Fresh Meat [OPEN]

“Family, huh?” Anonymous mumbled to himself; he looked at the distance while taking a bite of his sandwich, clearly deep in thought. It’s been quite a long time since he had a family, so hearing that word again is a bit strange for him. He took a slight glance at Limen, who just simply enjoying her sandwich and relaxing herself. Wolfie over there is clearly enjoying itself without paying much attention to anything around it.

There’s the feeling of melancholy once again; it keep creeping up to him every time he looked deep in thought about the situation. He need to focus; this hobo disguise is what keeping him safe at the moment. Though come to think of it, Limen here seems to act kindly to his homeless persona; from her surface thought, he can see that she share the similar understanding of being alone without a place to call home. He couldn’t get deeper as to why, or what cause her to choose this lifestyle; he was curious, and sometime he just couldn’t help himself:

“What happen to your actual family then?” He asked Limem without taking much into precaution, “does something happen that drive you to steal food for survival?”

Lobisomem let their face soften into an unmistakable smile as the subject of family continued on, family was the only thing they knew they loved, most other people, not so much.

They scoffed at the women's story, not believing you would run away from a place that got you constant food. Then again, they couldn't read minds, so they neglected to say anything.

Their ears perked at the question about their own family, thumping their tail as they thought about it. Their mom and dad both worked in the business world, doing what, they didn't care to ask. They knew their extended family was big, but they never came over for a visit, nor would they ever help. Still, their parents were the most important thing they could recall.

They didn't intend to share this explanation with these strangers and settled with, "They cannot pay for my appetite." So here they were, resorting to thievery.

The wolf super's mention of not having enough food brought back memories of weeks out in the forest, no stores in sight and no money even if there were. Limen had to learn how to hunt pretty quick after she left home; not just how to kill an animal, humanly if possible, but how to skin them, prepare the meat, and save as much of it as she could for as long as she could. Foraging also had become a skill of hers, and learning what to do if she foraged the wrong thing. Days she failed at these skills were days she went hungry. Now at least in the city she had easy enough means of getting food. If all else failed she could just go to the horde and round up something there, but she could relate to not having enough.

She looked up from the ground at the super. "I'm a pretty good hunter, wouldn't you know. Just say the word if you ever want to go get some deer meet with me. I know a good spot up in the mountains here."

The man's story was not a new one, both in the sense that she'd heard of this incident in the mountains, and in that such the situation the man found himself in was not so uncommon that she hadn't heard similar stories before. She could recall exactly when the Holloway murders had happened; either just as she was arriving in Emerald City or not long before. The story had been fresh and was a favorite amongst both gossipers and those looking for a hint on sympathy. More interesting was the man's change in tone. Back to that nervousness, it seemed.

"Sucks you don't have a job. I'd offer you one, but position I have available is my sidekick and, well, occupational hazards include falling off the back of motorcycles, getting arrested, and arrows to the knee." She joked, getting that out of the way. There was something she wanted to ask the guy. "So I've got to be curious - Wolf Friend here and I are both supers, but you didn't ditch as soon as you saw us like is, you know, normal for most people with any sense of self preservation. Yet not only did you not run, you're still here. Why?"

Anonymous chuckled at Limen’s attempt to recruit him,

“I’m afraid I’ll just be dead-weight for you.” he said to her in his homeless voice, “I don’t want to drag you down; beside, if you got in a fight with a super, I can’t really do anything but run and hide.”

He knew she was only joking, but it fun playing along with the joker too; it’s nice to have some genuine laugh now and then. When he notice Limen’s memory seem to recall about her time spending in the forest, foraging to stay alive, he wondered if that’s really happen or just another one of her weird thought. Looking at her choice of weapon, she clearly know how to use a bow, so perhaps the story isn’t too far-fetch after all.

