March 26th, 1891 — Aberdeen, Scotland — Departure Ceremony for the Santa Antonina

Domitian would not have decided to engage this cruise of his own volition. It felt too much like frivolity, and he didn't feel he had time for frivolity, with his step-mother Mrs. Calliope Zabini growing more and more pregnant by the day. When his wife had brought it up, though, he hadn't immediately shot it down, and by the time he realized she was entirely serious about it the preparations had advanced too far for him to shoot them down without making a fuss. Letters had been sent, invitations issued. At the very least, he was planning to spend time with the family members he actually liked — his sisters — and leave his father and his new wife, who was too pregnant to travel on such a long journey, far behind. Silver linings.

He was anxious about leaving work for so long, too; anxious that if anything happened in his absence it would reflect poorly on him as the leader of the squad, whether he was there or not. But he had done everything he could to ensure Mr. Fisk could hold things down for the next eighteen days, and Mr. Fisk had been an obliviator for ten years — he really ought to be fine. Not that that would prevent Domitian from sending him frequent owls checking on his progress and asking for updates.

He had just visited their stateroom to ensure the luggage was all delivered (a cruise visiting foreign ports with only half his wardrobe would hardly have been pleasant) and was returning to the deck in search of his wife or sisters, when instead he met with a familiar face from work.

"Lupin," he greeted. "I didn't know you were setting sail with us. This bodes very poorly for our Department while we're away, I'm afraid," he said; he flashed a smile as if it were a joke but he actually didn't find the notion humorous at all.

Lionel Lupin Roberto Devine
(@"Camilla Zabini" Bellona Zabini Matilda Zabini feel free to cameo/join if you are so inclined! If you do, no post order)

  

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Bree made this!

Lionel would never have considered a cruise for himself and he certainly was not partaking in this one. But after enjoying a tour of the ship that morning, he found himself considering it as an option someday in the future. Perhaps if he were to finally find himself wed and his wife not opposed it could be their honeymoon. But that was a far off thought and easily chased from his mind as he waited for his friends to finish settling their luggage into their room.

Lionel smiled at the familiar face that appeared and chuckled in response to the mans words. "Worry not for our department as I am not joining this cruise. I have merely come to see off a close friend and his new wife. I do hope you try and enjoy yourself. You deserve a bit of rest and relaxation." Indeed, unlike some of their colleagues, he had little to complain about when it came to Domitian Zabini.

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"Well," Domitian conceded wryly, "Whether it's restful or relaxing seems a bit out of my hands, at this point." He was not quite as confident in Leonid Fisk as perhaps he ought to have been, so he would likely worry about that. His sisters could be delightful but they could also be tiring, on occasion, and there was too much of an age difference for him to feel as close to them as he had to Lavinia prior to the scandal ten years ago. And his wife — well, hopefully his wife would be mostly busy with her natal relations, and wouldn't have too many demands on him throughout the course of the voyage. That was the best case scenario, but since she had been the one to require his presence here in the first place he expected to be subjected to some very stilted conversational overtures on at least a few occasions. Given that he would be stuck on a boat, it was unlikely that any of his normal methods of relieving tension (prowling around as a jaguar, bedding the maids at Atlantis, or hunting) were going to be accessible to him, so this was set to be a long cruise indeed.

"But maybe that's not something you can empathize with," he teased. "Being unmarried yourself."

  

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Bree made this!

Lionel chuckled in response to his friends words. He had only an inkling of an idea of what it meant to have non-work demands on your time. His entire life at this point was his occupation. Not that this was entirely the way he wanted things.

"You wound me, sir," Lionel said with a good-natured chuckle. "I do hope to remedy that sometime soon."

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"Then what's stopping you?" he ribbed, with a light smile. Not that he actually thought it was a question that could be answered as easily as he had asked it. Marriage was a terrible commitment, and a terrible responsibility, and not the sort of thing to be undergone on a whim... but these were the sorts of jokes men made, and so Dom occasionally made them too, despite his true feelings on the matter.

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Bree made this!

"I did come close but the young woman was killed by a vampire," Lionel reminded his friend with a sigh. He had not been terribly attached to the Miss Margaret Rawlinson but she had more than met his standards. It had been annoying to have to start all over again and a tragedy to see a young life that he felt would have made a decent socialite snuffed out. She had been pleasant company and it was difficult for him to find most women pleasant company enough to consider tying his life to theirs. "I do have a couple of young ladies in mind."

