astralhux:
hamratio got me so shook y'all for real and forever i wanted to sleep like an hour ago and instead i’ve just been laying here thinking about a horatio who spends the whole play very soft and reserved - “here, sweet lord, at your service” almost whispered shyly as he looks at hamlet with red staining his cheeks - then when events begin to come to a climax there’s a little restrained urgency - “if your mind dislike anything, obey it” he warns with his fingers gripping hamlet’s wrist, but his voice is still low and when hamlet turns from him he does not protest -
then hamlet’s dying and suddenly horatio’s trembling, he’s hysterical, he’s marked with violent and sudden gestures - he grabs the cup and he cries out “more an antique roman than a dane, here’s some liquor left!” and his voice fucking /cracks/ torn apart with his grief. hamlet has to really struggle to get the cup from him and in the end for a moment before the poison truly takes hold they’re grasping each other’s hands and shaking and all the softness in the world is now in hamlet’s voice when he says “absent thee from felicity awhile” - even through it all horatio’s hands are gentle as he holds hamlet in his lap. as he smooths his hair back from his eyes. but he doesn’t stop shaking, and even when he addresses fortinbras there is a new and unsettling undercurrent of anguished violence and madness in his voice