Ally Miller. Agent Miller within SHIELD. Recently promoted due to her work on the highly classified Fox Case, and her continued work on it. She is on break. As she sits in her small apartment, eating... she can't help but remember. That a shadow fox is in her shadow. She can't sense it. It's been under her shadow for four weeks now. Yet nothing. No signs of Mr. Fox's so-called gift. Not even a weird dream. That shadow's name was Karlen. Male, and anxious. Ally worries... as she eats her dinner. It's late at night. She sighs, "Whatever." Then heads to her bed, and sleeps.
When she sleeps... she dreams. Normal dreams. Then... wakes? She finds herself in a black void. Nothing around her. She's walking in ankle-deep water. "Where am I?" She says, confused, yet unable to think clearly. As she walks... she looks at her hands. Confused... animated? They are clearly animated. She looks around and sees a fox sitting there. Black silhouette, with glowing purple eyes. It looks at her. Curious. Anxious. As it tilts its head. She's confused. As it walks to her. Then walks into her. Then... she wakes up. It's morning. She wakes up with a headache. Her legs and arms hurt. She opens her eyes, groaning. Then frowns. She's... on the couch? She gets up suddenly. Looks around, confused. She went to sleep in her bed. She walks, uncertain. Her back hurts. She gets up shakily... and finds an open plastic container of spaghetti on the floor. Eaten from. She remembers packaging it last night. Putting it in the fridge. A handprint is in the sauce. It looks like someone was crouching and eating. Like a human on all fours. Unnaturally. She frowns deeper. She's shaken. That dream... and then this? She walks to the bathroom for cleaning supplies, then freezes. On her face... red. Spaghetti. Her left hand... red sauce. She realizes. She ate from the ground. From that container. And... "Oh fuck..." she backs away slowly. "W-What? How..." She's deeply scared. Had... had the shadow controlled her last night? She looks at her knees. They're bruised. Her hands oddly firm. As if... they were walked on. All fours. 'Foxes are quadrupeds' the image goes thru her head. She realizes instantly... she was possessed.
She gets angry, slowly. The... the shadows were once humans? Why? Why had it walked on all fours? Why... did it take control last night? She realizes she ate off the ground like an animal, and feels deeply sick. Why crawl like that, without dignity or context? Karlen was once a person. The image of herself, crouched, hand in a plastic tray, sauce smeared on her face, makes her want to vomit. She splashes cold water on her face in the bathroom. Stares at the mirror. As if her reflection could answer the questions clawing at her gut. Was Karlen trying to connect... or simply indulging a fragment of who he used to be? She decides not to report it. She says out loud, feeling silly, "Karlen. Can... can you hear me? Why... Don't... stop. Don't do that. Uh... FUUUCK!" She rubs her head. Silence. She sighs deeply. Bends down, back aching, and grabs cleaning supplies.
Eventually, she moves to take a shower. Then realizes... she has a shadow watching her. Or not. She doesn't know. Karlen is a guy. She blushes, unsure. She sighs. They've already watched her take showers several times over the last few weeks if they are watching. She shakes her head. Takes the shower anyway. She wants the heat. Wants to feel water over her back. As she showers... she thinks. Then mutters, "Cameras. I'm installing cameras." Decision made as she nods.
The next few days, nothing. Though she's tempted to take some meditation classes. She installs the cameras. Gets them working. Eventually, it happens again. She wakes in the dream. The water place. Animated. Lucid. It doesn't feel like a dream. She stands in the void, water at her feet. Begins walking. And walking. After some time, a shadow fox stands nearby. A little less excited. More quiet. She walks over. It looks at her. Glowing purple eyes. It's hard to think... but she senses distress... embarrassment from the fox. Quiet. But somehow... she knows what's wrong. She's not sure how. But she knows, Karlen is sorry for angering her. Then... Karlen asks, no voice, to have some time. She nods slowly, she does not fully know why. Instinct. Then... Ally Miller wakes up suddenly. She's on her bed. But... backwards. The blankets messed up. She's holding them close. Her head hurts. But she feels okay. Her back aches as she moves, gets up. Nothing too crazy. As soon she arrives at her kitchen. Then she frowns again, food pulled from the fridge. A pizza. But it was eaten more carefully this time. Thou clumsily eaten on the floor. She frowns.
