( 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

[sorrycharles]

[ Focusing tools. Erik lifts his chin, as if it makes sense.

In the scheme of things, maybe it does.

His fidgeting past initial restlessness is limited to a slow stretch and flex of his hands while he waits.

THUD.

He looks sharply down to the table.

SPLAT.

After a beat, his eyes tick from beetle viscera to Severus. ]

So, [ he says, with a smile that’s a shade slighter than before, ] onward to human trials.

[ He’s probably not serious. ]

[darkart]

[ Severus motions with his hand, a nonverbal evanesco, and the splat-half of the bug vanishes without a trace. He leaves the thud-half, which is still twitching - though the movements have become slower and more deliberate. ]

If you know any nobody would miss, feel free to make suggestions. They'd probably hold up better than insects, though possibly only barely.

[ It's hard to tell when Severus is being sirius serious since he has a tendency to sound drawling and aloof no matter what, but there's an odd, casual sincerity lurking there in his equating of insects and pointless muggles.

He watches the half-beetle for a bit, letting the light hover over it. Still alive. ]

[sorrycharles]

What about Hyperion.

[ Erik doesn’t have to think about it for very long at all.

He’s already back to looking at beetle legs and the life going out of them, and so forced to check a glance at Snape once he’s made a suggestion. ]

[darkart]

[ It takes Severus only a moment to place name to memory - and frowns. But it's an exasperated frown. He flips the beetle over with his thumbnail and watches as it attempts to crawl around on its newly halved body.

He sighs, ] That idiot young man apparently has supernaturally empowered blood, though I suspect he may have fried any useful knowledge about it permanently out of his head.

[ 'Young man', Severus is 24 (maybe 25 now), this is just his horrible personality. i'M SORRY

Anyway. Seems as though Hyperion's out, or at least he's got to be promoted to a higher grade of guinea pig owing to his blood. Severus will only eat his own if it rhymes with Birius Slack. ]

[sorrycharles]

[ ...Seriously?

Erik continues to look at Snape for the time it takes him to process this new reality: the reality of a supernatural Hyperion. His eyes have gone distant by the time he looks away and back again, brow crinkled into an unspoken how old are you.

He says, ] I’ll review my notes, [ instead. ]

[darkart]

[ Hyperion did offer to trade his blood for food on the network. It's not as though Severus dug into his very secret diary to figure it out. Just, you know, about tore his own hair out reading that particular offer.

Meanwhile, he remains 24-maybe-25, with eyes that seem to have been around for much longer than that. ]

I shall look forward to further suggestions. [ Dry. The half-beetle seems to be ticking on still, so Severus picks the jar up to put it back inside. The bee is upset by this new development but has little to do besides hit itself on the glass some more. ]

What's captured you about teleportation?

[sorrycharles]

The tunnels are influenced by variables we cannot measure or observe while inside of them, [ he says, called back into equilibrium on a delay by the rhythmic ticking of the bee’s little bee face against the glass. ] We become a part of the system.

Teleportation forces matter in and out of the affected space, stamping in its influence against resistance without compromising the observer.

This experiment, [ he pins paired fingers down onto the jar’s lid, ] can be repeated. The results can be measured, tested for consistency. Maybe there are rules.

[darkart]

[ Severus nods. Erik gets the basic principles of it, which is helpful for further conversation; Severus is not actually a very good teacher owing to his impatience with explaining anything. ]

There must be rules, [ is an agreement, ] or set parameters. That's what these are for-- [ Severus slides his diagrams to the center of the table. ] Spellwork is largely instinctive but it can be broken down and mapped out like this. It's sometimes easier to make adjustments when there are equations down to the most finite of variables.

[ He taps a certain design, intersected by lines and numbers look idfk how to explain wizard math i can't even add, then moves to another paper and points to the same design - in a different place, in the middle of a much different diagram. ]

Patterns emerge.

[sorrycharles]

[ Fingertips still poised as a pivot on top of the jar, Erik leans (tilts at an uncertain angle) to peer at the diagrams Severus is showing him (trying -- to show him).

This close, his jacket smells a bit like space whiskey.

There isn’t any on his breath.

Meanwhile: design here, same design there. After making a quick circuit of the numbers he recognizes, Erik says simply: ] I’ll take your word for it.

[darkart]

[ Severus would notice no matter what - alchemist, potioneer, he's keen about scents - but it's particularly attention-catching since his recent I've Quit Drinking Forever ultimatum. He says nothing.

He does, however, repress a sigh. Well, Erik technically is a muggle, after all. Can't be helped. ]

I suppose you'll have to. [ He taps the jar. ] I'll see what becomes of our friend here. ... And I'll have to go get the bloody portkey.

[ Ugh. Hallways. ]

[sorrycharles]

[ In that case:

Beneath whiskey and leather there’s a tang of warm metal, like blood on the tongue. It clings close to his person, cloying and sharp for the moment it takes him to give up on Snape’s diagram entirely.

He steps off sideways, away, dragging a long look around the rest of the lab as he does so. ]

Send me a message if you find anything interesting, [ he says, without real expectation (and also as if he has any idea what in the hell a portkey is). ] A time of death, perhaps.

[darkart]

[ Portkeys are fun for the whole family, slightly nauseating, and equally like to work here as they are to turn people inside out. Perhaps another time he'll volunteer the information.

As for now - Severus just nods, and looks back down at his notes. Pencil in hand again. ]