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

[Lena Eva Aysel]

"Aw, I'm sure it's not that bad. Maybe I could add some kind of sauce. Do vampires ever do that in the stories?" Lena tries to think, but she hadn't heard much vampire lore. Deciding to return to seriousness, she tucked some strands of hair behind her ear.

"I am snooping around though. Have you heard of the rebel newspaper? I mean it's just a rumor, but apparently there's one being dropped around in various towns."

[Taylor Jones]

Taylor shrugged. "Hm. Sauce with blood? Wouldn't the blood serve as the sauce?" She ponders this for a moment. "I never was one for vampire stories, so I guess the only way we're ever going to find out is to meet a vampire and ask them ourselves."

Then Eva asked about the rebel newspaper. "Well, of course I've heard of it. Most everyone has heard of them, its a particularly vicious rumor at the moment." She states, in fact, Taylor did know of a rebel newspaper, she reads it quite often actually.

"Is there a certain reason why you're interested in rebel newspapers?"

[Lena Eva Aysel]

"That'll be the day." Lena replies to Taylor's comment about meeting a vampire and asking. She knew that they probably did exist, and was not too keen on ever finding out for sure. She nodded lightly. "It seems to be. Curiosity, I guess. It's safe to say many people aren't happy with how our world is, but most simply do nothing about it because of fear. It seems to be the way humanity operates."

She had studied history a bit, and noticed this thread almost instantly. Hell, it was the way her own village was. Quickly trying to revert her thoughts from thinking of her home, she spoke again. "Only the truly brave will do something about it, even if it's something as small as producing a newspaper."

[Markus Dunstan]

Markus walked along the roof tops of Helsinki, waiting. He leaped to another roof top, but was always careful to attract any attention to himself. He didn't gaze out over the city, didn't seem aware of anything other then what lay directly ahead of him.

Another leap and he landed on a dilapidated building, which he descended into. There he stood in a small room where an old CD player laid in the middle of the room. He pressed play, and soft hypnotic music reverberated through his small, nearly bare room. All that could be heard other then the music was Markus' labored, machine assisted breathing.

He laid a cell phone onto the table and watched it, though he couldn't speak or communicate through the phone, he still used it to receive instructions. He waited.

[Maeve Cullen]

Maeve walked along the streets of Florida, observing the occupants with raised eyebrows. It had seemed like Jeff had had a good idea at the time, but she honestly doubted these were the type of people to get tattoos... Jeff had suggested one of them go spread the word about their tattoo shop in other places. Since it wasn't her shift and she was just hanging out, Maeve had decided to volunteer for it.

They made their own fliers onto blank sheets of paper, which was kind of a pain since they had to make every single one individually. They were all too poor to get a copy machine or anything fancy like that... After what seems like forever, she spots a man who possibly seems like the type. "Hey, you, Blondie! Yeah, you!" She shouts to the man, waving an arm.

((Post to Alexei, you lucky dog, you. ... I just wanted to say that, sorry.))

[Jack Kruschev]

Pushing a good five or six feet away from Kaleb, Anthony suddenly stopped and unlocked a door. Taking a look inside, he quickley dove in. "Follow me," Anthony shouts to Kaleb.

[Hilja Kukkanen/Sasha Pisarev]

After talking to my brother for a while longer, we get ready to go to Ireland, where we will meet Virgil, his strange patient. I have three days off to spend with my brother, then it is back to work. I hope we can finish up the evaluation of Virgil in that time, or else I will have to go home without seeing it all.

I am very excited since I rarely get to leave Helsinki. I love travel and this will be simply wonderful for me.

I pack a few things then meet my brother later that day.

"Well, I'm ready! I can't wait!" I say to Lon before setting my bags down in front of the teleportation booth.

[Dr. Lonnrot Kukkanen]

"Haha, neither can I, sister!" I laugh back. "Can't wait to get there! Imagine all I can learn from this Virgil figure! He may tell me things I'd never guess." I carry on talking about what I may, or may not, learn for a few minutes without much care of what my sister feels when I relize I'm wating time.

"Ready when you are," I say with a smile I haven't had in quite a while.

[Alexei Nacharade]

Alexei tenses when he hears someone shouting at him, his balisong sliding partly out of his sleeve. He wasn't about to get robbed. He turns to see a woman yelling at him.

"Yeah?" He asks slowly.

[Hilja Kukkanen/Sasha Pisarev]

"Remember that time when you were young and you wanted so much to ride a manatee. It's too bad they are extinct, but maybe Genetech could create one for you." I say to my brother randomly. I step into the teleportation booth and wait for my brother to punch in the code.

"You are one of the Blessed now. I bet you could have whatever it is that your heart desires..." I say.

The teleporter makes a strange noise when he punches in the code. I get this odd feeling that perhaps it is not working properly.

[Dr. Lonnrot Kukkanen]

The machine stops working abrubtly and my celephone rings at the same time, form my secretary. I pick it up and aswer it, ingoring my sister for the moment. My secretary explains what's going on at Genetech at the moment, and why we can't go.

I groan and look at my sister, not wanting to tell her what was going on. "Nothing is going on," I lie, poorly. "I just punched in the wrong code."

I insert a secret code to force the machine to work, and away we go.

[Hilja Kukkanen/Sasha Pisarev]

But really, not only were there problems at Genetech, the machine actually was not working properly. When Lonrott enters the code there is a dull buzzing sound, a sizzle, and a flash of light. There is also quite a lot of smoke. Indeed the teleporter was having some problems. When the smoke clears, brother and sister find themselves in Florida instead of Ireland!

(I just thought I would make things more interesting, and maybe we can post to Alexei or Maeve..or other Floridian characters)

"Huh, that's odd. It doesn't look like we are in Ireland, Lonn." I say to my bother as we exit the teleporter.

"Where are we?"

[Maeve Cullen]

Maeve catches a glimpse of the weapon sliding out of his sleeve, and her confidence boosts up. This was definitly the type that hung around at the shop, though they didn't look this clean. She bounds up to him with a grin, handing him one of the flyers.

"I'm trying to get word around 'bout my shop. Not much luck around here, everyone seems so... 50s. You seem like our kinda guy, though." She states, glancing him over. He was also pretty attractive. She didn't see any visable tats on him, but that didn't mean he didn't have any.

Today, she was dressed in a cut off tank top and mutiliated hip hugger jeans. Her belly button piercing glinted in the sun with her other piercings. She had decided to wear all her piercings today. She liked this tank top since most of her back and all of her arm tattoos were visable, but only glimpses of her leg tattoos were seen through her jeans.

[Alexei Nacharade]

Alexei eyes her, his balisong sliding back up into his wrist sheathe.

"Oh yeah? He asks, and chuckles politely, "I haven't gotten a tattoo since..." He pauses, looking her over cautiously.

"Who did you say you were again..?"

[Dr. Lonnrot Kukkanen]

(Good idea, Lets GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

"Apparently Florida," I say with a large amount of confusion. I know this because the speaker welcomed us and offered us brochures. I take a few and find a small diner.

"Lets go get some lunch," I say to my sister. "We can talk about what may have gone wrong and meet someone to give us a hand. Anyone look particularly appealing?" I retorically ask.