Melinoe's Adventures with Rosemary and Doctor Vune

[♥Dementia♥]

Melinoe Meets Rosemary – Rank 1.1

Melinoe had been minding her own business at the Heb~Bastet when she was approached by a female Sphinx. The Sphinx was beautiful – she had a white coat with light pink patches around her rump and hot pink stripes all over the rest of her body, including her face. Her eyes and nose were an icy blue color that matched her curly pigtails, although her pigtails had white highlights throughout. She had a funny fluffy velvet tail that look like it had been dipped in hot pink dye. Perhaps it had. This mysterious lady approached Melinoe as Melinoe was telling her friend about her desire to become a Fortune Teller.

“I can help you,” Rosemary said simply.

Melinoe looked a bit confused, then she realized that this Sphinx was talking about helping her get her dream job. Melinoe wanted to be a Fortune Teller more than she wanted to breathe. Excitedly she asked, “Are you a Fortune Teller?” Melinoe looked at Rosemary, searching for a sign that she was, such as a crystal ball or the tell-tale outfit. However, she didn’t notice anything.

Rosemary laughed. “No, I’m not. But I can help you. My friend is a Fortune Teller. All you have to do is help me first,” she said, then her tone became hushed and dark, “and if you don’t, well, then you’ll never become a Fortune Teller. Or anything else for that matter.”

Melinoe started to protest quite loudly. “EXCUSE ME, ARE YO—“ but then the callous Sphinx slammed a rag over Melinoe’s grey face.


When Melinoe awoke, she had no idea where she was. Everything certainly looked different. She was in a dingy house, but nothing looked very Egyptian inside. There were skulls adorning the tables and a caged raven with beady, yellow eyes. “SQUAWKKK!” said the raven angrily.

Where on earth am I? thought Melinoe.

Rosemary appeared from the other room. “Well hello there, deary. Nice to see your awake. Welcome to Crux. Get up and have something to eat,” said Rosemary, gesturing with her paw to the table where a loaf of bread was sitting on a plate next to a creepy, black skull. Melinoe did not reply or move. She was terrified. She didn’t even remember meeting Rosemary that well, and she noticed that Rosemary had intimidatingly long, thick, black claws. She could probably rip Melinoe to pieces before she could even try to run.

“Why am I here? Who are you, and what do you want from me?” Melinoe asked, trying to keep her voice from sounding angry or confrontational. She didn’t know how to fight. She was only a peasant, after all.
Rosemary smiled wickedly at scared little Melinoe. “You, my dear, are here to find my father, Doctor Vune. Now eat!” Rosemary commanded, swiping the skull from the table and bouncing it in her paw. Melinoe obliged and started eating the loaf of bread, hoping it wouldn’t kill her or hurt her. She just wanted to go home, but she had been Sphinxnapped by this crazy Sphinx lady.

Melinoe finished the loaf of bread off after a time, and all the time she was eating Rosemary just sat there bouncing the skull and staring at her with her scary, icy blue eyes. Rosemary sat down in a chair, crossing her bottom legs.

“Now, you are to locate my missing father and then when you find him I will help you become a Fortune Teller like you so desire. He is here someplace, in Crux, and I simply must locate him. He could be in danger. You could fall into danger trying to find him, BUT if you fail to find him for me you will be in far greater danger,” with that last bit, Rosemary smiled wickedly to expose her sharp fangs. “Now, my father may be very confused when you do find him. He may not want to be found, but you MUST bring him to me or me to him.”

Melinoe gulped, visibly shaking. She felt like she might throw up the bread she had just eaten… “Oh my,” Melinoe said, before doing just that – she vomited into a vase beside the table. Rosemary gave her a wicked, angry snarl.

“DO NOT DESTROY MY HOME!” she yelled at Melinoe. “Now, will you help me or shall you die now?”

Melinoe backed away from Rosemary slowly, but she spoke, “I suppose you’ve given me no choice… I will find your father, Doctor Vune… Or at least I will try…”

Rosemary smiled wickedly again, bouncing the skull in her paw once more. “Good, very good. Best get some rest and then get to work.” Rosemary gestured towards a little couch with some dingy pillows that looked like they once might have had some floral design. Melinoe obeyed Rosemary’s commands, and she lied down on the couch, trying her very hardest to get some rest.

