InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Hello Kad"

xena (ex_manyskill100) wrote in indarkness_logs,
@ 2010-08-22 16:47:00

Entry tags:

!complete, 2032 08, severus snape, xena

RP: Moody people meeting.
Characters: Xena and Severus Snape
Time/Date: August 22
Location: Hallway outside his room
Warnings/Rating: TBD
Summary: The two most moody, brooding people on the island meet.
Status: Private, ongoing.

Reavers.

Xena didn't want to ever hear that word again.

She'd seen a lot of bad things in her time, fought monsters, killed hundreds, but those things were something else, and she felt that twitch of revulsion and fear in her stomach again just thinking about them. It took a lot to disturb her, and when something did reach her enough for that, it occupied her mind quite a bit, made her think. What could she have done to prevent the reavers from getting in? How could she have stopped them from killing those innocents that had gotten in the way? That was the problem with this hero business: she worried, thought, and brooded, tried to involve herself in everything, and always ended up coming back to regrets and should-haves and what-ifs.

And so Xena was on patrol. Sort of. It was more that she'd developed a habit of pacing, and since she had her armor and her weapons with her all the time, that meant patrol. It was what brought her to this particular hallway. She didn't like this place - the continuous patterns on the carpet and walls, the way the halls seemed to wind on forever. The stairs were uncomfortable, that moving metal box even worse. She got the feeling from the others that, to them, this place was luxurious, but to her, it was like being trapped in an oddly furnished tank, learning things by halves and never quite understanding their true function. That little gadget, the PDA, she'd heard it called, was hard enough to understand without everything else getting in the way.

She was distracted, and so almost didn't hear the sounds of movement from ahead - slight, inaudible to anyone who wasn't trained to hear them. The reavers were supposed to be gone - maybe it was another person she hadn't met yet, or a new arrival. All the same, she put her hand on the sword at her side and made her steps lighter and more cautious as she rounded the corner to the next row of rooms, the movement of a door opening catching her eye.

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delicate_power
2010-08-22 09:17 pm UTC (link)

He had to admit that Lily had been right about sleeping off the drugs. Severus felt vastly better than he had the day before, even if his stomach was grumbling terribly. The only trouble was, he wasn't quite certain what to do about food. Yes, there was a kitchenette in his room, but that didn't mean he could cook, now did it? On the other hand, if there was tea down in the kitchen, he might be able to scrounge for something else. Or find somebody to ask.

After he'd showered and changed into fresh robes, Severus raked his fingers through his still moist hair to give it a perfunctory combing. Then he readied himself to investigate a bit more, since his headache the day before had effectively halted such explorations in their tracks. Once more, he slipped the key into the pocket of his robes, and he once more ignored the Muggle device on his bedside table. As long as he had his wand, what did he need that for?

When he stepped out into the corridor, he noticed that he was not alone. It was most certainly a woman, because that revealing outfit left one in little doubt. But it was most certainly not Lily. In fact, he couldn't have ever imagined Lily wearing such a skimpy outfit, though he also would have been lying if he said that he would have disliked the idea. Instead of saying what was on his mind just then (that she seemed to have left the remainder of her clothes in her room), Severus opted for a raised eyebrow and a quiet, "Hello."

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ex_manyskill100
2010-08-22 09:33 pm UTC (link)

Xena felt herself relax a little. It was just a man. Although, of course, looks could be deceiving. All the same, he looked a little groggy and fairly hungry - she could hear his stomach rumbling from where she stood at the end of the hall. He hadn't made a move to attack, so she dropped her hand from her sword, took a few steps closer, trying to project an image of - well, if not friendship, then trustworthiness. If he was new here, he'd need all the help he could get, right? She even managed a kind-of smile, although it wasn't anything really impressive.

"Hey," she said, and then, "I'm Xena." He was wearing robes, like some kind of priest or acolyte, but she couldn't tell if he was either of those things; it was probably just some weird mode of dress. Hadn't she seen someone else wearing those kinds of clothes, too? They didn't look very comfortable, or very practical, although he probably wasn't going around swordfighting. In the interests of politeness, she offered a hand to shake. If he tried anything, it would be too easy to just flip him over her shoulder. So long as he wasn't a reaver, she'd be fine.

"You just arrive?" she added, hoping for a little clarification on that point. She hadn't met everyone in the hotel yet, so if she offered to show him around or help him with something and he'd been there for months, she wouldn't exactly look like the sharpest sword in the shop.

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delicate_power
2010-08-22 10:10 pm UTC (link)

His eyebrow arched even further when he realized she'd just had her hand on the hilt of a sword. Interesting. And, upon closer inspection, scant or not, her outfit appeared to be armored. The lack of cover, then, likely made for better movement, though it seemed a bit impractical to him to leave so much skin unarmored. Then again, he fought with spells and not a sword, so what did he know?

