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

[forgodssake]

There is a bridling as Severus' tone turns sharp, stare flattening glassy and intolerant, because some things never change and one of them is the glacial defense against being talked down to. But Charles doesn't snap back immediately, silent as Severus shoves the potion forward.

He is less interested in that and more in a sort of flicker-study between the other man's dark eyes, as if there were anything to read there. The cold professionalism as stark as a sheet of ice, and then these outbursts, little flaws, little cracks. Neither one of them are pleasant.

But pleasantness isn't exactly expected. "I'll check into medical periodically," he says, more distinctly clear in contrast to prior dithery uncertainty. It's tempting to try to draw attention to the fractures between them, but that had worked out poorly last time. For now--

"Your William seems to have a grasp on micro medical particulars better than most." He goes to pick up the potion.

[darkart]

If Charles is going to act like a baby about it then Severus is going to snap at him-- he'd probably snap at him anyway, really. But his point remains, and Xavier accepts it, so it's fine. Whatever. Severus folds his arms over his chest.

"I'm still not fucking him," the wizard says irritably, "you can ease off calling him mine."

[forgodssake]

There's no pretending that irritability isn't genuine. That's never stopped Charles from laughing before, though, and in this case, it's more a subtle tug at the corner of his mouth, gaze ducking down to the potion in his hand.

It's slid into a pocket.

"But you trust his abilities."

[darkart]

"You need to take that directly." A sharp look. He's not going to deal with any bullshit coming from Charles mixing it or taking it at the wrong time or letting someone else down part.

No immediate comment about William. Does Severus trust his abilities? No, not really, actually. William has never treated him; he's worked with Severus, and Charles is free to see that if he ever goes through case files, but the wizard has no idea if any of the medical science nonsense he spouts is accurate. He can't actually endorse him either way.

"Peter's treated me twice." Blandly. That's all he's got, for medical.

[forgodssake]

Sharp look is read for what it is, but it'd be pointless to argue, mostly on account of having no argument -- the attempt to go take it with him had been simple, thoughtless instinct. Charles extracts potion almost as soon as its disappeared, movements on automatic, unstoppering it. There's a pause over Peter, and maybe it's less outwardly aggravating than prior hesitations -- Peter is nice, and probably not the right kind of medical professional he thinks he needs.

But he is head of medical, regardless, so there's a nod of alright before Charles goes to swallow down the potion.

The container is held out to take back once he does.