Case History-----------------------------------------------------

      In March of 1994, 15 year old Emily Cadigan joined small faire Clan Iain Abrach for her first, final, and only season of Faire.

      She was brought into the Clan by an old friend of hers, her guardian, because she had no family to speak of, being considered little more than the quaint two legged little animal kept around her house. Because of this background, she also had very few friends, mainly through her all girls Catholic high school, and, again, it was hoped that the Clan would alleviate this, as it did.

      Another first timer was at that same meeting, a woman who was later brought onto the 1994 Novato Faire volunteer staff by someone who was even more inexperienced in faires and just as unknown at the Novato Faire as her. As a direct result of letting that second absolute, unknown, newbie have a position of responsibility at the '94 Novato Faire, just after the end of the 1994 faire season, the first woman raped Emily Cadigan so brutally that Emily's personality was deliberately, totally, obliterated. All that was left was an absolute and permanently empty shell which the 27 year old woman used as a live, breathing, masturbation toy, claiming it to be her 16 year old fiance, while receiving cover-up assistance from the newbie who had brought her onto the Novato Faire staff. For this, for anyone who knew and remembers Emily, the first woman has become known as "Emily's Rapist".

      Her accessory had shown up at the Novato faire through a connection to my guild there, St. Dymphna's, the Seadogs, which was headed by a show director who's particularly pointed face had gotten him a working title of the nose of the North.

      The accessory was the wife of one of the '93 apprentice seadogs. She was a non-performer who, like her husband, had no faire experience whatsoever when she began to work the faire, especially as they had only just moved to California. With the wife's often repeated claim to anyone of not just being half Japanese, but being of Samurai descent---"My Clan has served 48 Emperors, including the current one."---her involvement with Emily's rape and destruction has given her a permanent name of Gwailo.

      The Rapist started showing up at Iain Abrach events because she and I were dating, while, in turn, she claimed that she enjoyed the Novato faire and wished to work the smaller faires. Part of the recommendations regarding her apparent capabilities was her membership in a science fiction convention security team, which is how I met her. As a facet of that, soon after we met, she told me that she was such a valued member of that team that the team leader had asked her to be a section leader, but she had begged off, on one hand, claiming to the leader she lived too far from the meetings, on the other, telling me that it was that she just didn't want to have to do the job.

      A little later, she announced to me that because we were dating, she needed to get my reaction to a new development. As part of how highly esteemed she was with the security people, she told me that the team leader and his wife together wanted to sleep with her, and what was my reaction to that? I told her that she wasn't my property, that it was her decision, and that was the last I heard of it from her.

      After this much time I don't remember exactly when it was, but one day in particular the Rapist and I were in my room at the house in which I was staying at the time. I have no memory of what it was we were speaking of, before or after, but I remember absolutely clearly her announcement that I meant so much to her that she would kill someone for me. I didn't say anything.

      In the Clan, Emily quickly became a very cheerful, active, member, helping out with all aspects of our gigs. Repeatedly, when we would do one of our numerous parades, she would almost literally run for "her" flag, the Flag of St. Andrew which was carried at the front of our parades, next to the Lion of Scotland.

      Emily and I quickly became close friends, particularly because she and I had the same background---with what I heard of her house situation, she was I, 15 years earlier.

      In turn, the Rapist would do some helping with the kitchen, but, more often, would wander around the general event or sit by herself. I would ask her how she was doing, was she OK, and always the response was that she was fine, I should continue on with what I was doing.

      Emily thought this was odd, that Emily and I should be interested and active, but that the woman I was dating evidently just didn't care. Emily finally asked the Rapist point blank if Emily and I could be friends, and the Rapist replied, equally point blank, "Sure, as long as you bring him back."

      One weekend, in the middle of a faire, the Rapist abruptly announced that she did not approve of the friendship, that I was to snub Emily, and have nothing to do with her again. I pointed out that this was unprecedented, that while the Rapist and I clearly were involved with each other, neither of us claimed the right to choose the other's friends, particularly as I did not treat friends that way, especially when the friend was a very vulnerable and totally defenseless teenager who needed all the emotional support she could get.

      A few days later, the Rapist expressed concern about Emily, and asked for her phone number. Calling Emily at that time was a touchy matter, as those who considered her to be property threw fits when there were male voices on the phone. I gave the Rapist the number, as this way, along with Emily's guardian, the Rapist became a conduit to be certain that Emily was O.K.

      An advantage the Rapist had in this was unemployment---after some sort of screaming fight with her then boss back in April or so, she had been haphazardly looking for another job during the week while showing perfect attendance at all the small faire events on the weekends. Given the unemployment, I did give her an occasional $20 for gas, since the Rapist was driving me and her sister to an unbroken schedule of Clan events, but even aside from that, she got around as she wished. With Emily out of school during the summer, I'd hear occasional comments about her and Emily, and then see how Emily was in person on the multiple event weekends.

      By this point, I had introduced the Rapist to a number of people outside of the small faires, including, by this point, Gwailo, and after an event hosted by Gwailo and her husband, I was asked for the Rapist's phone number.

