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. does this say fire? hey, i only :
color the logos. - the prodigy.
Ernie and the Spider Queen, a time travel in four perspect
ives
Quoth the Spider to the Fly:
The street is unnervingly empty. Still. Quiet.
This is unusual unexpected.
But there! a noise... a slight vibration. The needle t
witches like
a severed limb. Almost imperceptible, but there. This is comf
orting.
Monitor Six - increase zoom. Eight-hundred percent. Yes, yes.
The bus
approaches. I twitch, like the needle, in anticipation, as my
agents
scramble into readiness.
Garages open, in synchronicity, expelling vehicles whic
h begin to
circle the block, like drones. Hired men crawl out of open win
dows and
sewer grates to begin their short lives as hot dog vendors, bus
inessmen and
paperboys.
Ready! ready, my children. Stand true, he approaches.
Dont
expose your cover - make me proud and I will reward you.
I gather my arms around myself and survey my eight obse
rvation
globes expectantly. I click and pop as my many joints tense in
anticipation.
As the yellow vehicle comes into normal sight range, a
fistfight
erupts between two agents who collide as they go through the mo
tions.
Overenthusiastic children, each hoping to serve me more effecti
vely than the
last. I sigh in pity, extending a long, stiff arm and depressi
ng a button
with a decicive click. Looking back to the monitor, the two of
fenders have
disappeared from sight, as five red-tinted manhole covers fall
back into
place.
That was close. The bus is at hand - we must be prepar
ed. With
exaggerated care, the bus begins to pull into the terminal. Th
e machinery
screams, then whines, theen grinds to a halt. I click impatien
tly.
A form is visible behind the dusted glass of the door.
It decends
and the portal cracks an aperture. Haltingly, it unfolds witho
ut grace.
The man is seen at last. Visage pressed to cold glass, I count
his
footfalls.
One... two... after the third, as calculated and simula
ted
eight-hundred times, nylon cables shoot at his legs. Ensnared,
he twists in
the air like a bird with clipped wings. In slow motion, he rot
ates and,
invariably, gives a loveless embrace to the eatth, as they alwa
ys do.
Though I am far gone, I am not such to such a degree wh
ere I cannot
find a little morbid humour in this display, and I express it a
ccordingly,
with a low, chittering laugh. I was familiar enough with the w
ire-frame
models acrobatics but somehow the intimacy with the process wa
s fulfilled
by the realization of the genuine act.
Immediately upon landing, two of the nearest agents rus
h up to his
side, inconspicuously clipping the cord with blades strapped to
their palms,
and they help him up. Shrugging off incoherant niceties, they
escort him,
as rehearsed, down the street to his unxpected but inevitable d
estination.
Welcome to my parlour...
Hi, and welcome to the next stop on the Mistigris worl
d tour! This pack
needs a little explaining before we go on any further. In case
you havent
figured it out yet, Mistigris has been having a tour around t
he scene for
the past few months. What this means is that each month Mistig
ris releases
their artwork alongside that of another group, arranged ahead o
f time.
Fire has been the biggest show so far for Mistigris, so weve d
one our best
to make this pack as special as possible. Inside, youll find
a number of
collaborative pieces between fire and mistigris members, as wel
l as some
media which are not normally released with fire packs, namely l
it and music.
The topic of music brings me to my second point of interest. F
ires newly
formed music division, Radiance, will soon be releas
ing their first music
disk. Following a mistigris tour tradition, one song by a mist
member will
be included with the fire pack. This leaves the rest of the mis
tigris music
to be released with the Radiance disk, so be sure to catch it o
n your
favorite scene-related site.
Speaking of sites, FireWeb is of course still up and running.
Point your
browser to http://patriot.net/panacea/ to get the l
atest fire news and
current member list. Were currently looking for someplace tha
t could host
fireweb.org cheap or for free once we have registered the name.
If you can
help us out in any way, it would be greatly appreciated.
Ok, so the news isnt really arranged in order of importance.
This month
we were unfortunate to lose both our ansi coordinator and an an
si legend
when Eerie decided to call it quits with fire a few
weeks ago. I still
dont have much of an idea exactly what hes currently doing wi
th his extra
time, but we wish him luck in whatever he decides to pursue.
Filling Eeries enormous shoes is Nail, who im sure
will be more than able
to fulfill the duties involved with the position of ansi coordi
nator.
Nails german ancestry allowed him to be easily lured to the po
st once we
came up with our Heineken and Hasslehoff incentive plan. A s
pecial thanks
to The Extremist for helping out by being our tempor
ary ansi coord while
Eeries official decision was still uncertain, and for filling
in for nail
again during pack time.
Partly in response to Texts proven coordination ability over t
he past
month, Ive assigned him to our new post as communications coo
rdinator.
Text will be keeping track of our bulletin board HQ and distro
site list,
as well as a member list with names and phone numbers for as ma
ny people as
we can. If you havent already, find The Extremist and give hi
m your info
if youre in fire, of course.
For all of you who could not for the life of you figure out fir
es whacky
release schedule, were giving you a chance to try and figure o
ut a totally
different whacky release schedule. After considering ideas lik
e following
the lunar cycle and some kind of formula involving prime number
s, we finally
decided on the first Saturday of each month. This is NOT hard t
o understand.
Saturdays are the ideal time to release because people especia
lly the euro
guys can stay up late. It also gives people some time for las
t minute
drawing and gives the viewer time to look at the pack the follo
wing Sunday.
