(no subject)

[thewidewideworld]

{from here}

Sinric opens the door to his room, letting the wrap slip from his shoulder as he moves to fold it up. There's a little catch in his breathing and a happy sigh as he sets it down on his bed. "I go away for years and yet, I come back and nothing has changed. Even the scent."

Comments

[athelstanthescribe]

"Two different places. Remember that I want to see you again in our world."

[thewidewideworld]

"We will know each other there. Somehow."

He lets the water swirl around him. "The teaching of the Buddha, which I spend much of my time in Nippon studying, say that all life is circles."

"Rather than dying and going to heaven or hell, they say that one is reborn into a new life - better or worse depending on how one acted in the life before. That there is no damnation, only reincarnation. That one may learn and learn to be a better person. And that the highest state one can achieve is Nirvana, a perfect state of oneness and peace."

He smiles, realising how evangelistic he sounds. "Their teaching resonated with me greatly."

[athelstanthescribe]

Athelstan listens, leaning back and closing his eyes.

"They believe all souls can achieve perfection?"

[thewidewideworld]

"They do. They believe the beasts and bugs are men and women who did wrong and were set back to a state of nature to learn to be pure again. That is why the monks of Buddha eat no meat and are careful to do no harm even to the smallest creatures."

[athelstanthescribe]

"But the beasts of the earth are neither pure nor impure. They simply are what they are, committing no sin."

[thewidewideworld]

"Just so - they see purity as a cleanness of spirit - without cruelty, without avarice."

{ooc: must run. Thanks for this. Catch up with you later.}

[athelstanthescribe]

"Ah - so by living a life as an animal, they can forget the faults of man?"

[thewidewideworld]

"And as men, through meditation, they seek to understand and remember that life. To seek a higher plan of being."

He sighs and lets his head fall back, letting his hair trail in the water. "The peace and hope of it is... seductive."

[bigarmy_strangepants]

That's when the door goes, and Ragnar's deceptively soft steps pad through the main room.

"Hello?"

[athelstanthescribe]

Athelstan doesn't open his eyes but calls "In here."

[thewidewideworld]

Sinric opens his eyes and lifts his head, smiling warmly as he looks to the door. He finds his heart beating faster at the joy of seeing Ragnar again. "Hello Ragnar."

[bigarmy_strangepants]

"Sinric!" Ragnar says, smiling broadly.

And Athelstan. So they made up.

"Aren't you two pretty to look at!"

[athelstanthescribe]

Athelstan eyes him.

"Not how I'd like to be thought of, but I'll take it."

[thewidewideworld]

"And I'm not that pretty any more." Sinric teases, moving across the bath to Ragnar. "But it's sweet of you to say."

[bigarmy_strangepants]

Ragnar sits down on the lid of the toilet and moodily peers at them.

"Pretty may be the wrong word, then," he says. "But it's just so very good to see you, both of you."

[athelstanthescribe]

"You see me more often than you should", Athelstan counters quietly. "Until you come to England."

[thewidewideworld]

Sinric leaves to trouble between them to them and steps out of the bath, wrapping a towel around himself more to keep from dripping on Ragnar than any modesty.

"I'm very glad to see you." he kisses Ragnar's cheek, pressing his forehead against Ragnar's for a moment. "I've missed you both."

[bigarmy_strangepants]

Ragnar puts his hands on Sinric's hips, and kisses him deeply.

"How long has it been?"

[athelstanthescribe]

Athelstan turns away from them slightly, closing his eyes again.

[thewidewideworld]

He melts into the kiss. It's been all the time between since he was kisses like that by someone he loved.

"More than three years." He answers softly, making no effort to hide the longing in his voice. "But I reached the eastern edge of the world."

[bigarmy_strangepants]

"The land the moderns know as Japan?" Ragnar says. "You told me about that when we met in Ribe."

[athelstanthescribe]

[ooc: you can keep going without me for a while]

[thewidewideworld]

"Nippon, yes." He cocks his head at that. "Did I? Or should that be will I?"

[bigarmy_strangepants]

"You, er, are going to have done so," Ragnar tries.

No grammar is complex enough for Milliways.

[thewidewideworld]

Sinric laughs and shakes his head, stepping back and hanging his towel again, the scarrified design on his shoulder showing as he does. "Will you join us in the bath?"