multiversallogs | closed :: don't you wonder when the earth will go

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closed :: don't you wonder when the earth will go

Who: Sebastian LeMat and a cast of thousands.
What: A whole lot of meeting up over coffee, tea, lunch, etc.
Where: All around town - Sobek Croix and Howl Barrow, mainly.
When: At various points throughout the week.
Notes: Organization plurk is here and a Podder mix is here.

For Martha:

As promised, Sebastian and Velcro are waiting outside the Italian tavern on Damgate and both look happy, enjoying the cold air and a spot of people watching. Now that his identity is a little more open and Martha seems to have heard something of his past from the Professor, he's unsure how well this lunch will go, but he doesn't want it to be said that he didn't put forth a minimum of effort to be civil and welcoming.

For Tonks and Hermione:

Rationally, Sebastian knew that keeping his involvement with Shada's cult as a private matter wouldn't suit Tonks and certainly wouldn't be enough to appease Hermione. He was afraid that no matter what his assurances were, they'd take a dim view of the way in which he'd sought to resort his magic and while they may not be exactly the people he once knew, their approval mattered to him.

While those concerns remain in the back of his mind as a problem to be dealt with in the future, he is currently more interested in finding the pie shop that he'd promised to meet Hermione and Tonks at. One of the other staff at Hellsing suggested The Pie In The Sky -- two story bakery and café located in the heart of Howl Barrow, just beyond Royal Jewels, but if you've hit the weird health food shop, you've gone too far.

For Jones:

It had been weighing on him for a time -- would it be wiser to explain the full terms of his arrangement to Jones before or after he confessed his interest in her. In the end, he was selfish and choose to tell her about his feelings first, making sure that she cared enough in return to hear him out. Wisely, or perhaps too cautiously, he hasn't yet mentioned their relationship to his friends in the even that she decides to now reject him.

To that end, Sebastian has invited her over to his flat for dinner and warned her that he's a poor cook, but can manage a few, simple things - omelets among them.

For Princess Nuala:

If you are feeling up to some company, I would like to speak you to, your Highness.

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Martha frowned a bit at the laugh, but she understood the way he responded to it. It was the same way that she'd responded to things when she mentioned that she'd been a place during her travels. Of course they couldn't know what she had meant.

It was interesting to think that there was another 'thief-city' out there, but she didn't want to give it too much though. Mozenrath was home and waiting for them; she was going to believe that with every fiber of her being. He wasn't somewhere else.

The question about Moody gave her something to focus on, and Martha shook her head. "I've only heard of him, I'm afraid." She didn't mention that in the timeline Martha knew, he'd died saving Harry.

"He's a holy terror," he replies with genuine fondness but there's a suggestion to his tone that should Moody walk out of the backroom to admonish him, it wouldn't be too unusual. "But a good friend."

This dichotomy tends to appear fairly frequently among those Sebastian considers true friends. Perhaps because those are the sort of people he prefers to associate with, or perhaps because they tend to live longest in his experience.

It was nice to hear about this from a perspective that she was different with; it was a bit like hearing the other the other side of the tale. It was interesting to her as a storyteller as much as it was being like a member of the audience. All and all the fondness in his voice (as opposed to the scowl in her husband's when he talked about Moody.)

And Martha respected friends who were holy hells; she had more than a few of those and grinned knowing at the comment. "He seemed like the best bloke to have in a fight, really. I know people like him back home."

"He's very good at his job." Alastor is a good man as well, but excelling at his chosen profession would be his preferred compliment and so it is the one that Sebastian gives. He believes in the value and importance of trying to be a good man (keyword: trying), but isn't sure if anyone can truly deserve the title until the ramifications of their actions are fully explored.

It's about this time that their waiter appears and there's a lull in the conversation as they each order - pappardelle with some sort of red, meat sauce for him.

"So, what exactly did you want to talk to me about?

Martha tends to think most people are good people until they are proven otherwise, and sometimes even being proven otherwise tends to be circumstantial. It was one of the things that she'd learned aboard the Barge and one of the reasons that she'd been friendly with so many people there. It was an interesting dichotomy, really.

