[luceti] - Appointments

[captainhornblower]

Messages and meetings for Cpt. Horatio Hornblower.


(Please title and date as appropriate.)

Comments

[captainhornblower]

"Perhaps then." His voice is strained. It's not just the captain in him, trained to protect his ship. Britannia is more than that. It's a taste of home, something that ties him to this place and to England and to what he is only just less than Archie and William and Wellard do.

With them and on board this ship, he feels a little more at home.

"Then." It's a little more decisive. "I've already proven I can't be anything but what I am, and I am an officer of His Majesty's Royal Navy."

[simplestgift]

"Yes." A beat. "As am I."

[captainhornblower]

He... smiles, then. "You're a little better at adapting than I am. Though--" With Archie, he can really joke. Even if there's some truth to it. "I was an awfully sorry excuse at first, wasn't I?"

[simplestgift]

"Horribly sorry." His voice is playfully gruff. "A disgrace to His Majesty and his country."

[captainhornblower]

"Wouldn't have lasted an hour on my own." He grins.

[simplestgift]

"Seasick in Spithead! Who'd ever heard of it?"

[captainhornblower]

"And not knowing the difference between a head and a halyard." Perhaps because he was so ill... but that question has always stuck with him. Always made him laugh.

[simplestgift]

"And then you took the entire Navy by surprise. Who would have believed it."

[captainhornblower]

"No one, I daresay. Wouldn't have believed it myself, if I'd been told it then."

[simplestgift]

“I might’ve.”

[captainhornblower]

"I don't believe you for a minute. Now, you might've believed it before anyone else did, but not then, and I would lay money on that."

Which he can say because there's no money nor a way to place that bet. And he's grinning as he says it.

[simplestgift]

"Oh, would you? And how would we determine the veracity of either claim?"

[captainhornblower]

"Clearly, we'll have to wait for a Shift that will let us. Knowing them, they are bound to do it."

[simplestgift]

"They gave me a little silver bell, didn't they?"

And the memory makes him take a hefty drink of the brandy. Especially how Jack got it off of him.

[captainhornblower]

"They did. And made us children."

[simplestgift]

"And gave us the ability to say, truthfully, that we've known one another since we were boys." A beat. "Do forgive the joke, I'm afraid it had too much brandy to be amusing."

[captainhornblower]

"Better of a joke than any I could try and make-- and I can't think of anything at the moment, before you ask."

[simplestgift]

"Mm." Another drink. "Shall we commission another cannon?"

[captainhornblower]

He grins a bit wider. "I think that sounds like a fine idea, Mister Kennedy."

[simplestgift]

"Two cannons. Such a force."

[captainhornblower]

"Better two than none. And perhaps, once we've got her safe, we might be able to make ourselves of enough use to the Malnosso to better supply her. Cannons, shot, balls."

Even a man with a dream of revolution could make use of the supplies he might get from those whom he'd rebel against.

[simplestgift]

"And it isn't as if we can arm ourselves any quicker than we are."

[captainhornblower]

"We'll make a proper ship out of her. Guns and all."

[simplestgift]

"It's one more area of defense. The only one we can provide."

[captainhornblower]

"God knows it could be useful. If we can outfit her fully... she'll be a force to be reckoned with, even if she only has a skeleton crew. We'll at least be able to do something if anything comes by sea."