[Zakera Ward] Weekend Film Festival (open)

A charity worker? He sure did not look like that.
"Oh, charity work? That's admirable! Which one, if I may ask?"

"Your boss has a point there. I happen to run into a lot of people from CDN since I hooked up there. It is an interesting thing indeed and has a tendency to bring people together under interesting circumstances." She looked over to Leeta and Alexander

"My feet are killing me." Sarah grumbled, bending a foot around her knee and rubbing at her ankle. "Should have worn the soft shoes.." She groaned. "I'm moving on ahead into the theater. I've got my tickets, I'll see you folks after my movie." She set her foot back down and removed her wallet from her handbag.

"Was nice talking to you all."

Lear was feeling a bit uncomfortable with the socialization going on, and knew he'd start endlessly babbling if he didn't get out.

"Excuse me, but I think I'm going to get some nutri-paste and grab my seat. It was nice meeting you all, and nice seeing you again Leeta." Without another word, Lear quickly turned around and walked towards the vendors as fast as he could, walking into another Quarian as he squeezed between a pair of humans.

"Oh! Sorry about that. I didn't hurt, bother, annoy, anger, or harm you, did I? Wait, I said harm already..."

"Oh, all right! Have a good time," Dante said to Sarah as she got ready to leave. "It's been a pleasure to meet you, see you later perhaps."

As Lear left, Dante also said goodbye, cursing himself internally when he realized he hadn't introduced himself. "Oh, enjoy your film too!" Dante said, before turning back to the group.

"It's surprising how many people I've met that seem to come from CDN," he agreed. "If it's not someone I've met on the board itself, it's someone I've met in person and then learned afterwards that they frequent the board too." He let out a little chuckle. "Seems like a small world, and even a smaller extranet sometimes."

"Just a small one on Lower Tayseri, Leaving the Ducts is the name ma'am," repling to Arina, Snow stiffened slightly at the mention of his work. It was emotionally draining and rather arduous, but Arina didn't need to know that. "It's a charity meant to help give Citadel orphans vocational skills, and it's rather interesting, given the circumstances." The ex-salvager keeping his demeanor cool and correct, while wondering when Coral was starting.


"And yourself ma'am? Might I be so bold as to ask about your job?"

“Sounds pretty interesting and indeed, that’s quite noble!” Not at all what she had suspected.
“Every effort counts these days, we can hardly afford to miss any opportunity with the kids we have. In fact it may have crossed my desk already, can’t remember though.” She wanted to look it up at the office.

“I am part of the asari embassy. I do systems analysis and statistics mostly. That’s how I learned about CDN, I was doing a report on former Cerberus activities on the extranet.”

She waved over to the leaving people and was looking up at the screen for start times.
Coral was up soon, but there was still enough time.

“Mr. Snow, they you are calling me ‘Ma’am’ makes me feel totally Matriarch. It’s Arina, we’re here on a private basis after all.” she said with smile.

"More like lurking in my case officer." A dry grin creasing Snow's youthful features, making him look his twenty-one years. Turning back to Arina, this smil...asari was quite the conversationalist. Only other people who managed to get him to talking this much were his fluffy employer and the unsinkable hanar Laykalar. Letting Arina describe her job and how she wandered into the madhouse known as CDN, Snow finished off the Jaeto black, the savory, slightly bitter flavor perking him up as Arina, member of the asari embassy and 'not a matriarch' finished.

Nodding to the departures, the charity worker inwardly felt uncomfortable about calling Arina by her name, but ma'am did seem out of place, "alright Arina, as long as you drop the Mr. Mr. Snow is my grandpa." Giving the elegant asari a wry grin before continuing, "Bet it gets nuts where you work Arina, but then that just means you're in the same boat as officer Cavallius, and speaking of."

Turning to the turian with his human son, "So what's the plan?"

