[Illium and beyond] The beacon needs to be found (closed)

Bintar chuckled.

"I don't know if opera houses are the norm here, but you'll get amazing theater, music, and many other arts. May I remind you, we're in a place without any censorship? Well I guess it's better not to mock the next door's merc, but usually they don't pay much attention. You gotta know where you go, but when you do, you won't see Omega the same way.

I'm here on business yes, we're between planetside jobs, so these days we're doing small jobs in Omega and around, and I supervise the opening of a bigger Slaves4Us store, it's pretty exciting. For me home is the Gzaak county, can't wait to get back there.
You know we have rocks formations there, Majella's tears, that are a kilometer high! There are different layers of snow, life that can only flourish in high altitude, it's a beauty. I wanted to put them on the list of places to see but they've been... Damaged."

Bintar cleared his throat.

"So where are you from?"

It had been awkward when the batarian had started to talk about his work and Taleeze was glad that he changed the subject. She had honestly not much of an idea about batarian space. So the places didn't mean anything to her. It still was hurting to know that the Reapers destroyed so much that could just not be brought back or rebuilt.

"My homeworld is Lusia but I spent most of my live on Nevos, a planet with lots of water and long coastlines. I like the open sea and the sun. As beautiful as this place is, I think I couldn't live here. And yes, I didn't know exactly what to expect but it seems, one is not in immediate danger right off the ship." To be honest, she hadn't shared a cab on Illium that easily yet.

"I've spent some time on Illium lately. Have you ever been there?"

"Yes I have, it's beautiful! But for all their promises of free market the authorities are rather unwelcoming for legitimate competition."

He shrugged.

"But they were super nice about telling us to frak off at least. Hey, I don't know how long you're staying but there is a Pildavi game with two big local teams in a week. It's nothing like the APU but it'll be live. We're going with the crew, if you're interested ask me the details on CDN!"

Hey, find a dozen asari, throw them a ball and you have a piladavi match... on Omega maybe even with some other biotics even.

"Sounds interesting, I haven't seen much of the terminus teams, other then the big Cup match lately." In all honesty, Taleeze had really negelcted her workouts with Vale since the Cup prep had started. she let out a heavy sigh as she remembered all the matches she had shared with Freh'ya. That asari would have made a perfect pro if she had wanted to.
Oh, please be there, please be still on the station at least... Freh'ya.

"Keep me posted. Honestly, I have no idea, how long I will be around or how much free time I will have. Depends on my... contact person. How far is it?" she was looking outside, having no idea, where they were but the sight of the buzzing station was soemthing.

"We're getting there."

Indeed the taxi was setting down, and the Perwinkle Paradise was visible from Bintar's window.


"Well it's goodbye for now Taleeze, it was a real pleasure seeing you! I hope you find what you're looking for here and have a lovely stay. If you need anything, ping me. I'm always happy to help a fellow CDNer!"

The skycar stopped and Taleeze could see the lights of a club flickering on the other side of the street. Funny enough, she could even identify that kiosk, where Freh'ya had been identified.

"Thank you very much, Binar!" she replied, as she exited. "Nice to meet you as well. CDN is a great thing, isn't it?" i you don't forget names and places, Taleeze thought, like the Periwinkle.

"Take care and next time it's on me, right? See you!" she waved the batarian goodbye and crossed the street. If he didn't talk about his disgusting work, the guy seemed quite nice.

She went to that kiosk. This had been the spot where Freh'ya had stood when the picture had been taken...

The Periwinkle Paradise looked like a decent club. Taking into account the surrounding, it was actually a bright spot. A krogan bouncer stood next to the entrance. Taleeze browsed the advertisements for the dancers - there was Jasis, the sister that had reported Freh'ya at first. Why the hell did she hesitate, lounging around here?

