[Illium] Turning Wheels (*Closed*)

Sore feet and hurting ankles, the constant company of a professional dancer. Skylar knew all too well and Taleeze smiled at the prospect of tender hands taking care of her feet.
"I'll gladly come back to that offer darling. I'm not that hungry but I could need soemthing to drink. Liquid calories are also calories am I right? Yeah, let's snag a table."
Taleeze hooked her arm under Skylar's, looking around.

"Have you seen Daia or anyone else of the gang? Oh, and you look marvelous in this dress!"

"Sounds quite the enterprise," Daia said, intrigued. "I like the name too. Coincidence?" She chuckled as she triggered the table's menu; beneath the large, bright 'Apricity' title, the Dusk Oasis agency's logo was tucked unobtrusively away. "Don't worry, all the entertainment attractions here are firmly under the Apricity banner - I doubt anyone'll confuse the two."

She closed the menu and settled in, resting her arms on the table.

"Truth be told, Nos Astra could use a big human attraction or two," she admitted. "There used to be quite a vibrant human community here - where I used to live, the Mesa Gen district, had a concentration of Alliance-affiliated companies, kind of the city's 'little Earth' neighbourhood. Since the war there... hasn't been so much support for offworld investment coming from Sol," she admitted, evidently not happy about the situation; then she brightened. "But that just means it's a niche waiting to be filled, like we do with clean-room tech. There's a lot more humans living here already than it seems sometimes - and you know, you'll get a lot of interest from the 'natives' as well, once word gets around."

"I just arrived," Skylar said, leading the way up to the lounge. "Ana's up here, I saw her from down below, so I imagine Daia's not far off." She glanced back at Taleeze, a couple of steps behind her on the wide stairway, and wiggled her backside. "Thank you darling, it's nice to be noticed."

Charisma spotted them as they reached the lounge, and after a word to Ana raised a hand in greeting.

"Ah there they are," Skylar nodded, waving in return. "Shall we make it a foursome?"

"You. Are. Wicked!" Taleeze poked Skylar's butt with one finger. A nice feel, she thought. "And I most certainly love that aspect of you, Mrs. Sinclair. Foursome, absolutely." She grinned and waved over to where the purple haired human and the quarian were seated.

When they got to the table she hugged Charisma and placed a hand on Ana's shoulder.
"Good evening you two, enjoying yourselves? Do you mind if we sit?" she didn't exactly wait for an answer but let herself drop into a chair. She cocked her head, raised an eyebrow and looked at Charisma. "Did you actually know that not getting paid for dancing is proportionally enhancing the effect of sore feet? Little known dancer fact." She chuckled and started browsing the menu (which she knew inside out but still...). She punched in an order for a Supersonic Screwdriver with a bemused "hm" before turning her attention back to Ana and Charisma and her hands to Skylar.

"What are you up to, having fun?"

And then she arrived.

Bah, don't be so dramatic. Anyone's allowed to have fun, especially in Christmas time (whatever the fuck that was). This is what brought Celestine D'Anais to Apricity, most emphatically not dressed like a giant walking hard candy. Well, technically it wasn't her first choice of passtime, but she was in that lovely grey area of work where she just had to sit on her ass and wait for things to turn up, so she had an indeterminate amount of time to kill.

In she came, dressed in her normal work attire of boots, fatigue-style pants, and a black turtleneck under a rugged leather jacket (synth-leather of course, she'd never harm a pwecious hair on an animal's head). Already out of place among the other patrons, her utter lack of conventional beauty practically made her a lit magnesium strip that spelled out 'FUCK YOU' in the air, going by how obvious her presence was. She wasn't 'swole' like someone who worked out for the fun of it - centuries of hard living and a cocktail of gene mods had left her with the kind of physique most statues long for. A scar from some kind of chemical burn sat on her forehead, roughly equidistant from her left eye, 'hairline' and 'ear'. The hands that slapped down on the bar were rough and callused, the knuckles scarred and hardened. When she tapped the bartop she revealed an old scar on the back of her hand, a stab-wound that perfectly mirrored the one on her palm.

"Sunset Wave. Double."

