Captain Horatio Hornblower (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
captainhornblower) wrote2012-02-19 06:16 pm
captainhornblower) wrote2012-02-19 06:16 pm
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sweven] Application
PLAYER INFO
PLAYER NAME » Lynn
PLAYER JOURNAL » sepiaepiphany [DW]
AGE » 23
EMAIL » drowsyaldolpho@yahoo.com
INSTANT MESSAGING » celia0sword [AIM]
OTHER METHOD OF CONTACT » harlequindream [plurk]
HOW MANY CHARACTERS DO YOU CURRENTLY PLAY? » N/A
CHARACTER INFO
CHARACTER NAME » Horatio Hornblower
FANDOM » Hornblower (A&E miniseries)
CANON-POINT » During the Peace of Amiens
HISTORY »
The Even Chance
The Examination for Lieutenant
The Duchess and the Devil
The Frogs and Lobsters
Mutiny
Retribution
(Note: Mutiny and Retribution are delightfully ambiguous about the fate of Captain Sawyer. He might have stumbled or he might have been pushed/pulled. In my own personal opinion and, for the sake of this RP, Horatio saw an opportunity to disable a tyrant and instinctively took it, pulling on Captain Sawyer from behind to force a fall.)
Loyalty
(Horatio is taken from about five minutes into Loyalty.)
AU SETTING/PAST GAME HISTORY » n/a
PERSONALITY »
Even those most fond of him could not describe Horatio Hornblower as a man easily put up with or described.
His quiet but sincere patriotism shapes him. It is not prize money or ambition that drives Horatio to desire to be swift, true, and continuous in his dedication to the advancement of England's naval power. He does not seek acclaim for his victories. His greatest aims are the furthering of British causes, not his own. When Horatio was transferred from the Justinian to the Indefatigable, he and those he transferred with were greeted by a speech from their new captain, Sir Edward Pellew. Horatio listened with rapt attention through the talk of battle and prize money, but he was silent as the rest of his fellows cheered. Only when Pellew reached his final note of "God save the King" did Horatio join his shipmates in the enthusiastic reply. The man believes in Crown and Country and the advancement of both at any cost to himself.
Horatio was born on the day that the Contential Congress of the then-Colonies ratified their Declaration of Independence. Some of the radicalism, republicianism, and rebellion of the day, it would seem, infected the boy born then. Horatio has a strong, innate need to fight tyranny where he sees it. Whether it is standing up to a stranger claiming authority of him without rank to back it up (as when he first met Jack Simpson), challenging a predator despite being out-skilled (the desperate bid against Simpson with the demand for satisfaction through a duel), opposing a corrupt commanding officer (dragged away from an attempt to engage Colonel Marquis de Moncotant, then insulting the same man and his views on the aristocracy versus commoners at a dinner), or conspiring to mutiny against a man lost to madness and prone to cruelty because of it (the agreement between the lieutenants of the Renown that led to the circumstances of Captain Sawyer's fall down a hatchway), Horatio Hornblower is usually the first to speak for an unchampioned person or cause based around the rights of man and the last to stop fighting. In his opinion, he has seen three faces of tyranny, each one dangerous in its own way. He sees Sawyer as a tyrant out of madness. A deplorable state, but one that any man could fall victim to at any time. Once a war hero, Sawyer's mind turned against him, filled him with fear, and made him vicious. Moncotant was a tyrant from patriotism. His sense of country was stronger than his sense of humanity, and he felt no remorse for butchering innocents who saw the world differently for the sake of his ideal country. Simpson's form of tyranny was and will always be Horatio's idea of evil. The man was not mad-- not as Sawyer was, at least. He was in full control of himself and his mind. He had no justification for his actions, no cause or country furthered other than the cause of himself. He caused pain because he enjoyed causing pain. All three tyrants, Horatio opposed. Sawyer, he pitied. Moncotant, he grudgingly respected at the very end. Simpson, he hated. Napoleon, too, is a tyrant in Horatio's mind, but an abstract one. He is a man to be stopped, but Horatio has no strong personal inclinations against him, only against the enemy that he is to England. While always the King's man in his service, there can be no doubt that Horatio is aware that any man (perhaps even the man on the throne of England) has the potential to be a tyrant... and there can also be no doubt that Horatio considers it his duty to oppose tyranny where he sees it.
