Incubus: Pursue your cook, Takita

From Create Your Own Story

You cross the deck, intercepting Takita as he reaches the main hatch. He looks up at you with his strange, slitted eyes, and then quickly lowers his gaze, looking down at the deck instead.

"Is there something I can do for you, Captain?" he asks, his voice surprisingly rough and rattling, almost like a growl. Considering his other animalistic qualities--you glance down at his tail, slung between his legs--he very well could be growling at you.

"I would just like to speak with your for a few moments," you say. He nods, still not looking at you.

"Aye, Captain," he says. "Will it take long? I have supper on the stove."

"It might," you say, glancing around. Everyone looks busy, so you aren't likely to be interrupted. "Let's speak in the galley, then. The crew would not be pleased if supper burned on the first day our of harbor." You chuckle and smile, but he just steps back from the hatch and waits for you to go first. You sigh and descend the steps, into the cramped, dimly-lit interior of the ship. Toward the bow was storage, to the stern was the crew quarters, and amidships was the galley on the port side and the head and the brig to starboard. The lower deck held the majority of the supplies--fresh water, powder and shot for the guns, potatoes, flour, and rum--with room for plunder or slaves or whatever.

You step into the galley to find a large pot simmering on the stove. After several long, miserable years of eating mealy biscuits and salted meat every day, you invested in a modern magical stove. The dull black iron beast is ugly, and hideously expensive, but the fire burns cleanly on nothing but kelp, of which there is an abundance floating all around you.

You stand beside the table and watch Takita move surely around the compact room, stirring the pot with a long-handled spoon, chopping up several peeled potatoes and adding them to the steaming liquid, checking several loaves of dark, hearty break baking in the oven attached to the side of the stove. He doesn't even acknowledge your presence until you speak.

"What are you cooking?" you ask, and he glances at you, but only for a second. "It smells good."

"Fish soup, Captain," he says and you frown.

"I don't remember buying any fish before we set sail," you say. You have barrels of salt pork, mutton, and beef, but no fish.

"I don't believe you did, Captain," he says. "Was that what you wanted to talk to me about?" He seems eager to get rid of you. Curious.

"No, that wasn't it," you say. "I was wondering what sort of faerie you were. I've never heard of anything quite like you before."

"I'm a braeddis fey," Takita says. "We're a small tribe. We keep to ourselves, mostly. Few have ever heard of us."

"Well, then it sounds like I'm lucky to have met you," you say. "You strike me as a very interesting individual, one that I would like to get to know better."

"Thank you, Captain," he says, his eyes on the floor as he bows his head. "Perhaps it could wait until later, though. I have to get the fish for the soup."

"Of course," you say, frowning slightly as he slips past you, pressing himself back against the wall to keep from brushing against you in the tight space. He can't possibly know what you are, could he?

Do you...

• Incubus: Grab Takita and question him
• Incubus: Follow Takita and watch him
• Incubus: Forget Takita and find someone else

Hunger Key: Sated - Awake - Restless - Hungry - Very Hungry - Starving - Critical
Status
Demon	Awake
Location	The Incubus: Galley