Polarity

[cogs]

[Kah' Shajir nar Ikatomi]
_{Needed some time, so I could find,
a little strength to redefine.}

It was necessary for Kahla to pick up supplies before she left for her grand adventure. Tch. She almost snorted. The Citadel was no place for a girl like her. It was so...low key. It was a mistake to even think about living here. A waste of money, a waste of time. Business had gone down the drain, bounties were hard to find, or picked up by C-Sec. Goddamn those handsome men in uniform.

So the Quarian needed another change in venue, this time to something much more familiar: the Terminus system. Either to Iilium or Omega. Nitty gritty, down and filthy. That was where she belonged. Bounty Hunters were meant to roam where authority could not reach. Where the law could be bent and twisted. Right now, the Citadel was not such a place.

Her fingers glided over the kiosk, perusing the ammunition this merchant offered. Kahla's head tilted to the side, nothing special. She was starting to think that she should have gone to the lower wards. It was as shady as the Citadel could get. Pitiful, really. Nothing really compared to Aria's domain. What else could you expect from the Citadel, though?

Besides the poor selection and the even lower crime rate, there were quarians who wandered in and out of the Citadel like lost rabbits. It was a prime destination for pilgrimages, and Kahla did her damn best to avoid them. They always wanted to stop and chat, because oh, quarians never see other quarians outside of the pilgrimage. It was apparently a "rare happenstance". No, no it wasn't, kiddies. It was all too often.

"Yeah, I'll take this."

Kahla selected what she deemed worthy of her weapons from the kiosk, and the shop manager only nodded in agreement. She turned, hefting a pack over her shoulder, and her fingers on her hip. A strong, independent quarian that didn't need no man or migrant fleet.

A strange sight to see, especially in what was considered to be the "good" part of town. Armed with a sniper rifle on her back, and an SMG on her hip, as well as the rest of her little attachments, Kahla looked like she was about to dive into some sort of fray. Which, in a sense, she was. Omega was no play ground, and she would be damned if she got caught off guard again.

She was actually looking forward to see her old hunting grounds, though. Little to no quarian visitation, and and old contact of hers practically lived there. It was just about all she needed. Kahla turned her visor to the next merchant. Sometimes she forgot she was a quarian and needed antibiotics and herbal supplements to survive infections. Right.

This was going to be her last stop before she headed off this forsaken rock. Hopefully a very short, brief exchange, then she'd be gone. No doubt, she would come back eventually. She had paid off that apartment for a few months, and Kahla intended on using it. However, in the present, she was glad to be only hours away from getting back to what she did best.

Taking out the trash.

...from a distance because ew that's gross.

[Syri]

rana'venah nar qwib-qwib

It wasn't uncommon for Rana to be found wandering the Wards. It had become her hangout ever since she first arrived on the Citadel for her pilgrimage. Though at first the heart of galactic politics had turned out to be a hive of crime and corruption (at least on the Wards - the Presidium just looked nice but was much less blatant about the dirtier dealings going on), she had quickly adapted to her surroundings. She knew how to handle herself, how to avoid being scammed, how to avoid the big hotzones for criminal activity and other dangerous things... by now, she was pretty sure she had mastered the art of survival.

Of course, the quarian couldn't just get by with simply wandering around all day with nothing to do. Each day she would run around, gather all the scraps she could find (without provoking the local mercenaries and gang-types into attacking her), and then sell them for some credits. Maybe she'd eventually save up enough money to buy herself one of those used ships for salvage... that would be a perfect pilgrimage gift. However, considering that she only received somewhere around 10-50 credits per piece of scrap she salvaged depending on how nice it was, and that the ships usually cost somewhere upwards of at least a hundred thousand credits... well, she was going to be stuck here for a while.

But that wouldn't stop her from trying. She was determined to prove herself. She was determined to prove that she could take care of herself, and that her leaving very late on her pilgrimage wasn't a sign that she had become too dependent upon the friendly community of the Flotilla. Rana had never been competitive, or an over-achiever, but this was her pilgrimage she was talking about! She had to return with something good... to prove to her new crew that she would be a benefit to them and not a handicap, and she was determined to do this any way possible, even if it meant she had to stay on the Citadel for a decade trying to scrounge up enough credits to buy a crummy ship.

That was what she was doing now, cashing in her collecting scraps. It only amounted to about 80 credits, but at least it was a step forward. Rana was not easily discouraged... which was probably a bad trait to have in this case, given that her goal was virtually impossible. As she left the shop, she noticed another quarian in the distance - she was wearing the most unique suit, all different kinds of colors! Rana wouldn't let this chance go to waste. She hadn't seen another quarian in months, and it would be good to reminisce about old times on the Flotilla and learn all about what ship she'd been from and what she had been doing, and maybe even what gift she was planning on bringing back!

The excited quarian girl rushed over to Kahla, "Hello there! I'm Rana."

