Don't fuck with Aria (queenofomega) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2018-07-24 14:29:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, aria t'loak, clara oswald |
Who: Clara and Aria
What: Meeting
When: Recently
Where: Clara’s Diner
Warnings: Low
For once, Aria needed to get her head out of work and take to the roads. She was riding her Ducati 959 Panigale motorcycle. Though Aria wasn’t wearing a helmet mostly because despite the human disguise she wore, her skull was not human-shaped and she hadn’t yet come up with a helmet design to accommodate her Asari skull structure and look natural. But that definitely wasn’t at the top of her list of things to do.
So for now, she roamed the roads, having gone outside the city for a nice long drive to just feel the wind against her face. Ideally, she longed for Omega, her home for a couple centuries in her dreams. But she also knew if it was actually here, she would spend all of her time up there despite the fact it would be empty.
By the time she got back within city limits, she felt something a little funny on her bike, like maybe she had a tire going flat. So she pulled over at the first place she found, which happened to be a diner that she hadn’t noticed before, but that was incidental at the moment. Aria parked outside of it, cut the engine and got off the bike to inspect the tires. With her blue hair, that had streaks of lighter blue and green running through it, paired with her clothing style, she certainly seemed like she belonged in a heavy metal band. Her pants had tears across the knees, and her shirt was more torn than it was in tact (intentional on the designer’s part) and her black bra could be seen beneath the shirt, but she didn’t care about that.
She knelt down to examine both tires, eventually finding that the front one definitely seemed to be low. Great, she’d have to get to a garage to see if the tire had been punctured or not. But while she was stopped, she might as well step into the diner to at least get something to drink before dealing with a mechanic.
Stepping inside the diner, the aesthetic caught her attention. Taking her sunglasses off and resting them on top of her head, her blue eyes glanced around. It was rather retro. Totally not her thing, but to each their own. It seemed to suit this place, and it wasn’t her place to judge.
Clara knew that the design wasn’t everyone’s taste though to be fair, the diner had been designed by what she’d been told by the Doctor. There of course was then the whole time space question of did the Doctor end up in a diner in the past that he described to someone else? It was a headache but either way, she had chosen the design because it had meant something to the Doctor and since he hadn’t remembered her… well, it was complicated and then the chameleon circuit ended up broken and it was stuck that way.
Which worked out for her here since she could just randomly leave the door unlocked and see who came in. But it still wasn’t for everyone and she took no offense to that.
The brunette had actually been in the control room when Aria walked in and the biometric scan showed up on her control panel as reading her newest customer as alien. Oh, fascinating!
Coming out of the ‘kitchen’, Clara went to behind the bar and smiled.
“Hello, what can I get you?”
The juxtaposition of a retro American diner with a British owner was always an interesting one.
When the brunette came out of the kitchen, Aria looked her over. Retro American diner and a British owner. That was quite the juxtaposition, and Aria did find it a bit amusing. That was an aesthetic that she could appreciate. Something unexpected.
“Do you serve any alcohol? If not, water will be fine.” Aria responded, moving to take a seat at the bar. She wasn’t all that hungry, but if it came to it, a salad was the only thing that sounded good to her. While she was an alien with a physiology that was extremely different from a human’s, she could eat human food with no problem.
That was one of the perks to being an Asari, she didn’t need special food grown for her. Not to mention if she couldn’t drink alcohol, there would’ve been a serious problem. But as it was, she enjoyed being Asari.
Clara was anything but expected. She might be a neurotic control freak, but she also thought outside the box and in many ways had become similar to the Doctor herself. Add in her lack of a heart and current inability to die and well…. Reckless and unexpected were things she excelled at.
“I do actually, what would you like?”
The joys of having a TARDIS. While technically one wouldn’t think there would be a wide variety of choices in terms of alcohol, the TARDIS made it possible that whatever someone wanted was available on hand. Even if it was alien in nature - which usually only happened when people from the Network showed up. And given what she had picked up on the control panel? That was entirely possible now.
