:D

[quigonejinn]

- Every time Forester gives Bush a canine quality, take a drink.

- Every time Hornblower thinks of Bush as a female -- better than a wife, a mother hen with only one chick, etc -- take a drink.

- Every time big tough Bush experiences a smushy girly moment for his captain, take a drink.

- Every time big tough "I like pretty saucy women and think of Hornblower as my younger brother, dammit, my younger brother!" Bush stares at Hornblower during his on-deck shower, take a drink.

- Every time Bush blushes and Hornblower notices, giggle and take a drink.

- Every time you notice Hornblower buying presents for Bush when he doesn't apparently even bring his wife anything after a year at sea, giggle, repeat "I can't believe it's not buttsex!" and take a drink.

- Everytime Hornblower spends money because of Bush (lemons, dinner, a village that just happens to be 30 miles from where Bush is now working), take a drink.

- Every time Forester shows us Hornblower hovering around Bush while Bush gets settled into bed, take a drink.

- Every time Hornblower notices how huge Bush's, um, groin glands are, go ew, then take a drink.

- Every time Bush conducts "Operation: Cheer Boyfriend," smile and take a drink.

- Every time Hornblower gets a warm fuzzy feeling because Bush compliments him, take a drink.

- Every time Hornblower notes some handy item made by Bush or whose making was organized by Bush, take a drink.

- Every time Hornblower rambles on and on about how hard Bush's hands are, take a drink, then politely pretend not to notice how Hornblower leaves the deck and Bush follows, looking all shifty-eyed, five minutes later.

- Every time Hornblower represses the knowledge that Bush has, in fact, seen naked women, take a drink.

- Every time tone-deaf Hornblower takes careful note of his first lieutenant's voice, take a drink.

- Every time Hornblower associates Bush with music, take a drink.

- Every time Bush thinks about how dumpy Maria is, take a drink.

- Every time Bush shows up at Horatio and Maria's house without invitation, take a drink. Wonder if Bush was trying to aim for some kind of threesome, what with his request for them to start drinking with him. :>

- Every time Bush asks Hornblower to go on "debauch" with him, take a drink.

- Every time Forester makes YET ANOTHER parallel between Lady Barbara and Bush, take a drink.

- Hell, every time Hornblower mentions Bush in connection with some internal thought about marriage, take a drink.

- Every time a woman going after Hornblower has to first go find her rod and tackle and go fishing to see whether he's shtupping his First Lieutenant, take a drink.

- Every time Hornblower has a temper tantrum and Bush suffers the brunt of it, take a sip -- a very small sip, mind you, because otherwise you're going to be dead drunk by the middle of Ship of the Line.

- Every time Hornblower thinks about Marie's "peasant" vigor, pretend not to notice Bush with dirt up to his elbows and wood shavings from the Boat o' Love around his feet.

- Every time that Hornblower tries to take care of Bush -- help him with his coat, give him the only bed, sit him down in the only chair -- and Bush gets embarrassed, take a drink.

- Every time Bush tries to hide the fact that he is in pain from Hornblower, take a drink.

- Every time Bush refuses to take the bed so that his captain can have it, take a drink.

- Handholding! Slug the rest of the drink and knock glasses with everybody in the room. Proceed to smirk about how, sure, this is the first time that they've ever shown affection for each other.

- Same goes for Hornblower waking up in Bush's arms. Option for extra drunken revelry credit: wondering aloud how Brown managed to drown out the noise of a happy, grateful captain performing oral sex on his very vocal lieutenant on the other side of the wee island.

- Every time Hornblower mutters about how dumb Bush is, take a drink and roll your eyes.

- Every time Hornblower thinks about how bad Bush is at math, take a drink.

- Every time Hornblower complains about how much Bush talks, take a drink.

- Every time Bush's appearance makes Horatio suddenly and violently happy and carefree like very little else in the world, take a drink.

- Every time Hornblower ponders his mancrush on Bush and is like OMG WHY DOES SUCH AN AWESOME SEAMAN RESPECT ME?? HE IS EVERYTHING MUCH THAT I AM NOT :/, take a drink.

- Every time Hornblower uses the stern balcony and a very puzzled, sleepy Bush to act out scenes from "Romeo and Juliet" take a sip.

- Every time Hornblower watches Bush sleep, take a drink.

- Every time Forester foreshadows Bush's death, Bush's loss of a leg, or how lonely Horatio will be without Bush by having Horatio wander around his room whimpering, "O Woe is Me, Bush is off on a mission, and I am Suddenly Lonely," take a drink.

- Every time Hornblower thinks about raising a pyramid of skulls as a monument for his boyfriend, take a drink.

- Every time Hornblower almost gets himself killed because he is in a depressive funk without Bush around, take a drink.

- Every time Hornblower experiences writhing guilt for treating Bush badly, laugh and try to imagine how he managed to keep from cutting his arm off while getting Bush fitted with his fake leg.