"Sunset wave double, comin' up!" the bartender nearest Celeste replied with a smile, and only a slight widening of her eyes at the unconventional appearance of her latest customer. A number of rather expensive auto-bar units were installed, and doing a brisk trade tonight, so it took only a moment for the drink to be prepared - the final shot of Kerona added manually, for there to be some personal touch - and slid in front of Celeste, in a fairish replica of a Seventh City crystal glass.

"First time here?" the bartender noted, glancing at the register screen that had automatically queried Celeste's omni-tool. "Traveller's health,* then, welcome to Apricity."

She looked across the crowded club as a series of chimes sounded following the conclusion of the latest dance track, and the general hubbub quietened. A spotlight picked out a lone figure on the small speech stage set into the back wall - Eafina, garbed in an elegant dress of Thessian white gold cloth, with the unconventional addition of furry white cuffs to the sleeves and neckline, and an even more unconventional emerald green lizard headdress.

"Music'll be back in a moment, people," she smiled. The club's audio net picked up her voice and projected it clearly without her having to shout. "Just a word from the owner first. It's now," she glanced at her wrist, where a slim readout momentarily appeared to show her the time, "just about Christmas Day, by the Terran calendar, and only an hour until the daybreak of Valhara Tue on Palaven."

"And Fair Years!" somebody called out when she paused.

"And Fair Years," she agreed with a grin, "for the Calabsans among us - any others?" A couple of cheers briefly sounded, and she gave the group a wave. "Not to mention just a week or so, they tell me, 'til Alliance new year, five days give or take to Hearthsky on Kahje, Founders' Fire on Tuchanka... the calendars and holidays do kind of pile up in a cosmopolitan port like Astra." She paused for the round of polite chuckles, rolling her eyes obviously to amuse the lame-joke snickerers as well.

"I just wanted to say," she went on, "that it's not so long since all of us were wondering how many days we had. Now we've got," she raised a hand and gestured vaguely ahead, "enough to be losing count of everyone's holidays again. On behalf of everyone here at Apricity, I hope you enjoy today, and all of your days, and if we can help with that, we're delighted. Be wonderful to one another. We can all do that." She glanced across the club, towards the DJ on duty. "And that said, I'll get out of your way - dance on!"

"I ain't a charity case," Celeste replied immediately, almost out of reflex. Then she rubbed her burn scar, shaking her head. "I mean... no thank you. I can pay just fine, thanks." She caught the sliding glass deftly and raised it with an appreciative tip of her head to the bartender. Then she took a sip and practically did a double-take.

"Sweet Goddess it's been a century since I've had one of these that's been mixed properly." A casual flick of her fingers within the holographic cage of her omni-tool and a respectable 20% tip was forwarded. "Tonight of all nights I really needed one." Celeste made easy eye contact with the bartender, but it became increasingly obvious that the battle-scarred matriarch's gaze kept flicking to reflective surfaces. Basic tradecraft, but hey, the fundamentals never went out of style. Ready for the worst, get disappointed in only the most pleasant of ways.

"Real crowded place tonight, eh?" she said eventually, idly tracing the rim of her glass. "All dressed up for a holiday I've never even heard of. Whole galaxy was exploding only two years ago, y'know? For asari, of all races, that's gotta be surreal as all get-out."

"Come oooooon would it kill you to smile a bit?"

"I'm already being blackmailed, what else do you want from me?"

"It's a party! A fancy party-"

"That I'm being blackmailed into going to."

"You've really only got yourself to blame there bro."

She in a slim, elegant red dress (fifteen minutes to settle on) with elegant, multicolored tattoos spreading across her back (another half hour to get juuuuust right with Hannya's help), enough makeup to hide the bags under her eyes and accent her fine features without totally obscuring them under a caked on layer of cosmetics (forty five minutes between two attempts). Her elder brother in a longer coat over a rumpled suit, blinking owlishly and making no effort to stifle his yawns or refrain from stretching, the movements pulling at the sharp, clawlike tattoos that peeked beneath his collar (twenty minutes: five to down the last of his beer and chow down on the takeout, five to ditch the sweats, splash some water on his face, and throw on...whatever he'd been wearing yesterday, ten to ride the elevator down to the lobby while listening to Orochi's pained, disproving, sighs).

