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[baedalites]

Who: EVERYONE.
What: Swap meet.
Where: The Apache and surrounding environs.
When: Sukkardi the 14th of Haneden
Notes:

• Swap Meet Spreadsheet: Pre-chosen swaps are green. Assigned are blue. There were a few characters that were selected more than once, so objects were assigned on a first-come first-serve basis. If you have any issues or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact the mod team.
• For objects that might not be immediately apparent as belonging to their owners, there may be a picture or name attached, or players are welcome to have their characters ~just know~ it's for them. Drr drr drr, bb.
• Party post nights are a great time to come join the chatroom.
• The topic threads are just suggestions; if you've got somewhere else that your characters simply must be, make your own thread.

Warnings: None yet. Please put warnings up on individual threads.

The Apache is much the same as it always is: dimly lit, with the jukebox playing in the background, and the bartender serving whatever's on tap.

Comments

Shepard + Garrus + recipients + anyone who wants to stare at the turian!

[cmdreffingshepard]

It had taken some convincing, but Garrus had agreed to go with her to this thing. They did have items to return to their respective owners, after all. Shepard was wearing a leather jacket, jeans and a t-shirt, rather than her completely-inappropriate-for-a-party armor, and the strange photo album was tucked under her arm as she made a beeline for the bar.

She definitely needed a beer before dealing with this.

Re: Shepard + Garrus + recipients + anyone who wants to stare at the turian!

[somecalibrations]

Garrus was not thrilled about going to this thing, but even for all his protests he never would have let Shepard go by herself. It was easiest to pretend it was just a mission and not some party where he had a niggling itch that it could easily turn into an opportunity for everyone to oggle the turian.

 

He was wary of humans, even after all the ones he'd served with back home. A handful of gems didn't speak for everyone. And here? This could be like the Relay 314 Incident and he felt a lot like he was walking into a nest of thresher maws all by himself.

 

But not really, because ultimately Shepard was at his side. Even if they were both unarmed.

 

His only condition had been that he wasn't going to change. Yes, armor was highly inappropriate for a party, but there simply hadn't been time for clothes shopping in the midst of things. Particularly when a mysterious something that isn't yours appears in your room. If he was going to be painfully obvious, he might as well do so not looking like a complete fool. Not having his rifle already made him feel naked.

So it was that he'd followed her in with all the subtlety that a large alien clad in heavy metal could ever possess, bearing a small kit that rattled a little, probably from the lockpicks inside. Not that he'd know they were lockpicks. You pick locks by hacking them, damnit. 

[cmdreffingshepard]

As far as she was concerned, Garrus looked perfectly normal (and handsome). And while he might encounter some prejudice from humans back home, at least there, most everyone would know what a turian was and what they looked like.

Here, though... Well, the fact that he hadn't been able to find any food he could eat without going into anaphylactic shock probably said as much as she needed to know about whether Baedal was equipped to deal with alien races. Still, no one would ever get used to the way he looked if he didn't go out in public once in a while. And hopefully be his usual, charming self. Even in all that armor.

"So, plan of action?" she asked, a small smile playing on her lips. "I guess I'll just look around until I spot someone who looks like the people in the album..."

[somecalibrations]

He peered at her blankly, mostly to gauge if she was being serious. If that was her plan, they'd be here all night. One could argue that turians all looked alike, but really they were exceptionally diverse to the trained eye. Differences in the shape of fringes, plate colouration, clan markings..

 

Humans? Oh sure there were some differences. Hair, for example. That was already a foreign concept but apparently it came in different shades and lengths. And the males generally looked apart from the females, but then there were some that blurred that line and it got downright awkward.

 

"Doesn't everyone here look like someone in the album?" 

[cmdreffingshepard]

She gave him an affectionate shove, chuckling. "Don't be racist, Garrus. Here -" She flipped open the album to one of the more recent pages, showing him the strange, moving photos. "Do I look anything like them?"

[somecalibrations]

A flick of a mandible indicated a smirk. Just a little one. Really. She'd dragged him into this and he was supposed to be appropriately put off, but she was making that difficult.

 

"Not really.." Hair. Definitely the hair. "But then you've always stood out."

 

A bit of technical curiosity got the better of him and he let his visor -- which of course he was never apart from -- run a scan over the thing. He was quite interested in whatever mechanics had been embedded in the pages to allow the pictures to loop like short vids. That the device turned up nothing was more disappointing than surprising.

