SAFE AS HOUSES --- communication network

All right, kids. This is a mob-owned town. Don't piss anyone off; there's a good chance that the nice girl selling you cranapple juice has an AK-47 under the counter. If anyone asks, you're staying with Boris Gilbert II. I have the owner of this house living in my brains, but he's supposed to be dead, so as far as anyone here is concerned I'm his long-lost son or something.

Also, this nice mansion we're living in? Haunted. Definitely bunk with someone else if you're not one of the five thousand people in this group fucking like rabbits.

If any of you are looking for Jasper, he's back in bed. Bleeding a little.

He'll live.

Has anyone any idea as to where they all might have got off to? I'm missing our cook the most, despite last night's little faux pas with the rice. I'd quite like to eat breakfast at some point. Quebec, will you be taking over in her absence? We can't go hungry.

I need some assistance IMMEDIATELY in containing Mr. Royce. If you can't already hear the screaming, let me tell you, it's bad. He's going to hurt someone, or hurt himself.

Bring sedatives. A lot of sedatives.

Is it too much to ask for a real romance? Being held up in here, never good.

I'm myself again, thank god.

All right, all right. Let's keep this straight.

Who, precisely, is whom?

Um...Fisher is actually dead. So is Mike.

Boddy? Dead? Good riddance. There are so many shady types about it's a wonder he wasn't killed before this.

Stacy, darling, I say drinks are in order.

This has gone on far too long.

And I'm running out of romance novels.

My greatest fear us that I'll grow up to be just like my mother. My birth mother, not the perfect mother who raised me. I hate her. When she got rid of me, she gave me a plant and that was it. I hate that thing every single time I look at it but I can't get rid of it, or kill it.

I actually want to be a gardener. I hate it because it would have made her proud.

For God's sake, children, pull yourselves together. Behave like the adults you are.

Blanche, I'm more scared of you rejecting me than I am of going to hell. I'm not sure what that says about me and you, but I don't think I like it.

Which one of you will be traveling in my van? I will be drawing up our itinerary once I know.

Clearly, we have a situation on our hands. We can only send 10 people to get supplies/etc.

Make your case here. We'll make a list after everyone's had their say.

Oz, if you're going to take Lima into your care, you ought to know that she pulled a knife on me in the hallway.

This is sickening. We're like rats in a cage.

I'm having a glass of wine. My cabinets are stocked. If anyone else needs a drink you can stop on in. I'm not making margaritas; I'm not vulgar.


What do we do with Ben's body?

I suggest you learn to keep your Active in line.

I also suggest that when you're aware of your Active acting out of line against one of your colleagues you learn to open your mouth and report it. Otherwise, it makes it seem like you're complicit. We can't have that, now can we.

I would like it brought to your attention that Ozymandias Vick was attacked by Zulu and India, tied up, and locked in a closet for two weeks with little food or water to speak of and no sanitary facilities or freedom of movement. I have also reason to believe that Holden Keatings not only approved of the activity, he may have participated, and found it funny. I know that times are dire and I understand that you probably have bigger fish to fry, but this is not an instance of an Active getting out of hand. This is an instance of a handler, a colleague, allowing and approving of criminal behavior.

If you want my recommendation, India and Zulu need to be restrained and reassigned to new handlers. When the technology is fixed, Holden Keatings ought to be sent to the Attic and summarily destroyed. This is unacceptable, particularly at a time like this. We can't afford random chaos when we're clearly under attack. If this letter is ignored I will speak with you personally. If I am ignored again I will take it up with Keatings myself and you won't like what's left of him if I do.


J.

Oh look. The actives are acting like idiots again. Who could have done something so dastardly? Whatever shall we do?

Seriously? He's supposed to be an evil genius, right? And he's putting on West Side Story? I'm decidedly underwhelmed.