"And then with one of its massive tentacles it ripped me out of the broken window.' The crowd sat in awe clustered around his table as Etium unfolded his story. He waved his hands over his head, "But the bastard was no match for me. Even as I flew through the air, I engaged a reverse gravity on my gun's gravity field, pulled myself on top of the gun and rode the damn thing like a pony while I blasted the bg ugly creature into pieces."

There was a mixture of impressed and skeptical muttering from he crowd. Etium waved a finger, "Scoff all you want but it's true." Or at least that part of the story was true, and only slightly embellished. He liked to start out his stories with most of the truth, mostly to cover up the fact that his endings were embellished to the point of straight up lying.

Sitting and listening to his story, one might think that he had killed the creature single handedly, though he tried to give Yebb the cameo she deserved for turning the energy core on.

"No way any of that happened, a total crock of shit." The man who spoke was one of the younger Arcadian Marines. He would probably have just enlisted. Judging from his accent he was one of the new recruits from Earth, who had decided to come over on Adam's offer of housing and work.

Etium leaned against his energy weapon, using it to prop of his elbow. He never went anywhere without it. The gun laws on arcadia were almost nonexistent, because nowhere else in the galaxy would he be able to tote around an energy core chain gun without raising at least a few eyebrows. But here on Arcadia with so many Spartans and drev, it had been determined that the private ownership of weapons was akin to a religious belief, so it was protected under the right to free speech and religion which was written into the Arcadian constitution.

You could, however, forfeit your rights if you decided to be a dick about it. The unlawful or irresponsible use of a weapon would get it taken away from you, but it was actually really hard to commit crime on Arcadia because you couldn't throw a rock without hitting a Drev or a Spartan who wasn't looking for an excuse to fight anyone who tried anything stupid.

With all of this in mind, Etium unplugged the core energy converter when he went out on the town. It basically disabled the weapon, but would be easy to restart again if there was ever any trouble, And of course, going out to bars with the marines, there was always trouble, but never any that couldn't be solved with a good punch in the face.

That was another little quirk about Arcadia.

Assault and battery were seen a bit differently.

For two consenting adults t was perfectly legal for them to draw up a circle and duke it out int the parking lot of there was a disagreement. By the rules of Drev honor engagement you could challenge someone to a duel, draw up lines and fight each other to end a dispute as long as there were two witnesses unrelated to each party member who could vouch for the legality of the fight.

Things got a little tricky around the idea of domestic violence since it was common for Drev partners to beat the shit out of each other as a sign of love, or even as an act of foreplay, but then you add humans into the mix. Generally Drev don't go for humans that Can't fight, but on the rare occasion that one gets tricked into it there had been some problems regarding one sided love taps from a Drev, who had no idea that wasn't acceptable on their squishy human partner.

Of course this is where those relationships usually ended as Drev just don't get into relationships with people or Drev alike who can't fight.

It just doesn't happen.

The result was a very strange place to live. Arcadia was both, the most violent and the most peaceful place in the galaxy. It wasn't uncommon to walk down the street and see two or three dueling circles being drawn up, and a fight taking place, but it also wasn't uncommon to see neighborhood barbeques. If you messed with one Citizen of Arcadia, you messed with them all.

It was a tight knit community, and anyone who joined and was willing to at least not be an asshole was going to fit in.

Even the people who weren't into fighting could find a place, you didn't have to be a total badass.

Even though he wouldn't have had to Etium found that badassery was better for his mental health. He took a seat at the bar and was immediately handed a shot by the tall muscular bar tender with a full sleeve of intricate tattoos. He pointed to a group of marines down the bar from them, and Etium raised his shot glass to them, downing the drink in one go before setting it back on the bar. He was one of the few nonhumans in this bar and the only Tesraki.

Didn't matter that this was arcadia, Tesraki still weren't known to be fighters, and this kind of put him at odds with his own species.

Tesraki were good at numbers, that was just how they worked. You could find them working as mathematicians, or scientists or statisticians, but because they were good at numbers, they were also good at money, and predicting where money was going to be. Tesraki culture was driven by the economy, and there was never a job more revered than owning your own successful business. You could find Tesraki running shops or small businesses conducting services. The more high powered Tesraki worked the interstellar stock market or ran lucrative off world mining corporations.

This wasn't the rule, but based on long years of tradition, that's how things tended to be.

Unlike Finnari, the Tesraki weren't predisposed to certain personality traits , so their love of economics was more of a cultural thing than it was anything else.

The finnari for example were always in caregiver roles. Never in his life had Etium met a Finnari that was anything other than caring and sympathetic. There was a theory that long years of breeding by the Gnar'lak had bred that into them, but that was only a theory. But now with the ability to chose what they could do, they tended to enjoy nursing, childcare, school teaching or nannying. Getting a good finnari nanny basically guaranteed that your kid would feel safe loved and appreciated while you were away.

Then of course there were the Drev. All of them were either military or police related with a job on the side when they were off duty. Sunny, the saint of the sun had made it very clear that combat wasn't the only calling a Drev could fulfill, but still old traditions died hard, and he had never seen a Drev who didn't also practice war in their spare time.

