[Citadel, Sheyres Plaza] MEETUP 2188! [TOTALLY OPEN]

Wonderful. He'd finally decided to socialize, and wound up talking over someone else. A brilliant start.

He gave the other salarian a look that was half annoyance, half desperate bid for moral support.

He began fidgeting with his hands.

Titus took the opportunity of all the private conversations that seemingly broke out all around him to screw around on his omnitool. When he looked up again, he realised that the salarian who had been watching the gathering behind a plant and another salarian, both unfamiliar to him, had joined.

To break the awkwardness that Titus felt, he became super friendly and welcoming.
"Hey guys, how are you? I'm Lieutenant Titus Scapula, Titus-Train on the forums. Help yourself to some food if you want it. Go ahead!" The turian motioned towards one of the food tables that was safe for salarians.

Finally the Salarians had joined in. The place was still short a few races but hey that was the way of it right? Arash joined them, and the Turian Lieutenant and (out of long forced habit) bowed a bit to them both. Dr. Arash Hari aka Seeking_Rakhana, at your service gents. Now, if I may ask, how did you come to be an out of work merc exactly Mr. Alra? And are you looking for that sort of work? He turned to the other I don't believe I caught your name esteemed inspector, what should we call you?

Arash made a note to speak with Daia more privately later. He was trying to cut down his collection a bit and the swords seemed suited to an asari. He would just have to find some way into her schedule, when he wasn't at Bliss himself. Meantime, there were people to meet, and he was always happy to have more merc names on file.

Finally, someone was discussing Tezri's favorite topic- the ongoing job hunt. "Oh, yes! My friend Kaynik and I are certainly in the market for mercenary work! Freelance, specifically. We learned our lesson after the time we spent with the Eclipse." With that, Tezri shuddered unconsciously. Their time with the Eclipse had ended with many death threats and brandished weapons. Tezri was rather diplomatic as mercenaries went, and preferred to AVOID gunshot wounds when possible.

A freelancer looking for work, this was a good day. You know, in addition to the excellent food, wonderful people, and general joy of being out and about. "This is excellent! Now I don't have anything lined up at this very moment, but I will soon. And it's a bit different from normal merc work. I'm an archaeologist you see, and I have found over time that most seemingly dead worlds have at least one of four troubles. Pirate or smuggling camps, hostile pre-Mass Effect natives, dangerous wildlife or inexplicably functional ancient traps. I find that having a spare gun arm helps with all of them. And hey sometimes nothing is there and all the hired gun has to do is stay near the camp for a few days. I think it's because of the imprecise nature of the job that the big three never touch the contracts. Freelancing is the way to go for me. So, given that, should I contact you when the next expedition starts?"

Arina grinned as the two salarians approached.
"Hello Tezri, my name's Arina, stardust on the forum. Nice to meet you." And the jungle warrior came on as well.

"Oh, thanks for making sure the bushes are in good shape!" she said with a completely earnest face. "So far we don't have elcor guests but maybe they will join later. My name is Arina - or stardust, if you prefer forum handles. Nice to meet you!"

As the others joined the conversation she listened to Aresh's offer.
"Security work like this is definitely preferable to mercenary work in the terminus. Maybe you should consider joining an organization like C-Sec as well? They are still short on hands and someone with experience in the security sector - well, however far fetched - may have a headstart." she musted for a second. "Your records have to be at a certain level of cleanness for that." well, he didn't look like the mass murderer type.

Towards Bitterskin, who seemed a bit nervous she asked: "What's your occupation?" Had he actually introduced himself?

And the conversation was away. Immediately, of course, it had turned into a nightmarish game of one-upmanship involving violence and danger, with some cheerfully deranged drell nattering on about the awful deathtraps of the frontier with barely contained glee. The others were on this like his mother on a business opportunity, declaring their own familiarity with excitement through their often horrifying careers. Time spent with the Eclipse. Time spent with Eclipse! Weren't any of these people normal?.

Perhaps he could reintroduce some sanity.

"I'm sorry, I'm being rude. I'm actually retired, myself. Sur'kesh Tanalat Yuushor-Jat'atat Ji Phraag Joset. Joset Phraag. I, er, go by "Bitterskin" on the boards. Long story".

Hopefully, one of them would ask. Then he'd have something to say. Otherwise he feared he'd just be standing there in mounting horror, waiting for the drell to start pulling shrunken heads out of his bag or something.

Work! Tezri was being offered fairly steady work! He began to muse on the implications of this development on his CDN handle, but shook himself back into reality. There would be time for introspection later. Right now, they were talking business. "Now, I should mention that I act as a kind of representative for both myself and my friend Kaynik in these matters- maybe you know of him, he goes by KillerMannequin on the forums. I assume you have room for two on this job?" It seemed certain, but it wouldn't do to be unsure. They hadn't been through this much together to abandon one another now, and besides, one didn't give the cold shoulder to a friend as good at killing as Kaynik Moran.

