Cocoa turns smoothly to keep the black fox in his sight. 

"I can bring you smokes. And clothes, and food. You've been stealing from the nets, haven't you?"

The fox narrows her eyes, and a wave of killing intent rolls off her. "And what if I have? These humans don't have the strength to keep it from me. It's rightfully mine."

"I agree. But if you keep terrorizing the kine of other cultivators someone with the strength to put you down will eventually show up. Can't we organize some from of tribute?"

"Tribute." She takes a deep drag of her stolen cigarette. "I like the sound of that." 

She sits down cross-legged on the concrete. "Alright, let's talk terms."

Black Claw carefully puts away his knife, and sits. He gestures for Trys to sit as well.

So they're not about to end up fighting. Good.

She does, hands visible and clasped in front of her. Tries to smile.

"So," asks Black Claw. "What do you want?"

"Cigarettes. A dozen packs in a variety of brands, I want to find a favorite. A black silk kimono. Baseball caps, sneakers, socks, underwear, t-shirts and jeans, all in my size. Food. Chocolate cake. Hamburgers. Steak. Bloody rare. A phone. Unlocked, with a data plan. Fifty qi and blood pills to aid my cultivation and energy. A house. Not an apartment or a condominium, a house. That nice knife of yours."

"I can do this, but it will take time to put it all together."

"Mm. You have a day. And I will take the knife now."

"Do you swear to uphold the terms of the agreement?"

"Yes, yes, I swear to uphold the agreement. So long as you deliver the promised tribute I will not bother the kine here for one month. I will have further demands in a month."

"Then we are agreed." 

She flips the knife, and offers it handle-first to the fox.

She can probably arrange some of that for Cocoa. If her heart will stop going a mile a minute.

She's the humble junior now, just listening silently. It doesn't help that... Those demands sound kind of unreasonable and rude to her, but Cocoa just - accepted them? Is the group that rich? Is she a big deal somehow? She has no context. Piping up would be worse than useless. So she doesn't.

"I will see you here again tomorrow at this time and have you bring me to the house, which will contain everything I have demanded. Until then."

She shifts again, the dagger disappearing under her skin, and becomes a regular-sized black fox. She pads off into the night. 

"Well. That went well. Let's discuss back at the house."

"Yeah, I- Yeah."

Once they're jogging back, she says, "Wish I just - knew when to shut up, but I was too scared to move for half that."

"It's natural. First time doing a staredown. You did well - you let me talk and didn't start shit. Now we're going to be able to resolve this peaceably."

"Was she-" Headshake. "No, shutting up, discuss back at the house."

"Yeah. She's shadowing us, I can smell her. Some of this is better discussed where she can't hear."

Makes her twitchy. Her hand goes in the pocket with the knuckles again, not entirely consciously.

She's quiet the rest of the way back.

Black Claw gets the gate and the front door, and then they're safe. 

"So. Give me your analysis of that negotiation, hey? And then I'll explain to you what I know."

"I lack context. I don't know this - world. Um. She snuck up on us. Higher level than you? But- Hmm.

She wanted food. Shelter. A weapon? Reasonable if you're scared all the time. And smokes aren't exactly a necessity to her but- but she wasn't just asking for cash or treasure.

"......Either savage, like ascended animal or something, or desperate, and she didn't seem savage. She knows about phones and hamburgers."

"Yeah. Even monsters have enough internal organization to provide the necessities of life. She had none of them. No food, no shelter, no ability to pass, and no satiation for her addiction. No wonder she resorted to attacking people - she's homeless and desperate. Likely she got thrown out of her clan for something. "Tribute" was just a way for her to save face when what really we were negotiating was getting her on cultivator welfare. And next time we negotiate, one of the Seniors will be in the room with us. Probably Hannah since she's close. With the power firmly on our side of the table, the next set of demands won't be so unreasonable. I'll probably even get my knife back."