[Mass Effect: New Genesis] Part 4.1: What has Jeshua been up to?

This section is by request of the handler of Jeshua. We are all curious on what Jeshua has been doing since the Krogan fight. After the Eris landed on Illium for repairs, he disappeared from the ship! Where did he go? What mischief is he up to?

Let's find out!

*drama*

dun-dun-DAH!

Despite Jeshua 'singing her tune', Aashe had decided to stay behind and make sure everybody got what they needed when the medics came. Jeshua still couldn't bear to face the group in their condition, though, so he silently slipped off the ship when it landed. There were many shadows - and many shadowy figures as well - so Jeshua was able to hide easily. He stayed around the docks just long enough to see the medical teams arrive. Then he was off, slipping through the shadows until he got to the nearest marketplace.

Okay, where to go, where to go... Jeshua didn't really know the layout of Illium as well as he may have in the past - he couldn't shake the feeling that he had been here once, but he couldn't remember when - and, if he ever was here, he certainly was never in the marketplace, especially this one.

There were many shops and storefronts about, but Jeshua didn't see any that look like they sold clothing. But there was a minipark on the side of the market that overlooked the strikingly-beautiful skyline. So, taking a seat on a bench that faced outward, he accessed the Extranet vis his Omni-Tool to check for stores nearby that did sell clothing. While the search was processing, Jeshua took a moment to take in the stunning vista. It was quite beautiful, even he couldn't argue that.

The moment didn't last long, however, as a few seconds later - enough time for Jeshua to sigh at the view - his Omni-Tool pinged and he had the location of a few stores in the area. No sooner had he seen it then he was on his feet and heading in the direction of the closest one. He just hoped it wasn't an all-girls clothing store....
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([Sorry guys, that it took so long for me to get to this. I'm going to segment this story, so I can incorperate more than just Jeshua (possibly) into the frame of the side-story, and so it actually warrents having its own thread.])

... And of course, it was. He underestimated the distance between the marketplace and the store, and ended up having to call a cab to get there in any sort of reasonable time-frame. Jeshua sighed, cursing his luck, but decided that just because the first few rows of holographic simulations of the clothing currently in stock were tailored for the other gender didn't mean that there wasn't male clothing near the back. Besides, Jeshua tried to rationalize, Girls have a lot more need for clothing anyways; there's bound to be more girl stuff than guy stuff, right?

A few minutes of earnest searching through the catalog remedied that assumption. Jeshua thought this store was strange, or at least portrayed very differently than the ones on the Citadel, but he had found a single row - very insulting to men, Jeshua thought - of male clothing that were fortunately not in the, ahem ... plus sizes, so that was probably about all he could hope for from this store. They were, however, not to his tastes, being of bright colors and very-seemingly feminine, which took his all of one second to realize. Which meant they were either more gender-neutral than girly, or they were for a very specific "clientele" that he was not necessarily interested in emulating.

"Well, that was a big disappointment," he muttered as he left the store disgruntled. "Well, there's still more stores to be had." He was checking the directions to the next-closest store when he noticed a weird conversation echoing through the air. Of course, not knowing where it was coming from, he approached a nearby bench and sat down to avoid looking conspicuous just standing on the walkway doing nothing.

"Where is it?" came one voice. It sounded oddly close, but distorted, like the speaker was in an alley. Well, that was all the info Jeshua needed, and he quickly discovered the source of the voice - two asari women were speaking in the alley next to the clothing store he had juts exited from. The one, who he assumed the voice belonged to, looked and dressed as if she were eccentric, powerful, but just from looking at her Jeshua got a sense of danger, of unease, and it made him uneasy in return. The other was wearing what looked to be priestess's robes, and her she seemed, judging by the looked of her face, to be very distraught.

"There were ... complications Ms. Thanoptis. I was unable to recover the data you asked for."

The first asari, this "Ms. Thanoptis" - The name sounds vaguely familiar, Jeshua thought, like someone Krios had asked me to look into however long ago ... - raised her voice in anger. "You fool! Don't you know how much that data is worth?!" Suddenly she realized she was attracting attention - a couple passing by turned their hands to watch the two in the alley - and her voice was again like a whisper, at least from where Jeshua was sitting. "There is more on that station than you can ever imagine, and now, thanks to you, it is lost to me. Very well, we will find another way."

And with that Ms. Thanoptis left the alley, almost making eye-contact with Jeshua for a split second before he turned his head towards the view once more. A minute later he turned back and saw the other asari, upset, leave the alley and start walking towards what he had deemed, through his use of visual maps, the "Illium Wards". Fortunately the next clothing store happened to be in that area, and his interest was piqued in what the two could have been talking about.

In the end his curiosity got the better of him, and he found himself trailing the priestess. He didn't assume he'd be interrogating her or anything, but there was something in the way this woman walked that reminded him of Astila, and he wondered if there was a connection. He'd have to ask her about it sometime - or maybe not, if he found out something interesting on his own while sneaking through the shadows.

(Looking forward to our interactions Inaword.)

Trailing the asari proved more trouble than Jeshua expected. She was very adept at being unpredictable, and Jeshua lost momentarily lost her several times before she finally stopped and took a short break. Jeshua, clearly more out-of-breath than the priestess, took a seat on a nearby bench, keeping his eye on her but in a way that would minimize the chances that she noticed him. She began conversing with someone, and Jeshua listened into the conversation; it wasn't really anything especially important, but he sat and wrote down the relevant info to his Omni-tool. In the meantime, he looked around at the view. This time around, they were in a more run-down area of the city, so there wasn't anything really spectacular to look at.

That's when Jeshua first noticed it. A building, standing apart from the others on it block - or were there even any other buildings nearby? No, no, there aren't. It stood all its own, and Jeshua couldn't help but feel like there was something familiar about it. He caught himself staring emptily at it, but by the time he came back to reality, the priestess has already gone on the move again, and Jeshua lost her.

That sucks, he thought. He got up and turned towards the building. Still, there's something about this place ... I guess it wouldn't hurt to have a quick look.... Jeshua started walking.
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([Two months ... Sorry guys. I got really busy for awhile there, and then chapter five started up and I was too engrossed in that to get anything posted for this. But, since the dividing of the RP'ers in Part Six caused a little bit of a slowdown in the RP, I figured now is as good a time as ever to get this finished. That way, I won't have to worry about doing it later.])