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Marcus Lewis was a bundle of shot nerves. The last two days had taken everything out of him and he needed, more than anything else, to have a moment to breathe. To talk with someone about everything, to try and get his thoughts sorted. This week felt like it had been going on for a year. He made his way over to Tulune's, slipping in as casually as he could to avoid any attention.

"Hey kid!"

Marcus flinched, turning on his heel and seeing the bright face of the owner, behind the bar and pouring a beer out of the tap.

"Gimme a sec to wipe the table down, Melody'n them usually don't show up until later, wasn't ready!"

Marcus laughed, relieved, waving awkwardly.

"Hey, no problem! I gotta go to the bathroom real quick, anyway!"

The jackalope still had a good bit of cash in his pocket from Melody's surprise gift, and decided that today's use for it would be... a burger. In all his years, he'd never actually tried any of the "meat" that was available, the smell tended to turn him off, but with the way everything had been going, he decided that he might as well. He'd thrown the idea of caution out the window already, what was the harm? The bartender gave him a funny look when he placed his order. He liked it.

"Uh... how you want that burger cooked?" the straw-furred feline asked him, looking unsure.

Marcus grinned. "Rare."

The cat blinked, writing as slowly as he could just in case there was a punchline coming. "All right... what you want on it?"

"The works."

It was the strangest thing. After everything, Marcus hit a kind of high. A rush of endorphins, thinking about everything he'd done, everywhere he'd been. Two weeks ago he was just that awkward kid at Greenwood, getting in trouble with teachers and then slinking off to the principal's office. Now he'd run away from home, gotten mugged, been to a strip club, and made a couple grown up friends. How cool was that? He even took a little pride in the mugging. A story to tell BJ when he went back.

Well, if he went back.

Marcus waited for his food to arrive and pulled his phone out of his pocket, but sat it screen side down on the table. It was the longest stretch of time he'd gone without being glued to it since he was a toddler. For the first time, the teenage hybrid was separated from the digital world, at least temporarily. He'd uninstalled the chat apps, blocked his parents' numbers. No one was getting hold of him until he said so, and that wasn't until he'd finished up his business in Boston. Figuring out what in the hell was going on with that chimera. How many hybrids there really were out there. It felt like there was far too much going on, and that owl couldn't be entirely crazy, could he?

He watched the early evening crowd coming in, enjoying his spot in the corner, half obscured by shadow and a small enough presence that no one paid him much mind. When a new face walked through the door, he tried to imagine what brought them in that night. If they were coming in to drink away the stress of the day, to celebrate some event, meet up with friends, or just out of boredom. He made up little voices for them, taking advantage of the noise in the bar and talking out little scenes without worrying about being overheard.

"That damn bitch thinks she's the boss of me, I don't need no one talkin' to me like that!" Marcus growled when a surly looking bull stomped his way in.

"And can you believe it? He finally asked me to marry him!" he squealed as a pair of chittering squirrels entered a moment later.

It was a stupid game, and he knew that, but it kept him entertained for a little while until his new friends arrived. Better than whatever sporting event was on the television anyway. He took a glance over there, seeing a cage fight going on. Marcus let out a displeased grunt.

"Oh yeah, we're so evolved."

When his food arrived, Marcus took a moment to look it over, squint at the thing, take in its scent. He'd been around what passed for meat plenty of times, but always at a bit of a distance. The jackalope picked up the knife on his plate and cut through the middle, picking up one half and looking closely at the patty in the center. He poked at it with one slim fingertip. It was spongy, the smell potent in a way he couldn't liken to anything else, and left a film on his finger.

Marcus took a breath, and bit in.

He closed his eyes, inhaling through his nose, focusing everything on the experience. The way the "meat" crumbled and squished in his mouth beneath familiar crunches of lettuce and tomato, that greasy film that spread everywhere, over his tongue and teeth. When he chewed, it didn't feel like anything broke apart like his normal fare. It was softer than that, and every breath hit him in the back of the throat. Really, the majority of a burger was food he was familiar with. Grains, vegetables, sauces, spices, even the cheese wasn't new. That slab in the center, though. Painstakingly manufactured to emulate the taste, smell, and texture of the muscle tissue of another living creature that had been pulled from their bones and ground into a paste, fried up and served next to a pile of french fries and a soda.

Swallowing that bite down took effort, though Marcus wasn't sure if it was because of the taste itself or what it was meant to represent.

Marcus flagged down a passing bartender, the same cat as before. "Hey... hey, can I ask you something?"

The feline peered down at him. "Problem with the burger?"

Marcus chuckled, a touch sheepish. "No, I mean... I don't think so? You've had these, right?"