      At that point, though, the Rapist had foreshadowed her intent towards Emily by claiming to love me while blatantly considering me unquestionably nothing more than property. In particular, Emily and I had together just been treated to the most extreme example of that to date, so while I gave Gwailo the number, I stated clearly that the Rapist was a matter of "Let the buyer beware".

      Gwailo soon made two announcements. First, even though she had no faire experience at all, and we really had no experience of her, she was to be second in command of Mistress Miranda's, the Novato Faire's education department booth. As part of this, not only was she bringing the Rapist into faire to be a major volunteer in Miranda's, but the Rapist was very specifically to have all fees, and especially, all training workshops, waived, regardless of her inexperience.

      The second announcement involved two seadogs who had become a couple during the '93 Novato faire. All of a sudden, and even more emphatically than the matter of fact Miranda's announcement, Gwailo announced that the two Dogs were no longer a couple, and any rumors that he had dumped her to date someone else had to be squashed, because that was wrong, it didn't happen that way, it was wrong, wrong, wrong, etc. . . . . As the late summer progressed, every time I would talk to Gwailo, she stressed that the particular rumor about the breakup had to be squashed. As the late summer progressed, every time I would talk to everyone involved with the faire, and especially with the Dogs, there was no specific mention whatsoever of either member of the couple, let alone any rumors about their breakup, except from Gwailo, and only in private conversation.

      About this time, the Rapist went on an outing to a park with a group I was a member of. I did not attend this time, due to a schedule conflict. During the outing, as everyone was away from the parking lot, someone broke into the cars of several people, including the Rapist. While I don't know of the exact reactions of the other people, I imagine they were rather angry. On the other hand, even the Rapist commented to me afterwards that it was particularly noted that she seemed perfectly calm and cheerful. Several people expressed concern, pointing out that bottling up expected reactions to such things is not good. As the Rapist matter-of-factly explained it, she "had to" bottle it up, because the alternative for her was to be so enraged that she would blindly hurt herself or, more likely, anyone around her.

      During the '94 Novato faire proper, the Rapist was in Miranda's as I worked regularly with the Dogs, and Emily would visit us both. Being only 16 at this point, Emily was camping with and getting to and from faire with her guardian. Word from the Rapist about Emily had lessened, but by this point the Rapist had finally been able to get a full time job, and had less time to go after Emily.

      During this time, Emily made it very clear how much I meant to her, as I was evidently the only person, aside from her guardian, who had made it a vehement point that she was much more than just a lump of flesh. The downside of that reassurance was her resurfacing memories of just what people had done to her over the years, but I was willing to, and did give her the emotional support she needed. At that time in her life the hatred she had received had reduced her to pleading "Do whatever you want with me, just don't hurt me."

      At the same time, I was having more then occasional problems with the Rapist's increasingly evident hobby of telling to whomever she pleased whatever lie suited her at the moment, and then becoming quietly, but definitely, enraged the several times she would get caught.

      This particularly exacerbated my need for a ride to Novato. My preference was to have a ride that I could trust, but there were times when I ran out of other options and called the Rapist to ask if she could give me a ride, thanking her when she could.

      Saturday morning of the second to last weekend of faire, just before opening, Emily asked me to go for a walk. As soon as we were out of earshot of anyone, she announced that, the night before, the Rapist had asked Emily to marry her. It was actually the second such proposal, but the previous week, Emily had thought it was a joke, and now she was scared. She knew how unstable the Rapist was, and even then, her concern was that the Rapist needed a lot of help, and maybe in being just a friend, Emily could provide much of the same help I was giving Emily. I was left to comment that I could not make Emily's decisions for her, and that I wished her the best.

      A few hours later, the Rapist announced that she had asked Emily to marry her, explaining that the only reason she had for them to get married was that she wanted Emily to have a place to go when Emily turned eighteen, nearly two years in the future.

      Later that weekend, more of the Rapist's manipulations had *me* screwing things up as badly as her, and as part of my accepting responsibility in my nearly destroying a particular friendship, I stopped having anything to do with the Rapist as best as I could.

      By the Folsom Faire, after the Novato Faire, Emily's guardian had retired from the Clan. Sunday afternoon, the Rapist, in mundane clothing, wandered into the Clan encampment with her sister, who was in costume, and with Emily, who was very visibly *Absolutely* stressed. After dropping off the sister, the Rapist and Emily then disappeared for the rest of the afternoon, leaving the sister unable to leave the encampment because she had no idea what the Rapist would do, and soon the sister stated that *she* was totally stressed because of the Rapist's screwups at home.

      Celtic New Year, in Reno at the beginning of November, is the end of the faire season for Iain Abrach. Emily showed up with her guardian, the Rapist was nowhere to be seen, and Emily was very relaxed, was overjoyed to see me, and announced that as she was finally back in public schools, and was no longer being made to constantly register as a freshman, she was a finally a junior and getting excellent grades.

      Thanksgiving weekend, I went to a party thrown by some people I knew who also had met the Rapist and who had met Emily a few times. That weekend, the Rapist was off at a convention with which the security team was helping. When I arrived at the party, I saw what basically looked like Emily, but which gave me a very listless greeting. Asking how everything was, I was told in a shallow monotone that everything was fine, school was fine, so forth. Emily Cadigan is cheerful, friendly, and very gregarious. What I saw at the party was the absolute opposite, and I was absolutely horrified.