But it was all through those culminating factors that landed Etium here, in a human bar.

He didn't fit in with his own species, so he hung out here. Didn't bother him so much. He had lots of good friends, and people who respected who he was and what he could do.

He took another shot from the bar.

"Etium, is that you." Etium took another drink, "The one and only." He didn't bother to look over

"I was told I could find you here..... you've changed."

Etium paused and then swiveled in his seat only now realizing that the person talking wasn't using a translator. They were speaking Tesraki, mor specifically, Vrakish, which was his own native language. When he turned it took him a moment to adjust to what he was seeing, and when his brain finally reached comprehension, he almost fell backwards off his stool.

"Caelum!"

His brother gave him a sort of half smile, which Etium noted was an unusually human expression for his species.

He must have been spending at least some time in the presence of humans.

At first Etium sat there not sure what he was supposed to say. He hadn't seen his brother in a long time. A LOOOONG time. The last time he had seen Caelum face to face was before the Drev war, and now that was around eight to ten years ago, it was hard to remember. Either way it had been almost a full decade since they had spoke.

They had both changed a lot.

The last time he had seen Caelum, he had been preparing to take over the family business, a little shop back on their homeworld , run jointly by their mother and father.

Seemed as if that hadn't turned out as expected.

Etium hadn't exactly left on the best of terms. He had already proven to his father to e rather poor with numbers, and as the oldest he had been a real disappointment to the family name when he didn't take after his father. When he had left to join the war his parents had disowned him.

His father had declared that he never wanted to see him again.

But here Caelum was, a decade later, and a lot older.

There was still a resemblance to his younger self, he was tall and lanky with unusually large ears even for a Tesraki, but a rather short tail. Even so his mother had dubbed him the handsome brother when they were younger.

"Caelum.:" Etium repeated. "I like your nature show. It's interesting."

Caelum motioned to the seat adjacent to Etium, "May I?"

Etium nodded, "Go on."

Caelum climbed up next to him and took a seat feet dangling a good few feet off the floor. He wore a red bandana around his neck, a goofy khaki cargo vest and matching pants, which Etium would totally had made fun of if he was sure what kind of standing they were in.

Caelum's silver fur glittered in the overhead light. It wasn't really silver, more of a very washed-out blonde, but still it looked silver.

"it's been a long time." He said

They sat awkwardly for a moment.

Etium swirled the liquor in his glass, "Ma and Pa?"

"Ma died some years back, but Pa still runs the store."

Etium lowered his head feeling a pang in his chest. He guessed a part of him had sort of hoped he would be able to reconcile with his parents one day, and if not that maybe at least get some closure, a bit of revenge for the way they had treated him so long ago, to rub in their faces tat he was successful now.

"I thought you were going to take over the shop."

Caelum shrugged, "Things didn't pan out that way I guess. Da doesn't mind since I found soemthing more lucrative."

Etium nodded.

"So..... I wasn't exactly sure what you were doing now. Are you some kind of mercenary or....."

Etium shook his head, "A professional soldier now, so I suppose I was a mercenary for a time before Arcadia had a real governing body."

"Oh, I see. Sorry."

"don't be."

"And do you like the work?"

Etium patted his gun, "I do."

"Seems dangerous."

"it is."

The silence stretched out for a long time. Etium motioned the bar tender over and ordered two more shots, one which he gave to his brother. Caelum picked up the glass but did not drink, staring intently at the liquid as if he was trying to divine the future, "You seen Mendex recently."

The middle child.

He had always been a bit of an ass. Etium shook his head, "No.... well from a distance once or twice, but I haven't really ahd the desire to talk to him after everything he was saying o the program."

Caelum nodded, "Part of why I got into all of this was to dispel some of the stuff he was saying about my friends."

"So ou were working for a xenobiologist or soemthing."

Caelum shrugged, "Sort of. I have a degree in it, but basically I'm just good for TV. Apparently I ran well for focus groups so they decided to keep me on for a while...." He paused, "I.... Etium, I came by to see how you were doing, and to say sorry for.... For not sticking up for you when our parents."

Etium shook his head, "No, no no, none of that. Our parents made their decision, and you were too young to be involved in it." He reached over and rested a hand on his brother's shoulder, "I don't blame you at all, and." He motioned around the bar, "I know it may not look like it, but I am happy with where I ended up." He nudged his brother rather playfully, "Impressed with where you ended up too."

They laughed together for a moment before.

"So, how long are you staying?"

"I.... don't know yet, maybe a few day if I can find somewhere to stay."

"You can stay at my place."

"I wouldn't want to intrude."

Etium waved a hand again, "You can intrude any time you like as long as you don't bring Mendex with you.

Caelum grinned, "I think that's soemthing I can do."

The conversation was easier after that. They talked about their childhoods and caught up with everything that had been happening since Etium left. There was a lot o tell, some of it sad, some of it happy, but Etium was at least proud of where they had both ended up.

And he supposed that was more than anyone could ask for.