The cat looked over at the bar briefly, as if weighing whether or not he had time for this, then sighed once. "Yeah, why?"

"Is it like... accurate? To real meat, I mean."

"Uh... I guess?" the cat said back, scratching the back of his head, his impressively pointed ears flickering a few times. "I mean, I never had real meat before. My granddad did, like way back in the day, and he says it's almost the same."

Marcus nodded. "Thanks, just wondering."

While the confused feline went back to work, Marcus forced another bite. He reminded himself that it wasn't actually flesh, there really wasn't anything in there that he didn't eat normally, even if the protein was extra high. No one died for this meal, but he knew what it tasted like if someone had. Somehow, that seemed important.

The young hybrid's mind wandered, drifting about Boston. He thought about that "butcher" Dylan had seen. He wondered if there were other places tucked away in town where carnivores who had grown bored with faux meat were able to get the real deal.

"Holy shit, the kid went pred on us," a voice bellowed out, laughing.

Marcus nearly jumped out of his seat, then laughed right back. "Hey! Glad you guys decided to show up. Where's Melody?"

Hippogriff and pegasus took their usual seats, with the former nodding his head at the bartender to indicate that they'd be getting their usual drink orders before shrugging. "Eh, she'll be here soon I'm sure. So!" Karl said, clapping his big hand on the table. "How you likin' Boston so far?

Marcus shrugged, taking another bite of his burger. He was starting to acclimate to the taste, and more than that the jackalope wanted to make sure the both of them were seeing him eat it without flinching. "It's okay. I mean, I like it, just haven't really gotten a chance to see all the sights, you know? Been too busy with, uh, other stuff."

Karl got his beer and Dylan his cocktail, both taking their first sips and visibly relaxing. The indicator of a night to relax, when the first sip of alcohol hit the tongue. Or, in Karl's case, when the first sip that wasn't happening during work hours hit. The burlier of the the older exotics chuckled, looking at Marcus curiously. "Whaddya mean, busy? You pick up a job already?"

The jackalope laughed, feeling his ears flush. It was a funny spot to be in, not exactly wanting to explain himself to his new friends. Not because he thought they'd disapprove or he needed his actions to be secret, more that he worried they'd think it stupid of him. "No, heh. I just had some stuff I wanted to do in town when I got here. I swung by Heaven Hearts Hybrids."

Dylan coughed in surprise, sending some of his drink up and out of the glass onto the table. He grumbled, wiping the table down.

"I'm sorry, you what?" the pegasus asked, surprised.

Marcus furrowed his brow at Dylan, equally surprised by the reaction. He was on a mission to come across as cool and unflappable, so he did his best to bury it with another bite of his burger, feeling the grease coating his tongue, trying to force the few limp vegetables to do some cleanup duty.

"What? I just went in for a talk. Haven't either of you ever gone there?"

Karl laughed. "Fuck no, why would I? Fuck him."

The teen grinned crookedly. He was getting to like Karl. "Yeah, okay, I get why you wouldn't. But come on, Dylan? Never?"

Dylan eyed Marcus a moment, then shook his head and looked back at his drink. "No, I've never felt the need. Besides, with the rumors about that place... I'd just much rather steer clear."

That one caught Marcus's attention and he forgot all about his food, shifting his position. "What rumors?"

As he so often did, the hippogriff took the baton on Dylan's story. "Jeez, kid. You come all the way out here and start kickin' doors in and you ain't even done your homework," he chuckled. "All right, so this shit's not proven or anything, but it's been goin' around for years now that Heaven Hearts Hybrids runs a lotta dirty money through it. Saying that they're spendin' all this money on carin' for the kids and how they have all these medical bills and shit, but it's mob money. That Adrian Lucas guy, he's super private, you never see him around town, right? Guy's shady as fuck. No one even knows where he lives."

"...I know where he lives."

The two older hybrids glanced at each other. Karl leaned in. "What do you mean you know where he lives?"

Marcus took a breath, rubbing his face. There was no sense in keeping quiet on this one. He ran through the story as quickly as he could, glossing over as many details as possible without causing more questions to be asked. It was a quick fly by that made sure to put the attention on that crazy damn owl rather than grilling him on what he was doing back at Heaven Hearts Hybrids. In a particularly good bit of luck, midway through the story Melody arrived, by which point Karl was barely able to hold his laughter back.

"Oh shit, Mel, you got here just in time!" he laughed, slamming a hand down on the table yet again. Marcus noticed that as soon as the hippogriff's arm went up, Dylan instinctively put a hand on his glass to keep it still.

The unicorn took her seat, chuckling darkly. Whatever had kept her obviously had left her in not the best of moods. "Yeah? What's going on?"

