A Corpse with a Calabash (Fiend!)

[Lion]

"I'mma take ya fer all ye got...  Just..don't make me hit you...Mr. Pink Pony...I'll hurt you, I swear...I will."  The words came slurring from his voice as his skinny form stumbled over the jolting roots of evergreen trees.  He walked like a blind-man, feeling his way from trunk to trunk for, in reality, there was no other way to navigate.  The wrappings around his eyes prevented sight, and even more so with the lack of eyeballs.  This blind man told no lies in his motions; he really was blind.

But for someone like him, who'd lived as long as he had, being blind was really no excuse to be stumbling around like an idiot.  There were a few other signs that indicated the reasoning behind his senseless stumblings.  For one, if a passerby was close enough, they would be capable of smelling the alcohol heavy on his breath and two, if they had eyes, they could clearly see the liquor calabash hanging around his skinny neck, swish-swoshing with wine.

"I'm Ginzu, I'm telling you...I don't take no shit..." He hiccupped severely, nearly causing his bare feet to lose their footing upon the forest floor.  "From nobody!"  His words were being spoken to one in particular, especially since he was all alone in his journey through the Niahi Woods.  There were a multitude of possibilities that could happen to one when they were all alone in the woods.

A cold gust picked up from the east, sweeping across the scars along his bareback.  Ginzu never traveled fully clothed, his blood always ended up burning away the cloth.  So, instead, he wandered around in bracers, shorts, and a pony-tail like a corpse that had just been dug up.  As far as he could remember, he may as well have been, so thin and emaciated was his body.  He walked like a drunk ape, his back arching forward and having to use the trunks of trees for support.  He used his senses to guide him on his way, hearing the wind rustle through the leaves and open spaces between trees.  Despite his state, he could navigate as well as, if not better than, any sighted man.

"I'mma catch ya, you damn pony.  I'm gonna catch you and then tame you and then...butcher you! Make into glue strong enough to hold a thousand calabashes together!"  Ginzu laughed at his lame attempt at a joke and pressed onward and paused only when he heard the rushing of water nearby.  A river?  Must be.  He followed the sound until he could faintly detect droplets of water fall on the numbed flesh of his feet.  And with that, he sat, popped the top on his calabash and drank generously from it before closing it and suddenly feeling himself fall back and unconscious along the riverbank.

[Anonymous]

Something dead like her wasn't an everyday sight.  Men stumbling around like drunken fools were.

She'd made herself scarce as soon as she'd heard the drunken rambling and clumsy stumbling.  The remains of her last victim were far away enough from the river to not be detectable, hopefully.  Blood and gore did have a smell that had an annoying tendency to hang around.  That was part of the reason she was still holding her tunic, rather than wearing it.  Blood and bits of who-knew-what were still on her face, and splattered on her front.  She'd gotten her hands and the tunic cleaned before he'd showed up.

But, seeing as he'd passed out now, Amara slid off the tree branch she'd been sitting on, and quickly made her way back to the edge of the water.  Stealing quick glances at the insensate body right down the bank, a few feet away from her, she quickly washed herself off and slid the still-wet shirt back on.  

Clothing back on and mess washed off, she approached cautiously.  She still hated being seen while feeding.  Not that she was ashamed of needing to sustain herself like that, it was just undignified to be seen in such a mess.

"Oi.  Drunkard.  What are you doing here?"  Spoken as if she owned this part of the woods.

((Sorry about the wait, Lion))

[Lion]

[^^ No worries!]

He was ashamed to say that his awareness wasn't in the best condition when he was drunk.  And though it took a lot to get him completely and utterly wasted (and that was more often the goal), he was senseless and rarely had any idea what was going on in his environment.  Right now, though his senses were keen, he didn't smell any other dead bodies lying around.  So, in effect, anything could happen to him when he was incapacitated.

He rested for a moment, swimming in his semi-sleep while taking in the coolness in the air caused by the flowing water.  He only vaguely heard someone approach but he was still too drowsy to do anything about it.  So there he lied, like a sack of bones, almost literally half-dead himself.

