[Citadel/Nimbus] A Party On The Rocks (closed)

Rahi looked up from fiddling idly with her omni-tool, and nodded.

"I'd like that," she smiled, closing her screens. "I'm all done and filed with command here, and back home. Thanks again for getting me use of the FTL comms, by the way." She glanced around the lobby. "Doesn't quite feel like the middle of an assignment, does it? But then, touch shore," she added wryly, "the rest of it won't be quite so eventful."

She followed Freh'ya out of the hotel, looking around; Sunda was still a fresh and fascinating enough sight that she couldn't quite walk through it without looking like a tourist.

"Where are they sending you after we deliver the Matriarch?" she asked. "If you don't mind my curiosity."

Sunda was built into the glacier, descending into the ocean beneath it. The reapers didn’t manage toi burn through the kilometers of ice, so the levels they were currently on, the lowest levels with their submarine harbors, were left untouched.

Huge domes of energy and transparent metal were covering the arcologies, the bluish shimmer or the light that was guided down here through the extremely clear ice was spreading everywhere, it was supported by occasional artificial lighting it it was a surprise that the city even down here had the feeling of day and night on the surface.

“No problem. I will report back to the Citadel, meet one of my partners and then go back to nevos for a bit with my other mate. She’s a human from Illium, we rarely spend longer periods of time together so it will be most welcome. I hope I get extended leave and they don’t deduct the extra time from my stay there.” Freh’ya chuckled. “But I’ll not eb idle, the Nevos Ring Guard is rebuilding and I have a half-guard of young recruits to take care of.” she looked down at Rahi, who was young too but by no means a recruit. “Goddeess help them if they slouched around in my absence!” The chuckle became laughter.

“Anyway, I am on readiness for the Council military Exchange Program, and if my le’ku are not betraying me with an itch, the next assignment will come soon.”

They came into an area that could be described as an open fish and seafood market with many stands, directly fed from large installations where the Sunda fishing fleets were dropping off their products. It was very lievely and some negotiating, shouting was going on as well as regular people doing weekly food shopping of what looked like luminescent squid or strangely shaped animals and large leafed seaweeds.

"What about you?"

"I honestly never thought I'd see you set foot on Trategos again." Tizine said at last, her voice rising above the droning ambiance all around them, though straining to keep the tone otherwise conversational. "I see you managed to break your arm in the process."

Temria sighed, clenching a package firmly under her wounded arm while trying to appear aloof enough to let the barb pass by unnoticed. She was on the clock, the chance to be here carefully negotiated under short circumstances, the communiques involved, the excuses to forge, even getting herself out here so rapidly- all calculated gains she earned by, frankly, begging the Matriarch for her patience. She'd be paying for this enough as it was, to fall into the delicate cycle of conflict, drinking, and romance that defined so much of their relationship would be utterly unacceptable.

But it was still so tempting.

"It's a coincidence that I was brought to Trategos." she replied weakly, shrugging as though describing an amusing detour she'd taken on the commute to work, "I didn't even expect to stay for too long, not long enough to even be able to reach out to you. But there was a... delay, so I thought I should-"

"Call me."

"Call- ...what?"

"You told me all this when you called me."

"Yes... Yes. I did, didn't I?"

Tizine closed her eyes, a faint smile crossing her face while she delighted in leaving Temria flustered. Though the doctor couldn't help but pout back, it was heartening to see that smile again.

With a nod, Tizine let go of the door frame and crossed her arms, at which point Temria could note with some concern the three-fingered symmetry of her hands, even in the low light. "Well, you might as well come in."

Rahi chuckled too at the thought of Freh'ya's beleaguered group of trainees - but then, after her, they would surely be ready for anything. The thought distracted her from the sight of the seaweed on sale, at least. Sunda's fare looked rather unappetising to her, although no doubt they were very different to Epira's local types in what their colour and texture signified; the shoppers seemed keen enough, presumably they were suitably tasty. Maybe if she ate without looking at the food too much.