 

"The plan is you find who owns this. She needs to explain how this thing works." 

 

Here was a good example of blurring the lines. He noted the long hair. The clothing. These flags screamed 'female'. Where he came from most humans were C-Sec or Alliance. Occasionally colonial. Clothing was logical and hair was cropped short. It didn't occur to him that he wasn't looking at a family of human women. 

[cmdreffingshepard]

Poor, put-upon Garrus. He would have a good time, if Shepard had anything to say about it.

She blinked in surprise, then realized what he was probably seeing - and laughed again. "I could be wrong, but - I think that's a man," she said, pointing him out. Taller, with a square jaw. "I mean, if this year is correct, humans stopped wearing stuff like this quite a bit earlier, but we've also never had moving photographs that I know of, so..."

She shrugged. "The answer will probably be 'magic'." As much as she wished it wasn't.

[somecalibrations]

The smirk remained. He enjoyed hearing her laugh. It had been so rare in the midst of the hunt for the Collectors and impending Reaper doom. Generally what he could extract from her had been at his expense and now seemed to be no different. He could handle that, and all the better if it got that reaction.

"Yours is a very interesting species.." He glossed over the bit about it being magic. Magic was a lie. Had to be. Anything that was generally had an underlying explanation, even if it was complex. Or at least that was a nice lie to tell yourself after being kidnapped by a city.

"Are you hoping for anything? Another gun?"

[cmdreffingshepard]

"This from the guy with blue paint over half his face," she teased. It was comforting, their banter like this. Made her feel a little less like a stranger in a strange land.

She shrugged, glancing around as though someone might step forward at any moment with...something for her. "A gun seems most likely, anyway. Maybe some medi-gel packs?" They probably didn't even have medi-gel here. Weirdos. "Or I guess there are a few things of sentimental value that I left behind." Most everyhing she really would've liked probably wasn't going to be feasible.

"Hopefully you'll get some edible food," she finished. It would really suck to have to watch him starve to death and be unable to help him.

[somecalibrations]

"Hey now, I have it from some very reliable sources that my markings are quite attractive."

 

Medi-gel.. he hadn't even thought of that. He had what was left that his armor was equipped with, but he was really hoping he wouldn't find himself in a situation where he'd have to tear through that supply.

 

"Maybe it helped that I thought really hard about it. Probably not. But it would be nice to have a fall back if this Chnum place comes up empty. I'd hate to have to sell myself into indentured servitude to pay off some ridiculous debt to have someone drag food in."

 

He paused a beat, shaking his head.

 

"I can't believe the things I'm saying." 

[hehaseatenthepancake]

Well, Garrus can fear being the only unusual-looking person in the room no longer. Seven feet tall, bright red only muted slightly by his tan duster coat, he is technically unarmored but not unarmed, with a golden-handled sword slung on his back and now two very old handguns on his belts. His mood lightened slightly by getting his old revolver back, he's tucked the dagger he has to swap in the pocket of his coat for now.

"'Scuse me, folks," he says in his deep rock-crushing voice, gesturing that he'd like to squeeze in by them to get to the bar.

[somecalibrations]

Garrus found that he had to look up somewhat to take in the full form of the.. creature, but was otherwise unperturbed. Somewhere in the back of his mind he noted that and wasn't crazy about it.

If anything, he was a little jealous that this one had come to the party armed to the teeth and he'd thought it polite to leave his rifle at home. How unfair.

Sidestepping, he moved around to Shepard's side, clearing the way but still remaining exactly where he wanted to be. That is, in a nice position to interfere if for some reason there was to be an issue.

[cmdreffingshepard]

Shepard eyed the newcomer warily. She wasn't shocked, or frightened, or even curious so much as she was assessing a potential threat, taking in his size and weaponry and mentally kicking herself for not even bringing her sidearm.

She wasn't bad at hand-to-hand combat, but she wouldn't be able to take down this guy very easily, and she hadn't had the opportunity to even give her biotic abilities a try in Baedal.

But he didn't seem hostile for the moment, so she just filed away the new information - one big red guy with a sword and guns, check.

"The beer here isn't bad," she commented lightly, taking a sip of her own.

[hehaseatenthepancake]

Hellboy's been around long enough to tell that the two of them are sizing him up. He is, however, entirely non-hostile, and just chuckles at the adorableness of synchronized assessment.

