[Citadel, Sheyres Plaza] MEETUP 2188! [TOTALLY OPEN]

Sheyres Plaza is a large plaza with a stunning view of the planet Earth, as the sun begins to rise on the edge of the Pacific. The plaza is painted a glorious golden color of natural sunlight. Various couches, tables full of food and non-alcoholic beverages lined the floor of the plaza, one of the couches being prominently occupied by a napping biotic. A bright and colorful banner reading 'WELCOME CDN USERS 2188!' hangs over the viewing field, and a number of drones flit about the ceiling, alternating between exploding fireworks and disco balls projecting colorful lights.

Sarah had her arms crossed over her eyes and her jacket thrown over her torso. A volus entered the plaza and gave it a wary look around before leaving.

A turian Lieutenant in full Heirarchy uniform (service cap, pistol and all) entered the plaza shortly after the volus had exited. To him, it felt like he had stepped into a painting. The view was stunning, and that wasn't even taking into account the glorious hue that he was standing in. He took a moment to stare at the magnificent view of Earth, think about Palaven, and then turned away.

As his eyes scanned around, he noticed the couches, drones, and then Sarah. Making his way over to the biotic woman, he cleared his throat loudly.
"Excuse me, Ms..." Titus shook his head as he frantically tried to remember her last name.
"Uhh... Thom... As..? You said there was a meetup today?"

He looked around, at the drinks, food, and, especially, the banner.
"I'm not early am I? Is it just us?"

Sarah stirred awake and slowly sat up, rubbing her face with her hands. She turned to the military man and noticeably 'got her act together.' "Oh! Hey, yeah.. You're just a little early." She yawned into her forearm. "And it's Thompson. You must be ..." She snapped her fingers, trying to point at him and get a name from her memory.

"Vorlan?" She shrugs, raising her voice helplessly as she asked the question. "Wait.." She activated her Omnitool, bringing up a list of people she expected to show. Blue_Baker, Capice.. And titus-train. "Oh! Lieutenant Titus. You just caught me on a moment of napping, I'm sorry- We have turian-safe food on the blue table and these couches are so comfortable I thought I was just gonna sit down for a moment. I've been asleep for an hour!"

Kiara hummed slightly as the smell of cooking wafted from the equipment set up, the Asari working alongside a female Turian with brown face-markings. She smiled as she carried out two trays, setting one on the turian-safe table and the other on the 'main' table. "Hey guys! I'll probably be out to socialise in a bit, right now we're just finishing off this batch of food."

"Sarah!" Daia called out as she entered the plaza. Beaming, she made her way over to where the human, and evidently the first of her guests, were chatting; she fancied she recognised one of the caterers as well, and made a mental note to find out later.

"Good to see you, again," she smiled, extending a hand in greeting. "That was lovely music the other day. Violin, yes?" She chuckled. "I thought it was the cello you mentioned a while ago - I looked it up back then, but the images didn't have anything included for scale, and it does look quite similar. Ana set me right, though. She sends her apologies by the way, she would have come along, but she's in comm-conference with a lab on Rannoch; small window of opportunity to talk to them, unfortunately. Excuse the odd attire, I just came over from the festival."

Not having had time to change, she was still in a rather eccentric costume - the combination of formal Armali coat, gauzy blouse, scissor-style skirt and smoky tights made her look like some odd combination of a Matriarch and a magician's assistant. She looked up at the uniformed turian, her eyes darting quickly across his rank insignia.

"Forgive me for interrupting, Lieutenant," she said. "You're another forum-goer? Daia T'Nara, pleasure to meet you."

Sarah took the extended hand in greeting and turned it into a quick hug, before returning to her sit. "It's the violin, a 2180 printed version of a much, much older once I used to play." Her nostrils flared at the smell of food. "It's fine, it was a pleasure meeting Ana at the church and I could only imagine how busy she and you could be." She slowly stood up and shuffled over to the main table, stealing herself a leg of what she /thought/ was chicken.

"Anyway, it's good the two of you showed! I'm expecting more people, but you know how CDN can get."

Titus' mandibles splayed in slight amusement and he waved his claw dismissively.
"Don't worry about it. We can't always be on. And I'm sorry, Ms. Thompson. I'm not great with names."

