light purple = poetry
dark purple  = cyberspace
black on black = gotta look for it, biznatch

I like to look at birds.

I get the feeling that they always know what I'm up to - they look
at me with nothing but suspicion, crows cawing to ward me away and I
like the thought that perhaps there is something sinister within me
waiting that I don't know about, but that they do.

I don't know about you but I'm a lot more comfortable communicating
on the level of animals rather than on the level of humans.

When looking at this pack, one thing you might be thinking is, "Gee, it's
almost the end of May; what the hell took so long to get this pack out?"

(According to Cthulu's Big Book of Statistics (tm), actually only 15% of the
audience will have that thought upon opening the archive.  A further 15% are
expected to delete the archive upon finding .LIT files in it, and we predict
a whopping 60% to fall off their chairs in astonishment, going "Wow,
Mistigris is still alive?  I thought that it died back in 1995?!" The
remaining 10% will delete all of the art but save the porn and the file
separators to spam their e-mail buddies with.)

We have been informed that there is a giant deceased religious figure on the
rampage, sighted in the vicinity of this artpack.  If you see it, do not attemptto subdue it; it should be considered holy and dangerous.  Please alert the
appropriate authorities after getting out of danger.

With that in mind, we now return you to your regularly scheduled artpack.

Truth be known, there are some cruel truths we've been hiding under our
collective hats for the past few months, and the situation got pretty tense at
times.  But... you can't cure the problem until you admit you've got one, and
when this happened it was clear that it wanted to come out.

wHEN wHAT hAPPENED?

bREAK iT dOWN! - Quip, longtime member, ansi department coordinator and senior
staff member felt that he needed room to develop creatively
and founded Function with Warpus as space to bloom in.
He didn't quit mist entirely, but he stepped down from his
positions and remains with us as a name on the memberlist and
three logos.

Fire From Heaven had to stop drawing ansi for mistigris as he
was in ice's vga department, an entity which likes the full
attention of its members.

The new artist Gasol didn't even unpack his bags before
breakin' upcontinuing along on his merry way to Avenge.
is more like it...
Tricolore came to the realization that he wanted to focus on
his music, a move which we can only endorse, but with a
realization of our own that this wasn't going to be making
our packs look (or sound - he's releasing under his own
label) any better.

The Extremist, second ANSI department coordinator, also
quit the group, citing gross mismanagement.

Etana, only member other than Cthulu who's been in Mist since
the first pack way back in 1994, quit to found a group where
she could draw what she liked, the way she liked.  It's called
Hallucigenia.

Happyfish, sysop of the Mist WHQ, also draws for Hallucigenia
now, though she still maintains The Jade Monkey and KitschNet.

our high-resolution coordinator, Silent Knight, also saw fit to leave us in
the lurch and take down our website.

Most of this was all in a span of about two weeks.  My immediate response was todive into a bomb shelter, but Schtroumpf was in mine with twelve japanese
cheerleaders, so I ran to the woods instead and hid under a big mossy rock for
well, I guess it was almost two months.  Brushing the pine needles out of my
hair and chasing the squirrels out of my armpits, I made my way back to
civilization by a force greater than nature; the drawing force of a PENDING
MISTIGRIS PACK RELEASE!

And the rest is history!

<Cthulu:#mist> This channel is worthless!  I WILL EAT YOUR SOULS!               *** Cthulu quits channel #mist (Needs salt)
I've noticed a lot of eagles recently,
this is a side benefit of living in Canada, you know,
and often I see them, huge, majestic birds,
wheeling high in the sky
being pursued by an inoffensive black speck,
a crow, doubtlessly short-of-breath in the advanced altitude

pestering the eagle away from its turf
and I gape, sceptical...
visions of the crow plummeting to the ground,
in several bloody pieces
play through my mind

the eagle wouldn't hardly have to stretch to accomplish that

then they fly behind a tree and are momentarily forgotten,
I read the paper, I drink my cola and blind myself in the sun

then the sun is blotted out again by the mighty wingspan of the eagle
but now it is being pursued by a whole murder
crows on its tail like suicidal fleas, so far up
you can't even hear them cawing, but you know they are

and the eagle can hardly move without touching one of them but still,
somehow the impossible happens and the talons remain clenched,
beak still pointed at nothing more than the sky
and no crows are sent to become their brothers' dinner

the eagle wheels upward and onward and tries to leave no permanent
signs of its passage, no unsightly corpses or scars; it is a bird
of the mist, it is a spirit of air, intangible...

an eagle killing crows?  I know it feels that it is above such things
and wouldn't want to soil his talons on such sooty fare

but no, I am projecting human emotions onto animals, that really is
debasing them to some degree, it is merely waiting

it is a bird of supreme patience    weasel keeps hangin' on...
so when the time is right
the claws will flash in the noonday sun
and down will plunge corvus, feathers and fall.

until then it suffers the indignity of being seen in their company.

<Quip_> is dead soul alive? what kind of fucked up question is that?
When looking at this pack, one thing you might be thinking is, "Gee,
it's almost the end of May; what the hell took so long to get this pack out?"
(gee, where have I heard this before?)
Really, I have to say, it was because of the rave and that crazy crack
rock.

So naturally the situation is never so bad that you can't rebound to
a certain degree, replacements are found, Rash assumes control over the ANSI
department, Dracomage and Dominion (his platform: I will never quit) taking
up where SK left off, and a slew of other people coming from out of every nook
and cranny filling every void except for the one remaining where our ansi
department used to be, so here they are, ladies and gentlemen!

