let's call it a grand opening •

[spaceling]

WHO • everyone
WHERE • deck 2: corridors & mess hall
WHEN • day 1
WHAT • characters arrive
WARNINGS • please warn in the subject headings



[ you wake up on an abandoned spaceship in an unfamiliar quadrant of space, unhurt, but nauseated and dizzy, wearing whatever you were wearing before, with no possessions but what you were carrying with them.

the corridors are dark and grimy, dimly lit by lights that flicker now and then. it's cold enough to see your breath fog up before your face, but artificial gravity and life support seem to be working just fine.

welcome to your new home. ]

Comments

[darkart]

Among the things he expected to find, other wizards weren't on the list. Based purely on percentages, there just aren't that many magic users compared to the overall number of non-magical humans, and a small sampling of people trapped inexplicably on a tin can wouldn't have all that many witches and wizards if they were taken with any kind of plan in mind.

So that's interesting. It may well be random, or using a selection process whose design Severus can't yet puzzle out.

"Obviously."

--Severus you could maybe not be a dick immediately. Oh well.

[negativechill]

To his credit (ahem), Gellert doesn't look surprised in the least. Instead his lips press briefly into a thin line that's curled up at the corners before he smiles properly, a brief sharp flicker across his face. (Dangerous underneath maybe, but something that wouldn't be noticed by someone that isn't dangerous themselves.)

"I find it's been impolite to assume in this place," he explains without an ounce of chiding for the other man's own politeness (or lack thereof), with a bit of practiced irreverence. Perhaps he should look less at ease, but it suits to keep his true annoyance at this place close to his breast. "May I ask," he says, smoother than the overall clipped tones of his voice, "if you've found anything of note? Most things I've tried have been unsuccessful."

[darkart]

His age, that accent, clearly a wizard - no one else is going to be so casually familiar, even a squib would probably ask him something more pointed, first - Durmstrang, has to be. The attitudes that come out of that school are a little more knife-sharp, especially when faced with their English counterparts. Whether it's about the dark arts or bloody Quidditch rivalry, though, varies person to person. TL;DR he sees your shark smile and it doesn't faze him, buddy.

"Only enough to draw suppositions from absences," he says, leaning back against the counter behind the table he's vandalized. "We're not anywhere near a government enchantment, we're not within recognizable distance of anything with a magnetic 'north pole' effect, and this -- structure -- is wholly non-magical."

His voice is dull with a frustrated edge. He's very aware these are not exactly groundbreaking discoveries.

[negativechill]

He's happy to see that the other wizard isn't fazed at all, honestly. It's been so long since anyone would - could - react to him in such a way that it alone almost makes him smile. But the fact that he hasn't found anything of worth either sets him to show a modicum of his own frustration as well. He sighs and drags a hand through his hair. He's noticed the runes and catalogs them with a calculating glance - interesting work, good, advanced - but even though he comes to rest with a hip against the table itself his attention remains on the Englishman in front of him.

"Mm," he agrees, "even the metal itself is unfamiliar." It's said as though he realizes this too is not much of note.

At length: "I'd only met Muggles so far."

[darkart]

"Mm." Severus glances to one side, allowing his face to be obscured by strands of lanky hair. Considering. The metal? He's not a bloody architect, he didn't even think of that. But now he's curious. Something not of planet Earth?

"It's a muggle-built contraption," he says with a shrug. "I'm not surprised it's mostly them, though I've come across no-one who so much as recognizes the place. They're as baffled as anyone, even those that understand the--" he makes a dismissive gesture, "computers," disdainful implied airquotes, "that control the 'ship'. Apparently there should be information, records and things, but it's all been erased."

Because for some reason muggles make shit that can just be tampered with by hitting a delete button. Merlin's tits.

[negativechill]

"It's the same in my experience. No one so far has known where or why we're here." There's a pause and his eyebrows raise. "What the hell is a Hufflepuff computer?" It's not even too disparaging - he literally has no fucking idea and is a giant question mark bird about it.

He sighs again, shaking his head and looking away briefly. "Of course they have. Nothing could possibly be simple." With a genuinely wry little smile. "When I awoke, I did meet one man that seemed intimately familiar with the concept of a place like this and the mechanics, but again not this specific one."