"Thanks," he says as he slides into the space provided. "Yeah, I've heard that, but..." The bartender makes his way over, and Hellboy orders a Roy Rogers with only the slightest shrug and arch look to challenge the tender to make something of it before turning back. "I actually quit drinking a little over a year ago. Name's Hellboy." He extends his left hand to shake.

[somecalibrations]

Garrus had been more than content to keep right on playing guard dog, arms crossed over his chest as he kept an eye on things. He had a habit of tapping one finger against his arm when he was tense, and he'd been doing so, adding more wear to the little chip in the paint job he'd worried into it with the repetitive motion.

He assumed the handshake was for Shepard, as she'd spoken up first, and therefore didn't move.

"Hellboy?" He turned that over in his head a moment. "They have interesting naming conventions on your.." Again with that sliding look up and down as he attempted to wrap his head around what he was looking at. Obviously not human, where he could assume everyone else came from some version of Earth. "... planet."

[cmdreffingshepard]

Shepard shook his hand - a bit awkward, given she was right-handed, but she managed. "My name's Shepard, commanding officer of the SSV Normandy, not that that means anything to anyone here. Nice to meet you." She didn't even bat an eyelash at his admission to being a teetotaler. It takes all kinds, after all.

She shot Garrus a somewhat-amused look, then turned back to Hellboy. "And this is Garrus. He's served under me for the past couple of years." In a manner of speaking. Ahem.

[hehaseatenthepancake]

The Normandy doesn't mean anything to Hellboy either, aside from any possible historical references in picking the name, but that Garrus is obviously an alien makes it unsurprising that there's a spaceship involved.

"It's nice to meet you both. And I'm... actually from Earth." The bartender brings his drink, and after paying for it and picking it up, he shifty-eyes and elaborates a little. "Well, mostly. More or less. You can probably make some guesses from the name. It's a long story."

Only a very little elaboration, then, as he hates using the d-word or anything directly relating to Hell in reference to himself.

[asklepios]

Another drink is in order for Dr Bernát, and it's that and not nosy interest in Lucius Malfoy's business that brings her up to the bar again--

--but women are known for their ability to multitask, and the movement of the images catches her eye while she's waiting for the bartender's attention. It only takes her another moment to realize the familiarity, and the particular age; this isn't the younger Malfoy, associated with Hellsing.

“Excuse me,” she says, polite, French-accented, resting her hand by the album on the bar. “This is what you received?”

[cmdreffingshepard]

Shepard quickly sizes up the woman: she doesn't really look much like the family in the photos, but that doesn't mean it's not hers, or that she won't know who it belongs to.

She also doesn't appear, at first glance, to be all that threatening. Not likely armed, anyway.

Shepard shows the album to her, the family crest emblazoned on the cover. "Yeah. Do you recognize it?"

[asklepios]

“I do, yes-- may I?” She doesn't take it, quite, but she's clearly intending to do so if permitted. “Lucius is not much for this place, I think; I can get it to him.”

Benevenuta - 'Dr Bernát' - isn't exactly the dive bar type, either, but she's also a little more flexible in that way than her friend in the photographs. (She wouldn't look terribly out of place by Lucius's wife, but that speaks less to her connection to the family and more to the fact that the man has a type.)

“A friend of mine,” she adds, by way of explanation.

[cmdreffingshepard]

Shepard looks a bit more in her element, though just a bit. She still holds herself like a soldier, despite the beer she's nursing, and the hamster ball near her elbow which occasionally emits a squeak.

"Well, in that case, by all means," Shepard says, handing the album over. Normally, she'd be suspicious, but she can't imagine what kind of value it could have to someone other than its owner.

"I'm Shepard, by the way." She might as well introduce herself.

[asklepios]

“Vanessza,” she introduces herself, smiling, as she slides the album under her arm; she's still got to figure out exactly what it is that she's acquiring tonight, but this is one thing down, at least. And she's already made sure Rex's gets to him, as...moderately worrying as that had been. “Dr Vanessza Bernát. Are you a recent arrival?”

[cmdreffingshepard]

"Yeah - less than a week," Shepard admitted. "Still trying to get my bearings. Most people have been pretty helpful, so far."

[asklepios]

“The city is, ah, it makes it easier for people to settle in.” As much as she likes Baedal, on the whole...well, she's reserving judgement about a lot of how it manages itself.

Or she's reserving comment, anyway.

[cmdreffingshepard]

"You talk about it as though the city itself is sentient," Shepard says lightly.

Lightly, because of course that has to be a joke. Right?