Chapter 16: Fear and Trembling

[Hilja Kukkanen/Sasha Pisarev]

"Armin has an email list of contacts. We can invite everyone on the list.." I reply to Tuesday. I make a phone call to Armin, who is at work right now, and he agrees to email Tuesday the list of contacts. He says he will probably have to work on Marxmas, which is too bad. I hope that some of our friends can show up.

After a short conversation with Armin, I return to the table to talk to Tuesday. "Armin will email you the contact list. So you can invite anyone on the list. Can you think of anything else we need to discuss?"

[Imil Habibi]

((I'm sorry for the poor quality of my posts recently. I've been catching up on sleep and coming off of a lot of caffeine. I'm always a little messed up during and after exams.))

There are four steps to the doorway of the house where the socialist meeting is taking place. This bothers Imil because it is not an odd number. He repeats one of the steps so there are five steps before he proceeds to the door. Imil carefully knocks three times and waits for someone to answer.

While Imil is outside, he checks the time and pats his left pocket to make sure that his wallet is there. Imil always puts his wallet in his left pocket, but sometimes he feels like he needs to make sure that it's there. Maybe he forgot to put it in, and if he doesn't check, then it won't be there. That would be awful.

When Imil is certain that everything is in order for the time being, he lets out a sigh of relief. The weather isn't bad today, even if it is too cold. He rubs his hands together and pulls his worn wool coat closed at the throat. Imil tells himself that today is going to be a good day. He is excited to meet some new people, even if he finds the idea a little frightening.

[Tuesday DeCastro]

Tuesday smiles. "Alright, that'll make things easier." She says of the contact list.

She thinks a moment, biting her bottom lip. "Uhh, I don't really think so...we talked about spreading the word, and Marx mas, and I think thats it." She says.

As she finishes her sentence, there is a knock on the door. She stands, and looks out the small window next to the door. An unfamiliar man is standing outside, but he doesn't look particularly dangerous, so Tuesday opens the door.

"Hello. Can I help you?"

[Imil Habibi]

Imil smiles nervously at the woman who answers the door, and holds out his hand to shake.

"Hello, my name is Imil. I'm terribly sorry for being late. Is the meeting still taking place, or have I missed it altogether?" he stammers.

Imil hopes he has the right house. Earlier this week, he was asked to make a house call for a woman who thought she might be pregnant. Instead, he was met at the door by an eighty year old man and a very large, aggressive dog.

[Hilja Kukkanen/Sasha Pisarev]

"Hi.." I say to the stranger. "We were just planning a Marx Mas party for next week. It might be a way to meet new contacts and have some fun." I inform this newcomer. Maybe I am too trusting, but he seems truthworthy. He certainly doesn't look like a Creditor or someone from the Invisible Hand.
"I'm Hilja. Nice to meet you Imil."

[Tuesday DeCastro]

Tuesday grinned at Imil. She wondered breifly if he wasn't really a Socialist, just someone sent by the Invisible Hand or something, but she doubted it, he seemed to nervous.

"I'm Tuesday, its nice to meet you, Imil." She shook his hand, and stepped aside, opening the door wider so he could enter. "We were just finishing up, actually, but please, come in."

[Imil Habibi]

Imil goes inside, takes off his coat, and walks to the couch. There are an odd number of steps to the couch, so he doesn't have to repeat any.

"Ah, Marxmas. Lovely! I haven't been to a Marxmas party in a very long time. Well, I haven't been to any parties in a very long time. Well... That's probably too much information, Ah... I'm sorry that I missed the meeting. I haven't been to any meetings in a long time either. I move around. Ah... I'm sorry, I'm talking too much. I'll stop now."

Imil runs his fingers through his hair. He hasn't been around this many people for a long time. Usually he is only around people in a professional capacity. He finds professional relationships less intimidating, because he knows exactly what to expect.

[Hilja Kukkanen/Sasha Pisarev]

"Yes, so we were just planning that party. It is next Sunday and will be at my place. Hopefully some people show up. As for doing anything more politically focused, we haven't come up with anything yet. We're hoping that maybe the party helps us meet some new people and that maybe after it we can plan some more serious political activites." I reply to him.

"But...um...why don't you tell us a little about yourself and what brings you here." I suggest.

