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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
- 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 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. :/
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(no subject)
Date: 2006-02-06 11:56 pm (UTC)My old problem of having to reconcile movieverse and bookverse to some extent is clearly solved by undeadifying Archie and making him a Captain. I'll feel better if he can have a ship of his own, and Bush can continue to have H. ^^
(no subject)
Date: 2006-02-07 12:19 am (UTC)And you're right. Archie would take to patronage much more poorly than Bush would. He has those Issues with being saved by Hornblower, you know? I think they're mostly solved by Frogs and Lobsters by the fact that he has to nurse H though the post-Mariette painz0r, but they'd come flying back if Hornblower snagged him a promotion. And he's not as hard-headedly practical as Bush is, so he wouldn't get over it.
Oh, there be epic, wonderfully nifty fic there.
waffling
Date: 2006-02-07 02:44 am (UTC)I had the same thought about the ships. A sloop-of-war or a lower-rated frigate. I think he'd be a good captain. He's not squeamish over punishment and he respects the command structure unless he thinks it's full of crackpots/immorality/incompetence. I LOVE the bit in ?Mutiny when he goes below to yell 'You call him SIR' and save Wellard. And self-doubt isn't a hindrance to command -- Horatio's the best example of that -- but I think it would be a factor if he felt he didn't get there on merit, but on friendship.
Hmm. You're a bad influence. I'm thinking about this as fic instead of doing work. <333
Re: waffling
Date: 2006-02-07 03:07 am (UTC)But yes. *INFLUENCES BECAUSE HOLY FUCK SHE OWU:LDKJG:LDKJ*
Commodore Hornblower seems pretty much ideal for a fic along a LKU Archie-Hornblower collision -- Hornblower gets command of a bunch of ships in the Baltic. Varied, interesting, sensitive missions, the big lunker 74 with Bush and a bunch of littler ships, one of which could easily have been whatever Archie commands. And really, Archie would have been a better sidekick for Hornblower during that bit of action because Bush is a seaman through and through. He doesn't have the social chops that Archie does and that Hornblower needs rather badly there.
There's even a captain of one of the little sloops that Hornblower takes under his wing and thinks about being better than Bush. :D
Plus. The 3809432803984 languages spoken in that area -- you could do some lovely stuff with how Archie speaks a bunch of them.
Also. Havre de Grace. If Archie had been there, I wonder if it would've been Bush who would have gone to Caudebec. :> Even if it is and even if Bush goes and dies on schedule, there's some fascinating, fascinating stuff about Hornblower having to choose who goes.
And and and. As if this weren't enough -- Flying Colours either with Archie in place of either Bush or Brown.
*head swims*
*makes notes*
Date: 2006-02-08 12:03 am (UTC)I'd really love to write something that incorporates Bush (because, Bush!) and the H/B canon. Even just in a vague way. Just to drag out my fannish heart and stomp on it some more, hurrah! But yeah, I was thinking that to meld the movieverse and bookverse together neatly, Archie and Horatio need to go in different directions after Retribution (without the hole-in-stomach problem) and be somehow separated for Horatio to choose Bush as his first Lt on schedule. Them all meeting up again later would be really interesting. The shifted - and shifting - dynamics!
Actually there's a thousand directions to take an undead Archie. *glee*
Archie speaks the language of HORATIOLOVE.
Date: 2006-02-08 12:15 am (UTC)Interesting, too, becaue a fic like this would have to show the choices that men make shape their lives. Like, they're all lieutenants together in Mutiny/Retribution. Bush is the senior, next Horatio, then Archie, but when they come together again, Horatio's going to be senior. Then Archie, probably, then Bush.
There's an image in my head now of Bush and Archie standing together either on Horatio's ship or on Archie's, and Bush is admiring the ship because she's lovely, sir, and Kennedy is watching Bush to see if Bush is jealous of Hornblower.