She sighs. Cleans up. Checks the footage. She sees it. Herself, laying in bed... then... shadows shift. A shadowy figure. Fox ears. Over her head. Her eyes open, glowing purple. The same glow as the shadow foxes. Her hands rise. Grasp in, grasp out. Unfamiliar. As if new to this. She smiles. Wide. Dumb. Rolls in bed. A nearly animalistic sound of joy escapes her human mouth. As its a bit disturbing... sad... to see her body act like a uncontrolled animal, or toddler enthralled at existence. Then... after some time. Her body moves off the bed. Tries to get out of bed. Leaning hard on the wall, with shaking legs. Gritting the teeth, breathing hard. Tries to walk upright. Falls down with a thud. As her body breaths on the ground. Then leans on the wall, grips the bed, and her nightstand. Tries again, then... falls again. Over and over. 8 attempts. 8 fails. Until it gives up, she is unmoving from the ground. She begins to sob, pull her limbs in. Bang her fist on the ground. Then after a few minutes, her body grits its teeth, walks on hands and knees. Her hands. Her knees. It speaks... Chinese. A short, angry, sad, depressed phrase. She frowns. Is the shadow Chinese? The body wanders her home.
Eventually it finds the fridge. Smiles. Pushes it open with her hand, awkwardly coiled like a paw. Grabs pizza in a plastic bag, grabs it with her mouth. Puts it on the floor. Door shuts. It doesn't know how to open the bag. Just stairing at it, shaking, axious, embarrassed. As it fidles with the bag... in a depressingly inexperienced eight minutes to get the baggy undone. She fast-forwards. Eventually it eats. Blissfully. Just lying there. Feeling things. Hands. Skin. Touch. Enjoying being... human? In a body? She's not sure. It crawls to the bedroom. Climbs up. Lays down. Grabs the blanket. A shadowy tail. Fox ears. Glowing purple eyes on her face. As it lays... it speaks loudly, chinese... a few minutes of it. Its talking. Then, after two hours, it falls asleep. And stays that way until morning.
Ally Miller closes her computer. She... is quiet. Unsure what to think. "You don't know how to be human... do you?" Her hands shake. She opens the computer again. Works to translate the Chinese phrases. From when her body was cursing its inability to walk. It translates to: "Why can't remember how to move! Fuck... it should be easy. Curse Fox." Ally works to translate more. After eating pizza, he said: "Forget taste... taste amazing! Taste amazing!" Later, while laying in bed: "Lady... thank you... sorry can't walk... Hope watch with care... but... me like body... body nice... thou... I was male... but... shadow fox... have no gender... so me say nothing... girl body weird but soft..." He looks at her breasts, and moves her arms around them. Blushes embarassed. "Fox... he want me here to watch world closer... to be prepare for threats... and give you strength... protection... and give others help... Fox is... nice... but... strict..."
She feels... unsure. Exposed. Yet empathetic. As her hands shake, and she blushes. A guy just used her body. Was in her body. Could feel everything. She sighs. Holds her head. Tries not to think about the fact he could, technically, do weird shit. As her. Curse her thoughts. "Please... just... don't do anything weird, Karlen." But she feels a pang of something deeper. He doesn't know how to be human. She sighs. "How long have you been a fox? Next time you do this... answer me." She sighs deeply. Holds her head. This is fucking weird as hell. He watches her 24/7. He shares her body. Can feel everything in it. She feels weird. "Mr. Fox has no concept of privacy... fucker..." She gets up. And goes to live her life, as usual. Just because she shares a body with a ghost-boy-shadow-fox... doesn't mean she doesn't have work. She has paperwork to work on.