New Hornblower litslash story: The Bare Word

[resonant]

OK, folks, it's like this. I am not fannishly attached at the moment, and I'm just going to stop waiting for fannish attachment. Instead, when I read a book and say, "Wow, I could probably slash that," I'm just going to try to go ahead and do it, damn it. Hello, 2010!

Yes, this probably means more Fandoms That Can't Be Seen Without Microscopes.

Case in point: Horatio Hornblower litslash for C.S. Forester's short story "Hornblower's Temptation." In which Hornblower must guard and execute a captured deserter. Just what you wanted, right?

There's a summary of the Forester story in the story notes, or read the entire story online.

The Bare Word
Hornblower/Barry McCool -- NC-17 -- 1,500 words
The condemned man's last request

Beta thanks to merryish!

Comments

[sara]

Instead, when I read a book and say, "Wow, I could probably slash that," I'm just going to try to go ahead and do it, damn it.

Um, the argument against this would be...what, exactly?

[resonant]

um, only that I actually have to do some work from time to time.

[sara]

I keep hearing about this work thing.... ;>

[bliumchik]

Oh my goodness you wrote Hornblower fic I love you! *goes to read*

[resonant]

A fellow fan! [embraces]

[bliumchik]

I've been reading Forester since I was like fourteen. I love reading about someone who is more awkward than me :P

[liviapenn]

*sighs* Oh, Horatio, you poor baby... (Actually, now that I think about it, I can't decide if you've been sweeter or crueler to him than canon usually is.)

Anyway, I liked this. :)

[resonant]

I can't decide if you've been sweeter or crueler to him than canon usually is.

I know it! I don't actually think it matters much; he'll suffer the same (i.e. unbearably and prettily) no matter what you do to him.

[devildoll]

Lovely.

[resonant]

Thank you!

[sage]

Oh, that was lovely! People have been telling me to read these books for years (omg, five years now), but I never remember when I'm at the library -- so including a link as reference was ingenious. Yay more books to read! *g*

[resonant]

I really, really enjoyed the Hornblower books. I didn't think I would -- the Captain Horatio Hornblower trilogy (Beat To Quarters/The Happy Return, A Ship of the Line, and Flying Colo[u]rs) was on the list that my senior English teacher gave me in high school, and I put off reading it for decades. I started Beat To Quarters and was still saying to myself, "Do I really want to know this much about life at sea?" for twenty or thirty pages, and then there was a long description of a ship and what it sounds like, and I was hooked.

And then I fell in love with poor Horatio.

I'd definitely start with the trilogy (the first books in order of writing) rather than Midshipman Hornblower (the first book chronologically in book time) -- I think they give you a better introduction to the character.

And then you'll discover what I discover: that Hornblower has profound intensity with at least one man in every book, and that that man is almost always doomed to die. [sigh]

Anyway, glad you liked it!

[mific]

Anything that gets you writing and posting fics is wonderful. I like how you depict Hornblower's repression and believably allow his humanity to overcome his reservations. Thanks for posting the original, which definitely added to the whole experience.

[resonant]

I'm glad you liked it!

Even in the original story, I get the impression that McCool understands Hornblower pretty well -- an amazing feat, given that they've just met and that McCool obviously has a few other things on his mind at the time. So it's easy for me to believe he'd know the right buttons to push.

[schemingreader]

I've only read one of these books, but my sense is that you get Hornblower SO right here! He's so awkward and adolescent, so afraid that anyone will break through his willpower and discover his insecurities. I love how you picked out all of that there and played it like a violin.

[resonant]

I'm glad you recognized him! He's a really fun character to write -- a smart and introspective person, yet also one who does things.

[azurelunatic]

Oh, I do so love Age of Sail slash! *reads*

[resonant]

I love it, too, and wish there were more of it!

[azurelunatic]

damned_colonial may have recommendations.

[tevere]

"I understand," McCool said. "My mind too tends in that direction. But consider. Death, everpresent and yet uncertain for every sailor, is for me now a certainty. I know his day and his hour. While there is hope, one must fight on with courage. But now that all hope is at an end, I find that all fear, too, has for the moment withdrawn." He took Hornblower's hand, pressed it between his own, drew it to touch him. "Tomorrow this body will be an object, of which you, my tenderhearted executioner, must dispose. Today it is the body of a living man, and as it lives, I wish it to live. This -- this is the pulse of a living heart, and this --"

This is one of the most powerful paragraphs I've read in a long time, with its juxtaposition of life and death-- but also the undercurrents of pragmatism and (I think) faith. This whole story just makes me shudder with its intensity-- the lingering horror/knowledge of the end never quite dispelled by the freedom of being able to choose the manner of those last hours.

[resonant]

Wow. You're able to make me happy because you read so carefully! The horror of the hanging is there in the original story -- and the way that, faced with a man who is inevitably going to die, Hornblower is nauseated by the idea of doing anything to cause him discomfort. That's why I love him so.

[pseudo_tsuga]

I got via a rec on kink_finder. I can't believe someone wrote for this story! It was great. It's amazing how well you made a character who appeared only briefly in character. And poor repressed Hornblower, as always.

[resonant]

It's the repression that makes me want to slash him so much. Well, that and the fact that in every book he's got some sort of intense relationship with another guy. Who usually dies at the end of the book.

Thanks!

[sanguinity]

I must confess, I blinked when I saw the pairing was Hornblower/McCool, but how could I resist? One wants to know if the author can pull it off!

And boy, did you! McCool as collected and confident as his name, apparently transparent (and yet is he??), and Hornblower an earnest, barely-contained tumult of all the emotions. So well done!