At sea, Horatio seems a born leader. Even at seventeen, once he acts against Simpson, others follow. Clayton and Archie Kennedy, possibly the two men most afraid of Simpson, are the ones who agree to stand with Horatio when he duels Simpson, Clayton as his second, and Archie accompanies Clayton when the man renders Horatio unable to face Simpson. When transferred to the Indefatigable and given command over the division that was formerly under Simpson, Horatio discovers that they gamble using a game that involves killing rats. Rather than report them (as he threatens to do), Horatio tells them he will give them a chance to prove themselves worthy of their trust. When he tries to save one of their number after the man is wounded in a battle, the men who survive acknowledge his efforts with a salute. It is a small gesture, but it is a sign of the respect that Horatio has already earned. As an acting-lieutenant, he is told that to truly test his readiness for command, he should look to his men. This suggestion never leaves him, and he considers any failing of his men (such as death or desertion) to reflect directly on him. He tries to show mercy where he can, but he knows the Articles of War. A deserter must face trial and a careless stewart the cat-o-nine-tails. He sets clear standards for those who follow him, and they are expected to uphold them or face the punishment.
If there is a daring plan to be carried out, one can be sure that Horatio Hornblower, if at all able, will be on the front lines to see it through. Most often, if he is involved in the action, then the plan originated from him. He demonstrates that there is a fine, sometimes blurred, line between recklessness and heroism. He can plan a sneak attack (such as ambushing a French crew refilling water at a stream and taking their uniforms to board the main ship, all without costing a life) or launch an assault on an armed fort with only a small division. Horatio rarely misses an opportunity to be in the middle of action or to put forward a plan of attack.
Horatio's need to champion causes and people no others would comes with a drawback. He has the tendency to make a martyr of himself. He takes blame that does not belong to him, offering to serve punishment for acts he did not commit if he feels they can at all be attributed to him. When a man steals food from the ship's stores, Horatio argues that the fault is his for not having dealt with spoken dissatisfaction from the man better. When another of his crew leads an unsuccessful attempt to escape from a Spanish prison, Horatio steps up as the lone instigator, taking the punishment meant for the man for himself. Even his marriage is martyrdom. Rather than see a woman in love with him who had helped him but refused to allow him to give her money leave her home and work, Horatio proposes so that his salary might keep her and her mother. He goes so far as to be sure that the young woman, Maria Mason, believes that he is marrying her for love, due to her feelings for him, rather than because he feels that he owes her. He does not look for acknowledgement from the people he speaks for, rather considering what he does to be necessary, required of him by conscience.
While he tries to be calm, rational, and fair, Horatio has, under it all, a temper. Reason overrules it often (such as his ability to not shoot Simpson, even when he was shaking with pain and fury), but he does fall victim to it. A comrade-in-arms, Lord Edrington, is forced to pull him away from Colonel Marquis de Moncotant in Muzillac when the colonel raids the Republician schoolhouse, terrifying the young teacher and her students. Usually, though, Horatio's temper is more verbal than physical. When rational explanation fails him and people whose discretion he can trust are nearby, Horatio gives way to small barbs of sarcasm. As his frustration mounts, he turns to swearing. Only when a situation offends the morals on which his world rests does he attempt to make a physical strike.
Horatio Hornblower possesses a great amount of vanity where his appearance is concerned. He is rarely seen on deck in less than full dress, and his uniform (while sometimes patched) is dutifully cleaned often. He takes great pride in his appearance, going so far as to have a daily shower... which requires stripping, getting men to work the ship's pump, getting other men to hold and aim the hose on board, and turning about under the hard spray of salt water. It is a peculiar ritual, one which, on board his ship, never fails to attract anything less than the whole (or almost the whole) crew of the ship to watch.
In regards to his character and achievements, however, Horatio is not even modest. He is, in fact, entirely self-deprecating. When he accidentally kills one man who was attempting to desert, he blames himself for the man's entire unhappiness, sure that a better commanding officer could have found a way to reach him. He climbs aboard a burning ship to steer it away from its course toward the docked Indefatigable and then saves the life of a captain who went with him, risking his own in the process. Despite this, he is surprised when he is commended for valor. When he finds Archie Kennedy half-mad and starving in a Spanish prison, he dedicates himself almost wholly to seeing to Archie's recovery and then insists that any man would have done the same. When a bomb is launched at his ship and lands on deck, Horatio leaps on it, using his gloved hands to put out the fuse. His report mentions only that the shell "failed to explode," and he scolds his lieutenant, William Bush, when the man tries to insist that Horatio tell the whole story. Remarkably, Horatio seems to believe himself when he insists that there is little to be admired about him or that he did only what another would have done, despite any evidence one might present to him to the contrary.
