While some might think that Animalia has a relatively nil level of crime, that didn't mean that some strange things would happen. It was just that there wasn't enough to satisfy either national news sources or the celebrity gossipmongers, especially since the PR-MD office was set up. That meant that there were only news stories available when a new species or "gene-mod" such as the Polymelia mod became available. As a result, there wasn't much news going on, especially with impeachment hearings going on.
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Scala was called to the office to talk about some new recruits since she was now overseer of the division of Project Phoenix involving porn stars, adult entertainers, and so on. But some of her newest "clients" were way different than the ones she dealt with at her brothel, but she was getting used to that.
"So what do you know about this 'N. Brusmith'?" asked the scientist overseeing their conversions.
"She's the drummer from a local punk rock band in Las Vegas." answered Scala, having heard her music on the radio a few times, "But they're not the kind of band that travels the country or world to do their shows, so she worked part time at the brothel I used to own before it folded up."
"I see." answered the scientist, "Anything else?"
"Like all hard rock drummers, she's a little insane." replied Scala, "But unlike most punk rock drummers (or hard rock drummers) she doesn't have a traditional drug addiction."
"'Traditional'?" asked the scientist, not expecting that.
"First off, she's moderately allergic to marijuana." continued Scala, ticking them off on her fingers, "Second, she has a crippling fear of needles, and thus doesn't use heroin. Third of all, she has moderate-to-severe asthma, and so her band doesn't frequent the particularly smoky bars. I also happen to know that she'd experiment with exotic plants in order to make drugs that were, as she puts it, 'high on sensation, low in overdose'."
"So that explains it." said the scientist to himself, not realizing that Animalians had greater hearing than humans.
"Explains what?" asked Scala. The agent explained she had turned up at the Las Vegas Police Station naked except for her punk stockings and shoes, and covered in the blood of her latest 'customer'. A drug test showed no tobacco, heroin, or cocaine in her system, but found atropine and scopolamine. After analysis, it turned out her latest mixture was a combination of the juices of jimsonweed and brugmancia.
According to what was found, she had 'concocted' it between her band's gigs and, while in its hallucinogenic grip, accidently killed her latest customer. While she had avoided a murder charge, due to being under the influence of tremetol at the time, it had permanently ended her musical career. While it wasn't a complete cure, she had decided to become an Animalian to start a new life in entertainment. While Scala was certain to get her sponsorship there was still one question unanswered.
"While she did choose a macaroni penguin," said the scientist, "She want's to know if there are any others."
"There is one," answered Scala, "But she's not interested in the porn industry, and wants to finish her education before she goes to flight school."
"The more things change, the more they stay the same."
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While being on the run from crime lords wasn't being discarded as a reason for joining Animalia (Stanly, who was now a stag-moose Animalian being one of them), it happened infrequently enough that discussions were had when they did show up. While Project Cameron was for refugees from war or conflict seeking to join Animalia, fugitives from crime lords weren't really able to get into the program. So the most recent one generated a new discussion.
"We don't even know who this 'Fabina' is." said the first scientist.
"I know," said the second, "I tried looking her up in every public record database, and found nothing."
"I shouldn't be surprised," said the third, "I found an old airplane ticket in her luggage, and it says that the from destination was from Rome."
"Why would that be important?" asked the first.
"According to the FBI and the Carabinieri, she's on the run from the Sicilian Mafia." said the Third, "The reason why there's so little information on her is that she's now officially an FBI-protected witness."
"Her and the others who came with her?" asked the second.
"Indeed," said the third.
"As part of her new cover, she's 'overhauled' the entire Animalian adult entertainment industry and established herself as the head of the new 'courtesan's guild'." said the first, looking over her file, including a list of requests from her.
"She clearly knows a thing or two about such things, so maybe she's an ex-madame of a brothel once run by the Mafia." guessed the second.
"She's also requesting 'protection' for the girls and guys who came with her." said the first, continuing reading down the list, "According to them, she helped them escape the Mafia and sign up for the Meat Market."
"That's understandable," said the third scientist, making the appropriate notes.
Afterward, they looked over the list of people 'Fabina' brought with her. While it wasn't solely all girls, there were some that raised a few eyebrows.
One such eyebrow-raiser was a male and female couple that both asked to be cattle. While the choice wasn't the eyebrow-raiser, the fact that the two of them were married. While their marriage was clearly a little on the 'open' side, they were clearly in love with each other.
Another eyebrow-raiser was Ki-ko (as she requested her name to be changed). She was clearly Hispanic, but other than that, her information was withdrawn by the FBI. She was clearly wanting to be a snake Animalian, but one of the reasons why she chose that was, 'increased skill with my tongue.
The third eyebrow raiser was a male prostitute named Leon. What made his case an eyebrow raiser was the fact that he had requested to be a dire wolf. While there were those who thought that the dire wolf was a fictional creature, there was enough fossil evidence to prove that it did exist. In fact, there was a strand of Animalia Virus with dire wolf DNA that had been "on hold" for such an occasion, much to other scientists surprise.
The biggest eyebrow raiser was Fabina herself. She was clearly over 52, but knew a lot about adult entertainment than most experienced dancers in Las Vegas knew about. Not only that, she also had decent talent as a lounge singer, so her real number and magnitude of talents were unknown.
After that, there were some that were a little more 'normal'. There was a girl named Ria who wanted to be a cat Animalian; a guy who was named Van Hazel who wanted to be a blue-tongued Skink Animalian; and another guy who wanted to be a horse Animalian, but wanted to be a bartender, not a dancer.
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While there were those who were more in national news than local news, there was plenty to keep things from being boring.