The king and his men stole the queen from her bed . . .

[nocorsetsplease]

Who: A nocorsetsplease and a seventeensir and anyone aboard the Britannia.
What: Elizabeth wakes up aboard a ship that isn't hers. (INTRO LOG~)
When: Backdated to November 8th
Where: Aboard the Britannia.
Summary: That the ship isn't hers seems to be the least of her worries. When wild assumptions regarding the ship's own gallant captain lead to misunderstandings, introductions get off to a less than desirable start.
Rating: PG-13, mostly due to the accusations Liz will throw at poor, unsuspecting Horatio.

Elizabeth woke to the very familiar feeling of the ocean beneath her, gently rocking the ship on which she slept. She stretched in the bedclothes, keeping her eyes closed, for the moment she opened them would begin the battle's day, and she was not ready just yet. A moment of pause before she faced the enemy whilst swimming amongst the sharks of the seas would not go amiss.

Yet her eyes were assaulted by far more than the garish light of morn. This cabin was not that of The Empress. Nor could she claim it was that of the Black Pearl. To her knowledge, her memory was without lapse, and yet she could not explain why it was this cabin's image that swarmed her sight.

She rose quickly, the effect this sudden change would have on the tides of this war. The strategy they had devised by candlelight just the eve prior could be lost if things were not in order. The pain in her back panged her conscience, and yet she pushed it aside for more pressing worries. How quickly she dismissed its oddness, and yet it was a foreshadowing missed to warn what had befallen the pirate king.

She took to the deck immediately, looking for a soul that would follow her. She bellowed as soon as the door swung open, giving the very impression she would need these men to have if they were to follow her against Lord Beckett's waiting armada.

"All men lay up to the quarterdeck! Tai Huang, advance our position! Man of the watch, I want report!"

Comments

[captainhornblower]

"Madam!"

The call is not unfriendly, but it is meant to command attention. The dress and manner of her arrival bear all the hallmarks of a New Feather. He himself woke on a strange boat without a soul but that strange book to help him. ...That she was bellowing orders and calling for a report, he noted, but there were other issues to be dealt with first. She might well be from some strange world, as others were, where women sailed and commanded vessels.

"You are on board Britannia." He had almost said 'His Majesty's Ship' but had, in fact, stopped himself. This ship was not a part of the British Royal Navy. It belonged to no king. Merely to a captain and a lieutenant. Though his uniform might have added the words for him. "I am her captain, Horatio Hornblower."

The first order of business would be to see her properly dressed, he decided. He could send her back into his cabin, from where she had emerged. Thank God, he considered, he was an early riser and had quit it several hours ago. His sea chest would be in there, along with the clothes Jilly had borrowed herself not terribly long ago. They were not truly suitable for a woman, but it would be better than a simple shift.