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Oh, right, the vampire attack girl. Domitian had forgotten about her, truth be told. He'd paid attention at the time, of course, but now that they'd moved past the appropriate mourning phase she had faded into distant history as far as he was concerned. He had too much of his own troubles to worry about to keep track of things that were no longer relevant to either him or his friends.

The second comment saw him raise an eyebrow in response. This was the first he'd heard of it. While that wasn't exactly shocking (he did not expect all of the men in his acquaintance to update him on every facet of their lives, and Lupin was more of a professional friend than a personal one), he was curious about this development. "Oh?" he asked. Dom wasn't the sort of press, if Lupin wanted to keep it to himself, so he'd restrict his question to just that.

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Bree made this!

"Indeed. A graduate from Roses has been delightful company as well as an older debutante or two," Lionel provided. "I do not think I am looking for too much in a wife. Someone to keep me ample company, provide occasional conversation and children." Which was about the bare minimum needed in a wife, he supposed. Most men didn't even care if they liked their wife. In Lionel's case, seeing as he would never be able to provide any romantic love to his theoretical spouse, he would like to at least provide warm platonic companianship.

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"That does seem a low bar to clear," Domitian said with a slight huff of laughter. His tone was joking, but really he was thinking that this was a bit foolish of Lupin. Then again, an unmarried man couldn't really be expected to know everything they wished for in a wife; it was only when those traits were lacking, or called into doubt, that one realized how important they were. Loyalty, for instance — for a man like Lupin that was probably a given, because there was no reason any wife of his would ever consider leaving him. Of course, there had been no reason to suspect Domitian would ever find himself in that situation either when he'd initially married.

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Bree made this!

"If a woman can make me laugh, that says a lot about her already," Lionel said, not minding the ribbing when it came from Zabini. They had been friends for a good, long while. "I do need to get a move on though lest that womans magazine start shouting about me being a confirmed bachelor or some silly thing like that." Never mind the fact that they would be mostly right. He did have an actual desire to have children though and he would like to do so when he was still young enough to not be annoyed by how noisy and messy children got.

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A sense of humor was Domitian's least important consideration in potential wives, or would have been if he were somehow back on the marriage market. Truth be told he'd never actually had to consider it. His father had chosen Matilda for him, and he couldn't envision a future where he was actively looking for a wife again. If Matilda divorced him, he'd spend most of his energy just keeping afloat, and the children would be a complicating factor whether Matilda took them with her or not. If she died... he couldn't marry a halfblooded woman without bringing on his father's ire, which he would never willingly do while Nico was still in line to inherit something from the man. But he would never marry another pureblooded woman, whatever his father said. Living on pins and needles, feeling constantly resented but unable to do anything about it, was something he would never choose were he somehow freed from it.

"It's not the women's magazine you ought to watch out for," he returned with a shrug. "It's what the women are saying that will come back to haunt you."

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Bree made this!

"Aren't they always saying something though? I've heard many a completely innocuous situation turned scandalous by their tongue," Lionel said with a laugh. "I don't suppose you have any recommendations for me?" He personally thought it unlikely considering his friend was a married man that only had sisters futures to consider. So unlikely to have put much thought into the unmarried women on the market.

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Domitian might have given the name of either of his unmarried sisters, both of whom would probably consider Lionel Lupin a catch, but he didn't. He had no particular desire to play matchmaker and get in the middle of a situation that ought to be decided by the two people involved in it. If Lupin wanted input on his marriage choices that was one thing, but Dom wasn't sure his sisters would be as keen. (Had he known what awaited him on the cruise, he likely would have formed a less charitable opinion of his sisters' abilities to dictate their own future).

"No, unfortunately not," he said with a quick, tight smile. "Perhaps I'll give the matter some thought aboard the cruise. Wish me safe travels, then — I think we're nearly underway."

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Bree made this!

"It was worth an ask," Lionel chuckled when his friend said he had no recommendations for him. He nodded as the other man said he thought they were nearly underway. "Safe travels and do try your best to have a little fun," he said teasingly as he gave the mans hand a friendly grasp of good bye before moving away to wave at the folks waving at the docks from the deck. He hoped that they would all have a good time and he felt a sense of wistfulness that he wasn't currently in a good spot to go away on a cruise himself.

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