Chapter 22: When In Rome

[Niilo Ukkonen]

Clapping his hands together, Niilo turned his head to Eun and said, "Very good. Let's go."

Niilo took Eun's hand and guided her through the crowd to a backstreet where Attis had stopped. Niilo was a little out of shape, plus he smoked too much, so the brief sprint had kind of winded him for a few moments. Niilo stood up straight, fixed his vest and said, "We all ready?"

[Fitzhugh Dubois/Arah]

[To: Charon]

Finally, some peace and quiet.

Fitzhugh had sent Arah away to play outside and get some ideas for office design. He needed to redecorate his office, and Arah had considerably more fashion sense than Fitzhugh. He'd heard complaints that his office was too "plain" and too "boring" for most people's taste. Fitzhugh didn't understand why offices were too look so nice. Form should follow function. Finally giving into public opinion, Fitzhugh still refused to do it himself.

Fitzhugh's glasses lowered on his nose as he looked over paperwork and such to ensure that Red Infinity was keeping up with demands. He also had a copy of his newspaper nearby. He didn't plan to read it.

Fitzhugh found a nearby sticky note and read it. He had planned to call Charon quite some time ago to help him restock and improve his book selection, both public and private, and even help him open a library. He'd never gotten around to it.

Sighing and picking up his phone, Fitzhugh dialed the number written on the sticky note and waited as the phone rang.

[Calithin Crest]

I sort of forget what I was talking about during all of the excitement of the fortune tellers and Tristan and Peter showing up.

"I don't like having my fortune told. There's this thing in philosophy called determinism that freaks me out. Alot. I sort of have a phobia of losing my free will. Also... I don't like... Heights and doppelgangers. So things related to all that are off limits."

When the time comes for the concert I follow along. I have no real interest in listening to the particular sort of music they have playing, so I just watch politely and let my thoughts drift.

Good luck dancing to that.

[Peter "Levitas" Barak]

Peter followed Dinari, passing on the corndogs and lasping into quiet until they reached their destination. He scratched his ear with his pinky finger, mimicing the action of getting something unwanted out of his ear as he listened to the music. "Is this gonna be it? Cus dancing top this would be weird. Maybe they take requests?"

[Attis Svoboda]

Attis, Niilo, and Eun travel to Rome via teleportation booth. Attis changes into his human form and puts on a flat, old mannish hat to cover up the fox ears on the top of his head. He tucks his tail into his pants. So, in effect, he looks like an ordinary human, wearing green pants and a white, shirt made of a bumpy, rough material. He wanders around, looking for the free red leaf. He sees some being sold by street vendors, but none for free.

"Well now, it seems they are only selling it. Still, we should take advantage of the low prices and lax rules for its use." Attis suggests to Niilo and Eun.

"However, the best price is free...so, I think we should opt for the best price of all..." Attis states. He runs into a bush, turns into a fox, then dashes to one of the vendors. He bites the vendor in the hand and steals a small bag of red leaf. He dashes back to Niilo and Eun.

"Ha, now this is where we run to some place less conspicious.." He says as a fox, with the bag still in his mouth. He zips ahead of them, threading through the crowd...running under the skirts of women and causing them to scream. He runs until he finds a narrow street that seems to be away from the others. He waits for Eun and Niilo to catch up with him.

[Charon Dejardins/Asphodel]

Charon was enjoying a book in his library, when he was disturbed by the sound of his cell phone. He closed the book and contemplated not answering, since he wasn't very social and....he simply didn't care to talk at the moment. However, he figured he should answer since it could be Asphodel...did she even know how to use a phone?

He got up from his seat and picked up his phone, walking around the library while talking.

"Hello, this is Charon Desjardins, what can I do for you?" Charon asked pleasantly.

[Malak Al-Dabaran]

"I think I will leave for Rome at once and try to find out more about Kasper and our friends." Malak says suddenly. He gets up and turns to Armin. "I hate to run off, but, I am concerned about them. I am sure that you and Hilja will do just fine on your own...meeting with the workers." Malak states with a small smile. The smile soon fades. "I best be going...right away."

With nothing more to say, Malak puts his things together and heads out the door. He isn't sure what he will do, and, he was captured once before by the Manalists. He hopes it doesn't happen again.

After heading out the door, he walks to the nearest teleportation booth and uses it to go to Rome. Once there, he starts looking for anyone or anything that might help him in his search for Salome, Lucio, and Kasper.

[The Flesh Monger]

As Salome took off her dress, Flesh grab his hook and brought it near her. Soon enough, he pierce the hook through Salome's left arm. He loves to hear the tear whenever he uses the hook on real people.

"If you try to move, the hook WILL tear through your muscle and skin. Then again hearing the hook tearing though skin is the music to my ears."

[The Red Jester]

"If those two were the cursed, we would torture them until they stop moving...." Pine Eyes says to Tristan.

"But we can't since they are the blessed....." Jester add. "We simply can't touch them at all."

"Unless they did something really serious..." Pine Eyes also add.

[Dinari Dollar]

"Yeah....maybe you could make a request..." Dinari agrees with Peter. The music just isn't what Dinari cares for at all. Though, there will probably be others performing later. The electric kantele player looks familiar. He has long blond hair and a thin frame. Dinari can't place it though.

Dinari eats his corndog and watches the band. The singer breaks into a growling scream. The only thing worthwhile about the band is that Dinari can't understand the garbled lyrics, which probably aren't very good anyway.

[Eun/Aoi Kiriyama]

Eun follow Niilo and Attis throw the crowd until three of them are in the alleyway. She did notice the carvinal games, but she doesn't find them entertaining or fun. She simply finds them disturbing.

"So....are you two planning with the Red Leafs?" Eun ask.

[Heikki Toivonen]

Heikki watches Malak leave and was powerless to delay him. He wonders if Malak was exposed to the germs. They were not near each other for long. However, if he was, there was a good chance that it would spread through Rome...Malak's destination...and beyond. The cat flu could impact more than just the workers...
However..would it get traced back to Null?

Heikki considers these things while he continues to listen to Armin and Hilja, the only two socialists who remain.

[Tristan Tuzanic]

Tristan watches Calithin and the others leave the carnival. It is true...they are the Blessed, so there is nothing that Jester can really do about them. So now they are alone in the carnival, but for some others there to celebrate Holy Week. Tristan kicks at the ground, kicking up some grass and dirt in frustration.
"Damn it...I wish..the Blessed weren't so well protected. They should suffer like everyone else. It isn't fair." Tristan complains to Jester and Pine Eyes.

[Genki Kurokawa]

"Well....alright then. Let get this over this...." Genki says to Kalma.

Both of them left the women's bathroom and cotinue walk down the hallway. He felt somewhat uneasy, but try to shrug it off. Soon enough, he began calling out for anyone who works at Genetech.

"Hello?! Is anyone who are still here? Sorry to be such a bother, but me and my friend brought some flowers from Intelligent Design......" Genki says loudly.

[The Red Jester]

"We probadly don't mind to do torturing on those two for you Tristan, but ..." Jester says. "Flesh will get mad at us."

"Same goes with the higher ups." Pine Eyes add. "Then again, we don't mind. Once our playhouse is fill up, we will have so much fun. Anyway, have you found anyone else for us to torture BESIDES those two?"