      The next day, I called Emily's number, and after being greeted with a very indifferent rendition of Emily's voice, I reminded the speaker of all the malevolence that the Rapist had been showing, and I was told, in turn, "Oh, I'll get out before I get hurt," and "Oh, I've been hurt before, I'll bounce back."

      The following Saturday was the Clan Christmas party, a gathering of the majority of people who knew Emily the best. The Rapist showed up, with her sister, and with what was thought to be Emily very blatantly kept at no more than arm's length. Right after dinner was eaten, what claimed to be Emily pulled me aside to mechanically announce that I was no longer to speak to her again, seeing as what I'd reminded her about the Rapist had left her so stressed that she had almost broken up with the Rapist, that even the sister was concerned, that Emily was almost flunking out of school. The three immediately then left, the Rapist claiming a movie to go to.

      At the first two or three meetings in '95, the three made token appearances, always leaving halfway through each meeting, as soon as lunch was eaten. One thing I found particularly interesting was that after a history of not making a major point of it, Iain MacIain, Chieftain of Clan Iain Abrach, announced in the first meeting of '95; "I am a Sworn Peace Officer. If you break the law in front of me, I Will arrest you."

      As the season started, The Rapist began to call Iain to make regular demands for three spaces on the gatelist of every Clan event, using Emily's name, so that they could get in for free. With one exception, they never once showed up.

      At the Valhalla Faire, near South Lake Tahoe, one of the people who knew Emily had just returned from Maine and asked how people were. He was particularly horrified to hear of what had quite apparently been done to Emily. That Saturday evening, after the faire's closing, but during dinner, the three came wandering in. Sunday morning, they came down the hill, and stood around by the kitchen, doing as little as possible. The only time that any of them were at all visible was just before lunch when what was claimed to be Emily went through the entire Iain Abrach camp, then announced loudly to the rapist that "No, I don't see him." Immediately after lunch, as always, the three of them disappeared. In mid to late afternoon, when the sister reappeared, alone, she looked absolutely stressed.

      During that lunch, I saw myself that what looked like Emily didn't have Emily's movements, but instead acted more like a mechanism with a stutter. In turn, the one from Maine stated flat out that to him, "You're absolutely right, the spark is gone, there is No life there."

      A month or so later, as I was preparing for Baycon, a local science fiction convention, I was talking to one of the local posers and hanger-ons who knew the Rapist and had known Emily. One comment was that the Rapist and what she openly claimed was her fiance had been attending all the multiple local weekend and otherwhen parties that he'd been involved with, and that the Rapist had proclaimed that she was no longer sleeping with a number of the attendees, but was instead sleeping only with her "fiance".

      After Baycon, a friend of mine told of running into the Rapist and some young girl, who was blatantly ordered to go into a corner. Once the girl was out of earshot, the Rapist then tried to get my friend to sleep with her at an upcoming convention, but then took off as soon as my friend's wife appeared.

      At the San Louis Obisbo Faire, I ran into a friend of mine who is a section leader of the convention security team the Rapist had been associated with. Upon hearing that the clan had someone actively lying to us and using us as cover for the apparent rape of a 16 year old girl, his response was "Oh, Her", and told me of junior and new members of the team getting repeatedly harassed. Because of this, she was to be expelled with extreme predudice by the following Thanksgiving. In a later conversation, he was vehement about the impossibility of her being asked to be a section leader, and told me that he had confirmed with the team leader that there had been no sexual offer by the team leader Or his wife, whatsoever.

      After SLO Faire, a friend of mine who wound up on another part of the Rapist's periphery told me that the Rapist had been regularly and openly sleeping with a distant mutual acquaintance since the beginning of the year, but that she had stopped as the Novato Faire approached, claiming that as he and she would be at opposite ends of the faire, a relationship just wouldn't work.

      Going into the '95 Novato faire, people I hadn't seen in a year asked my about lies that the Rapist had been telling about both Emily and I back during the '94 Faire. The most spectacular was the claim that I had not only demanded rides, but after making one such demand, had made her and Emily wait an hour for me during the time that Emily was still riding with her guardian.

      A week before registration, Gwailo began an announcement to me with "I really like you, and I don't want you to take this the wrong way . . . " Gwailo then tried to claim that there had been complaints in Miranda's about me during the '94 faire, from vague, unrecognizable entities other than the Rapist---and Emily- --and so I should stay away from Miranda's.

      At the same time, Gwailo announced that as she was to head Miranda's that year, the Rapist was to be her second in command. In turn, specifically, the Rapist's sister was to be working in Miranda's for her first year at the Novato faire. What was claimed to be Emily would be transferred from Emily's Novato guild of St. Ives', the middle class, where a lot of Emily's friends from Iain Abrach were members. Also, specifically, the reason that the Rapist had not been attending any of the Clan events for which she had demanded gatelist spaces was that Emily had been grounded on all the weekends.

      The week after registration, the Rapist was very uncharacteristically spending her break times at work busily writing in a bound blank page notebook with a pumpkin colored cover.