Martha herself ordered a personal sized pizza before she took a sip of her water. She'd been careful to wear a long shirt, and the cuff of it covered the mark at her wrist.

His direct question deserved a direct answer, so she gave him one. "Well, in part it's because I don't want you to assume because I'm married to Sev, that we shouldn't talk or anything. I know he can be very 'stay out of my life' about me."

"To be equally frank, I don't think he wants me to have anything to do with his life and I'm happy to respect that." Sebastian has no problem chatting with Martha, and possibly eventually becoming friends with her, but this is a firm and necessary distinction. He knows that she's welcome to associate with him, but should anything ill come of it he'll have to shoulder the blame.

Martha nodded in response to what he said; it was a fair point. Severus Snape had lived and died in another life to protect a boy who was not this man, despite the name that he shared. Really, she didn't blame Sev for not wanting to have anything to do with him. However, Martha had found herself liking him, and she felt tragically short of friends even before she had known who he was.

"Fair enough," Martha said after a minute. "But I liked you before all of that, and I hope to eventually count you as a friend, Sebastian."

"I hope so too." He may be less sure that it will come to pass than she is, but if he's ~~made friends~~ entered into an arrangement of enlightened self interest with Lucius Malfoy then anything can happen. "I am sorry if I've come off a bit brusque, but I feel that being upfront early on is the wisest course of action."

For some strange reason, Sebastian has an almost pathological hatred of the paternalistic view that information needs to be kept hidden and only shared when it's advantageous.

His agreeing with her made her feel better about this, that much was clear. She had relaxed and there was a smile on her face, because she had missed just having people in her life whom she was friends with. There was something about the city, (or the husband) that had made making friends here much more difficult than she had remembered it being before.

"It's alright, I agree. I'd much rather have honesty than to worry about something being held back and coming out later. I wish more people took on an honesty is the best policy." Said the woman who could be pathologically bad at lying.

"It's not an easy thing to find, but I'm always surprised at how few people take the opportunity to reinvent themselves in these new worlds. Although, I suppose, if someone did, how would we know about it?" Sebastian rebuilt himself back in Britain, so it's less a change brought on location.

"I know Baedal and Bete Noire, but I don't really know anything about where you've come in from?"

"It really isn't," Martha agreed with him about honesty, but she'd come from a place where it had been largely built around rebuilding people and her husband was proof of that. She'd helped many people do it, but that'd been the reason that they were there, and hopefully, they were all better for it.

Somewhere.

"I come from the Barge," she began with a smile. "It was a ship that moved outside of time and space giving people who had made the wrong decisions the opportunity to change and go back and have a second chance at their lives. I was a warden there; we were the people who helped make that happen."

"That's...no, I don't know if that's a kind thing at all. I can see that it could be, but I guess it would hinge on how it worked." Sebastian's expression is guarded, but not disbelieving. He's thinking about how unpleasant it would be to have some strange 'warden' review his choices and offer commentary on events of the past.

"Who ran it?"

"Some of the inmates might agree with you. Well, most do at the start." Martha paused for a moment, remembering all of the ones she'd had over her time there. "And there are people whom I'd agree with you on." Like the Doctor and Sirius Black.

"A man," Martha began, and then she shook her head. "He's not a man, considering how he could alter timelines and how people live and die. But he's called the Admiral. He just kind of shows up and offers you a job. Some people make a deal to come work for him. I didn't make one until after I'd already graduated an inmate." Because there was something she wanted then.

"Did the, ah, 'inmates' choose to be there or was it a proper prison?" If they'd made the decision to go for help on their own, that made all the difference, but Sebastian still can't quite grasp how Snape ended up there. Unless this Admiral was daft enough to try and put him in place as a warden?

Then again, there is some cosmic irony to image of the Professor having to teach a class on anger management and basketweaving.

"No. They just get taken from the moment of their death, or when they've nearly died. The theory, well, one I have that several of my friends have shared, is that someone wanted them to have a second chance to get things right. Or because something happened that they didn't deserve to have happen." Martha paused and picked up her water glass. A part of her wondered if she was crossing a line here, but... She trusted Sebastian and didn't think he'd spread it about.

