#elsewhere

June 9th, 2020
earldebuke 8:48pm
Delfina "One Big and mean..."
Delfina scowled at the crowd. The six-foot-tall six inch (not counting her modest horns) tall satyress was not the prettiest or sexiest of her kith. Indeed, many found her intimidating. But then, sex was not her greatest joy, fun though it could be if her lover wasn't too...fragile. The smell of tequila, whiskey and beer filled the club, but as much as she loved drinking a fool under the table in her free time, liquors were not her great passion either. Her eyes scanned the crowd, listening for that cry between musical notes, that plea between the beats.
 
Sure enough, a voice came up, "Let go of me! I don't..."
"Oh come on, you know you want it, you tease you..."
 
That was all Delfina needed. She strode towards the two in the corner, a woman trying to keep a man from pulling her blouse open against her will. Delfina thought of yanking him off, but the girl's blouse might have come too. Instead, she tapped the bruiser on the shoulder and grinned.
 
"That colt's too slim for you, little man. Care to try a rougher ride?" Her teeth flashed in a grin that would have done a redcap proud. Startled, the man let go of his prey.
 
"I..." the man recovered his scrambled wits.
 
"Now you can walk out of the club, or you can say no, and face the consequences," Please say no, please say no, she thought.
 
"I don't run from women," the man snorted, "Even big ugly ones."
 
"Oh," Delfina mimed a stricken face, then brought her massive hoofed leg up between the man's legs in single strike. The man cried out in a much higher pitch than nature intended and fell to the floor.
 
Ah well, it looked like her playmate had no stamina for her true passion.
 
"that was our friend, you ####!" A new voice called out. Delfina turned and grinned anew. The man had friends, four to be precise. One drew a knife.
 
"Gracious," the She-goat snorted with a laugh, "I was going to get bored."
 
Five minutes later, the original mr grabby and his four friends lay outside the club, at least two craddling broken limbs.
 
Delfina answered her cellphone, and heard "Hey, Big and mean, you busy?"
 
She recognized the voice right away and responded, "Hey cousin. Need something? I told you, I don't want to join your revolution I... what do you mean that's not exactly what this is about? huh… sounds like my kind of lady. Si, si... guard work is what I do… if there's a chance it could get interesting."
earldebuke 9:20pm
Facundo La Bala "...One mean and smart..."
 Facundo La Bala's tele-goggles trailed his target. The Nocker readied the gun, he hoped this worked. In theory, the two-part bullet he created would instantly enchant a target and wound him a microsecond after. The drug lord was a dangerous man, but if he was killed with evidence, well, there would be no end of the trouble that would rise as his men swore revenge. But a coma, or a freak out? that would be an attack that didn't look like an attack. Few could trace purely chimerical bullets in the mortal world.
 
They would never figure it out, and while the drug lord lay in state, his organization would turn in itself in drastic infighting on itself rather than the innocents beyond. That was the plan anyway. Besides, he was being paid dross for this, a lot of dross. One did not addict the mortal lover of a Fiona and get away with it lightly it turned out.
 
"Adios, Mr. Sanchezo," Facundo whispered as the drug lord left his limo. A shot that the unenchanted couldn't hear, a muzzle flash only the enchanted could see. Sanchezo's body spun as the bullet struck his chest and lit him up, even as it wounded him. He instantly joined the world of the enchanted, and at the same time, his new chimerical mien sprouted a wound of imaginary blood gushing from him, "I'm under attack!" He screamed in panic, heaving and flailing.
 
His guards, of course, heard nothing, saw no wound, and instead looked on in confusion.
 
Excellent, Facundo grinned with needle teeth. Even if they did see him, he'd be no more than an unarmed man birdwatching. Priceless.
 
"Colors monsters..." Sanchezo screamed.
The second shot probably sounded like thunder to the drug lord. Facundo wondered if the man had time to hear what his skull broke open? Chimerically speaking of course.
 
It didn't matter, Sanchezo now lay disenchanted and in a coma, his men pulling him up and trying to get him to a hospital. Facunda La Bala withdrew triumphantly. It was the beginning of the end for unity among that cartel.
 
