All Things Worth Keeping / Part One: Paths
Indigo Carter, hoping to forge a place for herself in the galaxy, moves to the Citadel to study at Auxua School of the Arts. Juggling coursework, orchestras, new friends, and her own insecurities, she does her best to settle in. However, she never imagined she'd be making the acquaintance of a drell whose knee-jerk reaction to his estranged father's apparent death involved attempted assassination.
In the fallout of the worst string of decisions in his life, Kolyat Krios does his best to push on with his head up. However, atonement is never simple, and forgiveness seems impossible when your issues span ten years and a shattered family. As he navigates his past while trying to determine his future, he uncovers a sinister plot that threatens to unravel the galaxy itself.
When paths, choices, and consequences collide, life becomes such a messy ordeal that when the Reapers come, they almost feel like a welcome cleaning service.
Mass Effect is the property of BioWare. I own nothing you recognise, and I make no money from this endeavour.
This chapter revised as of January 2019.
Chapter One: Giant Bugs / Optimist - Zoe Keating
2ND JUNE, 2185 CE
12:01 Citstan time
The forest sprawled beneath the dusk-darkened sky. Thick tree roots dug deep into the soil, and inky shadows gathered in the dips and hollows etched in the weathered trunks. Thin beams of pale moonlight broke through the canopy of leaves and tangled vines, throwing a silvery glow over the two figures as they crept between the ancient trees.
The turian archer's careful footfalls were barely a whisper above the tkilklin cicadas' fluting trills and the rustle of leaves in the slight breeze. In her hooded cape and black leather cuirass, she all but blended into the shadows. Her asari companion struck a much more conspicuous figure in an intricate suit of steel armour, her every movement accompanied by the quiet clink of chainmail and the occasional snap of twigs underfoot.
They were searching for the Valluvian Temple of the Katarin Titan, a once-proud structure now lost to time within the jagged reaches of the forest. All manner of riches lay within those ancient walls—gold, gems, spell-scrolls, weapons—there for the taking by the intrepid adventurer who dared set foot into the ruins.
indigo-indigoing-indigone: wait a sec i need to squeeze the lemon
Shayila2097: What?
indigo-indigoing-indigone: it means pee
Shayila2097: The lemon? Ew. Goddess, you're so weird sometimes. And I say that in the nicest possible way.
indigo-indigoing-indigone: takes one to know one, fellow weirdo
indigo-indigoing-indigone: brb gotta pith lolol
Shayila2097: And the first pun of the session, right on time.
Indigo-indigoing-indigone: i put the "pun" in "punctual" (╭ ´ิ∀´ิ)╭
Shayila2097: You are relentless. Go pee before I decide to banish you from my world.
Indigo set her laptop aside with a satisfied grin, which slid off her face when she glanced at the time. Jeeeesus, had she really been playing for ten straight hours? She cringed. No wonder she had to pee. Her toe caught on the strap of a discarded bra as she slipped out of bed, and she kicked the offending garment away. She arched the stiffness from her back in a long stretch, the cracking of her spine too loud in her tiny dorm.
The laughter and excited chatter of Indigo's fellow students resounded through the hall as she padded outside to the shared bathroom. She recognised a few voices from the five total minutes she'd spent in the kitchen, but she didn't venture out further, instead making a beeline straight back to her room. Somehow, she didn't think she'd make the best impression in all her unshowered braless glory, wearing a ratty old Eff Tee El shirt she'd bought during Eff's only Earth tour back in '79 and a well-worn pair of pyjama shorts patterned with shifty-looking space cows. Add to that the eye bag situation and the frizzy bed hair she'd barely managed to tidy into a bun, and she looked about as approachable as a cactus.
Back in the forest, the gory sounds of some unfortunate creature meeting the business end of Shayila's war axe informed Indigo that her asari compatriot had ventured further in while she'd been AFK. She settled back under the blankets, computer on her lap, and followed the trail of dead beasts to find Shay waiting at the edge of a clearing. The sudden lack of enemies in such a large, empty space screamed impending boss fight, and Indigo hoped she and Shay had finally found that bloody temple.
indigo-indigoing-indigone: this clearing looks suspicious
Shayila2097: You can say that again.
indigo-indigoing-indigone: this clearing looks suspicious ಠ‿↼
Shayila2097: I'm going to hit you with my axe.
indigo-indigoing-indigone: save it for whatever's about to ambush us
Shayila2097: And don't winky emote at me. It makes me feel like you're about to go all bluepie fetishist.
indigo-indigoing-indigone: all what now?
Shayila2097: Bluepie, you know, like a groupie for asari. Remember those creepy turians we joined up with for that battle with that giant undead wormneck?
indigo-indigoing-indigone: "wow, an asari? who plays games? with a human? hubba hubba titties squish squish"
Shayila2097: It's a wonder they didn't make any Vaenia jokes. Also, is it technically an ambush if you know it's coming?
indigo-indigoing-indigone: a fake ambush then... or a shambush (╭ ಠ‿↼)╭
Shay hit her with her axe.
Shayila2091: That one actually made me laugh, but a promise is a promise.