Horatio also has a profound respect for life. While he battles without a second thought, cutting down or shooting his enemies in the heat of the moment, he cannot pull a trigger in cold blood. Jack Simpson reminds Horatio that he killed Clayton, admits to killing Kennedy, promises to kill Horatio, and fires early in an attempt to make good on that promise before Horatio has a fair chance... yet when the man is on his knees and begging for his life, Horatio fires into the air. For all his rage, he either stops himself from or cannot bring himself to shoot Simpson and kill him. When a man attempts to desert, Horatio aims his gun and warns him to stop or he will shoot. Despite saying this three times, Horatio only pulls the trigger by accident, when he and the man are struggling for the gun. Horatio never forgives himself. When a Navy captain betrays England to side with France (for the advancement of the Irish cause), Horatio again threatens to shoot. The man, however, knows Horatio too well... and pulls his own gun on himself to do what Horatio will not. Even with a gun pointed at him by another traitor, Horatio does not fire. It is Lieutenant Bush and the Royal Marines who shoot the man to save Horatio. If tyrants and traitors cannot bring Horatio to kill in cold blood, it is difficult to imagine that anything could.
Nothing matters more to Horatio-- whether as a midshipman or a commander-- than his men. He takes the blame for their actions, devotes himself to their protection, and goes out of his way to help them when he can. They are his family, and Horatio treats them as such. Whether he is the youngest-- as with the members of the division he received as a midshipman who followed him throughout his career-- or the oldest-- as a lieutenant or commander toward the midshipmen-- he stands as a kind of patriarch. As commander, he can easily be likened to a king on board his ship, and even as a lieutenant or midshipman, he was given the respect of a lord by those who served him because he was willing to stand for them and also beside them. There is no task given to them that he is not willing to do himself, and he was almost always right beside his men when the time comes for battle.
Even though he cares for his men, he maintains a certain distance. He likes to know them, their previous occupations if they were pressesd, their families... anything they will tell him. However, he shares little of himself. When he first arrives on the Justinian, Captain Keene remarks that Horatio's father has written, calling Horatio a "solitary boy." A few people get close to him-- Archie Kennedy and William Bush, for example--, but they are the exception rather than the rule. When Archie dies, the walls Horatio has built to keep the rest of the world at bay are made thicker and higher. He withdraws more than usual and seems to lose some of his compassion, treating the midshipman Jack Hammond as a kind of burden when the boy proves he has much to learn, whereas he was had an almost paternal affection to the midshipman Wellard whom he and Archie had taken under their wing on the Renown.
Horatio Hornblower is a man of contradictions. He has great sympathy for those in trouble but presents a cool front. He is a soldier, willing to fight a bloody war, but he cannot kill outside battle. He believes himself unworthy of praise yet indulges his own vanity by striving to make himself look his best at all times. He professes a belief in the divine right of the King of England while striving to live up to ideals and shape the world around him into something very in line with a Republican way of thinking. He is rarely aware of these contradictions, though they cause a constant struggle in him as he tries to rationalise a very complicated world into something neat and orderly. He is aware that it is an exercise in futility, but it something he still attempts.
On a typical day on his ship, Horatio Hornblower is seen but not heard. His orders are either calmly given or, if shouting is required, passed through his first lieutenant. He splits his time between handling his dispatches, charts, and other such private business in his cabin and being seen on deck. He holds himself apart from his men, as the nature of command is that there is a distance between him and those who serve under him, but he makes it known that he is present and watching and listening. Horatio thinks more than he speaks, and, when not extremely agitated or in a position to make lightning fast life-or-death decisions, is very careful with his words. Those who know him well and can either read his expressions (no easy task) or whom he will open up to (an even more difficult task) know that his thoughts tend toward melancholy and doubts about his previous actions. When battle or another crisis comes, Horatio is seen immediately, shouting his orders and springing to the forefront with no sign of hesitation or fear.
Horatio has several tics that, once learned, betray the man's stoic facade. Low levels of anxiety and restlessness are betrayed by Horatio's hands. When there is nothing to be done but the man craves action, he will act with his hands. This can be as pronounced as fiddling with his spyglass or as subtle as faintly tapping on his thigh as he stands. When he is nervous or trying to set a course of action properly in his mind ahead of time or sort through information, Horatio paces. In fact, part of his morning ritual on his ship is that, for an hour, he walks the length of the quarterdeck, back and forth. Those who have sailed with him before know that the captain is not to be spoken to during this hour, unless it is about an enemy within sight. While Horatio chooses his words carefully, he is prone to thinking in a far different course. When his thoughts threaten to become speech uncensored, he often checks himself. A verbal tic signifies that this has occurred. It is a soft vocalization, rather like the clearing of his throat.
ABILITIES/WEAKNESSES »
Horatio speaks French and Spanish. He is fluent in both, as he learned them to be able to discuss diplomatic issues with foreign captains-- usually involving asking them to surrender.
Horatio is a good shot, despite the inaccuracy of the models of pistols he uses. When he fires a gun, he rarely misses his target, even in the midst of battle.
