closed RP: Stephen Maturin and Remus Lupin: In vino veritas

[conriocht]

After finishing up his grindylow study, a sodden Lupin shuffled off to his private quarters for a hot shower and a change of clothes. He was starting to nurse a perverse fondness for Stephen's hideous coat - it was comfortable and smelled rather nice, and certainly was no more appalling than some of the clothing he'd worn in the 1970's. (That

Comments

[estebanmd]

"Of course, any naturalist must be able to draw. We have not got those boxes, the one you had, the camera." Stephen suspected he would be consulting the professor of Muggle studies rather a lot in the near future.

He looked at the Darwin with interest. "Charles Darwin? I had thought for sure you meant Erasmus Darwin, fine man, wrote the Zoonomia. 1859 would put him rather out of my range, true. I was born in 1775; my contemporaries are all, at the moment, in the year of our Lord 1816, with the exception of myself and Jack."

The book was very, very interesting. Pirate rum was not conducive to understanding the finer points of evolutionary theory, to say nothing of reconciling said points with one's Catholic sensibilities. "I may need to find a copy of this in the library, I think. Forgive me." More rum!

((I've had to fudge Stephen's chronology a bit for the reason that Patrick O'Brian had more plot than he did time, and therefore set a whole slew of books in the year 1813 each of which probably ought to have taken a year unto themselves, otherwise the Napoleonic Wars would have ended too soon for his story. ))

[conriocht]

"Yes, I suppose drawing would be a necessary skill if you don't have cameras. I've never heard of Erasmus Darwin - he must be some relation, though. Feel free to borrow my copy of this, if you like. I know you'll take good care of it."

He looked at Stephen curiously as he poured himself another glass of rum. "You were born in 1775? I was born in 1960. I suppose that would make you my great-great-great-grandfather. Or something." Maths and geneology were not his specialities. "That must be very strange for you, being here. And being in a relationship with a woman from the distant future, no less. You must be having to learn a million new things."

[estebanmd]

Made more amiable and voluble by the influence of pirate rum, Stephen was more than happy to expound upon the virtues of Erasmus Darwin. "The Darwin of whom I was thinking died in 1802. He was a physician, an inventor, quite an innovative thinker in all. The idea of the Zoonomia is not all that different from this book," holding up the Origin of Species, "insofar as I can tell at a glance. I wonder if they were relations of a kind? Perhaps a cousin or grandson or some such, this Charles to the earlier Darwin."

Stephen thought the idea of himself being Lupin's many-times-great-grandfather was extremely amusing. "I do have a daughter. Rather not think about her becoming the ancestress of anyone at the moment, though. She is but fourteen. Well, she is fourteen in 1816." He laughed helplessly. "It is extremely strange, I'll grant you that."

[conriocht]

"Yes, being around all the magic here must be strange for any Muggle, but goodness - you've never even ridden in a car or listened to a record. And the language is different, and customs and mores and everything... I used to think it would be brilliant to go back in time, but I never really thought about the culture shock."

He was quite surprised to learn that Stephen's daughter was fourteen. How old was River Tam - seventeen or eighteen? Goodness. And he'd thought Tonks was too young for him. Well, all those girls in Jane Austen novels got married at that age, so maybe it wasn't such a big deal for Stephen.

And speaking of Miss Tam, he hadn't heard from her in a while. "How is your lovely fiancee doing?" he asked. He'd drunk a bit too much rum to consider the fact that Stephen might have followed his train of thought. He took another gulp of it before continuing. "She came to me a while ago, looking for help with controlling her abilities. I referred her to Professor Dumbledore, but she ended up taking lessons from Voldemort." He shuddered. "But since they've been popcorned, I've heard no other word. Is she managing all right on her own?"

[estebanmd]

"Customs and mores, yes, well, they are different here than anywhere, are they not?" Stephen wondered whether Lupin's remark was an indirect comment on his marrying an eighteen-year-old, and in another context might have bridled at it; between the morning's exhilarating research and the present conviviality of rum, he was disinclined to take offense.

At the mention of Voldemort, though, no amount of rum could prevent his irritation. "May the saints bless and keep whoever made that beast into popcorn," he said, darkly. "To think she allowed him to study her -- " He shook his head. He was still utterly convinced that Voldemort had cultivated River's acquaintance in order to use her as a weapon. "She thought he was teaching her, and they did have one tutorial together, but it seems to have done her no good at all, if he did indeed teach her anything of use." The memory made him blush, though Lupin could not have known the reason why; that lesson with Voldemort had been instrumental in what became of River's relationship with Stephen. "I do not think she is managing all right on her own -- I do not think she is managing at all. She needs to learn discretion, and instead she wants to tell all and sundry exactly what she has read in their thoughts. It is a continual subject of dissension ..." He was surprised at how much he was confiding in the other man.

[conriocht]

"Indeed," Lupin agreed. His comment about customs and mores had been directed more at Stephen's complete lack of concern in flapping his private parts around in a public area - he'd had the vague idea that Stephen was a proto-Victorian prude. It was odd to think that people were more Victorian in the 21st century than in the early 19th.

