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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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."

"That's always the difficult part, isn't it?" Reviewing his own past decisions Sebastian wonders if his actions look better or worse to someone who isn't aware of their context and how would he explain himself to a 'warden' if he had to. Could he say 'I did it because I felt it the right and expedient choice based on the information given. Knowing the outcome, would I have done the same? I don't know that, but I do know that thinking about what-ifs won't bring back the dead or relieve the suffering of those left'?

Given enough time, would he recant that viewpoint? Perhaps, but Sebastian would prefer to subscribe to death before dishonour.

"Yes, I suppose it is. Hindsight being twenty-twenty and everything that goes with it." Different perspectives, different choices, doing the right things for the wrong reasons, all of those things could be cause for someone being aboard the Barge, but most of the time, in Martha's experience, the reasons why people were inmates were far more cut and dry than that.

"I mean, it's one of those things that you can't really know until you've done it, I guess."

"I don't have a wealth of experience to draw from, but I find most of the important things in life are like that." Sebastian is heartily relieved that their meal arrives and makes for a suitable break in the conversation. Perhaps they'll be able to find something a little less charged to discuss?

Martha is relieved when the food arrives as well, and she tucks into it with gusto. "I've missed pizza. I wasn't in New York for very long, but pizza was one of those things that I took to like a duck to water." Smiling, Martha cut her pizza with a fork and knife and then closed her eyes as she chewed it. Not quite New York, but close enough.

"I've never been to America, but I think I'd like to go, if I get the chance." It's a mild answer that could be used to reply to nearly any mention of travel, but that doesn't mean it's not true.

"It's something, alright. And very loud. I mean, I lived in London and I know how loud cities can be, but New York and the people who live there are so much more noisy." The words are coupled with a fond smile, and she inclines her head a bit; Martha has fond memories of the city and of the people in it from the last time she was there.

Still bothered by their discussion of the Barge, Sebastian is a bit slow to eat and keep up with the conversation. He's still trying to convince himself that despite the set-up it couldn't have truly been like an actual prison, could it? Aware of his own past actions, the thought that death will only land him in gaol is enough to turn his stomach.

"Are they? I don't mind a bit city, it makes it so much easier to get around and see things. More to do, less wood to chop, or what have you."

"Yeah, I'm used to cities, and I love the noise of them. Cities without noises, or with... different noises are a bit creepy." The word was spoken softly, and Martha covered the barely-suppressed shudder with taking another bite of her pizza. The unease of the discussion about the Barge had shifted into other parts of her thoughts that filled her with unease, and she'd followed the path almost without thinking.

Perhaps this wasn't such a good idea after all.

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