He continues, "I had considered more invasive methods of delving into what so far constitutes a prison, but owing to the... fragility of Muggle architecture, I've refrained of course." Then, on to a more pressing matters: "have you seen any other wizards or is it only us so far?"

[darkart]

More invasive methods. Severus just looks at him.

"You're the only other," he says. "Assuming you're not pulling my leg, and that spell did come from you and not someone else." The little trailing light. Severus looks at the runes on the table; it's subtle but one's shifted, just the smallest bit. The direction doesn't mean anything, though. More like... reacting to something nearby. Well, another wizard did appear. He doesn't say anything about it.

"A computer, by the way, is a very complex semi-independent machine, assisted by muggles who interact with it. They run programs to control other machines or sort information. I've not seen anything as complex as the things here before, not by half, but the muggles seem to find it relate-able in some fashion."

[negativechill]

:)

At this, he barks out a short laugh. "The deceptiveness of muggles claiming something magical as their own. No, I'm very genuine, I assure you." A personal bit of humor that Gellert tucks away. He seems a little pensive anyway, though he just pushes past it.

"Interesting," he settles on, "I've spent a lot of time among Muggles as late and have never seen anything capable of doing even rudimentary versions of that. Maybe I did not open my eyes wide enough." Enough of that, though. "Personally I don't feel comfortable relying solely on Muggle technology and more especially not to this extent, and failing a swift return to our homes I would like to not have to."

[darkart]

Don't you smileyface at that we're in a total vacuum and you don't know what computer means.

This guy's a little weird, Severus decides, but no weirder than most Durmstrang alumni he's known. (And he's known an awful lot; a couple of which are still alive and not in Azkaban, even, imagine that.) (Though let's be real most of them are dead or in Azkaban.) In any event, he's somewhat relieved to not be the only wizard here.

"No, I'm with you. I don't like any of this." Severus's expression turns thoughtful. "Can I ask the date last you remember?" This moment of revelation is happening twice in these threads, ah the magic of rp. But whatever.

[negativechill]

He just said he didn't do it!!!! That was the point!!!!

Severus is very correct in that Gellert is really weird, but very incorrect that he is not far weirder than most Durmstrang alumni especially ones that didn't get EXPELLED anyway moving on he totally finished his education.

"At least they seem properly worried about it as well." There's a beat's pause and Gellert looks at this man very closely for a second as though he's come to a very swift conclusion about this whole thing. "It was January," he begins, "Fourth of January, 1927." Something something it all happened in 1926 but he was in prison a while so work with me here. "And for you?"

[darkart]

At least that, yes. Severus is deeply skeptical of muggles even at his most generous, but he hasn't seen any of them not taking the situation seriously. Though, honestly, if someone could show up and shrug this off casually enough and find the bloody 'return home' button, that would be superb.

AND THEN. Severus raises his head and looks at the older man a little-- searching, as if he's surprised but not practiced at actually emoting said surprise.

"Late December, 1984."

[negativechill]

Yes, a 'return home' button would be very nice. Alas. It seems almost (almost) the most strange that there are no people that actually belong here whatsoever. Everyone has been taken from where they belong. Muggle and wizard alike, from--apparently different times.

"Ah." Muted surprise of his own. Gellert has a similar expression on his face as he looks back at him, eyes flicking across his face as though he's searching for some sort of deception. Finding none, he nods slightly. "How odd a circumstance," is all he says at first, because wizards know time travel exists but this is some shit anyway, "I wonder what year we've ended up in. What year any of the others are from." 1984. He wants to know some things desperately but he can't seem too eager for that.

He straightens from where he's been resting against the table. His eyes flick down to the runes again. The same one Severus noted has shifted a little more, but it still doesn't mean anything in particular. "Markell Brose," he says at length.

[darkart]

He inclines his head. Isn't it, though. It's like someone dropped a time-turner into a jar with a portkey and shook it. He's not sure the year they're in now even matters, honestly, because if they're millions of miles away from the bloody planet there's no hope of returning before even wizards die of natural causes. Surely they'll have to return back through the same method they arrived - whatever that is.

"Severus Snape," he returns, and raises his hand like he might offer it to shake, but then realizes he's still got grime on his fingers and aborts the motion with a c'est la vie kind of shrug. His nails are a sight anyway, hands a dead giveaway for a potioneer. "I'd rather not know you, Brose, if I'm being honest." He'd rather not be here at all.

