[LTD-Tayseri-Peanut Gallery] Clusterfrak

On a narrow street below was one Kayana Pesh, arriving to give the computer systems a once over. She'd memorized her textbooks and discussed the issues with Raelon, and felt confident for anything they could throw at her.

Which was probably for the best.

Having been warned about the neighbourhood-and not wanting to intimidate any of the kids-she'd dressed casually and left off the heavy makeup, two things that made her look younger than she was.

Michelle almost chuckled at Snow's newsletter jab. She knew he would just trying to piss off Randall. The truth is, they would have to meet his boss and deal with her. But LTD members could not pass for push overs.
She smile to Cavallius. "No please, it's a pleasure to have you here", she said handing him over a glass of water. "It's very nice of you to come by, I know C-Sec's very busy. As you know we have gangs problem, mostly from people called the Lower Tayseri Elite. We've had a dreadful experience with them and they're kind of after us. Honestly we're worried for our safety."

Michelle was right to be worried. Two LTE thugs, two turians, were waiting in ambush in a narrow street leading to the charity's building. Their instructions were simple : put the fear of the Spirits in any duct rat who would go to LTD. Tanri and Kamila had slipped their watch narrowly, and they were still raw about that.

So a predatory appearance appeared on their faces when they saw Capice. Youthful-looking, street clothes, she fit the profile.
They moved in. One in front of them, the other behind her blocking any exit.
The one in front started to talk menacingly. The other pulled a ceramic blade.

"So so so... Going to see the bitch and the red hood guy despite orders not to? Our boss have a message for little ungrateful fucks like you. And it's going to hurt."

"I knew they needed better security." She turned her head slightly to take in the thug behind her. Her hood still pulled up, her hands buried in her pockets, where, working from memory, she readied her stun gun.

The collapsable baton was tucked in one boot. It was good that they hadn't caught her on one of her more paranoid days. It was a good thing that she hadn't brought the Locust. She'd tell herself that. She shifted her feet into position, feeling muscles flex. "Yeah, I'm not the slightest bit afraid of you. Maybe your delivery needs work."

"Now you've hurt our feelings." answered the one in front, pretending to be offended. "Toyn, cut her."

Toyn didn't need more and basically jumped on Capice, blade first, aiming at her shoulder.

This was all one practiced, flowing motion. And it was fun.

She ducked down and to the side, grabbing the charging turian by his arm. With the other arm, she jammed the stun gun into his ribs. Of course, Toyn still had a lot of momentum-best to redirect that forwards.

The effect was immediate. Toyrn dropped his knife, his eyes rolled into his sockets and his mandibles vibrated fast while he made a noise close to "G-G-G-G-G-G-G!" under the effect of the stun baton. He fell on the ground, taking the baton with him under his weight.

Behind Capice his companion snickered. "Ha! You made a funny noise! Now come here bitchy lady!"
The Turian was pretty strong and managed to get a good grip on one of Capice's arms and sent a fist flying to her face.

"Dumbass."

She managed to partially deflect the punch-drell were stronger than humans of the same weight-though she couldn't quite break the hold.

Well, at least until she brought her knee right up into his crotch.

Capice was smaller than her attacker so she had to jump a little to connect, but the result was instantaneous. Her attacker's eyes widen, and his traits froze in place.
With a very, very small voice he just said "Well... That's just not proper..." before lying into the ground, holding his abused crotch.
From the docks above the streets Capice noticed some rats looking at her, eyes wide with respect. And although they tried not to show it too much, satisfaction to see two of the goons that were ruling their lives down on the ground.

"Yeah, don't fuck with Drell." She smiled and gave the duct rats a mock salute, picking up her stun baton and slamming it down on the other punk. Wasn't going to have him getting up while she was distracted.

"I'm calling C-Sec now, so clear out if you need to!" While she was waiting, she also called the Leaving the Ducts main office. She was going to be a bit late.

At his desk (if you could call it that - it didn't have the usual chair, and was more like a mooring spot), Laykalar's persistence had apparently paid off. A small and humble voice politely inquired as to whether he'd been helped. This well-mannered individual must be highly placed in the office indeed, for this was the third employee to whom he'd been passed since starting the call! Leaving the Ducts, he thought, must already enjoy quite the reputation in order for his request to be directed to such an elevated individual. Perhaps, then, he could assume that Vallario was already familiar with their work, and this, his trusted representative, would appreciate immediate articulation of salient points?

