[Sniper's Touch] If booze, tar or sauna help... part 2

He laughs, covering himself with his arms from Sulla's mean piece of armor. "Vindi's here alright, she's probably busy managing the campaign and range. I worry for her though, she's too honest to be a bareface. Her slogan is just 'Look at Denakot and see what I've done to it' or something like that. And people will look at the neighbourhood that gave the outer talon to Reapers and prospers now." Juhani sticks his tongue out at the end. Clearly, these words about Vindi's credibility were sarcastic.

Though now, it was turn for something less serious. "Okay Sulla you heard my impression of a turian, now's your turn to mimic a human. Hope you picked something up from sunny Australia while you were there!" He eggs on Sulla, poking him in the side.

"When I walked through Denakot to get here it looked nowhere near as bad as it used to be. There are some rough edges still, yes. But the difference between the old one and new one is big, I'll give her that. Besides, slogans are always something about 'Change' or 'economy' or something like that. Throw in some badass boast to stir it up a bit, that's just great!"

Sulla's mandibles twitch slightly when Juhani in turn dares the turian. "I've had to do this before you know, and every single time it has ended with audience laughing themselves to tears. I don't know what to think of that. But why would I deprive you of your fun? So fine, here goes", Sulla says as he brings up his omnitool. "This isn't mine, I mean I think it's mine now, but I've had it for like two days so I don't know where all the functions ar-- Ah, here! Translator: off."

The turian makes a weird sound, like a slowly little engine. Then he presses his mandibles against his chins as tightly as possible, the jaw trembling from the effort. When Sulla opens his mouth, a weird sounding combination of growl and whine come out, with what just might be the heard as "I", "screwed" and "mom". Yo momma jokes, they never get old.

Juhani cringes. Sulla's expectations were not far off. "Too soon man, too soon. Too many man, woman and kid out there are still grieving." He doesn't punch, merely pushes Sulla in the side with his hand clenched into a fist.

"Oh, one thing though. Was the weather nice out there in the Pacific?" he smirks. Weather. If that wasn't cliché, nothing was.

Sulla just laughs, oblivious to Juhani's lack of playfulness of that moment. He turns the translator back on right before his friend starts to talk about weather of all things. "Tropical. See what color my carapace is?" To emphasize his point Sulla points a talon to his cheek. "Black doesn't reflect light. It just absorbs it. I think I had a heatstroke for a few times just because of this, since Victan and Fallah we're alright. But I'm glad I had those two friends down there with me to treat me back to speed."

He sets back on the cough. "Then the rain season started. We were soaked for twenty four hours a day, that's how long Earth days are, right? Anyway, we didn't find a single cave so we had makeshift shelters out of trees and shuttle parts. They leaked like a sieve, so we were wet and cold all the time." His gaze falls for a minute, the first time Sulla has really showed that the time stranded has affected him. "It was a pretty hard time. Everyone was on the edge and at each other's throats for little to no reason. But we had plenty of fresh water, so I guess that was positive."

Sulla shakes his head and decides to change the subject. "So what have you done during this past year? I'm sure they've found something for you to do. Something here on the Citadel?"

"Now you know how I felt during my training in the winter with Finnish Home Guards." Juhani chuckled, but it was sympathetic in nature. He shifted his place, edging closer to Sulla's side. Therapeutic friends and proximity and all that. He had missed Sulla. Juhani had missed a lot of things.

"I'm surfing behind a desk these days, filing paperwork until they can manage to get me back to Epyrus...or something. Don't know really if they need me there, logistics are still tight and the less wrong chirality are there, the better. And I don't want to go close to Veneta." he sighed. "I'm also something of a cultural liaison slash PR guy for the Hierarchy...they want to cooperate with civvies or something but need human faces, I'm sent there. Or if some higher-up wants a human opinion on how Alliance is gonna react to this or that. That's what I do these days. Back in the diplomat's saddle."

