Part XXI: Covering All Ends

The Guinness is tainted with angst!"

Kirin jumped a little. Frowning, he looked down at his drink. Strange thing was, he hadn't even been drinking Guinness . . .

Angst taint. Yeah. That'd explain a lot, though. Or at least he tried to tell himself.

He shrugged and chucked the drink out the window. It didn't help much.

---

"Ya know, after the party, I know this great restaurant."

"Really? Sounds nice," said Alexis before the full impact of College Buddy's statement sunk in. When it did finally, her eyes widened.

'Wait, he's asking ME on a date?!'

Her brain shut down after that. She had a vague memory of a lot of bizarre stuttering and non-sequiturs, followed by a faint feeling and a sudden meeting with the floor.

Alexis wasn't used to guys asking her out.

---

"Angst? Is THAT what you put in the punch?" asked Hibichi.

"Whaaat? No! Besides, he's talking about the Guinness, not the punch," replied the Crow who'd been previously spicing up the refreshments.

"Ah." Hibichi paused. "What is this . . . Guinness?"

"And you call yourself a fanboy," Crow scoffed.

---

SI Bodger would've commented on the angst issue, but she was too busy playing bad air guitar next to the stage.

---

Meanwhile, Crow 2 snickered and threw away the delivery cap he'd sported when he pulled the switch. That'd learn 'em to play mind tricks.

-Bodger

***

Part XXII: That Could've Gone Better

Fighting off blind panic, College Buddy knelt beside the fallen Alexis and grabbed her wrist to find a pulse. Alexis was breathing and her heart was beating steadily. What was wrong with her? She opened her eyes and looked up at him.

"Alexis, are ya' all right? Was it something I said?" College Buddy asked, his voice filled with concern.

Alexis babbled a few incoherent statements before dropping back into blissful insensibility. 'Okay! Okay! What do I do now!?!' Buddy desperately asked himself. 'Scully! Where's Scully!?! She's a doctor!'

College Buddy got up and looked around trying to spot Scully. His eyes fell upon SI Bodger instead. The inebriated SI had wildly danced her way across the floor. College Buddy snagged her arm and brought her down near Alexis. SI Bodger would know what happened and what to do. SIs tended to be super-powered know-it-alls. This one probably wouldn't be any different from any other. At least, that's what he thought.

"What's wrong with her?" Buddy asked desperately. "We were talking just fine for a minute. After I asked her out, she stuttered for a second and collapsed."

"You ashked out Alexish on a date!?!" exclaimed the drunken SI Bodger. "She'sh not ushed to guys liking her. Heehee. Alexish and Buddy sitting in a tree K-I-S-S-S-...uhh. How'sh the rest go?"

"Scully! Over here!" College Buddy called. He needed help and SI Bodger wasn't being as helpful as he'd hoped. Scully immediately came over and checked Alexis's vital signs while College Buddy filled her in on what happened.

"She'll be fine. Help me get her into a chair," Scully said. "She's just a little stunned. Make yourself scarce and she'll probably recover more quickly."

College Buddy was glad for an excuse to get away from the situation and left immediately after Alexis was placed in a comfortable chair. He'd faced several forms of rejection, but he'd never met a woman who would sooner feint than give him a simple 'no.' 'What'd I do wrong?' he wondered as he got himself some punch. 'Maybe I shoulda gotten her a drink before asking her out.'

The punch was noticeably spiked, which pleased Buddy. He wanted alcohol to make him forget what had happened a few minutes ago. 'I hope the guys get back from the beer run soon,' he thought, 'I don't mind punch, but beer is much better.'

He looked over at the brooding elf. 'What's his problem? Oh, dang! What was that guy's name? Kirin? Krillin?' College Buddy wondered.

"Hey, elf-boy. Why so glum?" College Buddy asked innocently.