(That one poor little rune trying so hard to say something is wrong.)

[negativechill]

Being so far from the planet does complicate things even more, yes. Later he'll think about the possibility of people having come from other planets but that isn't on his mind at the moment. The surname Snape doesn't ping anything with him and he carries on smoothly anyway - notes potioneer's hands when Severus moves it, files it away for later. Interesting.

Also interesting is his choice of what to say next. Gellert can't help but smile in the face of that, another sharp thing but genuinely amused. "No, I understand. Considering the circumstances, I would rather not know you either." He's pleased though, by his new acquaintance. "As good as it may be to see another wizard, of course."

(When Gellert places his hand down flat on the table with his fingers splayed it shifts again almost imperceptibly. He's still smiling.)

[darkart]

"The ideal would be a dozen practical witches and wizards and maybe one muggle to explain the bloody computer," he says with a sigh. "Barring, of course, the ideal of not being here."

Severus looks at the table. For a moment he just looks, doesn't do or say anything, and then - despite having swerved away from offering a handshake due to his fingers being grimy - he reaches out and takes Markell's hand and positions it differently. Adjacent to the subtly twitching rune. Framing it almost. The thing responds but only briefly, at once going dormant after, satisfied with having done what it was trying to do.

Bloody Durmstrang. In the twenties. Severus isn't willfully stupid. He releases the other man's hand.

"Awful lot of iron in your diet," he observes dryly. Is-- is that a black magic joke? Cold iron and witchcraft, and the rustic nature of his runework? Well, what the hell else could it be.

[negativechill]

"We so rarely get our ideals, after all." Gellert. Stop. "It's true, though."

When Severus takes his hand and moves it Gellert doesn't resist it in the least, letting him do as he will with an arched eyebrow. He's naturally noticed the rune's movement and so soon as he sees what the younger wizard is doing he knows. (Still smiling.) Once the rune stops moving, Gellert shifts his hand back, fingertips barely grazing over where the rune rests now on the way. "Smart little things, these."

Gellert catches the joke immediately and almost laughs but doesn't; instead he shrugs slightly, looking thoughtful. "You could say that," he says slowly, "I've been known to partake at times an iron-rich diet," which is an even more horrible joke but like, whatever, look who's talking. "Does it come as a surprise?"

He's sure it doesn't.

[darkart]

"It doesn't matter."

Both whether or not it's a surprise, and whether or not Markell practices dark magic. From a purely pragmatic angle: Severus isn't an Auror, and putting qualifications on collaborative efforts trapped in a muggle space ship would be beyond foolish. And besides - Severus is fine with appearing utterly, dispassionately pragmatic. It gives him room to adjust his apparent standing as time goes on if this man turns out to be a problem.

"My only priority is sorting this bloody place out."

[negativechill]

Gellert is absolutely fine with pragmatic. It suits him knowing he won't be questioned (too much) so long as it works toward the main goal of escape. Dispassionate is something he's not, personally, but he can understand it. Still: he nods, moving to examine some other bits and bobs around the mess hall - there's little more productive to do unless he builds his own setup and even that is questionable, so for the moment he's simply observing.

"My current intention is to use what knowledge the Muggles have with the general makeup of this place. How it works, how to alter things. Knowing that makes it easier to impart our own skills without risk of disaster. I'm sure you've already come to a similar conclusion, of course."

At some point he crouches near another table and takes out his wand, doing something inscrutable to one of the edges of it. "I still want to know what this material is."

[darkart]

Severus isn't dispassionate either, he just wishes he were, and clings with a white-knuckled death grip to its comforting disguise. No one wants to see him lose his cool, honestly.

"Mm. In nineteen sixty-nine they first flew muggles up to the moon and walked around," he says. "I'm familiar with the basic concepts behind this-- it's a bad idea to puncture the craft, we'd all die sooner than anyone could get a spell off, probably." He's looking out one of the small round windows when he says that, seeming like he might continue-- but he cuts himself off. Anyway.

"Something we don't have on Earth, no doubt. Could be mined off an asteroid or it could be normal on another planet entirely."

