(Untitled)

[rewarded_by_god]

It should have been quite a relief, to have such undisputed confirmation that he wasn't, in fact, out of his mind. It should have given him some comfort that she was well and truly gone. That he was free of her. Free of those shackles, weighting down his every step. After such a very long time without her voice whispering in his ear, nearly

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[knowthyexits]

"I wouldn't speak so soon," Sarah warns. She's not anywhere near a regular sleeper and so while others are off tucked happily into bed, she's here, close enough to hear that little retort. She crosses her arms around her torso, her way of protecting herself, and merely smirks at him. "Sorry?"

[rewarded_by_god]

Gaius startled visibly, a sharp cry lodging in his throat, but all of that was unsurprising. He'd always been a bit high strung, guilty conscious or not.

"Oh, Ms. Baum. I didn't see you there," he said, attempting to cover with a charming smile.

[knowthyexits]

She barely reacts to that sudden burst of charm and the jump he seems to have had in direct reaction to her. "I'm not much of a sleeper," she admits, giving her a perfectly reasonable excuse (so she thinks) for why she's out there. "What is no one around to give a damn about?"

[rewarded_by_god]

"Oh, it's nothing," he said with a dismissive wave of his hand, then, with equal flippancy, he added, "My sudden bout of nostalgia, I suppose."

Giving her a sideways glance, he admitted, "I used to be quite a sound sleeper. I'm not entirely sure what happened." Guilt would to that to a man.

[knowthyexits]

"When did it all change?" she asks, because curiosity is natural to her, but wanting to actually know. It might scare her that she actually is beginning to care, but it's not the first time. She just has to be additionally careful that she doesn't put him in harm's way is all.

[rewarded_by_god]

"Quite some time ago. Back when I was still with the fleet," he said, because that little bit of honesty wasn't enough to completely ruin him. Admitting to being a light sleeper wasn't the same as admitting to having a hand in the destruction of the human race.

"Days and nights lose a lot of their meaning on a battlestar."

[knowthyexits]

She studies him carefully, her fingers by her mouth as they can hide expression. She doesn't know when she started losing sleep because it's been sixteen years of it, of not sleeping well because she never knows when she'll have to fight. "And how long were you on that battlestar?"

[rewarded_by_god]

"Two years, approximately. I also spent a bit of time on another ship," he admitted, the words coming easily enough. It was no great revelation. They'd all spent a large chunk of their lives packed into ships like tiny sardines. Though, very few of his kind stepped foot on a Cylon basestar.

[knowthyexits]

Sarah tenses at that, her jaw showing the signs of it because she just doesn't like the idea of ships and metal and it might show, but she's fairly good at suppressing most of it. "And never did you think it was strange or unnatural?"

[rewarded_by_god]

"The whole situations was unnatural, Sarah," he told her, his amusement tinged with something a little weightier. "Three years before I came here, the bulk of the human race was exterminated. Those that were left, the few lucky enough to already be in the air, or the even fewer who were rescued off the colonies, turned and ran. So, yes, I believe I would call that strange."

[knowthyexits]

She went colder at that. "And how did the human race find their way to extermination?" she asked, fully not kidding around anymore. Not when she had to get answers and determine whether they were heading to a similar apocalypse and whether she could gather more clues as to stopping it.

[rewarded_by_god]

"A race of evolved cybernetic lifeforms rebelled against their creators," he answered simply, giving the bare-bones explanation of a story so complicated, he'd need weeks to explain. An explanation full of lies, if he wanted not to come out sounding like a murderer.

"We were prepared for a robot attack. We'd dealt with that before. But this was different. We were looking for toasters, but the real enemy looked just like us. They were living, plotting, right under our noses."

[knowthyexits]

"They often do," was all that Sarah says under her breath and then realizes that she's said too much and so she puts back on her curious personality. "And they just destroyed your world, one day? Just out of nowhere?"