AWD #402: Of Doctors and Ghosts
Of Ghosts and Doctors
Summary: Skyler and Toby talk ghosts.
Date: 28/07/2016
Related Logs: None
Skyler Toby 
Checkpoint Charlie's - Piraeus
The first structure completed on Piraeus was a 'recreation center' that was thinly veiled as such. Checkpoint Charlie's is in every other way a blue collar bar with an unsurprising bent towards the military establishment. Camouflage netting hangs from the ceiling with some kind of dried vine tangled throughout. On the walls are pictures and mementos of times past on the planet they currently reside on. There are a few billiards tables smuggled out to Piraeus specifically for this location, along with card tables and an fully functional line of taps and kegs mounted to, perhaps unsurprisingly, a beat-up but taken-care-of oak bar. The matching stools and wood tables seem to indicate that the construction workers may have disassembled someone else's bar back on the Colonies. The story even goes that the name is taken from a former bar on Aerilon that happened to resemble, very closely, this particular establishment.
AWD #402

It's rare that Skyler gets downtime. Like real and true downtime. But the woman has finally caught up on all the backlog of reports and the like from her month on Picon and Major Gray didn't see fit to hand off anything new for the woman. So instead of spending time off lowkey working, the jig was able to catch a Raptor down to Piraeus and make her way into Charlie's. Sure, she could have ended up in the Officer's Lounge, but when it comes down to it… she's often still a pilot at heart and they often prefer the rough and tumble of the bar proper.

Dressed in a pair of jeans (with brace over the denim on her right leg) and an Orion-branded tee, the Virgan is slouched back at the bar. Skyler's brought a cane, just in case, and it's leaned up against the bar beside her. There's also, draped over the low back of the stool she's on, a rather beaten and weathered leather jacket. It's at least a size too big; clearly bartered for. The woman is currently rotated so that her back is to the bar proper. One arm is up against the bar for balance and in the opposite hand is a pint of beer, about half gone. She's watching a group of Piraeus-stationed marines play a game of Triad that's just getting steadily louder.

Toby has been taking any excuse he can of late to get down to Piraeus, leave, dropping kit to those working on the Rhinos, anything. Right now it's the latter, equipment dropped, conversations had, and now an hour or so to kill before the next shuttle raptor back. He's in his greens as he's still on shift, but as he strides into Charlie's he acts more as if he'd already clocked off. Striding up to the bar he starts to order a pint, then clocks the presence of an intel-bod and grudgingly swaps to something soft instead. The marines are clocked quicker and while he doesn't acknowledge them directly, the bar stool he picks means his back is very firmly to them, even if that means proximity to Skyler.

An intel officer clearly off-duty. Would an on-the-clock officer be staring at some of those marines like that? Well, Skyler might. But probably not so blatantly. Hey, nothing in the frat rules say you can't look. She glances sidelong at Toby as he approaches, but doesn't say anything. There's a twitch at the corner of her lips that says she might, but no. Ultimately, all the woman does is draw in her beer and take a long drink of it. Her arm against the bar is, however, drawn in so it invades a bit less on what is now Toby's space.

Armed now with a fresh pint of something claiming to be fruit juice, Toby keeps his back to the marines, but does turn his head to eye Skyler for a moment. Once he's happy that twitch isn't going to develop into anything more he takes a moment to scan the rest of the room, then ask the Lt, "haven't seen Dr Thanos have you? Been hoping to talk to her about volunteering at the ruins, but she's proving elusive."

When Toby speaks up, Skyler blinks a few times. Likely not having expected the query. The woman twists and looks towards the crewman. "I've not. Last I saw her was the time I went up there with the initial survey group." She shrugs, absently, squinting out over the bar. Searching, perhaps. "I'd say find one of her workers and ask them to pass along the message, perhaps."

"Same," Toby confirms, he's not seen her since he payed that brief visit to the camp to deliver gear. He leaves it there for a moment, taking a sip of his drink, then, once the glass is back on the bar he shrugs. "Maybe. Left a message with CIDSR a while back but not heard anything back, guess cornering someone might be more direct. They still up at the site do you know?"