"Me? Back to Epira," she replied. "Final assignment status is still on the waves, but the commando I spoke to earlier - she's the one who's been supervising me since the war's end - is putting together a company for a ship she'll be commanding, and she seems to plan on having me there. Not a lot of details yet," she added, hoping she sounded casual - it was difficult to suppress her excitement, yet she really didn't want to make Freh'ya curious enough to ask questions she wasn't allowed to answer - "but it goes without saying I'll be one of the crew's juniors. Not too unlike your recruits." She stifled another chuckle. "I doubt I'd be first pilot, but with luck the ship'll have a shuttle or a launch I'll be able to get some flight time on from time to time."

They walked a little further before the young huntress mustered the courage to indulge her curiosity.

"What's she like? Your human mate. We don't get a lot of humans out in the Reach. The handful we do see tend to be... guns for hire and the like, no longer welcome closer to home I suppose. Not a fair example to judge a people by."

Freh’ya noticed the expression of Rahi over the fresh fresh seafood. Too bad, she was missing out on something like that. Freh’ya would have loved to get some… oh, frozen jellyfish cones!

“Wait a second!” the tall huntress approached a booth where a colorfully clad asari was just handing out equally rainbow colored cones of frozen and crushed glacier jellyfish cones to a few kids.

“I’d like to have fishka and saduree please.” She got a large greenish-pink cone of some substance in a cone.

“I love jelly crush!” She announced to Rahi as they continued their way along, Freh’ya licking absent mindedly.
“So, humans. Skylar is special, I don’t know, I am biased now probably. But then, I’ve worked with humans too as part of the CMEP, I know all kinds of types.
Skylar came to Illium to get away from Bekenstein. She’s a lawyer and a part time stage performer – don’t ask me how she manages that, she seems always on the move and yet she gets it done. Anyway, there’s this hair thing? Her’s is very long and yellow colored, it’s called blond – oh, she’s a female human by the way. I love that hair, it carries so much scent and it so versatile! You’d be amazed how beautiful it can be arranged. Or in the how ruffled it can look in the mornings.” She chuckled, licking her cone.

“But there’s a downside, humans lose a lot of hair, it gets everywhere and I already pulled some out of my suit…. Then, this is kind of neat memento when you’re on a mission, go through your stuff and there’s hair of your lover, like it was hidden there to be found by me.” I must sound awkward. “It sounds awkward, does it? We got a new clean’o’mate drone at home – one that said ‘for animal housholds’… I haven’t told her that though!” she laughed.

She thought about telling how they had come together through Taleeze but she stopped and backed away before the blurred memory of her time on Omega, those strange feeling and the aimless drifting. It was something she wanted to store away and forget about most of the time.

“She is not typical for a human in many ways, she found her peace in asari ways of life, being troubled by the human society she lived in. They are not that accepting to strippers, it’s the typical thing with bi-gendered species. they want them and have them but look down on them for these weird reasons. Anyway, yes, so that's Skylar.”

Stopping, she opened her omnitool and a picture of a blond female human in a beach house environement came up, she was striking a pose, visible from the waist up, smiling and over her shoulder Taleeze was making a goofy kissing face into the camera.

The room was busier than Temria had expected, it's bare, utilitarian layout disguised by clutter, at the very least it felt lived in, and Temria tried to consider that a positive. Originally one of multiple adjacent crew quarters, the whole thing felt overlong and narrow to the doctor's more discerning architectural tastes. Only about three meters wide at it's best, the compartment stretched ahead a good ten more ahead of them, divided half way by a jutting structure on either wall that may have once housed a door-frame of some sort to divide the two spaces.

Temria could tell most of the actual living was done on this side of the divider, a quality rug had been laid down and covered most of the floor in this partition itself, near the one corner sat the legless disk of an old table, worn and scarred, but definitely wood, and on the opposite wall two recesses with curtains hastily mounted up; beds, one above the other, built into the bulkhead. The second half further down was occupied sparsely by boxes of various sizes, beat up and worn some sat open revealing their contents: clothing, decorative pieces, little things with sentimental value and little else going for them.

Things people wouldn't loot right away. Temria noted with a grimace, or perhaps at all.

