[Omega] a pale encounter

Taleeze sipped at her coffee... was this guy ever mysterious.
"Drell things, huh? Say, i was reading a thread on CDN about drell the other day and I thought, what if a drell licked himself, would he get high?"

Freh'ya's head slumped backwards with a deep sigh.

Cerastes and Freh'ya sighed at the exact time. It was long-suffering.

"... No, we do not get high, Ms. Taleeze," he said in a perfect deadpan. "If you lick yourself, do you become sexually aroused?"

He was operating on the fact that almost all species found asari attractive, but it probably came off wrong.

"Sometimes..." she said and smiled while sipping her coffee, funny enough. "It was a joke, guys, relax, please." She was looking from Freh to Cerastes.

"I guess you don't talk much about yourself, huh? Or if you do, you'd have to kill us. And that is no joke." she made a small pause.
"Anyway, care to talk about common friends? How did you get to know Ana for example? If that's not classified..."

Huh. The asari were... reacting surprisingly well, so far. Cerastes supposed his newly-adopted pose was helping after all. He'd have to continue experimenting.

"Yes, I kill random people quite often," he answered. Again with the sarcasm - did this guy have other modes? "I met Ms. Ana after referring her to a few furniture salesmen on Illium; she tried to take me out to lunch as a result." And he'd paid for it, because haha, she was blind and couldn't tell. "Ms. Daia I met through her, but only for a few moments."

Oh, that Kafe table. That had been him? way to go to take on the services of Cerastes to replace such a piece of furniture... but then Taleeze had no real idea, how rare that might have been.

"Oh, I know about the table. I remember that accident." It had really bothered her, that Ana had such a stupid accident in her own home even. "Taking the woman out for dinner - I was thinking about it but didn't do it. I wasn't sure about quarians and food, maybe I would now. I know that she likes good drinks now, that may be another option."

Taleeze drank up the rest of her cofee. Such small cups, how unfortunate.
She briefly remembered that first cup of coffee she had with Daia at the Apricity. What a journey.

Did they have to talk about Ana and Daia all night? Cerastes rapped his fingers on the table, trying to think of some way to distract Taleeze from her favorite topic. Anything to get his mind off of her them.

"Mm. You know, there's a fair amount of antique and fine furniture dealers in that area of Illium," he replied. Faux interest. "It's not hard to find a good deal on designer works, if you know where to go. Knowing a little something extra about the dealers in question doesn't hurt, either."

The broker allowed himself a small, confident grin at that.

"This is your last day on Omega?"

Taleeze would have to take a closer look at that damned table if she ever got back to Daia's place. Which might not happen for a longer time now.

"Yes, the last day. We are off to Nevos tomorrow. Technically, Illium first, since there was no direct connection. The stay has been..." what, longer, shorter than expected? What did she actually expect?

"I overstayed a bit, I admit that." Freh'ya threw in. "The place get to you, right? I think it's time I get a chence in scenery, really. The only bonus it has is, you don't see vast destruction from the war. It looks like nothing happened." and that might have been a reason why she had liked the place so much. It helped pretend nothing had happened.

"Omega isn't for everyone."

Understatement of the year.

"I'm surprised you've stayed as long as you did," he said, nodding to Freh'ya. "How many times have you been shot at?"

What kind of question was that?

"Shot at? only once I think. I've had lots of shots though." seriously, I have been drinking too much. And actually, I'd like a shot now.

"And I have seen worse, really. Where have you been duriung the war? I've been on Thessia and Earth. Omega is like a sanatorium these days."

Huh. For spending so much time on Omega, Freh'ya had managed to avoid the vast majority of the violence that occurred stationside. Cerastes cocked his head to the side thoughtfully and looked at the purple asari appraisingly; he supposed she looked tough enough, but that didn't really matter in a place like this. Everyone was fair game.

"Lucky girl," he rasped. "As far as the war went, I spent the majority of it in the Terminus." And beyond, but he wasn't about to tell a pair of civilians that he'd been in and out of the Abyss. "It looks as though both of you made it out well enough."

Freh'ya was flinching a bit. No, she hadn't really been well. Not remotely.

