This One's Not So Stiff… (Private RP)

First topic message reminder :

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…

She glanced around the room for a moment then slowly stepped in, clenching her bone tightly. She stood there and looked around, slightly interested in the bones, but did not want to get too close to anything. She then glanced at the couch, slowly approached it and sat down. She slumped over on one side on the couch and eyed the room some more for another minute, then directed her glance at him, still holding her bone tightly.

He repositioned his chair so he could look over to her easily. "Are you starting to feel any better?" he ask facing her, sifting through some papers.

"Um... A bit, yes..." She rubbed her head, feeling the headache that was coming in to replace her dizziness. She slightly loosened her grip on her bone, as it slowly occurred to her she wasn't in any immediate danger around this stranger, though she still had it at the ready just in case. She continued to stare rather intently at him as she pulled her legs up on the couch so she could lay flat.

"do you live in the village? I don't think I've ever seen you before…" he watched her start to lay down.

"Um... Not in it... I don't go in the village itself very often." She scratched her head. "I live just outside it." She laid her bone on the floor right next to the couch, still within reach.  "Do you live here? This building?"

"here? this isn't my home, but sometimes it feels like it. there are a lot of times like tonight where I'm here all night and day working on things" He leaned back into his chair, relieved that she was sounding at least a bit more comfortable. "Do you have a name?"

"Oh." She found it odd that he did not live there; it felt pretty homelike to her with all the dead bodies she sensed around, as well as the bones. "Um... I'm Marrow. What's your name...?"

"My name is Mortimer, most just call me 'Morty'." He yawns. "I've never heard the name Marrow before, like bone marrow?" as he picked up the bleached and labeled squirrel skull on the desk to his left and played with it in his hands.

"Uh, yeah. Like bone marrow..." She watched him as he played with the skull, and pondered over how white it was. "I've never seen any bones that white before," she commented.

He stopped fiddling with the skull and got to his feet. "Have you seen a lot of bones in your time?" He asked as he walked just close enough to Marrow to hand the bleached skull over to her "I cleaned it thoroughly and then whitened it so you can see all the details, it's… kind of a hobby"

She took the skull and inspected it. "Yeah, I have..." She looked closely at the labels, the symbols she did not understand and looked at it with a baffled expression, but as she never understood writing her whole life she didn't think much of it. She handed it back over to him.

Taking the Skull, he noticed how long and absolutely sharp her nails were compared to his neatly filed digits. He caught himself staring and changed the subject. "I've always found Bones and anatomy fascinating" He playfully held the skull to the side of his own head so that it lined up with his skull, moving it's jaw as he spoke.

She squinted at him as he did that, slightly confused by this random action. Failing to find any real purpose to his action, half of her mouth pulled back slightly as if she were about to smile, however she never had done so in her life so she wasn't quite sure why she moved her face like that. She shook her head, confused now by her own actions, and returned to normal. "So have I," she responded, putting a hand over her mouth.

Mortimer, taking Marrow's response as a smirk, smiled back at her. He turned and placed the skull back in it's spot. "Have you studied Necromancy? I've only looked into enough to perform the most simple of spells." He turned to her again and pretended to pull his thumb off at the joint. "see? impressive huh?" he  joked.

Marrow was confused by his smile. She didn't feel too threatened by it, but she certainly did not understand it. "I, uh," she paused. "I... I have..." She watched as he pretended to pull off his thumb. "You bent your thumb. And the other thumb is on your other hand. That's not magic...." She tilted her head, confused why he was obviously faking it, the joke sailing right over her head.

"Oh! I… uh, I was just trying to convey I'm not good with magic." Embarrassed, he started looking around. "I should probably change out of this shirt" he was still wearing the same bright orange stained shirt, some strings of dried pumpkin still clinging to the chain of his pocket watch. "I'll leave you to relax a bit."

She watched him as he left, and stared at the door he exited through for a moment. Again, she was met with a feeling like she should just run. However, she still had somewhat of a headache from all that happened, and decided to lay her head down. It went against every fiber of her being to stay, but knowing now that he's pretty much no threat, she decided to get some rest while she had the chance. She picked up her bone and held it close, just in case as she yawned. She really did not want to fall asleep here; she still did not trust him much. However, despite her best efforts, she fell asleep pretty soon after her head hit the couch.

After, thoroughly cleaning the puke from his fur and donning a clean shirt and vest, he poked his head into the office to see marrow clutching her bone, fast asleep. He quietly snuffed the lights, then made his way back to the operating room, to continue working. He had not planned on sleeping that night.

Waking up the next morning, she rolled onto her back, bone rolling off of the couch. She rubbed her eyes and stared at the ceiling for a moment. Suddenly, she sprung up off of the couch and grabbed her bone, temporarily forgetting why she was in a strange place. The skull on the table caught her eye, and she suddenly remembered what had happened and lowered her bone, although the details at this point were slightly fuzzy. She still had a slight headache and was a little bit dizzy, feeling the effects of the hangover she got from the pumpkin. She slowly opened the door and looked up and down the hallway. She slowly wandered down the hallway, passing by the entrance to Mortimer's operating room, as she tried to find the exit.

Stitching the chest cavity of an older sugar glider back together, he noticed something pass by the doorway behind him. He carefully set his tools down and went to see what it was. "Good morning!" he beamed happily as he stepped out behind Marrow, holding his hands up in front of him so as to not contaminate his sterile gloves. "Did you sleep well?"

Marrow turned around quickly, bone raised when she suddenly was startled by his voice. Turning to see no immediate threat, she slowly lowered her bone and relaxed her stance. "Uh... I.... I slept okay."

He jumped a bit startled. "Sorry, didn't mean to scare you." He gestured into the operating room "if you'd like, after I'm done with this gentleman, maybe we could get some breakfast?"

Marrow thought for a moment. "Uh..." She thought of leaving to go home, but the growl of her stomach reminded her that she had no food back at her home, and she really didn't feel up to finding any quite yet. "Okay. I'll eat some food before I go..." She leaned against the wall and waited.

"excellent!" he smiled. "I can show you where I live then too." Walking back into the operating room, he stopped for a moment. "If you're not squeamish around bodies, you can come and watch as I finish here." he continued in and picked up where he'd left off.

Marrow looked at the floor for a moment, then wandered in slowly, but kept a distance as she watched. She was confused as to why he was stitching up the body as she was only familiar with pulling bones out of them, but stayed quiet.