[Omega, Periwinkle Paradise] Casual Drinking (OPEN)

Elise mimicked the Asari (albeit awkwardly) and toasted, rembering all of the good times she'd had with Trakeus. She finished her drink-

- Then heard Bintar's party. In a flash, she had "accidentally" Thrown her glass, impacting it with the top of their table.

"I'll pay for that glass..." Elised muttered. She had her new drink, but kindly waited until the Asari was done hers before starting.

Some men at the table protested the projectile but Bintar immediately stepped in.

"Come on guys, you probably offended that lady over there, let's not make it worse."

and added after turning toward Elise.

"I'm sorry if anything said was offensive to you miss, and promise we won't disturb you anymore."

Indeed the crew started talking about holos, concerts on Omega, and work. The word "slaves" popped once or twice."

What the... what's all that noise? Why are people throwing glasses? It's not good to throw glasses.
Freh'ya reacted rather phlegmatic, just finishing of the drink.

But her mood had deteriorated now. She was sad and drunk and this was all shit. She turned to the bar again, back to the group. More stuff. Get primed and then get out.

The discussion of the group was merely a whirling sound in her ears. If anything, she wanted to unload a biotic explosion. But it's not good to do that. But who cared anyway? A blue shimmer engulfed her right hand and she studied it. Looks nice. Periwinkle in a way. A lot of things looked like that these days, she mused, floating on alcohol, as her new drink arrived.

Elise turned to Freh, seeing how sad the Asari looked, and her own mood reflected. She took a small drink of her CTB, and crossed her arms on the counter, looking intently at the liquid. She wanted to do nothing more then to send that group's table into the wall, and them with it, but for Freh's sake (and so she wouldn't get thrown out of the club), she didn't.

"The good ones don't last long, do they Freh'ya?" In the back of her mind, Elise was proud of herself for remembering the Asari's full name (while drunk to!), but outside she looked sad, remembering what she once had, and how carelessly she'd thrown it away.

"No, they don't" Freh'ya was staring into her glass, gently suckling at the straw from time to time, turning it in her hands.
"No, they don't" For a moment, Freh'ya felt the urge to tell the human, that she had been lying and that Taleeze wasn't dead and the home world wasn't destroyed but she herself was the one that was gone and destroyed.
"The universe is a sad place, I'm waiting for it to pass finally." Only a couple centuries to go.

"You lost somebody?" clever guessing. The human sure looked as hurt as she must have and she was drinking the night away.

Elise's shoulders fell slightly.

"Yeah... I was stupid... Young... We had been partners back then. We went with several others too get some station back from a Cerberus Op, I wanted revenge for Cerberus using me like a tool when I worked for them, so I went after him and locked Trakeus in a room with troops. I didn't expect too survive, but I did, and I managed to lose the one good thing I could call mine..." She'd meet up with the Turian about a month ago, and they were on better terms then they'd left off at... But neither thought they would work out anymore, something that upset Elise, but she'd made a choice to go after Thanatos, so she had to pay the consequences.

"Homeworld... I wouldn't call Noveria that..." Elise made to drink from her CTB, but hesitated and put it down, pushing it away from her.

"Waitwhat, you was working for Cerbrush?" She wasn't sure she got it all right, it was happening so fast. "I hope you cracked their nuts! Bunch of assholes. How could anyone work with Reapers." It wasn't really a question. It seemed as if Elise had gotten her revenge, but for a price.

"Homeworlds..." It just happened now. "I didn't.... it wasn'rt like I said before. Well not exactly. That woman is ... my love, she's still alive, ya know?" Freh'ya took a big gulp from the drink. "It is me that went dead."
She turned around and leaned in a bit closer, fixating those strange white eyes, which had a certain empty beauty about them.

everything faded....
~~~~~~
The Disciple came up, out of nowhere, right into the face of Elise. Everything was quiet now, no sounds besides her own heartbeat and breathing. The eyes of that other one were flicking back and forth between the muzzle and Freh’ya. They suddenly had become kids eyes. Dark, full of fear as it became clear what was about to happen.

“It is inevitable.”

Bam – the gun went off.
Blood and pieces of skull everywhere; ceiling, bar, those batarians. The barwoman held her hands in front of her face and screamed. The headless human body was hanging between stools at an odd angle, a pool of blood and gore.
~~~~~~~

Freh'ya blinked. The white eyes were looking back at her, as if she had said something odd. The batarians were laughing at their table. Nothing had happened. But still...
"You are talking to a dead woman. Dead and gone."

Elise felt... strange. Not a bad strange, but... strange all the same. She had never been this close to a woman before...

EVER.

"Uhhh... You okay, Freh?"

"You are talking to a dead woman. Dead and gone." Elise looked at Freh'ya carefully. She didn't look at the Asari like she'd gone mad, she didn't look at her like she was some sort of supernatural evil from those cheese y horror vids. No, Elise looked at the Asari in no special way.

