(no subject)

[mortalize]

CHARACTERS: Natalie Faust & Nigel Colbie
LOCATION: Natalie's quarters
WARNINGS: There will probably be some at some point ...
SUMMARY: Nigel is checking up on Natalie, as usual.
NOTES:

She has a lot to think of these days, even without any other Cylons on the ship. That woman -- Rey -- is most certainly some sort of synthetic who hasn't found herself within a completely human body, presumably because she already passes for one. The interesting part, though, was that the girl didn't seem to be in the least bit aware of her true nature. If their last encounter was any indication, though, she wasn't embracing her human nature either.

Very interesting.

She glances up from where she's seated on the bed, reclining against the wall, as the door opens. She's not surprised by who's there in the least.

"Hello, Nigel."

Comments

[pike]

During his time since awakening in the Medbay, Nigel has learned that space has its curiosities. It has its boredoms and its tediums too, as well as its fair share of revelations. Natalie Faust, Nigel has decided, is one of those revelations. Being metaphorically birthed into this new place quite literally by her side had proven to be serendipitous to say the least, given the nature of her own faith and its interesting collisions and overlaps with his own.

It had been proof that all things happen for a reason and, just as it had happened with Jack, Nigel's path had meant to cross with Natalie's. Now that it has, he's loathe to relinquish her attention back to the ship at large, which means he has spent a good portion of his time being attentive to her needs and company. His face in her doorway is an expected sight by now and in seeing her Nigel smiles in a slight and crooked way.

"Hello, Natalie," he says. "Busy?"

[mortalize]

"Not at all. Come in." Truth be told, she doesn't mind Nigel's frequent visits in the least. She has been craving the sort of connection that she had at home here and so far she's been lacking it save for her interactions with Nigel. Natalie slides over on the bed to give him room to slip down next to her, not at all mindful of any sort of personal space. They're too comfortable with each other, she thinks, for him to mind terribly -- or if he does mind he'll bring it up.

She smiles sweetly, reaching up to touch his hair briefly when he comes to sit next to her.

"I met someone who reminds me of a younger self the other day." No need to bring up silly conventions about asking him how his day was -- that's a waste of time, because she knows he'll tell her if there's anything interesting going on in his life.

[pike]

Nigel likes that Natalie doesn't dawdle with mindless conversation. People had a tendency to distance themselves from any true meaning in their interactions with both friends and strangers. Too mired in the doldrums of tedious politeness, looking to recite all the predetermined phrases at all the right times. Like steps to an elaborate but ultimately hollow dance that Nigel couldn't be bothered with. That Natalie does away with the dance completely makes him all the more enamored of her in a slow and insidious way.

When Natalie reaches up to touch him, he doesn't shy back or away. Human proximity isn't the sort of thing that Nigel craves — not in the way most people do, anyway — but to him personal space is an abstract concept created by people too cowardly to look another person in the face. And so, he pays very little attention to it generally, his body inclining in her direction instead. The gesture is half challenging and half obedient, like a good son offering his face to a fussing mother. Nigel's eyebrows lift in vague curiosity.

"Did you?" he asks. "I can't tell if that's meant to be compliment."

[mortalize]

She leans in to kiss his cheek when he tilts his body toward her, not thinking too much of the motion and settling comfortably against him. A compliment or -- something else. She has to think on that for a little, but eventually she comes up with, "It's a -- curiosity. She doesn't seem aware of her true nature, and she acts more atypically than I would expect someone her age to."

She hasn't told Nigel what she really is. She's hinted, certainly, that she is something more than human, but what he's made of that she can't quite say. She knows Nigel has a preoccupation with death, and she's touched on the idea that she's died before.

"I think she's experienced death in the same way I have." In that the death wasn't permanent, in that it left an impression. "But she doesn't seem to feel ... anything."