Chaper 14: The Blessed

[Anya Louteius]

Anya looks at the guest rooms and then smiles softly at Jumala. "The worst thing that has ever happened to me...I would say would be losing my whole family. I think I have a brother somewhere, but I'm not sure. My father was a manwhore afterall. So what about you? I know absolutely nothing about you except your name." She laughed a little.

[Jumala Keitoleinen]

"I am sorry that your father was a man whore. Some men are womanizing assholes. Anyway...this is my bedroom." Keitoleinen says to the young woman. He leads her inside. His room is large and rather dark. There is a strange animals chained to the bed.

"Don't worry, I am not into anything that involves that animals. I just keep it here because I don't want it bothering the guests down stairs." He explains. The creature looks almost gargoyle like, but with black skin. It appears to have tried to bite its leg off.

He has a stange antique mirror, but the mirror does not reflect, instead, it is black and empty. The mirror is quite large, almost the size of a door. It has an old ornate frame with chipped black paint.

On the floor is a bear skin rug, but the bear is far larger than average. There are also candles and strange odds and ends.

He allows Anya to look around a little and closes the door behind them. He picks up a silver tray of what looks like chocolates off of the nightstand. It appears to be filled dark chocolates.

"Would you like a treat?" He asks.

[Hilja Kukkanen/Sasha Pisarev]

to Jack

"I see you are a little shy...so I will leave you alone." I say to Frieda for now. I step away from her and decide I am pretty hungry. I leave the quiet and dark hall to where some guests are downstairs.

I notice the trays of foods and a strange man in a purple suit. Being a friendly person, I step up to him...

"Hi...are you one of the Blessed too? What do you do?" I ask quietly and naively to the new guest to the party. I smile a little and take some vegetarian sushi off the appetizer tray.

"I like your purple suit. Purple is a nice color..but a lot of guys don't like to wear it."

[Anya Louteius]

Anya gasps loudly when she sees the animal, but he reassures her and she looks at it. She goes to help it, but it growls at her and she backs away. She looks at Jumala and then looks at the treats. She smiles and shakes her head softly, the yellow ribbion falling out of it.

"No thank you. I'm kinda full. So why did we stop here? Shouldn't you be getting back to your guests? I'm sure they are worried about you." She smiles and laughs a little nervously.

[Jumala Keitoleinen]

"Are you sure you don't want a chocolate?" He asks her, showing her the tray of Roofie Stover brand chocolates. "They are ...uniquely relaxing." He says of them. He feels a little frustrated that she hasn't taken one.

"Well, the guests are doing their own thing anyway...and you wanted to take the tour, so...this is part of it. I just happen to like my bedroom best off all." He states with a smile.

"Now...calm down. I'm sure it is hard to trust people since your family died...but, I am completely trustworthy. I hosted this party afterall." He says in his own defense.

"You're very pretty, you know that?"

[Anya Louteius]

Anya knew something wasn't right, but she ignored it, she might have been naive, but she knew that he wanted something. She took a chocolate and faked eating it and slipped it into her pocket. She swallowed and then smiled.

She looked up at him and then looked around again. She looked at him again and then smiled more. "I am told that a lot. But I don't really see it. But thank you anyway. I really enjoyed the tour, but I'm not really finished with the concert." She felt so uneasy, she knew it showed. She tried to relax and stay smooth, but to no avail.

[Rutheven Dellacroix]

Rutheven allowed Malak to go on without anything further, he allowed himself to release the grin earlier being suppressed.

Omar, Iraqi geologist...interesting...I'll make a mental note to remember him.

Rutheven looked up still grinning bringing his hand up to his chin as he thought.

As Rutheven thought Master Scrag made his way into the room, his pungent odor following and Rutheven slowly became aware that he came in. The master as well let out a cough making no doubt that he was no present in the room with Rutheven. Rutheven in respect of the master turned to him and properly greeted him

"Master Scrag, I was deep in thought and did not notice you, Forgive me."

Rutheven respected the man because he gained power, but in as well it made for Rutheven someone to surpass eventually. Regardless though he had to show respect.

"Master Scrag leaving so soon? Will you be perhaps attend any of the upcoming Economic Council meetings?"

[Jumala Keitoleinen]

"You seem very stressed. Just relax a little. We've hardly been gone five minutes." Keitoleinen assures her. He moves behind her and touches her shoulders. "You have very soft skin, and delicate shoulders. But you seem very nervous. Do I frighten you?" He asks her innocently with a smile. "I know that sometimes people do fear me. But I am completely harmless. That Max Alexander though, now he's one to worry about!"