Well, that was certainly a pleasant surprise. Aria may have expected wine, if anything, but she was suddenly given a choice in the matter. And, well, there was one liquor she’d been craving but it didn’t actually exist in this world.
“I’ve been craving an Akantha lately.” It was an Asari liquor, perhaps something close to a bourbon or some sort of alcohol that had a warm, smoky flavor and a sweet aftertaste. “But I can take a bourbon straight up as well. Akantha was a specialty drink I had a while back.” More like in another life and before Cerberus and the Reapers had fucked up her life.
Aria was one who liked alcohol, though she rarely ever got drunk. She preferred to remain in control of herself at all times. Not to mention that currently, she’d have to drive to a garage anyway. Best not to overdo the alcohol.
It had been a while before Clara had decided to actually start ‘stocking’ alcohol. She’d made jokes on the network about if she ever sold wine. But then she had remembered that she had a TARDIS and so it wasn’t nearly as hard to sell alcohol as she had wondered. It wasn’t exactly advertised, however that made it a sort of speakeasy in a way.
So. Alien liquor. At least that was Clara’s guess. She gave a small nod though.
“I’ll go see what I can dig up.” Heading into the back, Clara found a room where there was alcohol and… ha. Just as she had thought, the Akantha was there. That was certainly one good thing about a ship like this. Returning to the front of the TARDIS and diner part, she poured a glass and handed it to Aria.
“Here you go.”
When she didn’t question the Akantha, that piqued Aria’s interest, though it didn’t show on her face. She tended to keep that sort of thing close to her chest. But she was curious now, and she waited while the owner went to check the stock. And when she came back with Akantha? That was even more intriguing.
“Well, this is no ordinary diner, is it?” Aria stated, more than asked. She didn’t know it was actually a time machine, but it clearly had non-Earth liquor stocked in it. Which made her wonder just what this woman dreamt of. She took the glass in hand, taking in the aroma of the Akantha for a moment before she took a sip of it. And it was good Akantha as well.
“So, do you dream of aliens, then? Aliens such as Asari, Krogan and Turians, perhaps?” If she didn’t, then how did she come to have Akantha?
“The diner is anything but ordinary.” Grinning, Clara leaned on the bar across from Aria. After all, once she brought out the alien liquor, it would be a dead give away that she was both a Dreamer and this place was from her own dreams.
“Aliens, yes. Asari, Krogan, and Turians, no. But travelling through space and time does come with some benefits.”
Well then, at least they could drop the pretense. Aria did hate tip-toeing around certain subjects when she was wanting to know the truth of the matter. So this woman was a Dreamer, and this diner undoubtedly had some connection to the woman’s dream world.
“Space and time? Fancy. Time travel didn’t exist in my dreams, but space travel did.” At least so far as the Milky Way galaxy went. Travel outside the bounds of the Milky Way galaxy hadn’t yet come into being. Even if Aria had heard of a project called the Andromeda Initiative which aimed to travel to the Andromeda galaxy, but that didn’t precisely concern her given it wasn’t even certain that they’d arrive safely. Space travel in the Milky Way was dangerous enough. And knowing that the Reapers lurked in dark space, she had to wonder how the Initiative could’ve snuck past the Reapers.
“Well, at least you have experience with aliens then, for I am definitely not human.” She sipped her Akantha again and more than savored the taste.
While Clara didn’t mind pretenses as she got a number of different people who showed up in her diner or wanted her help investigating things, she also did like being able to speak more plainly and not in innuendo that only some would pick up given the nature of the network.
“A bit. It does seem a lot of people are familiar with space travel here.” Her friend was Captain Kirk of the Enterprise after all, plus others who spoke of dreaming of traveling through space who didn’t share a dream world with her and her dad. The invasions of Orange County was proof enough of that.
“I noticed. Though seeing at how my dad is now an alien with two hearts? Yeah. I definitely have experience with aliens.”