They crept into the clearing, and Indigo leaned back against her pillows to watch as a cutscene began. The ground split in two with a thunderous crack!, the shockwave of sound and force shaking the most ancient of the trees to the most ancient of their roots. Leaves rained down from the branches and a strange hissing sound came from deep within the earth, whisper-soft at first but steadily growing louder. The camera panned over the turian and asari as they brandished their weapons, and Indigo took a moment to let her inner nerd marvel at her badass rogue archer in her recently-crafted armour. Sure, a cape didn't seem like it would be very practical in battle, but since when did game designers care about practicality? At least turians lacked the, er, equipment for the battle cleavage Shayila detested, though some armours did place a lot of emphasis on the waist. Every species had their raunchy bits, Indigo supposed, as well as the desire to flaunt them. Still, right now only one thing ruined the image, and it made her roll her eyes when she saw it.
indigo-indigoing-indigone: i love how they give us the shitty default swords in the cutscenes instead of what we're actually packing. good game!
Shayila2097: Right? I don't even have a sword in my inventory.
The hissing became growling, and the growling became snarling, crescendoing into a cacophonous chorus of demonic shrieks and groans rising up from the depths. Creatures swarmed from the fissure that bisected the clearing—nathak bloodbeasts flashing needle-sharp teeth, hungry shatha rattlers with torn skin stretched over exposed ribs. All fairly common enemies in the world of Galaxy of Fantasy, but among them Indigo glimpsed a less common flash of silver scales, sickly-yellow eyes, and a spiny crest.
indigo-indigoing-indigone: ooh cool
Shayila2097: What are these things called again? A basillicks?
indigo-indigoing-indigone: basilisk. born from hatching a snake egg under a rooster. i had one as a pet when i was 12
Shayila2097: You can't trick me again like you did with the pet unicorn. Besides, roosters don't incubate eggs.
indigo-indigoing-indigone: because as we all know, myths are just known for their basis in logic and reason
The cutscene ended and Indigo drew her bow, the shitty default sword having disappeared as mysteriously as it had appeared. Wiggling her feet in time with the heavy turian drums and creeping tremolo strings in the game's orchestral soundtrack, she aimed an arrow at the basilisk, wondering if the turians had some kind of equivalent in their own mythology or whether a human dev had put it in.
"Oh, Shay, you fucknut," she muttered when Shayila lunged in front of her to take down a nathak and ended up taking Indigo's arrow in the back. She lobbed a healing spell at Shay as an apology and rolled out of the way as the basilisk slithered towards her on its sinuous stomach, spindly legs skittering in the foliage. Shayila flung a biotic attack at it, denting its health bar in much the same way a wad of wet tissue paper dents a charging krogan. Another warp field struck one of its deadly staring eyes, but not in time to stop the flash of light that froze Indigo's character in place right as she was about to loose an arrow into its belly. Shrieking and showing its long black tongue, the basilisk melted into the shadows and vanished with a ripple of scales and feathers.
indigo-indigoing-indigone: GOD i hate these things (ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻
Shayila2097: I thought you loved them.
indigo-indigoing-indigone: they're so op! u can barely get a hit in b4 they freeze u with their stupid gaze attacks
Shayila2097: What's that human phrase? 'Git gud?'
Indigo rolled her eyes and grumbled another human saying, one that rhymed with duck cough, and waited for her character to unfreeze while Shayila hacked away at the smaller mobs. By the time Indigo could move again, only one shatha rattler remained, which she dispatched with a shot to the eye. It fell, jaws snapping the air, then exploded in a spurt of poison-blackened blood.
Shayila2097: Why do they explode when you hit them in the eye? It makes no sense.
indigo-indigoing-indigone: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
indigo-indigoing-indigone: it looks cool?
Shayila2097: I suppose that's the important thing.
With the last critter down, they turned to face the basilisk as it rematerialised at the edge of the clearing. Shayila charged at it, but before Indigo could even begin to grumble about her gung-ho strategy, an email notification popped up.
TO: INDIGO CARTER / indigo. marie. carter (a) auxua-district. tayseri. civ. pub /
FROM: ENRIQUE SCHOFGEE / admin. schofgee (a) adventurenet. neurowaregames. sa /
Subject: Vigil for Taetrus
Adventurers,
Last month, we held a march in Radiatum Park to raise money for the survivors of the Vallum Blast on Taetrus. As you may know, the city came under attack again yesterday, with the Sevnis building as the target. We at Neuroware want to lend our support to those caught up in the conflict, so we will be holding another fundraising event to demonstrate support and solidarity towards the people of—
Indigo frowned, the sinking feeling in her stomach overtaken by irritation when another message window overlapped the first.
WATERS OF KOLONO VER. 0.1.3 [BETA] DOWNLOAD COMPLETE!
User indigo-indigoing-indigone, thank you for volunteering to beta-test the upcoming DLC for Neuroware's acclaimed MMORPG, Galaxy of Fantasy! Your download is complete, but you must install the file on your computer terminal. This will lock you out of your game for the duration.
Indigo sighed, bookmarked the fundraiser and reopened the chat with Shayila.
indigo-indigoing-indigone: hey i hve to go, i signed up to beta for the new dlc and it needs to install. did u get the email about taetrus?
Shayila2097: Yes, just then. Isn't it awful? At least we might be able to help out somehow, even just a little.
indigo-indigoing-indigone: i hope so. that freaking colony just can't cut a break. seems like no colonies can, really. anyway i should go
Shayila2097: Oh, already? You've been a bit absent lately and I've missed you.
Indigo smiled at the screen.
indigo-indigoing-indigone: aww u too! (*^▽^*) sorry i haven't replied to anything, i've just moved out of home to go to university so that's been keeping me pretty busy
Shayila2097: Congratulations, that's great! Where'd you move? What school are you at?
indigo-indigoing-indigone: tayseri ward on the citadel and i'm now a music performance major at auxua
Shayila2097: Grasp your steeds—I live on Zakera Ward!
indigo-indigoing-indigone: what, on the citadel?