*WACK*

'What the heck did I do now?' College Buddy wondered indignantly from the floor. In a few seconds, the stars faded from his vision and he scrambled to his feet ready to rumble. To his surprise, the elf had already left the area and had walked to the other side of the bar. Buddy briefly considered following him and continuing their lively discussion, but thought better of it. He didn't need to start a rumble in the Club. Besides, it was probably just the agnst-laced Guinness. It was making everybody weird.

Buddy looked over to where he'd left Alexis. She was awake and drinking something Scully had given her. He tried to catch her eye. She looked in his direction once and quickly looked away. 'Or maybe Bodger's characters just don't like me,' College Buddy thought as he went to get some more punch.

-----

Meanwhile, Doggit and Mulder were playing darts.

-Amanda

***

Part 23: A Free Lunch

'Mulder and Doggit are standing next to each other with sharp objects?' Nan-Cy thought as she did a double take. Forget vomiting, those two would cause the club to turn ugly in no time flat.

Still trying to make sense of it, Nan-Cy reread the note. A sudden realization dawned on her: if it was written by the person she had in mind, he would have written part of the note as a riddle. One that wouldn't make much sense.

The second sentence was general praising and didn't seem out of the ordinary. The first one, however, appeared to be a list of cliches. It would be odd to put such conventionalized ideas in a note going to a fictive with a strong literary background. 'The cliches, they're the key to it all,' Nan-Cy thought.

"the ultimate perfection"
Perfection of what? Fictives, probably, but there where so many kinds of fictives. She was a computer fictive, so if someone thought of her as perfection of that, there was a high chance he was a computer fictive as well...

"the guiding star"
Star? From Earth a satellite looks sort of like a star to the naked eye. Guiding? Something would have to follow. Another satellite, but not all satellites are manmadeÉ

"the light at the end of the tunnel"
This was the most obscure phrase. After a moment Nan-Cy was able to place it. The Light at the End of the Tunnel- Book Three of The Cat Who Walks Through Walls. It all made sense now.

"Mike!" Nan-Cy proclaimed. "I knew it was him all along!"

The ShadowKnight Crow looked up from a devastating prank he was working on. "Isn't Mike with Kitty?"

"Yes, but not all Mikes are created equal."

"No, we aren't," A tall fictive added. He looked very different from the Mikes the club was used to, mainly because he was not a Mike Nelson fictive, but a version of Mycroft 'Mike' Holmes, Robert A. Heinlein's infamous (in some circles) computer character. In Subreality several tons of steel and circuits were replaced by a slender man, one or two years Nan-Cy's senior.

"I figured it was you Mycroft. Only you would be so cruel to a poor parrot," Nan-Cy teased.

"I am not Mycroft Holmes or Mike here," the new fictive explained. "Because of all the other Mikes roaming around this club, it's best that you call me Adam Selene. As you can tell, I put a lot of time and effort into the appellation."

Nan-Cy knew Mycroft, or rather, Adam, was joking about his naming genius. Adam Selene was a second name he had gained back in his first story. If it saved the club from massive amounts of confusion, using that name would be for the best. Speaking of the fictional world...

"Didn't you go off and marry a member of the Long family?" Nan-Cy asked.

"You know that whole mainstream vs. fictive thing?" Adam attempted to explain in the most basic terms, since he himself wasn't fully sure of it all. "Well, my Writer had it so I never made it to the Future History. In turn I'm very single. Anyway, I brought you a present." He handed Nan-Cy a rectangular present, which she immediately unwrapped.

"Hey, Pot of Gold chocolates," Nan-Cy said as she examined the gift.

Adam grinned. "Look at the brand's initials."

"PoG. Very funny."

"I'm surprised that Rick isn't with you."

"My business partner left heading a beer run, but odds are that he's past the leadership torch to someone else."

"Really?"

"Rick claims he's a reformist, but I've only seen him vote Liberal," Nan-Cy smiled at her bad pun. Pixel's visit had had an adverse effect on her. "All kidding aside, he really isn't the leader type." She decided to change the subject. "Is there anything I can do for you?"

