Never Smile at a Crocodile (open)

[bloodyroses]

Lilith absolutely despised the racket of the train. It's gears and cables whirring and screeching as it kicked into motion under her feet. Her large ears flattened as she attempted to find a decent seat on the crowded train.

The bat was well-dressed, as always. Her dark fur was contrasted perfectly with a silky white blouse, black pin-striped pants. Her golden red fur was groomed to perfection. Her square framed glasses perched at just the right angle to allow the woman to peer through them with a look of lazy contempt.

Like she hated you but just didn't give a damn. Dr. Keroberus resisted the urge to wrinkle her nose when some young teenager, with his psudeo-rough exterior scooted to allow her some room to sit. The punkish squirrel had a damn safety-pin shoved through his nose, like it was meant to be jewelry of somesort. Lilith found it amusing that it was almost a eighty percent chance of the useless thing getting infected.

She took his offered seat with a sigh. Giving the boy nothing more then a slow blink. She wrapped her wings around her body, letting her delicate hands clasp together in her lap. Lilith Keroberus was not in a good mood.

She didn't feel like punching things, no. She would never fall to such mindless brutality. She wanted to find someone, tell them their problems and break them down. Why? beacuse she determined it to be her duty.

[Raron]

Tarsus stood holding the pole in the center of the train. Despite the smile on his face there was a bit of irritation in his eyes. He muttered to himself to release the irritation. Despite the fact he did it quietly the low rumble in his throat vibrated farther then he would like.
"Can't believe the bike conked out like that... today of all days. I just did work on that blasted part last week. Should have held together for another three months... not meltdown as soon as I tried to start her up in the morning."
He sighed theatrically and shook his head in disbelief. The massive ankyosaurus shrugged his shoulders in his old rundown trench-coat and let out a small chuckle.
It had been about twelve years since he had last ridden the train, perfering to ride his hoverchopper around but he figured he might as well try to enjoy himself. He let his eyes wander the train, picking out people, trying to figure out what their stories in the world were. From time to time he would nod to someone he recognised. Sometimes they nodded back, sometimes they adverted their eyes. He bat caught his eyes. All alone and trying to make herself smaller... and yet a wave of contempt came from her. He guessed she was not a social furre.

[bloodyroses]

"Can't believe the bike conked out like that... today of all days. I just did work on that blasted part last week. Should have held together for another three months... not meltdown as soon as I tried to start her up in the morning."

Of course she heard him, those huge radar dishes on her head were not for decoration. The big ankylosaurus talking to himself. He was an older gentlemen, but still managed to look rather rough and tumble, no kind little grandpa here. Under normal circumstances she would sit back and break him down into elements. Every atom of his apparent personaility neatly labeled as she picked him apart. Unfortunately for him, Dr. Keroberus was not afraid of the big dinosaur. Also unfortunate, she was feeling mean today.

She tapped his...elbow lightly, as it was the highest point on him she could reach without standing. Once she had his atenttion, Then the bat would tilt her head up to look him in the eye, peering thorough her square frames to say "Talking to oneself is a sign of stress you know..." her voice was soft, calm, and steady. Just loud enough to be heard over the din of the train. "Have you been stressed out recently?" From a cursory standpoint she seemed to be a kind woman trying to help. Whether that was her motive or not was questionable.

Once a shrink always a shrink. She would enjoy watching him awkwardly stumble around the question...if he answered at all.

[Raron]

He looked at her, suprised she asked the question. Other then the initial pause he did not hesitate
"Well... I suppose so, but then again the would be a normal reaction to life in the city and the ever increasing futile fight against ones own demise."
He shrugged, the whole fear of death had passed him by years back. The only thing that remained of it was a determination to make the grim reaper work for it.
"I am less stressed out then the average cubicle working and don't have to work in a 5 by 5 box until retirement or death so I suppose I come out ahead."
He smiled happily revealing that the front row of teeth were not the flat grinding teeth of a pure bred ankyo but more knife-like, resembling the front teeth of a predator.
"Also I get to have a lot more fun even on days like today so I guess I really have no reason to complain..."
He beamed down at her as his back which had been slightly sagging strightened out as if a weight had fallen off his shoulders. His feet felt lighter and the bone ache that was always present seemed to fad a bit.
"Heh, thanks for listening to me ramble there. Made me feel a little better."
He held out and down his hand to shake hers.
"Names Tarsus, pleased to meet you."

