Obligations
A Thief’s Tale by LoquaciousJango
WARNING: No TFs here. Well, one. But it's pretty inconsequential. My other stories have plenty of TFs though. MAYBE YOU SHOULD READ THEM AND TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK.

“It’s your deal” Dell muttered, scratching at the rough grey fur under his neck.
“Right” the frizzy-haired austician across from him muttered, fiddling with the stack of cards in his hands. He began to shuffle, tossing out playing cards and keeping his eyes on his opponent’s fingers. Never could be too careful with this bunch. Dell grabbed his own hand, fanning it out before him.
“Tall card?” another kark, dressed in rich looking leather next to him asked.
The dealer cut the deck and flipped the top card. “Figs are tall”
An ermine next to Dell scowled and tossed two of his cards into the central pile.
“Mighty fine digs you got here Dell” the other kark admitted, adjusting his shades and craning his head back to both appreciate the scope of the lounge that they were residing in and attempt a peek at his neighbour’s hands.
“Thanks” Dell muttered, picking over his hand. “You could say the last owner was pretty eager to sell the place. Just took the right kind of leaning in the right place.”
“So the entire hotel’s yours?” The ermin inquired.
“Right down to the generators” the new landlord smiled toothily. “I’ve already got everything moved in upstairs, all I had to do was ship in my furniture and jack up the rent. Thinking of moving some of my clients in here too.”
“About time!” the ermin yelled across the room. Confused, Dell looked in that direction, spotting a crack in the large double doors, where a young busboy had silently entered with a trolley covered in snacks and booze. He quickly approached the group, not daring to speak.
“Shit Dell, you really know how to make an industry out of your business” the Austician scoffed as he drew a card from the pool.
The fidgeting busboy brushed his way in between Dell and the ermin, setting down glasses filled with smooth amber liquid. He was a pup of a kark, with his cap tightly crammed onto his head and his tail awkwardly wagging behind him, poking out of the back of his long, baggy servant’s robe.
“Ibycai must have owned this place last” the ermin grunted “Gonna have to do something about the dress code”
“The trick is in efficiency, Warrick” Dell explained to his Austician friend. “I doubt I’ve ever looked a single person I loaned to in the eye. People feel desperate, they come to one of my spokesmen, who then pass the deal on to me. It makes folks feel like they’re dealing with an actual bank or something. I divvy out the cash, they take on the debt, and I sit pretty and let the interest roll in. It sure beats running around the slums and banging down doors like I used to. Let other folks do that work.”
“I feel like I’d miss the personal touch” Warrick shrugged. “If you don’t know who anyone is, how can you make sure nobody’s cheating you?”
“Heh, I’m still getting used to the room service” Dell chuckled as he swirled his freshly refilled drink. “Anyway, where was I?”
“The personal touch” The other Kark answered, finally tossing down his cards. “Dammit, I fold” He resentfully grabbed a handful of nuts from a recently deployed basket.
“Right” Dell continued. “Point is, I keep tabs on everyone. Must have almost a hundred clients at this point, and I got their names, addresses, what they owe, everything I need is locked upstairs. I pull up who’s due this month, and I send out some muscle to make sure everyone’s feeling generous. I tell ya” He leaned back slightly “It’s a thing of beauty”

“I remember a time some old Protean lady had come to me, I kid you not, on her hands and knees” The other kark said. “Tried to get me to stop selling to her kid. Can you believe that? Some people have no respect for entrepreneurship.”
“Entrepreneurs, that’s what we are” Dell agreed, patting at the pockets of his gaudy cabana shirt for a pack of smokes. “Captains of industry.” He paused. Something was wrong. Dell felt around in his breast pockets, then all of his other pockets for good measure. What he was looking for wasn’t there. He got down on his hands and knees, feeling around on the floor.
“You alright Dell?” the ermin asked, shielding his cards just in case.
“Hmm?” he distractedly looked up. “Yeah, I just…any of you seen a little silver cylinder, kinda looks like a pen?”
The group collectively shook their heads.
“Right. Must have left it in my office.” The kark rose to his feet, a sense of unease curdling in his gut.
“You’re still the Heavy” Warrick reminded him of the game, rapping the table.
Dell quickly dealt himself out and departed, making a brisk walk towards his office. Steadily his walk evolved into a jog up the stairs, and then a full on sprint the remaining distance. He flung the door open and tore into his headquarters.
“Where is it!” he barked, throwing his chair aside and scouring the floor, scattering papers and trinkets from his desk. Quickly booting up the data terminal imbedded in his desk confirmed his worst fears. It wasn’t just any specific file that had been tampered with, it seemed as though his entire system had been scoured clean. He couldn’t even see the full extent of the damage, considering that all of his most important files were locked away behind a firewall matrix, which could only be lowered by encryption files held on a datacube. A datacube that was kept securely locked in the safe behind him, which could only be opened by a password and a code cylinder that Dell kept on his person at all times. A code cylinder that had recently gone missing.
Dell whirled around. “No, Dammit! NO!”
The door of his safe was indeed hanging ajar. The password could have been guessed or cracked, but how the hell had the thief managed to get away with his code cylinder was another matter altogether. He flung the door to the safe open, at this point dully hoping that something had been left inside.

