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Message no. 1
From: ANGLISS BRIAN EDWARD <angliss@****.colorado.edu>
Subject: Halloween Party 2, again
Date: Wed, 8 Nov 1995 21:54:12 -0700 (MST)
*****NOT TO: Drake, Interpol
>>>>>[Again, sorry for the security.

Some of you folk said that your servers didn't get this drek, so here it
is again. I hope the same fraggin thing doesn't happen this time
too....

Where was I....That's right, Hermit and Dracula had just come in.

The biggest group of partiers came next, includin Tobai, Zippy, Nightfox,
Sherlock Holmes(Caine's widow), Shields, and Irish. Unfortunately for
Irish, he came without bein in costume, and he was kicked upstairs into
AJs "dressin room." Let's see if I can remember everyone's costumes....
Nightfox is the easiest to remember. He was dressed in a white silk
chevalier shirt, puffy purple pants, lace cuffed knee-high black boots,
with a black felt hat and a beautiful rapier. AJ was lookin at the
rapier and was, I think, actually jealous of him. AJ's got a really nice
one, but not as nice as Nightfox's. Zippy was dressed kinda like
Elvira(ever see the really old 2D movies? Are AJ and I the only ones who
actually sit down and munch popcorn, drink rootbeer, and watch them?),
but with a red dress instead of black. Make it almost a dominatrix
Elvira. Tobai was the first animal we had show up, and he was dressed in
an old and gettin treadbare lion costume. He immediately gravatated
toward the other deckers, and started up a conversation with Mercury.
Shields came as the other animal, though. A faun, complete with furry
pants, stubby horns, and cloven hooves. It was all I could to to resist
suggestin he put some red makeup on his nose and become Rudolph the
red-nosed reindeer. And Sherlock Holmes was....well, Sherlock Holmes.
Complete with hat, coat, pipe, and violin.

The next arrival arrived with a bit of dramatic flair. He came via
Wyvern, of all things. Another 2D flick here, Batman? He looked kind of
like that, silloutted against the moon. Too bad it wasn't full yet.
That would have looked even more dramatic. But the arrival was Shade,
dressed in pitch black plate mail with a stag's head helm. The
breastplate had some golden flames on it, but I don't know thier
signifigance. He didn't take off the helm, but AJ did ask him to take
care of the Wyvern somehow before the cops tracked it down and busted up
the party. He did, but what he did I don't know.

Next came in Chris Tarleton and his wife, Patricia. They looked rather
somber to be attending a party, but after their announcement later, I
understood why. We'll miss you folks.

About this time, Irish asked AJ for some help with makeup, saying he'd
had a really good idea, so Roxey and I took over the job of meetin and
greetin. Next in were Moonwalker, Jasmine, and FM. Jasmine was lookin
REALLY nice, in a almost totally see through green gown and skirt nymph
outfit. Moonwalker was all pale and had bleached his hair too, but for
some reason he felt the need to bring his deck with him. Nice case, I
must add. But I had to ask who he was. Elric of Melnibone, he said.
Whatever. Not my area. And FM....well, it took us a while to figure out
what she was, or even that it was her. AJ's got about 20 of these
fraggin things from when he was a kid. There called Coosh. Well, FM was
an orc sized Coosh. Got to admit, it did make her a bit more
cuddly(grin). And I'm goin to pay for that comment, I'm sure....

At about this point, we noticed something inside. There was a shadow
against a wall("The Shadow knows...." nevermind.) that didn't have a
body to match it. At about this point, someone appeared who was dressed
as a really old man....well, not as old as some, but still. The Dark
Stranger was dressed in your standard black and white tux, with a bow tie
that actually tied, not one of these fraggin clip-ons.

