Chapter 25: Fever 103 Degrees

[Annette Rosenthal]

The doctor examines Annette Rosenthal and takes her temperature. She has a fever but seems to be fine enough, despite her flu. He tells her that she can take the anti viral drugs right away, to not go to work until she is better, to get plenty of rest, and stay hydrated.

He leaves and Annette takes her first dose of the drugs. She turns on the tv in time to see Li Violette give her speech. Watching it makes Annette feel sicker. She loathes Li Violette. But, her speech was alright. Since Annette was not at the meeting with the Moderator, she isn't aware of the terrorism or why the Master would become suddenly harder on elves. It isn't her concern anyway. She assumes that the Speaker is right and that the disease is simply a common flu like any other.

[Kasper Schultz]

Kasper almost forgot to get Nil some food. He looks around and can only find a fish from breakfast. It is cold and has been sitting out now for a few hours. He brings it over to her and puts the fish in her hands. "Sorry but this is all we have right now. I'll have to round up some grub later." Kasper says with a shrug. He wonders if the fish is still good any more. He watches Archer and Salome act out their roles and isn't sure how to explain it to the girl.
"We're involved in a traveling ...drama troupe. You'll notice we have a lot of drama around here."

[Dinari Dollar]

"Well thanks for listening to my idea and considering it. I guess if you ever want to see the area, I can give you a tour or something sometime." Dinari suggests to Emelie. "It would be my pleasure." He adds.
It has been a worthwhile visit. He never really cared much for French people, but he is going to try to be more open minded. If there is one thing he is starting to learn is that people are nicer to him when he doesn't say what's on his mind.
So he nods and smiles for a moment, keeping any thoughts to himself. But, this is very hard for him.

"You are sure a lot better looking than your mother. I'm glad I got to talk to you." He blurts out. But then he realizes that she might be offended that he doesn't like her mother and that could ruin the business partnership.
"I mean....you ...well, she's .... I mean, I really ....she just looks more...older....but nothing is wrong with that, or anything else. Do you like milkshakes?"

[Horacio Hatfield]

Horacio leaves so that he can figure out the pie situation. He decides that although this idea of capturing and brain washing Dinari Dollar is far fetched and not his normal tactic, that he will help out. Doing something is better than nothing anyway. So, he sets out to find anything that could be used for making an apple pie. Being in the middle of nowhere, this is pretty difficult. He wanders around until it becomes clear that he probably won't find the ingredients for a pie.

"Maybe I could.....make a pie out of mud, or maybe we could just buy one from Allmart along the way and pass it off as homemade." Horacio thinks out loud. He decides that the second option is probably easier so he works on the next task...finding food.

He walks around the community and down a dirt road. As he continues walking, he happens upon some peach trees. He gathers some peaches and with his arms full, he brings them back to share.

When he arrives, he finds that there is now a small girl amongst them. He is puzzled by this.

"Who wants peaches?!"

[Tristan Tuzanic]

Tristan wakes up the next morning on Hilja's kitchen floor. He forgets where he is for a moment and all that transpired the night before. He slowly pulls himself off the floor and looks around. He sees Hilja at the table with a concerned look. He rubs his head and vaguely remembers meeting her the night before when he was walking home from Trendy Pizza after some pizza and drinks.

He looks up at the wall clock and frowns.

"Great, kill me. Just great. I should have been back at the temple hours ago. Shit."

He brushes off any dust on his clothes and tries to fix his hair by combing his fingers through it.
"Nice to meet you darlin', but I've got things to do."

He gives Hilja a small wave and heads out the door in a hurry. He hopes that no one noticed he was gone. He tries to think of an excuse as he runs back to the High Temple in Helsinki.

[Lucio De Saldanha]

Lucio finally arrives at his home with Kith and Linnea. His mother is out working and his brothers are in their rooms watching TV. Since no one is at home, Lucio decides to show them his old room. So...Lucio leads the way up some stairs to his old room. The room is full of childish things, like dinosaurs, action figures, and a kite...but also features a collection of historical memorabilia and costumes. Lucio puts on his prized East German border guard costume and starts marching around the room.
In his fit of marching, he turns on the TV for Kith and Linnea. Li Violette is on TV and giving a speech about the flu and about the new policy towards elves. Lucio largely ignores it.

"You guys wanta Fanta?" Lucio asks Kith and Linnea in a strange German accent. He doesn't actually have Fanta. He only has Countess Cola downstairs.

[Bambi Engel]

"That could be said for any being depending on the definition of 'basics'." Bambi stated dismissively, figuring it wasn't a bit deal. If her own inner turmoil bewildered her, she hardly expected to be able to understand Peter's. There was some saying like that, you have to understand yourself before you can understand others. Wait, no... that was love or something.

She opened her mouth to retaliate against him labeling her as 'way weirder', closing it slowly after a moment. He was exactly right about her internalizing things (granted she had no idea that was his point in making the statement). Normal people, like them? "You dub me weird, and then refer to us as normal people." It was more of a statement than a question.

Her mind was distracted by the question itself rather than bothering to be suspicious. What did any people to for fun? Surely he'd have more idea than her. Glancing her eyes back to him, Bambi decided that maybe he honestly didn't have more of a clue than her. From what she knew of him, he was as business focused as herself.

"I'm afraid such a thing eludes me as much as 'fashion' does according to Aubrey. I'm sure she could give us suggestions..." Aubrey's suggestion would probably involve embarrassing 'boyfriend and girlfriend' activities. She was still convinced they were together, partly at Peter's fault. "As she's no where in sight, I suppose we'll have to decide for ourselves."

[Calithin Crest]

"Yeah sure, that sounds great! I'm not on TV anywhere near enough. You should see my life Max, I like... Deserve a reality show."

