nexus_crossings | (no subject)

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It is starting to dawn on Adia that this might not be the Nexus she remembers.

It is the first time in months that she has been able to leave New Caprica without risking awareness from either the Cylons or her fellow humans. She has never told anyone about the strange, wonderful place she stumbled upon, nor does she plan to. It won't be much help to the colonists, and it'd be a dangerous weapon in the hands of the Cylons.

But in the short time she has been sitting on a stone bench, reading an old paperback, she hasn't seen a single familiar face. And come to think of it, none of the landmarks look the same to her, either. True, the Nexus is always changing, but shouldn't she recognize at least some of it?

Curious, and a little nervous, she gets up and brushes off her dusty but serviceable coat, then walks over to a convenient Nexus computer terminal. That hasn't changed, at least.

How do you go about finding someone that you used to know? When is it not worth the risk to try and find them?

There is no giant blinking neon sign in her line of sight instructing her to ask a question, but she hopes someone answers anyway.

((ooc: Hey everybody, Adia is an OC from Battlestar Galactica, her timeline currently in the beginning of Season Three. I used to RP her at dear_multiverse on Livejournal, hence all the "not the same Nexus" references. She's a human with no special powers. Have fun!))

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Adia types that it's okay, being anxious is her default emotion these days, but erases it before hitting send. She's not sure Josh would get her dark sense of humor through text, and she doesn't want to make him feel bad about helping.

Instead, she replies, It is good news, so please don't worry about it. I was told once that sometimes we run into people we know from our own world here, or alternates of them, so I wanted to double-check. You're a good friend, to care about his happiness first. But free food is also nice. :)

It's okay.

She can see him. She can see the way he looks up and around before his shoulders sag. And he gets back to swiping on his phone.

I don't want to run into anyone from my world, either.

Not after everything he'd done.

So I get it.

She does see him, and immediately feels bad for him, although she's not sure why.

Meeting people face-to-face in the Nexus is always a gamble, and appearances often mean little, but Josh looks very normal to her, and he's been nice to her over text.

Are you the young man in the plaid shirt? I'm sitting at the computer across from you.

Tentatively, she smiles and waves at him.

"Wh-?"

She sees the phone vibrate in his hand, can watch him go for it. His posture straightens almost immediately before he looks up and scans the Plaza again. Green eyes widen a bit when he sees her wave, and he gives a slightly hesitant wave back. It's painfully obvious he's trying to look calm and casual when he walks over, even though she'd seen him withdrawn and skittish mere moments ago.

"They don't have flannel where you're from? I can't recommend it enough. Hella comfy." His voice is quiet and there's a bit of forced confidence to it. As though he's wearing someone else's clothes. "How'd you get my number anyhow?"

She's certainly not about to call him out on his acting skills, not when she's forced herself to smile or stand up straighter when meeting a stranger for the first time. Her social anxiety has only gotten worse with recent events on her home world.

Her smile this time, however, is genuine. At least until he mentions his number, and then she just looks confused. "I didn't? I was typing a general question to the Nexus. On here." She gestures to the computer in front of her. "Did it go to your phone?"

Josh glances over the computer she's sitting at before grabbing an unoccupied chair and pulling it up so he can take a seat and look over the screen without looming over her like he is now.

"Crazy. Yeah it went right to my text messages. It's happened a couple of times before, though in one case it was my friend and in another some irritating hacker kid hijacked the entire Nexus."

His glance shifts from the screen to the woman, green eyes studying her a moment before he extends a hand.

"Josh. It's nice to meet ya."

There are a number of instant message windows on the screen, but they aren't labeled. Josh should be able to spot their conversation easily enough. "I'm sorry, I didn't intend for it to go to anyone's phone without explanation." She rubs her arm self-consciously. "I don't like to just stand up and ask a question here if I can help it. It hasn't happened before, but maybe the computers here are different..." If this isn't the Nexus that she remembers, she definitely doesn't want to give anybody the impression that she's some irritating hacker or spammer.

She looks older than Josh, but not by much. Her clothes are dingy in a way that comes from living in the elements, but her hands are clean. She shakes Josh's hand and smiles. "Nice to meet you, too. My name's Adia."

Until very recently, his own clothes would have looked similar to her own. Though he vastly prefers a flannel shirt and cargo pants to most anything else he could be wearing around here. It's kind of his look.

"You an outdoorsy sort of person or get stuck out there too?" Josh appears conversational, but there's an edge to his gaze. An understanding, perhaps. Or what the man perceives as it. "Just curious, you look kind of similar to how I did when I ended up here. Was just wondering if there was a formula for how folks end up here. A common theme."

Adia looks away, a little embarrassed. It's impossible to keep the dirt off her clothes, most days. "I'm from a planet that was only recently colonized. The weather isn't great, and we mostly live in tents." He gaze returns to Josh, reassured by the fact that they have something in common. "Where were you living before you came here?"

"Living is a...strong word for it."

Josh rubs at the back of his neck, unease settling over his face too. He's the one who brought it up, best to just get it over with, now.

"I was trapped in an abandoned mine on the mountain my folks have a ski lodge at. I don't remember how I got here, to be honest. But I was pretty close to dead. I woke up here."

"Oh... oh, that must have been awful. I'm so sorry." She looks him over in sympathy and concern. He seems well now. Physically, anyway. "Did anyone help you, once you got here?"

"Yeah, lots of folks did."

Josh nods, and he does look a whole lot better than he did when he got here. There's no comparison. He's still a bit thin for a guy his age, but a bit thin and 'actually dying' are miles apart. Joshua shrugs.