This means the next fire pack will be released on SATURDAY, May
3rd.
Whew... lots of info there. Its been a busy month. Ill let
the
individual coordinators dole out all the details now.
-god among lice
Ernies big adventure:
Ernie loved public transit. To him, it was the
greatest thing since
libraries or park benches. He was of that rare breed who reali
zed the
underlying truth that the more people use, rely on something, t
he greater
its value. Hence, he was on his way to improve the government
by picking up
his welfare cheque.
He couldnt really see the source of all the related ou
trage. In
his mind, it was more money than anyone really had a right to u
se in a
month. After all, he had never bought much - there was no room
in his
shopping cart for food processors and CD-ROMs. He ran a web pa
ge, courtesy
of the library. Life on Three Dollars a Week. At last count
, eighty
thousand people had seen it. Ernie had never seen eighty thous
and of
anything before.
In his mind, any fundamental need beyond birdsong and s
tarlight was
available through the milk of human kindness. And in dumpsters
, though it
was unwise to partake of the milk found there.
He had little on him at the moment a pen and some napk
ins with
which he composed poems to give to passers-by, a swiss army kni
fe, a bottle
of water from a fountain, some exquisite rocks, feathers, ragge
d strips of
flannel and a roll of film found in the pockets of his newly-ac
quired coat.
He hoped to develop the film some day, because momentos of othe
r peoples
lives are very important, a reminder that there are real, decen
t humans
behind the numbers and plexiglass and intolerance.
As his stop approached, he found himself whistling a tu
neless
melody. Mendelssohn perhaps? On his way out, he tripped on so
mething
unseen, no doubt a loose thread on his ragged trousers, and tum
bled rag-tag,
like a flying patchwork quilt, into a bustling street scene. I
n his
schizophrenia-addled mind, he momentarily thought that he could
hear a child
crying for his mother, then a woman laughing. Then he handed,
hard, but the
many layers of threadbare clothing he wore offered some padding
With fortunes doubled, two passing businessmen uncharac
teristically
lent their hands to help him up. An unusual sign of kindness f
rom any man
this deep in the city, especially considering who Ernie was.
His foot was twisted slightly and the men offered their
impeccable
black shoulders for him to lean on, and he put his arms around
their backs,
laughed, and shuffled off into the afternoon.
It was going to be a beautiful day.
:: fireansi ::
Hey ho, here we go. woo The ansi division went
thru some changes
this month... We began the month with that good old Ee
rie guy as
division head, but the guy lost interest in doing the j
ob along the
way, so I stepped in to take care of things on an tempo
rary basis.
When me and the liceboy finally had the confirmation of
Eeries
departure, we were talking about how I would take the d
ivision, but we
also began to talk about how we like
d Nail and should give him some
staff job, and we ended up offering him the position, w
hich he gladly
accepted. Nail had some real life duties to attend to,
so Im the one
writing the news this month.
We also had some changes on the members side. Eerie go
t Sniper back
in, some of you may remember that this particular argen
tinian had been
in Fire in a past era. Welcome back
! We also got a guy named Shaft
who comes from the Shade fame. Were all glad to add y
et another
Swedish guy to our increasingly growing staff of Europe
an artists.
Deaccession left us this month after foresee
ing a less active ansi
drawing career in his near future. Also leaving is
The Night Angel,
who decided to devote more time to AWE.
-the extremist
:: firehirez ::
Its me again. Heres some Hirez news. Weve cleaned the
hirez memberlist
a bit this month. Psionide is no longer with us bec
ause I havent seen him
around forever. Also, as much as we all love Halaster
, I thought it seemed
appropriate to remove him from our official ranks as a vga arti
st. I think
hals known a LOT more for his ansi skills than his vga ability
, dont you?
New members this month come straight out of the fire legion of
the golden
bees aka ansi artists. Fire From Heaven shows inc
redible ability for a
rookie vga artist. Keep a look out for hidden ansis in his vga
pieces! :
In fire packs, he will be releasing his vga work with the prefi
x ffh-
instead of his usual ansi prefix of two-. Also joining us is
Numb. I have
a feeling that Numb has always dreamed of becoming a famous vga
artist
someday, just like I have always secretly dreamed of becoming a
famous ansi
artist. Maybe we can help each other out? : Look for our spe
cial double
feature vga collaboration in the next fire pack.
-lGiOcDe
:: fireascii ::
This month was a hectic one, with me being invited int
o ACIDremorse
and the numerous complications in my personal lif
e all nicely wrapped
up with my record deal with Hush Entertainment. T
o be honest, I havent
payed much attention to my dut
ies as Fire!a coordinator this month and
oddly enough during my absence things kept going
at full-speed.
So thanks to all the members who joined and to
haji, who helped while
I was gone. Talking about haji, Ive decided to a
ppoint haji as one of
the two Fire!a seniors, along
with the Emperor. This means if Im ever
absent for a long period of time, haji and the emperor will
fill in and
gather art, etc.. Also due to the large
influx of members this past
month, Ive decided to make Fire!a invite only
, meaning if we want you
to join, well ask. However, y
ou can send applications to me at the
email address listed below if you feel you belong
in Fire!a.