Horatio is decently adept at swordfighting, though his style lacks any polish or flare. He lunges, parries, and slashes more out of instinct than any training, and he will do the same with any blunt object he can get his hands on. In a fight, he is much more of a brawler (though he lacks any real skills fighting when unarmed) than anything else.
Horatio seems to be very lucky, but generally that comes down to having damn good instincts. The "impulsive" side of his brain often knows the right course of action better than the "rational" side of his brain, and it knows it faster. In the heat of the moment, Horatio can bark out orders and act in ways that he only regrets when the danger is passed and he has time to think.
Horatio has a strong mind for mathematics, making him a natural navigator... and a natural gambler. His ability to remember played cards and asses what must come and how hands will be played gives him a great advantage in games. However, that also means that he likes a challenge, and that can get him in trouble. He likes to know the odds, but he can take risks believing the chances are good that other people would consider foolish.
He's human, though, and prone to the "bleeding" thing. No supernatural powers with him or anything like that. He tends to be a little reckless. Sometimes, that ends great. Other times... not so much.
Horatio cannot hear music. He is literally and fully tone-deaf.
While it's not explosive, Horatio does have a temper, and he tends to be in a foul mood when alone. Certain others can find ways to cheer him up, but he is generally considered to be ill-tempered and "prone to melancholy." He also tends to be very, very private. He does not turn to other people for help in dealing with situations. Rather, he feels he should be able to do it entirely by himself.
Also, his sense of guilt is extraordinary. He takes every loss of life as a personal failure. While he can pick up and go on, he will usually carry that sense of "This was my fault" with him for a very, very long time. Possibly for life. He will genuinely take the blame for things outside his control if he feels they should have been in his control and it was his fault they weren't. Whether or not this is logical to the situation.
Horatio's self-image wavers often. He doesn't see himself as particularly brave or loyal or worthy of praise. He knows in the moment when his ideas are good and when they are the only possible solution, but he doubts himself after or convinces himself that h-e did what anyone else did, no matter how worthy of merit his conduct might have been.
DREAM POWER » Belief Induction - When Horatio sleeps, he has the ability to plant a single idea in the mind of a single person.
The biggest hitch? Horatio's morals will keep him from using this in cases of less than dire circumstances.
CHARACTER SAMPLES
NETWORK SAMPLE »
Why in God's good name would a captain-- even a privateer or merchant captain-- ever refer to a cabin boy as captain and ask him to set the course of the ship?
[A protest starts in the background.]
No. No, I refuse to accept that "it's just a movie" is acceptable. What is the purpose of these films if they have no bearing on reality? This crew was supposedly filled with pirates-- men with sea knowledge. Yet they are complaining after the ship is becalmed for three days? What sort of mariners are these men? Or creatures. Or whatever they are supposed to be. And of all these experienced sea-men, not one of them other than a small boy had a compass? Not to mention-- How does a man kill his entire crew with two flintlock pistols and walk away without a scratch? I--
[Any further complaining? Is muffled. Apparently, someone else helped themselves to the device to keep him from inflicting this on others.]
LOG SAMPLE »
No one here really played whist. He would have to correct that, teach them. But for now, he was learning himself. A new game, betting and bluffing and arranging the cards in his hand just right. Poker, they called it. An American card game, from what he'd heard of it so far.
Unlike whist, not all the cards were used. That made analysing what was likely in each hand harder, but the players gave themselves away sometimes. Loud ones got quiet, quiet ones got loud. He could guess at his odds, at least. He was still learning, but it still felt to him enough like whist.
The daring player on his left bet high when his hand was shaky. The girl to his left bit at her lip when she was worried about her hand. The man across from him tapped the table in anticipation of being called. Horatio was sure he had his own tics, things he would have to learn to master. For now, though, he contented himself with reading those around him. Two uncertain hands, one over-confident.
It was a gamble. Horatio picked up a chip and set it down, pushing it forward. A hundred American dollars, making his share in the pot three-hundred-and-fifty. "Raise." The four knaves-- jacks-- in his hand excluded a royal flush, but he could still be beaten by a straight flush. His odds were good. Not impossible to beat, but good. Very good. Good enough to warrant the risk.
The meek girl beside him squeaked out a surrender. The man on his right coughed uneasily but said nothing.
The man across the table looked straight at him. Horatio smiled as the cards sank, face-up. A call. Hornblower did the same, taking a deep breath to steady himself against either windfall or a night of ruin to what money he had acquaired.
Joy and melancholy balanced precariously, and his long, lean body straightened even more, taut with anticipation. Win or lose, it was this feeling that brought him back again and again. The thrill of a gamble and knowing he'd given it the best fight he could.