Karl grinned as best as he could, nodding his head towards Marcus. "Ol' boy ran into Jacob."

Marcus's jaw went slack a second, his eyes jumping across the table to each of the three in turn. "Hold on, you know this guy?"

Melody snickered, her mood lifting to at least some degree. "I told you, kiddo, I could tell you were new in town. I don't know everyone, but us hybrids? We've all crossed paths at least once."

"Okay wait, so... I thought you said it was just us?" the jackalope asked, now faintly annoyed.

Karl snorted. "We're the exotics. Exclusive club 'n' shit. Of course there's other hybrids runnin' around. Probably a bunch you didn't even notice. Hell, most mixed breeds don't have too hard a time blendin' in."

For what felt like the hundredth time, Marcus was being given information from someone who seemed to think that what they were telling him wasn't a big deal at all. He walked through Karl's sentence again. How could that be possible?

"What do you mean? Blend in?"

Melody shrugged, retrieving her drink from the passing bartender. "Most hybrids aren't that easy to spot. One kinda bird with another, a fox and a coyote, that kinda thing. You gotta remember, it's pretty rare for a mixed species pregnancy to take in the first place, ninety nine percent of the time when it works out it's gonna be between two species that are a lot closer than any of us. That's why we're the elite. The Exo Club."

Thinking back on it, Marcus wouldn't have even realized Jacob was a hybrid if he hadn't been told it explicitly. After all, with however many different species there were out there, he didn't know literally all of them.

"That's kinda bullshit," he said, reverting back to his grumpy teenage self.

Melody grinned, amused by the change in demeanor. "Yeah, yeah it is. But that's life. A whole lotta bullshit. So what'd Jacob tell you?"

Karl butted in, taking over as he often did. "Told 'im where your orphanage owner lived."

That caught the unicorn's attention. "Now why would you want to know that?" she asked, slightly suspicious.

Marcus paused, realizing he didn't have much of an answer. "I dunno... I thought if he was nearby I'd like... go over and visit? We didn't have a chance to talk much when I went over to the agency. So I f-"

"You went to Heaven Hearts Hybrids," Melody interrupted. "As in, just went over and walked right in?"

The jackalope again found himself with three sets of eyes boring into him. "Yeah, why is that such a big deal? Those guys got all weird about it, too."

"Because," Melody said, her voice sharper than before. "There's a whole lotta rumors about what their business really is. They don't like visitors. I didn't think they'd just let you in."

Marcus grunted, his eyes flicking to Karl briefly. "Yeah, I heard. They got really weird when I went in, I felt like Adrian Lucas was just trying to hurry up and get me out. I dunno. So I was talking to that Jacob guy and he told me where he lives, right?"

Karl laughed now, a mix of disbelief and going through beers twice as fast as his friends. "So where'd he tell ya? On the moon? Bottom of the ocean? Alternate dimension?"

Marcus rolled his eyes. "Noooo. But he gave me, like, some GPS coordinates. I put 'em into a map and it was this spot a ways out of town. Middle of some forest, but a house."

Dylan peered at the teen. "Probably a good idea to stay away, then. I'd imagine he doesn't like visitors if he's got his home buried in the woods."

Marcus shrugged, knowing the pegasus had a good point. "Yeah, I mean I was just hoping it was nearby. I didn't expect that. But hold on, we kinda missed the other thing. How many of us are there in town?"

"What do you mean?" Melody asked.

"Come on, you know what I mean. Hybrids!"

The unicorn hummed. "Oh... a couple dozen. Like I said, most of them you'd never know."

"You mean most of us."

The heavyset avian hybrid snorted. "They ain't us. Motherfuckers can live a normal life without anyone knowin', it ain't the same."

Marcus came dangerously close to bringing up Dylan and his wing situation, but thought better of it. He found it odd that the three here really did consider other hybrids as somehow lesser than. Marcus himself was often upset at the liger at school being brought up whenever he himself had any difficulties, but it was different here. Like there really was a hierarchy. Tiers of hybrid. He wondered briefly about how many levels there were, what the divisions were. Why they had to be there. Regardless, he let the subject drop.

"Okay but... no exotics? Just us four?"

Melody nodded. "Yep. Just four."

"Five."

Marcus's head whipped around, with Melody looking exasperated at the correction.

"Fucking... Karl!"

The hippogriff put up his hands. "Well shit, Mel, we gotta tell him, don't we? What if he ran into 'im? Hell, to be honest, I'm kinda surprised it ain't happened already."

"Who? Ran into who? There's another exotic in town? Why isn't he here?"

