[Citadel, BlueShift] Disco Celebration!

"Hmm... I see. Interesting" The exile said with a bit of a dismissive tone. If she was impressed by Leeta's description of the festival she wasn't showing it. "I myself have only been to one such thing. It was a celebration of our ancestors on my birthship, the Malurn a year before I left for my Pilgrimage and a year before that piece of trash suffered a hull-breach and killed everyone." The quarian's voice dripped with venom during the last sentence for a brief moment, before quickly going back to normal. "Unlike your festival however, it was a solemn one. The dancers danced for those who had perished, and what the geth took from us." She spat the word geth out, almost like she hated the very word itself before returning her gaze at the smaller quarian.

"I'm curious. What do you think of the geth?"

The citadel sure was a world on its own with just as many levels like any other major world. From the sewers to the crystal towers.

“I’ve heard about France. I think Daia, a friend of mine, once visited it, long before the war though. Skylar was born in England, which is just off the coast.” She looked at the picture on Michelle’s tool.
“I’ve been thinking about visiting earth but… it seems we rather not yet. It’s hard to visit your birthplace all destroyed. We will for sure eventually though and then I would like to see more of it, maybe even France.”

She took a sip from her cocktail.
“Let’s hope for things to get better.” It wasn’t clear if she meant Earth or the situation on the Citadel. Maybe both.

“Are you running this charity alone? I got the impression you are somewhat affiliated with ‘Snow’ from CDN. It’s only bits and pieces I caught between the lines.”

The "Linya" cocktail did, indeed, give a person a decent idea of what it was like to be its namesake.
Said namesake was currently blushing furiously (again) and mumbling into her Caladbolg.

...Wait, Skylar was asking her something. Subject change!
"Iryana's fine, just a bit tired. We wandered around for ages and ages and ages and ages looking for this little ice cream place on Kithoi and we found it and they have banana watermelon sundaes and we ate all of it!"
Deep breath.
"So what do you think of this place?"

"Banana watermelon sundaes," Skylar repeated, looking a mixture of intrigued and baffled. "'More things in heaven and Earth', indeed. It's good to hear you're both enjoying your trip, do pass on my regards to her."

Promoted by Linya's query she took a look around the club, taking the opportunity for another sip of Linya as she did so.

"Energising atmosphere," she concluded. "Very conducive to socialising. Far too many clubs seem to deliberately pitch their music to drown out conversations. Preventing people from talking is evidently supposed to cause them to buy more drinks, since their mouths aren't otherwise engaged." She raised her glass and grinned. "This strategy seems far more appealing - convince people to buy more drinks because the drinks are excellent. Much more forward-thinking. And the dance floor has come through tonight's baptism of fire with flying colours, of course," she added, glancing at Taleeze and Kari, before coming back to Linya. "Do you dance, yourself?"

If the quarian's shifting moods were any indication, she may not have been entirely mentally sound. Leeta puzzled over the dancer, eventually deciding that all artists had their...quirks. It wasn't until the geth were brought up that Leeta narrowed her eyes. That was a big of a heavy topic, especially for a lighthearted place like this. Her glowing eyes remained slits as she studied the mysterious Kari. "The...geth. I would say I have many thoughts on them, none of which are as informed as they could be." Easy. Don't trust anyone. Leeta was never one to give the first answer that popped into her head, and something about Kari was making her uneasy. She suddenly wished she had a drink so she could buy herself some time to put her thoughts into words. "I suppose my thought is that words are nothing and actions are everything. I am as wary of them as I am of anyone." She tried to keep her tone flippant, but still chose her words carefully. She didn't feel the need to launch into the politics of the matter; after all, Kari had just been asking about her thoughts about the geth in general. "And you?

"I believe each and every single of them should be destroyed" The quarian said matter of factly. "Before they finish what they started three centuries ago."

She looked at Leeta and smirked underneath her helmet. "And what about exiles? What do you think about them?"

"Yes", answered Michelle rather enthusiastically, "I've been working with Mr Snow almost right off the bat, thanks for a rather fortunate turn of events. He handles security, and he's been a lifesaver. Literally. As if I'd probably be dead by now without him. He can be a moody fellow, but I trust him deeply.
I've also started to work with Laykalar, WavesHaveBroken on the boards. He handles some administrative tasks and offers some classes to the kids. He's so enthusiastic! And smart and knowledgeable. I'm pretty lucky I found them.
So how about you? What do you do in life? And where are you from?"

"Yep!"
Linya did, indeed, enjoy the odd dance now and again.
"Dancing is great fun, all that swinging and jumping and things like that! I'd show you," she smiled, jerking her head slightly in Taleeze's direction, "but I think you're already reserved!"

