Say It Ain't So {Erik}

[Arielle Orion]

Arielle had downed several, several drinks before she realized that she was no less sober than when she'd gone into the dive. She paid her tab grudgingly and left stage right, more angry than upset, though it didn't stop her from still letting a few tears spring out as she walked, gaze down and hair covering her face. She wasn't whimpering or any of that nonsense - She was Arielle Orion, and she didn't do things like that. She was pretty bent out of shape, though, and it kept coming in waves. Ever since this whole incident, she'd been finding her emotions and whatnot harder to repress, and she was beginning to connect them with the shapeshifting... thing. The thing she was trying not to do.

She remembered the conversation quite vividly, and relived it as she stormed the long 15 blocks home. At least it was warm out, not that it mattered - she'd found unless it was below 50, she didn't need a jacket anymore. She was always hot. Ms. Valefar had clearly told her that there was no cure, and then Mr. Scarapino had tried to talk her up, like being a shifter was a good thing. They clearly were out of their minds. She knew she'd been dealing with the devil before, but now she saw the glint in their black eyes and knew she'd somehow signed in blood.

She rounded the corner, still lost in her thoughts, mind a million miles away, when a familiar scent caught her. She slammed on the brakes so hard in her pace that she almost startled herself, but quickly cleared her head and began looking around. Her mood was instantly replaced by something slightly more feral and base as she began in the direction of the scent, utterly ensconced in trying to figure out what it was.

[Erik Lucio]

Erik could hardly be blamed for Arielle's freak-out session, but he'd have definitely been surprised to find that he was the cause of it.  She wasn't the only one who'd gone out drinking that night, but he'd gone with human friends, so he'd had to fake drunk long enough to get away from them, which was why he was walking home instead of sitting in one of their cars, harassing whichever dude had drawn the short straw and been forced to drive.

That would have been fun, he couldn't deny it.

Even so, the fresh air would do him well.  He was trying not to let any of this bother him, considering it had just had the obvious effect of screwing up a night with his buddies.  Yeah, he'd faked being drunk and had some fun with that, but the fact of the matter was that it was so much more amusing when he could really be retarded right along with them.  Sadface.

He heard her coming, being a shifter himself, but why in the HELL would he expect her?  He didn't, and the wind was blowing his scent right to her.  He was clueless.

[Arielle Orion]

"Oh," was all she said. For a minute, she sounded surprised, but her expression was one of sheer... disappointment. Judging from the way they'd misunderstood eachother before, Arielle already knew that Erik was the last person she wanted to see now, when she felt like this. He'd been one of the last people to down on her for wanting a cure, and then she'd gotten her bad news, and she couldn't help but want to blame him for it, as illogical as it was. She didn't care though. She'd spent nearly one hundred dollars on wasted liquor, and now she tasted the saline from her tears - and something else, something bitter, which she could only guess was mascara, not that she went around eating it.

She didn't really know what to do with herself at that moment. She was sober and disappointed so much, not by Erik himself but just by the fact that she'd done it again, using those strange senses, and lead herself right to the one person who wouldn't give two shits about what she felt or was going through... She felt a little overwhelmed, and wasn't surprised when she just started to cry again, and turned away. She hurried back down the way she came, thanking the stars that she wasn't a loud sort of sobbing type. It was more of the 'puffy eyes, pouty face, smudged eye-makeup' cry.

[Erik Lucio]

Well.  Turning around to Arielle's voice and obvious disappointment wasn't at all expected, and he stared at her like he didn't have the slightest idea what was going on, which was pretty accurate.  Then, she started crying again, quietly, but she was still crying, and he was even MORE baffled.

What had happened to her?!  Had he done something wrong?  Holy Hell!

"Hey, wait a second!" he called out, but he knew better than to think it'd work anymore than it worked in any movie or other situation he'd ever seen.  Seriously, that was the best way to get people to run faster, but at least he could see where she was going well enough to keep up.  That wouldn't help him figure out how to help her, but at least he wouldn't lose her.

Losing a crying woman would be bad.

"Arielle, wait!  What happened?" he asked again as he caught up with her, and he actually reached out to try stopping her.  For better or worse.

[Arielle Orion]

Arielle was damn fast. She turned as he reached out, smacking his hand away before he could touch her. After that, she stepped into his personal space to give him a shove - hard, but... not. Like she was angry, and taking it out on him, but knew not to actually attempt to beat the crap out of him. Or maybe she was too worn out to attempt. It was a hard call to make, but thankfully, the shove wasn't full force either way it went.

