Riah scoffed as she looked over the texture files for Tuchanka. Why the idiots at Verthasti thought it'd be a great idea to give everything 10k textures was beyond her. Actually no, it made perfect sense. They wanted to overhaul Tuchanka and make it appear like a modern game despite running on an old buggy engine, so they went overboard on all the textures. But who needs to see 10k grass,10k rocks, 10k trees? Most of the time the player would be running right past them or the textures would be hidden underneath a bunch of other terrain. Oh Keelah. Riah realized it was worse than that. Everything was 10k. All the normal and specular maps for every single object in the game.
No wonder she had such a terrible FPS count and micro-shutters.
She sighed as she ordered her omni-tool to load up all the files on HoloPaint Pro and set about automating a ultra-pass sharpe-
"What are you doing?" she asked Santi, finally fed up with his constant fiddling. "You've been sitting there doing Ancestors-know-what for the past twenty minutes." He and his mother had been visiting their apartment regularly, Riah noted that something approaching a genuine friendship had formed between her mother and Katja – though why that was she couldn't fathom as the humans had proven to be nothing but beggars looking for handouts.
"Ah, I..." He looked down as something on his omni-tool flashed and beeped. "Trying to fix this thing. Something's wrong with it, and uh, I think I have a virus or something, it keeps activating the fabricator and using up all my gel."
"Uh huh," Riah answered, sure that he'd gotten that idiotic virus one of the local street gangs had been bragging about writing a few weeks ago. By now almost everyone had some sort of fix for it and Varlus had even written up solution for it that he'd sold for a few credits. Either the human hadn't figured out how to solve it on his own or didn't know about Varlus' fix or couldn't afford it. "Well," she finally drawled, "good luck with that."
She looked back at her omni-tool, HoloPaint Pro telling her that it'd take around 3 hours to completely redo all of the textures, which meant no Tuchanka for that long. She wondered if it was even worth it, Varlus was holding a Cision Technologies 25 TB F-28d… unless he'd sold it in the week she'd been grounded. Which would be just like him.
"Oh shit!'
Santi yelled out in pain, his omn-tool had apparently ejected a bit of scalding hot gel onto his wrist.
Riah would have smirked or laughed, but she could hear his skin sizzle as it made contact. She also remembered the pain she'd felt through her suit when the same virus-induced malfunction occurred with her own device.
Next thing she knew, her mother and Katja, who had been talking amicably in the kitchen over some hot drinks rushed over, her mother ordering her to get the first aid kit.
"No, no, Yili, don't worry about it," the woman said, "Don't waste your medicine, Santi can fix this."
"Yeah," Santi agreed, still grimacing from the pain before his wrist split open, blood dripping out of it. Riah heard her mother gasp and was about to ask the human boy what in Rannoch's name was wrong with him before blood flowed up his wrist and over his wound before disappearing back into his wrists, the nasty burn he'd suffered gone.
No one said anything for a few seconds, the boy nervously rubbing his arm.
"That's amazing." Yili breathed as she glanced at Riah. "I'd heard but…"
"We noticed that none of you have Anima," Katja said, rubbing Santi's arm and causing the boy to blush. "That's as amazing to us as our Anima is to you. I couldn't imagine not having quick first aid… or having to sleep so many hours in a day."
"Is that safe?" Riah asked, pulling her blanket around her even more, "Crazy human magic or no, that was still blood, it's a bio-hazard-"
"Riah!" her mother interrupted.
"-and we're quarians." Riah finished, ignoring her mother's outburst. "That's great that he's fine now, but I don't want to get sick because of some spilled blood that might seep through my suit."
"Riah, that's enough!" Yili stated, before clearing her throat. "Although," she fidgeted, "did he spill any?"
The humans eyes widened, realizing the trouble they may have potentially caused.
"No!" Santi half-shouted, "I didn't spill any, I promise!" He raised his arms up, his wrists visible and unbloodied. "I mean, I never spill any before, so I wouldn't now, but maybe I did and-"
Riah sighed and switched through her omni-tool's programs before coming up to her custom scanner. Santi was bathed in blue light as she washed the sensor readings over him, which all came up clean. "He's clean," well, as clean as a poor human can be, "but don't do that again." She glared at the boy, who thankfully nodded and turned away.