With half an aural, Taleeze overheard the conversation between Linya and Skylar, it was nice to hear of Iryana. “Hey, well, I took my liberty previously so by all means, if you want to… just return her in a pristine state,” she winked at the asari. “She’s needed later.” Taleeze placed a kiss on Skylar’s cheek, before turning back to Michelle.

“It seems like many of your staff are on CDN, interesting. Well as for whre I am from, I have a home on Nevos but I travel a lot between there an Illium. And what do I do... well, you may know from CDN that I am a dancer, performer. Some may call it stripper or exotic dancer but that’s probably not all there is to it. It’s more like ‘showgirl’ most of the time, I also develop choreographies – Skylar here is way better at that though - and costumes. Actually, tonight is a bit of a celebration. I created a nifty mod out of a tech armor unit. It is now like an electronic costume that can take on many forms and colors. I also have a thing running with a body cloaking device. I am a bit of a teechie so that’s combining one passion with the other. Ariake Technologies just licensed my mods and will sell them in their entertainment line. That’s why we thought we should have a night of fun out. Well… we always like to have that but even better with an occasion.” She took a sip of her drink.

Kari’s question about exiles caught her attention. That indeed was a tricky one.

"Ho yes of course I saw your show, it was amazing!"
Michelle failed to mention that she saw that show more than once.
"And congratulations on that deal, here's to that."

Michelle then heard Kari talk. Mindless geth hating? Exile talk?

"Holy crap", she said, "you're her aren't you? You're actually Pariah!"

'Swinging and jumping...?'

"I think perhaps she might be prevailed upon... ah," Skylar smiled, as Taleeze pre-empted her with a kiss. "Thank you darling. Shall we then?" She graciously extended a hand to Linya.

Leeta stared at the Kari. Her previously relaxed mood was shot to pieces by the other quarian's comments, and she was on full alert. Grudges against the geth weren't uncommon among her people, but with all the work the AI's had done to help the quarians, there had been a lot of forgiveness too. In Leeta's experience, the people who still hated the geth had some personal grievance or personality flaw that made them hard and cold. Leeta couldn't fault them - for a long time she had been hard and cold too; but she had been trying to change that for almost as long. "Do you apply that logic to everyone?" She sounded honestly curious. "Should the Krogan be destroyed before the current times become a re-enactment of their first rebellions?"

As for exiles, Leeta pursed her lips in thought. Her last encounter with an exile had not gone...well. She blamed the exile for that - she had been put in an awkward position with no warning."I think...the wars and the years leading up to the wars were tumultuous. I believe there were a lot of trials that happened for political reasons rather than the right reasons. One of our own Admirals was on trial just a year before she became an Admiral after all and that changed things. The political agendas behind it all are so transparent to me now - but maybe I just did not care before. I believe cases should be reviewed to see if pardons can be granted if it is desired. For the first time in centuries life is different. We can look at things as individuals. Our life of putting the community above all else is over. The safety of the flotilla no longer trumps the rights of the individual." She was aware of how radical she sounded, but she did not particularly care how Kari reacted. The woman was baiting her and judging her so Leeta decided to play her game. "I am not saying all exiles did not deserve being exiled, it would be foolish to say none of them are not vicious people. Just, since all quarians are different and thus all exiles are different, I cannot say what I think of exiles on a whole, just what I think should happen now." She paused, studying Kari for her reaction. "I admit, I did not think I would get into a discussion on politics in a place like this - but what are your thoughts?"

"Skis are kind of useless in battle. Why make yourself vulnerable and bogged down in snow when you could just be gliding over it in a flier or a hovercraft?" Spoken like a true mech inf. "Sure we may've had skies a long long time ago but now? I think the recreational use came only after our species were introduced to each other. That's where Sulla picked that hobby of his." Victan snorts a bit dismissingly, as if thinking it was no sport at all.

Fallah turns her yellow eyes at Juhani and blinks a few times as if digesting what the human said. "Sure. Though I'm not sure if you can appreciate anything I might suggest, I enjoy philosophy and scientific literature. Editorials, articles, great thinkers of each species history." She seems to think for a while sipping her drink. "Gaxavanctus is a turian author from the Fennovian empire that might be of interest to you. She wrote mostly allegorical tales about the turian virtues and how they might be misinterpreted in the daily life and society. The asari matriarch Bueta is a more recent face. Her latest book came out just before the war, but I read it only lately. It's just ponderings on all cosmic existence, almost in the form of poetry. If you can stomach that, I endorse it." A wry smile plays on Fallah's mandibles. She takes no small amount of strange pride in her obscure reading habbits.

