[Denakot, Tayseri] Rebuilding, Reopening, Reloading [open]

"Can I get you anything to eat or drink?" a child's voice came from somewhere around the height of Vadar's and Vekir's waists. It was Aira, in her best clothes working as a waitress, doing her best impression of cute. Considering this was a six-year old, it probably wasn't too hard to achieve.

Meanwhile, Juhani has drifted to Peraxus' vicinity with his drinks. He takes a long gulp and grimaces at the burns, before turning to the old man's side. "Hey, did you miss me?"

"That is so weird." Trex can't resist a good close look at Kayana's face. Two eyelids...

...Stupid? With boys? Trex feels her stomach sink. "You? I, um, but, you've had boyfriends, you can't be totally..."

She loses her cool and starts to stammer. "I guess you can't be stupid if you never had a date, right?" She shoots a glance over her shoulder at Vindi. "But I'm thirteen now, this place doesn't need two Virgin Snipers."

Which isn't entirely a fair thing to say. Trex knows Vindi used to have a mate. Thing is, she hasn't dated anyone since, and hasn't got a little one following after her, and chose of her own will to seek combat instead of a breeding partner back on North Solregit in her own youth. "I'm not supposed to go to war until I'm fifteen so that means I have time to start a family if I can find the right guy to. I just don't know where to start."

Peraxus blinked. He looked at the scar briefly, then took a casual swig. "They tell you not to run with scissors in boot y'know."

He glances at Reb'kah, then back at the turian currently baring his chest proudly. "What's that for, anyway?" he asks, gesturing with the claw holding his mug. "What d'ya mean, 'for your kinfolk'?"

Then Juhani appeared, and he sighed briefly. "Yeah, kid. Livin' without you's a hardship I jus' can't bear."

"Darling, I'm surviving," Quatra says, and then from amongst a stack of flats and pallets she pulls out a dry-erase board. From her pocket--a stylus.

It's what I do best, she writes. I have plans. Rebuilding. Regathering. But they watch me here.

She underlines the next sentence for emphasis.

Survival didn't come cheap.

Then, with a rag, she wipes and the message is gone, as though it had never been.

She cups his cheek and murmurs in his ear, "Good to see you."

On the board she writes, Do you think you can pretend to like women, if it will mess with Vindi's spies?

"I've missed you, hon."

Written: True, though I'd prefer not to say so in such a nauseating manner.

"How've you been?"

She offers him the pen in case he'd rather say so privately.

"Yes, me. You've never seen me around a drell dude, I loose like, 40 IQ points. The guy can actually tell me he doesn't take me seriously as a romantic partner-thank you very much, Hadas-and..." She smirked a little, her eyes flicking up. "He gives a nonchalant shrug and his t-shirt actually rips...Seriously, it is not pretty. I fall way too hard and too fast."

She shook her head, lowering her voice. "Your sister is a little smooth-throated, but she's not a virgin. And that's what I'm talking about. I am not going to find you the father of your children."

"I am going to find you a nice guy you can spend some time with and maybe learn something from. None of this Sundowner 'seven children by 25' varrenshit."

"Hey Jaq! Good to see you survived, too!" Michael said, the rest of the squad watching as Michael greeted his friend.

"Chief, who's your friend?" PFC Peters asked.

"Ah, proper introductions are in order. Squad, this Jaquento Schmidt, old friend of mine, former OpsChief, and if the extranet is to be believed, Founder of Schmidt Solutions. Jaq, This here's Second Squad, Second Platoon, D Company, 9th Marine Regiment. You may have seen some news stories about the 9th, calling us 'The Battered Bastards of Bytown'. Anyway, Here's Corporal Miguel Santiago, and Corporal Dmitri Sokolov. Squad Machine-Gunner and Squad Designated Marksman respectively. PFC Henry Nishimuro, Rifleman; PFC Hannah Rutledge, our Medic; PFC Dolf Peters, Grenadier. Dolf's actually from Hamburg, right?"

"Ja, While my sister died in Hamburg, at least my brother was off-planet when the war started. He was on the Citadel. He's now helping the reconstruction efforts back in the Fatherland."

"What about me, Chief?"