As a claw went up to remove his cap, Titus turned to look at Daia. His brow furrowed slightly at her attire, as if he was trying to discern what in the hells she was wearing.
"Now what festival could force you to dress like that?" He had said it quietly but still grimaced at himself.
"By all means, Ms. T'Nara, interrupt away." He smiled, and bowed slightly (though he wasn't sure why), before introducing himself.

"Lieutenant Scapula. Titus. My handle on the boards is Titus-Train. You're quite big around the forum if you don't mind me saying; I mean, I know your name. Though, not that that really matters. If I recall correctly, yours -handle, I mean- is something with asari in the name?"
Well, he certainly could have handled that worse.

Titus began absent-mindedly wringing his cap in his hands, while focusing back on Sarah.
"It's nice of you to organise all of this, especially at your own expense. I seem to recall you setting one up last year aswell."

Titus chuckled at Sarah's remark on CDN.
"Honestly? It's surprising that a gunship hasn't crashed through carrying eighty percent of the board already."

Taleeze strolled into the plaza, hands in her pockets. She wore a simple gray and purple suit. Oh, wow, this was different than what she had imagined, there was a buffet that looked delicious – Taleeze felt a slight rumbling in her stomach – and the decoration was fitting the coloring of the site’s layout on the extranet with all its golden hue.

There she was, Sarah was clearly identifiable in the crowd. She carried quite a sweet belly.
And there also was Daia in a .. whatever getup that was. It sure wasn’t superskimpy as she was wearing sometimes but eccentric nonetheless.
The turian she didn’t know yet, but getting to know people was what she was here for after all

The host was first!
“Sarah! It’s so great to see you finally!” Taleeze greeted with a smile, opening her arms for a hug should Sarah decide to accept it. "Thanks for putting this up!"

Daia was the next to get hugged.
“Long time no see!” Taleeze joked, having seen her the night before backstage after the show. Her eyes were traveling up and down the outfit and she raised a brow. “Sky and Freh send their greetings, they look forward to our dinner but opted to send me to this ‘freaky extranet event’ on my own.” Taleeze airquoted with a laugh.

Towards the turian, whom she didn’t recognize on the spot, she greeted “Hello, I am Taleeze, nice to meet you! Can’t place your name at the moment though, sorry!”

Taleeze got a big hug. "It's great to finally meet you, Taleeze!" She stated as she slowly stood. "Help yourself to the food. How has the festival been going? I haven't been to any of the events and I don't think I really should." She twisted her hands together and slowly sat down once more to put on her jacket.

Arina had questioned her own decision to go to the CDN meetup. But finally she had put on a nice dress and her boots and just went. It had been an exhausting day with an awful lot of paperwork. The fact that the meeting place was quite close to her apartment block was also and argument.

The room was nicely decorated and she could see a few familiar faces right away. There was Sarah, who she would now always remember. They had just met at the temple and arina had enjoyed her play very much. There was Taleeze, this time alone and Daia, whom she just had sent a PM anyway. Nice coincidence. The turian she didn’t know yet.

Oh, and there came Kiara!
“Hello Kiara!” Arina greeted with a wave. She was looking forward to taste the delicious food by the baker. She should add her to the Embassy caterer list.

“Hello,” she said, when arriving at the group, deciding to properly address the host first. “Sarah, that’s a great place you have chosen!”

She extended her hands for a greeting to Taleeze and to Daia with a big smile. “Taleeze. So great to meet you. Where’d you leave your lovely girlfriend?

Daia, always a pleasure.” she grinned.

“Hello, sir,” she addressed the lieutenat. “I am Arina - stardust on CDN.”

Tezri walked in nervously, aloof, unsure of who to talk to. He hadn't exactly spent a lot of time mingling on CDN, and it had already taken a fair bit of drinking to convince himself this was a good idea. He shuffled over to the corner of the room. This would be an interesting night.

"I used to play something broadly similar," Daia recalled. "Perhaps I'll brush off my skills and we can try a duet sometime?"

She seemed to hear Titus's quiet comment on her dress, but only smiled.

"'Promiscuity'," she grinned, returning his half-bow. "Of course, I recall you. You just rejoined the extranet fray recently - I trust your arm is well on the mend?"

Being in a position to make introductions, once she had returned Taleeze's hug she gestured between the two.