- Every time Hornblower and Bush talk to each other about how much they love each other, stop drinking, and have someone contact emergency services. You are hallucinating and likely suffering from alcohol poisoning.

- The same goes for a happy Hornblower/Bush ending. :/

Comments

Or a nude review.

[randomalia.livejournal.com]

Lovely wooden things that end up biting you. It's so Ancient Greek. XD

I love the different way you took that -- Archie being glad he has the freedom to get away from that. I think it would hurt him to see Horatio's descent into crazyville. Bush has some sort of steady, pragmatic manner to deal with it. It's difficult, how their experiences in the Navy forge such a strong friendship and then also breaks down the people that made the friendship in the first place. But the connection itself lingers. Sawyer and Hobbs were such a great sub-story in M/R, because you can see that Sawyer must have been really something, once, to inspire that kind of attachment and loyalty. And it underscores Horatio's own journey.

I wonder how jealous Archie would be of Bush's personal intimacy with Horatio, though (however much he would guess them to have). And how BUSH would feel about Archie being there again.

For an audience of one! Who didn't have to pay at the door, either. :D

[quigonejinn.livejournal.com]

lkjfl;dkjf I hadn't even thought of that. Bush. Man. They really hammer it in during LtH that he doesn't really have a jealous bone in his body, and he's certainly pretty willing to offer his captain up on a silver plate to Barbara if she'll help take care of him. The love that Bush has for Hornblower odesn't feel possessive, at least not in the book --

-- I don't know how far you are in SotL, but if you set the story just previous to SotL and they run into Archie then and Archie makes Hornblower happier and less freaked out despite his own doubts and frustrations. And then, at the end, he sails away. And Bush watches Hornblower go back to his old depressed self as they round the Cape. If you want to give Bush the intelligence to see it, the conversation with Barbara then takes on a whole, fascinating new dimension. It's an admission that him and their lovely ship, even acting together, aren't as good for Hornblower as Archie. *aches, aches aches*

Also, depending on how out of touch Archie and Hornblower were, would Archie know that Hornblower had gotten married? That he'd lost his children? Man.

The notion of Bush telling him about it.

And the notion of the connection that lingers even after the men have changed is such a brilliant, powerful one. It fits in so well with the notion of Navy life being a series of leavings, you know? But there are some things that you can't leave behind -- you can leave behind your family, your friends, land life, everything, except for the past.

Going below gets a whole new meaning.

[randomalia.livejournal.com]

Argh, you're making me all wibbly. It's a false freedom in some ways. That idea of how they used to be something together, and having to contend with the damage that Navy life does over time, to that and to people.

I've only just started SotL. H. is so neurotic and so admiring of Bush. And I wonder if it could also go another way -- Archie doesn't make Horatio feel better. Maybe he's a reminder of the (nicer?) past, or maybe Horatio has guilt, or some of his usual self-loathing, especially with splendid Bush and bravest Archie around him suddenly. Unmarried, excellent men that he admires and is now senior to. His life must feel cumbersome and stressful in comparison, especially since his connection with Archie stems from a time when he didn't have those burdens.

And the idea of Horatio not telling Archie about his children, and Bush doing it instead: *________* And see, Bush and Archie share the same solicitousness of Hornblower. They are very much his lieutenants.

I agree, Bush isn't a jealous type (and I think he's more intelligent than Horatio gives him credit for). But what would it mean to him that Archie got a command? And how would he perceive the dynamics of the three of them.

longest comment.

[quigonejinn.livejournal.com]

And I wonder if it could also go another way -- Archie doesn't make Horatio feel better.

!!!! Oh man. Oh man. I hadn't even considered that, and it totally totally could. I'd forgotten that we were dealing with psycho Hornblower, and if the weight of Maria and the whole guilt with that is weighing on him heavily -- as it might, if he used to do the bunny with Archie -- I can totally imagine that it eats and eats and eats at him. Archie, so brave and sure, everything that a captain ought to be, able to prevent injustice on his ship. How he, Horatio, used to give advice to Archie. *_*

Him coming out on deck, and Bush and Archie suddenly shutting up with guilty looks because they've been talking about him. And how Archie's behavior changes towards him, subtly, after that. Hornblower convincing himself that Bush and Archie were discussing how unworthy he is for command when Bush was just filling in the blank sof what'd happened, and Hornblower subsequently snapping at Archie, and ;lgkhd;flkjg. :/ :/

How the structure of command now keeps them from addressing things.

It really plays on the Sawyer element of Hornblower's paranoia.

I'd like to think that Bush would be happy for Archie and would chalk up any difference to the vagaries of the service. There's that stuff later in the LtH about how he realizes the Navy is capricious, etc. And I suspect that while he wouldn't accept the difference in rack as the proper way of things the way he does for Hornblower, he'd be ultimately OK with it. He seems to yearn for rank because of the material privileges it brings -- captain's share of prize money, security -- rather than for the validation of rank, the way that Hornblower does. So yeah. Lust for Kennedy's trim little sloop would, I think, be the most apparent element of it.