[††Venice "Cephrien" Ashgrove††]

(( To Aubrey 16 ))

"Yeah. You too." He spoke. His voice showing somewhat of a hint of sympathy. He knew how much danger Li was putting herself in by going through with this.. Ceph needed to recruit new members.. fast. However, that zombie man that she mentioned was only rumored to be around Russia.. acting based only on rumors on such a tight situation could possibly be a recipe for destruction. So it would probably be more safe to head for Helsinki towards potential allies.

Without wasting any more time, he kicked himself from his idle position and shot off to the side, dashing across the rooftop and heading for the next. With no problem at all, he hopped from the edge and launched himself into the air, landing on the next rooftop and continuing on.

No matter the height of each building, he was able to land ontop of them and continue on without slowing down.

Eventually.. Ceph jumped down into an alleyway and landed on the pavement with a simple bend of his knees. There was a teleportation booth nearby, so he headed in that direction.. unfortunately, this was the same booth that Aubrey 16 was going to.

[Aubrey 16]

Aubrey got the teleportation code she'd need from Alter, then hung up the phone, slipping back into the pocket of her blazer.

She approached the teleportation booth, only to see someone else headed toward the same one. On a slightly closer evaluation of the dark figure, she was easily able to recognize the potty-mouthed goth kid from earlier.

"Urgh, not you again." She whined.

He was just lucky she was alone, and not with Alter or some other member of the Hand. Aubrey'd heard people talking, and he was in big trouble with them.

[††Venice "Cephrien" Ashgrove††]

Ceph stopped once he heard someone else's voice. A voice that he had slightly recognized because he had heard it earlier today. He turned his head to the pink haired creditor android who had accompanied the members of the Invisible Hand that he had engaged at the Mansion.

Damn. What luck.

This would make things hard. If he made a run for the teleportation booth and left, she would be able to follow him without any problems.. and he didn't need any Invisible Hand members knowing where he's going.

For now, he just stood there with a calm and expressionless face, his hand cautiously resting ontop of his sheathed katana.

"...."

[Aubrey 16]

Aubrey sighed. What exactly was she supposed to do? Try to apprehend him? Just leave him? Should she let him go first, and then find out where he was going? She didn't know! She was a creditor, not an Invisible Hand Operative. Urgh. Why did he have to run into her? She shook her head.

She decided it might be best just to be on her merry way. Though...maybe if she managed to get him, or find out where he was going, Alter would make her knit boots, and a top to match.

"I hear you're in some trouble with the Hand." She taunted. "Tsk tsk. Deserting them like that didn't make them happy, you know."

[Archer Aylmer]

"You ask too many questions."

I readjust the backpack filled with red leaf over my shoulders and continue to wander around inside the fun house looking for Jack.

"All drug deals go on inside Amusement Parks. Where have you been? This is... Perfectly normal. Perfectly perfectly normal."

I clear my throat and make a funnel with my hands then cup them around my mouth to amplify my voice. Although, I actually don't think that works at all. I'm not sure.

"Hey.... JACK.... Come out come out... Wherever you are..."

[Imil Habibi]

Imil takes out a handkerchief and cleans his glasses. He hasn't told his story in a few years. Mostly, he's been focusing on hiding and working, and those two activities take up a lot of his time.

"I was a professor at a medical school and a social democrat before the Economic Council and the Manalists took power. Now I'm still practicing medicine, and I've become interested in something a little more... revolutionary," Imil tells them. "I haven't been very political, unfortunately, because I've been busy hiding. I published a leftist magazine back in the day, and I continue to practice an illegal profession. I don't imagine that makes me very popular."

Imil tries to think of a good suggestion for action, even though the meeting is over. Imil is not a violent man, and most people are illiterate, which severely limits the number of options.

"What if we distributed red flowers, and attached short audio messages to them. It isn't too hard to do. We could use antique mypod shuffles. Plenty of scrap stores still carry them, and they are not expensive at all. We could add some basic texts, and maybe a few songs. Even if people don't absorb anything political, having them whistle the Internationale on the way to work would certainly irk the so-called 'Blessed.'"

[††Venice "Cephrien" Ashgrove††]

"I have my reasons." He replied to the female android, his expression staying the same. "--What about you? Why do /you/ side with the Invisible Hand?" Ceph decided to question her. Creditor Androids, from what he understood, weren't exactly made to serve the Invisible Hand.. though they were most likely created under rule of the Manalists. So perhaps it was in their programming..

But for the most part, they had their own free will.