Gathering: Halloween Gala

[concierge]

A large, decorative sign situated prominantly in the lobby reads:

The Nexus Hotel
proudly presents its
ANNUAL HALLOWEEN GALA

Formal Reception
Nexus Dining Hall
6 PM - Midnight

Monster Mixer
Nexus Basement
8 PM - 2 AM

Masquerade attire recommended for all guests

Most of the chairs have been removed from the Dining Hall to allow for ballroom-style dancing to the orchestra set up on the far end of the room. A polished cherry wood open bar is aligned along one wall. The adjacent Bistro is open for the duration of the formal reception, serving gourmet hors d'oeuvres.

Downstairs, the basement's largest storeroom has been converted into a spooky nightclub, complete with DJ, dance floor and cocktails.

Comments

[miss_vas_normandy]

"No--well, yes," Tali amended quickly. "I don't remember ever starving living in the Flotilla, but we are always careful to conserve our resources. It's more that I couldn't physically tolerate the foods that most other species ate. They had no nutritional value for my species, and would have probably made me very sick."

She's spent enough time among humans that she's familiar with handshakes, she's just not used to touching people without gloves on. It still throws her a little, and she's always worried she'll hold on too long or let go too quickly, but not returning the gesture seems rude. "It's nice to meet you. Are you human? I mean, you look human, but everyone I've met so far looks human, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they are--it's not rude to ask, is it?"

[rangerbecket]

"100% human," he promises, grinning at her. "So I'm guessing you're not? You look human to me."

Raleigh doesn't know a lot about alien species other than kaiju and she definitely isn't that.

[miss_vas_normandy]

"Quarian," Tali explained, then backtracked again. "Well, no, I mean, here I seem to be completely human. Which is very odd and is taking some getting used to. But I'm a quarian." She smiled sheepishly. "You probably don't know what that is, most humans here don't. That's also taken some getting used to, and some explaining. It's easier to just say that your species considers me an alien and leave it at that."

[rangerbecket]

"I think I'd like to hear it," Raleigh says. He is honestly intrigued by the idea of a friendly alien species because the kaiju are anything but.

"I mean, if you want."

[miss_vas_normandy]

"I don't mind," Tali replied after a brief, thoughtful pause. "I've just never really had to explain my people's situation in full to someone before. In my...time? Or world? I don't really know which one is the more appropriate to use. My people were driven from their homeworld by a race of machines that we had created. Since then we've lived nomadically, aboard a fleet of spaceships. It's not the easiest life, but so far we've managed to survive. Usually I would have to wear an environmental suit or I would run the risk of getting an infection just from breathing unfiltered air. This is the first time in my life I've ever been able to live outside of the suit."

[rangerbecket]

"Damn," Raleigh says softly. He couldn't imagine being unable to even breathe the air without getting sick and imagines that's got to be hard on someone. And here she can, so that's freedom in a way she's never had, isn't it?

"You must love it here, then. Eat whatever you want, breathe the air. I guess you can't touch people either?"

[miss_vas_normandy]

"Not with bare skin, no," Tali replied, hoping she wasn't blushing as she finally gave in and picked up a sushi roll to take a bite. It wasn't the easiest task, since the entire thing seemed as though it wanted to fall apart. It was still tasty, and fairly mild. "The closest we come to contact is linking our suit environments. We get sick, but we adapt. It's a gesture of trust. Being here like this, well, it's liberating in a way, but I also feel exposed. Like I might as well be naked, even though I know that's stupid."

[rangerbecket]

"I guess it makes sense, since your species is so different," Raleigh says, mulling it over.

"I don't know how I would feel if I was walking around my equivalent of naked. Probably a little off balance, to be honest."

[miss_vas_normandy]

"Yes, exactly!" Tali pointed at him and nodded enthusiastically, glad that it was easier to understand than she'd expected. "It seems so much colder. The suit always runs a little warm. I feel like I bundle up and people look at me strangely, but I feel cold and exposed if I don't."

She shrugged a little and sipped her drink through a straw. "Are you from Earth, then? I guess if you're not familiar with aliens your people haven't colonized other worlds yet?"

[rangerbecket]

"The aliens that came to our world weren't exactly friendly," Raleigh explains. "But yeah, I'm from Earth. We had giant monsters come at us from the Pacific ocean and that was a barrel of laughs, let me tell you. It wasn't something I'd wish on my worst enemy."