Next were Dragon, as a shogun in armor with his swords, and Nom O'Keif as
a tall Incan warrior. And then MaxiMillion decided to make a grand
entrance and literally pop into the living room, all decked out as a
Phoenix. His grand entrance, though, knocked over some furniture and
spilled more than a few drinks. He promptly returned to his normal Elven
form and attacked AJ's beer and Salish food. You know, I still find it
weird that a free ally would enjoy Salish and alcohol of all kinds. He's
one of the few beings I know that can outdrink CRUSH, and that's only
because the booze doesn't affect Max ever, and it will eventually affect
CRUSH.

After this the last few folks came in, and they were Claw, Circuit
Breaker, Groucho Marx, and Irish finally returning from upstairs. Claw
was a Zulu warrior, proving once again that the chum does get around a
lot. Grouch Marx was....well, I'm really not sure. He was Groucho
Marx. I'm assuming that AJ knew who it was, since it was his party and
the two of them chatted for a while, but I'm not sure, really. CB was
just plain attractive. She came as a South'rn Belle, all dressed up in
frills, with an umbrella and mask. Just ripe for the Costume Ball.

And AJ presented Irish with a really evil lookin grin on his face. Then
Irish came down as everyone's favorite nemesis. Yep, you guessed it.
Irish had become Nicole Velli, of all people. I got to give that man
credit. He does have a sense of humor. I was just really glad that
everyone else did too....

Now for the actual party, since all the partiers were there.

Let's see, what happened that was bit news, before I reach the really
big, and really unpleasant, drek that happened. Well, we were all really
glad that everyone had spread their vehicles around, since there were
several Lone Star patrols that went by. And there was some gang activity
as is normal on Halloween.

Conversations ranged all over the place. But there were some that came
up over and over again. Like the recent events involvin Shiawase,
Gaiatronics, and Ares. Specifically, who could be behind the raids on
the nuke facilities. Naturally, everyone has their pet theories, but
there's no proof as of yet. But come to find out, Moonwalker and
Sherlock Holmes are workin on it, but through different ends of the
Matrix. Most of us who know Velli know that she's more than capable of
doin this kind of thing, but so are most of the other big AA corps on the
planet.

Another topic was the problems with Valentine. Specifically, how he was
goin to come out of this even if he did prove his innocence and get
freed. But considerin that some of us know that Drake has a good number
of his charges right(like harboring felons, specifically Roxey, Diana,
me, etc when we were wounded), most of us don't know what's goin on with
that. Mozart has told us that her mystery decker keeps on putting Lone
Star records in her emailbox, but she's not figured out who it is yet.
Mercury has mentioned that he is tryin to find a way to reach Val, as
he's a supporter of Haven, but Interpol is keepin him in a secure area
where none of the features are Matrix controlled.

The biggy that kept comin up was Haven and the wraith that's there.
Shade, the Dark Stranger, Thellinista, Roxey, AJ, Claw, Nom O'Keif,
Dracula, and Diana all kept comin back to this topic. The Dark Stranger
kept on remarkin that somethin else was going on there, but when Mozart
heard about this comment, she denied it immediately. But from what was
said, it appears that the area around Haven still is, I think they said,
going toxic, and there were a few folks who said it was worse than that,
that it was goin corrupt too. I don't understand, not bein a magician,
but it didn't sound good. Mozart did say that the wraith hadn't been
around for a while, and that Arial wasn't havin nightmares anymore. She
seems to think that some fragged up spirit who enjoys causin pain was
usin Arial to hurt everyone else. Maybe time will tell. If so, you got
to wonder how far back that goes. Back to Drake with the custody
challenge for Arial?

Roxey and Shade seemed to be captivated by each other. One an ex-sex
goddess for the Ancients with all that entails, the other just plain
amazin(he took off his helmet after a while and showed mistletoe in his
hair.... nice effect). I suspect it was just the environment and all
that drek, but who knows. Tobai and Mercury, as well as CB and
Moonwalker, all talked a lott. Seems that Tobai and Mercury have been
around a LONG time, but longer for Tobai. They swapped so many stories
from before the crash that everyone else got either really fraggin bored
or captivated. Personally, I was in the bored category, no offense. But
Tobai also made some, well, many comments directed at the women at the
party. Some of them took it well, some didn't.

