[Omega, Periwinkle Paradise] Casual Drinking (OPEN)

Periwinkle Paradise

A fairly nice establishment as clubs on Omega went.

Plenty of drinks, lively atmosphere, upbeat music, flashy lights...

Which, if anyone knew her, would make several heads turn at seeing Elise Vakhordigan sitting at the bar in clothing that was not armored in some way, shape, or form.

After the Reaper Wars, Elise had found herself in pretty bad shape. Damage from Veratix had caused a drastic personality shift, causing her to be reckless and burn out her biotic amp and- blah blah blah boring medical jargon. All that mattered is that she was alive, granted she had felt significantly empty for a long while without Trakeus with her, but she'd managed. Besides, she was free to do what she wanted now (to a certain degree).

Elise looked at the drink in her hand. She had yet too touch it, mostly because she had no idea what the hell it was. She had told the bartender that she wanted some stuff mixed together, and... well he'd given her some stuff mixed together.

She just didn't know what the "stuff" was...

The woman brushed some hair out of her face, noticing that some of her hair was going back to being it's usual platinum-blonde. She'd have too correct that when she had the time. Until then, she simply looked around the club, trying to think of a way to dispose of her... drink, without downing it herself. Beautiful women dancing on poles, plenty of drinks, flashy lights and loud music... Nothing could ruin this night.

Another night on Omega, following another meaningless day, going to be followed by some even more useless tomorrow.

Freh’ya didn’t know if her feet had directed her way unintentionally when she found herself in front of the Periwinkle Paradise again, the club she just had found a couple days ago and spent a good night drinking at, together with another commando who at least had behaved in a way that didn’t evoke a fight.
In contrast to last night when she had to put a stupid turian gang weirdo down next to a food place. Gangs and mercs, all the same.

So, Perwinkle seemed to be a lucky charm so far – and the strippers and the drinks had been really good, the barkeep had been a real pro. She decided to enter and give it another shot. Or two, or three….

The music was a tad louder and more thriving tonight. Whatever helps to mush the brains, she mused, while observing the dancers on their poles, flickering colored bodies in strobelight.
Not many patrons around yet, the same mix as last time.

She headed for the bar, where a red haired human was having drinks obviously. No armor, no sign of any merc band or other shit. Great. This obviously was not a Yellowbelly hangout at least.

The tall former commando took a seat next to the woman, not exactly far away but also not exceptionally close. She was sporting the same outfit as last time (not that she currently had that many), her cargo pants, the boots and a tight shirt, sporting a very faded republics logo on the arm. As of yet Freh’ya had only seen her from the side and back, she had not been able to see what the woman was drinking. Now she could see a really odd looking drink, various layers and some strange colors among them. Freh’ya vaguely remembered some of the drinks she had had last time, this one had not been among them.

Whatever blows your mind, she thought.

“Evening, ma’am,” she greeted casually (hey, she had kicked some vorcha’s tzu earlier today already and was in fairly good mood) “What’s that your having there. Looks spectacular. That any good?”

In all honest, the Asari had actually startled Elise with her entrance, and had this happened during the Reaper Wars, the Asari would have been hit with the hardest Throw she could muster.

For now, she just looked over the woman in front of her with white cybernetic eyes.

"It's an alright evening, I guess..."

Elise looked down at her drink and, deciding to simply get it over with, took a drink of the strange, multicolored liquid. It actually tasted rather good, well, at first it did. The aftertaste was terrible, burning her throat as well as causing it too feel dry.

"I... honestly don't know what it is... I just asked for some things to be mixed together and... Well, I got things mixed together. As for taste, it's not too bad if you can mind the aftertaste."

Elise noticed the faded logo on the Asari's shirt, but decided against asking about it.

Not my buisness

Goddess, what the... those eyes! Some people either did strange things on purpose or serious shit had just happened to them.
Anyway, after the first surprise had faded, Freh'ya was sure: none of her business

She watched as the human tasted the "stuff". Freh remembered that description and had avoided that on her last visit. She looked around but couldn't see the blond barwoman from last time. Maybe off elsewhere, serving... well, "stuff".

She chuckled a bit as the experiment in taste went sideways obviously.

"Sorry 'bout that. This place usually has decent cocktails. I tried out a couple of 'em already and there was some real good ones among them." The barwoman had just come over to the new customer, giver the asari a questioning nod. Freh'ya decided to stick with her ritual. "A double Face Slapper for starters."

"I'd say, try the Experimental if you are game - you seem to be. But actually, last time I had them made by this exquisite blond barwoman. Can't see her around now though. But maybe this lady here" she nodded in the direction of the bartender "seems pretty capable as well."