All he wanted to do was kill the first quiet night they had in a week watching cheesy monster movies with a side of all the fucking gyūdon (or whatever it was he ordered, it was close enough).

But no.

Parties. Parties plural.

Fancy, glamorous, stylish parties that they would never get to go to on the job and would be going to even if her date had canceled and oh apropos of nothing wouldn't it just be a shame if the boss found out who wrecked the aircar?

Truth be told them ending up in the Apricity wasn't so much an prearranged decision as "Okay this looks like it might be good" and Sanageyama couldn't be assed to contravene. Through the line outside and into the packed club Ayaka pressed forward to the dance floor practically glowing with sheer excitement all the while. Her brother trailing behind his expression radiating a decided lack of enthusiasm as the prospect of a quiet, relaxing night in which cyborg kaiju got blown up in glorious surround sound slipped further and further away.

Chris took a drink from a passing tray and took a sip, looking over to Daia as the woman spoke. She gave a nod and responded, activating her omnitool to open up images of her new restaurant. "I ... know Kaga has a mobile cafe and I was actually thinking of trying to buy him out and hire him for my own place. His cooking is superb and I'm sure his management skills are just as good."


She raised a brow. "I mean, think about it. It's a smart business move for me. He knows the local market, I don't." She took another drink from the tall and thin glass. "I've got to be competitive. I've got to get a leg up if I'm ever going to make any money on this planet." She offered the asari woman a stern expression, trying her best to convey 'I know what I'm talking about.'

"I'll get you in touch with him," Daia offered. "I don't know if a crystal - what'd be your equivalent, 'five-star'? - is on his agenda, though. We had him here during the war - there's a sizeable kitchen here, for when the place is more dining cabaret than dance club - and he did a terrific job, but he said a formal kitchen wasn't really his milieu. You've seen how the café is, all open, and he's a gregarious sort. But," she shook her head, "I kind of lured him out of here, I certainly won't get in the way of you making him an offer. I can imagine how a high-market place like you're planning would be pretty tempting."

She paused a moment, considering.

"Either way he'll be an invaluable contact for you," she added. "You're right, a local partner is a must here, no matter the business - trying to take it on alone and 'learn as you go' is a recipe for being rolled over by the local players. I had Eafina," she nodded towards the stage, although it was now vacant again, "when I moved here. Kaga's a good choice, and he'll know who to get you talking to beyond himself - contractors for legal work, local administrative affairs, that sort of thing."

She raised her glass towards Chris's.

"Here's to your restaurant's favour in the Terran new year!"

"Appreciated," the bartender smiled, once Celeste's immediate reaction to the free drink had mellowed to a more convivial one. She nodded and busied herself checking stock and the auto-bar's diagnostic, but looked back up at the other asari's exclamation.

"We aim to please," she said, and seeing that further conversation didn't appear unwelcome: "Normally we'd be mixing entirely as nature intended, but on a night like this," she tapped the nearest auto-bar, "machine efficiency. They're straight from Thessia, Elach Council. Only the best." She noted the woman's awareness of her surroundings, and wondered in passing if she was Eclipse, Republican, or some other service.

"Truth," she nodded, leaning on the bar - not directly across from her customer, but near enough alongside that she didn't have to raise her voice. Several of the bar's patrons had joined in the dancing post-speech, so she wasn't needed for the moment. "Can't say what it's for," she added wryly, taking the cheerful red Santa hat off her head and studying it idly, "'cept not a lot of big places around here do much for Terrans, so we pull a lot of business when it's one of their do's. The manager keeps calling it 'no-elle'. Who knows," she shrugged, placing the hat back on her head; the back had been trimmed to sit over her scalp without tipping off. "Two years back I was a waller - maintenance in the generators, y'know, keeping the barrier wall up. Now 'job stress' means remembering what order to put a rainbow rockstorm together in." She grinned. "I can live with that kind of surreal, y'know?"

