sooner or later we're gonna die ( open )

[darkart]

CHARACTERS: rainbow brite and the color kids
LOCATION: various
WARNINGS: sometimes people are jerks (tba)
SUMMARY: catch-all for stuff this month! shoot me a pm if you'd like to do something. or slam into this post with whatever.
NOTES: parts of this header might be a lie


There are times when Severus feels similar to when he did before the war hit full speed; in the years that lingered as twilight before the worst night fell on all of them. His talents were nurtured and he was rewarded not for unraveling the dreary methods to achieving good marks, but for challenging himself and rising above peers thought to be 'brilliant'. Scholastic drudgery became tasteless. He remembers Professor Slughorn pulling him aside one day in seventh year, wringing his clammy, clean hands, telling him that he was going to give him zero credit on an essay for doing parts on potions he shouldn't even know about the existence of.

(I can't have anyone think I'm exposing you to that sort of thing.)

It's not unlike those days. Here, in space. With no head of house to stare at him nervously, but also no dark wizard to touch his shoulders and whisper validation (pulling him in like gravity). It's just Severus, working on puzzling out how to get what he wants from a new set of circumstances and series of limitations. The Tranquility is the trade-off to escape politics, and what a bloody abysmal deal on both sides that is.

He swears a lot in private. At the ship, at the way magic slips from his fingers when it shouldn't. He spends his free hours in the dark of his quarters, deep inside the walls of Occlumency, finding small respite in the silence of his own mind. But mostly he works: Xenogen of course, still occasionally drifting through Medical - though they need fewer extra people now, thankfully, it means he's less likely to run into Lily - and tending to the portion of the gardens now set aside for proper herbology.

He moves to level 010. He sort of hates it. What else is new.

Comments

[culver]

The smile that finds her face is automatic, but not insincere. When she signs hello in return, she allows herself to feel a brief moment of pride. She appreciates that Severus doesn't coddle her because she's mute, and that he actually makes her try. There are times when she has trouble keeping up with his gestures, but she usually manages to figure things out with context.

Her wings flutter before settling against her back as she approaches, placing both the papers and bread on the table once she's there. The pages have clearly been gone over again and again judging from their slightly wrinkled look and smudged markings. The bread, however, is fresh and still warm. She moves the cloth and signs, Would you like bread?

[darkart]

Wrinkled notes are a sign of actual studying, in his experience, and Severus is always silently satisfied to know Nill puts in the effort that she does. He wouldn't bother with this otherwise.

He watches her hands, his expression sharing a brief flicker of curiosity at her question before it returns to his usual indecipherable state. "Yes, thank you. Did you make it?" He signs along, and of course he knows she must have made it, given circumstances, but discussing it will give her something besides normal lesson plans to 'talk' to him about.

[culver]

Nill watches his hands closely, but is grateful that he speaks as well. Some phrases are still a little difficult for her to catch in sign. Nill smiles, and nods. Yes. I made it this morning. She unwraps the bread and pushes it towards him a bit. It isn't cut, but she doesn't mind if he just tears a chunk off.

[darkart]

Well, it smells really good. Severus may be the personal boggart of a dozen students, but he's not impervious to delicious food. He looks at it for a moment then points, slightly to one side, and three lines appear on the closest end of the loaf, flopping over in thick slices. (Someone named Severus better be good at severing charms.)

Thanks, he signs without speaking, and picks a piece up.

[culver]

Even though magic is an everyday part of Severus' life and becomes a part of Nill's when she studies with him, she's always so impressed. Her face lights up slightly when she sees the bread basically slice itself, and when she goes to take a piece, her reach is tentative. A quick you're welcome is her response before she takes a bite. Nill nods to herself; this was a good recipe. Occasionally, the ship would deposit recipe cards in her locker after jumps and she'd made it a point to try almost all of them. So far, all of them had been relatively delicious.

[darkart]

It is very good. Severus has a bit of pride in his own cooking, especially here where being able to put anything besides a sandwich together seems tragically rare, so he really does appreciate her culinary efforts. Kudos to you, Nill. And now: moar studying. Seated at the table (and still getting through a slice of bread), Severus begins going through their lesson objectives for this month. Some of it is awkward (on his part) smalltalk by necessity, needing to expand a vocabulary.

