captainhornblower | Fourteenth Dispatch - [written]

Fourteenth Dispatch - [written]

[He's been here a year now.

An entire year.

And it doesn't feel any more like home than it did the day he arrived. If anything, his obligations feel even sharper than they did then. Because he has been away from them. Even if no one would know he'd been gone, he knew.]

Person or thing, either way--

What would you most like to see here?

Hornblower

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[It takes a long time to answer.]

Sometimes.

And other times?

I made my choice at seventeen. Twenty years service before I can change my mind, and it gets in the blood, in a way. I don't think it will be a choice when the time comes to decide whether I retire or continue.

There is nothing else I can think to do.

[ again, she knows the feeling. ]

I'm guessing plenty don't retire?

Most don't live long enough.

Those who do either have the connections for a good commission or can't afford to retire.

...Guess that takes a lot of the romance out of it.

It is a lot more romantic when you're just reading about it.

Not to mention the silver screen.

The what, Miss Buffy?

Movies, Captain Horatio. Modern things.

Ah, yes. Certainly.

[Still has no idea what she's talking about, really, but it's probably best not to ask. He's learned that much.]

We like to do movie nights at 7. You should join us, sometime.

Of course, Miss Buffy. I shall have to do that some time.

...With snacks, too.

I'd like that.

[Or at least he'll say that. he's really not sure what to make of it all.]

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