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

[thisway-comes.livejournal.com]

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."

[changehistory.livejournal.com]

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

[thisway-comes.livejournal.com]

"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?"

[changehistory.livejournal.com]

"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."

[thisway-comes.livejournal.com]

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?"

[changehistory.livejournal.com]

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."

[thisway-comes.livejournal.com]

"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?"

[changehistory.livejournal.com]

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."

[thisway-comes.livejournal.com]

"Well... it's very rare that you can have two such varied things in one connection to another person, so, again, I congratulate you. I'm pleased she's able to be that for you--and to be something that held you together those last six years."

[changehistory.livejournal.com]

Adam smiled a bit. "You might like her. Or you'd hate her--people tend to have one of the other reaction to her. Sociopath with a sadistic streak, wrapped up in 24 years of blonde and bouncy..."

[thisway-comes.livejournal.com]

The Rani laughed softly, sipping at her whiskey. "That's quite the combination. I look forward to meeting her. At the very least, like her or hate her, she'll make an impression."

She set her glass down with a wry grin. "And there's yet another reason to exercise self-restraint, mmm?"

[changehistory.livejournal.com]

"Oh, she can certainly do that," Adam said with a slight laugh, then tilted his head and studied her, as if that hadn't even occurred to him.

"I suppose you're right..."

[thisway-comes.livejournal.com]

She arched an eyebrow, idly tapping her manicured nails against the side of her glass. "Do you not intend to honour whatever quaint marriage vows you took with your wife?" she asked, a faint smile ghosting over her lips, there and gone.

[changehistory.livejournal.com]

"I hadn't..." He frowned a bit, then gave her a wry smile. "Do you know, I hadn't thought about it?"

[thisway-comes.livejournal.com]

"Then it's highly likely the answer is 'no', mmm?" the Rani shot back, completely bemused. "If you intended to, you'd have answered me so straightaway, without hesitation."

[changehistory.livejournal.com]

"It's been a while since I was married," Adam said, frowning a bit at his whiskey glass.

[thisway-comes.livejournal.com]

"Is that an observation, or an explanation?"

The Rani took a healthy swallow of her whiskey, coughing slightly. "It's been centuries since I was married. I imagine I can sympathise."

[changehistory.livejournal.com]

"A bit of both, I think," he said with a wry smile. "I ... well. Faithfulness.....I am...relatively decent at it."

[thisway-comes.livejournal.com]

"Relatively decent," she repeated, the whiskey making her tongue tangle in the words almost imperceptibly. "But not completely, mmm?"

She picked up her glass with a shrug. "I've never believed one should limit oneself, or that one's desire for another was a reflection on one's partner. But that's just me, and my aversion to petty, pointless morals. I also respect the wishes and beliefs of my friends. If you choose to observe those vows, I will stop pressing."

[changehistory.livejournal.com]

"Oh, now, where would be the fun in that?" he asked, lips curving in a smirk.

[thisway-comes.livejournal.com]

She laughed at that, raising her glass in faint salute.

"I believe I've been given permission to keep at it, then. Fantastic. I always do love a bit of fun..."