[Citadel, Tayseri, Eight Street Temple] Community Day (Open)

Daia couldn't suppress a grin at seeing the geth 'interrogated' by the children. There was quite the gathering forming - not solely based on the geth, either, the community day seemed to be quite the attraction in its own right - and she reminded herself to make a quick circuit of the assembly, to see if she spotted any familiar faces. She hesitated for the moment though, her curiosity piqued.

"I wonder-" she began.

"Oh go on," Ana said, her tone one of fond tolerance. "You know how you'll feel if you don't." Eafina laughed quietly.

"You know me well," Daia smiled, giving Ana's hand a quick kiss before leaving her in Eafina's company and approaching the circle of onlookers surrounding the geth.

"Pardon?" she spoke up, when a moment presented itself. "I was wondering," how to put this so it didn't sound like she was asking something inappropriate, which for once she wasn't trying to, "do geth - do you - employ physical gestures, the way most organics do? I know there's a distinction between you, the being, and that platform you're residing in, but... Would a geth ever see any point in offering comfort with a hug, or greeting with a handshake, that sort of thing?"

Arina was amused at the attention the geth drew. It wasn't that common for one to be so approachable but you just never knew their sometimes rather impulsive drive to gather intel about social interaction. Such an event was exactly the right place to do this.

She was used to the platforms on a more regular basis around the embassy so Arina just leaned against a wall to watch what was going on for now.

With the others occupied Hadas wandered towards Laykalar, the hanar looked slightly loss.

"Excuse me, greetings to our temple, can I help you with anything?"

Sarah soon returned, visibly pale. Setting herself down at her appropriated chair, she began to play the violin once more, after giving a quick run-over-to-and-hug to the user Stardust.

Drell spiritual music via human violin! The novelty hasn't worn off yet, so Sarah is going to ham it up as much as possible!

"Yes. I took part in the Morning War."

"I am able to recall events centuries old, but for storage conservation reasons, not all are stored on this platform. Records deemed less important are offloaded to central storage in connection with the Consensus where they might be used. In case of corrupted data or physical failure of storage, memory loss can occur."

"Barring physical failure outside carrier range of another geth platform or server node, I am effectively immortal."

"Boredom is an emotion that geth cannot experience. So no, I do not get bored."

Flash of Light turned to address the approaching asari. How fortuitous! Her question related directly to the geth's field of interest, interactions with other organics.

"That is dependent on the situation an individual geth is positioned in. Gestures like you described could be plausible if they are received well and serve towards achievement of chosen goals. Invoking the uncanny valley effect hinders social relations and progress towards the goals mentioned earlier. Of course, given that the geth now all are individuals, anomalous behaviour like assigning preferences to these acts is possible."

This, of course, provoked a chorus of questions about the Morning War (many of them completely, in Kayana's mind, inappropriate-the did you kill babies-type questions). She looked at the Geth-if they were the type to get angry about this, Rannoch would be a smoking crater by now, but still. "We don't answer questions like that. One minute."

She whistled again, then waited for them to be quiet. "Is the polite first question for a Reaper War vetran 'did you kill any indoctrinees?'" She leaned over in front of the girl who'd asked. "So what made you think that was appropriate!"

"...Sorry."

"Alright then! It-is it alright?- had some questions for us."

"All asari are biotic, could it beat her in a fight?"

Laykalar hadn't noticed Hadas approaching; he was transfixed by the geth's patient responses to the children.

He swivelled in order to present his front, as was polite. Aliens could feel ignored, and therefore slighted, if they didn't have the familiar sense of shared orientation.

"This one is pleased to meet the other! It offers thanks for the other's regard. May it humbly assert that it has no unfulfilled needs at present".

Curious, he asked a question that had been floating around in his mind for a few minutes now. "It wishes to inquire: Does this event have a history of such pleasing success? This one is relatively new to the Citadel. It was thinking how diverse the attendance is".

