Collaboration post with Zorogami:

As Avitus finished transferring the owed credits to the bartender's till via his omni-tool, Rosa nodded to the new employee and directed two fingers at the bottle of single malt whisky at the back of the bartop. With no pause the man turned on his heel, flicking a shirt, round glass over his back and safely into the palm of his opposing hand the human emptied a double shot of the potent liquid into the glass. With a brief thanks the human handed over the beverage and the Turian went on his way. Moments later, as Rosa turned to look out over at the opposite end of the bar, she saw the face of a relatively young Krogan. An old friend.

"Abrax? Tell me that's you." she laughed, taking a sip from the liquor, which tasted like smoky barbecue fumes as it washed into the back of her throat. They closed distance on one another, and proceeded to clash shoulders whilst shaking the other's hand. "It's been too long mate." Rosa exclaimed, the sight of seeing one of the Dashers again in a chance encounter brought back many fond memories. While it was great seeing Trish from time to time, the two women just didn't seem t click like Martinez and Abrax, she always thought it was because those who participated in the boardings shared a strange chemistry. They didn't always see eye to eye, but god were they efficient. 

Abrax moved through the crowd as memories of old days played like a cliche flash back in his head. Rosa was a cool chick, dangerous on the field and a great drinking buddy off it. She seemed to recognize him and moved in his direction. The Krogan couldn't help the smile that was forming on his face. After the boring life he had gotten used to, meeting an old friend could be a herald of a very anticipated change of pace. The duo shook hands and bumped shoulders, an old custom both still had engraved in their brains. "Of course it's me, or have you made a new krogan friend in my absence?" Abrax joked. He faced the bartender, adding "Chief, two Ryncol shots and whatever she's having". If they were going to talk about old times and what each of them had been up to over the last two years, they would need more than a few drinks. 

"What brings you to this place? I see you haven't lost that mean hook of yours. How has life been treating you?" Abrax gestured over to a free booth, where the reunited friends could talk in peace. Nodding to the bartender and stating that they'd be needing the rest of each bottle, Rosa transferred the appropriate number of credits to the man's terminal and quickly thanked him with a more than generous tip. With the money she'd been making in her new line of work and how little she'd been having to spend, Rosa had saved up a respectable amount of credits.

"After we got hit by that Alliance op, I got away and came here. Fortunately for me, a few of the soldiers involved in that sting served with me on Earth. So they were inclined to let me go. How about you?" She replied as they made their way over to the booth, each person holding a bottle, grimacing after knocking back the Krogan liquor which was widely accepted to be unsuitable for human consumption. Though Abrax and their former captain disagreed with everyone on the subject, stating that this fact just made the beverage do its job even better. Which wasn't exactly wrong by any stretch.

Rosa had gotten lucky apparently, it was good to have friends in many places, especially one's that owed you favors. They each took a shot of Ryncol after a quick "cheers!", the human woman clearly less used to the liquid compared to the Krogan. "Well, after everything went to shit, I found myself surrounded by a few Alliance fellows that were very persistant in their demands to accompany them without further resistance" Abrax explained, giving off a groan that was meant to be a chuckle. "Let's just say their day got a lot worse after I was done with them...then I drifted around, doing run-of-the-mill mercenary work. Very boring, very lame life..." The Krogan was still mad about his last assignment and its lack of action.

The duo kept talking for a good amount of time, remembering old missions and knocking back more than a few drinks, some of them in name of their old captain. "So...where do you go from here?" Abrax asked the dreaded question. He was having a great time, probably the best in the last 2 years, and thinking about going back to his mercenary work made the taste of alcohol in his mouth turn bitter. 

Rosa sighed as she took a sip from what remained of the bottle of whisky to chase down the final shot of ryncol, shaking her head slightly as she tipped over the line from tipsy to full-blown drunk. If there was one thing she hadn't missed, it was the crew's insistence that drinking ryncol is a good idea. "Well, now...the next guy on shift just walked in. So I suppose I gotta go see Trish upstairs to tell her I'm heading home. It's a quaint little apartment down in the Tuhi District, above a sushi store. Run by a salarian. How no-one else sees the irony in that makes me piss myself." She replied, letting out a drunken giggle as she polished off the remainder of liquid in the bottle. "If you're just in town briefly and don't fancy paying for a place to stay, you're welcome to crash at my place. My door's always gonna be open for you Abrax. Or any of the Dashers for that matter." Rosa continued, reaching for a pouch on her shoulder and pulling forth a small bag of red sand and her credit chit. She began to 'rack up' a pair of long, thick lines of the substance; emptying the bag before discarding it on the floor. 

She paused for a moment as she stared down at the crimson powder, though this pause was short lived as she pulled a straw from the bar's caddy and tore it in half. A split second later and she had leaned down and inhaled one of the two smoothly cut lines, leaning back in her seat and staring at the mesmerising lasers and strobes lights going wild overhead as her left eye began to water whilst she snorted, pulling the red sand past her nasal cavity. Wiping her face dry, Rosa turned to Abrax with her eyes wide, feeling like she was actually a few inches above her own body. "You want one?"

The Krogan could tell the woman in front of him was getting drunk, and that lightened his mood again. Rosa was already a fun person to hang with, but once she, or any of the Dashers for that matter, grabbed one drink too many, crazyness and a good story were just around the corner. He wondered if this evening would turn out to be one of those as well. Abrax himself was only slightly tipsy, little surprise due to his physique and the workings of Krogan organs. He finished his 6th - or was it 7th? - shot of Ryncol and observed how Rosa was preparing her dose of Red Sand. Apparently her mean right hook wasn't the only thing she hadn't lost over the years.

Abrax had no problem with drugs, hell, if he did he wouldn't get along with the majority of his former crew. The Krogan just didn't see the appeal in it. Drinking alcohol and getting tipsy was one thing, but stuff like that? It made you go crazy, and although the Krogan would never admit it, he was actually afraid to try it out. Losing control of his body and mind was a terrifying idea to him. "Thanks Rosa, I'm good" He replied, waving over the bartender to order another shot. Abrax decided he would take up Rosa's offer and crash at her place, especially considering the state she was in. The woman did not need a protector, Abrax knew that much, but the thought of letting her leave alone made him feel uncomfortable. Old habits do die hard after all, and Abrax always felt like he was the armor that protected his friends from danger.  

With the krogan's decline of her offer Rosa shrugged her shoulders, finished off the remainder of the dust on the table and the pair began to make their way out from the building. A brief, horribly spelt message was sent from Martinez's omni-tool to Trish's, informing her that she had bumped into their former team-mate and that she would be leaving the club in the next five minutes.