InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Shtako."

Zoe Washburne (warrior_woman) wrote in we_coexist,
@ 2011-08-18 23:32:00

Entry tags:

bad moon, hannibal lecter, zoe washburne

The cats will play...(Hannibal)
Zoe didn't see Jesse after that morning. She wasn't exactly mad at him, but she wasn't happy with her situation either. She didn't like not being in control; she knew she'd adapt, live with it, but it put a slight damper on being the Batman.

When she went in to work, the Amazon send Alfred a quick message to explain why Batman wouldn't be patrolling the streets again. She suggested that he notify the ones who had helped rescue Jake if anything were to come up. Alfred was kind enough to send her information about werewolves, not that she was one, but it seemed fitting. She read and went home to await the change.

As night fell, she started pacing. The apartment, while spacious and rather Spartan, seemed too small. She wasn't sure if it was the coming change or just simply the need to be in motion that had her pulling on running gear again to head out to the Park. She needed to do something other than wait.

The Park felt strange, as it had the night before, and she wished she could go fight bad guys or do something more than run. She wanted to save someone, be a big damn hero. Yet, she knew that she couldn't save anyone as a really big cat, probably. The run was nice, but it wouldn't last. Thankfully on her run, she felt the pain coming before it completely incapacitated her. Finding a set of bushes, she disappeared within them to experience the shift that made her want to cryout..yet again.

Moments later, a clouded leopard appeared from the bushes, its tail trailing behind it like a banner. Now what was she supposed to do?

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i_consume
2011-09-16 05:14 am UTC (link)

He watched her with an easy appreciation. She was conforming to her new shape very well, and allowing the instincts to take control of everything. She moved with a lovely grace. He had to wonder, of course, what she was like as a human. They had not exchanged names, so there would be no way to track her. Yet.

There was a chance, though, that he would recognize her human smell when they were both back to normal. There wasn't much of it, even for a cat's nose. But maybe there was enough.

What a pleasant thought.

When she moved onto her branch, Hannibal started his own stalk. Both of them moving at once might have alerted the deer to one or the other of them. This way, if they heard him, she'd have the ability to continue, and vice versa.

But they took no notice. They were well and truly deer of the purely animal persuasion. They flicked their tiny stubs of tails and raised their heads occasionally, but didn't seem to be very alarmed about anything going on around them.

He kept one eye on the cat above him, tracking her as easily as he tracked the deer. Watching for when her muscles would tense for the pounce, ready to time his own to that exact moment.

Hannibal and the cat were made for one another.

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warrior_woman
2011-09-16 05:29 am UTC (link)

Zoe was a killer. She knew she was. She could say she was a soldier, doing her duty, but she knew that she was still a killer. Her recent bout with the Joker reminded her just what she was. Of course, she could now say she was doing it for the wellfare of the City, for its citizens, even if those citizens were gorram crazy sometimes.

She paused, watching the cat below. He was more eager than she for this little hunt. Zoe wasn't sure he was doing this simply to eat. There was something more, but then she wasn't the most trusting person, or cat. The only person so far she hadn't minded being around in this form had been Jesse, and even that had been awkward.

The scent of the deer made her drool. The cat knew exactly what it wanted to do, and while she didn't understand how it was possible, seeing as she had no idea cats could do it, she gave in. The cat body shifted on the branch and was soon crawling down the branch, hovering just a little to the side of the intended victim. The deer was either completely lacking in natural instincts or just that secure. What made Zoe's crawling trick unique was the fact that she was hanging from the branch rather than walking on top of it.

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i_consume
2011-09-16 05:36 am UTC (link)

It was impressive, the way she maneuvered.

Hannibal took a brief moment to appreciate the acrobatic skills that her type of feline harbored. He had a feeling that should he try the same thing, it would not be nearly as successful. Not even remotely. He was a ground cat. While he could climb that tree and rest in it, maybe even play in it a little bit, he was not built for hunting from it as she clearly was.

He could see now that her especially long tail was a very good stabilizing feature for her climbing and moving along the branches with great ease.

When he was close to the other creatures, he got low to the ground and laid his ears flat against his head. He flicked his tail to get her attention and flicked it again to signal that he was ready any time she was.

