nexus_crossings | (no subject)

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Some days are better than others.

On Bad Days, the Nexus' resident schizophrenic is hardly recognizable. He's a mess of garbled and slurred speech. Delusional rantings. Unkempt clothes and wild dangerous eyes. The world he sees and hears so far different from reality. He shouts at shadows, throws rocks at the birds, claws at his hair as though he's trying to rip himself out of his own body.

Joshua tends to go somewhere by himself when he's having a Bad Day, though. He's very very used to hiding his condition and pretending to be normal. There are Good Days, too.

Days when he has a part time job, a put together appearance, and a friendly temperament. A life to his eyes that seems so small and fragile and full of hope. Joshua has a few bags with him when he comes to the Nexus today, frowning thoughtfully at the address written down he's supposed to be delivering to.

"You'd think in a meeting place between all worlds and times, prank callers would get more clever than 'Seymour Butts'." With a sigh, he dumps the address in the nearest rubbish bin and takes a seat on one of the couches. So much for his delivery.

"So, does anyone want to commit some petty identity theft for a free meal?" Hell, he'll pretend to be Seymour Butts if it means a free bowl of IceBear's soup. He's going to snag a freshly baked croissant out of the bag first though and pull off a piece of it. "Alternatively, what's the best prank you've ever pulled?"

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"Adia!"

The young man's face breaks out into a slightly larger smile, clearly pleased to see one of his friends here in the plaza today. Though he pauses at the uh....the...dog? It looks really familiar to him somehow. ~~Chris would disown him if he knew Josh didn't recognize a Pokemon especially one of the original 150~~. Either way it gets a friendly head pat and a scritch about her neck.

"Oh, no T-R-E-A-T-S for the dog, huh?" The other two odd companions Adia has are getting slightly more confused looks. The fuck is that? A dino with a satellite for a head? A giant stuffed animal looking bird? Strange.

"Well it won't be a waste if I share it with folks, right?" He'll scoot over to give her space to sit and offer her one of the bags. "No. I live at IceBear's place and watch over it when he's out of the Nexus. It's in the Plaza so...you know. It was fine. I was mostly getting folks to shelter."

He hopes Isidor made it out okay. Josh hasn't heard from her since.

Sarah basks in the attention. A bite of that buttery croissant would sure be nice, but she'll happily settle for pettings. "She's a growlithe," Adia explains. "I'm watching Steve's pokémon... he was injured during the invasion." Rather badly, if the way her smile falters is any indication. "Bucky's wary of strangers, but Ethel is friendly, too. I'm still learning what they can and can't eat, so they probably shouldn't have anything in that bag."

Adia, however, is not going to say no to a free meal. She may look clean and refreshed, but there has been a steadily mounting food crisis in the Fleet. She'll take food wherever she can get it. She sits down next to Josh and smiles at him gratefully when he passes over the bag. Peering into it, she sighs longingly. "Is that Ice Bear's ramen?"

Bucky perches on the back of the couch and gives Josh a suspicious stare. Ethel settles at her feet. "Oh, that's good. That was kind of you to help others. I was in the Plaza, too, performing first aid." She looks around with a small frown. Hard to imagine that just a short time ago this place was overflowing with refugees. "Have you been here for previous invasions? it was... well, if I hadn't already been used to war, I think I would have been overwhelmed."

"I don't know Steve." Josh shakes his head but glances down at the creatures again with a bit more recognition on his face. "Ah, right. Pokemon. I thought these guys looked familiar." So the guy must be some kind of trainer? That makes sense to Josh at least. "I'm...sorry your friend got hurt Adia. I really am."

The bag with the plastic container in it does indeed carry some of IceBear's infamous ramen and a pair of wooden chopsticks plus a spoon to go with it. Josh hasn't even peeked into that bag yet. He was distracted with the officer's baked goods.

"Help yourself. There's plenty here. Guess if your'e gonna prank order food, it's better to do it in bulk." He shrugs. Lugging it here wasn't fun, but at least now he can feed his friends.

"I uh...no. I haven't. But...I've seen worse things."

He must be a great trainer, because all three pokémon are incredibly well-behaved. "it's okay, Josh." She winces at her word choice. "I mean, it's not okay that he got hurt, but he's going to pull through. He just needs time to heal." She hopes. She hopes so hard.

She only hesitates a moment before pulling the container and utensils out of the bag. "You're sure that there isn't a guy named..." She pauses, knowing that she won't be able to say "Seymour Butts" without snickering. "A guy named that? The Nexus is full of possibilities."

Her mood sobers quickly at Josh's admission. "Your hallucinations?" she asks softly. She looks him over in concern, but he seems as put together as he's ever been. "But you're doing okay right now?"