Being close enought to hear Phraag's introduction, a quizzical look crossed Titus' face. Everybody else's handle was straightforward. Out-of-work merc was a mercenary with no job, asari_promiscuity was the very model of that specific trait (or, at least, appeared to be), VigilantVanguard was a vanguard who was... Watchful? Okay, that one didn't make too much sense, but the rest... He had to wonder what could possibly possess Phraag to choose that name.

"Sorry... Bitterskin? What... I mean, I don't want to sound rude, but what is that? Does it, y'know, mean anything?"

"Ancient artifacts have their charms," Daia smiled. "There's more to life than sex, after all." She chuckled. "There's probably quite a few people who'd lose bets if they found out I'd ever said that. Never mind. I don't want to set myself up as some expert collecter or any such thing, I'm really just one of those eclectic people who gets interested in whatever's in front of them, given the opportunity." She opened her omni-tool and tapped in a quick command. "I'll add you to one of my appointment books, you'll be able to see when I'm expecting to be free over the next couple of weeks. Send me a note anytime you're not busy yourself."

With a smile she excused herself from Arash, who had other acquaintances to make, and nodded as an impressively-bespectacled human neared her.

"It must be Michelle?" she asked rhetorically; she had half-heard Taleeze greeting her. "Pleasure to meet you. I'm just here a couple of weeks, for the festival - a bit of dancing, a bit of self-promotion, some networking and so forth."

She nodded greetings to both salarians when they finally approached. The more forward of the two, Tezri, was quick to strike up a conversation with Arash; she smiled at the other, and returned his full-name introduction with her own.

"Many greetings, Joset Phraag," she said; her voice took on a faint trace of a Sur'Kesh accent as she spoke the name, whick thankfully prevented it sounding like 'frog'. "Thessia Tescani Attena Jandiri T'Nara Daia, but just 'Daia' is fine - we're hardly on clan business here." She chuckled, and raised an interested eyebrow when Titus asked about the handle. She had been wondering that herself.

Sarah slowly stood and approached her partner, cutting past the crowd. Chris looked like Michelle had really dropped a bomb on her, so the blonde had to step carefully with what she was about to say. She sighed and grabbed the chef's hand, guiding her to a quiet corner of the plaza. She stared briefly out at the planet Earth, then took another deep breath. "You can go home if you want. I'll meet you later?" She turned back to her partner, arms slowly crossing across her chest. The chef shook her head with irritation.

"Why are you staying? What makes these people more important than me?" She gestured off at the crowd with rising contempt. "Did you hear what Michelle said? She said I disgust her. She spent way too much time tal-" She was interrupted by a deathly glare, as Sarah got within whispering distance.

"I think you should go home."

Chris collected herself for a moment, then left the plaza. Sarah returned to sit next to Taleeze, her back rigid and eyes set on the planet outside of the Plaza.

The other salarian had fully embraced the conversation and most of the attention, leaving Daia and one of the turians to focus on Joset. To his immense relief, the asari escort was not only pleasant (well of course she was, putting people at ease was practically her job, yes?) but she clearly had experience with salarians. Her accent was fantastic, and it gave him a strange sense of mingled delight and unease to hear his name pronounced correctly - possibly for the first time in years. But then she had salarian heritage, apparently. Legally, she was just as much one of his people as her own, so to speak. Now, how could he have missed that? He hoped she wasn't somehow tied to his own clan - that would be just about enough to send him running for home. By which he meant his apartment. Not home-home. No way.

"No clan business. Yes! Good idea; I agree!"

With the turian asking after his extranet name, with that straightforward assertiveness that made him want to flinch (why were turians always so direct, it was painful) he realized he'd successfully made himself the subject of mild interest. Hoping he'd hold himself together (and not, say, let out a strangled "meep" and run back behind the plant) he tried to find the words to explain.

"It's a name I use wherever I'm posting, have done for years. I, er, I left the Basin some time ago; I've lived and worked among humans. Fine people, mostly, more sensible than they look, you know?"

He furtively glanced around to see if there were any nearby.

"Well, I was the only salarian around, and you understand that most of these people hadn't known many non-humans? So there was a lot of interest. Token outsider, you know, though they weren't rude about it. I think they were all caught up on the idea of salarians as super-achieving multi-disciplinarian agents, and they thought I'd do something impressive. I just took bookings and ran promotions. Anyway, one of my co-workers had a pet, a dog - it's like this flesh-eating mammal, like a small hairy varren that they've tamed to make it less flesh-eating than it used to be? Well, they basically make them part of their families - if they were salarians then the dog would probably be listed in the clan records you know? It's crazy, they're obsessed. So he kept talking about this dog like it was his daughter or something".

