Seventh Dispatch - [voice]/[action]

[captainhornblower]

[Horatio Hornblower's voice is very calm, very quiet. It sounds... not even curious. He is almost stating a fact, rather than asking a question.]

Lieutenant Bush's things are gone.

Why? What is the meaning of this?

[His housemates... will find him in his own room now, seated at his desk, the journal lying open in front of him-- if they dare disturb.]

Comments

[Voice]

[boomchucka.livejournal.com]

That means he's been sent back to your world.

[Voice]

[captainhornblower]

Been--

Ah.

That... is something of a comfort. [Though his tone hasn't changed.]

[Voice]

[boomchucka.livejournal.com]

Are you okay?

[Voice]

[captainhornblower]

[It takes just a moment.]

Yes, Miss Selphie. I am.

[Voice]

[boomchucka.livejournal.com]

You sure?

[She may not know you very well Horatio, but she knows your type very well. In fact, she's good friends with one.]

[action]

[simplestgift]

[Archie will be standing in the doorway of Horatio's room quietly, arms folded, leaning against the door frame until Horatio should notice him.]

[action]

[captainhornblower]

[It takes awhile. Horatio's hands are folded together, his elbows on the desk, and his eyes fixed on a particular discolouration in the wood.

But eventually he seems to notice the other presence in the room. And a few moments of silence after that, he glances over and nods once to acknowledge his friend.

His expression tries for impassivity, for stoic, but there's a crease to his brow and lines drawn up under his eyes. He cannot mask the worry... and blame. Not from Archie.]

[action]

[simplestgift]

[William had been Archie's friend. A good drinking partner, a trusted man, and it had been good to pick up the budding relationship where it had left off. But to Horatio, he had been a lieutenant, a companion, and if he had done what Archie had charged him to to, a guardian.

You must look after him, he had said to him while dying. Bush had agreed. Now for three years, Bush had worn Archie's shoes as best as he could. To lose William was to lose a rock.]

Horatio...

[He stepped in and closed the door. There was no urge to speak. They had reached the point where they did not have to speak at all years ago, and sometimes the keenest comfort was in companionable silence.]

[action]

[captainhornblower]

[Horatio's eyes settled back on the discolouration. He drew in a thin breath, let it out, took another. And then--]

Is this because they took him? Have they done something more?

[He had to know, and Archie would tell him.

If this was because they'd taken him... If this could have been prevented... If he'd just been here rather than out pacing in the rain on that bridge...

He had to know, and Archie would tell him.]

[action]

[tehoniongirl.livejournal.com]

[she doesn't try to comfort or cheer them up. Horatio had already been carrying too much weight on his shoulders before this and Archie...

Losing any of the people from his world would be like losing family. The true kind. And there wasn't a quick and easy comfort for that.

Instead, she just drops something off at their door. It's a small canvas, a 12x12 square from her pochade box. The product of two weeks of being bed ridden, she'd meant it as a small apology for the delay in finishing the mural...but it could serve a different purpose now. When they went out, they'd find a 64 gun ship riding the waves of a stormy sea.

A sticky note on the back just says "If you need to talk, you know where to find me."

It's not addressed to anyone in particular.]

[written]

[captainhornblower]

[A short time later, a note appears in the journals.]

Miss Jilly--

Thank you.

H

[written]

[tehoniongirl.livejournal.com]

Horatio,

I should be thanking you, really. I'd have gone a bit crazy without something to work on those weeks.

Jilly

[written]

[captainhornblower]

Miss Jilly--

The thought is still greatly appreciated. The painting is beautiful.

H

voice;

[undoing.livejournal.com]

It's generally assumed that means they've been sent back.

voice;

[captainhornblower]

Sent back.

I suppose that's something of a relief.

voice;

[undoing.livejournal.com]

Home's better than this place any day.

You serve the crown?

voice;

[captainhornblower]

Captain Horatio Hornblower, of His Majesty's ship Atropos.

And you, sir?

[Voice]

[wise_maiden]

When a person's belongings disappear, it means that they are no longer in this world.

[The delivery of this is quiet, as if she's had to deliver this sort of statement before. Many times before.] I'm sorry.

[Voice]

[captainhornblower]

I... Yes. Thank you.

[It's hard to say, but he is trying to come to terms with the idea.]

[Voice]

[wise_maiden]

I know it can be a difficult thing to accept, with the nature of this place.

[Voice]

[captainhornblower]

It's... very sudden. Still. It is no different than a loss in battle. [Or so he keeps telling himself.]

[voice]

[memoryboxes]

[After all the initial truth in the replies, she'll pipe up with a quiet voice; she's had a lot of things on her mind lately, but this... Well, someone leaving must be a painful thing. She only hopes it hadn't happened to her already.]

I'm so sorry, Horatio-san. He was a friend from your world?

[Hello, peeping.]

[voice]

[captainhornblower]

He was.

Thank you.

Re: [voice]

[memoryboxes]

I see... [She hopes she had never met him; otherwise, she would be... forgetting yet another person.] I hope he's doing well in your world, then. Are the others in your home doing okay?

[She can only think of Archie, but. Faces. Names. They're easy to lose track of.]

[voice]

[captainhornblower]

If I know Mr. Bush, he's doing quite well.

[The thought takes a fraction of the weight from his voice.]

Mr Kennedy and Mr. Wellard are doing well, thank you.