"Alright, Snow it is then," Arina said. "Well, it has it's ups and downs. When the Citadel Expedition Fleet was docked we had tons of things to attend to. Also, it's usually so much sozialising that you have hardly time for a private life at times. We are getting into calmer waters now though. But generally, trying to hold the galactic peace together is an axciting thing." Arina was exaggerating a bit, as her position was not really front line. But she sometimes thought, that the intel she provided for the negotiators was essential for their line of work, so she took pride in her duties.

"Yes, should we go could look for our seats?"

"Where are we?" asked Michelle.
She turned on her omnitool. The room they took refuge in was rather spacious, a small storage unit, with lots of junk lying around. Her turian companion was making sure the door was well shut.
"You think they lost us?" he asked.
Right on cue they could hear shouting outside and someone started banging at the door, the only exit saved a tiny window four meters high.
"Ho, that's us screwed then." he observed, dryly.
Michelle looked around her, opened some crates. When she found potato bags, she suddenly found some inspiration. Nearby were costumes, a bagpipe and a few glass bottles.
"Bingo!" she said, smiling. "Let's get to work!"

Leeta was trying to pay attention to the conversations, but she had a terrible habit of getting lost in her own thoughts. She was smiling, nodding along with Arina and Snow, silently grateful for their present. She, like Lear wasn't always the most social creature....but she was becoming comfortable with Arina, and even moreso with Dante. And then there was Stubble of course, someone who didn't seem imposing in the least. "Yes, let us find our seats shall we?" she smiled brightly at anyone who had decided to see coral. They couldn't see the curve of her lips, but her contentment was evident in the slant of her eyes and the tone of her voice.

Having already bought a full weekend pass, Leeta didn't waste any time buying tickets for specific events. She led the group intent on seeing Coral to their screen, trotting along with a little skip in her step. "Coral...very promising," she mused, puffing up proudly.

"Might as well", Snow remarking, following the flashy quarian and Arina towards the screen where Coral was being shown. Tossing the empty tea can into the garbage disposal, the charity worker was content to let Leeta and the elegant asari set the pace, trying not to get Dante's son's attention. Due to what his job entailed, every time Snow saw a kid, it reminded him of a dozen other children eating scraps and sleeping in the ducts. "Don't need to see Dark Harvest, got enough reminders of this damn war on Tayseri", Snow thinking, his eyes losing themselves in thought as he walked...

“Alright, then” Arina complied with Leeta. “Let’s move.”
She as well had a weekend ticket and wanted to be as free as possible in the choice of films. Maybe Coral would raise her mood enough to see Dark Harvest. She was interested in it and a documentary like this had to be done. Yet it still was a tough individual decision to face it.

“Actually, say, Leeta, I know your suits are waterproof, but how affectionate to water are you people really? I mean, did you ever… dive or something?” She was curious since Coral was an underwater adventure dokudrama. It was more natural for some species than others.

"Sure thing, lead the way," Dante said, he and Adrian following after Leeta. "Middle of the row up there looks like it'll have a good view, how's that sound?" he asked, pointing toward some free seats.

"Diving and going underwater like that… Sounds frightening, but the chance of finding treasure is pretty exciting," he said. "I wonder what they're going to find down there?"

After two hours of... Well, slow boring diving, unlikable characters and intense nasal gazing, they had finally began to exit.
"Well... That was... I'll let everyone else start. What did you think?" Asked Alex as they walked down and out the theatre.
A alert appeared on his omni-tool, but he decided to wait until replying to whatever message it was.

"...and that was their plan all along. Lucky you stumbled on them and managed to call us, a lot of people would have been hurt", finished explaining the C-Sec officer.
"Wow... That was... So complex, but at the same time brilliant..." commented Michelle, holding ice on her eye. "Lucky you could play bagpipe so well! Didn't think it possible with your mandibles", she teased her turian companion, winking at him with her good eye.
He chuckled. "Well it was your plan, and it was craaazy! But... It worked you know?"
"So it did", said the officer. "But now for obvious reason I must ask you both for discretion on that matter."
Michelle and her would-be mugger both agreed, while the last cultists were being round up.