Dana and Righteous, in thier still really strange mannerisms, wandered
around, chatted with people, and occasionally one or the other of them
would disappear, probably exploring the house. Not that it'd be a
problem, of course, since all of AJ's private livin areas were sealed
off(like his bedroom, bath, etc). And CB and Mercury got chattin too,
but about what I'm not sure.

The only really strange thing was Diana. She's usually pretty outgoing
at parties, even if she's a bit intense in the process. She was
withdrawn for most of the night. We later found out why, actually.

Then came the announcements. AJ started it all off with a toast of
rememberance that went like this: "I would like to propose a toast. To
all of our friends who could not join us this fine evening. May you all
be bored to tears cause you missed a great party! But seriously. I
would like to take this time to remember those of us who could not be
with us because they are no longer of this world. I would like to toast
to Solitaire, Moriarity, and Collussus. Someday, my friends.....
Someday. I would like to toast to Caine, to whom I literally owe my
life, and who many of us here owe our lives as well. Sherlock, if you
ever need anything, and I can provide it, I will do so." And AJ nodded
to Sherlock Holms, who had a single tear running down her cheek. Many
other people expressed similar sentiments.

Mozart stood up then and had this to say: "I would like to toast to Pat,
my teacher and friend, whom most of you know as Valentine. Were he here
tonight, he would be dressed up in his Druidic robes and probably honor
you all with a toast to the Celtic new year as well as a taste of his
excellent piano or harp playing. But as he is not, and I don't play
either the piano or Celtic harp, I will not try to do the same. I would,
however, express what I know he believes. If you all need a place to
stay where you know you will be safe, recent events notwithstanding, you
are all welcome at Haven. Just try to keep your coming and going as low
key as possible. Cheers to Pat, may the trial be short and may he be
back to us as soon as he can."

After this, Bloodtooth started to rise, but was gracious enough to let
Chris go first.

Christopher stood up and started to speak, very quietly. "I have been
in your company for a very long time, my friends. And it is with no
small amount of regret that tonight, Halloween, I take your leave. I am
too old now to play in the shadows, and I have a wife to support, and
perhaps children someday. I received an employment offer from BellCore
Europe that I have decided to accept, and Patricia tells me that she
received a similar offer. So...I would like to toast to all of you,
my friends, who stood by me for so long."

After all these sad announcements on what was supposed to be a joyous
occasion, there was one good note here. Bloodtooth and Firefox announced
that they were to be married! But they also said that they hadn't set a
date as of yet. But still, after all the depressin drek, it was nice to
have a reason to drink up and be merry again.

A few animosities did resurface tonight, though. The Dark Stranger
avoided Sasquatch as much as he could, and Shadow and Roxey weren't even
polite about it. Well, not to each other, anyway. Probably goin back to
the arguments they had over Nex a while back. Two very stubborn chummers.

And drink we did. AJ even had some stuff that he wouldn't tell us where
he had got it. But it was the strongest stuff I'd ever drank. It had a
really wiz flavor, was clear tending toward a little cloudy white, but
boy, did it have a punch. Moonwalker, after fainting at the sight of all
the alcohol in the dining room, avoided it like the plague.

The kids, on the other hand, just plain enjoyed all the food, drink,
candy, and were generally all over the place. Roxey had her hands full
keepin track of Arial, but she managed somehow. Actually, for some
reason, Arial took somethin of a likin to Sasquatch, of all people. I
think she just liked the fur.(grin) I didn't see this myself, but I
heard about it. Apparently Nom and Dracula, at different times, acted a
bit strange regardin Arial. Don't know exactly what that meant,
though. Seeing that the source was Velli himself, I naturally find it
suspect.(grin) Sorry, chum, but dressin up as Velli....