"It was startling to see all the blood," her mother continued, the conversation going back into territory Riah didn't' really care to listen to.
Back to Tuchanka. Once she got the F-28d, it should make up for the FPS loss caused by the insane texture sizes. Still it wouldn't hurt to downsize them all anyway. Now if only someone could release a patch that made the game less terribly buggy.
Oh, she was getting dragged back into a conversation with the humans.
"Yes?" she asked, aware that her mother was watching. Looking up from her screen, she saw the human woman looking in her direction, she was probably asking her something.
"Your mother was telling me that your friend runs a store and that he sells a fix for Santi's omni-tool?" Katja asked.
"Yes." Riah answered.
Katja smirked. Riah hated that. The human woman seemed to think her attitude was funny. "Well, could you tell Santi how to get there? I'd rather not have him have to use his Anima if he can avoid it."
Riah was about to write down the directions somewhere when she realized that now was her chance to visit Varlus'.
"Why don't I take him?" she offered, trying to keep the grin off of her face. Both her mother and the boy looked surprised. Santi was looking at her with an odd expression, presumably conjuring up perverted thoughts of her as he did so. Not even in your dreams she thought. "Mom, you know how Varlus is with that security drone of his. He walks in suddenly, Varlus is going to get startled and his drone is going to start shooting."
"He what?" she heard the boy ask.
"I'll take Santi, make sure he doesn't get in any trouble and make sure Varlus doesn't charge more for the fix than he usually does." Another idea sprung to her mind. "And Santi can ask about collector prices for their own solar unit!"
Riah nearly jumped out of her seat when her mother agreed and began to talk to the human woman about usual prices for solar collectors. Riah quickly dashed back into their bedroom, opened up her private chest and placed her credit chip inside one of her suit's pouches while pulling a coat over her suit in the process, the station's temperature controls weren't the best and she wanted more clothing between her and Santi.
"Riah, make sure Varlus doesn't overcharge Santi alright?"
"Yes mom."
"Keep your omni-tool on in case I need to call you."
"Yes mom."
Riah rolled her eyes, hearing Santi receiving a similar talk from Katja. The hugged. Riah found their hug odd.
"Why don't you disconnect the micro-fab before we leave?" Riah suggested as they walked out the door and down the hall, it wouldn't do to have that scalding-gel-virus act up in the streets, or worse, land on some thug who'd take offense. One of the apartment doors was open and Saestzea, the bitch, was hanging out in the doorway. She ignored Riah and gave Santi a once over, smiling as she did so. She was about to open her mouth when Riah cut her off. "Go whore yourself elsewhere Sae, we're busy."
"Afraid I'm gonna take your suit partner from you, you fat virgin?"
Luckily they'd been walking fast enough that Riah didn't have to entertain the bitch with another shouting match. She settled for an obscene hand gesture over her shoulder.
"That's Saestzea," she answered Santi's look. "She's had more docking procedures than the Citadel."
"The what?" Santi asked.
"I mean she's the station whore. Sleeps with anyone and doesn't even charge money while doing it."
"Oh."
"I don't care where you stick your parts, but Sae usually hangs around with some of the worst people who are very territorial around her. And if you catch their attention they'll come looking for you. And since you spend almost all your time at my place that means trouble for me, understand?"
"Oh." Santi answered, nervously looking around the hall at the few stares they'd attracted from the exchange. "Yeah, I'll stay away from her then. I mean, even if she wasn't trouble I'd stay away. Ka-, my ma," Riah looked at him, "told me to stay away from girls like that, I don't want their attention."
Riah scoffed. "There's a whole race of girls like that. But she's the worst I've met. By the way, have you been paying attention where we've been going?"
"Yeah, we've been going straight."
"Straight to that elevator," Riah pointed, the base of the elevator covered in advertisements for several shops on the upper floors. "Floor 28. Also," she added as they approached the entrances to the station's central elevator hub, "If you ever see a couple of vorcha standing outside the elevators, walk away. They'll hold you up and ask you to pay a toll to use it, if you can't pay they'll just steal anything on you. Violently."
