You do What You do Out of Necessity...((Open))

[light]

Jennifer looked both ways as she waited for the street to clear before attempting to cross. Nothing about her suggested her trade, rather a poor yet hot woman. She looked and was a very intellectual person, like she belonged in society. But she didn’t, and the shame of this pushed her to fill out another prescription. I can’t break free of this vicious circle. I’m trapped, and I don’t have the will to fight it anymore. Jennifer lifted her bright eyes, blew a visible puff of air into the freezing air, and crossed the street.

After completing that task she made her way to her usual corner, the one near the bar, and sat down. Jennifer played around with her scarf before drinking some champagne that her boss had given her. Making a face of distaste, she threw the rest of it on the side of a filthy building wall. Well I’ll never become a drunk. Noticing a figure down the sidewalk she promptly stood up and put on her “game face”…

[enkashi]

The figure approaching that corner was male, a man somewhere in his thirties, and a black puma at that. He wore dark clothing, and looked beaten and sweaty, hardly the big-spender type. He looked like he'd been running for a little while, clutching an akward, large shape wrapped in brown paper as tightly as he could against his chest without hurting himself. He looked at the mink like how a wild animal looks at a possible predator, watching her, sizing her up quickly, but he tried to avoid making eye contact if at all he could help it.
From the point at which he entered the light, to halfway between that and the mink, he looked as if he would pass her without incident. A woop from a female voice came from the darkness behind him, and he just about leapt out of his skin, looking frantically for... something. There had to be *something* he could do. Again, though... his eyes rested on the mink. He broke for her, his eyes looking the beautiful woman over this time like a predator. A dull whine filled the air slowly, the volume rising. With it, there was a sound similar to very, very small helicopter running full bore, growing in pitch as it approached. Something was coming.

He affixed his eyes on the mink ever tighter as he drew closer and closer, about twenty feet from her now, just about dropping that object that was so precious. Fifteen feet; he was terrified, it was easily seen. This was the look of a man who had nothing to lose. Ten feet. He was close enough now that she would be able to see wounds on him. Some of his clothes were singed, fur as well, revealing some raw flesh. His breathing was ragged, like he'd bruised some ribs, and he had a black eye that swelled up just a little, hard to notice under black fur, but it was red. He'd been beaten severely, and recently.

From the darkness, that screaming, rhythmic sound's source came; it was a winged figure on a skyboard, garbed almost completely in green. Whoever it was, a welding mask covered their face, and they were moving too fast to give the mink a good look. He was overtaken just as his hands would have been able to grab the young adult. The person on the skyboard whipped right past, and down he went like a ton of bricks, the sound of metal cracking harshly across skull audible only after the creature in green passed the mink.

The whumping sound grew to a roar, and the sleek surface of the skyboard screamed in protest against the air as it was yanked in an unusual direction, forced to turn on a dime, right around the mink. She slowed to nothing, and the board dropped right on top of the screaming puma with a wet, packing sound that sounded something like he'd just been smacked in the face by a bear. The person in green was female, and exotic looking in how mismatched she appeared. Two gleaming white horns swept back from her head, and two small, obviously flightless wings were folded at her back, tight under an improvised shawl. She smelled strongly of engine oil and ozone.

The puma cried out in pain from her weight and the hot, uncomfortable surface of the skyboard on his body, and she crouched, still on him. "Hey chief, think you could just take that? Make a killing pawning it off, I bet, huh?" she said, her voice like she was talking to a disobedient child, not a dangerous, armed mugger who just about took a certain little mink as a hostage to avoid his doom.

The woman, with some obvious draconic heritage, flicked her striped orange-gold tail behind her, the whirring, repetetive whumping sound fading slowly as three moving rings on it slowed, then stopped. Her weight shifted foreward, pressing the mugger's face down to the dirty sidewalk cement, and snapped to look at the minkess lady-of-the-evening, golden-orange, draconic eyes glowing softly from beneath the welding mask, casting an eerie glow in the dull light. She blinked once, the light fading for just a second, and she pulled up her mask.

She was a hybrid, this female, likely some part fox and red panda from the mask that darkened her eye sockets around her glowing draconic, and most certainly a good portion dragon. She dressed and looked as if she could care less how she appeared to others, very much opposite of the lovely minkess. Her coat was all the same color, that rich golden-orange, stained and matted with bits of grease and dirt, looking a bit worn down even if her eyes were bright and frightening in this light. Her expression did not soften much, looking from the mink to the puma. One visible sigh later, she nodded, balancing on the whimpering thief with her board.

"Evening, miss."

[mneeah]

Leena, spying around as usual, had her mouth gapeing open fromthe acros the street where the scene just happened. She had seen the young Mink n her brother's bar a few times and wanted to, several times, try to get her to work at the bar just to get her off the streets. She felt so sorry for the young mink. Jessica? was her name? She knew bar life was no better but at least it was better than letting men have their way with you. (or at least she thought) The other rather attract female she did not know or had ever seen, Leena then became more curious. She crossed the street to aproach the protector of the young mink, she gave Jessica a friendly nod ans strode up to Boots. "Wow!" The young wingless gragon replied, "your hoverboard trick just saved the poor girl from a wold of hurt!" She looked down at the passed out Puma. She knew him of him, but very little. She may have seen him also at her brothers bar while she was working... Men in this part of town were all the same. Drunk and looking to get some, at what ever costs. She went to the Mink and patted her on the shoulder, "your name is Jessica right?"

[light]

Anyone looking at the puma’s desperate run might have pitied him of his wounds and the look of being trapped by impending doom. Jennifer however looked at him coldly, no longer looking to make a buck. As he approached her with increasing speed, she began to realize her predicament. Her body tensed underneath her plain attire as a hand reached for her syringe in her pocket which contained a useful, but illegal drug. However, once the puma was taken care of, relief flooded her emerald eyes as she took her hand from her pocket. It would have not been for her benefit to use the drug in public, even in self-defense. Jennifer gave her protector a sweet smile that showed her gratitude, not that the other would guess why she was truly thankful. “Good evening to you as well,” she completed the formalities like a perfect lady, “It was very much to my fortune that you came as such, please accept my thanks.”

Jennifer gave another cold look at the puma who thought he could use her so easily, glad that the matter had been absolved before the filthy man could put his hands on her. The thoughts that that notion brought gave her a shudder that made her feel the evening chill more fully. They were, thankfully, interrupted with the approach of a dragoness who seemed slightly familiar with Jennifer. She gave a vaguely interested smile before the other’s comment froze the smile on her lips. It was another blessing she used as a weapon to protect herself, no one believed she could protect herself. Still, it always lowered her fragile self-esteem more than it already was. The mink now had her back a straight and as stiff as a sword, smile plastered on her face and emerald eyes dim. When the dragoness came closer and patted her shoulder, it took much of her iron will to not flinch from her touch; it was her eyes that did the telling.

Regaining her composure, Jennifer smiled kindly at her, “No, my name is Jenny, do I know you?” Her eyes focused on the dragoness, assuring her of her sincerity. Those eyes, pure, innocent…were all lies, and truths. She tilted her face and gave her a sunny smile that encouraged her. Nothing in her expression gave hint to the blow she had felt from the other’s words