This One's Not So Stiff… (Private RP)

Marrow was hungry. Looking around her tree she found no scraps of anything edible. Any tidbits of food that she had squirrelled away were now gone, and so it was time to forage. She grabbed her bone and set out into the forest, determined to find food.

Marrow started wandering the woods but finding only twigs and turds to gnaw on, she pressed on. She wandered on for several more minutes until she came upon a rotting, fermenting pumpkin. Unaffected by its smell or appearance, she smashed a hole in the side with her bone and immediately started to feast, as at this point she was feeling a little weak from hunger. She pulled herself half way in, smushing pumpkin into her cheeks as she went. As she ate, Marrow was overcome with a strange wooziness and was slowly succumbing to the alcohol that had fermented inside the fruit. She kept eating until she passed out, blackout-drunk.

About that time, a Dreg named Mortimer was walking through the forest. The morgue he worked for was running low on funds, so he was commissioned to look for some fresh cadavers to sell off to necromancers. Equipped with heavy leather surgical gloves and some body-bags, he was having little luck. The whole forest seemed to be booming with life, and this made Morty sad.

After wandering for a ways, the dark ginger Dreg squirrel finally came across something of interest.  He saw Marrow, sticking like a cork out of the side of a rotting pumpkin, only her hips down visible. He set down his bags and rapped on the gourd to see if there was a response. There was none. He referred briefly to his enchanted pocket watch. It was stopped at 4:20, like it had been for the past month. This was precisely how long it had been since it last ticked, signifying that the damned were nearby. Looking over the scene, he decided she must have choked to death a week ago, given the decay of the pumpkin and, seemingly, her too. He lamented, "awwwww, poor……… girl." He pulled her body out and layed it down on a body-bag. "What a shame, you were a cute one too…" He briefly checked her over, then closed the bag up. Noticing the massive femur that was lying near the pumpkin, he grabbed that too, admiring how well preserved it was. One body had to do for him, as it was getting dark. Mortimer made his way back to the village, and the morgue, to stash this find.

Soon after his return, Mortimer moved Marrow from her body bag to the operating table, to prepare her for sale. As he turned to the counter to prepare his instruments, she began to stir…

Marrow began to wake up. Her eyes closed tightly, she put a hand on her forehead and rolled onto her left side facing away from Mortimer.  As she opened her eyes she found it incredibly hard to focus, as she was still very drunk from eating the pumpkin.  Through the fuzziness of her vision, she saw a sink and some tables. She blinked slowly, the situation not entirely fazing her mind quite yet. She stared at an empty wall for about ten seconds and suddenly she realized there's something wrong and sat upright very quickly.  She got very dizzy as a result as she was still well intoxicated from the fermented pumpkin.  She did not know why she felt like this, which made her even more nervous and she glanced to her right. Seeing someone standing there, back turned to her, she held her breath. She tried to sneak off of the table, but because she was so wobbly she just landed with a loud thud. She grew quiet hoping he did not notice as she eyed the room looking for a quick exit.

Hearing the *THUD*, he let out a tiny startled squeak and spun around to see the cadaver he'd brought in was now laying on the floor. Shocked he stood and stared for a minute. He thought to himself, "Did I really place it so carelessly that it fell?" Moving in to pick her back up, he noticed her eye darting around. He stopped and quickly backed away. He frantically glanced at his pocket watch… 4:20. He reasoned, if she's not dead, and she's not undead then…… "He…Hello? can you hear me? Are you alive?" he projected to her, still against the wall.

Marrow froze in fear. She slowly turned to look at the stranger. Seeing that he was looking at her, and speaking to her, she got up on her feet a little faster than her intoxication would allow her to, and she wobbled a few steps back and to the left and fell onto her butt. She looked around for her bone, and not finding it she started backing her way against the opposite wall, feeling very vulnerable and trapped. "Ss.... Stay back," she said, attempting to focus on him but was still seeing very blurry. She tried to blink away the daze but it was not working. "What the Hell did you do to me?!" She sat, back against the opposite wall, frozen, and very confused over her drunkenness.

Relieved to hear her speak, he watched her haphazardly fall across the operating room. She was clearly not well. Mortimer regained his composure and put his hands up in front of him trying to gesture he was no threat. "All I've done is to carry you here and set you down. Are you alright? you look quite ill…" He stepped away from his wall but kept a respectable distance from her, as per her request.

Marrow slowly got up and leaned against the wall. "Why did you take me here?" She slowly slid to the side against the wall and caught herself with her foot, stopping her decent. "Where's my bone? What did you do with it?!" Her head wobbled a bit; standing was not working out all that well for her. She watched him from the distance as she slid against the wall the other way and leaned on the sink. She continued to look at him, refusing to break eye contact.

"I thought you were dead, this is where we take the dead… I can clearly see now I was wrong!" He flinched when she began to fall. "ah, so that was yours? It's quite a fine specimen. It's just in my office down the hall… you can have it back by all means." Noticing her severe disorientation, he became concerned. "Are you hurt? I can help…p-please, let me examine you?"

Her head moved involuntarily, while she attempted to focus. Her voice began to slur. "I... I want my bone.... I wan' to get it now..." She took a step forward and lost her balance. She stepped frantically right then left and backed up against a table along the wall. She shook her head. She was trying her best to not act hurt, but was not doing a very good job at it. She thought his questions regarding her well-being were intent on finding a weakness, and she ignored them in hopes that she could fake being well.

"I honestly don't think you could go anywhere in your condition… you'd fall right on your nose!" He gestured out the door just to his right. "if I get your large leg bone, will you stay here? I have no intention of keeping it from you…"

Marrow tried to fake being well once more. "N..no I'll go ge'it..." She stepped forward a few steps with great focus, but found herself unable to keep balanced and stumbled to the table she was laid on originally. Leaning on the table, she gave in finally. "Fine just.... jus' bring it to me..."

