(closed RP for Henry Winter and Stephen Maturin)

[estebanmd]

Stephen had rather wanted to talk with Henry Winter at length, if for no other reason than to cement his hopeful deduction that Henry's recent wedding had well and truly laid to rest the remnants of old animosity concerning the woman who was now Mrs. Winter. Unfortunately, there had simply been no time for conversation. Stephen had brought little

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[h_m_winter]

As he'd promised Camilla, Henry was finally relocating Xipe Totec to a more appropriate (or at least, less offensive) location. He really didn't want to get rid of the statue, ugly as it was; its provenance amused him, especially since Dax would most certainly have thought she'd come up with a perfectly appropriate gift for an Earth wedding of this era

[estebanmd]

The groundskeeper had been at the wedding, Stephen recalled. Perhaps Henry had undertaken to assist Winchester with something? It seemed unlike what Stephen knew of him. He eyed the carven lump of stone with frank curiosity. "Is that a carving of some kind? It looks not unlike things I have seen in South America." Horrific idols, as a matter of fact; but those lands had long been Christianized, leaving the idols fangless, as it were, mere relics of a barbaric past.

He did not greet Henry by name. He could have eschewed surnames, he supposed. He would rather have a better sense of their footing first.

[h_m_winter]

Henry smiled, dryly. "It's Xipe Totec," he said. "Professor Dax gave him to Camilla and I as a wedding present. Apparently he's a fertility idol, of all things, whose sacrifices were flayed alive. Dax was quite disappointed that he didn't come with a thighbone for blessing people." He couldn't keep the amusement out of his voice; it really was funny, if you knew Dax. "Camilla refuses to keep it inside, so I agreed he could go in the garden. As pointed out, his supposed powers would actually be welcome there."

[estebanmd]

Stephen did not have the latitude to comment on bizarre wedding presents, or would not have had such latitude by Camilla's reckoning in any event. He personally had thought an authentic Welsh lovespoon to be something that would interest the Winters, since the tradition had such folkloric significance. Some of the sailors aboard Navy ships used to whittle those spoons, which was how Stephen had learned of them himself.

Having no notion that his own present had not pleased Camilla, he indulged in a brief mental picture prompted by Henry's words, the phrasing conjuring a Camilla with brows furrowed and arms folded, ordering the unfortunate Aztec god out of the castle in no uncertain terms. It made Stephen smile, faintly and wryly.

The smile turned to an outright grin when his thoughts then turned to conjecture how Diana might have reacted to such a monstrosity being housed indoors. It had been bad enough when Stephen had tried to bring skeletons and specimens into the house on Half Moon Street. In the end he'd simply kept his

[h_m_winter]

Henry, who knew full well where the spoon had come from (as well as Camilla's reaction to it), couldn't help but grin himself. "She was very...definite about it," he said. "In the end I was outnumbered, and so had to part with Xipe Totec's company."

He didn't at all mind putting the thing in the garden; it was only Camilla's reaction that had led him to keep the statue inside as long as he had. "Personally, I think it's fascinating, even if it is hideous. As you say, though, a woman's taste in decor is as good as law." Henry had a decent appreciation for nice things, most of which had been broadened and developed by Camilla, but that didn't mean his taste was perfect. Far from it, given his current situation.

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Stephen raised an eyebrow, amused. "You were outnumbered?" Camilla was only one person, after all.

[h_m_winter]

"Susan backed her up on it." No point in being vague, really. "Though I think she saw at least a little humor in it, too. She's met Dax, after all." Henry didn't really know the circumstances of that meeting, but anyone with any experience with Dax could almost certainly find it amusing. She was just so very earnest about everything (including driving, even if it was a truly frightening thing).

[estebanmd]

Ah. Stephen restrained the impulse to ask how Susan was, whether she looked well, et cetera. Instead he said amiably, "I too have met Dax: she and I share a sort of informal guardianship over a child, the child I brought to your wedding in fact, young Miss Casson. It is an unusual and entirely nonbinding arrangement. The two of them have some startling notions of wedding etiquette, and I believe Miss Casson now has an idea that when she has grown up she would like to have a more violent wedding, with fencing or some such

[h_m_winter]

Henry had seen the little girl with Stephen--had also seen them enjoying the wedding cakes. Henry had been a vastly unusual child, but he suspected many children would quite like having parents like that. He himself had been very distant from his mother, but then again he'd been distant from everyone until he met Camilla.

He actually laughed. "Fencing? Let me guess, she got the idea from Dax, didn't she?" Dax had been quite enthusiastic about trying to persuade him that what he and Camilla really needed was a Klingon wedding

[estebanmd]

"Of course she got the idea from Dax," Stephen said with some asperity. "I should never have given her such an idea. For bloodthirstiness, aliens from the future make Napoleon's armies seem very lambs

[h_m_winter]

...Listening to Stephen's account of his own marriage made Henry suddenly feel he'd gotten off very lightly indeed. His relationship with Camilla had hardly been a tranquil one, at times, but at least she'd never run away to another country

[estebanmd]

Henry did not have to say he had been nervous. Stephen remembered well enough that heart-sinking, tongue-tied feeling: standing with proverbial hat in hand, eyes averted, on the brink of an irrevocable utterance, desperately afraid it might shatter everything good in the world. That Henry had felt some measure of trepidation could be inferred simply by the admission he had discussed the decision with other people before asking Camilla herself

[h_m_winter]

Henry considered this, and very nearly snorted. No, there had been no argument or pleading, though the persuasion had been, in a sense (even if it had only been because I want you to). "Interminable waiting for an answer?" he echoed. "Interminable, no; waiting, yes. She asked for time to consider, so I went to America with Dax and Dr. Silvey--I'm not sure if you've met her--in search of the magical lieopleurodon. It wasn't until I came home that she said yes." That had been one of the most anxious times of his entire life, even distracted as he had been by random bat-attacks and Dax's driving

[estebanmd]

Now it was Stephen who almost snorted. "I am tolerably well-acquainted with Dr Silvey, yes," he allowed. "She had been a close friend of my erstwhile brother-in-law, now popcorn, God rest his soul," and again he crossed himself in that perfunctory way

[h_m_winter]

Henry shook his head. "I haven't," he said. "Though once I've settled back down to research, I ought to. From what I understand, I'm hardly the only auxiliary aid Dr. Silvey and Professor Dax have acquired

[estebanmd]

The idea of spending time voluntarily being harangued by Chance Silvey struck Stephen as immensely bizarre and therefore amusing. "Were I not desirous to keep my head on my shoulders, and my eardrums unpunctured, I might inquire of Dr Silvey concerning the creature and the study thereof. You must indeed have wished most strongly to be free of Hogwarts for a time, to have volunteered for such an expedition