While you stare at your boots, and the words float out like holograms

[i_have_my_flaws]

((closed to Starbuck and the Doctor. Takes place a while after Una and Starbuck's night of drunken revelry. Also after the Rani's arrival.))Sador had been gone all day. Which wouldn't have been anything special except for the fact that she hadn't come in to get lunch. Which meant that someone had probably fed her horrible park food. Starbuck was

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[a_lonely_god]

“Oh hello,” the Doctor said, looking vaguely surprised to see her, and then glanced down at Sador. “So this is home then? Nice. Bit… grey. But nice.” And back up to Starbuck. “You wouldn’t believe the things your dog gets up to.”

[i_have_my_flaws]

"Yeah, I would," she told him matter-of-factly, tossing the ball in his direction without much thought as to the speed of it. This was only the second chance she'd had to properly size him up.

Which was rather unfortunate for him. Though he didn't know it yet.

"So, you been trailing her all day, or what?"

[a_lonely_god]

The Doctor caught the ball with an “oof,” chest curving forward slightly around it and one knee coming up. It looked a little silly.

“Yep. We had a grand old time; investigated the castle moat,” he pointed to the cuffs of his trousers, which were dark with water, “got fed snacks by a couple people, took a nap in the sun, climbed up inside the back ways of the Rocky Mountain Railroad, avoided some other people, found loads of interesting smells… chased some ducks too, but she was sort-of halfhearted about it.” He cocked his head. “There’s something… off about those ducks.”

He looked down at the ball in his hands. Turned it over, studying it.

[i_have_my_flaws]

He was like a bendy rag doll or something. Starbuck couldn't really see the appeal, but then, she tend to like guys who were a little... sturdier.

For the day's accounted activities, she could do little more than raise an eyebrow and try not to laugh. She half-expected a kid to come back trailing the dog one day, but a grown man - a grown, 900 year old alien man - was not really something she'd been ready for.

"The ducks have all sorts of conspiracy theories attached to them," she said, holding out her hands to get him to toss the ball back. "Ask anyone around here."

Terse? No, she wasn't being terse. Not exactly.

[a_lonely_god]

“Yeah? They seem ordinary enough, and they scan as regular ducks. It’s just… I have this feeling. Like a sort-of hunch.” He shook his head and tossed the ball easily back to her. “Sort of ball is this, anyway?”

[i_have_my_flaws]

She really wasn't going to get into the duck thing with him. Let him ask someone else. She didn't want to watch him freak out over it, amusing as it was bound to be.

"It's a pyramid ball," she told him, catching it with practiced familiarity and tossing it back and forth between her hands. "A game where I come from, but not one that they seem to have on Earth. Not surprising, I guess."

[a_lonely_god]

“That’s right, Kobol you said,” the Doctor agreed, nodding. “No wait, that was the religion, no that’s right, Twelve colonies and a lost thirteenth. I remember. Gah, where have I heard that story before? I can’t believe I can’t remember.” He made a frustrated noise. “Anyway, no, no pyramid on Earth I’m afraid. Lots of sports, football and cricket and rugby and basketball, baseball, tennis, oh, the list goes on. But I’ve never heard of pyramid. Come here Sador, I’ll scratch your ears.”

[i_have_my_flaws]

Sador trotted over eagerly to get ear scratches.

Seemed dogs were very good at ignoring insanity as long as they got their required attention.

"Yeah, people have been more than willing to give me a long list of other sports." It didn't change the fact that she never knew what they were talking about the and references never made a damn bit of sense. "So you really do think you've heard a story similar to mine?" Her irritation was shoved aside for a time, curiosity throwing its weight around in her head and demanding that she wring as much information as she could. No matter how crazy he was.

[a_lonely_god]

“Must be hard,” the Doctor observed idly. “Stuck in a place where most everyone is from Earth or is at least pretty familiar with Earth and Earth culture.”

He worked expert fingers along Sador’s scalp and beside her ear.

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure. Old, old story. Mind you, I’m a Time Traveler so old is sort-of relative. It was old when I heard it, legend or story about the colonies of Kobol and the… cyber, cyber somethings?”

[i_have_my_flaws]

She shrugged. "I've been through a lot worse. More than anything, it's frustrating. We're trying to get here, or at least, the real version of here. And it's all around me, but I can't do anything about it." Can't even let someone know....

Time traveler. Frak her. "Cylons," she corrected, fixing him with a stare that usually sent most of the viper jocks running. "If you're a time traveler, if that's possible, then why don't people go back and...." Genocide. Billions of people. Wouldn't anyone want to stop that?

[a_lonely_god]

“Cylons, right.” He met her gaze for a moment, then shook his head gently.

“It’s not that simple. You can’t just run around Time, changing things willy-nilly. There are events that are meant to happen, terrible as they may be, and changing the wrong ones can have terrible consequences, even if it seems the right… the moral thing to do.” He shrugged and glanced away. “Often especially then.”

[i_have_my_flaws]

She didn't really want to know. "Right. Fine."

Starbuck spun the ball between two fingers. "You're friends with Una, aren't you?" Completely innocent inquiry, of course. Nothing she was planning on getting at.

[a_lonely_god]

“Sorry,” he said, and he sounded like he meant it.

He curled his fingers under Sador’s chin.

“Oh you know Una? Yeah, she’s a friend. Good friend, in fact.”

[i_have_my_flaws]

People could sound like a lot of things. Didn't mean that they meant it. Starbuck usually had a hard time believing genuine sympathy. It always sounded like a nicer way of saying 'thank gods it's you and not me'.

"Yeah, I know her. I met her on her arrival, actually. She was over here the other day; we had a good time." And any other time that would have prompted a smirk on her part, but she had a point and it was sticking. "Had a lot on her mind, though."

[a_lonely_god]

He glanced up at her.

“Yeah?”

[i_have_my_flaws]

Oh sure, he'd get away with that.

"Yeah."