[Smiley]

>>>>>[Vendetta! That's very Italian. Scrap that, that's very universal! I really hope you caught it this time.

Hehe. Well, that's high praise indeed. Anything for the cause! Hahaha! Well if I didn't have enemies in the Governor's Mansion, which I'm sure I already did, now it's a certainty. I watched the news while I was on my way to the Powerline, those kids were so cute "I was really scared and I was holding daddy really hard!", priceless! Hahaha! Those Humanis pricks, being zealots makes them idiots so easy to fool. You know what they used to say, fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Well, that's the third time in the space of a week and a half that I humiliate them.

I always promised myself not to be political and all that bullshit. But with a bunch of dudes who thinks the world would be better if they could put me and my kind, well anyone and anything not human in gas chambers or work camps, it ain't really political anymore. That's pretty personal at this point. So fuck 'em!]<<<<<
     -- Smiley (15:02:13/12-10-73)

[CanRay]

>>>>>[I'm OK.  Covered in used synthetic motor oil and kitty litter, but OK.  She had a damned Sludge Spirit handy in the place as a TRAP.  Came out of a damned barrel and tried to smother me.  Fell into a hole in this old garage where they usually go to change the oil, cracked my head AGAIN...  Honestly, what is it with blows to my head recently?  Anyhow, the Spirit I had lent to me kept the sludge away from my face at least, while preventing me from being affected by the Pixie's spells.  A bit of freeze foam around it allowed me to break out, and...  Bah, you don't need a blow-by-blow.  Just know that I got dirty, she had some kind of barrier that swatted my buckshot while I was dealing with the sludge monster she threw at me.  Damned Pixie was waiting for me, someone snitched me out.  AGAIN!  Either that, or she's just as pissed at me that I didn't die when she bit me.

Had to get so many shots after that, too.  Good idea to check all the electives when filling out a DocWagon Health Insurance form, folks!  Now, if you excuse me, I need to use the roll of construction plastic to keep oil from getting on the upholstery on the car.]<<<<<
-- Money Johnson (13:43:09/12-10-73)

[Smiley]

>>>>>[Did you kill it at least?]<<<<<
     -- Smiley (00:04:23/12-11-73)

[CanRay]

>>>>>[No, the Pixie is still alive and got away.  I reviewed the footage from my cybereyes while I was wrapped in construction plastic my car drove me around, and I winged her in the leg with a single piece of steel shot.  She'll feel that, but nothing more.  Belt-Fed Fully-Automatic Shotgun with a SmartGun Link and a lot of other options, and a single piece of buckshot hit her.  To hell with this personal drek, she comes to Seattle again, I get every damned magician and free spirit I can whistle up and throw them all at her, see how that goes down!

As for my current state of mind:  Frag it all to Hel's domain.  I'm at one of my boltholes, finally clean, and am scanning the usuals, and, damnit, I have to stop reading to the Obits.  Two really hit me.

First was a fellow, troll, late forties, shot while protecting his bar from hoodlums that were just thrilling.  Shot a lot, as this guy used to be a Street Sami who retired, and got a SIN through the amnesty.  I gave him the damned job that let him retire, buy that bar, just watch the men and women come in and spend their nuyen on booze and a song.  Live SINless bands every night.  I used his place a lot, lots of good blues bands that sung in Or'Zet there.  Refused to take any money from me for drinks, but I always left a tip big enough to cover them.  Damn stand-up guy that got out of the Biz and found his dream.

Second one, just a pre-teen dwarf with no name.  KE pleading for help (Yeah, right) in IDing him.  He was some kid I hired with a Colt Asp and a Kludge of a CommLink that's almost the size of MacCallister's Cyberdeck.  Viral advertising, nothing dangerous, little pay, and a boost in rep which tells you how badly the kid was doing.  Seems he decided that he was going to overwrite some gang's turf tags and, well...  Six shots don't count for much when there's twenty of them.

