Chapter 25: Fever 103 Degrees

[Horacio Hatfield]

"Yes....I suppose we could host...the guest...at my house." Horacio states in reply to Salome's question. Since there is a new comer there, he decides it is best to be more secretive. Even children can be dangerous.

When the girl asks for a peach and questions his face, he feels a little embarrassed. Sometimes he wonders what kind of person he would be if he didn't have the deformities. It shaped his life but he knows no different.

"I hope it doesn't frighten you, but yes, I was born this way. These are birth defects because of...environmental troubles in the world." He says, trying to sound polite and not pin the problem on the Manalists.

"I suppose if I had money I could have surgery done to make my appearance look more pleasant, but, I've come to accept who I am." He says, trying to smile. He gives the girl one extra peach and pats her on the top of the head.

"It will be easier to simply buy some pies along the way back, since baking them here will be quite impossible."

[Dinari Dollar]

"When you visit me, I'll treat you to a milkshake." Dinari replies and winks a Emelie. He looks at his watch and knows he needs to return to Allwhere. It is just a matter of getting back home now. He knows that the teleportation booth by his office is still open for his personal use, but he isn't sure how he will get to it.

"I've gotta get going. But, can you do me a favor, sweetie? Can you open a teleportation booth for me so I can teleport home? Otherwise I have to try to take a plane and that will take hours. I just don't have the time. Pretty please?" He asks. "I'll give you a dollar..." He bribes. The world doesn't use dollars, so, a dollar is of no value, unless a person likes history or collects currency.
He raises both eyebrows and makes a mock sad face to convince her to let him use a teleportation booth, even though most are closed right now.

[Bonifaz Artz-Lehrer]

Bonifaz has been hard at work, painting a pie logo on the side of the van. He is covered with paint and has used anything available to mix and spread the paint. The logo does not look professional, but, it doesn't look awful either. It features a large pie with a cute smiling face and steam. In the steam is written "Cutie Pies"

The whole thing looks girly and a little Japanese.

"What do you think?" Bonifaz asks Archer. "It is passable? I didn't exactly have the best materials..."

The paint job looks thick and goopy with a dull surface, since it isn't paint for cars. He hopes the design will survive rain and mud.

[Armin Lehrer]

Armin had been soundly sleeping during the exchange between Archer and Salome. However, suddenly he wakes up in a coughing fit. He sits up and can't stop coughing. His face turns red and finally he stops. He holds his chest and lays back down on the floor. He is miserable and seems to only be getting worse. If he could visit a doctor he would.

"I don't feel well....I really don't feel well..." Armin complains. He lays back down and curls into a ball on the floor. This is the sickest he has ever been. Usually he is pretty healthy, but this has been awful.

[Kith Keitoleinen]

Kith feels a little odd spending time with Lucio and especially odd in Lucio's oddly decorated room. However, once he sees that Li is on TV, he pays little attention to Lucio or the room. He watches and feels a little nervous when she announces that the Manalists are now going to persecute elves...or at least persecute them more than usual.

"Hmmm...I don't think this bodes well for me." Kith remarks after the speech. He is glad to see that Li is safe, but he isn't sure what to do about these new laws or how they will impact him. He feels a little...uncomfortable going out now, since he wouldn't want people to turn him into the temple. He could probably fight off most people, but, he doesn't want his race to be an issue. He doesn't really even identify with any elf culture.

[Charon Dejardins/Asphodel]

Charon watches the news and sees that elves are now wanted by the temples. Normally he would have to head to Helsinki University to teach classes on Theology, but the school is closed right now due to the spread of Cat Flu. He has anxiety about returning to work. He is the only elf that he knows of working at the university. He wonders if he should be worried about it.

To try to forget about this bad news, he heads to his library and starts dusting and organizing his books. This at least gives him something to do so he doesn't fret about the laws. The Manalists know of him anyway. They have tolerated him thus far. Perhaps he will be taken in and forced to prove that he is loyal. However, that in itself is stressful.

He sighs, unsure of what to do. For now, he will stay inside and do his best to avoid people until he has to return to work.

He also worries about Asphodel, who has not been around lately. He hasn't seen her since she went to Rome.

[Li Violette]

After my speech, I decide to head back to the Moderator. He is likely busy and exhausted by now, but maybe that's the best time to catch him. He might be less on guard than usual.

I redo my makeup before heading to his office at the HQ of the World Economic Council. I collect my thoughts outside his door. I take a deep breath and touch the handle to his office. I slowly open the door, peeking in to see if he is still around. I catch him..putting on his jacket. I offer a small smile.

"Leaving? Did you see my speech? I hope it was what everyone wanted." I say, stepping into the office slowly.

"Things are stressful for you now. If there is anything I can do to make your job easier, let me know. I want to help you." I say in a quiet voice.

Then, I take a few steps back and wait for his answer. He is a hard person to know, but not a hard person to work with. I wonder what secrets he keeps or why he feels he can't trust anyone.

[Attis Svoboda]

Attis returns to the anarchist meeting in time to see everyone discussing something related to Dinari Dollar. He isn't sure what everyone decided to do, but he doesn't really care that much anyway. When he was out and about outside, he collected some food. He decides that he will share, even though these people probably don't deserve anything to eat.

He sets a leather bag on the floor and pulls out various roots, berries, mushrooms, and other wild edibles before everyone.

"Well, help yourself. I don't mind sharing. The forests are full of things to eat. I could easily live out here if I wanted to." Attis brags to everyone.

He then sits on the floor and helps himself to some of the mushrooms. He glances over at the little girl and sniffs the air.

