nexus_crossings | Now you're just somebody that I used to know.

"Wow. Harsh." Shark sighs and scratches at one side of his jaw as he tries to imagine the scene. "Guess that's as clear of an answer that you're ever gonna get, huh. I mean, regarding hooking back up with the guy.

"But uh, hey. Onto bigger and better, right? Was the guy even a good lay? Now you can consider this a closed chapter and get crazy. Spring break style. The world's your oyster and so are all the hot guys out there. Girls too, if you're into it." A pause and then a furtive adding of, "Or in-betweens, cuz I guess that's a thing now too."

"It wouldn't have worked anyway," Adia mutters. She should be mad at Caspar, but it's her own naivety that has her scowling at the ground. Her frown softens and she adds softly, "But... I thought, maybe..."

"No, we never--" she starts to say before blushing profusely. "I-I mean, we only dated a week." She grips the wine carton in frustration. "He was a good kisser, though." Stupid Caspar and his stupid gentlemanly ways. Never mind that she probably would be even more heartbroken if they had slept together. But now she'll never know. Dammit!

The rest of Shark's advice seeps into her awareness. It's... not bad advice, not really, but it's not her style. She's surprised Shark is bothering to suggest it to her. "I have a boyfriend, remember? You called him a... a lightbulb or a dimwit or something like that." Her blush returns, this time out of guilt. "I haven't seen him since the bombing, he's probably laying low somewhere." She wipes at her eyes. "Probably for the best he doesn't see me like this, crying over a Cylon..."

"Aw fuck, are you meaning to tell me your current squeeze is in on all this crazy rebellion shit? Adia, sweetheart, you are NEVER gonna get laid like this. Those guys are high on their own fumes 24/7; they see their dick get hard and they don't know what it means. But I'm sure it'll remind them to rant about seizing the means of production and toppling the bourgie or some other lame NOT boning response.

"You and me, kiddo, we gotta go out one of these nights. Get crazy. Find you someone hot to shack up with. I got connections, I got call girls. You into Draken? Once you go Draken, man..."

Adia opens her mouth, ready to defend Will's boyfriending ability, but... dammit, Shark's right. How is he right about this?! "He's a member of the Resistance," she confirms, before sighing heavily. "He keeps me out of the loop, but that's the point, so I wouldn't know anything in case I was questioned. But with everything getting escalating, he hasn't been around much, either."

She still feels like a bad girlfriend, but at least she gets brownie points for not ratting him out while she was interrogated.

Okay, she did not expect Shark to essentially offer to be her wingman. It brings a smile to her face, despite the absurdity of it. It means that Shark is trying to cheer her up in his own sleazy way. "That's... no. But thanks." And then, because she can't help herself, "What's a Draken?"

"This guy sounds like a bigger hassle than he's worth. Are you even on board with his politics? I would think a smart kid like you would just keep her head down and be thankful she's got a job and a place to sleep. Resistance re-shmish-tance."

As far as the second question, Shark holds up a finger while he pulls out his datachron and fiddles with a few folders and files. There's a moment where his eyes flit up towards Adia, then back down to the image he's pulled up. And then he uses thumb and forefinger to crop it differently. THEN he hands it over. The picture is a purple-skinned woman with red hair and a pair of long curved horns on her head. Her shoulders appear to have scales and and she ALSO appears to be not wearing much. The picture is zoomed in on just shoulders up, though. Something Shark had to do manually. Adia can surely assume what the full image must look like. Or she can just use her fingers on it like a tablet and see for herself, if the drunken whim takes her.

"Well, look where that got me," Adia retorts bitterly. "I don't know anything about the Resistance's plans and I was still in the detention center all day. If Caspar hadn't come in when he did, I don't know what would have happened."

Yep, her jerky ex-boyfriend Cylon who pushed her away also just happened to step in right when Three was turning up the threats. But she doesn't stop to dwell on that, just looks at Shark tiredly. "New Caprica isn't a place where you can keep your head down. Either you grovel to the Cylons and get hated by everyone else, or you get dragged out of your bed in the middle of the night without explanation. I don't agree with the Resistance's methods, but at least they're aren't taking it lying down. I can't fault Will for that."

But before Adia can make the conversation even more depressing, Shark has presented her with his datachron and a photo of an attractive-looking alien. "She's pretty," Adia murmurs absently, looking her over before instinctively using her finger to scroll down the image.

Immediate regret. "Gods dammit, Shark," she whines, handing him back the tablet, before realizing that's why he had probably cropped the photo to begin with. "Sorry," she blushes. "Do the males look like that, too, just more masculine?"

