Chapter 23: Heaven Is A Gated Community

[Horacio Hatfield]

The next day, Horacio writes a note for Ophelia before he leaves. He sets the note on the cash register, and heads out the door with the little that he came with. He wanders down the street, marveling at some of the Holy Week events such as the carnival and the mass of people still flowing into the Colosseum.

He heads into a teleportation booth and uses it to teleport back to Allwhere, Florida, where he lived and worked before his adventure in Europe. He thinks he will probably be able to find a job with Allmart again. He wonders if his old, run down house is still open or if it has become the property of someone else.

He starts walking towards the old place in the shanty town outside of Allwhere. This is where some of the poor Allmart workers live.

The note he left for Ophelia read:

Dear Ophelia,
I had a wonderful time in Rome visiting your flower shop. Thanks for your kindness and friendship. Hopefully I can visit again someday or you can visit me outside of Allwhere, Florida.
Best of luck in the future,
your friend
Horacio

[Annika 25]

Because Annette Rosenthal and other Global Bank employees are at the Colosseum, Annika is ordered there to provide some extra security and look out for the Global Bank VIPs. She arrives there wearing her usual vest, white shirt, and pleated black skirt. Her light pink hair contrasts against the mob of black robs and dull colors. She takes a position in a back row by an exit and some stairs. She figures that from there she can keep an eye on Annette Rosenthal.

The mission is somewhat exciting and a little different than going after Debtors. She can sense some debtors seated in the rows around her, but for now, she pays them no mind since they are not part of her primary mission today.

[Ariel Tal Shachar]

With many people still at Holy Week events, the office at the HQ of the Economic Council is quiet. Ariel sits alone in his office, looking over some reports on various economic trends. He looks over a report from a fishing company on yields of fish. He looks over a report from New Objective on the number of teleportation booths built and the revenue from various areas. Another report is from Genetech on the increased sales of Smeet.
Ariel pours through the reports, looking for trends, relationships, or anything that might be of concern. This work is somewhat tedious, but he enjoys it and it paints a picture of the world. When he reads the report, he does see numbers, but he sees people, events, places, and even future outcomes.

After looking through a few of these economic reports, his mind wanders back to the Colosseum. He thinks of the Israeli fighter and his reaction to it. It upset him. He lingers on that emotion and tries to dissect what it could mean.
"Emotions are just thoughts. If I can change my thoughts, I can change my emotions." Ariel reasons.
He tells himself that nothing related to Israel or past crimes against Jews is of any real concern to him or to the current world. He tells himself that they have advanced beyond history.

[Amelia 20]

Amelia heads downstairs and turns on some cartoons. Watching cartoons at the nihilist house is one of her favorite activities. As she watches, she grabs some paper from a desk drawer and starts writing and drawing randomly. Sometimes she is inspired by the cartoons. The cartoons often feature messages about Manalist morality, which resonates with her and her programming.

The house is quiet now that the Socialists are gone. They all had bad credit and it took some effort for her not to attack them. She does not want to upset Bonifaz, since he takes orders from Annette Rosenthal. To upset Bonifaz would upset Annette.

She sits alone, sketching and watching.

[Bambi Engel]

Bambi blinks and turns a little red at his comment of her being interesting. She'd heard him say it once before, but she wasn't exactly herself at the moment. Wonderful, he apparently wasn't going anywhere. She thinks back to Annette's displeased comments on the dress that had practically choked her chest. How much worse of a night would that have been if Peter had been there to see it?

"I guess you could've called it 'stunning'. You also missed the Manala Mas I was granted permission to plan." She isn't sure why she mentioned the Manala Mas. She was pretty pleased with herself over it. Her eyes followed his movements cautiously despite the fact she tried not to look at him much. There was no where to move back to, she could still feel the wall behind her like a reminder of that fact.

The area wasn't too small, at least. If worst came to worst... No, there was no way she was going back in that maze. Even if she possibly remembered the way after running through it.

[Émilie LaFramboise]

((Sorry for the wait.))

Émilie feels bad when he turns away, she didn't mean to invade his personal space. She was just so used to touching people in some way. Wow, he was chased by the Invisible Hand? Vivien wasn't wrong about how dangerous being a rebel was. She glances at the ground too when he asks if she was a rebel.

She'd never really said she was, but she knew she was against the Manalists. "I... guess I am, I'm against the Manalists and all." She says a little nervously. She starts walking again slowly. Should she tell him who she really was now? He had been honest enough to reveal to her she was a rebel. "Uhm, listen... I kind of have a secret too... My full name is Émilie LaFramboise. I'm the adopted daughter of Vivien..."

She plays with the bottom of her dress a bit. "Please don't hate me! Vivien is a very nice woman, she wants people to have rights. She taught me all about the world." She explains, a little red in the cheeks.

[††Venice "Cephrien" Ashgrove††]

Cephrien, still feeling weak in his knees looked up at the Priest, eyes narrowing down into a cold stare. He kept quiet, even as he seemingly mocked him by shaking his hand. There wasn't much to say to that.. However, when he felt something slide into his shackled hands, his eyes widened a little. He listened to the manalist priest explain himself.. this was.. definately unexpected. Even from someone as odd as Lehti. Then again, perhaps it wasn't all that odd.

Something even more unexpected was the appearance of Akira 69. Ceph figured that he had gotten lost or something and continued his rampage prior to coming to the flowershop. It looked as if the creditor was posing to be operational. Not a bad idea at all. Looks like things were definately going well from here.

The guards that held him had released him and pushed him towards the android creditor. Ceph looked back at the Flesh Monger and raised a brow before turning back to Akira, still without saying a word. The moment Akira took him out of this place, Ceph could do what he came here to do.

[The Flesh Monger]

"Be quiet." Flesh says to Lucio as Akira took away Ceph.

