[Vfw-times] Cassie story :-) "And the winner is..."

[Rufinoform at aol.com]

And the Winner Is...

Written by & copyright of Earl Bacon Foxonian at aol.com

Featuring Cassie, Alex (Cassie's drummer), Cindy (Cassie's bassist), Laretta 
(Cassie's
rhythm guitarist), Rachel (Cassie's keyboardist) Vixina (Casie's fiddler) and 
Slim
(Cassie's chief roadie)

Cassie, the Rock & Roll Vixen
http://members.aol.com/rufinoform/Cassie.htm

Please read the prequil, "Christmas Time Is Here," featuring Featuring 
Cassie, Alex
(Cassie's drummer), Cindy (Cassie's bassist), Laretta (Cassie's rhythm 
guitarist),
Rachel (Cassie's keyboardist) Vixina (Casie's fiddler) and Slim (Cassie's 
chief roadie) at
http://members.aol.com/CassieRockVixen4/christmas_time_is_here.txt

All characters created by & copyright of Earl Bacon except Laretta, who is 
created by
and copyright of Andrew Cotton, Alex, who is created by and copyright of 
Donna Fritz and
Vixina & Cloudchaser, who are created by and copyright of Cloudchaser 
Shaconage

"Wow! I can’t believe that we’re here!" Alex,the the small arctic fox vixen 
exclaimed as
she entered the theater.  "Neither can I," Rachel began.  "I have never been 
nominated
for anything in my life, let alone a a music award."  The gothic doe looked 
down at the
awe struck vixen before remarking, "What’s the name of this award again?"  
Alex gave the doe
a rather shocked look before replying, "You mean you have never heard of the ’
Morphys’?"

"The ’Morphys" are the ’Morphic Music Awards’ ,the morphic recording 
industry's
highest award," A very tall red fox vixen morph with very long, full, sable 
black head
hair said as she came walking toward Rachel and Alex.  The vixen’s 
double-slitted long
blue dress shifting from side to side, revealing her light blue shear nylon 
stockings
and black garters holding them in place on her long shapely legs.

"Hi Cassie".Alex said  "What award are we up for Cassie?" Rachel asked.  
"Best New
Artist," Cassie said as she stood in front of the deer femme and the arctic 
fox.  "Hey
Cass, tell them what award we aren’t getting!" Cindy, the snow leapord 
bassist said as
she came walking up behind Cassie.  "Cindy,what’s up with those?"  Alex said 
as she
pointed down to the snow lepords’ feet. Instead of the normal biker 
boots,Cindy was
sporting stilletto open-toed strapless sandles.  These were accented by Cindy’
s
usual blackleather  mini-skirt and instaed of a black t-shirt that either 
said "Metal
Rules" or "Harley-Davison",a very elegant black satin blouse was on her body. 
 "Yeah, well
this is a ritzy event,so I felt I gotta look a little like I have SOME class, 
ya know?"

"Anyway,like I was saying,tell them the one we aren’t getting tonight,Cass."  
Cassie
looked over the the snowlepord ,let off a slight sigh ,then faced both Alex 
and Rachel.
"Best Heavy Metal Band." the tall vixen replied.  "WHAT????" Alex exclaimed, 
"That’s total
BS, Cassie! You know that we're a Metal band and a Damn good one too!  What’s 
wrong with
these people?"  "Whut's goin’ on heah?" another slightly smaller vixen 
wearing very
wide-rimmed glasses said as she walked tword the little group.  Like Cindy, 
Vixina felt
that she should "dress up a little bit for the event.  Intead of her usual 
"Dasy-Duke"
jean shorts and bikini top, she was wearing a long western-type dress with a 
slight
ruffled hem, accented by cowboy boots.

The wolfess waking along side her, Laretta, was still dressed in her usual 
black leahter
mini skirt and red bustier.  On her feet were her usual frilly white ankle 
socks and her
black pumps.  Alex and Rachel were also waering their usual garb.  Upon 
seeing Vixina,
Alex said "Gee, I’m staring to feel a little funny.  I didn’t wear anything 
special.  Just
my usual red stage mini-dress."  "Why? Just take a look here, kid.  Think I 
would
dress differently for anything?" Rachel replied as she gasped at the artic 
fox with a
slightly puzzled look.  "Well, Ah figgered thet seein' as we ain't performin' 
at all, Ah
could jes' wear somethin' different, thet’s all," Vixina said as she adjusted 
her glasses
on her muzzle.

"Actually,I like this outfit, so I wore it" Rachel said in a slightly happy 
tone. "Now,
how come we din’t get the Best Metal Band Category"  "I think I can answer 
that, ladies,"
a male voice said from across the lobby.  Walking toward the members of Cassie
’s band was
a tall, slightly slender wolf-morph, dressed in a fine Brooks Brothers dark 
grey suit.
"Why Andy!  You look look Marvelous!  Mrrowl!!!" Cindy said as she saw the 
band’s
manager walking up to join them.  "Boy, do you ever.  Gotta date for tonight? 
 Do you
want one??" Alex asked.

"Hey,Alex,what about Rafe?  Or have you forgotten your cop boyfriend?" 
Laretta said with
an amused expression on her muzzle.  The arctic fox let out a yipping laugh 
before
replying "Oh, I was just kidding, you know how close Rafe and I are now."  
"Lahke yer both
in han'cuffs togethah.  Whut’s yer take on whay we didn’t get that Metal 
award
nominashin‘, Andy?" Vixina asked.  "Glad you asked, Vixina," Alex began as he 
put his
paw hands into the pants pockets of his suit.