[Jack O. Trades]

Having stolen a tooth pick from something that tasted distinctly like a monkey's foot his tongue darted out once licking at his lips. Stabbing the pick into a bloody gobet of meat lifting it to his nose to sniff at curiously "...The hell is this...." Lifting his head almost violently he blinked several times as he was thrown from his fascination at the food. For a few scant seconds he seemed confused with the notion of someone talking to him, only for his lips to spread into a wide smile "Sorry dove, yes I am lucky enough to be one of the blessed...."

Biting the meat from the tooth pick between his fingers chewing it thoughtfully for a moment. His head tilted to one side slightly "As for what I do.....I solve problems." Flicking the tooth pick away he eyed the blood on his gloved fingers frowning "A mediator so to speak" Placing his hand to his chest he bowed slightly grinning broadly at the comment of his suit "Thank you, I've always thought it brought out my eyes" Sitting upright he turned to face the woman speaking to him his right eye closing "And you? What do you do to get by?"

[Master Scrag]

"I prefer to send representatives from the temple to those meetings." Scrag replies to Rutheven. "I must go. I have work to do. The greatest of the Blessed do not take time for frivolous social events. It is constant striving to be greater. That is why the Moderator is not here today." Scrag explains in his raspy voice. He clears his throat and continues walking as he is talking. His steps are very slow. All of his movements are slow, giving him the appearance of being feeble or ancient, although he is neither.
"There is no rest for the Blessed." He says, quoting a well known passage from the book of Manala.
With that, he simply leaves. He does not have time to wait there and socialize. Anyway, there is nothing to be gained from talking to Rutheven, who is not heavily involved with the temple, nor goes out of his way to support the Manalist religion.

[Anya Louteius]

Anya tensed when he touched her shoulders. She looked around at him and blushed softly. She couldn't speak and she felt the animal push her closer to him and she backed away and then glared at the animal, which glared back and then she looked at Jumala. "Do you always treat your beautiful lady guests so nicely? Do I realy deserve this kind of treatment?" She joked a little.

[Hilja Kukkanen/Sasha Pisarev]

"My name is Hilja. I am not one of the Blessed. My brother is Dr. Lonrott, the great psychologist. He invited me here today." I explain, feeling a little modest about my back ground. "As for getting by, I work a lot...at three different jobs. Nothing very interesting really..." I say. I feel out of place here, so I am trying to reach out to others who seem a little out of place. Though..there is something unsettling about this fellow. Maybe the way he looks, or picks his teeth, or dresses. Though, I try not to judge a book by the cover.

Everyone else in the room seems invisible, and the noise of conversation seems muted. My focus is on this unusual person..who solves problems.

"There are many problems...which need solving."

[Rutheven Dellacroix]

Rutheven's face scrunched up and his he had a rather interesting look of shock and resentment.

That is why the moderator is not here? I am not inferior to the moderator Master Scrag. You will shall that soon enough.

Rutheven then audibly scoffed and moved on back towards where most of the people were located and simply found himself a seat and crossed his legs and his sat back just to observe everyone else.

[Jumala Keitoleinen]

"Not all of them. I take a liking to ones that seem innocent or pure. I like ones that seem a little naive or shy. It is how I am. Maybe it is the power. Yes, it probably is." Keitoleinen admits. He wonders if she is feeling at all tired or relaxed. He touches her hair and wonders if he should let her return to the concert. It would be in bad taste to take advantage of her at this banquet. But, isn't that what being Blessed is all about? Taking advantage of the weak.

"I like you...you seem so young and full of goodness. There is little good in this world. Whatever "good" is." He says, now touching her cheek lightly.

[Joseph "Jose" Ponce]

Jose wasn't planning to go to the "Blessed" party at all, he wouldn't fit in at all. He was not great at socializing and especially with people he has so little to relate to. All it would do is serve to further show how removed Jose was from the supposed ideal society of the world.

But Isvara was at the party and would be there regardless of if he would fit in or not, and judging form the actions of the other supposed "Blessed" he was not like them. Isvara needed to successfully advertise himself, and Jose as his friend should help.

So Jose got dressed up in a rather nice Black suit and hurriedly made he way to the mansion passing a rather decrepit and smelly old man Jose paid no attention at all to beyond the fact that he felt naseous from the man's stench.

He walked in and attempted to find his friend Isvara. Walking around looking very out of place he searched for Isvara as best as he could not really focusing so much on anything else. He eventually found the large amount of people towards the back of the mansion and began searching around there.