Chapter 19: Faith in The Fantastic Delusion

[Freak Boy]

"London, righty-o ven," he says in his best Cockney accent. "Moi sincerest fanks for vhe room, I promise I shant be any trouble." He sniffs a little bit, as if his nose was stuffy and he was trying to clear it. There's a slight visible shake, and then he makes his way over to Hilja. "Ready when you are, luv!"

[Linnea Korpela]

"London, that sounds like its a nice place. I'll keep your room open for when you get back," Linnea smiled, already she was feeling more relaxed. "When will you be leaving?"

[Max Alexander]

Max is pleased he won the contract. He thinks about Momos ideas, and decides he will look over a few of them. "I can take a look at a few o your ideas, Momo, and see if we can incorporate any of them. I would not mind having you on the operation."

[Momo Kurokawa]

Despite the introduction of dinosaurs, and now strippers, the party remains pretty calm. Momo still waits for Annette to open up the gift. She hopes that Annette appreciates it. She turns her attention to Max.
"Yes, I am willing to help out in this project. I think that rebel activitiy is something that impacts everyone. Helping you out...will really help ME out in the long run." She replies. "Have you had any problems with rebels?"

[Horacio Hatfield]

"I will be leaving right away actually." Horacio replies to Linnea. He grabs the last few things and lingers by the door. "If you ladies want to join me, feel free. It might be a learning experience for you." Horacio says witha smile. Despite his facial deformities, his smile still conveys warmth and kindness.

[Sidapa Amparo]

(to everyone at the socialist house)

Yasmin has been missing for days and the Invisible Hand is worried. Maybe the socialists have killed her or are trying to get information out of her. In response to those worries, they send Sidapa after Yasmin, to check up on her.

He arrives at the home of the socialists, and knocks on the door. He is wearing skinny black jeans and a floral dress. He is carrying a floral purse that matches the dress. His shoes are regular purple sneakers.

[Annette Rosenthal]

Annette opens the package from Momo but drops it when she sees it is a dead cat. The package falls onto the floor and the limp cat hangs half out of the box. She doesn't realize that it was a robot due to the life like quality of the machine. She shakes her head in anger.

"Is this some sort of joke? Did people throw this party to humiliate me!!" She shouts. She ignores the dancers on the stage, but is disgusted by everything.

"This is why I never celebrate my birthday!"

[Jumala Keitoleinen]

Keitoleinen finally arrives at Linnea's home. He pauses outside the door and imagines that she must be inside, completely smitten with him. He is confident that the gesture of sending flowers completely changed her opinion of him. He smiles a little as he stands at her doorstep.

Then, after a few moments of basking in fantasies of her infatuation, he knocks at the door...

[Fitzhugh Dubois/Arah]

(To Freak Boy)

Stumbling over a book as he entered his office, Fitzhugh heard Arah chuckle at his misfortune behind him. Flicking the demon off, Fithugh regained his balance and brushed off his jacket. He had, had a long day, and needed a break. Unfortunately, his break time was not now and there was still a lot of work to do.

Arah sat in the chair in front of the desk while Fitzhugh made his way around to his own seat.

"What's the plan," Arah asked.

"There's a hacker known as 'Freak Boy," Fitzhugh responded as he opened his laptop. He looked up his resources and extracted some of the contacts from the various lists. "He's also a Red Infinity member whom I need to do some work with. I need a system hacked, and I hear he's perfect for the job. He can get both in and out without anyone knowing, plus I hear he's quite a hoot."

"Well, hop to it!" Arah responded in a chirpy tone as he lit a cigar.

Fitzhugh was too engaged to really pay attention to what Arah was saying. He began to type his message:

Freak Boy, I hear you can help me. Before, however, we need to meet. Roughly half a million dollars are in it for you, half of which will be paid up front. I am currently in Paris, but can be anywhere you are within minutes. Will you help me?

[Freak Boy]

Freak Boy's computer emits some strange noises and then a deep voiced "Check out your mail."

"'Scuse me for a second," he says to Hilja. He opens his laptop and sees Fitzhugh's message. He sends a quick reply:

'Will be in London shortly. I shall contact you when I am there.'

He then heard the knock at the door. He hit send on his computer. "I'll get it!" He made his way to the door and opened it. He was only slightly surprised to see the man in drag.

"Are you a hallucination," he asked curiously.

[Linnea Korpela]

"No actually I think I'll pass this time..." Linnea starts to explain, even though she feels like she is making up pathetic excuses. Suddenly there is a knock at the door, she turns and sees the silhouette of a man. "That must be one of your friends."
Getting up from the table Linnea moves across the room to open the door. Once the door is open and sees who was knocking she freezes before she starts to shut the door, but like always she is too late before he will stop the door with his hand.

[Max Alexander]

((Annettes reply to the dead cat made me laugh out loud, lol))

"No, no i have not really had any problem with rebels. A few strays every now and then, but nothing of concern. Is that a big problem in your company?" He questions while sipping some cigniac.

"Oh and i forgot, here is my gift." He hands a small box to Annette. The package contained a small diamond ring he picked up off a corner jewelry shop while he was in Oslo. Hopefully she liked it.

[~Ophelia Vespera~]

Ophelia had been quite quiet once Horacio walked in and looked to the floor in an effort not to stare. She had never seen a man like him before. Not that she was prejudice, but many deformed people of society were shooed out of Rome or hidden away due to discrimination against their 'unsightly' appearance and were rarely ever seen. About the only unsightly being that lurked in public and was absolutely accepted in Rome was Master Scrag.

She glanced up every once in a while when appropiate, then finally lifted her head back up all the way when Linnea went to answer the door. The color drained from her face when Linnea opened the door to reveal none other than Mr.Keito, whom she could see from her spot against the kitchen counter. She was hoping to get Linnea the flowers before Mr.Keito found out she had lost the first bouquet. Ophelia shook off her shakiness and went to the kitchen doorway when Linnea failed shutting the front door on him. She leaned against the frame and watched, making her presence known so his attention was not solely on poor Linnea.

[Yasmin Seyyedi]

"I thought the people upstairs are your freinds." Yasmin answer. "But if you insist, I can be your friend."

Yasmin is slightly suprised that its already 5pm, but is glad that is getting late. She need the fresh since the basement is really stuffing.

"Can I go outside around 6pm or 7pm, Lucio?"

[††Venice "Cephrien" Ashgrove††]

By the time that Li had contacted Ceph through telepathy, he was already returning to the party. He casually opened the conference room doors and walked in, black leather long-coat silently wavering about as he approached Violette. He raised a brow and gave her his asymmetrical smirk as he handed her the flowers, tidy and in perfect condition.

Ceph casually placed a hand on his hip before speaking. "Will that be all?"