dizzy_land | Open RP: Sports? Are you serious?

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Open RP: Sports? Are you serious?

(some time after her fevery/craziness episode. Probably a few weeks while she scrounged up materials. I know Adam wanted in on this one, but anyone's free to join in at their leisure. Warning for Dean in advance: if he comes into this, he's gonna get attacked. Not in a bad way per se, but I still thought the warning would be fair. XD And now there's a post on Starbuck's journal, So everyone can get a better idea of how this game goes.)

She got the ball. What she needed was the court.

It had taken a little longer than she'd expected. Well, to be honest, she hadn't thought about it hard enough. The good news was that she hadn't been bored in quite a while. The bad news was she'd searched for a tool kit forever and then had to take various equipment apart to get the pieces she'd needed, which was no small task. Good for keeping in shape, though, which was something.

Okay, she wasn't exactly sure that she had the pieces she needed. She'd certainly seen a pyramid court put together from scratch, but that was a little different than making it by yourself. Yeah, just a little.

Sador was whining at her again.

"It's not time for lunch yet, you brat," she told the dog as she surveyed the wreck she'd dumped in front of Space Mountain. She had marked out the arena with masking tape that she'd found in an office. It was regulation size, or she hoped it was after all the trouble she'd gone through to get it that way. Only one area left to tape off and then she could try to put up the rest of the equipment.

Not that she had any idea how to do that.

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"It's short for 'pence'," Adam explained. "An' I think it's been called that for a real long time. Calvin's a little boy with stuffed tiger. His truth was all stuff about your foot bein' the same length as your lower arm an' what tigers eat. Things like that." He laughed. The whole incident had been amusing.

Following behind, he tried to explain. "Indiana Jones is an archaeologist who goes 'round findin' rare an' valuable old things for museums. But the ride is jus' you gettin' in a jeep and bein' tossed all 'round while scary things happen like people shootin' blow pipes at you an' a giant boulder comin' down to crush you. It's the best ride here, I think." Adam grinned.

[NOTE FOR YOUNG PEOPLE AND AMERICANS: One shilling = Five Pee. It helps if you know the original British monetary system: Two farthings = One Ha'penny. Two ha'pennies = One Penny. Three pennies = A Thrupenny Bit. Two Thrupences = A Sixpence. Two Sixpences = One Shilling, or Bob. Two Bob = A Florin. One Florin and One Sixpence = Half a Crown. Four Half Crowns = Ten Bob Note. Two Ten Bob Notes = One Pound (or 240 pennies). One Pound and One Shilling = One Guinea. The British resisted decimalized currency for a long time because they thought it was too complicated.]

"You shortened it to something with the same amount of syllables," she said with an ironic twist of her lips. She was sure he already knew that, but it still didn't stop it from being amusing to her. "I didn't know we had any kids in the park. I don't know if I'd be thrilled or terrified if I were little and showed up here." That wasn't true, actually; she knew exactly how she would have felt had she been younger. Relieved.

"They built a ride for an archaeologist? Weird marketing ploy," Starbuck decided. She snapped her fingers twice to get Sador's attention before the furry one got all caught up in that tree she'd been sniffing.

[Man, why are they so CRAZY? XD *after dealing with their school system, is not surprised*]

"I didn't," he grinned. The English were allowed to be eccentric. It was practically expected. "There's not many. Calvin's six, I think, an' there's Wilbur who's twelve an' Artemis is fourteen. Everyone else is older. They seem to like it, though." But Adam was a very honest boy, so he added, "Well, Calvin does."

He looked surprised and amused. "An adventurin' archaeologist, not the diggin' kind. He fights Nazis an' gets the treasure an' the girl."

((Yay base 12 systems! XD))

"Just as well," she said. "I don't think it would be all that good to have a bunch of little tykes scampering around for everyone to look after." She did enough babysitting among the viper jocks without having to worry about tiny kids. And she had no desire to play mommy to anyone.

