Grave Curiosity

It was strange seeing the streets of Bellmuse so empty. Silence reigned here, even the wildlife seemed to be staying away from this recently emptied part of town. The Grimm were a serious threat, one only kept in check by the Hunters and the power of Dust discovered oh so long ago, and if there was one thing Bellmuse lacked right now, it was Hunters. There'd been a rather serious attack by the Grimm recently, only a few weeks ago now, against the town of Bellmuse, largely against the outskirts of the city, but it was still bad enough that it'd cleared out a fair portion of the neighborhoods in the area. It'd come as a complete surprise, and the Grimm had been allowed to run amok for nearly half-an-hour before a proper response by both Hunters and local forces could be rallied and push the Grimm out. The entire area had been cordoned off for quite some time now as authorities cleaned the place up. Even now, with the cordon lifted, almost no one had come back, leaving the place almost like a ghost town, save for those who were particularly attached to their homes here, and many of the now empty and largely broken down buildings were being filled with looters, scavengers, and a number of petty criminals, causing a fair amount of problems for Bellmuse. Warren himself had stopped by out of curiosity, to simply see what damage had been caused, and perhaps out of a little guilt for not being able to do anything about the situation. Simply walking through the deserted streets and seeing what was once a vibrant neighborhood so empty reminded Warren why exactly it was that he was training for.

Warren picked through an abandoned building, cutting across as he sought to make it deeper into the heart of the once cordoned neighborhood, looking for where it'd been that the fighting had been heaviest. As he went to move over a broken dresser that'd been blocking a doorway, he moved his hand onto the side of the wall, but a stab of pain quickly had him jerking back. He clicked his tongue in annoyance as he looked down at his hand to see a rather large gash, and up at the doorway to see the splintered piece of wood that'd cut him. He was bleeding rather freely now, dripping blood onto the floor. He reached into his pocket with his free hand, pulling out some napkins from a sandwich he'd eaten earlier and pushed them into his wounded hand. It didn't look too serious, once he'd wiped off most of the blood, and it'd likely stop bleeding within the hour at the latest, and so he pushed on, idly wondering if he'd meet anyone on his way there.

Zev trotted through the dead area. She wasn't around for it, but she had heard the stories, and the scene sort of spoke for it's self in a way. She couldn't say it bothered her. She enjoyed the peaceful solitude much more than and bustling city block. Many people called her strange for enjoying such a thing, but in truth, they simply didn't understand. Loneliness was something of an acquired taste. Eventually the longing wasn't even bothersome. In an odd way, it was just more fuel to her ambitions. Or at least, she was certain it would be, had she any to speak of.

She worked her way up the side of a building, jumping from window to window. She spent more time doing this sort of thing than training, or studying. It wasn't particularly fun, but at least it gave her something to occupy her mind. But something much more interesting polluted the air. The scent of blood had caught her nose. She couldn't help her curiosity in making her way towards it. Climbing into a window, she took to all fours, wanting nothing more than the smell. Glancing up, she stood to all fours, following the scent to hopefully find the source, although, she had no idea why. Cat's and their curiosity.

Warren grunted as he kicked open a locked door that'd been block his way, panting from the exertion of being forced to clear the debris in his path as me moved through the abandoned buildings. Sure, he was saving time cutting through rather than simply following the road, but he began to question if the physical effort was worth it. He gave a heavy sigh as he forced to push open the door by ramming into it a few more times with his shoulder to push aside whatever makeshift blockade that had been built on the other side, a dresser and several chairs crashing down into splinters signalling that he was finally through. As picked his way through the room, carefully this time to avoid anymore injuries, the bloody napkin still clenched in his hand, he stopped as he heard a clatter of... something. It'd been a heavy impact, like a body hitting the floor, and it'd sounded as if it'd come from above him.