Phenom, the man who runs Mr_Gris, now to (with the help of Dominion
and others) finally see that Mistigris gets a webpage worth viewing.  He's
already registered www.mistigris.org and in fact mail aliasing at that
address now works, so it's just a matter of time until we finally use our
resources properly and get a real page up.

Hopefully he'll get some help from Praxus, a new recruit to the pool
of web-design people affiliated with Mistigris.

The lit department gets a bit of a boost from longtime lit enthusiast
Crowe (the guy who ran www.lit.org, remember him?) and a clone of a
similarly-named Hallucigenia member, Rorshach v. 2.0ß.

The high-resolution and coding divisions get the biggest jump-start
(Dominion's taking his job as recruiter very seriously, it seems) from
Inferno, Random, Rzee (aka Doodleboy), and Deridder, Morale, Slash-X and The
Director, respectively, with Dragolisk messing everything up by qualifying
for BOTH departments!  It's worthy of note that many among our coding and sysop
communities here at mist are at work on Operation: Linuxigris, an effort to
see more art-creating utils and bbs software running properly on the Linux
platform.

Three more member movements of note:  First off, Lady Blue is now the
head of the RIPScrip department.  She really is quite phenomenal at drawing
in that medium and hopefully someday someone else will also give us some rips
for her to administer over.  Talonswift allowed himself to be inducted into
mist for being just an all-around amazing guy with creative talents up the
wazoo; however, most of these being more in the real-world sense rather than
the cyber sense, the closest niche we could officially stuff him into was
that of "Ascii Warz Coordinator."  Next time an issue of Kithe comes out,
you'll see just how apt that title is.  One more signifigant addition to our
ranks is Corinthian, more famous for his endeavors in Dark.  He's still on
staff there (senior staff, in fact, unless I'm mistaken) but will be taking
opportunity of Mistigris' "we'll take anything we can get our dirty hands on"
stance to submit some lit and experimental works which he'd have difficulty
passing through Dark QC.

As if that weren't enough pseudo-news, we have some guests in this
pack too.  Atom of Dark submits some lit he wrote.  He doesn't want to make
a habit of this, but felt the need to share.  Happyfish of Hallucigenia, for
the lips at the bottom of this infofile.  Ah, you'll find out soon enough.
Kyo, formerly of ACiD, for a vga colly.  Originally he was just going to give
us the top one of the three but subsequently quit ACiD (it was his turn to
release the pack, too!) and gave us rights to all three.  The implacable
Kitiara for the background in a rip by Lady Blue, and Rzee of Avenge (and now
of mist's vga department too 8) for the logo on top of this newsletter, as well
as the past three or four, and in addition to that the file_id.diz as well
(both versions).

<Corinth> Prison Breaker's on springer.  As a guest.                            <Corinth> cth: the topic is "600 pound angry mom."  you figure it out.
Since grade 10, I've been subject to a slow and insidious malaise
which has permeated my entire existance; knowledge that whatever I do, I will
just slip by, just make it, just keep going along, even without expending any
effort.  This has led to me doing incredibly stupid things like showing up to
every course in a college class and then deciding not to bother writing the
term paper and getting docked a tidy 35%; to me falling in love with girls
and never telling them, then getting sick to the stomach when they go out
with my friends; to me accepting negative results and even expecting them,
and not making any effort to escape them once their anticipation seems
reality.

It doesn't take a lot of effort to make a supreme change.  One
sleepless weekend to write an essay (two if I'm feeling responsible); three
words in communication to express emotion; action instead of introspection.
There is a time for both, but I've been sitting on my ass long enough.  When
he quit, Silent Knight told me that when you get burned once it's the other
person's fault, but when you get burned twice it's your own.  I've burned
myself enough times now to learn that I'm not going to enjoy life if I foist
off responsibility on others and say that it's their fault rather than taking
steps on my own to ensure that it's not going to happen again.

I'm ready to act.

the eagle's eye glints as he hears the word
the time is right

I'm ready to be the best darned cthulu I can be.  This means living
life, not just letting it drag me.  This means not just sticking my fingers in
every pot but stirring once in a while instead of bitching at the chef.  This
means not making commitments I don't intend to keep; as well it means
accepting consequence and knowing my limitations.

That means that Mist is going to be the best darned Mist I can make
it, but I can't do it alone.  If you want to see Mistigris thrive, survive,
then join and help out, but don't just come here to die.  From this point
onwards I do everything in my power to improve the group, and I don't expect
anything less from any other Mist member.  Doubtless this will result in a
few more members leaving, but I've been jaded for so long that such radical
extreme movement is only a mean compromise.

mistigris: not a good group to die in.
"I'VE GOT LIPS AGAIN,
AND I'M GONNA USE 'EM!"

"Well, as long as i'm bored,
I'll give your lips a try."  Mistigris 1998:  Transvestites from TransexualDon't dream it, be it. Transylvania since 1994.

OH MY GOD!

THERE SHE IS!

IT'S TOO LATE FOR ME, BUT YOU GO, SAVE YOURSELVES!

Gonxe Agnes Bojaxhiu:  August 27, 1910 - September 5, 1997 Corinthian
-note: this infofile originally appeared in a much larger and more personal formbut it was deemed too raw for artscene consumption.  If you would like a
transcript of this dangerous text, ask for it from Cthulu at
valentine@infomatch.com