Chapter 13: Pray For Me

[Jumala Keitoleinen]

Finally, the staff from Genetech shows the final animal. This is a pure white, radiant unicorn. Keitoleinen is getting impatient now since it is the end of the show and time to move on to the other entertainment. He goes ahead and passes out various sharp objects...knives, axes, even some swords.

"For the final part of this section of the entertainment, we are going to butcher the animals ourselves! They will then be bar b qued in the back of my mansion for eating later. We'll start with...this unicorn here!" Keitoleinen announces with a grin.

"This will be a lot like hitting a pinata at a birthday party. If you like, we could even wear blindfolds! Who would like to go first?" Keitoleinen asks those present at the party.

[Tuesday DeCastro]

"Actually, I'm rather flubbish in the kitchen. I can do those cookies that you take from the wrapper and put on the baking sheet, then putin the oven. Thats about where my cooking skills end." Tuesday admits, with a little shrug.

She finishes her corner, and moves on to some green and blue looking pieces, which she recognizes as earth. "Yeah, I don't see tomatoes and white chocolate going as a good team. Then again, it could end up to be the next peanut butter and jelly."

Tuesday grins, and looks over at him. "Thats good, I'm having fun to. Our hypothetical universe is turning out to be pretty magnificent."

[Calithin Crest]

"Hypothetical universes tend to be better than the actual kind."

I finish up Mars and slide the pieces over to Tuesday to connect, since Mars comes after the Earth. I know my solar system.

"I'm going to go ahead and say that in our hypothetical universe, you are a world class chef. And can make amazing cookies out of anything. Like... Dust, pudding, and magic. Or whatever. And, in that universe, there are no haters. Just awesome puzzles, and good times putting those puzzles together. Which leads me to believe we're making pretty good progress to building such a world-- right now."

[Tuesday DeCastro]

Tuesday connects the Earth pieces to the Mars pieces, and then starts on Venus, which comes before Earth.

"Out of pudding, dust, and magic? Woah, I'll be an amazing chef! We'll have great cookies all the time. I'll have to have my own cookie making show, that everyone will watch, and try to copy but they'll never come out quite the same for them as they do for me." She nods, thinking its a very good idea.

"I'm pretty sure our universe is almost complete!"

[Bambi Engel]

Bambi simply stood in the teleportation booth for a good few moments, trying to calm herself. It was only the preparty, so one only has to arrive before the actual party. However, that wasn't the only thing bothering her.

There was the matter of Peter, whom she felt she should call. For some reason, she just couldn't bring herself to. She almost felt like banging her head onto the wall of the booth. As if she hadn't made enough mistakes so early in the night, she had left her glasses sitting on her nightstand.

She was thankfully near-sighted, so it shouldn't be much of a problem, but it didn't stop her from worrying about it. One glance at her watch halted her procrastination. She'd wasted enough minutes standing in a closed booth, letting her paranoia get to her.

Of course it was her paranoia that was urging her to rush to the preparty in the first place despite her discomfort... Bah! Who needs details? She punched the code into the booth, stepping out in front of the mansion where the party was being held.

The sight of all The Blessed making their leisurely way through the doors caused her pause once more. At least, this year she was sure she'd appear to fit right in, thanks to Aubrey and her own clumsiness.

The black dress that felt as if it was choking her body stopped agonizingly high on her thighs before flowing down just passed her ankles in a floral decorated, see through material. A silt at the right sight left her right leg almost entirely bare! She did like the same coloured flowers that curled up from the silt up onto the dress though, rising all the way up to the right strap.

The straps were thin, hardly worth being called sleeves of any sort. Bambi herself didn't know the name of the style, but she did know she would much prefer actual sleeves. The dress didn't even dip down in a V, the straps brought the front up just enough to make it decent. Her top half felt terribly naked, couldn't they have least made a matching shawl?

There was one other aspect of the dress she actually liked, which was the matching black choker necklace decorated with the same style flowers as the dress. She did mentally thank Aubrey for having the sense to give her icy blue sandals which matched her eyes. The sandals had criss crossing straps which twirled up around her ankle, reminding her of the old Roman sandals she had saw online once.

All in all, the matching hues of the sandals, flowers, and her eyes gave the outfit something that appealed to even her. Locks of her chocolate hair brushed against her cheeks and neck, giving the bun she had pulled her hair up into a messy look. She appeared... classy?

With a sigh, she forced herself to stop examining herself and trying to rationalize the whole situation. She should just focus on the same thing she had to every year: Getting through the night. This year was no different aside from the fact she felt it more vital than usual to go about unnoticed.

People usually hardly noticed her anyway except when she did something clumsy, what was a change of style going to do? Feeling reassured, she pulled her invitation from the black purse she had brought with her tonight. With a deep breath she urged her feet forward, moving at a slow pace that she had no choice in.

Seriously, how were all these other women moving so fluidly in dresses that appeared just as tight as hers?

((Her dress: images.forplaycatalog.com/product_large_size_images/N3441.jpg))

[Calithin Crest]

"I'd say so."

