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

[heardmermaids]

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.

Comments

[toldastory]

"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."

[heardmermaids]

"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.

[toldastory]

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."

[heardmermaids]

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.

[toldastory]

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.

[heardmermaids]

"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."

[toldastory]

"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."

[heardmermaids]

"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.

[toldastory]

"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."

[heardmermaids]

"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?

[toldastory]

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.

[heardmermaids]

"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.

[toldastory]

"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.

[heardmermaids]

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."

[toldastory]

"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.

[heardmermaids]

"They can be. I spent some time in a sort of city that was, it was very alien and I found that I took for granted so much of how our own towns are built based on human culture." From his spot under the table Velcro shifts to better lean against Sebastian's legs. While he may not have his vest on and be 'officially' working, there are certain situations that he's trained for and will respond to even if he's not on the clock.

[toldastory]

"You'd be surprised how many places out there have a similar feel to our cities though. Probably because of the way we spread out. It's amazing to actually just see a city that is so different. There was one where we needed to travel around in sort of bubbles because the atmosphere was too sulfuric for us to breathe. They had the most interesting food there, on Detruea." Nervously changing the subject? That was exactly what she was doing. Planets and stories had a way of doing that for her.

[heardmermaids]

"I'd thought of staying in alien town I knew, but I suppose if I had to wear a bubble all the time, I might've not been quite so enthusiastic." If given the chance to return, Sebastian would still visit, but he wouldn't be quite as keen to stay. There's too much to do back in London and, for the interim, in Baedal.

[toldastory]

"The city you were in before you came here, yeah?" Martha was just making certain of it before she took another bite of her pizza. "What was it like?" A part of her wondered if it was cut off like Baedal was or if it was a place that people could get to with the assistance of a TARDIS.

[heardmermaids]

"No, Bete Noire was very much like Earth." A version as seen through a glass darkly, but still recognizably human-built and oriented. "I remember that someone else described it as 'if Los Angeles took a wrong turn into an even seedier neighbourhood'."

"Beyond having the good fortune to be introduced to the Malfoys, I can't say that it was a city that treated me kindly."

[toldastory]

Martha nodded, and she imagined Los Angeles as she'd last seen it, minus the statues of Saxon. It provided a compelling image for how she saw the city that Sebastian had been in. Of course she didn't know if it matched up, and she was loathe to ask.

"The Malfoys, are they from your timeline?"

[heardmermaids]

"No, they're both dead in my world," he says with some strange, weighty emotion colouring his voice. "Not to mention the ones here are about twenty years younger than the Malfoys I was acquainted with."

There's a hesitation before he uses the term 'acquainted with', almost as if he was going to use a more violent phrase instead.

[toldastory]

Martha wondered about the weighty emotion, because she couldn't not. She knew of how in the end family had been far more important than anything else, and she wondered if in Sebastian's world that lesson had come far sooner than the final battle for Hogwarts.

She wants to ask the question, and it hovers on the tip of her tongue for a moment before Martha can't dampen it down. However, it only comes out as one question, which is an improvement. "Acquainted with?"

[heardmermaids]

Sebastian takes his time composing his reply. After putting his cutlery aside and taking a drink of water, he calmly answers her: "I killed Lucius Malfoy to spare him a long and messy torture session. If I had not gone to his aid, his son would've attempted it and died, leaving my colleagues and I without a doctor. Narcissa did not long outlive her husband."

There is a coolness to Sebastian's tone that almost dares her to judge him and implies that he has not distanced himself from his actions, rather he remains firmly set in the belief that he did the correct thing.

[toldastory]

Martha listened, and she just set her fork down when he mentioned it. She looked concerned for him, and horrified, but there was no judgment in her expression. She couldn't judge someone for having done what he needed to do in those circumstances. Leaving someone in pain wasn't something she would have done either, and it was odd to think that what she would do was something in common with Draco Malfoy.

After a second, Martha's fingers flexed to reach over and touch him, but here in Baedal she was learning not to do it. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to bring up painful memories." She hadn't at all.