"Getting to you, Levesque. Last guy in our squad, PFC Henri Levesque, Rifleman. All of us fought together throughout the Siege of Ottawa. And even when we Headed over to London for the final part of the War." Michael said.

Trex absolutely cannot imagine Kayana being stupid. Speechless at that, she responds to the last remark, and scowls, "What's the point in that? I doubt Dad will be impressed because I've found a buddy. Spirits knows he doesn't waste his time...."

She trails off. He doesn't waste his time hanging out with people in idle chatter, which is precisely what she's doing now, and maybe his self-containment and isolation is not a trait to be emulated.

She's not giving up hanging out with Kayana, so she fudges the end of the sentence, "Hanging out with girls." Which, she realizes as she says it, is actually true. Notras doesn't date, as a rule.

A thought crosses her mind. "Hey, Kay, later we have to talk to Raelon, I want to show you something on the computer."

But for the time being..."Isn't that like totally harder? He'd have to still be interesting in the morning."

Vindi smiles at Vadar, "A pleasure, Mr. Kakari." She glances up at Vakir and quips, "Yes, I've been told I have a resemblance to the sixth level boss of Grim Terminus Alliance, who was apparently a homage to an Infiltrator villain." Essentially, she's giving the girl permission to stare. "I could have chosen a more natural look, but back home it's considered a cowardly thing to hide your battle scars. And while I don't do all things as they're done back home, I think that one should respect one's ancestors."

There. That's a nice hedge for "I'm not a separatist, but I'm not going to give up my culture either."

"I hear the stew is getting good reviews tonight, if you're hungry?"

There is a very good reason why the stew tastes so good. Much of the food is still preserved rations. Vindi, having learned to cook in prison, long ago perfected her techniques to make institutional food taste like something, and with the freedom to add her own flavourings and spices--many of which she'd traded for with folks from back on Solregit, or around Tayseri--well, the stew stands out, even if it contains the same basic ingredients most folks are eating every day.

The businessman sighs quietly, he had expected as much. Survival has a cost, it always has a cost. They know that better than most.

He leans in and quietly watches Quatra write. A short, sharp nod at her plan; stifled laughter at her final message. He takes the proffered pen with a quick nod of thanks. He's not angry anymore, now its just anticipation. Cold, savage, anticipation.


"Missed you too sweetie. It's been far too long hasn't it?" Acting and pretending was as natural as breathing to him and this, this was just another role. Just another performance.

Rebuilding, reconsolidating I he wiped the last part out

Titan has lost a great deal

He flashed the message to Quatra and held it for a few moments before obliterating it with a rag.

"And you still look so..." He laughed softly.

Can pretend, what do you have in mind?

"beautiful."

"What do you mean, what's the point? It's the entire point of guys. That they're fun and interesting and hot."

She raised one eyebrow, glancing over at Notras. "Do not take this the wrong way, but...I would not want to model my romantic life on his." She crossed her arms, gently teasing. "You'd be surprised how many different kinds of guys can be awesome. But if I'm going to find you a dude, it's going to be a nice one. Because I like you."

"Oh yeah, I wanted to ask him about where he gets some of his toys." She pulled out a rather unusual-looking OSD on a chain. "Hadas gave me this. It needs to be hacked open, so I guess I have a new project."

"There once was a man who told me that people like me are funny animals in clothes and rollerskates. Amusing but nothing else." This man of course was provost sergeant Animal from the Invictan legion. "If that's the effect that I've had on you, good job me, I guess." he swirled his glass' contents around, sniffing the aromas. Stingy, raw...must have been from Vindi's own still.

"How's your recovery going?"

Quatra's only reply is a deep and throaty mrrrl, followed by these words inscribed on the board:

SOLREGIT DARK NO WORD
SURVIVORS ON OMEGA = MARKET, DISTRIBUTORS
NEED PRODUCT
IN TOUCH WITH KRAAVA ON ALTAKIRIL
HELP MOVING??

A pause.

TITAN--HOW BAD?

Quatra lets out a truly pornographic moan to accompany this question. How can the woman do it with a straight face?

Trex considers this. Fun? Fun might be....kinda entertaining. Okay. She can do fun.

"Nice, okay, but I don't wanna date some guy I can beat up too easily, okay? I mean you want someone you can respect."

