captainhornblower | [luceti]

The most recent injury to it, yes. An aggravation upon an existing wound.

[He tried to smile, but it didn't quite reach his eyes.]

Are you familiar with the tales of Robin Hood?

I am.

[there's a smile, but his own caution --and her own experience with Luceti's shifts-- made it slightly wary as well.] I always liked them.

[for now, he'd get a pass about the preexisting wound. But she had heard him and noted it for later questioning]

Whomever decided on these roles for us to play... seems to have thought I would make a fine Sheriff. And plans to kidnap the [a cough] charming Maid Marian... went awry.

...As they were supposed to, of course.

O-oh. [there's a pause, before one small hand goes to cover her smile, stifling a laugh. It wasn't very fair. It wasn't. Horatio was anything except a villain. But the sheriff opposing a troublesome thief...that part she could see very well.] Oh no... It's actually making you act it out?

Who's Marian?

[oh dear...] Who's Robin Hood?

[had she known the answers to those questions, the emphasis would have been reversed]

Sparrow. [It's his turn to try very, very hard not to laugh, but he can't help it.] They even-- My God. They even put him in this ridiculous gown.

[...He is too amused at the memory to want to spoil it with answering her last question.]

Jack?!

[forgive her, Jack. Laughter was second nature to her...and there was no way to deny it in this situation]

Oh god...Poor Jack.

You tried to kidnap him?!

Drugged his rum with a pain pill of mine.

[there is a sudden and immediate look of reproach]

...You weren't supposed to have any of those left.

[Yes, Horatio, it is possible to be lectured by someone who is only two inches tall.]

...A splinter [even to the chest] hardly takes that much medication, Miss Jilly.

[Yes, that lecturing can manage to make him look guilty.]

Is that the doctor's verdict? Or yours?

[Jiminy Cricket would be proud]

I was not in pain, so I did not take the pills.

[see the skepticism on her face, Horatio? Because it's there.]

I know pain, Miss Jilly. It was not bad enough to require drugging myself.

But it was okay to drug Jack's drink?

No.

[He looks very guilty at that.]

I intend, once this mess is over and I can think straight, to make a full apology for my actions.

I... knew. As I was doing it. But I just... did it.

[Being forced to act out the role might have been otherwise amusing, but acting without being able to control himself... That unsettled him greatly.]

[her expression softens at that, sympathetic] I'm sorry.

...At least...

[a small sigh] I don't know if it's any comfort at all, but at least part of you knows it's an experiment.

[There was nothing right about being forced into something against your will. Not even something as harmless as offering wishes or playacting characters from a famous story. But to have even your knowledge of your own will taken away...

Jilly wouldn't often say it, but that first experiment had scared her more than she liked to admit]

[He sighs a bit and nods.]

Yes. Yes, of course.

[But being aware of his actions and unable to stop himself hit him deeply. He remembered a man, so many years his senior, holding a gun out to him. Telling him to shoot him. Wanting to die.

Seeing in those eyes the regret and fear for every action he'd done... and then seeing all acknowledgement gone the next day.

He shrugged his shoulders, trying to ward off the chill the ghost brought to his blood.]

He was in good hands, last I saw of him.

[Stepping closer was dizzying and a little strange, seeing his face looming so large, but she made her way to the edge of the bookshelf to sit, legs dangling]

But your hand was hurt. [she didn't forget]

Did...did you have to fight someone? [asking if he'd fought wasn't enough. They obviously weren't being given full control of their actions]

[Horatio considered it for a moment... and decided that if it were dignified enough for a mid, he could still manage it. So he sat back on the floor, eyeing the small version of Jilly.

This was so strange.]

Yes.

The man the Malnosso picked for their Robin Hood.

Someone you hadn't met?

[She kicked her feet idly as she spoke, looking back down at the sitting captain]

[Horatio shook his head after a moment.]

Archie.

[her feet stilled, the backs of her heels pressing against the wooden ledge as she blinked down at Horatio]

Archie?

[it should have been funny. She could easily picture him as the noble thief-hero, running about the place and having adventures. But there's something about the way Horatio says it...and something about seeing the bandaged hand, knowing the role that the Malnosso had given Horatio to play.

Archie would never have purposefully hurt his captain. Aware or not...this would be worrying him, even if it was nothing more than a scratch.

And, given enough time, she might realize that this meant Jack was currently Archie's Maid Marian.]

[And other circumstances, Horatio would have laughed as well.

The role suited Archie, really. Doing what was right, even if it strayed outside the boundaries of what was allowed. Had the Malnosso put him in the role of one of the Merry Men, he'd have laughed quite a bit at the whole situation.

But there was something sobering about the pain in his hand. Archie had caused no outward further damage at least, and Horatio hoped that the sore muscles would either mend themselves or the pain be easily hidden by the time he and his dear friend could talk properly again.]

I'm quite out of my depth, trying to swordfight against Archie.

[Worrisome as the situation might have been and ache as his hand did... the pride in his voice was obvious.]

You shouldn't have to.

[just how far would these stories go? She suddenly found herself trying to remember what the Sheriff's fate had been at the end of the stories]

Hopefully we can merely... keep out of one another's way for as long as this lasts.

[luceti] - Appointments

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