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I met Ocelot many years ago, and he is probably the man most responsible for my continuing as a shadowrunner for as long as I have.

We started our careers at the same time, and the mere fact that we've managed to avoid killing each other since then speaks volumes about my high esteem for him (and, I hope, his for me).

I honestly didn't think at first that we would get on as well as we did, nor did I think that we would work well together. Our first meeting was marked by a great deal of distrust, most of it stemming from our significantly different backgrounds and life-experiences.

I'm the first to admit that I was a bit naive about the kind of life I was getting myself into; Ocelot had no such illusions. He had grown up on the streets of Seattle, spent his entire life making the most of a bad situation, and thus had a far more realistic view of what we would be up against than I did. He was an angry, no-nonsense sort of fellow who appeared to have even less tolerance for stupidity than I did (and anyone who knows me will attest to the fact that I have very nearly none).

Harry must have seen something that we didn't, though, because as our association continued, I began to see that there was more to Ocelot than bluster and machismo. Perhaps "bluster" isn't quite the right word--his was a quiet sort of confidence, backed up by a rock-solid knowledge of what he did well and what he did not. He learned to trust my strengths, and I learned to trust his (in addition to getting familiar with the other team members, of course), and we found that we each had what the other lacked, both in terms of personality and in terms of the sorts of abilities that were useful to the team.

For example, I am legendary for being abysmal with firearms. I can shoot, but a standing team joke is that if I am resorting to using a gun, we are in severe trouble indeed. Ocelot, on the other hand, is an excellent shot, though his real talents lie in the use of various melee-type weapons. He used guns far more often early in our association; at this point he has almost entirely supplanted them with his swords, spears, and his trademark monofilament whip. His speed and agility have on more than one occasion carried the day in a particularly difficult combat.

It was a couple of years after I met him, though, that I first got an inkling of what drove this man with whom I had been trusting my life. I had just acquired my first mageblade, and, lacking even a rudimentary knowledge of how to use it effectively, I had invited Ocelot (he was calling himself Viper at the time--he's since come to his senses) to my home in England and offered to train him in the mental disciplines in exchange for some instruction in how not to hurt myself with my new acquisition. You must understand that this was quite a departure for me, as I had previously made it a point to keep my "shadow" life wholly separate from my more conventional dealings in England. But I have always felt that if one is to trust someone, it does one no good to continually look over one's shoulder. So I invited him, and he agreed readily to the invitation.

During the course of that visit, various difficulties that had previously been seething beneath the surface arose, with what could have been disastrous results. Ocelot (who had finally revealed his real name, Terry Symonz, to me, as I had revealed mine to him) was highly disturbed by what he saw as my disregard for the seriousness of the endeavour to which I had devoted myself. He pointed to my situation in England, my real identity, and the fact that I did not need the money I made at shadowrunning as indications that I was not taking the whole thing seriously enough. I tried to assure him that that was rubbish, but the whole thing erupted in a fight that resulted in my being nearly tossed through the wall of my study, and his nearly being the recipient of one of my nastier spells.

Fortunately, however, we were able to resolve our differences. I returned with him to Seattle and spent some time with him in his former world, living the life of a semi-transient street person for a day or two. It was a thoroughly unpleasant experience, but I did find out about the fact that he was abandoned as a child, grew up on the streets, and had none of the niceties of life that I took largely for granted. I was able to see how this might cause a bit of a mismatched perspective between the two of us. He also revealed to me that he could have been a shaman--I get depressed to this day at the horrible loss of potential that he experienced when he chose to mechanize himself into a mundane. I don't think he really believed the person who had originally informed him of his latent magical abilities, but one close look at his aura convinced me that it was true. I can't comprehend how someone would allow something like that to occur, but as he is fond of informing me, we come from different worlds and have made different choices.

Since that visit, Ocelot has solidified his position as my closest friend in our shadowrunning team--his friendship has seen me through some of the more difficult times in my life of late (he alludes to this in his discussion about me; I prefer not to elaborate). We still don't see eye to eye on many things, and he frightens Aubrey whenever he comes over for a visit, but these things are largely irrelevant. When one has seen as many things and been through as many strange situations together as we have, all the rest becomes mere trivia in the greater scheme of life.

Ocelot's player is Dan Nitschke.

Ocelot as portrayed by Shawn Michaels at top of page; picture used without permission.