[Zakera Ward] Weekend Film Festival (open)

"Oh, superb!" Arina was delighted when Leeta showed interest in 'Coral'.

When Alex was offering to bring drinks, she thought for second, then announced "Oh, yes, thank you! I'd like a bitter lemon." She wondered if 'Dark Harvest' was suitable for Adrian, but that was for Cavallius to decide.

Leeta joining them was a pleasant surprise, the bright pink quarian a familiar sight. "Hey, it's good to see you came!" he said when she arrived. Adrian waved back at her.

The boy's eyes widened and he covered his mouth when Alex whispered his "secret". "I promise, I won't tell anyone!"

"Yeah, you should be able to get back in with the pass," Dante mentioned to Alex. "I think we're both set on snacks right now, but thanks for the offer." Damn, if only they hadn't waited in the concessions line already.

"Coral sounds like it'd be quite stunning. When is it being shown? Coming from Shium Bain and riding off the adventure kick from the last movie, the underwater exploration and treasure probably would be even more exciting. I'm open for watching Dark Harvest, too," he said, but then thought for a minute, glancing down at Adrian. "Might have to, ah… see how that one goes, but I'd be interested in watching that, too."

"This is it", muttering to himself, Snow made his way to the ticket line. He almost never left Lower Tayseri but recent events had gotten more stressful than normal, a breather was required and a couple of films seemed to fit the bill. Getting his chit ready Snow perused the line-up, Blasto(hell no), Dirk Black(maybe six years ago), Coral(documentary?). The third one seemed to be the best bet, action and horror was just too cheesy for Snow, he got enough of both with his job. Comedies, shit, he hadn't laughed outright for a good while, no reason to start now, "Coral it is", thinking to himself as he readjusted his coat, making sure not to jostle the other people in line as he waited to purchase his pass.

Sarah crossed her arms and tapped Blue Baker on the shoulder. "Hey, hold my place in line?" She mumbled, wandering out of the line and away from the group- Making a beeline towards the concession area. She paid the clerk, got a bottle of Tupari, spat out her gum, and made her way back with what appeared to be a submarine sandwich. A large one. She took a messy bite and- There was Julian Snow.

She made her way over to him, gave him a sizing up, chewed her sandwich and made her way back to her section in line.

Kiara nodded. "Sure, I can hold your spot."

The Asari waited, listening to the conversation for now...

"Just one person? Oh. I might as well just buy your bitter lemon at the concession stand then. I'll go in just a second." Replied Alex.
As soon as Burke left, Alex looked to were he was going.
Oh come on! Fuck you probability vortex!
"So Dark harvest? A Reaper War film..."
"Can you hear that sir?" asked Joshua.
I froze. I couldn't hear anything. The air was quiet. Their was no bird song, no wind. No noise.
"What do you hear?" I asked.
"I don't know. It's just... This whisper I suppose. Quiet." Said Joshua again.
I snapped out of it.
"Hey, if you think it's inappropriate, I could take Adrian off your hands. Never really liked war films anyway." I said, trying to hide the hesitation in my voice.

Stupid, nobody else wanted something and now only she... anyway, could be worse. As Alex turned for the stand, Arina noticed Sarah greeting another human, yet unknown to her. He looked a bit strange, a certain something about him. But that was often the case with veterans. She compared him with Kiara, who was just observing, with her sad but awake eyes.
The human's eyes... she wondered who he was.

Then Alex was addressing Cavallius. Oh!
"Should we start with something else maybe?"

"Oh great, her..." Snow thought as he locked eyes with her for the briefest of moments before turn his gaze back towards the line. The blonde woman who was getting his measure, same damn one who was at the New Year's party, and at the restaurant with the bucket openly recruiting mercs. Sighing as the queue slowly move, Snow took an internal accounting, his clothes were fairly new save the everpresent blood red jacket. Dark blue cargo pants, black button down shirt, hell, he took the trouble to clean his boots, attempting to look the part of a blue collar worker from the wards. But there was no way to change the dissonant expression in his eyes as he looked at the advertisements. As the line murmured around him, Snow caught a glimpse of the food and drink kiosks, thinking,

"Maybe they have Jaeto black tea..."