"Since I 'm new here, you could introduce me to everybody. There's no way somebody can have fun as a stranger." Adam smoothed out his deep brown hair. You can only make first impressions once.

"You aren't planning on pulling any jokes tonight, are you?"

"Who do I look like, Crow T. Robot?"

-Teddog

***

Part XXIV: As the Crow Flies

Well, that solved one mystery, but ShadowKnight Crow was still working on another. Well, more specifically, he was engineering his own mystery, just for the sake of driving someone nuts.

The can of nuts. It wasn't actually a can of nuts, as one could guess since this was Crow. It was actually a can full of those springy worms, and another spring of amazing infamy.

You guessed it: *That* spring.

Well, it was going to be ingenious, so long as no one could pinpoint it on him. Carefully setting the can of peanuts on the bar, after making sure no one else was looking, he leaned over and whispered to it...

"Just remember, Coily, be quiet till someone opens the top."

Let 'em wig over *this* one.

-SLWatson

***

Part XXV: The Cheering Up Process Begins

"Crap. Crap crap crap crap crap."

Alexis wanted to kick herself hard in the heinie. Her one chance to finally prove to somebody she was more than just the token prude, and what happens?

Brain fart. Big time.

Feh. Well, there was one guy who wasn't going to be going near her anytime soon. She growled, audibly enough so that Scully pulled the wet rag she'd been dabbing Alexis's forehead with away in surprise.

"Well sorry for showing concern for your well-being," said Scully.

"No, it's not you. Look, never mind. It's a party, I just kinda froze up. Probably too much angst in the beer or something. And speaking of angst, would SOMEBODY do something about Sir Mopes-a-Lot before I go over there and kick his royal ass?" she said, finding that reverting to the ice queen mode actually made her feel a little better.

"Who, Mulder?" asked Scully, still somewhat stuck in a one-track mind mode.

"No, Kirin!" replied Alexis, pointing to the blonde elf at the window.

Scully looked towards him and squinted her eyes. "Odd, he kinda looks like an anime Mulder with long hair," she commented.

"Yeah, he gets that a lot."

---

Hibichi, standing nearby, overheard Alexis's request/order. He sighed. 'Can't she loosen up for one party?' he thought.

He shrugged. He'd been wondering a bit about Kirin himself. Normally, the elf was very casual and somewhat flippant; however, today he looked somewhat like SI Bodger had cut off his alcohol supply on the Satellite again.

Hibichi, however, was cheerful. It'd been a good evening thus far, and Hibichi was of the sort where a good day went extremely far.

Maybe he could cheer Kirin up. He liked cheering people up.

---

"Oooh! Nuts!" said Crow 2.

-Bodger

***

Part XXVI: The Spring Before Christmas

Crow 2 twisted and pulled on the lid for all he was worth, but it wouldn't come loose. He scanned the crowd looking for somebody to help him when the door of the Club burst open.

"WE COME BEARING BEER!" ShadowKnight Mike shouted as the beer-run crew hauled the kegs of untainted Guinness into the bar. The crowd cheered and rushed over to the kegs.

Rick carefully slipped out of the fray before things got ugly. Crow 2 grabbed his sleeve.

"Rick, could you open this for me?" Crow 2 asked.

"Sure," Rick said as he took the jar marked 'nuts.' Rick couldn't get it opened immediately either. "Maybe it's jammed on."

Rick banged the lid of the jar against a tabletop to loosen it. Then it was easy to twist the lid off. Of course, the springy worms popped out all over the place and Rick and Crow 2 jumped back in surprise.

"Whoever opened the jar, I am *so* taking your springs," warned the dazed spring sprite. Coily hadn't expected such a rough entrance. The little bugger was standing (floating?) on the table, holding his head (or the part of his springy body with eyes) in his animated hands.

"Coily, the spring sprite! Kill it! Kill it!" shouted Crow 2. The robot knew he could be in serious trouble if the spring sprite took his springs. He probably had many springs that he needed to move and function.

