ataraxionlogs | EVENT: MELPOMENE ▒ THE CORRIDORS

Waiting for us somewhere inconvenient, [ is his guess. He doesn't follow Claire's gaze whens he looks around them, but he knows anyway. ]

How do you think he's holding up?

[ Maybe he should send his Patronus back there so Nathan doesn't freak out or something-- and then a figure in the shadows movies again and Severus snaps, ] Accio!

[ This time it dissipates entirely instead of darting away. ]

As well as he ever does.

[ It's a non-answer as much as it is an answer. Sometimes she feels like she never knows what Nathan's thinking or feeling or going to do, and then she'll have correctly guessed (or hoped) all along. On the Tranquility it's a little bit different, if only because he's been here so long. The whole coma thing hadn't done much to slow him down at all.

Either way, she's saved from having to elaborate by the crack of Severus's voice in the enclosed hallway and then, just as jarring but much more unwelcome, a heavy tapping that almost thumps behind them, punctuated by the sound of something moving. In the belly of the hallway, it's black on black, and Claire only lifts her light at the last moment to see, catching the fleeting impression of something standing, watching, just out of the range of her light. Shuffling back into the darkness, it's gone as she sweeps the beam of her flashlight up to encompass the entirety of the hallway behind them. Her voice is half-breathless and half-morbidly excited. ]

Did you see - [ Claire turns back to look at him and has to blink hard for her vision to stop swimming. When she opens her eyes again and swings her light back around to point at the shoulders and spines of the group, Severus's face is normal. She swallows her adrenaline. ] Did you see that?

Yes. [ Obviously he saw that. He makes a slight motion with his hand and the Patronus moves ahead of them, like a figurehead on the prow of their very odd ship. ]

Are you starting to see faces distorted?

[ ... Well. As she answers they walk, and after a minute, something moves through his Patronus. A figure. A fully formed, human figure. It vanishes into the wall. Then another comes, running through the silver deer and dissipating her like smoke, sprinting between Severus and Claire and back behind them. ]

Don't touch anything, [ he says lowly, but he wonders if they'll soon have a choice. ]

I don't know. [ That isn't a lie, not necessarily. ] It could have been the light. And the shadows.

[ Even as she says it, she knows it isn't true. As usual, whatever fear she feels isn't actually directed inward. She's afraid for the people around her, of what might happen to them, and only a little aware of the fact that something worse than bodily harm could come to her, and how unprepared she is to deal with that. Eventually, Claire comes up short, like she's run face-first into a wall, as that dark figure passes through the gentle light Severus had created and dissolves it. Surprised, Claire raises her arms, pulling them back, close to her chest. The light bobbles in her hand. She can't see Nathan. ]

It's behind us again.

[ She doesn't have to turn to confirm it. She can feel it staring at them. Her pace slows, just a little, allowing her to bring up the rear and putting an effective barrier between whatever is back there and Severus. ]

[ Severus has an irrational (and also entirely rational) kneejerk response to people (especially women) standing in between him and potential danger-- it's a big part of why he was so furious at Ilde, though he'll never be able to articulate it to her-- he turns after Claire to stop her or say something. But it turns out she isn't between them - everything else is surrounding them.

A ghostly figure runs terrified through Severus from behind him, bursting through and past Claire, and he gasps in a quick intake of air. It hurts it-- burns and although he has a remarkable pain tolerance, Severus is caught up in it for a moment, eyes wide. It feels like the Mark all over him and within him and he jerks his left hand up to his chest, forcing himself to breathe properly. ]

[ She feels the rush of heat more than the sting of the burn, and it's a strange sensation altogether and catches her by surprise, leaving her standing in the middle of the hallway, staring numbly in the direction whatever that had been had taken off to join its comrades. Another one takes its place, reaches for her, angry or defensive, she can't tell, and Claire backs up, bumping into Severus in the process.

Having heard his quick intake of breath but being unable to address it immediately, with everything happening at once, Claire turns now and steps close enough that she can reach and cup her fingers just above the point of his left elbow, her palm pressing into the material covering the back of his arm. ]

Are you okay?

[ Adrenaline makes her breath come quickly but more naturally than his. She knows they won't have much time to really discuss it, the way things are unraveling. ]

[ Severus manages to nod at her, and by the time he's drawn another breath, it's just about true. The pain was immense, but he's felt and survived worse. It's fading now, still intense but diminishing by degrees. If slower than he'd like. ]

What did it feel like to you? [ --not overly incredulous at her lack of reaction to it as his taciturn default setting struggles back into place, but still. Severus knows he can tolerate pain that would hobble most people, and Claire didn't blink. ]

[ That's a can of worms she's not entirely sure she wants to open. Not down here, when there is already so much to grapple with. She has the half-formed notion that if she brings it up, it will somehow materialize and play out again. Claire isn't sure she has the attention span right now to dedicate to making the illusion leave her alone.