Shayila2097: No, the other one.
indigo-indigoing-indigone: sarcasm becomes you. i thought you lived on illium?
Shayila2097: I did, about twenty years ago. Didn't I tell you I'm on the Citadel? Anyway, we should totally meet up for coffee or something.
indigo-indigoing-indigone: as opposed to just partially meet up
Shayila2097: Har, har. What do you think? Coffee date? Not a date in the romantic sense, just so we're clear.
indigo-indigoing-indigone: thanks for letting me down easy
Shayila2097: So, are you interested?
Part of Indigo's brain chose then to suggest typing at such latte notice?, but for once she ignored it. Even bad puns couldn't loosen the knot of anxiety tightening her chest. Aside from a few hours exploring the district and having a stickybeak on-campus, she'd barely emerged outside since she'd arrived at her dorm. It was ridiculous. She wasn't normally like this. Hell, she'd spent three months travelling on her own last year, but she'd been comfortable not having any clue what was going on as she wandered her way through Europe. This was different. She couldn't enjoy being lost this time.
indigo-indigoing-indigone: is it real coffee?
Shayila2097: No, it's dream coffee. You have to be asleep to drink it.
indigo-indigoing-indigone: ha ha haaaa i meant proper actual coffee made from a bean. u can only get that weird coffee-flavoured energy powder at the grocery store here
Shayila2097: Well, that's nightmare coffee. Asari coffee is not made from beans, so I don't know for sure if this establishment's Terran coffee is legit, but I'm not going to investigate further without you. I don't like human coffee. Makes me gassy.
indigo-indigoing-indigone: hmm
Shayila2097: Am I mistaken in sensing some resistance to my idea?
indigo-indigoing-indigone: not mistaken
Shayila2097: What's wrong?
indigo-indigoing-indigone: i'm in my pyjamas and have been for the last 36 hrs
Shayila2097: An impressive runtime, but why is that a reason not to come out?
indigo-indigoing-indigone: eeehhhhh idk. just feeling crappy and not sure if i want to do anything other than hide in bed for three years
Shayila2097: Are you overwhelmed?
indigo-indigoing-indigone: yes there is so much whelm going on on here
Shayila2097: Well, in my experience, facing the world head-on helps with that. You don't know how deep the water is until you take the dive.
indigo-indigoing-indigone: see the thing with that metaphor is the potential for drowning
Shayila2097: You need a friend to help keep you afloat. Consider me your lifeline.
Indigo made an unflattering pfft noise and rolled her eyes, but couldn't help her smile.
indigo-indigoing-indigone: jesus christ you're so disgustingly charming, it makes me sick
Shayila2097: I love and respect you, too.
Snorting, Indigo checked the game's installation progress and grimaced—the estimated time was about three hours. She could spend the time unpacking properly and getting her shit together, or maybe do some trombone practise in preparation for her first rehearsal with the Tayseri Philharmonic. Try as she might, she couldn't hype herself up for either of those possibilities.
This whole move… Indigo had been sure it was what she'd wanted. She'd scared the shit out of her cat, Bastet, with her elated yelling when she found out she'd been accepted into Auxua, and had the claw marks on her thigh to prove it. And sure, being all alone in a big city—the biggest, actually—would be daunting to anyone, but even the idea of getting a cup of coffee with a friend was enough to send her into a spiral of doubt? Ridiculous. She tried to reassure herself that she just needed to find her feet, but she couldn't shake the feeling that any moment the floor would fall out from under her and she'd be swept out to sea.
Stop being such a baby, she chided herself. It's just coffee. What are you going to do, drown in it?
indigo-indigoing-indigone: so hypothetically if i was a little bit interested in consuming a caffeinated beverage, where would u be wanting to meet?
Shayila2097: Well, I have to be on Kithoi Ward at 1400, so I was thinking we could, hypothetically, meet near the transit station on Zakera. If you don't mind making the trek over here, that is.
indigo-indigoing-indigone: hypothetically i don't mind
Shayila2097: Great! So, hypothetically, you'll come?
indigo-indigoing-indigone: i suppose i could hypothetically tear myself away from all the excitement of unpacking properly, scintillating as it is. i haven't done anything remotely domestic except buy like 5 packages of macaroni and cheese
Shayila2091: Domesticity is overrated, anyway.
indigo-indigoing-indigone: mac and cheese isn't
Shayila2091: Well, I'll send you the nav-point for the coffee shop in case you decide to act upon this hypothetical scenario. If you come along, peel your eyes for an asari in a white Latharos Institute lab suit.
indigo-indigoing-indigone: aw, here i was hoping for a krogan in a pink tutu. i know what u look like! i've seen ur pics
Shayila2091: Just thought I'd make sure. It's different in person.
indigo-indigoing-indigone: i'll make sure to wear my human suit, then. look for the redhead!
The tramlines were down—a common occurrence, judging by the resigned expressions of the commuters at the Auxua district station—so Indigo had to instead take an X3M to Tayseri's Presidium Junction, then another to the Darix Tan district in Zakera's mid-wards. Heights gave her stomach a funny tipping feeling and she didn't much like skycars in the first place, but she couldn't stop gazing at the ward arms reaching out into space, the city lights like reflections of the stars. It wasn't Earth, but the station had its own kind of beauty, one of sharp neons offset by the subtle glow of the Serpent Nebula and the Widow star.
