voice] Next day is good!

[simplestgift]

[Archie is in the middle of staring at breakfast. He's actually pretty grateful when Jack interrupts.]

Yes?

[Voice]

[originaljackass]

Tch. Luceti's a sorrier place for one less Summers.

[And hey, he was at the birthday. He kind of picked up on the Archie and Dawn pairing.]

[Voice]

[simplestgift]

It is. [He sounds tired. He does not sound irritated, for pretty much the first time ever when speaking to Jack.]

[ actiony-ish ]

[wise_maiden]

[Dawn...

She hadn't had too much of a chance to get to know the girl this time around. She knew her mostly through Buffy, and the loss Buffy had the first time she had been sent home. That reminder, of their friendship, their tradition, that was what stung. It had been the start of it.

And now here it was again. She knew those shoes well. And yet, this wasn't Buffy announcing it.

It's only a coincidence, that when she looks up and away from the journal instead of replying, that she sees Archie sitting on the bench not too far away, and she watches him.]

[ action ]

[simplestgift]

[Archie looks like he's not here. He's staring blankly into space, like he's trying to decide whether or not he's dreaming. He does not notice Raine.]