01: Video

[itstopped]

[The screen turns on to show Felix, new to the barge and newly free of the breach. He's standing in the middle of a metal room, the walls honeycombed with bunk beds -- industrial in appearance, but spaced with a certain military precision.

As with the breach, he's missing the lower half of his right leg. But now, he has a clunky-looking metal prosthetic attached, extending down to a black boot, and he leans on a single forearm crutch instead of the awkward things he relied on back in town. He's neat and trimmed and wearing some kind of uniform.

And he looks very, very confused.]

What the frak was that? I thought it was a dream, or maybe even one of those visions everyone keeps having. Some last flash before the end...

...But then, how could I possibly be back on Galactica? There's no way I'm a Cylon, too... if nothing else, I don't think they'd let me resurrect like this. [He taps his crutch against his leg, with a hollow metal sound.]

Comments

[sixthanimorph.livejournal.com]

What the hell happened to your leg? [Because lol that's a pretty obvious fake leg, and looks like it's huge pain in the ass too.]

[itstopped.livejournal.com]

[The prosthetic is honestly little better than a pipe -- no one was going for realism with that thing. The startled look Felix gives the screen is less because of the question and more because what the hell is a kid doing on the wireless?]

...Someone shot me. [Wait, no. "Someone" implies a person.] A Cylon shot me.

[sixthanimorph.livejournal.com]

Sylar shot you? [That can't be right, Sylar left months ago. And shooting was never really his thing anyway.] Must've been a hell of a shot.

It's too late for you to be one of the new arrivals. Who are you?

[itstopped.livejournal.com]

Like that's really such a surprise? [Newsflash: Cylons are assholes! What else is new?]

I'm Lieu-- I'm Felix Gaeta. I've been here for seven... [Except now that he looks again, that doesn't look like Galactica behind the kid. Or any fleet ship he's familiar with.] New arrivals to what? Who are you?

[sixthanimorph.livejournal.com]

[Okay, Sylar was pretty much an asshole. No argument here.]

You haven't been here seven anything. [And what's behind David doesn't even look like a ship at all. It looks like a kid's bedroom. For the very excellent reason that it is one.] And I'm David. Guess you missed the memo.

[Video!]

[terminatefate]

Welcome to life on the Barge. [said dry as hell] My first fuck up was falling over the railing during a dames port. I was a pirate captain for a few days.

[Video!]

[itstopped.livejournal.com]

[No, seriously. What the frak?]

It's you. I saw you in my-- [He is so reluctant to use this word, after all the damage Roslin managed to do with it, but--] --my... vision.

Re: [Video!]

[terminatefate]

I remember you too. Surprise?

[Video!]

[itstopped.livejournal.com]

How is that possible? What was that place?

Re: [Video!]

[terminatefate]

That, I think was what they called a breach. My first one, too. Basically [how do you even explain this shit?], this ship 'takes on water' every once and awhile and people's mindsets change--that's called a 'flood' or occasional people may wind up...well, different in other ways. A breach is what occurs when whatever causes the flood hits the entire ship itself and it changes, too.

[Sarah made a face--yeah, it's fucking insane and she knows it.]

I don't fully understand it myself, but that's what I've been told.

[der-umgekehrte.livejournal.com]

A breach. My first. I remember you, though. Hell of an introduction to the barge.

[Stildyne is more scarred than his breach counterpart-- gloriously ugly, the level of damage his face has taken, on top of natural talent at ugly from birth. He's very proud of it.]

[itstopped.livejournal.com]

[Felix is, privately, just a little bit shallow, but it's impossible to come through a four-year war and flinch at ugly. Besides, he has no room to; not anymore.]

I... remember you, too. It's Bruce, right?

[der-umgekehrte.livejournal.com]

Brachi, when the barge isn't interfering. Chief or Stildyne, as a general thing. And I'm Jurisdiction fleet, or was, not planetary navy.

[itstopped.livejournal.com]

['Chief,' at least, is something he recognizes, so he latches onto it in his mind, even if 'Jurisdiction' is as out of his depth as anything else.]

I'm still Felix. Lieutenant Gaeta. But I served on a Battlestar -- a spaceship -- not... whatever that was.

[der-umgekehrte.livejournal.com]

So that leaves us in similar straits. A breach, they say. Except the barge fills with other realities instead of water .

I try not to think about how that might work.

[inhistorybooks]

You're not quite on Galactica, and I don't think you've been turned into a Cylon. Whatever that is.

[itstopped.livejournal.com]

[Even after having it all explained to him, the idea of someone simply not knowing what a Cylon is is enough to make him stop and stare.]

So there are really no Cylons here? At all?

video.

[tobecaprican]

[ That the stranger is familiar from the breach is one thing, and not very interesting. That he spouts dialect that rings of home is quite another. Gaius sits bolt right up from where he was lounging around and browsing the network, gripping communicator white knuckled. There is a leap of excitement, completely detached from all logic, what he knows about what he left behind, even the blip of communication he received when the network went hayware--

He switches on video. ]

You're a Colonial.

I mean, hello. So am I. Everyone else is from Earth, it's-- quite complicated. But it's good to meet you.

video.

[itstopped.livejournal.com]

[Gaius.

Frakking.

Baltar.

Suddenly, Felix remembers what happened in the breach -- him and Gaius, the weird business they'd struck up. Of course, of all the afterlives in all the universes, Gaius Baltar would have to walk into his.

He's not even going to ask what game Gaius is playing right now, with this "nice to meet you" thing. He probably doesn't want to know. He passes a hand across his eyes and sighs, not entirely unkindly.]

Hello, Gaius. What are you doing here?

video.

[tobecaprican]

[ No surprise that his name is recalled. They have, after all, met. ]

Same as you, more than likely. Has anyone explained yet?

Lieutenant, wasn't it?

video.

[itstopped.livejournal.com]

[Seriously, whatever this is, he doesn't want to play.]

Don't frak with me right now, Gaius, all right? This isn't exactly the best time.

And what are you doing here? Don't tell me Roslin finally lost her patience with you once and for all. I figured you'd be back in her good graces after... what Tom and I did.

[fearcutsdeeperthanswords]

Your leg is metal!

[itstopped.livejournal.com]

[Now that he knows what this place is, it is all the more horrifying that it's full of children. The more he learns about the Barge, the more terrible it becomes.]

Oh, gods. Um... yes. I suppose it is.

[fearcutsdeeperthanswords]

[Hey, you know the song. Hell is for children.]

Is it fake?

[itstopped.livejournal.com]

[Well, that sounds about right. :c Of course, the other problem is that he's just not very good with kids, so now he's not really sure what to say to her.]

...Yes. Yes, it is. [He shifts his weight heavily onto his cane, and the metal wobbles slightly beneath him. He stifles a grunt and rights himself quickly, because actually, ow, that hurt.] See?