"Well that's where we say goodbye Michelle. It was... Fun. Promise I won't mug you in the future! Or anyone really."
Michelle laughed, then coughed. It hurt. Then she looked at him seriously.
"So... While you were out of it, I made a few calls and... Got lucky. I took care of a kid and he's working on a turian colony now... He sent me that picture."
The turian could not believe his eyes.
"It's... It's her! It's my twin sister! How could you..."
Without saying more he hugged her. She smiled and hugged him back, although it kind of hurt her ribs.
"Just go to her ok? Some stories are better left untold you know..."

"Whoa, that was amazing, wasn't it?" Arina was totally excited about the movie and the fantastic underwater landscapes - weren't these seascapes?

"I am still amazed how well preserved the ruins were after millennia under water. I seriously thought Shirell would die when his compression suit failed!" It had been a major point in the vid where one of the crew's equipment had failed just after he had discovered the key component on the ruins to actually retrieve the big hidden treasure.

"I really miss open waters on the Citadel. The view onto a planet with so many oceans is somewhat compensating it though. so what do you all think, should we go get some snack and a drink and then look what we will watch next?"

"It was..rather tranquil," Snow replying to Alex, slowly stretching his arms. The plot of Coral seemed downright secondary to the visual ambience that it was trying to instill, a quiet, floating sensation. It had worked, for once Snow felt relaxed, the first time in a long while. "The story was, rather secondary, but the atmosphere I quite liked." Looking around he almost missed Arina's question, "look on the bright side ma-Arina, at least you can go vist on your off days." The ex-salvager's keeping his voice low as he made way for Leeta, Adrian and Dante.

Arina had notices that snow had used a formal asari way to address her. She smiled on the notion. The man had seemed a bit grumpy at first but he had enjoyed the movie surprisingly well. Maybe it had been a bit of special suggestion of her asari mindset after all but well, everyone was free to join or not.

“I indeed plan on going on some vacation indeed soonish. Australia’s coast has great spots to swim and dive.” In fact, even for her the idea of pleasure day trips was not exactly feasible. “Just day trips are a bit much though. I travel kind of cheaper indeed but you can only do that so often.”

At least she felt relaxed enough to even give Dark harvest a chance now.

Leeta was contemplatively silent as they strolled out of the theatre amid all of the other movie-goers. She listened to their takes on the film, and while Arina was bursting with excitement for the vid they had just seen, Alex didn't seem particularly impressed. "The score was impressive," she replied quietly to Alex while Arina and Snow spoke. Leeta plucked absently at the jaw of her helmet where suit met visor. She had enjoyed the film well enough, but had helped that the main male lead had possessed that rugged handsome look. She had kept imagining herself in the shoes of the explorers, but there was something terrifying about going deep sea diving. The thought unsettled her more than that of standing on the surface of a planet. She was used to confined spaces, even with all the aesthetic beauty of space ports that kept up the farce of open sky above.

She walked slowly, lagging behind the group with her arms folded over her chest. She didn't even notice she was a few steps behind them - it was something she was used to. In the fleet it had always taken her two steps to match the strides of other quarians. That required effort, and right now Leeta was lost in daydreams of adventure and treasure. If she wasn't careful, she would be separated from her group.

Arina seemed to be the only one noticing how the quarian was lagging behind a bit. She seemed closed in and contemplating.

She stepped to the side to let the others through and fell back next to Leeta.
“Hey, what’s up, Everything alright? Don’t get lost… ”
She wondered if the quarian wanted to talk about it. Maybe she wasn’t into all this water business at all. Quarians weren’t know for their aquatic forays after all. She nudged Leeta gently and added. “I’d have to look for you.”

“Want to drink something or talk about the movie?” or about anything that bothers you? Was the unspoken question.