"Taleeze, Lieutenant Titus Scapula. Lieutenant, Taleeze Driana, engineer and dancer extraordinaire." She glanced over at the newcomer, and smiled warmly. "And Arina, hello again - we do keep bumping into one another."

Kiara walked back out, carrying another plate of buns. She turned to Sarah as she set it down on the table. "Hey, guys, have it while it's hot and fresh out of the oven!"

She grinned as she turned to the others. "Hey, Arina. Had a good week since I saw you on the weekend?

Oh, right. I'm Blue Baker on the forums, for those who haven't met me before. My name's Kiara."

When Daia returned the bow, Titus smiled dumbly. At least he wasn't stupid alone. At the comment on his arm, he gripped at his right shoulder and began rubbing slowly.
"Yeah. Fine. Or it should be at any rate. Still hurts a little but nothing I can't handle."

He nodded at Taleeze when Daia introduced the two.
"Nice to meet you, Tale- Talle-..." Titus seemed to have trouble with the pronunciation of the name, so instead settled for the formal approach. "Ms. Driana. Dancer and engineer? How does that work? What type of engineer are you?" To Titus, that seemed like a bizarre pairing of careers.

At Arina's greeting, Titus felt uncomfortably out of place, being in his uniform, and it showed on his face. Like Daia, he hadn't had time to change before going to the meetup. Even if he haf, it wouldn't have mattered much; he had probably one casual outfit that wasn't his uniform. It felt like he hadn't dressed in something he chose for at least a year. In reality, it was just as long. Still, being a sore thumb didn't mean he couldn't return Arina's introduction. "Arina? Lieutenant Titus Scapula, or 'Titus-Train' on the boards. A pleasure to make your acquaintance."

When yet another asari approached, Titus frowned slightly, though not at any of the women.
"Well, I got outnumbered quickly."

Titus acknowledged Kiara's general introduction with one of his own. "Lieutenant Scapula, you might have seen me on the forum as 'Titus-Train'."

It got busy now, nice!

“Oh, Titus, I know you, yes.” She chuckled over his troubles with her name. “It’s very easy. See, Daia here has made it sound like ‘sneeze’. That’s a good approximation. But depending on dialect or ability, anything resembling ‘release’ is also okay. Maybe that helps!” She remembered the day out with Ana where she had noted the subtle difference in pronunciation between Daia and the quarian. Daia could sport a very cute accent though.

She turned to Arina for a greeting.
“Oh, hello! Well, she’s not a member of CDN so she decided to let me have fun on my own here. I’ll tell her you asked though.”

Again facing Titus she explained:
“I studies engineering and worked a bit for a skycar maker before becoming a performer. I kept the interest though. I even managed to combine the two, I develop stage tech. In fact I just recently sold a tech armor mod license to Ariake. It’s kind of a customizable electronic costume for dancers. It’s a new item in their catalogue now and I’ll be on stage when they have their release party at the Bliss festival.”

She noted Kiara and her fresh food! Taleeze being an always hungry biotic, was smiling.
“Hello Kiara! Nice to meet you finally!” She offered her hands for an asari greeting to the baker. “I look forward to your buns!” she said and took one. The smelled and tasted delicious and her face showed.

“Not that I would complain!” Arina joked about the ‘bumpin’ comment towards Daia.

"Titus! Right, nice to meet you too. How's it going? I wasn't around yet when you first where on the boards." she looked up and down his uniform. "The official look suits you. One can't go wrong with a uniform, right? Are you on duty?"

She also took a piece from the levo table, addressing Kiara.
“I’ve been well, thanks. Gave me a thing or two to think about during the week. I think I’ll be there again in the not too distant future.” Her face clearly showed how much she had enjoyed their explorations. “How about you?”

Sarah seemed to withdraw from the crowd, sitting bow-legged on the couch with her shoes off. She scrolled through various messages on her omnitool, the 'cake' avatar of someone familiar prominent amongst them. The blonde pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed, closing her omnitool once again. She reached to the floor by her feet, grabbing an energy drink- And it was right back to 'Happy, glad-to-be-here' Sarah.

"Stardust! We meet again!" She flailed her arm over in the asari's direction.

Holy fuck, there were a lot of Asari.

