nexus_crossings | 1st Annual Halloween Block Party!

Current Mood: Festive
Current Location: The Plaza

1st Annual Halloween Block Party!

Perhaps it's the leaves of fiery golds and oranges drifting on the breeze, or the sight of various hard squash being mangled into festive ornaments, or even still the bowls of candy left out simply everywhere in the Nexus that signifies the import of today. Regardless of when you take heed, Halloween has come to the Nexus.

Neat little handmade signs and fliers of all kinds lead to a particularly festive sectioned off block with the Crossroads Cafe at the center. The brick building has more than its fair share of decorations hung from every available windowsill and door. Hanging skeletons, jolly Jack-O-Lanterns, orange and black streamers cascading down and blowing to and fro in the crisp breeze.

The doors are propped open just waiting to beckon you inside. What are you waiting for?

((See the OOC post if you have any questions! Backtagging and threadhopping are fine. Come on in and have a blast :D ))

Coats and Costumes
The Cafe
Bonfire
Dance Floor
Haunted House
Side Halls and Storage

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Well." Josh shrugs and gives Adia a small smile. It's a little bit pained, but it shows he's sincere about it. "Part of why I can't eat a lot is that I can't stand to be hungry. Like, at all. So I eat often. Just not a lot."

That way he never has to worry about getting those kinds of hunger pain stomach aches. It's not the sort of thing he handles very well, anymore.

"I get it though. And believe me when I say you do you. No one's gonna mind if you only ate cupcakes the whole night. Believe me, I'm sure the officer has more in the back."

"Oh... but you are getting food regularly?" He doesn't look malnourished, but people can hide all sorts of ailments. She hopes the Nexus has been as generous with him as it's being with her.

She laughs softly at the idea. It seems to lighten her mood. "Maybe if I was ten years old," she says with a small grin. "But I do plan to have at least one dessert."

"I wasn't for a while."

Josh shrugs with the admission. It's in the past and not something he can really help now. And it wasn't really because the Nexus was any less friendly than it is now, just...

"I was afraid of everything and everyone, at first. Once I made some friends, everything sorted itself out. And now I live with Ice and man, it is impossible to be malnourished in that house."

Adia finds herself nodding in understanding. "I was like that, too. Not -- not this time around, but the first time I found the Nexus, I was terrified. The, um... there was a lot of paranoia back home at the time, and I carried that with me here. It took me a while to trust anyone."

The mention of Ice Bear brings a smile to her face. Only in the Nexus can you count a polar bear as one of your best buds. "This Nexus is very welcoming. Everyone has been very kind to me." Including Josh, which hopefully goes without saying.

"Yeah. I was...I was dying, when I ended up here. I got help, but I was so scared. I thought I'd finally snapped for good. Since I was in a cave before I ended up here."

Josh gestures with his fork while he talks, asparagus wobbling in every direction before it joins its brethren in om nom noms. He likes that mentioning Ice makes her smile. It should, Ice Bear is a good guy and someone Josh likes a lot.

"Yeah well, we try to pay it forward." No need to specify him, Josh reads you loud and clear Adia.

"Imma get fat if I keep letting these goofs cook for me, oof."

Adia doesn't say anything at first; the sympathy in her eyes is loud enough. There's a touch of gratitude, as well, that's he comfortable enough around her to talk about it. "I was on a ship at the time... we were fleeing for our lives from a Cylon attack. Kind of a shock to go from deep space to a peaceful plaza."

She eats when Josh does, careful not to smear her green lipstick every time she takes a bite. She's glad that Josh had commented on the amount on her plate, as awkward as it was at first, because she is already thinking about what else she'd like to try. "Everything is delicious. Is it Halloween tradition to have food like this?"

"Makes a lot of sense. We don't have much of that except from probes back home. We've been to th'moon a few times, and we've got a space station in orbit above the planet but otherwise everything else we know about deep space is thanks to telescopes and probes."

Josh nods along with Adia's explanation. The closest friend he's made in the Nexus is Han freaking Solo, so space travelling doesn't seem to faze him in the slightest.

"Not so much a tradition, but parties and the like are pretty common. What you eat at them is up to the hosts though. My friends always used to do Halloween hoagies and Happy Hour."

Josh isn't the first Earthling to talk about space travel as being limited to the moon (and only a few times!) and an orbiting space station. "If Earth is real in my universe, they'd have to have space travel. Otherwise they wouldn't have been able to get there in the first place."

The change in conversation topic is welcome. It's a lot easier to talk about than scary first times in the Nexus. "It's too bad you don't more than that. Space travel is fun."

She listens intently to Josh's explanation, trying to learn as much as she can about Halloween, and Earth culture by extension. "Did your friends pick hoagies because of the alliteration?" She smiles a little, amused by the possibility.

"I wonder if I'll ever get the chance to do it. It sounds like something I'd like to experience at least once."

Josh stares thoughtfully down at the remnants of his food and tries to imagine what that would be like. It'd be an awful lot like riding in an airplane, wouldn't it? He's got no point of reference for such an experience.