The translator strained to inject the degree of happy enthusiasm appropriate to his swirls of luminescence into his projected voice.

"Greetings! This one offers its thanks to the other for the other's commitment to providing help. It is this degree of investment in these ones' fellow beings that Leaving the Ducts seeks to encourage, in keeping with the universal virtues of compassion and enkindlement! This one has been passed to the other in order to make an official request for the honoured assemblyman's time. It's face name is Laykalar, and it speaks on behalf of Leaving the Ducts' senior scholar, the learned Michelle Rondor, calling from the charity's central office in Tayseri. This one is charged with arranging the presence of the honoured assemblyman at an upcoming charity dinner to raise awareness of these one's cause! It hopes the honoured assemblyman has room in his schedule".

His voice was hopeful and pleasant; his general demeanour might have put observers in mind of a sweet old lady crossed with a bouncing puppy. He pressed on, believing he should clarify his last point.

"This one has called the other's office first, as it hopes to ascertain the honoured Vallario's availability before committing to a time and venue. It understands that the honoured assemblyman must be familiar with the charity, and assumes he would be eager to meet with the learned Rondor in person, and publicly proclaim his support for her endeavours!"

"The entire affair is dependent on the other's capacity to assist this one" he added helpfully. It was always best to articulate the importance of the other's contribution. It should make them feel more at ease, to know their importance was recognized.

"...Sir, I- Bu- Sir. Sir I-"

Poor Timmy couldn't get a word in as the hanar proceeded on his monologue about his glorious and honorable role at Leaving the Ducts. The scrawny little intern was in way over his head. He timidly kept trying to interject, but it was no use. He sat uncomfortably through Laykalar's speech until he was sure he was done speaking. This was going to be awkward now...

"Um... I'm sorry sir, but I uh. I'm just an intern. I'm afraid I don't have control over stuff like that. If you hold on just a sec I'll uh, I'll see if I can find someone else who can help you."

Quickly putting the call on hold, Timmy squeezed out from his cramped work-space, just about tripping over a pile of boxes, and making his way back out to the front office, standing sheepishly in front of Lira's desk. "Um, I couldn't really help him. He wants to talk to someone about the Assemblyman's schedule and I, well... um..."

Lira sighed. She had hoped the intern would have been able to kill some more time before she had to take over, but they were still breaking him in. "It's okay Timmy. I'll take it from here." It was obvious this hanar wasn't going to get the point. It was time for tough love. Lira was mentally preparing herself for the outburst of moral outrage that would no doubt ensue after she told the hanar to buzz off, when-"

"...so yeah, ever since then I've been addicted to the damn things!" Assemblyman Vallario all of a sudden entered the office with a salarian in tow. "I was skeptical at first, but they're just so soft and squishy and fun to play with. It's a shame Turian women don't have them!" He chuckled, patting his acquaintance on the back. "Anyway, you can let your boss know that I'll be fighting for every credit on that bill.

The salarian nodded graciously. "He appreciates that Assemblyman. I'll let him know right away. Thank you for your time."

"Hey, no problem. Let him know not to be a stranger. I know this club he'd get a real kick out of; we should go this weekend. Have a good one!" He shook the salarian's hand in parting before ushering him out the door. He turned back to his secretary with a overly-dramatic sigh. "Ahh, an elected official's work is never done. Lira, my muse, my inspiration; you're looking scrumptious today." He leaned on her desk with a suggestive look in his eyes.

"Down boy," is all Lira said. She'd been working with Max long enough that she could afford to talk to him that way. "I'm a little busy to flirt with you right now sir. I'm trying to ward off a hanar NGO attack dog from Leaving the Ducts."

"Leaving the Ducts?" Max tapped his chin in thought. "Is that the charity for duct rats, or the organization advocating increased pest control?... Not that there's much a difference. Ha!"

"Uh... yeah." Lira rolled her eyes. "It's the former."

Max straightened up, furrowing his browplates in thought. "Hmmm. I've been taking a lot of pictures with guns, and ships, and military stuff lately. Getting myself in the vids and picts with some needy kids might be a nice change of pace. But I dunno..." His mandibles fluttered as he thought it over.