      The following weekend, the second weekend of Novato Faire workshops, the nose of the Seadogs pulled me aside. He was uncharacteristically holding a bound blank page notebook with pumpkin colored cover as he also uncharacteristically began "I really like you, and I don't want you to take this the wrong way . . . . "

      Nose announced that after he had watched me do all the important Seadog gigs steadily for the previous two years, I wasn't doing enough and I was to leave the guild, with no warning, no suggestions of how to do better in the guild, no probation, nothing.

      '95 was the year that REC started turning the Novato faire upside down. The week following my being told to leave Dogs, a friend told me that of all the transfers and changes at Novato, Gwailo had made a specific announcement in Miranda's about my being told to leave the Dogs, and no one could figure out why I was being singled out. At the same time, to a person, in the Dogs and out, everyone who heard of my dismissal was horrified and bewildered.

      Another friend who had met the Rapist by that point was shocked to find out that the Rapist was in her late twenties, nearly 28, as I recall. As far as the friend could tell, that the Rapist was claiming to be worthy of the position of being the second in command of Miranda's was irrelevant; the fact was that the Rapist was little more than an undisciplined, immature, teenager.

      I was also told that Gwailo had then claimed that not only was she not at all surprised by my dismissal, but she had warned me of it earlier in the summer. When I called her on it, she backpedalled on when the warning had allegedly occurred, and for good reason. As I pointed out to her, we had never even had Any such conversation.

      I finally thought of a remote, vaguely possible reason why I might have been told to leave Dogs, and asked nose about it. Nose refused to discuss it, claiming that it had been discussed in full, but no, while he still would not tell me why I had been told to leave, it was not the reason I had thought of.

      From other directions, as part of a non faire training program I was in, I was told that shaking matters up, making an unexpected change in tactics, would be a good thing to do. Looking at things that needed changing, it was obvious that the Rapist had clearly been cutting her own throat in everything she had tried to do to me and mine and Emily's friends, and it would continue to do her no good. For these reasons, and as I was also out of range of anything the Rapist could try, the week before the opening weekend of faire, I sent her a letter that offered her a truce. As a fallback, in case the letter got delayed before the weekend, I called Gwailo and told her of it.

      All during workshops, aside from such things as the nose and his unexplained blunder in throwing me out of Dogs, I and others had been seeing and commenting on things that year at Novato that were absolutely unprecedented and downright bizarre. As opening weekend approached, the weirdness increased, and, following even more such events even over opening weekend, that Sunday of the '95 opening weekend at Novato, I joined many others that season as I quietly said my goodbyes and retired, never to return.

      That following Wednesday, I heard from the Rapist, who announced that she had not received the letter, and had no idea why I would offer any sort of truce about anything. I pointed out that all her blatant lies and hatred of and to me, Emily, and Clan had simply backfired on her, as would anything more she tried. One such example was the lie about "Emily" being grounded during the Faire season. The Rapist then announced that she and "Emily" had talked to the Clan about everything, and that everyone believed them and not me. Furthermore, the reason they hadn't attended Clan events was that the Rapist didn't have enough money. I pointed out how obvious That lie was, and she stomped off.

      That afternoon, the letter turned up in my mailbox, returned with a very obvious and clear "Refused" on it.

      That evening, I called up all the major members of the Clan. To a one, they reported that no one had encountered either the Rapist Or Emily in months, and they had no idea of and were often amused by what the Rapist had been claiming with certainty only a few hours earlier.

      As word got around of my retirement, there were quite a few reactions of dismay. In Miranda's, it was reported that not only was there distinct shock, but Gwailo was soon quite open about her hatred of me.

      Two weeks after my retirement, Gwailo was loudly proclaiming was not only was my getting tossed from Dogs quite expected, but she had warned me of it Three times in the previous year. She was blatantly announcing this even after someone publicly pointed out that not only had she nothing to do with Dogs, but just as with Dogs, anything I did was absolutely none of her business. In turn, nose suddenly started to announce that instead of there being unspecified lapses which he wouldn't discuss, the "real" reason I had left Dogs was I hadn't been doing enough gigs. When I told faire people of this, they laughed their disbelief.

      Friends of Faire was the main volunteer center at the Novato faire. A friend of mine with years of experience in FOF told me that, all of a sudden, strange things were being heard of Miranda's. Between him, another FOF member, and yet another volunteer permanently assigned to Miranda's, it was agreed that the atmosphere in the education department booth was so poisonous that year that no volunteer would do more then the absolute minimum before getting the hell out.

      Specific cases involving the Rapist and Gwailo include what was claimed to be Emily deliberately repeatedly just standing around while volunteers were working their butts off. At another time, again as volunteers were working, the Rapist made it a point that her sister was not to have to do anything. After a number of these circumstances, damned good people swore that after what they had been forced to put up with, they would never set foot in Miranda's again.

      The long time FOF member also wanted to know what had happened to the Dogs. Where he had seen them and I doing gigs all over the place, especially after we would take over the main road in the morning for our warmups, suddenly there didn't seem to be warmups, and he wasn't seeing any Dogs anywhere.

      At a couple of different times, a couple of different people came up to me to tell me that the Dogs had decided to begin deliberately hazing and otherwise harassing the apprentice Seadogs.