As I said before, we gained several members this month
all with
different talents. Psy comes to us fro
m Israel, Skatter joins up from
noname with his talent, Absent Spinster
joins up with his original
ansciis, Sammael comes from rile and samsara,
Prodiac joins up with his
new ascii talent, Discofunk
74 joins from odelay with his mad-ascii
skills, Baphomet comes to us from CIA
with his nice oldschools, Tsk
joins from remorse with his pimp styleez
and LT brings his oldschool
skills to us late in the month.
Well, thats pretty much it.. Im very pleased with our
second showing
and hope that things continue to do so w
ell when I pay attention
to the group
Look for another super-joint between all the talents in
the ascii scene
in the next pack.
We salute ODELAY, kWESTPHUNK, and
REMORSE for keeping it real..
-- pariahFIREsenior pariah@br
eaks.for.alienz.org
Dont forget empty! He left fire ascii, but he sti
ll runs the bot. -lGiOcDe
The Agony and the Ecstasy
He has now fallen down. You wash your hands. D
rying them, her
laughter rattles down the hall and under your door like a handf
ul of dead
leaves and rotten sticks. Damn her! Always finding amusement
over the
misfortune of the innocents. But she pays you exquisitely, and
your
addiction is an expensive one.
You hear her scuttling through the adjoining hallway, t
he wheels of
her apparatus squeaking and the tromping footfalls of her troup
e of
bodyguards accompanying her, no doubt to her opulent Attendance
Chamber, and a
portal in front of you flickers red to life in front o
f you, to tell you
that its time to start preparing for a reception. It is unnec
cessary, a
deliberated insult on her part. Youre a professional - your m
ask and
rubber gloves are already on. Does she think that you might no
t have been
in a state to realize the time for your responsibility? You kn
ow better
than anyone else to never mix business with pleasure, and as a
rule that is
at no risk as business teends to be very, very unpleasant.
You pack up the rubber hose and give the scalpels anoth
er dab with
the sterile swab of methahol. Got to be ready. The monitors s
how the two
hired goons, in what must be their most true-to-life performanc
es to date,
escorting the poor victim into the entrance of the complex.
Your fingers tighten, stretching the latex and making i
t creak.
This is really unneccsesary. You know that and she is fully aw
are of it.
She dosent perpetuate it for her own benefit but rather becaus
e she knows
of the mental anguish it causes for you.
And you have no say in the matter, because you have for
ced some doors
to be permanently wedged open with hypodermic needles, razor bl
ades and
dollar bills. It cant go on, of course. You know that and sh
e is acutely
aware of it she just wants to see how far she can play the gam
e before one
of the contestants is driven over the edge. Unfortunately, she
s the only
one who knows the full extent of the rules.
Someday soon, it will all come folding in on itself. P
erhaps you
will turn on her, plunging your blades deep within her frame be
fore your own
bullet-riddled cadaver hits the floor. No, no, that wont do.
In her
condition, vast and globular, theres no assurance that such an
action would
actually kill her. Perhaps an overdose, then? Easier to execu
te, but the
culprit would remain painfully obvious. A double overdose? Th
ey cant get
you if youre already gone...
Footsteps approach - time for work. Enough of such
thought the
time is it not yet come?
I hope the mistigris tour with fire is as much fun for you
to look at as
it has been for us to organize. The mistigris guys are a great
bunch and
I urge you to seek them out wherever they happen to be on the n
ext leg of
their tour. Personally, I really enjoyed being able to work to
gether on
as many collaborations as I did, and they probably never would
have happened
if Cthulu and the rest of mistigris hadnt begun their tour in
the first
place. Tell us what you think of having the lit strewn in amon
gst all the
art. This probably marks the first time fire has released lite
rature since
the very first fire pack ever.
Anyway, Ill just shut up now and let you enjoy the pack in its
epic
entirety. : Catch you later.
-God among Lice, fire president.
The whole story:
The carrier gets on the bus. This is noted, as
is his time of
boarding, choice of seat, apparent lack of luggage, and the dir
ection in
which is facing. Cables pulse and thrum with excitement, spitt
ing a
constant flow of information back and forth with digital perist
alsis.
The next few minutes are very busy, though they dont l
ook outwardly
so. Nevertheless, it is impressive when an army of actors marc
hes into the
streets, synchronized, to become the ultimate disguise.
Four red points of light pass over the carriers torso
as the bus
passes certain buildings. He doesnt notice.
Two men fight, then they fight no more. A hot dog vend
or wipes a
few spots of blood off of his stand, beneath rows of ketchup an
d relish, and
a businessman is forcd to retire inside as pulped cerebellum is
not quite so
easy to clean. Manhole takes on a new meaning.
The bus driver submits a full report as the vehicle of
public
transit comes to the sting. Cars adjust their cyclic choreogra
phy as to
avoid this new oasis of stasis, obstructing their fluid motion.
With two steps, the carrier is subdued. Security prete
nds to assist
him but it is soon apparent that they are following ulterior or
ders. The
carrier is putting on a good show, demanding to see his lawyer
not that he
has one, nor revealing for one instant that he knows anything
of the
situation. The transmitter on the microfiche tells us as much.
With unexpected ease, the carrier is sedated. The doct
or makes
ready, recieving the delivery and going to work, but today he p
roceeds a bit
differently from the established routine after a long pause and
several red
flashes. Instead of reviving the carrier, he is put instead in
to a deeper
sleep, prerecorded moans and screams playing so as not to arous
e suspicion.
