[Citadel, Relaxation Area 566] Auld Lang Syne

Sarah Thompson is a person of many titles. Former Cerberus assassin. Current Military intelligence analyst. Cellist, violinist. Mother, and now party planner. The woman scanned the surface of three different tables in the seating area overlooking the planet Earth and rubbed her arms with anxiety. "Snacks.. Soft drinks.." She murmured to herself, checking the list with her omnitool.

"Music." She continued, glancing over her shoulder at one of the couches behind her, near the vast viewing area. A cello case and violin case sat there, along with a backpack of supplies. "Okay. Okay.. things.. might not suck." She paced back and forth, snapping her attention to an approaching security guard. "Yeah, Scan the personal ID and cross-reference off of the CDN user list. You know what to do." The guard gave a nod and left.

Sarah sat by her cello. Now, the waiting game again. Surely, guests were going to arrive soon. Surely.

Meanwhile...

Aturian dressed in party clothes - Party clothes! You can't fit a pistol in this..., he thought - casually walked up to the main entrance, slipping past the bouncers and through the doo—

A security guard's arm shot out from the side, almost clotheslining the poor turian, and they looked at each other for a moment. "Sorry, kid, you can't go through here. 'CDN' only."

"... Yeah, I'm from the forums."

The bouncer stared at Vandar blankly, then after what seemed an eternity, replied; "Name?"

"Vandar Selenus.", Vandar replied, stepping forward again - and being blocked again.

"Hold on, let me check the list..." After a minute, the guard looked back up from his omnitool, shaking his head. "You're not on the list. You sure you're from CDN, and not just some gatecrasher hoping for free food?"

"Yes, I'm- wait, I mean no, I'm from CDN. Look, I'm this guy here. Vigilance." The turian brought up his own omnitool, showing an extranet page that quite proved his identity. "See?"

The security bouncer looked at the page, then back at Vandar. At the page, then at Vandar. "Yeah, I'm going to have to ask you a few questions to prove it's you...

First, what was your mother's maiden name?"

With a nervous chuckle, Sarah gave the security turian a pat on the shoulder. "This one's good. Come on in, sir, you're the first guest to arrive!" She dragged him along through the contraband detector and gestured off at the area she'd prepared over the day.
"I- Oh. If we haven't met before, I'm Sarah Thompson, aka Vigilant Vanguard. It's a pleasure to be at your aquaintance, Vigilance."
The woman offered the man a smile.

A new year. He was used to the various human celebrations, the strange traditions. What he still wasn't used to was how quickly they came around. A Sur'Keshian year was longer than an Earth one, and even after all these cycles out here he still found that the change came on suddenly - too suddenly for his liking. Too much time slipping by, too many wasted opportunities. Another year past, and the humans were all talking now of things to come, of hopes for the year ahead, of the journey they had made over the last twelve months as Earth continued to rebuild.

566, he was looking for. Cerberus Daily News. Why he continued to post to that place he really had no idea. He had made a fool of himself more times than he liked to count. There was something so engaging about it, though... and the people there knew things. After so long shutting the world out, he had stumbled upon a window into the outside galaxy, in its entirety. It terrified him. And yet...

He patted himself down, hoping he looked presentable. He had chosen to wear something formal for the occasion, a red and black piece with a chest bar. That was important, right? He wanted to look respectable. Not weak and sweaty and paranoid. Not this time. Still, he was getting ever more nervous the closer he came. He told himself he had nothing to worry about, it was a public setting. He'd attended that annual get-together a while back, and that hadn't been too bad, had it? Mostly asari and a few humans, uniformed turians, nothing particularly troubling. Besides, if he was going to show the galaxy a new, more composed Joset Phraag then he should really make an effort to look the part. Right?

Oh, phrex. Phrex-phrex-phrex. There were bouncers outside. He felt a spike of adrenaline. If one of those krogan loons was going to show up then he was turning around, right now.

He stopped short, mind racing. He'd looked over the thread which the ex-Cerberus woman had left on the forum (ex-Cerberus was bad enough, why was he doing this again?) - and there didn't seem to be anyone too alarming announcing plans to show up. Were they expecting trouble? Caught between what was left of his pride and a well-honed sense of self-preservation, he wringed his hands reflexively, muttering, before taking a breath and walking forward.

I'm going to regret this..., he thought glumly.

The guard gave a look over Bitterskin, then over his approved checklist. "You know, you can just walk through the ID scanner. It'll scan your personal ID and you can just enter the party. Also, you look like you're about to have a panic attack, should I call an ambulance for you?" He raised a worried brow.

"Er, no. No, I'm fine. Just... not invited, er, to many formal occasions".

Shrill, he sounded too shrill. He composed himself and offered a smile, though he kept a wary eye on the bouncer.