The Growlithe at his feet must sense his distress because she noses right up in between his knees and plops her head on his lap. Turn that frown upside down, human! Adia and her friends must be happy. Beeeeeeee happppyyyyyy. Of course, all that comes out is a chipper sort of bark that sounds more like "Grow grow!" than anything else.

"If there is then he's not claiming his food. Because he's late and this is the spot I was said to head for." Josh has a faintly sad smile on his face as he strokes Sarah's ruff. It's soothing, having an animal that isn't afraid of him. Usually they bolt when he gets close. It's like they can smell the crazy. "So really, help yourself. Ice wouldn't want it to go to waste."

The mention of his...episodes...makes him tense somewhat, but he nods after only a few seconds of hesitation.

"That...too. But, I've seen literal monsters. ....My sister was turned into one." Fucking Wendigo. Josh's stomach turns at the memory and he nearly gags on the buttery pastry he'd been trying to eat. She's not here, Josh. She's gone. No matter what your head tries to tell you, there are no Wendigo here.

"But the hallucinations are pretty shit too."

Adia can't help but smile at Sarah's antics. "Oh, she really likes you, Josh. That's sweet." It makes her glad that she brought the pokémon with her to the Plaza, even if Bucky is still looking disgruntled. Ethel is naturally taking the opportunity to catch some shut eye.

Finally satisfied that there is no Mr. Butts who will storm up to them and demand his food, Adia snaps apart the disposable wooden chopsticks and pops off the plastic lid. She brings the bowl up so she can inhale all that broth-y goodness before balancing it carefully in one hand so she can grab noodles with the other. "Ice Bear gave me a bowl of this when I was all hung over... he is such a good friend."

Mouth full of noodles, she needs several seconds to swallow them with as little slurping as possible before she can respond. "Oh, Josh... I'm so sorry." So many of his earlier comments make sense with this added context. "Is that... is that why she died?"

"Yeah? M..most animals don't. She's a sweetheart. Good girl....there's a good girl."

It's helping him calm down, having her there to stroke and feel the warmth her body gives his hands. Reminding him this is Real and that he's safe here. That they may be talking about bad memories, but it doesn't mean anything more than that. He relaxes into the back of the couch, signing slightly and still idly petting Sarah while he watches people walk by in the plaza.

Ice is a great friend, Josh would agree. Allowing Josh to live with him and all that in exchange for just housework? That's more than just a good friend. He owes the bear so much.

"They were twins. One died in the fall. The other...." He shakes his head. "She became something else. Chris said---" He chokes on his words for a moment. "Chris said she died when they escaped the lodge. Burned up in the fire."

Edited 2017-06-12 16:12 (UTC)

"Pokémon aren't like regular animals." It feels a little like she's stating the obvious, but it's the conclusion that she's come to after spending so much time with these three. "They can understand me... not just my emotions, but some of what I've saying, too." She reaches up to gently scratch at Bucky's feathers. He chirrups softly in response. "They make me feel safe, too... they're taking care of me as much as I'm taking care of them."

The soup is delicious, but she can't enjoy it while Josh is suffering through a painful memory. She sticks the chopsticks into the bowl so she reach over and touch his arm. "That's hard... that's so hard. I'm sorry."

"You'd like them. My sisters, I mean. The didn't have a mean bone in 'em. Always so happy. Full of life."

Josh sighs and squeezes his eyes shut for a minute. It's all too much. He pulls away slowly at the warm nose nudging at his arm. Sarah's tail has stopped wagging and she lays her head down in Josh's lap intently. Hang in there human! It's going to be okay.

"But...there's no chaining what happened. So....You gotta just keep going at it. Even when everything sucks." Which is.....pulling it mildly."

"I'm sure I would," Adia agrees whole-heartedly. She likes most people anyway, but Josh's sisters sound like especially sweet girls. The kind she would have liked to have as friends when she was their age.

It looks like Sarah's got the whole physically comforting thing down, so she withdraws her hand and eats some more of her ramen. "Yeah," she says quietly, commiserating with Josh's words. She wishes she had something uplifting to say in return...

"Guess what," she says finally. "We found evidence recently that Earth is real. It looks like we're going to find it soon." Maybe he won't care, too deep in his own dark thoughts, but it's something, right? "And, oh... we got off New Caprica. The day after you helped me. Thanks again for that, by the way."

His hands find themselves burying into Sarah's fluffy fur around her neck and giving her loving attention while he tries to think of something not terribly sad and depressing to say, for once. Sometimes he feels like all he does is bring other people down.