His eyes searched the building until he quickly found a staircase, and he began to ascend quietly, keeping his steps slow and purposeful. Straining his ears, he could pick out the quiet sounds of movement, shuffling of some kind. He reached the top of the staircase soon enough, though every moment passed by agonizingly slowly as he cautiously climbed, and at the top, he was met by the figure of a girl, crouched down on all fours out of all things. He blinked again. Wait, that wasn't a person, that was a faunus, he reevaluated in his head, eyes being drawn to the ears and tail telltale to all of her kind. The girl was small, and slender, that was for sure, definitely under five foot, and with blue hair and eyes to match, she wasn't exactly the kind of person you'd expect to see, anywhere really. Especially not in an abandoned building crouched down on all fours.

"U-uh... Hey there... A-are you... okay?" Warren stuttered out, rather put off by the situation as he stood there, stuck in shock. Still, his hands clenched into fists involuntarily, the red-stained paper crinkling in his hand.

Zev poked at one of the stains, bringing it to her nose to take in the scent, before dabbing it playfully in between two fingers. Her tail twitched and swayed from side to side playfully. Her eyes reflected a child. She was, after all, in a child like state. It was nothing in particular about the liquid. Like a kid in a candy store, she was amused enough by proximity alone. Maybe she wanted more than that, but she at least had enough pride to resist licking strange blood from the ground.

Hearing the voice, her head snapped to the man. Her tail stopped dead, eyes going wide, stuck on the stranger. She felt like she had just got caught with her hand stuck in a cookie jar. Her cheeks got a small rosey hue to them as she thought more about it, choking on what to say. "I-I didn't mean it." She managed in a pleading tone unusual to her.

Warren's mouth opened and closed several times, like a fish out of water, as his brain ground to a halt, and he tried to figure out what to say, or what even was going on here. It looked as if there was a faunus girl, crouched on the floor, sniffing at and licking his blood, now staring up at him as if he'd caught her red handed doing something that she shouldn't have been doing. Well, he supposed that it wasn't technically illegal to be doing what she was doing, hell he wasn't sure if there was any kind of law relating to what was going on right now, but it was definitely strange.

He held his hands up in the air placatingly, hoping to calm her. "Hey, calm down now... It's okay..." he said, accidentally dropping the tissue he held pressed in his hand, but he ignored it, the bleeding having slowed to a trickle now. He really wasn't sure what else to say to the strange girl licking his blood off the floor, but he figured startling or threatening her wouldn't be a good idea. "I'm Warren... What's your name? Where are you from?" he ventured, hoping to get a little bit of information about her.

Zev locked onto the mans face, reading his confusion. He didn't seem to entirely believe what he was seeing. Perhaps that meant that she was simply that far gone. Maybe Errante had done too much to her. Maybe she simply couldn't meld with other people anymore. She wouldn't fool herself though. She had always been alone. She didn't need any help accomplishing that status. Still, it felt worse. She would rather be invisible than however he was seeing her now. She couldn't help the light hue's of pink on her cheeks. For one she was truly feeling ashamed.

Her body jumped a little at his hands. Ready to do... Something. Anything but wait like this. No. It wasn't okay. Not at all. She wasn't okay. this wasn't normal. Her eyes followed the blood coming from his re-opened wound like an irresistible instinct. She forced her gaze back into his, her eyes obviously straining. "Z-zev. I'm Zev, from... No where..." She replied, finding it an impossible thing to remember at a time like this anyways. He was going to kill her after all. He was waiting for her to calm down so he could put her down, right?

Warren studied the girl for a moment. Goddamn she looked... He supposed haggard was a good word for it. Tired, stressed and on edge. She was like an animal about to bolt at a moment's notice. He wasn't sure what to do about her, she seemed dirty, not in a particularly bad way, just that she looked as if she'd been wearing the same clothes for a while, or had maybe been sleeping out in the streets or something.

He caught her eyeing his hand, and he moved a little closer, slowly as not to startle her. "It's just a cut... I'm fine if that's what you're wondering." He kneeled in front of her. "You can take a look at it if you'd like..." Warren offered his hand to her, letting Zev take a closer look. "Are you alright? Where do you love?" He wondered if maybe she could be a survivor from the attack or something, simply living among the ruins of her old home. He wasn't too sure to be honest.