Chapter 10: A Maniac Without a Gun

[Alexei Nacharade]

Alexei smiles, a bit of coldness and cruelty slipping into his features, then he coughs a bit, but straightens.

"When I went to prison, never have I seen the principles of manalism practiced so purely. They barely fed us, sometimes they didn't. I watched men kill eachother for less then a piece of bread. "

Alexei paused and looked around. This was what prison had done to him. This was what he couln't talk about. Not the rape, the humiliation, the misery of being locked up. The truth of people. What had turned him from a drug runner to a fully fledged criminal, and killer.

"The tattoo on my back... I paid the artist with a pack of cigarettes, then I slit his throat just to take it back. That's what manalism is, Tuesday. It's our instinct. It's what we are when we're nothing else. It's what we are when we're animals."

[Tuesday DeCastro]

Tuesday can't help but cringe a little, no matter how she tries to suppress it. She had never been to prison, or killed anyone, so she wasn't able to fully understand everything that Alexei was saying to her.

"But we're not animals." She says, then pauses a moment, thinking. "Human beings have so many traits that separate us from other beings in the world. Sure, we all need the same basic things, food, water and shelter. But humans are born with other abilities. The ability to feel compassion, sympathy, sadness, happiness, anger. Emotions in short." She stands, and moves to the fridge, refilling Alexei's glass of water, and getting one for herself before sitting back down. "A lot of the principles and beliefs of Manalism bring out the worst in people, just focusing on whats bad isn't healthy, or right, really thats another reason that I disagree with the religion."

[Alexei Nacharade]

Alexei couldn't help but admire Tuesday for that. They were two people who started the same way, disagreeing with manalism. They'd both recognized but dealt with it differently. Alexei recognized the evils of manalism better then anyone but Alexei still walked along with.

"Do you really write for a rebel newspaper? You're a rebel?"

[Tuesday DeCastro]

Tuesday nods, stretching a little. "Really, I write for all sorts of newspapers, but I devote most of my time and energy to the rebel newspaper, which is why that masked man was after me." She admits.

"Really, I should've used an alias instead of my real name for my stories, but that was my mistake." She says in retrospect, more or less just thinking aloud.

[Alexei Nacharade]

Alexei nodded slightly.

"Brave of you." He says, smiling.

[Tuesday DeCastro]

"Thanks." Tuesday said, returning his smile. "I'm supposed to be in hiding right now, and taking some time off," She chuckles a little. "So much for that plan."

She looks down at herself. Really, shes so disgusted with her clothes, she has to change. "If you don't mind, I really want to change." She stands, and walks over to the dresser, pulling out a t-shirt that was baggy over her slim figure. With her back to Alexei, she pulls the blood stained blouse off, and replaces it with the clean one, before changing her pants. She sits back down next to him and takes a sip of water.

"Feeling any better?" She asks, hopefully.

[Alexei Nacharade]

Alexei was feeling better.

"I guess I won't be dying tonight." He says and takes the envelope and puts it back in his pocket safely.

"I may even be all right to drive...which is good, because I'm expected back in Moscow soon. No rest for the wicked, I guess."

*LATER*

Alexei decides he feels strong enough and creeps past what appears to be a sleeping Tuesday. He writes her a note.

Dear Tuesday,

Thank you for looking after me. I really appreciate it, and I'll always remember it. Unfortunately, I have to return to Moscow. The business of selling...plants...requires my attention.

Yours,
Alexei

P.S. I don't remember much of everything, but I seem to recall you getting undressed. Did you take my stripper request that seriously?

He leaves his number at the bottom of the note and leaves it on the bed, blowing a kiss to Tuesday as he slips out. He takes the car, still quite filled with the weapons he pilfered earlier, and starts the long drive back to Moscow. He manages to pick up a new outfit along the way, thankfully, while avoiding to many awkward questions.

Soon enough he'd be overseeing the Afghan opium shipments like always, back to the old job. It'd been interesting running around with his new "friends" and he'd certainly miss Tuesday and Maeve. He didn't plan on seeing them again very soon, but he might arrange meeting again. Especially with Tuesday. He felt somewhat like he owed her.

[Jack Kruschev]

Anthony smiled at Bambi's understanding. He then stepped forward and led her to the nearby campus. It was beautiful in every way.

(Sorry it's short, I'm in a hurry to get somewhere.)

