FSE

Furry search engine

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~ The band on stage was putting on a sufficiently raucous performance that the crowd kept up a dull roar of cheering into the night sky above. Detective Clip, garbed in t-shirt and pants, drifted her way through the crowd. She kept the pacing of her steps in line with the beat of the drummer up on stage, who looked to be the mirror of death with glee.

~ Even from this distance, the detective could tell that the lead singer was a jackalope posing as a phoenix, while a meerkat on guitar stood in for the jackalope guitarist who usually wore the image of a meerkat for performance. The night had gone well, with the glow stick hanging from the detective's antler garnering compliments and attention while her VIP Backstage Pass went largely without notice. Everyone was there for the music, the joy, and of course, lots of drugs.

~ Calling over the volume of music, Clip inquired of a particularly competent looking fox, "Hey, you know where I can find that gryphon Kateen? I got some pills she wanted to buy."

~ The fox appeared confused for a moment, cocking his head to the side down to her. "You a cop?"

~ The detective's ears flatted back against her head, before rummaging in the vest pocket of her denim jacket and handing him a small plastic baggie with a pill inside.

~ "Have a free sample.", pausing, "There. That was a crime; cops can't do a crime. Do you know where my buyer is, or not?"

~ Up on stage, the lead singer belted out the sort of croon that only a phoenix could muster. A pillar of flame rose from amongst his wings to spiral out into a column over the crowd.

~ The fox shook his head, "No, no. But I heard she was skipping town; some nutter of a boss is crowding into this turf. Hell, if you're not one of his, you probly may want to get the hell out of here before one of his dealers getcha.", holding out a hand as if for payment.

~ The jackalope kept her ears pinned back, before placing a decently sized silver coin in the offered palm. "How much if I want to know your contact, for getting off world without papers?"

~ The beat of the music seemed to pick up a bit of pace, the basilisk drummer up on stage looking to have hit something of her favorite groove.

~ The fox's grin became all teeth as he leaned down, "Two more of those, please.", his other hand plucking up a business card from his back pocket. "Here's the next pickup spot; you're in luck, be there tomorrow morning at dawn."

~ The detective reluctantly provided the additional pair of coins, snatching the card from the fox before slinking away into the crowd to enjoy the remaining music.

~ Thankfully, there were several hours of planning and preparations available between when Detective Clip used her backstage pass to visit the band at the conclusion of the show and the rendezvous location's dawn. She arrived to the spot, tucked away in the nook of an underpass a short walk from the stadium, stumbling and staggered. Her fur reeked of cheap vodka, and her sense of balance seemed to have been borrowed by whoever's body paint was smeared against portions of her ears and jacket. The jackalope was barely standing, waving a business card to a bear standing next to a van parked on the shoulder.

~ "Hey. Hey.. Hey. You're Darick, ya?", the jackalope inquired.

~ The bear nodded, turning to slide open the door of the van, calling back without looking, "You got money?"

~ "Ya.. Yeah.. Yeah. A bit of cash, mostly digi-creds.. you take.. take thats, yeah?"

~ The bear turned about to face her approach, his own grin a row of teeth. "Patrick, do it already, before she's sober. We can get money from her later."

~ In the moment of the detective carefully righting herself upright to appear assertive, she could feel the tingling of the stun-bolt trying to shock her through the flexplate she was wearing under the jacket. Now with the knowledge of which direction the ambush would come from, the jackalope turned in place to drop to a knee and bring her own stun pistol to bear on the rat who had stepped out from behind a trash can.

~ For his own matters, the bear was busy taking a punch from the basilisk drummer who'd dropped down from the roadway above. In a flurry of rage and smoke, the basilisk looked to have stepped onto the other side of a mirror with death before halting abruptly. With a voice dripping with malevolent smoke, the drummer explained the bear's broken face, "I am going to kill you. Kill you, and your boss, and your co-workers. That isn't going to change."

~ The bear squirmed in place a bit under the baslisk's foot, starting a protest before the drummer interrupted, "If you show me where you took my lead singer, it'll take me longer to get around to all of that.", extending a wing to indicate Detective Clip, "And you'll have better odds of the lawman over there stopping me." The crooked beak of the basilisk seemed to, just almost, be grinning.