milliways_bar | (no subject)

Entry tags:

(no subject)

He walks down slowly, as if not quite sure what'll be there. When one is newly dead, one fears heading down far more than one fears heading up but he does in fact make it to the main bar. Another few steps gets him to the bar counter proper and then he's ordering a meal, neat as you please, and taking the bites slowly as if afraid they might disappear as readily as they appeared.

[ooc: in and out due to groceries and parentals, but I'll answer your tag]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Put back up to a decent level."

He grins.

Another nod.

"Right enough. Fines are all well and good and the ruin of a wicked man is one thing, but the men and women and families is the concern."

"I check on Sal when I can. She's, ah..." He glances down. "She's drawing a widow's pension these days. The army sees her right."

A nod.

"Well enough."

He nods now to Richard.

"And now yourself?"

He laughs, quietly. "Ah, Matt. Twenty years, it's one hell of a long story."

"M'not going anywhere now, am I, brother?"

"...no, I s'pose you aren't at that. Right... you were already gone from the Home when they got me my apprenticeship. Chimney sweeping, it was."

He winces before giving a a crooked smirk.

"As if you could keep your nose clean before."

"Yeah, well - didn't last long. I didn't fancy choking my life away on soot before I turned 25. So I ran away. Went to London."

"And how'd you do there, exactly? Better than most."

"Got picked up by a woman called Maggie when she took pity on the country kid. Spent the next couple of years making my money thieving."

He nods.

A simple reality for the less fortunate.

"And then... came home one day and I found one of Maggie's customers getting a bit rough with her." Beat. "So I knifed him."

Another wince.

"I'm sure there were other women not so fortunate as Maggie. Men like that are like that to every girl they're like to meet or deal with."

"Most like. But I was sixteen years old, Matt, and she was the only friend I had. Wasn't gonna just stand by and let him."

He blinks.

"I was speaking for you, brother, commending your act."

Sharpe smiles ruefully.

"Just wish I could've helped more."

"We do what we can."

"Aye. That we do."

He nods for Richard to continue his tale.

"So. I was sixteen and... well. I don't know who he was, but Maggie seemed to think he'd be missed. Best way out was the army."

A nod.

"There are others, but it was better than it could have been."

"I was a good soldier", he says with... less pride than satisfaction in twenty years well-lived. "And I tried to be a good officer."

~~...mun says nothing about the hat~~

"I wouldn't expect less of you."

~~This mun agrees that it's a very silly hat. And wishes she could find out where that shot came from.~~

He smiles. "Thank you, brother."