lucetilogs | so pile your boots up in the corner -- hang your jacket from the door

Entry tags:

so pile your boots up in the corner -- hang your jacket from the door

Who: anyone invited to house seven's thanksgivingstravaganza -- as well as anyone walking by who might be curious about all the brouhaha.
What: giving thanks!
When: forward dated to november 24th due to predicted holiday hiatuses!
Where: house seven!
Summary: friends, food, fondness. family. festivities.
Rating: g for goin' up.

House Seven was decked out in soft oranges and browns. Gentle reds and yellows. The table was shoved up against a wall and dish upon dish of delicious Thanksgiving dinner-bits adorned it. Plates to one side, a pile of cutlery. Feel free to line up and pile your arms high with roasted turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, carrots and green beans, cranberry sauce, sinful gravy. Stuffing. Steamed broccoli. The amount of food would almost be laughable had the guest list not been so long. Chatter abounded.

It was, by all accounts, a fairly casual gathering. No ceremony (Buffy, by this point, was all ceremony'd out after some fiercely dedicated meal-prepping) to stand on and no customs to keep. Just food and friendship. The only thing customary about Buffy Summers would be her delighted, enchanted grin throughout the evening. Very little pleased her more than a social event that was going well.

Mix! Mingle! Make merry!

(ooc; threadjack into oblivion and don't forget to add your character to the entry tags! have fun! note that this is forward-dated. i'll be tagging around myself later this evening. )

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"I did talk to...to Hornblower about him." Jack turned back to her, taking just a moment to appreciate the sight of her lovely strong legs before moving to stand behind her. "It was somewhat helpful.

He told me he was frightened of me. Archie did."

"He tells me I frighten him, like, every second week." Opening with a joke. She turned to face Jack and lifted her chin to look upwards. "He's...young. He said--" Buffy frowned. He had said that the men on the ships gossiped about him; however, if she brought that up now -- wouldn't she be acting just as badly?

Was it at all mediated by the fact that she had Archie's best interests at heart?

"What'd Horatio say?"

"Said to listen to him. Patience. Be what he needs." Sparrow would be tempted to snort at Horatio's words in his own mouth if he wasn't so worried about the lieutenant, and so freaked out by his behavior. "I never thought he was afraid of me. Surprised me."

"Wait. Wait -- did he tell you that he was afraid of you or that Archie-as-we-know-him is afraid of you? Because he's starting to remember and he's...did he tell you, too? What not-so-your-Archie thinks?"

"Midshipman Archie told me that Lieutenant Archie is frightened of me.

God, this is getting confusing."

"...I don't think he likes being called Lieutenant. Not anymore. He isn't one, he's -- you know what? Never mind. For the sake of not running our brains around in circles, that's how we'll tell them apart."

She grabbed onto Jack's hand and lead him to the bed. They would talk this problem out. "Did Midshipman Archie tell you why Lieutenant Archie feels like that?"

"We...discussed it." He followed her. "Either way, Annie? He won't be like this forever and always. It was a kidnapping. Am I still speaking French all over the place? Are you still trapped in your lovely bouncy castle?"

None of that changed the fact that Kennedy was frightened of him.

"...I was powerless for five months. Three before you even showed up. Two after. It'll wear off but it might not be soon."

And Jack will always regret trying to maraud Buffy while she had the power loss.

"Hornblower will look after him." Short. Gruff. Kennedy didn't have to be their problem, did he? No matter how many times Jack told himself that, he knew it to be false.

What he was less likely to admit to himself was that he felt the strong pull of responsibility toward looking after the younger man.

"Hmm. Yeah -- probably."

She and Horatio had shared a very...interesting conversation on the night of Archie's disappearance. Curious. Thought-provoking.

Buffy began removing one pillow after another. Tossing one casually at Jack instead of beyond him.

"He told me...hmm. It's totally okay for me to tell you these things, right? I mean -- we're us. That's not gossip. Right?"

"I don't know," he answered honestly, catching the pillow. "I don't know those rules, Buffy Summers."

The rules for self-service and betrayal? Those he knew.

"It's for his own good. Right? If I tell you something, it's for him. Not against him." A look. "Because you're not going to use it against him. Right?"

Jack stared at her from across the bed.

"...Not sure I can make that promise, lass."

"If you did use it against him? He'd know that I told you."

"So what you're askin' for is a promise, then. What if I am called upon to use this information against his will, but for his own good?"

"Oh. That's different. That's totally different. I'd do that -- have done that. I can accept those terms."

"We have an accord, then."

She fell into a quoting voice: "He'd be too frightened I wouldn't like him if he told me everything." Buffy sank to her side on the bed. "That's what Archie first told me, tonight. And by he? He meant...him. Older. Lieutenant Archie."

"Hmm." Jack stretched out on his side of the bed, shoving some pillows aside and burying himself in the rest. "He's always been a bit tense, Kennedy. When it comes to the people he cares about."

She faced him -- leaning her chin on one palm. All of this conversation! It was typical of them; equalizing. As bright and blinding as other parts of their us were, this was the most habitual. The longest standing tradition. Dialogue. They had become collaborators.

"And he said the Lieutenant'd have secrets. Which -- okay, we've all got them. All of us. But he said it like...like those secrets weren't kept back home, for him. And being here allowed him to. He said..."

She leaned a little closer. Her voice dropped. "Jack. What do sailors gossip about, on a ship? What would they say behind another sailor's back?"

"Hmmm?" Jack wouldn't be satisfied until Buffy was tugged close beside him. "I suppose all sorts of things. There's lots of talk on board a ship, Buffy."

She didn't have to be tugged twice.

"Either way? I'll keep an eye on him."

"Buffy?" He had to tell her. It probably had to be now. Jack scrunched his body up against hers, steeling the muscles in his arms. Now. It should be now.

"Mmhm?"

Archie was rapidly fading. The closer she got, the more settled she felt. Buffy wrapped one of her legs of his. Her ear on his chest. "What is it?"

"Tomorrow I'm....tomorrow I'm leaving. It's a mission. A Malnosso mission."

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lol THAT THREAD IS RIGHT AT THAT PART NOW

/circumvents

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you know I want to use the icon....but I WON'T

it'll come when i'm least expecting it.

yus. as it always seems to do.