Most Johnsons would shrug and dig deeper into their real beef filet mignon.  Me, I just feel that it's a total waste of life for no damned good reason.  Both went out fighting, so that gives me some relief thanks to my religion, but, frag...  It'd be better if I didn't have to turn to it at all, right?  Or am I just getting too sentimental for my job now?  Maybe I should retire for good after this election?  Half-In/Half-Out of the Shadows is not a way to live, is it?]<<<<<
-- Money Johnson (23:12:55/12-10-73)

[Smiley]

>>>>>[I ain't no philosopher and I doubt I'm the right person to tell you this but my say on the matter is: Always do what you love to do. Live at 200 mph and have a taste at everything the world has to offer. Learn from the past, but never look back.  Live in the present, it's a gift. Always react wisely to the future. Live fast, die young, no place for regrets. Be at peace with what the Bureau of Destiny has in store for you.

It's a shame to die young, but it's worse to die old full of "what if".]<<<<<
     -- Smiley (01:44:02/12-11-73)

[Mirikon]

>>>>>[There are five ways a swordsman may die with honor. He can fall fighting a battle he knows he cannot win, to allow others to live another day. He can be cut down standing up for a cause he believes in. He can be slain striving to atone for the mistakes of his past. He may take his own life when all hope of victory is lost, and claim honor even in defeat. He can perish quietly in his bed, an old man who has passed on his knowledge to another, so that the old ways are remembered.

Which is best? None living can say for certain, and the dead keep their own counsel on such matters. Your friends died with honor, Money, and that is as best as any of us can hope for in this life.]<<<<<

--Iceblade (08:10:34/12-11-73)

[Unwirklich]

>>>>>[Isn't this the course of evolution - eliminating flawed designs from the system, in order to create room either for the better adapted or those yet to be tested? The Shadows are red in tooth and claw. Reprocess the un-fit design, integrate its strength and discard its weakness.]<<<<<
  -- D3m (10:05:05/12-11-73)

[CanRay]

>>>>>[Thanks for the opinions folks.  Probably just all the blows to the head I've taken recently.  The kid didn't do what I instructed him to, writing over a gang tag is not "Low Risk".  They always take offense to that.  Don't listen to your elders, or your employer, and leave yourself at your own risk.

As for Tiggy, yeah that's the Troll's name, he's the only bar owner who died yesterday so it's not hard to figure out, he took out five of the eight guys with that oversized cybergun in his right arm.  KE caught the rest before they were able to get to a street doc, and another one died on the way to the precinct house.  Tiggy lived a good life and died hard, best way to go for him, I bet.  A Death Guard added right until the end.

My religion doesn't speak well of straw deaths unless you've done great things in life worthy of being named Einherjar in life.  Must be this political drek slotting me up.  Back room deals and sneaky maneuvers.  Knives that cut through armor by not existing in the first place...  Biz as usual, I know.  But still, doesn't seem right.  Ah well, things will get bloody enough closer to the election and we have to start preventing groups of "Civil Minded" people from "ensuring that the right people vote their conscience."  I know I'm looking forward to busting some Humanis heads when that starts.]<<<<<
-- Money Johnson (09:31:13/12-11-73)

[Keita]

>>>>>[ Wherever the dead go, we as the living can honour them best by remembering them. If they are worthy of rememberance of course. Those guys are lucky. They have someone to remember them. Or at least honour them. At the end of the day, we can only be true to ourselves, because everyone else will have their own views about who you were, what you did and how you lived and died. I don't particularly mind when or how I go...as long as I go down having lived my life my way.

I'm not currently up to date on who's who in the election race. It doesn't much matter who ultimately wins because at the end of the day, they all serve the same master. They all have only so much leeway to pursue their own agendas.

Money, any of the current candidates sing from a non-corporate hymn sheet? ALso...any of them singing from an AZT hymnsheet? ]<<<<<
    -- Madrecita (11:44:01/12-11-73)

[CanRay]

>>>>>[Funny enough, compared to a lot of Governors of Seattle, Brackhaven has been his own man for the most part that I've seen.  Kicking Lone Star out and putting KE in was a purely political move to show that he wasn't in "Humanis' Pocket", and KE had the best offer for the security of the metroplex on the table honestly.  (Meaning they had almost everyone in place ready to be cops as-is due to Ares over-staffing their security.).  He has to keep the Corporate Council of Seattle happy, yes, but that's true of every city and has been before corporations went extraterritorial.  You don't, they'll move to another city that'll cut them better deals, and there goes jobs for the people that vote.  And they'll remember who got them fired and their jobs shipped off to Africa or China or some such.  It gives me a horrible taste in my mouth to say this, but he's done a damned good job of that, and strengthened the economy of Seattle.  Both in the Light and the Shadows.  Still wouldn't stop me from breaking all four major joints in his body in exchange for a free Stuffer Shack soykaff coupon.

