The_Heady_Headless

An Alts_Worth_A_Hoot Production

Alfred T. Joyce always had an eye on tomorrow. Every advance and every turn he could capatalize on, he did so heartily. A boom here, a boom there, and his company was on it. Times changed as quick as people changed their clothes, and so did consumer interests. Demand came for this and that, and, quite frequently, he and his personal empire could quickly supply.

Mr. Joyce also proved, inadvertedly, there was such a thing as too ahead. The money flowing into all of his associates' coffers made their establishments look like mom and pop shops compared to the swiss army knife sort of power that JALL Inc. carried. They did one thing right - prove that in changing times, a company who was a jack of all trades fared better than a master of one.

Such a thing stirred some ideas in businesses that were tired of the reign of "the Jack", as they came to call it. John B. Arnold, a particularly fierce (and local) competitor, came up with such an idea that...all it was met with was hushed, spooked compliance. In it's simplest form, what Mr. Arnold proposed was this - how could the Jack get ahead if their head didn't have a head to do it with?

Three nights passed, and the idea was in motion. He had made a request for a simple spot of dinner with Alfred, and not knowing of the consequences, the mogul accepted. In an ultimately unwise move, after the pair finished, he was showing off one of his many collections that no person under his wealth would have...and whilst he was distracted, Mr. Arnold struck. Surprise, skill, and a very sharp blade lead to an odd death for the mogul - death by decapitation.

There was one odd thing, though - it wasn't really death. By some odd magic or powers beyond the veil deciding he was important, he kept on trucking. Took a little bit to get used to it, but it was nothing that an hour or three couldn't fix. In fact, there was such spirit in Mr. Joyce that he wrote back to Mr. Arnold in a cheery letter.

Mr. Arnold was never seen again.

Of course, no one knows for sure, as the bright, chipper, and worry-free wealthy soul keeps to himself in terms of personal detail. There is a likely theory that has gone around for quite some time...more than Mr. Joyce's human lifetime. The headless man remains now something other than human, something that lived far past it's expiration date.

The theory is always quoted in a simple line, almost as simple as the one that got Alfred's head seperated from his neck. The line is simply this - if Alfred "died" during dinner, could he have brought down John in a similar fashion?

Of course, there wasn't two headless men that came out of this debacle - there was a headless man and the lack of a man.

And,
of course,
more than one dinner that Alfred would never forget having~