A few superficial flesh wounds are made for appearances sake -
cuts on the
thighs, across the belly, and below the ribs, along the side -
and the doctor
takes out a bottle of latex in liquid form, applying it on seve
ral locations
on the carriers body his lips, on the palms of his hands, and
specifically
along either side of the broad, shallow cuts. Dried under a he
at lamp, it
looks no more menacing than a skin rash, certainly not unexpect
ed on one
undercover in this manner.
A fine powder, made from the rendered skins of the fine
st South
American frogs, is painted on the latex layers, doubling the me
aning of the
label carrier. All remains of the applicating apparatus, the
jars and
brushes, go into an incinerator. Almost as an afterthought, th
e doctor
removes the microfilm from the pocket of the carriers coat and
puts it in a
vacuum tube, from whence it arrives to waiting specialists in t
he technical
workshop four levels below. Smelling salts are applied beneath
the carriers
nose. He is uncomposed, but rational enough to recieve well th
e instructions
not to lick his lips nor to touch himself anywhere, especially
not on his
new wounds.
The doctor stops for a minute to shake his head roughly
, then
regains his composure and calls security to bring the carrier t
o the next
stage of his voyage the personal audience with the queen. Thu
gs arrive and
bear the man on his way. Alone, the doctor turns off the light
in his
office and locks the door. He turns off and seals completely t
he
incinerator, then waits in silence to resolve a mental dilemma.
Finally, he
steps into action, still in the dark. Disconnecting worn rubbe
r hose from a
gas valve and a bunsen burner, he turns the valve open and lets
the odourless
substance wash over him. A filament is attached to a logic gat
e, which will
be activated in the event that the doctor trips a wire by falli
ng down, in
which case it will cause to be emitted a single spark.
Reducing a powder to a liquid on a heat plate, he i
njects it into a
prominent artery along the inside of his arm. He rolls several
small
capsules around in his hand and, upon hearing the wailing of a
klaxon and
stomped, rushing footsteps, he swallows them.
It is a beautiful day.
What are
YOU lookin
ill at? wok
you
0
pt
mist
pic and logo by platinum of mistigr
is
ptmist
Cthuluhere, fillingin as Fire lit
head, among other things. This
pack is special in more ways than you will ever know. Sure, th
e art is neat,
perhaps even unusually so, considering the parties involved. T
he logistics
were quite something, too, taking up every last second of two m
onths of
communications and coordination and even then some. Still, it
has been quite
a long time since Mistigris has released a pack in April with F
ire. Its been
even longer since it released a pack in March with Fir
e, but you can ask Samura
iabout that, along with what happened to the March Proj
ect 301 pack 8
What is this? Yes, probably earlier than most of yo
u remember, Fire an
dMistigris were once one group. February, 1
995, to combat the growing influence
of Integrity in Mists home area code of 604
and to counteract the loss of
Die Farbekrieg from the Fire side, a man far ahead of his time
and, as it
turned out, his peers.
This was a previous incarnation of Fire - no Nail, no Numb,
no God
Among Lice, but there were still recognizable faces in the crow
d - Halaster,
Prisonernumberone and Killa Hertz among them. Others, such as
Eerie and The
Extremist been appearing on the other side of the lines, with M
istigris, as
Gunthar and Surreal Logic would along their path to scene succe
The merger of two dying groups was not a successful one
- like a body
rejecting foreign tissue, the few Fire members who came over ma
de quick work of
their stay in Mistigris, dropping out of the
scene and from there, into ACiD
promptly. Mistigris itself slowed to a crawl, nourishing and g
iving life to an
entity viewed by many as far superior - Inte
grity. But every domination must
come to an end, and groups appear to take the place of the fall
ing.c The
xtremist, 1995
Enter the second incarnation of Fire. Here w
e are now, and this is
where theyve gotten to, and that is where weve gotten to, and
you can conside
rthis pack what things might have looked more like if t
he merger had worked out
after all. The dream image will only last a month, but the r
esonation will be
carried with us forever.
Two years ago at this point I was publically bemoaning the
fate of
Mistigris, especially where its Fire side was involved, declari
ng it the
lousiest birthday present a guy could get. My birthday is Apr
il 04, the
traditional relase date but no longer of Fires fourth pack o
f the year.
Id like to think that this pack makes up for the frugality of
that gift, and
then some.
Id like to note a few things - thanks to all of the Fi
re staff,
especially God Among Lice, The Extremist, Fever and Mavrik
- for making our
stay here notable and coaxing out much of our most exceptional
art ever. The
promise of Fire looming over our heads inspired us to heights t
hat most of us
may never have attained - and may never match. Thank you as we
ll to Halaster,
who made this possible - both then and now.
I would encourage you, the viewer, to check out that art wh
ich you won
tordinarily find here - the lit and music - just to see
how its evolved since
you last tuned out - and to follow our tour this month with the
Radiance music
crew and the pending release of Shite! E-Mag 1 a c
ombination of Shazam! and
Kithe and in following months with, well, other to-be-named gr
oups 8.
In closing, I hope that the apparent success of this collab
oration of
two groups will inspire imitation and evolution from other memb
ers of the scene
,now that we have proven that it is not only possible b
ut can produce outstandin
gresults.
Cthulu - Mistigris president -
I am not a fish
Mistigris 1997 - letting the artists run the asy
lum -
tHE pRODIGYoDELAY/kWEST s
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. does this say fire? hey, i only :
color the logos. - the prodigy.
