Thanks, I appreciate this, but alas no, it does not solve the problem. Your version of what I'm doing would entail this:

Code:
alias test { 
  var %s $+($1,\)
  return $regsubex(%s,/^(.*)\\$/,\1) 
}

alias testtwo {
  var %s = $test("")

  ; lots of my code here which must work with %s

  echo %s
}

The problem is that mIRC %variables cannot themselves physically contain ""