Santi nodded, taking the seat next to her in the empty elevator. He seemed to mull over the information before asking Riah, "Aren't there cops or something? I mean uh, if they're there enough for you to warn me about them, people know about them right?"
Riah scoffed, wondering why the kid was so naïve. "They probably pay off the security on these levels. There aren't cops on this station, it's not like C-Sec or any other actual police force, just some hired mercs for the people on the top floors."
"Alright," Santi replied, "Well, thanks for telling me." He offered a smile.
"I'm sure I'd get another smack from my mother if I didn't at least tell you how to survive here." Riah looked at the elevator's display. "I hate these slow elevators. At least this one doesn't have any music." She pointed over to the single remaining speaker, a giant hole from a handgun from someone who couldn't cope anymore. Santi followed her finger as she pointed to the other places speakers should be, "Stolen for parts," she added.
There was about a few minutes of silence as they rode the empty elevator down. Riah often wondered just how dilapidated these elevators were that a trip of a few floors on a station that wasn't that big often took as long as half an hour. Her important musings on the failings of Thessa-Vilk Elevator Company were interrupted when Santi asked something that startled her.
"So, how come you hate humans?"
"I don't." Riah answered, wondering why he'd asked something to forward. Here she was, thinking Santi was a pathetic shy pervert. "I don't hate your species. I hate turians, I hate krogans, I hate asari, I hate the geth. Some of the other races are tolerable, once you learn what they are and how to deal with them."
"But why?" the human asked, and Riah was reminded just how new humans were to the galaxy.
"Load up a history vid," Riah answered, "Look up what's happened to my people." Riah would have left it at that, but whenever she started it was hard for her to stop. "But I don't even need the Morning War for reason, you know why?" Santi nodded no. "Because of the reputation the asari have as the galaxy's sex-crazed maniacs, a reputation they earned on their knees and backs with their "maiden" stage, some of the galaxy's perverts started looking at us." She glanced over at the floor display, they still had time. "Have you seen turians, volus and elcor?" Santi nodded. "There's no way those species would be attracted to me," she gestured at herself, "or your mother. We look too different. But because asari just have to take the best traits from everyone else to fuel their own fetish race, they've made interspecies sexuality mainstream instead of the realm of perverts." Santi flinched, clearly remembering the night they first met and how he'd been caught looking at Riah. "That means that because of them, quarian girls like me and my mother have to deal with leers from other species, sexualizing our suits and masks and hoods." She held her hood, her fingers tracing the designs she'd sown into them ages ago. "See this hood? This design goes back to Rannoch, but no one cares about that! See this mask and suit? I wear it because no species gives a damn, but they sure do love how good we look in them and how tight they fit us."
Santi looked like he regretted starting the conversation, clearly uncomfortable with the way it had gone and seemingly startled at the vehemence in her words. "I'm sorry about that, by the way. You know…" Riah leveled a glare at him, "When I was looking at you that first night. It was rude of me…" Riah continued to look, somewhat pleased that he was at least attempting to apologize, even if only because he was just called out for his behavior. "I shouldn't have. But, you-" He opened his mouth and stopped, realizing he wasn't sure where he was going. "Sorry."
More silence. Riah calmed down enough to continue the conversation, if only to move away from the awkward teenage sexuality. "I don't hate humans. Your kind haven't done anything to mine." She didn't add that she fully expected humans to follow in the steps of every other species and adopt the same prejudices as everyone else. "I just don't like you and your mother."
"But… well, ok." Santi waited a few seconds to compose his thoughts. "But we haven't done anything to you." He sunk back into his seat, hands in his pockets.
"Not directly. But you are at my place all the time, you and your mother." She added a special tone to the last word, indicating just how much she bought that story. "And look around, this isn't exactly the place for sharing."
That seemed to get a rise out of Santi, who sat up straighter, "You don't think we realize that? We're not exactly waking up every day looking forward to being poorer than ghouls you know."
"Good," Riah snorted, the elevator finally stopping and its doors sliding open, the lights from the various shots filtering into the elevator and bathing them in a mix of color. "Then we can go and talk to Varlus, get you your own damn solar collector so you can stop using ours."
"Good," Santi shot back, though the effect was diminished by the fact that he had to follow her for directions. "I'd rather not have to be around you if you're that much of a bitch."