chiron_survivor | Hiding in plain view. ((open to anyone!))

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Hiding in plain view. ((open to anyone!))

She didn't flee to the Nexus immediately. At first, she was just in shock. The cylons were back, except this time, they were running the government. A "coalition" government, but everyone knew what that really meant.

It didn't make sense to her. They hated humans. Why not just destroy them and be done with it?

Her boyfriend assumed it was some sort of elaborate revenge plot, or a way to salvage the aspects of humanity the cylons considered worth keeping. He wanted her to agree with him, to be red-hot about it, too, but Adia was too distracted. She kept seeing Caspar's face -- the one she thought she knew -- and comparing it with the ones she kept seeing, wherever she went.

She could tell it was bothering him, that her attention was elsewhere.

Later, in the middle of the night when she knew she wouldn't be missed by any humans, and prayed she wouldn't be missed by any cylons, she PINpointed to the Nexus.

She sat at a Nexus terminal and typed out a message for anyone to read.

The cylons are on New Caprica.

Only then did she cry.

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A slight frown crosses his brow but he nods. "It is."

"A lot of good they did," he grunts when she talks about the seers in her world. He never had liked them much. "Easy to make a prediction, not to know your future. Far too many random events for that, I would think... It must be hard to understand a race with such a different set of behaviors and influences."

"They seem to think it's one and the same," she replies. "But they're... yeah, they're hard to understand." And then she frowns again, as if upset with herself. Caspar wasn't hard to understand. At least, she didn't think he was. "They are so good at being human when they don't know that they aren't..."

"I'm sure human behavior is well documented in your world," he points out. "I'd be surprised if they weren't able to recreate or mimic it."

He tries not to frown even more, but it's difficult. As strong as Adia is, this seems to have shaken her far more than anything else. Even worse, he can't do any more about it than offering a few words. That is going to irritate him.

"Do you want a drink?"

It's not easy seeing your dead really-a-robot ex-boyfriend's face everywhere. Literally. Although Lich might also chalk that up to a problem of a woman's mind. Adia is still simmering in her thoughts, and the question catches her by surprise. "A drink?"

People turn to drink when these sorts of things happen, don't they? She's seen it happen to other people. But she hasn't become an alcoholic, and a drink sounds awfully appealing right now. If anything, it'll help her go back to sleep. "Sure."

While he could ask if she would prefer coffee or tea, he finds it highly unlikely she wouldn't want something stronger. Lichtenstein nods and stands. "I know just the place. Come with me."

Usually he would go on ahead once he saw her stand, but this time he waits, making sure she's in step with him. It's not far from where Adia was sitting, but a change of scenery will distract her. At least, he hopes it will. "Yes, a stiff drink and a good night's rest. That's what you need. Nothing else quite does the job for stress like this."

She rouses herself out of her seat, the emotional pain of the last few days more obvious when she stands. "Doctor's orders?" she says to Lich with the faintest of smiles. She walks beside him, glad it isn't far. "There's a man that visits the Nexus sometimes. He always manages to find a bottle of hypervodka hiding in a couch."

"Doctor's orders. Excluding children or those at risk of kidney failure," he adds as he keeps an eye on her. He doesn't fold his hands behind his back, just in case she stumbles.

"Hyper..." Lichtenstein shakes his head. "I probably don't want to know the effects of that. I get the impression you don't drink on a regular basis."

"Pretty sure my kidneys are okay." She's steady on her feet, just a little slow and weary.

"From the 51st century," she explains, not that it is much of an explanation. She shakes her head a little. "No, it's not really my thing. I have a low tolerance and I don't like getting hungover."

"Always good to hear."

"You're a responsible woman, Adia. Although having a resistance to poisons of any sort is always preferable, I find." He looks at her then. "Do you have a god for that sort of thing? Drinking and celebrating?"

"Is there a way to become resistant, on your Earth?" That does sound preferable, come to think of it.

"Dionysius," she replies, looking up at him. "The God of Wine. There's a prayer you say when you open a bottle of wine, but it's more custom than anything. Like saying 'Bless You' when someone sneezes."

"Same way as with everything else: Take small doses until your body becomes used to it." Something, he notes, that he himself should be practicing, though not with alcohol.

"What is the prayer for? Thanks? Or asking that the wine is good?" He steps ahead of her to open the door when they come to their destination.

"I tried that in college with alcohol and all it did was add to my Freshman 15." She smiles briefly, then pauses, unsure if Martel will get the joke. "I mean, it just added empty calories to my diet."

"The first," she replies, stepping through the door and taking a look around. "He invented wine-making. I mean, according to myth. He's supposed to be kind to mortals, unlike his followers."