Generally, Aria preferred pretense or vague talk when she didn’t trust someone. And Aria didn’t trust a lot of people. But she typically only used such talk when she had a secret that no one else should know about. Mainly related to her personal history, but sometimes she had other secrets and other people to protect. But at other times, she preferred straight talk. Such as right now.
However, her suspicious nature rose again when the woman stated that she’d noticed. Her eyes narrowed slightly, and she briefly glanced towards her wrist as if checking to see if she was wearing what looked like a bracelet. She was wearing it, so she knew her disguise was in place. Also seeing her multi-colored hair help reinforce that she did look outwardly human currently.
“You noticed? Did you scan me or something?” That seemed to be the most logical explanation. Unless this woman had other abilities that allowed her to know these things.
While it wasn’t exactly something she tried to do, the TARDIS did have security protocols in place.
“Well this isn’t exactly your normal diner,” As evidenced by the fact she was able to give Aria the alcohol she had requested. “It’s also a space and time travel ship and one of the security protocols is to scan those who enter and if someone is a threat, not allow them in.”
It wasn’t like she was going to do anything with the information. It wasn’t Clara’s place to say anything and she honestly didn’t care. She just enjoyed talking to the people who came through the doors or helping them if they were in need of information.
Space and time travel ship. Interesting. Though after the explanation, the suspicious edge disappeared as Aria more than understood security protocols. She tended to go to great lengths for security in her dreams, even going so far as to scan people to ensure they were who they said they were.
“At least I was not deemed a threat, then. Though you have me curious. Time travel is not something that exists in my dream world. Space travel is limited to the confines of the Milky Way galaxy, helped by the Mass Effect Relays.” The relays definitely helped in speeding travel across the expansive galaxy.
And Aria’s race were the most advanced of the space-faring races. Not that she felt a particular kinship to science or advancement in such things. Aria had worn many hats in her one thousand years of life, taken several names. Commando, mercenary, de facto ruler of a space station where the worst of the worst made their living and gangs ran rampant. Or at least as rampant as Aria’s iron fist allowed them to. She was by no means a nice person, but she had a kind of nobility to her, and she always kept her word. If someone broke a deal or attacked her, she would respond in kind. Otherwise, she was pleasant enough unless she was in a mood.
Security protocols were important. Especially in Orange County and definitely in her Dreams. So at least it seemed that Aria didn’t think too much of it once she heard the reasoning for how she ended up scanned. It was just a safety procedure and nothing more.
“Nope, if you had been, you wouldn’t have been able to get in. Seems usually people find themselves here when they need to.” It was a good way to get clients who needed help. She’d heard the Doctor say how the TARDIS sometimes took him where he needed to go and not where he wanted and it seemed that was the case with those who showed up at her diner as well.
“Huh, interesting. It does seem that different dreams have different rules when it comes to travelling through space.”
Luckily for Aria, Clara was used to her dad, so grumpy or not the most people-y of people was something she was more than familiar with and took no offence to it.
“Clearly that was the case with me.” Aria hadn’t intended to stay here overly long, but there was obviously some reason. Which seemed to be that this wasn’t an ordinary diner. She took another savoring taste of the Akantha.
“It seems so. Or perhaps the civilization I know has not advanced far enough to have time travel technology. Though it is unsurprising we do not have it, the Reapers tend to ensure no one advances farther than space travel.” Aria hated the Reapers, but at least Shepard had managed to defeat them and break the cycle. Every 50,000 the Reapers came and harvested all the space-faring races, leaving the younger ones alone. It was rather gruesome, but some previous species that had fallen victim to the Reapers had left some interesting technology behind, such as the Protheans.
“It clearly was.” And there was nothing wrong with that. Sometimes people just didn’t know what it was they needed. True it was really only a conversation at the moment but it was good conversation and Aria was able to have the alcohol from her dreams that she wouldn’t have anywhere else.
“Reapers. I seem to recall them attacking here. Nasty buggers so that doesn’t surprise me that they would make it so that advancements in space travel might not be doable.”
