( mostly closed ) when we were young the future was so bright

[darkart]

CHARACTERS: severus snape & others.
LOCATION: various.
WARNINGS: violence in the thread with edgeworth, possibly uncomfortable subject matter in the thread with william but nothing explicit.
SUMMARY: threads for people who've been arranging stuff with me or who have new stuff from the cr meme; covers this entire month/jump.
NOTES: i don't have the brainpower for making open starters this month but if you'd like to do anything send me a message and we'll get something up! come at me bros etc



see.

Comments

ty

[dogbane]

[William looks surprised. He's actually surprised enough to meet the wizard's eye, brows hitching like startled inchworms.

It's odd for him after that. Tempting, almost, to let the misunderstanding lie. Quit while he's not too far behind. They do not have an excellent track record of mutual understanding. It seems difficult to broach the topic of the type of person Severus isn't without getting into whether or not William is the sort of person who would-- fuck anybody who was nice to him, with gusto proportionate to the favor, which might be mistaken for transactory or just.

Really fucking pathetic.

William is not really capable of letting someone he likes as much as he likes Snape to look that uncomfortable when they're exists the possibility he can do something about it, though. Even if he does start to look uncomfortable himself, looking now at the bedstand, then at the mutant bed. Back at Severus. Harden up, Will.] Yeh. But it's not like that. For me, [he clarifies; he can picture Severus being too noble for whatever as easily as he can Severus being too straight, but he knows his part of it.] I just--

[Fortunately, he long since gave up all hope of telling the professor anything he wants to hear. All that's really left to contend with is exposure. Weird, that nudity would be easier by far.] -- fancy you. Won't be a twat about it, but I do.

[darkart]

[ Silence.

There is almost a repeat performance of earlier - disoriented inching away and What? but Severus refrains. Instead his gaze bores into William's and his eyebrows knit, expression slowly becoming one of suspicious disbelief.

Is William making fun of him? ... Is William smart enough to pull off something this elaborate just to make fun of him? ]

Do you-- think that's funny?

[ Confusion underscores his guarded defense. He tries to think of how it felt when William kissed him, if it seemed forced or-- whatever. But he can't tell the difference anyway. ]

[dogbane]

We cock jockeys often put a humorous spin on our interest in straight lads, [William says-- some retreats can't be measured in physical inches; humor and vulgarity tends to work just as well,] but not really.

I ain't going to be perving on you. [It feels necessary to clarify, explain further even if Snape seems rather tolerant of that whole thing; he realizes he's been a little vague. And pathologically colloquial. And pretty terrible with forging lasting relationships of any kind. Discreetly, he wipes the moisture off his hands onto his pant legs.] You're m-- [Are they even friends. He side-eyes the door. He wouldn't be sure why he hadn't left either, except that Severus looks terrible, and it has never been his style to half-ass the administration of treatment, even if it is merely palliative. In multiple meanings of the term.] I want to be a good friend, [he decides to say instead.

I-statements have not gone out of style by the 2140s. He poles their punt toward safer conversational waters:] A friend who'll talk supernatural murals, if you ain't into making bracelets.

[darkart]

Straight. [ An absent echo, like. What? He's. Well, yes, but he's never actually considered it and now is not the time for that sort of soul-searching anyway and-- that's really no the point of-- ] You-- what?

[ The look on his face is actually pretty great. Severus is so confused he's almost angry at being confused and not just as the situation; he understands the words coming out of William's mouth but he doesn't understand why or how. ]

Did you hit your head down there? Did everyone-- this whole fucking jump has just been-- [ Severus is starting to sound slightly panicked, now, but he clamps down on it internally and goes silent. ]

[dogbane]

[William does not understand how that was actually harder to understand than the bit about twats, but he is incomprehensible to people pretty often actually! Recognizing the futility and at least twenty percent of the dangers of that course of action, he doesn't then move on to reassuring Severus that no butt rape is about to occur, which would otherwise have been the logical next step.]

Oh maybe, [he says. Concussions often result in memory and complex language impairments. It's possible.] um. [It's also irrelevant, he realizes afterward. William rewrites the following sentence in his head two or three times before opting for:]

I can leave to let you sleep. [He swerves a nonchalant finger for the door.]

[darkart]

Yes.

[ That William might need to make some kind of assurance of safety does not occur to Severus. Partially because William does not exist as a threat on Severus's radar, partially because he's still having an incredibly difficult time parsing what's happening. He thinks he's being made fun of, or that William is being compromised by the ship more than just the sensory overload.

The ship.

Oh.

It makes sense and it's a kind of relief, though he doesn't let it show in his frame or his face. Of course it's the ship. It's been screwing with all of them since Arima, and the overwhelming sensations they're experiencing now can easily go hand-in-hand with unusual emotional surges. Severus is an Occlumens; he is predisposed to being effected slower.

So. Yes. William should go. Leave. Get out. Away from Severus, for his own good. Maybe if he finds someone else to come onto, it'll at least be someone he won't be embarrassed to have asked, later. ]

[dogbane]

Awright, [says William, who is some five hundred moves behind Snape's cognitive chess game and galloping the knight piece off the board in some whimsical narrative.

They can still be friends. If William managed to keep Heather as a friend after half a week of dream torture, then he is fairly confident he can confuse Severus into keeping him around, anyway. None of these self-effacing internal notions entirely explain the painful squeeze of his heart in his chest but that, above everything, is as familiar as his own name. You don't have to think about your name. It hasn't got an answer or much of a point, never mind a happy ending.

William leaves the pill bottle behind.] Cheers, [he says from the door. He opens it, and the light of the hallway reduces him to a ropy silhouette, lifting one hand.] Debrief later, if we don't fuckin' die of this.

[He only dithers a moment.

It's dark again, when he's gone. Quiet.]

[darkart]

[ 'Later' is a word that Severus can live with. For now. Later means he's out of this terrible conversation now, and now is the vital thing. He doesn't understand people, he doesn't understand this ship, and he doesn't understand why William would just let himself be dragged along by such a stupid impulse-- he's sociable and good-looking and young, what the hell is he thinking. Besides nothing, because the Tranquility's buggered his thought process.

The other man is leaving amicably enough, however, and Severus has hope that he's already shaking it off. That's fine. Something bitter twists inside of him at the lingering thought that maybe he was just laughing at him after all - it's uncomfortable. Severus should have been colder. More cruel. Leaving nothing even resembling weakness.

He blames the headache.

It's peaceful in the dark. He doesn't take any more sedatives, but he does, finally, fall asleep. ]