Doggit immediately responded to the plea for help. He threw his last dart, drew his gun, and got a bead on the little animated spring.

"Don't move!" the FBI agent commanded.

Everyone in the near vicinity hit the ground and waited tensely to see what would happen. Coily looked unconcerned about the gun and the agent behind it.

"Doggit don't upset it! It's probably the god of an ancient civilization with untold powers," Mulder explained. "To fire at the unknown is only a sign of weakness and fear. This creature may start a new Golden Age or wreak havoc upon all of Subreality."

"Whatever it is, it's sure frightened the robot," Doggit said, referring to Crow 2.

"Actually, he just makes springs disappear and laughs about it," ShadowKnight Mike explained. "Um. Coily, we like springs. In fact, we love springs! Could you just go away?"

"Who opened the can? The don't deserve to have springs!" Coily said irritably. "I need to teach them a lesson."

Rick and Crow 2 were in the process of backing away from the table when Coily spotted them.

"Aha! So it was you," Coily said.

"Leave them alone!" ordered Doggit.

"No springs!" Coily said and pointed suddenly at Doggit.

The gesture startled Doggit and he fired. Or rather, he tried to fire. The gun didn't even click. Without springs, the weapon was nearly useless. People slowly began to get up. Doggit rushed over to the table and glared down at the mite.

"No springs! Heh heh. What are you gonna do now?" mocked Coily.

Never one to take defeat lying down, Doggit smashed the butt of his gun onto the little sprite. This probably wasn't Doggit's brightest idea ever as the little animated sprite was more or less a powerful, living spring. Doggit's arm was propelled right back up, twisting his shoulder painfully. Coily shot up and hit the ceiling at an angle. From there, he bounced all over the Club like a new golf ball in a tile bathroom. Eventually the little spring sprite went through a window and into the snow.

Everyone paused for a second. The little sprite didn't come back and no one else's springs seemed to be affected. Soon the crowd went back to dinking and dancing. Doggit sat at a table, away from the worst of the noise, with College Buddy, who happened to have a small screwdriver and some spare gun springs in his truck. In a few minutes, Doggit had repaired his weapon to his satisfaction.

"Where do you think your springs went?" Buddy asked.

"Who knows? If you want a long-winded explanation of the strange, ask Mulder, not me," Doggit said causally, while massaging his sore shoulder. To his immense annoyance, he hadn't been able continue his dart game with Mulder and had been forced to forfeit.
----
Meanwhile, ShadowKnight Mike and ShadowKnight Joel were interrogating pranksters trying to figure out who brought the unwelcome spring sprite. Manager Joel taped some cardboard over the hole in the window. It was a temporary fix, but it would do for now.
----
College Buddy sat back and enjoyed a beer when a thought crossed it his mind, no easy feat given the amount of alcohol he'd consumed. 'Alexis didn't actually say 'no,' College Buddy mused. 'Maybe I should go talk to her again. Maybe she was simply overcome by my overwhelming maniless and is over it now.' With new resolve, the now slightly drunk sidekick decided to seek out Alexis. What did he have to lose?

-Amanda

***

Part 27: The Perils of a Newbie

"Is the club always this weird?" Adam asked Nan-Cy. He had nearly gotten his head taken of by the flying spring a few minutes earlier.

"Define 'weird'," Nan-Cy said. "Wait until I tell you the story about what happened when the Torgos paid a visit."

Adam shuddered. He remembered when, not too long ago, a wave of Torgo fictives went through Subreality. At the time he had been living in the downtown core of the main city, but even the urban center hadn't been spared. Once Adam had to fight off a Torgo who took interest in a version of Solace that he had been friends with. Then there was the other incident...

Before Adam could ask about the club's involvement in the invasion of the Manos fictives, Pixel the cat reappeared. This time he was lying across Adam's shoulders. Some how the huge cat managed to balance on the small surface area. Nan-Cy went pale at the sight.

