[Omega] a pale encounter

Omega was red and dim and had lot of corners to hide – if they weren’t already occupied by someone who even had a bigger issue than yourself. Aria must have had a waiting list for that somewhere.

Freh’ya and Taleeze were sitting on a balcony over a market area, the blue dancer nestled between the commando’s legs, her feet dangling over the abyss. A few days of talking and listening, crying and soothing. They had forgotten to eat, the cycles were a blur and time had been meaningless. But now the two were here, and a casual observer would only have seen an asari couple with a few leftovers from a meal next to them.

“Do you still want to take me home, Taleeze?”


Taleeze looked up over her shoulder.
“I love you. I want to spend eternity with you. We will find a way… I will guide you through.”

Freh’ya shuddered. She had no tears for herself anymore.

Was this her salvation? Was this really it? Where the small hands of the exotic dancer touched her she could feel a heat, as if a wave of energy was flowing into her. She turned around in the embrace. Salvation granted.

“I will follow you then, siame. Please be my beacon.”

She pulled Taleeze close.

Along came trouble.

Specifically, along came a very particular, albino drell, the likes of which came unbidden upon the romantic scene. As he strode up the steps, Cerastes had his head down, scaled brows pinched with thought as he ruminated on his work for the day. Two interrogations, a simple delivery run, and a long, boring stake-out session spent perched in the upper grates above an alley. A full run, to be sure; he'd made a fair amount of credits, but the work involved had left him feeling sore and dour.

Out of habit, the drell glanced upwards and spotted a pair of asari cooing at each other on the balcony. Intending only to pass them, the broker rolled his eyes and dipped off to the side, hoping he wouldn't be spotted.

Asari. He was starting to get sick of them.

... well, all but one, but she was probably fucking someone else at the moment.

Taleeze was just enjoying the moment when a pale head in her peripheral view caught her attention.

Could that be... there sure wern't that many albino drell, the man's avatar on CDN was destinct enough and his suit... no doubt. Taleeze started to smile, since that man was partially resposible for her successful mission. He had sold essential data to Eafina after all. She tipped Freh's knee.
"I know that guy, I must say hello!" She jumped up and draged the commando along.

"Hey, Mr. Cerastes! What a coincidence!" she waved and hurried in his direction, laughing. "I am Taleeze... you know, from CDN? Great to meet you in person around here, how unexpected." She extended a hand.

"This is Freh'ya. Freh, this is Mr. Cerastes, an information broker." Freh just nodded, smiling, but cautiously checking the drell.

Goddamnit.

"Goddamnit," Cerastes hissed under his breath.

All he wanted to do was get to Eidolon, make a pot of coffee, and go through the hundreds of emails he received each day before the piled up on top of him like a digital avalanche. Instead, it looked like he was going to have to - ugh - socialize. As the sound of approaching footsteps grew louder, the drell straightened his posture, adjusted the collar of his suit, and put on a neutral face.

Time to play nice.

"Good evening, Ms. Taleeze," he rasped. A red-eyed stare roamed over Freh'ya, appraising her. "I assume this is the result of your purchase?"

Freh'ya didn't as much as blink.

Taleeze didn't realize what exactly he had said immediately.
"Yeah, I wanted to thank you so much for that deal." Oh wait... did he make it sound like Freh'ya was some hooker for sale? Nah...
She blinked a bit irritated but her great mood took over again.
"So, yes, your intel was essential..." Now Freh'ya gave Taleeze a looooong stare. She'd have to explain that later.

Taleeze retracted the hand. Obviously she wasn't very familiar with drell customs. There weren't that many after all and Iryana was the only one she knew really.
"Uhm... Would you like sit and drink something? a Coffee maybe? My treat... Or are you in a terrible hurry?" Taleeze was nodding in the direction of a human operated street cafe across the corridor - street didn't really fit it on Omega, she thought.

They were uncomfortable. Even for a man like Cerastes, it was easy to see, but he didn't much mind at the moment. They'd stopped him, after all; they could squirm as much as they liked.

"Good to see it being put to effective use," he replied. A moment's pause was given when Taleeze issued her proposal; he was in a hurry, technically, but then again, this woman was a friend of Ana's, and he'd been trying to work his way back into the quarian's good graces as of late...

That sealed it. He was just going to have to endure.

"Very well. Where are we headed?"

"Right over there, looks like a decent place and I love human coffee." She paused to think for a moment. "unless you know something about that particular place that I don't - which you probably do - but if you have another suggestion, just speak up."

Assuming that the self confident drell would say so if he wanted to object, Taleeze went ahead, crossing the corridor, securing a table for the three of them.