Ernie and the Spider Queen, a time travel in four perspect
ives
Quoth the Spider to the Fly:
The street is unnervingly empty. Still. Quiet.
This is unusual unexpected.
But there! a noise... a slight vibration. The needle t
witches like
a severed limb. Almost imperceptible, but there. This is comf
orting.
Monitor Six - increase zoom. Eight-hundred percent. Yes, yes.
The bus
approaches. I twitch, like the needle, in anticipation, as my
agents
scramble into readiness.
Garages open, in synchronicity, expelling vehicles whic
h begin to
circle the block, like drones. Hired men crawl out of open win
dows and
sewer grates to begin their short lives as hot dog vendors, bus
inessmen and
paperboys.
Ready! ready, my children. Stand true, he approaches.
Dont
expose your cover - make me proud and I will reward you.
I gather my arms around myself and survey my eight obse
rvation
globes expectantly. I click and pop as my many joints tense in
anticipation.
As the yellow vehicle comes into normal sight range, a
fistfight
erupts between two agents who collide as they go through the mo
tions.
Overenthusiastic children, each hoping to serve me more effecti
vely than the
last. I sigh in pity, extending a long, stiff arm and depressi
ng a button
with a decicive click. Looking back to the monitor, the two of
fenders have
disappeared from sight, as five red-tinted manhole covers fall
back into
place.
That was close. The bus is at hand - we must be prepar
ed. With
exaggerated care, the bus begins to pull into the terminal. Th
e machinery
screams, then whines, theen grinds to a halt. I click impatien
tly.
A form is visible behind the dusted glass of the door.
It decends
and the portal cracks an aperture. Haltingly, it unfolds witho
ut grace.
The man is seen at last. Visage pressed to cold glass, I count
his
footfalls.
One... two... after the third, as calculated and simula
ted
eight-hundred times, nylon cables shoot at his legs. Ensnared,
he twists in
the air like a bird with clipped wings. In slow motion, he rot
ates and,
invariably, gives a loveless embrace to the eatth, as they alwa
ys do.
Though I am far gone, I am not such to such a degree wh
ere I cannot
find a little morbid humour in this display, and I express it a
ccordingly,
with a low, chittering laugh. I was familiar enough with the w
ire-frame
models acrobatics but somehow the intimacy with the process wa
s fulfilled
by the realization of the genuine act.
Immediately upon landing, two of the nearest agents rus
h up to his
side, inconspicuously clipping the cord with blades strapped to
their palms,
and they help him up. Shrugging off incoherant niceties, they
escort him,
as rehearsed, down the street to his unxpected but inevitable d
estination.
Welcome to my parlour...
Hi, and welcome to the next stop on the Mistigris worl
d tour! This pack
needs a little explaining before we go on any further. In case
you havent
figured it out yet, Mistigris has been having a tour around t
he scene for
the past few months. What this means is that each month Mistig
ris releases
their artwork alongside that of another group, arranged ahead o
f time.
Fire has been the biggest show so far for Mistigris, so weve d
one our best
to make this pack as special as possible. Inside, youll find
a number of
collaborative pieces between fire and mistigris members, as wel
l as some
media which are not normally released with fire packs, namely l
it and music.
The topic of music brings me to my second point of interest. F
ires newly
formed music division, Radiance, will soon be releas
ing their first music
disk. Following a mistigris tour tradition, one song by a mist
member will
be included with the fire pack. This leaves the rest of the mis
tigris music
to be released with the Radiance disk, so be sure to catch it o
n your
favorite scene-related site.
Speaking of sites, FireWeb is of course still up and running.
Point your
browser to http://patriot.net/panacea/ to get the l
atest fire news and
current member list. Were currently looking for someplace tha
t could host
fireweb.org cheap or for free once we have registered the name.
If you can
help us out in any way, it would be greatly appreciated.
Ok, so the news isnt really arranged in order of importance.
This month
we were unfortunate to lose both our ansi coordinator and an an
si legend
when Eerie decided to call it quits with fire a few
weeks ago. I still
dont have much of an idea exactly what hes currently doing wi
th his extra
time, but we wish him luck in whatever he decides to pursue.
Filling Eeries enormous shoes is Nail, who im sure
will be more than able
to fulfill the duties involved with the position of ansi coordi
nator.
Nails german ancestry allowed him to be easily lured to the po
st once we
came up with our Heineken and Hasslehoff incentive plan. A s
pecial thanks
to The Extremist for helping out by being our tempor
ary ansi coord while
Eeries official decision was still uncertain, and for filling
in for nail
again during pack time.
Partly in response to Texts proven coordination ability over t
he past
month, Ive assigned him to our new post as communications coo
rdinator.
Text will be keeping track of our bulletin board HQ and distro
site list,
as well as a member list with names and phone numbers for as ma
ny people as
we can. If you havent already, find The Extremist and give hi
m your info
if youre in fire, of course.
For all of you who could not for the life of you figure out fir
es whacky
release schedule, were giving you a chance to try and figure o
ut a totally
different whacky release schedule. After considering ideas lik
e following
the lunar cycle and some kind of formula involving prime number
s, we finally
decided on the first Saturday of each month. This is NOT hard t
o understand.