-----

"Welcome, Earth-clans," Tol Madan said smoothly, in his capacity tonight as greeter. The fluffy white beard adorning the face of his exo-suit had been attached with great care as to its shape and positioning, even to the extent of finding matching bushy 'eyebrows' to go above the viewports. To the surprise of most everyone who had seen him tonight, it kind of worked.

"The dance floor awaits," he gestured, the female's eyes already fixed on it; no need to encourage her to join in. The male with her had a look Tol Madan had come to think of as 'the dutiful drag-along'.

"Refreshments are being served in the lounge, to your right," he offered as the couple brushed past, in the event that the male was able to extricate himself from whatever obligation had brought him along. Having done his duty he turned to greet the next in line.

"Am I now," Skylar murmured back, before smoothing her face to greet the others with: "Ladies."

"Bonsoir," Charisma replied, standing to kiss cheeks of each in turn. Ana remained seated, but extended a hand to both of them, moving to one side on her couch to make room for Skylar, while Charisma offered her chair to Taleeze and tapped a command into her omni-tool; she only had to stand a moment longer before an attendant appeared with a spare chair.

"Taleeze," Ana nodded, sounding pleased, before her voice took on a very serious tone to add: "Miss Sinclair."

"Miss Therion," Skylar replied, equally serious-sounding. Ana's faceplate remained opaque as always, but Skylar's mouth twitched in telltale of a hidden grin at the shared joke.

"Waiting for my song," Ana replied to Taleeze's question. "This kind of dance mix isn't my style, but my spies tell me there'll be a track or two of onslaught later on. Biding my time until I grab Daia and see if I'm not too old for a bit of heavy grinding."

"As much fun as being in charge permits," Charisma said with a shrug, while Skylar chuckled at Ana. "We had our mandatory emergency for tonight earlier - one of the dextro condiments tested bad when they opened it up for the kitchen, had to dump it, and make some pretty urgent calls for a short-notice replacement. That seems to have satisfied the capricious gods of party planning though, it's been smooth sailing since."

"I'm not necessarily looking for five star. I just want the food to be good, to pass inspection, to get my name out there and to make money." She lifted her glass in a toast and finished it off. The woman set her drink down and crossed her arms. "See.."

She took a deep breath. "Thank you for not bringing up what happened. You see, I really want things to be back to the way they were, but I can't have that. So I'm trying to make the best of things. Sarah and I are talking as civil as we can for now. She's trying to move on and she suggested I try to do the same."

"Hmm.... I'm going to watch that, Ana!" Taleeze still had that Tango open with Ana but never since that conversation pushed the issue. Maybe one day the timing would be right, asari had a good memory and so had Ana.

"Oh, close call!" she said with shocked face when Charisma told her about the wasted dextro food. "You can't just be cautious enough with food, so many scandals. Fingers crossed that all goes well from now on though." The aftermath of the war had produced many shady producers of prefab food to the market as the established brands had issues meeting the demand. Of course, more than enough of these upstarts were just after the quick credit and customer safety was less than a second concern. The Apricity was checking all the food thoroughly before processing and so did a lot of places that had a reputation to lose. It was reflecting in the prices a bit but in the end that was cheaper for any customer than risking a food poisoning or worse.

She leaned back in her chair and looked over to the bar, where her order was going to be prepared most likely. An unusual looking asari was having a conversation with the barkeep, obviously someone who dropped in straight from work... which could have been bouncing or maybe she just dropped off a ship from Omega? She looked a bit out of place and obviously just got explained got explained the details of this human holiday thing. Whatever fills the club, Taleeze thought.

Her train of thoughts was interrupted by a waiter coming from the other side with her Supersonic Screwdriver, a long sleek glass, filled with various dark and golden liqueurs, a florescent bright green layer at the top.
"Thanks, Algernon." Taleeze nodded to the waiter and took a sip right away. It was delicious and she offered it to Skylar for a taste.

Why?

The man has style you have to give him that.