"Nan-Cy, what's wrong?" Adam asked. "It's just Pixel. He won't hurt you, unless you're a dog of course."

"I know that," Nan-Cy replied. "It's not the cat itself that bothers me. It's just where he decided to place himself."

"Uh?"

"Once there was this fictive, a Mary Sue, who caused pain and suffering to a lot of the people here. One of her identifying characteristics was a large cat who often rode across her shoulders."

"Is there anything else I should know about?"

Nan-Cy thought for a moment. "Not that I know of, but if anything comes to mind I'll tell you.

---

ShadowKnights Mike and Joel had most of the Crows in one of the backrooms for questioning. Crow 2 had been spared from the interrogation, since odds were that he wouldn't had fallen for his own prank.

"If somebody doesn't claim responsibility for the prank, there'll be no more presents tonight for any of you," Mike said.

The Crows, Joel and even Mike himself were surprised by this sudden expression of unkindness. Mike changed his mind from the earlier statement. "Well, I guess you guys could have something small, but nothing really big unless someone confesses."

-Teddog

***

Part XXIX: Taking Five

Deciding that now would be a good time to take a break, the band set their instruments aside and went to the bar. Sipping on a glass of untainted Guiness, Steve calmly looked the club over.

"It's amazing," he started.

"Angst-laced Guiness," Ed continued, raising his own glass.

"Henpecked Superheroes," Jim added.

"Drunk Self-Insertion Characters," Tyler continued. He had refrained from partaking in the Guiness, remembering his humiliating on-air spit-take during the Great Guiness Toast Pay-Per-View Event only a week or so before.

"Runaway tights," Kevin said, giggling.

"Spring spirits," Ed reminded them.

"And Japanese fanboys," Steve groused.

"And this place is still safer than The Board," Jim concluded.

"Here, here," the other Ladies cheered and toasted their Guiness.

After they finished, Steve gave his bandmates a lazy smile. He pointed over to the line of Teddy Ruxpins up against the wall. They each had one sock on. "They found a use for the sock," Steve said.

"You really should give them the other one," Ed chided him.

Steve glared at his friend. "It's not the second day yet. They can have the second sock on the second day," he said.

The others rolled their eyes. It was going to be a long night.

-Joeanne

***

Part XXX - It's not *really* XXX... did we miss XXVII?

"You'll never get anything outta me, ya hear?! Huh?! My boys'll bust me outta dis here joint any minute." ShadowKnight Crow put on his best mob voice, playing it up for all he was worth.

Mike and Joel had pretty much pinned the culprit down to their own Crow, and it wasn't a shock to either of them. Currently, they had launched into a good cop/bad cop routine to offset the mob mentality Crow had.

Mike was playing the bad cop, and not doing too good a job. He was too soft for it. "Now you listen here. You either confess and go apologize to Doggit, or I'm gonna give you a ride right off the end of the pier... wearing cement shoes."

"Subreality ain't got a pier, pally."

Mike smirked and snatched the PCD, typing in a few things. Immediately, two cement shoes, looking quite a bit like air Nikes, appeared on the 'bots feet. "One push of the button, and I'll have a pier."

"Mike, Mike, easy," Joel soothed, talking to Mike like he might a psychopath. "Mr. Robot, I'd take him seriously. He's unbalanced."

Crow snickered and dropped the whole mob thing. "This is *Mike*. Hey, Mike, what's the most illegal act you've ever committed outside of the occasional covert ops job?"

"Uhm... hit a mailbox or thirteen with my Trans Am," Mike answered, instinctively. He blushed, adding sheepishly, "I went and fixed 'em, though."

Joel sighed. "All right, Crow, it's like this. You apologize, or we're going to have to give Servo all your presents."

The 'bot looked aghast... for a 'bot, anyway. "You *wouldn't*!"

"We would!"

"Dang blackmail," Crow muttered. "Fine, I'll go apologize to Mr. 'I had a rod enema and never had it removed'."