Saturdays are the ideal time to release because people especia
lly the euro
guys can stay up late. It also gives people some time for las
t minute
drawing and gives the viewer time to look at the pack the follo
wing Sunday.
This means the next fire pack will be released on SATURDAY, May
3rd.
Whew... lots of info there. Its been a busy month. Ill let
the
individual coordinators dole out all the details now.
-god among lice
Ernies big adventure:
Ernie loved public transit. To him, it was the
greatest thing since
libraries or park benches. He was of that rare breed who reali
zed the
underlying truth that the more people use, rely on something, t
he greater
its value. Hence, he was on his way to improve the government
by picking up
his welfare cheque.
He couldnt really see the source of all the related ou
trage. In
his mind, it was more money than anyone really had a right to u
se in a
month. After all, he had never bought much - there was no room
in his
shopping cart for food processors and CD-ROMs. He ran a web pa
ge, courtesy
of the library. Life on Three Dollars a Week. At last count
, eighty
thousand people had seen it. Ernie had never seen eighty thous
and of
anything before.
In his mind, any fundamental need beyond birdsong and s
tarlight was
available through the milk of human kindness. And in dumpsters
, though it
was unwise to partake of the milk found there.
He had little on him at the moment a pen and some napk
ins with
which he composed poems to give to passers-by, a swiss army kni
fe, a bottle
of water from a fountain, some exquisite rocks, feathers, ragge
d strips of
flannel and a roll of film found in the pockets of his newly-ac
quired coat.
He hoped to develop the film some day, because momentos of othe
r peoples
lives are very important, a reminder that there are real, decen
t humans
behind the numbers and plexiglass and intolerance.
As his stop approached, he found himself whistling a tu
neless
melody. Mendelssohn perhaps? On his way out, he tripped on so
mething
unseen, no doubt a loose thread on his ragged trousers, and tum
bled rag-tag,
like a flying patchwork quilt, into a bustling street scene. I
n his
schizophrenia-addled mind, he momentarily thought that he could
hear a child
crying for his mother, then a woman laughing. Then he handed,
hard, but the
many layers of threadbare clothing he wore offered some padding
With fortunes doubled, two passing businessmen uncharac
teristically
lent their hands to help him up. An unusual sign of kindness f
rom any man
this deep in the city, especially considering who Ernie was.
His foot was twisted slightly and the men offered their
impeccable
black shoulders for him to lean on, and he put his arms around
their backs,
laughed, and shuffled off into the afternoon.
It was going to be a beautiful day.
:: fireansi ::
Hey ho, here we go. woo The ansi division went
thru some changes
this month... We began the month with that good old Ee
rie guy as
division head, but the guy lost interest in doing the j
ob along the
way, so I stepped in to take care of things on an tempo
rary basis.
When me and the liceboy finally had the confirmation of
Eeries
departure, we were talking about how I would take the d
ivision, but we
also began to talk about how we like
d Nail and should give him some
staff job, and we ended up offering him the position, w
hich he gladly
accepted. Nail had some real life duties to attend to,
so Im the one
writing the news this month.
We also had some changes on the members side. Eerie go
t Sniper back
in, some of you may remember that this particular argen
tinian had been
in Fire in a past era. Welcome back
! We also got a guy named Shaft
who comes from the Shade fame. Were all glad to add y
et another
Swedish guy to our increasingly growing staff of Europe
an artists.
Deaccession left us this month after foresee
ing a less active ansi
drawing career in his near future. Also leaving is
The Night Angel,
who decided to devote more time to AWE.
-the extremist
:: firehirez ::
Its me again. Heres some Hirez news. Weve cleaned the
hirez memberlist
a bit this month. Psionide is no longer with us bec
ause I havent seen him
around forever. Also, as much as we all love Halaster
, I thought it seemed
appropriate to remove him from our official ranks as a vga arti
st. I think
hals known a LOT more for his ansi skills than his vga ability
, dont you?
New members this month come straight out of the fire legion of
the golden
bees aka ansi artists. Fire From Heaven shows inc
redible ability for a
rookie vga artist. Keep a look out for hidden ansis in his vga
pieces! :
In fire packs, he will be releasing his vga work with the prefi
x ffh-
instead of his usual ansi prefix of two-. Also joining us is
Numb. I have
a feeling that Numb has always dreamed of becoming a famous vga
artist
someday, just like I have always secretly dreamed of becoming a
famous ansi
artist. Maybe we can help each other out? : Look for our spe
cial double
feature vga collaboration in the next fire pack.
-lGiOcDe
:: fireascii ::
This month was a hectic one, with me being invited int
o ACIDremorse
and the numerous complications in my personal lif
e all nicely wrapped
up with my record deal with Hush Entertainment. T
o be honest, I havent
payed much attention to my dut
ies as Fire!a coordinator this month and
oddly enough during my absence things kept going
at full-speed.
So thanks to all the members who joined and to
haji, who helped while
I was gone. Talking about haji, Ive decided to a
ppoint haji as one of
the two Fire!a seniors, along
with the Emperor. This means if Im ever
absent for a long period of time, haji and the emperor will
fill in and
gather art, etc.. Also due to the large
influx of members this past
month, Ive decided to make Fire!a invite only
, meaning if we want you
to join, well ask. However, y
ou can send applications to me at the
email address listed below if you feel you belong
in Fire!a.