The voice was dry, sibilant, posh cultured tones shaped by an eight-fold alien mouth. Beastly tunes for your ears only. A sigh, a half-hearted, half grateful wave at the beard bedecked volus and Sanageyama slipped through the crowd, angling for the lounge and the tables laden with snacks and drinks and all manner of little party favors. Ayaka glanced back, catching him in the act of escape; her face instantly so very, very hurt, her great big eyes tinged with tears.

Yeah

no.

There were snacks. They were going in his stomach.

That was what was going to happen.

(Besides he'd had like, twenty plus years to get used to the "puppy dog" look.)

She rolled her eyes and vanished into mass of warm bodies that spilled across the dance floor with a smirk and a twiddle of her fingers. Within seconds she'd co-opted a somewhat bemused turian from his group of friends and was guiding the gangly limbed alien about the club. Wheeling and weaving past couples and groups, here a trio of asari giggling, here a pack of very well put together turians who were presumably the subject of the giggles. Another asari chatting about...something or the other with a human woman who was knocking back her drinks like nothing else. Past the row of patrons at the bar.

The turian (well Quilicus, his name was apparently Quilicus) guided along by her quick, careful steps; infected by her easy, smile.

I'm bubbly. I'm legitimately bubbly. Haejeion damn it like...we walked off with this guy. We just walked off with him and

Left. Left. Right. Couple to your eight o'clock. Left. Le- RIGHT RIGHT RIGHT.

Some other service. Definitely 'some other service'.

Celeste chuckled. "Machines doing everything, huh? Better watch yourself - another century and you might be out of a job." Another sip, which tasted really fucking good had she mentioned that yet, and set the glass back down. Quick glance at her wrist, calling up her OT long enough to glance at the time. Hrm... within acceptable limits. She had time.

"Heh. Normally I'd be wondering why the fuck we're celebrating a human holiday on Illium, but after everything that's happened I'm inclined to give 'em a free pass," she went on. "Poor bastards got hit first and hardest, after all. Got shit on from a great height literally the entire duration of the war. So..."

Taptaptap. Quick search of what the fuck a 'Christmas' even was.

"Merry Christmas and a happy new year!" Celeste finished, raising her glass as she horrifically mispronounced 'Christmas' to 'Christ-mass'. She finally drained the rest of her drink and let it sit, neither leaving the bar nor ordering another yet.

"You wanna talk job stress? I got attached to the 104th Sunset Blades for most of the war. I mean, I've come across them before, but actually spending six months as a de facto member was... an experience. It was almost a relief to go back to my old job, believe it or not. Still keep in touch, at least."

"Another century and hopefully I won't still be pushing drinks," the bartender grinned. "Don't get me wrong, it's a good place. They look after you here. More'n you can say for most of Illium. Still." She shrugged and reflexively cleaned a glass, for something to do with her hands.

"Happy new year," she agreed, raising the glass before setting it back down. Her eyes flickered to Celeste's empty, but nothing further came of it - the bar wasn't so crowded that non-drinkers couldn't sit a while, and those who only wanted water, or the basics, seemed content with the self-serve stations.

"Heard of 'em," she nodded. "By reputation. You win, on stress." She smiled slightly. "Waiting for husk blitzes was no spring rain, but going looking for them..." She pursed her lips and blew out. "So what's got you to Astra? Or just passing through?"

"You can give me pointers later," Ana joked. "All those Rannoch song-and-dance films've probably got you more familiar with our sort of legs than I am."

She glanced towards the waiter, then away again once she heard Taleeze - identifying the purpose of the proximity she had 'seen'.

"Mm," Skylar said, tasting the drink. "Delicious."

"What's that?" Ana asked.

"It's..." Skylar began, glancing at the glass, then looking more intently at it. "It-" She took another sip, looked baffled, then peered down at the fluorescent top layer. "It's green," she concluded, handing it back to her mate.

"Ah," Ana nodded, mock-sagely, while Charisma hid a snigger.

"She's a friend," Daia said, nodding slightly. "So are you - if that's not being too forward," she added, smiling. "Trying to make the best of things... I suppose that's what we all do, when you get down to it. Hope for what might happen, but in the end, just do the best we can with whatever ultimately does. I'm glad things are..." She thought a moment. "...more settled down, now, between the two of you."