[Citadel, Relaxation Area 566] Auld Lang Syne

"So this is the place, a bit small for an important human festival, don't you think Desmond?" Alystae T'Naron observing as Desmond Hughes parked the black air car into a free parking space, his boss Alystae in the back with the other enforcer, a bantam asari called Aricia. The New Dillinaga Co-op head emerged with her two lieutenants on her flanks nearing the entrance, Alystae was carrying a container under her arm, the contents a bottle of human champagne for the hostess, and two bottles of indigo shimmer for the guests. "I never paid New Years too much mind boss, shit don't change", Desmond replying as the trio reached the security check point.

"Identification Ma'am?" "Yes, of course. Alystae T'Naron, I go by IndigoIceMaid on CDN, and this is Desmond and Aricia, two of my employees." Alystae replying with her usual drawl, handing the container over as the head security guard checked the database. "You're approved Miss T'Naron, but your...entourage is not I'm afraid, it's CDN members only." Alystae hearing the judgement thought about arguing the point but with the crowd decided against it, giving the security an understanding smile. "But of course, could you give me a minute?" "No problem ma'am, just be quick"

"Change of plans people, Desmond, I need you by the car and keep an overwatch, and Aricia?" The tall maiden getting the ex-commando's attention, "Yeah boss?" "There's an bar one level down, go have a few on me." Aricia looked to to argue but deciding against it, Alystae wasn't in the mood for backtalk, if the charity dinner was any indicaton. The Armali native taking the offered credit chit from Alystae instead. Turning from her enforcers, Alystae walked back into the recreational area with a touch of swagger, Desmond setting up inside the air car, while Aricia made her way to an extranet terminal one level below, sending an encrypted message to the asari embassy contact...

Temria smiled, or rather, a genuine one, born from genuine amusement fought it's way over the veneer of polite cordiality she'd been employing. It was warm.

"Oh I'm sure I can manage." she replied with a chuckle, hoisting the bag under arm, "Thank you. I hope we can have a chance to speak a bit, perhaps. When the guests aren't flooding in."

With a thankful nod to Arina she turned towards the restrooms, prepared to transform from her overbusy casual wear into a social butterfly... or was it a manner of formal moth.

These human idioms would be the death of her...

"Oh... Thanks, Sarah, that's... Appreciated." Arina carried the other dish inside, chuckling over Sarah's restroom confusion. How much space humans wasted with this separate restroom thing.

"Oh, Temria, when're back you have to tell me what delicious surprise you brought us here, will you?" So I can secretly remove it and avoid bad light being shed on the asari because food poisoning or toxic alarms going off! Arina really wished she could tell the doctor that she should stay out of the kitchen for the galaxy's sake!

She greeted the other asari.
"Nice to meet you, Maiha, I am 'Stardust' on the boards. Let me just get this bowl inside..." She put it right on the table where Joset was standing nearby.

She was just about to say something to Maiha when she received a message on her omnitool. The color indicated 'urgent'.
"Stupid. Job, please excuse... "

After reading the message, Arina looked towards the door to see Alystae enter the room with her distinctive grace. Arina nodded a greeting. No hectic activity now, there would be enough time to make the pickup as long as Alystae was here.

There also was another human she did not know yet. Maybe let him say hello to Sarah first, so she turned her attention back to Maiha.

Meanwhile, Palmer had gone over to check out the dish the asari had brought and examined the levo dish quite carefully before grabbing one of the normal cubes. She chomped down on it, swallowing the whole thing in one bite. She eyed the other type of cube in the dish then before shaking her head and grabbing another one of the normal cubes. She nibbled on this one, taking her time while she looked out the windows into the stellar void that separated the Citadel from Earth, watching the portion of the world her species had come from with quiet methodical bites.

With the annoyance of security out of the way, Alystae made her way inside. Unlike the charity dinner, she was in her work attire, dress slacks, semi-formal boots adding to her height, a deep purple blouse and ever present peacoat. Slowly making her way to the main waiting area, Alystae joined the group of people greeting the platinum blonde woman hosting this particular event, the tall maiden content to wait her turn, the container holding her little offering under the arm as she noticed the guests, recognizing one of them departing, an Arina Caenis.

One level below, an asari was using the service corridor to make her way to the maintenance entrance by the relaxation area. The asari, Aricia waited by the door, eager to execute the hand off and get to the bar below before Alystae or Desmond got suspicious...

Seeing that Mahia was still occupied with Sarah, Arina decided to go for the handover right away. She leisurely took a piece from the buffet, seemingly browsing the variety of offered things and then slowly made her way to the restrooms, fingering with her gemfal, as if something wasn’t in order. She took a turn into the corridor to her right. Out of sight, she activated her omnitool, a schematic of the place came up. Thanks to the not-so-official databases she had access to.