"If you're going to continue to be troublesome towards me, I will give way more harsher torture you."

Soon enough, Flesh made Lucio stand up and made him to look at him

"I'm gonna ask you the same questions I asked the other prisoners. Since I already gave you boils.....do you want blindness or hair loss? IF you don't choose either....well...you will figure it out soon enough...."

[The Red Jester]

Jester grew bored of watching the fights and decided to go back to the Fun House. The Fun House is located in the Temple of Terror. As Jester enter his room, Pine Eyes jump off Jester's shoulder and walk towards the bed.

"Is Flesh gonna torture the rebel, Lucio?" Pine Eyes ask.

"Yep. I also heard that someone else was fighting in the stands. They manage to catch this person and brought him to the Temple of Terror. I would like the torture this person." Jester answer.

"And what happened if they won't let you touch this person?" Pine Eyes ask again.

"I will not be a very happy camper." Jester reply with a smile.

[Calithin Crest]

"You don't just take out your nuclear weapons to kill a beetle! There was no need for any major force. We could have just tripped the dinosaur, but you were doing your own kind of tripping and didn't want to be a team player..."

I eat some more cotton candy and continue to watch the fighting. I look in the direction of the colosseum floor but my thoughts are else where. I have had my fire put out for the day so I am in one of my more quiet and thoughtful moods.

"I think there's always going to be a rebel movement. Society could be perfect and there would be people rebelling against it. You're never going to make everyone happy. So it's whatever. I don't worry about it. Rebels are dealt with too harshly, I think... Since really putting someone in jail and letting them sit is plenty effective. But. Once again... It's whatever. What I do hate is Communists though. I hate other rebels much less. Feminists and Anarchists don't make me mad, and Fascists dress really nicely and woo me. I can't even get mad enough at them when I try."

I yawn a little. The fight took more out of me than I thought. Also, I am very aware that I just look a mess. My clothes are dirty and my hair is all over the place from running around. This makes me more self conscious than I usually am.

[Archer Aylmer]

I go get Heikki a glass of water from the kitchen. I'm in no rush so I scour the cabinets for something to snack on while I'm down there anyway, but cannot find anything particularly appetizing. With a sigh I head back upstairs to his room and put the glass of water down on an end table near the bed.

"So..."

I don't really know Heikki very well. Actually, I don't know anyone very well. This makes having solitary conversations with people when there is nothing purposeful to discuss somewhat awkward.

"Um..."

I look at the TV screen for a little while and start to get pretty engaged in the fighting. You have to hand it to the Manalists. They're never boring.

"Did you know: the Leiurus quinquestriatus or 'Deathstalker' is the most dangerous breed of scorpion? Well. It is. They're found mostly in the Middle East though so... Don't... Worry."

[Max Alexander]

((sorry Momo, for my slow responses, i am on a road trip and am in Los Angeles right now))

Max was hating the fights. "These seats are rubbish, Momo." Max stated blatently. "I could use a good cushion for this seat." He was getting irritated.

Momo asked him about something to eat. "Do they sell like, hot dogs here? i have not had one of those in YEARS." Max said with a smile.

[Kasper Schultz]

Kasper actually falls over...backwards onto his bottom. "Yooooouuu're what?!!!!" He almost shrieks with surprise. Kasper is an ordinary person, so he has never met a wealthy person, much less the daughter of someone who owns an entire country. He has to take a moment to let it sink in. He sits on the ground, contemplating the time that they spent together thus far. Nothing seems to add up. He imagines that the daughter of Vivien would have to be some snobbish, sheltered, prissy girl who goes on fancy vacations and likes ...wine or whatever it is that well to do people like. After a long while, he finally stands up. He brushes off his tan, cargo pants which are not quite long enough for his lanky legs.

"Ahem...oh, I wouldn't have guessed. I've never met..the daughter of an important person before...or even an important person. All of my friends are just ordinary and kind of poor." Kasper explains to her. He looks her over and tries to make sense of it all.

"Adopted daughter...huh...I would have never guessed. You seem so in touch with nature I thought maybe you were part of the Enlightened Brotherhood and into the spirituality stuff." Kasper remarks.

He crosses his arms. "I guess it's kind of neat. But what are you doing way the heck out here?" Kasper asks as they resume walking together. They finally enter the village.

[Lucio De Saldanha]

"Pumpkin pie. Is pumpkin pie a curse?" Lucio asks. He feels a little bit sad and neglected when Cephrien leaves with Akira. He is alone again with the Flesh Monger and there is noone there to help him. To make matters worse, when he is done with the tortures, he will have to return to the arena and continue fighting.

His only sanctuary is imagination and denial, both of which is adept and creating for himself. He imagines that he is back in Cuba and that the Flesh Monger is actually a famous baseball player. He is angry at Lucio since Lucio didn't want his autograph. Lucio doesn't care for baseball, but maybe he will get an autograph anyway, since the Flesh Monger's ego has been hurt by the situation.
"I'll have your autograph.."

[Momo Kurokawa]

"I saw Dinari Dollar with a hotdog earlier, so they must." Momo replies to Max. She watches the fight between a feminist and a scorpion and calls over a food seller to give her and Max hot dogs. The vendor rushes over and gives them each a dog covered with relish and mustard. Momo doesn't like relish, but she isn't going to complain, since she likes food in general. She eats her hotdog and half listens in to the conversation between Dinari Dollar, Calithin Crest, and Annette Rosenthal.

"Are rebels a problem for M TV?" She asks Max.

She then looks to Calithin and Annette.

"There doesn't seem to be much of a rebel problem in Japan. But, we have robot police there. Crime is more of a problem than rebels." Momo chimes in. Come to think of it, she can't think of any major rebel groups based in Japan.