[Illium/Citadel] the techno vixen (closed)

“That’s quite a story, Taleeze! I am sorry to hear about Freh’Ya’s troubles. I am sure you see to it that she is in good care though! It seems like she has people she can depend on.” Arina smile at the couple in front of her. Sadly enough, so many who made it through the war alive carried the marks on her soul forever. Especially those who had seen the horrors on Thessia. Or Palaven or Earth for that matter.

“The only thing I can offer is the same as to Skylar. If you ever need any form of assistance that falls in my line of work, don’t hesitate to call me.” I’m trying to make a few small differences where I can. The part I could play during the war was small enough. About time I finally count.

She put her hands on the small table.
“Dear ladies, it’s been a pleasure! I have a few things to take care of on my afternoon off, it has been great to lunch with you but I have to go!”
Arina made her way around the table and offered her hands with a gentle nod.
“Taleeze, Skylar, have a pleasant stay and always safe travels!”

“I try to be, thank you.” Taleeze thought about how much of support Skylar was to her, she was so grateful for that.

She was just taking the last sip of the coffee when the asari diplomat announced her goodbyes.

“Too bad. But we’ll see each other on the forums and of course when we return for the Bliss.”

She took the asari’s hands and returned the nod. “It was nice meeting you, Arina!” she said with a smile.

"It has been a pleasure indeed," Skylar smiled, accepting Arina's hands after Taleeze. "To be repeated certainly, when next we're here. And if ever you happen to be on Illium - or Nevos, naturally," she added, glancing at her companion, "I hope we can return the favour. Peace to you. And success!"

She gave the parting asari a happy wave, watched her go for a moment, then picked up the remnants of her hot dog and slipped her free arm around Taleeze's waist, smiling and tilting her head towards the promenade by the waterway.

"Do you suppose," she said, with a wink as they set off once more, "one day you'll be telling people we had lunch with Councilor Arina when she was just an embassy staffer?" She chuckled, took a final bite of her hot dog, and gazed down the length of the Presidium.

"Hullo, what have we here?" she mused, her eyes falling on a colourful display set within an atrium facing the water. "My my - did you know this was here?" Their meeting with Arina, and detour for lunch, had taken them off from the route they had been on, leading to new sights. The display - a tower of swirling colours, suspended like an artist's brushstrokes in a fountain of mist, undulating hypnotically in the Presidium's low gravity - proved to be the foyer attraction to an art garden, which stretched back from the 'river' and up several tiers, dozens of sculptures in stone, wood, light, water, and light, set with careful elegance among landscaped terraces.

"Speaking of Councilors," Skylar mused, noting a dedication plaque by the stairs leading into the garden proper, and read the inscription: "'Honoured Namara - a tribute offered in gratitude, by the Republics enriched by her service.'"

Taleeze put a hand to of her mouth and giggled. “Oh Goddess, a future Councilor! It’s very well possible, who knows. The Councilors are a special breed though. It’s diplomacy, yes, but not on the level as a regular diplomat. It’s more like being the face of your species to the others.” She mused for a moment. “In the past it had been more a story of conserving, not acting and making others not act. As acting would mostly have meant war or conflict at least. Providing a stable environment was the base for intergalactic development.” That was as schoolbooks had been teaching it for centuries. “The Reaper threat from the outside changed that. I wonder what breed of people it will need to develop the council concept further.”

When they reached the art garden, Taleeze looked around. Some stunning pieces caught immediate attention, some seemed to wait for visitors get come closer and invest some effort to discover them.
“No, I never saw it. Maybe it’s new or temporary? But I know Namara of course, we learned about her in school, she was the longest serving asari Councilor with over four centuries… … some time shortly after the turians entered, if I remember correctly. Back then most of our councilors served centuries. Over the course of the last millennium, the spans were getting shorter though. There is the century theory, meaning that the negotiations with other species went most fluid with a Councilor in office for about a century and it deteriorates as the service time grows, but there are other that say this is too greatly influenced by other parameters of history. I am not too well versed on this level of politics to be honest.”

Hand in hand they were walking past the sculptures. They stopped at a stone and light installation. In a holographic projection bright blue and purple bubbles slowly rose from a stone pedestal, bursting like soap bubbles somewhere along the ascent. It looked like flowers of energy growing and blooming.

Taleeze sighed very slightly as she opened a topic that was running around in her mind for some time.
“Somewhere along the way the bubble runs out of energy and dissolves. Just like all life. We don’t know when that will be for us, neither does the bubble. Also, they lifespans differ greatly.” In fact, some bubbles rose to a meter or two, others made it only half that far up…
“But they are all even more beautiful together, the difference is important, none is shining brighter than the other. You just can’t know… only cherish the time you have. Travel the way you have together.”