She nods. "Be careful--don't let Raelon keep that, he's always looking for something to play with. If you wanna do it yourself, you gotta stake your claim around him, otherwise he'll do it for you."

Her gaze travels over to Notras again. "Let's go."

Trex leads her friend to the large bank of computers where Raelon holds strange court. Illuminated by the glow of screens shining off the raised implants on his left hand, the bare skeletal metal talons of his right, and backlit beneath his hood by a false eye that has a radiance of its own, cloaked in a black cape embroidered with circuitry designs in the shape of Solregit filigree patterns, and with a forearm-long pipe protruding from the hood of the cape, wreathed in poppy smoke, the Sundowner's shaman sits watching his computers.

"Trex. Kayana," he says, in greeting, then to Trex, "You're going to do it, aren't you, you want me to show her it."

Trex nods.

Jaquento shook Lode's hand.
"Nice to meet you guys, truly impressive work you did. I know Micheal from the time he was a regular here and I heard many good things about the Bastards of Bytown in the improvise hospital I spend my time during the aftermath. Is it true that took down a destroyer with just an APC and bad language? I was with the N7 Unit Iron Cobra during the war, by the way."
He gave the men a salute.
"If you happen to come by my store for some gear, there is a discount for veterans and active military personal."
Jaquento the salesman. Was that man really a soldier in the past?
He was hesitant to tell the men about why he left the alliance, well as long as they don't ask, he won't have to justify anything.

"Ah, That was Bravo Company. Gunnery Chief O'Leary's probably got the filthiest mouth in the whole regiment, and the Regiment's best tank gunner. They got Damn lucky with a M29 Grizzly." PFC Levesque said.

"Yeah, They modified the gun on that. Made it akin to a gun from a damn Frigate. Crazy sons-of-bitches, I thought that it would blow up right in their faces!

"Sometimes, Crazy works, Chief. So, Jaquento. How was the fight off Earth? Hopefully you didn't eat nothing but Spam." Cpl. Sokolov said.

"And here I thought you said you liked Spam Musubis, Dmitri!" PFC Nishimuro retorted.

Reb'kah frowns at Peraxus. "You've been here a whole year and you haven't figured it out?" She pulls down the collar of her dress, not far enough to be indecent, but far enough to show the beginnings of a similar X over her heart. "You do know what a blood oath is, don't you, Peraxus?"

Battis, somewhat distracted by taking credit for his infant son, does look back over his shoulder and say, "Yeah, when we say family by blood we don't mean genetics."

Stew sounded absolutely delicious right now. And avoiding an outbreak of male posturing was also a rather nice idea. So with that in mind, Marius let himself be led over to where the stew was, gratefully accepting a bowl from Jovina.

After the first spoonful, an expression one could only describe as blissful spread across his face. The Spirits' own food this was; he'd almost forgotten how good it was.

"So, Jo," he said after a spoonful or three of utterly delicious stew, "how are things up here? They still running you ragged, or has it finally died down?"

"So it is true. Have to admit I doubted that story. I don't know if I can compete with that, let's see..."
Jaquento gave the group and entertained smile.
[color=#3366FF]"I guess most ground fights were similar to earth, plenty of husks, little to no supply. I on the other hand was together with my unit, shipped from one hot spot to another, changing ship every week. Moments of terror with days of boredom inbetween."
Looking at the group he pondered which story to share.
"Would like to hear how we snatched some intel from Cerberus during the coup or the one time we set of a nuclear explosion the biggest pile of ezoo we could find?"

"Ooooh... I Gotta hear that!" Cpl. Santiago said, grinning like a maniac.

PFC Rutledge sighs. "Really Miguel?"

"Hey, I like explosions, Dolf and the Chief can back me up on this, right?"

"Sure, I'm in!" "Same here, Tell us the story, Herr Schmidt."

"I had husk claws through-an'-through. Take a guess."

Peraxus turned back to Reb'kah with a non-committal shrug. "It didn't exactly come up." The old turian barely reacted when Reb'kah pulled down her dress, perhaps forgetting briefly that non-turian chests on some females is considered a private area. He looked at her scar only briefly before flicking his gaze back up.

"Let's assume I don't."