(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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[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

[estebanmd]

"In your place," mused Stephen, "I should have been quite apprehensive -- I should have wondered whether she might change her mind, up to the very exchanging of vows, indeed perhaps even afterward. A woman of that kind can prove startlingly changeable." Diana, after all, had left him both before and after their marriage -- after both weddings, come to think of it. "Then, too, there is always the local strangeness to which Hogwarts is prone. There was something of a disturbance on All Hallows' Eve." That had been only days before the Winters' wedding.

[h_m_winter]

While admittedly Henry had been a little nervous, he also felt that, once her answer was given, Camilla would likely stick with it. She could be changeable, yes, but she could also hold to something with all the tenacity of super-glue when she wanted to--hardly a romantic metaphor, but apt nonetheless. Again, that strength that so few people ever saw.

He looked at Stephen, curious--he'd wondered if anything would be mentioned of Halloween. "I heard a very little about that," he said. "Camilla and I didn't notice a thing at the time, but Susan mentioned some sort of madness going around."

[estebanmd]

"Thank your stars you noticed nothing," said Stephen, a little sourly. "It was a monstrous thing, worse than most of the little madnesses that sweep this place."

[h_m_winter]

"So I was told. From what I inferred, it must have been rather terrible." Though he did not share Camilla's view that it had to have been utterly horrible. "I realize I have no right to ask, but what precisely was it? I could gather precious little from Susan; she seemed much more interested in figuring out why meditation didn't actually work."

[estebanmd]

Stephen regarded the savage face of Xipe Totec, who seemed viciously amused. "You are to consider there has not been much opportunity to compare notes with many persons afflicted. That being said, I believe the effect -- whatever its cause, I cannot say -- the effect was to strip its victims of all morality, every vestige and scrap of moral probity."

[h_m_winter]

Henry went quiet, thinking about this. He did not know either Stephen or Susan very well, but the thought of either of them stripped of all morality was...well. It sounded like the stuff Greek tragedies were made of. The rather unflattering fact that it might not have had any appreciable effect on himself and Camilla did not occur to him.

"If it did that to any number of people at all, it's just as well we have the Rule," he said, meditatively. "Was it widespread at all? I've heard nothing of it from anyone else, but then Camilla and I have been either occupied or away from the school entirely since then." Francis would have said something, if he'd been affected (though Henry still didn't know about what had happened to his friend's room), and if Charles had...well, they'd have known.

[estebanmd]

Having no way of knowing exactly what served Henry and Camilla for morality (or lack thereof), Stephen nodded grimly. "I should think the event occasioned all manner of personal misfortune for a good many people. Little wonder most have kept silent about it; thus I cannot estimate how many, or how few, were so unfortunate as to be affected, other than those I witnessed personally while myself afflicted, and at that time my own judgement would have been suspect. Subsequently my perceptions were further muddled by a sort of magnification lent by Susan, an experimental thing of hers."

[h_m_winter]

His last words made Henry wince. "Ah," he said. "That. I hope your experience wasn't as terrible as Camilla's and mine. I know Susan meant well, and she did warn me when she gave me the stuff, but there really is no kind of accurate warning for such a thing." It might not have been so terrible for them, if not for the precedence of the bacchanal; they'd both undergone such abandon before, with extremely unfortunate results. Even then, while under the potion's influence, they had feared nothing; it wasn't until after it had worn off that they had really frightened one another

[estebanmd]

"She can demonstrate extraordinarily poor judgement at times," Stephen said, quite keenly aware that he himself could be advanced as an example of her poor judgement.

[h_m_winter]

The unfortunate implication was not lost on Henry. It also, in some measure at least, explained the past hoboness, though that was of little consequence now.

"She wanted to share it," he said, after a moment. "And I certainly didn't protest trying it. I think many would want to at least sample the senses of the--not divine, I suppose, but the immortal. Having sampled them, though, I now think most others should not. Also, as I said, if that's indeed how she experiences things all the time, I'm amazed she's got any judgement at all." Some of the things he and Camilla had done--well, they'd always wanted to live without thinking, and for a time they'd most certainly done it.

[estebanmd]

As for the past hoboness, Stephen chalked that up to a predictable combination of drunken excess and the dizzying effect of beauty. Henry of all people should understand what effect Camilla could have on a person.

The sensory amplification that Susan's experiments sought to confer, though -- that was something Stephen indeed deemed far from horrible. It was something he expected anyone would want, something he himself still wanted, a craving only a series of past lessons in addiction could keep at bay.

"Maddening, yes, but wonderful, did you not find?"

[h_m_winter]

Henry thought about this a moment. "At the time, very wonderful," he said, his eyes unfocusing for a moment as his mind threw up all sorts of fascinating images--the glint of starlight on the sea, the amazing softness of sand under his feet, the sweetness of Camilla's hair. "Unlike anything I've even imagined. I think it's how the gods must have felt, whenever they visited the earth. Even now, knowing what it did to us--how terrible it was, afterward--part of me would like to try it again. My rational mind might know better, but some deeper, more primal part of me craves it."

He shook his head, resting a hand on Xipe Totec's head. "And the dangerous thing about Susan is that I think she would give it again, if any of us asked. I'm certain she won't give it to anybody else, but I'm not so sure she understands either the nature of addiction, or just how very alien her senses truly are to the rest of us."

[estebanmd]

What Henry described sounded similar to Stephen's own experience, up to a point. He would not have called the aftermath terrible; a letdown perhaps, in the way that coming down from any stimulant could be; and his curiosity must surely have shown in the angle of his head, the arch of his brow, though he prudently refrained from direct inquiry.

"I think she might," said Stephen. "God help me if I should ask her. What she could make of me then I should not like to contemplate."

A pause, then a query he did think it relatively safe to pose:

"What did Camilla think of it?"

[h_m_winter]

Henry could see Stephen's curiosity, and the man's words piqued his own--that was rather an odd thing to say. From what he'd seen of Susan, she had no desire to make anyone into anything. He said so, too. "I don't think Susan would really try to turn anyone into something they're not. She's odd, but she does have scruples, in her way." Like himself and Camilla, they might be decidedly strange scruples, but they were scruples nonetheless. He had no way of knowing that any desire she might have had in that direction was turned in onto herself, though given her curiosity about gardening, etc. it wouldn't have been hard to guess

[estebanmd]

"On the contrary," Stephen said, "I do not think that particular potion can make anyone into something they are not; rather, I think it may very well have the potential to enhance the very worst in them, the worst of what is already in them. I say this while taking pains not to conflate the experience with what else might have been at work on All Hallows'. To be dazzled by a deluge of sensory input, to have one's reason drowned out, can hardly be salutary to the soul, if indulged habitually. I am quite certain Susan intended nothing but good in developing the stuff, and it would be to such benevolent intent that you or I must appeal were we to request another opportunity for testing it. Yet the saying goes that the road to hell is paved with good intentions