"It's in the past. But it made me think, for a while at least, that maybe I had died or something. That this was a kind of purgatory. Doesn't seem to be the case though. I just... keep trying to work out what sort of place this is, really. And how people get here."

"Good, I'm glad." Her smile returns, cautiously optimistic. She knows there's more he probably has to recover from than the physical injuries he endured, but it's a start.

"I thought I had gone crazy when I first came here," she admits, "Or that I was dreaming." She takes a thoughtful look around, trying to compare what she sees to her religion's description of the afterlife. "Well... it's no Elysian Fields, but it's not Tartarus, either. It can still be a Purgatory, though... just a metaphorical instead of a literal one."

"I was just glad not to be in those caves anymore. But after I realized this was real, that I wasn't hallucinating. I decided to stay. Even if I could find my way back home, it would just be to the kryffing caves I nearly died in. No thanks, there."

Josh sighs and leans back in his seat so he can look out across the Plaza at all the varying people and non humans making their ways about. Weird as it is, he's come to think of this place as a home. At least enough of one.

"I could see that. It's pretty fucking jarring to end up here. Especially if you come from a world with no magic in the first place."

"No, that would be awful," she agrees. She wants to ask if he has family or friends who might be wondering where he went, but considering he was trapped in a mine, long enough to nearly die with no one looking for him, she thinks better of it. "I considering staying here, once I realized it was an option. It's something I think about every time I come to visit."

Adia laughs quietly, a soft exhalation of air that sounds more like a sigh. "One of the first people I met here was a vampire. That was a trip. Is there magic on your home world? I don't think there's any on mine."

"For serious? A vampire? Like a real one?"

Josh doesn't sound disbelieving. If anything his questions sound genuinely curious more than anything. He leans closer slightly as he asks, eyes widening a bit. He supposes it shouldn't be so shocking considering...

"I guess that's not too weird. I'm friends with an ex-Sith and Han freaking Solo. Weirder things have happened."

The magic question makes him shake his head, but he sighs afterwards and glances down.

"No magic, just monsters."

Adia nods, her small smile blossoming into a grin. "She was psychic, too. I ended up becoming friends with her. I was a bridesmaid in her wedding. In a place called Kansas." It's a fond memory, and she relaxes visibly while she recounts it.

She doesn't know what a Sith is, or who Han Solo is, but she nods anyway. "Are they fictional on your world?" she guesses.

"I'm sorry," she says quietly. "We're at war with sentient robots... I can't imagine also having to deal with monsters."

"She was from the States. American vampire. That's...certainly something."

Josh wonders idly if every country has their own monster. Like a national bird or flag. Kind of a morbid train of thought, but it beats memories he's trying to stifle as hard as he can.

"They are yeah. Straight out of the movies. Or storybooks. Whatever you've got." He hesitates when she apologizes, before taking the chance at a slight change in subjects. "Sentient robots are straight out of fiction where I'm from too. What year is it there? And..where? You're not from Earth if you're not familiar with Americans, that's for sure. They tend to make sure everyone's aware of them as much as possible."

"It was her husband who was from Kansas, but I think she was also from the United States. They met in the Nexus." She pauses, then asks curiously, "Have you ever been to Kansas? It reminded me a lot of my home. I liked it."

"We have movies," Adia says, amused. "But no, I'm not from Earth. I'm originally from Leonis, one of the twelve colonies. Earth is myth in my universe... we were looking for it, at one point."

She wonders what monsters are on Josh's world, but doesn't ask. She's been around suffering, fear, and grief long enough to see its effect on people. It's cruel to open old wounds.

"I haven't, no. I'm from Canada which is way north of Kansas. We're the country above the United States. Where I live in Alberta is forested and full of mountains. Real pretty all year round, but especially in the winter."

Josh slips his hands into his pockets as he listens to Adia, nodding along with her description of her home.

"Yeah Earth is...It's....well. For better or worse it's home."

"Oh, I've heard of Canada. Someone in the Nexus described it to me once. Alberta sounds beautiful. We had forests, but not as lush as the ones on Virgon." She catches herself in a sigh. Getting nostalgic over geography.

Adia doesn't miss how Josh refers to Earth as home. She smiles softly. "Most of the Earths people have described to me sound like a paradise compared to New Caprica. According to Sacred Scrolls, our Earth is a paradise, too. A place of science and learning, and balance with nature... I don't know how true that is, but the thirteenth tribe left Kobol early, before everything went to Hades, so maybe they had a better idea of how to properly colonize a planet."

"I don't know about paradise. We're pretty shitty to each other sometimes. Warring over pointless stuff, not treating folks right just because they're not as wealthy as the few who have stuff...."

Josh bites at his lower lip and trails off there. In some ways it's probably better not to shatter this lady's dream of what Earth should be. What it could be. The fact is, there's an awful lot people take for granted back home.

"But it's got the science and the schooling. And the nature. It's got all that stuff. Lots of folks are from lots of different Earths here. I'm sure you could go to one and stay if you really wanted to."

"Sounds like home," Adia says with a rueful smile. "But I'll still take it over a barren planet and a Cylon occupation."

She shakes her head at his suggestion, although her expression remains conflicted. "Believe me, I've thought about it, but there are too many people that I care about. I can't abandon them. Not until I know they'd be safe, too." She looks up at Josh and asks, "Have you ever thought of living on a different Earth?"

"Not especially."

Josh shrugs at the question, bringing a hand to rub at the back of his neck while he thinks on how best to answer.

"I...have friends here. I'd rather keep that, than try to start over somewhere else that might already have another me walking around."

Oh, that's right. Alternates. "That's not something I'd have to worry about if I moved to Earth," Adia says, somewhat wryly. "But I understand. Friends are important. Maybe the most important thing, sometimes."

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