ANYTHING ELSE? » Not that I can think of!
PLAYER NAME » Lynn
PLAYER JOURNAL » sepiaepiphany [DW]
AGE » 23
EMAIL » drowsyaldolpho@yahoo.com
INSTANT MESSAGING » celia0sword [AIM]
OTHER METHOD OF CONTACT » harlequindream [plurk]
HOW MANY CHARACTERS DO YOU CURRENTLY PLAY? » N/A
CHARACTER INFO
CHARACTER NAME » Horatio Hornblower
FANDOM » Hornblower (A&E miniseries)
CANON-POINT » During the Peace of Amiens
HISTORY »
The Even Chance
The Examination for Lieutenant
The Duchess and the Devil
The Frogs and Lobsters
Mutiny
Retribution
(Note: Mutiny and Retribution are delightfully ambiguous about the fate of Captain Sawyer. He might have stumbled or he might have been pushed/pulled. In my own personal opinion and, for the sake of this RP, Horatio saw an opportunity to disable a tyrant and instinctively took it, pulling on Captain Sawyer from behind to force a fall.)
Loyalty
(Horatio is taken from about five minutes into Loyalty.)
AU SETTING/PAST GAME HISTORY » n/a
PERSONALITY »
Even those most fond of him could not describe Horatio Hornblower as a man easily put up with or described.
His quiet but sincere patriotism shapes him. It is not prize money or ambition that drives Horatio to desire to be swift, true, and continuous in his dedication to the advancement of England's naval power. He does not seek acclaim for his victories. His greatest aims are the furthering of British causes, not his own. When Horatio was transferred from the Justinian to the Indefatigable, he and those he transferred with were greeted by a speech from their new captain, Sir Edward Pellew. Horatio listened with rapt attention through the talk of battle and prize money, but he was silent as the rest of his fellows cheered. Only when Pellew reached his final note of "God save the King" did Horatio join his shipmates in the enthusiastic reply. The man believes in Crown and Country and the advancement of both at any cost to himself.
Horatio was born on the day that the Contential Congress of the then-Colonies ratified their Declaration of Independence. Some of the radicalism, republicianism, and rebellion of the day, it would seem, infected the boy born then. Horatio has a strong, innate need to fight tyranny where he sees it. Whether it is standing up to a stranger claiming authority of him without rank to back it up (as when he first met Jack Simpson), challenging a predator despite being out-skilled (the desperate bid against Simpson with the demand for satisfaction through a duel), opposing a corrupt commanding officer (dragged away from an attempt to engage Colonel Marquis de Moncotant, then insulting the same man and his views on the aristocracy versus commoners at a dinner), or conspiring to mutiny against a man lost to madness and prone to cruelty because of it (the agreement between the lieutenants of the Renown that led to the circumstances of Captain Sawyer's fall down a hatchway), Horatio Hornblower is usually the first to speak for an unchampioned person or cause based around the rights of man and the last to stop fighting. In his opinion, he has seen three faces of tyranny, each one dangerous in its own way. He sees Sawyer as a tyrant out of madness. A deplorable state, but one that any man could fall victim to at any time. Once a war hero, Sawyer's mind turned against him, filled him with fear, and made him vicious. Moncotant was a tyrant from patriotism. His sense of country was stronger than his sense of humanity, and he felt no remorse for butchering innocents who saw the world differently for the sake of his ideal country. Simpson's form of tyranny was and will always be Horatio's idea of evil. The man was not mad-- not as Sawyer was, at least. He was in full control of himself and his mind. He had no justification for his actions, no cause or country furthered other than the cause of himself. He caused pain because he enjoyed causing pain. All three tyrants, Horatio opposed. Sawyer, he pitied. Moncotant, he grudgingly respected at the very end. Simpson, he hated. Napoleon, too, is a tyrant in Horatio's mind, but an abstract one. He is a man to be stopped, but Horatio has no strong personal inclinations against him, only against the enemy that he is to England. While always the King's man in his service, there can be no doubt that Horatio is aware that any man (perhaps even the man on the throne of England) has the potential to be a tyrant... and there can also be no doubt that Horatio considers it his duty to oppose tyranny where he sees it.