"Treasure and girls, huh?" She smirked, still incapable of understanding what gave Adam that childlike joy he seemed to possess. "Doesn't sound like any kind of archaeologist I've ever heard of. What the hell's a Nazi, anyway?"

"It'd give the nurturin' types somethin' to do," he said pragmatically. "Susan's takin' care of Calvin. She used to be a governess."

Adam shrugged, vaguely wondering what she'd say if she did find out why he was the way he was. "Well, it's just a story. But a fun one."

He frowned. How to sum up Nazism? "Well, 'bout seventy years ago, the German people were real poor and sad after they lost the first world war. A lot of 'em thought it was other people's fault, like the communists - who were these people who thought it'd be a good idea if everyone shared everythin' and started a government to try that - and the Jews - who were a religious group that the mostly Christian Germans disagreed with. They started their own party with a real long name but everyone else called 'em Nazis. An' they weren't real sure what they wanted except for power. But with a strong leader called Hitler, they started taking over Germany, then started invadin' other countries an' takin' them over, too. Lots of 'em thought the Germans were the best kinda people, and thought everyone should be tall an' strong an' blond haired."

Adam got a strange expression on his face then; a rather wry look. He was actually a product of Nazi experimentation, not that anyone knew that apart from his real father and a couple of higher level demons.

"They'd have liked me. You, too, prob'ly. Only you prob'ly wouldn't have been allowed to be a fighter, but they'd take you an' make you have lots of the kinds of strong babies they wanted. An' that wasn't even the worst part. As they got stronger an' took over more places, they started killin' off the people they didn't like: the communists and Jews, yeah, but also gays, gypsies, the disabled, an' anyone who disagreed with 'em. They'd round 'em all up in giant camps and make the men work to death an' put everyone else in giant gas chambers an' kill 'em that way or just shoot 'em all or somethin'. They killed millions."

He sighed. This summary had taken so long they were nearly at the ride already. "In the end, the rest of the world couldn't allow that. A bunch of countries got together to send soldiers over to fight them and stop them. They were called the Allies. But the Nazis started working with the governments in Japan and Italy, so they had their own side, too, called the Axis. And there was fightin' all over the world for 'bout six years until the Allies finally won. The Indiana Jones stories are set right before that war, so it's okay to make the Nazis the bad guys in the stories and he kills lots of 'em, but only 'cause they're tryin' to kill him first."

((Oy, ask a simple question... XD))

Starbuck thought she's heard Susan's name mentioned, but she couldn't connect a name to face. Oh well.

A story. Oh. Why didn't he just say that in the first place? "So he's from a book or a show?"'

She listen to the rest with a sinking feeling in her stomach. Genocide, prejudice, and then there was that bit about making her have children-

"Just take a moment and think about... where you are and what's going on. The human race is on the verge of extinction. And to be quite frank with you, potential mothers are a lot more valuable right now than a whole squadron of viper pilots."

A cylon had said that to her. Well, she hadn't know was one at the time, that he was trying to hold her in that human farm. Hadn't known that until she had seen the women hooked up to all those machines....

She paused, fingering one of two scars on her stomach. The mystery scar, the one she had decided she didn't want to know about. She still didn't.

At least it was the cylons that had done it to them. How could people do that to other people?

"Your planet has got one... frakked up history," she tried to say lightly. Her voice betrayed her and cracked, but she saw the ride ahead of her and rushed forward. "This is where you saw the crates, right?"

((Yeah, and get a simple answer from her.... ;) Also, I realized that the idea of Adam explaining to her what he is is potentially hilarious since she doesn't know anything about Christianity or Christ. XD))

"Some movies," he replied contritely. "And yeah, it does. But it's gettin' better. We're taking two steps forward an' one step back all the time, but if you look at the big picture, it's better."

Thinking he'd bother her more if he apologized for his insensitive comment, seeing as she was clearly upset by it, than if he just dropped it entirely, he dropped it. Adam was omniscient, of course, but it seemed rude when talking to someone, so he mostly didn't pay attention.

"They're just in the queue there, behind the jeep," he pointed.