"Oi.  Drunkard.  What are you doing here?" a female voice called through to him, breaking through his drowsy barrier.  He jumped in vague surprise, raising his neck and head to look around as if he could see.  Carefully he pushed himself to sit up and kept his head lowered, listening now to anything else it might utter.  "So I guess I ain't alone after all," he muttered to himself.  "I dunno, kid.  I could ask you the same thing, though.  You shouldn't bother a man when he's having a drink anyways, might make him upset.  You wouldn't want to make me upset."

[Anonymous]

"Kid?" She narrowed her eyes at him, placing her hands on her hips in an aggressive posture.  "You must really be smashed if you can't tell I'm a woman."  Amara had no clue he was blind.  Still, it wasn't like she had a high, child's voice.  Ordinarily she would have moved on then, leaving the drunkard to his alcohol drenched pleasures, but he was undead.  Like her.

And didn't seem to be moving to attack her.  And talked.  So not one of the mindless ones.  She stepped a little closer, looking over his skinny form.  She was curious, wanted to know what he was.  If maybe he remember life before dying.  Or if he was like her, not remembering a thing.  Her memories stretched back several years before slowly fading into an obscuring fog.  She didn't remember living, dying, or coming back from death.  

"Who...what are you?"  She considered herself to be a...well, a kind of higher zombie.  Since she had retained her intelligence and self control, but still needed to consume living flesh to survive.  He didn't seem to be either zombie or vampire.  Maybe he was something like her.

[Lion]

"Woman, eh?" Ginzu laughed, thinking it funny that he could make the same mistake twice.  He once called a woman a man, but then again it was she that bumped into him and made the mistake of goading him into a fight.  She got burned, and rightfully so!  But he made amends in the end of evening, hoping to become friends rather than enemies.  He didn't know she was a woman until she was.  At least he didn't call this one a man, she didn't sound too happy at the moment.  "Well, Miss Woman, I'll have...you know that I call everyone kid.  I don't happen to meet many people who are older than me..."

He climbed to stand now, each bone in his body cracking in the effort as he did so.  When he straightened his legs, he took the time to straighten his lower spine, the muscles there weak from lack of use.  Still, he was semi-hunched over, like an ape with a broken back.  With a grimace and one more plunge of effort, he straightened fully with each section of his spine cracking consequently.  He grunted as a result and sighed with faint relief.  It had always been difficult for him to stand fully erect, but sometimes it game some small sense of relief that he could still do it.

Carefully, his nostrils flared and he sniffed the air.  She didn't smell like a normal living person.  In fact, he would say outright that she smelled like a corpse.  Maybe she was a little like him: not exactly dead, but definitely not living.  He wouldn't call himself a zombie but from what he remembered of his past, his days of a beating heart were long gone!  "What am I?" he mimicked like a parrot.  "Well, I'm...I'm Ginzu.  What are you?"  His legs wavered a little bit before he stumbled over to a tree and leaned against the truck, his head facing her as if he could actually see her.  But in fact he was really only following her scent.  It was peculiar and it sparked his interest.

[Anonymous]

She quirked an eyebrow at him as he laughed, a scowl on her pale features.  The hell was he laughing at?  Amara was about to ask him, when he stood and started straightening his back.  No living person's bones cracked like that.  She watched in silence as he went about stretching and grimacing, her yellow eyes roving over his form.  Death hadn't been kind to him.  She never understood how or why her body remained perfect after dying and being revived.  

Though she had lost limbs and gotten other horrible injuries, they inevitably healed.  She'd learned to stop questioning it and just be grateful for the gift a long time ago.  But this fellow was covered in scars and, judging by the blindfold, was blind as well.  

For a moment, she contemplated his answer to her earlier question.  "I am dead." She shrugged carelessly.  "Not a vampire or zombie.  Other than that...I don't know.  Perhaps we are alike, Ginzu."

