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, if she remembers right. That shadow nodded—oddly excited—when it was given to her. 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. She says, "Where am I?" Confused, yet unable to think clearly. As she walks... she looks at her hands. Confused... animated? She looks around and sees a fox sitting there. Black silhouette, with glowing purple eyes. It looks at her. Curious. A bit excited. Anxious, even. She's confused. 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.
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 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. It wasn't just animalistic. It was intimate. A violation of self-image. Of identity. She splashes cold water on her face. 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..." 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. Is Karlen a guy or girl? 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.
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. 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 says slowly, "What's wrong?" 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. "Sure... just don't make a mess. Don't... don't hurt me." She's not sure why she says that. 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. Then she frowns again—food pulled from the fridge. A pizza. But it was eaten more carefully this time.
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. Then the body rolls. Tries to get out of bed. Tries to walk upright. Falls. Tries again. Uses the wall. Falls again. Over and over. Fails. Until it gives up. After 18 minutes. It cries. Sobs briefly on the ground. Then 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. Finds it hard to stand. Or move like a human.
Eventually it finds the fridge. Smiles. Pushes it open with her hand—awkwardly. Grabs the pizza bag with her mouth. Puts it on the floor. Door shuts. It doesn't know how to open it. Takes 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 walks to the bedroom. Climbs up. Doesn't know how to walk properly. Lays down. Grabs the blanket. A shadowy tail. Fox ears. Glowing purple eyes on her face. 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?" She opens the computer again. Works to translate the Chinese phrase. From when her body was cursing its inability to walk. It translates to: "Why can't remember how to move! 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... 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. 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 files to process.