<div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="floatleft">(https://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/c/cc/CatMoore01.jpeg)</div><strong>NAME:</strong> Melody Fairchild-Harrow<br/><strong>WEARING:</strong> As pictured<br/><strong>LOCATION:</strong> Lunchtime excursion in 'mundane' Vancouver<br/><strong>TIME:</strong> Late morning<br/><strong>CONTENT:</strong> Curiosity and embarrassment<br/><strong>TAGGING:</strong> Kaspian, Kaleigh, Open<br/><hr/><br/>"Uh-huh."<br/><br/>Melody was quite clearly <em>entirely</em> convinced by Kaleigh's claim to have merely been referring to the menu... but her dry reaction was quickly followed by a flashed smile, a soft snort of laughter accompanying a quick head-shake.<br/><br/>Fortunately, it seemed that cheerful teasing was very much the norm for interactions involving Kaspain and the staff - and the Goth offered more than one gratefully happy look, before finding herself expected to actually place an order.<br/><br/>"Oh!  Err, well.  The pho was particularly recommended, so... I'll try that, please?"  It seemed as if it might be a safe bet, and it <em>was</em> the specific thing she'd been invited out to sample...<br/><br/>Once they were left to their own devices, she cocked her head and slightly pursed her lips in response to Kaleigh's query.<br/><br/>"Mmmm.  Whatever it was, it didn't seem to be sentient.  That would imply that it was either there as a side-effect of something else - a dumb critter following its nose (if it had any approximation of one) towards prey - or that it was deliberately <em>brought</em> by someone else.  Perhaps there might be rumours of someone employing dangerous new hunting-hounds or assassins - but would we be at all likely to manage to hear such things?  Of course, even as a long shot it might be worth a try: that thing was... frighteningly dangerous."<br/><br/>Frowning pensively, she momentarily bit her lower lip.<br/><br/>"Hrmmm.  The... <em>goo</em>... or slick, or slime, or whatever you want to call it.  That might be a 'calling card' of sorts.  We don't know how long it lingers, or if it leaves stains after it evaporates - or soaks in, or whatever it does.  But 'weird black ooze' or 'black stains appearing out of nowhere' might be indications that things of that sort of have been in an area.  And those, I can imagine causing rumours even if the critter itself hasn't been sighted."<br/><br/>"But I <em>suspect</em> that it, ahh, got on board wherever it was that the ship went - or was taken - before it appeared offshore here.  It might just be wishful thinking on my part, but this might be a case for applying Ockham's Razor: the vessel somehow passed from Point A to Point B without seeming to cross the space in between, and it also 'lost' time while very strange things happened aboard.  It might be a simpler explanation to say that the hitherto-unknown entity boarded the ship while it was wherever-it-went, than to say that it was put on board before or after its time elsewhere."<br/><br/>"If there'd been indications of sentience from it, then I'd suspect it of having been in some fashion responsible for transit in at least one direction - there or back again - but what we saw seemed to suggest 'just' a predator without planning or, ahh, portal-related capabilities.  Thankfully.  It was terrifying enough as it was!"<br/></div>