Her Slapper had arrived in no time. She pulled it over with her biotics and took a good long sip from the straw. Finally...

A part of Elise highly doubted the Asari's words, while another wanted to outright punch the blue woman.

"I'll take your word for it..."

Elise took another swig of her drink (the aftertaste wasn't as bad this time) and turned around on her stool so she could get a better view of the club. As she was sitting to the right of the Asari, she wouldn't have seen that Elise's right arm was a cybernetic replacement (one that looked like it had been modded and upgraded to be substantially lethal). The Asari had her attention once more when she used Biotics to grab her drink.

"That's being rather showy with your biotics, wouldn't you think?"

There was a teasing tone in her voice, as every God, Goddess, and Turian Spirit knew Elise had done more than her fair share of showing off her biotics.

"Name's Elise, by the way."

Uh, what?
Anyway, manners… for once a furhead with manners - actually already example number two, since Miss Periwinkle, the bartender from her last visit, although not willing to share her real name, had been an improvement of Freh’yas overall image of the species already.

Then she noted the cyber arm. Wow, that looked impressive. The war had left some serious scars on this woman. At least she thought, it would have most likely been the war.
The confusing part was though, that the arm did look as if it wasn’t just a mere tool but it looked fairly dangerous. And had she just said she was a biotic?
The tension on the human, although she was quite calm on the outside, may not have been just in Freh’yas mind. Well, this could get interesting. At least something that had the potential to break the dull routine of just existing.

“My name’s Freh’ya, pleasure.”

“Sorry, I had no intention of showing off or startling you… just doing stuff I always do.” Which was true as a matter of fact, she hadn’t thought about the move at all. Now she played with the glass between her hands.

“Showing off would be a bit more flashy, I hope.” She had’t showed anything flashy in a long time… goddess, she had to get some alcohol into her system, fast. There…. She took another long sip.

“You’re a biotic too? I never had the pleasure to meet a human biotic.”
A topic as good as any most likely. It had not been completely true though; she had encountered human biotics while fighting on earth but Freh, being he loner she was, never actually talked to them really.

"A pleasure to meet you, Freh'ya."

Elise smiled when the Asari apologized, knowing the feeling of being stuck in routine all too well.

"It's fine..."

As for the Asari's second remark, Elise couldn't help but let out a small and short laugh.

"Somehow I doubt that... It's a lot more... common, then you'd think..."

She took the final swig of her drink before placing it back on the counter.

"Flashy, huh? Sounds like that could cause some trouble... a lot of trouble..." Elise turned back around on her stool, dismayed too find the bartender was not there at the moment.

Damn... I really wanted another on of these... things.... Now without a drink, Elise held the glass in her cybernetic hand, chuckling to herself.

"So tell me, what's an Asari like yourself doing all the way out on Omega?"

Dang, cool showing Freh’ya. What are you expecting? Chatting up randoms will get you in a chat. Duh.

Biotics… Freh’ya had to chuckle herself now. She could handle her biotics in her sleep and when she wanted them to flash, they would flash. One of the things that just become second nature – or make that just nature – when you have went through the regime of a huntress monastery. Those were the days, of dreams and aspiration.
“Nah, not when I want to be flashy, then it’s just flashy.”

But as a matter of fact, if she wanted to cause trouble, then Elise was indeed right. But she didn’t want to.
“For anything else this might be not the place, way too nice to tear it up and the not just flashy stuff tends to leave craters.” Not shit. She shrugged. “Maybe I have encountered some human biotics but never really talked to one.”

In fact, this barwoman wasn’t as fast as the other had been. With a gargling noise Freh’ya had finished her Slapper the real fast way. Again, the welcome feeling crept into her brain. Good.
She wiggled her glass when the woman looked over to indicate the need for refill.

“Nothing specific, I was stuck on Earth for a bit after the war and my home colony was kind of wiped out.” Yeah, same lie as last time, but still the same truth. All that was gone for all Freh’ya cared, so she called it ‘personal truth’.
“So when the relays opened, I was kind of browsing and with nothing real to do, Omega is a place as good as any, just doing this and that, mostly private security on the docks or something. And I can sit here, look at those nice dancers over there and have really good drinks.” The butts of the dancers were not bad. The drinks were coming slower today. She might need something stronger.

“What about you?”

Elise contemplated the question for a second, trying to get her words right.

"I... needed a change in scenery, I guess. Spent the first part of my life on Noveria, then a little on Earth, then the Citadel, and even a ship for a short while... I guess I just needed someplace to crash for a bit, and... well, Omega seemed to fit my requirements..." Elise looked at the barwoman and showed her the empty glass, which was taken from her to be refilled. She placed her elbow on the counter and propped her head on her hand. Elise wasn't tired, just... bored? Yeah, that was it... bored. The Reaper's mission to eradicate the galaxy had been horrific, with families being torn too shreds left and right, but for Elise it had been... exhilarating. One mission after the other kept her busy and on her feet, never knowing where the next one would take her and her crew. Now that the Reapers were no longer a threat, Elise's line of work had slowed down... considerably. The last target she'd been given was maybe two weeks ago.

