Chapter 7:A Beauty That's Thin, White, and Rich

[Malak Al-Dabaran]

"This time, we should try to go to the beach," Manak suggests. The wander off to find a teleportation booth and punch in the code. In an instant, there is a flash of light and they are in Cuba. They will have to take a bus out of Havana to the home of blue suit guy. Unfortunately there are no bendy buses. All of the buses are ugly, packed monstrosities which don't even look like buses. Some are dump trucks or semis that people just pile in or on.

"Huh, well, I am pretty hungry. Maybe we should get something to eat before we catch the bus."

Malak spots a tattoo shop near a cafe. Then he feels torn. "Oooh, or better yet, let's get tattoos!!"

[Tuesday DeCastro]

"And we can get people to play volleyball on the beach! Ooooh, and lets fly kites!" Tuesday says, right before they teleport.

She looks for a bendy bus, and frowns when she sees none. "Awh. Theres no bendy buses." She pouts a little.

"Tattoos! Oh yes, I've always wanted to get one, but I never have for some reason." The two of them walk into the tattoo parlor. "Do you have any?"

[Maeve Cullen]

Maeve hears two more people come in as the bell on the front door rings just as she begins to finish the touches on Lonnrot tattoo. (Time skipping.) She glances toward the hallway and sees two people she doesn't recongize. They sure were getting a lot of new customers today! Which was good, of course.

She had also read the note Alexei left a while ago, and had shoved it into her back pocket. She didn't have a cell phone or anything, but her house phone didn't work too badly. "Here's the sheets for you two, how about you go to the cafe near here and get something to eat? I think I should stay and help Jeff out some.

If I take too long, you can leave without me." She tells Hilja and Lonnrot.

[Malak Al-Dabaran]

"No, I am not sure what I would even get. Maybe something in Arabic, like sexy or awesome...you know...but in arabic." Malak decides. They happily enter the tattoo parlor, where Malak is surprised to see a minor member of their party, Hilja, a strange nerdy looking guy, and a cool looking woman.

"Hey, are you open?" He asks. He feels like he just walked in on something. He gets this feeling that they are interupting.

"And...I think we know her... or have seen her before." Malak says of Hilja.

[Tuesday DeCastro]

"You should totally get 'awesomely sexy' in Arabic." Tuesday says, laughing. "I would officially deem it the best tattoo ever."

She looks at Hilja, who, sure enough, looks incredibly familliar. Tuesday ponders for a moment. "I think shes a member of our party." She looks at the other two people that the familliar looking woman is with.

She raises a hand in greeting, and smiles brightly.

[Maeve Cullen]

Maeve leaves Lonnrot and Hilja, deciding that they'd either stay in the lounge or go ahead and leave. "Heya! Yeah, we're open. What can I do for you two?" She questions with a jerk of her head in greeting, glancing them over. If they both were getting a tattoo, Jeff could take one out here and she'd take the woman in the back room.

[Tuesday DeCastro]

"Hi. I'm Tuesday, and this is Malak." She states, jerking her thumb in Malak's direction. She had thought by looking at her that the woman owned or at least worked for the tattoo parlor.

"We're interested in getting tattoos."

[Maeve Cullen]

"All right, how-" Maeve is cut off by Jeff. "Everyone! TV!" The lounge suddenly goes silent as someone turns the volume on the TV up. It was a small set that sat in the opposite corner of the inking chair. She looks away from the customers, watching the news report.

"Half an hour ago, a drive-by in Havana was reported. Five are reported dead, with four others who are wounded. Among them, a suspected rebel supporter met his end, named Antonio Morales." It was one of the rare times that this lounge was deadly silent.

"... Shit!" Maeve exclaims, startling a few people.

[Tuesday DeCastro]

Tuesday is startled by the man yelling, but pays attetnion to the news report anyway. Four wounded, five dead, one of which was a suspected rebel. She punches Malak's arm excitedly. They were so close to a story!

Then she remebers how dangerous that is, and the danger that they just escaped, and a killed rebel is always a bad thing. Her eyes widen, and she hits Malak again, this time out of nerves.

"Didn't we come here to escape exactly that?" She says, speaking in hushed tones.

[Maeve Cullen]

Maeve could feel all the regulars looking at her, and she looks over the two new customers more closely. After a moment, she shrugged and they all begun talking in loud tones about how this would effect the movement. She doubted these two were Manalist, and if they were, well...

"Sorry about that, anyway, how about Jeff doing your guy friend and I'll do yours?"

[Taniel and Taline Qassim]

Once they enter their music store, Starlights, in London, Taniel carry Taline upstairs and went to her bedroom. As he gently place her on the bed, Taniel heads back downstairs and open the store.

In the next few hours, few customers came and brought couple of cds. All the cds are Manalists Music, but the twins did hid rock, indie, and dance cds in ther bedrooms.

Taniel put close up the shop because it is lunch hour. Before Taniel can leave, he heads upstairs and check on his twin sister. As soon as he enter her beroom, he notice Taline reading the Qur'an.

"Put that away, Taline."

"Why?"

"You know what happened if the Manalists find out about this."

"But mom and dad taught us about Islam and languages."

"I know but I don't want them to arrest you or me." Taniel says to her quietly.

"OKay. I will put it away." Taline answer as she put the Qur'an in her bag.

"Anyway, do you want something to eat?"

"No, thanks."

"Alright. Well....I am going to lock up the store for an hour alright?"

Taline simply nod before she doze off to sleep. Taniel left her downstairs, head downstairs and exit the store. Once he lock up the store, he went to the nearest Conveince Store, grab a basket and pick up a lot of snacks and drinks.

[Tuesday DeCastro]

Tuesday listened to some of the conversation going on in the tattoo parlor among the people sitting around. So the people here were rebels? She sighed, feeling at peace with her surroundings, if nothing else.

"Alright that sounds fine." She says to the woman. "Is there a back room or something?"

Tuesday realizes that she had hit Malak...twice, and feels bad. "Oh, I'm sorry for hitting you, Malak."

[Maeve Cullen]

Maeve signals for Jeff to do the woman's friend's tattoo before leading her to the back room. "Right this way." Once she enters the back room, she begins to get her stuff ready. She had noticed that the woman seemed to realize as soon as she realized they were discussing rebel matters.

"I guess you're a rebel, too. Rebels are always welcome here. Do you know what you want and where you want it?"

[Tuesday DeCastro]

Tuesday nodded. "Yeah, I work for the Socialist Revolution. I'm a journalist for the newspaper." She says, with just a note of pride. Its something she's rather proud of. "My friend Malak is as well. In fact, we were fleeing from a crisis in Allwhere, Florida, where we were working on a story. There was a mysterious shooting."

She hastily scrawls a peace sign, with a rose coming out of the lower left side and a ribbon looping it all together. Her drawing skills aren't terrible, but there not exactly amazing either. "I'd like this on my lower back, on the left side."

[Maeve Cullen]

Maeve takes down Hilja's drawing from the wall, but instead of throwing it away, she folds it and puts it in her pocket with Alexei's note. She then pins up Tuesday's drawing. "Pretty. You can go ahead and lay down, just lift your shirt up or take it off, whichever you prefer."