nexus_crossings | 1st Annual Halloween Block Party!

He really didn't intend to startle her, and he puts his hands up into the air with a bit of a sheepish look on his face. Adam's eye-shields are still retracted back in his head, seeing there was not really a need for them tonight.

"I'm sorry, if I startled you. So, this is your first time celebrating it. The one night where adults get to engage with their inner child."

Adam lowers his arms and he relaxes, and he goes to look back out at the crowd of people and then back to her. "Everything seems to be in order from what I saw." And he knows exactly what was meant by those words.

His reaction puts her more at ease; she shrugs off his apology. "It's okay. I startle easily." She doesn't recognize his costume, but even with the mask on, it'd be unfamiliar to her. "My first time, yes. I'm not from Earth. Are you?"

She's not sure what to make of his answer. It sounds more like a status report than someone enjoying a party. "You got a lot of candy," she notes, somewhat unnecessarily. "I'm hoping to bring back a few things for my friends. Which are your favorites?"

He stops to think about her response and then his answer, "Yeah, I'm from Earth. So where are you from if it isn't exactly Earth?" And soon the entire party isn't as interesting as talking to someone who comes from another planet. But then again, he figures he is just as much of an intrigue to someone else.

And he does indeed look back to his stash of candy, and he shrugs. "I've got to keep the black market on junk food well stocked in the best candy I can get my hands on. And which ones are your favorites?"

"Leonis," she replies. "One of the twelve colonies of Kobol." Not that additional information has ever rung a bell for anyone she's talked to in the Nexus, but she feels compelled to share it. "Earth is a myth where I'm from. The lost colony. Where are you from, on Earth?" He's right to assume that he's intriguing to Adia, but not so much for his appearance. She loves learning about Earth, any Earth -- it makes the possibility of an Earth in her own universe feel more real.

"Junk food sells on the black market?" Depending on for how much, it looks like he'll make a pretty penny on his collection. "I like the ones with chocolate and peanuts. Or peanut butter." She could give him a name of candy bar, but it'd be pointless. All the candy companies in the colonies are long gone.

"You will have to tell me what Leonis is like," Adam speaks up to combat the sound of the loud music coming from outside. And he leans himself back against a wall, and he folds his arms over his chest. "As for me, I'm originally from Detroit, Michigan. It's a major city in the United States." Adam, equally shares the intrigue she has for Earth. And this comes from someone where space colonization is at its very infancy.

But he then realizes she is taking his quip about the candy as fact, and he shakes his head. "I was joking about the candy. But I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if there is a black market in candy somewhere." And he is sure that somewhere might be Golem City, or the other Aug only Slums back home. "I was going to bring these back to my apartment to help appease my junk food addiction."

And to make up for the bad joke, and confusing her Adam reaches his hand for the mask and he holds it out for her. "Feel free to help yourself, and I think I see one of the peanut butter ones in there."

"Oh! I've heard of the United States." She files away the other place names to look up later on a Nexus computer. "I even went to one, once, for a wedding. It was in Kansas. It kind of reminded me of Leonis, actually. We had wide plains and not too many mountains. We were famous for our plains, actually. And our wine."

Adia blushes a bit, under the green make-up. Leave it to her to misunderstand a simple joke. Still, she appreciates his offer to make it up to her. Patiently, she looks through the candy assortment. She doesn't recognize any of the brands, but the writing on the colorful wrapping usually reveals their contents. "Oh... these are peanut butter cups!" She holds one up, marveling at the orange wrapping. "We had these, too. They're my favorite."

"So Leonis, is more like the Midwestern United States. And yes, I've been to a few of those states before." Adam tries to think of his own past travels, and he tries to draw an image of Leonis in his mind to get somewhat of an idea of what it looks like in his mind. "What type of wine do they make? I know there are some places that make it with things other than grapes."

And he puts the mask back once; Adia finds the piece of candy that she was looking for. He will not admit that he simply just took a handful from what was in one of the bowls. And there are plenty of things in writing that he is not remotely familiar with. But he will have fun figure all of that out later. Now, he picks up something in a green with something written in an alien language on the wrapper in his hands and he stares at it.

"You can never go wrong with chocolate and peanut butter, ever." Adam looks down at his piece of candy, and he opens up the wrapper. It appears to look like chocolate, and it looks like it might have some type of nut in it. Or at least, that is what Adam is hoping for as he takes a whiff of it.

