[Zakera Ward] Weekend Film Festival (open)

As Alex finally returned from the group, carrying a mostly spilt bottle of Bitter Lemon.
He gingerly passed it to Arina.
"Here. Sorry about that..." Alex said.
"You will not believe what just happened to me as I was getting that drink." Alex Said.
Rather then politely wait to see if anyone cared, Alex dove in.
"All right. So I was walking over to the concession stand..."

Few minutes earlier

Alex walked over towards the concession stand. Dodging people, Aliens, people in costumes and Aliens in costumes.
Eventually, he made it towards the stand. Their was a short queue, and he was stood behind three people/aliens. Alex patiently waited for several minutes before his Omni tool began to ring.
"Hello? Alexander Speaking." He replied.
Upon hearing this, the guy in front of him turned around.
"Are you Alexander Adolrikson?" Asked the man. Alex looked at the man. He was a tall, brick wall of a man, with short cropped hair.
"Uh... Yes?" Alex Replied. Sensing trouble, he said to the caller "I'll have to call you back. Sorry."
"I'm Abasi Owiti. You put my Brother behind bars. Left his child without a Father. Now he's dead. I couldn't bare to stay in Kenya anymore."
"Can I get a bitter lemon please?" Asked the person in front of Abasi.
"And now, here, I find the man that ruined my brother and his nephew's life. If he wasn't behind bars, he might still be alive." Said Abasi, getting more and more angry.
Alex gulped. He had to act fast before anything bad happened.
Alex immediately got punched in the gut, causing him to step back slightly. However, still standing, Alex then ran forward and grabbed the bitter lemon the customer had ordered and slammed his credit chit onto the stand.
"Sorry. I'm a cop here's the money I've really got to go." Alex said Really quickly.
He immediately socked Abasi in the face and made a run out of the area, trying to get him away from the crowd.
"You mother fucker!" Shouted Abasi, as he took chase.
Alex ran, looking back to check on Abasi's position. Abasi may have been the stronger of the two, but Alex was better trained and faster. This made little difference however as Alex ran into a dead end outside the cinema.
"Nowhere to run you piece of shit. Perhaps I should condense my brothers experience in prison to a few minutes." Said Abasi as he walked towards Alex.
Alex looked to what he was carrying. He had no weapons, a civilian model of Omni-Tool and a bottle of Bitter Lemon.
"Look over there!" Alex shouted, pointing to a vague area behind Abasi.
As Abasi Looked around, Alex ran towards him, kicked him in the shin and sprayed most of the contents of the bottle in his eyes.
Abasi stumbled, as if blinded by the light. Alex then followed up with a kick in the side of the head, sending him to the floor.
"Your under arrest for assaulting a officer, and disturbing the peace. You don't have to say anything, but I'm not sure your entirely in the mood to anyway." Said Alex as He activated the Omni-Handcuffs all Officers were allowed. He picked up the now leaking bottle of Bitter lemon and screwed back on the top. Not one for missing a one liner...
"That was quite a... sour experience. Sour? Bitter? Which one sounds better?" He asked to the now writhing in pain man.
A C-Sec officer walked past.
"Hey you! Officer! Get this guy to the station, I'll be back for him later." Alex shouted.
"Are you a officer?" Asked the Salarian.
"Eh. I'm on a break." Alex said.
"Your shaking like a leaf sir." Replied the Salarian.
"Next time your chase by a guy this large, you try and stay calm." Replied Alex.
He got up, gingerly, and make his way back into the cinema.

Back to the present

"...I may have embellished that a little, but bloody hell. Sorry for the drink. I think I need a lie-down." Said Alex.

How long had it been since Naaya had actually socialized? Too long, by her reckoning. The only rationale she could come up with as to why she hadn't been out and about doing things was that she was still trying to take it easy after the end of the war. It was nice living with Najhil, and the sedentary lifestyle was very peaceful, but that was no excuse for being antisocial.

Wandering the streets of the Citadel made her slightly uneasy to this day- Naaya had seen firsthand the Cerberus conflict on the station, and heard from various sources about what it was like when the Reapers seized it. Funny how she could remember things like that like it was yesterday, despite the passage of time.

But enough grim thoughts. Tonight was about fun. Naaya makes her way through the now-congested crowd, stopping at the booth once she's first in line, paying her fee, and picking up her ticket. She didn't quite remember who on the forums said they were going to be here, but even if it was all unfamiliar faces, that'd still be a nice opportunity to make some new acquaintances.

The quarian heads through the theater, looking this way and that for some sign of the crowd she was supposed to be with. She makes a quick detour to pick up some flavored nutripaste from a vendor, and starts keeping an eye out for any Cerberus Daily News folk.