Half an hour later, Indigo arrived at the transit customs lobby and joined the queue of commuters awaiting clearance to enter the district, coming to a stop behind two krogan. She knew enough about C-Sec's heavy-handed approach to new arrivals to know she'd be stuck under security for a while, but at least it was a few minutes to twiddle her thumbs and iron out the stubborn wrinkles in her calm from the shuttle ride. Not nearly as agonising as the two-hour wait in the Presidium's main Customs dock while she and the other passengers had waded through all sorts of security scans and immigration checks. A perfectly common practise, a transit official had reassured her, verifying her new citizenship I.D. after she'd stood through a frankly invasive full-body scan to make sure she wasn't secretly a geth in a human suit. Indigo understood the reasoning for so many safeguards, but it seemed excessive.
"Hurry it up, jelly, you're clogging the line," a harried-looking turian in the queue snapped.
The asari Customs officer glanced up from her console at him. "Patience is a virtue, sir," she said with practised calm. "And refrain from using such language." She looked at the hanar in question. "The security check will only take a minute."
"This is ridiculous!" the turian barked. "I'm going to miss my meeting."
"This one wonders whether that would be such a bad thing," said the hanar, iridescent bands of light blooming underneath their skin with every syllable. "A meeting with the other sounds most unfortunate."
The turian jabbed a taloned finger at the hanar. "Listen here, you big, stupid je—"
"Axcius Tenn, do you need a little more excitement to your morning?" a bubbly feminine voice cut in. The turian twitched and stared past Indigo at an advertisement terminal a few feet away, a cylindrical pillar of annoyance currently projecting a dramatically-angled shot of a box of cereal. "Before you go to your job as a financial advisor for Kanala Exports, Enkindle your morning with Blast-Ohs!"
"Goddess, that stupid thing…" The asari rubbed her forehead, and Indigo could practically feel her headache herself.
"Now with popping candy in each crunchy piece!" the voice continued over an obligatory slow-mo shot of Blasto facing (or, facelessing) away from an explosion, twirling a pair of pistols in his tentacles. "Wash it down with your favourite flavour of Paragade Sports Drink for the full action-packed experience!"
"Don't they go off all the time?" Indigo asked the asari officer. She'd been subjected to an hour of 'insincere endorsements' from the star of Francis Kitt's elcor Hamlet in the Presidium Customs lobby. As much as she loved Shakespeare, she'd made a silent vow to buy a physical copy of the play, track down whoever had the bright idea of installing verbose advertisements in every corner of the bloody Citadel, and beat them over the head with it.
The asari nodded at her. "Yeah, but the motion sensors on this one have gone all… what's that charming human word? Kablooey. Goes off at the twitch of an eyelid. I've been trying to get someone in to fix it for the last two hours, but—"
"Yes, yes, we all know C-Sec's gone to the pits," the turian commuter cut in. "Hurry up and let the hanar through already!"
"This one is in no rush—"
"Well, this one is!"
"Just wait like everybody else!" Indigo snapped, meeting the turian's glare with her most disapproving eyebrow-raise.
He dismissed her with a wave of his hand. "You humans are all racist!"
"Okay, go on through," the asari officer told the hanar a few minutes later, with a polite, if strained, smile. "Enjoy your visit to Darix Tan." The door opened with a mechanical hum, and the hanar made its way to freedom.
"Finally," the turian muttered. He stepped up in line and tapped the counter with his gloved talons. "All right, asari, let me through, and make it quick."
"Of course, sir," said the asari, and Indigo marvelled at her calm. She'd have told him to go take a long walk off a short cliff by now. "I remind you that you must provide a license for any and all wetware you may be carrying."
"Spirits, what is this, a circus? How many hoops do you want me to jump through?"
"As many as it takes to keep the ward safe, sir," the officer answered, smooth as butter. "Your licence, please. And please remove any bio-amps—"
"I'm not a biotic!" the turian insisted. "Do I look like a biotic? I don't have time for this, so just let me through, please." He tacked the 'please' on like an afterthought. "Why aren't you scanning them?" He pointed at the krogan in front of Indigo. "They're armed crest-to-spur!"
"Because you're first in line," one of them rumbled. "Enjoy it while it lasts."
"Shut up, krogan. What do you think you're doing here, anyway? This is a civilised area!"
"Looking for fish."
"Don't get sarcastic with me!"
"You look like you could use a Paragade! Try the new Lime and Blueberry Blast!"
"Ew," Indigo muttered. She wandered away from the queue to take a closer look at the keeper, typing away in its charming little vest. There was next to no information on them on the extranet, which struck her as odd considering there were apparently so many of them. Was that a jet-pack on its back?
The door to the security corridor opened with another mechanical whoosh, revealing a tall, teal-scaled drell in a C-Sec uniform. Indigo had never seen a drell in person before, though she'd spent a fair chunk of her teenage years crushing on drell actor Fell Fannus. However, aside from his species and his uniform, it was really the tired expression on his face that drew her attention. He was no Fell Fannus, that was for sure, but he was kind of striking, even with the generously-sized chin. And… shit, she was staring again. He seemed to notice someone was looking at him, for he did a double-take and met her gaze with a frown as he came through the corridor, cutting a sharp look her way as if calling her out verbally. Caught in the act, she responded with a sheepish, apologetic smile and looked away, but before she could gauge as to whether Shayila was right and she was toeing the line between 'innocent sheltered newcomer' or 'creepy alien fetishist,' the turian made a break for the door.
"Hey, stop!" the asari shouted, standing so quickly her chair fell back with a thump. "You can't—"
"What the—oof!" the drell yelped as the turian barrelled straight into him, knocking him hard into the corridor wall and earning a "Jesus!" from the officer manning the scanners. Recovering swiftly, the drell stuck out a foot and tripped the turian up, sending seven feet of irate alien staggering.