There was the back entrance. She could only hope she had not to overcome any locked doors…

~~~~

She didn't but the service entrance could only be opened from the inside. No problem to open it but there would be protocols about this somewhere. Couldn’t be helped now, why should someone be suspicious of a service entrance being used while party was going on? The door whoooshed open and there indeed was another asari waiting in the shadow of the corridor.

“Let’s make this quick. What do you have?”

This kind of awkward field work was not her usual line of duty and she didn't plan to make a habit of it.

Ethan double checked the address, 566, right then. He was dress in his nicest collared shirt and dress slacks.

Ethan approached the bouncer raised a tall, slender bottle he was carrying and said "I brought levo wine" and then he lifted a rectangular bottle "and I brought levo tequila. Both of the are from Earth, hope that is ok."

The bouncer waved him through.

Ethan set the bottles down and scanned the room. A pair of human females, a nervous and overdressed(in his opinion) salarian, and a few asari. Ethan relaxed and wandered around the room, looking for some casual conversation.

Walking into the relaxation area, the Co-op head Alystae T'Naron walked past the crowd at the door, heading towards the refreshment table. Seeing a grizzled human setting up shop with his party favors she glided to his side, pulling out the bottles of indigo shimmer, one levo, another dextro for the quarian and turian partygoers. Noticing the tequila as she marked the bottles so clearly that even a salarian tripping on sand could tell the difference. Giving the human a wry look, the sparsely made up, tall maiden setting up some party glasses to compliment the light maroon/blue, slightly sparkling liquor.

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"Who the hell are you?" Aricia looking at the well to do looking asari standing in the doorway. Grabbing the diplomat by the collar, the commando dragged her into the alley roughly out into the alley. "You're not my usual contact, where in the hell is Byla?" Aricia's voice soft but the short maiden's body language telling the story, on guard and nervous at the appearance of a new player.

A human was standing by the window, alone. He knew humans, of course. They were often half-mad, but he'd spent so long among them that he tended to know what he was doing where they were concerned. This one, a female, was watching Earth as it hung below them, her face unreadable. Gingerly, he edged over to her.

"Is that... home, down there?"

Palmer blinked and then shrugged, It was at one point... Too many bad memories now you know? I was there for the entire war. Fought on five different continents. Watched my hometown get destroyed on one of them. Her eyes tightened, No, it's just the place I grew up at now. Home is somewhere out of reach for the moment. She raised herself to her completely terrifying height of 5'7" as she eyed the salarian, Where's your home salarian?

"Whe..." Arina let out a muffled shriek as she got grabbed. But eventually caught herself again. Dumb bitch. She pushed against Aricia's breast (she was stronger than she looked! All the recent training and workout with Sulla paid off).
She spoke with pressed but reduced voice.

"That is not my problem. I am Icebreaker, that's all there is to say." She probably should have dropped her keyword earlier, but hey, she was no pro at this kind of work.

"And who the fuck are you? Briefing said someone at the party - AT the party, not in some sleazy alley - will hand me a certain something. I do think we are on the same side here." She straightened her dress and looked Aricia up and down. She looked like dressed for a party though.

Emerging again into the main room with the bag in hand, now slightly misshapen as it struggled to contain the less easily aligned boots and jacket within its narrow confines; Temria took the chance to pause and collect herself. Looking over the collection of arrayed sapients thus far she felt a pang of relief, she'd half expected there to be a krogan flipping the tables by now.

Though she wasn't quite comfortable in the dress just yet, she did her best to look the part and hoped it would come naturally. It was a curious thing, one part elegant and formal with a flowing skirt, high neckline and covered shoulders; the other part a looser bolt of cloth about her waist and over one shoulder, each a clean shade of black made distinct by the contrast of matte and shine in their fabric. At her most critical, Temria would think it looked like a formal dress being devoured by another- a more stylish carnivore dress.

She rested her left hand on her hip, the slim brace on her forearm contrasting sharply with the rest of her with it's flat shade of blue, marred here and there by black script. She certainly couldn't cover it now, so she sought to make the best of it. Perhaps she'd find VV again...

Lieutenant Saren Actius cracked his neck as he examined himself via his omni-tool. This was a relaxation area, and he desperately needed to relax. Taking down that Salarian Red Sand dealer was bad enough, but having to work a double shift? He was exhausted. Strolling to the door, he nodded at the guards, and waved his omnitool in front, giving them his info. They let him through, partly because of being in his unit during his time with the Hierarchy's army.

Sitting down at the bar, he ordered Turian Vodka. "Ah, Time to kick back."

Issac checked his omni-tool outside. This was the place, 566 (Which according to the extranet WASN'T a number associated with any dark gods... or at least any decent ones)... he just wasn't expecting a guard outside. He looked down at the 6-pack he was carrying in his hands- distinctly non-alcoholic.

"Hi, I'm Issac Jones, here for the CDN party," he said, walking up and putting on a smile.

