April Prompts

[sanguinity]

Each month, we'll post a trio of prompts -- a theme, a quote, and a trope -- for you to use as a jumping-off point in whatever medium pleases you. Anything goes, fiction or meta, from drabbles through dissertation chapters on textual analysis. Fic, art, photo-essays, vids, and more are welcome.

• For April, the theme is Comfort. Physical comfort? Emotional comfort? Hurt/Comfort? Southern Comfort? You tell us.
  
  
• The quote is from Admiral Hornblower in the West Indies:

  He had not had his breakfast coffee yet; otherwise he would have put 'good' in front of 'morning'.

  
  
  
• And the trope is Curtain Fic -- whether that's domestic life ashore or the gunroom purloining ship's stores to make faux-chintz curtains for their captain's cabin (or something else!) is entirely in your hands.
  

Mix and match the prompts, or use just one! Then come back and share what you made! You may leave your creations as a comment on this post, or jump them up to a new post in the comm, whichever you're most comfortable with.

Comments

[sanguinity]

Oh, gosh. I love everything about this. I keep going back and re-reading favorite bits, but they're all favorite bits. The casual little throwaway about the Russian countess, and Horatio weeping by William's bed, and Horatio deciding that if he's gonna confess his love then he's gonna confess his love damnit (no half-measures for that boy, not in anything), and William learning boldness day-by-day, and gosh, so many things.

And fyi, I'd hate to think that the Tegmore 'verse in any way staked a claim on a happy retirement for them; I wrote that verse because I was writing what I wanted to see in the world. And look, here it is, more! :-)

And as for being out-of-character... pfft. In canon, William never lived past Caudebec, and thus canon has nothing to say on how Caudebec might have changed them both, had he lived. Perhaps they would have become more outspoken about feelings, who's to say? The only question is whether you can get me to believe it, and yes, you did, I am totally here for this.

(And yay, the monthly prompts are helping you to finish things! We couldn't hope for better.)

[tgarnsl]

Oh you're too kind. Yes, Horatio doesn't do things by half -- he can be a bit slow on the uptake vis a vis feelings, but once he's decided something there's no stopping him (for goodness' sake he decided he was in love with Lady Barbara after one brief snog.)

I have this entire 'verse sketched out which is sort of books and stories and TV movie all codified together in one giant thing. When I write Hornblower stories they're almost all from that same 'verse of mine, in which there is a happy ending.

And I'm glad I convinced you that Horatio could actually talk about feelings. My excuse is they're older and at peace and have been in a committed relationship for almost a decade and nearly losing William made Horatio seriously reevaluate his life choices.

Thank you as always for your comments. It's lovely to be in such an encouraging community :)

[sanguinity]

And it is a pleasure to have you here!

I'm looking forward to seeing more of this world you've built up in your head! I look forward to your fic in any case, but knowing that each time we're getting a glimpse of this greater world you've been spinning... I'm eager for the next installment, whatever it is.