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Cosima has learned that when crazy shit comes up, she should just go with it. The latest crop of craziness has been the new weird hotel she's found herself in. Every door she's tried hasn't led her back to her apartment or UM or even Sarah's place so she doesn't know where to turn to next.

This is something that science, apparently, isn't going to be able to explain. Cosima doesn't like that. She's never done well with things that can't be teased apart and proven empirically and this hotel is one of those things.

She's putting in long days to try and figure the whole thing out but she has to have a mental break and that's led her to the bar. The last time Cosima went to a bar it was to meet some girl she met off some app and she's so not planning to do that tonight.

Tonight, she's going to drink a cosmo and relax for a little while and just people-watch.

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Chiana settles on a stool beside the woman watching the room. She doesn't think she's casing it the way Chiana does; she doesn't have that look about her. Then again, maybe she's just that good at hiding it.

"I like your hair," she states, and she is, in fact, tempted to reach out and touch. "I've never seen hair like that on a human."

Always make sure you're talking to a human, and not a Peacekeeper.

"Yeah? Thanks, I'm pretty into it myself," Cosima says. She's had the dreads for as long as she can remember and they're just a part of her - she doesn't even remember the last time she got a compliment on them.

This girl is...different. Cosima isn't one to judge but there's definitely something going on, especially when the girl refers to her as 'human' as if she isn't. Hmm.

"Does it just grow that way?" Chiana asks, still peering at it with a small, clearly fascinated smile.

"What? Oh, no, they're dreads," Cosima says, holding one out so the other woman can touch if she likes. "They're just tightly twisted and left alone, for the most part."

Chiana definitely wants to touch, reaching out with dark-nailed fingers to touch the odd 'dread'. What an odd word to call it. It's rough, and it's hard to imagine that it's just normal hair twisted together into this. "You people are full of surprises," she comments, and happily so.

"Sometimes," Cosima says, flashing a smile. She adjusts her glasses a little and peers at the other woman, trying to decide who or what she is. It's scientific curiosity, more than anything else, and her mind is running a thousand miles a second trying to answer her questions before they come spilling out unsolicited.

"So, can I ask you something? You can tell me to fuck off, or whatever, but I'm dying to know some things."

There are some people, you can just see their brain working behind their eyes. This human is one of those, and it makes Chiana smile invitingly, even before she asks, and that's too good a set-up for Chiana to leave it alone.

"You wanna know how far down the grey goes?" she asks, swaying a little on her stool, a stance typical of her, especially when she's gauging someone.

Cosima laughs a little, taken completely aback. "Umm, not exactly? I was going to ask if it was an evolutionary mutation or if you're a different species than human. But, as a corollary to that, I'd also like to know how far down the grey goes."

It's awkward but she's also so, so curious and Cosima leans in, anticipating the answer.

Chiana chuckles in response to the other woman's laugh, her own laugh not sounding quite human as she steps in a little closer. "I'm grey all over," she whispers, like it's a secret. "And I'm really not human. Nebari." Not that she hopes she's heard of them.

Nebari. It's not a species she's ever heard of but, then again, is there any other humanoid species on earth aside from human? Even if you believe in the occasional Neanderthal throwback (which Cosima does, she so does - life always finds a way) the idea that she's faced with a new species that is possibly of extraterrestrial origin is mind-boggling to her.

"Wow. I just...wow, okay, I need a moment. This is the most awesome thing that has ever happened to me."

Chiana grins; she likes this one. Usually, when someone tells her something like that, it's under very different circumstances. And involves her tongue. She sits back on her stool, even giving the human some space. "Take all the time you need."

"I'm a scientist," Cosima explains. "So like, this is amazing. You're a whole different species that I've never encountered before and I don't even really have the skill set in my brain to process everything I want to ask you."

Cosima feels like her internal hard-drive has suddenly learned how to program in another language and it's awesome.

"I'm really not a scientist," Chiana warns her. "But buy me a drink and you can ask me anything you like," she offers, now that she's made it clear the human shouldn't expect very scientific answers.

"We'll just call it a social experiment," Cosima says, waving down a bartender to get two beers. She isn't normally a beer drinker but sometimes a beer needs to wash down all the crazy.

"That doesn't require any science."

