(Citadel, Tayseri) Guess my Name. (Closed)

If there was one thing in the galaxy Kari had not expected, it was for her people any of her people. To bother contacting her ever again in her life. Murdering a captain in cold blood tended to do that. But, shockingly enough, even to her. They had. Or at least someone had tried reaching out to her from Rannoch, even offering forgiveness.

She had laughed when she read that part. They still hadn't got it. It wasn't her that needed forgiveness from them. It was they who needed forgiveness from her.

She would have deleted the message. But there was something it. Something about cyber-suites that intrigued her. Why would they care so much about that they would approach her of all people to retrieve them? And that is when the gears in Kari's brain started rolling...

---

Walking through Little Rannoch the robed exile the quarian had her helmet raised high in the air, like she smelled foul. They were all over the place like vermin. But she could tolerate them long enough to find who she was looking for. And thankfully, she wouldn't have to be talking to any of these vermin to find who she was looking for. A simple search of "Des'Keran" (oh how easy it was to track a quarian down with a visible clan name these days) had traced him to working at a store in Tayseri called "Technologic. Which would be her first stop in her little search...

---

Walking inside the store, she changed demeanor immediately, from irritated quarian woman to "interested" customer. Wondering if her target of interest was working today or not and hoping he would take the bait.

There was a quarian male behind the desk, going over a plan-looked like a simple camera remote-with a customer. He nodded to Kari, gesturing that it would be a minute. The shop's automated systems offered access to an augmented reality layer-designed by the owner, of couse.

His suit was a little heavier than you would expect from a quarian doing this kind of work, and the fabric covering was much newer than the suit itself, and spotless-he must change it out often. It crossed over itself in the back, giving him a slightly effette look, and of course he had a darker stripe down one arm, It read differently on quarians, as strongly associated with Legion as with Shepard.

"Welcome. I'm Des'Keran vas Tikkun, how may I help you today?"

Excellent. Now let's see if you can still act, Kari.

"Oh, um. Hello", she said, affecting her voice into something a bit helpless and confused sounding. Probably wouldn't work as well now as it would have ten or so years ago since her height and build really dispelled that stereotype. But it would do. Hopefully her brightly colored robe would distract from that part.

"Do you sell parts for quarian suits here, particularly filters? Sorry. This is my first time on the Citadel ever and I'm a bit lost. It's just so big!"

"Of couse I do." He opened a cabinet behind his desk. The basic replacement parts-the filters and feeding tubes people went through regularily-were all there, and impecably organized. "And I'll get you a nav app set up."

"Didn't come here on pilgriamge?" He cocked his head to the side, looking her-well her suit, he was obviously queer as a 3 credit chit-up and down. "Is that a Gv72? The fabric is throwing me a little. It's a good look."

"Thank you! And it is!" She smiled, hoping the way her eyes crinkled made it look sincere. "But no. Not on Pilgrimage. I just decided to come work on the Citadel, I hear it is much better here for quarians than it used to be."

"I like how you dress your suit too. It looks very... unique"

For a quarian with no fashion sense maybe she thought with a quiet chuckle.

"There's no comparison.. I came through here 15 years ago, so I know. Were a couple times I feared for my life." He rung up the filters-at least he wasn't gouging his own people. "But I haven't had any problems, not since the end of the war."

He accepted the compliment with a good humored shrug. "Thank you. I'll be wearing it for awhile yet. Would you like me to set up that map for you?"

"Oh... of course. Please do", Kari was grateful she had uninstalled her nav app after moving in with Davril. She hated the things, really. They made you dependent on them, if you couldn't find your way around the Citadel without one you were doomed the second it failed.

"How bad was it really? I heard C-sec would run in pilgrims for 'vagrancy'. Did they try that with you? I find it hard to believe that you would fear for your life in what so many people consider the center of civilization."

Like they did to me when I was a pilgrim? the thought ran through her head quickly before it was dispelled. Now was not the time.

"Of course. I knew a few other pilgrims, we came up with a system for bailing each other out." He picked up a memory stick and began transferring his favorite map app over. Good maps made drones so much more effective (not that he was could really take advantage of the possibilities).

"When I left for pilgrimage, my immune assay was...120/44/12?" Ridiculously poor. His captain would have freed him from the obligation to leave, if he was that sickly. "So I had to worry a bit more about anyone trying to rough me up. But I really have not had any problems since the war."

Ah yes. The 'system'. I remember that. It caused the whole thing...

