Marinus

playlist

• Dark Night of the Soul - Philip Wesley
• Far and Away
• Nascence

Name: Marinus

Name meaning: of the sea
Nicknames: none

Gender: male
Age: equivalent of a 35 year old human when he died. Currently 533
Species and/or Breed: ghost dog
Birthday: June 30

Personality: Being around Marinus can often make you feel a bit down. There's an air of gloom around him these days, like a storm of dark clouds off the coast. It's almost like the air gets colder around him. It's rare to see a smile on his face. He doesn't intend to make you feel sad, however. Yes, although Marinus is often sad, he loves seeing everyone else being the opposite.
His favorite thing to do is try to cheer others up, in his own way. He's brilliant at making seaweed sculptures, and although he no longer can touch anything (his paws go right through. That's the trouble of being a ghost) he'd definitely be willing to teach you how to create something. When others he knows are feeling joyful, he feels better himself, even though it may not look like it.
He's a bit slow - but not in a bad way. He's just not in a hurry to get anywhere. Nothing seems to worry him that much - he takes things as they come, one day at a time, and doesn't worry about the future.

History:
"You know, I don't really know why I'm telling you all this. I wish you would stop bothering me. But if you're so determined... fine. I'll tell you what happened to this poor old ghost."
Marinus was a sailor. Well, he didn't actually sail a ship - the humans he traveled with did that bit - but he considered himself every bit as important as the captain. He kept morale high. If a sailor was feeling down, he'd run over and lick him until he felt better. When he wasn't doing that, he was running around the deck, keeping an eye on things, or looking at the sky, or towards their destination. All the humans loved him. It was wonderful.
They were a merchant ship. They were given cargo at one port, they brought it safely to a different port, and they were paid for the job. Most of the time it was very simple. Other times the captain and whoever he was doing business with got into arguments. Marinus would watch from the ship, eyes narrowed in worry. But the situations always resolved themselves. Cargo that was too much to carry all at once was taken in two trips (with twice the payment). Arguments turned into friendly conversations. Marinus decided things would always work out. And they did. Except the one time they didn't.
The ship was docked at port, with no plans to leave any time soon, so Marinus had headed ashore in hopes of just getting away from everything for a while. After ages of being stuck on the same ship, he just needed a little adventure before they headed off again.
Marinus wandered here and there. He didn't have a set destination - wherever he felt like going at the time, there he went. He stopped at a marketplace to look at some fruit. He met some other dogs and the had a jolly good time playing tag. It was a brilliant time. As the sun was setting and he decided to start heading back, he turned and ran right into someone.
"Sorry," he barked, looking up. Oh, it was a human. So they couldn't understand him. This human looked terrifying. He had an eyepatch and a mean glint in his eye and a very large sword.
"Just be more careful next time," the man replied gruffly, and Marinus paused for a moment. Replied. Like... he could understand animals? How strange. Another reason not to like this guy. Marinus got out of his way very fast, and practically ran the whole way back to the ship.
The next morning he awoke to hear the sounds of an argument outside. Not again, he thought in dismay, but still he hurried onto the main deck to see who it was. His gaze landed on his captain, and... the scary person he'd ran into the day before.
"I need you to transport this!"
"I don't accept transport of things I'm not allowed to see!"
"Well, you do for me!"
"Why, who are you?"
"...I'm afraid I can't tell you."
"Then I'm even more against this. Mystery cargo, mystery person... what's next, mystery destination? How will we know how to go somewhere if you don't tell us where?"
Marinus sighed, and turned away from the scene, towards the other end of the deck. The captain would make things work. Maybe, for once, he wouldn't accept the job. That would be nice. He went below deck, determined to forget about the whole thing. In an hour, the mysterious merchant would be gone.
But somehow the cargo was accepted, and the ship set off two days later. Marinus didn't like it, but he managed to remain cheerful. A few days of sailing, and he felt entirely back to his usual energetic self.
Five days into the voyage, Marinus was resting in the shade of some barrels on the deck when he heard a shout from the crow's nest above: "Incoming ship!" He looked up, saw the pointing hand, and looked in that direction. There was indeed another ship, and it was approaching at a very fast speed.
As the ship grew closer and closer, suddenly there was a sound. Bang! The other ship was firing their cannons at them! Oh, dear. This was bad. This was very, very bad. Marinus's ship was a merchant ship. It wasn't equipped for fighting off pirates. They tried to sail away, but there were too many holes in the hull, and water was pouring in. The pirate ship was barely 50 feet away now. The crew on board it fired all the cannons again. Bang! One of the cannonballs hit the deck right next to Marinus, and he was thrown overboard.
He struggled to stay afloat in the water as he watched the pirates board the ship. One face in particular he recognized - it was the one who'd sent them on the voyage! "You traitor," he whispered to himself, before a falling piece of mast fell on top of him and he knew no more.

Or did he? Somehow, Marinus woke up again. Except he wasn't alive anymore. Marinus had become a ghost. He thought this might be good at first - it would let him get revenge on those who had captured his ship and his human friends. But after so many years of scaring people (apparently people don't think of ghosts as nice), and not having a real friend, he felt quite gloomy. Now he's become a lot quieter, and a lot kinder to everyone and everything he meets.