Chas: Shemale?
Doobie Littlething sighs.
Doobie: She. Male. Transsexual, Chas.
Chas: But she wasn’t a transsexual. Not as far as I know.
Doobie: Doesn’t matter. Some people like to role-play in SL. Sometimes the more extreme the RP the better they like it. Easy enough for a girl to buy a penis and play out the role of a shemale. After all, it’s the fantasy that counts, not the reality. Hang on...
He saw her head turn left and right, looking up and down the screen, following the movements of her cursor. Then,
Doobie: Okay, I’ve got me a teleport to the club. I’ll TP you when I get there.
And she disappeared, this time in an explosion of coloured light radiating out from a central point. It had barely faded before Chas’ TP invitation arrived. He accepted immediately, and was sucked into the time and space continuum of Second Life that delivered him seconds later into a sex mall immediately outside the Twisted Shemales Club. As the mall began to rez around him, he saw a store selling XXX DVDs under the heading Boys will be Girls. Another was called Ass Hole, opposite which a clothes store sold Star Panties for large breasted women with dicks. Outside the entrance to the club itself an enormous poster pasted to the wall displayed a voluptuous shemale bending over, baring her ass to the world. Twisted Shemales Club open 24/7. We offer you a nice and friendly atmosphere, our girls are wonderful, and open-minded. Feel free to walk in and get to know us if you haven’t already.
Doobie had not waited for him, but gone straight inside. Chas followed, passing between two blue columns and a transparent veil that allowed him to pass right through it without hindrance. He found himself in a large, square room with a panelled ceiling and a dazzling, flashing dance floor that was liberally scattered with poseballs.
On the far side of the room, stools were set all along two low stages that flanked a central bar, and customers sat watching what appeared to be women sliding provocatively up and down gleaming dance poles. There were blue tip jars placed in front of each dancer, most of whom were in various stages of undress. Chas joined Doobie in front of one of the dancers and immediately received an IM from her.
Doobie: LOLOL. I’ve had half a dozen propositions already. They’re all so disappointed when I tell them I don’t have a little package tucked away between my legs. This girl knew Quick, though.
Chas looked up at the dancer. Her name was Lashing Vollmar. She wore a long-sleeved black top that just covered her breasts and no more, the skimpiest pair of denim hotpants he had ever seen, and impossibly high-heeled red shoes. Her auburn hair was partially tied back in a knot behind her head, leaving strands of it to loop down on either side of her luminous orange sunglasses.
Doobie: We might have to pay her something, though, to persuade her to come down and talk to us for a few minutes. You don’t have any money, do you?
Chas: I did have three million or so. But right now I’m down to my last two hundred.
Doobie: Well, that should get five minutes of her time.
Chas paid his remaining two hundred Lindens into Lashing’s tip jar and logged into a three-way IM with Doobie and the dancer. As he did, he glanced up and saw that Lashing had removed her top, and a pair of magnificent virtual breasts swung free as she slid down the pole and swivelled to face them.
Lashing: Thanks, honey.
Chas was unaccountably embarrassed.
Chas: I didn’t mean for you to take your top off.
Doobie: LOLOL!
Lashing: Well, it’s five hundred if you want me to go all the way. You wanna see my cock?
Chas: No! We want to talk.
Lashing: Hahaha. Well, talking’s expensive. Especially in a threesome. You guys are kinky!
Doobie: How much?
Lashing: Another five.
Doobie Littlething sighs.
Chas heard a cash register as Doobie paid another five hundred into Lashing’s tip jar.
Doobie: You owe me, Chas. Okay, girl. Tell us about Quick.
Lashing: Well, I’m not really the one to ask.
Chas: Jesus Christ! We just paid you seven hundred Lindens.
Lashing: Okay, cutie pie, keep your shirt on! You’re getting your money’s worth, aren’t you? Take a look.
Chas glanced up from the dialogue box and saw that Lashing was now wearing nothing except for a pair of black leather leggings, with cutaways around the crotch and calfs. Between her legs hung an enormous penis in full erection.
Chas: OMG!
Doobie: LOLOLOLOL! So who should we ask about Quick, Lashing?
Lashing: A girl called Raika Spirit. Another of the dancers here.
Doobie: A shemale?
Lashing: Only in SL, dear. RL female. Just like Quick.
Chas: Are most of the dancers really women?
Lashing: Some of them. It’s easier to get work, you see. Too much competition in the straight clubs. And in SL it’s easy just to buy an add-on attachment.
Doobie: What about you?
Lashing: Oh, I’m the real deal, sweetheart. SL and RL. Why? You interested? I can give you an hour for fifteen hundred in one of our skyboxes.
Doobie: Hahaha. No thanks, Lashing. Interesting thought, though.
Lashing Vollmar smiles sweetly and blows Doobie a soft kiss.
Chas opened up his search window and typed in the name of Raika Spirit.
Chas: Raika is online. I’ll IM her.
Lashing: No, let me talk to her first. I don’t want her thinking I’ve been shooting my mouth off. Hold...
Chas and Doobie watched for several minutes in silence as Lashing gyrated around her pole, thrusting her naked bottom in their direction, then spinning around and leaning back to raise her erection toward the ceiling. A large crowd was gathered around them now, everyone watching. None of the other dancers was yet revealing as much as Lashing.
Lashing: Okay, Raika’s not sure if she wants to talk to you. She and Quick are good friends.
Doobie: Were, Lashing.
Lashing: Were what?
Doobie: Good friends. Quick is dead. SL and RL.
Lashing: OMG! Hold...
This time she was back to them much faster.
Lashing: She’s at home. Here’s an LM
Landmark windows appeared on both their screens.
Lashing: But before you go... Tell me. What happened to Quick?
Chas: She was murdered, Lashing.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Raika Spirit lived in a rectangular Japanese house of windows and screens built around a central courtyard with a hot tub and flower garden. Eerily, it made Chas think of the house in Dolphin Terrace. But in all other respects it was quite different. Set in rolling parkland, thickly wooded by leafy, deciduous trees, it stood in the tranquility of an arboretum behind a brick wall and high hedges. It was breezy here, and everything bowed and dipped in the wind’s soft caress. To access the garden they had to pass through an arched brick gate bearing the sign “Slow Down!!! Sim X-ing.” Chas was aware of the slight jolt as they passed almost seamlessly from one sim to the next, and looked up to see Raika standing waiting for them at the top of the steps.