"An immune system that weak? You are very brave to have gone on your pilgrimage then", Kari said. Somewhat impressed. "Most quarians with an immune system that weak would have stayed on the fleet. I certainly would have."

She fidgeted a little. Uncomfortable that someone was messing with her suit, even someone who was currently on "friendly terms" with her at the moment. "Say... is that upload almost done?"

"I was stubborn. In my teenage mind it was go or stay on my birth ship forever. Almost done." It was extensively way-pointed, both with the typical sights and with quarian-friendly businesses. "I'm not nearly so fragile now, thanks to the Geth. I'm on the 382.cc protocol, should be caught up by next year. How about you?"

Hearing the name of her hated enemy caused a slight crack in Kari's friendly little facade. Her eyes narrowed into slits momentarily, and she had to bite her lip until she started to taste blood to stop herself from insulting the other quarian.

Keep it together you idiot. Keep it together. Don't blow it now, wait until he's vulnerable.

"Oh yes of course the geth." She spat, her friendly voice starting to crack anyway despite her best efforts to keep it together. "I... opted out of getting a suitrider. For personal reasons of course."

"It's not for everyone." He said it kindly. "Finished."

"I had a suitrider through the war. I never had any problems. But afterwards I wanted to take some jobs where the security protocols precluded the extra presence, and it wasnted...well, it wanted to be part of a larger, more 'traditional' complex. At least that's how it explained things to me. Now they're an architect...at least most of the time, ancestors know."

"But basic immune treatment...it's fairly routinized now."

"Ah. Of course it is", Kari nodded.

"So how does it feel to have one of... them in your suit? Do they whisper to you? Or are they totally quiet when they are infe-- I mean, inhabiting your suit."

Watch it Zar, you are slipping...

He twisted his head a little, mask betraying just the hint of a raised brow. "Hard war?"

"Their personalities are getting more divergent now. Morning Chorus is not particularly verbal. More likely to sound a chime and flick an arrow in your HUD than say 'turn left', and when it does speak keelish, it tends to be very terse in that true/false and/or way of theirs. No interest in any of our...biology. Not simple, though. Absolutely brilliant visually, astonishingly creative. I think it's waiting for us to catch up."

"The augmented reality level has some of their work integrated into it-the stained glass."

Ugh. The other quarian really was brainwashed by the geth. She was definitely going to be purging her suits systems after he was done tampering with it.

"Oh yes... very hard war. But we don't need to talk about that. But what do you mean by waiting for us to catch up? You would think the geth would not care about organics in any meaningful way. Like a quarian would an animal."

She furrowed her brow in confusion "and what is this augmented reality thing? Sorry If I am prying. But that sounds... interesting?"

Probably something terrible. But just wait for the right moment Kari.

A seriously retrograde attitude, but he had heard it all before. "Do you really think we're so dull?"

"But we do communicate...exceedingly...slowly...by geth standards. And on just the one channel." He gestured between them. "But there's no reason we can't get more data into our brains, add more senses."

"The AR? It's a system I've been working on with a friend of mine. It will appears on your faceplate display once you authorize it. All our furniture and displays are still visible, but it will look like we're set up in the South lobby of the Rashi restoration effort. The walls are marked, you won't walk into them."

"If you activate your nervestim it will feel like the space as well. Took awhile to model the airflow."

Disgusting.

"I... see. But why should we have to..." she paused considering her next works carefully. "Why should we change ourselves for their benefit? Evolution cannot be forced you know."

"Oh I see. So it is like some kind of HV game or simulation. That is... interesting I suppose."

If you want to be a damn husk, I guess

"We do actually force evolution-for example, we dose our crop plants with mutagens to develop new varieties." He grinned. "Why should every generation of quarians have the same limitations we do?"

"A true cynic would say it's to the Geth's benefit if we lag behind them. ...I thought this way before the peace." He gestured back to the AR system. "I change it every week or so. I sell a lot of simulation equipment so it's good advertising."

"And what if those crops were to develop in a way that would be harmful to quarians? You can't play god. There are always consequences for doing so. Like uplifting the krogan to fight the rachni, and then using the genophage on them when we found they had difficulty adapting their culture to galactic society..."

She glanced over at the AR system. "Something like that must have some very advanced hardware. Where did you get it? Or did you really just create it all by hand?

"Then you don't plant that variety. They've been irradiating seeds since the petroleum age. You're fetishizing the natural."

He smiled again. "You're trying to ask if Morning Chorus helped me with it."