      At a couple of different times, a couple of different people told me that where the Dogs had never had an involvement with the Queen's main parade, one day they had not only gotten in the way, but the parade jerked to so sudden a stop that the actress playing the Queen, in about a hundred pounds of costume, was nearly pitched from her elevated sedan chair.

      Finally, I was told that Gwailo's husband had started repeatedly screaming non-period jokes from the Seadog stage platform and generally behaving as if he thought that the Dogs were his private playground instead of what was normally a polished ensemble of which he was merely One junior member.

      When I was told of these last pieces of news, I made it clear that I had nothing to do with decisions in the Dogs, that I was gratefully retired, and obviously I and anyone with an ounce of professionalism knew better than to do anything as stupid as the stuff of which I had been hearing.

      The '95 Faire creaked to a close, and news of the disasters went into history. People picked up their assorted pieces, and when a member of the Novato education staff talked to me about the disaster that had resulted from really bad staffing choices, the most even she could say in defense was "Well, in '95, at least the education booth made a profit."

      After awhile and further conversation, she added of the "devotedly engaged" Rapist; " . . . and she made a pass at me . . I told her No." Especially as the staff member had known Emily during Emily's one year at the Novato Faire.

      Another volunteer staff member in general also commented on how obvious it was that the Rapist and her toy were clearly not a couple, that the toy was clearly just property. And, yes, the volunteer added, that was especially obvious at the point the Rapist made a pass at her too.

      Finally, Memorial Day weekend '96, a year and a half after the end of Emily's one faire season, I was again a member of the staff at Baycon. The weekend before the convention is the last meeting and general preparation for the event, for which lots of people show up. At one point before the meeting, as bodies were filing in and out, I saw many people I knew, I saw many people I didn't know, and about a minute after one unidentified body walked in the door, I realized I had just seen what sort of looked like Emily, but clearly wasn't.

      Friday night at the convention proper I had a talk with a senior staff member, one who had been working Baycon for years. She too, announced, "Oh, Her," and stated point blank that Emily's Rapist had finally been thrown out of the security team precisely because she had been hazing the junior members and lying to everyone in general, just as she had been doing at every opportunity elsewhere.

      Oh, yes . . . also at the convention, someone from the Novato Faire who had also known Emily quite casually commented of the Rapist; "Yeah, she really ripped Emily's spine out."

      Someone Not at the convention, but with training in such unusual circumstances, stated, following a look at Emily and her situation, that what she was seeing was a curled up body lying at the feet of the Rapist, that where everything else was in color, the body, clearly Emily's corpse, was absolutely grey.

Analysis---------------------------------------------------------

      Even after much editing and leaving out at least as much as I've left in, I feel as if this case history is like the sinking of the Titanic with its over 1500 deaths, told one death at a time . . . . .

      I'm not really an expert on Gwailo, on why she evidently hates faire people, on why she thinks that lying and manipulation are justifiable and normal. The most I can do is give the accurate report I have given above on my direct experience with her, and draw the conclusions that follow.

      On the other hand, as the one person I know of who both knows Emily's Rapist as well as, if not better, then anyone else, and, also, is one of the late Emily Cadigan's two or three closest friends, I can point out that as the sinking of the Titanic is The maritime example of blundering ahead without preparation, forethought, or care of who could be hurt, it does look like Emily's rape and effective murder will for Years remain the same for staff choices at any renaissance faire.

      Of course, considering the arrogance attendant with the launching of the Titanic, can one be certain that if Emily's Rapist had not been illegitimately smuggled into Miranda's that Emily would be alive today? Unfortunately, no. Even with an iceberg watch and the now required sufficient lifeboats, those being, generally like this essay, two adequate, but insufficient results of the disaster, the "Unsinkable" wonder could have still gone down like a rock.

      It is quite possible that Emily's Rapist could have found a different way to get into the Novato Faire, possibly even by joining a guild, while typically doing as little as possible, but for her, such would have been quite an obstacle, and might possibly have let Emily see her 17th birthday, instead of oblivion at 16. One can be certain, at least, that Miranda's would not have been reduced to being a platform for dedicated and deceitful malevolence, rather than the respected educational institution it could have been.

      There are a number of general thoughts, and sometimes specific ones, that follow from aspects of the case history.

      >>> Educational *Profit*??!!!!

      One comment that has amazed many people is the point being made that the education department booth turned a profit. Profit is a good thing, but that is like speaking of a standard elephant sprinting at 90 miles an hour and making a half mile distance leap. It's can be impressive---but someone has clearly been tinkering with the elephant, and one needs to ask why.

      An education department, system, anything of the sort, is no different from any other form of research and development. By definition, one pours money in and expects profitless intangibles or near intangibles in return. It is those *non-profit* intangibles; a new widget, an educated child, a treasured memory, that, in turn, provide a profit, create new and better things, leave a person saying "I had fun, I want to do this again, I Am going to come back."

      When, instead, there is an emphasis on "Did we make money today?", the reason for doing such disappears, and when, in the case of Mistress Miranda's during Novato in '95, there are other, totally negative emphasis' present, not only does that reason disappear, but to declare a profit glaringly illuminates the fact that something went very wrong.

