semi-open

[thisloveisjustice]

WHO: Tatsuo (thisloveisjustice) & Li-Na (invocate) & YOU
WHERE: all over the place
WHEN: throughout the month
WHAT: Tatsuo being infected & Li-Na... not yet
WARNINGS: body-horror for Tatsuo, violence for Li-Na


A. post-oct 8 (OPEN)

The moment Tatsuo sees the aquarium, he knows it's perfect. There's multiple large tanks that suit his desire for water, and the building itself it quite tall, which meets his conflicting desire for high places. Between various storage rooms and catwalks around the tanks, there's tons of space. The tricky thing is how to get in after hours, but that's quickly solved by swiping a janitor's key card. Who questions if a janitor is in the building after hours? No one.

As Tatsuo walks around the aquarium, he smiles to himself, pleased.

"Yes, I think this will do nicely."

Is he talking to you, or just talking to himself?

B. post-oct 8 (OPEN TO OTHER INFECTED)

At night, as Tatsuo roams the city (Enprise in particular after he sets up at the aquarium), he keeps his senses sharp for other people carrying the virus. For that little tug that tells him someone else like him is near. Some might become more solitary during their transformation, but Tatsuo is as extroverted as ever. His natural tendency to seek out family combined very well with a zombie's preference to be in a group. Though, once him and Mariko settle on Enprise as a territory, he's also on the look out for any infected who are trespassing. Either join the pack, or get out.

Sometimes he hunts alone, but very often he enjoys hunting with one of his family.

C : post-oct 13 (OPEN, CW: BODY HORROR)

For the first week or so, Tatsuo still looks mostly human. His skin might be a little ashy, but maybe that's just the lighting? But as the second week starts, the changes begin. First is his eyes, their color gradually shifting from brown to golden yellow, the iris increasing in size until there's barely any white visible, and then even that changing as the sclera turns black. Parts of his hair turn grey, except for two bands of brown starting behind his ears and a few brown streaks running down the center. His hair is as fluffy as ever, though it starts to maintain a swept back trajectory more readily. His feet becoming bird-like are the last change, the sharp talons at the end of each toe (not to mention the two toes that now go backwards) force him to set aside his sneakers.

The wings are the second to last change, and the most memorable. Mostly because it hurt.

Tatsuo is near the border of Enprise and Tisse when it happens, a sudden sharp pain in his shoulders. He hunches over, breathing slowly as he tries to work through the pain. And then the feeling of something straining, trying to get out. Instinctively he rips off his jacket, just in time for something to push its way out of his back. Tatsuo collapses to his hands and knees, gritting his teeth as the pain continues. He can feel something growing, the weight increasing as the wings take shape.

D : post-oct 8 (OPEN)

There's one more thing keeping Tatsuo busy these days, on top of hunting for people to infect, growing his little monster family, and guarding their territory.

And that is finding shiny things to take back to the nest.

There's just something about the way the light shines on the objects that... thrills him. Plus, it makes the nest look pretty, and he wants it to look pretty for Mariko. He's mostly found small things, like a small mirrored box with a sparkly rough amethyst on top, shiny baubles to fill a glass bowl, metallic picture frames, candles in mercury glass jars, and small silvery figurines that he polished until they shone.

But it wasn't enough.

So here he is in a home goods store, looking at pillows made of shiny fabrics. Maybe what they need is something that is both pretty and functional.

Comments

oct 6 : happy birthday tatsuo (OPEN TO CR)

[thisloveisjustice]

Okay, his birthday is the 7th, but it's also a Sunday. And Tatsuo would rather not have a hangover at work on Monday. So birthday dinner is the day before. There's a nice little hole-in-the-wall Japanese robata on 6th St that Tatsuo occasionally goes to for lunch. If you want ramen or donburi, theirs is pretty good. If you want a delicious heart attack, try the baked curry beef rice. It's amazing. But their showstopper is the wide variety of grilled meat on their menu. They also have a very nice selection of beer and sake.

oct 7 (closed to matt & foggy)

[thisloveisjustice]

He can feel himself slipping. Why should he keep fighting this back? It's what he's meant to-- It's Yujirou's whine that helps him focus. He doesn't want to hurt his dog. He'd promised Yujirou that he'd take care of him, give him a safe and comfortable home. And right now... his apartment is anything but that for the dog.

"I'm sorry, Yuji. I don't... I'm trying. I don't think I can..."

Hold out.

Yujirou retreats to his dog bed and lays there, his eyes constantly watching Tatsuo wherever he is in the apartment. Tatsuo grabs a shopping bag and starts putting Yujirou's things in it. Food bowl, water bowl, a few of his favorite toys, and a bag of his food. Then he goes to the door and grabs Yujirou's leash.