If this meetup was anything like the last one she went to, the yelling and ambulance sirens should pinpoint where the forumgoers were soon enough.

Obviously some other person whose name Arina had missed had just called in about directions. How could one possibly be misguided about this festival? Well, stuff happens, maybe a messed up skycab VI.

When the mysterious human male approached the group for Cavallius, he caught her attention again. He was mainly addressing Cavallius but the situation seemed appropriate so she introduced herself.
"Hello, I am Arina, 'stardust' on CDN. I guess you're on there as well? I don't recognize you though."

And then came Alex... oh, Goddess, what had happened? When he handed her that sorry excuse of a bitter lemon, her eyes were going wide. Why was that bottle so sticky and why was it half empty?
"Well thank you, but what...." Then he told his tale. It sounded as if he already had seen a particularly cheesy action movie. Who was this guy?

"Oh, I hope you are okay? And don't worry about the drink, I'll get myself a new one." She biotically placed the bottle in the trashcan and padded Alex' shoulder. Not without trying to wipe her sticky fingers a bit.
"Now you not only look like Dirk Black but also act like one!" she said laughing.

Adrian nodded and smiled at Leeta, a little surprised she was talking to him, having only met one or two quarians before. "Well, yeah! Treasure exploring is pretty neat too! Dante says I'm a little too young to be an explorer or anything right now, but… maybe one day." He leaned in a little closer. "I like your pink, by the way. Are you one of his friends from work?"

"All right, see you soon," Dante said to Michelle, hanging up the call. To Arina he replied, "Ah, there might be a few more people already in a movie or something, but... So far I think we're just waiting for one more person. She got a little lost, but hopefully she'll be here in the next hour. She said not to wait for her though, but…" He twitched a mandible and shrugged. "I'd be willing to wait for her out here if you all wanted to go in if a showing's about to start."

He was a little surprised to see Snow coming over, but was glad nonetheless. "Oh hey Snow, it's good to see you. You're not interrupting, would you care to join us?" It was becoming quite a gathering at this rate. "We're just trying to figure out which film to see… sounds like we're leaning toward watching Coral first, though it's a tough pick between that and Dark Harvest." He glanced back toward where people were lining up. "Probably going to need to pick pretty soon though, or they're going to get packed before any of us gets a chance to get in... It seems pretty logical to just split up into two groups, but we could all go as one and put it up to a vote, perhaps?" He turned back to the group and addressed them all. "What do you think, everyone?"

"Wait, we were here as a group? I was just going to go see Dark Harvest for starters. The whole place is full of media critics."
Sarah crossed her arms over her chest, turning to give Cav her full attention. "There's other screenings of it, I think this one's supposed to be the big premiere though. I haven't even heard of the other movie.."

Leeta exhaled a quick sigh of relief when the human child seemed to take kindly to her questions. Kids were so tiny and fragile and foreign - they always seemed so prone to tantrum and mood swings, she usually just stayed away from them. That, and she hadn't exactly lived the sort of life where you ran into children a lot. Not unless they were con artists with devious plans behind those big innocent smiles. "Well there are not a whole lot of things more exciting than being an explorer...but that is the sort of thing you build up to I think." She shook her head at his question. "No, I am--" She hesitated. Meeting people off of the extranet when you were just a kid wasn't exactly a safe thing to do, so she didn't exactly want to encourage the thought that the extranet was the place of sunshine and roses. "We're sort of part of the uh, same...group that uh," Did Adrian know about CDN? As if Dante would have said 'by the way son, I'm part of a forum that used to be for a human supremacist group of nutjobs.' Luckily Alex was back, and maybe the disheveled super secret agent would distract Aidan from Leeta's awkward non-answer. "...are you all right, Stubble?" She asked, frowning with confusion when Arina threw away the drink. She had totally missed Alex's brief adventure of course, so the fact that the drink was mostly empty was lost on her.

At Sarah's question Leeta took the opportunity to answer. "Oh I do not think we were here as a group...per-say, just, it is more fun to see films with people so you can talk about it together after...or...something." She cleared her throat and looked around like something very interesting was happening a ways away. Leeta definitely wanted to stick with the people she knew - so she would likely follow Dante, Alex, or Arina to whichever flick they felt like seeing first.

"Sure Officer, thanks," greeting Cavallius, then to the fashionably dressed asari, making sure to remain polite, "I follow the boards but don't post much, name's Snow ma'am", his soft rasp cordial as he stood at the edge of the group. Noticing a human boy with Dante as he thrust his hands into his coat pockets, Snow would have thought that strange a month ago, but after the Xuumo business, it seemed natural considering the state of post-war affairs. Finding the beverage kiosk as the group debated over which film to see, Snow got himself a Jaeto black tea before rejoining the crowd. Noticing another asari, this one much more subdued than her friend, and a look that suggested a rough road, turning back to where the rest of the group was debating over which film to see. Unsure if he had a say, but hell, Officer Cavallius had invited him over, might as well give his two cents,

"I'm kinda curious about Coral, when's it showing?"