"Hey, hey, knock it off!" the asari shouted over the turian's string of growled curses as he righted himself. She strode around her desk and stopped short when she came within view of the drell. "Oh, Krios! Good timing!"
Shifting on his feet, the drell blinked at her. "Was it?" he asked, and Indigo fought a laugh and bit her lip to hide it when he looked her way.
"Er, yes, well, maybe not. Why don't you escort our new friend to the office? We'll give him a nice pat-down and write out an incident report." The asari gave the turian a bright grin, which he responded to with a grumble, brushing a hand down his suit. "Looks like you'll be getting through just fine, sir."
"You can't detain me! I've done nothing wrong!"
"Haven't you?" The asari began counting on her fingers. "Refusing a security check, disorderly conduct, breach of peace, offensive language... Oh! And I'm sure that little stunt of yours qualifies as assaulting an officer. Take him through to Sergeant Numi, please, Krios."
"You've got to be joking!" the turian protested as Officer Krios ushered him none-too-gently through the corridor. "I won't stand for this!"
"Then you'll sit," Krios deadpanned. "There's a nice bench waiting for you."
Indigo turned away to hide her smirk, as it seemed inappropriate, but the drell glanced over and caught her anyway for the second time now. She might have feigned obliviousness, but she thought she saw his mouth twitch.
The asari let out a sigh as the door slid shut behind the two, then addressed the first krogan. "Welcome to Zakera Transit, sir," she said, walking back around behind her counter. She set her chair back upright and took a seat. "If I may, I need to—"
Thunk. The krogan dropped his shotgun on the counter. Indigo stared at him. "Scan away."
The asari blinked, then pulled herself together. "Right… You mentioned fish?" she asked as she confiscated the gun. "There's a lovely sushi restaurant near the Silversun Strip in the lower wards. Ryuusei. You'll have to book a reservation months in advance, though. Almost as bad as the Consort," she added, almost under her breath. It may have been a trick of the ever-present neon lights, but Indigo thought her cheeks flushed a darker blue.
"Kargesh here wants a Presidium fish," the second krogan said, nudging his shotgun-owning friend. "Here's my amp, by the way."
"I, er, I see," said the asari officer, recovering from her slip and taking the amp. "Unfortunately, I don't think they have fish there, sir."
"Sure they do," said Kargesh. "In those massive tanks, right?"
The asari looked up from her terminal and frowned at him. "Uh, I don't think that's what they're for… Ah, Krios! How's our queue-jumping friend?"
"Numi's taking his details," said the drell as the corridor doors slid shut behind him. He approached the counter.
"Excellent. You heading back?"
He hesitated for a moment. "Unless I'm needed for something else."
The asari glanced over at the ad, drumming her fingers on the counter. "Well, I heard you're a bit of a tech whiz, so I was wondering if—"
"Miss Carter, are you looking for great deals on rare items?" Indigo jumped at the sound of her name. God, did everything here have to be so invasive? It was like being harrassed by Big Brother's unassuming cousin. "Visit Morlan's famous shop! Located at Shin Akiba in the lower wards! You will be pleased, I think! Krogan testicles not available."
Kargesh let out a barking laugh and gave Indigo a grin that was a little too leery for her taste. "Too bad. You interested in buying, anyway? Ratul here will fix you up."
Ratul looked scandalised. "Shut up, Kargesh."
"I'm good," Indigo told them through her embarrassed laughter.
"T'vashne and I just fixed three of these over in the market," the drell told the asari.
She quirked a brow. "T'vashne chipped in with her technical prowess, did she?"
The drell let out a breath, echoing the asari's wry smile as he did so. "I fixed them," he amended. "Someone's been hacking them, messing with with the proximity detectors."
"Sabotage? Really?"
The drell nodded. "I think so. One of the shopkeepers mentioned an elcor loitering around."
"Hmm." The asari tapped her fingers on the counter, furrowing her brow. "Okay, well, do you mind? I know it's a hassle."
"It's fine," he said, but Indigo caught him looking longingly at the shuttles as he went over to the terminal.
"Thanks." The asari gave him a brief but approving smile. "I'll make sure it's logged in your report."
The krogan were still being checked, though they seemed a lot more compliant than the turian, despite the fact that they appeared to have a whole armada of weapons with them. In no rush to get back to the queue, Indigo stepped closer to the keeper to get a better look at the scrolling text on its console. Nothing there she could understand, but she'd never been great at tech studies. She was tempted to scan the text and see if her translation matrix could make head or tail of it, but with a glance over at Officer Krios, who'd come over to fix the ad, she decided not to risk it.
"Why not pick up a stick of Burgat?" a voice interjected, followed by a startled drell expletive. Indigo frowned at the ad, now frozen on a flickering image of a turian holding a skewer of lumpy meat, and decided she might just do that. If she ever tracked down the person responsible for the Citadel's brand of invasive consumerism, it seemed a good idea to have something other than a book to hit them with. Officer Krios muttered something under his breath and waved his omni-tool at the ad, turning it off. Thank God.
Indigo leaned ever closer to the keeper, close enough to hear the clicking of its brittle digits against the keyboard. "Er… hellooo?" she half-whispered. After a moment of silence, it turned its head very slightly towards her. She flinched, but it seemed blind to her, its beady eyes vacant of life.
"You're not supposed to disturb them."