Freh'ya was dragging behind with Cerastes. She looked at him without moving a facial muscle. "So, Mr. Cerastes, you know Taleeze from the extranet? She keeps talking about this site she hangs out on. Seems like a colorful place"
She was still trying to sort him out.

In fact, Cerastes did know a better place. He had memorized every single coffee shop on the station, but he was presently more interested in what the asari had in mind. Every bit of information he could gather on the individuals he encountered had the potential to be useful, after all.

The drell glanced towards Freh'ya without turning his head. "'Know' is perhaps too strong a word. We've worked together to some extent - she hired me - but other than that, we are acquaintances who share connections."

Ana and Daia. A bitter taste seeped into his mouth as he thought of their last face-to-face meeting. Horrid. Cerastes stepped around the corner and followed after Taleeze, his tall frame parting the crowd in the cafe as he made his way to the table.

"I assume you are romantically invested with one another?"

Freh'ya had to laugh about that question. If he had asked her something like that a few cycles ago, she's had punched him maybe. But then he would have had no reason to do so. And now... she was trotting behind her lover and a total stranger on Omega.

"Yes, I think you can call it that. We used to be for a long time already, then... the war happened." Freh'ya was asking herself, what exactly that info broker knew about her. She assumed he had sniffed around since Taleeze had mentioned, that he had been 'providing intel'. But anyway... he seemed like a nice guy. A bit odd maybe but that must have come with the job, she guessed.

She took a seat next to Taleeze and put her arm around her back, resting on the chair's backrest.

"I am happy, you have a bit of time. It is funny how you just run into someone from CDN. Sometimes they are different from what you think." Taleeze remembered FourEyes. On the board, he usually was anoying with his comments but he seemed pretty nice in reality. Aside from his awful job. Batarians...

A human waitress came to their table. "What can I bring you guys?"

"I'd like a white coffee and one cappuccino." she looked at Freh'ya who just smiled and nodded. Her hand gently caressed Taleeze's back, who leaned into the touch, curious what Cerastes would take. Although she had a pretty good idea.

Cerastes was predictable.

"Coffee, black."

With his order out of the way, the drell leaned forward slightly an clasped his hands atop the table. He found that others tended to respond more positively to this position; perhaps the stance made him more socially acceptable. Either way, he was watching the reactions of the asari closely.

"Different? How many of these people have you met?"

Taleeze smiled since she had guessed correctly.

"Oh, I have met a few. here on Omega I met two, FourEyesForTheWin..." Freh'ya rolled her eyes over the nickname "...and Silel. The batarian was quite nice, surprisingly. He was a lot smaller than I imagined and not half as creepy." she thought for a moment. "But that may just be because he didn't talk about his work."

"Silel was very nice. She comes across more snarky on the Extranet, but I think she is sweet..."

"Wait, you know Miss Periwinkle from the extranet as well?" Freh'ya asked with surprise in her voice.

"Yes, she's also on CDN, but I didn't know that until recently." Taleeze gave Freh a loving glance.
"But there are two other people, I am really calling friends now, that's Daia and Ana. Daia as in 'asari_promiscuity'" Now Freh'ya gave Taleeze a 'WTF' look, but said nothing. She shook her head and chuckled.

"Daia is even sweeter and nicer than on the extranet. It was crazy how easily we 'clicked'." Taleeze was looking over to Freh'ya. "She has been a real important friend."
"Ana is fascinating, I value her opinions. She has been through so much and is so tiered most of the time. That's sad. But lately she was much more outgoing, as if she was improving, we even had a night out at the theater. Oh, and there I met scientific pursuit and her overworked intern. Nice ladies."

Quite a list of people, Taleeze thought.
She could even mention Lia Lombardi, but that had been a vid call.

"Have you met some of them yet? You are doing your surveys there after all."

Hrn. Well, for as... obnoxiously normal as the pair across from him appeared, they were reasonably well-connected. He supposed it made sense, given the line of work Taleeze was in. Freh'ya, now. That was a name he was unfamiliar with. He'd have to change that after their little outing.

"Most remarkable," the drell rasped, his voice reverberating against his ribbing. A pause ensued, during which he accepted his mug of coffee from the waiter, then continued, "Quite a few. Many of them have hired me, although you're going to have to deal without specifics in that regard. I'm familiar with Ms. Ana'therion, and have met her wife on one occasion."

One fucking awkward occasion. How could he have been so stupid? He looked like a goddamned rapist.

"Ms. Ana is a very... decent woman," he added, red eyes drifting into the pitch-black coffee in his mug. "I'm afraid I've been stationside for some time, however, and have not seen her in that while."

Taleeze's eyes widened a bit. Now that was a surprise. Cerastes was acquainted with Ana, and he made it sound as if they knew each other better than just from an occasional run-in.