"I have managed to get out of everything relatively unharmed. When my comrade and I managed to escape from that last fight, we were two legs short though. Not mine." Taleeze replied coolly.

Freh'ya was visibly increasing her caressing and her look took on an immense sadness.

"It was funny, I had a bit of fear of Omega, but now, after a week, I can imagine what fascinates some people about it. It is not my place for sure. You know that I work in the entertainment business, right? so, I think, places like the periwinkle are alright mostly but i know there are places on Omega that I wouldn't want to dream about. It is good that we have the Sisterhood."

The Sisterhood was not something Cerastes was exceptionally interested in. He knew of it, understood it, and could drag up names at the drop of a hat, but he'd never had to do any work involving them.

"Seems you're all in that business nowadays," he said. "Although I suppose birds of a feather will flock together, as the humans say."

"Maybe it's just that you happen to know a bunch of enertaining asari, Cerastes. You must know others as well." Taleeze was thinking about his postings on CDN. He was referring to asari hookers a lot. Well, the man was nice looking and she indeed could imagine him being an awesome companion. So to each it's own. If that's what he wanted, she wasn't one to object. As long as everyone was in it on free will.

"I sure am not in that business. Also not considering it." Freh'ya had never been mistaken for the easy girl. But she was very well aware of the prejudice the asari faced outside their space. She grinned. "But I benefit from everyone underestimating us. Most of you are not old enough or educated enough to remember Cyone or Lusia in connection with the krogan rebellions. As long as everyone thinks, we are just the easy hookers, it makes my line of work easier."

She noted the proud glance Taleeze shot at her commando.

It took him a second to catch on to that one.

When he did, the drell shared with his company one of his typical grins: rakish, but never quite reaching to his eyes. "Mm. I do know one," he responded, then paused to take a sip from his coffee. "I doubt you know her, though."

And never the twain should meet, he hoped. He didn't need his prostitute telling everyone about their affairs.

"Educated, here, but not old enough, I suppose. Definitely not old enough."

That was not what Taleeze had meant but enlightening nontheless. She leaned forward, imitating Cerastes' pose.
"You are aware, that I am no prostitute, right? There is a difference between being a dancer and an hooker. This is no touching area." Taleeze said, pointing at her breasts.

"Some exceptions may aply", she added in Freh's direction.

"It is really odd that this line of work is payd so considerably better than engineering work. It is a convenient combination of fun and business."

She was leaning back again.
"Say, all these queries on CDN... are they really just your private initiatives? I find the threads most entertaining, mind you but some questions are a bit awkward."

A low, rumbling chuckle escaped the drell. "Very aware," he replied. "The difference is all-too-clear, Ms. Taleeze. No hands need apply."

Did she think he'd been hitting on her? He recalled a few brief snippets of conversation they'd had in the past on CDN, exchanges that, to him, seemed entirely normal, but might have been misinterpreted by her. A red glance twitched to Freh'ya. No, they were fine, she wouldn't assume that here, not now.

He wondered why it always seemed to come up. Maybe he needed to re-examine his speech patterns.

"The questions are on behalf of Revenant Corporation. Given the diverse nature of the board's populace, one can get a very broad response to surveys. It makes for... interesting studies."

"Aren't you Revenant? Or are you actually employed?" Taleeze couldn't imagine that really but she had no idea of the details, so who knew?

"But yes, the boards sure are diverse." Taleeze chuckled. "I sometimes wonder what would happen if certain individuals would meet in real life. Gunfights or worse. But on the boards everyone reveals so much about their most private things." Taleeze was remembering that she herself sometimes was posting more than she should. Also, she wasn't sure how safe the PM system of that site really was... It wouldn't surprise her if these would be leaked and analyzed somewhere by the VI.
"That's just the extranet though, only without the porn."

"No one is Revenant."

In a sense, it was true, but that tended to be the way of just about everything Cerastes said: little bits of truth, buried and forgotten in obscurities.

"It's a business, just like yours. And yes, the... users of the forums are certainly much more revealing than they know when it comes to themselves."

He had hundreds of dossiers on his omnitool that proved it.