Good-will Toward Men

[cityship]

There is a whole world out there to spread holiday joy to. A world of flying cars, and massive towering skyscrapers, of quiet, cold deserts, of snow-covered cities. Everyone in it is either holed up in their homes, hooked into the Links, the network run by Macrohard, abstaining from human contact, or they're poor and destitute, in the streets, and

Comments

Re: Eid ul-fitr

[kaya_waterwave]

Katara was the other sister who wsa helping tirelessly with putting out food, water and what they could scrounge from the Poles for these people. Her hair was bound and she wore a scraf tightly around her head most of time since it seemed to be the fashion in this place and it made her less conspicuous. As instructed by Sheeana, Katara had made herself scarce and was quiet in what she did, a bit ofa change from her Painted Lady alter-ego. If she was irritated by the heat, she said nothing about it, and if any aspect of these new people were startling, Katara did not show it to Sheeana.

Instead, she had diligently worked on repairing clothing, healing the sick and infirmed when she could, and making sure these people were as comfortable as possible for the ceremony. Whatever Sheeana had instructed Katara did so, and what she did not Katara took certain allowances on. If a certain beggar here or there with sores happened to notice they had far few pains after seeing the rather young girl at the Sisters of Mercy building, who would be the wiser? Katara wasn't about to blow their cover.

Still, she wondered if any of their team would be here soon.

Re: Eid ul-fitr

[morphitudinous]

It had taken some time for Billy and their team to land the car in an inconspicuous location. Pulling a traditional dark garment over his gift-giving uniform for this leg of the mission, he swung a black bag over his shoulder and led a few stragglers toward the Sisters' location. It wasn't difficult to find them, for the flow of traffic within Baghdad ended at the location of the generous offering of food.

Finally, after greeting the people he met with his best attempt at pronouncing the traditional 'Blessed Eid' greeting, Billy reaches the Sisters.

"Peace be upon you," he greets solemnly, testing the waters for interaction in this culture. "I apologize for the delay. We were preparing some gifts for the people that will help them through the year. Your work so far has been excellent," he offers, appreciative of the feast that the gathered people are enjoying.

"Can I assist you in any way before I begin my own work? I'd like to conduct some simple repairs at a nearby school."

Re: Eid ul-fitr

[kaya_waterwave]

"Of course," Katara said, keeping the whole humble sister thing going. "It would mean a lot if you could distribute these blankets to some of our less fortunate. You'll find them in the mess hall. Sister Sheeana and I are busy readying the Eid Ul-fitr celebration. I think you might want to be around for that."

Here she passed him a balanket, but not before giving him a very small hug.

"Thank you for being here," Katara said softly. "It means a lot to these people."

Re: Eid ul-fitr

[morphitudinous]

"I'm glad to help." He returned Katara's hug lightly, then secured the blankets in his arms, smiling brightly at her. "Don't worry, I'll be back in time for the celebration. I wouldn't miss it."

With his plan formed, he slipped outside to find people sitting apart in the mess hall. Some had finally started talking and sharing in the joy of the feast, but others looked like they needed some encouragement. He started with a lonely-looking family seated near the entrance. I'll have to start a chain reaction, thought Billy.

"Peace be upon you," he offered to the child, offering her a smaller blanket. "I wish you a blessed Eid, and that you may be well every year." He hoped the translator had interpreted that correctly. The child looked confused for a moment---oh no, he didn't botch it, did he----but then she smiled, greeting him and turning to her parents. He repeated the procedure with them, and soon enough the three were wrapped in warm blankets. One family down, several more to go...

But it became easier after the first. The families were grateful, and they even began talking to each other about their strange benefactor. That, at least, was a start. Billy smiled to himself, eagerly anticipating the Sisters' show---though he also wondered where the rest of his team had gone. Hopefully they'd arrive in time to see Sheeana and Katara.

