Chapter 2: Works of Love

[Li Violette]

When he answers the phone as Venice, I am confused. Then I remember that Venice is the name he goes by outside of assignments for the Invisible Hand. I sigh in relief.

"Hello, this is Li Violette. The Moderator told me to check up on you. Have you been busy lately?" I ask politely. I figure that I will chit chat a little with the demon before getting to business.

I feel tired today, and a meeting earlier today discussed Cuba. There is some uncertaintly what is going on there exactly. Some of the rebels there are actually Red Infinity members, so I am a bit alarmed that some of the leaders have been killed or at least have vanished.

[Jumala Keitoleinen]

"I have plenty of money. How about.. you can pay me in favors." He states to the young scientist. "You can do whatever I ask of you. I am sure I wouldn't ask for much. Maybe you could come over and do my dishes...or sleep with me. Really, it wouldn't be much at all. Then, I could do what I can to find a cure for your mother's illness or at least some drugs to help her." Keitoleinen suggests. He gives her his best concerned look.

[††Venice "Cephrien" Ashgrove††]

The white haired demon man had recognized the voice almost immediately, but had stayed silent until she had questioned if he was busy with any sort of activity at the moment. Naturally, he replied with a stern "No"
His voice was deep, a masculine voice that didn't exactly suit his face.

"Do you have orders for me?" He spoke, cutting straight to the point.[/color]

[Calithin Crest]

I snatch the bottle away and look at it.

"Okay, well that is totally not at all the point whatsoever. You fail. I don't care if you're not the one that buys the cleaner, I didn't ask you if you bought the chemicals, nor did I ask you which chemicals we use, I asked you what the best window cleaner was and you completely anti-answer my question correctly."

I let the bottle fall out of my hand and onto the ground and pull a pen out of the inside pocket of my suit jacket.

"So..."

I remove the pen cap and think for a minute, upon deciding what to do I hold her head up towards me at an upturned angle and look at her closely.

"Hold still now..."

I draw a design on her forehead carefully and precisely:

=(

"There. A sad smiley because you did not keep your promise to me, and have not met the standard required by your occupation. That, my dear, is strike one."

I hold up one finger in front of her to reiterate my point and put the pen back in it's rightful pocket.

[Li Violette]

"I do. I would like you to travel to Cuba and report to the Economic Council what is going on there. Some rebels have been living on the Island. There is no good information coming from the island. Now, could you please travel there and see what you can learn. (you can go back and read Peter's posts to try to find this out, or maybe try to post to Peter if he will post with you)." I tell him.

"These are not the precise orders of the Moderator, but he is a busy man and therefore, I hope you don't mind meeting my own request. I assure you though that if it is called into question, I will take any blame from the Moderate." I assure him.

"So please, report back to me anything you see or anyone unusual that you encounter there." I order.

[Hilja Kukkanen/Sasha Pisarev]

I frown when I get drawn on. I feel like taking that marker from him and poking him in the eye. But no, I remain calm and put up with these antics. He does not often travel to this office, so, I would be wrong of me to upset him.

"Is there anything else, or can I get back to work? I wouldn't want to slack by lingering too long talking to you."

[††Venice "Cephrien" Ashgrove††]

Cephrien let a brief pause hang over the phone.. but before long, he spoke once more. "Do I have your permission to open fire if engaged?" The demon questioned, seeing as how he seemed to be taking orders from this person now. He was an assassin, his speciality was killing. It would be troublesome to hinder the mission if he were found out to be a spy of some kind and not be able to fight.

[Calithin Crest]

"No. There is nothing else. You're not very interesting and I can see this is one problem that cannot be fixed... Feel free to meander through your time here. Really. It is a mediocre and dispassionate world. I understand. But let that smiley be a reminder to you that no one is happy when things like this..."

I point to the poorly cleaned floors and then to her and raise my eyebrows a little.

"Go on. Have an ordinary day."

I pick the bottle of window cleaner I dropped on the floor up and hand it back to her then walk away. There are some exciting reports about our South American mines on my desk I am looking forward to reading...