There weren't many people here yet - had he actually arrived early? Well, that was alright. He could find a nice corner and let people come to him.

The hour was still early. With only two arrivals, Sarah clasped her hands together and made her way towards the center of the reclining area. "Okay! People, there's. ..really not a whole lot going on, feel free to do whatever you'd like. Chat, eat the food I brought.. If you want me to play music, I can do that!"

An informal New Year's get together, not something a diplomat gets often as the holidays were usually filled with "official" parties. For once she had excused herself and traded places with a colleague for another Alliance invitation in a week. It was some political event with lots of speeches, so she found someone to switch places easily.

Why she preferred a private get together of some extranet forum was beyond her. But she somehow liked Sarah and the woman had rough times behind her so it was good to visit her place. She wondered if the kid would be there or if Sarah had considered too stressful with too many unknown people.

She wore a dark grey cocktail suit, skintight pants which integrated into shiny boots. The jacket was longer in the back and the low cut front was criss-crossed with a delicate chrome metal chain. The outlines of her browmarkings she had decorated with a few tiny, diffident gemfal stones.

There were security guards in place as she noted with a raised eyebrow. Maybe Sarah was expecting Pariah to try something and that thought made her laugh, as she nodded her greeting to the grim looking turian. Being used to the most casual of access checks she had activated her ID transmission well before passing the scanner. She wondered who else was there already...

Sarah shot a wave over at the Asari who entered. "Hey! Glad you could make it!"

And then someone who was probably entirely unexpected walked in dressed in her customary black clothing. Whatever identification she gave quite clearly proved she was in fact Lyra Palmer and so she moved past the bouncer at the door. Everyone was ignored by the lady for a brief span of a minute as she found the snacks and enjoyed a few handfuls of them. She turned then to take stock of who was here, the host, a salarian, a turian, and an asari. Eh, she had started riots with less and she didn't feel like conversing with a big group much right now anyways.

So who are all you people? There are too many people to keep track of on that forum.

"Bitterskin, Stardust, Vigilance, and Isadore, clearly." She gestured at herself, moving to take a seat by her things. Removing her bag from the nearby couch, the woman gave Palmer a once over. "You know, I've heard a lot about you but I don't think we've met, Lyra. I'm Sarah. It's a pleasure." She offered a smile and hugged her backpack to her torso.


It was quiet.

A bouncer coughed.

"But you can't confiscate these dishes! Do you have any idea how hard it was getting them this far?"

"Ma'am I just need you to set them down while you verify your ident code-"

"I said I can't turn that damn thing on while I have my arms full so let me drop them off first!"

"And I said I can't let you in without-wha- hey!"

The doctor leaned hard to one side, looking in through the open entranceway, her frustration with the doorman momentarily forgotten. "Arina! I thought I recognized that shade of blue!" grinning brightly she lifted a pair of wide ceramic dishes lidded and stacked on top of each other, "Look! I brought chilled ara'selac! Be a dear and help me set them up while I deal with these two, will you?"

I said I'd go. I have to go. In comparison to the other asari, the next one to arrive wasn't as well put together. In fact, Maiha had just thrown on a nice pair of pants and a white shirt and gotten in the cab. She was going to be late, and all because that one human had decided to resist arrest.

Why they did that, she never knew, because 9 times out of 10, CSec still caught them.

But the end result was her giving herself something like a pep talk. I need friends! Ones I don't work with!

Her inner voice was a mixture of her eldest sister and her mother and she wasn't sure what that said about her.

At the sight of the other asari struggling with the dishes and the security she stepped forward, "Uh, can I help you with that ma'am?"

And now I sound like I'm still on duty. Wonderful.

"Hey Sarah!" Arian waved and crossed over to properly greet the host. "Thank you for the invite! Here's a bottle of Thessian Sparkle. It's not much but it should be fitting for the occasion!" She handed a paper bag with the bottle over to Sarah with a smile.

There was a salarian and a turian she did not know. The salarian did look kind of forlorn as he stood a bit to the side. Arina, being wll versed in casually cruising a dinner party, made her way to the buffet table, seemingly passing the guests just by chance.
"Hello, my name's Arina, a pleasure to meet you..."

Then a human entered, rude and like a prime example of their species stereotype, the woman started grazing the buffet without as much as looking at other guests. Just as the bouncer coughed at the awkward silence, Arina heard her name being called.... The doctor! Her face lit up with a smile and she said towards the woman - whose name seemed to be Lyra - "Arina Caenis, that'd be me, if you excuse me real quick..." She headed towards the entry where Temria was obviously in trouble with some food she carried.

Some food she carried!

Arina's throat went dry as she said to the other asri who was just arriving: "Hello, I am Arina, hello Temria! Of course I can help, just give me this... Oh" With a lot of fumbling, she managed to take over the two dishes. Temria brought food...