The last comment snaps him back to reality.

"Oh. Yeah. We did." He grins toward Adia. "My best friend's idea, really."

She wishes she could give Josh the opportunity, but the ships on New Caprica are all grounded. Even if they weren't, it wouldn't work logistically to bring a stranger aboard. There's be too much explaining to do and Adia was awful at lying.

"I'm sure you could find someone here who could get you into space," she suggests instead, scooping up the last bit of food on her plate. "And... I don't know, maybe someday I can give you a tour of the Chiron. If this war ever ends."

"Very clever of them," Adia remarks, smiling. "Must have been a fun time."

"Uh? Y..yeah. I'm sure I could. But I got other things to pay for before I start worrying about a joyride through space, you know? I'm trying to save up enough to get my own place. Not that crashing with Ice Bear is bad by any means. I just..."

He pushes a lone stalk of asparagus around his plate.

"I want to prove I can take care of myself. And, that I can get my shit together enough to do it." After everything he'd done to hurt his friends...if he can't even live on his own, he can't face them again.

"It was a great time. They're...they were good friends."

"Oh, but I meant... well, I don't see why you'd have to pay for a ride. Don't people like to show off their spaceships? I wouldn't make you pay." Maybe she had been assuming too much, or maybe Josh is more like her than she thought. "I... I understand, though. You want to get yourself settled here properly." And not rely indefinitely on other people's generosity.

She doesn't miss the past tense. Once again she wonders what happened to him, why he sees the Nexus as a purgatory and not a refuge. "I think you're very brave for starting over. I'm sure you'll be able to make it here."

"I just figured it couldn't be cheap to zip around the galaxy like that. It costs a fuckton of money just to launch a probe or a satellite back where I'm from."

Josh gives a shrug. He doesn't know how this whole space travel thing works, but he wouldn't have assumed it would be free. Almost nothing is.

"Well it was either that or..." Now, Josh has been known to blurt out socially inappropriate things without realizing it. It was just another symptom of his mental instability. But the part of him that hid that illness for years slaps him in the face now. You don't joke about your own plans for suicide, especially when it's not a joke. He sets his fork down on the plate.

"...or I don't know, really. I didn't have a whole lot of options."

"It must depend on where someone is from. If you're just getting started, I imagine it costs a lot more. And those are powered by fossil fuels, right? Our ships use renewable energy." She won't press the issue, though. A man has his pride. But she hopes Josh gets to travel in space at some point.

He doesn't need to fill in the punchline. She's witnessed firsthand what happens when someone feels like they can't go on. "I still think it's very brave," she insists. You're not getting out of her compliment so easily, Josh. "The Nexus is... it's wonderful, truly, but it can be intimidating, too.

She looks down at her empty plate, and then at his. "I think I'm going to get a few more things. Do you want anything while I'm up, or are you all set?"

"What kind of fuel then?"

He can't deny that he's curious. The idea of space travel is every kind of cool to him. Especially because it's still in its infancy in Josh's world. He's not as much of a nerd over it as his best friend is, but he's definitely interested. And this is...a safer topic. He can read between the lines, there.

"I think I'm good. You help yourself. I know for a fact one of those chocolate skull cakes has my name on it a bit later."

"Tylium. You can mine it from asteroids, but a little goes a long way." She smiles apologetically. "I don't know the specifics, unfortunately. The last physics class I took was my freshman year of college. After that, it was almost entirely biological science courses."

"Okay." She's not planning to get much more. She'd like to save room for a decorated cupcake, too. She stands up, taking her plate with her. "I'll be right back. Um, unless you wanted to go do something else? Since you're done eating for now." She doesn't want to keep Josh from the rest of the party. He's been very kind in keeping her company, but as she is with the buffet, she doesn't want to be greedy.

"I have never even heard of that."

The future has all kinds of neat stuff and Josh always ends up feeling like he's a particularly slow child whenever he talks to folks about stuff like this. But it's fascinating stuff, and he can't help but ask questions.

"I'm gonna grab a beer and see if I can't find Han Solo around here. He's dressed up as Indiana Jones and I bribed him with booze to let me make the costume as accurate to the movies as possible so I gotta see how folks are diggin' it."

"It's probably only particular to the ships we use." Especially considering that humans have only been as far as the moon in Josh's universe. "I wish I knew more about it to tell you."

She smiles, glad he's going to go enjoy more of the party, even if she still has no idea who Han Solo or Indiana Jones is. "Okay, have fun." She pauses another moment and adds, "And thanks for... well, everything. Happy Halloween."

"Hey, what're friends for?"

An ironic sentiment coming from Josh, but it doesn't make it any less sincere when he quips and gets to his feet.

"Happy Halloween Adia. I'll catch you later."

Just let him go toss his trash and he'll go do just that.

It would have taken a literal Medusa mask to hide how happy Josh's innocent quip makes her. She gives him a tiny wave and then returns to the buffet, less conflicted about enjoying herself.

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1st Annual Halloween Block Party!

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