[Lion]

Zombies?  Vampires?  He didn't think he'd stumble upon one of those in this century.  He smiled a toothy grin and chuckled once more.  "That's pretty interesting.  Maybe we are alike."  His laugh became louder, though for reasons unknown.  "Dead...  That's a pretty name.  I remember when I was dead.  It was a beautiful abyss, it was.  At least I think...  I know I'm a revenant, some people can't stay dead for long."

Ginzu could remember fragments of his past, beneath the delusions induced by the liquor and 'medicine'.  He knew that he lived a long time, and perhaps was not 'alive' during most of it.  He knew also that if he concentrated as hard as he could, he could piece together prominent parts of his past.

"But you, a vampire?  I don't think that'd be too far from the fact."  He sniffed the air in her direction and smiled while he took another sip from his drinking container, corking it afterward.  "You smell like blood.  Tell me your name, Bloody Dead Woman."

[Anonymous]

"You remember dying?"  She blurted, losing a bit of her calm tones.  "I don't.  I don't remember dying, living, or even when I came back.  I can remember now, but everything else is so...blurry, and full of holes."  Maybe there was a tiny bit of longing in her voice, maybe not.  If she remembered suddenly, that was fine, but Amara had long since gotten over actually searching for answers.

She glanced up when he said she smelled like blood.  "Maybe I am a screwed up vampire."  She shrugged.  "I don't drink blood, though, I have to consume living flesh to keep going."  There was absolutely nothing apologetic or ashamed in her voice.  As long as no one actually saw her eat, she didn't care.  "I"m Amara."

[Lion]

"It's always full of holes.  And if you're not careful, you'll end up full of holes too.  Maggots, that stuff.  Maybe I was one of the lucky ones.  Or—"  He slapped his protruding rips with one hand and grinned "—maybe not so lucky.  But at least I still got the important stuff on me."  Bringing the bottle to his lips once more, Ginzu drank vigorously before wiping the side of his mouth with his bulky forearm.

Following the sound of her voice, Ginzu shuffled his way too her and, with an hand outstretched, felt the crevices of her face, making a mental picture on what she might look like.  "Well, Amara.  From what I can tell, you're not bad lookin' either.  If I still had my eyes...."  With that he laughed and took another sip of his drink.  "Hope you're not hungry, 'cause I don't think I'd taste very good.  And more likely than not, my blood'll kill ya and burn away your corpse.  There'll be nothing left to find."

[Anonymous]

She snickered at his mention of 'important parts', wondering if he'd meant the implication.  The comment about maggots made her shudder.  Rotting things were nasty.  Thank goodness for her ability to regenerate.  "You look pretty whole to me.  Lucky indeed."  She didn't move away, but did watch closely as Ginzu shuffled closer, and touched her face.  So he was blind.  That explained the blindfold, at least.  Amara was intensely grateful that she hadn't lost any of her senses.

The compliment got a grin out of her, and his remark about not tasting good made her laugh outright.  "I just ate.  S'why I'm at the river, I don't like having blood smell on me."  She brushed a damp strand of blue-black hair back behind her shoulders, wishing she'd stashed a set of clean, dry clothes out here.  The few sets of clothing she owned were back at a tiny tavern not far from here.

[Lion]

Being blind impaired Ginzu in no way.  Though he might not be able to see another person, there were always other ways in which to find them...or fight them.  His senses of smell, hearing, and to a lesser extent, taste, were incredibly heightened, more so than any other supernatural being that he knew of.  Most often, he considered the ability to see a weakness on his enemy's part.

Keeping his face aimed to the ground, Ginzu grinned, humored.  "Then, that's some good news for me.  You coulda had some left over, though.  I haven't eaten anything in at least ten days.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not much for cannibalism, but I'll eat anything if it smells good enough.  I'd probably cook it, knowing me."  As she flicked her hair, a droplet of water flung off and struck his cheek.  The feeling, albeit as numb as his entire body, indicated that she was wet somehow.  So she washed her clothes in the river to rid herself of the smell of blood.  Curious, he went to ask randomly, "So, do you eat the whole body, bones and all, or just the meat?"