Twin Roses Mingle

[passingthrough]

Who: Twin Roses crew, visitors, stowaways, who knows!?
Broadcast: Nada
Action: Twin Roses of course!
When: All of August and what remains of July

[Since we last saw this crew in action it has been joined (or rejoined) by Yuri, Mikuno, Vision, and Wanda! Will there be growing pains? Drama? Intrigue? Tune in and see!]

(OOC: The Yaugur System until August 5. Drifting and then MYSTERY!)

Comments

[passingthrough]

I am large, I contain multitudes. Some of them are more okay than others. I ended up going in the mist recently. Got a door prize. [She holds up the necklace in her hand for him to better see.]

[candothat]

There were no doors in the mist. [He immediately recognizes the new addition to her collection.] Mogein Dovid. This is something that you had at home?

[passingthrough]

My parents gave it to me at my bat mitzvah. I wore it a lot after that, but I wasn't wearing it the day, um... I ended up leaving the house without it. I went back once, but by then everything had been destroyed and looted on top of that. I didn't see it.

[candothat]

I'm glad that you have it back. Or a good facsimile anyway. [Even if reminders can be cruel sometimes.] My mother had something like it. It was a light blue alloy, not this color.

[passingthrough]

Thanks. [She guesses it's a good thing. Maybe a little bittersweet, but it will probably feel more sweet in the long run.] Your mother's Jewish?

[candothat]

She was, yes. [As much as he likes to avoid talking about things like his dead mom, it seems fair. After all, Kitty has trusted him with information about her dead parents.] To her eternal dismay, I had no interest in religion.

[passingthrough]

You know being Jewish passes through the mother’s side. [Just letting that sit there, friend.]

I can’t say I have any interest in the religion, but I have an interest in being Jewish. [She did once. At least more so. She’s always been a scientific thinker, happy to doubt the less provable, but she was raised to believe the Jewish faith welcomes doubt and thought and exploration. But at a certain point with her parents gone and everything so broken it was hard to find a place for any of the old structures of life. And on a deeper, more emotional level she just wanted less to do with God when it seemed so clear he wanted nothing to do with them.]

[candothat]

Mmhm.

Then it is the culture and heritage that appeals to you? [He's genuinely curious. It's not a part of his own identity that he has had any real means or motivation to explore, but the nonreligious aspects are things he would like to know more about.]

[passingthrough]

Exactly. Is that surprising where you come from? [She always thought it was fairly common, not that there weren't also people who practiced to varying levels too.]

[candothat]

A little. Earth is very homogenized, you know, especially where Federation and Starfleet influences are strongest. We are all Terran, not human or Jewish or Russian. [Yes, he knows this is shocking thing to hear from him.] There are places where this isn't so true, of course.

[passingthrough]

[You are going to have to try harder to shock her after everything her life has been. She does understand it to an extent. The X-Men brought together people from all over the globe to fight as one. They were all X-Men first, but it didn't stop her from being American or Jewish or Kurt from being German or Ororo being Kenyan.]

You are the most Russian non-Russian I've ever known.

Where are these places where it isn't so true?

[candothat]

[Theoretically, there's nothing stopping anyone from embracing their heritage or speaking their language or observing their religions in the Federation. As the universe grows larger, though, the Earth becomes smaller and differences and boundaries fade. Most Terrans don't even think about it.]

A certain amount of eccentricity is expected of me, I admit.

Rural areas, smaller cities. Kasimov, Ostashkov... Taganrog, although it is larger.

[passingthrough]

Oh, you're just doing it for show? You probably don't even like the cold do you?

[candothat]

It's sad and true. I have always preferred more tropical climates.

[passingthrough]

[She smiles.]

I think you can probably be an evolved civilization and still hold on to some of these things a little as long as you don't let them be the things that divide you.

[candothat]

I agree... but of course I agree. The longer that I'm away from Russia, the more Russian I become in order to compensate.

[passingthrough]

So if I visited you after you'd been in Russia for a few years you'd seem very cosmopolitan?

[candothat]

I would. I would be a cultured and worldly person, hardly Russian at all, without this great burden. [His teasing smile turns a little sad.] I haven't been to Russia for more than six years. It would take a very long time to recover from that.

[passingthrough]

So, I need to get you to Russia and give you time to marinate there. But would you really stay or would you be off on your next adventure?

[candothat]

I wouldn't stay. [Which he says with some certainty. As much as he loves Russia (clearly), staying in one place isn't his thing. It will probably never be, outside of the oddball prison where there's not much of a choice.] Try not to be too sad that you'll never meet a version of me who is less Russian.

[passingthrough]

Who needs other versions of you when I have the best one? [Watch out for this fond smile!]

[candothat]

Best? I would hate to meet the worse ones.

[passingthrough]

You better not be putting yourself down, mister. That's my friend you're talking about.

[candothat]

It was a joke. [It actually was this time. Like, maybe it wasn't subconsciously, but there was no active self-deprecation there.] I would never be so foolish as to insult one of your friends to your face.

[passingthrough]

Good. Because I have the best friends and I'm very protective of them.