Sanguinity

(Yeah, I know we've actually gotten to day four, whatever. I was traveling on the second, and I'm one of those people who have to take my time and cogitate on a thing anyway.)

Rec at least three fanworks that you didn’t create. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it.

So, colebaltblue and I fell hard into the Hornblower fandom over the summer. She's spent the last months raking through the coals of the old Hornblower comms on LJ and Yahoo, most of which haven't been active for most of a decade, looking for surviving works, and passing on her recs to me. Now I'm passing three of my favorite authors/artists/vidders on to you.

1. idler_1814, Fic Master List (a minority have been archived at AO3).
Idler writes gorgeous Bush-centric, canon-compliant gen, often focusing on the later books. Particular favourites of mine:

• Gale Force (set during Commodore Hornblower; minimal canon knowledge needed)
  
• Casting Loose (spoilers for the end of Commodore Hornblower)
  
• God Help Sailors (drabble, requires knowledge of Flying Colours and Lord Hornblower, implied Major Character Death)
  
• All Standing (set during Lord Hornblower; Major Character Death)
  
• Run Aground (novella; post-Flying Colours, mash-up with TV-verse) Full-length Bush-centric adventure, in which he has his own independent command pre-Nonsuch. Richly researched, too -- Idler is well-versed in Age of Sail, and it shows.

(btw, Idler is still around and responding to comments, should you feel moved to leave any.)

2. black_hound, Vid Master List, art tag (about half of the art links are broken).
Again, some particular favourites:

• God Help Sailors. Constructed reality vid based on idler_1814's drabble; warnings as above. I'm always impressed when someone vids a book that was never filmed, but this is beautiful and gave me a ton of feelings.
  
• Smooth. Miniseries, Bush/Kennedy. Kennedy is a cutie, Bush is my fave, and the whole thing makes me laugh.
  
• Beatty!Bush portrait. Based on the 1951 movie, and far closer in spirit to Bush of the novels than McGann was (with no shade cast on McGann).

(Also still around and replying to comments, although at a much longer delay than Idler.)

3. quigonnejinn, Fic Master List: Shadow and Vapor.
I would ordinarily say that Quigonnejinn has a very unsentimental view of Bush and Hornblower, but then they'll go and write an incredibly sentimental fairy tale, so much for trying to summarize someone's style. As before, some favourites:

• Five Things That Never Happened to William Bush: Peace: Hornblower/Bush, Hornblower/Barbara, PG, Bush came to Smallbridge to die. (Major Character Death)
  
• Undertow: Hornblower/Bush, R, The first time did not, in fact, happen in Kingston.
  
• The Mirror and the Pendant: Hornblower/Bush, PG, Once upon a time, there was a very bad hobgoblin.
  
• Three Things: Bush/Hammond, NC-17, movieverse. You wake. You dress, stiff-fingered in the cold... (presumed underage, corporal punishment)