"Severus Snape," he answered with a nod that thankfully didn't hurt at all, when compared to the day before, and he extended his hand to shake hers. Then he nodded again at her question. "Just yesterday, in fact," he said with a wry smile, folding his arms over his chest.

Apparently this Xena hadn't seem him around before, even if Lily might have thought she had. Then again, perhaps seeing Lily the day before had only been a pleasant dream. Granted, the cauldron and ingredients for Wolfsbane were still in his room when he woke ... but that didn't mean it had to have been Lily who gave them to him, did it?

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ex_manyskill100
2010-08-22 11:32 pm UTC (link)

Severus Snape. That was definitely an interesting name. It sounded Roman. Xena smiled a little in response to his, acknowledging the dryness in it and responding in kind. "Well, uh - welcome to the island," she said, and let the corner of her mouth twitch up a little, making the smile lopsided and sarcastic. It wasn't like any of them wanted to be welcome, wanted to be there at all. As far as Xena could tell, everyone had been brought there against their will, and judging from the expression on Severus' face, he felt the same way.

His arched eyebrow, though, gave her pause, and she remembered that not everyone here was used to warriors. Apparently she'd come from another time, and she was used to having people walking around in armor, carrying weapons. People did things differently nowadays. Not that that would change anything for her. She'd always have her sword and chakram with her - you never knew when a fight might turn up. You couldn't underestimate anyone.

"You finding everything all right?" she asked. Might as well see if he needed any help getting around. Things had been pretty smashed and trashed with the reavers, but a lot was still intact; everything that had happened probably made the layout of the place even more confusing to someone new. She hadn't been there for very long, but she could at least show the new guy the ropes, if he needed to be shown them.

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delicate_power
2010-08-22 11:53 pm UTC (link)

At the 'welcome', Severus made a noise that would have been recognizable as the beginning of a chuckle to anyone who knew him well, but to those who didn't, it would have sounded more like a forceful, "Hm." Then he added a, "Thank you", to be polite more than anything, because from what little Lily had told him that he remembered, the island itself wasn't especially welcoming, even if the residents might be.

At her next question, he frowned ever so slightly. He was not, as it happened, finding anything in the way of food, but he hesitated to say so. Because, introductions aside, he really didn't know this woman. On the other hand, his stomach chose that exact moment to give a very loud and very obvious gurgle, rather taking the matter out of his hands. "As you can hear, no doubt, I haven't found much in the way of food," he answered then, trying his best not to sigh at his body betraying him in such a transparent way. But he did need to eat. "The, ah, note I received ... didn't say anything at all about that," he added with a slight shake of his head.

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ex_manyskill100
2010-08-23 12:21 am UTC (link)

Xena wasn't sure what that noise was, but she hoped it was a positive reaction. "Anytime," she said with a nod, loosely folding her arms over her chest. No harm in being polite. She was glad to see that he was making the effort too - politeness and rudeness were okay in their own ways, but only if both parties were making an effort to be one rather than the other. It was awkward to try to be one while someone else was trying to be the other.

She had to grin, though, at the sound of his stomach rumbling. Well, he was only human, like the rest of them, then. Trying to show that she wasn't making fun, she said quickly, "I can help you out with that. There's a kitchen downstairs, I'm pretty sure." She'd been there before, but she didn't know if the reavers had torn through it. Hopefully they hadn't. She lifted one shoulder in a half-shrug, lifted her chin to indicate the way. "Want me to show you?" she said. It probably meant she'd have to take him in the weird metal box, for the sake of speed, but, hey. They were both being polite. You had to make sacrifices and stuff.

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delicate_power
2010-08-23 12:36 am UTC (link)

His eyebrow sprang up again when she grinned at his stomach, but the reaction was short-lived, in light of her general helpfulness. When she mentioned the kitchen downstairs, and he started to say that he'd been there the night before ... but in spite of the cauldron and ingredients on his desk this morning, he still wasn't entirely sure if he had.

If he had dreamed Lily, then he surely had dreamed the kitchen where he'd found her, as well. In fact, he couldn't be entirely certain that he hadn't half awoken in his groggy state, saw the cauldron, and mentally filled in the blanks to explain how it got there. Of course, the corridor also matched his recollection of the night before, but that could have been because he'd woken up briefly upon being transported into his suite, as well.

But that was neither here nor there. He would work it all out later. For the moment, his stomach was the more pressing matter. Therefore, at he gave her a small smile that bordered on a smirk and said, "Lead the way," in regard to her offer, gesturing toward the lifts ... which also looked familiar, now he thought about it.

