simplestgift | Twenty-two bells: [WRITTEN/ACTION]

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Twenty-two bells: [WRITTEN/ACTION]

[Filtered from known villains and Grell, 100% unhackable]

[The handwriting is disguised and the picture is obscured.]

For the benefit of the new feathers: if you feel unsafe somehow in your own home, you may go to the Welcome Center and be placed in a safe house until you can get back on your feet. There does not have to be a reason. Even if you have returned from a kidnapping and do not wish to be alone, this is available to you.

[/Filter]

[Later, another written message, without the picture obscured.]

To anyone who volunteered to help build the ship:

We will begin work on Monday, at eight o'clock in the morning. We will meet at the fountain and walk from there. It'll mostly be cutting and transporting lumber at first, I'm afraid, and that includes building a cart to transport the lumber in.

Thank you,

Lt. Kennedy

[Then, written more hastily a little while later:]

If anyone has stories about Dr. McCoy, I should like to hear them.

[Today, Kennedy is stopping at the grocery store and the smithy, hoping someone with experience at the forge will be up to the challenge he has in mind.

Tonight, he is back to work at Cloud Nine, mostly waiting tables and looking fairly miserable. It's his first night of work since Dr. McCoy left, and since he dislikes the job anyway, he's not doing great at it tonight.

Before he goes home, he will stop by house 7. He will be home late.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[... ... ...]

Mad, indeed.

Still, if he is merely a bit... touched... and it has not affected his craft, we're hardly any worse for having him. ["A week" and "Cola" are laughable, but a shipwright is not. That sort of madness, so long as it did not prove destructive, could be tolerated.]

Precisely. He knew what we needed. I've yet to see if someone at the smithy can make us a couple of anchors. I hope it's in their realm.

[He can't help but smile.]

You've thought of everything, Archie.

Well, we're going to need anchors, aren't we? Have to keep the damned thing in place.

Well, yes. [A slight chuckle.]

We've awhile before we need to worry about it, [he doesn't buy this "one week" bit at all] but she won't be easy to crew, I imagine.

It takes a while to make an anchor. As for a crew, I'll just be happy we have her at all.

Another little taste of home.

[He offers a faint smile.] Imagine an officers' dinner on board a proper ship.

[That gets a faint smile, but not the giddiness it normally might. His gaze goes distant, and the smile is short-lived.]

[Which is wholly understandable, as far as Horatio is concerned.

He sets a hand on Archie's shoulder furthest from him, squeezing it. It's not quite a hug, but. Half counts.]

[That breaks down all facade, and Archie's face briefly crumples.]

He was one of the first people I knew here. He looked after everyone. You wouldn't know it at first, but he might have been the kindest man in Luceti.

I'm sorry I didn't get to know him better. [What else is there to say? Two losses, close together, both whom Archie was quite close to.

Another light squeeze to Archie's shoulder.]

Don't be. [Archie reaches up to clasp the hand gripping his shoulder.] He wasn't always easy to get to know.

I think... [He hesitates. He was the closest thing I had to you, before you came. But now you're here.] I'm all right.

[It hovers in the air a long time before Horatio can bring himself to say it. At sea, the words would never come. Too much is at stake every second on a ship of war. One must always move forward, not get caught up in the past or in thoughts.

But they are not at sea. And he can afford to say it to Archie.]

You don't have to be.

...I know. But I will be.

I know you will. [A beat.] Just... don't think you have to be. Right away. Not with me.

[Kettle, the pot would like to talk to you about your colour.]

[Flatly:] Horatio, you've lived with me lying in my own waste in a prison cell. I don't have any qualms about not being all right in front of you, not after that.

[He remembers Horatio shaving him, holding him with hands so firm but gentle so he couldn't jerk forward and hurt himself on the razor. Treated with dignity when he had none. There couldn't be any shame between them after that, not on Archie's part.]

I know, Archie, I just...

[Another squeeze to the shoulder. The thought trails off even in his mind before it's ever finished.]

I know.

[Kennedy lets out a breath.] All this worrying, Horatio. I'd be begging for shore leave, if this weren't already a permanent shore leave.

[He begins to offer an apology but decides against it. Instead, he sighs quietly.]

A permanent shore leave.

I'd like a shore leave from shore leave.

I never did well with shore leave. [He flashes a smile over at Archie, slight but there.] Usually because someone would goad me into drinking too much.

Oh hush, Horatio, you came out of it with a few good stories. No reason to complain.

Never was dull, at least.

[A soft chuckle.] I'm glad you're here.

And I you. [So very glad.]

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