here lies the abyss

[fullmoon]

CHARACTERS: OPEN.
LOCATION: Science labs, Level Two.
WARNINGS: Black, eternal nothingness.
SUMMARY: To congratulate Xenogen on the appearance of their new endless void. And their new nanite research and storage facility. That's probably important too.
NOTES: Consolidated post for abyss and nanite-room gaping, gazing, and experimentation.



There are greater tragedies than their ruined map, it turns out. Missing people. Dead people. So while Remus and Sirius notice the change nearly straight away, checking in on the map out of miserable habit--like poking a bruise to confirm that it still hurts--the appearance of a fully-functional display of the science department isn't enough to take precedence over other things, such as drinking and kicking walls and sorting through what the departed left behind.

But they do, eventually, sit down to study it. The inky walls are mostly where they're meant to be, and the Homonculous Charm is working again, displaying a half-dozen lonely dots labelled as science department members scurrying in and out of view. (It isn't spying if you don't know or care what anyone is doing.) Even this one department is massive, their attention to detail both a blessing and a difficult-to-process curse, so combing over it takes time. And assistance, courtesy of Kate. And also, importantly, alcohol. It's two return visits before one of them says, probably with a mouthful of terrible whisky, "I don't think that was there before."

That: a small room across from the containment chambers, labelled nanite storage and research. And a second that, discovered soon afterwards: a new corridor, leading away from the department and toward the centre of the ship, with an adjacent Lab E.

It isn't a personal slight against anyone in particular (or only very small slight against Xenogen, which still has Severus Snape's fingerprints everywhere) that they go to have a look on their own. It's just that they're Gryffindors. You understand.

Comments

[lostsoldier]

[ Hello, a lady who knows her explosives. The tiniest quirk of his mouth in response is professional appreciation, obviously, not heart-eyes. ]

Trust me, I would, but it's not even playing by the rules of— look.

[ What does he even have in his pockets to throw - a shell casing, sure why not. He chucks it overhand into the abyss with a robotic whrrr. Its momentum takes it sailing along its natural arc until it crosses the threshold, at which point its path twists in precisely the opposite arc of 'descent,' this time toward the ceiling.

And keeps going. Forever. Because of course it does. ]

Probably wouldn't even make a dent.

[ :C ]

[rhyfelgri]

I hear that 'probably' and I raise you 'fella didn't even question the special ed bit', ( with a sort of blithe dryness that more or less denotes the kind of friendliness you get from irish women who might kill you.

she's half irish. also, she might kill you. )

'Tisn't hardly the same, is it? Explosion, you don't know. Pull it in. Pull it out. Explode here, blow up something else. Explode in there, fire it right back out here at the labs, and then himself what let me in is going to have words, I reckon.

( charles became 'himself' the instant he full named her before even being introduced. )

[lostsoldier]

[ He doesn't actually even need to ask who in Xenogen she'd refer to as himself. ]

Well, I didn't say we wouldn't get anybody's panties in a twist over it.

[ 'We.' ]

[rhyfelgri]

We nothing, you tart.

( she is still standing beside him, contemplating the abyss and not entirely convinced it does not contemplate her in return, mind you. after a few moments, she nudges him with her elbow. )

Anyone try pissing in it yet? From a distance, mind. I don't think sticking your cock in it is a great idea.

[lostsoldier]

[ He says nothing during that little pause, but nobody should be allowed to look that cocky while feeling like their brain's in a meat grinder, really.

On which note, ]

I guarantee you the kids who discovered it tried that already. —The pissing, not the other thing.

Anyway, unless you've got really good aim, we're not finding out.

[rhyfelgri]

( enfys tches disapprovingly at his unflattering lack of willing, but having seen the message that announced this thing existing-- yeah, fair enough, one of them has definitely tried pissing into it. you will not soon convince her otherwise.

she remains silent a while longer. there may come a time that bucky looks back on this silence fondly, and wishes he had known to appreciate it. then, )

What brought you down?

[lostsoldier]

The yawning void isn't enough for you?

[ He shakes his head, like Ma'am you drive a hard bargain -- except for how shaking your head is a terrible idea when your brain is splitting in two, actually, and the motion forces him to interrupt his own whatever-this-is for a sharp sniff. Oh good, nosebleeds are back. ]

Thought I'd seen it before. [ Wincing, tilting his head back, still talking. ] The hallways, at least, I guess there's not much to see in there.

[rhyfelgri]

( finishing that sentence spares him from inquiries about how many yawning voids he's seen in his day that he had to come and check if this one was the one he was thinking of or not, like, dude.

dude.

but since that isn't happening. and also since nobody is getting off scot-free in this headaches and nosebleeds bullshit, and she'd probably better conserve her reserves of talking shit to strangers if she might at some point have to go and have a little lie down or something equally obscene. )

You seen it before where, then?

[lostsoldier]

When, [ he corrects, in a tone that's a bit is this my life now, really. Except nasally...er. Because bleeding. ] Not where. First month I got here. All of us saw what felt like somebody else's memories, and some of 'em were of this.

Except with manticores in there, instead of a great big damn useless box of nothing.

[ He sounds like he'd prefer the manticores. :| ]