So, for several seconds - which stretch out impossibly long and feel like whole minutes by comparison - she doesn't say anything, which is enough of an admission in and of itself that she might as well just go ahead and say something rather than just shake her head. Although she does that, too. ]

It was hot. Why, what did it feel like to you?

[ Well.

All right.

Before he answers, Severus nods at her, once. Okay. He won't ask again, and, remembering her anxiety about whether or not to slice her damn hand open in the lab to show him her healing, he's just going to go with it. ]

It was unpleasant. [ Deadpan. He raises one hand to catch her in a mirror image before faltering. ] You're fine?

[ More overwhelming than the urge not to tell him is want to do so. Gretchen had been the first person in so long that she had felt safe around in any capacity that wasn't just physical protection that the desire to see it duplicated is a strong one. She doesn't have time to think of all the ways she could begin to approach it, because the tapping is still there, like sharp footsteps gearing up toward full tilt, and it's probably only a matter of time before something else comes charging around the corner, so she just nods. ]

I'm fine. [ That doesn't eliminate the threat of another go around, and if the rush of heat of the last experience is anything to go by, Claire doesn't envy Severus a potentially second round. She wishes she could gauge it, to determine whether or not he's actually alright. Claire gives his arm a squeeze where she's still got her fingers pressed against it. ] We shouldn't keep standing here. They could come back around again.

Come on.

[ She's right-- and Severus isn't particularly shaken, though the strange figure passing through his body had certainly startled him. He can still feel the burning dissipating through him, but he sets any reaction he might have to the pain aside. He doesn't need any time to recover.

Casting more light, then, he turns around.

Perhaps the light was a poor decision.

More people, ghostly images, one pacing, the other sitting on the floor sobbing, and many more red smudges over the walls. Severus is careful as he steps forward, giving the figures a wide berth, making sure Claire is near him. ]

[ She follows the beam of light with the sweep of her gaze even though that she knows turning to look, to see, isn't going to provide her with anything she actually wants or needs to look at. Maybe physically, to know where to step, when to avoid something or shift her weight to step elsewhere, but she doesn't need to look into faces, catch the familiar print of the jumpsuit, to know that they're in the middle of something very bad.

Still, Claire doesn't look away, finds herself unable to. One of the figures gets right up in her face, and she instinctively hops away from it on one foot, leaning, not wanting to repeat the strange experience of a moment ago and not sure of the depth of reality these things are able to submerge themselves into. So she doesn't lose him, Claire fists the back of Severus's shirt into her curled fingers, pushing him away from outstretched hands as she moves to dodge them as well, like stepping over a puddle of oil. She feels heat skim through her ankle at the last minute. ]

What is this?

[ Rhetorical question, maybe, but it's better to hear her own voice dominate the area rather than the insistent tapping. ]

[ It's awkward to move like that, though he slips in between the upset figures anyway. After a minute of that he just grabs her hand. Whatever. ]

The ghosts at home feel cold if you pass through their apparitions, [ he says, at least relatively more confident that she won't be yanked away from him unawares now. ] It could be like that woman from engineering. Charlotte. Ah. [ Severus tosses a look over his shoulder, eyebrow raised. ] How careless of me. You're heat resistant.

[ Is now really the time for your fucked up sense of humor, Severus, IS IT REALLY. ]

[ IS IT? She gives him a look that says that it's really not but doesn't exactly chastise him for it, by way of expression or otherwise. ]

Do you really think this is the time to be hilarious?

[ Her expression is flat but there's a sarcastic bite both to the level look in her eyes and the tweak of her voice. At the last minute, her mouth twists at the corner and she has to look away because, yeah, this really is a bad time for his fucked up sense of humor and it's an equally bad time for her to find her own level of amusement in it. Maybe it's the gravity of the situation they're all in, maybe it's a testament to how individually fucked up they both are to be able to find something to joke about in the middle of such a dire situation. Maybe.

Claire pokes him directly between his shoulder blades, trying to encourage him to press onward. From behind him, she says: ]

Our ghosts back home are supposed to feel cold, too. You know, according to all those paranormal reality shows. [ She's aware that will be lost on him and doesn't elaborate. ] Maybe it's some kind of reflection on how they died.

[ He's walking, he's walking. Maybe you could go in front if he wasn't convinced you'd go leaping into things that might slice your limbs off, Claire!! ]

It's hard to imagine the heat might be a coincidence. [ He edges them around a figure huddled on the floor, sobbing. Severus looks hard, taking in the details, but the phantom is unresponsive--

until she looks up and seems to meet his eyes exactly.

And then stops, gets up, and scrambles away into the dark. Another figure runs past them after her. ]

I wonder if we're watching the final hours of the original passengers and crew.