Indigo turned to see Krios pausing in his work, his dark eyes fixed on her. They were a little creepy; so direct, his light pupils and silvery irises glinting within the black. He'd been watching her, she realised, but he only looked amused rather than accusatory, the corners of his mouth lifting a little, so she didn't think she'd be arrested today, at least. Still, that didn't negate the embarrassment of being caught saying 'hello' to a giant bug. "I was just looking," Indigo assured him, but she stepped away regardless, smoothing her hands down her skirt.
"You said 'hello' to it."
"Yes. Yes, I did." She looked back at the keeper. "It doesn't seem much of a conversationalist, unfortunately."
"They aren't sentient," the drell told her, opening a side-panel in the deactivated advert pillar. "I doubt it even knows you're there."
"God, that's creepy."
"You learn to ignore them after a while."
"Is it that obvious that I'm a newcomer to the Citadel?" Indigo asked, glancing down at herself. Her shirt was half-tucked into her skirt, and she tugged it free.
Krios looked at her with those ink-black eyes, one corner of his mouth lifting in a fleeting smile. It bordered on cheeky, that smile, and Indigo put a hand on her hip, wondering what about her was so amusing. "A bit."
"Well, what do they do?" she asked. "I mean, what are they for?"
"They maintain the station. That's the brochure answer, anyway. Just don't get too close. I'm not mopping up melted bug again."
Indigo stared at him. "I beg your pardon?"
"They melt. It's a defense mechanism." He made a face, his lip curling. "A disgusting one."
"That's—are you kidding?" Indigo eyed the keeper, half-expecting it to dissolve there and then. "Like ice cream?"
Krios paused, considering her words. "It's a similar consistency to melted ice cream."
"You know what ice cream is?"
He shot her an unimpressed look. "I'm a drell, not a hermit."
You know what a hermit is? Indigo wanted to say, but she didn't. "Anyway, that's the most horrifying thing I've heard in my entire life," she told him, hoping this conversation wouldn't ruin her appetite for coffee. "Thank you."
"You're welcome." He glanced up past her, towards the scanning corridor. "The queue is free, by the way."
Indigo turned to see the Customs officer sitting back in her chair, sipping from a mug and looking noticeably more relaxed than before. "You've ruined ice cream for me forever," she told Krios before making her way over. "I hope you're happy."
"Ecstatic," he said, not looking up from his work, and she left him to it.
Once security ascertained that she had no plans to terrorise the district, they allowed Indigo through into a small C-Sec lobby. She spotted the turian sitting on a bench, looking sullen, while another officer recorded his details. He glowered at Indigo as she passed, and she responded with an exaggerated grin and a cheery wave before continuing through to the market plaza.
Following the nav-point Shayila sent, Indigo found the coffee shop easily enough, squeezed in between a Fishdog Food Shack and an After Dark Fashion outlet. She peered through the window of the latter for a moment, eyeing up a very slick pair of boots on sale. A bright holobanner above the cafe read Laxia's Coffee, accompanied by a cute animated graphic of a cartoon turian drinking from a coffee cup. Indigo stood to the side of the entrance and scanned the interior. An eclectic mix of patrons from all species sat at tables and booths, and spotting a few fellow humans amongst them bolstered her confidence in the quality of a turian-made cappuccino.
"Indi?"
Indigo barely registered the voice before she found herself swept up in a bear hug so tight she felt like a sushi roll, her attacker actually lifting her off the floor. Thankfully Shayila drew the line at spinning her around, instead releasing Indigo and beaming at her while she recovered from the surprise dramatics.
"Greetings, fellow adventurer!"
"Holy shit, you're so pretty," Indigo blurted, because that was what her brain apparently offered up as a not-at-all awkward response. "Thought you'd be taller, though," she joked, looking up at her. Easily over six feet to Indigo's own five-foot-four, Shayila reminded her of one of the old siarist sculptures of Athame and her disciples, with cheekbones you could cut yourself on if you weren't careful. The similarities ended with her smile; a wide, easy grin that Indigo couldn't help but return, any doubts she had about this outing instantly melting away.
"And hello to you, too," said Shayila, laughing. "I can't believe you're here!" She spoke with a vaguely American accent—whether a quirk of her dialect or the translator Indigo wasn't sure.
"In-di flesh, no less," Indigo quipped, and no words in any language could ever capture the satisfaction of seeing Shayila roll her eyes for the first time.
"Ten seconds in and you're already pelting me with puns." Her expression warm, Shayila looked her up and down, apparently delighted by her very existence. "Goddess, look at your hairs! What a beautiful colour, like an osalri! And so curly! Can I touch them?"
Despite her confusion at the translation hiccup, Indigo couldn't help but grin at Shay's enthusiasm. "Sure. But only if I can touch your… head tentacles." She wiggled her fingers above her head.
"Crests," Shayila corrected her. She reached out a hand, then hesitated. "Um, do you mind if I take off my gloves?"
"Should I mind?" Indigo asked, frowning.
"Well, it's not seen as strictly proper for asari to touch with fully-bared hands. That's one of the more traditional rules my mother drummed into me. Don't worry, it's not an intimacy thing—it's more about etiquette and social standing, but I'm a tactile learner."
"It doesn't worry me."
After glancing over her shoulder, perhaps looking for any disapproving matriarchs, Shayila draped her gloves over her forearm and reached out, taking the end of a particularly ringlety curl between thumb and forefinger with utmost care. Concentration etching a line between her brow markings, she slowly pulled Indigo's hair, then let go so it sprang back up. "Boing! Oh, that's fun."