"So if you don't mind the small talk, what do you do for a living?"

Elise almost punched herself for how ridiculous that sounded. She'd never been good at this socializing thing... She'd usually left it too Trakeus to deal with employers.

The hair obstructed the view so Freh’ya couldn’t check if the human had trouble with her ears, or maybe lost them in the war. Hadn’t she just explained what she did? Or was the woman just not realizing that one could summarize Freh’ya’s current life in just one sentence?
It also didn’t escape her that Elise didn’t actually mention her exact line of work.

“As I said, I mostly just take on jobs on the docks. The loading and unloading of stuff is mostly done by vorcha or krogan but a lot of people like to have someone looking on their fingers, you know? Nothing really fancy but obviously an asari is trusted a bit more than a vorcha, even by a batarian. The time passes that way.”

Quite the resume for someone like Freh’ya, an obvious ex-commando, still looking like first rate material physically.

“I do not need much, so I get around. The evenings at bars – or lately obviously mostly this bar – is about everything I need to have covered.”

Freh’ya tried to ignore the fact that there was a bank account, always well filled from an official Thessian fund. They insisted on it and she just didn’t object.

She took on her new drink – another Face Slapper – and the alcohol did it’s work, making her brain fade a little bit. This was about the deepest personal talk already in a very very long time and she definitely needed more stuff it this was supposed to be continuing on a good level. Freh’ya wasn’t exactly the social type but this place seemed to loosen her up. Nice asses circling in her field of view, a couple of boobies too. Speaking of which, aside from that strange arm, the human looked quite pleasing to the eye.

“Well, Elise, seems the two of us have just kind of stranded here, washed ashore. What’s it you do for a living? – If it’s legal to tell!”

"Bounty hunter..." Elise closed that particular area of conversation when her drink arrived, obviously uncomfortable about openly speaking about her line of work in public. Bounty hunters were generally frowned upon.

"Yeah... I guess we are..." Elise took a swig of her drink, taking a moment to register the fact that the contents were not the same. Her throat burned from this new mixture. It tasted good, but it felt like sludge going down.

"Hey, what's the strongest kind of drink this club has that won't kill me or put me in a coma?" Elise had come here to get smashed, and Gods be damned, she was going to do so.

Two rapid Face Slappers summed up to a brick in the brains. Gwayt! As an asari you had to pour alcohol down pretty fast to be ahead of the system burning it away again.

“A bounty hunter….” Freh’ya mused. “Well, I am not concerned then as there is no money on ma scalp. As far as I know.” She chuckled and ordered the barwoman over. Obviously by now she had noticed that these two customers wanted to spend a good amount to get shot away. So she paid more attention now, it seemed.

Freh’ya was considering Elise’s question and then said to the bartender, while leaning in over the counter: “Okay, now we’d like two Cut Throat Bitches. Which is, in case you are not familiar with this subtle tongue teaser, just a triple Quad Kicker with a splash of Attena’s Azure, served as a longdrink.” The barwoman looked a bit puzzled and probably went to look it up in the database, Freh mused.

“You’ll like it, it puts holes in your brain if you’re not carefull.” She giggled, which looked a bit strange on her. And actually was.

That dancer… now there was only one – at least Freh’ya thought so – looked so periwinkle all of a sudden. That particular skintone was bringing up the memories of beaches that smelled of sea and sun in the afternoon.

The drinks arrived. Obviously that had been no bigger problem, Freh’ya pulled hers close and sucked hard at the straw. The heavy hit of high octane stuff was doing it’s work immediately. Brainfade in and out as the mix of sweet and smokey burned it’s way down her throat. Yay.

“DidIevertellyouuuu…. That I used to know a girl t-that look justlikethatdancer? Only she danced mucho better. You know? Better. Cheers.” Mouth on autopilot until her body could cope with the toxic waste.

A dozen persons then entered the bar at once, mostly batarians, with some salarians and a turian thrown in the mix. They seemed like a merry band, but one could notice that they tended to laugh harder when one of them made jokes, not that they were that much funnier. Sure enough when he said

"You guys go grab us a table, I'll get us drinks!"

The turian answered.

"You got it boss!"

Still smiling, the batarian came to the bar, waited his turn patiently, and with a bright smile addressed the bartender as such.