[negativechill]

Well naturally things are going to happen within like a week that all try to make Severus lose his cool because nothing ever can be simple or easy, but for now: Gellert finally straightens, tucking his wand away again as he walks back. "Nineteen sixty-nine, interesting. That's not so far in the future for me, considering." Okay yeah but you're in prison for being a murdering fuckplank so it sucks to be you.

"As I've no intentions of dying here it's clear that being prudent is best." Which is honestly sometimes a problem with Gellert, though he's inclined enough toward his own survival that he's not stupid outright - just strange and stubborn and often pushing limits he shouldn't. (He's not going to puncture the ship.)

"The spell I used could sort out some familiar components so it's either a composite of more than one thing or there are simply similarities. If one of the Muggles is familiar even with the specific material and where it's from, it's a start."

[darkart]

"You'll see more interesting things before then," he muses. Atomic bloody bombs. Severus often wonders just how much of an influence the muggle war had on the wizarding one - of course there was something, but it's not like the supremacist manifesto is well documented. Even amongst the surviving supports he knew personally, things have always been shrouded in a degree of obscurity. Can't risk anyone learning, good heavens no. (Sigh.)

It's funny, really, if Markell had just left his wand in his hand, Severus would never have glanced at it. The fact that he's got it out as sparingly as Severus usually does is noteworthy; it's the habit of someone who spends most of their time around muggles or someone who does most of their magic wandlessly. A little spark of deja-vu, like walking into a classroom and seeing students sat in a particular order, or.. something. He can't put his finger on it.

"I'll have a look at it." The metal. "That and the grime on the walls. I swear if it's ... vaporized human tissue, I shall be annoyed."

[negativechill]

"Oh, I'm sure." He's no doubt that things will be interesting in future, whether they're in the way Severus means or in his own plans. It's no matter here though; Gellert cannot continue his war here after all, though if here long enough Severus is bound to hear a manifesto of some kind even if it's toned down slightly for mixed company in a place he can't simply leave.

In any case there's nothing that seems like a kind of skittish manner of hiding his wand away - no, he just really does not need it much of the time. It's good to be able to use it again though, having been stuck with a wand not his own for so long. Funny, how he'd only had to escape from the prison he'd been put in to be considered the rightful owner again. As though he'd ever let Newt Scamander so much as place a hand on the Elder wand, much less let him realize that a single spell would make him the brief master of it.

Anyway, wand tucked away, Gellert gives the younger man a briefly calculating look before he nods. "What a waste that would be," he says thoughtfully, which is a little ???? intense ???? even for a Durmstrang alumni, but maybe he's talking about loss of life, jesus christ. "Hopefully it's simply a benign sort of residue. Things so far in mind, I hold little hope for that."

[darkart]

It's not intense.

It's really, really fucking suspicious.

Severus, fortunately, was not born yesterday, and is very well practiced in handling edgelords dark wizards fishing for like minds. He glances at him out of the corner of his eye but doesn't ask after the remark. Not reacting at all would be a sign of someone Doing The Most or, worse, too stupid to have caught it. But he's not going to make a fuss; he was serious about it not mattering. Pragmatism.

"I suppose it's best to dissect everything. Time-consuming. Maybe one of the muggles will have found the 'on' button somewhere by the time the ship's makeup can be processed."

[negativechill]

Very fortunately. Gellert isn't deterred, however - or at least, doesn't mind it. He's well-used to people not agreeing with him and it's the pragmatism that's rare. Normally with him people are firmly one side or the other and, well... It's almost refreshing. Almost.

"Better time-consuming than to be idle needlessly, I suppose. Stillness would and in disaster I'm sure." He isn't talking about space sickness - of course he isn't - but he knows he would go mad if he had to sit on his hands for any reason.

"It would be a start," Gellert concedes, and, you know, both literally and figuratively. "One of the muggles in particular that I spoke to seemed almost shocked at the idea of not knowing this sort of ship or travel. He may be a good place to start."

[darkart]

Severus makes a dismissive motion. "I don't have any particular faith in muggles who find this sort of thing routine. Virtually no one knows how the conveniences of their daily lives are actually crafted."

They'd be better off with someone from the advent of space travel; an engineer who builds the blasted things, something like that. He knows they aren't in a position to be picky about aid right now, but Severus just doesn't have it in him to be hopeful about anything from a muggle, no matter how adept they are at checking their bloody email, or whatever.