Within the simple steel box imbedded in the wall, there was only a single item. It was a round, black, thoroughly grenadeish looking device which looked as though it had just been activated by the pull of a length of string attached to the inside of the door.

The Kark barely had time to react before it exploded in his face, spewing a load of grey sludge all over him. He opened his mouth to start yelling, but with a sudden shlorp, he felt as if his entire body had been suddenly and violently tugged into his own belly button.
A dull thud resounded throughout the room as a smooth grey-black ball hit the floor, slightly hidden underneath a pile of recently vacated tacky clothing. As Dell rocked back and forth slightly, all he could think of was a final and silent howl of condemnation against this intruder.
“Sonofabitch took my porn too”

*********************************

“Oof, you naughty boy” Eckelson Kwillit murmured as he awkwardly thumbed through the erotic magazine he was holding with one hand, the other busy clutching a pile of stolen clothing under his arm. To be fair, it was pretty classy stuff. Actual, honest to god printed medium. Static images on some kind of mylar, motionless, but with genuine weight to them. The kyroptian finagled the gentleman’s publication slightly to allow the centrefold to unfurl; a very impressive austician specimen with a glimmer in her eye and norcs like a pair of inviting jewels.
“I may hang on to this” He smirked, folding up the rag and tucking it into one of his vest’s many pockets. Somewhere behind him, a muffled, wet sounding explosion told Kwillit it was time to go. The thief quickened pace down the hotel hall towards a nearby trash incinerator. Tilting the chute open, he chucked each article of the clothing he had recently stripped off down the chute one by one. First was the bellboy cap, which had crushed his ears so terribly. Next were those ridiculous servant robes, garish fake tail still jutting out from the back.  And finally the artificial snout, which had hidden his own kyroptian maw underneath a much more kark-like visage, disappeared into oblivion along with everything else.
Eckelson may have liked to think that his pickpocketing days were behind him, but those skills were one tool that would never go obsolete.  

The evidence disposed of; Kwillit broke into a run, hitting a button on a remote attached to his vest. The window at the far end of the hall swung upon in response on a motorized hinge, letting in the wind and noise of the city outside. The kyroptian fluidly lowered his goggles without breaking stride and leapt into the night sky, cool air filling his billowed wings and carrying him out into his element. Eckelson allowed himself a small smile as the urban thermals from below served to keep him high above the street. Sometimes, everything just worked.

*******************************************

The multicoloured, chemical smog of the city intertwined with and swallowed the thin wisp of smoke emenating from the cigarette held lightly in Penndrana’s left hand. Her other arm was resting on the railing that prevented her from tumbling down onto the streets below.
She closed her eyes, folding her large, sensitive ears against her skull in an attempt to block out the wall of noise that drifted across the ragged cityscape before her. She just needed a little peace and quiet, and she was going to make this ten minute break count for something. The weathered employee idly wiped a hand on her apron and took another long drag on her smoke, leaning over the edge of the rooftop to blow smoke downwards onto the pedestrians marching far beneath her on the distant ground. She could feel the wind plucking at her folded wings like the threads of an instrument, her muscles aching with instinctual desire to spread wide and be born on those gales. But she resisted. Penndrana had to get back to the kitchens after all. She had far too much responsibility to go zipping about on a flight of whimsy. She decided instead to return the cigarette to her lips.

“Those things’ll kill you ya know.” A gruff but achingly familiar voice sounded out behind her.
“One day” Penndrana   sighed. “You’ll show me how you can sneak up on me like that”
The crouching figure on the ridge above her cocked his head in defiance “And why would I go and give away a trade secret?”
“For the same reason you always showed me how you did those magic tricks as a kid.” She took another drag off of her cigarette, sending a puff of smoke in his direction. “You like to feel clever”
“It’s a flaw” he admitted, finally detaching himself from the shadows with a flutter of his wings “One of many, or so I’m told”
“I’m only too aware” she offered a quick, rueful smile “Hello Eckeles”
“Penny” the thief answered back. “Can I get a hug?”