Just looked at her as if she was any other person.

"Freh... What do you mean?"

Tonight the alcohol thing so did not work, Freh'ya seemingly shifted in and out of that comfortable haze, no stable condition could be achieved. That talk with Elise had taken unexpected turns as she pushed a few buttons that Freh thought had been well hidden. She had already told more about herself than she ever wanted to.

"You are a survivor as well, aren't you." A matter of fact statement, as she moved back into her comfortable position, taking a sip. A refill was in order soon.

"I didn't expect to survive the war as well, tides, I even tried to... be deliberate but I just couldn't get it done. I was dashing at a reaper even, only to be denied by this fucking blue light that saved us all" She spat those last words.
"Obviously this body just won't die," she laughed, a bit maniacally and desperate, hammering at her breast. "But this mind, this ...soul was killed in the war, a long time ago." she pointed to her head. "you know what I mean?"

"So, for all my former life can be concerned... I am dead. It is better for all involved. And I am working constantly on the 'gone' part". A gargling noise from her straw, but the waitress had the supply line working by now.

She could have made a deal with the headhunter probably, she thought and must have grinned over that. No, staying alive to suffer was the better choice. Suffer and run.

"You know, Elise, I think I like you." she took her drink and offered a salute. "To those who've lost us." To you, Taleeze, may you find happiness.

Elise went quiet before she spoke up.

"On Earth, I tried so hard to get myself killed, while trying to take as many Reapers as I could with me. I used my Biotics furiously until my amp literally burned out..." Elise finished off her drink, gripping it hard enough to make the glass crack ever-so slightly.

"And then that... That man saved me... Just like on Veratix... And once more I was denied."

You're not so bad yourself" Elise smiled as the Asari toasted, and picking up her new drink, she did as well.

"Now that's a toast I like."

After taking a drink, Elise looked at her drink.

"I think we need to switch to something lighter... Just so we don't start flailing Biotics in a drunken rampage"

“Well, you were asking for the hard stuff. Sorry for not being able to remember yur exact words but I think they involved ‘coma’.” Freh’ya chuckled at Elise’s concern. “I still feel tempted to lam a few batarians later, maybe.”
She was studying the menu.

“See, they have a really comprehensive list of good shtuff. And I personally want to have me a nice brain flooding. Anyway, just because you have such read hair on, I’ll let you chose the next drink for us, okay?”

It was crazy, was this woman really so similar. It was really funny, of all places, in strip joint on Omega Freh’ya had the most touching encounter since she had left Nevos two years ago. She went back to London once more. Way better for her mental state than remembering Thessia, which meant something since London had been a suicide run.
“Yes, I also wasn’t even paying attention to my stamina. London was… a frenzy. There was a human platoon I was assigned to as scout, I dashed along next to their tank, one reaper-creeper at a time, then the tank and all inside went kaboom; I just dashed on. There was this red eye, this big red eye… and then that blue light.”

“You said a guy saved you? What happened, where is he now?”

The music had shifted to a slower tune and the gyrating hips of that one particular dance were a nice sight.

Elise chuckled to herself as she remembered her words.

I guess I did, didn't I?

"To be honest, I don't really know what's good to drink here or not" Elise smiled at the Asari, listening of the woman's work in London while wondering how they were so very similar.

"That sounds... wow... I don't even know what to say about that... and yeah, he did save me. Cerberus Op cut me in the throat, he gave me some gel, it was fine. Ran into him in London, burned out my amp, he dumped me on some medics, I was fine. I honestly don't care what happened to him. He was an asshole and we hated each other. Simple as that." Elise had finally managed to find that Turian dancer and was rather... Intrigued by her dancing.

"I didn't even know a Turian could bend way..." Elise reluctantly tore her eyes from the Turian and placed her attention back on Freh'ya.

"Fuck it, these... What were they? Cut Throat Bitches? These are good enough..."

Freh’ya chuckled. Wasn’t this the fitting drink and the fitting name for the two of them. Hell, she didn’t talk to anybody really since… Thessia. This was good – and she hated it for that.

A low voice in the back of her brain kept telling her to get the fuck away from everything, since she had forfeited her right to be happy. The alcohol damped that voice pretty well tonight.

“Yup, that’s the name. So be it, but if you’re in for a change at some point, there may be another one suiting us two beauties, the Psychotic Biotic. It is a tad softer – just in case.”

Pulling over a bowl biotically and placing it between the two she asked: “want some nuts?” She grabbed a handful, the salt preparing her throat for more liquid.

She took a sip, listening to the story of the woman. Intense stuff and too bad to have an asshole saving your tzu.

“You into turians? You don’t see them dance like that very often. That one’s having fun obviously.”

Watching the dancers was doing it’s job, there is was again, the picture of Taleeze, that last evening on the beach in front of their house before Freh’ya shipped out, that last night, before everything changed. Freh’ya let out a deep sigh. Maybe she wasn’t way far enough yet.