And Bush sings it. XD
Date: 2006-02-08 12:55 am (UTC)I think that the Archie we see in M/R is evolving into someone who takes issue with ship-board injustices in an almost forceful way. He doubts himself, but not his convictions. It would be really interesting to see how that translated not only into the responsibility of command, but also how it might wear away at him. Like everyone else he;s constricted by the social and legal climate, and so he'd have disappointments there. Having to balance the good of the ship against the good of a person, and all that.
There's an image in my head now of Bush and Archie standing together either on Horatio's ship or on Archie's, and Bush is admiring the ship because she's lovely, sir, and Kennedy is watching Bush to see if Bush is jealous of Hornblower.
OMG. <333333333333333 Ahaha Bush and his shiply wives. I ache for that scene. And the moment Archie might realise that there is an intimacy between Bush and Horatio, and he's not sure where anyone stands. Horatio would clear his throat or something equally unhelpful.
*weeps* they could put on the archie & william talent show.
Date: 2006-02-08 01:08 am (UTC)Man, the notion of Archie realizing how close Bush and Hornblower are -- not to mention how changed Hornblower is -- makes me queal in terrible glee.
The different Hornblowers that you could draft for this story would be wonderfully amazing, too. Do you take full-bore, Ship of the Line crazy Hornblower, or do you take him post FC, where he has everything that he could possibly have ever asked for -- except for what he had before? And now, suddenly, Archie, who he's always thought of as belonging to the past along with Maria and his dead children, is there in his life again.
Personally, I'm inclined for Ship of the Line crazy, if only because crazy!Hornblower is so vastly interesting. Also, it'd be so easy to write in convoy mission with the Lydia since we don't see them put out to sea.
I need to watch M/R again because really, all I can remember coherently is the three of them jumping off the cliff together, Pellew's bitten-off comment about Horatio being his surrogate son, and then the scenes of complete wrenching pain for which I don't have any audio because it was just like T____T
The Kennedy and Bush travelling (ocean) show *__*
Date: 2006-02-08 01:56 am (UTC)I totally want to make a liitle montage clip for myself of all the bits where Archie is commandery in M/R, to combat the terrible weepyficArchie monster. The thought of how quietly proud and relieved he would have been on passing his examination for Lt makes me flail. <333
like a vaudeville show.
Date: 2006-02-08 02:09 am (UTC)MAN. That'd be a hell of a title for the fic, wouldn't it? The "Gift Horse" part. Not the Something. XD
It might be interesting to look at it, too, from the angle that Archie sees what Bush has and has a gut reaction of being glad that he's NOT with Hornblower. That he has his own ship, little and small as it is, that he's not subject to Hornblower's moods, that he's his own master. And the guilt this causes because Hornblower is not only his dear friend, but because he can see what Hornblower is turning into. You know.
Sawyer.
And the faint, tugging notion that Hornblower would be different if he was Hornblower's lieutenant, and Archie's own love of his ship notwithstanding.
It could go fascinatingly either way, really. Though :D :D :D I can totally imagine the relieved smile on his face when he staggers out of the examination chamber. So sweet. <333
Or a nude review.
Date: 2006-02-08 02:36 am (UTC)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
Date: 2006-02-08 02:54 am (UTC)-- 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.
Date: 2006-02-08 03:51 am (UTC)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.
Date: 2006-02-08 04:21 am (UTC)!!!! 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
Date: 2006-02-08 06:07 am (UTC)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
Date: 2006-02-08 02:50 pm (UTC)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
Date: 2006-02-08 11:13 pm (UTC)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!
Date: 2006-02-08 11:27 pm (UTC)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!
APPARENTLY, THE TEMERAIRE'S NICKNAME IN THE SERVICE WAS THE "SAUCY TEMERAIRE" OR JUST "THE SAUCY" STRAIGHT-UP.
Re: djghdf ewr archie! getting passage!
Date: 2006-02-09 12:23 am (UTC)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.