"I'd always thought it was you, well, the other you, who had requested it for Sev. I mean, once Harry knew the full truth about how Sev had protected him."

And then she paused; "he wasn't my inmate," Martha said quickly. "He was just a friend while he was one. We didn't start until after he'd graduated."

There's a moment where Sebastian looks as if he's about to say something, but he stops before speaking and schools his expression.

"I can't speak to what my alternate would do, but I can assure you, I'd never send him to purgatory." Sebastian frowns, aware that he's not going to explain this correctly, "After what I've seen, I have some rather strong opinions about the dead being allowed to rest in peace. Although, I suppose, if I were a multidimensional being with a flair for missionary work my views could be very different."

For the price of a Pan-Galactic Gargleblaster a day, you too can send a needy individual to the Barge?

Purgatory. The thought wasn't lost on her that both Severus and Sebastian had both described it as such. Martha remembered the conversation that in a real way, had started their relationship. The memory of how Severus would have rather been dead then stay on the ship any longer came to her then and she frowned. Martha now understood how angry a person could get for being taken without their consent and forced into the life that they now had. It was an issue Martha was struggling with, and (so far) it hadn't had half the problems that happened some months on the Barge. No floods, no ports, no demons, no ghosts.

No wonder inmates were so angry.

"I like to think that in the end, they're happy that they didn't die, or that they've been given a second chance. I know that for my part, most of the people I knew were glad for it." And only one person who had been an inmate had chosen to die.

Edited 2012-01-27 23:03 (UTC)

"Maybe the Admiral is kind enough to only take those who won't curse him for it?" Sebastian has some doubts about that, but until he knows more about the situation, it's probably unwise to air them. He's also aware that Martha was one of the wardens and probably subscribed to whatever philosophy helped run the place. Rationally, he knows that there are gaols and rehabilitation programs that are effective and respect the rights of their inmates, but his viewpoint has been skewed by repeated exposure to the cruelty and senselessness of Azkaban.

"If only. Part of the Barge's 'magic' if you will, is that people aboard can't die because they're outside of time and space. Well, they die but they come back. We come back I guess." Martha had died three times aboard the Barge, and she'd come back every time, but the deaths still had been frightening and meaningful.

"But, the program does work, and people go on to be happy."

"Waterboarding works too, but that doesn't mean it's a good thing." Even now, sometimes Sebastian speaks without thinking and this is one of those times. He's outright horrified by the implications of the Barge.

"Merlin, I am so sorry you had to go through that." Even if she'd made a deal to be there.

Martha couldn't equate the Barge with waterboarding; it just wasn't something that she was able to do. She still believed in it too much to think about it as torture, and she was going to cling to the part of her that felt above everything else that she had been doing good for her inmates and her friends.

"I'm not." She said it quickly, and simply. "It gave me too much for that. I don't mean a deal, I mean just in life experiences. It gave me Sev and I wouldn't change that for the world."

Sebastian nods and seems able to accept her opinions, but he's still rattled by the whole scenario and unsure how to continue. Much later, after their conversation has ended Sebastian will wonder if his instinctive reaction to Martha's story is based less on fact and more on his own knowledge of how such a system would've been abused in wizarding Britain.

Martha just smiled for a moment, but the expression was a thin one, based off of her comfort level with the conversation. Taking a sip of her water in order to reassure herself, Martha looked around before she spoke. "All and all, it wasn't the weirdest thing that I've ever done." Which was true, and she'd much rather talk about adventures other than ones that had been compared to waterboarding.

"No?" There's a pause as Sebastian looks down to where Velcro is leaning against his legs before returning his gaze to Martha. "And, for what it's worth, I'm sorry to have spoken harshly or out of turn. One of my many bad habits, I assure you."

"It's alright, I really am used to it." Martha's smile was a bit easier now, and some of the tension in her shoulders slipped away. Normally she was good at the whole people around her giving opinions that she wasn't certain about. "And I can imagine how things look to outsiders."

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