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]

"I don't think there's been an earthquake in England since the 60s and not a bad one since the 19th century sometimes. Colchester that one was, and it destroyed a lot of buildings. But it was the worst since at least a century before I was born. I..." Adam paused, considered. "I don't think London's ever been damaged."

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"Honto? They are very lucky. It must be very nice to live in an area where you don't have to worry about that kind of thing."

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"Well, they still have them, but it's not California or Japan," Adam agreed with a small smile, tucking his arm even closer to Hiro's, snuggling as they walked.

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*Hiro's arm goes around him as he snuggles close.* This city has so much history. Center of so many stories and myths. Were you born near here?

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Adam nodded a little. "I don't remember it well, the house where I was born. I was still young when we fled. But we came down here, and these ... I grew up walking these streets."

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"You had to leave your home?"

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"Yes," Adam said, quietly.

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"Why did they do that?"

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"My father accused my mother of being a witch," Adam said, briefly. "If we hadn't fled, they would have come for her and killed her."

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"Why would he do that? Didn't he love her?"

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"He thought she betrayed him. With Satan."

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"Honto? How could he believe such a thing?"

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Adam shrugged. "I don't know. There was an accident. I don't remember much, but right after...he started screaming at her that she had clearly lain with the devil to produce...me."

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"He saw your power? That would explain much. He did not understand what we know now." He leans against the railing of the bridge. "How did it feel to watch the world go from that kind of superstition to scientific thinking? I know that back in Japan, I felt a little superior because I understood the genetic principles that made us different. But you grew up with such a different mindset than you must have now."

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"I don't know," Adam said. "He saw something. I don't remember what happened."

It was clear from his tone, that no matter what he saw, he didn't feel it excused anything, even if it explained it.

He shifted a little, with a sigh. "It seemed...strange. To watch the fall from religious fervor, to scientific, to watch as men lost faith in one thing, and set up faith in something else entirely, that I worry time will prove is just as fallible."

[powered-otaku.livejournal.com]

"He was wrong. He should never have done that to you and your mother."

Hiro nods. "A man who lives by science alone will have it fail him eventually. The universe is a much bigger place than that. I cannot imagine that science will answer everything."

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"Yes, well. He did and we...I survived it, at least." Adam shrugged a bit, then snuggled closer to Hiro.

"No, I can't imagine it will, either. There has to be more to it than that. More....purpose. An intelligent force behind it. I cannot accept that it is all random and chance."

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Hiro holds him close. "I am glad you did."

"I believe there are certain things that come down to random and chance, but certainly not the way of the universe itself. There is an intelligence there."

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Adam smiled a bit and pressed a kiss to his temple. "Me too."

"What sort of intelligence?" he asked, curious, wondering about Hiro's beliefs--something they'd never really discussed in Japan.

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Hiro rubs his cheek against Adam's. "I am uncertain. I am Buddhist, but I cannot believe that it is the only way to reach the divine, just the way that is right for me. I think, perhaps, that we all see a glimpse of it and are drawn to the part that, perhaps, we understand best."

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Adam nodded a little, fingers reaching to slide his fingers lightly through Hiro's hair. "I wasn't sure, really. Then, I just assumed it, but now...Even Japan seems to slide the scale of religious pluralism."

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"A Japanese is born a Shintoist. Whether or not we follow it, being Japanese automatically means we are Shintoists. However, many families choose to practice another faith such a Buddhism or Christianity. You remember trees with white papers around them? Toris? These are all Shinto symbols. It is a part of all Japanese, whether or not we choose to see it as a faith. So, we are usually tolerant of multiple faiths, but we have had our moments."

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Adam nodded a little. That much he knew. "Why Buddhism, then?"

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"My family believes it. I believe in the 8-fold path. I have felt a connection with the divine when I have been at the temple. I don't think I could feel that in another rite."

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He knew that, of course, about Kaito, but still. It was one of those things that fascinated him, made him think, long lived as he was--made him question. He nodded a little, looking out over the water, thoughtful.