Or maybe I'm just wildly deluding myself because I love Bush so much.

It's interesting to think about how this encounter could, if you wanted, strengthen the friendship between Archie and Bush and further distance Archie and Horatio. *_______*

O_O

[randomalia.livejournal.com]

Yes, exactly! Ahh I can just imagine that scene, Bush and Archie talking and Horatio would be a pain in the arse, twisting himself into knots internally. Once again failing to get the fact that they LOVE him. And Archie gets to go back to his own ship; Bush gets to go to the captain's cabin and see how the curtains are hanging.

And time apart would make it hard for them to talk about anything as well. They were able to connect in the first place because they were on equal footing, but book-Horatio isolates himself so much. Like he's thinking in the beginning of SotL, solitude is his only respite.

You know Bush a trillion times better than I, but his lack of jealousy or envy over promotion rings true. He seems to have the ultimate 'shit happens' outlook. :p His concern for Horatio comes first.

O.O Trips Money Can't Buy

[quigonejinn.livejournal.com]

see how the curtains are hanging.

Best metaphor. For captain-sex. EVER.

I actually tried to give writing some of the things that we've been talking about, and then realized that

1. One of the more difficult parts of pulling off this fic is figuring out how Archie sees that Horatio has changed. What would be enough to convince him? And how do you set the story so that Archie gets to see enough of Hornblower to figure it out? The books aren't much guidance here at all because we're so deeply inside Hornblower world. :/

2. I made a vague-ish sketch of the outline for the story that felt natural to me, and uh. This is going to be one motherfucking massive fic if I try to do it, which means

3. You should write this thing and make it one of your compact, brilliant wonders :D

Re: O.O Fics Money Can't Buy

[randomalia.livejournal.com]

I'm restraining myself from a joke about Bush threading the needle or whatever. XD

Oh man, I would combust of love if you wrote this in some way. I don't have the book knowledge that you do, for starters. Maybe it could be cut down to scenes, with line breaks. But anyway:

Archie is very observant in M/R (I've been watching clips; Archie is just Bush's type, you know, pretty and saucy.) Horatio is mainly going for denial, trying to act as though everything is situation normal rather than situation crazypants. Archie doesn't have the (need for/stomach for) denial so he gets a handle on things straight away. So there's the possibility that he would pick up on Horatio's special new personality given enough time and exposure to just being around him. Maybe hearing out some of his plans, MAYBE Archie encourages Horatio to be more talkative, just because they had that openness when they were younger.

But there would have to be something like a shared mission where they could meet and discuss things and Archie could see how things go on board Horatio and Bush's ship. It would be equally interesting to see how Bush saw all this, and how his own behaviour would give Archie clues. Ooh or Archie could be getting passage.

djghdf ewr archie! getting passage!

[quigonejinn.livejournal.com]

Man. The passage idea is tempting just because of the long, sustained periods of time that they'd get to spend with each other. And Archie would get long, extended periods of watching Hornblower's rampant crazy. The three of them at dinner together, some late night? *racks brains for way to justify this scenario, still thinks that you hould write it because you have such a grasp of Archie*

I mean, I'm sitting here thinking, "Gee, it'd be kind of nifty if Archie and Bush bond over music! :D" Because enjoying Shakespeare and being able to sing, "For He's A Jolly Good Fellow" are totally the same thing!

black_hound has this theory that Forester had this whole thing with aligning Bush with the Temeraire. She's figured out that the name means "rash, reckless," and we've been talking about how that aligns pretty well with Bush. Bush served on her during Trafalgar, and Bush's death at Caudebec is kind of the happy-ending version of what should have happened to the ship. And yeah. You know how Bush likes his girls pretty and saucy?

APPARENTLY, THE TEMERAIRE'S NICKNAME IN THE SERVICE WAS THE "SAUCY TEMERAIRE" OR JUST "THE SAUCY" STRAIGHT-UP.

Re: djghdf ewr archie! getting passage!

[randomalia.livejournal.com]

Maybe he could even be taking up his new command, although why he would need passage to do so is beyond me right now. But you know what could be interesting - putting it through Bush's eyes. (Am always wanting more time in Bush's head after reading Lt.H.) Which would bridge the gap between Archie and Horatio, and might be easier than having to characterise Archie characterising H. and Bush. Of course, then it could only hint at what Archie would feel re: Horatio's troubles and his kids etc.

I bet Archie enjoys a good song, you know. XD He and Horatio did, supposedly, 'drink Portsmouth dry' at some point. There had to be singing or cock-sucking involved. ^^

Bush + Temeraire = saucy love. Try that equation out, Horatio. XD Except for the sad ending. The obsolescence. :/ I read in the wiki page for it, that she was second in line after HMS Victory at Trafalgar, which seems to fit nicely, doesn't it?

Am emailing you the file, also.