[Eun/Aoi Kiriyama]

"Sleep with you? I'm 15 sir." Eun answer.

"I don't mind doing the dishes and few others things but don't you have a wife or something? Wouldn't she get mad if she finds out that you're going to sleep with me?"

[slowpoke]

Charon poured over the books in his study. "There's got to be more information about Attis in here. At least more than a mention of his name!" But Charon knew the search was useless. He had been through nearly every book involving demonology in his study and the well had run dry.

Charon put away the last book with a sigh, today had been a long day and he was tired. He silent trudged to his bedroom and began thinking. "What could've that strange man had wanted with Attis? Surely he didn't mean to capture him and someone manipulate his powers for some personal gain?" Sleep did not come quickly to Charon that night.

[Hilja Kukkanen/Sasha Pisarev]

I feel pretty crummy after my encounter with Calithin, but, I do my best to just do my work anyway. I finish up a few hours later and think the floors look a lot better after I took the buffing machine on them. People start arriving now and some lesser workers like myself are told to line up for our monthly random drug test.

I stand in line and think about how much life stinks and how much I really dislike working. I wish I had more freetime...but it could be worse. Things can always be worse.

[Li Violette]

I have to think about Cephrien's question for a moment. "If you feel you are in danger or someone attacks you, feel free to kill them. Otherwise, do your best to collect information in a friendly fashion." I state to him. That seems fair enough.

"Oh, and report your findings only to me. Understood?"

[Jumala Keitoleinen]

"Bah, I don't have a wife, and anyway, I wouldn't marry some conservative old bat who wouldn't allow me to sleep with teens from time to time." Keitoleinen says with a bold laugh. He laughs again.

"15 is plenty old. You aren't too young to be a scientist and work here. You aren't too young to care for your mother. Age is just some number. Why, I don't even remember how old I am anymore."

[Bambi Engel]

While Bambi's computer booted, she noticed the first paper on the stack was slightly out of place. With a frown, she plucked it from the top of the stack and scanned it. *Oooh no...* She had to suppress an urge to groan as she begun to read it fully. Apparently she was being set to perform another job for a bit, but this one had nothing to do with computers or editing.

She was going to do FIELD work. Were they insane? A ball of dread curled up in her stomach. There was no way she was going to survive this day and still have her job. They'd fire her. Maybe even kill her! What if this was some kind of test? What if they wanted to see how good of an employee she really was? There wasn't much information on the paper. Just a list of names, and instructions to inquire about their loans and see of they wished to make anymore loans.

Okay, breathe, breathe... Gripping the arms of her chair after placing the paper down, she closed her eyes and slowly breathed. In, out, in, out... There was no reason to freak out, she could do this. Maybe. No! She could! Standing up with a new determination, she set her computer to "power save" mode and begun to pack a folder with all the files she needed. When she was done, she swung her purse over her shoulder and headed out of her office.

While worrying about what happened if the teleportation machine messed up on her, she walked into the door of it. Rubbing her nose, she swung the door open and stepped in. At least the bank was paying for the fees so that she could get her job done. These ones never messed up like the old versions... right?

Stumbling out of the machine after she had punched in the info for the first client, she pressed her lips together tightly. She would not throw up. Once the neasua passed, she begun toward the Crest Mining Company to search for Calithin Crest.

((Post to Calithin Crest.))

[Hilja Kukkanen/Sasha Pisarev]

Usually they just have us do a urine screening, but today for some reason they want a blood sample. I get pricked then wait for the results to come in. My day is far from over since I still have to report to work at the orphanage then head to Charon's after that for more work as a gardener.

I wait patiently for the results from the blood test, but am surprised when I am asked to give a sample of my hair as well.

So, a nurse snips some hair which will get sent to the Anti Drug commission for more testing.

"Is something wrong?" I ask the nurse nicely. The only doctors and nurses seem to be those who work at job sites giving drug tests or pregnancy tests to make sure we can still work.

She doesn't say, which worries me. I don't do any sort of drug, so I know I have no reason to worry...but still...something isn't right.