[Lena Eva Aysel]

Lena sighs. "I'll look more into the girl, you leave her alone. I think she may be fine. Message me once you're healed." She states sternly, standing. "Do not attempt her life until I've found out the whole story."

Despite the fact she had no right to give orders, she didn't let it show.

"Besides... you owe me. I saved your life at the risk of my own, and now I have to do something dangerous that will risk my life again. That means something big to most people."

She stared at him for a few moments, letting a silence pass before she turned on her heel and left. She would check her phone first, then head to Genetech for questioning.

If those showed no leads, she'd have to think of something else.

[Bambi Engel]

"Oh, wow..." Bambi ran her blue eyes around the area, admiring every detail. There was just so little of natural beautiful these days. It was more beautiful than the part of Florida she had seen! Then again, she had been a bit too busy to really admire that scenery...

At the memory, she straightened out, smiling nervously. White haired people dwindled around the place, talking casually with each other.

She suddenly felt too stuffy in her suit, attempting to adjust her blouse in a non-obvious manner. She pushed her glasses up the rim of her nose after finding little relief.

"Right, so, how about we have a seat at one of the benches? I wouldn't want to drop my papers while we're walking. I can be pretty clumsy." Her shoulder still dully throbbed, a reminder of that. She was positive it was going to bruise. Thankfully, she was sure it'd be a small enough pain to ignore until it healed.

With any luck they could wrap this up quickly and she could return to her office. Her nice, cool, cozy office. With blinds. So much for trying to change herself. This is just hopeless...

[Kizu Sensou & Hex]

Kizu was taken aback by this new womans rudeness. How someone is dressed is not really anyones business but their own espescially in the times they are in. Most people nowadays as she understood it were poor so how could anyone stay ahead in the fashion sense. She was appalled by this womans brashness but tried to smile and make light of the new person added to their group. She turned and hoped that Hilja had not been offended. Hex had she could tell but he had the mind to stay back and let her take care of herself. She smiles at the newcomer.

"I wear a uniform so it's not my choice. It's regulation. I must wear it for job purposes on genetech property and off. So you are intitled to your opinion. However if you are trying to make conversation that is not a very friendly way to go about doing so."

Kizu looks back at her new friends.

"Where shall we eat?"

[Jack Kruschev]

"Very well," Anthony said as he sat down. Getting out some papers of his own, he asked "I brought these documents that carefully mark each and every item, machine, substance, or anything that Genetech has bought in the past 5 years. I would like you to compare these papers with yours to make sure I got everything documented. Does that sound good?"

[Linnea Korpela]

Linnea nodded.
"I said I would go along with this whole thing. You can stop making threats," she was annoyed that he was still there. "I'll do what I have to, and I won't say anything to anyone. You have my word."
No matter what Neil said to her she still wasn't worried about him, Keito would still have the upper hand in her situation.

["Niel" Samuelson]

Truth be told, Niel'd been doing most of this by the seat of his pants. Sure, he planned to shot Keitoleinen straight in the face from the beginning. But actually telling Linnea his business had been a stupid move. The whole damn thing was a stupid move; he should've just blown up a S.O.T.A. facility: explosive didn't require talking to. You didn't coerce a bomb, you just set it and things blew up. Simple.

People weren't simple, though. He had trusted his contacts and they'd led him to Linnea. Linnea had fixed into her mind that this supernatural bad boy could outshine good ol' fashioned human ingenuity when it came to causing suffering, he could tell because his threats weren't working. How closed-minded could you get?

"Thank you for your cooperation, Ms. Korpela." He thought for half a second. "Sorry to have been such a bother." Nodding uncertainly to himself, he smiled weakly and took his leave.

He was almost out of her hair. He'd do in Keitoleinen (as impossible as that might sound to average folk, Niel, as a naturally superior human being, was not daunted) and she'd put it all behind her, happy day.

What a bust.

[Linnea Korpela]

Linnea watched Neil leave, and for a couple of moments she sat there staring at the door her arms crossed over her chest. Then leaning over the table she picked up the card and looked at it for a moment before slamming it back on the table, jarring the utensils on the table.
"I can't believe this," she mumbled as she got up. As soon as this was over she would return to not speaking to anyone, second crazy she ran into recently and that was too many to be comfortable with.
Moving into the living room she decided she would unwind for the rest of the evening and then go to work in the morning once she was there she would check Keito's schedule and then talk to him, that evening she planned to call Neil and just get this whole situation over with.
"Let's hope that this guy know's what he's doing," she flopped on the couch and turned on the tv.