"Yeah?" He looks over at her after a long moment and twitches the beginning of a smile across his face. "I hope it's as good of a chance for your people as you think it is." When she thanks him for his help he flushes a bit and glances away.

"You're welcome. It's..I mean, it's what anyone woulda done."

"Yeah." She grins, happy to see the beginnings of a smile. "I hope so, too. We're following a beacon to another part of space... they meant for us to find them, so hopefully they'll be willing to help."

"Not anyone," she gently disagrees. "You're a very charitable person, Josh." She holds up the bowl of ramen as an example. "You were there for me when I needed someone. That means a lot to me."

"It's a good sign then. We sent out probes and satellites into deep space too, with inscriptions on them and messages should anyone or anything find them out in the void. Music. Mathematical diagrams. So I gotta think if they left a beacon, it would have had some sort of information on it on the off chance it was found."

Space isn't really his expertise of random knowledge, but he knows a bit. Just enough Revamped Cosmos knowledge to hopefully give Adia a bit of hope that isn't just empty words but based on fact about his Earth.

"I don't...like to see people suffering. Is all. You've been nothing but nice to me, you know? I wanted....I wanted to help if I could."

"It had coordinates, but no other information, so far as I know." She's intrigued by the idea of inscriptions of music and mathematics, and frowns thoughtfully at the idea. "It would have been nice to have more than that, but if they're running under the assumptions that the Sacred Scrolls haven't been corrupted over time, then there wouldn't be a need for it. That's a neat idea, though, I'm glad people on your Earth did that."

She watches him quietly for a moment, hoping he'll look at her again. "Things are much better now," she tells him. It's important that he knows that, that she isn't still suffering. "And if there's anything I can do to help you, you let me know, okay?"

"Well, when we sent them out, we were trying to get information from them not so much worry about if someone else found 'em. But just in case they did, there was some stuff on there to point back to us. You know, 'Earth was here' kind of a thing."

Josh finishes the pastry he had set aside before and smiles softly down at Sarah to give her one last pet before his attention is fully on Adia again. He's really not used to be given compliments, especially these days.

"Good. You deserve better." He means it, too. So much about this woman reminds him of his sisters in a way that makes him want to be a better person. Help her out whenever he can. "Really, if you see me out screaming at shadows, just make sure you call Han or Icebear or something. Take me back to Ice's house. So I don't hurt no one."

He shrugs. It would be nice if he knew what was wrong with him, or how he could treat it, but after so long with no one being able to diagnose him, Josh has nearly given up on ever getting better.

Edited 2017-06-17 14:40 (UTC)

"And no one was worried about whose attention that might attract?" She grimaces a little and adds, "Sorry. I'm too used to hiding from the Cylons."

It's her turn to blush a little at the compliment. She's unsure if he means her ex-boyfriend or her situation in general, but with the two tied up so tightly with one another, it doesn't really matter. She nods solemnly at his words, taking his condition seriously. "I will. I have Ice Bear's contact on my PINpoint. Who is Han? I don't think I've met him."

"Not really? We wanted other worlds to know we were out there. Make contact. All that jazz. Jury's still out on whether that actually works out for my world though."

Not that Han or Ice could fix him either, but they at least have experience with him being batshit insane. They can wrangle him up and get him away from other people at least. Less likely for him to get hurt, too.

Josh almost scoffs in disbelief at someone not knowing Han Solo, but Adia's world is much different than his is. It's easy to forget a cultural icon could be anyone to someone who doesn't know.

"He's a friend of mine. Owns the speeder I helped fix last summer.He's a pilot, likes to wear vests."

"Contact with aliens," she says with a slightly questioning lilt to make sure she's understanding him correctly. "I don't know, I used to think the odds were better for alien life, but we've been halfway across the galaxy by now and haven't found anybody else. But maybe it's different where you're from."

Perhaps someday Adia will have an opportunity to watch some Earth movies and get better acquainted with its pop culture. Until then, Han Solo is just another Nexus denizen. But she'll make an effort to find him, if it's important to Josh. "A pilot? What does he fly?"

"Oh, yes. With aliens I mean."

He gives a thoughtful tilt to his head. Pauses to rummage around in the bags of food for another pastry to nibble on. Ooh, home made foccacia. Score! Nom nom nom.

"S'far as I know humans have never been living anywhere but Earth in my world, so like..." He pulls up a picture of the planet on his phone and hands it over to her. "When that photo was taken every man, woman, and child alive and dead were all in that photo, except for the person who took it. It's crazy, you know?"

"He has a cargo ship called the Millenium Falcon. I forget what model ship it is, but it's got FTL capabilities. He flies all around his home galaxy in it."

