Ashana smiled broadly as they all accepted. Maethia and Milenya at least knew what they were drinking - so Ashana surmised that it would have been Darion who plucked the bottle unknowingly. She lifted the bottle, holding it between her breasts, pulling the fabric of her loose shirt top into her cleavage.<span style="color: DarkOrchid">Well then, follow me.</span>She turned, leaving the kitchen.<br/><br/><span style="color: DarkOrchid">Mmm, Human Absinthe can be nice, certainly... but we Asari have had a <i>bit</i> more time to master the craft.</span>She smirked slightly.<br/><br/>She opened the door to her quarters and invited them inside, motioning to the half-circle split sofa in the center of the room with the view out the observation window. Ashana set the bottle of Absinthe down on the small bar space above the liquor reserve and walked to the window. She opened it, the shutter slowly lifting to display the glittering star field beyond which clarified as she then rolled the dial on the lighting in the room down as well.<br/><br/>Ashana then made her way to a small set of drawers which she knelt before and opened. Inside was her neatly folded old dancer's uniform, along with an assortment of small embellishments, most of which she would attach directly to her bare body for specific dances. From within she withdrew an intricate silver armlet that was connected to several pieces that would run from the back of her hand, down the back of her middle finger where it extended into a small, fine rounded point. All the while she didn't say a word, allowing her guests to either relax or talk amongst themselves.<br/><br/>She closed the drawer and opened the one below which contained a variety of implements used in her craft. She withdrew six tiny round metal containers which she set on top of the drawer set followed by a small lighter. She withdrew the lids from each of the containers and inhaled the fragrance within before nodding and lighting the incense wicks and setting each of the tiny containers around the point between the couches in which her stripper pole was hidden. Each produced a thin line of smoke that rose all the way to the ceiling, and a subtle, barely detectable aroma.<br/><br/>She walked to the liquor reserves she had, leaning down to lift the 'fountain' from below her select bottles. She lifted the heavy silver fountain, crafted to look like an beautiful, naked Asari emerging from water carrying a glass urn on her shoulder with three spigots running from it, and set it on top of the bar.<span style="color: DarkOrchid">Absinthe has been one of the few fascinations I have had. From its preparation to parties centered around it - of which I have been to <i>many</i>.</span>She went about adding only a few drops of liquid from several small bottles from her reserve to the urn which would act as the catalytic agents for the Absinthe.<br/><br/><span style="color: DarkOrchid">I've never been much of a drinker, to be honest.</span>She poured a vial of water into the urn which swirled with faint ribbons of color as it mixed with the few drops she had already added.<span style="color: DarkOrchid">Being drunk simply never appealed to me, nor Halix or Red Sand... they were all simply too boring. Too mundane. They were an assault on the senses akin to being struck in the head.</span>She activated a small switch on fountain, activating the cooling coils wound into the base of the urn. She watched the beads of sweat form on the glass, watching how they glimmered in the starlight.<span style="color: DarkOrchid">Thessian Absinthe... <i>real</i> Absinthe... is a unique experience. It is elegant, delicate... It fascinated me when I first met it.</span>She withdrew two glasses that widened to the brim, but at their base was an empty bulb. Ashana carefully poured a measure of Absinthe into each, filling the bulb with the deep blue liquid, but no more of the glass.<span style="color: DarkOrchid">It was not simply a means to intoxication... but to <i>be</i> intoxicating.</span>She set one of the glasses beneath the spigots and opened then, letting a steady, but slow stream of the cooled liquid into the glass, mixing with the Absinthe. For the other glass, she withdrew from a silver case one of four cubes of sugar, refined and touched with a kiss of the Asari spice Azuman. She placed the cube on a silver spoon fashioned to be an naked Asari, stretched out as the handle, with her hands as the spoon, fingers splayed open. She then opened the second spigot, letting the water running down the sugar cube before entering the cup.<br/><br/>She smiled as she felt the fluttering kiss on her skin as the incense's<i>other</i>qualities finally reached her. The others, she knew, would be feeling it more than her being so close to it. The delicate flutter across their skin, like the whisper of a lover's warm breath as a kiss was laid on them, fluttering on the edges of their perception. As the glasses filled, the clear, deep blue of the Absinthe began to cloud, paling, while at it's heart was an almost imperceptible glow.<br/><br/>She lifted the glasses and walked to the three. She smiled as she lowered one of the glasses to Maethia, the one with the sugar, as she expected it to be the same glass Darion would soon be drinking from, the sugar would help soften the impact. If one of them tried to speak at this point, Ashana simply extended a single finger, placing it gently on their lips, and giving them a quiet 'shh,' with a knowing smile. The other glass, Ashana lifted to her lips from and took a breath of, inhaling it fragrance before taking a long, measured sip. She then handed the cup to Milenya and whispered,<span style="color: DarkOrchid">For your help in protecting me,</span>leaning in close as she did, one hand sliding across the seat next to Milenya's thigh, before it slid to the edge of the seat and depressed a small switch.