tampered | (no subject)

Current Mood: uncomfortable

(no subject)

When; December 13th, afternoon
Rating; R for charming language. It's Anita and Reno, ok?
Characters; Anita

elevatorwarrior
Summary; Anita's out to see what she can find out about what's going on. She just happens to run into a less than well Reno.
Log;

Anita had finally had enough of lingering on rooftops around the city. Now, she wandered through the thin groups of people, eying them with a predator's eyes. Every now and again, she'd catch a whiff of rot and stop, brow furrowed before the scent moved on and left her frowning after it.

After being out most of the day, she'd decided it was almost time to make the rounds and check on some friends that had started to come up sick. Before that could happen, though, she needed to duck into a few spots to make sure she was stocked up for what might be coming as well as check in at Lux.

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Still trying to focus on Tseng's order to find Cissnei, he started finding himself distracted more and more by the... smell of healthy people. They smelled good, and very tempting, even tasty. Only his training kept him from giving in and trying to take a bite out of passers by; he had a job to do.
His job was not made easier by the fact the sun was starting to make his skin itch and his eye blur, but those effects he blamed on the headache.

There, that whiff of something in the air, that was familiar. Someone he knew?

It took a moment for Anita to register Reno, and she just recognized him by his hair. He looked hunched in on himself and she knew he hadn't been well, so she changed her steps to take her closer to him, one hand straying close to one of her well hidden knives.

"... shouldn't you be in bed resting?"

There it was. He recognized her right away. "Hey, Anita. I was just looking for Cissnei." Here, his voice faded a little- sore throat, gods he hated sore throats. "Orders, stuff like that... I feel fine now, just a bit weird." Stepping closer, he sniffed at her. She smelled very fresh, delicious even. No, Reno, dammit, don't bite her...

"You shouldn't be out. You look a little pale, you know. See if you can con Cloud or Zack into finding her."

She didn't step back when he moved closer. Her instincts perked up at his nearness, and she knew he wasn't as well as he said he was. Maybe he just hadn't realized it yet.

Reno tilted his head and frowned a bit at the idea. "Get Zack or Cloud to do a Turk's job? You're kidding, right? Tseng gave the order to me, so I should find her... and she calls me a brat." That set him off to grumbling under his breath, still feeling that rawness in his throat. That was odd, even with a sore throat it should numb down a little after talking a bit... "I'm all right, Anita. Don't worry so much. I got it covered. Just been inside for a while, y'know?"
Despite his assurances, his head did feel a little off. His thoughts were sluggish and slow, and for a second he wished that he could just stop thinking at all and go, but go where?
There was one thing he was sure of, though... he wanted to eat Anita, just a little taste.

"No offence, but you look like shit, Reno. Go home and go back to bed. I'll help look for her if I have to." A whiff of something wrong came to her and if she'd been a wolf, it would've raised her hackles, but she still didn't back away like she knew she should. Instead, she stepped even closer, frowning a little.

"Nah... I'm fine..."

Tempting, so tempting... no no, not Anita... bite!
Reno leaned forward and aimed for her shoulder, teeth shining white. A putrid smell, like that of a rotten raccoon laying dead in the sun too long came from his throat, where the disease had started decaying his flesh.
Blood. Food. Hungry!!

A hiss slipped free as his teeth closed on her shoulder, but she just reached up to curl her hand into his hair.

"..... Reno. Let go. This isn't what you want."

At the touch of slow death, her power flared up, white-hot under her skin. The fingers in his hair tightened a little as she tried to reign her necromancy back under her control.

Slowly, he let go and backed away, looking rather confused. "But, you're really tasty, y'know? Just a nibble?"
Disliking anything in his hair, he pulled his head away, a few strands of hair ripping free. "I'm really hungry..."

With bared teeth, she stepped away, not reaching for her bleeding shoulder.

"You want to go home now, Reno. There's steak there and I can promise it won't shoot you in the fucking head if you bite it."

"No, I really think I'd rather stay out here..." Folding his arms, he stood his ground and stared at her, the hungry expression emphasized by a small trickle of blood from his lip... which he promptly licked off. "It's nicer out here. Get to see all the tasty people."

"No."

In a flash, her hands were buried in his shirt and she was using a good deal of her unnatural speed and strength to move him away from innocent civilians. Down a shadowed alley they went, leaving enough wall at the end for Anita to shove him, hard, back against it.

"Fuck that. No eating people. You're not some fucking zombie."

Not yet, anyway.

Reno blinked in surprise, but didn't fight back, despite the strong urge to do so. He huffed when he hit the wall, and scrambled to get his feet back under him. "Not a zombie, just hungry... haven't had anything to eat in days... I just got a rash."

Rash? The decay on his arm was starting to show past the wrist, and the sun had intensified the smell...

"Yeah... it's just a rash, Anita. Don't worry about me."

"It's not a rash. You're changing, Reno. You need to find help before that happens."

As if to prove a point, she shoved her naked wrist under his nose, staring at him with eyes gone a few shades lighter than before.

There was no way he could resist that, the texture! The smell! Oh, and the tiny taste he had... it mixed all together, drawing out an irrepressible urge to gnaw and eat, the hunger getting the better of him... and then Reno bit hard with a snarl, teeth sinking deep.

As soon as he bit down, she pulled her arm back and tossed him towards the closest wall, growling under her breath.

"Since when do you bite anyone like that? Don't you see what's happening to you?"

The wall stunned him for a second, and he collapsed to the ground. "...but I don't got a choice. I got to eat, Anita." The turk-turned-zombie growled under his breath, fighting a wave of dizziness as he climbed to his feet.

"I need to eat... but it's..." he paused, leaning against the wall for support, everything starting to make sense now, "it's damned weird. Cissnei, she's..."

Why was it so damned hard to think now? Why couldn't he just come to the right conclusions? The effect of the disease? That had to be. "Zombies back home were just, bodies. Phoenix down killed them... not like an illness."

"Nothing's normal in this city. You know that."

She rounded on him, keeping herself moving to keep a step ahead. Her shoulder was still seeping blood and a thick trail of crimson slid down her fingers to drop onto the ground.

"I can't even let you go home now."

"I got the cats to feed." He protested, backing up into a darkened area of the already shadowed alley. There must have been a mistake somewhere, he couldn't be a zombie, she just didn't understand "C'mon, I'll prove it... you say I'm a zombie, right? I'll go where you say, get over it and things will go back to normal. When would a zombie say that? They'd just... you know, hurl zombie guts on your shoes."

She nodded to the side, silent instructions to go on.

"Go on, then."

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