He took a breath, realizing he was losing focus. At least they still seemed to be listening.

"Well he was from a part of Earth where they have lots of amphibians, apparently, and those amphibians have poisons that can harm the dogs if they pick the creatures up in their mouths? So he kept making jokes about keeping his dog from licking me - that's something dogs do apparently, they lick you - and I think that was connected to the fact that I kept to myself. Like, I wasn't very social, and there was something about me that was holding back? I guess the humans picked up on that. And I think the dog licking is about being open and friendly. So I wasn't very lickable... that sounds wrong..."

Although maybe to Daia it didn't?

"And then I finally got talking about some of the reasons I left. And I shouldn't have, probably. Because I just moaned and it just confirmed what they already thought. So I was bitter and that repelled people, which was what I wanted. They didn't mean anything; I think it was affectionate - humans can be like that. I don't know why I started using it as my extranet name".

He had been wallowing in his emotions again, was what it was. Seeking attention without actually being honest enough to acknowledge that he was doing it. Pretending he didn't want to share his feelings while secretly hoping they were obvious and someone would give him an excuse to indulge. The same thing he was doing here today, he acknowledged with a twinge of shame. Why was he so predictable?

The other Salarian seemed ill at ease. Allowing him to speak might help that, but Arash couldn't tell. Salarians had always been a bit of a puzzle to him. Not that every species didn't have it's quirks and curiosities, but the Salarians most of all. But they seemed a decent people and who was he to judge? For now though, he had a bit of business to talk.
"That's right, you did mention a friend. Can't say I have bumped into them much on the forums but that doesn't inherently mean anything. If they are willing to endure lots of spaceflight and occasionally boring duty then I say two spare guns are better than one. I would want to meet them first of course. And I trust you can handle ship living accommodations? And if we draw up a contract I will gladly reimburse you for expenses incurred in the line of duty, but I fully expect anyone I bring with me to enough heat sinks to last. Pack for endurance, not a bloodbath. But enough of business, we can discuss that another day. For now I must have another of those pastries. Arash traded contact information with the merc and politely excused himself for a moment to get more food. He really was hungry, and he couldn't be sure but he expected the elder Salarian, Mr. Phraag was put off by him.

"I see," Daia nodded. "Well, at least your handle has some history behind it - I just picked up mine from a tourism brochure I read out of boredom when I was on the trip to Illium. You've probably seen the sort of thing, cautioning not to take stereotypes to heart too much. 'The legends of asari promiscuity are often exaggerated.' I took it as a challenge. Not that I'd say I'm legendary by any means," she laughed, "but it's good to have a goal to work towards, even if it is blatantly unrealistic."

She snagged another roll as the food trays made their rounds again.

"Would you like one?" she offered. "That was the chef, just a moment ago, the asari over there. They're very good - I know our tastes will be dissimilar, but I fancy this would work for salarian senses as well as asari. Anyway. Where did you settle, then, after the Basin - a human colony, I take it?"

Arina noticed with interest that Daia obviously had some salarian ancestry. She also fully introduced herself as Thessia Tescani Dassus Jandiri Caenis Arina.

When ‘Bitterskin’ told the story about the origin of his name, she had to chuckle. Animals often had interesting ways to show affection.

When Daia turned for the buffet, Arina took on her original topic.
“Joset, you said you were retired? So what was your profession?”

Taleeze watched the exchange between Sarah and Chris. When the human took a seat again next to her she shook her head.
“Why are you sending her off alone?” she gave it a small pause. “You two should probably start talking. The issues go deeper than just what happened in the last weeks. Do you really know what moves her? What was it that let her make that stupid move that got everything going?

Her world is crumbling as well and if you think it’s worth it – if she’s worth it and you love her, you should start rebuilding as soon as possible. Don’t ask what she does for you, don’t ask for anything in return, do it because you want to do it.”

Sarah stared daggers at Taleeze, then slowly stood up and slowly made her way out of the plaza without a word, arms crossed and eyes ahead, her attitude a stark contrast to the woman at the start of the meetup. She stopped and turned to the others, trying to put on a fake smile and cheerful expression. "Thank you all for coming out! We have the plaza for another two hours. I've got to go deal with a disaster, I'll see you all on the board!"

With that, she turned and left without further stops.

Taleeze didn't feel classy. In fact she felt like shit. As usual when she had to whitness others suffer and Sarah was having it real bad. But totally against what most would think as asari nature, she didn't think waiting and contemplating made anything better in a realtionship. You had to work for it and the sooner you got things out in the open the better. She swallowed hard and wished for Sarah and Chris - and the unborn.

She just sat there, staring sadly at the glass in her hands. She was trying to find soemthing on her mind to cheer her up.