Utterly Mad

“She looks like one of you Mislings L.” Muses the scarred mutant, “Different kind though. Didn’t know Mislings came with brown fur.”

“We don’t, and she isn’t, Kyle.” Says the mouse-like L as she takes the canteen from Catnips loosening grasp. “I’ve never seen a Misling with rat features before. Too bad Mark intends to sell her off.”

“Heh, well. You heard him. This entire run has been nothing but a goddamn tragedy. Whole party of scavvers wiped out by screamers, all that equipment down the hole, and we couldn’t even bring back the ordinance we found if we wanted to.”

The truck bounces along in silence for awhile, tracing a path along the sand swept road in the dim evening light. “How much do you think we can get for her, if the Misling delegation don’t decide to kick up a fuss about some unique genetic variant getting put up on the slavers block?”

 L, who had come along with about a hundred similar beings from a lab dedicated to creating a cheap to maintain and fast breeding work force, said “Probably a lot. Fifty watermarks at least. Mark will try to sell her off to one of the freak shows, or even one of the cat houses. Now that I think about it, almost certainly one of the cat houses.”

“Shame.” said Kyle, who had a general distaste for slavery. Especially slavery in the sex trade. His distaste didn’t stop him of course, but it did keep him up some nights. “I guess he’ll take her to Doc Casper to get her looked over?”

L, who had been a slave herself due to outstanding debts, responded quickly, “No, hell no. Mark doesn’t go for Casper anymore. Not since that… pig… got outed for what he was doing.”

“Nasty piece of work, that. Glad we don’t gotta deal with him anymore.”

The Misling nodded enthusiastically. “Marks got sense enough to keep his merchandise out of the hands of that kiddie diddler. Still though, I guess I share your feelings about selling this one off.”