Captain Horatio Hornblower (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
captainhornblower) wrote2020-01-01 09:10 pm
captainhornblower) wrote2020-01-01 09:10 pm
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luceti] - Appointments
Messages and meetings for Cpt. Horatio Hornblower.
(Please title and date as appropriate.)
(Please title and date as appropriate.)
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The words register before her voice itself does. 'Like in the living room.' Like the one the older self of this little girl painted. But there was a difference between an artist carefully planning out a mural and... a child drawing on a wall as she had.
Yet. He realises the problem as soon as he truly sees the girl's face. The words halt before they can issue, and he sighs. There is no way to explain this to a child.
He manages a smile, already trying to think of how one might remove wax from that surface. Not that he'll say that in front of her.]
Ah. So you have.
[He smiles a bit more, trying to keep it and his voice from being strained.]
So you have.
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I-it's for you and Mister Archie. S-so you won't be lonely.
[because if one picture in the living room made them feel at home, weren't more pictures better?]
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[Anything else died away at that explanation. He sighed again and walked forward, dropping down onto one knee to be at eye level with the little girl.
Well intentioned.
He knew something about the meaning of those words.
The tension in his smile softened, the expression less obvious but not utterly vanished.]
It's very nice. Thank you.
[His voice took on a sterner tone. Not rough, not really scolding, but one of quiet authority that he'd learned from years under Pellew, where the man was correcting a course of action that had been misapplied but not wrongly meant.] You ought to have asked permission.
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...You were sleepy.
[she might (just might) be pushing her limits a little.]
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Still, his voice is steady, despite the shine in his eye.]
Now you know.
Promise me that next you'll ask. Otherwise, I'll have to take this [he reaches up a hand to tap one long finger against the the crayon she's still holding] away.
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...Promise.
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Good.
Now, how about we get you back to drawing on some paper?
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[That smile makes a world of difference. Without the tension in it, she's more convinced that he's not mad at her and lets herself relax again. Leaving behind the colorful scribbles, she'll step away from the wall and move to slip her hand into his.]
How come your sleepy when it's not nighttime?
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Her question makes him pause as he tries to think how to explain.]
Where I'm from, people don't sleep the same hours all of the time. We have someone who stays up all night [an exaggeration, but it will make his point] to watch out for everyone else while they sleep. I'm used to doing that, so sometimes I get tired during the day.
[Easier than explaining constant worrying and the like.]
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[not that she was ever terribly afraid of the dark...but nighttime was supposed to be scary, so staying up all the way through it probably was too. She's amazed enough that she doesn't quite notice Archie yet...though that won't last long]
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[A French or Spanish ship of war might as well be a monster to a member of the Royal Navy.]
But if that happens, then it's actually your job to wake everybody up so that you can scare the monster away. [Or take it as a prize.]
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[somehow she seems more curious than scared]
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Other than that [it's a boast, more of the crew than any individual, and one he'd only make to a small child who would never see a sea battle] they're easy to beat or scare away.
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