"No, no, and no. I am NOT going with you to this...this...Oh my god, Leila, what did you say it was called again?" Omnitool propped against the counter, Reya stirred her pasta frantically, strands of her dark brown hair falling out of their immaculately pulled back ponytail. She heard her friend snort on the other of the line and she could almost hear her rolling her eyes at her best friend's ignorance.
"Speed dating, Reya. Nothing scary, nothing intense, just you and me drinking free drinks and talking to the Citadel's most eligible bachelors! Did I mention what the best thing about it is?"
Reya pursed her lips and stirred the strands of angel hair erratically, causing water to spill from the pot and tumble to her hand. She swore under her breath and turned her back to the stove for a moment to run her burned skin under some cool water. "No, Leila. Enlighten me." She muttered sarcastically as her friend went quiet.
"Did you burn yourself again?"
Reya winced in pain as the cool water touched her inflamed skin, "No...I just...Ugh, fine. Yes, I burned myself."
A howl of laughter echoed through the apartment, "By the goddess, you are the biggest klutz I know! Okay, so this speed dating thing? It's completely anonymous."
Reya paused to think as she stood by the counter, contemplating how this was possible, "So, completely anonymous, eh? How do they manage to pull that off?"
Leila cleared her throat and for a moment, Reya was afraid her friend was going to read off a piece of paper in front of her, "Basically, they have all their candidates behind this completely opaque facade and they use a voice changer. So you could be talking to a human, an elcor, an asari…"
"Or a krogan," Reya pointed out, opening the cupboard above her head to rummage around for a bandage.
"Hey, don't knock it till you try it. I had a friend at work who swore by this krogan she was friends with benefits with. She said the dick was out of this world! I mean, if you don't mind being bruised all the time and literally being so tired you fall asleep at your desk."
Reya grimaced at the idea of a krogan lover, "Not my cup of tea."
"Okay, so maybe not for everyone, but you never know."
She paused for a moment from her ministrations of her wound, "Completely anonymous? All based on personality? How do you know if someone likes you?"
Leila cleared her throat again and Reya pursed her lips. She loved her best friend dearly, but she couldn't stand her always clearing her throat, "At the end of the round, if they liked you, they'll push a button and their Omnitool's number is put into a system that prints out at the end of the night. Come on, it'll be fun! I'll take you out dancing at that club you like afterwards, maybe bump uglies with a stranger."
A deep crimson blossomed across Reya's skin, "That's the last thing I want, Leila."
She heard a scoff on the other end of the line, "You need to get laid! Your sexcapades are my sexcapades, my dear."
"And yours are mine, my sweet princess," Reya teased, walking back over to the pasta, pondering her options. She could catch up on her soaps with a bottle of that asari red she had saved in her cupboard, or she could pull up her big girl panties and finally get over the proverbial hill she knew she would have to climb eventually.
"Well?" Leila questioned as Reya grabbed the pasta sauce from her pantry, still mulling over the question.
"You know what? What the hell? Let's do it." She said, slamming the bottle of sauce down so hard, the glass shattered under her fingers, sending sauce across the kitchen. "Shit!" She yelled angrily as sauce as red as the blood it mingled with ran down her wrist and dripped onto the pristine tile.
Nihlus Kryik shuffled his feet gently against the plush crimson carpet underfoot and internally chided himself for being nervous about the event. By the Spirits, he was a Spectre! One of very few in the galaxy. He had taken out armadas single handedly and brought down more enemies than he would care to admit, but he was nervous about a damned speed dating event! He flicked his gaze towards the other men who stood in the room and thanked his lucky stars that he wasn't even close to the most dressed up one there. Sure, he wore slacks that barely saw the light of day and a tunic that was just a little bit too large, but he had little to no time for the frivolities of owning what he would consider "dress up clothes" since he wore his armor most of the time.
A slim asari opened the door to the foyer where the men were standing, omnitool lit up like a neon sign, her smile just as luminous.
"Welcome, eligible bachelors!" She crooned, her smile only growing wider. He was suddenly reminded of a species of creature that had the exact same grin on their face...right before they sank their teeth into the flesh of their prey, "Behind these doors, twenty five of the Citadel's most beautiful, most vivacious, ladies for you to talk with. As a reminder, this is a blackout event and all the women will be hidden from view. You are free to ask whatever questions you have, but remember, if you are anything but a gentleman, we will have to ask you to leave the event, is that clear?"
Nihlus resisted the urge to snap to attention and quip back with a, "Ma'am! Yes, ma'am," but quelled it silently as he followed the other men into the dimly lit bar area. The lounge was subtle, but tastefully decorated. His eyes drifted towards the tables where opaque walls blocked out the view of the people sitting behind them. "As you all are aware, the time limit for the event is two minutes for each girl, so once you hear the buzzer, you must stop talking and move onto the next table. Understood?"
