Archie Kennedy

CHARACTER NAME: Archie Kennedy 
CHARACTER SERIES: Hornblower (TV/film)

[OOC]
This is the permissions list for OOC (out of character), activity.
Answer the following questions with "yes" or "no", as well as additional information if desired.

Backtagging: Will happen.
Threadhopping: On cracky-things/with permission!
Fourthwalling: Generally a no on this one unless situation indicates otherwise.
Offensive subjects (elaborate): Not offensive, per se, but smutty stuff is kinda a weird area for me, and I don't do it very often/probably won't do much in the way of threads for it unless I've known you for a while & the situation calls for it. Again, weird area so my willingness for this varies greatly from "hell yes" to "put that thing back where it came from or so help me." Just check in with me if you're unsure!

[IC]
This is the permissions list for IC (in-character), activity.
Answer the following questions with "yes" or "no", as well as additional information if desired. With IC permissions, it's a good idea to elaborate on what other players can expect from your character if they choose to do any of the following:

Hugging this character: It's not WISE to surprise him with hugs and he will be hella confused if he doesn't know you, but he's good for hugs. :)
Kissing this character: Very ill-advised (i.e. he will not react well) if not in a relationship with him/haven't let him know ahead of time. Cheek kisses and a kiss on the hand are slightly slightly more okay. 
Flirting with this character: Oh absolutely go for it. He's kind of attached? But will flirt anyways, because #itscomplicated
Fighting with this character: He will probably only want to fight yours is yours is being awful to someone he cares about. If you want to fight him, though, go right ahead (just let me know ahead of time.) 
Injuring this character (include limits and severity): Plan this out with me ahead of time (probably when we're talking about the fighting.) I'm generally down for anything if you either telegraph it enough in the thread (i.e. "she went to stab Archie with the knife") and let me roll/decide if it goes and/or talk to me before hand. I love hurting this boy. 
Killing this character: Talk with me beforehand; generally down for it in memes but still let me know.
Using telepathy/mind reading abilities on this character: Yours can use it! If he ever finds out he won't like it. Just talk to me if we get into mind control territory.

Warnings: It's sad that this is the lighter side of things but: The "lighter" stuff is period-typical homophobia. Archie himself is more comfortable than not with the fact that he's in love with a man (he probably is bi but definitely leans more towards men,) but worries a lot about everyone else's bad reactions if they ever find out because that's illegal in both his line of work and the world he's in.

On the darker side of things, Archie has a history of emotional, physical, and sexual abuse, mainly from an older midshipman when he was just starting out in the Navy and from being a prisoner of war in Spain. He has PTSD from his experiences that typically manifest as flashbacks, withdrawal/dissociation/depression, or in the worst of scenarios, seizures or suicidal ideation. It will also occasionally have him displaying eating disorder-like behavior, though this is of a rarer bent.

Depending on the nature of the thread, it's possible discussions of these things might come up. By the point I usually play him from (~Mutiny, when he's a lieutenant on the Renown,) these are mostly things of the past, though situations are arising triggering memories of the emotional/physical abuse. Most of the references I make will be in the narrative, unless the conversation in the thread dictates otherwise, and all references will be the least explicit I can manage.

If you'd rather not have that come up/want to specify how vague you want things, drop me a line here! Comments are all screened.

Get your own copy of the IC/OOC Permissions meme!

Player name: Drea

Player contact: guardyanangelCharacter name: Lieutenant Archibald "Archie" Kennedy Canon: Hornblower series (TV/movie series)

Canon point: During the Mutiny, aka while he's still on board the Renown. Circa November 1801.

Powers, if any: Nothing supernatural, but he's a good swordfighter/sharpshooter, not that that's something he hopes is ever useful here.

Application letter:
[In mostly neat hand but with a handful of ink blots; the parchment smelling something like the sea:] 
18 November 1801 HMS Renown, en route to Santo Domingo

To the esteemed maintainers of the island of Norrhamn,

My name is Archibald Kennedy, fourth lieutenant on HMS Renown, under the command of Captain Sawyer. I understand that you have no connection to His Majesty's Navy and that you offer respite to troubled souls while still allowing them to return back to their homes without losing time.

If this is truly the case, I believe your island is the answer to a prayer. My current Captain, esteemed though he is, has fallen ill with some unclear malady. It makes him overly wary and causes him to distrust we his officers. Of late his attention has begun to turn towards a Mr. Midshipman Henry Wellard and third Lieutenant Horatio Hornblower, men whom I carry much affection for. Horat Lieutenant Hornblower and I have known one another for nearly ten years now, and I can say truthfully that he is wholly undeserving of the growing fury the Captain seems to bear towards him. Although I know Mr. Wellard less well, I also feel he is being unfairly punished.

I have seen something like this before am familiar with the dangers an unbalanced Captain poses to his officers and the rest of his crew. I fear we head towards more dangerous waters with Captain Sawyer unchecked than those of the Spanish holdings we sail towards now. However, I appear to be the only officer who either notes this or is willing to say so. First lieutenant Buckland is a coward ambivalent, the newly arrived second lieutenant Bush is almost the captain's man, and even Hora Lieutenant Hornblower seems to think it is not our place to question the Captain's whims.