Melody sighed, waving a hand in Karl's general direction. "Well? Care to tell the tale?"

The hippogriff snickered, sipping from his bottle and clunking it down on the table. "Pretty sure you should take the wheel on this one. You uh, you know 'im a lot better than Dyl an' me."

Marcus's attention turned back to Melody, seeing her shooting a faintly irritated glance at her older friend. She took another breath, running her fingers through her hair to get it all out of her face, and began.

"His name's Aaron. We... dated. Briefly."

"Aaron?" Marcus repeated.

"Yeah. I never got his last name. Feathered serpent. To be honest, he's absolutely stunning to look at. Some kind of viper with these bright green and gold scales, and this mane of deep red feathers that goes from the top of his head all the way down his back. I'm not kidding when I say that when we talk about being an exotic? Like from all those old stories and ancient religions? That's Aaron. If he was around a thousand years ago they'd have built a fucking temple to him. He's like a hybrid fetishist's wet dream but he always hides everything under these ratty old clothes, like he's embarrassed about it. I never saw him outside the house without a hoodie on, and I kept telling him he should show off what he had..."

"Uh, Mel? Kinda goin' off topic here."

The unicorn coughed, faintly embarrassed, and regathered her thoughts. "Okay... Marcus, you gotta understand something," she said, clearly having a fight to pick her words carefully. "Yeah, life's been rough for all of us, but we got it easier than a lot of hybrids. I know we had problems with our parents, but at least we had parents. Maybe they weren't the best, but we had a roof over our head, food on the table, and if we're being honest pretty much anything we could have asked for when we were kids. Not everyone was that lucky. Some of us basically got thrown out on the street and made to fend for ourselves."

The jackalope's brow furrowed. Somehow that hadn't really occurred to him before now. He'd just assumed that was the lot of the hybrid, especially an exotic. The idea of one of them not being taken in just made no sense. They were special, weren't they?

Melody saw the look on his face. She chuckled. "Remember, kiddo. It could always be worse. So yeah, well, if you're one of those, you've got two paths ahead of you. Either you can look at everything you've been through and decide that you want to make a difference and stop the hate between species, or you can get extra bitter and make it your whole mission in life to punish every single purebred out there for it. Well, you can guess which one Aaron picked."

"I met him for the first time a couple years ago. He seemed different than all the other guys I've dealt with. When he said he didn't know I was a... dancer, I laughed right in his face. It had to be a line, right? Well, he insisted it was the truth. I didn't believe him, but we kept talking. It's funny, I don't even think I can say we dated, really. It's more like he'd just appear and ask me to go somewhere with him, and I did, every single time. I wouldn't see him for two weeks, then one day he'd show up after I left the club and say we're going wherever."

Marcus listened, fascinated. Melody's whole demeanor changed as she spoke. The poise seemed to melt away, her posture sagged, her eyes softening. The unicorn's carefully practiced stage persona was shedding away, and he was hearing the girl beneath it.

"He'd always pay for everything, but wouldn't tell me where he got his money. Wouldn't tell me anything about himself, really. I never saw where he lived, never saw him drive a car, never got a phone number from him. He kept me at arm's length the whole time I knew him, but every time we were together he made me feel like I was the whole world. By the time I saw his uglier side, I was in too deep."

Melody took a long, deep drink from her glass, draining it one go. She paused a moment, feeling the alcohol settle in her belly before she continued. "I should have seen the warning signs. He always talked about how my manager at the club was a piece of shit, that he owed me for the privilege of having me work there. His only reason was... that guy's a purebred. Any time he talked about species, it got dark real fucking fast. He didn't like talking to anyone. Got really possessive of me. Never hurt me, but after a while I started feeling like I had to be very, very careful around him. I was afraid to tell him no. To anything. The look in his eyes whenever he got upset..."

The unicorn shuddered. "One night we were out on one of our 'dates' and we bumped into... this guy who used to come to Temptations a couple times a week. Older badger, middled aged, married. Brought me gifts, paid out the nose for, um, private dances back when I still gave those. I could tell he was in love with me, but I always had to remind him that it was never gonna be like that. Still, nice guy."

"Anyway, I hadn't seen him in a while, then he runs into Aaron and me late one night. He starts going on about how he missed me, his wife had found out what he'd been doing and he had to promise to stay away. I could just feel Aaron's temper heating up next to me. I did my best to try and cut the conversation off, but it was like the guy just couldn't see the danger. Aaron wasn't the type to yell, he didn't puff up his chest and try to start a fight, but I looked over and saw his jacket shifting. His feathers were starting to flare up. The guy said well buddy, if she does half of the shit with you that she's done at that club, you're a lucky guy."

