[Open Thread] - Lazy Days, or Ladies with Trashy Romance Novels.

[im2sexy4mysnark]

In a sunnier spot of the Nexus, we have Altalita lounging in a lounge chair with a drink on a nearby matching table, a great big umbrella over her, and her feet in a kiddie-style pool. She's wearing sunglasses and a sort of billowy butterfly-print skirt. Currently, she's reading a book

Comments

[instrument_of]

He wasn't expecting to see her again.

He never sees familiar faces in the Nexus. Not anymore, anyway, not since he's stopped visiting the sanctuary and closed himself off from the question's area. He's been in his own universe, mostly, grimacing through each day, tying scrap paper into frustrated knots (nothing is scrap anymore, everything is precious, those poor morons will run out of paper within the year), and rubbing the headaches out of his temples. He hates the Galactica, but he's afraid of the Nexus, afraid of what it can do to him. What it has done to him.

And so he visits less frequently. He sees people he knows less frequently. Not to mention the only friend he's made is angry at him and probably did god(s) know(s) what with his body. He doesn't know where to put himself.

But Lita. Lita...

'Not going home?' asks his Six, and he doesn't need to face her to know that she's grinning. 'Giving the Nexus one - last - chance?'

"I know you hate it here," he mutters. He can see Lita in the distance from where he stands, and he prays she's out of earshot.

'It isn't that I hate it, Gaius. The Nexus can be a wonderful tool for you.' Hands on his cheek. 'But I'm hoping you know that's all it is.'

He shakes his head until his mind is clear and he can no longer feel the fingers on the side of his face. More than a tool. More than a tool, and yet, maybe that's why he's being punished... why...

No.

He takes a deep breath before approaching Lita, doing his best to seem casual. Well, I happened to be in the neighborhood and... you know. "Lita!" he says. "What a pleasant surprise. It's so good to see you."

[im2sexy4mysnark]

Whether she's in earshot or not isn't clear. Perhaps intentionally so, as she gives no actual indication whether she heard him and his little conversation or not.

Even so, she doesn't look up from her book until he wanders over and speaks, she pushes her sunglasses down the bridge of her nose to look at him over them, "Well, Gaius, hello, dear. Long time no see, sweet." Her tone is casual, with that playfully flirtatious part to it that's always there when she's in a good mood.

[instrument_of]

"It really has been, hasn't it?" He tilts his head, grinning. "And how have you been?"

[im2sexy4mysnark]

"Far, far too long if I've anything to say about it," She gestures for him to take the chair next to her, "I've been alright, somewhat bored with life lately, if nothing else." Cue an ~overdramatic~ sigh, "And yourself?" She sticks a bookmark in the book with a slight-of-hand gesture and sets the book aside on the nearby table.

[instrument_of]

She's offering for him to sit next to her. His grin widens, and for a moment, he forgets his laundry list of problems. "Far, far too long." He sits. "I've been--" Bad. Awful. (So much for that moment.) "--all right," he finishes. "I mean... what I mean to say is that I've been lousy. I've had a lousy month." Beat. "Two months." Beat. "Most of this year, actually."

His smile wavers.

[im2sexy4mysnark]

"Dare I even ask how lousy it was, or do I really want to know?" Altalita takes the sunglasses off and flicks them closed with her wrist, hanging them in the neckline of her shirt.

"Hmm, how long has it been for you, anyway?" She asks with a quirk of her eyebrow, stretching lazily and plucking her glass off of the nearby table to take a sip from it. It is, of course, alcoholic.

[instrument_of]

"How long since what?" he asks, the smallest hint of nervous guilt in his voice (because he knows that Lita is powerful, but not how powerful, does she know about the colonies? he wonders) and then shakes his head, gaze averted. No, of course. How long has it been since he's seen her?

"I mean," he corrects, "since I've been in the Nexus, I've lost track. I mean, I've lost track of time in the Nexus, and uh... how that relates to my own universe, so I couldn't say how long I've been here. Or how long it's been since I've last seen you." He isn't smiling right now, but it feels safer, somehow, talking to Lita. Confiding. There's no one to listen to him anymore, no one but the woman in his head who isn't even there in the first place.

"And it's been... very lousy--" For the briefest moment, his voice cracks. "--it's... it's... do you think you could see me running for office? For presidential office?"

[im2sexy4mysnark]

Altalita beeps his nose. Gaius will note he's not been smote in any way shape or form.

"I mean, silly, how long has it been since you've been to the Nexus last." She says with a grin, although she does nod and listen thoughtfully.

"You for president?" She asks with an eyebrow quirking, "Mm, I'm not sure. Care to say why you're thinking of it?"

[instrument_of]

"Oh, uh," he says, fidgeting with his hands. "Sorry. In that case, it's been... a week on my world, at least. Time moves slower there, of course, and so I can't be entirely sure of how that would transfer here. But... um... never mind about that president thing, actually. I mean, it's a stupid idea. It's a very stupid idea." He cracks an uneasy smile. "I don't even like politics. It's just that--"

It's just that he's been told to fight for it. It's just that she reminds him almost every time he sees her, now, her hands in his hair, telling him to tell them about Why He Deserves to Run This Fleet.

"--sometimes I wonder if I'm the one who can make an impact, you know." Calmer now. "I mean, I'm already the vice president, and no one in the fleet is more qualified than I am. Not to mention the current president is very ill and might not last the rest of her term, so I'd have the experience anyway. And... I'm a man of science, infinitely more rational than our current leader! I can lead them."

His eyes focus on his hands.

"But when it comes down to it, I don't even want to be living in that world anyway."

[im2sexy4mysnark]

"Hm, interesting," she murmurs in thoughtful reply about the time differences. She's hardly unfamiliar with the concept, as she frequently abuses it to get away with as much as she does in the Nexus.

Altalita reaches out and brushes his arm, "It's alright, you can be calm around me, dear." A reassuring sort of smile. Then she stretches, nodding thoughtfully, "Is there any particular reason behind why you don't want to be living there?" She plucks the bottle from the nearby table and refills her glass, resettling so her legs are back in that silly little pool.