"It's going to go frizzy now," Indigo complained, half-hearted, but let Shay keep playing with it. Figuring she may as well, she reached up and traced the tattooed line middling one of Shay's crests. "Ooh, they're soft! Do they wiggle around?"
"Boing. Boing. No, but I do have a friend who can move them independently. It's her party trick." Shayila tugged on another curl, then paused and met her eyes with the same kind of sheepish smile Indigo had given the drell officer when he'd caught her staring at him. "Gah, I'm being over-familiar, aren't I? I just don't have many human friends."
Indigo shook her head and laughed. "You're fine. And, you know, you're the first asari I've spoken to at length in person."
"Had you ever met an alien before coming here?"
"I smiled at a turian couple who were visiting France when I was there. And I was ten metres from the stage at an Eff Tee El concert."
"Oh, you saw her live? Isn't she amazing?"
"Yes! God, she's an incredible musician. She's classically trained, you know, and those biotics! She barely even needed a light show." A sharp pain at Indigo's scalp cut her off as Shay tugged a bit too hard. "Ouch!"
"Sorry!" Shay stepped back to a more polite distance. "Sorry, caffeine makes me a bit silly."
Indigo twisted her hair up into a bun, smiling at Shay. "Just a bit?"
"Well, a bit sillier, then," Shay amended as she pulled her gloves back on. "Goddess, I love hair. I know that sounds creepy, but it's so pretty! I've never asked a human if I could touch theirs before. When I was younger I actually wanted to try a wig."
Indigo laughed. "That's adorable."
"I'm glad someone thinks so," said Shay. "Everyone else just thinks I'm weird. Anyway, I think our excessive head-touching—well, mine, anyway—is disturbing the other customers, so let's go sit down."
Indigo savoured the rich aroma of coffee as she let Shayila lead her through to a cosy booth near the wall. It reminded her of her brief stint as a barista back on Earth, and she shoved the uncomfortable memories away. Burning her hand during her first attempt at steaming milk, making bad jokes in an unsuccessful attempt to dissuade her boss' second-guessing glances, meeting her ex… bleh. Look forward, she reminded herself, and did so, eyeing the array of folders, datapads, and O. cluttering the surface of the table. "You seem busy," she said to Shay as she sat down.
"Always. Is this okay?" Shay asked, closing her laptop and sliding papers and datapads into a folder. "I'd normally get a table by the window."
"It's fine," Indigo assured her, sitting down.
"All right, I'll get the drinks. What would you like?"
"Cappuccino with three sugars, please! With cream if they have it." Indigo held out her credit chit but Shayila waved it away.
Indigo bobbed her foot in time with the Blue Giants' new single playing on the radio and smiled at the turian waitress who came over to retrieve Shay's empty cup. It was hard to be so anxious in a brightly-lit cafe, with asari indie rock music playing and a cappuccino on the way.
"So, you've got a class on Kithoi Ward after this?" Indigo asked as Shayila came back and sat down opposite her. "I seem to remember you're a sciencey-type."
"Marine science," Shay clarified nodding. "Chemical oceanography, to be specific, minoring in biology. Did you know that the ocean—any ocean—contains nearly every element in the periodic table?"
"That's pretty cool."
"Anyway, I'm just heading into meet with my thesis supervisor."
"What's your thesis about?"
"The interaction of ocean chemistry on evolutionary lines—specifically eezo in the Thessian oceans. There are these tiny little fish called kepthemerin istanolsta that evolved to be biotically active, and I'm comparing them to a sister species which evolved without. I'll be graduating at the end of this year. I can't wait."
"That's great! Do you know what you're going to do afterwards?"
"Get drunk, most likely," said Shay, and Indigo started laughing. She grinned. "I don't know. I have vague plans to do a post-grad in microbiology, but first I'm tempted to take off and travel for a while. I might go back to Sur'Kesh."
"You lived there?"
"I was born there. My father was salarian."
"That explains the height. Oh, do you have a super long name as well?"
Shayila rolled her eyes, but her expression was warm. "If I had a credit for every time someone asked me that… Sur'Kesh Kuriel Talat Monset T'Leyris Shayila."
"That's a mouthful. A nice mouthful, though. When you got in trouble as a kid, did your parents use your full name?"
Shayila laughed and shook her head. "Too much wasted time."
"Shame. Was your dad sciencey, too?"
"No, he didn't actually live up to that stereotype, so I took the opportunity myself."
"Nerd," Indigo teased, nudging Shay's foot with her own under the table.
"Says the most Galaxy of Fantasy-obsessed person I know!"
"Don't belittle my adventuring skills," Indigo warned her with mock-indignation. She narrowed her eyes. "I kick your arse in PvP, and you know it."
Shayila smirked. "Yes, how could I forget the time you got me down to one HP and then dodged backwards off a cliff?"
Indigo snorted. "My finest moment. Neuroware was right to choose me to beta-test."
The turian waitress returned, holding a tray. Indigo received her coffee with a smile and a thank-you, only to trail off, looking down into her cup. "Um. This… it's green?"
"Oh! Sorry, wrong way around." With a bashful flick of her mandibles, the waitress swapped their drinks and set two pairs of chopsticks at the table. Indigo picked her pair up and examined them, wondering what part of coffee required chopsticks.
"Cheers, Tira," said Shay, smiling and leaning back in her seat to look up at her. "How's the ankle?"
"Healing up just fine, thanks." Tira placed a bowl in the middle of the table. "And here you go."
Indigo frowned. "What happened to your—oh." She'd glanced down at the bowl, and blanched at the contents. "Oh, wow."
"Sprained it during clawball," said Tira.
