Twenty-two bells: [WRITTEN/ACTION]

[simplestgift]

[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.]

Comments

[abidinglaw.livejournal.com]

[That? That would take some doing. When had he ever been comfortable? And what about this was comfortable? But he takes a seat all the same and occupies himself with looking around the lounge-esque-area to see what he might see.]

[simplestgift]

[Most notably, he'll see a mural on the living room wall of a forty-four gun frigate with the name Indefatigable across her stern. Very little is left lying about--a stack of books on top of a shelf, some from beyond Norrington's time, some which should be familiar. A small model of a sloop-of-war, only partway done. Otherwise, it's clean in here.

Archie starts the hot water and pulls out the teapot. He got so strongly in the habit of don't talk to the superiors with Sawyer that he's struggling to come up with small talk.]

[abidinglaw.livejournal.com]

[It is the mural that draws his eye. Silence does not worry him, though. If he speaks then he suspects that he will break whatever spell is keeping them from drawing their swords on each-other. Perhaps it is the work of a shift.]

[simplestgift]

[In due time, Kennedy comes in with a tray. A small teapot--empty--two cups, cream, sugar, a small strainer, and a few sweets. He sets it down on the coffee table and heads back to the kitchen, soon emerging with the large teapot--full--and holding it very carefully. After setting it down, he picks up the lid on the smaller pot, sets the strainer inside, and pours tea into the small pot. He then sets the strainer into Norrington's cup and fills it from the small pot.

At no point does he look at the admiral.]

[abidinglaw.livejournal.com]

Did you serve on her? The -- Indefatigable?

[In that brief pause he looks over at the mural to make doubly sure of the name. It would have been an embarrassment to them both if he had mis-spoken. Now he reaches over to take the cup that Archie has so thoughtfully filled for him, but he will not touch it until Kennedy gives some sign that he may.]

[simplestgift]

[Archie glances at the mural while he fills his own cup.] As a mid. Transferred to her when the war began. She was the finest ship I had the pleasure of serving aboard, with the finest captain. There. [He sits and picks up his own cup.] Help yourself, sir, no need to stand on ceremony.

[abidinglaw.livejournal.com]

[There, he lifts the cup gently by the handle and supports the bottom with the fingers of his other hand. In this manner he conveys it to the surface in front of him and sets it there after a brief and noiseless sip.]

By all accounts a worthy looking vessel.

[Another sip. He draw his eyes back up to the mural]

And fierce. When was she commissioned? And how many tonnes, all told?

[simplestgift]

I can't tell you when her first commission was, back when she was a ship of the line. She was cut down in '93. Took down a seventy-four almost on her own, and I bet we could have done it even if the Amazon hadn't come along. Pellew was her captain, fierce and bold. A good man.

[As he speaks, a proud smile makes its way onto his face.]

[abidinglaw.livejournal.com]

We? You mean to say that you were aboard when she confronted a seventy-four gunner?

[simplestgift]

Captain Hornblower and I both had the honor, sir.

[abidinglaw.livejournal.com]

And the Indefatigable had what? Sixty? At the most?

[He was studying the mural closely, now, leaning forward. It is clear whether he thinks the boy a fool or a hero.]

[simplestgift]

Forty-four. It was during a bad storm, you see. The French ship couldn't even open her lower gun ports. Eventually she dashed on the rocks.

[abidinglaw.livejournal.com]

A pity. I expect she would have made an enviable prize.

[There's the admiral in him, oozing through.]

But of course, you are fortunate merely to have survived.

[simplestgift]

Only one member of the crew did not survive, sir. There were a few wounded, though. Less than twenty.

[abidinglaw.livejournal.com]

A miracle.

[He exclaimed, though not without belief.]

She must not have fired upon you.

[Or else she must have missed by a wide margin.]

[simplestgift]

We took some damage, sir, but half her guns were completely useless and she couldn't maneuver well in the storm. Not a miracle, but a stroke of brilliance on Pellew's part, engaging her in a storm.

[abidinglaw.livejournal.com]

A storm is an act of God, lieutenant.

[Again, he is not contradicting Archie so much as he is attempting to tease more of the story out of him.]

[simplestgift]

And the choice to engage another ship during an act of God is an act of the captain. He was a hero. People wouldn't have believed it if it wasn't in the gazette. No one would have thought it possible, up till then.

[abidinglaw.livejournal.com]

No indeed.

[He knows nothing of this Pellew, but he knows enough to know that Archie is describing what should by all rights have been a losing battle.]

His crew must have esteemed him highly enough, to hold in the face of such high odds.

[simplestgift]

The only captain I ever served under who...

[Oh, that's right. We don't say these things to admirals, do we?]

...who...who would have thought of it.

[abidinglaw.livejournal.com]

I must say it is a relief to hear of this Pellew.

[He says this almost without thinking, and quickly drains the remaining tea in his cup so as not to have to explain further. Then he promptly pours himself more, and tops Archie's cup up -- if he has drunk any by now.]

[simplestgift]

...A relief, yes. [Between unaware Keene and mad Sawyer, Pellew had been a reprieve.]

[abidinglaw.livejournal.com]

[For Norrington the relief comes in the form of a renewed belief in the English navy. Under Beckett, the navy was a tool of heedless ambition and merciless persecution. Pellew sounded like a hero indeed. If the navy of the future could foster men like him and Hornblower, if it valued men like these enough to raise them to positions of command, perhaps it would yet be redeemed. For the first time in a long time, then, he finds himself looking fondly into the past. It is a queer feeling indeed.]

At the height of my career, I commanded both the HMS Interceptor and the HMS Dauntless. The Interceptor was the fastest ship in all the Caribbean - Dauntless was unmatched for her strength.

[He had been Commodore, then, and would yet attain the rank of Admiral, but to be an admiral in a corrupt navy stirred no pride in him.]

[simplestgift]

I was in the Caribbean, back home. Kingston, last I knew. [Probably buried there.] Quite different. I wish I'd been able to see home again. Before coming here.

[Wait...was he really having this conversation with Norrington?]

[abidinglaw.livejournal.com]

I suppose we must console ourselves with the fact that it is not a unique fate - a morose comfort to my mind, but there you have it. Men like you and I, Archie, we placed ourselves knowingly at the mercy of the wind and the whims of our kings besides. We cannot now look back indignant at where those currents have drawn us.

[Does the admiral even believe this himself? Well, some version of it. If nothing else, he believes that his own path was of his own choosing. He is too proud of that achievement to mourn its conclusion. Indeed, it was when the interests of the navy began to bend him to a path that he was unwilling to walk that he cut himself forcibly from it. Yet, he is not without regrets:]

We can not, however strongly we may wish to.