At sea, Horatio seems a born leader. Even at seventeen, once he acts against Simpson, others follow. Clayton and Archie Kennedy, possibly the two men most afraid of Simpson, are the ones who agree to stand with Horatio when he duels Simpson, Clayton as his second, and Archie accompanies Clayton when the man renders Horatio unable to face Simpson. When transferred to the Indefatigable and given command over the division that was formerly under Simpson, Horatio discovers that they gamble using a game that involves killing rats. Rather than report them (as he threatens to do), Horatio tells them he will give them a chance to prove themselves worthy of their trust. When he tries to save one of their number after the man is wounded in a battle, the men who survive acknowledge his efforts with a salute. It is a small gesture, but it is a sign of the respect that Horatio has already earned. As an acting-lieutenant, he is told that to truly test his readiness for command, he should look to his men. This suggestion never leaves him, and he considers any failing of his men (such as death or desertion) to reflect directly on him. He tries to show mercy where he can, but he knows the Articles of War. A deserter must face trial and a careless stewart the cat-o-nine-tails. He sets clear standards for those who follow him, and they are expected to uphold them or face the punishment.
If there is a daring plan to be carried out, one can be sure that Horatio Hornblower, if at all able, will be on the front lines to see it through. Most often, if he is involved in the action, then the plan originated from him. He demonstrates that there is a fine, sometimes blurred, line between recklessness and heroism. He can plan a sneak attack (such as ambushing a French crew refilling water at a stream and taking their uniforms to board the main ship, all without costing a life) or launch an assault on an armed fort with only a small division. Horatio rarely misses an opportunity to be in the middle of action or to put forward a plan of attack.
Horatio's need to champion causes and people no others would comes with a drawback. He has the tendency to make a martyr of himself. He takes blame that does not belong to him, offering to serve punishment for acts he did not commit if he feels they can at all be attributed to him. When a man steals food from the ship's stores, Horatio argues that the fault is his for not having dealt with spoken dissatisfaction from the man better. When another of his crew leads an unsuccessful attempt to escape from a Spanish prison, Horatio steps up as the lone instigator, taking the punishment meant for the man for himself. Even his marriage is martyrdom. Rather than see a woman in love with him who had helped him but refused to allow him to give her money leave her home and work, Horatio proposes so that his salary might keep her and her mother. He goes so far as to be sure that the young woman, Maria Mason, believes that he is marrying her for love, due to her feelings for him, rather than because he feels that he owes her. He does not look for acknowledgement from the people he speaks for, rather considering what he does to be necessary, required of him by conscience.
While he tries to be calm, rational, and fair, Horatio has, under it all, a temper. Reason overrules it often (such as his ability to not shoot Simpson, even when he was shaking with pain and fury), but he does fall victim to it. A comrade-in-arms, Lord Edrington, is forced to pull him away from Colonel Marquis de Moncotant in Muzillac when the colonel raids the Republician schoolhouse, terrifying the young teacher and her students. Usually, though, Horatio's temper is more verbal than physical. When rational explanation fails him and people whose discretion he can trust are nearby, Horatio gives way to small barbs of sarcasm. As his frustration mounts, he turns to swearing. Only when a situation offends the morals on which his world rests does he attempt to make a physical strike.
Horatio Hornblower possesses a great amount of vanity where his appearance is concerned. He is rarely seen on deck in less than full dress, and his uniform (while sometimes patched) is dutifully cleaned often. He takes great pride in his appearance, going so far as to have a daily shower... which requires stripping, getting men to work the ship's pump, getting other men to hold and aim the hose on board, and turning about under the hard spray of salt water. It is a peculiar ritual, one which, on board his ship, never fails to attract anything less than the whole (or almost the whole) crew of the ship to watch.
In regards to his character and achievements, however, Horatio is not even modest. He is, in fact, entirely self-deprecating. When he accidentally kills one man who was attempting to desert, he blames himself for the man's entire unhappiness, sure that a better commanding officer could have found a way to reach him. He climbs aboard a burning ship to steer it away from its course toward the docked Indefatigable and then saves the life of a captain who went with him, risking his own in the process. Despite this, he is surprised when he is commended for valor. When he finds Archie Kennedy half-mad and starving in a Spanish prison, he dedicates himself almost wholly to seeing to Archie's recovery and then insists that any man would have done the same. When a bomb is launched at his ship and lands on deck, Horatio leaps on it, using his gloved hands to put out the fuse. His report mentions only that the shell "failed to explode," and he scolds his lieutenant, William Bush, when the man tries to insist that Horatio tell the whole story. Remarkably, Horatio seems to believe himself when he insists that there is little to be admired about him or that he did only what another would have done, despite any evidence one might present to him to the contrary.