"Good day madam, could I please get a keg a batarian ale for that table and some glasses? That's for my boys though, I'll have a lemonade with bronzeberrie syrup with a dust of pushin dust, and a green Erzsbat grape in it if you please!"

Bintar Ranak had just order a drink that, on Omega, would cause a 5 years old kid to get called a pussy by his grandmother.

Elise looked at the Asari, grinning like she'd gone mad. When Elise was sober, she tried to find ways to amuse herself. When she was drunk... Well, everything was amusing.

"Sounds nice. Lets do it!"

When the drinks arrived, Elise immediatly took a drink from it. It burned it's way down her throat, and Elise felt numb.

Yay.

"Ya' know what? I don't think you did. Why don'tcha tell me?

Unfortunately for the Batarian, Elise heard him, and as soon as he placed his order, she broke out into laughter.

"Lemonade? In a stripclub?! You her that Fe-Fhe- Ms. Asari? Dat guy ordered lemonade!" Elise continued laughing at the Batarian, eventually stopping. In the back of her mind, she felt bad for forgetting the Asari's name already.

She liked the look on red haired Elise’s face, this could be another not-so-dull night after all.
“I didn’t? Oh, it was soo long ago, before that war thing …” Then a loud batarian gang came in and one of theirs came over and ordered at the bar. At first Freh’ya suspected a mec group on their employees night out or whatever they called that but the look was more business like and the guy next to the two girls at the bar didn’t exactly look like he could make any legit gang anyway. He was more the merchant type.

And then he ordered his lemonade, which finally spoiled Freh’yas recollection about her lost love. At first, her thoughts were in alarming disorder and had problems rearranging due to the alcohol.

“That’s F-r-e-h-‘-y-a… but Freh will do in your case. And this…” she pointed to the lemonade, the bartender was pouring into a glass “is something I thought I’d never see.” And burst into laughter.

She tried to take another sip from her Bitch but almost lost it through the nose, when another wave of laughter rocked her. The alcohol was entering through every mucosa available.

“Hey, Mr., one learns sonmnmfing new about this galaxy everyday.” More hilarious laughter. “If you just think, you’ve seen it all… there comes a batarian and orders a… what is this even?”

Behind the bar, Sugar Sweet raised a brow. Although customers ordering non-alcoholic beverages at the Periwinkle Paradise was... unusual, it wasn't unheard of. Suspecting the client to be an alcoholic (or perhaps just wanting to start light), she shrugged, offered a smile, and said,

"Right away, buck-o!"

"Thank you very much miss!"

Bintar turned to the person talking to him and was a bit surprised to find a pair of breasts. He then looked above and smiled at the giant purple asari.

"A Baror Little Devil miss! A delight like no other I tell you!"
He laughed a little.

"I've been mocked once or twice for it, believe it or not. Well, more for us I say! Seriously you should try it, it's lovely."

Elise took another drink of her Cut Throat, humming contently as numbness passed over her. She set the drink down and pointed at the Batarian.

"Ya know what that makes you, Sir? A pussy. Now Freh, what were you saying about long ago?"

Elise waited for Freh to respond. While she did so, she was looking for the Turian dancer she'd seen earlier, but was sadly unable to find her. Elise then finished her drink and looked at the blonde barwoman.

"Another one of these, please"

A batrian was suggesting she should try lemonade. If she wouldn't have been kind of giddy already, she would have punched him.
"You better go off to your birtday party and leave the bar to the pros." She giggled, cheering him with her CTB and took a long drink.
Elise was finishing her stuff really fast, freh observed through a developing haze. Tiem to catch up!

"So, yeah, about what? Oh... huh?" she needed a few moments to find where she left of.
"A dancer... a beautiful dancer, I once knew. She was the fucking best, you know? And she was mine. Yup, that's what that shitload of shit of a war took from me." aside from self respect, morale compass, a home, life in general...

"We had a beautiful house and this is ggggone frefur, you know. That is so damn sad. She was so nice and funny and honest. How could she have lift with an old grump like me after all. May little perwinkle princess...."

"To a lost love!" The spur of a moment, she saluted to Elise, offering the back of her hand that held the galss to touch asari style for the toast, thoughless that the human might not be familiar with the custom.
Her eyes were looking incredibly sad.

Bintar chuckled.

"Your loss ladies. If you ask me one drinks to taste a pleasant liquid, not to look badass. Enjoy!"

Bintar took his drink and joined his crew, who greeted him in the most mature way they could.

"Hooo, Bintar got denied! Don't worry boss, we'll always be there for you!"

"Ha, don't fret it boss, no giant asari is worth our homegirls! And not to mention that furhead, not that any of them are pretty anyway."

"Hey, protested the human, don't diss on our redheads!"

"Yeah, those are nice" agreed Bintar.