Actually, that was just weird talking until now, Taleeze thought.
“Did you ever think about that?”

"From time to time," Skylar admitted. "Although, do you know, it's surprisingly easy to forget? Truly. I suppose," she gestured airily, "we humans are as prone to tunnel vision as anyone else. I think in the backs of our minds, a lot of us in a sense regard asari, turians, salarians et. al. as some different-looking sorts of human, who've picked up a few cultural quirks and whatnot and behave a bit strangely from time to time, but basically are just like us. That," she added, with a sour frown, "or they can't get it through their skulls that other species are really people at all - subconsciously, if not on the surface. Plenty of that on Bekenstein, but then, those sorts seemed to have quite a knack for not seeing other humans as really 'human' - worthy of empathy, at any rate - either. I suppose that's a kind of equality, albeit not much of a silver lining." She shook her head, then shrugged, as if moving away from the depressing thought. "I like to imagine I'm quite cosmopolitan, quite ready to learn something new rather than stick to old assumptions. Living among asari does reinforce that quality." She shot Taleeze a quick grin. "I heartily recommend it, of course."

She gestured to a bench facing the installation they had stopped at, having sensed more than idle curiosity behind Taleeze's original question. In the back of her mind, she was oddly pleased at the setting - the 'flowers' of rising light made, as she had noted, an apt metaphor. The stage designer in her appreciated having the symbolism to frame the moment.

"Still," she nodded, "there are times - more often than I'd like to admit - when I catch myself, as if I've let myself not quite believe that everything around me is... different. 'Alien' would be the word, although growing up I heard it used too often with a sneer to be entirely comfortable saying it. I shouldn't worry. You wouldn't," she smiled at Taleeze. "Alien is good - diverse, varied. Alien means something to discover, to be enriched by. I remind myself of that, when I catch myself forgetting how different we all are - that if I forget, I can't truly appreciate the beauty of it all."

She turned properly, ceasing her observation of the sculpture for a moment to focus on Taleeze exclusively.

"I know what you're getting at," she said. "It's something I think... I'll have to discover. I've lived among asari for years now, but that's not that long to a human. Not so long that I've ever truly seen how my lifespan - touch wood," she brushed a low-hanging frond from a fern in the garden plot behind the bench, evidently feeling that was near enough, "- differs from yours, from all asari. I know, but I haven't seen, and," she chuckled, "we tend to learn best from direct experience, as frustrating as that no doubt is to our tutors. In those few years, I haven't aged that much, truthfully. Not the way..." She paused, then continued: "the way I will, as time goes on, while so many of my friends now, people I consider family - people I love - won't, not in any way that I'll be around to see."

She sighed, but gave Taleeze a smile, hoping to reassure her. She had often wondered if the 'lifespan issue' was harder on asari than everyone else; certainly not easier, as she had known some (usually those who didn't know asari well) to believe. How often did that notion pop up in works of fiction, even pre-contact when it was essentially theoretical: immortality (near enough, from a practical standpoint of human lives) being a curse, not a blessing?

"I suppose I'll learn, in time," she said. "I'm 'generation one' of the galactic community human race - it's all new to us. Apart from probably a very small few, there can't be that many humans who've known an asari for long enough that they've really noticed the disparity in aging, between her and themselves. It'd be... decades, probably." She held Taleeze's hand in both of hers, not tightly, but quite clearly intending it to last. "Perhaps even with all this 'look how asari-friendly I am', it'll be difficult, when it hits me. Some things are. For everyone involved. I... hope," she looked up, into her companion's eyes, "it'll be less difficult, together."

Taleeze was listening mostly silent to Skylar’s train of thoughts but returned or applied a reassuring gesture where applicable.
Skylar had noticed that correctly, always being the one to ‘stay behind’ was taking its toll on some asari – granted, others were just opportunistic and saw death as a means to end a relationship. Just as with other species there were the shallow types and the caring ones. Taleeze believed that the care for partnership, love and universal unity still was dominant in her species though. After having lost so may in a gruesome war, the value of sticking together and value partnership, also through rough weathers, was getting a comeback.