As I said before, we gained several members this month
all with
different talents. Psy comes to us fro
m Israel, Skatter joins up from
noname with his talent, Absent Spinster
joins up with his original
ansciis, Sammael comes from rile and samsara,
Prodiac joins up with his
new ascii talent, Discofunk
74 joins from odelay with his mad-ascii
skills, Baphomet comes to us from CIA
with his nice oldschools, Tsk
joins from remorse with his pimp styleez
and LT brings his oldschool
skills to us late in the month.
Well, thats pretty much it.. Im very pleased with our
second showing
and hope that things continue to do so w
ell when I pay attention
to the group
Look for another super-joint between all the talents in
the ascii scene
in the next pack.
We salute ODELAY, kWESTPHUNK, and
REMORSE for keeping it real..
-- pariahFIREsenior pariah@br
eaks.for.alienz.org
Dont forget empty! He left fire ascii, but he sti
ll runs the bot. -lGiOcDe
The Agony and the Ecstasy
He has now fallen down. You wash your hands. D
rying them, her
laughter rattles down the hall and under your door like a handf
ul of dead
leaves and rotten sticks. Damn her! Always finding amusement
over the
misfortune of the innocents. But she pays you exquisitely, and
your
addiction is an expensive one.
You hear her scuttling through the adjoining hallway, t
he wheels of
her apparatus squeaking and the tromping footfalls of her troup
e of
bodyguards accompanying her, no doubt to her opulent Attendance
Chamber, and a
portal in front of you flickers red to life in front o
f you, to tell you
that its time to start preparing for a reception. It is unnec
cessary, a
deliberated insult on her part. Youre a professional - your m
ask and
rubber gloves are already on. Does she think that you might no
t have been
in a state to realize the time for your responsibility? You kn
ow better
than anyone else to never mix business with pleasure, and as a
rule that is
at no risk as business teends to be very, very unpleasant.
You pack up the rubber hose and give the scalpels anoth
er dab with
the sterile swab of methahol. Got to be ready. The monitors s
how the two
hired goons, in what must be their most true-to-life performanc
es to date,
escorting the poor victim into the entrance of the complex.
Your fingers tighten, stretching the latex and making i
t creak.
This is really unneccsesary. You know that and she is fully aw
are of it.
She dosent perpetuate it for her own benefit but rather becaus
e she knows
of the mental anguish it causes for you.
And you have no say in the matter, because you have for
ced some doors
to be permanently wedged open with hypodermic needles, razor bl
ades and
dollar bills. It cant go on, of course. You know that and sh
e is acutely
aware of it she just wants to see how far she can play the gam
e before one
of the contestants is driven over the edge. Unfortunately, she
s the only
one who knows the full extent of the rules.
Someday soon, it will all come folding in on itself. P
erhaps you
will turn on her, plunging your blades deep within her frame be
fore your own
bullet-riddled cadaver hits the floor. No, no, that wont do.
In her
condition, vast and globular, theres no assurance that such an
action would
actually kill her. Perhaps an overdose, then? Easier to execu
te, but the
culprit would remain painfully obvious. A double overdose? Th
ey cant get
you if youre already gone...
Footsteps approach - time for work. Enough of such
thought the
time is it not yet come?
I hope the mistigris tour with fire is as much fun for you
to look at as
it has been for us to organize. The mistigris guys are a great
bunch and
I urge you to seek them out wherever they happen to be on the n
ext leg of
their tour. Personally, I really enjoyed being able to work to
gether on
as many collaborations as I did, and they probably never would
have happened
if Cthulu and the rest of mistigris hadnt begun their tour in
the first
place. Tell us what you think of having the lit strewn in amon
gst all the
art. This probably marks the first time fire has released lite
rature since
the very first fire pack ever.
Anyway, Ill just shut up now and let you enjoy the pack in its
epic
entirety. : Catch you later.
-God among Lice, fire president.
The whole story:
The carrier gets on the bus. This is noted, as
is his time of
boarding, choice of seat, apparent lack of luggage, and the dir
ection in
which is facing. Cables pulse and thrum with excitement, spitt
ing a
constant flow of information back and forth with digital perist
alsis.
The next few minutes are very busy, though they dont l
ook outwardly
so. Nevertheless, it is impressive when an army of actors marc
hes into the
streets, synchronized, to become the ultimate disguise.
Four red points of light pass over the carriers torso
as the bus
passes certain buildings. He doesnt notice.
Two men fight, then they fight no more. A hot dog vend
or wipes a
few spots of blood off of his stand, beneath rows of ketchup an
d relish, and
a businessman is forcd to retire inside as pulped cerebellum is
not quite so
easy to clean. Manhole takes on a new meaning.
The bus driver submits a full report as the vehicle of
public
transit comes to the sting. Cars adjust their cyclic choreogra
phy as to
avoid this new oasis of stasis, obstructing their fluid motion.
With two steps, the carrier is subdued. Security prete
nds to assist
him but it is soon apparent that they are following ulterior or
ders. The
carrier is putting on a good show, demanding to see his lawyer
not that he
has one, nor revealing for one instant that he knows anything
of the
situation. The transmitter on the microfiche tells us as much.
With unexpected ease, the carrier is sedated. The doct
or makes
ready, recieving the delivery and going to work, but today he p
roceeds a bit
differently from the established routine after a long pause and
several red
flashes. Instead of reviving the carrier, he is put instead in
to a deeper
sleep, prerecorded moans and screams playing so as not to arous
e suspicion.