"CDN profile on your omni-tool please."

Issac pulled up his omni-tool again and brought his profile up.

"OK sir, step right in."

Although it most certainly shouldn't, the human's question caught Joset off guard. Where was home for him? The answer, "I don't have one" was fairly ridiculous, and "a run-down apartment in Zakera", while perhaps the most accurate answer, was simply depressing.

"That should be a simple question, right? Especially for a salarian, I mean, since it's in our names and all". He tried a thin smile. "This year's been a confusing one. I'm - I'm not sure of a lot of things right now".

It was the way she'd been standing there, watching the planet. Lost, perhaps, in what must have been difficult memories. Or else just taking in the sight, finding peace with it? He remembered his first sight of Sur'kesh from space. More than eight years now since he'd last seen it. He didn't know where home was, but to his discomfort he wondered if he was nonetheless homesick.

If that made sense.

Bringing up the only Citadel homeworld to escape the Reapers completely unscathed wasn't necessarily a good idea, of course, not in front of a active veteran of her planet's occupation. He didn't want to offend anyone. Especially not someone who'd fought on five continents.

"I guess my home was like a frame of mind, you know, about the galaxy that we had before all this?" he said with a shrug. "I'm working out which pieces are left and where I fit into it now".

Wow. That sounded quite philosophical. He cleared his throat, nervous.

"Damn, quiet crowd." Looking over at the crowd gathering around the booze, Alystae was a bit surprised at how little socializing was happening at the moment. Deciding to rectify that, she sauntered over to where the grizzled human hand plunked down his gift to the proceedings, helping herself to a single shot. "Quite the offering, is this Tequila? Or mescal? During my time on earth I would get the two mixed up," the tall maiden turning to Ethan with shot in hand.

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"You don't even know why I'm here...I'm so screwed, might as well just let the Ice Bitch kill me and be done with it." Aricia looking at Arina Caenis with contempt and despair, wondering why in the name of the Goddess they'd send a damn greenhorn to a data drop without even knowing the basics. "If you don't even know why you're here, I have no reason to give you this," the bantam commando pressing a button on the omnitool, putting the data transfer on hold while verifying the passphrase.

"I pulled you into the alley, is because I disabled the camera for a five minute delay, so we can talk freely, stupid bitch."

Ethan looked up at Alystae and said "Tequila, this brand has been around before humans first made contact."

Ethan held a shot in his hand and scratched his chin. "Hhmm, probably should have shaved this morning," Ethan thought to himself, "probably makes me look a bit rougher than usual."

"Just a heads up," Ethan downed the shot and made a slight grimace. "the first shot has a bit of kick to it, but after that, it is pretty smooth."

After the other asari got called away for a work something (she was reminded of the pager she was carrying that she was hoping wouldn't go off), Maiha wandered in search of more people to socialise with, forging on despite the slight panic of 'oh goddess I know hardly anyone here' that accompanied most social situations she found herself these days.

She decided to say hello to the newest arrival, "Hello. I'm Maiha."

Belatedly she remembered to put out her hand to shake.

Arina sighed and put a hand onto Aricia’s shoulder to calm her down.
“Listen, this party has been chosen as a convenient point of exchange. I have no idea why you are not approaching me inside. I know exactly why you are here but I don’t have all the time to help you write your memoires. They will start to miss me in there.” She looked around, but still nobody in sight, the door was still ajar though.

“Listen, I have identified myself, now do the same and give me the package for Icebreaker.” Another suspicious look. She would really like to get going now.
“I will contact you the way you're used to, now is not the time for long explanations.” Arina's eyes urged Aricia to hurry.

"Hmmm, not the worst I've had, and probably quite good considering the state of earth postwar." Alystae commenting on the tequila after downing the shot, pouring herself and Ethan a shot of the indigo shimmer as a reciprocal gesture. "This here's a product of my home region, indigo shimmer is the rough translation in your language. The closest equivalent would be what the UNAS would call Everclear? I think that's the word for that particular brew." The Nartin native handing ethan the shot glass filled with the dark blue, slightly twinkling liquor and a bar back, the shimmer had a real kick after all.

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Aricia had enough, it was stupid enough they changed her contact point without any warning, but an handler who had no clue. "Time for a wake up call", the bantam commando thought as she smiled coldly at Arina, before gripping the diplomat's wrist and bending it to the breaking point, the other hand drawing her Carnifex and pointing it at Miss Caenis's head. "You really have no fucking clue do you, the person this office is wanting me to observe, she's in the party as we speak. If I go in there with your dumbass, she'll put two and two together, and by this time tomorrow, she'll throw my corpse in a protein vat. So I'll ask again, why in the name of the Goddess should I trust you. Because all I have is a tides damned passphrase, and judging by your stupidity, it's not enough." Aricia cooly explaining as she raised her barriers instinctively, noting she had three minutes to either hand off her report, or go native.