"Let's go for a walk, boy."

Yujirou gives Tatsuo a wary look, but after a moment gets up and allows Tatsuo to attach the leash. A short while later, they're both outside Matt and Foggy's door.

[devilsadvocato]

On the other side of the door Foggy shouts, "Coming Tatsuo!" Not like he checked a security camera to make sure it wasn't some stranger come to sell carpet cleaner or a fan trying to hunt down the once-pop star. He knows thanks to Matt telling him. Sandy is late barking.

A minute later Foggy opens the door and his eyes drop to Yujirou. "Hey man. Did we forget a get together?"

[thisloveisjustice]

"Oh, no, nothing like that."

Is he a little relieved it wasn't Matt who answered the door? A tiny bit. Maybe he can do this without worrying Foggy too much, but Matt? It's nearly impossible for him to hide something from Matt.

Tatsuo hefts the shopping bag containing Yujirou's things.

"I have a small favor to ask. Could you guys watch Yujirou for a little bit? I know you've got Molly and Sandy to look after, and a senior dog is a bit different from a puppy, and I don't know how long it's going to be..."

He trails off a little, because god he really has no idea if this is going to just be a few days or weeks or longer. It's gotten impossible to really gauge how long things will last the past few months. Things keep bleeding over instead of snapping back to normal like they used to.

"If you can't, don't worry, I can probably ask Togusa."

[devilsadvocato]

"Wow uh?" Foggy's eyes go wide at the sight of that bag. He waves Tatsuo inside and tells Sandy to be good as their guests come in.

"Not against watching the old boy but the size of that bag screams long disappearance. Did you win tickets to Peru or something?"

[thisloveisjustice]

Tatsuo steps inside, but stays in the entryway. Yujirou on the other hand, gives Foggy a friendly sniff then goes to sniff at Sandy.

Rubbing the back of his neck, Tatsuo tries to think of a way to explain what's going on with him.

"That would be nice, but no. I just... I've been having a bad feeling since the beginning of the month and it's not going way. I need to look into something and I don't know how long it's going to take."

mid-month (closed to togusa)

[thisloveisjustice]

It's a simple text.

Hitori. Help.

Two words, followed by an address. It's a old warehouse in Tisse, not far from where Tatsuo's old apartment used to be. Most of the windows are either boarded up or broken, and the moonlight streams down through various broken skylights. It's in one of those puddles of moonlight that Togusa will see him, standing with his back turned.

Which makes it easy to see the wings. They're folded down along his back, like a coat of feathers thrown over his shoulders, dark brown with a smidgen of grey at the tips and a subtle striping. Togusa will be able to see Tatsuo hair as well, how it's mostly turned grey, with the exception of the brown streaks behind his ears and a few subtle down the center. And if he looks down at Tatsuo's feet... well, let's just say Tatsuo doesn't wear his signature sneakers anymore.

It's totally not a trap.

It's a trap.

Re: mid-month (closed to togusa)

[standalonehuman]

Why is it always the damned warehouse district? Togusa rushes out of the house, he doesn't gear up other than to grab his handgun. He has sent a few response texts, only to get nothing back. His car slams to a halt outside the warehouse, and he leaps out with zero hesitation, or even trying to hide his movements.

It's only once he gets inside that Togusa stops. His heart pounds in his chest as he looks around, breathing hard. His gun is in hand, but remains pointed at the ground.

"...Tatsuo?" Breathed, so quiet.

A horrible feeling goes down his spine, and something in him tells him to look up. Eyes widen, and he gasps at what he sees. He's heard, the monster transformations, but he had never expected something like this. There is no strength in his arms to raise his gun.

Re: mid-month (closed to togusa)

[thisloveisjustice]

He hears Togusa arrive. The sound of his steps, his breathing. Togusa say his name, and then... a gasp. Ah, now he's seen him.

Tatsuo slowly turns around, which will allow Togusa to see his eyes, a deep golden yellow. His face is still human, though his skin has become quite ashy. His hands are hooked casually into his jeans pockets and he tilts his head a little to the side.

"Hitori, you came."

His voice is a little... squeaky.

"I'm glad."

Re: mid-month (closed to togusa)

[standalonehuman]

Fear. The dump of adrenaline is a new scent in the air that fills around Togusa. A metallic tang over the top of everything else, so palpable it might as well be a physical cloud. His frozen posture breaks, and he finally takes a step back, just a shuffle of a foot.

"Tatsuo..what's happened to you?" His voice cannot stay steady.

"This isn't- this isn't Retrospec." His feet keep on moving, starting to back away, to circle, trying to look at all of Tatsuo. But he is keeping his motions slow and cautious with no idea how to react. "This isn't one of their changes. What is this?"