While Tuesday puts Venus together I finish up Mercury, which is pretty small, and then go to work on the Sun. The puzzle seems to be shaping up pretty nicely.

"You know, if I were a celestial body, I'd be the Sun. It's a little vain to say, I know, but I don't think there's anything wrong with vanity... And someone has to be the Sun. I'm just saying. If you were something out in space, what would you be and why?"

[Max Alexander]

After about a 2 hour nap, Max woke up refreshed from his long drive. He eagerly got out of bed and headed to the shower.

Soon after, he got dressed up in a nice tux and shoes and headed out the door, grabbing his invite to the party.

The airport that his plane was at was around 15 miles away, so he headed down the hills towards it eagerly.

After a 2 hour flight, they landed. A limo was waiting for him and soon they were off to the party.

After a 20minute drive, he pulled up in front of a beautiful building, bustling in activity and people. Everyone looked great.

He headed inside, just awaiting the interesting encounters he may face, just remembering that he is Max Alexander, owner and CEO of M-TV.

[Hilja Kukkanen/Sasha Pisarev]

When Keitoleinen announces that they are going to kill these animals, I become very upset. What sort of party is this where they butcher rare and expensive animals?! And do they really intend to butcher that wooley mammoth. All of this is very very wrong! I make a little fist and look around the room. No one seems to be against this idea and I don't want to be the one to bring this up when I was already made a fool of earlier during the party.

I stand there and wait..wait for someone to say something. This is the most horrible thing ever!

[Bonifaz Artz-Lehrer]

Bonifaz arrives at the party late, and wet. He had to wait in the rain a little since the teleportation booth in Munich was broken and in the midst of repair. He has an invitation, but he is really here on his father's behalf. He is not well liked by the Manalists or anyone for that matter. Thankfully, he is a mostly unknown figure, which is what he hopes to remain. His true motive is to scope out ...the so called Blessed with the hope that perhaps he can someday launch some sort of attack against them.

He takes a knife from Keitoleinen and glances at the unicorn Genetech created.

"Well, if no one is going to carve this turkey, I will." He states. He approaches the unicorn with the knife in hand. He examines the horse like creature but waits for some sort of reaction before acting.

[ronny]

"He's such a idiot....." Ronja mutter to herself before walking to a different direction.

When Keitoleinen says its time to butcher the animals including the unicorm and mamoth, she became somewhat sad. She stood there for a moment until someone spoke up and says that he want to go first.

"Umm.....Mr. Keitoleinen....why you want to butcher all this animals since Genetech just creat these animals for this party?"

[Jumala Keitoleinen]

Keitoleinen turns around and looks at Ronja. He gives her a sympathetic smile and pats her on the side of the head, touching her hair as if she is a pet. "My dear, this is a party to celebrate our greatness. To be great means we have power...even the power to be wasteful."

"These animals were very expensive to create..and the act of destroying them is a way to show...the world how very powerful we are."

"Many people are starving in this world...and we have the power not only to have plenty, but to waste plenty!" Keitoleinen says with cheer.

"Anyway, who here has ever had a unicorn steak? Or roasted mammoth? We deserve to sample such exotic meats." He assures her.

[Hilja Kukkanen/Sasha Pisarev]

To Max Alexander

I take a few steps backwards away from the group of people with knives. This is a horrible party! I hear Keitoleinen give his little speech on the power to waste and I feel so disgusted! That is just so wrong. But, I keep quiet for the sake of my brother and trying to fit in here.

As I back away from the group of partiers with sharp objects, I bump into a guy in a suit...well, most people here are wearing suits...but, another guy in a suit. I think I saw him in the paper or on TV once (Max)

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bump right into you, sir." I say politely.

[Annette Rosenthal]

Annette approaches Bambi when she enters the party, and looks her up and down. She hasn't seen Bambi wear clothes like this before and she isn't sure she approves of it. Annette herself is wearing a gray pantsuit to the party, and like usual, looks pretty drab.

"Hello Bambi. It's nice to see that you made it to the party." Annette croaks. She coughs a little, something she does a lot due to years of smoking.

"Have you been working hard?" She asks. She knows that Bambi probably has been, but she is trying to make small talk, something she doesn't exactly excell at.

[Li Violette]

I really can't believe that they are going to butcher these animals. I become a little upset and decide to step into the kitchen. Maybe I will find someone around here to talk to. If not, well, it doesn't matter much. Though, I can't help but feel that people at this party are avoiding me.

I frown and help myself to some punch.

"I wish that Ariel was here, but even the Moderator doesn't want to show up at these get togethers. Nor does the Master. I suppose then it is up to me to keep up appearances." I say to myself.

[Momo Kurokawa]

"I'm hungry. Let's get this done with." Momo announces. She takes her own knife and with Bonifaz, she starts to cut at the unicorn. It starts jumping and kicking when she slices at it. She cuts its underbelly and it drips blood onto the floor, which luckily has been covered with a tarp.

"Well, what are the rest of you waiting for?" She asks. In the cutting process, she gets blood on her otherwise clean lab coat. She is not dressed up. Instead she is wearing a lab coat, nurses shoes, and a dumpy brown dress.