"Nice to meet you, Mr. Snow!" The man seemed to have manners, nice.

Coral seemed to be a popular alternative, which made Arina happy, but Sarah was also right of course with her objection.
And for a moment she had to chuckle over Adrian's comment on Leeta being a C-Sec colleague of Dante. She wondered if C-Suez had ever considered hiring a current or if there had ever even been an application.

"We could split up into Coral and Dark Harvest, as there are a lot of parallel screenings", she pointed to the monitors overhead, displaying times and theater numbers. "We could as well exchange our thoughts later - if nobody cares for spoilers. But we all know how the Reaper thing ended, so no surprise there. I'm okay with either but thinking about it, Coral might be a bit of a happier story."
She all of a sudden wasn't so sure if she wanted to see Dark Harvest with such a large audience. A few days ago, the idea didn't seem that strange, but all of a sudden...

"That sounds fair. I'm more interested in seeing Coral, So I'd be heading over there anyway." Alex replied as he wiped the last of the Bitter lemon off of his suit. "We can decide on a real timetable after all the films."
Alex looked to the newcomer.
"Julian." He said with a nod.

Adrian supposed what she was saying made sense, and he nodded. "Mmm… I guess so… Got to have exploring classes or something, too." He didn't think too much about her leaving out how she knew Dante, but he didn't really mind.

Meanwhile, Dante shook his head, trying to calm any worries. "Oh, sorry, I apologize, you're right. I didn't intend to mess up anyone's viewing plans, and I wouldn't hold anyone to seeing something they didn't want to. I just meant like what Leeta said, if we were all here it might be kinda fun if people wanted to do that, that's all." He felt a little bad for the confusion. Arina's plan seemed like a pretty good one though, and he had to agree with her. "Talking about them afterward might be really interesting too… I know I always miss one or two things at least whenever I watch something, so it might make for some nice insight to see what everyone else noticed and thought."

It was nice to see Snow decided to stay and join the conversation after all. "Ah, there's several times it's being shown, actually. There's one next, there's one a few hours after that… so you could probably make it to at least one of them if you needed to work around something like… another film only being shown once, for example."

Lear looked over at the growing group of people. He could recognize a large amount of them from CDN, and it appeared they had group together with that one dude... what was his name? "Cavallius"? Regardless, he only had ever met maybe... a few people from CDN. He recognized the blonde human that ran spoke to Vik at that restaraunt. Then there was the quarian with the hot pink robe from that festival on Rannoch. Other than those two, he'd never met any of these people personally and recognized them from their avatars on the forums (or most of them, anyway. He couldn't tell who the guy dressed as Dirk Black was). Reluctantly, he stood and made his way towards the group. His mind screamed at him the whole way, wanting nothing to do with the thing known as "socialization".

Sucks for you, Brain. We're going to be a nice, sociable Quarian wether you like it or not.

Upon reaching the group, Lear turned his translator back on (he had turned it off when a rather annoying human child had gone running and screaming through the theater earlier today), and spoke to the group in general.

"I'm going to assume that everyone here is from CDN, yeah?"

"CATCH THESE BLASPHEMERS! CATCH THEM AND BRING THEM TO ME! THIS IS THE WILL OF GALDASH!"
The great priest of the cult who had invested the deserted Golden Kraxen cinema was holding his face in his hands, covered in debilitating spray, tears of pain and rage flowing on his cheeks.
Michelle could hear the footsteps of her pursuers, around a dozen of those salarian cultists, behind her.
"WHY THE HELL DID YOU PEPPER SPRAY THAT GUY YOU LUNATIC??" asked her would-be mugger, sprinting beside her.
Michelle was both out of breath and embarrassed now.
"Well! You know! he felt dangerous!", she shouted back while running.
"Spirits! You were aiming at me weren't you?" replied the turian incredulously.
"Shut up and run!" she only answered, jumping in a construction site, bloodthirsty shouts of rage and sacrificial daggers brandished behind her.

Leeta smiled, chirping "It sounds like at least a few of us are off to see Coral--" she stopped when she saw another quarian approach and tilted her head. He was familiar, but she couldn't quite place him in her memory. It wasn't until he spoke, addressing Dante, that she remembered him. Her eyes went wide. He was one of the people she had met on Rannoch for the festival...he was on CDN? Small galaxy. She shook her head with a hint of awe before realizing he might have taken the gesture as a no. She began nodding vigorously to make up for it. "Oh, yes...Dante posted an invitation on CDN so it is...a gathering? I suppose you could say?" She looked at Dante uncertainly before continuing.

