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~ The approaching lakebed had a stillness to it, as Detective Clip flexed her shoulders and back to try and get a hand free of the cuffs that were holding them to her ankles behind her back. As she methodically tested each direction and force available to muster, she thought back to just how well the evening's rendezvous had gone.

~ Some hours earlier, the jackalope had walked right up to the gate of the otherwise well concealed compound, hands up and carrying a white cloth across them.

~ "I'm not here from the capital; I'm here to make an offer otherwise.", to the guards who's expressions were particularly dubious.

~ Once she was confirmed to have one badge and no weapons, it was a brisk matter of shuffling to find herself standing in front of several of the rebellion's leaders. She addressed them as a group, declining to assume which one was actually in charge.

~ "As I explained, I'm not here to do anything about the war you've got going with your capital; I'm more interested in what's between you and the other worlds. You're funding this operation with smuggling, and once it became clear that weapons were going into the smuggling operation and not coming back out again, it was very quickly narrowed down to your operations.", pulling the paperwork from her vest pocket, "So, there's an abandoned colony some distance from here. It's yours, if you agree to stop smuggling. I can get as many of your people as you'd like off world and towards whatever peaceful governing you want to establish there."

~ The conversation that followed had not gone particularly well. Still sinking into the lake, Detective Clip twisted in place to face the surface. She gazed up to the shimmering of the moon above, the top of the lake feeling to be quite far away at this rate. She recalled leaving the bakery some days earlier.

~ Bell, the Synth landlord who rented her a room upstairs and pretended to be her secretary, was discussing plans for the coming weekend with that kobold he'd been going out with. Something about a museum and a river where in consideration; Clip thought them to make a rather cute couple.

~ She flexed with her legs, trying to find purchase to get an ankle loose of the ropes holding her feet up to the handcuffs. Her lungs were burning; the moon above seemed to be flickering moreso than the water would account for.

~ The jackalope was running out of calm. Spurts of flickering glow appeared about her shoulders and face, the restraint of her magic beginning to falter.

~ Where the detective had expected to find the lake bed plants tickling around against her soaked fluff, the jackalope instead felt a sudden and firm yank around her midsection. Started, confused, and her lungs ablaze with the desperation of vitality, it wasn't until she'd been tossed out onto the lake's shore that Detective Clip realized the otter from earlier had come to her rescue. For her part, the conversation began with gasping and hacking coughs.

~ After a moment of pause, the otter explained, "I'm Neel, the head pilot. The rebellion's always short on pilots, and we few pilots left are tired of getting shot at."

~ Blood oozing from her nostrils, Clip nodded to express understanding.

~ The otter helped her roll upright to a seated position, "You said you could get us, and our families off world?", grinning broadly down to the jackalope.