"Out of anywhere in the United States, I suppose so. Although certain parts of Europe remind me of Leonis, too. At least, from what I've seen on the internet." There is only so much she can learn, and often she doesn't know where to start. "We had all sorts of wineries. Grapes, mostly, but there were a few places that used other kinds of fruit. There was even an apiary that made mead on the side." She smiles nostalgically. "I'm not much of a drinker, but even I learned to appreciate it. What's Detroit like? What does it make?"

She puts the candy in her pocket, then looks somewhat awkward about it as Adam seems ready to enjoy his selection. But she's already had a latte and slice of apple pie, courtesy of Ice Bear. She's not ready to indulge again. Besides, the candy will keep. "It's a good combination, isn't it? No wonder it's universal."

"Where in Europe have you traveled to?" Adam's curiosity hasn't faded, and he looks comfortable enough to answer some questions about his home. "Detroit used to be the hub where they made cars in the United States. And until recently..." Adam holds up a cybernetic limb up in the air for her to see. "It was about to make some break troughs with cybernetic technology." And that seems to be where he is willing to go about what it makes.

"As for what the city itself looks like, it's an old industrial city that is a bit rough along the edges." He tries to figure out how to describe his home city to someone who has never been there before. And he then looks back down to the piece of candy in his hand, and he takes a bite. "Ugh, it tastes like ground up pine needles." But he is going to soldier through the piece that he bit, and what is left finds it going into the pocket of his boiler suit.

"And I'm not going to describe what the crunching texture might have been."

"Just Germany," Adia answers. "And it was... beautiful, but strange. It was an Earth where magic had returned and modern technology was lost." She shakes her head a little at the memory, toy snakes in her wig bouncing slightly from the motion. "It wasn't much like home, but I treasured the visit. The planet I live on now is barely hospitable."

Scientific curiosity wars with her inherent shyness when Adam shows off his arm. "That's not organic?" she asks, leaning in slightly to take a closer look. "That's well past any of our technology... I think the closest we came were prosthetics that could be controlled with a neural implant. But nothing this sophisticated."

She wonders briefly if his Earth is like the one in the Sacred Scrolls... but she suspects not. There won't be any "rough around the edges" cities on her Earth. It's supposed to be a utopia. She does giggle a bit at his reaction to the candy. "I never liked mint in my dessert, either. It reminds me too much of toothpaste."

He starts to allow himself the chance to relax, and the smile on his lips returns. "I don't think whatever I ate was mint. I know that toothpaste taste, and that wasn't it. It tasted more like eating a crunchy pine forest." He scrunches his face, as he feels like there is something stuck between his teeth.

"I've been to Germany very briefly, but I can assure you there was no magic and modern technology still existed," Adam extends his arm out, and he goes to roll up the sleeve as much as possible to allow her to look at his arm.

"And I'm currently residing in Prague. It's a city in the Eastern European. And it isn't a bad city despite some of the problems it has. Then again, that has to be said for any city on Earth. It has a nice mixture of the old and new. But I do have an apartment here in the Nexus." And he seems reluctant to want to talk about what troubles his own world has during a time that is meant to have fun. And her mention of her own home being as she is describing it as barely hospitable. "So I take it you live here."

So, Adam takes this time to look down at his one cybernetic arm, and he clenches his fist. "No it isn't." And he relaxes his fist. "Neural implant or not, it is still sounds like an impressive piece of technology."

"That doesn't sound very edible," Adia says sympathetically. She's grateful that she stuck with the peanut butter cups.

"The Germany on your Earth, you mean?" She listens to him describe Prague, although her mind is partially on why he would need augmented limbs. Is it because of his profession? An injury or illness? Or maybe it's just the fashion in his world. Either way, she doesn't know how to ask without being rude. "Yours is extraordinary." She smiles and resists the urge to poke his arm. "Do you have full sensation, as well as motor control?"

"Oh... no, I don't live here." She feels almost foolish admitting it. Who would knowingly keep living in a dangerous world when they had the Nexus at their disposal? "Do you like your apartment in the Nexus? Is it stable there? No weird magic?"

"Maybe for whoever this candy was made for, but it wasn't made for human consumption. But I suppose, that's part of the whole Nexus experience."

Adam nods his head about Germany. "I haven't been to any other version of Berlin before, so yup, that would be the one." He still leaves his sleeve up briefly, before he pulls it back down over his arm. And he doesn't seem the slight bit bothered by honest curiosity about these augmentations. "And yes, I've got full motor control and sensation in my hands. It would be really hard to do my job if I didn't."