If you were to be so kind as to permit me on your island, I would appreciate the time away from my current situation. Desertion is not an option because Horatio won't while I still feel it my duty to serve His Majesty and my fellow crewmembers. At present, I feel it is particularly my duty to find a way to either bring the Captain or my fellow lieutenants around so we can avoid the impending disaster. But I find it very difficult to think of such a solution when I cannot sleep for fear of am so occupied by dealing with the current tensions. A brief break is exactly what I need to be able to stop having fits refocus myself and throw myself back into the work that needs doing upon my return.

I look forward to learning your decision, and hope it is one of permission.

Your obedient servant,

Lieutenant Archibald Archie Kennedy

 He hates this ship.

He hates that he hates this ship-- Hates that yet another hope has been dashed by the Navy and its apparent tendency towards letting terrible men into power over good ones. Hates that he could've had a chance for a step up, but instead finds himself back almost at the beginning again.

Only almost, though. He's older, now; better able to handle the hurts that this kind of atmosphere settles into one's soul. Better able to look after the young men in his care.

Still, he hates most of all that it's not as easy for him and Horatio to carry this burden together.

It means he's almost grateful, when Horatio seeks him out with that pinched look on his face that means something especially is worrying him. Archie hopes it's not about Mr. Wellard-- fears that it is.

Follows after his friend with, at least, some of the same easy settling that they're used to.

The moment they're alone, though, he can't help the way his attention focuses on Horatio (and not, for better or worse, anyone else that may be in the room.)

"What is it, 'ratio?"

Or, more likely, who is it that was having the trouble?

 Archie tries to tell Horatio not to come. 

He tries to tell Horatio not to come; knows that it will be too much, with the French and the gunshots and the quiet longing his role requires. Only relents (still reluctantly) when Edgar confirms he'll be going as well.

(Elliot tries to tell Edgar not to come, either, but he doesn't mean it-- never could-- the way Archie did. Loathe though he is to admit it, he's always going to want Edgar there-- and is likely always going to be surprised, still, when he shows.)

It's still one of the hardest performances he's ever done, knowing his boyfriend is sitting in the audience watching the obvious heartache. Archie has to breathe through the quiet panic of his own, when the young woman playing Éponine comes in covered in blood; notices a tremble in Elliot's hands. The tears in his eyes (and Elliot's, he notes) are real when they press their foreheads together as the quiet desperation takes hold in the play.

He tries as hard as he possibly can to look nothing like himself, in the scene where they die. Tries to look all gloom and despair and not sacrifice. More like a man brought half-unwillingly to the gallows and not like one who stepped up to the noose himself. 

(Elliot, in rehearsals, had aimed for the opposite. Aimed to look more like himself so that it wouldn't hurt Edgar to see, because this was realer for the both of them than it was for even Archie and Horatio. And so Archie had held his tongue about how better to look like a man willing to die for something so much bigger than himself-- of a man who walked almost blindly into the range of bullets to protect what he loved more than life itself.

Neither of them quite manage, entirely, to achieve the image they're aiming for.)

They stand atop the false barricade and get shot while hand-in-hand. They'd almost had a fight with the director about it, but Elliot couldn't face this echo of his death without a hand in his and Archie, well--

(--He'll never tell Horatio, because it will kill the man certain sure, but there's something nice about the idea of having someone hold your hand while you're dying. He doesn't begrudge his boyfriend the way things had ended, but that's the one thing he'd wanted that he hadn't gotten, when he'd died the first time.)

They arrange to meet, all four of them, once most of the crowd has thinned, because they know it's not going to be an easy reunion. Thankfully, they're alone when they exit the stage door. Elliot steps towards Edgar with a hint of nervous uncertainty, his hand already offered out to be held. Archie shifts his attention instantly to give them some privacy; tuning out the quiet murmurs of French that reach his ears as he moves to Horatio.

He doesn't think twice about catching at Horatio's hand and bringing it up to his chest in the old, unfortunately familiar way. He'd brought a white shirt to change into after exactly so Horatio could see the utter lack of blood.

"I'm not hurt," he murmurs in lieu of a proper greeting, "'nd I love you."

 He doesn't mean to pry. He really doesn't.

But the book of Horatio's old letters are right there, and he's curious if there's any of the ones to him that have been saved. He only means to glance over the book to find out. He doesn't mean to get absorbed in reading through the letters with a nostalgic fondness; doesn't mean to wander back into the index and see the overwhelming number of times he's mentioned-- Far, far more than he and Horatio had ever had the time to write one another.

From there, it's just down the rabbit hole.

He keeps coming back to the letter Horatio had written to Pellew, after. It's the one the book will be open to, when Horatio comes back.

It's the one that Archie can't help but properly work up a cry about; the tears running down his cheeks more than he'd let loose in longer than he cared to remember.