i watched you, my brother, make a fool of the moon tonight

[inkdamage]

Who: tinySnape and tinyLucius to start, eventually more persons of the eating death persuasion as they see fit.
What: Coming out of the anonymity closet.
Where: In and around the Malfoy townhouse in Sobek Croix.
When: Hours into the night after the Dark Mark scare.
Notes: Doop doop backdated, we're slow.
Warnings: Narcissa is gonna clock Severus in the face, js.

This is not, under any circumstances, what Severus wants to be doing tonight. But he knows his rashness - his kneejerk reaction to shoot first and ask questions later - is to blame for this fiasco, and so it's his responsibility to fix. It's an easy enough fix, too: just come clean about existing at all, lay the scare on a backfiring experiment with unfamiliar magic, and every Death Eater who doesn't know about Sebastian LeMat has an explanation that makes perfect sense.

He doesn't even consider not doing it.

That doesn't mean he isn't still furious with himself, meanwhile, waiting in the dark in Sobek Croix to meet Lucius - the other Lucius - after hearing back from Sebastian (Harry). He's ripped pertinent information out of his head, but not all of it; it's not safe or sensible to leave all your eggs in one basket, so he had to choose. Severus would rather walk around with proof of what he did to his compatriots back home than what he did to aid a child. If anything happens, he'd rather appear unstable and dangerous, not sentimental.

So here he is. Dressed in black, yes, but not his usual attire; he doesn't look like a Muggle, but he doesn't look like Severus Snape, Potions Master. That he is twenty-five and irritably smoking a cigarette, lacking in the protective charm that's hidden him these past few months, might be less weird.

Comments

Finally here, hooray!

[byrightsinhell]

Lucius, when he appears, has been notably if subtly changed by his time in Baedal and in Bête Noire before that. His clothing seems to be midway between robes and tailored muggle dress, and his manner is more cautious than condescending at first. He's a man who has been thrust into a world he's no longer the master of, and he's been forced to adjust.

Since speaking with Sebastian, he's been trying to sort out how he feels about Snape's presence in the city. While he can understand staying private, he doubts Narcissa will be as willing to consider reasons behind it.

Lucius, for his part, is more worried about their political footing; it's not home, but his relationship with Severus there wasn't much of one in public beyond his being a friend of Lucius' wife's. It was something new to navigate.

He's prompt, when he arrives. It seems a bit dramatic to him, coming out of the dark to see the glowing tip of Severus' cigarette - he can't help thinking I didn't know he smoked absently - but they had spent a lot of time in the dark, they and their compatriots.

"Severus," he says, not a question.

\o/

[inkdamage]

His teeth didn't get into that state via magic, dude, there's not actually a popular aesthetic trend for that. Adolescent smoking helped - but he finishes and crushes out the cigarette when Lucius approaches; while his body language says he's more or less fine, there's a definite hesitant edge to it, and he flicks the remains of his coffin nail into the gutter for lack of a proper bin, expression wry and guarded.

"Lucius."

... He's the age Severus expects him to be - remembers him as. For a brief moment he feels like a traitor, not having come to this one first. He reminds himself, not for the first time, that there's no way this one is from his world any more than the other one, and so it doesn't matter. Severus is alone, here as he is at home, and it's not safe to forget that - even contemplate it.

Still, there's an awkward pause, and he gestures briefly, impotently.

"My apologies for the scare."

Well it isn't a greeting, but it'll do.

[byrightsinhell]

"Accepted; better that than the alternative." He says it cautiously, almost testing. Bellatrix wouldn't think it better. He still wasn't sure what Antonin or Rodolphus would think, entirely.

(It did amuse him, grimly, that Evan had been evidently scared - so to speak - to death.)

"How long have you been here?"

[inkdamage]

Severus looks amused - darkly, the only way that he does - but says nothing. He's not going to just lay out his loyalties for the other man, no matter what their relationship should or shouldn't be. If he knows Severus has the capacity to turn spy, then he knows Severus isn't someone who's terribly worried about being caught by a far more deadly authority. He hasn't got much to fear beyond harassment from old colleagues.

"Long enough to be bored."

Yes, Narcissa is going to kill him, he knows.

[byrightsinhell]

Lucius nods, assuming he knows that without being told. "You don't look too much the worse for wear at least. Small mercies. You've set up shop?"

[inkdamage]

"No."

... And that's all the elaboration he feels like giving, apparently. Severus nods at him like, well, lead the way. He's not going to stand out here and grow moss.

[byrightsinhell]

Some things never change. He sighs, but turns to lead them back toward the townhouse. "Before my wife starts shouting at you, may I take a moment to ask what year you came from?"

[inkdamage]

"Nineteen-eighty-five."

Whatever Lucius may think that reveals, Severus leaves up to him to ponder, and offers no further details nor inquires likewise. If they were from the same timeline, the last twelve hours would have already gone over in a vastly different way. And besides, it's not like Severus expects anything from the other man beyond tolerance.

Still- "I suppose you've heard the war never ends up going terribly well."