"So far, it seems stable and my apartment hasn't decided to stick my furniture on the ceiling. But I was thinking if your world was uninhabitable that you would seek out refuge here. Or perhaps somewhere else."

"At least it didn't turn you into an animal or something." That would be the quintessential Nexus experience.

"What is it that you do?" She asks, secretly relieved that he's given her an opening for her question. "We don't have any magic, either. Does your world have space travel? What's the level of technology?"

Adia giggles at the image of furniture on the ceiling, but her humor is short-lived. "Barely inhabitable," she clarifies. She sighs softly. "I won't lie, I've considered it. But then I'd have to leave my friends behind and... well, it's a long story, but after everything I've been through, it would feel like giving up. Or running away."

Adam puts his hand to his chin, and he runs it along his bearded jaw line at the thought of ending up as an animal. "To experience a dog's life wouldn't exactly the worst thing that could happen." And perhaps he did leave an opening for her to ask him more questions on purpose. And as he continues to learn more of the people here, it seems only fair to give some a chance to learn about him.

But of course, first things first. "Before I answer the first question, I don't believe I got your name. As for the others, unless you count some trips to the moon and attempts to travel to mars. We are still busy with trips into orbit. But I haven't really paid much attention to space exploration." Then again, he hasn't had much time to look into it.

As for leaving and running, Adam removes his hand from his chin and he mms. He knows this one all too well, and as much as he considers leaving his own home for good. He knows that he still has a great deal of work to do, and there are plenty of questions to find the answers to and people to bring to justice. He takes in a deep breath, and he looks out to see the people at the party and he exhales. Adam looks back to Adia, and he cocks his head to the side. So much for keeping things light, and jovial. "What is it you would be running from? And seeing you're telling me that something has caused your planet to become barely inhabitable, I can see and understand as to why you don't want to leave it and any of your friends behind."

"Maybe not, but it would make things complicated, especially if you couldn't talk." Adia has fortunately never been LOLed, but that doesn't stop her from worrying about it. Adam has the advantage of a Nexus apartment to wait out any transformation. He'd probably turn into a doberman or a mastiff or some other impressive dog breed, anyway.

She blushes a little under the green make-up. "Sorry. My name's Adia. I'm surprised you don't have more advanced space travel, but it sounds like your scientists put all their effort into cybernetics."

His questions are inevitable. She can't seem to get very far from the troubles on her home world, not even at what is probably the most festive event she's been to in years. "We're under Occupation," she explains quietly. "The Cylons -- sentient robots -- obliterated the colonies. Those of us who were left fled via spaceship, trying to find Earth. But we found this planet instead... it was in a nebula, and it was supposed to shield us from the Cylons' sensors, but they found us anyway. They set up a provisional government, but every so often, someone from the settlement goes missing, or gets tortured in their Detention Center. If... if I left New Caprica, my friends would assume that I was dead, or worse. I can't do that to them, and I... there are so few of us left. I can't leave them."

She looks away self-consciously, feeling awkward in her painted face and silly wig. Way to be the life of the party, she mentally chastises herself.

Adam politely extends his hand to Adia. "Adam. Adam Jensen. And to answer that previous question, I work for an organization known as Interpol. And prior to that, I worked for the Detroit Police, and I was the chief of security for a major bionics corporation. And I believe our scientists are doing more than work on cybernetics." He sees no harm in telling her this much about his life and perhaps as time goes on with his stay in the Nexus he might be willing to open up a little more.

Or this might change as he listens to hear about what happened to her colony. "...At least those who are still willing to study it." But the fight he has taken on seems small. "Were these sentient robots from another planet?" He figures it doesn't hurt to ask. "Not that I think it matters where they came from. But it makes a lot of sense that you have a lot to fight for, and that you're not willing to just leave people behind to accept their fate."

He doesn't seem to mind the answer that he was given, at least from the sympathetic look on his face. "And I've got my own problems back home, and as much as I would love to allow myself a chance to rest, it just isn't possible."

She takes his hand and gives it a polite shake. His profession does not surprise her. A man with a strong, intimidating appearance can go far in law enforcement. Or any type of enforcement, really. "Nice to meet you, Adam."

"No, humans built them... about forty years ago they gained sentience and rebelled. The colonial fleet drove them off, but..." Adam already knows the rest of the story. There is an uncanny mixture of fear and guilt on her face, as if she has taken personal responsibility for the folly of her people. But there is relief, too, that Adam understands what it's like for her to be torn between two worlds. "I'm glad you understand. It'd be so easy to give up, but it wouldn't feel right."