Re: mid-month (closed to togusa)

[thisloveisjustice]

Tatsuo has come to enjoy the smell of fear. Sharp and tangy, and delicious. A Togusa takes a step back, one corner of his mouth quirks up.

"I became more."

As Togusa starts to circle, he swivels his head to follow, his neck a touch more flexible than it had been. Eventually, he'll half to shift his feet as well, but for the moment, he just needs to move his neck. He loosens his wings, letting the tips of the feathers spread so Togusa can see the lovely pattern on the undersides.

"No, it's not Retrospec. Ryuuzaki, his life never had this kind of meaning. But I can show you, Hitori. Once you feel it, growing inside you, you'll understand, too."

(closed to rayne)

[invocate]

At first she'd thought Leon was just in a bad mood. But no. No, he was a werewolf. And then so many things combined in the worst possible way, and now Li-Na is more than a little frightened of going home. But she also can't just sit on her hands and wait for this to go away. Something has happened to her family and she is going to fix it.

It takes her a little while though, to figure out where to start looking for answers (even ending up at the haunted house on the edge of town once). But Retrospec had said that there was still an infectant in the city, so it stood to reason she might be able to get some help from them.

If only Zee were still there.

But he's not, so instead she goes to the mailbox. Maybe if she slips a note into it, it'll get to Maurice and then...

As she approaches the mailbox, she spots Rayne. And she can't help the bubble of paranoia that wells up inside of her. She'd understood why Lenalee and the other Exorcists simply believed all other humans were in league with the Earl. But she hadn't understood what that felt like, until now.

Was Rayne infected?

"Hey, Rayne!"

She tries to sound like her usual cheerful self, but it's a little strained.

[ooc: quest]

[coronae]

[ rayne isn't infected, as it happens! yet, anyway. so li-na will simply see a cheerful blonde girl looking a little more worried, although she does have a witch's hat on and some pumpkin earrings and a pumpkin-patterned dress...

look. she works with kids? that means every day in october is halloween. ]

Li-na! Hey, how are you?

[ please don't be evil :( ]

[invocate]

I'm... I'm okay...

[And then she sighs. Because paranoia is not her nature. Lenalee had a lot longer to develop her mistrust of outside humans, but for Li-Na it's only been a recent development. She still inherently wants to trust the people around her.]

No... I'm not okay.

[Her fingers twist themselves together as she fights down the urge to cry.]

Leon... he turned into a werewolf. I thought I could ask Retrospec for help. If the mailbox is still here, then Maurice should still be able to send and receive things from us. So I thought... I though I'd send a note. But now that I say it out loud, it sounds so silly.

[coronae]

A werewolf?? Did he try to bite you or something??

[ rayne immediately looks concerned, putting a hand to li-na's arm in COMRADESHIP and COMFORT. she's clearly still human. (for now) ]

[invocate]

[she jumps a little at the touch... but doesn't pull away]

No... nothing like that. He... I think he still recognizes me as family.

[Sort of. She's sort of family. But maybe that's enough for now.]

But I have to find a way to change him back before he gets worse.

(closed to akira)

[invocate]

After completing her first task, Li-Na goes back for another. How Akira ended up involved, well, it's nice to have a partner. As they stand at the mailbox, Li-Na looks over the item they've been told to collect.

"SILVER - When worn, protects the wearer from a werewolf's bite and infection. Should a werewolf touch a wearer, the werewolf shall become immobilized and paralyzed. Time may vary. Must be handmined and pure. Most effective if crafted into jewelry using weapons made of odinite."

Well, that is rather classic. Other than the odinite part. Because what the hell is that?

"Handmined and pure... I wonder were we could find..."

Handmined.

Li-Na's lips part in a silent 'oooooooooooooh.'

[ooc: quest]

[maskreant]

Akira is always ready to help, especially when it seems like his own friends are starting to show signs. They can't find the cure if they turn, so here he is. Li-Na is a nice girl, so overall he's feeling pretty good about this. Hovering over her shoulder, he reads the message as it's orated, finding it almost too cliche.

Squinting, mining for silver isn't something he thinks of in the first place. They can buy it, even if it's expensive, but he does do the same thing as Li-Na when it hits him.

Turning to her, he speaks up, "Respartum?"

He has only visited it maybe once or twice, finding the heat rather hard to handle at the time.

[invocate]

Li-Na nods in agreement.

"Yes, that is what I thought of as well. It's the only location around here where gems and metals are sourced."

And now they have to go source it themselves. Lovely.

"We better get some supplies. I don't know how much silver we are going to need, so we better bring back as much as we can carry."

And then there's the tools and any light to work by... mines don't exactly get much sun.