Like it or not, there were logistics that had to be considered and there was only so much that could be done with genius ideas when there wasn’t the ability to implement it.
“Yes, I remember. I arrived here not long before they showed up here. Orange County should consider itself lucky. I saw the complete devastation they wreaked on the galaxy. My home planet was nearly lost, but Shepard saved the day.” Even so, billions upon billions of lives had been lost, but things had worked out in the end. Shepard had stopped the Reapers for good, and the galaxy could work on rebuilding itself.
“Every 50,000 years they would come and harvest all the space-faring races. So no one ever had the chance to develop technology further. Even my own people had had space travel for over one thousand years by the time the Reapers came, yet time travel was still out of our grasp.”
As much as Aria liked to think highly of herself, and even sometimes her own race, she felt that if someone managed to develop time travel technology, it would probably be a Salarian. Salarians tended to be the technical and scientific geniuses in the galaxy more than the other races, after all.
“Hell of a welcome to the area.” Orange County did seem to get invaded a lot. But that sort of timing was… well, something she was amused by for the sheer fact that time travel gave the concept a whole new meaning. Though there was also the concern that invaders from her own dreams would eventually show up. Given the handful of those who shared that dream world, it was shocking something hadn’t come through yet.
“I definitely can see how we lucked out though. That’s awful.”
“You’re telling me,” she said with some bemusement. Aria had given Shepard a hard time about that, but they’d at least survived. That was the important part. At least her club hadn’t been open yet to get destroyed by the Reaper ground forces. Though she could’ve used her biotics back then. That would’ve helped in fighting, but that was besides the point.
“They tried to kill me, but I slipped through their fingers.” It had been close, though. Escaping the Citadel hadn’t been easy, but she’d managed to get to her ship and escape. After everything she’d been through in her life, she wasn’t going to die at the hands of Reapers.
“So, are you curious to know what I really look like?” Best to ask first instead of just take the disguise off. Even those familiar with aliens weren’t always ready to see one without some sort of warning.
Yes, surviving was indeed the most important thing in these sorts of situations. It did seem a lot of buildings in the area should have insurance for such things but the rates would be hell given the frequency. But given there was earthquake insurance as well as fire given the area…
“Honestly, what is with invading species and their desire to kill everyone?”
Clara was all too familiar with that thanks to her dreams. But given the change of topic…
“I'd be lying if I said no,” and she was a brilliant liar, “But I didn't want to put you on the spot. Especially as there are human looking alien races as well.”
“Aside from racial tensions, who even knows.” Aria had never quite immersed herself in wars in her dreams, aside from her time spent as a Commando of course. She preferred to live and let live unless someone fucked with her, then she’d repay them in kind.
“It is no trouble. I am a humanoid, but I certainly don’t look human.” She glanced around just to ensure that they were alone before she lifted her left wrist and pulled a thin silver bracelet-looking thing off of her wrist. As soon as it was off, her human appearance disappeared.
Instead of white skin, she had deep blue, almost purple skin that had a scale-like pattern to it if one looked close enough. She had no hair either, instead there were tentacle-like things made of cartilage that swept back over her skull. The other striking thing about her appearance were the dark purple facial markings she had that outlined her face and gave her a bit of a menacing look. Her eyes remained the same shade of blue they had been, though the color seemed more intense when compared to the color of her skin.
While the TARDIS did tend to let people in who needed it, it also knew when to keep people out and so there was currently no risk of anyone walking in as Aria revealed her true nature. And Clara just nodded appreciatively. She had seen a lot in her dreams and so this was nothing for her at all. She did appreciate the look though.
“That’s brilliant.”
A proud little smirk crossed her face at Clara’s statement. Aria liked the way she looked, and she was definitely confident in that. “Thank you. I always found my species to be elegant-looking when compared to some of the other species in my dreams.” Of course, Asari were also one of the longest-lived species in the galaxy. Only the Krogan tended to have longer lifespans, though they had help from redundant organs and so forth.