Adam's Earth sounds more problematic than she first thought. It makes her feel an odd sort of camaraderie with him. "You're worried that the scientists are up to something illegal?"

"It is also really nice meeting you also, Adia." Adam returns the firm shake, and he then lets go of her hand. "The scars from their rebellion are still there, or they are still rebelling." He tries to find the right way to end her sentence, as he remains understanding and is willing not to push the subject any further if she doesn't want to.

And he shakes his head, no, in response to the scientists. "There are some who are doing deplorable things, and the problems go beyond just scientists but people who are trying to cause harm to people like myself. And not just people like myself, but the rest of the world as well." Adam allows himself to open up just a little bit about the situation back home.

"As for the technological level back home, perhaps once things have calmed down, I can take you to see Prague."

"They came back and destroyed the colonies. I was one of the lucky ones, I was already aboard a ship -- the Chiron -- so I only saw the destruction from afar." She frowns pensively. "I don't think you can call it a rebellion anymore. Not when the rebels have taken over."

"Are they terrorists?" Adia asks, trying to get a better understanding of Adam's world. She blinks in surprise at his offer to take her to Prague. It brings an unexpected smile to her face. "I'd like that, thank you. How do you travel between here and your world? Do you use a portal?"

Adam isn't sure what to say, and he rubs his metal fingers together as he listens to Adia's story. And he feels bad that he asked her to tell him more about her world, especially during an event that is supposed to be cheerful. He thinks about trying for a different angle, and as interested, as he is also in her world he takes in a deep breath. "How about I talk to you about this later? And perhaps the two of us should maybe join the rest of the party."

As much of a loner he might be, Adam came here to try to enjoy the light for once and he is not helping matters much. And there is zero chance of him even going anywhere near the dance floor.

"Or I can continue to lighten both of our days right there. But no, they aren't terrorists. It is a bit more complicated, so why don't we head to the bar and have a drink or two. Or three. As for accessing my world, currently I have a portal but I'm working on finding a way to control access to it. The last thing I need to deal with is to end up being followed here."

Edited 2016-12-02 03:00 (UTC)

Adia smiles a little in relief. "Sure, let's do that." It's not so much that she's unwilling to talk about her world, but it does make for depressing conversation, and she really should try to enjoy the rest of the party. Although the dance floor is not her preferred destination, either.

She steps away from the wall, content to follow Adam to the bar. One drink won't cause her any problems. "You should see if you can get yourself a PINpoint. That's what I use to travel between here and my world. I'm pretty sure there's a vending machine that sells them in the Plaza."

Adam orders himself a bottle of whiskey from the guy dressed in a vampire costume. "Two glasses, please." He turns himself around, and he leans against the counter so he can face Adia.

"I'll have to look into it, but I still have the issue of an already existing portal. And of course, I don't exactly know how it works and how to control it."

Adia blinks at the drink order. Looks like she's drinking whiskey tonight. Not that she had a drink preference. She plans to nurse whatever's in her glass, not wanting to get drunk or even a little tipsy. It raises too many questions back home.

"I have a theory about the portals," Adia says, somewhat shyly. "I only have anecdotes to back it up, but... well, I first found the Nexus via a portal on my ship. But once I got a PINpoint, I stopped using the portal, and soon afterwards it was gone. I think if they aren't being used, they're more likely to disappear." She taps the bar thoughtfully. "Is there a way you could physically block off the portal from your end? Secure it somehow?"

He twists the top off the bottle, and Adam leans over to pour the golden-brown liquor into both of their glasses. Unfortunately, and perhaps fortunately Adam can't seem to get drunk much to his dismay. Taking the glass in his hand, Adam quickly knocks the glass back and swallows down the Welsh Whiskey. And with a grimace on his face, he places the glass back down on the counter.

"So if I don't go home, the portal will eventually close. But like I said before, I have responsibilities to take care of. And I run the risk of this PINpoint falling into the hands of the wrong people." Adam doesn't like the idea of Taskforce 29 finding out about this place. And he still has a strange feeling that the Interpol agency is an Illuminati front.

"But for now, my portal is inside of my safe house back home. But there's a risk that it will end up being compromised."

Adam reaches for the bottle of whiskey, and he pours himself another drink. "And I would hate to see what could not only happen here, but what could happen not only on my world but on some other world."

1st Annual Halloween Block Party!

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

Apologies - work is draining the life out of my soul.

No worries!

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)