The buzzer echoed through the empty lounge and the men scrambled to find seats, a buzz of chatter already echoing through the room. Nihlus meandered over to an empty seat and sat down, only to be bombarded with the most vapid, narcissistic woman he had ever met. He was thanking the spirits by the time the buzzer rang and he moved onto the next table. Every two minutes, the bell rang and he switched tables, quickly growing bored by the women he spoke to and began to plan his escape.
That was until he reached the third to last table. Settling down in his chair, he heard someone cough gently from behind the curtain. "Forgive me Father, for I have sinned." Was the first thing he heard. Furrowing his browbone, he cocked his head to the side, confused by the woman's words.
"I'm...sorry? Come again?" He questioned as a dainty laugh echoed across the table.
"Oh jeez, I'm sorry. I'm pretty sure that I had one too many glasses of wine and now I'm just making a mockery out of this." She replied with another small chuckle, "I just feel like I'm at a confessional, you know? Man behind the curtain, telling him about your sins, you know how it goes."
"Unfortunately, I am unaware of this man behind the curtain you speak of." Nihlus responded slowly as the woman let out a sigh of embarrassment.
"Oh shit, I'm sorry. Uh, Catholic church, they make you talk to a priest in a confessional. I haven't been since I was a kid, but it just reminds me of that. I'm guessing you're not human?"
"And I'm guessing you are." Nihlus concluded as the woman let out another small laugh.
"Guilty as charged, Your Honor," She said sarcastically as Nihlus let out his own small guffaw.
"We went from a church to a courtroom?"
"Yeah, I guess we kind of did. So, stranger that isn't human, tell me, if you could visit any planet in the galaxy, what would it be?"
Nihlus pursed his lips, "I've been to most of them, to be honest, so that would be a toss-up."
He could hear her surprise from behind the wall, "Wait, you've been to most of the planets?!"
"Yeah, it comes with the job," Nihlus said automatically, silently kicking himself for giving so much of himself away.
"Okay, you had my interest, but now you have my curiosity. What do you do?" The woman questioned. He could almost hear her leaning forward with anticipation as he cleared his throat and shook his head slightly.
"Er, errand boy for the Council," he admitted sheepishly. He jumped when he heard the woman slap her hands on the table with so much ferocity he had to lean back.
"You're a Spectre?!" She whispered. If Nihlus had the ability to turn red, he would have.
"Yes," he admitted slowly, "Spirits, that was a mistake."
The pregnant silence that followed made him wonder if he had made a mistake, if he had slipped up somewhere, had gotten lost in translation. Had he said something that had made her lose interest?
"You're...Turian?" She questioned gently.
"How did you know?" Nihlus prodded. Even from behind the curtain between them, he could feel her softening slightly, coming down from the high that she had been on.
"I lived on Palaven for a couple of years, tried to find myself. Ended up being one of the first human students to practice under the justice courts of the turians. After that, I came back to the Citadel and double majored in communications and turian history. Pretty shitty degree, I can't do anything with it since The First Contact War ended ten years before I even got it; but something about your culture always inspired me. You don't take shit from anyone, I love that."
The buzzer rang through the hall as Nihlus opened his mouth to speak. His gaze drifted towards the button in front of him and before he knew what he was doing, his fingers had made up his mind and he pressed it gently. He glanced up and watched the light above his own veil turn green as well. The feeling had been mutual.
A small smile graced the turian's lips as he stood from his seat and moved to the next table, beginning another two minute conversation with a complete stranger. The speed dating slowed and finally, with one last sound, the men moved back to the foyer where they had first begun. A flutter of excitement moved in his belly as he approached the console where he would find his list. The only name that caught his eye was the one that was highlighted in yellow that contrasted against the white of the paper.
"Reya Chase," a series of numbers followed and he was surprised to find that as he walked from the building, his omnitool lit up and a text message followed.
"I had a wonderful time talking to you tonight," Was the only thing that read as his heart slammed against his ribcage. Should he respond? He would be a fool not to.
"You as well," He typed back as he hailed a cab and slid into the backseat, sending the message into cyberspace. Within an instant, the screen lit up again and another message followed.
"Would you like to have dinner soon? There's a place by my house that serves both amino and dexterous based foods and they make a mean Pad Thai. It's called The Black Elephant."
"I would love to," He responded, "Tomorrow night, eight PM?"
"I'll be the one in the red dress." She replied as he pulled up the extranet and began his research. Reya Chase was 32 years old and loved to travel. Reya Chase had an asari best friend named Leila T'Joina and she adored Thai food. Reya Chase had once been arrested at a rally to improve the working conditions of the Quarian people and wore a smirk in her mugshot.
Reya Chase was an enigma and Nihlus looked forward to cracking her shell to see what made her tick.
I'm not dead, just slowly starting to come back to life. This story idea was actually originally something I had come up with but was unfortunately stolen from under my nose. Instead of going back and putting a copyright strike on it, I have decided that two can play at this game and decided to come up with my own spin on it. So, let the games begin, because we all know that I am the stronger writer in this playing field.
Kisses,
The Great Morrigan