"Alright, please try not to hurt yourself…" He turned around slowly and slid all the scalpels and embalming tools back into the bag he'd brought them in with. Glancing back at her slumped over the cold metal operating table. "none of the doors in this place are locked, so you can walk out the front at any time, but I'd rather not have to lug around that massive femur while looking for you…" He stepped out the door, purposely leaving it ajar.

Marrow glanced up as he left and eyed the door. She was conflicted. She wanted to leave, but she wanted her bone more. She knew now she was way too dizzy to make it out anyway and slid downward towards the floor, sitting by the table, hoping that he would return the bone like he said.

With Marrow's bone over one shoulder he walked quickly through the hallway back to the operating room. Stopping only for a moment to grab a chair to drag along. "How are we holding up?" he spouted as he turned into the room. Letting go of the chair in the door frame he took the bone off his shoulder with both hands and slowly lowered it onto the operating table in front of Marrow. He then slid the chair to her left. "If You'd allow me, I'd like to find what's ailing you…it's clear you're not well, you've been passed out for a good 4 hours since I found you in the forest, and who knows how long before that! and I'm sorry to say so, but you look like death warmed over!" He offered her a gloved hand to assist her into the chair.

She reached up and grabbed her bone really quickly.  She sat there on the floor for a moment. She sighed deeply.  He did bring the bone back... She thought to herself. She was struggling to reason her thoughts, but came to the realization he was right. She was not going to be making it out in her condition.  She looked at him; having no social experience she could not tell at all whether or not anything he said was genuine through his voice, nor could she tell by looking at his face. "Okay," she said.  She gripped onto her bone tightly with her left hand, ready to strike the moment she felt threatened.  Looking at his hand, she raised her right hand up, slightly confused, not sure what his gesture meant. "If you try to hurt me I'll hurt you."

Confused slightly by her raising her right hand in response, he took his hand back. "That's… reasonable I suppose." He walked around the operating table to get closer to her. "If you take my hand, I can help you up into this chair now" he gestured his hand to her again.

She slowly put her hand on his, and lifted herself, albeit still wobbly, into the chair. She then put both hands onto her bone, keeping her bone ready just in case it was all a trick. She began to feel a little nauseated, but watched him cautiously.

Mortimer adjusted an overhead lamp to see her better. "Firstly, I'd like you to open your mouth and say 'aaaaaaah'." He took off his leather gloves, and produced a single tongue depressor from a nearby desk drawer. He leaned in very close.

Marrow squinted from the light and couldn't see the tongue depressor heading for her face all that well as she said, "Aaah."  As soon as the tongue depressor hit her tongue, she suddenly spewed most of the pumpkin from her stomach, onto his face.  She coughed, and threw up some more on his shirt. She slowly looked up at him, silent, half-digested pumpkin dripping off of the side of her mouth.

Mortimer sat there for a moment in shock, strings and chunks of partially digested fruit hanging off of his muzzle and ear, eyes burning. He leaned back and stared at her. He got a heavy whiff of the alcohol he was now completely drenched in. "I think you're going to be fine…" He got to his feet and spit out a bit that got into his mouth. "if you'll excuse me for a moment, I've got just what you need"

Suddenly, she snapped out of the daze she was in after puking her guts out. She licked her lips of the pumpkin that remained there as she watched him leave. As she waited for him, she brought one hand to her head and rubbed a side of her face. Everything that happened didn't quite faze her yet, but she did notice her vision was slowly clearing up and her senses were slowly returning.

Mortimer soon returned with a parcel in one hand, and a rag in the other, busily scrubbing the juices out of his fur. He placed the brown paper parcel on the counter in front of Marrow. Handing the rag to her, he started untying it. "I bought this just today from the bakery, it's one of my favorites, eat as much as you'd like, it will help you feel better" It was a large delicious smelling loaf of nut-bread. He tore off a piece and jammed it in his mouth before offering the whole thing to Marrow.

She sat the rag down on her lap and cautiously took the loaf. Seeing him eat a piece himself, she was a bit more accepting of it. Still, she cautiously inspected it and sniffed at it on multiple sides, concerned over whether or not it was poisoned. Smelling nothing off, she took a small bite and tasted it carefully. Just then, her stomach growled, reminding her how absolutely unbearably hungry she was again. She couldn't resist at that point but to scarf it down.

Mortimer watched, rather impressed as she ate the whole loaf of bread. "Hah! those usually take me a couple days to finish." He poured her a glass of water from the sink. "here, you'll need some fluids too. You're still going to be affected for some time. If you'd like, you're more than welcome to stay here until you're feeling all well. I can show you a much comfier room than this one, once you're feeling up to walking."

Having seen him take the water directly, she grew a little less concerned over it being poisonous but sniffed over the glass first to be safe. Smelling nothing off, she guzzled it all down in one go. She sat the glass down on the table and stared at the floor.  She still couldn't help but feel it was all a setup, but with the growing headache she was getting, coupled with the fact she really had no clue where she was and wasn't quite up to wandering aimlessly that night, made her decision for her. With heavy reluctance, she accepted. "Okay..." She gripped her bone tightly, raising it slightly while she looked up at him and stared. "I'll probably regret this but I'll take the room."

After letting her settle herself for a bit, he led her out of the operating room into the hallway. "this building is rather modest, nothing but body storage and operating rooms" Walking further down the hall. "but I have furnished my own office with a large comfy couch. In here…" He opened the door to a large warm looking room with some furniture and shelves. decorated with some trinkets and some preserved specimens such as bones and jars with organs in them. "I hope it's not too morbid in here for you" he walked in and sat at the desk opposite the door.