#often implicit w/hornblower but here explicitly discussed

[hms-lurking-latinist]

also now I want a fic where unemployed-during-the-peace Hornblower does get called out after winning at cards suspiciously consistently

I don’t know what he’d do about a duel at this point. I mean he’d fight it, or at least prepare to fight it until Forester twisted the plot to let him off, but I don’t know how he’d feel. He might actually be less passively-suicidal than he was at 17, odd as that is ever to say about him; there is however a possibility that this might simply take the form “I don’t want to die in a sordid squabble over cards, I wanted to die in a glorious naval victory”

he will also be aware of the fact that if he survives he will probably still lose his tenuous income; he will feel somehow bad for being worried about this

he may find a way to convince himself he really has done something dishonorable and indefensible, especially if he asks bush to be his second (if he’s around) and then feels bad for getting bush involved

poor Maria honestly. she will have a very bad time on the margins of these events