Third corner of the DMZ trio

pivotal · 4-5 Nov YDAU

• When: 4-5 Nov YDAU — Pemulis's room, then hashed out over the next academic day
• What: In Pemulis's room, Pemulis shows Axford and Hal his baker's dozen of the incredibly potent DMZ. Axford — allowed in on the front end — riffs and helps set terms: he dubs it the Yale U. of the Ivy League of Acid, proposes designating it "Ethel" for phone use, and is shocked at the idea of peddling it. Since Axford must make the A squad's dawn drills at 0500, Enfield is nixed as a venue; Pemulis posits a solid 36 hours of demand-free time, and the window settles on 11/20-21, after the Fundraiser exhibition. In the sauna Axford predicts the hangover will be a witherer, since even just LSD left you the next day "utterly empty, a shell"; when Hal counters with his luminous post-hallucinogen dawns, Axford coins a name for the phenomenon: Halation. Only the trio — Pemulis, Axford, Hal ("me and the Axhandle," n321) — are to sample it.