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

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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]

"Just that knowledge alone is temptation," he murmured, lifting her hand again and pressing a kiss to her fingertips.

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She closed her eyes for a moment, smiling. "I don't imagine any less temptation than what you're doing now..."

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"But we have willpower," he said softly, flicking the tip of his tongue lightly over the pad of one finger.

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She drew in a breath, a smirk pulling at the corners of her mouth.

"That we do," she murmured, the fingertips of her free hand trailing down her collar... before popping open the topmost button.

"...no matter how much we're tested, mmm?"

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His teeth captured her finger, scraping lightly over skin, before his tongue curled briefly around her. His eyes drifted to the shadows revealed as the light slid over newly revealed flesh.

"We're stronger than our baser urges."

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She drew in another breath, letting it out in a soft, heavy sigh, her eyes rising to meet his.

"I'd like to think so, yes," she murmured, gently withdrawing her finger from his mouth and tracing along his lower lip.

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His eyes fluttered closed for a moment, as he sighed, then looked at her again with a slight smile.

"I never thought I'd be so grateful for the brief time I spent in Tibet..."

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She arched an eyebrow, finally taking her finger away from his mouth entirely.

"Tibet? Where's that? And why's that?"

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"Near China. A small mountainous country of mostly Buddhist monks." He gave her a wry smile. "I got very good at meditating."

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The eyebrow remained arched. "And that has bearing on this because...?"

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"It teaches one...control," he said, fingers sliding to trace light circles over the inside of her wrist.

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"Perhaps I should learn," she murmured, turning her hand over to allow him better access to her wrist. "Some things I can control.. and some impulses I just feel compelled to act upon."

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"It's a lovely impetuosity to be sure," he murmured in response. "Though not one that works well for us..." Or it worked very well. He wasn't sure.

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The Rani shrugged elaborately. "It's been a while since I've had a good challenge to rise to," she murmured. "I'm looking forward to it."

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"It's been a while since I've gotten to be a challenge," he said with a slow smile.

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"Then I'm pleased I can accomodate us both," she replied, grinning.

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He chuckled and raised his glass. "To challenges."

[thisway-comes.livejournal.com]

She raised her glass in salute, then knocked back the portion of whiskey that remained in it, grimacing very faintly as the liquid burned on its way down. She paused for a moment, eyeing the bottle, then, with a one-shoulder shrug, picked it up and refilled her glass, then held it up to Adam with a questioning eyebrow.

[changehistory.livejournal.com]

"Oh, yes please," he said, holding out his now nearly empty glass. He was feeling it washing over and around him and it made him smile, warmer than he'd been all day. He was grateful for that fact, relaxing into it some.

[thisway-comes.livejournal.com]

She flashed him a grin across the table, and refilled his glass, then set the nearly empty bottle down on the table. Right on cue, their waiter brought a new bottle, earning himself an appreciative smile from her.

She sipped slowly, trying to pace herself, feeling the whiskey warm her insides. "Are you staying here in London long?"

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"I don't know," he said, frowning a bit, looking back at his glass. "I had hoped....well. For the holidays, at least. I've ...."

He hadn't said, before, and now the words sort of tumbled out. "I got married. But she's in the States."

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The Rani paused with her glass partway to her lips, blinking, but she recovered quickly, raising an eyebrow and having another sip of whiskey. "Well. Then congratulations are in order. I should hope your bride knows just what a completely fortunate woman she is?"

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He watched her closely for a reaction, head tilting, then took another sip of his own.

"I like to think she is. The man...Bob? The man who held me prisoner all those years....the one who's going to die...He's her father."

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"Ah, I do see." The Rani grinned. "Forgive me, but I must ask, because I'd likely be given to the same sort of behaviour--is the marriage a matter of antagonising this man, or are you genuinely happy?"

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Adam smirked slightly, taking a long drink. "It is both. He used her as cruelly as he used me, put her through tests and torture. She was the one good thing the last six years in there--the one thing that kept me sane, gave me something to hold on to, to hope for. Though...turning her against him? Making her mine...it is a very sweet revenge."