He grins at her. "I would prefer the aliens look like you."

[miss_vas_normandy]

Tali smiled and blushed, though her darker complexion hid it a little. "Well. I don't usually look like this. Quarian anatomy is a little different. Two fewer fingers, three fewer toes, and the lower portion of our legs curve--I still have trouble running, I always feel like I'm about to topple over. But, ah, thank you, I think."

[rangerbecket]

"Sounds cool," Raleigh says, honestly interested. He's never going to be a science guy or anything but he likes to know about the kaiju before he kills them. This is different still, since Tali's race is apparently human-friendly.

"So uh, are all the aliens friendly where you come from?"

[miss_vas_normandy]

"Definitely not," Tali replied, making a bit of a face. "There's the reapers, the collectors...my own people were at war with the geth--an artificial intelligence that we created hundreds of years ago. Then there are the batarians, the vorcha, the krogan...none of them are very friendly. The volus are mostly benign, but they'll rob you blind if you allow it. What you would likely consider the friendliest races would be the asari, the elcor, the hanar, the salarian and, well, the quarian. Your own people had a conflict with the turians shortly after first contact, but I think everyone's had a conflict with the turians, at some point."

[rangerbecket]

"I couldn't imagine being on a speaking basis with that many different species," Raleigh says, amazed at how far advanced her version of the universe seems to be compared to his. They don't have anything but the kaiju and they're not exactly talkers.

"What's your job, then?"

[miss_vas_normandy]

"I can't imagine thinking you're alone in the universe," Tali admitted with a shake of her head. "But so many people here really seem to think that they are. Maybe they're right. That seems strange to me...and a little sad, and lonely."

Since her system seemed to be all right with it--no breaking out in a rash, no constriction of her airways or churning stomach--Tali ate another bite of sushi. "I'm an engineer," she replied after she'd chewed and swallowed. "Specifically starship engines. It's an important job, when your people live exclusively on ships, so quarians have a lot of engineers. I haven't really figured out what to do with myself here. There aren't exactly a lot of drive cores that need to be cleaned up. What about you, what do you do?"

[rangerbecket]

"Break shit that engineers build for me," Raleigh teased, flashing her a broad grin. It wasn't far from the truth.

"I'm a jaeger pilot. It's a kind of giant robot, if that makes sense at all."

[miss_vas_normandy]

"Like a mech?" Tali asked, her interest piqued. "I've never heard them called a 'jeager' before, but I suppose you could consider the words 'mech' and 'robot' interchangeable. How do you pilot them? How large are they, exactly?"

[rangerbecket]

"We use a neural interface," Raleigh explains. "And as far as size? As big as a skyscraper. They're huge but so are the kaiju, so we need to match them for height and weight."

[miss_vas_normandy]

"Is that not dangerous?" Tali asked, remembering Cerberus's Project Overlord, and the boy that had been turned into a hybrid of man and machine. Then she huffed a soft laugh. "Though something that large, well--we could have used something like that against the Reapers. Are these kaiju organic lifeforms?"

[rangerbecket]

"They are, but only in the sense that they're alive. They're genetically engineered, I think. At least, that's what our scientist says. Who knows if that's the truth." Raleigh isn't a scientist by any stretch.

"His name's Newt. I've seen him in the hotel a few times. Nice guy but a little...twitchy."

[miss_vas_normandy]

"I wouldn't doubt it if it was true. Did your own people engineer them?" That was something Tali could understand very well, given the quarian's history with the geth.

"I don't think I've met him...then again I haven't met that many people yet."

[rangerbecket]

"No, another species did," Raleigh explains. "They travel here through a rift in our Pacific ocean. There's a little tear in the fabric between worlds, as much as I understand it, and it allows cross-dimensional travel."

He laughs a little, awkward. "I'm no scientist. I'm not explaining it well."

[miss_vas_normandy]

"I'm not either," Tali assured him with a quick grin. "So as far as I can tell, you're explaining it just fine. I think you must be from a different Earth than the one that I know of, I don't remember anyone mentioning that bit of human history."

[rangerbecket]

"Weird, that there can be more than one," he says, thinking about how when he was a kid he would have never imagined that was possible.

[miss_vas_normandy]

"Very," Tali agreed, finding the idea strange but interesting. "It makes me wonder, is there another Rannoch, too? Maybe the history of my people is different somewhere else."