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

[estebanmd]

"Well, of course, Su -- Miss Sto Helit is indeed lovely, and then there is the physiology of Crowley's wings to consider, and -- well, that is what I have been telling myself, at any rate. That the wings are to blame for it all." Stephen downed the last of another glass of rum, somberly. "I suppose they are not. The wings. To blame."

[conriocht]

"No, I... don't think the wings... they were more like a catalyst. You know that term? I can't remember what science you know. A catalyst is something that causes an event to happen, or accelerates a... a chemical reaction."

He had overcome his urge to crawl under his desk (and how Freudian was that, considering that Stephen had given him the desk?). He looked at Stephen steadily, or as steadily as he was able. "You and I are very much alike. In another universe, in another situation, there might have been some... connection. I think some part of us knows that, and that was why, you know, all of that happened. But as it is... well." He shrugged and finished off his glass.

[estebanmd]

"I know what a catalyst is," said Stephen, patiently. Lupin was clearly unsettled. "I think I know what you are trying to say. It makes some measure of sense. What I do not understand is why the thoughts recur. For me, at least."