Open 'verse RP [Open -- Separate threads fine]

[changehistory]

He'd come home out of some weird need to find his roots, again. Or something. At the current moment he couldn't remember. Souvenir shops lined the streets he roamed too long ago. The house had burned over three centuries before and even the alleys were swept now. There had been nothing to bury, and no money for more than a mass grave had there been, so there were no markers, nothing to see, nothing to kneel at.

Wandering into the new St. Paul's, built after he left, after the fire that took them, he nonetheless felt something settle. He sat in a pew for hours, trying to remember what it had felt like when he came home, saw this, sat here the first time, a different man. Not Matthew. Not Takezo Kensei. Something else, someone else. A man without country, time, family.

For a time, he'd thought to find it again, but now the dream seemed farther away than it had even when trapped in that cell, and he was cold.

It was well after dusk when he left. He found a pub, a table in a corner, and with a wry smile that cursed all the years in between, he ordered a whiskey and asked the bartender to leave the bottle, working to bury himself in the one thing left that had any familiarity or link to the old.

Comments

[changehistory.livejournal.com]

"I like that idea," he said with a slight smile. "More than I can say. Messing with people used to be my hobby."

[enjoythe_ride]

"Scamming the unwary lost it's sparkle?" she asked. "Or was it replaced with more important matters?"

[changehistory.livejournal.com]

"It's just too easy," Adam said with a slight smile. "I need a challenge."

[enjoythe_ride]

"I see," she said with a nod. "That makes sense. Sounds like you need a harder mark, then."

[changehistory.livejournal.com]

"I suppose so," he said, a bit dispirited. It was easy enough to keep his hope up on occasion, but other times it waned and he felt lost.

He hated feeling lost.

[enjoythe_ride]

She reached for the bottle before going to pour herself another glass of whiskey. "Surely you must have fallen on sunnier times since we last saw each other?"

[changehistory.livejournal.com]

Adam's smile twisted a bit. "Sadly, no. Everything I had planned went rapidly downhill; I ended up tossed in a very deep grave; and what I was planning on using is destroyed without a backup." He drained his glass. "Time for a plan B, only I don't have one yet."

[enjoythe_ride]

"I'm sorry," she said softly. "If it makes you feel any better, things aren't going so great for me either. Though -- the things that worry you aren't necessarily the ones that worry me."

[changehistory.livejournal.com]

He leaned back in the chair again, arching an inquiring eyebrow. "What's going on for you?"

[enjoythe_ride]

"That job I told you I had to work in Sea Pines? I wound up being the target of a very angry, undead seamen, and had to turn to the two people I loathe more than anything to get them out of it. Then afterward, I was held at gunpoint for information by a very dangerous, and pissed of a contact I consider just as dangerous, who, when last we spoke, threatened to kill me."

She took a long swallow of her whiskey, "It hasn't been a good month for me, to say the least."

[changehistory.livejournal.com]

Adam sighed and poured her more whiskey. "No, I imagine not." Lifting his glass he offered her a smile. "To a better month for us both next month?"

[enjoythe_ride]

"Cheers," she said with a nod, lifting her glass as well.

[changehistory.livejournal.com]

He smiled a little, clinking his against hers, then leaned back and drained his.

[enjoythe_ride]

She took a large glup of hers before sitting back in her seat, crossing her legs. "So what else have you been up to? Had any other -- messy business arrangements?" The last part was said with a smirk and an eyebrow raise, the tone of her voice more playful than it had been.

[changehistory.livejournal.com]

He gave her a wry grin and shook his head. "Not business arrangements, no." Things with Hiro were never business and always messy, though. But that wasn't at all matching her tone. His lips curved in an answering smirk. "How about you?"

[enjoythe_ride]

"Came close -- but no," she said with a shrug. "It wouldn't have ended well, anyway. He's a bit too -- dependent for my taste."

[changehistory.livejournal.com]

"Oh dear, that's no good," he said disapprovingly. "They should be avoided, the dependent ones..."

[enjoythe_ride]

"He would be if he wasn't damn good at what he did," Bela sighed before smirking slightly, "and so easy to get one over on all at the same time."

[changehistory.livejournal.com]

Adam grinned at that. "Well, that makes him the perfect tool then, I'd think."

[enjoythe_ride]

"And what makes it even more fun, is that he knows that I do it, too," she grinned. "And he still can't seem to stop me."

[changehistory.livejournal.com]

"Oh that is brilliant," he murmured approvingly. "I am impressed indeed."

[enjoythe_ride]

She shrugged. "It's just a matter of playing nice enough to let him get his guard down, then reminding him why he shouldn't play nice with me to begin with."

[changehistory.livejournal.com]

"And it works every time?"

[enjoythe_ride]

"Like clockwork," she nodded. "Although -- he's still not to pleased with me about the whole almost-getting-him-killed thing."

[changehistory.livejournal.com]

"Well, to be fair, you can't really blame him for that," Adam said arching an eyebrow, amused.