lucetilogs | Up on the quarterdeck our gallant captain stands...

Who:

noprevaricating.
What: Just a little mischief.
When: June 24th, evening.
Where: House 36
Summary: Horatio is planning Very Brave Very Stupid Things. So Archie is hiring Jack to make sure those Stupid Things don't happen.
Rating: It's friends kidnapping each other, so...nothing too serious. PG-13 tops.

After his conversation with Jack, Archie had learned two things.

1. He was forbidden to lift anything for four more weeks, including protesting best friends.

2. He was given prescription narcotics for pain management.

The second made the first much easier to deal with. At the moment, he was innocently making coffee, having skimped on his pain meds today to have enough to use for this purpose. The new house was much, much roomier than the old flat had been, but there was an increased chance of Horatio meandering by the kitchen and seeing what he was doing. So he kept the saved pain medication innocently in one hand. The general shop had had a granite mortar and pestle for crushing herbs. When Horatio ducked out of the house on an errand, Archie quickly dropped the pills into the mortar and crushed them. The coffee was decaffeinated and stronger than he normally made it. This would do.

The trouble with not taking enough pain meds was obvious, but Kennedy had come up with tricks to take his mind off pain long ago. He hadn't wanted to go to Dr. Hepplewhite every time Simpson gave him cause, so he'd developed a way to shrink his consciousness.

"Through the forest have I gone.
But Athenian found I none,
On whose eyes I might approve
This flower's force in stirring love.
Night and silence. --Who is here?
Weeds of Athens he doth wear."

Horatio was back, and Kennedy was pouring the coffee, his voice the barest whisper.

"This is he, my master said."

The crushed pills went into one cup of coffee, and he stirred in time to the text he recited.

"Churl, upon thy eyes I throw
All the power this charm doth owe.
When thou wakest, let love forbid
Sleep his seat on thy eyelid:
So awake when I am gone;
For I must now to Oberon.

Horatio! I made coffee!"

Threaded | Flat

Horatio strode through the living room then dining room and into the kitchen at Archie's call. At his hip was his flintlock pistol. He'd retrieved it from the smithy, and the weight felt familiar. Comforting.

He managed a smile, chasing away the thoughts that had nipped at his heels the entire way home. Thoughts of duels and Grell and failure. He had one scar-- one mark of his failure to carry out simple justice. It had taken intervention to see the right thing done then... This time would be different. He wouldn't fail Archie again. Though damned if he didn't wish Archie wasn't coming. There would be no talking him out of it, Horatio knew.

Damned stubborn man.

"Coffee?" he said as brightly as he could, reaching for one of the cups. "Wonderful."

Jack Sparrow didn't like this plan at all. For one, it would involve carrying a not-insubstantial navy captain from the village to the seashore. The transporter would help, of course, but it was still a ways to go.

Then there was the fact that he would have to keep said Captain locked in an attic for an indefinite amount of time. Logistical headache, that; and Jack Sparrow was not fond of taking prisoners, especially ones that didn't really deserve it.

He waited for any signal from Lieutenant Archibald Kennedy: soon it would be time for dark skullduggery to commence, and Captain Sparrow---though unhappy about being dragged into matters---still felt mostly responsible for them. Still, it meant seeing Horatio Hornblower in uncomfortable and/or embarrassing straits, which was something, at least.

And so he was going to go along with it: reluctantly, but perhaps with a smidgen of satisfaction mixed in with that reluctance.

no subject

[Later, after lol Horatio-drugging shenanigans]