A beat of silence passed around the table. Marcus was aware of himself for the first time again, the noise of the bar starting to creep into his ears. He looked over at Karl, at Dylan. Neither looked back.

"...what happened?" he asked.

Melody took a slow breath. "That night, nothing. I was actually proud of him for keeping his composure. He shook the guy's hand and everything. I thought we were making progress. Like I was starting to help him calm down. I didn't see the old badger after that, didn't think much of it. He said his wife was pissed at him, so it made sense he wouldn't be out clubbing or bar hopping like before. Then, about a month later, I heard they fished him out of the harbor, skull crushed. They had to identify him from his driver's license, his face was completely gone."

Marcus's jaw went slack, his chest tightening.

"Did... he...?"

"Aaron never said he did it, but he wouldn't say he didn't, either. Just that the guy deserved whatever he got. He said scumbag purebreds don't deserve someone like me. Someone like us. We fought for the first time. I was scared yelling at him, but I was scared just being around him by then. He tried to make nice with me later by coming over to my place and giving me this set of diamond earrings. Fucking diamonds. I asked him how he afforded them, and he just told me to take them and stop asking questions. We had another fight. A real fight. He started apologizing, saying he didn't mean to snap but I just made him so mad. It was just like my mom used to warn me about guys like that. I screamed at him to leave or I'd call the cops. I threw the earrings, told him to never come back. He started going off at me. Said that I'd let those fucking purebreds poison my mind. They didn't give a shit about me, he did. Every line he could think of. Then he left. That was the last time I saw him, but I know it wasn't the last time he saw me."

Marcus was struggling to keep up with the story, feeling intensely apologetic that he'd even asked in the first place. Still, his curiosity got the better of him.

"What do you mean?"

Melody chuckled darkly. "I mean I'm sure he's still been out there. Aaron had this talent... he could just hide in the shadows, lurking, only letting himself be seen when he wants to. I was terrified for weeks that he'd show up at my apartment again. I made Karl come over some nights just so I wouldn't be by myself, but he never did."

She swallowed once, trying to force another drink from the last bits of melted ice in her glass. "He's not a good person, kiddo. He used to tell stories about bullies in the foster home, how he'd make sure they never teased him again. I used to think he was just trying to make himself seem tough, but after they got the badger out of the harbor, I had to take them a lot more seriously. He blames the whole world for all the problems he's had, says he wants to be the monster under their bed now. The way he put it, they'll never respect us, so he'll make sure they're afraid of us."

Karl spoke up then, his voice softer than normal. He sounded like Melody's stories had sobered him up. "He's like if you took all the worst stories they say about hybrids and wrapped 'em all up in a hoodie."

Marcus's attention turned to the hippogriff. "You've met him?"

Karl snorted. "Only once. Just for a minute. Was comin' out of the bar here one night, real fuckin' late, like I stayed until they made me leave. I stumbled out and I'm waitin' for my ride to show up and he's just right beside me. Asked me how Mel's doing."

The teenage jackalope winced. This was off to a bad start. "What, uh, what happened then?"

"Pfft. I told him to fuck off, pushed him away. He shoved me back. I was so damn drunk I fell flat on my ass. He laughed, said I was lucky he doesn't like hurting exotics, that we need to stick together. Told me if I did anything to hurt Mel he'd make me regret it, then he was just gone. Only time I ever saw him."

Melody sighed. "I've heard a lot about him since then. How he got all that money. Probably where the earrings came from. He's made sure to be the villain he sees himself as. If even half of the shit they say about him is true, that badger probably got off lucky."

She leaned in, looking straight at Marcus, her eyes flat. Serious. "Marcus, listen to me. You don't want to get mixed up with Aaron. Okay? This isn't just oh he's an asshole. He's dangerous. There's absolutely nothing good that'll come from trying to be friends with him. If you see him, just keep going. Don't make eye contact, don't acknowlege him. Pretend he's not even there."

Marcus was aghast. In the recesses of his mind, he thought that the three had to be messing with him. The deadpan expressions on their faces said they were anything but. He nodded.

"Yeah, of course. Shit..."

Everyone got a refill on their drinks, sitting in relative quiet. Marcus's ears could barely pick up the din of the bar around them, the sports on television.

"Hey, Marcus? Mind if I ask you something?"

He nodded. "Sure, Dylan. What's up?"

The pegasus took a slow drink from his glass. He put it down, leaning forward on his elbows, eyes on Marcus's for a second. The jackalope's brow furrowed, and he fidgeted in his seat. He didn't like feeling on the spot.

Finally, Dylan asked his question. "When were you going to tell us the police are looking for you?"