Somewhere on the edge of the plaza, a salarian was doing a bad job of lurking unseen, making tactical use of a potted plant. Perhaps an observer might have thought this a strange game of hide and seek, or the galaxy's most moronic STG operation, but in fact it was a mixture of curiosity and paranoia that kept the pink amphibian on a knife edge between taking the plunge and running in the other direction. And so he peered 'round the plant, trying (without success) not to feel embarrassed. And a little annoyed with himself. But mostly embarrassed.

Joset Phraag had worked for several years with Interstellar Safari, and had sold to all manner of eager humans the bookings for what was advertised as the trip of a lifetime, to meet face-to-face the galaxy's most fascinating (and dangerous) animals. Now, it was as if he were on his own tour, carefully tracking the most fearsome and enticing of extranet quarry in its natural habitat. The denizens of Cerberus Daily News.

Okay, so Sheyres Plaza wasn't likely to be their natural habitat. Not enough violence and depravity. Who knew, though, when that would change?

Why the shrell had he come?

He had to see it for himself, was why. Damn it, he was curious. Whatever terrifying camaraderie or twisted group rituals they had planned, he didn't like being left ignorant. It wasn't as if he trusted anyone well enough to flat-out ask. He didn't really think anyone paid him very much notice on the board anyway. Which was good, of course. But also left him somewhat lonely. What was it about that place that attracted him?

He had made it through the war unscathed. Perhaps he was making up for that by looking for danger now? He didn't know if that made sense or not, but it might explain things. Because clearly he couldn't be here out of a sense of anything healthy.

True, it seemed to be the more harmless posters on the plaza at the moment, if he was matching faces to memorized names. A lot of asari, there was the human female whom he'd offered his apartment to (better check up on that), uniformed turians... No krogan mercenaries or sinister drell information brokers, as far as he could tell...

Michelle arrived to the party, a little red. Once again she had got her directions wrong and actually ended up in the wrong party, on another plaza just across the street. She suspected something was wrong when she noticed everyone there was an elcor. She had tried to excuse herself discreetly when she realized her mistake, but one elcor blocked her way to give her an agonizingly long lecture about how rude it was to sneak in other people's parties and leave without paying their respect to the host.
In the end she had just made a run for it.
At least now she was there, and she could tell mostly asari came.
She briefly imagined that they came en masse to kick the ass of CDNers who badmouthed justicars.
But it was crazy, she decided, and came toward the group.
As usual she was very visible, thanks to her new party glasses :



She had bought those because she had felt too awkward to point out to Taleeze that she only *lent* her the other pair during disco night...
Michelle also sported a tshirt with the jarr of pennies that was her CDN avatar, for easy recognition.
She finally bumped on Sarah. She felt strange, not having talked to her since her kidnapping. She didn't even know if Sarah knew anything about her pathetic attempt to "save" Chris...

"Hey Sarah! Thanks for throwing this! The view is gorgeous. And you look great! Doesn't she look great? Ho and your belly looks great! And the food looks... Good! Hu... Hi!"

Ho, also, when stressed, Michelle rambled.

Sarah couldn't help but smirk at the compliments. "Oh, I look good all the time and you only notice now?" She gave Michelle a playful swat on the arm and looked up to the standing woman. "Thanks- Blue Baker is handling the food; try the pastries!" She gestured off at the appropriate table. On the far side of the plaza, an aircar stopped and a female passenger stepped out, dressed in her finest. Approaching the group, the woman placed a hand on the blond's shoulder, causing the biotic to jolt with surprise.

Christina Waller leaned over, crossing her arms on the back of the couch. "Might I join in, Sarah? I am still a user of CDN and I thought the two of us could talk for but a mome-" she spoke softly, interrupted by a vibrant display of biotics. Sarah was on her feet and furious, glowing like a blue and purple strobe.

"Are you fucking kidding me?! Why now? Why not the other days you knew I was on the station? Why the hell do you want to talk now, after I've gotten divorce papers in the fucking mail?!" Sarah screamed at a volume that shattered the calm atmosphere of the meetup. Chris tried to raise her hands disarmingly, but Sarah was already storming out, waving the woman's attempts off with a vulgar gesture.

Chris glanced over the attendees of the meetup briefly, then walked after her.