I lead the way out of the Moderator's office to the parking lot and feel pretty good about this whole PSA thing.

"All right, we can take your car since... I'm not really sure where channel headquarters are located. This is going to be fun!"

[Archer Aylmer]

I am very unimpressed by her acting. I hope Dinari Dollar is really as dumb as he seems or we're in trouble. I frown and look generally pensive and unsettled.

"I guess... That should work... If he's retarded... But... Where are we going to keep him after we get him? Here? I don't think this is a good place. A basement in someone's house would be much, much better."

[Peter "Levitas" Barak]

Hmm, so he had to think like a rational human being. This was going to be difficult. Peter was aware that most people in the world didn't enjoy their job as much as he did and that random acts of violence and destruction were not their primary objective in life. Actually, now that he thought about it, they hadn't been his for awhile now. He hadn't beaten on anyone since he'd woken up, which had been just before Holy Week and he hadn't destoryed anything significant either.

Everything had been on the paperwork side, doing what Tuvi used to do before she... heck, he didn't even know where she was. Hadn't thought of her in months. Well, she'd been a basically normal person... what would she do in her free time?

"We... could... get books," Peter said slowly, grasping onto a memory of Tuvi with a novel in hand. That seemed like something average and normal. "I have a new house and a book shelf but no books to put on it. I need to get books."

[Salome Weil]

"Well, Horacio lives in Allwhere. Maybe we can take Dinari to Horacio's home." I suggest to Archer and the others. I look over at the girl and am confused about why she is there. But, I don't say anything and wait for someone else to complain or point it out. I also feel a little upset that Archer thinks I have poor acting skills.

Then, Horacio enters the store with some peaches. I wait for the others to take one before I nab one myself.
"Delicious! Thanks Horacio!"

I smile and take a few more bites of the juicy, wonderful peach. I haven't had a peach in years. Eating it takes me back to when I was ten years old...

"Is it fine with you, Horacio, if we bring Dinari back to your home?" I ask.

[~Ophelia Vespera~]

"I'll definitely try not to." Ophelia said with a smile. She felt almost like hugging Cephrien, something she hadn't done to anyone in a long time, but she merely gave him a shy pat on the arm. It felt good to feel some trust towards someone and also somewhat overwhelming knowing that someone finally trusted her again too.
She removed her hand from his arm and took out her keys, "How about we have something to eat? I have some vegetable soup waiting upstairs."

She went over to the front of the shop and locked the door, then led him through the be back door. There was a sliver of an alley between the green house and the shop. Passing through it, most people didn't notice that there was actually a space for anything, until she halted in the middle.
"I didn't really give you a formal introduction to my home before.. As you can see this place wasn't really meant to be a place to live.. I have a bathroom over here.." she explained, pointing to a white metal door to her right with a restroom sign still on it, "The last owner used it for a restroom for the customers. I use it as my own now. It doesn't have a shower though."
She then pointed to her left at a hazardous-looking staircase, made of rusting metal that lead to a door above the shop."And that up there is where I live."

Without further explanation, she climbed to the top of the stairs, every step sounding a tired creak from ancient stairs. She opened the door with yet another key on her abundant key chain and held the door open, looking down at him.
"Don't worry, I garuntee you the stairs are safe. Just a little old, that's all." she beckoned soothingly, figuring he hadn't followed for that reason.
Her living space was definitely a small one, she thought glancing inside. It was a kitchen, bedroom, and study all in one. Thinking of where to put her visitor for the night would be something she'd have to contemplate seriously.

[Archer Aylmer]

I take a peach and eat it up quickly. I didn't have any fish earlier so it's been a while since I've eaten and I'm quite hungry. I nod slightly at Horatio to represent my thanks... It's difficult to be more expressive than this; his appearance bothers me a. Lot.

"I wonder how the van is looking..."

I wander outside to where Bonifaz is working on the van and walk around it, inspecting everything carefully as I do.

"Hmm..."

[Nihato Gallagher]

Nihato doesn't pay much attention to the acting until the woman mentions the word "kidnap". If they were planning to kidnap Dinari, they were quite the risk-takers. Then again with the flu going on it could turn out to be a smart move depending on what their be end for this plan was.

There were different rebel groups so she continues pretending not to understand. There was no way to know if any of them were communists or similarly idealed. She eats the fish hungrily despite the cold.
"I can't thank you enough." Any food could taste good if a person got hungry enough. At Kasper's "explanation", she simply nods. His stories conflicted, first they were camping and now they were a traveling drama group.

But if there was one thing she knew about it was how to act in this world. She'd never have made it to where she had been if she didn't. When a man returns carrying peaches, she finds herself surprised and interested.
"I would like one, if there's enough." When it seems like there will be, she takes one and bites into it. It tasted much better than cold fish.
"If you don't mind answering, were you mutated from the radiation of the wastes?"

[Émilie LaFramboise]

"A tour sounds nice although I'm not sure when would be an ideal time to take it." With the flu going on, Émilie wasn't sure if it'd be best to stay in case anymore situations arose where a representative would be needed. On the other hand, production was slowed and it'd be a constructive activity.

She giggles when he mentions her adopted mother and then backtracks. The nymph found it appealing in an amusing, ditzy way. "I understand, don't fret. Every man has his own tastes when it comes to appearances. However, do try not to let Vivien hear that." Her race were meant to be beautiful, how else were they to attract men?

Em was fairly sure Vivien would be still upset to hear Dinari say such a thing. Milkshakes? She recalled sharing one with Vivien once. "I think I've only had one before but I do remember enjoying it, so- yes, I like milkshakes." She assumed it had nothing to do with their meeting. Nonetheless, she didn't mind answering the question.