Then it all went to hell and gone inside a minute. One second I was
glancing around to find Diana again and see how she was, and the next I
knew. She went fraggin berserk and tried to kill Righteous and Dana.
Luckily for us, she tried with a butcher knife first and only sliced
Dana's hand(brings back a few memories....). But Righteous responded
badly and drew a pistol while Dana backed up and cast some spell at
Diana. Diana, bein a houngan, just shrugged off the effects, and by this
point Max was already astral to keep any more spells from reaching thier
targets(Dana or Diana), and CRUSH was restraingin(frag, but that troll
can move when he needs to) Righteous while Dragon was disarmin him.
Diana tried to cast a spell, but knew it didn't make it to the target,
and then all of a sudden her eyes rolled back in her head and she
collapsed. Next thing she's goin into a seziure of some kind.

AJ, grabbin his medical bag, was able to inject somethin into her spine
to stop the seziures, but she was fadin. I remember Nom, Nightfox, and
others crowdin around to help, but only Roxey and AJ were allowed
closeby. AJ asked what was wrong, and Roxey, after lookin really
closely, screamed "Mindlock!"

For those of you who don't know what a mindlock is, it's a magical,
physical, and psychological treatment that The Org used to use on all
their agents, operatives, runners, and generally everyone who was a
part. Except for seven of us, that is. AJ, who started it; Moriarity, who
ran it after a while; Collussus, who did security and was generally
uncorruptable; Solitaire, who was just plain nuts and the lock wouldn't
have worked on anyway; Me, who helped AJ when it was still young; and
Roxey and Diana, who developed the magical side of the treatments. And
what it does is basically kill you under certain stimuli. Basically, the
deal was that if you were ever in a position that you'd betray the
existance of the Org, you're own mind would short out and you'd die. Not
pleasant in any way, shape, or form, but it worked really well. A lot of
the Maxim folks out there still have this in them. It could be hidden
and was at the point that, unless you knew exactly what you were lookin
for, a mage'd figure that it was a magical healing treatment years
prior. But Diana had never had it done to her, and here she was, goin
braindead on us.

Unfortunately, Max had left Astral space and manifested again and so
Diana's shot at killing herself just about worked. She has a spell that
literally bursts your heart. She cast it on herself. AJ, Jasmine, Nom
O'Keif, and Nightfox picked her up while Roxey brought the Bison around
front, and, with some oxygenation spell maintained on Diana to keep her
from dying, disappeared. Hopefully the conditionin didn't kill her
between thier leavin here and arrivin at AJ's clinic. I heard afterward
from Roxey that AJ had refused to violate security proceedures for his
clinic, even for his daughter, sayin that he could always bring her back
if he absolutely had to.

When they arrived, Diana was in a coma and her synapses were failing one
by one due to the conditionin. Last I heard, she was on a blood
oxygenator after havin major surgery, and that she was usin oxy
flourocarbons instead of normal blood. Jasmine, Nom, and Nightfox are
doing a lot of the healin, I heard, with AJ doin the stuff they
can't(like cauterizin broken blood vessels, etc). Roxey is still there
because she's literally teachin the three magicians everythin that she
and Diana created in the spell formula. Hopefully they'll be able to
find ways to reverse the process that kills her brain cells one at a time
before she's gone. Only time will tell.

We found out from Righteous and Dana what happened. Apparently, Diana
had been a Mr. J for them and Dana had started chattin just prior to the
attack. But more than that we didn't ask. Well, you two, care to be a
bit more explicit about your relationship with Diana? Like talkin about
the run she hired you for?]<<<<<
-- Slash <13:46:55/11-03-56>

Further Reading

If you enjoyed reading about Halloween Party 2, again, you may also be interested in:

Disclaimer

These messages were posted a long time ago on a mailing list far, far away. The copyright to their contents probably lies with the original authors of the individual messages, but since they were published in an electronic forum that anyone could subscribe to, and the logs were available to subscribers and most likely non-subscribers as well, it's felt that re-publishing them here is a kind of public service.