Understatement of the century.

[byrightsinhell]

He grimaces. It's the first time anyone's been like a contemporary at all, so it's a fair question. "Yes, I had heard that. I was about to ask you something more or less along the same lines. I've heard one version in detail, and bits of some others."

[inkdamage]

"Yes."

It rarely ends well for their side, and never ends pleasantly for anyone. All wars are terrible, but there's something particularly vicious about ones fought in such close quarters. He wonders, with an unsettling sort of detachment, if Lucius knows that Severus had been spying from such an early time.

"You're hedging your bets."

Hellsing.

[byrightsinhell]

"Always," he says, a bit wry. "What I am doing is trying to ensure that my family comes through this and whatever follows in one piece." As they wouldn't, if things came to pass the way Sebastian had seen; or even as they'd happened in the world his alternate came from.

"I don't know how long Narcissa and I will be trapped here, so it seemed wise to be adaptable."

[inkdamage]

He says nothing to that; even now, at his relatively young age - hell, even before - Severus could see the idea of prioritizing one's family was at sheer, ludicrous odds with participating in a guerrilla war. He thinks of the child he stole (absently, the thoughts aren't fully with him) and wonders what the hell goes through the minds of real parents when they decide to throw their lives into fights that will never end well.

What bloody idiots they all are.

[byrightsinhell]

Had he been asked, Lucius would point out that he was in the war too deep to get out long before he was married, yet a father. But he isn't asked, so they walk in quiet for a short time. "Hellsing - a form of it - existed the last place we were trapped as well. It seemed simplest to continue building on relations that had been begun already."

[inkdamage]

And Severus would ask what the hell he expected, what with his entire familial worldview being to reproduce, but it's a pointless potential exchange; if Lucius's excuses are poor, Severus's are abysmal. He doesn't even believe in the blood purity war, and his choices were ones made out of furious injury. (Perhaps understandable, in his case, considering the abuse from all other sides, but it's in the past, now.)

"If it's working, then it's fine." His tone suggests that it's not any of his business to approve or not anyway - the Malfoys will do what they think the ought to, and ultimately it isn't his concern.

Nearly charring Lucius's arm off by proxy, however.

[byrightsinhell]

"Mmm." Lucius pauses as they reach the entrance. "Should I ask you how the scare happened, or shall we assume Narcissa will be asking the same question and just wait to get everyone on the same page?"

[inkdamage]

He looks over and shrugs. Might as well just get it overwith, right?

(Sigh. He really does just want to be left alone.)

[byrightsinhell]

Lucius shakes his head and shows Severus in.

"I can't offer you as much choice as I might at home, but if you'd like something to drink, we can manage something not totally worthless." Even in the middle of all this, Lucius is apologizing for his lack of real wine cellar, yes. Priorities.

He also trusts that Narcissa will hear they've come in before long. Hopefully before they run into anyone else who might be hanging about the townhouse. He's not sure if he can make Severus comfortable in the meantime, but he can at least be a proper host.

[inkdamage]

"No, thank you."

A sane man might want a drink for this, but... well. Severus seems awkward, suddenly, inside their home - but that's not entirely unexpected. He suspects the other Lucius is here, and possibly others, as if this wasn't enough to begin with.

[byrightsinhell]

"Very well." He moves vaguely in the direction of the kitchen, anyway; he could stand a drink, and if anyone's home, that's the first place they're likely to gather.

He's not really looking forward to this much more than Severus is, in truth. He anticipates a mess.

[vanities]

...he's not wrong.

For instance, Narcissa and Lucius the elder have been drinking for some time by the point at which her husband and Severus arrive at the house, and she is quite drunk already when the sound of multiple feet moving through her house stirs her from her seat. She leaves her cigar burning in the tray there, abandoning her companion to decide for himself whether or not he's going to follow her.

She stops in the doorway.

"You and you."

[amourpropre]

It would probably be really wise to just. Stay right where he is, possibly finish the dregs of the bottle they've been working on, go and have a lie down. Instead, Lucius tips his head back a little to watch her go, before drawing in a breath, setting cane against the ground, and pushing himself up to stand.

He follows, slower than her pace, but shadowing along by the time she greets them ever so warmly. His shoulders both slack and tense in automatic physical response at seeing his younger counterpart, sort of the human equivalent of a canine pressing its ears flat against its skull. Both war and a bit of wine are effective properties to wear down his usual veneers and affectations.

Not for Severus, though, he got the text. Just didn't reply.

[inkdamage]

Severus looks like he might say something in immediate response to Narcissa - but then catches sight of the older Lucius and. Doesn't. He gives him a look for a moment that reads Well of course there's two of you in this room and now if you get too close reality will implode upon itself, great before flicking his gaze back to his inebriated hostess.

"I must grudgingly point out that he is merely the messenger, in this instance."

[byrightsinhell]

"I did bring him straight here," Lucius says. He doesn't react outwardly to his alternate's presence, but can't help an internal wince. Of course he'd be here, just to make this as much of an ordeal as possible.