( open ) show me how to lie

[darkart]

CHARACTERS: severus snape & a variety of people patient* enough to put up with his ass. (*maybe)
LOCATION: various.
WARNINGS: tba.
SUMMARY: open log for april.
NOTES: if you want to do something but can't think of an opener, feel free to send me a pm, i don't mind writing starters!


Maybe, Severus reflects as he stares down at his arm in the privacy of his small quarters, the whole department thing was a bad idea. SCI » 028 » 084. It inspires a kind of tired bitterness in him thinking about the advances muggles have made in science while wizardkind have hidden away and gotten very good at hovering in place. He remembers the American venture of Apollo 11, remembers the terror and wonder of it, nine years old and imagining if that's what these slow and dull creatures can do just think, just think, what's waiting for him in the world his mother comes from.

SCI. SEC. OPR. He imagines arrangements in three letters for other headings. For gravity management or temporal repair, for mysteries and healing. Science is such a lifeless word and here he is with it stamped next to another, older brand, both self-chosen in one way or another. Xenobiology is a joke and he knows it but his interest is real, and his determination is true - if he has to crowbar magic into this place with stubborn viciousness and arguments then so be it. He won't be trapped here otherwise and damn everyone who disbelieves or shrugs it off or rolls their eyes. They are incomplete people. They have to build machines to see just a fraction what he breathes and touches and manipulates. And he will not hide from them.

He works, both in the "safe" laboratory they've been shuffled to in accordance to security's fussing, and also up in the burned-out attic space of the forsaken genetics rooms. He senses the instability, but doesn't fear it. He cooks meals and occasionally tolerates company, he visits the gardens - for royalty or for his own version of hunting; he considers trying to plant things, has little aborted fantasies of potion-brewing, but doesn't go anywhere with it. He contemplates a dozen projects and, hell, maybe he'll do all of them. It's not like he's going anywhere anytime soon.

Comments

[darkart]

Waiting out the patience of someone who seemed like they might try to kill me isn't an acceptable answer, so: "Coping poorly with the loss of my reality and the failure to mimic it here." Wry, and probably not serious. He pushes his hair back, and thinks he probably looks worse than usual right now, the victim of sweat and untidy attire.

"Just looking at plants," he offers soon after. Severus isn't actually that bothered by the Tranquility itself, not like so many others are. There are a lot of problems to work around, to be sure, but Severus is a problem-solver and not someone who accepts a knot as unable to be undone. He has plenty to do, even though he might prefer to do something else. That something else isn't possible, his preferences are not really that important. So he's fine.

[circumitus]

A couple years ago, Rey might not have quite caught the implications of that tone of his. She'd have taken things literally and asked him to elaborate.

She doesn't, because as such, she's had plenty of experience with the art of sarcasm by now. It's his lucky day.

"Looking for any specific plant?" Rey asks, more keen on getting to the point.

[darkart]

"No." There is no point. He's just sitting here, not keen on getting jumped. "I'm an alchemist. Everything is, inherently, interesting." But not inherently useful. There are a lot of plants here that look familiar, but given the setting and the circumstances, he can't be sure they are what they are, or that they have the same properties as he's used to. It's going to take quite some time to sort through everything.

[circumitus]

"Alchemy." Rey cants her head. "I gather that's what they used to call it."

She's seen a lot of things. Considering her father's research, it's not far beyond the realm of reason to assume that he could have, at some point, been considered an alchemist in his line of work.

[darkart]

"Science," he begins, forcibly patient, "is a field whose origin is rooted in failed alchemists being upset at being called frauds, which is what they were. It's moved along admirably."

Comparatively, is the inaudible, wry addition. Severus finds elements of science interesting and he finds the ingenuousness of muggles occasionally fascinating - but it's also sad. The passion and effort that goes into building more and more complex machines just to do things that witches and wizards can do at will is enormous. It should be sorcery that has that backing.

[circumitus]

Pleasant, this one is. Not that Rey is one to talk -- quite the opposite, actually.

Her eye squints, mulling over the reply. "Yes, that's certainly one way of looking at things." She's really not one to take offense, or even tell him that he's wrong, since he's not. "Though in my experience, combination of the two has proven somewhat efficient."

wow i lost this notif #thanksobama

[darkart]

Severus raises his eyebrows, but there's no real energy behind the expression. Yeah, he doesn't really give a fuck about science-- great for the guy co-heading a science department, but them's the breaks.

"What's your experience?"