"There's no cure!" she snapped, voice breaking. "Scientists who make billions of dollars a year on this case and no fucking cure. Do you know what that means? It means I'm stuck! Like this!" It was such a... backwards train of thought. Usually it was the human who was really an animal trying to get back to animal form... not the other way around - it would have almost been avant-garde if it wasn't so pathetically tragic, and happening to one of the meanest lawyers in the city. By now, Erik would have seen her name in the paper, and been able to put that small math together, giving him at least a little insight to how aggressive she could be.

Like a tiger.

Her voice was a shrill whisper now. "What the fuck am I supposed to do, Erik? I can't just keep doing my day to day routine. I'm trying, and I'm failing. I'm going to end up losing my place in the firm, or worse," she hissed. She didn't even want to think what would happen if she accidentally ate Tyler. It was too bad she didn't know about Nero and his experiments - she'd have signed right up to have her inner-cat put to sleep for good.

[Erik Lucio]

Well, she avoided letting him grab her, though he probably could have forced that issue if he'd wanted to.  Their reflexes were both damn fast, and he was a hunter.  He wasn't going to antagonize her if he could help it, though it quickly became obvious that she didn't require much in that department.  She had plenty of shit going through her mind without him doing a damn thing.

"I know," he told her quietly, not the sort to say 'I told you so', but he had.  He'd known it was coming, even if he personally wasn't happy about it.  Ironic that two of the few tigers in the area were so displeased with their situation, but it was true.  Erik was just better at accepting it and trying not to let it bother him.  In fact, he'd been doing what he could to look on the 'bright side', and as a male, he couldn't deny that she smelled absolutely magnificent even with the tears.

He still thought she had issues, but he could admit that there were a few things he liked.  He could even admit that it was the tiger's fault.  Didn't matter.

"Sounds like you need some time off that you can devote to trying to work this out, instead of hoping it'll get fixed.  I don't like it, either, but I can think of worse things.  Come have some coffee with me?"

[Arielle Orion]

Coffee? Whu? She stared at him for a second, dark green eyes narrowing. "Why am I the only person that seems to think this is a problem?" she demanded, though she'd quieted down her voice quite a bit, aware that it was only the start of the evening in the city for many people. "No, I don't want coffee. I don't like how it tastes and I don't even get any enjoyment off of the caffeine anymore," she said sullenly. "I can't even get drunk. I've been robbed," she snarled.

"If I'd have known I couldn't get drunk anymore I would have avoided my abominably large bar tab a while ago," she muttered. After a moment of silence, she offered, "I'm hungry. We can get food...?" She glanced up at him, brow arched. The inner-kitty was starved. Arielle had run herself so ragged that even she looked exhausted, and the buoyant lawyer was almost always to the 9's.

[Erik Lucio]

Food actually sounded good.  After what Ken had said about tigers fasting, then gorging, Erik had been trying to avoid doing it, and failing.  He was getting close to his 'eat lots' period, and so, now was a good time.  "Yeah, we can get food," he told her with a sigh, not even sure where to start with this situation.  "There's a diner just a block down."

Hopefully, Miss High-Profile Lawyer wouldn't mind diner food.  He could afford better, but he really doubted any nice places would be open at this time of night, and he liked diners.  They had a unique feel to them.

"You're not the only one you can't drink anymore," he reminded her.  "I get to play drunk just to hang out with human friends.  It sucks, but I'm dealing with it." 

Of course, he just wasn't the sort to let this get crazy on him.  He was working through it, even though he was having some serious control issues.  He'd almost eaten his boss and probably given him a concussion, not to mention Lore and Ken.  Not good. 

[Arielle Orion]

"The diner is fine," she said. She laughed a little at what he'd said about having to pretend to be drunk, but it was a bitter sort of laugh, a noise that stopped as abruptly as it'd started. "I don't have any friends to pretend to be drunk around. I will say this, though... this... thing is like a repellent for humans now. I didn't ever get hit on a lot before, mostly because, well - you've met me, you know," she said, indicating that she was hard to approach. "But now.. I guess my pheromones exude 'bad mood' at people, because they don't come within ten feet of me.  Do you know anything about this?" she asked.

She assumed that since he was so much more comfortable than she was, he must've been a shifter for a lot longer. She'd never have guessed he had any sort of difficulties. As they walked, she still couldn't help turning her head at every sound she heard, every strange scent she found. It wasn't so bad when Erik did it a few times, too, but it still drove her crazy. Would she ever adapt?

[Erik Lucio]

Given her outlook on this, he wasn't surprised by the fact that her laugh sounded so bitter or that she wasn't getting hit on as often.  It wasn't the shifter qualities, but her attitude, in his opinion.  He didn't have a problem with that, and he figured it was just because he was looking at it a different way.  When he'd laughed over faking drunk, he'd actually thought it was slightly amusing, though weird. 