She took a deep breath and aproached the entrance. She smiled to the bouncer who eyed her suspiciously but didn't flex a muscle. Inside the music was playing, only a handful of patrons were mostly sitting next to the platform where an asari was doing a quite decent pole show. No asari among the patrons... Taleeze was heading for the bar. Only one turian there and a long haired blond human behind the counter. She sighed again and took a seat. Now she recognized the barwoman as Silel. Why didn't she connect the dots earlier? She could have mailed the woman upfront. Well, too late for that now.

Taleeze put on a smile and waited for the bartender to come over. At least Freh'ya was hanging out at a classy place.

While Taleeze entered the bar, Bintar's taxi left, taking him back to the docks to the Unexpected Opportunity. He turned off his omni-tool. A salarian's head appeared.

"Hey Bintar! So how did it go with the blue beauty? Did you score some intercourse?"

Bintar rolled his eyes. This salarian always wanted to sound hip and knowing about other species' sexualities.

"It wasn't like that Didon. It was a non-romantic endeavor, just making a friend."
Didon, omega docks operator, seemed puzzle.
"You paid me a hundred creds to tell you when and where that asari would arrive on Omega, and you didn't even try to put your penis into her-"
Bintar let a very, very rare groan.
"No Didon, I just like meeting CDNers! Make contacts! And we need to have another discussion about sexual euphemisms. Anyway good work, I'll see you soon."

He turned off the communication and his smile came again on his lips. It went great with Taleeze. The first person to have greeted him on CDN was even closer to becoming a friend.
He then went on to other business that mostly wouldn't involve provoking fortuitous meetings with unsuspecting asaris.

As far as strip clubs went, the Periwinkle Paradise could indeed be referred to as 'classy' these days. However, that did nothing to deter the fact that women were dancing around poles shaking their no-no bits for credits, despite how much the lighting tried to disguise it as art.

Behind the bar, the manager of the club itself was working away, having finished most of the accounting work for the day. She might have been the top dog now, but something about working with liquor - this strange, alchemical act - soothed her. It was almost like, well, not working.

A pair of gray eyes flicked upwards as an asari approached the bar. Huh. That was a new one. Silel adjusted her top, pushing her (miniscule) breasts up a tad higher, and trotted over towards the newcomer. Her heels clicked loudly as she went, but they were still drowned by the thrum of the music.

"What can I get you, sugar?"

"Hello, Silel! You may know me from CDN, Taleeze is the name, nice to meet you." Taleeze smiled at the human.
"You could prepare me a Cyone Cyclone for starters," She was wondering, how that one would taste so far away from it's origin.

Should she just kick in the door with her request?

"And actually you could help me out with a piece of information. I am looking for a specific person, an asari. She was seen here."
Taleeze was producings Freh'ya's picture on her omnitool.

... was everyone on the forums from Omega?

It wasn't that far-fetched to see some of them, to be fair. Silel had a habit of advertising the Paradise every other time she posted, but she was still surprised by the frequency at which posters showed up at the bar. Idly, she wondered if Kirok was on tonight; what a strange convention that would be.

"Oh!" she said to Taleeze. "Uh, hi! Yeah, I've seen you post. Finally decided to see some titties, huh? Y'know, this place's getting a lot of action lately."

A wink. She was already working on getting that drink started when the asari showed her a photo. Oh, great, now she was going to have to actually think and -

Oh.

Well, that was a much more recognizable mug than she'd expected.

"Yeah, I've seen her. She comes in at the end of the district's cycle from time to time, likes to talk about mercenary shit and stuff. Why? You find her body or something?"

It wasn't an entirely unusual question, this being Omega and all.

Taleeze had seen a fair amount of titties, in fact she was part of the business, so she laughed over the comment.
When Silel recognized Freh'ya's picture, Taleeze's heart was picking up pace... oh goddess, she was coming here, on a regular basis even. Her eyes wandered to the entrance. Unfortunately, from the bar there was a bit of a dead angle - and of course there was no Freh'ya. But there was hope, maybe she'd just have to wait a bit... maybe tonight...