"...will they have free booze?"

Lira sighed and reached over to the console. "Let me check..." She grumbled wearily as she picked up the line again. "Hello sir, I'm sorry for making you wait so long. I just had a quick logistical question regarding the event your organization will be hosting. Can you tell me anything about the catering arrangements?"

Well. This was different. So far, his entire work day consisted of eating donuts in a waiting room, being talked at by some turian C-Sec Captain, and staring out of a window.
So, by all accounts, comparatively productive to some days in Mombasa.
But as he signed out for the day, quite early in fact, he considered just what it meant to be here. Not things like "They picked me of all people?" And
"If I spit off the edge of a ward, can I get it into the atlantic ocean?"
But rather, that for the for a while he was going to stuck here, without knowing anyone, unsure of the local geography and surrounded by people he's never meet.
It was almost this bad the first time we went here. Except he mostly had the option of staying inside his own hotel room. Now, he had a job, he had the law to uphold, and he was here for significantly longer.
He needed to talk to people, people he knew.
And there was only a few people he did know, and it came from that site.
He considered going to meet Burke. Last time they had meet, she had been rather tipsy, but she was incredibly friendly, and he knew how to find her. Just search online for that resturant she kept yabbering about.
Or, he could scratch that itch that had been plaguing him for a while.
And apologise for his bizzare and rude behaviour at new year's. And go to Michelle's place.
He also knew where that was. The charity she ran was well known to most of CDN, she didn't half talk about it. And he heard they were having a spot of bother with some local thugs.
Sounded like fun.
Alexander made up his mind. He stepped out of his cubicle and began to walk through the halls of the C-Sec HQ. His mind was racing. One of the few fellow CDNites that Alex had ever meet, who had every reason to dislike him. But it wouldn't be right to be here and not at least apologise for his frankly fucking stupid actions.
As he made his way out of C-Sec HQ, he was busy searching up the "Leaving the Ducts" Adress.
"Tasyeri ward. Wait, what does that say? Godamn alien script." He thought to himself.
He hailed a cab. If he couldn't pronouce the location, he could at least show the driver the adress. After a few seconds a taxi descended from the sky. He got in.
"Hey. Can you take me to this adress?" He asked, showing the taxi driver the adress on his omni-tool. A few seconds later the taxi driver nodded and Alex shut the door.
.
Never feeling more ripped off in his life, Alex stepped out of the cab. Compared to the high tech C-Sec HQ, this was more Alex's fair. Almost slum like, it reminded Alex of Maralal during the... He pushed that thought from his mind.
He walked through the street. Passing two turians, one holding his balls in pain.
"Someone got their ass handed to them."
Alex stopped at the adress. He checked his Omni-tool one last time. It was definitely this apartment building.
He sighed, as if to catch a breath. And finally, pressed the buzzer.

Dante accepted the glass of water from her and took a sip. It was a good deterrence from the heat, though it probably wouldn't hold him over forever. He sighed. "Yeah, it's been hectic for a while. We're pretty tight on resources as it is, and we've got our hands tied between maintaining control of the wards over the gangs. We're supposedly getting some extra help from some of the groups down on Earth soon, though. Organizing that's been… a bit of a challenge," he said, laughing bitterly.

"Honestly… it seems like whatever we do, the gangs manage to be one-step ahead some times. And now with T'Pasi dead… I'm not sure if things have gotten better or worse, really. Helping you guys out down here with your gang problem might be just what everyone needs, though. Gets the gangs off your hands helps the kids out who come for help, which takes away resources and cripples them, helping us out at the same time."

"So… What can you tell me about the LTE? What have they tried to do so far?"

"Wait a sec Snowman, Max Vallario, that sleazy gun nut? He's on the invite list, now I know my boss is getting an invite." Snow had to give Randall credit, he was keeping his cool, and he went for the obvious opening. The charity worker shrugged, "I don't handle invitations, but a politician at a charity party seems to be a needed accessory. A financier of dubious credibility, not so much." Now the real negotiations had begun, Snow's eyes meeting Randall's stare as another visitor arrived, some teenaged drell. But the drell was here for Miss Whiskers, leaving Snow free to verbally spar with the Co-op 'guild organiser' Finishing his water, Randall started to rub the tattoo on his neck, his irritation starting to show, "that's bullshit Snow, the only time that fucking mandible has come to our level of Tayseri is to chase tail. I know for a fact that Miss T'Naron has done more to help Tayseri than Vallario."