"Do you know Heather Mason?" he asks after a while, out loud and with his hands. He has to spell her name out, which seems kind of unnecessary since Nill can hear, but he's trying to keep up with it vigilantly. "I'd like to ask for your help with something, if you're amenable."

[culver]

Nill finally seats herself, nibbling delicately on her bread as she mentally prepares for this lesson. Even though she knows that it will almost certainly be a challenge, she's been looking forward to it. At the inquiry, the blonde cocks her head and shakes it while signing no. She knows the name, of course--Nill knows the name of everyone on the ship, even if she hasn't met everyone. What is it?

[darkart]

This is going to be a little tricky to take a whack at with sign language, but it's good practice, too. "She was injured, I believe it was during the engineering incident a while ago," he says, and has to figure out an acceptable shorthand for incident, making a note that they may have to invent something that indicates a disaster specific to the Tranquility. "She ended up losing her leg, and though she's gotten a prosthetic," another word he hasn't used a sign for yet, "she's having a bit of a hard time still."

Pause in storytelling for a bit to go through sign language notes. It really has been a challenge to figure some of this out, owing to his own lack of totally fluent ability. But they were always going to have to make up a lot of it on their own, owing to where they are.

After a while, "You don't let your disability rule your life, and I think she needs to see that from someone." Instead of being told off, or 'cheered up', or whatever else.

[culver]

As he continues to speak, Nill's frown grows and the lines of concern on her forehead deepen. She thinks she's heard something about this, but hadn't known if it was rumor or truth. The fact that it's apparently true is troubling. There wasn't, as far as she knew, a way to regrow limbs on the ship. She doesn't even know how good the prosthetics for entire missing limbs are. Bran has his robotic aids, but he still had his legs.

Nill's expression grows somber. But honestly, she's never had the opportunity to use her disability as a rallying point for someone. She's always been the subject of pity or ridicule, never hope. Her wings flick and she dips her head slightly. This seems like quite a bit of responsibility; if she's unsuccessful, Heather Mason could be worse off than before. But she has to at least try.

I will contact her. The signs are resolute. What is her number?

[darkart]

Nill's never sat in front of him and moped, and really, given the setting, she could do. She's unfailingly polite and hardworking, and Severus has a measure of respect for that - or at least regard. Why shouldn't she use her circumstances in the pursuit of advancement?

"I'll send it to you," Severus says, sounding like he approves. "Though I reckon she'll be put out with me if she thinks I've said anything." This is probably an understatement. "Did you know the boy she was looking after? I don't know that I ever came across him. He had the... panda."

Why is there a panda.

[culver]

Nill nods, and takes another nibble of her bread. If she can do anything to help someone on this ship, she'll do it. A small smile lights her lips and she signs to him that she won't say anything about his involvement with her future visit. On the inside, she laughs at her own little joke.

Her brows raise and she shakes her head. No I never saw him. She feels as if she had heard about there being a panda on board before, but never having seen a panda, she couldn't identify it if she had to.

[darkart]

Severus makes a 'mm' noise. He's only seen the panda once, when it tried very enthusiastically to hug him. It seems to understand English, which is. A little weird, if not as weird as the panda being here to begin with. The point, though, is that Heather was taking care of a child, or at least someone closer to Nill's age than the ship's average; he just happened to have owned a giant bear.

He's not a good judge about whether someone needs (or wants) that kind of attention. But maybe they'll get on.

"Well, there's a panda. I suppose that's interesting." Fast forward to the future where Severus is having to help herd and name Nathan Petrelli's leftover puppies, where it's revealed just how much not of an animal person Severus is, but anyway. Can you tell he's not very good at this networking people thing, Nill? "It'll be good to see how well what we're working on translates to other passengers."

[culver]

If a panda tried to hug Nill, enthusiastically or not, she would probably suffocate almost immediately. Note to self: large animals are generally a no-go with small winged girls. Horse, at least, has never tried to buck her. Or.. hug her.

I have never seen one. An offhand comment, one she doesn't think he'll care much about, but it gives her a little extra practice with signing so that's a bonus. And networking is hard, Severus. Don't feel bad. Nill only excels at it because people feel the need to network with her, not the other way around. I hope it goes well. She really can't wait to teach Bran a little more about signing so they can actually hold a two-way conversation. She loves his stories, but sometimes it's frustrating to not be able to tell him her immediate thoughts and reactions.