"Not to completely repeat myself, but it'd probably help a lot if you tried to accept it," he told her hesitantly, completely unaware of her guess at how long he'd been a shifter.  "I've only been like this for about a month, but I think I'm getting the hang of it.  Kind of."

He smiled and tried to look like he was confident in that decision, but the fact of the matter was that it scared him how many 'close calls' they'd had.  His cat just didn't seem to want to listen, or take a back-seat.  Really, he didn't want to explain it all to her in detail.

"Yeah, I'm having a few issues." 

[Arielle Orion]

"Oh?" she said. She hadn't known that he'd not been a shifter for long. That sort of made her feel a little better, anyways. "I just don't... I don't know. I miss being human. I guess it can't get any worse," she said. Now, if she'd been vamp'd along with this, it would have been a nightmare. She put her chin in her hand, watching him. She felt somewhat at ease in his company, and she didn't know why. Arielle fought against her emotions so much that she ended up angry all the time.

"How did you get infected?" she asked, tilting her head. She ordered a strawberry milkshake and a club sandwich when the waitress came by.

[Erik Lucio]

He actually laughed a little when she said it couldn't get any worse, and shook his head.  "Oh, it could get worse.  You're not doing too bad, I promise.  You could have been a tiny little bird or a snake.  At least a tiger is pretty cool, and able to take care of itself," he pointed out.  He certainly felt better being a tiger than he would have as a bird or a snake.  Of course, he could have done without the rest of it.

"Uh, I ran into some trouble in the line of duty," he told her, purposely being vague.  He really didn't want to go into details.  Fortunately, the waitress showed up, and he could distract himself ordering a nice, juicy cheeseburger and soda.  Mmm.

Once the waitress had left, he shrugged and continued, though still didn't go into detail on her actual question.  He'd distract from the question, if he could.  "I'm a hunter.  Not sure what you've learned about shifters and all, but there are loads of different kinds, as well as vampires and witches.  I'm not talking afraid of garlic and sunlight vamps or witches that ride broomsticks, either.  They're a little different, and sometimes, these things get out of hand.  That's what us hunters are for.  We take up hits on the more dangerous vampires and shapeshifters running around.  It's too bad you don't know who got at you, otherwise I'd pay the guy a visit."

He was serious.

[Arielle Orion]

Arielle just stared at him. What? Vampires? WUT?

"Uh..." she stammered. Her mind sort of snapped at that point, and she just nodded. "Right. Hunters." She felt like she wanted to bang her head into something. How could someone as well-educated and cultured as herself miss all these tiny, insignificant details about the rest of the world around her? She was grateful when her milkshake arrived, and immediately planted her mouth on the straw to avoid further word-vomit.

She sucked down the strawberry item quickly enough that it gave her a brain freeze, which evidently even as a shifter she wasn't immune to. Well, not immune to stupidity, anyways, she thought to herself as she facepalmed for a moment to get her mind back on track.

"So, ex-military, I guess?" she asked. She didn't even want to comment on her feelings about being a bird or a snake. At least she was a predator and not prey. That much she could handle.

[Erik Lucio]

He watched her expression once he'd finished, and wasn't all that surprised.  If it wasn't so serious, and if she hadn't only JUST started talking to him, he'd have laughed.  It wasn't everyday that someone looked at him like that.  This wasn't the time, though. 

Their drinks arrived in time to save them both from anything potentially stupid leaving their mouths, and he managed to occupy himself with the soda as though it were really that interesting while he took in the people around him.  Really, he was waiting for her to say something and indicate she was ready for a continuation of the conversation.  She was the one with a lot to take in.

Ex-military.  That was a nicer way to go.

"Yeah," he told her, grinning to go along with it.  "Air Force, Security Forces Phoenix Raven.  Think Navy Seals or Army Rangers, but cooler."  He was only a little biased.

[Arielle Orion]

She sipped her drink and looked at him as he spoke, nodding a little while she tongued a chunk of strawberry that had come up through the straw. When she'd finished chewing it, she leaned down on her elbows a little and sighed. "Sounds cooler than my job," she said. "I'm a lawyer for Valefar and Scarapino. I'm one of their best lawyers, actually. But until recently, I didn't have any time to myself. I do now - they gave me time off after this. I have to go back to court Monday at 9 AM, though, so my free time is winding down," she said with another sigh.

It had been nice not having to work. She'd forgotten what it was like to live a little, but that was all going to change the moment she slipped into her Chanel suit and Marc Jacobs high heels.