      >>> Richard Allen Davis; Family councilor and pediatrician.

      As Emily's Rapist claimed interest in RenFaires, and then showed her absolute disdain towards us and what we do, it was particularly surreal when someone told me of a statement of hers that "the '96 Novato 'Faire' was too commercial". While it is true that a recurring echo of visitors, actors, and boothies alike has been that what's at the site of the Novato Faire is now little more than a declaration of "We're not here for fun, we want all your money as quickly as possible", for the Rapist to even hint dismay at such, while claiming to be a member of the educational staff, is exactly as a dedicated serial murderer claiming that police procedures Just Aren't What They Should Be.

      >>> If C, therefore 8, or, Look! a flying dump truck!

      When the masturbation toy pulled me aside at the Clan Christmas party to make claims of being Emily, the Rapist evidently never bothered to think through the lies she'd ordered that I be told.

      " . . . that she had almost broken up with the Rapist, . . ."- --except that a breakup would involve something to break up, which I of all people *knew* could never exist, as the Rapist lacks the empathy, respect, and affection required for such, and besides, once the Rapist had gotten hold of such property as the body that had been Emily's, that property would never be released.

      ". . . even the sister was concerned, . . ."---except that by that point it was obvious that the Rapist had made the sister's life a more than occasional absolute hell, and that any distraction away from her was welcomed.

      " . . . that Emily was almost flunking out of school."--- EXcuuuuseee me!!!!!!!!! Even the masturbation toy had told me itself that school was the same as before only ONE week earlier, and only a month earlier, that Same As Before was Emily herself who had stated point blank that she was doing Very well in school.

      Of many months later, in turn, when a letter goes to an incorrect address, it gets marked "Incorrect Address". When a letter is refused, the addressed recipient of that letter marks it "Refused". When an addressed recipient announces that a letter never arrived, and it turns up marked "Refused", somebody lied.

      When someone makes a claim that she and another person are to be considered a couple, it's already obvious, because the two are seen to be involved in, not just with, each other, the two are more relaxed with each other than not, and even total strangers will say, "they look like a couple". When someone makes a claim that she and another person are to be considered a couple, but its obvious that she owns the other and is involved only in herself, that she openly goes after others while denigrating the other, that total strangers say "something doesn't fit here", then she lied.

      When someone is unemployed and has a perfect record of attendance at events, and does so with other people who also do not have a lot of money who also have the same perfect attendance, how is it that the same someone could be fully employed, and have zero attendance, where the underfunded still have perfect attendance, and expect belief in a claim of lack of money when there are too many more simple reasons for not showing up? One person who talked to me was a general volunteer in Miranda's in '95, and thus worked while having to put up with the Rapist, and stated without hesitation; "Oh, no. She was working overtime, too. *She's lying*."

      When Gwailo announced that the Rapist didn't show up at Clan events because "Emily" was grounded, it's bad enough that someone else had already commented on how the Rapist had been showing up with the Emily Horror Picture Show anywhere she wanted, but why was anyone expected to believe that the driver would be affected by the totally alleged grounding of the non-driver? Furthermore, when Gwailo tried to claim that Emily had complained about me during the '94 Faire, I don't know how she forgot how close Emily and I were---If Emily had ever had any complaints, she would have talked to me, and Not Gwailo, or the Rapist.

      Yep, Somebody lied.

      Now. When these same two announce that they can run a booth, with no faire experience, and they are in favor of helping out with an all volunteer education booth, is it possible they're not telling the truth? Better yet, is it responsible to decide instantly to let them do what they claim, instead of giving them the required time to demonstrate that they have the maturity, willingness, and experience?

      Nope.

      Somebody lied.

      >>> Always hire your boss.

      The ideal in forming a chain of command has always been that the head of anything actively seeks out and makes as his second a person who is, or has the potential to be, better at the job than himself. When this is not followed, something is amiss.

      As an example, where, judging from the results, Gwailo actively schmoozed her way into being the second in Miranda's, even with her equal faire inexperience and general malevolence, this is an activity that the Rapist has not shown the inclination or skill to duplicate in any of the situations in which people have encountered her.

      It seems that as George Bush deliberately chose Dan Quayle to be his Vice President, secure in the knowledge that he could never be overshadowed, no matter how minor a President he did turn out to be, so Gwailo selected the Rapist to be her second, being equally certain in the same, even if the Rapist had Not had Emily's rape hanging over her head. While this is a sadly common occurrence, in this case, it resulted in a lot of damage being done to a valuable institution that really could not afford what Gwailo and the Rapist did to it.

      There is another occurrence that has been noted about the '95 Novato faire and Miranda's. Even as Gwailo and the Rapist breezed in during that and the previous year with no experience to speak of in either faire or education, in '95 a woman started working faires with Iain Abrach only that January. As I recall, she soon was actively helping run the kitchen, easily making her more experienced than the Rapist, and immensely more experienced than Gwailo, the previous year. The woman is a mother and a professional school teacher, thus making her infinitely more experienced at dealing with children and in education than both Gwailo and the Rapist put together.