Re: Eid ul-fitr

[kaya_waterwave]

"Of course," Katara said, then went into the back to help Sheeana, but paused for a few moments, and simply watched Bill for a minute. She had to admit that the spirit of this particular holiday was something that warmed her heart a little, despite the glaring fact that her family would no longer ever be able to have that again. It was a depressing thought to think, if you ignored the family on the ship, and Katara didn't. At times like these she could see the good in all of them, could see that a part of her wanted to reach out to them, befriend them, care for them. If anything, this holiday cemented that into her head.

If she had her way, she would have started distributing blankets with Billy, but she had already done enough of that. She needed to prepare for the celebration, and what she and Sheeana and Tess would do. She smiled in Billy's direction, then went back to help Sheeana

at ikkicon, tags will be slow

[worm_dancer]

Sheeana emerged from the compound. Steaming balls of falafel in a sauce sat on a tray (both generously donated by one of the city's reemerging upscale eateries), held on her upturned hand.

After she slid it gracefully to the table, she turned and gave a short bow. "Greetings Talib Al-Shabbaz. How are the preparations for your first hajj?" She said, hanging him an ostentatious name a recent american convert would take. Best to not draw attention to themselves, after all.

Something rumbled in the distance and there was the smell of oil. She dropped to her hands and knees and pressed her ear to the dust and dirt. "Do you hear that? Vehicles."

you're with Johnny Bosch and Jason Frank I hate you :P

[morphitudinous]

Ah, so there was Sheeana. He bowed to her in return, then paused at the name. Talib Al-who? Oh---that must be my name for the duration of this mission. Yes, I suppose someone named 'Billy' in this climate would draw too much suspicion.

"They're progressing as well as I'd expected, thank you." It was probably rude to refrain from using a name, but he was afraid to use a formal title that he wasn't cleared for and risk offense. "Allah willing, the last few barriers to the pilgrimage will soon be breached."

Oh, what was that? He glanced down when she voiced her discovery. If he closes his eyes and concentrates, he can hear it too. "I do. Who do you believe they are?"

Re: you're with Johnny Bosch and Jason Frank I hate you :P

[worm_dancer]

"Coming from..." She moved her hands back and forth on the dirt, the Fremen way of listening for shai-hulud, the great worms who lived under the sand. The diners in their rags looked down at them, assumed they were praying even though evening prayers had been said hours ago. Luckily they were facing southwest, the direction of Mecca. A few of the older, more devout ones crawled down from their chairs too and prostrated themselves as well, praying quietly. "...The southwest. There's a number of powers here, but only the occupying force and its allies can field that many vehicles. Let us hope they're not coming for us, but just in case...What are your abilities?" She said quietly to him and rising back to standing. The vibration and sound were getting closer.

[morphitudinous]

Billy crouched as well, mimicking the prayer gesture to the best of his ability. Then they stood when the moment passed.

"I'm capable of hand-to-hand combat, and I've also trained with melee weapons. I'm unarmed at the moment, but I have one of the magic bags. I have another ability that would allow me to access armor and boost my existing strength, but it would be unwise to use that as it's entirely alien to this society."

He reached back for the bag, just in case.

[worm_dancer]

"It may be neccesary. I have a contingency plan that will preserve our cover in case
we must do violence."

Sheeana spoke into her sleeve, into the omnicomm, quietly muttering. This modest clothing
had its advantages. "Katara, Tess, if you can get over here, there are changers in the
temple." A reference to the Orange-Catholic bible, and also code phrase for a plan they'd
worked out earlier.

And there they rounded the corner on the wide dirt lane. Sleek and black vehicles, a
convoy of them, kicking up sand and dust in a tall wake. They were driven by men in slick
uniforms with modern weapons, wearing large sunglasses.

Darkstream. MacroHard's mercenary company. Ostensibly contracted to the occupying forces,
their true loyalty was only to HQ. One branch of the company would sell weapons to
insurgents, while DarkStream blew them up from the safety of their remote control drone
stations and UltraTanks. As long as the war kept going and HQ continued to make a profit,
anything was acceptable.