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warrior_woman
2011-09-16 05:46 am UTC (link)

If she got the signal, Zoe gave little show of it. Instead, she waited, watching. By now, Hannibal could probably see just how long those fangs were in that small head of hers, relatively speaking. They were almost the size of a tiger's.

She didn't make a sound as she "pounced" a deer that got closer. For a brief moment, the human side of Zoe wasn't sure what was going on. The body felt odd, and she had no idea how she was now going to attack something that was a little bigger and possibly stronger than her. The cat side arrested control before anything could go terribly wrong.

It wasn't until the deer bucked beneath her, that Zoe the human realized what she had done. The hindpaws hadn't let go of the branch at first, holding on as the long body stretched. Claws extended, and fangs were bared. It seemed as if it wasn't until the cat knew it would actually catch the prey that the hind legs gave a final push to finish the pounce.

The bucking did nothing but cause more rending of the deer's hide. Fangs soon buried into the deer's tender neck from behind; the small large cat held on, crushing the neck as the deer fought to be free.

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i_consume
2011-09-16 05:51 am UTC (link)

Hannibal moved with her, but not in the same way. She sprang from above, and he took one from below. He stayed low and concealed in the brush nearby until he got close enough, and made his move. He was not so sneaky about it as she was. Once he was there, every deer that was not currently being attacked by a big cat scattered.

But she had hers, and he most definitely had his. He had launched himself from the ground and gone right into the side of the beast. Knocking it off it's balance while he gained better purchase. His back claws dug into the flesh on the side of the deer's belly while he wrapped his forepaws around it's neck. It bled where his claws dug in there, too.

His teeth were used to tear a big whole where the deer's jugular was, an act that might not have entirely been the cat's. Hannibal knew well what would kill a living thing.

It was down before it had a chance to try to fight back.

Hannibal looked to his companion, narrowing his eyes in delight and appreciation of her hunting skills. Licking the red from the sides of his muzzle. He gave her only a moment of his time, however, as he had fresh meat to tend to.

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warrior_woman
2011-09-16 05:57 am UTC (link)

The deer fell soon enough, and Zoe remained where she was, hugging the beast in a way. Death was strange when it was done so close, so very personal, and while the cat was more than happy with the kill, the Amazon wanted to appreciate the deer. That and she needed a moment to keep her mind from reeling. Finally she released the hold of neck and body and stood, licking at the blood on her muzzle.

It was disgusting, or would have been, had Zoe not decided that this was how she would eat. She'd eaten worse, and she'd seen worse, so she told herself. She'd enjoy this meal, seeing as she'd fought for it. There was some part of her that wanted to tell Jesse about this, and she wasn't sure why she felt the need to share.

The cat ignored the silly thoughts that would lead nowhere as it was. There was meat to be had, and Zoe fed as she was meant to in this strange cat body.

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i_consume
2011-09-16 06:08 am UTC (link)

There was a lot of deer and Hannibal was full before he'd had a full taste of everything he wanted to know. The cat's tastebuds were slightly different than his human ones. He was tasting the meat in a different way than if he'd killed and was eating raw deer on a normal day.

The meat was still warm from the life of the animal, and he could taste that just as much as he could taste the fresh blood and tender steak. He had even crunched through a bone to try the marrow, finding it nice but not worth the effort it would take in this current body to get at the rest.

He longed to test the fatty meat of the brain, but didn't think it would be what he expected it to. The heart had not been as it was for him as a human. It had been mostly just hard to chew with his current teeth. They were sharp, but they were not made for the grinding that such strong muscle took.

There was a feeling that should he have actually been a wild animal, he would have stashed this creature away for later. As it was, he felt no need to pay attention to it much at all now that he'd had his way. He sat beside it, slowly cleaning his paws as if reviling in the ecsasy of his kill and his meal. A look that Baba Yaga, or even Lestat, would have recognized immediately.

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warrior_woman
2011-09-16 06:15 am UTC (link)

Zoe ate until she was full, and she was slightly disappointed that there was so much left. The cat and the Amazon both understood what it might mean to be without, and neither liked waste. Her head lifted, and she sniffed the air. She was surprised she could smell anything beyond the kill.

