This One's Not So Stiff… (Private RP)

[Mortimer]

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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]

Marrow sunk against the wall too. "It might...." She turned her head to look at him. "You trust me more than I trust myself..."

[Mortimer]

"Maybe with time… you'll see what I see in you too." he nuzzled his head into hers.

[Marrow]

She rested her head against his. "I...I guess." She started absentmindedly picking her nose with a claw.

[Mortimer]

He watched silently as her newly sharpened claws reached far into her nostril and probably past where it should medically be possible to go. "That doesn't hurt? I can't even fit my fingers in my nose" he said amazed.

[Marrow]

"No... it doesn't. I do this all the time... Have you tried?"

[Mortimer]

Mort took his finger from off her hand and shoved a finger to his nostril, it did not go in far. "my claws are too short and my fingers are too thick, I usually just blow my nose into a tissue." He let out a tiny sneeze after removing his finger.

[Marrow]

She pulled her claw out of her nose. "Oh, I see." She closed her eyes and continued to lean on him.

[Mortimer]

The white noise created by the hail outside was relaxing. Mort yawned, covering his mouth, then returned his hand to Marrow's.

[Marrow]

She held his hand and yawned too. After a moment, she suddenly felt a pulse on his wrist. She was startled by it slightly and moved her hand away. "I.... I felt your heartbeat. I... didn't know that was possible." She slowly put her hand back to try to find it again. "This is strange."

[Mortimer]

Mort unbuttoned his vest and shirt. He then took her hand and gently moved it directly over his heart, which was beating faster now than usual. "That's actually an excellent sign that someone hasn't died. I have to check for it on all the bodies that come into my morgue." He paused a moment, remembering their first encounter. "Well… I remember to most of the time, at least…"

[Marrow]

"I've never done that... I guess I kind of just know if something is dead... Haven't been wrong yet..." She got curious, leaned over and pressed her ear against where he originally placed her hand, moving that hand between his arm and ribs to hold him steady. "I can hear it too..." She began to find the heartbeat combined with the sound of the weather quite calming. "I'm so used to dead things... things that alive are so strange... I don't really know much about them..."

[Mortimer]

He put his arm on her back. "Is that how you found that body?" Speaking softly since her ear was on his chest. He started to rub her back.

[Marrow]

"Yeah... I can kind of sense when something dies nearby... Or has died recently..." She slouched against him further; the hail made the air quite chilly and he was very warm.

[Mortimer]

Hugging her close now he let out a comforted sigh. "That sounds pretty useful. maybe next time I go scouting for cadavers we can look together."

[Marrow]

"Maybe..." Marrow sighed. "I... hope I'm not bothering you... It's really cold out." She readjusted, resting the side of her face on his chest and pulled the blanket up further. She started to realize that she was feeling safe for the first time in her life. She was hesitant to accept this, but decided not to question it for the time being, and enjoy the feeling of contentedness while it lasted.

[Mortimer]

"Not at all, I'm quite comfy with you." He pet a hand across her back. He yawned again; he was starting to get sleepy.

[Marrow]

Marrow, too, was starting to get tired. She closed her eyes, and found herself drifting off to sleep slowly. Realizing this, she snapped open her eyes. She didn't want to fall asleep.

[Mortimer]

Mort gave into his sleepiness much easier and drifted off with Marrow in his arms. His chest was slowly rising and falling under her head.

The Hail outside was not letting up. It was a persistent roar of white noise.

[Marrow]

Marrow noticed his silence and slowly turned her head to see him in one eye. She noticed that he fell asleep. She sighed, and finally let herself start to fall asleep. She started to drool on him unintentionally as she slept.

[Mortimer]

Hours later, after the hail had subsided. Marrow & Mortimer still laid sleeping. Mort slowly woke, he noticed a figure silently moving around in the dwelling. He flinched awake with a gasp. He soon relaxed after his vision focused on a feral squirrel, big, tufty and red, similar to himself.

The feral had gotten into a bag of nuts and was contently munching on a cashew.

[Marrow]

Jolted awake by his start, Marrow rubbed her eyes and started to lift her head, a strand of drool connecting the side of her face to him and part if her face was matted down from drool, as was his stomach where the side of her mouth was rested. She opened her eyes slowly. The moment the strange squirrel caught her eye she became alert, muttering a profanity under her breath. She got up, grabbed her bone and quickly approached it threateningly, ready to swing, in attempt to freighten it out of her house.

[Mortimer]

It's back was towards them as it ate.

Mort was on his feet now too. "Let's try not to seriously hurt him, looks like he might be a cousin of mine." He stepped around to the front of the feral and quickly slapped what was left of Marrow's cashew from it's hands. "That's not yours!" He said loudly in an attempt to scare it.

The feral turned around to see them both and immediately started trying to intimidate them with a series of loud, rapid, and angry squeaks, as it stood up straight and shuffled it's feet. It however was not as tall as Mortimer.

[Marrow]

Marrow stepped forward closer to it, not intimidated by its actions, bone still at the ready. She could tell it was a feral from its behavior. "I won't hurt him unless he attacks. But I want him out of my house." She jabbed him slightly but firmly with her bone, trying to prod him towards the exit.

[Mortimer]

Mort having intimate knowledge of how feral squirrels fight, foresaw what the feral was about to do. He quickly stepped to Marrow's right.

After getting poked firmly in the gut, the feral lunged up and over her bone directly at her face trying to tackle her, only to be met with Mort's fist, to the face, mid air. He fell unconscious to the floor.

Mort's arm came to a rest inches in front Marrow's face. "I saw that coming, I used to live with these guys." he said relaxing his pose and shaking his hand.

[Marrow]

Marrow looked at the feral on the floor. "Oh... If you didn't do that... I'd have been forced to attack him myself... And I just sharpened my claws..." She started to use her bone and roll the feral across her floor to the exit; she was setting up to push it out of the tree.

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