Only one of the three Communist parties seems to not have a Corporate taint, yes I find that hilarious.  The New Century party has hands stuffing their pockets from everyone, so are "Neutral" in that sense.  Technocrats, Democrats, same.  Yes, both are getting Aztechnology funding, but they're getting from all the AAA-Corps, so nothing unusual there.  A few of the independents are getting Aztechnology funding almost solely, but are all fighting to separate from the UCAS, so don't expect them to make a showing in the race.  A few other independents are going it alone on a "Non-Corporate" policy, but that's a bad idea, the Corporate Court would just rule Seattle's Docks and Sea-Tac Airport off limits to any corporation that is under their protection (Which is pretty much any one bigger that Big Bob's Autos) and the city'll starve in weeks, if even that long.

Aztechnology is hitting a slump in PR for the first time in...  Well, my living memory at least, with the mass public.  It's the wars in South America, especially Bogota.  Horizon doing the "Heal The Innocent" thing has hit home the suffering in a way that wasn't felt in the UCAS by the conflict in the Yucatan.  Hell, I knew about that drek going on and didn't think much about it until I started hiring some vets from that who gave me some nasty war stories.  Their usual trick of releasing new products and using other forms of spin aren't as effective, and they're not using AR as well as they could, sticking more with traditional Trid and Simsense for the most part.  Big mistake, like the companies that stuck with print after the old Internet got off the ground.  So their efforts to get alliances here are hidden through back channels that are really well designed, which is AZT's third best bit of smoke and shadows.

As for who is winning, it's still way too early to even guess, the poll numbers at this time don't matter.  Hell, most of the major parties still haven't declared who they're fronting yet, so...  It's anyone's game.  Just parties vying for power at the moment.]<<<<<
-- Money Johnson (11:19:22/12-11-73)

[Keita]

>>>>>[ So pretty much business as usual so far then. This is why I don't usually pay much attention to the election race at this stage.

You're right though. Best to keep an eye on the humanis. When I arrived in Seattle in '67, I had a few of those guys on my operating table. I used the opportunity to make a few...additions...to them. Tracking tags for the most part, but not limited to that. It worked out quite well for Mr. Johnson. If anyone's interested, I can do it again. ]<<<<<
    -- Madrecita (12:52:45/12-11-73)

[Wolfboy]

>>>>>[Hey Money, picked up a new location on your little friend, well a possible anyway. I'll shoot you the location though i suggest you bring something bigger than a auto-shotty, de bayou, she aint like she used to be. Madrecita, sorry i missed your show, had some biz that i had to see to back south and it had to be in person. As for Humanis, we've had a hate/hate relationship ever since they took my girlfriend back in '56. Of course they didn't like when i took her back and the shape me and a few friends left them in wasnt pretty.

Smiley, if you ever have to go in to the ACHE hot, give me a ring, i know quite a few ways in that they still havent sealed up even though they're filled in with foundation concrete "Officially".]<<<<<
--Wolfgar (21:08:08/12-11-73)

[CanRay]

>>>>>[Got my "Rainy Day" fund in black bank accounts, and, hey, look, it's Raining.  'Course, this is Seattle.  Send it away, Wolfgar, I got a lot of calls to make to magicians.

But, um, what do you mean she ain't like she used to be?

Also, does anyone know how to get oil stains out of the upholstery of a Pueblo Motors Jackrabbit?  I heard they're using some kind of anti-stain system that's supposed to protect against that, but I think Sludge Spirit changes things up a bit.]<<<<<
-- Money Johnson (19:18:42/12-11-73)

[Mirikon]

>>>>>[Money, if we can swing by New Orleans on the way, I'd be up for it. Haven't been there since I went on a vacation back before I underwent the Rite of Passage. If only it were Mardi Gras. Ah, memories.]<<<<<

--Iceblade (23:53:09/12-11-73)

[Smiley]

>>>>>[I'll keep that in mind Wolfgar. For now I got the connections necessary to walk through the front door, if things changes it's good to know I might have other options.

I got something Money. Same thing I use to clean evidence. The only catch is, your gonna have to bring your car to me.]<<<<<
     -- Smiley (01:51:49/12-12-73)