Sarah's nose wiggles at the smell of home made foccacia, but otherwise she's content to stay close to Josh and keep him company. Ethel has already dozed off, and Bucky is periodically breaking his creepy bird stare to gaze longingly at Adia's ramen. Adia pretends not to notice, but makes a mental note to give all three pokémon some treats when they get back to Steve's apartment.

Setting the plastic bowl in her lap, she takes Josh's phone. She has seen this particular photo before during her intermittent research of Earth, but she still takes a minute to look it over, her expression full of wonder, as if someone has given her a precious gift. "It's so beautiful... "

Josh's words break her out of her trance. She hands back his phone, suddenly a lot more interested in his friend Han. "A spaceship? Is he from an Earth, too, or somewhere else?"

"Yeah, it...it is. Sorry. I didn't mean..."

It's not like he wants to rub it in, with her being from a place that's searching desperately for Earth. It's the only home he's ever known. At least until taking up residence in the Nexus, that is.

The phone is quickly pocketed in either case. He shakes his head quickly.

"They don't have Earth where he's from. There's a lot of planets in his galaxy that have humans on them, and tons more with all other kinds of life. He's from a place called Corellia."

It takes her a moment to catch on to why he's apologizing. "No, it's fine," she reassures him. "We'll be finding our Earth soon, I'm sure of it."

There's a small amount of disappointment that she tries hard not to show. If Mr. Solo is not from Earth, then the star charts he has on his ship won't be of much use to her. But by the time she picks up her bowl of ramen, now nearly gone thanks to her appetite and Ice Bear's amazing cooking, her interest in Josh's friend returns. "Someone else not from Earth... there aren't a lot of us, are there?" She smiles. "I look forward to meeting him. He's not from the same universe as Shark, is he? The little alien lawyer?"

"I don't think so? I mean maybe but if he is it's not any species I recognized." Not like Joshua is an expert on every single random alien costume ever that was shown in the movies. That was more Chris's hobby.

"He's kind of arrogant but not like a total asshole about it. He's always looking out....for me. Actually I'm glad I was able to help him with the speeder. He broke his arm last summer in that weird coliseum thing that happened. Until then, he was really only ever helping me. So I got to give back, then."

"Okay." She shrugs and returns to her ramen. It doesn't hurt to ask.

She thinks for a moment that he's still talking about Shark, but despite how fond she is of the diminutive clone, there's no "kind of" modifying his arrogance. "I'm glad Han has been looking out for you. I know how important it is to give back, too. I'm glad you got the opportunity." She pauses, the last few curls of noodle clinging to her chopsticks. "Do I want to know about the weird coliseum thing?”

"I don't know too much about it? People signed up to spar with other people for a chance to win money, but I guess only some of the people volunteered? All I know is that Han freaking Solo fought Captain Kirk and kicked his scrawny ass."

Adia may have to find a less biased person to get the details on this particular event. Josh is quick to talk up all of the badass moments his friend had.

"Though the guy I was sitting with--weird guy in a leather skirt-- seemed pretty bummed that Kirk lost."

Something akin to distaste passes across Adia's features. Not enough to put her off her ramen, but enough to make her chew her last bite slowly and without pleasure. Fighting. And with some people dragged into the spectacle involuntarily! She will never understand why anyone would want to participate in such an event, let alone watch.

Not that she holds it against Josh. He's young man, they're usually into that sort of thing. Finally swallowing, she wipes at her mouth with a napkin and listens to his description of the disappointed man who sat next to him during the fight. "Oh, that must be Felix. He's Jim's boyfriend."

Only belatedly does she realize that maybe she shouldn't have said that so freely. As frustrated as she is over how loose Felix plays with the truth, he's still her friend, and she's willing to respect the things he keeps private. She doesn't know if this is one of those things.

Josh nods, though he notes after a moment that Adia doesn't seem all that keen on the idea. He settles down quickly and nibbles at his food again instead. Upsetting her isn't really what he'd intended to do, after all.

"Well, I know Han signed up for a chance to get the funds he needed to fix his ship. So it was a good thing, you know? Not so much him getting hurt but he had me around to help him out while he recovered."

She's not sure what it says about Han, that he'd be willing to fight for money to repair his ship, but he's Josh's friend, so she won't pass judgement. Josh needs all the friends he can get. "He was lucky to have you around," she says, her smile returning. "You're good at caring for others."

Her bowl empty, she closes the lid back on. "Thank you again so much for the ramen. I'm going to recycle this and then take Steve's pokémon to the park. Do you have any other trash? I can take it with me."

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I got an error when posting the tag and forgot to try again. >_<

Oop!

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