      Given the precedent set the previous year of letting the inexperienced and unqualified claim to be in charge, the logical step would have been to put the teacher in charge of the education department's own booth. Was this done? No. Instead, at the end of the '95 Novato Faire, after what she had been having to put up with from two absolutely incompetent and malevolent entities, the education professional swore to me that she would never again set foot in the education department booth.

      >>> Garbage In, Garbage Out.

      In like manner, if common sense procedures had been followed, the Rapist would have become known over the same time that so many others have themselves gone through. That hindsight is often 20/20 is an unfortunately common axiom, and not one that should get invoked in the selection of staff in general or for an education department booth.

      General examples here are definitely the Rapist's open indifference at faires in opposition to her statements claiming interest in participation. One such was hr showing up at the Valhalla Faire for the deliberate point of doing as little as possible to recompense her hosts. Given the toy's comment about looking for someone and that Valhalla was the one faire guaranteed to have most people based out of Reno, the best guess is that the Rapist's only reason for showing up was to meet someone from Reno, using the toy as some prop for the meeting. Of course, given how much that sighting of the masturbation toy revealed just how thoroughly Emily had been raped and destroyed, the Rapist's showing up was just another of her all around screwups.

      Particular examples of such hindsight are, of course, her statement to me of a willingness to kill and her statements after the car break-in, where she explained that hiding her true feelings was normal for her, and that if unchecked, her rage, also, would lead her to kill.

      Equally clearly, in turn, her absolute rage towards Emily was hidden after I refused to give into her demands that I hurt Emily in reparation for Emily's "insolence" in having me as a friend.

      Equally clear is that the earliest moment Emily would plausibly be expected to not be seen for awhile by her few friends was at the end of the faire season, after Celtic New Year.

      Furthermore, with what the Rapist knew of how Emily had been assaulted when younger, she would have been able to use that knowledge as a weak point though which to begin her final attack.

      Thus, it was at that point the Rapist then unleashed everything that had been building up since at least mid summer, totally obliterated every trace of everything Emily was, creating, then, the absolutely empty shell that she has since claimed to be a living, viable, human being, instead of merely a dead, worthless, extension of the Rapist herself.

      Obviously, what Emily never received from the Rapist was her wish and need of "Just don't hurt me."

      One somewhat chilling item which has turned up comes from a source totally outside of faires, conventions, anything. One day at work, just for giggles, I flipped through one of the books published by the company for which I work. In the book, "Men who are good for you and men who are bad.", Ten Speed Press, 1987., is the chapter "The Secret Manipulator". In it are such sentences as " . . . hides intentions so well . . .", " . . . Says he has no preference, he always gets it.", "On the surface, he's cooperative, kind, supportive, fair. Underneath he makes sure he always gets his own way.", "He curbs his egocentricity and covers it, only to pull it out at the last minute." All I had to do was switch the gender, and everything echoed . . . . .

      >>> A body is Not enough . . . .

      For those metaphysically inclined, there was a gettogether where someone who had no knowledge whatsoever of Emily or her death was given unnamed generalities and asked to state specifically to state what had happened, what the current situation was. After a moment, he announced from the Chair that "Your friend is not destroyed. She is scorched earth. She is surrounded by those who would do her harm."

      A couple of weeks later, a woman who hadn't met the Rapist, the masturbation toy, or Emily, but who did know all the details, took a look herself. As she spoke from the Chair, she told of seeing ". . . a marsh. In it there is a barge . . . I see a body, . . . she is asleep. She chose sleep over death, and will only return when she thinks it is safe." The woman did not say to what Emily would or could return, or when it would or could occur.

      At a later time, the woman telling of this spoke with certainty of her own father and his being found working in a midwestern cornfield. He was found there, doing that, many years after his own funeral and burial. Given his continued existence, like Emily, "not destroyed", and that existence being considered death, then even if Emily's body exists and breathes, since something clearly Not Emily is in that body and what *Is* Emily is asleep on a barge instead of in her body, several people have agreed that this is indeed also death, and thus, effectively, Emily was not just raped, but also was deliberately murdered.

      >>> No, really. A body is *Not* enough.

      After a number of decades, there are many people I have not seen for many years, and some of them I have not seen since they were children or early teenagers. In both cases, even when I was not particularly close to any of them, I have met a number of these people, and even with the former teenagers, recognized them in a split second. I am the late Emily Cadigan's closest male friend, effectively a counterpart to Emily's guardian, the closest female friend she had in her short life. Clearly, then, at the pre-baycon meeting, if it had been Emily that walked into the room, I would have recognized her just as quickly. However, as it was the masturbation toy and not Emily, as it was a completely different and distinct entity, it is no surprise that it took me at least a minute or two to recognize that I had just seen Emily's corpse.

      >>> Can someone close the barn door? Highly unlikely.

      While Emily's rape and effective murder are clearly felony level crimes, legal prosecution is unlikely, even if it is obvious that Emily's Rapist used Clan and the Novato Faire to stalk her, which is also a crime in California. When the rape occurred, even as what was done clearly only began with rape, whatever the Rapist did to Emily to totally destroy her had left no major visible physical marks when I saw the masturbation toy soon after the rape. In time, all that was left was just the toy, which clearly would repeat whatever denials its owner told it to, regardless of how untrue they were. For the same reasons, while Gwailo is a clearly evident as an accessory in the rape, after the fact, if not before as well, prosecution of her is also unlikely.

