Damien McEwan rose and stood on the left bank of the Erinloch Reservoir, taking a moment to compartmentalize his thoughts and steal another large swig of Gaian whiskey straight from its clay bottle.
He quiets his mind and feels the relatively quiet rumble of Islay's station generators flow up into his body. He matches its acoustical tone, and turns to re-address the gathered crowd of dozens within this particular cavern of the Green Hell Beergarden.
'Oh, F#&%!' he thinks to himself as he inhales a breath, completely clueless of what to say next and feeling like that common nightmare where you're standing buck naked & paranoid in a full room.
...Luckily though, Dimi's drunk and ignores it all.
He raises his bottle in the air to toast, allowing his echo to bounce off the cave walls: "To absent friends, lost loves, old gods and the Season of Mists, and may we each give the Devil his due."
He pours the dead's share to the ground before taking another swig and continuing.
"Shamus O'Shaunessy was a floating metal ball of ironic humanity that changed my view of life and the primal energy that feeds it...& I hope one day that your children will tell this story to their children's children."
Shamus was given the opportunity t' live twice, thanks to some Discordian mumbo jumbo, a planetary vortex, some rather powerful crystal thingies, and a titanium sphere that had become available.
His first time around had a rough beginning. He worked for Ageira a bit, but became disgruntled, lit out for Trafalgar with some other overworked 'n underpaid Ageira lads. One of 'em, known as "Kingpin", opined that they should start our own shady business. London Drugs, Inc. was the result.
He worked his way up to CEO of that mob, through underhanded dealing, cut-throat practices, and a disregard for most of humanity's good qualities. He was a bleedin' shyster and con-man, dealin' in some very bad goods.
Then one day, He was handed a Book, and a taste of somethin' which acted different from the other nasty things He'd used and dealt in. This from a bloke in a frocked coat purportin' to be from the "Free State o' Fernando Poo." After a bit o' reform in his way of thinkin', Shamus was hired on by the Discordians as a Courier for their financial arm, the First Bank o' Flax.
They treated him like a son. They taught him the Catmas and the Pentabarf, and the importance o' keepin the Sacred Chao in balance. Well, folks, one day that balance was threatened greatly by a "thing" known as "Dr. Artiface". This thing captured a number of the Discorians, and took em aboard this huge ship called the Ska Ralla...
T' make a long story short, the man from Fernando Poo had an ace up its sleeve. For long months preparations had been ongoin' to boost a whole bloody planetoid, Bora Bora, from Humboldt to Baffin. It was gonna become a new Free State "home world". Well, that bloody planetoid was redirected to Omega 49, and Shamus had the honor o' pilotin' the thing right down the throat o' the Ska Ralla only seconds after the hostages managed to get clear of the impact zone.
He made it safe t' Canaria, but unbeknownst to Him, the Veranda Incognita's laser defenses had been put on high alert, and he just happened to walk chest-on into one o' the buggers, Ending his first go-round, and ultimately paving his path towards us in his second go-round as the F-Unit we honor here today.
Gone this time, but we will never forget the man in the metal.