"Yes, we're well rid of that bastard Voldemort. I'd warned Miss Tam to stay away from Snape, and then I found out she'd sought out Snape's master instead." He shook his head. "She told me she could take care of herself, and I certainly believe her, but I was very worried about her." He wondered why Stephen had gone a bit pink. Perhaps... never mind. He didn't want to know. "I think that learning discretion and learning to control her abilities are two separate issues. I should think you would be a very good teacher in the art of discretion."

[estebanmd]

"I should think them to be two separate issues. She, on the other hand, has developed something of an idiosyncratic code of ethics for herself. I should not sit in judgment on the matter; I can hardly imagine what it would be like, to be in such a position as the one into which she has been forced. She never asked for these powers." He took a swallow of rum. "Rather than my teaching her discretion, she seems to have made me more indiscreet. Could you believe, I actually took part in that thing, that secrets board." Stephen had to chuckle at his own foolishness. "I suppose those things should really be left to the younger students."

[conriocht]

"I... erm, I took part in the secrets board as well." Lupin looked down at his glass of rum, which was inexplicably empty all of a sudden. He refilled it and took another drink. "Which was foolish of me. I think the object of one of my secrets figured out that it was me. The object of the other one, however..."

... was sitting right in front of him. Keep your bloody mouth shut, Lupin, he told himself. But with a goodly amount of rum inside him, he couldn't help making one more confession. "That was you, wasn't it, that I was talking to on that board? You said that... love is different every time, but it's always painful. And the only thing more painful than love is its absence."

[estebanmd]

Stephen looked at Lupin curiously. " So that was you. I had my suspicions."

[conriocht]

"So it was you. I knew it. Nobody else talks like you." Lupin smiled ironically. "You know, if you want to be discreet, you've got to learn some 21st-century idiom. But how did you know it was me? I was trying not to say 'oh my goodness' at all - that would've given me away immediately."

[estebanmd]

Stephen chuckled again and helped himself to more rum. Pirate rum was starting to grow on him. "I did make an effort to keep my language more modern in the actual secrets I posted, but I am afraid in the more involved conversations that resulted from answering some, I became more interested in the conversations than in concealing my identity particularly well. And, too, River knew which ones were for her anyhow. There were still one or two that no one guessed, so I am likely safe for now." He did not address the question of how he came to think the secret he'd commented on was Lupin's. It seemed indelicate to comment on the fact that they were the only two men in the school currently involved in, if not quite May-December romances, May-September at the least.

[conriocht]

Lupin noticed that Stephen had evaded his question. Was there some verbal tic he wasn't aware of? Or maybe the comment about "young women" - which he'd made to show Stephen that he was aware of Stephen's identity. Well, whatever. More rum!

"Yes, I was rather relieved that nobody guessed my other one. It would've been quite embarassing... well, the incident that inspired it was equally embarassing, so no harm done, perhaps, but..."

Dammit, why couldn't he just spit it out? Both of them had danced around the subject ever since the incident occurred. He was right, they really WERE awfully alike. Too alike, perhaps. He took another swig of rum, sighed, and stepped off the cliff, so to speak. "The secret was about you. About April Fool's Day."

[estebanmd]

"... Oh. I certainly never guessed that one." Stephen thought he must be getting slow these days. He really should have guessed it. He did guess at the awful one from Jekyll (or was it Hyde? better not to know). As it was, sorting through his memories of things that had been posted, he could not come up with a candidate for what Lupin was talking about. It seemed that Lupin had not detected Stephen's own post about the same incident, either.

"It was a very strange incident," he said, finally. "I ... still think of it, on occasion."

[conriocht]

"So do I. Especially after you told me that it was you, in Miss Sto Helit's body." He was having trouble looking Stephen in the eye again, which didn't surprise him at all. "I wonder... I was wondering if I subconsciously knew it was you all along." Bloody hell, Stephen probably didn't know what the subconscious was. He didn't feel like explaining Freud right now. "I mean... I wonder if I sensed it."

[estebanmd]

Stephen considered the idea seriously. "I did try to adopt Susan's -- Miss Sto Helit's -- speech patterns insofar as I know them, which is comparatively well. The entire experience lends itself much to contemplation of the relation between body and mind, or perhaps soul. Miss Sto Helit and I conducted a successful experiment to prove that at least there would be no affinity between ourselves as a result of being switched, as she spent the day in my body. Yet, when I do think of ... what happened ... it is not Crowley I remember."

[conriocht]

"I... err, yes. I've never been particularly attracted to Miss Sto Helit - she's quite pretty, but I don't know her and she's not really my type... and when I think of what happened... I don't think about her."

He could feel his face getting pink, but inspired by the rum, barrelled on regardless. "You remember, I was wearing one of Crowley's bedsheets? I couldn't find any of his clothes when I woke up... Anyway, I was worried the bedsheet might slip and you would see that... err... Oh, Merlin." He turned away, simultaneously wanting to laugh and crawl under the desk.