“I believe it will be less difficult together.” She repeated Skylar’s remark, holding her gaze. Her right came up to caress the human’s cheek and through the golden hair.
“I want to spend your lifetime with you, Skylar. I have no idea what that will mean over the course of time, but I am ready for any of it.” Gently brushing through the hair, she added. “I’ll still love you when all of this is going to be white, Matriarch Skylar.” She laughed a little. At moments like this it was clear as a well that this was no attraction based on physical features.
“You are such a wonderful woman, Skylar, your good spirits, your curiosity, that’s fascinating, energizing for me.” After a moment she continued: “You’ll be lucky to have two asari calling you family soon. I… can’t speak for Freh’ya but she is a woman of commitment. If she is as curious towards you as I understand by the glimpses I got from your first contacts, I will have a hard time keeping up!” She chuckled. “We will help each other… “ a shadow was moving across her face. “…and you will know who you will leave me with. We will be able to comfort each other.” She had to look away. “Goddess this hurts. But I have to say all of this because it rests heavy on my soul at the moment. I have never faced such a situation ever before. I may be centuries older but I am not wiser. I know nothing about this, I am a bit afraid and would love to order time to stop, but I can’t! Skylar, please, let’s just face this together. We will make the best of it, right?” Taleeze looked up at her face. That alone made the shadow lift, the touch of Skylar’s eyes.

“It’s amazing. We are such an old race and call ourselves the wisest often enough and yet, as an individual, we face terrible uncertainties, just like you do. I am certain about my love and devotion, my dedication to make my family have the best life possible. I’ll take this as an anchor in the open sea of life. Not the worst, don’t you think?”

It was one of those moments where time stopped and gave you that second to breath eternity. Understand what the universe was all about before that curtain fell again and left you standing, asking yourself if this had been just an illusion.

"'Matriarch,'" Skylar chuckled. "If I grow old half as elegantly as asari do, I'll be content with my lot." Her eyes dipped, although her smile didn't falter. She was human enough to have misgivings about her old age, although in her late 30s the concept still remained rather safely distant, especially with the leaps medical technology had taken just in her own lifetime. Had Taleeze been human, there would have been the comfort of growing old together, which all her upbringing and cultural conditioning had schooled her to be au fait with. But she wasn't; if she were, she wouldn't be Taleeze. If that meant Skylar living as far into triple digits as her health allowed, while her partner (partners, even) remained as young and vital as the day they met... was that truly so terrible? She trusted the sincerity in the asari's voice, knew that affection and warmth wouldn't stray even when her own present level of sex appeal had gone the way of the dodo, while Taleeze remained as come-hither as ever.

And fate willing she would have Freh'ya as she did now. The true nature of the triad relationship they were hoping to embark on was still one that Skylar felt she was barely grasping - only time would tell - but there were moments like this (perhaps tellingly, coming more frequently of late) when it seemed as if a veil was lifted from her thoughts, and she saw with clear eyes what could be, and loved it.

"You are wise," she insisted gently. "Uncertainties and all. We have a saying: 'All I know is that I know nothing.' Socrates, one of our finer examples, given the age he lived in." She cupped Taleeze's face and gently kissed her. "I'm not afraid of knowing nothing. Not with you."

Taleeze understood very well the concern of Skylar about aging and changing in appearance. She knew that much about humans to know this was a bit of a concern. She had tried to reassure Skylar somewhat that this wasn’t something she cared about – as a fact of nature the asari embraced such inevitable things maybe much easier than other species could though. It would be a constant process she thought and she’d happily do it each day.

Taleeze let the kiss happen and responded with her lips and tongue as she closed her eyes. was it seconds, minutes? She wasn’t able to tell when she opened her eyes again.

“You will, don’t worry! Seems like there is one thing I know, that’s how much I love you and care about you. Being here with you and seeing all the wonders of the galaxy unfold with you.” She unintentionally had a very dirty mental image for a second, which probably made her grin awkwardly “… is embracing the moment. An asari does have more time all in all but the flow of time is the same for us as it is for everyone. I want to build something with you.” She thought for a moment, cocking her head.
“You know, there is a human legend, about a sleeping beauty. In a way your story remembers me of that right now.” She giggled. And her hand moved from Skylar’s hair, down her back to her hip.

Talezze looked around, the path was winding upwards interrupted by flights of stairs between the sculpts.
“Come on, let’s see the rest of this, siame.” She stood and offered her hand with that silly soft smile she always got when looking at the woman. She didn’t mean just the art garden though….

Skylar wondered what caused that peculiar grin; a sixth sense gave her an inkling, and she resolved to enjoy finding out.

"Sleeping beauty? I do know it." She glanced down at Taleeze's hand on her hip, smiling. "'And on her lover's arm she leant / And round her waist she felt it fold.' A poem inspired by the tale," she added, by way of explanation. "'And far across the hills they went / In that new world which is the old.'"

She accepted the offered hand and stood, drawing Taleeze's arm around her waist, just as the verse described.

"To the rest," she agreed. "Siame." She looked around the garden, and its artworks, then back at her companion. "'And every bird of Eden burst / In carol, every bud to flower / What eyes, like thine, have waken'd hopes / What lips, like thine, so sweetly join'd? / Where on the double rosebud droops...'" She put a finger gently to Taleeze's lips for a moment. "'Are clasped the moral of thy life / And that for which I care to live.'"

~ End ~