[Nos Astra, Illium] Let's All Go To The Lobby

Did she just … oh, well, that was a pretty clear question. Taleeze’s heart jumped a bit.
“No, I don’t have anywhere to go after the veil falls. I… just yes, Skylar” , she whispered. The smile almost was too big for her face and if they wouldn’t have carried the drinks, she would have kissed the human then and there. But now the second act promised to be even sweeter. Her gait got light as if she was walking on air.

The two got back to the group and everyone was staring at the drinks in anticipation already – well except for Ana maybe.

“Here we are, people. It was bearable, we tried to hurry…” Skylar and her put the plate and the glasses on to the table. Taleeze handed the Beach Beauty to Skylar with a hint of a curtsy.

“Iryana, I think this could be something that suits you. It is called Feirxshan Sky, due to the colors.”
She shoved the small container over to Ana and Daia. “I found this at the bar. It says ‘Rannoch’s finest’ and is made of liquer and ... “ she had to doublecheck the label “Kash’ve. Maybe that is something you’d like, Ana.” You could never know with the quarian, but she hoped, Ana was in a good mood.

“Cheers, everybody.” She raised the glass to the group and offered the back of her hand to Skylar, totally naturally.

"Thank you!"
Linya took her glass with a grin, nodding at Ana's question... then realised why the quarian had asked that and adding a "yup, she's back!"

Anyway, drink time. She'd never had a Cyone Cyclone before - though the cocktail was older even than she was, most of the time she'd been happy to stick to her sister's recommendations when she drank - but the swirling pinky-purple concoction looked rather inviting...
"Cheers!"
One sip later, Linya's rather expressive face was twisted into what could easily be mistaken for a cubist's rendition of someone who'd just taken a shot of lemon juice.
"...oh goddess that's sour."

Iryana nodded politely as she accepted her drink, sipping gently. Hm, interesting... Fruity, a slight touch of bitterness swirled into it... Not bad at all, and this was from a drell who normally wasn't into alcohol. When Linya had a rather intense reaction to hers, Iryana smiled and held out her glass.

"Here,try my Sunrise?"

"Cheers," Daia chorused with the rest, raising her glass and touching first Ana's free hand, then the others, before taking a sip, which made her shiver slightly - Star Runners were reasonably potent as party drinks went, although not so much that only one glass was going to inconvenince her, but the first taste always felt like something far more serious had just been imbibed.

She managed not to giggle at Linya's expression - it was adorable, but empathy won out over amusement. She contemplated offering to swap, but the dutiful-hostess portion of her professional expertise reminded her that Cyclones and Star Runners weren't the best mix, even if it was just a sip of the former. Luckily Iryana came to the rescue, which Daia reflected was a better solution - in terms of drinks and who was sharing.

Oh, you're going to be difficult getting over. Nonetheless, Skylar rejoined the group with a decided spring in her step.

"The seal's good, of course," Skylar added to Taleeze's offer to Ana. The quarian very sensibly took no chances - they had shared (after a fashion) enough meals for Skylar to become familiar with that first hand - and even though a house like the Strata, whatever its subtle prejudices, would rather be burned to the ground than serve inferior drinks, one could never be too careful.

"Cheerio," she echoed, touching her hand to Taleeze's, then Daia's, and so on. She winced at Linya's reaction, but couldn't held peering interestedly at her glass in the aftermath.

"I may try one of those later," she mentioned to Taleeze, and by extension everyone but Linya and Iryana, who were busy swapping drinks. "Sourness to asari plays quite differently on human taste buds. Not that I mind this - Beach Beauty," she added, for Ana's benefit, and anyone else who didn't recognise the little paper parasol with a tiny sunburst fashioned from lesit fruit on top, which bartenders traditionally reserved for the drink. Not the most elegant decoration, but one of her minor vices (and certainly one of the most eccentric ones) was a pronounced fondness for cocktail parasols.

"That's dear of you. Thanks, Taleeze." A pause. "And thanks, Skylar. You know, I was just about to ask. Not to be rude or anything, just...y'know. We really are on the same wavelength, aren't we."

Well, most of the time. After a second of feeling around, she popped the top and slotted the tube into her helmet's intake port.

"Here's to the rest of you."

...It was actually quite strong. Ana had figured as much from the scent, but actually tasting the drink was a bit of a shock. Excellent, though - it had just the right amount of bite to it, and it wasn't like she preferred her liquor any way other than 'heavy'.

"Mm," she murmured, studying the aftertaste. "Thanks again, that's...hrm. I like it."

Taleeze smiled over the commotion with Linya. Thinking about it, she had doubts, the Sunrise would be to her tastes, but then, the petite professor sure was full of surprises.

After she touched hands with Skylar, she sipped her own Slingshot, which was tasty. She observed happily, how Ana took the quarian drink and seemed to like it. Obviously it was unknown to her and Taleeze wondered, after all she had talked about with Ana, how much she cared for any taste these days usually. She remembered Ana sounding depressed over the same flavorless nutripasts and the plain water. A ninety meter nutripaste entered her mind and she had to laugh. Why by all springwaves ninety?

"I could mix you a Cyclone like nothing else, Skylar. I was on Cyone for a long time and that used to be the trademark drink in about every bar, each with their little twist. We drank it a lot."

Eyes watering a little, Linya took Iryana's glass and took the tiniest mouthful so as not to hog her girlfriend's drink. Relief was immediate, sourness wiped away to leave her palate entirely clean - rather an odd feeling.
"Huh. I didn't taste that at all."
A second sip revealed the fruitiness of the cocktail, the underlying bitterness that betrayed just how lethal four or five of those might be. Setting it down, she lifted her own glass once more.
"Want to give mine a try?"

