Paranoia

___Another night, another dollar... yet... somehow it seemed like a good night to take a day off, a lazy night even. So thought a small, black vixen, her green and yellow eyes looking over the hazy Lower Commons from a shadowed fire escape. Yesterday she'd made off like a bandit, no pun intended, but she'd done more than she usually did... that is, picking pockets during the day and coming up dry, followed by intense hustling that night. She'd slept all morning and all day of course, but still she'd taken no vacation time since she'd planted her weed awhile back.
___Idly, she looked down at a street light some distance from the wall she was against and concentrated on making it flicker, trying to make it change different colors. The bugs around the bulb grew increasingly confused and soon the buzzing of both the lights and the wings of the additional insects who came for the street light that was brighter than the others were audible from quite a distance. Quiet... buzz... quiet... buzz... they alternated, forming an almost techno beat.

___Some down and out looking figure wandered on to the scene, the spirit's eyes lit up with expectation. He didn't look too broke and he looked like he lost his best friend... the perfect sort of fellow to recruit as a new customer! Jumping off of the fire escape, she shifted back into her more relatable human form and landed smoothly in a crouch, stopping for a moment to take off her cap, smooth back her hair, and replace it, doing a mental inventory count and rehearsing her oitch in her mind, before finally approaching the man, a wide, toothy grin on her face.
___"Tough times, my good man?" she inquired amiably, moving besides the man and matching his forward pace.

___"Awh, don't be like that...", she purred on. "Ye may not know this, but I has the answer to aaaall of yer problems. Yes sir," folding her arms and nodding, she dropped another observation. "That's quite a cough you've got there my good man. Any afflictions I should know about?" preemptively, she sniffed the air lightly to see if she could detect anything unusual. "Got some real good cough syrups. Street pharmeceu... farma... drugs and happiness, within yer reach."

___It seemed as though this fellow had no intentions of buying anything... moreover she knew from the air that something was different, yet familiar about this guy. Such a thing would make it hazardous for her to stick around if he genuinely, truly didn't want her there. Such a shame, though. With a short grunt (her equivalent of a sigh), she decided he'd best be left alone. "Alright, Brother Wolf..." she grumbled resignedly, trying to slap his butt quickly and suggestively in response to the glare. "Maybe we can catch up when yer feeling better, eh? You'll find me around."
___Turning, the woman shifts back down to her vixen form and would trot backwards unless interrupted.

___The fox blinked a few times as she was picked up, as a mother beast might pick up a child beast, by the neck. Purring lightly, she reached out her tongue to lick him on the nose when their faces were parallel. Somehow she felt threatened by the fact that this man might be a woylf, which would, in the natural course of things, be a potential predator of hers. Her immediate desire was to look cute and submissive in the hopes that he wouldn't give chase like the last lycan she ran into had. Maybe they could be friends...

___The creature replied with a slight swell of pride in her identity. "Eh? Name's hard to pronounce, but yew can call meh Grunty. Lower commons I consider to be my neck of the woods. I don't take too kindly to demons scaring off my customers, you know and... well, humans are very tasteh. I like to think I'm not, so that would make me not a human I guess. This is actually what I really look like. The other form's to help with markuh... marketing. People don't like to buy from little creatures you know. Makes it hard to relate and make the pitch. Only make believe. I got another one but I only use it when I'm fighting. You actually remind me of my good friend Brother Wolf... uhh... I mean you smell the same..." she smiled sheepishly, or rather, the canine equivalent. "Not that you have a bad smell, my good man, I rather like it."

___The little creature continued purring, blissfully unaware of her surroundings. It wasn't every day someone had the balls to pet one such as she anyways. As a matter of fact, she couldn't recall the last time she'd been petted... it was probably back in heaven. The touch brought back pleasant memories, and she wasn't really listening to the man until he posed the final question. "Ies a spirit. Ies from another plane. I heard your kind have someone like me living in em, eh? Makes em hear voices, makes em crazy, but that's just talk, I ain't never really asked one of you folks yerselves. Personally I don't understand why they ain't get their own bodies. Much more liber... lyb... freedom, you know?"