"Well then, we'll have to try one of those later, won't we? Strange how fitting the names of these drinks are..." Elise was about to take another drink when Freh'ya pulled over the bowl. Setting down her drink, she took a nut.

Salty... Good.

Elise ate a few of the nuts before taking a drink of her CTB, the salt mixing with the drink as it went down.

"You could say that, I guess... Reptiles have usually been of interest to me..." Elise smiled and (although she would regret it if it were ever brought up again) giggled as she thought back to when she was eight years old, having found a small snake and showing it too her mother...

The resulting freakout had resulted with Elise being sent to her room for "bad behaviour". Her father would later tell the eight year old that she'd done nothing wrong and had even managed to recapture the snake for her. It would be a good source of entertainment for the next two years before the snake mysteriously escaped when Elise's mother was feeding it. Shaking her head with a small smile, she took another drink. If memories of her childhood were suddenly coming up, she wasn't drunk enough. Elise managed to catch Freh's deep sigh, however, and if the asari thought Elise wouldn't care, she had another thing coming.

"Credit for your thought?" She kept looking around at the other dancers. The turian one had stopped (seemingly to rest), which kind of upset Elise, but she figured she'd be dancing again shortly. In the meantime, she looked over to the Batarian's table, and the happily drinking group of men.

"What are they so happy about?"

Indeed the Slaves4Us table was mostly cheers.

"Let's sing!" said Bintar.

"Aww not again, you'll sing batarian songs again, I never know them!" protested the Turian.

"Well learn them already! Come on, "Goronak and his slave", one, two...

Goronak had a fetching slave he did
Even though his house was absolutely horrid
She cleaned at day, she cleaned at night
For tending that house was a true fight
Dirty Goronak was the shame of the county
But his fetching slave was the most pretty
One day big shot Maltar came in, and looked
For a slave dirty Goronak he took
He raised the girl's caste, the house she took
And now dirty Goronak have to clean every book!"

They all started to laugh, including the non batarians who had done pretty well in following the song.

"Spare you a credit. It's just my little dancer that somehow wouldn't get out of my mind tonight obviously."

Then the singing drew their attention.
"Damnit, they are even louder than the music. Stupid slaver creeps." Freh leaned closer to Elise and looked into her strange white eyes - funny, by now she had gotten used to the sight, the arm was creeping her a bit though. She might ask after a couple more rounds maybe.

"Okay, listen," she said conspiratorially, "there are not so many options here. One, we just ignore them and keep on drinking, eyes on the road. Two, we shut them up - which may end a night I am not completely hating so far at a place I am not hating at all with company I actually enjoy or three ... uh, I am no reptile, so there's no three. wuddya say? Open for creative suggestions."

"Well we'll have to fix that then..." Elise glared at the table before looking Freh in the eyes.

"I think I'll choose option number 1... All I can think of is caving in their heads with a Smash... Wait, what do you mean "you're no reptile"?" Elise's mind ran wild with thoughts, trying to figure out what the Asari had meant, all the while trying her hardest not to launch a Shockwave at the Slaver-filled table...

Duh, dense human. Freh'ya was taking the last gargling drink and the waitress nodded approvingly, supply line in the works. Not that she wouldn't have been okay with option one, but several aspects of this night had added to her body doing the body things and it had been a considerable while.

"Well, we could also go someplace more private, you know, getting to know each other a bit better..." She looked straight into those white eyes. "...But since I am no reptile... option one."
Newly arrived cocktail, she took a sip from the straw without taking her eyes off though.

Elise felt... uncomfortable, to say the least. The Asari was eye-to-eye with her, each staring through into the other's soul. Freh probably wouldn't see much beyond what the white cybernetics told her, as Elise's soul had died long ago. Then there was what Freh'ya had said. It made her... Hell, Elise didn't even know what it made her feel like. It was possible that Elise had come to Periwinkle Paradise in hopes of finding companionship instead of just to get smashed...

Then again, that was about as likely as a group of Varren playing poker.

"I didn't say I was strictly into reptiles, did I?" Elise looked at Freh'ya, staring into the Asari's eyes.

Okay... That's not what I wanted to say, Brain. Let's push the alchohol aside and try that again.

"Besides... I think going blue would be a refreshing change of pace..." Elise took a drink from her glass, finishing it, but never broke eye contact with the Asari across from her.

... So remember when I said "push the alchohol aside", Brain? Yeah, you were supposed to do that. Thanks.

Freh'ya was sucking slowly on her own straw... the alcohol was shooting into her system, a good dull feeling. Comfort zone. The white in those eyes were like a mirror of the emptiness inside herself, no color, just screaming white noise. Why not be empty together tonight. Just this one night.

"That looks like a third option indeed," she said slowly. "Your place maybe?"
She placed the only half empty cocktail on the counter and fished for her credit chit.