A Meal with Someone new

[Marcescens]

**Deeper into the house goes the creature, before stopping abruptly at a door. she's not sure if this is the kitchens or not, but it sure is the place that smells the best. turning her tiger-like face to the captain, she waits for his reaction, to know whether this is that off-limits are or not.**

The Captain smiles and walks right by M/13 despite her odd appearance. Clearing his throat, he pushes the door open and walks into the well, highly decorated Dinning Room. The kitchens, two doors off to his right at the far end are closed and peacefully quiet.
The candles in the chandelier are always lit, burning brightly and making them sparkle. The table was very long, with chairs neatly pushed in and the china cabnets against the walls were clean without a speck of dust believe it or not.

"How nice." The Captain says as he enters, putting his pipe in his coat pocket and looked around the neat room.
He turns a quarter of the way to face M/13. "I'll get your meal. You go ahead and have a seat." He smiled, walking away to the far corner of the room.

Knocking on the kitchen door, he was greated by silence from within, and he took a deep breath before opening the door and stepping inside. The Captain always did. He was never really sure if he were to be knocked silly with a pot, frying pan or get pelted with potatoes. What an odd bunch of cooks, yet they were good ones.

[Moss]

**M/13 follows the Captain slowly. Her golden eyes widen to take in the room. Last time she was in a building it was in a dog-kennel like cage. She's never seen anything like this. Despite it's shabby outsides, she has to admit that this room is very nice. she watches her host disappeared into the off-limits kitchens, and doesn't try to follow him. He'd said to have a seat. Searching in her mind, she links the word to her trainings- seat-sit. So, jumping onto one of the velvet chairs, she kneels down, curling her tail to one side, both front 'paws' resting on the table.**

[Marcescens]

The Captain, inside the kitchens, soaks in it's friendly ness and sticks his hands in his pockets.

"Hello, hello!" He says, looking around the room. "We have new company here who is quite hungry. She'd like-" He was cut off as a silver platter began to float in his direction.

For a brief moment, the Captain was shocked, startled. Had he done something wrong? He watched the platter move closer, then it hovered to a stop and just ... floated there. Curious, he reached forward and peeked under the cover. "Oh! Right on the spot. How very clever." Gently taking the tray, he nodded. "Thank you very much!"

If someone was watching him, they'd probably most likely think he was nuts. Smilling, he backed out of the kitchen. He'd always thank the cooks and have a nice conversation. It was very polite that way, and if the Captain were invisible, he'd appreciate conversation as well.

Opening the door, he walked back into the Dinning Room. It closed behind him. As if it were completly normal for doors to close by themselves in this house, The Captain strolled over to M/13 and gently laid the platter onto the table in front of her. Stepping back, he removed the cover and walked back to the head of the table. "There you are."

On the silver platter there were big steaks, raw to M/13's hopeful liking, and a small note. It was white, and with very fancy handwritting said: 'Welcome to the Nevermore House'

[Moss]

**M/13's ears prick up and, not bother to examine the meat, she lovers her head and gulps it up in a few bloody bites. Soon enough only the note is left, fluttering about on the table like a lost bird. It means nothing to her- she can't read. Licking what's left of the steak off her lips and teeth, she turns her golden glare on the captain and growls a muted 'thank-you'. Her mind regaining the top over the madness, she adds.** What did you want to know?

[Marcescens]

The Captain doesn't sit. He stands, as he usually does, and glances around at the pretty china and few pictures on the walls, before turning to M/13 and blinking his surprise. Hungry indeed! Pah! Famished!
He felt a flash of pity for M/13. The Captain hadn't really met something like her before, she must feel pretty lonely if she was worried about hiding herself so much.

He notices the disregard for the note. Did she just not care? Or could she just not read? He rubbed his chin, clacking his thin boney fingers across his teeth before dropping his hand to his side.

"If it is alright with you... I would like to know where you were from." He began with a friendly smile. She didn't have to answer if it made her uncomfratble, frustrated or even angry, but the Captain was stating his curiousity, and he knows that he'd answer any question if she asked.

[Moss]

**M/13 settles herself as comfortably as possible on the chair. Her legs and half bent, with he elongated feet dangling off the side, and her arms are bent onto the table. At the Captain's words she flicks her whiskers, and tips her ears. She had asked him what he had wanted to know. And now she'd tell him. Her tail flicks back and forth, the way a cat's does when they aren't sure what to think, or do. she starts as best as she can, her voice just as guttural as ever. It's more of a growl really, a rusty, deep scratching sound.**
For what happened to me, to make me look like this, the answer is nothing- I was born this way.
**she straightens a bit, whether from pride of from though, and tips her head.** My full name is Experiment M/13 more commonly known as The Predator. I was built to be a body-guard at a research facility. But they didn't have control over me. **She almost chuckles the last part.** No... the second I tasted freedom I went mad... bloodcrazed. **this time her head lowers again. Whatever this madness led her to do, she isn't proud of it.** So I escaped, and, for years learned to to tame my own mind. **That was it, in the simplest terms. How she knows this, she's not sure. Her best guess is that memories from hearing people talking long ago were stored, and know that she can speak, she knows what they were saying. It doesn't occur to her to say what she's a hybrid off... she knows some parts, but to her they aren't that important.** And that's it...

[Marcescens]

The Captain stroked his chin.

"Ahh." He said simply. So she was an experiment, which explained the name and the strange appearance. A body guard at a research facility. That explained the experimentation. Freedom? Crazy? His gaze softened sympatheticly. The mind was a hard thing to conquer, and for a creature like M/13 or The Predator it must have been even more challenging.
She was proud atleast, he noticed with the holding of her head high. That was good. Confidence. The Captain had it himself.