"Though... how to find the silver in the first place... I do not know how the Respartum people feel about outsiders taking things from the mines... They might not want to tell us where to find silver."

[maskreant]

Akira strokes his chin as he listens to her concerns, nodding in agreement. He doesn't have too much experience with Respartum's mines, but he can't imagine anyone would help strangers take from their mines. Of course, Akira has tricks up his sleeves that he thinks would be useful here.

"I'm sure we'll be fine."

He doesn't want to disclose his trump card so early, especially when he needs to keep it a secret for other reasons. Though his tone is neutral, there's an underlying steady confidence to his words, but now they have to deal with their second concern: transportation.

Turning to her, he follows up with his usual, "Want to take a dragon?"

[invocate]

Li-Na picks up on that underlying confidence, and while she's a bit confused, she'll go with it. Mostly because she's not sure how they're going to go about this. So if Akira thinks he has a way, then she might as well follow his lead.

But she blinks at the word 'dragon.'

"A dragon? You have a dragon?"

She can't help but think back to February and Souji's dragon.

"That... would be faster than walking all the way..."

(hong konger house)

[invocate]

It doesn't take long for Li-Na to start feeling a little apprehensive about October. Especially after the creepy as hell haunted hayride.

And then Leon went and got his dumb ass infected.

So Li-Na decides to brush up on her knowledge of werewolves, which is pretty much zero. One trip to the library later and Li-Na has a small stack of books about werewolves... and dogs. It's maybe not the most reputable sort of research, but the fiction has to come from somewhere... right?

So she's holed up in her room, trying to read her way to a solution. A small squirt bottle sits next to her after she reads in one of the dog books about spraying puppies to train them to behave.

She totally has a copy of Twilight. Please save her.

[cardcaptured]

[Li-Na's not the only one who had been holing themselves up after Leon got infected. After the encounter with his cousin a few nights ago, Xiaolang's been feeling more than a bit on edge, the safety of their home in question now that something dangerous lurked within it's walls. But it was more than that-- it was the constant creepy glow to everything around, the uncertainty of who else was infected, whether or not Leon would change his mind and attack them...

And now, it seemed, he could add odd new growths to his mounting list of anxieties. Hair almost like fur on his arms, sharper nails and painfully sharper teeth... and a pair of fluffy ears upon his head, not to mention a tail. Long sleeves could hid the fur, there were hats for his ears, and keeping conversations to a minimum might help the fangs... but the tail was the trickiest to hide. And, of course he had to hide it-- with Leon and who knows else in this state, he couldn't let other people know he was infected. Not for his own safety, or theirs.

So there's going to be a small rap at Li-Na's door in the late afternoon, his claws curled into his knocking hand, and a plate of food in the other. They both had to eat, after all, and there was something that almost settled his nerves as he cooked, at least when Leon was away. The plan was to leave her the food and go, before she noticed the teeth and the slightly out of place hat, but a creeping voice was beginning to push him to consider otherwise.

Infect. Multiply. Destroy.

Infect. Multiply. Destroy.

Swallowing hard, he raps again, harder, to try to dispel the thoughts. He had to get back to his room, and fast.]

Li-Na...?

[invocate]

[Li-Na looks up from her book at the sound of someone knocking on her door. Maybe she just imagined something? But no, there it is again. And Xiaolang's voice on the other side.

Xiaolang, who must also be concerned about Leon's condition.

Setting her book down, she gets up and goes to answer the door. As soon as she does, the scent of food drifts up to her nose, and she suddenly realizes she's actually quite hungry. Had she even eaten lunch?

And though Xiaolang hopes to hide his ears beneath that hat, there's no way he can hide that hat from Li-Na's sight.]

Xiaolang, what is with that hat?

[It is not his usual style.]

[cardcaptured]

[The moment Li-Na opens the door, he all but pushes the food towards her, keeping his face ducked down. The plate was mostly meat dishes, oddly enough, but it had been something he was craving ever since these changes started happening. But that just had to be a coincidence, right?

He was all but ready to bolt back to his room, away from the creeping, unsettling impulses to harm his kin, when her question freezes him in place. Shoot. He didn't own many hats as it is, and this just happened to be the one he kept from the fashion show in June. It was large enough to cover his ears comfortably without looking too stupid, and it actually didn't look bad on him, but it did look weird inside of the house.

Keeping his face averted and his eyes down, he tugs at the cap, ensuring it was still hiding everything it needed to hide.]

I... I was just a little cold, that's all.

[His words lisp and slur a little, another oddity in comparison to his usually clear pronunciation. But talking with fangs was difficult, even more so when one wasn't exactly used to such things.]

Is there something wrong with it?