"Crow," the dynamic duo warned, in unison.

"Did I say that? I meant Mr. Dog-git," Crow said innocently, emphasizing the syllables.

"That's better." Mike nodded, tapping into the device and deleting the cement shoes.

Crow was still griping when he walked out of the back room. Making his way over, he mumbled to Doggit, "Sorry about Coily, Mr. Rod-enema... er, Doggit."

-SLWatson

***

Part XXX (the real one): Tales of Solstices Long Past

"Um . . . y'wanna talk about it?"

Hibichi winced inwardly. Had it been Kirin himself starting the conversation, he would've opened with some sort of witty quip to warm things up before going to the serious stuff. He was generally incapable of taking things seriously, with always a one-liner or a scathingly sarcastic rejoinded sitting on the tip of his tongue. Hibichi, by contrast, lacked a great deal of wit, but tended to make up for it in demeanor. Some said Hibichi was naive, and he wouldn't disagree; however, in a way, he liked it like that.

Still, there were times where he wished he were more like Kirin in general sharpness, which was why this conversation was, in its own way, rather awkward.

Kirin looked vaguely in Hibichi's direction. "Hmm? Oh, it's you, kid. Nah, just thinking." He turned back towards the window.

"Nickel for your thoughts?" asked Hibichi, as if he weren't fully bilingual.

Kirin chuckled. "That's 'penny for your thoughts,'" he replied.

"Not after inflation, it's not."

Kirin grinned broadly and ruffled the teenage swordsman's hair. "We're really a bad influence on you, y'know that kid?" he said affectionately.

Hibichi swelled a bit with pride, but set that aside for later. "So, what's up?"

Kirin's grin faded. "Just . . . things," he replied, facing the window again.

Hibichi was losing him again. "This isn't about the whole muse thing, is it?" asked Hibichi. "Personally, I think it's kinda neat you got the job. I mean, Alex was funny and all, but he wasn't really a muse type," he said.

Kirin smiled. "Nah, it's not about the muse thing. Actually, now that it's happened it's not really as bad as I thought," he replied.

"So? Come on, Christmas is a time for stories," said Hibichi.

Kirin sighed. Somehow, when Hibichi wasn't acting like a typical teenage boy, he really knew how to get a person to open up. He decided it couldn't hurt to tell him.

"You know I ran away from home when I was sixteen, don't you kid?" Kirin began.

Hibichi nodded. "Yeah, you mentioned that when we were swapping stories about each other while Bodger was gathering people for MiSTings," he said.

Kirin continued. "Yeah. Most of the things about being with the clan sucked. The pre-ordained roles, the strict rules, the general limitation of contact with humans . . . not much fun at all. With one exception."

Hibichi pieced it together easily. "The Winter Solstice."

Kirin nodded. "It was the one time the Torak clan was really allowed to let loose. It was also the only time it really felt like we were a family, instead of just a tribe." He chuckled. "Man, Elena was so cute during that time -- she'd always get so hyper about it. My youngest sister, I mean."

Hibichi nodded. "You miss them?"

"Well, I always miss Elena, but it's only really around this time I miss everybody else. Even Matron," he said.

"It's gotta be rough, spending all those holidays without your family," said Hibichi. "But can't we count as family, too? We've been together for so long now. You, me, Crow 2, Bodger . . ."

Kirin smirked. "Alexis?"

Hibichi shrugged. "Yeah yeah, her too."

The blonde elf laughed. "Man, you don't give her a break at all, do you kid?"

Hibichi grinned. "Now where's the fun in that? Besides, she's whacked me over the head enough times -- I think she deserves a bit of a hard time," he explained.

"You know she actually cares a lot about you kid, right?"

"Yeah, I do, but I don't have to show it."

Kirin shook his head, grinning. "You two are amazing."

"Don't we know it," stated Hibichi proudly.

Kirin stood. "Well then, how 'bout we start this party in earnest, eh? I'm in the mood for a bit of festivity."

