(no subject)

[adifferentpath]

A lot of the time, Lee doesn't know how he feels about the coffee shops in Darrow. Truthfully, they're not a whole lot different from the ones in Caprica, but even after all this time, Lee finds that he still sometimes has trouble with the currency. He's used to cubits, to cornered coins, and the money here feels weird in his palm. It's something the people behind him always seem to notice as they yell at him to hurry up with his order.

Today, the lady behind him is about as obnoxious as they come, sighing loudly and making broad statements about the time.

"Just give me a regular coffee," Lee says to the guy behind the counter, and the woman behind him nearly pushes him out of the way to get the counter after him.

"Soy cappuccino," she demands, only for the server to evenly tell her that they don't have anymore. She huffs an "unbelievable" under her breath before storming out, and Lee looks down at the counter to see that she's left a folder on the counter.

"Hey, wait!" he calls behind her, and grabs the folder, though by the time he makes it outside, she's long gone, off to ruin someone else's day.

Hoping that maybe there's something in it that'll give Lee an idea of who she is and how he can find her, Lee opens the folder, only to see something he didn't plan on.

PASSENGER MANIFEST: OLYMPIC CARRIER

He nearly drops it then and there, his head starting to swim as he pours over the list of names. Pages and pages of names of the people who left on what was supposed to be a short voyage only to either get taken over by the cylons and killed, or killed because he pulled that trigger.

He hadn't been able to look at himself in the mirror for a long time after that, and just now, remembering that day, he doesn't think he can move from his spot on the sidewalk.

Comments

[adifferentpath]

She doesn't seem as surprised by it as Lee expects she might be.

"Don't tell me this is normal around here," he says, because of all of Darrow's oddities, suddenly finding files from Galactica that no one should have access to— or whose paper has probably been repurposed by now— isn't something he thought he'd see.

[jianhuo]

"It is, I'm sorry to say," Saffron replies, giving Lee a sympathetic cringe. "It doesn't seem to happen too terrible often, but it's one of those mess-with-your-mind things a lot of us have experienced." She seems to have been lucky so far - on the island, all she'd gotten was her lipstick laced with the Goodnight Kiss, and here she's just gotten one of Vincent's paintings. That doesn't mean her luck will continue to hold, though.

[adifferentpath]

"Great," Lee says, and his tone is sarcastic as he clenches his jaw, "because there weren't enough ways for this place to frak with us already."

He wonders if somewhere on Galactica, this folder's missing, or if it works the same way that it seems to work with people. He's left here with his list of names, 1,344 people he tries not to think of when he can help it, and no one there is the wiser.

[jianhuo]

"I'm guessing it's something you'd rather forget, or something along those lines," Saffron says gently. Not all the things people get from home are like that, but she knows some are, and judging by Lee's reaction, she thinks it's a safe guess. At the very least, it's a reminder of something that's upsetting to him.

[adifferentpath]

"Yeah, something like that," Lee says, though he doesn't think the Olympic Carrier is something he'd ever be able to forget, even if he wanted to. Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it. And besides, someone he admires once told him that you have to be able to admit your mistakes, even if you can't do it publicly.

The Olympic Carrier was a mistake. Over a thousand people lost their lives, even if it saved tens of thousands.

[jianhuo]

Saffron may not have any regrets about the many, many things she's done in the past that most folks would probably be horrified by, but she understands having memories a person would just as soon forget, even if they can't. "We could go somewhere and talk, if you want," she suggests. "Or if you'd rather get your mind on something else, I could maybe help with that too."