      >>> A good pool will have good fish.

      *All* of the above cover general facets which must be taken into consideration when making staff selections in any situation, and it is hoped that the severity of what was done will irrevocably drive home the seriousness of such choices. The specifics in making such selections should also take into account the size of the particular overall group and amount of time the group has had to evaluate the particular person.

      A couple of years ago, a friend of mine joined a college group associated with the Society for Creative Anachronism, SCA. Within a month, she was offered the position of Seneschal, or local president, accepted it, and served successfully for about a year, before stepping down. Or, as the SCA tends to put it, was successfully suckered into the job before herself suckering someone else into the job.

      Ignoring her definite administerial capabilities, the speed in which this happened is not an unusual situation for a number of reasons. First, an SCA college group, almost by definition, is made of Very few people and features near constant turnover. Second, in this particular group, the job had already been offered to everyone else in the group, and they had already turned it down. By the time my friend received the offer, she had attended meetings, attended local events, and either very soon before the offer, if not after, had herself already successfully run an event.

      As a counterpart, as part of the turnover in Iain Abrach, it was declared early one season that a relative newcomer was to hold the post of seneschal, which, in this case, is effectively the acting executive officer. Another member of the group, one with irregular attendance, but proven history and experience, met him for the first time and asked "Who are you?" The response was "I'm the seneschal." The more senior member blinked, put two and two together, and announced "No you're not." The relative newbie then turned to Iain, commented that his being seneschal probably wasn't that good an idea, and stepped down.

      For a group of the size of Iain Abrach, in working with the group, seeing what the customs and history are, and such, the lead time for such a position should be at least two years. Given a massive turnover, yes, someone who just walked in could be made second, but even then Iain would still have to hold his or her hand for a couple of years, and the newbie would still only Keep the position through doing a damned good job And having no one but Iain with more experience around. Also, at the same time, with both the SCA and small faires, the unit size is predicated upon the actual immediate unit, being, respectively, the SCA college group, not the more amorphous and transitory SCA, and the Clan Iain Abrach, not the more amorphous and transitory faires and games in which the clan participates.

      The Novato Renaissance Faire, on the other hand, had a cast list of about a thousand people, and at least half that number in addition working as boothies. With such a large crowd to disappear into, no one person can adequately be evaluated in a single season, let alone a single month. At the same time, the Novato faire was not a meeting of individual units, it was its own individual unit, where the "guilds" and "departments" were actually merely squares on an organizational chart, where transferring from a guild to a booth to a stage show could be a matter of an afternoon.

      Even then, it should be noted that while such mobility was theoretically possible, its basic requirement was someone who had proven experience and had shown such capability. I myself did an instant switch from one Novato guild to another in '95, and, in the space of an afternoon a few weeks later, added a booth. However, with five years at Novato, three years of small faires in the top Scots clan in Northern California, and the recommendations thereof, I had proven that I was capable of doing what I promised, and was thus able and permitted to make those changes. And with all my years of experience, what was my new position as a new person in my new guild? At the bottom of the heap, as a totally new person, where I belonged.

      For such a size event as the Novato Faire, to have responsibility over others requires proven experience of at least six nonstop years of working all faire weekends, with at least three or four such for year-round employees, over which time any flakes will drop out, idiots will fall out, and sociopaths such as Emily's Rapist will be weeded out.

      Those left will have proven themselves in their genuine interest and dedication, in their demonstrated, proven, willingness to do whatever work is required in whatever position they themselves will have seen their predecessors doing correctly. No one gets hurt, nothing gets screwed up, and any problems that do turn up will have been unforeseen and will be dealt with by the already formed network of reasonable, knowledgeable, seasoned veterans of the particular event.

      For such as Gwailo and Emily's Rapist, given their lack of applicable skills such as costuming or active security, a logical starting point for the both of them would have been to hire out with a booth, or join a guild such as Novato's St. Cuthberts, the parade guild. As we of the faires all have done ourselves, in their time of Serving A customer, Carrying A flag, they would have been taught, through experience and direct teaching, the history and customs, and, in turn, proven that they understood and could work within such, and over time, shown that they were capable of taking on more.

      To let Gwailo become the second of, of all things, the Novato Faire education department booth, letting her casually throw all custom and precedence out the window to bring in Emily's Rapist, and to let them continue with unearned promotions the following year is, to say the least, bizarre, damaged the booth in question, and resulted in the destruction of a defenseless and vulnerable teenaged girl who had a lot of potential and who deserved to ultimately leave behind much more than merely a picture or two, a few memories from those few who knew her, and a Law named in her memory.

Summary----------------------------------------------------------

      In March of 1994, 15 year old Emily Cadigan joined small faire Clan Iain Abrach for her first, final, and only season of Faire.

      Because of a decision to violate what many have considered, especially after the fact, common sense, within eight months the only proof of her existence as more than an empty shell became a few memories followed by this Law, named in her memory.

      "A position of responsibility, especially one over or directly affecting others, will only be given to someone who has been proven over time, and never to someone who is a new arrival or junior to any below the position."