Horatio also has a profound respect for life. While he battles without a second thought, cutting down or shooting his enemies in the heat of the moment, he cannot pull a trigger in cold blood. Jack Simpson reminds Horatio that he killed Clayton, admits to killing Kennedy, promises to kill Horatio, and fires early in an attempt to make good on that promise before Horatio has a fair chance... yet when the man is on his knees and begging for his life, Horatio fires into the air. For all his rage, he either stops himself from or cannot bring himself to shoot Simpson and kill him. When a man attempts to desert, Horatio aims his gun and warns him to stop or he will shoot. Despite saying this three times, Horatio only pulls the trigger by accident, when he and the man are struggling for the gun. Horatio never forgives himself. When a Navy captain betrays England to side with France (for the advancement of the Irish cause), Horatio again threatens to shoot. The man, however, knows Horatio too well... and pulls his own gun on himself to do what Horatio will not. Even with a gun pointed at him by another traitor, Horatio does not fire. It is Lieutenant Bush and the Royal Marines who shoot the man to save Horatio. If tyrants and traitors cannot bring Horatio to kill in cold blood, it is difficult to imagine that anything could.
Nothing matters more to Horatio-- whether as a midshipman or a commander-- than his men. He takes the blame for their actions, devotes himself to their protection, and goes out of his way to help them when he can. They are his family, and Horatio treats them as such. Whether he is the youngest-- as with the members of the division he received as a midshipman who followed him throughout his career-- or the oldest-- as a lieutenant or commander toward the midshipmen-- he stands as a kind of patriarch. As commander, he can easily be likened to a king on board his ship, and even as a lieutenant or midshipman, he was given the respect of a lord by those who served him because he was willing to stand for them and also beside them. There is no task given to them that he is not willing to do himself, and he was almost always right beside his men when the time comes for battle.
Even though he cares for his men, he maintains a certain distance. He likes to know them, their previous occupations if they were pressesd, their families... anything they will tell him. However, he shares little of himself. When he first arrives on the Justinian, Captain Keene remarks that Horatio's father has written, calling Horatio a "solitary boy." A few people get close to him-- Archie Kennedy and William Bush, for example--, but they are the exception rather than the rule. When Archie dies, the walls Horatio has built to keep the rest of the world at bay are made thicker and higher. He withdraws more than usual and seems to lose some of his compassion, treating the midshipman Jack Hammond as a kind of burden when the boy proves he has much to learn, whereas he was had an almost paternal affection to the midshipman Wellard whom he and Archie had taken under their wing on the Renown.
Horatio Hornblower is a man of contradictions. He has great sympathy for those in trouble but presents a cool front. He is a soldier, willing to fight a bloody war, but he cannot kill outside battle. He believes himself unworthy of praise yet indulges his own vanity by striving to make himself look his best at all times. He professes a belief in the divine right of the King of England while striving to live up to ideals and shape the world around him into something very in line with a Republican way of thinking. He is rarely aware of these contradictions, though they cause a constant struggle in him as he tries to rationalise a very complicated world into something neat and orderly. He is aware that it is an exercise in futility, but it something he still attempts.
On a typical day on his ship, Horatio Hornblower is seen but not heard. His orders are either calmly given or, if shouting is required, passed through his first lieutenant. He splits his time between handling his dispatches, charts, and other such private business in his cabin and being seen on deck. He holds himself apart from his men, as the nature of command is that there is a distance between him and those who serve under him, but he makes it known that he is present and watching and listening. Horatio thinks more than he speaks, and, when not extremely agitated or in a position to make lightning fast life-or-death decisions, is very careful with his words. Those who know him well and can either read his expressions (no easy task) or whom he will open up to (an even more difficult task) know that his thoughts tend toward melancholy and doubts about his previous actions. When battle or another crisis comes, Horatio is seen immediately, shouting his orders and springing to the forefront with no sign of hesitation or fear.
Horatio has several tics that, once learned, betray the man's stoic facade. Low levels of anxiety and restlessness are betrayed by Horatio's hands. When there is nothing to be done but the man craves action, he will act with his hands. This can be as pronounced as fiddling with his spyglass or as subtle as faintly tapping on his thigh as he stands. When he is nervous or trying to set a course of action properly in his mind ahead of time or sort through information, Horatio paces. In fact, part of his morning ritual on his ship is that, for an hour, he walks the length of the quarterdeck, back and forth. Those who have sailed with him before know that the captain is not to be spoken to during this hour, unless it is about an enemy within sight. While Horatio chooses his words carefully, he is prone to thinking in a far different course. When his thoughts threaten to become speech uncensored, he often checks himself. A verbal tic signifies that this has occurred. It is a soft vocalization, rather like the clearing of his throat.
ABILITIES/WEAKNESSES »
Horatio speaks French and Spanish. He is fluent in both, as he learned them to be able to discuss diplomatic issues with foreign captains-- usually involving asking them to surrender.
Horatio is a good shot, despite the inaccuracy of the models of pistols he uses. When he fires a gun, he rarely misses his target, even in the midst of battle.
