Veritas

[idler_1814]

For the letter V in lokei's William Bush Alphabet Soup ficathon

Summary: Another look at an incident from Commodore Hornblower; book!canon Bush

Rating: G, gen

Posted with the highest regards to Quarterdeck, the very best beta-reader ever.

Comments

[romanticalgirl]

This is fabulous - as your stuff always is - and I love you taking a small moment and making it so revealing about everything in what brought it about. I love your description of Bush and the little details that you use to bring to life.

[idler_1814]

Wow, thank you!!

I really enjoy "taking a small moment and making it...revealing": making mountains out of molehills, in other words! Making something out of what is, essentially, nothing and using it to try to further my interpretation of the character is a challenge I look forward to. I suppose I like to explore the 'whys and wherefores'!

[lady_branwyn]

I was floored by this. It is both original and brilliantly realized.

[idler_1814]

Wow....now I'm the one who's floored. Thank you!

[thehappyreturn]

I LOVE THIS!

You sprung open that moment so beautifully and revealed all its workings. Its a great reminder of what amazing possibilities remain inside those moments - like this one which we all fangirl anyway but do nothing with. And not only a great strategy, but beautifully done too.

[idler_1814]

Awww, thank you! I'm glad my take on it made sense to you: the cynic might say that the aide-de-camp was merely a sloppy and overly-demonstrative drunk, and that's all there was to it.

But what fun is that??

CSF gave us so many great unexplored moments that can be filled in and used to expand our pet interpretations of his characters. I tend to think too much about what *wasn't* written, so it's a strategy that works for me.

[idler_1814]

Wow! Thank you! I'm so glad to know that maybe I wasn't making *too much* out of nothing after all. I do get somewhat inclined to excessive verbiage when I get to writing about Bush.

[anonymous]

Well, it's easy to get carried away when it comes to writing about Mr Bush... (I'm guilty of it: I was aiming for about 1200 words for the letter H in this alphabet soup. I ended up with roughly 12 000)

I recommended your story to a non-LJ friend btw, and she said she thought it was very good (she texted me, something about "still shivering with delight")

[idler_1814]

Thanks so much for passing on the rec! Thank her for me, will you please?

I think I must be the queen of "carried away"....I started speculating about why Bush's hands might still be callused after months of languishing behind a desk in the Sheerness dockyard (HH notices it in Commodore) and wound up with a 27 chapter novella. I'm afraid to even guess at the word count!

[vespican]

Just read this myself. What can I say that hasn't been said. Very touching.
Dave

[idler_1814]

Awwww, Dave....thanks so much!! I'm very glad to hear that it struck a chord with you!