"One tries," Skylar said, accepting Ana's compliment with a warm voice that lent sincerity to the off-hand words.

Her smile widened at Taleeze's suggestion.

"You're just full of tempting offers," she purred appreciatively. "Does your Cyclone have its own particular twist?"

Daia caught Taleeze's eye and raised her glass in a silent gesture of gratitude for her thoughtfulness, then returned her attention to Ana.

"Worth making enquiries about?" she wondered. "Hansa'Tel would probably know who to get in touch with - if it's 'Rannoch's Finest', no reason not to get it straight from the source."

"I don't know that I'd go that far," Ana mused. "Safety first, and all that."

Still, she took another sip and leaned on Daia's side. It was good enough to get her through the rest of the show, for sure.

“I know a few twists to individualize a Cyclone pretty well, yes” She looked at Skylar bottom-up. “I’d probably have a few ideas for you.” My twist would make you twist, lady. Maybe there could be time for something like that later tonight, given Skylar’s earlier question.

“Admittedly, it’s a tough cocktail if made regular. Maybe that’s why it was so popular among the fighting force on Cyone. They say the first one was spiced with the fuel they put into those reactors, hence the bitterness. But I am sure that is a legend.” She laughed and suckled at her straw. Linya actually had surprised her with her liking. Well, tell me what cocktail you drink…. as the saying goes.

“Speaking of twists – so far we’ve seen a fairly straightforward interpretation of Varisa but they still managed to put in references to the times at hand. I am curious if we will see any rearrangement in the second act. The speech of the Huntress comes to mind as an analogy to the lots of returning soldiers after the war.”

"I wouldn't be surprised," Daia agreed. "Varisa lends itself to relevance - even the original text seems like it purposely dodged making contemporary references, I always felt. Well, my poetics tutor at the academy felt that, I felt she made a good case... same end result." She chuckled, reflecting on a memory. "My father once suggested Varisa to his successor at officer candidate training, for the cadets' mandatory literature component, just for that speech."

Skylar's appreciation of Taleeze's eyes sweeping her hadn't escaped Daia, and she hid a smile, and gave Ana an appreciative glance while her thoughts were running that direction. Unlike Skylar, Ana couldn't tell she had been discreetly ogled - except possibly by playing the smart odds any time Daia was looking at her for more than a second or two - but she adjusted slightly to better accomodate Ana's comforting rest against her.

"Sounds great." Iryana took the glass, sipping before blinking and glancing down. Sour, yes... But to her taste buds, not overwhelmingly so. She nodded, listening to the conversations surrounding her, all the while hovering at Linya's side.

"Oh really? I never knew they accepted asari literature for that. I believe, my dad did some turian piece in literature, something quite abstract. He had a framed calligraphy from it hanging in his office."
Taleeze sipped at her cocktail, which was draining fast. For one, they always serves rather small glasses at such places, so people could get them done in time and secondly Taleeze had been going for something rather weak as well, so she could drink without getting light headed. That was something she would reserve for later.

"Look, Skylar, a tiny little bit is left, want to try?" She offered her straw to the human.

Ana's experience with textual interpretation was a little more straightforward (although "write what you mean and mean what you write" was sadly lost on a number of asari academics, even when statistics were involved), and so she didn't feel particularly qualified to interpret the play. This was particularly true in light of the fact that she was only getting half the experience.

As such, she stayed silent and sipped at the quarian liquor, exploring its taste with interest.

Not bad. Strange, but not bad. Kinda surprised I've never had any of this before.

Interpretation of theatre wasn't exactly Linya's forte - rather a stretch to call it her mezzopiano, in fact - so she simply listened, nodding at intervals, sliding an arm around Iryana's waist as she sipped her drink.
Bet Mother'd know what to say to all this.
As she played idly with the folds of Iryana's dress, it occurred to her that she still hadn't made plans to see her other half's family. Better remedy that later on.

"Don't mind if I do," Skylar smiled, and put her hand around Taleeze's on the glass, holding it - and her - gently as she sipped up the last of the cocktail. She gave a tiny gasp as she swallowed, then grinned.

"It's bold," she noted, letting her fingers slip off Taleeze's hand. "But, I can see myself developing a taste for that sort of boldness..."

"Ah, here we go," Daia piped up, glancing over her shoulder at one of the information screens as a resonant chime sounded through the foyer audio system. "Ten minutes, no great rush, but we don't want to be the last back to our seats. How's the Kash've, want to take it in?" she added to Ana.

"Is that allowed?" Ana mused. "I mean, it's slotted into my helmet, so only the bottom's visible, and that's if they're looking really closely. Then again, quarian in high society. Security's probably got a close eye on me. Eheh."

Security was, in fact, keeping a close eye on Ana'Therion. No surprise, since the DDS's "I Lied, Holmes" webshorts had recently highlighted the age-old "pretend to be disabled in some way and then, when security stops watching, steal things" routine.

"Well, if it's all right, I think I'll hold onto it, as long as we're not going to get yelled at and embarrass you. It's got an odd tang to it that holds my interest. Thanks again, Taleeze."

Taleeze was happy to hear it.
"You're welcome." Although there were employees at the doors to the audience areas they weren't exactly doing body searches. More like standing there, looking snobbish. Sometimes, Illium has it tiring sides.

Taleeze was taking a last suckle from the straw. Nothing left from the cocktail but the taste of Skylar's lips. That boldness.
She gently pressed the human to her side and put the empty glass down on the plate.

"Let's go then. There are always those that sit in the middle and come last minute. Nobody likes that." She looked forward to that second half and that double-seater.