"Oh, wow, no. She is very much alive, for all I hope. She is a ... friend of mine. well, a very special friend and I got the information that she was seen around this place, so I was dropping bye to see if I could catch her. we haven't met since the war." Wow that was bending the truth quite a bit but Taleeze didn't want to lay out an asari love drama in front of the human.

Taleeze took the cocktail and took a sip... it was stronger than expected! Well, Omega.

"When I finally realized that this place is actually yours, I was really surprised. The galaxy seems to be getting smaller it seems." She took another sip. The alcohol was relaxing her considerably. She was beginning to realize, how close she might be to finally meet her love again.
"That Cyclone is really good. But actually, I am bit hungry... Do you serve any food?I heard, I might get a decent varren bacon sandwich."

"Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh."

Silel stared at Taleeze.

"You're... trying to order food at a strip club? You know that's, like, not a medically sound idea, right?"

"Oh, really? Well, I may be used to a different kind of club lately... A batarian actually was encouraging me to ask you about it, but okay, I take your advise then."

Taleeze was thinking about the delicacies that came out of Apricities kitchen. Of course that place was special and not the norm. She had heared a lot of stories of the Sisterhood from Skylar or others.
Another sip.

"So, I guess I'll just wait here for Freh'ya. Do you have anything that could guarantee I am not starving? Some cocktail with lots of calories?"

"Sure," said Silel. "I could make you a Bloody Mary, that's basically a meal in a glass."

She smiled perkily at the asari and disappeared briefly to the other end of the bar. When she returned, she had a long stalk of celery, a sausage stick, and what appeared to be some kind of pepper in her hands.

"Ever had one? It's a human thing."

"I am not sure..." she was broswing her internal catalogue. That produce in Sil's hand was not exactly familiar.
"I am curious though, human things are usually tasty, so hit me with it." Also, she could add to her recently started studies in human culture. On that thought a tiny pain went through her heart. Now was not the time.

"How come that you humans have so many mixed drinks? I can't even remember how we even got along without all of your cocktails on our menus!"

"S'cause we're better than everyone else," said Silel, grinning playfully. She set the tall glass in front of Taleeze, laden with produce and horrible spicey shit. "Drink it slow, these are kind of heavy."

"Na, you just had to drown your inferiority complex." Taleeze winked back and looked suspicious at the 'thing' in front of her. She dipped the celery caustiously in the thick red fluid and nibbled. Tasty in a lot of weird ways and tides, very potent!

Well, Taleeze's stomach grumbled considerably, so she started biting pieces of the vegetables and drinking the red fluid. This was an odd cocktail, and dangerous.

"That is good! So, Do you get a lot of visitors from CDN? From what I remember, you advertise a lot." In fact, It hadn't worked with Taleeze, since it had taken her a while to connect the dots. But still, she was here now.

The music was moving along with a nice beat and the girl at the pole was getting a decent payday from what Taleeze could observe.

"Inferiority complex, pfffff."

Having snuck an extra pickle along with her, Silel took a nibble and glanced around suspiciously. Well, it was her club, she didn't exactly need to be paranoid, but old habits died hard.

"Uhhh, sometimes." Silel quirked her lips to the side, thinking. "Kirok is the head of security, then we got Dwick and Terrorbyte in here once... Oh, and Eightball and Pirouette. There was a drell that used to come here, too, but not anymore."

"Dwick and Terrorbyte? you're kidding, right? And this place is still intact?" Taleeze was laughing.
"Actually, I was given a lift down here by FourEyes, who also has been here at one point. He recommended a cocktail... wait a sec...Baror Little Devil." Taleeze was proud she could remember that. "I have no idea what it is but after this Bloody Martina I could try it." Batarian cocktails must be strong as hell, given their attitude most of the time.

Taleeze was nibbling at a piece of veggie. She'd have preferred the bacon but you take what you get.

"Bloody Mary," Silel corrected her. "And yeah, I'll get you a devil when you're ready, hon. Didn't know you were into kids' drinks."

She meant that literally.

"So uh, what's up with this chick you're after, then? You want me to like... tell her, or something?"