When Limen asked him that last question, Anonymous could already tell they might get slightly suspicious. Guess that make sense: when a super is present, civilians tend to run away in the opposite direction as quickly as possible. In the case of Wolfie over here, the chance would increase tenfold. However, Anonymous doesn’t seem to worry about that at all:

“W-Well,” he pretend to be slightly nervous and ashamed, “when you don’t have much of real food for a day or two, you…kinda feel desperate to get food anyway you can. W-When I notice you with two big bags of food, I-I was waiting for you two to leave so I can get whatever you left behind.”

He laughed nervously, “I even thought of grabbing one of the food bags and ran away as quickly as I can without being eaten by your…um…friend here. B-But when you noticed my present and invited me over, I was too hungry to care about anything. Beggar can’t be chooser, after all.”

He finished his sandwich and crumbled the wrapping in his hand before getting another food item out of the bag:

“I was scared at first, I must admit, but when I get to see how calm and “friendly” you are, I can feel all my worry fade away. When you spend most of your life worry about being involved in a cross-fire between two supers, it’s nice to have a change of pace.”

Lobisomem silently agreed with the man, just one day rendered their ribs visible, but didn't humans not need to eat for a little? They doubted they would survive more than maybe a week without food, though they'd never let it get to that point.

Their ears swiveled to the women as she started talking dangerously, almost seeming about to attack the man, it reminded them of certain people who'd they usually give a black eye. It unsettled them.

Then the smile. Lobisomem was already moving before she jumped, letting out a shriek that was loud enough to make even themselves regret it for an instant. One paw moved to block her, but even if it missed, their other paw moved to shove the man away. They didn't care to have another person yelling and screaming at them again.

Limen let out a grunt as she hit something hard - Wolf Friend’s paw, she realized as she hit the ground in a roll. She rose to a crouch a number of feet away. Her stance remained low, her arms in front of her defensively.

The growl made the hair on the back of her neck stand on end. The super had… twisted. And she’d been talking about how friendly looking supers could turn on a dime.

“Oi, oi, it was just a bit of play.” She said hurriedly. Her hand wanted to reach for the bow on her back, but she knew she’d need it free to dodge. “I didn’t mean any real harm. No need to get antsy.” Her voice wasn’t fearful, but it had grown serious. Her breathing was even and her eyes were locked on the super before her. Wolf Friend looked keen on finding out what Limen’s internal organs looked like. She did not intend to let them see the light of day. Running was an option, but it was also a way to get a claw to the back if she wasn’t careful. Fighting was not one she liked the prospect of.

For now she watched. If they were going to attack, she had to be ready.

Taking Wolfie’s advice on staying away from the fight between them and Limen, Anonymous hide behind the table where the food bags were place. The effect works out just as he expected it to be, seeing how both Limen and Wolfie are now on the edge of fighting each other. He find it funny how this is the second time two supers near him started to grow hostility toward one another because their feeble mind are so easy to influence. After all, he simply caused one of them to seem hostile to the other and vice versa, and seeing such reaction to that is enough to make him smile inside. Of course Bloodbath is already unstable enough so it didn't really need much effort to push him over the edge, but still, seeing his reaction as he's losing blood is priceless.

As of right now, he put himself out of harm’s way, maintaining his influence on those two as he observed what happen. He is curious to see Wolfie in one of their more-predatory mood, so he decided to slightly increase the adrenaline rush on them. It shouldn’t be at such a level that they’ll notice something is wrong; after all, Anonymous need to keep his true identity hidden until he could see what wonderful reaction will happen next. He decided to maintain the same visual and audio influence on Limen as before, seeing how Wolfie’s roar is enough to put anyone’s hair on end. 

He then turned to Limen with a fearful look in his eyes, the look of a terrified man who is afraid of both her and Wolfie. If she has any plan of targeting him for any of her shenanigan, he would quickly dodge out of the way. As long as he had a direct line of sight on these two, this little parade would continue for as long as Anonymous want. Personally, he likes it that way; the conversation, talking about family and such has started to become dull.