[/color] She stated, following the good old quarian custom that involved introducing herself, since it was so hard to know who was behind the suit, "It's so nice to see another quarian on pilgrimage around here. I thought I was the only one!"[/color] She thought that it would be nice meeting another quarian... little did she know, Kahla wasn't exactly the quarian she had been hoping to find.[/blockquote][/blockquote][/size]

[cogs]

[Kah' Shajir nar Ikatomi]
_{A lesson learned,
speak out of turn,
I bite my tongue it bleeds.}

The antibiotics were stuffed in her pack, and Kahla was all set to go. What a pain being a quarian was. Weak immune systems, infections from even the slightest contact, and oh, yeah. The only intimacy you could really have was linking suits, and even that got you sick for a few days. Kahla’s hues rolled so far back, she was afraid she might lose her eye balls to her skull. She turned on her toes, bending her head down so she might actually see where she was securing the pack to her belt.

Everything was going swimmingly, and then a voice broke through her helmet. Kahla turned her visor to the side to look at Rana, and held her hands up immediately.
“Whoa, whoa. Hold your horses, there. Back up.”
The taller quarian took a step back, tilting her head to the side,” Sorry to rain on your parade, but you are the only one on pilgrimage here, sweetheart.” She dropped her hands to her pack, and then checked up on her rifle. Had to make sure all her stuff was on her, Rana sort of startled her, and for a moment she was off guard. Kahla shifted her weight, crossing her arms in a very closed posture. Another kiddie from the fleet that she was in no mood to deal with.

Perhaps Kahla did have a dream much like Rana’s at some point in time. Her parents raised her saying that a ship was the best possible gift to present to a captain. It took a lot of hard work, but it was worth it, they said. That delusion was long dead for her. Kahla had thrown all expectations and thoughts of the migrant fleet aside when she left. Maybe she could have scrapped up enough dough for a used ship, but really, that thought never even crossed her mind. Almost twenty years on “pilgrimage” and she had invested what she earned in her job.

From her weapons to the modified child’s suit. One of these days, she ought to sneak back and steal an adult suit, because this one was getting dull and tiresome. Constant changes kept her happy, but she really had no clue how she was even going to attempt that. Too hard. Let’s just stick to adjusting it piece by piece, huh? That worked well for the past few years.

“Listen, I’ve got a ship to catch, people to hunt. The deal. So if you wanna catch up on the good ole times on that wretched “fleet”, sweet heart..”
Kahla put her hands on her hip, bending down so she was visor to visor with Rana and hissed,” Yer gonna hafta do that with someone who ain’t Kah’Shajir nar Ikatomi.”

Possibly Rana could just barely make out that scowl through the teal tinted glass. Sure, her full name could carry some weight with the other quarian, maybe. It really depended. She was unaware of what the fleet thought. The quarian who never came back, pronounced dead, most likely. She sort of ignored all of the messages she received from the fleet. They went into the spam folder.

It was actually kind of an aggressive move made by Kahla, really. Usually, she atleast amused them. Now, she just wanted Rana out of her way and out of her sight.

_{(man, my muse is kind of dead, I'm sorry;}

[Syri]

rana'venah nar qwib-qwib

Rana blinked under the visor, not having expected such a reaction from a quarian! She had been expecting someone with the same outlook as her: excited to be on their pilgrimage, a little lost since they'd had no exposure to the real world before, perhaps even looking for a friend to confide in temporarily since the inhabitants of the Citadel didn't seem so keen on becoming buddies with a quarian. Maybe she was just stressed, or something was bothering her, or maybe Rana had just been way too excitable in the first place... so many possibilities. She hoped she wasn't at fault.

As commanded, Rana took a few steps away from the taller quarian shortly after her request, slightly embarrassed that she'd invaded Kahla's personal space. Thankfully the mask covered her face, otherwise she'd probably be blushing pretty hard right now. But what Kahla said next was enough to take her mind off of the embarrassment - wait, Kahla wasn't on pilgrimage? Was she sent here by the Fleet to recover some items? Oh, no! If she was interfering with official business of the Migrant Fleet - oh, Keelah! Like she wasn't struggling enough on her pilgrimage!

No, wait. Kahla's suit was definitely that of a child. Well, maybe she had just chosen not to alter her suit once she'd completed her pilgrimage. Oh, and all the different colors just told one vibrant story about her life... they were so pretty, much more elaborate than her simple black and light blue outfit. Maybe once she was done she'd do something similar, and collect a bunch of cloth and have it sewn onto her suit. For the moment, she was pretty much standing there in complete awe - she was definitely picturing Kahla as some valiant Migrant Fleet Marine with a past as colorful as her suit was.

However, that perception all went down the drain when Kahla stooped down so that they were visor-to-visor and introduced herself as Kah'Shajir nar Ikatomi. Wait, how wasn't she on pilgrimage if she was still a nar? Rana blinked, twitching nervously and unable to speak. To be honest, Kahla really frightened her. She didn't know quarians could be so hostile! It took her a little while to compose herself, but finally, she managed to ask, "Wait - how are you, um, not on pilgrimage? Your name - it hasn't changed..."

[/color] She wrung her hands together anxiously, having a feeling the subject might be a sensitive one. Perhaps she really should have thought that one over, first.

But really, her curiosity got the better of her. Who was Kahla, why wasn't she on her pilgrimage despite being a nar? She'd heard stories about those few quarians that never returned to the Flotilla after their pilgrimage was complete... but she had thought those were only rumors. Maybe she was one of those few who had chosen to never return. It was as soon as that idea came to her head that Rana became all the more interested in who Kahla was.

(( it's okay, my muse has kinda been a little bleh lately too xD ))[/blockquote][/blockquote][/size]