___Interestingly enough, despite her bad record the little fox never even whiffed the flames of hell. Tilting her head to the side a bit, she continued, "Well... actually naw. I'm from heaven... or a heavenish place. Got kicked out, though. My 'rents got kicked out first, and I was mad so I let them kick me out a few years after that. Do you know how hard it is to steal when everything's free? Oy..."
___The interruption of the rubbing brought her around. Unhappy that the nice feeling from the hand had stopped, she seemed a bit concerned. "Possession got ya down? Most people I know get along pretty well with their possessions. Plus, they give you powers, eh? I hear on the streets if yew really don't like the voices or whatever then you can have them dispelled by... well, guys who know how to seal, apparently..." Her eyes went up towards the clouds, as though she was thinking... a rare activity for her indeed.

___Resuming the interrupted purring and looking pleased, perhaps like a homeless person with a bit of crack money or booze might, she answered, "Yea, I like it here. It's a lot of fun. Yew get to do stuff here people don't even think about up there. They might let you visit my hometown sometime. They're a little bit less uptight there. It's mainly a bunch of forests with fruit trees and stuff... you know. Everything's designed to make everybody happy all the time. It's much different... much different."

___"Mmm?" It was an odd question for the spirit. A home... well, that would imply being tied down to a relatively small location. She roamed where she pleased but the question brought to mind a few warm nights with a human male who she cared more than she would care for a rock for a significant length of time. With a sigh, in sound something like wind blowing through a gravel put, so unused she was to making the sound, she continued, "Well, I did... once... neglected that boy. He don't want to see me anymore I guess..." her tail went between her legs and her yellow gaze sank towards the ground.

___"Really?" She lifted her head up and closed her eyes, enjoying the touches. This seemed like a nice fellow to be around. Naturally, with him being so nice she wouldn't ask him to join her gang or get otherwise involved in her professional life right away. Even the biggest bosses had to have space to recline and rewind every once in awhile away from work. This man's hand seemed like a vacation in and of itself. "Ah... talkin. People who know me say I likes to talk. Yew seem like a good man. I don't have many friends... not many I can trust anywho, but I guess you have a lot." She made the assumption with cheer and perkiness in her voice that showed her former sadness was far past forgotten.

___The little fox wagged her tail, "Eh? You don't trust humans? Well, I has to trust humans, y'know? They give me money to buy booze... lots of booze. Hey, but if you want to kill a few and just take the money, I don't mind, but we have to move someplace more... opuhlent." Opulent was such a big word, she was impressed that she'd used it, even if she didn't say it right. "I like to hunt in the hills when I want to kill someone, eh? But if you needs a friend, well, my Brother, I trust ye. Maybe we could go has some fun together. You got a place to crash, though? Ah! You like booze? I likes booze. We should go get some booze." Her tail began to windmill around in a novice version of a wag as she went over all the lower commons hotspots in her mind that until now she hadn't had a beau to accompany her to.

___"Eh?" Not drinking booze... what a difficult concept. How could you... not drink booze? Hmmm... well, clearly this was a troubled man, there was no other explanation. "Well, I ain't got no place to crash, I just sleep in the alleyways when I find the need to. Trash is comfy some days, brah, but male company is better if you know what I mean. Anyways! I think we should go get you boozed up my good man. You'll find all that ails ya fading away!"

___Landing lightly on her feet, the black fox seemed to get fuzzier over an instant and shift back into upstanding homo-sapien form. A cheerful smile was on her face, though anybody who didn't know her well would think it a malicious expression. "Alright... the bar's..."
___Lifting up her finger, she tested the wind to see which way it was blowing, and sniffed the air a couple of times before suddenly pointing east, "That way!" and running off.