[Roland Demeter]

((Post to anyone affiliated with Intellegent Design))

Roland lands his plane in Japan and quickly makes his way through the city to the offices of Intelligent Design. He is dressed in a stylized sarong, an imitation of a recent fashion designer's work. Roland modified the design slightly and then started selling them for cents on the rand without paying anything back to the designer.

But that wasn't important now. Once in the robotics company offices he strode confidently to the front desk and demanded to see someone regarding acquiring some robots to replace his sick workers.

[Nihato Gallagher]

"It doesn't frighten me. I took care of my parents before they died from Gray Sickness." Nihato explains, leaving out the fact she'd studied multiple other people with diseases while trying to create her cure. Horacio seemed perfectly healthy despite his mutations.
"It's good to accept yourself for who you are. At least you seem healthy otherwise, hm?" She forces a smile at the pat as he was being nice. Kasper had been nice as well even if a little awkward. She's distracted from her eating as someone she hadn't noticed before begins coughing.

Did he have the same illness as her? She hoped not, she was feeling better with food to eat. There was still plenty of time for her flu to develop that far though.

[Sylvi Saarela]

"Why do I have to do it?! I have a house-call from Ingrid!" Slyvi tossed down her wrench angrily, placing her hands on her hip. Her back was rigid with her body tilted slightly forward- it was meant to scare by giving her a bigger appearance. She found it worked satisfyingly well.
"Do you live under a rock? Maybe if you didn't spend all your time cooped up with your spider or trying to force someone into playing a video game with you you'd know there's a flu going around. We're short on staff and everyone's doing stuff they wouldn't normally." Apparently ineffective on this co-worker, he crossed his arms with a stubborn determination.

Shocked by his blunt insult (that was untrue! She did lots of things!), Slyvi stands flabbergasted for a moment. The nerve! Where was that wrench?! It had an appointment with his head.
"Err- but you know it's a very important business guy! This could mean a deal or maybe he wants some secret stuff, you know!" The co-worker seems to rethink angering her upon noticing her search for the discarded wrench.
She finds it just as he begins speaking, flicking it up into the air by the tip. Catching it as gravity brought it back down, the cyborg glared silently at the man. Once pleased that he was regretting his insult, she throws the wrench back into the toolbox.
"Whatever, I'll be there in a sec."

Slyvi had been getting her tools together for the trip to Denmark, her body was already dressed in her mecha suit. Her blond hair was tied up in a high but very messy ponytail. Eh, maybe it'd give Ingrid enough time to practice so she could actually pose a challenge in one of her games. Throwing on a white t-shirt to cover some of her skin (she could care less but it made some people uncomfortable), she makes her way out to the lobby. Spotting a guy who was obviously waiting around, she assumes it must be who she was meant to deal with.

"Oy, you the business guy who needs something?" Polite business attitude? Her? Ohoho. Man, he was a pale one. She looked way more tanned than she was next to him. "I'm Sylvi, I guess I can help you with what you need." She still didn't know why Momo wasn't meeting with him or something.

[††Venice "Cephrien" Ashgrove††]

Ceph had felt slightly warm when Ophelia had touched his arm-- He didn't feel it on his skin because of his jacket sleeves.. but it still felt funny.
As usual, he didn't put much thought into it.

He watched her for a moment as she began to speak and lock the front door of the shop.. it must've been closing time.. or perhaps it was an occasional cloasing. Quietly, he followed her to the back door, taking a glance at the store's windows for any sign of what could look like a Rogue Creditor. That really would be dreadful if it did come back..

As she explained the areas of the shop, Ceph was surprised when she had mentioned it also being her home. He never would've guessed..

It sounded nice-- yet lonely at the same time. He had stopped to watch her move up the stairs.. he had to admit, those stairs did look a little uncomfortable-- but he wasn't too worried about that. He wouldn't get hurt from falling down some stairs.
Ceph began to step up, as Ophelia's voice echoed from the floor above. When he had caught up, he quietly peeked into the living space and noticed how small it was.

He adapted to things quite easily-- so he wasn't all that worried about where he would stay.

[Bambi Engel]

Books, huh. Bambi hadn't thought of Peter as the type to enjoy books. She knew there existed people in the world who just had bookshelves (with accompanying books) just for the sake of having them. "Do you like books? I love them, there's types for everyone no matter their tastes."

Then again, books were a dwindling hobby in a world that didn't value them. Thankfully she knew of a few bookstores still in business. She'd never been shopping for books with someone.

"It's something to try, at the very least. The next question is when to do so. I need to get back to Switzerland to get this vaccine to Annette. I imagine a book-store stop wouldn't be a big issue if you'd prefer now rather than later." Wow, she hadn't read a book in ages. She had been far too busy making sure all the work she did was perfect.

[Max Alexander]

Max nodded his head in agreement. "I can agree on that. My head has been spinning lately with everything that has been going on. I havn't slept in over 36 hours." He shook his head in disbelief as they walked towards the big black Mercedes.

"No problem. We aren't very far at all and you can call your driver or something after we are finished." Max smiled pleasantly and jumped into the car. He slipped it into drive and began their long, and quite fast, journey back to MTV headquarters. Averaging about 230km/h, they arrived quite quickly.

He slipped into his spot in the garage and got out of the car. "Do you need anything before we film it? Do you have anything specific that you'd like to say or should i get one of my writers?" He lead him towards the main door, and held it pen.

[Roland Demeter]

Roland smiled at the young woman. She looked like one of the vapid models who he hired to look good in the clothings lines his business produced. Apparently this flu was causing staffing shortages here as well. How distressing. Still, he put on his best face, as he did for nearly everyone.

"I am Roland Demeter and I require the services of Intellegent Design. My work force has been vastly reduced by recent problems. Have you ever considered modeling, Ms.?"