"We are splitting off to see different vids, though..." She trailed off, feeling incredibly lame for being part of an extranet get-together. She reminded herself it had been Dante's idea, and Dante was hardly lame.

"Alex", figures, the most overdressed one here had to be the kenyan wonderboy, reeking of lemon juice also. But still, he was in the thick of things in Lower Tayseri, that alone brought him up a notch in Snow's estimation. Giving Alex a cool nod, Snow took another swig of his tea, content to let the others decide matters. Aside from the blonde, the majority seemed in favor of Coral, surprising Snow, right as another quarian entered the discussion. He wasn't as lively as the one who called herself Leeta, and his question? Are you all CDN'ers??? What the fuck? Sighing, Snow turned his gaze to the new arrival, the charity worker's dark grey eyes maintaining the dissonant air as he answered,

"Yeah, I try to follow the CDN boards, mostly for work, name's Snow, and you are?"

That quarian had a polite way to introduce himself. It was the one that was bagging his helmet on the table a coupe of minutes ago. Arina sighed. Did she already carry a sign that said 'CDN'?
At least Leeta didn't seem as offended as the last time when an unfamiliar quarian had approached a small meeting.

"I am also on these boards, yes, I am 'stardust'. Who are you, then? As I assume you are also familiar with the place."

Lear immediatly felt like an idiot. He had only assumed the group of people were from CDN, but he hadn't thought it was true.

Great job, Lear. Now you look like an asshole.

"On the board, I go by Hybrid. My name, however, is Lear'Kaus. Nice to meet you, I guess?" Lear was tempted to stick out his hand like he'd learned from the humans, but resisted to do so, not feeling entirley comfortable being in this group. It wasn't that they were people he just met (although it did contribute), it was more because he felt he'd given these people a bad impression of himself from his choice of words. The other quarian (What was her name? Leeta?) had said that some of the group was going to be seeing Coral, and while he wasn't particularly against that idea, he had planned to see it later. Lear decided to remain silent for the time being, having just entered the group.

Leeta hesitated awkwardly, scouring her memory for things she remembered about Lear from their time on Rannoch. The thing that stuck out most in her mind was how they had met in the first place - they had both been on the outskirts of the throngs of people. Neither of them liked groups, so Leeta tilted her head closer to him and tried to be helpful. "There is a smaller number going to Dark Harvest I believe...no obligation to go to either of course." She finally shrugged. If he wanted to hang out with them he could, and if not he was free to go off on his own. Leeta understood more than most how stressful it could be to be around strangers.

Feeling she had done enough, Leeta returned her attention to Arina and the man who called himself Snow. Snow? she asked herself, pursing her lips in thought....that was a human word for a weather phenomenon. Was that a typical human name? She had no idea, but she wasn't about to start asking awkward questions. She didn't want to offend him after all. Leeta shot Arina a glance and reintroduced herself as well, for Snow's sake. "Ahh, I go by TripleTipToe on CDN."

"Nice to meet you, Lear'Kaus", the name 'Hybrid' sounded familiar.

It took Arina a while to process what Snow had said exactly.

"Oh, interesting, Mr. Snow. CDN concerns your work? Actually I have come across the board myself during work, while making an extranet research about Cerberus. What is it, you are doing, if I may ask?" It seemed appropriate to address him more formally than she would do with Leeta, who by now was a bit more familiar to her.

"Hello bu... Leer? I am Alexander Adolrikson. Also known as Mombasa Giants Fan, Mombasa's no.1 choice in smuggling and narcotics. You know, apparently. When I'm actually there." Alex said, narrowly avoiding using a racial slur, and hoping the new guy wouldn't notice.

"Indirectly, I work for a charity in Lower Tayseri ma'am." Strange, last time Snow had spoken to an asari at length was right after the North Portland fiasco, the matron who's car he had stolen, but Arinia didn't need to know that. Normally he wouldn't give this smiler the time of day, but after the lecture Miss Rondor gave him about not alienating people, well, just meant he had to grin and bear it. "I can pretend to be civilised for two more months", thinking to himself as he finished answering the asari's query,

"My boss swears by CDN, claims it's a good way to, what was the word she used? Oh yeah, network. I try to keep up on news and rumors on CDN, just my way of not getting blindsided by current events ma'am."

Turning to the quarian in the hot pink robe, the lanky man chuckled appreciatively at TripleTipToe's greeting, "more clever than what I go by online, I prefer to keep it simple in my case, just Snow online."