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Zanka keeps finding dead animals.
This should be normal, considering where they live and all of that. Animals don't exactly have gas masks to protect them — it's unfortunately common to find them deceased.
Zanka had merely passed by them before. If he wasn't in a rush, he'd maybe bury it or move it out of the way. He didn't think they deserved to just.. rot out in the open.
There hadn't been anything weird about it, and maybe he's overthinking things, but.. it keeps happening. It's happening to the point that he can never leave the cleaners headquarters without spotting one — it's gotten to the point that there's sometimes two or three!
He's kind of scared to go outside. Is this some type of warning? Is someone threatening him?
He had tried to ask Enjin about it, but the man had merely laughed and patted him on the back. He kind of gets it. Saying you think someone's planting dead corpses for you to find is a bit crazy, but he was hoping for some advice other than a wheezing fit.
He was too embarrassed to ask anyone else after that.
Zanka had begun to convince himself that they were for someone else. He travelled with other people most of the time — maybe the threat was for one of them. Right, yeah — that was probably it!
Until he found one with a “Z” carved into it.
Well.. shit.
“Enjin, Enjin — look!” Zanka patted the man's arm and pointed insistently at the corpse.
“Zanka.. why are you showing me a dead cat?” The question was asked with clear judgement, and had it been any other moment, Zanka might have been offended.
“Look what's on the cat!” He pushed Enjin forward while totally not hiding behind him.
“Wow. Fur, a tail, a Z, ears — wait.. a Z??” Enjin bent forward, interest peaked at the newfound discovery.
“Remember when I told you someone was threatening me with animal carcases? I told you! They're so after me!” Zanka wailed in anguish.
Enjin let out a little chuckle at the memory before remembering the situation and quickly forcing himself to be serious.
“Maybe it's for.. someone else?” Enjin attempted to comfort very unsuccessfully.
“That's literally my initial!” Zanka shrieked.
“You're not the only person with a name that starts with Z! Now c'mon, we've got a job to do!” With that, Enjin looped his arm around Zanka's neck and proceeded to drag him away.
Enjin could only deflect for so long. As the week continued, the arrows pointing towards these animals being left for Zanka continued to grow.
The next day, there was one with “ZN” carved into it. The day after that, one had “ZAN” on it. On the third day, his name was spelt out in full.
Now on the fourth day, Zanka was paranoid beyond belief.
“You check it..” Zanka whispered to Rudo while standing a respectable distance away.
“What? No! This is your freaky secret admirer. Leave me out of it!” The teen scowled and nudged Zanka forward.
Zanka didn't even understand why he was here! Clearly, he was being threatened. Enjin insisted that they needed him in order to solve this mystery though. Zanka had a slight suspicion that he was still finding the situation to be funny.
Enjin walked forward as the two continued to bicker, crouching down to inspect the newest animal.
“Hey, this one has a heart on it!” Enjin exclaimed in a tone that was so obviously amusement.
“..huh?” Wasn't this meant to be a threat? Like.. life on the line, days to live on countdown, check every shadow type of situation?
Zanka inched forward, looking at the dead animal from a respectable distance.
Enjin was, unfortunately, not fucking with him. That was a big ‘ol heart accompanied by a “Z”.
“Told you it was a secret admirer,” Rudo huffed out.
Zanka didn't reply to that. He could only handle so much, and Rudo being right about something was not on the table right now.
Zanka was understandably even more creeped out now. Was this some weird courting ritual? How did he tell whoever this was to stop killing animals for him? It was already depressing before, but it was worse knowing they were dying for him.
Zanka wasn't as paranoid when leaving the base now. His.. stalker? Wasn't going to kill him if they liked him.. probably. It was less likely than when he thought this person was out to get him.
Zanka had just gotten done with a solo mission (that he had unsuccessfully tried to get out of) when he stumbled upon another corpse.
This time, the offering was accompanied by the sender.
Looking at them now, Zanka felt very justified being scared of them.
Because that could only be described as a very large cat with very large claws. He froze where he stood, staring owlishly at the animal.
Well.. at least the dead animals were making a little more sense now.
The beast got up and trudged over to him, slow with its movements — as if trying to keep him from running off.
Which was unsuccessful because why would Zanka stay around for this??
Except the second he inched backwards, the animal growled in warning.
Oh, okay. This was it then. This is where he dies.. nice knowing you everyone, his funeral better be full of tearful apologies for not listening to him.
Zanka squeezed his eyes shut because well.. he doesn't really want to see himself get mauled to death. At least his Lovely Assistaff was resting safely against the wall behind him. She'd live on even if he didn't.
Then he felt something warm against his hand. Zanka's eyes startled open, quickly glancing down.
The.. cat? Was licking his hand, nudging against it right after.
Hesitantly, after a few moments, Zanka reached out to pet softly over the animal's head.
It was purring. Zanka wasn't dead, this beast cat was telling him to pet it, and Zanka was beyond confused and still 75% sure he was going to die.
“I'm.. so confused,” he whispered while bringing his free hand to join the other in its petting.
The beast only let out a rumble and nudged its head against Zanka's legs.
Zanka stayed there for a long time petting this weird creature. He eventually found himself seated on the ground with a lap full of a cat. It was less frightening and a lot more confusing now. At least he wasn't dead?
“I guess I can't get on to you for not just talking to me about your feelings,” Zanka mumbled with a slight laugh.