A few superficial flesh wounds are made for appearances sake -
cuts on the
thighs, across the belly, and below the ribs, along the side -
and the doctor
takes out a bottle of latex in liquid form, applying it on seve
ral locations
on the carriers body his lips, on the palms of his hands, and
specifically
along either side of the broad, shallow cuts. Dried under a he
at lamp, it
looks no more menacing than a skin rash, certainly not unexpect
ed on one
undercover in this manner.
A fine powder, made from the rendered skins of the fine
st South
American frogs, is painted on the latex layers, doubling the me
aning of the
label carrier. All remains of the applicating apparatus, the
jars and
brushes, go into an incinerator. Almost as an afterthought, th
e doctor
removes the microfilm from the pocket of the carriers coat and
puts it in a
vacuum tube, from whence it arrives to waiting specialists in t
he technical
workshop four levels below. Smelling salts are applied beneath
the carriers
nose. He is uncomposed, but rational enough to recieve well th
e instructions
not to lick his lips nor to touch himself anywhere, especially
not on his
new wounds.
The doctor stops for a minute to shake his head roughly
, then
regains his composure and calls security to bring the carrier t
o the next
stage of his voyage the personal audience with the queen. Thu
gs arrive and
bear the man on his way. Alone, the doctor turns off the light
in his
office and locks the door. He turns off and seals completely t
he
incinerator, then waits in silence to resolve a mental dilemma.
Finally, he
steps into action, still in the dark. Disconnecting worn rubbe
r hose from a
gas valve and a bunsen burner, he turns the valve open and lets
the odourless
substance wash over him. A filament is attached to a logic gat
e, which will
be activated in the event that the doctor trips a wire by falli
ng down, in
which case it will cause to be emitted a single spark.
Reducing a powder to a liquid on a heat plate, he i
njects it into a
prominent artery along the inside of his arm. He rolls several
small
capsules around in his hand and, upon hearing the wailing of a
klaxon and
stomped, rushing footsteps, he swallows them.
It is a beautiful day.
What are
YOU lookin
ill at? wok
you
0
pt
mist
pic and logo by platinum of mistigr
is
ptmist
Cthuluhere, fillingin as Fire lit
head, among other things. This
pack is special in more ways than you will ever know. Sure, th
e art is neat,
perhaps even unusually so, considering the parties involved. T
he logistics
were quite something, too, taking up every last second of two m
onths of
communications and coordination and even then some. Still, it
has been quite
a long time since Mistigris has released a pack in April with F
ire. Its been
even longer since it released a pack in March with Fir
e, but you can ask Samura
iabout that, along with what happened to the March Proj
ect 301 pack 8
What is this? Yes, probably earlier than most of yo
u remember, Fire an
dMistigris were once one group. February, 1
995, to combat the growing influence
of Integrity in Mists home area code of 604
and to counteract the loss of
Die Farbekrieg from the Fire side, a man far ahead of his time
and, as it
turned out, his peers.
This was a previous incarnation of Fire - no Nail, no Numb,
no God
Among Lice, but there were still recognizable faces in the crow
d - Halaster,
Prisonernumberone and Killa Hertz among them. Others, such as
Eerie and The
Extremist been appearing on the other side of the lines, with M
istigris, as
Gunthar and Surreal Logic would along their path to scene succe
The merger of two dying groups was not a successful one
- like a body
rejecting foreign tissue, the few Fire members who came over ma
de quick work of
their stay in Mistigris, dropping out of the
scene and from there, into ACiD
promptly. Mistigris itself slowed to a crawl, nourishing and g
iving life to an
entity viewed by many as far superior - Inte
grity. But every domination must
come to an end, and groups appear to take the place of the fall
ing.c The
xtremist, 1995
Enter the second incarnation of Fire. Here w
e are now, and this is
where theyve gotten to, and that is where weve gotten to, and
you can conside
rthis pack what things might have looked more like if t
he merger had worked out
after all. The dream image will only last a month, but the r
esonation will be
carried with us forever.
Two years ago at this point I was publically bemoaning the
fate of
Mistigris, especially where its Fire side was involved, declari
ng it the
lousiest birthday present a guy could get. My birthday is Apr
il 04, the
traditional relase date but no longer of Fires fourth pack o
f the year.
Id like to think that this pack makes up for the frugality of
that gift, and
then some.
Id like to note a few things - thanks to all of the Fi
re staff,
especially God Among Lice, The Extremist, Fever and Mavrik
- for making our
stay here notable and coaxing out much of our most exceptional
art ever. The
promise of Fire looming over our heads inspired us to heights t
hat most of us
may never have attained - and may never match. Thank you as we
ll to Halaster,
who made this possible - both then and now.
I would encourage you, the viewer, to check out that art wh
ich you won
tordinarily find here - the lit and music - just to see
how its evolved since
you last tuned out - and to follow our tour this month with the
Radiance music
crew and the pending release of Shite! E-Mag 1 a c
ombination of Shazam! and
Kithe and in following months with, well, other to-be-named gr
oups 8.
In closing, I hope that the apparent success of this collab
oration of
two groups will inspire imitation and evolution from other memb
ers of the scene
,now that we have proven that it is not only possible b
ut can produce outstandin
gresults.
Cthulu - Mistigris president -
I am not a fish
Mistigris 1997 - letting the artists run the asy
lum -
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