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]

[ Like recognizing the sound of a particular person's footsteps, Severus can pick out magic from certain people - some kind of intangible flavor, preternatural familiarity. He feels his magic being modified like someone leaning over his shoulder and drawing their fingers up his spine. The headmaster? Here? But surely Albus would send his patronus, or just apparate to Severus directly. Unless there's some other mitigating factor keeping him away?

When his little scout returns, he understands. For a moment Severus just looks at him, recognition and willfully subdued surprise evident on his face for a moment before it's schooled back into impassivity. That can't be terribly shocking, though-- no matter his age, Albus Dumbledore is a famous man. ]

Not unless you've come with an explanation of where we are, [ he says. ]

[inexhaustible]

[ ah. that was recognition and a familiar accent. interesting, though it doesn't tell him a great deal other than this man possibly reads the papers.

he takes a step forward into the room, glance flicking around it again for anything he'd missed the first time, lips curling faintly higher at the comment. ] Nothing that we don't already know, I'm afraid.

[ he eases his hips back against a console, taking care not to accidentally sit on any buttons or screens or the like, then slips his glasses from his face, folding the arms neatly and tucking them into his jacket. ]

I apologize for borrowing your spell, by the way. It was a neat bit of magic. [ a beat, then: ] I would've almost certainly had you for a student, I expect, but I don't recognize you at all. [ he holds up two fingers, wagging them once, brows lifting. ] Which presents one of two immediate possibilities: either you did not attend Hogwarts, or it's not simply a spacial issue here, but time's been mucked about with somehow.

[darkart]

[ Severus can't help the brief flicker of a half-smile at the other - older, younger! - man's deduction. Nothing gets past him. ]

Speaking to a few others I've sorted out we don't all come from the same place or time. I hadn't anticipated more than one person coming from the same place, but different time, I suppose.

[ Seems ridiculous. It's not like time is linear. ]

You're headmaster by nineteen seventy-one, so you were never my teacher directly. But I did go to Hogwarts.

[inexhaustible]

.. Ah. [ there's a moment in which something almost uncomfortable passes over albus's expression, worry in the vivid eyes-- but it passes so quickly it was almost never there to begin with. truthfully, there's a reason he'd chosen to become a professor instead of any of the many other positions he might have held; he's not entirely convinced at this point that it's a good idea for him to even take the position of headmaster.

on the other hand, that's decades in the future, so perhaps he's entirely cured of his ambition by then. ]

What year is it for you? And what shall I call you? [ if he finds it strange that he's speaking to someone from the future, well, everything about their situation is strange. and albus had apparently been a little odd even by this age. ]

[darkart]

[ That is not a look Severus is used to seeing - though he's glimpsed it before once or twice, hidden behind a beard and half-moon glasses. Only ever when he really hits a target with something during an argument (loud ones, tense quiet ones, they go through them all). Something like You won't go speak to Black in Azkaban because you're so ashamed of putting your golden students on a pedestal and you can't stand to be wrong about people again.

It takes him a moment, but he thinks he puzzles it together. Minister for Magic, the Wizengamot, all the things he's turned down.

Interesting. ]

Nineteen eighty-four. [ On the other hand, if Severus finds it strange he's speaking to someone from the past-- magic is indefinable, and this place is mental already. It's not like the dangers of time travel aren't taught alongside the mechanical fundamentals of it at Hogwarts. This is a possible thing. ] Severus Snape. I.. teach potions, and I'm head of Slytherin house.

[ Which certainly suggests a lot. By necessity, heads of houses and the headmaster know each other well. (To say nothing of everything Severus isn't saying.) (So to speak.)

(Or not.) ]

And you're Albus Dumbledore.

[inexhaustible]

[ well, that's certainly an impressive number of years between them. he's not entirely certain that it suggests magic's caused this issue, though-- thus far, everything he's run into has been muggle in origin. could their technology have caught up with wizard-kind in terms of what they're capable of now? time travel by way of science.. and without the benefit of the years and years of experience magical folk have with its dangers. alarming.

his brows lift again, interest and mild question in his expression. ] The head of Slytherin.. [ he's fairly young for the position. he's clearly a very skilled wizard, but were there other factors?

regardless: ] That explains the runes, at least. [ of course a man that actually teaches potions would be familiar with them.

the last comment earns a smile, though, eyes brightening with familiar mirth. ] So I am. It's a pleasure to meet you.. circumstances notwithstanding.

[darkart]

[ Severus wouldn't be surprised if magic didn't cause this, given the things he's seen muggles do - disasters or accomplishments done at the cusp of unknown anxieties. It'd be just fitting if one of them bollocked up something incredible to trigger such an event.

He raises an eyebrow at the echo. Yes, he's young. Not as young as you were, though, guy. (And yes, there was the mitigating factor of Slughorn refusing to stay on, but despite the objections to hiring a Death Eater, there were never any challenges over his qualifications.) ]

You'll rethink that soon enough I'm sure, [ is dry but not hostile. A pleasure. Yeah right. But he moves on before Albus can question it: ] Have you come across anything or anyone else noteworthy? I can't even get a lock on anything with its own gravity, but I can't know if it's because we're in some kind of warded area or if there really isn't anything out there.