Culculex never disappoints.
If one is looking for stims, Culculex has them all, even ones you've never heard of.
If one is looking for drink, there are rivers of Votalan wine... LITERALLY.
If one is looking to fornicate with a nine-breasted hermat with half a dozen penises... No judgement, but I know where you can find it there.
And if you're looking for slaves for work, pleasure, or entertainment...
Yes, there are slave markets on Culculex. You don't even really need to seek them out. They are usually lit by bright, blazing halogen signs advertising what species and races are up for sale at any given time. Hawkers out on stages with beings of varying genders in various states of undress, all outfitted with obedience discs at the back of their necks, most having given up any attempt to struggle in the pain of the neuro-shocks said discs provide.
Normally, I avoid these markets. They are somewhat depressing to me. I don't generally judge. There are, after all, species who require enslavement for survival, and others, well...
Since the last mission to Oasis, I needed to clear my head, as I've previously recorded, and, so, I'd been spending some time on Culculex, sampling the various vices on offer there, and largely losing myself in the debauchery. I have always lived by the philosophy that nothing clears the head like fogging the brain.
One evening (if one can actually discern between night and day on a world so choked with upper atmospheric advert-drones that no solar light can penetrate, leaving the sky a constant low glow of dark green) I happened to have stumbled into the slaver district inadvertently. The din of the hawkers largely bleeding into each other creating a dull buzz of nothingness, easily ignored, as I stumbled from block to block, barely glancing up on occasion to avoid running into anyone or anything until a single word, coughed out in a deep, guttural croak...
"WHIFFERDILL!"
That word hit me like a smack in the face.
I was, of course, familiar with Whifferdills, at least via reputation. Shape-changers with a reputation for thievery and various other criminal endeavours (a reputation which may or may not be earned, I will admit) but also a species which did NOT have a reputation for enjoying any form of captivity.
I traced the voice to a rather beefy-looking Torglund, heavily tattooed on each of his four arms, standing on a stage, his associate holding a stun-stick goading a female creature to center-stage.
She was humanoid... kind of.
While mostly humanoid, she bore the distinctive ears and tail of a Terran Lepus, but bearing highly pronounced canine teeth at her captors. Between the jolts from the stun-stick and the obedience disc, I could almost feel the agony she was fighting against.
I have no Gallifreyan idea WHY I acted, but I did.
I sent Z.I.G.G.Y. up to quickly short out the Whifferdill's disc and pulled the Morningstar off my belt, leaving it inactive for the moment.
The Whifferdill wasted no time, whirling about and biting the throat of the one who had been prodding her, then grabbing his stun-stick and hitting the Torglund...
Well, constipation will never be an issue for that, particular Torglund ever again.
She spun toward me, next, but recognized me as the one who had sent Z.I.G.G.Y., so she stood down. I grabbed her arm, however and ran.
There is one actual crime on Culculex, you see: never interfere.
So, I dragged her down an alley and whistled for Bifrost. When she materialized, I pulled the young Whifferdill in and we made our escape.
When I asked her where she wanted me to take her, she just shrugged, indicating she really didn't have anywhere to call home and asked if she could stay with me.
Turns out, she... Jenny... wasn't overly welcome with other Whifferdills, as she not only suffered from mono-morphia, preventing her from changing forms, but it came upon her suddenly, freezing her between three forms: humanoid, rabbit, and wolf.
So, now, it seems, I have a new traveling companion.
She's potentially dangerous, as is evident from how she handled herself on Culculex, but, well...
She's also kind of adorable.
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