"Not, er, cricket?" Indigo joked to distract herself from the urge to heave. Every time she looked away from the bowl, something dragged her gaze back to the heap of dead insects inside.
"Let me know if you need anything," Tira offered as she left for another table. "A bucket, maybe."
Indigo managed a weak laugh. "That joke sounded disturbingly genuine," she said to Shay. "So, do you always eat a bowl of bugs with your green stuff?"
Shay gave her an amused, reassuring smile. "It's called laiteiavia. Thessian coffee. And these are called selibekni. They're a kind of hive-dragonfly from Sur'Kesh. I wasn't sure if you've eaten them before." She retrieved a bug. It came free of its fellows encased in a substance that reminded Indigo of raw egg whites.
"People eat bugs back on Earth, but I never have. Well, except for the spiders we apparently eat in our sleep, but I think that's rubbish." Indigo studied the selibekni with a fascinated revulsion she hoped came out as polite culinary interest. "What's all the goo? And please don't say 'entrails.'"
"It's honey," said Shay, biting the head off a bug. "The only entrails here are the ones still inside—"
"Okay, okay, okay." Indigo took a selibekni between her own chopsticks, half-expecting it to come alive at any moment. It didn't really look like a dragonfly, more like a cicada, or a cross between the two. She imagined it in wriggling around in a hive and fought the urge to shudder. Determined not to chicken out, she popped the bug into her mouth. "Holy shit," she murmured, mid-chew.
"Good?"
Indigo nodded, the sweet, slightly tangy honey smooth on her tongue. "Best bugs I've ever eaten."
Shay beamed at her. "I'm glad you like them. To be honest, I thought you might be more squeamish about eating live food."
Indigo blanched, her stomach flip-flopping. "What?"
Shay started laughing, not unkindly. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I couldn't resist. They're dead, don't worry! Do you need that bucket?"
"I hate you so much." Indigo drank some of her coffee to wash away the phantom feeling of insect legs crawling along her tongue.
"Don't bite the hand you're eating," Shay said, sipping her green drink, and Indigo suppressed a laugh at the slip. "So, when do you start school?"
"My first class is tomorrow. Ancient history of the Council races. And then a harmonic theory lecture. Should be interesting."
Shayila made a face. "I never really liked history in school."
Indigo shrugged. "Well, my Dad's a history teacher, so I guess that's where I picked up the interest. Went through an Egyptology phase and everything."
"Yes, it's odd what we pick up from our parents."
"And what we don't pick up," said Indigo, with a wry laugh and a lingering twinge of guilt. "I'm a tad nervous to go back to studying, to be honest. I dropped out of high school."
"Aw, don't be nervous," said Shay, as if that solved everything. "You'll be fine."
"I hope so." Sighing, Indigo sat her chin in her palm and frowned at the napkins as if they were the source of her anxiety. "I don't know, I just feel like—I feel like I'm here for a holiday or something. And it's so overwhelming here."
Shay nodded, licking green foam from her top lip. "I know how you feel. It took me ages to get comfortable being on my own when I first moved out."
"Oh, no, I mean, I'm comfortable on my own," Indigo said. "A little too much, I think. It's just… being here, I guess." She waved a hand towards the cafe entrance. "The Citadel. There's so much going on. And I miss my cats. I wish I could have smuggled them here. Bastet slept in my suitcase the night before I left. Got cat hair all over my clothes."
"Aw, like a little piece of home."
"You have fish, right?" Indigo lifted another bug from the bowl and wrinkled her nose when it stuck to one of its brethren. "Aw, they want to die together. Maybe they were related."
"Who are we do deny their dying wishes?" Shay reached over and took the stowaway selibekni for herself. "Sixteen fish, in total. Fourteen sunfish, three Belan jellyfish, two Illium Skald fish, six striped dartfish, two Sur'Kesh petal eels, and three Prejek paddlefish."
"And a partridge in a pear tree. That's a lot." Indigo licked a stray drop of honey off her chopstick and sipped her coffee. She sighed. "Oh, my God, yum."
"It's a big fishtank, and they mostly get along. Siol—one of my petal eels—she tends to hog the food, and gets really feisty about it. I usually have to coax her over to one end of the tank and feed her separately, but she eats really quickly and darts over to steal everyone else's," said Shay, swishing her chopsticks through the air to illustrate before taking another selibekni. She ate them in three bites, neat and practised. Indigo found it easier to put the whole thing in her mouth—that way she didn't have to look at it as she savoured the unfortunately delicious taste.
"She'd get along with my other cat, Loki. Actually, maybe not. He started getting really fat and it gave him health problems, so we had to change his diet and feed him away from my other cat Bastet, and even then he still comes running when he hears me feeding her, even when he's already got his face in a bowl of food. God, they're ridiculous," she said affectionately, and stole another bug. "Am I eating too many of your gross dead insects? There's a question I never thought I'd ask."
"Eat as many of those gross, dead insects as you'd like," said Shay. "Can I play with your hair again?"
The smile didn't quite leave Indigo's face as she detoured to After Dark Fashion on her way back to Tayseri. She hadn't found her feet yet, but she thought she might have glimpsed her toes... and some nice boots.
Glossary:
Tkilklin cicada – Insects native to Palaven. In turian mythology, they are thought to be emissaries for the forest spirits.
Selibekni – a salarian snack food. Made from selibek, hive-dragonflies native to Sur'Kesh (mentioned in the Initiation novel). Prepared with a mix of spices and their own honey.
From canon:
Osalri (salarian) – fire maiden