Adia at least now knows what draken bap looks like. And the lady had some NICE ones too. Can't deny that. Shark takes the datachron back, unfazed with inadvertently showing his friend a nude, tapping the image away. "Oh yeah, the dudes are HUGE. And angry. I'm not into it, but I respect people that are. Neirin's banged a couple if you want a trip report on how that goes."

Talking about hot aliens and having sex with hot aliens is WAY better than talking about rebellions and oppressive work environments.

Congratulations, Shark. You have managed to take Adia's mind completely off of her troubles on New Caprica. She stares at him, flummoxed, stuttering out a surprised, "R-really?" before shaking her head before he can elaborate. "No, wait, don't. That's Neirin's business, don't you think?"

She's going to try her hardest not to dwell on that mental image, not sure if she'd like it or not, and not wanting to find out. Straying outside her species has already caused her enough problems.

"Dude, Neirin fucks just about everything. He's not shy about it either. I could call him right now and he'd tell you all about the latest dick he just sucked. He's just one chill, horny mordesh. He used to run with cartels, right? Before I hired him. And even there, he had a reputation as some kind of boner whisperer. Hang on, I'm gonna call him."

Oh no, he's already tapping Neirin's contact on his datachron. Oh no.

Nope, no more thoughts of New Caprica. Or Caspar. Just Neirin and how much she didn't need to know that about him. Gosh, he's so tall, too, how does he even --

"Oh my gods, are you really calling him? Shark!" She waves her arms at him, completely scandalized. "Don't bother him about this, come on!"

"Too late!" He even arches away from Adia to make sure she can't stop him or slap the datachron out of his hands. It's only a few seconds before a little blue-tinted hovering screen pops up with Neirin's face. He looks to have been in the middle of eating a slice of pizza, clad in a simple wifebeater and a short-haired orange cat lounging on the backrest behind him.

"Hey, Boss."

"Hey, I was just telling Adia about how you're the BJ King. You wanna elaborate?"

"Dude, fuck yooooou." Neirin takes a bite of pizza and then speaks around the mouthful. "I am though." The cat reaches a paw at that slice in the mordesh's hand, which gets nudged away. Shark, meanwhile, cackles.

Adia makes one half-hearted swipe for the datachron before slumping against the back of her chair in defeat. She covers her face with her hands when Neirin's image appears, not wanting him to see her. So embarrassing!

"I didn't ask him to call you," she announces, red-faced. "Why do you even know that, Shark? That's private."

Neirin's gives Shark a wide-eyed, exaggerated look of accusation and asks loudly, "YEAH, SHARK! WHY DO YOU KNOW THE BJ LORD?!" The cat doesn't care for this increase in volume and gives a creaky meow in protest.

Shark scratches one side of his nose as he huffs in response. "Well, he's not super good at making it private in the first place. But I can promise you on a stack of corporate handbooks that Neirin sure as hell isn't sucking my dick any time soon or ever." Neirin snorts loudly in amusement at this statement, but shortly tries to sober up and frown while holding up a single finger.

"Aw man, Boss, that's not fair. I don't tell you or anyone about the ones who wanna stay secret. I just don't mind being honest about boning. It's healthy. And fun."

Adia peeks through her fingers at Shark, then at Neirin's image, before sighing and dropping her hands. "Healthy and fun, sure. Fine. I don't need to be part of this conversation." Still blushing furiously, she reaches for her carton of wine and takes a long pull from it, desperately trying not to think about Neirin being BJ royalty.

"BOSS! YOU'RE MAKING HER UNCOMFORTABLE!" Neirin looks upset about this, even setting down his pizza to say it. "Why you dragging her into sex talks if she's not on board?! What the hell. You're being gross and mean."

Shark puts a hand on his chest, loudly protesting, "I'm just trying to get her mind off of her shitty ex! I'm not creeping, I'm being a pal! Pals can talk about sex!"

The cat has descended upon the unguarded pizza. He's already chomping on it. Victory tastes sweet.

Awww, Neirin. She wasn't expecting him to stick up for her -- not that she wasn't expecting it, either. But she had assumed that all his attention was either on Shark or his slice of pizza, not her and her embarrassment.

"It's okay, Neirin," she pipes up, leaning forward to better peer at his image -- oh, that cat is eating the pizza, that's cute. "He was just trying to help." Her expression brightens ever so slightly at being considered a "pal" before she side-eyes Shark. "But all the same, it's not my business."

Neirin seems to notice that Adia's eyes are on his pizza and he glances that way. Oh, wait, she's looking at: "Orange Man..." He says it as he reaches for the slice once more. The cat, apparently named or nicknamed Orange Man, growls low and dangerous. You'll have to kill me before I give up my pizza! A silent, staring battle of wills happens, Neirin and cat alike unblinking...before Orange Man darts off in retreat. The mordesh picks up his food and takes another mouthful, unbothered by it having cat bites on it now. There's a swath of cheese missing too.