Sheeana repeated this to Billy as the convoy stopped short in front of them and demanded
they move their feast in heavily accented Arabic so they could pass.

This was a critical moment, a hinge point. Victory here and legend would start to spread,
rippling out through this society.

"We shall not move!"

[kaya_waterwave]

Katara had heard the message, and now her mind shifted gears: she was in battle mode now. Hardly mussing her outfit, she quickly gathered out sight, but remained out of sight: if things were going to get dicey, it would be better that the civilians didn't know about the skill she possessed. Besides, she guessed her teacher had a few tricks up her sleeve as far as disarming these men were concerned.

And if they played by ear, well, water leaks could sometimes happen, couldn't they?

[morphitudinous]

The familiar tension raced down his spine as he realized what Sheeana intended for them to do. They would fight off Macrohard's agents, continue the feast, and allow the good people here to continue their peaceful gathering.

At least, that's what he assumed would happen if they succeeded. In order to do that, they would likely have to fight. With that thought in mind, he slipped a hand behind him to the magic bag and retrieved a stun gun. It wouldn't do to limit his options to hand to hand combat and lethal weapons.

He really hoped he wouldn't have to morph, but his choices depended on the agents' reaction, and what the Sisters would do. Billy was somewhat curious about the extent of their capabilities, and he would back them up with all his strength.

[worm_dancer]

In truth, it wouldn't have taken that much effort. A few minute's work, getting all the strong hands together and pulling the table out of the road. But a Bene Gesserit knew the importance of symbolism.

She spoke up and her voice boomed. She was using the Voice of Command at its full strength, and the consciousness of the soldiers now disembarking from their vehicles and shouldering heavy black rifles was hers to command. "How dare you interrupt God's work? Fall to your knees and He may grant you forgiveness, for He is merciful!"

Behind her, the poor feasters abruptly did so...As did most of the mercenaries, though none of them were Muslim. Only the two commanders...Their faces twitched abruptly, fighting off the effects of the Voice. As for Billy...

[morphitudinous]

Unfortunately, as the only ordinary human on Team Meatship at the moment, Billy was vulnerable to the Voice as well. Sheeana's command flooded his mind with fear, and his knees buckled involuntarily with all the rest.

Yes, it was completely graceless, in case you were wondering.

[deep_sky_diving]

"Incoming," Tess' voice finally echoes back, in a cold, quiet, distracted way tremendously unlike her. From where she'd been-on the other side of the planet-getting here would have taken more than just a few minutes for anyone else, but for her... She's done fast-insert deorbitals before, but every one so has been something that's pushed her to her limits, and this is no difference.

Such a small thing up in the sky-coming down at just below the speed of sound. Trying to pull this off is like trying to hit a bullseye from over the horizon... but the systems in Tess' suit are made to do just that with five-figures reliability. The material of the wings wrapped around her shifts, barely, and the dive pulls into a long bank, barely a thousand feet above the ground, bleeding off speed all the while. The rolling thunder of a sonic boom follows her, from a brief moment of cracking the sound barrier farther up where the atmosphere was thinner. She descends further, almost all running on automatics now. The wings spread, slowing her to a long soar instead of a speedy zip just as she enters the town's airspace. Down, down, down-

As they reach their full span, the wings of Tess' suit sillhouette sharply against the sun. Bright white, the whole suit, glittering sharply in the dim evening, suddenly soaring overhead through the roar of the distant sonic boom, almost painful to look at as she comes straight in with the sun at her back.

[worm_dancer]

Bless you, Acolyte Tess.

She would have to proceed with an improvised theological mashup, true, but with the "angel" descending from the heavens (the sun convienently at her back) all her statements were imbued with a veneer of the divine.

Again her voice rang out (she would have to apologize to Billy later). "The angels and the Spirit descend therein, by their Lord's leave, to
carry out every command!"

"Bollocks." The first commander replied, face wildly twitching as he fought off the effects of Voice. He raised his rifle. Katara... her hope for this operation rested with her now. They needed a "divine flood".