Although this.. wouldn't really work out. Human and animal? Yeah, no, he wasn't down for that.
The beast stilled in its purring, sitting up from where it had been relaxing on him.
Zanka momentarily worried he had messed everything up, but those thoughts were quickly wiped away when the animal placed a lick upon his cheek.
It was reassuring, but it was also gross. He had to refrain from wiping the saliva away.
Zanka didn't know anything about animals, but he'd bargain that this one was.. nervous? It wouldn't look at him anymore, instead digging its claw into the dirt of the ground.
Zanka was about to speak again, to reassure the animal that he wasn't judging it, but then it began to shift.
And he means it was literally shifting — changing right before his eyes. Zanka's mouth fell open as he watched the whole display, flinching at points that both looked and sounded painful.
When it was all said and done, Zanka was full of a mix of emotions, but none of those mattered when he saw who was before him.
His face twisted into anger as he scrambled to stand up.
“Jabber??” He exclaimed in a tone of betrayal.
Look, he didn't know the cat, and it wasn't as if he trusted it, but he had gotten a bit attached as it cuddled up to him.
Only to find out it was this psycho?? What rotten luck he had.
“Supriseee!” He called out in his normal cheerful tone.
If you looked closely, you'd see the hint of nerves in his mannerisms. The shaking of his smile and the quiver in his voice.
Zanka silently cursed himself for being observant. He didn't want to know the guy was nervous. He wanted to yell and stomp away and forget this ever happened.
“So was this just some.. weird tactic to make me paranoid or something?” Zanka accused while glaring at the.. man?
“Now why would I do that? I'm a kind man, y'know? Some might even say I'm an angel. Someone like me would never do something so cruel!” He giggled as he rose to a standing position.
Zanka's hands clenched into fists, anger evident in every action he made.
“Stop trying to deflect, Jabber. I've been dealing with your bullshit for weeks now! I'm way past tired of dealing with your antics.” Zanka wanted to be calm and collected, he really did, but he couldn't even keep his voice steady.
Jabber seemed to flinch a bit at the wording, hands moving to caress his own hair.
“Well if you wouldn't have kept throwing them away, I wouldn't have had to keep bringing more to you. Really, ZanZan, it's not nice to throw away gifts,” Jabber rolled his eyes, annoyance sinking into his expression.
“You expected me to keep dead animals?!” Zanka wasn't insane unlike someone here! Why would he keep them?
“Well duh! Did you not hear the gift part? I even started to address them to you, but you still kept throwing them out!” Jabber was speaking as if this should all be obvious, but Zanka had absolutely no idea what was going on.
“I killed for you, Zanka,” Jabber creeped forward.
“I didn't think you'd like humans, so I settled on animals. Maybe that wasn't enough for you? I can take it up a notch.. ya want real bodies, dontcha?” He laughed as he finally closed the distance.
Jabber rested his head against Zanka's shoulder much like the cat did earlier. A finger moved to trace around his chest, giggling all the while.
Zanka shouldn't be affected by any of this, but he couldn't deny the increase in his heart rate.
He didn't want anyone to die — not even the animals, but the notion that Jabber was willing to was.. ashamedly thrilling.
“Zan-ka .. “ Jabber whispered.
“Just tell me what you want and I'll give it to you,” he rubbed his face against Zanka's shoulder with a sound that almost resembled a purr.
“I want..” Zanka began.
“ — you to tell me what the hell is going on!” he finally managed to will himself to push Jabber away, moving back into a defensive position.
Jabber frowned and let out a groan, practically pouting like a toddler.
“C'mon, man! Don't you get it? I've been tryna get you to mate with me! We fought and I showed you I'm plenty strong, I gave you gifts, and now I'm presenting myself to you. What more do you want from a man?” He threw his hands up in frustration.
“..huh?” Zanka mumbled cluelessly.
“What — it's not as if you didn't know what this was.” Jabber stared at him. Zanka stared back.
“No way — holy shiiit, you didn't, did you?” Jabber laughed and pointed an accusing finger at Zanka.
“Well how was I supposed to know any of that? I'm still stuck on the fact that you turned into a cat!” Zanka sputtered out.
“Panther — not a cat. I thought people knew about shifters?” Jabber corrected and questioned.
“I don't think anyone knows that there's people out there who can do freaky shifts into animals!” Zanka was not in the wrong here and he refused to be treated like he was!
“Huh.. I guess I just assumed since the raiders knew, everyone did. Maaan, the world is so behind on shit!” Jabber laughed again, finding this so not amusing situation to be hilarious.
“Well.. now you know, y'know?” Jabber skipped forward again, stopping when he was a few inches away from Zanka.
“And since ya do.. how ‘bout you give my courting a chance? Promise I won't disappoint yoouu,” Jabber purred out with a smile that was a bit too wide.
Zanka didn't reply, but the rising blush on his face was answer enough.
Jabber's grin grew in size and he backed away.
“..don't kill any more animals — and don't kill people!” Zanka quickly tacked on.
“Ughh, you've got some boring ass rules, ZanZan.” Jabber complained.
“If.. if this is really about me then.. you'll listen,” he voiced with wavering confidence.
Jabber paused before smiling again.
“Fine, you've got yourself a deal! I'll figure something out. If you throw them away again though..” his gaze was unkind, promising something that Zanka would undoubtedly dislike.
Then he skipped off, leaving behind a frazzled and perplexed Zanka.
What exactly did he just sign himself up for?