The waiter brought the cofees and Taleeze slurped a bit of the hot fluid. Tasty but different from Illium. Did they mix some dust in there?

"Oh, you know them? That is a surprise. Yes, she is decent." A strange but really fitting adjective.
Taleeze's gaze was wandering out over the arcologies across the gaping void.
"I miss them as well." She looked at Freh'ya, who was sipping her coffee, then back to Cerastes. "We were just getting ready to head back. I am looking forward to see them again." She realized that Cerastes obviously must have been on Illium as well lately.

"Are you also going to be on Illium again some time?"

"Not soon."

Not while he still felt like an asshole. Truth be told, he deserved it, but he was still learning how to acknowledge that fact; he recognized that he'd breached Ana'therion's comfort zone and, to some extent, violated her trust, but he'd yet to truly comprehend how he must have come off from her eyes. Such were the difficulties of not quite being up-to-par socially.

It didn't matter now, though, and he had absolutely no desire to discuss it with a pair of love-struck asari. The drell quietly sipped his coffee, then looked over the rim of his mug and at the duo.

"You'll have to give them my regards, then."

Somehow, he managed to avoid sounding bitter.

Was he disappointed? It was his body language.
Taleeze felt a slight shudder. What if he already read her reply to his latest query on CDN. She had posted it from the Periwinkle under slight influence.

As much as Taleeze was looking forward to meet Daia and Ana again, that hurting feeling about Skylar kept coming back on occasions. Space had not managed to put a gap in her feelings towards the human and still... she rubbed slightly against Freh'ya's hand on her back, to reassure herself. This felt so right.

"I will." she sipped her coffee.
"We will also go on towards Nevos. We have... things to clear up." she looked at Freh, who flinched a tiny bit, but tried to make it look as if if was coming from the coffee.

The white drell cocked a brow, flicked his gaze from Freh'ya to Taleeze.

"Perhaps this is a touch personal," he began, "but what is it that happened?"

Taleeze had to cough on her coffee and looked at Freh, who was rolling her eyes.
She hadn't told Taleeze the whole story yet, far from it. They had worked their way closer to the core of things and Freh'ya was offering the explanation that some of the atrocities she had seen and done on Thessia had put her mind in a knot, without telling any specific details.

Taleeze had pulled a real Taleeze, as she had offered unquestionable support and her unconditional love. What's to say against that? If there was any slim chance for Freh'ya, it was this woman. Her feelings had been subdued for two years but it hadn't taken much to make them surface again. She had decided to take the chance and go back to Nevos to talk to the Matriarch and seek guidance.

"I am having trouble, dealing with what I experienced during the war. I have served on Thessia." Freh'ya was talking with a cool and calm voice. "It is not directly too personal, but I'd rather skip the details. It is really troublesome."
She made a pause to sip her coffee.
"You seem like a man who is acquainted with our customs. I will seek counseling of a Matriarch on Nevos."

"Mm," hummed Cerastes in answer. "I'm aware, from an outsider's standpoint. You can never truly understand a culture unless you are a part of it."

He took another gulp of his coffee - just hot enough to burn his tongue - and set it down on the napkin provided for him.

"Perhaps medication in addition to therapy is in order for you, then, if I may say so, Ms. Freh'ya."

“You are probably right,”
Taleeze replied to Cerastes’ cultural comment. “But there are the ignorant and those who have interest. I think, you belong in the latter group.”
Taleeze had been surprised how cold Freh’ya had summarized their plans.

It hadn’t been that unemotional when they discussed it over the last days, mostly locked up in a tiny apartment, living from delivery food… a lot of crying had been involved actually.

“I think, it is a bit early to talk about any meds. You know…”
she made a small pause to think. “…asari are doing things more slowly. We have the befit of having a great variety of mental techniques, that can be very helpful sometimes. The Matriarch we are going to see is a good one.”

Now that she was thinking of it, Cerastes had planted an idea. Ana’Therion had worked as a therapist and although she wasn’t active anymore, she probably could provide an external view that could help Freh’ya who seemed to have issues with asari specific aspects of her deployment, that much Taleeze had understood, without knowing the details. Taleeze trusted Ana a great deal. She was considering approaching her about it.

“So, Cerastes, what's up with you?" Taleeze asked.

Freh’ya had sat motionless, save the gentle caressing of Taleeze’s back, watching the drell.

"What's up with you" was a horrible question to ask Cerastes. Almost everything he did aside from taking a shit was classified, meaning he never really had much to say to people he wasn't working with. One of these days, he was really going to have to find a hobby that wasn't prostitutes.

"... Oh, you know," he rasped, "drell things."