Tizine ushered her in discretely, gesturing to the table in a way that seemed natural despite the missing segments of fingers and the odd clicking when the arm pulled too straight. Though she understood the meaning, Temria waited just inside the door awkwardly, expecting to be... needed somehow only to be caught off guard by how easily the other asari slid the door back down by hand, flashing her an annoyed look as the lower half rose up by some unseen mechanism and locked itself. With a wince, Temria made for the table as though she'd always meant to keep going.

Just great, Tem... keep it up...

Silence hung between them for a while, as Temria took her seat and rested her arm against the table, her gaudy modern cast contrasting sharply against its rugged surface.

"...So... how is Antra?"

"Well enough. Still bright, but not as studious as she used to be, and prone to fancy." Tizine sighed, taking a seat just beside her in order to lean against the wall. A telltale slouch showed in her posture despite the asymmetrical bulk of her shoulders, forcing Temria to acknowledge she too felt a sort of complicated exhaustion settling in. "Not quite ready to shout her mom out and run off to show the galaxy how smart she thinks she is. Even less so now..."

"A close calls... then?"

"Some close calls, yes."

Temria sighed, trying to sound relieved, but the thought of it seized her chest. Tizine offered no details and... at least for now, the doctor wouldn't risk asking for more.

"And how about... Sel... Sel'lem?"

"Died." She said flatly, propping her arms up on the table and clasping her hands, the three segmented fingers of one hand enveloping the smaller, broken, but still proportionally asari-sized one. "I know you didn't care much for him. But he was good for Antra, and for me."

Temria hesitated, a quick compassionate platitude about how salarians don't live long generally died in her throat before it could get her thrown out. She noticed with some trepidation that Tizine was staring off past the bulkhead wall and into some place she couldn't follow... the scuffed up elbows of her mech arms leaving fresh groves in the table top.

"I... uhm... I brought you something."

Tizine said nothing. So Temria said nothing. The arms, which she had unwrapped so eagerly and set straight on the table sat between them said nothing either, content to remain set pieces in their awkward tableau until the end of the universe.

"That's... that's a surprise." Tizine said at last, her expression balancing precariously between curiocity and utter shock.

"They're Intalus 80s." Temria replied, the spark of her enthusiasm catching at the chance to talk about them. "The slimline model, brand new even. Asari specifications of course, proper proportionate structure, synthetic musculature, five fingers-"

"I know what they are, Tem!"

The outburst caught them both off guard, and Temria could see her expression had settled on a sort of baffled incredulousness. She hesitated for a half beat of the obnoxious metal drumming before she spoke up again. "You said you needed new hands, I figured you'd do well with some proper symetry."

Tizine sighed, it was a long, labored thing thing that made Temria nervous. The other asari was collecting her thoughts, which never ended well. "You..." she paused, her expression becoming more neutral. "Your last letter, you said you were shipping something to me."

"Yes. Yes I did."

"Arms? Like these?"

Temria nodded, "These ones. Yes."

"That shipment was intercepted, Temria. It was completely gutted."

"We recovered it-"

"Don't you dare lie to me." she snapped, causing Temria to wince and look away. Though her expresion softened as she continued, "...You're awful at it."

Temria shifted in her seat, suddenly uncomfortable, and her expression showed it. "I was asked to make the trip to Trategos... So I bought another pair."

"Another... Temria, what!?"

"Because I wanted you to have them!" she shouted, seizing her own chance to be incredulous, "Because I'm paid well to perform a valued service. Because you'd never spend the credits on yourself even if I'd sent you more and told you to... and because I wanted you to have them."

Temria sighed, slumping back down onto the floor. Surprising herself to realize she'd started to get up. She wondered if she had looked intimidating... Tizine could have easily taken her apart with at least the one arm, though the doctor knew in her heart of hearts she'd probably insist on headbutting her instead. The thought of hit cracked her stern expression, and the sight of it prompted Tizine to lean back as well, the tension showing her artificial shoulders; this wasn't easy for her either.

"Well... They're very nice arms."

"You're welcome."

"What shall I tell Antra?"