"Well, it boils tow to two things.  One, Because the band combinds old-style 
Metal with electric and some country-folk, the academy members gave us the 
"progressive metal" label.  As you know, "prog. metal" isn’t very big right 
now and is thought of as regressive (ie: not what’s hip right now.)  Two, our 
album sales,with respectable,really aren’t as hight as a lot of the other 
Metal Bands out there." "Add to the fact that the band is currenly signed to 
foriegn or as the academy refers to as an "independent" label, stacks the 
deck against us, so to speak."

"That figures.So do think we have a shot at winning this ’best new artist 
one?" Cindy said
as she beagn to shift back and forth on her sandles.  "Yeah, I think so.  The 
only
other artist nominated is ‘Lucha’" the wolf morph said.  "Lucha? Isn’t that 
the siamese
cat femme with all the pop hits and high voice?" Rahchel asked.  "That’s the 
one,"
Cassie began, "She’s the hot pop sensation right now.  All the high school 
girls are
listening to her ercords and her debut album just went Platinum."  "We haven’
t got a
prayer," Cindy said as she turned to go into the auditorium.  "C’mon guys, let
’s get this
show on the road."

"Yeah,let’s take our seats.  Where’s Foxonian,Cassie? I thought he would be 
here." The
tall vixen gave a slight sigh before replying"  At our home in the 
Berkshires.  He’s been
laid up for two weeks, a disk slipped in his back and he’s unable to drive or 
move
around much"  "How did he do that Cassie?  Was he in an accident or 
something?"  Rachel
asked as she walked toward the band’s row of seats followed by Alex, Vixina 
and Andy.
"Did you give him too much lovin'?" Cindy said with a wink and a sly grin.  
"No,
silly," Cassie said as she gave Cindy a playful slap on the shoulder.  "He 
had this
injury from a car accident he was in before I met him, he was moving 
something when it
went out.  I wanted to stay with him, but he felt this was such an honor, I 
just couldn’t
miss it.  He insisted that I go"

"A good decision, in my opinion.  The band needs all the publicity it can 
get.  An
industry award can do wonders for album sales and concert bookings." Andy 
replied.  The
band members continued to talk amongst themselves as the rest of the awards 
show
attendees entered the auditorium.  As the show began, there were a lot of 
awards for
varoius industy pioneers in the morphic recording industry.  Many awards were 
given
for technical achivement and with the awards came the usual long winded 
speeches.  As the
show passed the 1 and a half hour mark, the reactions among the band members 
were running
form genuine interest (Alex) mild interest (Cassie, Laretta and Vixina) to 
outright
boredom (Cindy and Rachel).

Sometime during the cerimony, Cindy had taken off her stiettos and had 
propped up her
bare, human-like white padded feet up on the back of the seat in front of her 
(which
was unoccupied).  The snow lepord had her arms crossed and a annoyed look on 
her face.
Cassie looked over at Cindy and whispered "Hey Cin, put your feet down.  
We're on supposed
to be on tv, you know and what your doing doesn’t look very sophisticated".  
Cindy gave
the tall vixen a slight pissed look and put her feet down. She whispered 
back" Now I know
why I don’t wear these high heeled shoes. My feet are killing me.  I don’t 
care what you
say but I’m not wearing them again.  I’m waking either up to that stage or 
out of this dump
in my bare feet and I don’t give a crap what you think! When are we up, 
anyway?"

"After the Heavy Metal award" Rachel replied.  At the two hour mark, the 
Heavy Metal
Award came up.  The winner was MetalMorph.  They had a very popular album and 
Cassie and
Cindy knew that they were long overdue for the award, since that band had 
been one of
the first furry heavy metal bands, dating back to the early 80’s.  As the 
members
of MetalMorph came off the stage, Cassie and Cindy both got up from their 
seats and shook
the hands of all the members of MetalMorph, having known them for years.

"And now, the final award of the evening," said the show’s MC, Furry-Morph 
actor Jason Berg, a handsome lion and the top moneymaker of the action genre 
picks.  "Best New Artist. The nominees are: Lucha and Cassie’s Band."  "Here 
is comes,cross your fingers, guys!" Andy whispered.

"Cassie’s Band!"

Cindy sat in total shock.  Alex let out a loud whoop and said "YES!"  All the 
band's
members got up and went to the stage.  As they approached the podium, the 
award
which resembled a boombox held by a golden androgenous morphic statue was 
about to be given
to Cassie, but the tall vixen quckly motioned for her fellow bandmates to 
extend
their handpaws together, so each one held a part of the statue.  When Janson 
Berg
motioned Cassie to speak, she said "I would like to thank the academy and the 
industry
for this award, but I can’t thank them alone, since this isn’t my award, so 
we would all
like to say.." then Alex, Cindy, Rachel, Vixina and Cassie said in unison 
"Thank you!!"

The band then left the stage.  As they headed back to their seats, they wre 
met with a lot
of handshakes in congraduations from not only the MetalMorph crew but fom 
other attendees
as well.  As the band headed out of the auditorum, Alex asked "Well, where’s 
the award
going to go?"  Cassie said "I would like to keep it in Andy’s care,since he 
takes care of
most of the band’s business, that okay with you guys?"  A chorus of "yeah" 
and "sure"
echoed though the lobby as the band moved out.  One voice was absent.

"Anybody seen Cindy?" Cassie asked.  "Right Here!"Cindy said strutting towrd 
them in a pair
of leather biker boots.  "What happened to your fancy sandals, Cind?" Cassie 
asked.  With
a self-satisfied smile, the snow lepord began "I traded them for these. 
Remember that
English Setter femme that won "Best New country" star?  Well, she just loved 
my shoes, but
the biker boots she had on she hated. Her manager got them for her as part of 
her
"image".  Anyway, the long and the short of it is, we both made out well."  
As Cassie
passed the award to Andy,she looked the band and with a tear in her eyes 
replied "So did we."

THE END