“If there is anything you wish to ask, go ahead.” While Aria was intensely secretive about herself, she could talk about her species at length to those who wished to know.
There was absolutely nothing wrong with being confident in yourself. Some people might take it to the extreme but the constant need to downplay oneself just because it was ~impolite~ or whatever other rubbish people came up with? Well. That wasn’t Clara’s way.
“Oh, I wouldn’t even know where to start.”
There were so many things that she could come up with to ask.
“I feel like it would require many nights meeting up for drinks or something.” Though she did have the alcohol of Aria’s dreams so who knew. It could be a thing and Clara was always up for making new friends.
Aria chuckled a little. There was always a million questions that came up when one encountered a new species. Of course, Aria hadn’t been entirely curious about other species in general, only individuals that caught her attention. Which tended to be the better way to go in a galaxy with several sentient species running around. She also wasn’t a scientist, and didn’t harbor any interest in others to that extent.
“I would not be opposed to meeting for drinks, especially considering you have Akantha.” Aria finished off her drink, then looked at Clara. “I’ll give you a fact to start with. My species is monogendered. Male and female have no meaning to us, though we use female pronouns and titles.”
Clara was just naturally curious. And there was the whole travelling with the Doctor thing. It really did come with the territory to want to know things, especially to get new information about something that was just encountered. So she just grinned cheekily as Aria said she wouldn’t be opposed to meeting for drinks. That Akantha really was a good motivator.
“Really? That’s brilliant.” Because of course she’d be thrilled about the idea of female pronouns and titles being used in a species where there was no real meaning to male or female given how prevalent it was for the default to be male pronouns and titles.
Akantha was a good motivator, but so was curiosity. Aria herself tended to be curious at times about people, and the fact that Clara had experience with aliens intrigued her enough to spend some time with her. After all, even if Aria ultimately grew bored and didn’t want to do it anymore, she could end it and not lose much in the process.
“Yes. We are matriarchal in nature. For all intents and purposes, we are physically female as well.” Which was mostly obvious given Aria’s physique. “In my dreams, I don’t understand the need to put genders on everything. I suppose to an extent in this life, I don’t understand it either.”
There was nothing wrong with curiosity. At least not according to Clara. Others might say she was too reckless in investigating the things that made her curious but that was completely irrelevant.
Still, she nodded some. It was obvious that Aria was physically female even as they had no need for labels or the like. And well… it was a valid question. Why was there such a need to put genders on everything?
“Depends on what you’re looking at. Marketing and all that rubbish to raise prices on items,” the ‘pink’ tax as it were, “And a need to label everything and one as if that is what allows sense to be made.”
“Ah yes, the evil marketing business. Thinking everyone fits into nice square boxes when in reality, we are all various shapes that don’t necessarily fit into a nice square box.” If only there were other Asari that existed, the market probably wouldn’t know quite what to do with a monogendered species. Or maybe it was best that the Asari didn’t exist in this world at large. After all, Asari tended to be the most sexualized of the species in her dreams.
“Personally, we make our own sense, and if others don’t understand it, then that’s their problem. It’s also none of their business. But that’s another thing about humans in general. They are so concerned with what happens behind other peoples’ closed doors that they forget it’s none of their god damn business.” But she digressed.
“At any rate, I shall let you think on the monogendered species. No doubt that should prompt some questions for the next time we meet for drinks?” Aria queried.
Well, she certainly liked Aria’s point of view as it seemed pretty in line with Clara’s about how if people didn’t understand then it was their own issue. She was right about how humans were. She may be human, but she had seen a lot and knew it all too well from her own experiences.
“So long as no one is hurting others.” That was a pretty important thing but the extent some people got when it came to trying to label everyone and everything….well, it was ridiculous.
“I will definitely make sure to have some questions.” How could she not? But there would be plenty of questions to come up once she wasn’t in the immediate situation. Just like the whole forgetting every book you ever read when asked your favourite book, of course Clara couldn’t think of any questions right at that moment.