*

"Oh believe me. Where we are the peace could be kept by a half-blind and deaf ceremonial praetorian. Our relatively large numbers there just provide the colony with manual labor that complains all the time but works its ass off whenever it's required. You know how it is with the Hierarchy, the military does basically everything but fighting most of the time." Turians and questioning was another thing too. Once, Sulla might have troubled his nights with thoughts about the fairness and rightfulness of his duty -perhaps one reason why he found himself in the company of Vindi Detticia and the other separatists of her clan. But the War washed everything away; Sulla was now a turian as good as they came, maybe even dangerously so.

Arina was not the only one having a reaction to the sudden touch of skin. Sulla felt icy fingers going down his back, not unpleasant at all, and as her finger slowly moved along the side of a talon he had to suppress a purr of pleasure.

Icy fingers were one thing, but it felt like someone dropped a bagful of glacial ice into his gizzard as Arina threw her legs over one another. Sulla gulped and raised his eyes back up to the asari's face, this time sure he had been caught staring. Hopefully the night was far enough for her not to mind too much. Then he caught her scent as she leaned past her and Sulla felt his head go light for a moment, and not just because of the alcohol. The turian had to blink for a few times before realizing Arina had asked a question.

"Not at all! Everyone needs to vent once in awhile", he said smiling, interpreting the question as covering the whole situation and not just the enjoyment of horror films. "And why always serious and realistic? In your line of work, sure, but that doesn't mean your personal characteristic needs to be such." The turian decides to lead the topic back to horror. "I've seen a few good asari horror movies lately. They move really slowly, almost too slow, but the atmosphere is always worth it. I think one was Havanni - The Song if I remember correctly. About two distant space stations that suddenly find out they can hear each other speaking through the outer hull. Things go downhill from there, obviously."

Sulla took his drink as well, sure to nudge Arina's thigh a bit with his knee as he reached for the glass. "Another great genre is older quarian horror indie holos filmed on the migrant fleet using just suit cameras and security feeds. The ships are haunting with their empty hallways, but add some really clever sound effects and surprisingly good acting from someone who's face you can't read and you get a recipe for terror."

Linya grinned, downed what remained of her cocktail...
"Janiri's knickers, that's strong."
...and took Skylar's hand, leading her out onto the floor and executing a quick half-twirl to face her dance partner.

Meanwhile, a familiar face cocked an eyeridge and whispered something into the trackmaster's ear. The music smoothly transitioned into something a little more upbeat - prompting an instinctive glance from the tiny asari.
Zelana couldn't help but chuckle at the exaggerated widening of her sister's eyes.

"Well yeah but what if you didn't have your fancy fliers or hovercrafts? They could be broken or out of gas. How are you then going to move a 200-man strong unit across a snowy terrain in a day?" he retorted unimpressed in return. "Sitting all day in an APC makes you soft, Victan."

And for Falah, he's gotten out the omni-tool for notekeeping. "Okay now that was just plain insulting. I like philosophy and science literature too!" Juhani frowned, but only for a moment. "I had Bueta's book! I was reading it on the side while studying Palaven basic, but only got to the fifth chapter or so before the war kicked off in earnest...and well, it's buried underneath rubble now I guess. These days I keep The Great Paradox by the bedside when I have free time, it was written by Iovas Moliponta, a retired cabalist. She writes about the paradoxical nature of her service, being loyal to the Hierarchy by betraying the people she was ordered to work with when she was with the intelligence service cabal. It's..." Juhani falls silent, pondering whether his own less-than-honest induction into Hierarchy is worth bringing up. "It's intriguing read, that I can guarantee. And sanitized from particular details, the narrative is more about her inner struggle than the operational details."

She noted his reaction on her shifting her position. If he only was getting as excited as she was, she only could hope she interpreted him correctly.

“Quarian… “ she shuddered. It was the touch more than the horror. Her muscles tensed a bit and her legs moved along each other slightly as if to rob in the spot he had left with his touch. “Yes, I know these films! I once got told that quarians can views it in-person on their HUDs and have nervestims give them a live feeling. The degree may depend on their suit equipment but considered their camera work is already creepy as the abyss as it is, reliving the horror inside of your suit must be mind boggling.” She felt an urge to cuddle up towards him but resisted.