He crooks an eyebrow and opens his mouth to ask when she explains. "Ah. Well, you don't look any worse for it."

It's warm and the light from the windows is helped by the weak lights. Lichtenstein gravitates towards a corner booth out of habit. "Unlike his followers?"

"Thanks," Adia replies drily, taking the pseudo-compliment as it was intended. "That was a while ago, anyway."

The bar looks so peacefully mundane, compared to the Nexus and even her current home, that she feels a bit disoriented. She follows Martel to a booth and slips into it, sinking into the creaking leather seat with a sigh. "It was a cult... I forget the name, it was a long time ago, made up of mostly women. They would drink themselves into a kind of frenzy. They killed Orpheus, supposedly -- the son of one of the muses."

It looks like she needed a proper seat. He, however, does not sit. After all, someone needs to get the drinks, and she looks like she needs one of those as well as a comfy seat. "A good tale to keep someone from over drinking. Is there something in particular you would like to drink, or will I order for you?"

"Unless they wanted to be in a frenzy," Adia muses halfheartedly. "You can order for me, sure." Normally she'd have more of a preference of what she'd like to drink, but she's not really in the mood to make a decision, big or small.

"I could only imagine their train of thought." Even then, he doubts he would want to. It's probably a good thing, then, that the Cylons have a different religion.

He's only at the bar for a few minutes before he returns with a brandy for her and a pint for himself. When he sits, he relaxes a little and pulls his beer closer. "That won't send you into a frenzy, but it should help."

Adia pokes at the water stains on the table top while Lich is at the bar, her gaze unfocused. Her mind is still stuck on religion, however useless it is to dwell on. She wonders how the cylons developed a religion in the first place. They certainly didn't need a creation myth, or even stories about the afterlife. Who needs Hades when you can just download into a new body?

She has a good guess what he chose for her, based on the shape of the glass and the color of a liquid. Her guess is confirmed when she takes a sip, screwing her face up a little as it burns its way down her throat, but in a good way. "Thanks," she says. "I used to drink hot toddies on Aquarion."

He watches her expression carefully, but once she thanks him he feels free to sip his own drink. "Hot toddies? Is drinking a big part of your culture? Other than the cults, of course."

"Hot tea and brandy," she explains before taking another sip. The brandy goes down a little easier this time, but Lich does not have to worry about Adia chugging her drink. "Somehow the brandy doesn't taste so strong when it's warm..."

She blinks at his question, unsure how to answer. "I guess. I mean, it's something to be enjoyed, not overdone. Leonis had a lot of vineyards. We produced a lot of good wine. But we didn't have alcohol with every meal or anything like that. How about where you're from?"

He raises an eyebrow. That was not a drink combination he would have thought of. Then again, he doesn't think about drinks on a regular basis.

It's such a curious thought; that Leonis, this alien planet so far removed from his own reality, would have vineyards just like his world. The thoughtful look passes and he answers her question a moment later. "Where I come from, a pint is usually a treat that you get as often as you can. It's a business the economy can rely on sticking around. I'm certain that many would overdo it if they afford to."

He makes a thoughtful noise. "Perhaps that explains the insistence on having a sensible wife."

"I think I'd take that cake I had over the pint, most times," Adia comments, looking into her drink. "But I suppose there's always a market for both. People need treats, otherwise life can get very hard..."

His final comment makes her look up, a little confused by the change in subject. "Someone pressuring you to settle down?" If not for the burden of current events, Adia probably would have sounded more teasing, but she manages to muster up some amusement. "Isn't it your sister's job to keep you out of trouble?"

"Next time I will insist you have Black Forest gateau, or another alcohol infused cake," he offers as a compromise. "Presuming you find yourself in need of either again."

He blinks at her questions. "Yes, no. Ah... No. It's mine. I just thought it was a good explanation for the insistence of a nice family unit. It would keep alcoholics on a straighter, narrower path. Not that I am an alcoholic. Or being pressured to settle down for my own benefit." Much.

"Thanks." She smiles faintly. Her trip to Martel's world is a fond memory, one she cherishes, and not just because of the cake.

Adia gives his response some thought while she takes another swallow of brandy. "I've heard a lot of reasons to get married," she replies finally. "I guess that's one of them. But I wouldn't want the responsibility of keeping someone on the straight and narrow. Is that the main life path, on your world? To get married, have kids, that sort of thing?"

Lichtenstein nods in agreement about the responsibility involved. There are people who don't mind that responsibility, of course, but Lichtenstein always thought them strange. He takes a generous swig of his drink before he answers. "That would depend on who you ask. For my mother, it was. For my father, it was second only to professional excellence. For some people I have met, just surviving seems to be enough."

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