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ex_manyskill100
2010-08-23 01:59 am UTC (link)

Well, she'd known the funny metal boxes would have to be made use of. So Xena took a deep breath for courage and led the way, nervously rubbing a hand over the hilt of her sword. It was only through self-control that her worry didn't show on her face. The boxes were uncomfortably reminiscent of many things, namely cages, that she'd been kept in, and there weren't even any windows or anything to let in air or light. She'd made herself learn how to use them, though, so she knew which button to press, and when the doors opened, she stepped inside without a hint of fear - at least that Severus could see.

She waited until he was inside with her, then pressed the button for the right floor. It had taken her a ridiculously long time to figure out what all of them meant - that they were numbered in terms of the order of the floors, and that some of them weren't for that all. Some of them were for making the doors open and shut, and others were for stopping the elevator entirely. It was a little nerve-wracking for her as the doors shut, and she couldn't help but glance up quickly to the top of the elevator, as if expecting it to collapse on top of them, once the thing started moving. Maybe if she knew how it worked, she'd be a little more comfortable.

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delicate_power
2010-08-23 02:13 am UTC (link)

The interior of the lift looked familiar, as well, as did the lobby, once the doors opened at the end of their short journey. Severus couldn't imagine having woken so many times during the trip to his room to have taken in all of the scenery this way, so ... he was slowly coming to the conclusion that the night before had not simply been a dream. Lily was here; he hadn't simply imagined her. Or at least he hadn't imagined whoever was pretending to be Lily, at the time.

If he recalled correctly, this Lily he had seen the night before also claimed to be one of the leaders of the group. Because he'd mentioned her being Head Girl and all, and she had appeared convincingly shocked at the idea that he thought leadership skills at Hogwarts might have translated to this place. If she hadn't been merely fabricating the story, however, then ... Xena would have heard of her, at least, surely.

As they stepped from the lift and followed -- the very same route he had supposedly 'dreamed' of that led to the kitchen, he cleared his throat and said, "This is probably a strange question, and for that I do apologize." Then he paused, licking his lips. If he happened to be wrong, she'd likely think him a bit daft, but that was quite all right. He was new, so he imagined some concessions could be made. "I don't suppose that you know a woman by the name of Lily Potter, do you?" And as much as he hated using that surname in connection with her, he was prepared to do it ... this time.

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ex_manyskill100
2010-08-23 03:04 pm UTC (link)

Xena looked over in surprise as he began to speak on the way to the kitchen. He hadn't seemed like the talking type, but okay. Lily Potter. Immediately, the face to match the name came to mind - green eyes, red hair, skinny little thing. But Xena hadn't been spending a lot of time with the others here, and she wasn't sure if she really had it right, so she paused outside the door to the kitchen and made a gesture over her head to indicate her hair. "Red hair?" she said, then added, "And big green eyes, right?" Those were the two things that had really stuck out. You didn't meet a lot of redheads.

"Yeah, I know her," she said, and opened the door to the kitchen. "She's one of those take-charge types." Admirable, especially for someone as young as Lily. The fact that she hadn't really had any leadership or war experience did give Xena pause, though. "She's one of the leaders of this place, I guess." The first person she'd met, Jayne, he'd told her that Lily was one of the three leaders, after all.

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delicate_power
2010-08-23 06:21 pm UTC (link)

Severus wasn't usually the talking-for-the-sake-of-talking type, but at the moment, he required information, and that need managed to overcome his usual reserve. He had expected, however, for Xena to shake her head, or say she knew no one by that name, or something to that effect. But she didn't. Instead, she provided a startlingly apt description, of both Lily's most striking physical attributes as well as her personality, in addition to reiterating what Lily had claimed with regards to being one of the leaders, here.

The confirmation made him forget how to walk for a few seconds. Either aspect of the description, by itself, might have been an illusion merely for his benefit, but both taken together rather said that this was indeed the Lily Potter he'd known. Well, he hadn't known her subsequent to her marriage, of course, but there was no doubt in his mind now that it had to be the same woman. Coupled with the conversation from the previous night, he had no choice but to conclude that he hadn't simply been dreaming. On the other hand, he wasn't entirely sure whether that revelation was a good one or not.

After another second or two, Severus shook his head and continued into the kitchen. He would more than likely have to explain now why his steps had faltered, and he didn't exactly relish the prospect. If he tried exceptionally hard, he could possibly downplay the significance, of both his asking and his reaction to the answer. Then again, Xena hardly seemed to be a chatterbox, herself. Perhaps she ... wouldn't ask. "That would be her, thank you," he said with a nod, stepping past her into the kitchen and hoping that she hadn't regarded his expression too closely.

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