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

[thisway-comes.livejournal.com]

She shrugged elaborately, grinning. "I've found that if you make your expectations clear, it's harder for anyone to fail you in them."

She fell silent, absorbing his words as she finished off what remained of her brandy. "Did you really?" she asked, setting the glass down. "Well. I appreciate your earlier concern for burdening me, but I'm a pretty tough girl. I can handle things."

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"A good lesson and one I should make sure to incorporate into any future schemes," he said with an ironic smile.

He shifted the whiskey between his hands again before sipping at it again. "Yes. I really did. And truthfully, no matter the length of the acquaintance, there's somethings I haven't spoken to anyone about. Perhaps it is not your toughness that is in question."

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"I'm oddly touched to know I inspire you so. Thank you, dear."

The last sentence was murmured up at their waiter, who had returned with the whiskey and extra glass. He uncapped the bottle and poured a generous measure of whiskey into the Rani's glass, and then he bowed slightly, taking away her brandy glass and the bottle Adam had started with.

Her eyes followed him briefly as he retreated. "If it's my discretion that's called into question," she said, turning her gaze back toward Adam, "it may be relied upon. If it's my interest... I consider you a friend. I ask because I'm concerned, not because I care to gawk at any spectacle or share in some gossip."

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He smiled a little at the inspiration comment, before glancing down at his whiskey. Barely acknowledging the waiter, he fiddled with the glass a bit. She was the least connected, emotionally. A friend, and he treasured the word, but she was not in his bed, nor did she know what he had been before, or became. He found it hard to believe she would care.

Perhaps she was the one to tell, even if all he managed were spare facts.

Still studying his whiskey, he spoke in soft tones. "You are a scientist. What would you want to do, whether you would or no, if you captured a man and were holding him captive and knew that his cells could regenerate from any injury, any illness, no matter how severe?"

[thisway-comes.livejournal.com]

The Rani studied Adam for a few moments, sipping her whiskey, before giving him a knowing nod. "I know, in past lives, I'd have tested that man. Even in this one, I daresay I'd be tempted."

She thought about that for a moment, and then a rueful smile came to her lips. "Scratch that. I have been tempted. I've... experimented upon Byron just a bit, here and there. But always with his fully informed consent."

A pause, and then: "...Right, so perhaps that incident with the bridge, there wasn't as much consent. But that was also perhaps less an experiment and more a fit of pique. But I digress. As a scientist, yes, Adam, the temptation for experimentation would be there. It would just be a question of ethics, and consent."

She regarded him thoughtfully over the rim of her glass before taking another sip. "I gather neither of those were present, when you were experimented upon by these people? If that is in fact what took place..."

[changehistory.livejournal.com]

"Neither consent nor anesthesia," he said, almost shortly. "Unless, of course, they were testing the effect of anesthesia on the quickness with which I could regenerate something as opposed to how quickly I did so when fully alert." Or as alert as one could be in that much pain.

"After the first few years, they had run most of the tests they 'needed' to, to understand my ability. After that, I think they just thought it amusing to see what they could devise."

[thisway-comes.livejournal.com]

"They should be thoroughly tortured in return for what they've done," the Rani said quietly. Anyone who'd known her in times past might have found that statement, that reaction to Adam's story at best surprising and at worst hypocritical, considering her own history, but she genuinely meant it.

"Did this last the entirety of your captivity?"

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Adam looked up a bit, surprised, then frowned. "I'd settle for them dead, though I suppose torture has its satisfaction."

He shrugged and drained his glass in one long gulp, the burn helping to steady him. "Yes. More or less. There would be months with nothing, then it would start again."

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"I fear I'm something of a vengeful sort at times," she said, reaching for the bottle. She refilled Adam's glass, and topped off her own. "Congenital condition. I despair for a cure."

The Rani sat back in her chair again, watching Adam. "Regardless. Even in a genuine scientific inquiry, once the questions have been satisfied, continued experimentation is just so much cruelty. It's needless. It shouldn't have continued."

[changehistory.livejournal.com]

"Mmm. Something else we have in common," he murmured with a half smile.

"For genuine scientific inquiry, I would have given them what they needed," he said softly. "But what they wanted was not...They couldn't kill me, but they wanted me to suffer for my sins."

[thisway-comes.livejournal.com]

She arched an eyebrow, watching him closely. "Is that so? Dear me, Adam. It's getting downright spooky, how alike you and I are..."

She sipped her whiskey, listening, her eyes tightening a bit. "I see. I'm rather not a fan of those who would decide the sins of others, and make them suffer for them as a result. And when I say I'm not a fan? I mean I want them wiped out."

[changehistory.livejournal.com]

"It really is," he said, his smile turning a touch wry.

His head tilted, and the smile turned cold, eyes icy with something more than hate, betrayal and pain darkening it further. "That is generally my plan."

[thisway-comes.livejournal.com]

She leaned forward, her eyes lit with interest and approval. "If I can help..."

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"To destroy them?" he asked, a touch surprised.

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"To help you exact your vengeance," she murmured around the lip of her glass. She took another sip and then set it down, the warmth of the alcohol coursing through her body.

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Adam smiled very slowly and set his glass down for just a moment. "I think I like the sound of that."

[thisway-comes.livejournal.com]

She leaned forward a bit, rather a wicked smile turning her lips.

"I was hoping you would."

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"Thank you," he said, suddenly.

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The Rani blinked, shaking her head slightly in confusion.

"For...?"

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He reached out and lifted her hand to his lips. "For being willing to help."

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She smiled, nodding slightly, watching her hand as he raised it to his lips. "You're very welcome," she replied. She briefly extended her thumb and traced a bit of his jaw.

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He leaned into the touch lightly for a moment, then pulled back just a little. "I should be careful, as much as I'm drinking..."

[thisway-comes.livejournal.com]

"As should I," she murmured ruefully. "I'm willing to wager I haven't your tolerance for the alcohol, either. And we've already established I'm a known bad influence..."

And yet she did not extricate her hand from his, and she in fact used her free hand to raise her glass to her lips again.

[changehistory.livejournal.com]

Adam sighed a little and wrapped his fingers more firmly around hers.

"And I find temptation hard to resist, even when sober..."

[thisway-comes.livejournal.com]

The Rani nodded knowingly, setting her glass down once more. "As do I," she replied, lacing her fingers through his. "As do I..."