Dante thought for a moment before nodding. "Ah… Yeah, that sounds like a better idea. Are you sure you want to?" He understood why someone might not want to watch it… Even if he hadn't had is own personal negative experiences, a documentary about a war, especially a recent one, still wasn't the most pleasant thing. "I appreciate the offer, if you're willing."

Though, maybe doing something else first might be better, especially if the documentary made the mood more heavy. "Ah, we definitely could! What order do you think's best? A documentary first and then something more entertaining later might help cheer everyone up after, but at the same time, documentary first might be a bit depressing…"

Sarah was already finished with her sandwich. She stuffed the wrapping paper and trash into her empty drink, tossing it with a biotic flair into a trashcan in the distance. "Twenty points.." She pumped a fist and whispered, soon crossing her arms and rigidly standing behind the baker.

The woman looked over the bracelet her partner left her with and scanned a blue eye across the crowd, looking over the 'stardust' lady she recognized from the forum. After a moment, she fixed her attention back to the front of the line. "If this line were any faster, this baby will be in preschool by the time we see the movies.."

"I don't mind watching it, especially not with company. But I am open for any other suggestion, I admit, Dark Harvest is heavy."

Arina watched with bemusement the biotic display of Sarah.
"Nice throw. Biotics aren't that common among humans and those that have them often aren't too fond of showing. You are with the Alliance, right? I recently had the pleasure to visit your wife's restaurant. She was added to our caterer list."

In fact Arina had read a dossier about Sarah in the process of the security clearing for Friendship-By-Food. The fact that the Alliance had cleared her made up for several other points in her history.

Lear had been sitting at a nice table, minding his own business, not doing anything that could potentially bother anybody (unless you were bacteria or dust). He'd gotten his ticket to see Dark Harvest, and was calmly waiting to see it, when a blue flash attracted his attention from the corner of his eye. When he looked, his eye twitched. That hair... That face...

Seriously, fuck you and your probability vortex, CDN. Fuck them straight to hell.

It went downhill from there as he recognized more and more members of Cerberus Daily News. It was getting to the point where he was thinking that instead of a film festival, this was a meet-and-greet for CDN. Lear groaned as he hit his helmet on the table. So much for going alone...

Sarah turned, planting her hands against her hips. "Hey, thanks. Chris could always use the extra business. I'm officially a taste tester there. No pay but the food- And I'm okay with the occasional biotic use. If you don't use them, they go away." She widened her eyes, trying to remain serious with the completely inaccurate statement.

"At least that's what I've been taught." She shrugged. "Anyway.." She turned on a heel, staring at the front of the line. "I already have my tickets, why are -" She bit the tip of her thumb in thought. "Oh. Right."

"Very impressive shot," Dante said after the cup landed in the trash. Even though they always seemed like they were used for mostly fighting, it was pretty amazing how precisely they could be used, too.

"So, sounds like it's between Coral or Dark Harvest first?" he suggested. "We could just check and see which line is longer." If there was a difference, at least… there were so many people, it might be a bit hard to tell. "Though with Alex probably going to sit Dark Harvest out, and Arina suggested it, sounds like everyone's leaning toward Coral…?" At least, that's what it sounded like everyone was thinking of, though he didn't know for certain.

Michelle was very tired and very confused. After getting through a lot of trouble to find the theater the extranet site mentioned she finally got there. And it was small, dingy, and more importantly closed.
Was the event cancelled? That was strange. She took out her omnitool and called Cavallius directly.

"Officer? Yes hello, this is Michelle Rondor. I'm dreadfully sorry to inconvenience you, but I'm at the cinema right now, and it's closed, nobody's around. Was the event cancelled?"

A sudden doubt took her.

"It was at the Kithoi Golden Kraxen right?"

Dante's omnitool pinged and he glanced down before answering. "Oh, hello Miss Rondor. Ah… No, there's several of us here right now. It hasn't been cancelled, we're just waiting to choose a movie. Are you still waiting in line?"