"Whatever you say," Chiana agrees with a smile, dark eyes twinkling. She's getting a free drink out of it, she's happy. More than one, even, if the human has enough questions. "I'm Chiana," she adds, figuring that exchanging names would be a good first start, if this is going to be a social anything.

(She really isn't sure what a social experiment is supposed to be like.)

"Cosima. So, Chiana, what do you do when you're not hanging out in weird little hotels?" It sounds weirdly like a come on and Cosima isn't looking for that at the moment - she's still a little too raw over Delphine. Everything about Delphine makes her ache and she decides to push aside the thought of her and focus on this instead.

"Let me guess - probably not a white collar type, right?"

Chiana is about to answer that question like it was a line, although Cosima's tone and manner makes her doubt that it is one, but then her next words have her frown in bemusement. "White collar?" She understands the individual words, but she doesn't think Cosima means them literally. Humans have the oddest phrases.

"Uh, you know. Desk job? Boring life? It doesn't seem your style." Cosima isn't entirely certain what would be the style for a gray skinned humanoid alien but she guesses she's about to find out soon enough.

"Seems like you would be employed doing something exciting."

"I get by," Chiana answered, amused, and tilted her head to watch the human, upper body swaying slightly with it. "You meet your first non human and that's what you wanna ask me about? My job?"

"Well, I thought it might be rude to go straight to the physiological differences," Cosima says, laughing with a bubbly sort of laugh.

"So I decided to start with jobs. So what's the culture like on your planet? Similar to ours, I guess?"

Chiana's smile fades a little, but then she forces herself to push through and not let on that that's a sore subject. "I don't know, how much mind cleansing does your planet get up to?" She sways a little on her stool, the edges of her smile sharp and bitter. "People are very - mellow on Nebari. As a rule." She laughs her short, shrill little laugh, like that's a joke rather than the sad truth of it.

"More than you'd think," Cosima says softly. She's encountered a lot of fucked up things since discovering what she is and working for Dyad and she wouldn't be surprised if something akin to 'mind-cleansing' was among them. There's no telling.

"Where do you normally call home base, then? Your planet or somewhere else?"

"Who needs a home?" Chiana asks with a shrug, but she's watching Cosima a little curiously because of her first words. Humans aren't very advanced, but they've seemed wonderfully diverse to her, nothing like what mind-cleansing does to people.

"I like having one," Cosima admits. "Which is currently in Canada, for the moment, but it hasn't always been. I used to bounce around a lot. San Francisco, Minneapolis...academia means being able to pull up roots whenever and just go. Being here is just another stop in the road."

"Forced stop," Chiana adds with a moue. She isn't big on being forced to do anything.

"Maybe it's forced but, you know. It's like running out of gas on the highway. Maybe you didn't intend to stop there but that doesn't mean the pie in the diner isn't any good," Cosima says brightly.

"I've always been an optimist."

"I like the exploring," Chiana admits, something of a spark back in her dark eyes. She wasn't completely stuck here, just unable to make it back to her world, to a world with Nerri in it.

"Yeah? Do you get to do much of it here?" Cosima thinks once she's gotten used to the idea of being in a true Nexus, some sort of crossroads between worlds where time and space have bent, she might want to explore a little herself. It's not exactly the science she's cut her teeth on but the curious nature of her mind won't let her put it down.

"Seen anything cool?"

"It's a little fahrbot that that many doors lead to human places," Chiana answers honestly. She doesn't know if it's 'cool', but... "But I like your Las Vegas. Do you know it?" It's the perfect sort of place for her.

"Oh, Vegas is great," Cosima says, lighting up at the thought. "I went to a conference there once on selective mutations and it was a complete rager. We all got drunk and started sequencing."

"Now I'm curious what you're like when you're drunk," Chiana stated, dark eyes glinting as she smiled.

She had no idea what sequencing meant. Human slang, she figured, but for what?

"About the same, only more science babble. We sequenced the whole genome of some plant from the Amazon," Cosima says, smile bright and hands moving quickly as she spoke. She's always talked with her hands and while the other clones do it, they don't do it quite as much as she does.

"It was awesome. I'm pretty sure we came up with a formula to synthesize a cure for cancer on some bar napkins but then Scott spilled his beer and all the ink ran. It was seriously a tragedy."

"If you say so," Chiana agreed with a half smile. She didn't have much of an idea what Cosima was going on about, and it didn't matter. She was enjoying watching her talk about it all the same.

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