[ You haven't even seen anything get sliced off, Severus. WOULD YOU LIKE TO? That's always a fun party trick. Fortunately, she's too busy looking into the faces that don't charge them or reach out for them, the ones horrified and huddled on the floor. One of them, an amorphous blob of a reflection with knees drawn up, arms around them, forehead turned down and hiding the face from view, barely makes a sound but shudders.

She finds herself feeling bad, mixed in with various degrees of uselessness, unable to change or do anything. ]

I wonder what they see when they look at us.

[ She wants to climb inside their heads and see for herself, take a look at the monster that's waiting for them around the next corner, metaphorically or otherwise. The figure on the floor, her eyes pressed into her knees, looks up at Claire and stares hard. Claire looks right back until she can't anymore. ]

[ Someday he will tell her about the amount of paperwork he has to fill out every time a student accidentally loses a body part. But that day is not today. He sees faces twisted, and no matter how hard he tries, Legilimency won't pick up so much as a suggestion. ]

Hopefully nothing, [ he murmurs. These people are obviously plenty frightened already. ]

[ Only half-listening, Claire averts her eyes to glance along the walls, picking out the malformed hand prints and streaks of red marring the otherwise smooth surface of the walls. ]

Trying not to think about it.

[ It's a quiet statement, mostly lost to the wall and the dark blob of his back and shoulder as she marches along next to him. She's still got a good grip on his hand, and it's a welcome way of not losing him. Distantly, she wonders how long it will last. Mostly Claire thinks of Kate, of how she hates that she might be alone and dealing with this. ]

[ The recon teams are on his mind, too. Not just Kate, but William, Shepard, and everyone else. He's not anxiety-stricken over it, but that's just how he is; he has a responsibility towards this. Whatever he feels doesn't matter.

Severus doesn't exactly squeeze Claire's hand reassuringly, but his grip in hers is strong.

Far ahead he sees what looks like a fork in the hallway. Left and right. ]

[ Claire catches sight of it, too, and she's immediately taken by the urge to turn around and go back the other way, try to find some other method of getting where they need to be. ]

Deja vu. [ When she looks up into his face rather than down the hallway, his features are distorted again, and Claire has to look away and preoccupy herself with anything else in order to make it go away. That, more than anything, makes her believe they're heading in the right direction. ] Ready to get separated again?

[ It's a bad joke but it's probably true. ]

[ His answer is tugging her slightly closer. But it's a purposeful movement, because Severus has to look behind them without twisting anyone's arm around. He sees no one else. ]

We already are.

[ He thinks he can hear people, echoes of whispered, nervous conversations, but couldn't that also be from the phantoms? One veers dangerously close, hands clutched over her face, shoulders wracked with sobs. Severus has to step quickly out of the way.

Something catches his eye - her face. Worse than before, and blinking doesn't fix it. ] The hallucinations are getting worse, [ he comments quietly, before looking away. But he doesn't let go of her hand or flinch.

He frowns. There's an outline of something against the wall-- he shines a light towards it.

A door. ]

[ Maybe to compensate, Claire twists her head around, glancing back down the hallway. Nothing bears down on her or rises up immediately in her face after the one that reaches for Severus, and she's thankful for that, already at capacity for twisted expressions and features that blur and contort when she stares at them for longer than it takes to look away. He's right, though: save the figures that erupt out of shadow as shadow themselves, there's no one else left. She's stupid for not paying attention, but recognizes that the Tranquility's penchant for splitting people up can't be overlooked. Look what happened last time.

In response, Claire tightens her grip on his hand by slipping his fingers between hers, locked tight and less likely to get pulled apart. There's no room or time to feel awkward about it; she doesn't even spare a thought. Instead the limited time available to reflect on their possible decision is spared for only one aspect of this particular portion of their trek. Save for that painful experience when the phantoms pass through them and the hallucinations (and the smudges and the tapping and everything), nothing terrible has actually happened out here. Whatever is behind that door could be just as bad or a hundred times worse.

It could also lead them to everyone who has been lost, since wandering around down here hasn't. ]

In there.

[ She'll check that he's okay once the door is closed behind them. For now, she doesn't look at him. ]

[ 'Don't go in any doors' was suggest as the ship's #1 rule before the rescue parties set out, but there's nowhere else to go except further down hallways that Severus suspects won't ever end. Even if it's worse inside, worse is what they're looking for - because worse is what's keeping the teams down here, it's what's luring people away.

Severus has been through worse than a fucked up hallway, he's felt worse than that burning. He's sure he'll have still been through worse than whatever's on the other side of the door.

He hits the panel to open it with his free hand, and walks inside, pulling Claire close with him so they aren't dragged apart. ]

EVENT: MELPOMENE ▒ THE CORRIDORS

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