"I believe so. I know she gave a report shortly before I returned and I assume it was in regards to the dig site." Skyler takes another long drink of beer, turning to set the freshly emptied glass on the bar top with a wiggle of fingers and gesture to signal the 'tender that she wants another. "Cornering one of the people assigned to the site is probably your best bet. The doctor strikes me as the sort who will get so involved that she has to be reminded to do things like eat or sleep. Following up on messages is probably… not very high on her list of things to do."

Toby nods slowly and takes another drink. "Will do then." And that's that it would seems, for he certainly makes no more attempt at conversation. Instead he faces forward again, hunches his shoulders against the noise the marines are making, and checks the time. Damn, still ages, still, he's sat next to Intel, so he might as well try and get some information our of her. "Any new developments in the report?" he asks, flicking his eyes back to her, "rumour has it there's a theory about some of the stuff on their uniforms?"

There's a sidelong glance to Toby as he speaks up again and Skyler sort of purses her lips. "Something about them looking similar to- frak, I'm not sure, exactly. Nothing's been put in an official report about that, so I don't think it's been confirmed. Since they so often fade from view as soon as you look closely at them-" The jig shrugs, rotating towards the bar to remove the distraction of Triad-playing marines and to await her refill. "And they can be captured on video. Sort of. But not clearly enough to make out things like uniform markings and patches. So I think that's still in the 'purely theoretical' pile as far as things go."

Toby pays careful attention to the first part of Skyler's answer, although he does his best not to show it. With no definitive answer he just nods slowly, then takes another drink. "Video?" he replies when the topic is broached, "not heard that one yet. Anything interesting on the footage?" Then, since he's not got anything on what he wants, he buries it under other queries. "They making progress with the actual digging? Lots of holes as I understand it, but I've not been up there in weeks."

"Mmm. It was recorded shortly after you wandered off the time you came up with Major Fairfax," Skyler points out. "The Captain showed up and I was fiddling with the equipment. Vague, but there. A few of the other scans picked things up, but I couldn't read them. The video didn't pick up her voice, though, but it seems she spoke to each person in their own accent or tongue." So Almaeda heard a relatively posh Virgan accent. "So they're there… but not there. I think that's why people are sticking to the ghost theory."

Toby ahhs with a nod, "hadn't realised you were filming. Guess you've got boffins going over it with a fine toothcomb to find out what those other scans get eh?" Not that he's volunteering mind, not his field, but he's slightly more than vaguely interested at least. "With what you've seen, what do you reckon? What with your mystery readings and all."

"Frak if I know. It was CIDSR equipment. But after speaking to the Captain myself, I figured I ought to see what else I could find out." And to assuage some of her overall, agnostic-self discomfort. The bartender refills her beer and Skyler is briefly distracted by giving thanks. The woman draws in a slow breath and squints at the wall behind the bar. Mulling the question. She takes one drink, then another, and finally shrugs. "I don't know. I don't think it's a trap or whathaveyou from the Cylons. If they'd been here before, they'd have already found us. But I also don't think it's something to do with Kobol like some think."

Toby drains the last of his drink and sets the glass down so it can be removed and washed. "Well, if you want boffins, then I guess CIDSR is as good a place as any to find 'em. Maybe I'll ask if I stop in again on my hunt for the good Doctor." Saying that with a note of finality he pushes himself to his feet, "for now though, I have an appointment with a shuttle raptor."

Most of what Skyler's shared? In the mix with other rumors. But at least coming from her, bits and pieces may be more concrete. Grunt A may insist one thing while Grunt B claims another. The intel officer, well. There may be more, but she's shared only what's known and already drifting around Sheridan. Harder to keep the workers on the site from chattering, after all. There's a bit of an upnod and a glance towards Toby. Lips purse a measure, but whatever she might have said is drowned in another sip of beer. Instead, she just nods to the crewman. "Get one of her assistants to let her know you want to talk to her. Probably the best way, if she's buried up to her eyeballs in ruins."

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