tfln overflow

[betteralready]

 

Comments

[midship]

1/???

[bettingman]

[It is on this rare occasion that William Bush has said some words and regrets saying them in the order in which they were said, because one response has led to another and now he's left staring at that message, and there's no question that they're definitely not talking about anything to do with ships, really.

But it's not a bad sort of regret. It's not the kind of regret that sits high in one's stomach. Rather, it's a puzzled kind, which has left him staring at his device like: Okay.

What.]

[bettingman]

[Is this one of those moments there's no coming back from?]

[bettingman]

[It feels a little bit like that.]

[bettingman]

[...okay.]

[bettingman]

[This is fine.]

[bettingman]

[The "..." goes on and on and on, and eventually produces:]

I see.

[HOW






ANTICLIMACTIC

but wait, the "..." is going again.]

okay i'm done.

[bettingman]

All the more reason for Horatio to attend, then.

[A subtle jab, but a jab nonetheless.

Horatio could benefit from learning to be more flexible, surely.]

:'> 1/2

[betteralready]

Oh. Oh, bother. Did he break them both? The Navy would be rather upset if he lost them two lieutenants at once.

Oh, no, wait. There's William. And there's another unheard chuckle from Archie.

Yes, I have found he can get rather stiff, sometimes.

2/2

[betteralready]

I always have to end up asking him if he needs a hand in loosening up.

Since, you know, Horatio doesn't ever seem to want to do that thing of his own accord.

[bettingman]

[Bush is not the most superstitious of men, but he's sensing there's something cosmic about all this.

So, fine.]

It may be better if he had two.

[betteralready]

He didn't know this was a mission that needed to be accomplished, but, well.

Mission accomplished.

I couldn't agree more, Mr. Bush.

[midship]

[A quick brain is good for figures. A keen attention to the most salient facts in a short amount of time is a highly useful skill he's highly inclined to believe has been serving him well in the service.

A piece of the problem here, of course, is the entirely tone-deaf way messages can be read. There's no actual little lift at the end of Archie's voice like the start of a laugh; no clear tilt of William's head to draw attention to the hint of wry tone. There's simply words for his eyes to focus on under their own power.

He does need to be more flexible. More than that, he needs to be quicker on his feet. Instincts have gotten him this far, but they're hardly the body of skills a person ought to rely on solely. Roaring commands from the hip is going to backfire someday. Making a plan on the fly because he hadn't let himself think through other options in advance is a sense of rigidity dug somewhere deep in his gut.

It takes a bit of tapping absently at the screen before he can wrangle himself back into proper attention. It takes another few seconds to remember that his frustration had originally been with an entirely different tone of conversation.

Welp. Who even knows what's happening anymore in the entire world.]

Your concern is noted and appreciated, but I'm not sure it's something so easily solved in the abstract.

[bettingman]

[One of the facts about Horatio Hornblower of which Bush is acutely aware not just as his brother-in-arms, but his friend, is that he often needs things spelled out. It's not born from a lack of awareness, certainly, or a lack of intelligence — the man has both in abundance — but something that runs far deeper, something nestled deep in Horatio's ego.

It's an unwillingness to believe certain things about himself, and the high opinions those around him hold of him and his abilities. It may not be a conscious thing. He takes praise well enough, but doubt lingers in the aftermath. Bush has seen it.

And it's quite strange, he thinks, how Horatio can manage barking orders and silently questioning himself in the same breath.

Bush isn't qualified to make such assessments, though. He could be way off the mark; he could be reading far too deeply into his friend's psyche, which he knows he shouldn't do anyway lest he come up with something too accurate, something he'd rather not know as a certainty. Still, he can't help but read into Horatio's reply and think he may be missing the point of this.

...not that Bush himself is sure what the point is, exactly, but he's almost positive it's not what Horatio's reading into it.

So:] Maybe specificity will help.





[Get specific, Archie.]

1/i have no idea brace yourselves and pray to jesus

[betteralready]

Well.

[betteralready]

Well.

[betteralready]

...Well. He has been asked by his superior officer.

In that case, let me try to make this very clear for you, Horatio:

this is not the end i would just like to register that i hate this

[betteralready]

I would like to be pounded like the cliffside by the ocean.

[betteralready]

I would like to hoist your mainsails.

[betteralready]

Perhaps you would be interested in sounding my bottom.

okay this is second to last

[betteralready]

Simply: I would like to engage in coitus. Preferably with both of you.

[betteralready]

A beat for them to process, and then:

Clear enough, Will? Horatio?

Surely, surely even Horatio can imagine the wicked little grin.

1/3

[bettingman]

[A mistake has been made, and it was not the mistake of engaging in this conversation at all.

The mistake was attempting to walk between decks while reading Archie's messages — if only to keep the thing from beeping so aggressively — and, for some reason, not expecting... that.

So Bush stumbles right down a short flight of stairs.]

[bettingman]

[BUT HE STILL HAS HIS PHONE, clutched tight in one hand.]

[bettingman]

I don't think you could get much more clear.

[Coming to you live from the floor, it's This Guy.]