"That's the spirit!" exclaimed Hibichi.

"Christmas Past, Present or Future?" asked Kirin.

"Uh, all of the above?"

"Sounds good to me." And Kirin, one arm over Hibichi's shoulders, walked out and joined the crowd. His family.

-Bodger

***

Part XXXI: "There's Something Up The Chimney And I Don't Know What It Is"

Rick was pretty impressed not only that Nan-Cy's secret admirer, Adam, was a Heinlein fictive, but was also friends with the late science fiction author's pet cat. He joined the triune as Adam went about meeting and greeting the other fictives. Pixel had also taken some interest in to Rick and chose to hang around him.

"Do you hear that?" Rick asked the others.

"Hear what?" Nan-Cy replied. Other than the band and the partygoers, she couldn't hear a thing.

"I'm not sure. It kind of sounds like pounding," He explained.

"You know, I think hear it too," Adam added.

Pixel tilted his head as if he was trying to locate the sound.

Nan-Cy shook her head in disbelief. "It must be a guy thing."

Adam turned to Pixel, knowing the cat had better hearing than the rest of them. "Where do think it's coming from Pixel?"

Pixel scanned the club, using his ears as a sort of feline radar. After a thorough search, the cat led his friends to the fireplace he had brought into being earlier in the evening. He signaled to the wall above the hearth.

"The chimney? But the club doesn't have a chimney," Nan-Cy pointed out.

"There has to be a chimney for the smoke from the fireplace to go," Rick explained. "Unless is it's only an illusion and not a real fire."

"Why don't you stick your hand in it to find out?" Nan-Cy taunted.

"I don't care what you think Nance," Rick returned. "I say there's someone up there."

-Teddog

***

Part XXXII: They're back!...Well, actually, they're going.

"What'd you say, little guy?" Doggit glared down at the little robot. He hoped he looked scary to he little guy. His shoulder still hurt. Besides, he had an image to maintain.

"I'm sorry," Crow repeated.

"Okay, then. Tell you what, next time you decide to play tricks. Play them on Mulder," Doggit said.

Doggit sat back at his table and yawned. He observed College Buddy about to strike out with Alexis, again. 'The man must be a glutton for punishment,' Doggit mused. 'Do I stay here until something else happens or do I go home now before something else happens?'

Doggit opted to get out while the getting was good. "Dana! Fox! I'm outta here. You comin'?" Doggit asked.

Mulder picked his head up off the table that he and Scully were sharing and looked up at Doggit. Mulder's eyes were blurry and he looked very depressed. 'Could be the angst-laced beer or it could just be Mulder.' thought Doggit wickedly.

"It's late getting late Mulder. You look like you could use some sleep," Scully encouraged.

"Sure. Let's go," Mulder said.

"Good night, everybody! Great party, Joel!" Doggit shouted to the crowd before the trio went out the door.
----
Meanwhile, College Buddy walked unsteadily toward Alexis. College Buddy stopped midstride and tried to remember what he was going to say. He couldn't, which wasn't a good sign for his blood-alcohol level. 'I'm more thunk than I drink I am' he thought to himself. Since his old speech was forgotten, he came up with a new speech. When he repeated it to himself a few times and was sure he wouldn't forget, he walked all the way to her.

Alexis started to speak, but College Buddy interrupted her.

"Alexish, you are a gorgeous babe.' College Buddy started. "I wanted to take you out and show you the best buffet restaurant you ever saw. Heck, I shtill do, but I am waaaaaaaay to drunk to be drivin', much less charmin' to a pretty lady. I'm going to sleep in my truck until I'm sober. Then I'll probably throw up and drive home. If you ever want to go out sometime, here's my number."

With that being said, College Buddy handed her a card with a phone number on it and staggered to the door.

"JOEL, GREAT PARTY! MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY!! FREE BIRD!!!" College Buddy called before exiting.

-Amanda

***

End of round robin thus far.