Snow sighed in grudging agreement, of course Vallario hadn't set the bar very high, "That's not much of a recommendation Randall, by that standard even the bazaar vendors have done more. Tell you what, you give a concrete example, and I'll see if we have an opening." Finishing up with the ultimatum, the ex-salvager overheard the cop describing the troubles after T'pasi's demise, a grin appearing on his face as he gave Cavallius a succinct assessment of the execution, "don't know much about the particulars officer, but the outfit that did T'pasi, they didn't think it through, hence the chaos. Nature abhors a vacuum, it's what I learned in science class", giving the turian a sly grin as he finshed, Randall looking more uncomfortable due to the heat and Snow's lack of give.

It seemed the assemblyman was committing. How pleasing! The whole endeavour was going rather well; apparently he had made the right decision in accepting Rondor's offer to come here.

"These ones are as yet undecided on the menu details. However, it can inform the other that catering arrangements will most likely be made with established Citadel restaurants. This one will be making overtures shortly, after arriving at more comprehensive conclusions regarding the exact list of expected guests".

How fortunate, Laykalar thought, that he had not one but *two* contacts on the Citadel who owned their own eating establishments (for clarity, specifically one owner and one who was currently in a mated pair with a restaurateur, but that was close enough). Arranging a varied menu catering to the needs and desires of all the species represented among Tayseri's population would be a true test of his research - and greatly enjoyable, also! Perhaps he could discuss fusion cuisine at length with the chefs, and from such illuminating discussions compile a report for Ms. Rondor on creating balanced and appealing meals for the multi-racial duct rat population?

As was ever the danger with the young hanar, his mind latched onto the phrasing and started to wander, intrigued by the possible connotations. Rats, he recalled, were Earth creatures who could be both disease-bearing vermin and pleasantly delightful pets - the word thus encompassed a rich and layered argument for how one should relate to these troubled, and often troubling, young drifters. Laykalar was pleasantly delighted with the humans' capacity for linguistic symbolism. He also remembered that the rat was one of the Twelve Earthly Branches of one of the major calendars of Earth. Where that fit into it, he wasn't yet clear. Perhaps he should ask?

He realized his mind was wandering - how impolite, he must pay more attention - and he quickly spoke up again.

"However, should the honoured assemblyman desire any particular fare, this one would of course ensure it was made available for our honoured guest".

Kayana chased after Alex, holding her hand over her omni-tool's mike. "Going to Leaving the Ducts?"

Alex turned around at the voice.
Right. That's a... Salarian? Rachni? Geth? Batarian. Drell? Drell!
"Uh. Yes. Hello. Who are you?"

"He won't really say about the booze sir. And it's not exactly the sort of thing you straight up ask a hanar about either." Lira shrugged. "There will be free food from the sound of things."

"Ehhhhhh..." Max finally sighed in defeat. "Alright. I'll take that at least. and it'll look good in the press. Worst case scenario, I can bring a flask and spike my own punch." He waved dismissively as he headed into his office. "Put it on the calendar."

Lira couldn't help but roll her eyes again. Earlier she had been trying to get rid of this bothersome hanar, and now she was going to have to coordinate with him to get Max over there. That's politics for you; perfect. She turned back to her console.

"Hello, sir? We've reviewed the assemblyman's schedule and it looks like he should be able to attend, barring any unforeseen circumstances." It was always good to put a statement like that out in the open; leave a convenient escape hatch should Max suddenly change his mind or something more interesting come up. "If you could email our office all of the scheduling details, we'll put it tentatively on the Assemblyman's calendar."

Michelle was telling Cavallius about the Lower Tayseri Elite's pressure on the catholic shelter, when she got a call from Capice.

"Sorry. Ho hi Kayana! what can I do for you? Coming to LTE to upgrade the mainframe? Ho that would be so nice? How about tu... ho you're on route? Almost here? Ok then. Wait. Is that Alex I'm hearing? Just... Come with him please."

She sighted and poured herself another drink, and while she was at it poured glasses of water and handed them to everyone present.

"Well I think we'll be filled to capacity preeetty soon."