Horatio is decently adept at swordfighting, though his style lacks any polish or flare. He lunges, parries, and slashes more out of instinct than any training, and he will do the same with any blunt object he can get his hands on. In a fight, he is much more of a brawler (though he lacks any real skills fighting when unarmed) than anything else.
Horatio seems to be very lucky, but generally that comes down to having damn good instincts. The "impulsive" side of his brain often knows the right course of action better than the "rational" side of his brain, and it knows it faster. In the heat of the moment, Horatio can bark out orders and act in ways that he only regrets when the danger is passed and he has time to think.
Horatio has a strong mind for mathematics, making him a natural navigator... and a natural gambler. His ability to remember played cards and asses what must come and how hands will be played gives him a great advantage in games. However, that also means that he likes a challenge, and that can get him in trouble. He likes to know the odds, but he can take risks believing the chances are good that other people would consider foolish.
He's human, though, and prone to the "bleeding" thing. No supernatural powers with him or anything like that. He tends to be a little reckless. Sometimes, that ends great. Other times... not so much.
Horatio cannot hear music. He is literally and fully tone-deaf.
While it's not explosive, Horatio does have a temper, and he tends to be in a foul mood when alone. Certain others can find ways to cheer him up, but he is generally considered to be ill-tempered and "prone to melancholy." He also tends to be very, very private. He does not turn to other people for help in dealing with situations. Rather, he feels he should be able to do it entirely by himself.
Also, his sense of guilt is extraordinary. He takes every loss of life as a personal failure. While he can pick up and go on, he will usually carry that sense of "This was my fault" with him for a very, very long time. Possibly for life. He will genuinely take the blame for things outside his control if he feels they should have been in his control and it was his fault they weren't. Whether or not this is logical to the situation.
Horatio's self-image wavers often. He doesn't see himself as particularly brave or loyal or worthy of praise. He knows in the moment when his ideas are good and when they are the only possible solution, but he doubts himself after or convinces himself that h-e did what anyone else did, no matter how worthy of merit his conduct might have been.
DREAM POWER » Belief Induction - When Horatio sleeps, he has the ability to plant a single idea in the mind of a single person.
The biggest hitch? Horatio's morals will keep him from using this in cases of less than dire circumstances.
CHARACTER SAMPLES
NETWORK SAMPLE »
Why in God's good name would a captain-- even a privateer or merchant captain-- ever refer to a cabin boy as captain and ask him to set the course of the ship?
[A protest starts in the background.]
No. No, I refuse to accept that "it's just a movie" is acceptable. What is the purpose of these films if they have no bearing on reality? This crew was supposedly filled with pirates-- men with sea knowledge. Yet they are complaining after the ship is becalmed for three days? What sort of mariners are these men? Or creatures. Or whatever they are supposed to be. And of all these experienced sea-men, not one of them other than a small boy had a compass? Not to mention-- How does a man kill his entire crew with two flintlock pistols and walk away without a scratch? I--
[Any further complaining? Is muffled. Apparently, someone else helped themselves to the device to keep him from inflicting this on others.]
LOG SAMPLE »
No one here really played whist. He would have to correct that, teach them. But for now, he was learning himself. A new game, betting and bluffing and arranging the cards in his hand just right. Poker, they called it. An American card game, from what he'd heard of it so far.
Unlike whist, not all the cards were used. That made analysing what was likely in each hand harder, but the players gave themselves away sometimes. Loud ones got quiet, quiet ones got loud. He could guess at his odds, at least. He was still learning, but it still felt to him enough like whist.
The daring player on his left bet high when his hand was shaky. The girl to his left bit at her lip when she was worried about her hand. The man across from him tapped the table in anticipation of being called. Horatio was sure he had his own tics, things he would have to learn to master. For now, though, he contented himself with reading those around him. Two uncertain hands, one over-confident.
It was a gamble. Horatio picked up a chip and set it down, pushing it forward. A hundred American dollars, making his share in the pot three-hundred-and-fifty. "Raise." The four knaves-- jacks-- in his hand excluded a royal flush, but he could still be beaten by a straight flush. His odds were good. Not impossible to beat, but good. Very good. Good enough to warrant the risk.
The meek girl beside him squeaked out a surrender. The man on his right coughed uneasily but said nothing.
The man across the table looked straight at him. Horatio smiled as the cards sank, face-up. A call. Hornblower did the same, taking a deep breath to steady himself against either windfall or a night of ruin to what money he had acquaired.
Joy and melancholy balanced precariously, and his long, lean body straightened even more, taut with anticipation. Win or lose, it was this feeling that brought him back again and again. The thrill of a gamble and knowing he'd given it the best fight he could.
ANYTHING ELSE? » Not that I can think of!