( 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]

[ He shrugs. Quidditch, man.

And then Severus almost-smiles. ]

It's part tradition and part manipulated chaos.

[ He raises a hand and wordlessly summons a spade from the gardening equipment - it zips over to him, and he catches it easily. ]

There are incantations and rituals, equations worn into the fabric of reality like paths long-traveled in the ground. Everyone gets a wand when they're young, a very powerful focusing tool, and are taught to use it for most, if not all magic. Some people take to it and must use it at all times, others find it needlessly overwhelming.

[ Severus sets the spade aside and in his right hand appears what is, yep, a magic wand. His is black wood, a bit modern-looking for what most people might imagine. Given that everything he's done up until now has been quiet and without fanfare, it's easy to assume he's one of the wizards who falls into the latter category, as mentioned. In an elegant movement he draws swooping motions in the air, murmuring something in Latin. Silver and gold birds burst into existence, chiming like bells, swirling around them and taking off higher and higher, spiraling and soaring through the gardens. ]

Normally I prefer a bit more practicality.

[hadninelives]

[This is fascinating stuff, and Wendy watches closely, taking mental notes. The use of a wand is interesting. She knows witches who use them, and has occasionally used one when a particular spell called for it, but they aren't used much in general.

She smiles when the birds appear and watches them fly away.]

Very nice. We don't use wands very often. We use spoken words to focus the energy, if necessary. If it's a familiar spell, I don't need to speak at all. Most of my magic is for practical use also...

[She gestures towards one of the plants nearby and speaks a word of Latin: Floresco. The plant and several around it immediately grow flower buds and then burst into bloom.]

But that doesn't mean we can't have fun with it now and then.

[With another gesture, she calls the water out of a few of the closest sprinklers. She also freezes it as it comes out, giving them a very brief and localized snowfall that stops after a minute.]

[darkart]

[ Magic is the best part of being alive, in his opinion. In his heart he isn't cut out for genocide, but he's never going to look at muggles with anything better than distant pity; how can people live without it? To say nothing of convenience, it's the very makeup of reality. He can't imagine not being able to see and touch it. ]

I think we might have very similar magic, [ he observes, enjoying the snow while it's there. ] That spell - floresco - does about the same for me. The way children are taught, normally, with wands and words to make spells, is a form of control. So that no one has a bad day and blows up half their home by accident. Some of us don't take to it perfectly.

[ This is followed by a shrug. ] Tradition. There's something to be said about it, the way it's orderly. But I'm drawn equally to what's unpredictable.

[hadninelives]

[It really does sound very familiar. It's too bad she can't go visit his school. There's probably a lot she could learn.]

Tradition is where you start. It's like I told my nieces, you have to learn the basics before you can start experimenting. You have to understand how things work first. It takes a while, and sometimes it's boring, but if you try to take shortcuts you're going to get burned.

Once you've got the basics, then the fun can begin.

[darkart]

[ A small, private smile at shortcuts. Sometimes he wonders if any of his current students do the same amount of experimenting and inventing that he did when he was in their position. Severus is very good at shortcuts, but as he tends to use them for dark magic and undermining authority figures, he declines to mention it. ]

What constitutes fun, for you?

[ He's kind of awkward about it, having a normal conversation about nice things. But he's trying??? ]

[hadninelives]

Oh, I don't know. Anything that's not boring, I guess.

[She's never really thought about needing to explain it before.]

I used the water to snow trick for my nieces not long ago.

[darkart]

Not boring. [ It sounds a little like a joke at his own expense. He looks out at the water; it probably is very charming, for children. He's never managed to captivate young people through anything besides ... well.

Slytherin children of the war have particular proclivities. ]

I suppose we should get started.