He nodded respectfully, and listened to the rest of her story.
"I see. Well I suppose you just have to live with the past, and only worry about here and now." He smiles, hoping his little advice helped M/13 in somekind of way.

"But you seem new around here. Is there any questions you have?"

[Moss]

**M/13 nods, watching the Captain a bit. Twitching her ears, she scratches her neck with her back paw, rather like a dog. Looking back up at his question, she taps her tail on the chair once or twice, thinking.**
Thank-you for all your help....
**She begins in the usual ragged growl that makes up her voice.** for questions... I'm not sure. **She tips her head back to think some more, before adding.** I'm not sure how I got here either. But is there anything I should know?

[Marcescens]

The Captain tapped a skinny index finger on his teeth, drumming hs fingers against them in a rhythmical 'tckt''tckt''tckt''tckt'.
He rubbed his jaw, then nodded with a smile at M/13.

"Don't mention it. This house," He motioned with wide hands aroudn him. "The Nevermore House, is open for all ghosts and creatures... well almost all of them. So long as you don't tear apart the place, although it is quite beat up already, and harm any of the others... you are free to come and go as you please." He grinned.

Puttign his hands back into his lage coat's pockets, he shrugged. "Other then that and the kitchens, I don't think there is...."

[Moss]

**M/13's eyes widen. A house for monsters? Like her? Is that what she was? She nods dazed-ly, blinking once or twice. Who exactly was this man- this ghost- who's task seemed to be to own and take care of a place for other monsters? She's about to just shrug it off, when another thought comes to mind. she told him, her story, which meant maybe he could return the favor. Clearing her throat with a few ark-like noises, she asks.** What about you Captain. what's your story? **She growls, her tail swishing back and forth.**

[Marcescens]

The Captain turned his face away from a picture on the wall, to turn and look at M/13. Of course it was only fair, she told him her past, and The Captain didn't really mind people bothering him about his history. He was dead after all, what difference did it make now?

"Well, It was a long long time ago, when I was still alive of course." He paused to walk back to the table. "I was the Captain on a ship, a fair honest sailor that served his country well."

"It was then I met a lady, and on the day we were suppost to be wed, she died..." He tilted his head to look to the right, then flashed his eyes back at M/13. "By my own hand." He looked down at the table, clearing his throat. "I found her untrustworthy... but I paid for my terrible error."

"I was cursed to sail the oceans, the seas, the waters until I met someone who would die for me... I became a Pirate captain, doing as I pleased. And eventually, after a long time, I met her." He said, making 'her' stick out more.
"But the thing was, was that I didn't want her to die. Yet she killed herself anyway to free me from my curse..."

"I should have seen it coming. Obviously someone that has lived well beyond their years with a curse, being 'freed' doesn't really agree with them at first." He pointed out. "So, a 150 year old, or older, man wouldn't be able to live. So, naturally, I shrivelled up and died on the spot." He said, blinking at M/13.

"Then I woke on the shores here, pieced myself back together and took up residence in this house." He put his hands inside his coat pockets. "That's pretty much it..."

[Moss]

**M/13 listens quietly, only moving to swish her tail back on forth or twitch her ears in surprise. this was quite a strange tale. she didn't know much, from what she new of life- which was limited to life in a little cage at the lab, or life roaming, doing her best not to kill whatever moved in front of her. This "man", or whatever he was now, was talking of things much deeper then that. Of multiple passed lives, of magic, and of that thing she's only heard mentioned before- love. She may not understand the details, but she get the gist- in love, cursed, in love, de-cursed, dead. What an existence...
The best she can do is nod once, then twice, mulling over the information. Deciding to say something she licks a few drops of leftover blood from her fangs and growls.** That is a story....
**Simply because she has nothing else to say. "Sorry" doesn't seem appropriate at this point, no matter how sad the tale is.** As you said.... **She adds after a moment.** Creatures.. like us must lie for the present.

[Marcescens]

The Captain waited patiently for a responce. He was a man not really rushed, but took time with his own free will. After all, he had so much of it. Plenty of it.
He studies the pipe in his hands, empty because smoking in the meal hall was bad luck, but at the smooth carvings along the sides. A few sea barnacles here and there. Putting it in his inside pocket, he patted it gently and watched the swishing of M/13's tail. It was muffled slightly. As most things are. Noises tend to echo in empty head cavaties.

"Indeed it is a story."

Captain guessed that M/13 mustn't have had things like ships in her past, but he nods slowly. That is very true that creatures have to lie for the present. He and everyone in hte hosehold had to lie the the living to make their existance much easier.

"It is a bit ... sad though isn't it? That we all must lie..."

[Moss]

**M/13 twitches her ears, as she seems to do when she's thinking, and reflects on his statement. With an awkward move that would be a shrug, she growls.** Lie? About what... **In all truth, M/13 has never talked much. It took her the longest time to even learn a language, the lab scientists never bothered to teach her. Besides, when it comes to company, usually she ripping them to bits, not having civilized conversation. Which, all simply means that she's never had much of an incentive to lie, and never much of an imagination to come up with something to say if she did need too.** We hide, but lie? I'm not sure...

[Marcescens]

The Captain rubbed his knuckle bones together, feeling the knobby bone clack against each other. His black eye sockets narrowed slightly as he thought.

"We, the creatures and people of this area, must hide and lie in order to make our lives safer. If we didn't keep ourselves a lie to the world and hid, they'd be bursting at our doorsteps every minute of the day or trying to get rid of us." He titled his head, pausing to see if M/13 was following.

"We'd get no peace. Therefore we lie for our present. We lie to the living to keep our present safe..."