"It is slightly bigger than the ones we held before the war, people see it as a reason to celebrate." He smiled, looking over the crowd, "they say it used to be a more local event. I'm happy that this is part of your introduction to the Citadel, I hope you keep enjoying it."

Kiara looks slightly queasy at the mention of the 'don't ask Reaper War veterans if they killed any indoctrinees'. Slightly earlier, she looked like she wanted to ask something, but shakes her head. "Eh, I can ask later."

The Asari walks over to where Sarah's playing, smiling as she listens to the music.

The questions the childrens were presenting to it were now well within the sensitive category that could cause negative responses in organics present. Fortunately the situation was defused by Kayana, so Flash of Light didn't need to refuse them itself.

"'It' is alright. I do not possess sexual characteristics for gendered pronomines to be used."

"Biotics are a significant force multiplier. If a geth with platform similar to this one were to fight an asari, the asari's chances of winning would be much more higher than with Kayana Pesh."

It turned towards the children assembled before it, ocular refocusing on them. "If you were given a chance, would you augment yourself with synthetic limbs or implants?"

The turian had remained quiet for the time being, so Flash of Light sent a new handshake down Raelon's way, if the first one hadn't been received.

The children looked at each other before starting to talk.

"Sure, I want a gun arm that SHOOTS MISSLES!"

"...I'm happy with being a drell."

"A drell with artificial limbs is still a drell, you d-" "Kasin. Mannners."

"What do they do with the old limbs?"

"Ser Pesh has artificial stuff in the one leg..."

Kayana pulled up the leg of her shorts, showing some scars around her knee. "Reapers. Most of the joint and some of the connecting muscles are artificial. The rehab took months. If the joint fails I'll get it replaced, but too painful to do just to be a little stronger. Nice that you don't have to worry about that."

Sarah continued to play, strumming the strings with the bow, her music getting a little 'flairy' and off the path of the given musical notes. It was within moments she was playing an original piece; a sorrowful, low song that echoed with the temple's acoustics.

The woman seemed to tone out her surroundings and focus on playing, despite the approaching asari's proximity.

"Not this asari, specifically," Daia chuckled. "I'm not much of a fighter." She smoothed the grin off her face, as much as she ever did, and turned back to Flash of Light. "I'll leave you to your other admirers. Thank you. You're the first geth I've met; I hope not the last."

She stepped back to leave the geth to the mercy of the children, and caught their guide's eye in passing, having recognised the name Flash had used.

"You are Kayana Pesh, then?" she asked. "I wondered. I won't bother you, you've got your hands full. But it's good to finally meet you in person. Daia T'Nara. This," she nodded to the crowd, "would be your class, then? How's teaching treating you?"

Raelon, to be honest, had been more than a little surprised to get an electronic handshake here. Doubly so, when he recognized where--and who--it was coming from. Startled, he'd locked down his safeguards.

He'd never expected to meet a geth here. And he'd heard a lot of unpleasant stories in Sniper's Touch, where the "shoot the geth" sim was still one of the most popular offerings.

On the other hand, by all accounts the synthetic life forms were doing their best to integrate into a universe filled with squishies who were frightened of, even repulsed by, them. And Raelon's had more than a few repulsed looks thrown his own way, first for the burns, second for the way he chose to address them - the fact that his cybernetics are so out there, so obvious.

He's a bit scared, but a holy man is supposed to do the right thing, not the easy thing.

So, cautiously, he returns the electronic handshake, then projects the image of a turian waving from atop a rampart. Someone friendly, but willing to defend themselves if attacked.

He's so focused on the geth that he doesn't notice his robe parting. If those drell kids want to see some cybernetics, well....

Flash of Light recorded every response in abridged form to make sure the data could not be connected to these children later, for privacy issues. Species, age, opinion in plain text data. No video, no audio. The approach conserved space as well. Their propensity for violent additions was noted as well. Martial arts exercises in conjunction of this event at young age with affinity for destructive devices...If every species and their young was like this, the drive for violence always present in their lives, how could the Geth join community like this if they could be victims of yet another aggression from impulsive organics? But this was just one festival, one class. The sample was too small to make judgements from, and the war against Old Machines was just two years ago. Like the peace brokered between the Geth and others, time could change these attitudes too to more accommodating.