<br/><br/>The glistening metal pole rose from its installation until it connected to its socket in the ceiling, cementing it in place. She stepped lightly over the streams of rising smoke from the tiny incense censers, briefly disrupting the fast rising streams, making the splay and ride her figure for the brief moment she was in them. Standing now before the pole, the six streams of smoke between her and her guests, a star field beyond, she lightly grabbed the pole and placed her forehead against it. She closed her eyes, letting it fill her, letting it pervade her senses. Her lips parted and she took a short gasping breath as she felt it reach her core, felt the sensation wash over her, into her. The traces of Eezo making her feel lighter, the alcohol fracturing the guard of her senses, letting the rest of the faintly psychotropic ingredients, released with its preparation, filter through. She swayed there, grasping the pole, feeling the air, feeling herself in such delicate ways she could hardly describe.<br/><br/>She bit her lip and, keeping her forehead against the pole, rand her fingers every so lightly across her exposed belly, swaying to a beat that she needed no music to hear, no thumping bass to feel. She ran her hand under her shirt, reaching around her breasts, squeezing and teasing them, before lifting the shirt off entirely and casting it aside where it lay in a silken white pool. Then her hands went back down, across her abdomen, trailing down her belly button and into the white panties. She ran her palms across her hips, then across the swell of her sex, before sliding a single finger down, along her slit, pressing it, parting the lips, and teasing her most intimate place. She took a single, tiny, delicate breath, little more than a gasp before tucking her finger under her panties' strap and tugging them down nearly to he knees before turning around and gripping the pole, lifting her legs up off the ground and shifting them, slowly pulling off the underwear without the aid of her fingers before depositing them on top of the shirt.<br/><br/>Ashana stood, facing them, running her hands up the pole until she was stretched out, feet crossed, head to the side with her eyes closed. It was a dance she knew, one she adored. The Ellumi Smoke Dance, a rare an exotic skill she had learned at Aria's behest for her most prized guests. She glided around the pole, always slowly, always deliberately, an arm extended, a foot, to cut the smoke, make it ripple at her command, to distort and dance with her in waving lines. As the dance progressed, so did the dance of the smoke as she, with a razor's precision, ran her foot down the smoke line, breaking it so that it split, and rolled up her leg, following her curves, across her bare hips, bounding across her waist splitting and swelling around her breast, like a white river flowing across her into the sky. Then into the next steps, as she gripped the pole with one hand, legs wrapped around it as she glided slowly in a half circle, leaning back, breaking the smoke, making it swirl as she passed, bare breasts turned upward. And another turn, and step, a pause, she, but a silhouette against the star field. Then, leaning back against the pole, she stepped out onto her toes, legs spread across two of the censers, her sex above the third so that the smoke wrapped around her thighs, splitting and roiling and weaving above, while the third line of smoke trailed up below her pussy, splitting and playing across it. Ashana let out a single audible breath, a part of the dance, sensual - here she was not a mercenary or assassin, she was a goddess, the embodiment of sex and beauty, as intoxicating as the drinks they now shared.<br/><br/><br/>***<br/><br/><br/>Taseer waved dismissively before smiling and laughing.<span style="color: navy">"You... you don't seem like the ship faring type - to be honest, that is. Goddess, I had abandon what modesty I had long time... long time ago. Gotta be comfortable in tight spaces, being real close, tits all mashed up against someones dick."</span>She smirked and laughed a little again,<span style="color: navy">"And ignoring the hard on. Oohhh... If I had a credit for ever time... heh, and it's not like I'm real pretty, neither. Its just natural and... all that. Though not like I had much... modesty to begin... to begin with. Never was one of them floaty blue types with the, uh, the Biotics and what not. I'm one of them Asari that is profoundly ungifted in that region."</span>She nodded.<span style="color: navy">"Wasn't pretty enough to be... to be a hooker, and I don't think ma' dad woulda appreciated that... ye know, much. Nope, it was engines for me. Engines and things that moved real fast... that got me hot, made me wanna <i>fuck</i>. All sweaty, mashed up together like that, in the belly of the beast. Hell, only one thing <i>to</i> do... at that point. Never was one for the clean, silk sheets and all that... shit. Like it dirty, ye know? Like it real. Like this old girl here."</span>She smacked the wall.<span style="color: navy">"Workin' bits in her are as real as anything. She's got a heart, pumpin' away, jus' like the rest of us."</span><br/><br/><span style="color: navy">"That's what... that's what it is... that's what she is..."</span>Taseer looked around the lounge at the ship.<span style="color: navy">"Freedom, real freedom... not nobody anywhere saying where we can't fly in the sky.... that blue sky..."</span>She got a distant look in her eyes as she stumbled across a very old memory of a place long gone.<span style="color: navy">"You can... burn the land. Turn the green black... but not that blue that'll go on forever. Ye' can't take that away..."</span>She looked at Kala.<br/><br/><span style="color: navy">"Where are you from?"</span>She asked.<div class="messageTextEndMarker"> </div>