She licked absently at her muzzle, starting the cleaning. She continued to sniff then relaxed a little. There were scavengers about, and she was more than willing to let them have the rest of her meal. She had no problem with scavengers, she'd been one at one time.

She lifted from her hunch near her kill; it had gone well, and the meat wouldn't go to waste. The cat didn't like that something else would be eating the food, but Zoe was strong enough to push that little worry aside.

"It was a good hunt." She didn't know if they could have done better other than sharing the meat, but it would probably have been a bad idea. The two cats weren't the same, and sharing didn't really seem like something either could do easily as they'd just met each other.

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i_consume
2011-09-16 06:22 am UTC (link)

Hannibal smelled them too, the others. The ones that were waiting for the predators to leave so that they could have the rest of the meal. His own feline mind wanted to chase them off, to keep them from taking what was rightfully his, but like his companion, knew that he would not come back to it and the meat was better off in other jaws.

He had not even for a moment considered that the two of them should share a kill. He knew that he would not do so with this cat, not only because she was not the same genus as he, but because he did not think that she was the kind of person as a person who would enjoy the types of things he had done to his own carcass. Better that she be occupied with her own some distance away.

"Very satisfying." Hannibal agreed. He began to walk out of the clearing, back in the direction that they had started. Hoping for her to follow. He was not quite done with her yet.

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warrior_woman
2011-09-16 06:25 am UTC (link)

Zoe didn't follow right off. She watched the cat walk away, but her attention was on the others, they were coming closer. Her tail flicked for a moment, just the tip. The cat wanted to hiss, to do damage to those who thought this was now their kill. Zoe wanted to go home and get clean.

She turned soon enough, taking to the trees as soon as she was able. While she didn't mind going back to the clearing, she wasn't going to do it on the ground. She would go where she had the advantage, and for now, the trees would give her that.

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i_consume
2011-09-16 06:33 am UTC (link)

When he was away from the fresh corpses, and out of the way of the scavengers, Hannibal took a seat on the grass. It felt new on his paws, a sensation he didn't have normally. It was soft and giving yet sharp simultaneously. As if he could feel every individual blade. Something the bare bottoms of his feet would not have picked up. There were some things beyond even his tactile sensitivity.

He had heard her take to the trees again, that slight scraping of he claws against the bark, the sharp and sweet smell of the tree being pierced and weeping.

"I am very impressed with your climbing abilities. I have never seen such a thing." He said it as if they belonged to her specifically. There was a bit of a feeling in him that not every movement she made was the cat, just as his were not. She had to have some experience with this kind of thing in order to be so comfortable with it. There had been no hesitation in the actions she'd taken, something that someone else would have felt unsure about. He, himself, would not have been so easy going were his cat brain to tell him he could hang from a tree almost like a monkey. He was not like that in his day to day life.

But the killing, that had come very naturally. The stalking, the killing, the blood, the death. All of that was very easy for him. Now that he knew what it felt like as a cat, he was sure to include bits of it that he could in future endeavors.

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warrior_woman
2011-09-16 06:42 am UTC (link)

Zoe didn't jump down into the clearing, but rather stretched out on a branch nearby. She was very comfortable with her stomach full. Her long tail hung down a little from the branch. Though she may have looked as if she were totally relaxed, anyone who knew cats and anyone who knew Zoe would know that she could and would defend herself.

"I didn't realize cats could do it either." While Zoe wasn't a climber, she was used to being put in situations that required almost impossible physical actions. She had long ago learned to trust that her body would know what its doing, especially when she was too tired or wartorn to think clearly.

"I knew they liked trees, but this one takes it beyond the simple climbing trees." Zoe's cat knowledge was a little limited as animals weren't all that popular on ships. They didn't come around much during wartime either, unless it was the scavengers. She had understood them then too. It wasn't pleasant, but they served a purpose.

"You felled yours quickly." Her paws stretched, showing that they were certainly more flexible than the normal cats. Her tail swayed ever so slightly. Nothing suggested that she was afraid or bothered by the other cat. What was bothering her at the moment was the desire to stretch out and watch the world go by under the tree she'd picked out. She needed to get back to her things and get home.

For now, she'd talk to the other cat, waiting out the desire.

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