Before Arina could be comfortable with holding some of the plates, Sarah was quick to snatch one away, carrying it off to one of the food tables she'd prepared earlier in the day. She walked back, catching a brief glimpse of the other new arrivals, before pulling the bouncer aside.

She spoke at a whisper, looking up at the large human. "You know who to look out for. You don't have to stop everyone, just the person I asked for. Keep the weapon scanners online. We're having a good time here, okay? A good time." She gave a nod. The bouncer sighed and approached the door.

Sarah turned to Temria. "I'm sorry, I have to prevent foulers this time around. Hello, doctor, you're free to enter and have a seat. I've got nachos! Have either of you had nachos? I made them not thirty minutes ago. They're very hot. Elysium peppers.." She smirked, planting her hands on her hips.

To the OTHER Asari, she clasped her hands together. "Oh! Hey, are you a CDN User? This party is only for members of that forum.."

"Thank you, thank you!" Temria let out a relieved sigh when Arina took on the burden for her, reveling in just how good it felt to have that load off her good arm she adjusted the medium sized bag on her shoulder, calling after the embassy worker and the human who joined her so quickly, "The ones in the white dish are dextro so don't mix them up...!"

They'd be fine, surely... She'd turned to the others- the other human that is- the bouncer, and began the rather arduous process of stating her name, then her alias, albeit reluctantly and quick to try to explain the rather convoluted means by which she'd been saddled with it until the first human (whom she was at last coming to recognize as their hostess) returned to deliver some well deserved admonishments.

"It's quite all right, and a pleasure to meet you... Ms. Thompson-Waller, I presume?" the asari blushed a bit, catching herself before she could embarrass herself by attempting to articulate 'VV' lest she stumble over the unfamiliar consonant sounds and come out sounding like a siren or something. "I must say it's nice to finally hear the voice behind the name."

'Voice behind the name?' Really? I hope that sounds deep and poetic in human...

"I did bring a change of clothes..." she continued, gesturing to her bag, "something a bit more formal if you don't mind... could you point me to the restroom?"

Joset Phraag was hovering over one of the tables, facing away from the entrance. His unspoken plan of action - if it could be called that - was to take as long as possible selecting his food, in the hopes that when he finally turned around there would be more people present. Then he could make the decision to approach someone without the entire room staring at him.

He poked at a piece of cold meat. It looked like sepeph, but he wasn't sure the Citadel would have any; most of the sepeph had been vaporized by Reapers, it was probably too expensive now to import, right? He put it on his plate anyway.

Maiha blinked, stepping back when it was clear the dishes were under control. This is going great. She shifted her gaze to the vaguely familiar human. Maybe she'd passed her on a patrol.

"Oh, uh, I'm Maiha Denalius. I'm 'a blue in blue' on CDN? The new kid, basically. nice to meet you."

The name had been amusing when she'd first thought it up. Now she felt a tad embarrassed.

Crap.

"Oh! Hi! I'm Sarah. We met when I was out for a jog, I think? I don't know how I could have forgotten you." She gestured off dorkishly at the party area. "Go check out the refreshment tables!" She spoke with enthusiasm then turned to the doctor. "Yes, the bathroom is - Well, the women.. I .. err." She glanced off into the distance. Five doors- Male, Female, Elcor and Volus/Quarian. "I- ..one of those." She shrugged.

Jacob was surprised to find himself stopped by the door guards. This was not something that had happened to him before. The demand that he reveal himself as a CDN user made him nervous, because the things he said on it would get him into... a rather uncomfortable situation with his corporate empress. Still, he really wanted to see what sort of individuals both frequented the forum and had access to the Citadel, so he spilled.

"My user handle is Vahruun." he replied, and was surprised when he was still denied entrance, because his slight come-and-go accent had rolled the 'R' into a sort of 'dl' sound. "What now?"

"That name is not in the archive."

"How did you spell it?"

"V-a-d-l-u-n-e. Exactly the way you pronounced it." The bouncer said matter-of-factly, eliciting an exasperated sigh from the businessman.

"Good effort on your part! However, the correct spelling is V-a-h-r-u-u-n." He stated, restraining the slight grating on his patience he was feeling as he continued to stand outside. The bouncer keyed in the correct spelling, and his name was soon found on the site's registry.

"Ah! There it is! Please, step right in, ma'am." the bouncer said cheerfully, yet at the last word, Jacob's typically brilliant 'salesman smile' had flipped like a switch to a withering glare. One which, had he been significantly taller than five and a half feet and cut a generally more menacing figure in any way, might have had its intended effect. As it stands, he doubtless only came across as looking petulant.

Regardless, he perked right back up once the door guards were past his view, and since he wasn't sure whether or not this was a BYOB party, he opted to hedge his bets. He carried a rather pretty little blue box under one arm that did nothing to help the clarity of his apparent gender.