[bloodyroses]

"Well... I suppose so, but then again the would be a normal reaction to life in the city and the ever increasing futile fight against ones own demise. "Don't we all?" she interjected, her smooth voice taking advantage of his pause. "I am less stressed out then the average cubicle working and don't have to work in a 5 by 5 box until retirement or death so I suppose I come out ahead. Also I get to have a lot more fun even on days like today so I guess I really have no reason to complain...Heh, thanks for listening to me ramble there. Made me feel a little better."

Lilith nodded and smiled while he finished, the expression may not have been genuine but it was a damn good false face. As a psychologist she often had to sit and listen to people ramble on and on about their dull lives. This guy was a forest fire of interest compared to some of the people she saw on a regular basis. Depressed idiots who had nothing wrong with them except for a good case of boo-hoo i have responsibility. Long ago she had decided people would be a lot better off if they had never evolved past the "me like rocks' stage.

"Names Tarsus, pleased to meet you." She took his large rough skinned hand, her own delicate painted nails dwarfed by his. "Charmed...Dr. Keroberus." Always formal, always treated everyone politely and distantly. The doctor did not make friends, for whenever she came close to doing so she always picked apart their flaws and they ended up disgusting her.

She satisfied her social need by talking to her clients, helping them with their lives just for that short moment of seeing them vulnerable. She peered through her glasses again up at the big dino, "What do you work as anyway?"

[Raron]

He blinked once and then responded. It was an old response he had been going by for quite a while.. and for the most part completely true for the given value of true.
"I'm a repairman, I fix peoples problems for a living."
He shrugged one shoulder.
"It's good work, decent hours, good pay, and I have a pretty decent boss."
He raised his closed fist and extended his thumb towards himself with a grin. Gesture finished he opened his hand which had a business card contained in it.

Tarsus Ridge
You have a problem, he is the solution!

That and a phone number on the back was the only info on it. The wasn't so much as a overcheery cartoon figure on it or a symbol of a random tool. Just the name, motto, and phone number. The sheer simplicity was an abnormality unto itself. A simple knowing grin briefly crossed his face as he looked at her. He reached into his pocket and then his eye was caught by a NO-SMOKING sign. Sighing loudly he pulled out a hand rolled cigarette and opening his mouth he placed it upon his tongue and began to chew. The scent of sea salt flowed from his mouth as he chewed.
"So, doctor huh? What kind of doctorate do you have?"

[bloodyroses]

"I'm a repairman, I fix peoples problems for a living. It's good work, decent hours, good pay, and I have a pretty decent boss." Lilith nodded, inside feeling rather bored of this man. He didn't appear to be that interesting, she took the business card with a slight amusement. Why not? She might call him if her refrigerator decided to stop working. Or she could just throw all the food outside in the cold.

The woman tucked said card into her handbag, placing it in just the right spot. Her obsessive organized nature would disapprove of simply tucking the thing in her pocket or throwing it in the bag. Lilith knew exactly where everything she owned was, and more often then not could find it if she didn't. She was the person who arranged their pens by how much ink was left in them.

Inside she was disgusted as Tarsus pulled out a cigarette and began chewing it. Smokeing was a bad enough habit on its own, chewing them was just nasty. It did not show though. "So, doctor huh? What kind of doctorate do you have?" Lilith allowed herself a small, knowing smile. "Clinical Psychology. I'm a shrink." She generally disapproved of the term, but she had known people who were confused by the word clinical before so she thought it best to clarify.