((*g* That could be really fun. She should find out sometime...))

That was fair enough, she supposed. All the colonies had their own pieces of history that they'd just as soon everyone avoid. People were people, after all.

She was glad to let history drop, though, and passed around the jeep, hand trailing along its side. She kind of missed her big, old awful car. Sador was sniffing the thing awkwardly. "Yeah, here they are. Perfect." She picked one up and turned it over in her hands.

((Awesome. And then you could have the hilarious repercussions of her mentioning it to Dean off the cuff, and having him flip out. XD Oh, that could really go far....))

"How many d'ya think we need?" he asked. "One for each goal? I c'n grab three of 'em, I think. I'm used to cartin' crates around." Adam grinned in remembrance. Crates had been the only furniture in the Pit.

((I'd so be up for that. :D Dean's like a cuter Shadwell, isn't he?))

She nodded. "We can start with one for each and then if we end up needing more, we can go for more." She grabbed up three herself. "Why are you used to carting crates around? You a delivery boy back home or something?" She was fairly sure that wasn't the case, but it was funny enough for her to think so.

((Like a gorgeous Shadwell with enough angst to make Harry Potter blush. XD I blame Dean-mun and another person on my flist for getting me [and consequently Danielmun] into that show. Which is wonderfully fun, but also big on making you cry.))

"Right, we'll get six then, so we'll have an extra in case we need it." Adam easily lifted three and started heading back.

"Nah. I told you 'bout my friends. Well, we used to meet in this big ol' chalk quarry called the Pit, an' milk crates were our only furniture. You c'n make anythin' out of 'em. From the Eiffel Tower to witch torturin' devices. No secret den is complete without 'em," he grinned.

((More gratuitous quoting:

"The trees in fact concealed an ancient chalk quarry, now half overgrown with thorn trees and vines. Ancient, but clearly not disused. Tracks crisscrossed it; smooth areas of slope indicated regular use by skateboards and Wall of Death, or at least Wall of Seriously Grazed Knee, cyclists. Old bits of dangerously frayed rope hung from some of the more accessible greenery. Here and there sheets of corrugated iron and old wooden boards were wedged in branches. A burnt out, rusting Triumph Herald Estate was visible, half submerged in a drift of nettles.

In one corner a tangle of wheels and corroded wire marked the site of the famous Lost Graveyard where the supermarket trolleys came to die.
If you were a child, it was paradise. The local adults called it The Pit."))

"We might need all six if we decide to back up the goal too," she told him. The game was decidedly rough and people often forgot where they were hurling toward.

Again when he talked about his childhood, Starbuck felt unnaturally calm. Idealized childhoods were certainly nothing she had experience with, and she normally resent people who had them, but the way Adam described it made it sound so far away. Maybe because it was. She had no idea what an Eiffel Tower was, for starters. "What did the witches do that made them deserve torturing?" she asked, smiling. "And where'd you find all of them? Not where James and Sirius went to school, I hope."

Adam nodded. He didn't know how the game was played, so he'd just go along with it.

"Well, um, we'd heard witches were evil an' had warts on their noses an' flew on broomsticks an' put curses on people. So we decided to have a Spanish Inquisition an' got all Spanish things. Then we built a witch torturin' device." He laughed. "We got our witch from Pepper's house. She was her little sister. We were s'posed to say, 'Art thou a witch, oh lay?' an' she was s'posed to say, 'No' so we could torture her into sayin' yes. But she wanted to be a witch. Pep finally convinced her to say no an' then we dunked her in the lake." Adam grinned at the memory. "She liked the torturin' so much, it was hard to get her to stop. An' the torturers wanted a turn, too." Those were good days. Well, they all were.

"In the end, I met some real witches at that school James an' Sirius went to, but by then, my torturin' days were over..." He sighed and winked. "The lake was way too cold for dunkin'."