“I have not seen Havanni yet, it’s on my list but the list just grows and grows and I get to do only so much. Your recommendation is moving it up though” She sighed and rested her head on her arm on the backrest, looking at Sulla from an odd angle and below. Her lips were inviting, their entwined hands only inches away.
“Maybe I’d be too scared to watch it alone anyway! In fact, I prefer watching horror vids at home, darkened apartment, only one or two companions. The big audience in a cinema takes something away for me.” She chuckled and fell silent, with a soft smile and her eyes fixed on his. She was ready to go somewhere else and soon.

The last remark got a reaction from Victaniarus, but probably not one Juhani was expecting. Anger flashed in his eyes and the turian rose to his stature, a good head above Juhani. Victan was not a giant but still a tad bigger than an average turian. Juhani's small slight to which Sulla would have responded with a bark of laughter and a slam to the back had Victan see red. "Watch who you're calling soft, furball", he growled. "I'm the one breaking my fucking back on the fields and on the construction sites while you sit behind a comfy desk and run fucking errands to people so much above you they don't even know your fucking name." He would have probably continued further if not for Fallah, who stepped in and placed her claw on Victan's arm. "Enough, Vic." Victan leered at her for a few seconds before settling back at his drink, staring into the depths of the glass gloomily.

She then turned her head back towards Juhani. "Sorry about that. He gets a bit touchy when he's drunk", she whispered, or at least says it as quietly as possible in the clamor of the club. Fallah listened to Juhani's description of the book and then nodded slowly. "I think I started to read that a long time ago but found it a bit too unimaginative for my taste." She shrugged her shoulders. "But the ideas seemed sound enough."

*

"Wow. It would be quite amazing seeing a film like that. The nerve-stims I mean. To be honest, I've watched a few movies with my helmet on even though it might not be exactly encouraged. Or allowed." The turian reached back to rub his neck with a sheepish grin.

After Arina leaned back and looks at him like that, Sulla decided it was time to cast the die. He rubs Arina's hand with the side of a talon and tilts his head to angle his face with hers. "Havanni was good enough that I could watch it for a second time. I'm available for this night and the next day, if you really want company for a movie", the turian heard himself say, quite out of the situation at a conscious level at this point. The offer was, of course, much more than just friendly company for a horror movie. This way it just gave Arina a graceful way to decline without the explicit mention of him coming onto her.

In retrospect he should have expected a flare-up of some sort. Or kept his mouth shut better with his state of intoxication, but hindsight was the worst kind to have. So he just sat there, while the temptation to stand up and shove his unloaded panic gun in Victan's face was growing stronger. "I do as I am ordered, and right now it's clerk and interpreter work..." Had not Fallah intervened at this point, he'd continued about why exactly he wasn't back on Epyrus.

"Who doesn't get mad with alcohol?"

So that was creativity and anger on booze for the evening, and Victan's outburst had robbed the joy of Juhani. Enter melancholy. "Aww, fuck it. Now I'm upset." he sulked, turning to gaze into his glass. He wanted just to cuddle someone and fall asleep now, and there were zero candidates in the whole nightclub which soured his mood even more. "I think I might turn in soon, go sleep this off. Don't feel like talking anymore."

Arina chuckled at the odd sight it must probably be for an outsider to see someone inside a suit watching a movie and reacting to it. Of course the outsider wouldn’t know and just see a strangely behaving individual. She guessed that the quarians would have the means to know what was going on with a fellow carry-on though.

When Sulla’s head came at level with her's and he returned her touch she smiled and closed her eyes for a moment, enjoying the thrill.
She moved her face even a bit closer to whisper her answer. “I’d like to, you could protect me through the horrors then, soldier.” She blushed a bit. “I want to spend the night with you. If you want me, that is.” She chuckled and looked away for a moment but of course was confident enough to find his eyes again.

Fallah glanced around her, unsure what to do. She looked at Juhani with a concerned expression, the first real sign of emotion she had showed this night. Normally Victan's words would have been met with a counter to make him take what he said back, especially the part about mocking Juhani's duty. Victan had performed quite of a faux pas when he had insulted Juhani's appointed duty, and Juhani was more than entitled to explode in turn. Instead, the man sat sullen and started to brood. Fallah was not really a people person, but he tries to console Juhani nevertheless. "He didn't really mean what he said, you know that. He'll apologize, if not today then tomorrow."

*

Sulla, unintentionally, moves even closer. So close in fact, that his mandibles brush against Arina's cheeks, but Sulla did not mind any more at this point. Sulla felt his gizzard go tie tight like a knot. What did the woman think? That the turian was going to back off at this point? "Of course I want that", he purrs with a gleam in his eye. "I don't think you'll find any noteworthy horrors bothering you tonight."