To his surprise, his phone rang, "What the furk you want?"
"Hey, Mean and Smart, it's Diego." the voice said.
"Mean and smart? Si, I am, but why open that way?" Facundo scratched his head, "Are you drunk?"
"Drunk on liberty, my friend, and I'm calling you to call in that favor... remember you were geased never to come to the barony as long as a certain Balor ruled?"
"Rub it in," Facundo snarled, then paused, "Wait, who’s ruling now?"
"Hopefully the people, but if you want to know who the freeholder is? Come and find out."
"I hope she's still around so I can piss on the #####'s grave," Facundo La Bala snorted.
"Alas, not all wishes come true, but you do owe me, and you can come home at last."
"On my way," The Nocker said, and moved towards where his car was stored only to see a meter maid about to ticket it. Harrumph, oh well, one more coma victim wouldn't really get noticed would she? And further experimentation was required always. He put another bullet in the chamber and called "Hey, Senora..."
 
Bang.
earldebuke 9:26pm
Mr. Maximo Azul, "One Big and Smart"
Maximo detested violence almost as much as he detested stupidity. It's why he had gotten into security. Not just the aspect of it people expected of a man his size to deal in. He straightened his tie as he looked over the plans of the museum.
 
"So you see, Mr. Azul, your services are strictly for show here," The smug little bastard who thought paying a man meant you owned him said, "A confidence builder. Now, we would prefer you wear a uniform, the suit they might confuse you for...well, not security." What he meant to say was someone might confuse him with someone of wealth. It was true, fine clothes were one of Maximo's weaknesses.
 
"This IS my uniform, senor," Maximo informed him, speaking of the suit two shades darker than his skin, "And if you cannot adapt to my style, I understand and will seek employment elsewhere."
 
"I only want your reputation anyway," the curator/owner snorted, "It sets our investors at ease. Now stop speaking nonsense. You may have an excellent record, but our security is state of the art. Just sign this paper giving your approval, stand in one spot for the night, and we can be done."
 
Maximo looked at the piece of paper before him, took it between his fingers, and began making notes.
 
The curator smiled at first, figuring that the overpriced man before him was seeing logic at last and just checking the boxes, but... it was taking longer than he thought it should. Then he realized, "You're not approving... anything."
 
"No, I am not, your security is laughable. You have air vents a small boy could fit through, or a very skilled contortionist. Your backup generator allows a full thirty seconds to boot in, enough time for anyone who knew what they wanted to make quite fine progress, particularly if they had help from the outside," Mr. Azul kept writing his critique down, "Your pressure plates are standard, meaning any skilled burglar knows the weight required to fool them better than you do and will do so before you can say 'Indiana Jones'. Millions in art I can admire, thousands wasted in ineffective security? I cannot abide," The troll said bluntly, allowing his own contempt for the man, and his methods to glow through.
 
The man sputtered, "You... you are judging me?"
"Yes, Curator. And you failed. Oh, and you might want to consider that whatever lady you spent earlier this evening with as a possible suspect," The big man frowned disapprovingly.
 
"What, how..." the curator flushed stumbling again.
 
Mr. Azul answered anyway, "The perfume your wife routinely wears, and the scent on your neck tonight are vastly different. I assume she's a possible thief, because the perfume is too fine for your typical streetwalker that I imagine a skinflint like you likes to pay for, and I just can't see a woman who was not in the profession having the slightest interest in a man as lacking as grace and charm as you."
 
"Good day, I am invoking my employment clause, YOUR investors will receive the email regarding full ...incompatibility tomorrow. Good eve, sir. Give the lady thief my regards... or, if she is truly interested in you, my sympathies."
 
Mr. Azul strode out, towering over the rentacops who stared at him in awe as if he had just spat in the devil's face. So sad, the sons of Adam, that they had such little imagination.
 
His phone rang and he picked it up "Azul Security Counseling..."
 
"Hello, Big and Smart," A friendly voice said.
 
"Diego?" Curious, "What do you want? We are no longer sharing the motley, and for that matter, many interests."
 
"How about one of your kith needing your help holding what was once a balor hold? A gringa, lost, confused... and with only revolutionaries to protect her from retribution."
 
Mr. Azul frowned, "You are seeking to play on my sense of chivalry."
 
"AND your love of a challenge," Diego reminded, "Yes, both. So when I can expect you?"
"Tonight... and Diego?"
"Si, my old friend?" The satyr responded.
"Don't play this card again too soon," Maximo warned, and hung up.