When she mentioned Kithoi though, he was torn between chuckling and cringing. That was a long ways off from where they were, and he couldn't help but wonder how she'd got so mixed up. "Oh, that's… The wrong ward entirely… We're in Zakera right now, at the Grand Theylon Cinema," he clarified. "But it's got a pretty big sign out front mentioning the festival, and there's a big crowd of people outside so it should be pretty hard to miss. We're waiting inside while we figure out what we want to watch, so if you're quick you should make it in time for the first one!"

Leeta lit up again when it sounded like more people wanted to go see Coral. Who didn't? It was about finding treasure and what could go wrong with that? The prospect that there were still secrets in the uniform waiting to be uncovered was exciting. There were still so many mysterious adventures left to explore. At that thought, Leeta gave herself a little mental kick. Not for you there aren't, she reminded herself. She shrugged off her own cynicism, and welcomed the interruption of watching Sarah toss her trash into the bin. A small twinge of envy made its way to Leeta's thoughts. She often wondered what it would be like to have biotic powers. It seemed so convenient and handy, and definitely an ability that she would have put to good use more than once.

"Coral first sounds good," she voiced with a smile. She wasn't really sure why Alex wanted to avoid a video about the Reaper war, but she could guess. Everyone had war stories. Everyone had lost someone. Not everyone needed over an hour of reminding that life as they knew it was changed forever. Still, the war had managed to unite so many people that had spent so much time fighting. The alliances were thin, and tensions were high after the end of the war, but it was still inspiring to know that for at least a little while, everyone was fighting for one common, very basic cause. The need to survive. Leeta breathed a wistful sigh when Dante addressing his omni-tool caught her attention.

She looked down at Adrian, "Does Coral sound fun...? I mean it is not secret agent stuff, but it has treasure which is at LEAST half as good." She hoped she was saying the right things. She didn't know how to talk to children, especially not human children. She knew they were flighty, fickle things, but she had no idea what sort of things they liked or how they preferred to be addressed.

Arina wondered how long it could take Alex to get that drink. Maybe he was getting himself into some trouble on the way?
When she looked in the direction of the stands and the tables, she could see a male quarian sitting there, looking her way, than in a totally strange move, bangning his head on the table. Arina wondered, how break resistant these screens were actually.

"Well, I have my ticket as well, but I don't mind waiting here with the others. If we could really find a movie everyone can agree upon..." she said towards Sarah. It seemed like her diving adventure doku drama had caught most people's attention. Funny, since it seemed Dark Harvest seemed to draw the biggest crowds, but the better for her, since she wanted to see the thing. It made her look forward to that little diving trip with Kiara even more.

"Are we missing someone, Mr. Cavallius?"

"Finally", muttering to himself as he handed over 110 credits, securing a weekend pass. Snow made his way to the concession stand, hoping that the powers that be served salarian tea. As Snow threaded his way through the crowds he noticed one group milling around the center stand. The drunken blond from New Years, she was with a couple of asari, a quarian in a hot pink robe???? "That's new", thinking to himself as he noticed two familiar faces from LTD, the sunglasses cop who was way overdressed, and a turian with a human boy in tow. Slowing for a moment, Snow took a closer look, it was Dante Cavallius, the beat cop who impressed with his cool professionalism. Heading over to the group, Snow waited for a lull in the discussion before getting Cavallius's attention,

"Sorry to interrupt, just, just wanted to say hello, and thanks for the other day, didn't get the chance back on Tayseri."

"What?? It's not even closely the same name, how did I manage to... Urgh, alright, I'll try to be there in... Damn like an hour... Don't wait for me. See you later officer".
Why did this always happen to Michelle? She could be such a ditz... Her one night off, no LTD, no side business for Slaves4Us, just her, some friends, and some movies. That was too much to ask to her brain, scrambled like eggs by over exhaustion...
Ho well one hour top she would be there and...

"Hey furhead!" said a most unpleasant turian voice behind her, "you seem like you be having way too much money for food and shit. How about you send some my way, start a diet?"

Michelle sighted as she felt the tip of a blade press against her back and slowly reached for her belt.

I should have said two hours.