"Huh. Exactly the kind of job I'd want to be doing. To be the go-to guy whenever someone needs your point of view on something, working with different species, helping out with different... You know. Of course it's mostly a desk jockey's job, but after all that's happened I'd probably be contend with that. Lemme tell you, they'll ship me off to some arse end of the galaxy as soon as they found out I'm alive and fit for active service. At least I called it." Sulla decides not to pursue the topic of Veneta. He is not sure if either of them could keep their tempers in check.

Sulla stretches and lifts his feet on the bag once again. "You wouldn't know if we'd find any beer around here do you? Or is that one of them luxury items no one is importing yet?" he says grinning. "Also, if you got any old clothes around here I could use I'd be really happy. These human garments really aren't cutting it. They look weird and are pretty uncomfortable too."

"Beer? Man, only things you can get here are half-fermented bilgewater brews. Do what I do, go straight for Vindi's still. Tastes bit like potato peels though, but it gets to your head just like that...makes things a lot more tolerable it does...dulls the pain..." What was going to be a jolly statement for hard liquor slowly begins to turn into a startling realization for Juhani. "Spirits, I'm becoming an alcoholic."

He shuts up altogether and just withdraws into himself, pulling legs closer, hands around them and his eyes glazing over, staring at something that wasn't in the room. "I can't escape it. Even if I burn all the bridges and denounce my land of birth, its heritage torments me, tempting me to grab the bottle to drown my sorrows in it."

"Nah. I don't feel like getting hammered, but a nice cold beer would've been nice. Then we could've checked if there's a clawball match on and pretend everything's like it used to be. Or as close to it as it can be."

Sulla watches Juhani from the corner of his eye during the sudden breakdown. He is not sure if the human is joking or not, so he pours water into two glasses and thrusts the other in front Juhani's face. "Are you going to clear up and drink this or do I actually have to throw it onto your face?" he says in mock seriousness. "You're a family man and citizen damnit, no time for such obstacles for performing your duty!"

Juhani pushes the glass away. "I'm sober you ass." he snaps at Sulla, but the anger is gone as fast as it appeared. He looks at Sulla, but turns away, burying his face with his hands. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't- forgive me Sulla-"

Silent sob and sniff escapes him.

"I'm sorry man, I didn't realize that you weren't..." Sulla cuts himself short. There's no use in shooting himself in the foot by telling Juhani he didn't take him seriously at first. The turian sets the glass back on the table with a soft cling and puts his arm around the human friend. "Hey, hey. No need. We're cool man. We're cool."

"Listen, I'm sure no one has come through this without enough physical and mental scars to make a battlemaster and his krantt pleased with themselves. You shouldn't beat yourself over something like this, everyone needs a place to hide and run to every once in a while." Sulla tries to comfort Juhani in every way he can. He rubs the human's back through his shirt.

"But what if I don't know anymore when to stop? I don't want to be a demon to Aira, she's seen enough for a lifetime, abusive father is the last thing she needs-" he keeps sobbing.

"I think I've talked enough of this for today. I'm going to go sleep." Juhani says, but he's in a no hurry to leave yet. Perhaps he's waiting if Sulla had some words for him, perhaps he's just enjoying the backrub.

"Yeah, I think sleep might be a good idea. For all of us. Things won't look as dim in the morning", Sulla says, even though he isn't tired at all. He is just trying his best to make the poor Juhani feel better. Never mind the fact that the lighting on the wards doesn't change. He tries to think of something else to say, but can't come up with anything. Damn this is hard. It was easy when you could just smack them to the back of the helmet and yell 'keep moving'.

"Yeah, catch you in the morning. Or 'morning'." Juhani airquoted the vague measure of time as he got back onto his feet.

Quick check on Aira and her homework, bidding her good night, through shower to bed. Juhani curled up under the blanket, trying to push all the dread and sorrow away, unsuccessfully.

Sulla wishes Juhani good night and then settles back on the couch. With a sigh he picks up pieces of armor and starts setting them onto the cough next to him. They were in dire need of maintenance, and some parts looked like they were done for. Sulla inspected a ruined shoulder guard, plucked out a snapped wire and put the piece down again with another sigh.

For the lack of other interesting things to do, he went into the kitchen himself.