She listened to the story as they made their way back, laughing appropriately, but still a little puzzled by the whole thing. "You know, it's the stupidest things that ruin me for conversation around here," she said, shockingly honest for the first time in a long time. "Words and things that I don't know. Like 'Spanish'. Films I haven't seen. They're all just little things, but they add up to make me realize how alien I am around here."

It was strange, trying to pick out what parts were the same and what were different without giving herself away. She was pretty good at it. All the same, it didn't stop her from wanting to shake people know and then, and just scream I don't know what the frak you're talking about! And that was frightening. For now and for what the future might bring if the fleet did make it to Earth. When they made it to Earth.

Which was really why Adam deliberately threw them into the conversation...

"Well, you c'n try to figure it out from what people are sayin', but if you wanna learn quicker, I'd talk to Mr. Fell on Main Street. He's got a library of books he'll lend out an' you could get an atlas an' a book of history at the least. It'd help keep you busy anyway, if you get bored. If you don't like readin', there's a good show down the Opera House tells 'bout the American - that's the country where the real Disneyland is - Civil War a hundred an' fifty years ago and their leader at the time, Abraham Lincoln. There's also Mickey Mouse cartoons in that movie palace on Main Street, so you can see where Mickey comes from. Kira an' Katou have some modern films that they can show at the Honey, I Shrunk the Audience theater right next door to you. For anythin' else, you c'n ask me or Cayce. She's an expert on modern culture and I bet could tell you anythin' 'bout music or art or movies that you'd wanna know."

He shrugged as best he could while carrying three crates. "It's just a matter of how badly you wanna know, I guess. You c'n def'nitely find out. But Spain is a country an' the people an' stuff in it is called Spanish. The Spanish Inquisition was when the government an' the church of Spain decided to get rid of heresy an' crime in the country by killing all the heretics an' criminals. Witches included." Adam sighed. "These things sound so awful when I'm tellin' you. But this one started five hundred years ago, if that helps. People couldn't really do that anymore. At least not for very long... Other people would stop 'em."

She gave a short self-deprecating kind of laugh. "Yeah, never was very good with books." It was a lie, in fact. She was never very good with school. With being told what to read and when. She actually enjoyed reading poetry, but it wasn't the sort of thing she openly admitted.* She probably would go and see Mr Fell, but she wouldn't be telling anyone.

The history did sound terrible, but as long as things didn't happened that way now, as long as her people would be safe.... But that wasn't really what was getting Starbuck. It was Adam's knowledge of the people in the park. Of his surroundings, like he had this resevoir he could dip into. That's what it sounded like to her when he talked, at least. "Okay, so you tell me honestly; how do you know about all this stuff? And don't tell me that it's just your friendly, boyish good looks. I bet you could pull my real name right out of my head if you wanted to. And whatever you have, it's not like what James and Sirius have; you're something else." She watched intently out of the corner of her eye as they approached the frotn of Space Mountain again, Sador at her heels.

((When talking to Lee Adama about the possibility of her being a suspect in the harrassment of Colonel Tigh [who had some poetry written on his wall as a warning, starting with 'From the darkness you must fall'] the conversation went something like this-

Lee: Oh, you were top of the list. But don't worry, I told Tigh you wouldn't know Caprican poetry if it was hotsodded across your helm.

Kara: *edging into Lee's personal space all the while* From the darkness you must fall/failed and weak to darkness all. Katares. Not one of his best. *grins* Can I be a suspect again?

Lee: *laughs*

Kara: Please?))

Adam sighed. She was more perceptive than most. But then again, she probably wouldn't be as judgmental as most, either. Not without the Earth's cultural knowledge. Starbuck hadn't even known what the bible was...

Setting down his crates in the center of the marked triangle, he answered her question with another question. "How much do you know 'bout monotheology?"

She was a little on the perceptive side. Might have had something to do with the 'Kara Thrace and her Special Destiny' theory, but she didn't like that, so she didn't think about it much.

She set down her own crates and shrugged. "Only that where I come from it's usually bad news, since the cylons are the only ones that claim one god. Seems to be different around here, I guess."

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Open RP: Sports? Are you serious?

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