“This certainly isn’t a social call. So first, tell me what you did that’s caused you to come flapping over here looking for approval” Penndrana replied, an icy tone creeping into her voice and eyes.
Eckelson shifted his weight uncomfortably, his ears twitching slightly. “…so how are the kids?”
“ECKELSON”
The thief threw up his hands in surrender, gritting his teeth slightly “I just wanted to pop by and let you know that you don’t need to worry about that loan shark anymore. He just got a lot more problems on his plate. There, that’s all”
“What. Did. You do?” she hissed.
“What I always do” he shrugged. “What I’m best at”
“If you think stealing from him is going to somehow make this go away-“
“I didn’t take his cash!” Eckelson reacted “Well, I took some of it, but that was for me, but what I was after was This” he produced a small data cube. “It’s the only direct access to his financial records and their backups on his data cloud. And by the time he can get to them again, there won’t be much to read”
Penny only responded with a quiet simmer.
“Your debt?” Eckelson continued, blowing into his open fingers “Gone. That vulture won’t ever bother you again! And I think that’s pretty….” He trailed off, finally meeting his fellow Kyroptian’s gaze. A very heavy silence fell between them, before he broke it again. “You won’t take my money! I’ve got to do SOMETHING!”

“No one asked you to!” Penny finally exploded “I never asked for this kind of help! Don’t you think? Don’t you think that maybe this could be traced back to me? To my children?”
“You and about a hundred other folks who also found themselves with a clean slate” He griped “And your ex-landlord certainly isn’t in a position to come down on anyone after what I did”
Penny’s face fell “Eckelson, you didn’t-”
“What! No! I’m no mercenary, I just pulled a fast one! Blew him up, or shrunk him down, or…it happens to everybody these days in this bloody galaxy!” He kneaded his eyes in exasperation.  “I’m not an assassin. That’s not me. And I’d never do that to you”

Penny’s shoulders fell as she saw the weary holes in his shell of bravado. Finally, she spoke in a softer tone.
“I’m supposed to be the one gripped with righteous indignation” she finally complained.
“And I’m supposed to be the one with the unhealthy habits” Eckelson responded, tapping his lips as Penny brought her smoke back up to her own.
“Sod off” she grunted, leaning against the handrail behind her and feeling the draft of the city tickle her hair. She searched for the right words before speaking again. “I’m…grateful” she said resignedly. “And I’ll bet that things’ll be a little easier, for a time. But stop making me lean on you. One day you’re just gonna have to let me stand on me own. And I can. Even with everything pressing down on me, I can.”

“Can’t help it” Eckelson sighed “Life’s hard enough, even harder for the likes of us. People like to press on us, like it’s somehow acceptable to squeeze folks just cause they don’t have a home, or a family. No body looks out for us but us. And no matter what you say, you’ll always be my baby sister”

“We aren’t back on that old rust bucket colony ship” Penny breathed at her brother. “Back then it was life and death, now I feel you’re just using me as an excuse. Maybe you should….” She paused. “Maybe it’s time for you to come home. There’s a life for you here you know. It’s not pretty, but it’s honest. And it’s with your family”

“I told you, I have a life out there” Eckelson motioned with one hand towards the stars. “And it’s mine. I don’t belong to anybody, I do what I like to. I get paid. If anything, you could come with me.”
Penny raised an eyebrow at this.
“I’m serious!” he continued. “I live well, when I’m not working. I could set you up, get you off your feet for just a little while-”
“And help you out on jobs, maybe?” Penny interrupted her brother. “Nothing’s free Eckeles, you taught me that. Maybe I could help you crack a safe, while the kids learn how to pick locks.”
“It’s a useful skill” Kwillit grumbled.
“If I ever catch you trying to teach them that again” Penny replied pointedly “My next smoke is going out in your eye”
“Point” Eckelson stated simply. There was a pause. “So…how are they doing anyway?”
“Enna’s fine” Penny responded “Reif wants to see you again. You could come over. After work.”
“Can’t” He replied heavily “I’ve got a job waiting for me and I need to clear out of here fast, preferably off world.” He sheepishly scratched the back of his neck. “…does Enna still like those Proto-Power dolls?”
Penny sighed heavily and nodded.
“Good” he continued “And tell Reif I’m sending him a few more games for his PlaySphere.”
“They don’t need toys, they need their uncle”
“And I’ll see you as soon as I’m able. Promise”
Ecekelson moved to the edge of the roof top and started to stretch out his wings. “Take care of yourself Penny”
“I’m trying to, if you’d let me. And you do the same” She replied.

With a flutter of his wings and a quick leap, he was gone; drowned in the bustle of urban traffic, lost in the neon haze of the city lights.
Penny finally extinguished her cigarette, gazing at the spot that her brother departed from. “And for heaven’s sake Eckeles, stay alive”