"Hey, so wait. Ex problems?" Neirin picks the conversation back up as well once he's swallowed. "You need someone beat up? I can beat someone up for you if you want."

"I already offered you up," interjects Shark.

"I'm ready whenever," Neirin adds with a nod.

Orange Man! What a cute name. Why can't they talk about the cute pizza-stealing cat instead of sex with giant muscular horned alien guys? Are they as tall as Neirin, though? Because otherwise how would that --

Oh, wait, they're talking about being up Caspar. Now there's a mental image she lets herself indulge in. Caspar's only a few inches taller than her, it wouldn't be a fair fight at all. Then again, it wasn't very fair when he pushed her, either...

She shakes her head, then winces when it makes her dizzy. "No, no... that's sweet, but no. No, thanks. There's no way to find him now." And even if she did, would she really waste a third chance by having Neirin beat him up? No.

Aw jeez, THIRD chance. Always swing for the fences, Adia.

"Yeah, well. As Neirin's boss, offer's always on the table. Shoot me a text and we'll square up. And how hard can it be to find him? I mean, we just track down all the clones of him -they got clones like we do, Neirin, just models of different humans copied over and over- we track them down and shake 'em up a little. Ask them if they know a nice kid named Adia. And when we find the right one, boom. Neirin, tell Adia what the boom is."

"Me punchin' him?" This is said with slight uncertainty around a mouthful of pizza crust. Shark nods and gestures at the mordesh's image, as if saying 'see, there you have it.'

Maybe she wants a chance to take a swing at Caspar herself?

...no, probably not.

Adia tenses noticeably and fidgets with the carton of wine still in her hands. "No, no, it's not that simple... there are so many of them, and -- look, I'm sure Neirin is amazing at punching people, but you'd both get shot, like, immediately for trying." Her eyes shimmer with another potential round of tears. "And I won't let that happen, you've both been so nice to me, even though you showed me porn, Shark, you've been trying to make me feel better. I really appreciate it."

Shark sighs through his nose at his generous offer being sold so short, but Neirin's expression turns to one of honest sympathy. Seeing people cry is hard! "Aw, well, hey, I'll help you with whatever, even if it's not punching. How about that?" And then he turns his attention to Shark, expression now irritated. "And porn? What are you doing to this poor chick? She's not nasty like us, dude."

Shark sputters and points accusingly at Neirin's image. "Hey, she asked to see a Draken and I showed her a pic of Rati! An artfully cropped picture of Rati. Not my fault Adia decided to scroll on it."

It's a soppy look of gratitude that she gives Neirin's image, although she manages to keep any tears from falling. "Thank you, Neirin. You're so nice." That must be why he's so good at -- no, Adia, stay focused, nobody's talking about Neirin's sexual prowess anymore.

She takes another quick sip of wine and swallows.

"It's true, he did crop it for me, but I scrolled anyway," she interjects, not wanting Shark to get too much flak from his assistant. She blinks and asks, "That's her name? Do you know her, Shark? You should tell her that she's pretty. But not in a creepy way, okay?"

"Oh yeah. Rati and me go way back. She's a call girl. I will totally tell her you're hot for her."

"BOSS."

"I wasn't being serious! Damn! Hard out here for a player. Look, Neirin, you're being a pain in the ass now, so I'm hanging up. Eat your fucking pizza, you slob." The mordesh manages to give a small wave and friendly smile to Adia before the hovering image makes a 'blip' and closes in on itself. Shark rolls his eyes as he puts his datachron away again.

"Hired help these days, am I right?"

Adia is about to protest that she didn't mean it like that, but then Neirin comes to her rescue. She returns his wave -- a little frantically, as she knows that Shark isn't going to give him time to say goodbye.

"He seems more like your friend than anything," she replies to Shark's rhetorical question, but her tone is far from scolding. "I meant it, though, you've been really nice to me. You didn't have to come over at all, and you did anyway." She looks at him fondly, although she can't quite manage a smile. Caspar's rejection still stings deep. How ironic that Shark of all people was willing to let her down gently...

"Hey, um... if I had been crying over you instead of Caspar, what were you planning to tell me to help me get past it?"

"Yeah, well. Me and Neirin have been working together for a long time. We've gotten pretty biz-cas over the years. Partners in slime." Though the follow-up question surprises him! He looks confused for a split second and then nods, settling into his answer.

"Right, right. Uhhh. I dunno! Let you know that despite how rad I am on the surface, I've got baggage? Stuff that's a hassle to have to deal with and how there's way lower maint relationship options out there. Also, that we can totally still hang even though we're not gonna hook up. Oh, and also that work always comes first for me and you don't seem the type to want a career-driven guy that lets it suck up all his time."

Now you're just somebody that I used to know.

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