Twenty-Seven Bells: [ACTION/VOICE]

[simplestgift]

[January is proving to be a difficult month, but Archie is making it okay. It’s been just over a year since he arrived, just over a year since his death, and he’s been thinking about how much has changed since he lay half-naked and shivering in someone else’s bed.

He met and embarrassed himself in front of his first modern woman.

He met someone like him.

He tried to write poetry.

He tried a drink from another world.

He fought as Horatio’s first lieutenant.

He fought a duel and had drinks with the man afterwards.

He drove a tractor while purple and narcoleptic.

He found himself as a member of a family, and not only a shift-induced one.

He was reunited beyond hope with the dearest of friends.

He almost died.

He bought a cake and got drunk with an old comrade.

He designed and helped build a ship.

He became Robin Hood.

He became his old self.

He fell in love.

He fell from a hundred feet and survived.

His hair grew longer, he grew older.

He still has no way to let his family know he is alive.

He still can’t completely trust Jack Sparrow.

He’s more convinced than ever that he’s ruined for love.

He’s less convinced than ever that that’s something to be as ashamed of as he is.

He doesn’t want to go back to the Navy, and he’s not sure he wants to go back home at all.

He’s become something he didn’t think possible a year ago.

In spite of all that has happened and all that has been done, Archie Kennedy has become happy.

He hasn’t forgotten the pain of lying in his sickbed in prison or his deathbed in another prison.

He hasn’t forgotten shutting down before a midshipman and a captain who would take any word or gesture as an excuse to destroy him.

He hasn’t forgotten four walls touching him all at once or the overhead grating letting in not nearly enough light.

He hasn’t forgotten Christmas with his family, mince pies and contraband whiskey and stories of drunken shore leave.

He hasn’t forgotten flying for a few terrified, joyous, breathless seconds with the water coming up to meet him and Bush screaming in his ear.

…Not going to jump, and that’s my final word!

…Weak-kneed officers who don’t know how to keep order.

…iiiiitoooons neeeeever shallllll beeeeee slaaaaves!

…ister Kennedy? Just…look after him.

…Must get strong. Now drink.

…Last time, they locked me up in a hole in the earth for a month, with no room to stand up or lie down. Now leave me alone.

…Been a long time. Jack’s missed you, boy.

…It’s all right, Archie. It’s all right. A bad dream. Sleep now. Sleep.

Welcome to Purgatory!

He hasn’t forgotten and he won’t forget. But all of it, joy and pain, is only a part of a whole. The whole, at this moment, is happy.

His life then and his life now are the same life, two parts of the same story, despite what he believed when he first arrived here. What more valuable lesson could he have learned in only a year?

When he was a child, he’d loved his brothers because one has to love one’s brothers. As a man, he’d loved them because they were Finley and Neil. Luceti had been home at first because it had to be and there was no other choice. Now, more and more, it is simply home.]

[Today, Archie goes to the smithy to ask a favor of its weapon smiths (OOC: dibs go to Hiccup Haddock). In the evening, he brings home a bottle of Madeira and a ham to cook before work. Tonight, he'll be working the bar and tables at Cloud Nine.

Eventually, he speaks over the journals, tone light and warm but professional.]

This is Mr. Kennedy.

Any member of the crew of the Britannia is welcome to come with me to tour the ship in the morning. She's quite a handsome woman and I'd very much like you to meet her.

For those who've not yet heard, Britannia is a sixth-rate man of war with the capacity for twenty-two guns, but no actual guns. She carries enough sail to cover her namesake, so she's fast, and nimble as Jack jumping over a candlestick. Winter isn't the best time for sailing, but once things warm up, Captain Hornblower will be taking her out on her maiden voyage. As his first leff--first mate, I'm responsible for hiring the crew, so do speak with me and not with him if you wish to join.

[A pause. Then, he speaks very softly, with many sentiments wrapped up into two words:]

Thank you.

Comments

[all7seas]

Why Lieutenant! Is that yourself, rising to the challenge?

[simplestgift]

Rising to it with pleasure, sir. Besides, these are all volunteers, not pressed men. They should be willing enough.

[all7seas]

"Then you'll have to train them up soundly so we're not fishing the Britannia off the bottom." Jack, of course, is trolling with that statement. He does not look at the Britannia and see a particularly sinkable ship.

[simplestgift]

"...Perhaps you and I should sail a day on a vessel which can move without much of a crew."

[all7seas]

"Whenever you like, sir. I don't mind a bit of cold weather sailing, personally."

[simplestgift]

"Easier in a smaller vessel than a larger one." Never thought a twenty-two gunner would be considered a larger vessel. "We'll bring enough rum to keep us warm."

[all7seas]

"'Cept I'll be less almost-dead drunk this time, eh?"

[simplestgift]

"Drunk enough to be warm, sober enough to enjoy it."

[all7seas]

"You think Lizzie would like to come?" Because Jack was already thinking about other ways they could keep warm as well. "And Buffy, too?"

[simplestgift]

"Lizzie? Miss Swann?"

It's not a question. Archie's smiling like he has a secret.

"Of course they should come."

[all7seas]

"Annie gets to be First Mate, though," Jack cautioned. It was probably more of an honorary title than anything else, with more than a bit of double entendre, but she was deserving of it. "Glad you seem to like the notion."

He'd been meaning to offer Elizabeth a sail soon, anyhow.

[simplestgift]

He doesn't care. He's Horatio's first mate, and that's all that matters.

"Miss Swann is...on our crew, by the by. No exclusivity, of course, so she could well be on yours as well."

[all7seas]

"Now why am I not at all surprised?"

[simplestgift]

"It's beyond me."

[all7seas]

The only crew Jack can seem to find are children. And they are the last people he wants to be around these days. "Be warned; she's a king. She'll end up being your captain if you don't watch out."

[simplestgift]

The look on Archie's face seems to say he wouldn't mind that, depending on the circumstance. "I just recruited the other Slayer, as well. She could man the capstan all on her own, I suspect."

[all7seas]

"Ha! Melaka! She pirated about with me during one of the experiments. We rode about in a wagon!



I like her."


He got along with Faith, too, back when she was in Luceti. Jack pretty much just likes Slayers in general, apparently.

/throws in a bit of irony

[simplestgift]

"So long as she's willing and able. Horatio might find her a wild one, but I can soothe most misunderstandings. More than Bush would be likely to do, were he here."

XD

[all7seas]

"Soothing. I see. Soothing the wildness." He has to put the journal aside for a moment so he can get his knowing smirk on.

[simplestgift]

"...The misunderstandings, Jack. Most of this crew isn't likely used to taking orders, and Horatio's used to obedience without question."

[all7seas]

"What's Hornblower going to do, flog them?"

[simplestgift]

"I don't know what he's going to do, and that's the trouble. If a crew doesn't obey its captain, no one gets home. Still, it isn't as if there are any options when it comes to discipline when he's not protected by any Articles. I can only hope since they're all volunteers that they understand what they must do."

[all7seas]

"Well have any volunteered who might be troublesome, particularly? Aside from Elizabeth, that is?" Jack is curious. And he doesn't actually think Liz will be trouble -- far from it. Far better to have her.

[simplestgift]

"The Slayer, perhaps, but only if she takes it to mind to be cross. The benefit outweighs the risk."

[all7seas]

Jack's expression clouds until he understands that Archie means the other slayer.

"Dunno. She doesn't seem like the cross type to me. Not like Buffy...can be."