It wasn't meant to suggest anything about the fellow's intelligence, it was simply something she had grown used to. She had learned of people's ignorance long ago, same time she had learned of fairy-tale romance syndrome and superiority complexes. They were something everyone had, enforced by their peers and the media. People became machines with repeated elements, even an psychopathic killer had something in common with plain jane down the street.

[Raron]

He grunted knowingly while continuing to softly chew the cigarette in his mouth.
"Hmm psychology... scientific study of mental processes and behavior, pretty hefty stuff. Guess I am not the only one here who makes a living solving other people's problems for a living."
He looked to the no-smoking sign again and sighed. He did not mind so much but it was a bit of a comfort thing, usually he had a smoke on the way to talk to a client to help get his mind in the right place. It was something silly but it worked, while the chewing helped it was no substitute for a good smoke. To keep his mind off this he regarded the bat before him again. He would have to be careful what he said. Last two times he talked to a pretty face, one had been an Angel and the other the head of the Foundry... Things like that could drive a furre to drink.
"Read up a bit on the stuff. After a short bit I stopped, I deal with other peoples dysfuntions on a daily basis... seems to me that it could become a habit of analalzing everyone you meet if you got to far into the science. I perfer to deal with realities over abstracts and nothing seems more abstract then what goes on between another furre's ears. I have enough trouble with what does on between my own. I mean what with quantitive psycology... I mean trying to apply math to the chaos in people's minds? No thank you.. bad idea if you ask me."
He blinked for a bit and rubbed the plate on the top of his head.
"Though I suppose you didn't did you. I am probably bori..."
Tarsus's friendly expression faded, a cold dark look seemed to emerge from his eye as he looked at another furre on the far side of the train. Tarsus did not move, he seemed not to blink or breath. Just stood as still as a furre hown of concrete and rebar. His gaze was directed at a racoon at the end of the car. The male coon seemed to feel the cold gaze upon him and looked up into Tarsus's eyes, swallowed, and standing exited the car and entered the one in front of them. Tarsus held that pose for a while. The icey cold look seeming to try to pierce the door. Finally his eyelids fluttered and he instantly resumed the grin.
"ng you to tears yapping on like this. I guess I am a little to fond of the sound of my own voice at times."

[bloodyroses]

"Hmm psychology... scientific study of mental processes and behavior, pretty hefty stuff. Guess I am not the only one here who makes a living solving other people's problems for a living." Interestingly enough he had provided her with a text book definition. It seems he wasn't what he appeared to be, a simple old man who fixed TVs and refrigerators.

"Read up a bit on the stuff. After a short bit I stopped, I deal with other peoples dysfuntions on a daily basis... seems to me that it could become a habit of analalzing everyone you meet if you got to far into the science. I perfer to deal with realities over abstracts and nothing seems more abstract then what goes on between another furre's ears. I have enough trouble with what does on between my own. I mean what with quantitative psychology... I mean trying to apply math to the chaos in people's minds? No thank you.. bad idea if you ask me."

She listened with a blank look on her features, understanding where he was coming from entirely to well. The toxin may have been demented, but she was was in essence dangerous and devious. She accepted the mind, and found it not in the least bit abstract. The toxin's mind was not to be questioned, the bat often spent her time sifting through the cavernous depths of her crystalline mind. The walls may have been cracked and blackened but she was still deceitfully intelligent. A fact that she was very aware of. Lilith realized was that she was reorganized as beautiful, a sleek, delicate beauty that was a dangerous as a well sharpened razor. She opened her mouth to add her quip into his mix.

"Though I suppose you didn't did you. I am probably bori..." Her train of thought was broken as she followed his gaze. Intrigued by his sudden interest in the raccoon across the car. What was that all about? Obviously he knew the man, somehow and from the look of pure venom he was giving him, the two did not have favorable relations. "ng you to tears yapping on like this. I guess I am a little to fond of the sound of my own voice at times."

She merely nodded.