Rosemary sat the skull back down on the table and picked up the vase with a look of disgust on her face. Then, she vanished into another part of the dingy little apartment. Melinoe was alone with the eerily Sphinx-like raven and her thoughts.

[♥Dementia♥]

Melinoe Learns More About Dr. Vune – Rank 1.2

Melinoe did not sleep well at all on the dingy couch. She had dreams of Sphinxes being turned into ravens by the cruel Rosemary. Rosemary was so beautiful, but she was apparently equally as evil – especially if she was anything like she was in Melinoe’s dreamland.

Melinoe awoke with a start because she’d forgotten where she had fallen asleep. She looked around the dingy apartment that Rosemary called home. The curtains were ripped and tattered, there were skulls and bones everywhere – apparently Rosemary thought they were decorative, the table was a bit lopsided because one leg was bent, the metal chairs where flaking paint, and there was dust everywhere. The worst part had to be that raven with those strange, yellow eyes. During the night, Melinoe kept getting woken up by his squawking.

Briefly, Melinoe thought about escaping. Maybe while the crazy lady (Rosemary) was gone she could try to find help. Surely not everyone in Crux was so vile, and perhaps she could find some kind soul who would help her find her way back home. Thoughts of escape were short-lived; however, as Melinoe noticed the white and pink Sphinx sitting in the corner, watching her. Melinoe jumped up, gasping.

“Didn’t see me, eh?” Rosemary asked, laughing. “I suppose since you’ve agreed to help me I can tell you my name. I’m Rosemary. You’re Melinoe.”

Melinoe was surprised to learn that Rosemary knew her name. Had Rosemary been following her? Why did she pick me? Melinoe thought, I’m only a peasant. I don’t have any special powers.

Rosemary started talking again, “I was told you could help me. Those are all the details you need to know about me, and all I need to know about you. What you do need to know is that my father, Doctor Vune, will either be at his mansion here in Crux or in his laboratory—“

Melinoe interrupted Rosemary. “Laboratory? What sort of laboratory?”

“THAT IS NOT IMPORTANT!” snapped Rosemary. “Now, listen you dreadful little thing. The laboratory I do not know the location of – you will have to find it on your own. I was told you can do that. So, you better be able to unless he is at his mansion. I will give you the address on a slip of paper. Since you do not know your way around here, Det will take you.” Rosemary started to let the raven out of its cage.

Melinoe was extremely confused and frightened. “Um, who is Det..?” she asked timidly. Her tail was flat to the floor, and her lip was quivering. She just wanted to go home. She wasn’t cut out for this sort of job, and she wanted to be sure to let whoever told Rosemary she could help that she wasn’t a detective. If she ever was free again, at least.

With the raven perched on her paw, Rosemary explained, “This is Det.” She twitched one of her toes and the raven flew off of her paw and onto Melinoe’s shoulder.

Melinoe shuddered when the raven’s claws touched her. “The raven is Det? He knows the way to the mansion?” Melinoe asked doubtfully.

“Indeed. Now, off you go,” Rosemary said without further explanation. “Det will show you which way to go. And if you try to run, I will find you. You won’t find many Sphinxes willing to help you over me here in Crux, so don’t try anything, deary.”

Melinoe was so confused, but she didn’t want to make Rosemary angry. “Um, well, okay then I suppose I will have, um, D-Det lead me back here if we find anything then,” she swallowed hard. “See you soon…” With that, Melinoe found her way to the door of the apartment and descended some shoddy stairs that looked as if they might fall in at any moment down to the dirt streets. Det took off flying slowly, and Melinoe followed him.

Melinoe did think about running, but she was so afraid of Rosemary she couldn’t even explain it to herself. Something about Rosemary really scared Melinoe. She knew if she didn’t listen, she might never make it back home alive. So, she dutifully followed Det down the dirt roads, trying not to make eye contact with anyone she passed as she went.