"Thank you. Your input to this question has been appreciated." It turned to face Daia next. "Your probability to meet another geth in your lifetime is likely. This can be helped by actively seeking us out." it replied diplomatically.

Meanwhile in the electronic spectrum, Flash of Light received Raelon's response. No open ports were found, they were actively rejecting its attempts. Then came the acknowledgement to its handshake, and the image of turian standing behind defenses. He was hesitant, but not outright turning the geth down.

It sent a reply right back. A text file and request to accept delivery of a chat program.

This method of communication is inefficient compared to better alternatives. I have prepared a program to address this issue. Will you receive and run it on your hardware?

Raelon sends back an affirmative before realizing how arrogant he's been. Oh, yes, usually he's pretty confident that he can find, disable, and return any virus in anything that someone sends to him - the extranet is his playground, and he is its king.

Only now he's dealing with something that's a native inhabitant of networks and such, for whom tech is life itself. Can he really defend himself against a geth?

It's too late now, and on the heels of that thought is the realization that if a holy man isn't prepared to step up and extend a friendly hand, who is?

He offers up a quick prayer to the Silver Future in the hopes that the spirit knows what the hell it's doing.

Then he executes and runs the geth's program.

First thing the program does is scan Raelon's hardware for language settings and then hook the library up to itself. Next, it sends copy of the library back to Flash.

Then there's a reply. It's not text. It's voice, machine-generated voice but not like the Geth synthesize theirs, but more like a turian VI voice that speaks with Raelon's own chosen tongue package. A voice that seems to speak all it has, no matter how many sentences it has to say, in one quick glut that is still comprehensible. How can it be so possible to convey so much in so little space?

greetings turian you may call me flash of light this method is similar to how geth converse between each other have you experienced similar discourse before there may be need for more adjusted configurations please inform in reply any flaws you might find

"Yeah, I'm Kayana Pesh. Nice to meet in person Daia. Is Ana here?"

Meanwhile, the children continued chattering. "I'd want to fly."

"Can you fly?"

"Why would you not fly if you could just attach a jetpack?"

"Cause it's the citadel and everywhere has ceilings."

"I want a jetpack."

"Ah, I love it. They're good kids, just full of..."

"Woah." One of the boys noticed Raelon, elbowing the kid next to him. The sudden silence got Kayana's attention, and she looked over. "Raelon! I didn't know you were coming! He posts as Silver Future, you know, the Sundowner's tech genius."

"Likewise," Daia smiled. "Ana's over... where's she got to? Ah, there she is." She pointed out her bondmate, who along with Eafina had moved over to a display of artwork on the other side of the group around Sarah; Ana seemed to be listening to something the asari was raptly explaining.

"That's Eafina with her, a mutual friend of ours," Daia explained. "Her bondmate was a drell, so as you can imagine she acquired an affinity for various Rakhana cultures by proxy." She chuckled, watching the pair from afar. "With luck I'll be able to steal her back before too long."

Raelon returns, Hello. Yeah, I've streamed chat sessions directly into the neural hardware before. Suggest you program a pause after each thought or concept. Organic processors aren't as fast as yours. We need the break to assimilate the information before proceeding to the next concept. Humour follows: Right now you sound like you're high on zippies. Warning follows: If you are having a face to face conversation, people think it's rude if you're also conversing with someone in your head. Suggestion follows: If they are a special person, don't. Cope with the boredom. If they are not a special person, then hide your other conversation....Hey, do you know what "high" is? Or what zippies are?

He might be a cyborg, but his brain needs this much time to notice the drell kids staring at him. He pulls his robe closed, but peers out shyly from under his hood.

"Hello Kayana. I thought a little cross-cultural religious familiarity might be in order."