It occurs to me we don't have an in and out log yet. [ --is the most amazingly bullshit bureaucratic thing Severus has ever uttered (or typed) which means the followup is probably going to be amazing, ] I used one of the back rooms to dispose of something away from the general populace, which is why the walls are a bit more burnt than before.
[ 'A bit more burnt' 'completely nuked from the inside but nothing was in there anyway' w/e same difference. ]
That it's dead. That it is or was a weapon of a terrible someone who used (I assume Dark [proper noun]) magic to make it so. That I'm not to worry. That it was in some way connected to him, although he did not actually volunteer that information.
Nothing I could tell from it refuted much of that.
All the same, I'd ask if you pretend to anyone but me you aren't aware any of that exists. (And yes, it is taken care of, no, it's nothing to worry about.)
[ Alternatively, Xavier could spend half his life in bars anymore. As usual, this one is full of glass and reflective surfaces and chrome, a light-year or two apart from the warm wood and brass of a proper English pub, with its culture and tradition steeped into each grain and nick and scrape. And space beer isn't any better than space spirits.
But it will all just have to do. Despite the fact his focus is down turned on the two long glasses he is currently emptying frothy amber liquid into, he is, in fact, on high alert, affording him the same arrogance that allows him to have his back turned to the door.
Definitely no assassins lurking in the rafters here.
Slacks, a sweater vest, neat shoes, and a button down with the sleeves rolled all make up his wardrobe, very likely what he was wearing before he came down. Its this sort of tailored nondescriptness that has worked for him rather effectively in real life, but matters very little when the backdrop is a horror space ship orbiting unknown stars. ]
[ Severus is glad for how alien it looks, when he finally arrives. Bars conjure memories of high-class affairs he could never get into on his own, taken along in turns gleefully and mournfully. During and post being the distinction. He doesn't want to think of familiarity, of people dead and dying. He doesn't want to think about Lucius, and lying to him over shots in the after-hours of a day very much post. He felt less bad about it after the first time Narcissa pressed the baby into his arms so she could shout at her house staff properly, but it still sits on his shoulder and speaks to him daily.
Black clad as usual, he sits without fanfare. His approach is quiet but not unnaturally stealth; even if he can't read his mind, Xavier is not deaf, so Severus feels no need to announce himself at the door. He doesn't say anything at all actually, just. Sits down. Hi. ]
[ It's fine, evidently. Charles pushes beer towards Snape, settling down opposite, and there's a vaguely secret smile for the following observation that Snape dresses more like he imagines a wizard to be, which is mostly due to palette rather than cut, and that it strikes him how infrequently they talk face to face that sometimes he might forget.
Probably, that will change somewhat by the time the lab is running. He hefts up his beer, an apologetic glance around, as if assuming Snape might dislike it. ]
I'm used to bars like this having more women dancing in their knickers.
... I am not. [ Shocking news, surely. Severus accepts the beer though doesn't drink it immediately - it's not really his preference, if he does drink at all (which is rare), but eh, who cares. So, a wizard in boring clothes and a telepath walk into a bar and. Have beer. While nobody reads anybody else's mind. ]
Our small community has been decimated by war twice.
[ Spoilers: the beer is not awesome, as far as beers go, as for as the English go with regard to beer in the first place, but even if Xavier hesitates and reconsiders his first sip--
--Snape goes and says that, and he is compelled to not put it down immediately. A second quick sip before he does so, hand spidered over the top of it. ]
Against ourselves. [ Severus has no palate for beer. He doesn't care. ] Throughout the nineteen thirties and forties a very powerful dark wizard attempted to lead a revolution to end the statute of secrecy and bring us into the public. He also wanted to rule the earth with the master race.
[ He shrugs, expression twisted with something wry. You can imagine how well that went. ] He was very inspired by outside sources, perhaps. [ Other things that happened in the 40s: HITLER. ] He did not succeed. In my lifetime there is another. This time the very powerful dark wizard is more streamlined. He wishes to kill everyone who doesn't have magic. Everyone who is the product of people who don't have magic. Everyone who sympathizes.
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