Rakash_NA

Orchid smiled and nodded her head as she spoke, "Very nice to meet you Kruth'T. I hope I pronounce your name correctly. It's not a name I'm used to hearing - does it have a meaning?"

Orchid's mind flashed back to the summers she spent on her family's ranches. Kruth'T with his reptilian looks reminded her of carefree summers with buzzing cicadas and assorted reptiles that would come onto the front porch to gorge on them.

She caught herself smiling shyly as she inadvertantly stared at Kruth'T. "I'm sorry... I don't mean to stare you just remind me of some pleasant memories of my childhood", said Orchid as she looked away momentarily before admiring the quiet dignity and power of the reptilian man taking a seat at the table.

She decided to take a gamble with a funny incident she remembered hoping Kruth'T would find it sweet and not be offended by her reminiscence.

"Did you know that I used to wear baby anole lizards as earrings when I was little? My family would all go to the county fairs and we'd win what they called 'chameleons' as prizes for competitions there. My cousins and I would feed the baby lizards and then let them bite our earlobes - we'd wear them as earrings until we went home. Once we were home we'd gently take them off and keep them in a nice habitat with plants, water and heated rock and plenty of insects for them to dine on until they grew large enough to release in our back yard. We'd study them and I think they'd study us in return.

My family was very indulgent with all the kids to allow us all sorts of animals to play with. To this day I still admire snakes, tortoises and lizards, most are very beneficial and don't bother anyone. I learned to have a 'live and let live' attitude by learning to respect them."

Orchid hoped that Kruth'T would see the humor in wearing color changing lizards as earrings then caring for them until they could live free. She meant no offense from the story, she only wanted to learn more about him and his life.

She thought for a moment before speaking again, "I guess I am a bit odd... I appreciate animals that would make most people cringe. - frogs, toads, salamanders... bats, rodents, bugs. I think once you understand a thing you no longer need to fear it. Respect it, certainly - but not fear it."

Orchid began to lose herself in thoughts about the beautiful water snakes and flatshelled turtles that would pop their heads up next to hers and of the huge bullfrogs that would jump over her when she'd swim in the fishing ponds during the warm summers of her youth. How she suddenly longed for the innocence of being a child of nature of those times.

Orchid blushed slightly as she smiled at her breakfast companions, "G'morning Void. Very nice to meet you Ella. Those waffles look delicious as do the biscuits and gravy. I'm on a bit of a liquid diet or I'd be having what you're having."

Void's change in thought at the end of his sentence had made Orchid blush slightly. She didn't think he was shy around Ella but he seemed a bit flustered around herself, and she found it both charming and alarming.

Orchid sipped from the straw protruding from the cup in her hand. A brief thought flashed in her mind, "What if Void is hiding something around you? What if he's more than just socially awkward around women? What if - indeed. . ."

Orchid smiled a girlish smile towards Ella, "So, what's fun for girls to do around here during the day? They had me on some rather strong medication that pretty well knocked me out yesterday, so today I feel like seeing more of the amenities and activities of this place."

Her eyes wandered over to an obviously flustered Void as she smiled, "What's on the agenda for fun things to do today?"

Orchid pryed the top off the container of yogurt and began to stir it with a spoon to warm it up faster, then took another sip from the warm liquid in the cup as she waited to hear from her breakfast companions.

Orchid awoke with a start from a nightmare, her head hitting the high padded sides of the coffin-like surround of her bed and bouncing off back onto her pillow.

A small pinpoint stream of sunlight illuminated the falling light snow of dust from the curtains in her hospital room. She watched, transfixed, for a brief moment like some concentrating cat watching a rat hole for it's prey before closing her eyes again.

"Oh gawd, is it morning so soon?" groaned Orchid as she pulled the covers up over her head. "This trying to adapt to being on a daytime schedule from being a nighttime person is gonna kill me... I suppose I need to get up and see what's on my schedule for today."

Orchid climbed out of bed and after her rising ritual and accompanying abulations she rummaged through her closet for something appropriate to wear. She settled on a comfortable and loose fitting caftan, a matching headscarf and soft leather mojari shoes.

After checking her schedule for the day at the Nurse's Station she followed people heading to the cafeteria.

Once in the cafeteria Orchid perused the different buffets for any items that she could eat or drink. It never entered her mind that all they might have available were the standard breakfast fare which she couldn't have with her dietary restrictions. As she reached for a container of cold yogurt an Orderly handed her a cup of something warm to drink.

He whispered to her, "Don't worry, it's Type A positive, freshly drawn for your breakfast. Enjoy." A look of concern crossed Orchid's face as she realized the Orderly that handed her 'breakfast' was wearing a bandage wrap on his arm as though he had just donated a pint of blood.

The Orderly smiled at Orchid, "It's quite alright. There was a blood drive this morning - thought you might like a treat afer your rough day yesterday. It's for the patients here and you are a patient, right? It's legal, it's noted in your file. Enjoy your breakfast, Orchid."

Orchid watched him resume his rounds as she held the cup of life in her hand. It was warm and she didn't know whether to be thankful or repulsed by her 'breakfast'. It had been so long since she'd had non-synthetic blood, she was a bit taken aback by the surprise.

She absent-mindedly pulled out a chair from a table and sat down. It was a moment before she realized she had sat at an occupied table. A table occupied by Ella and Void.

Dark Vampires of Paragon City and Dark Vampires - Immortals are now recruiting on Freedom server!


Have you wanted to take walk on the darkside of being a hero?

Have you wanted a creative outlet for the darker side of your heroic nature?

If so, here's your chance to let the darker side of your soul shine, hero!

Not a dark vampire type of hero? No problem. We're a sociable lot, we'll accept associates (mad scientists, witches, etc.), servants (zombies, wraiths, etc.) and pets (bats, werebeasts, monsters, etc.) into our SGs.

There is an unofficial uniform of trenchcoat that's purely optional - we appreciate your individuality!

Activity leads to promotions in both SGs!


Our main Dark Vampires base is full of amenities to get you started:

11 telepads with 21 zone beacons placed

Tree of Wonders in our infirmary that you may buy and sell at

Inspiration storage chest

Invention salvage vault

Invention workbenches

Invention storage table

Tier 3 Ehancement Station for creating temporary buffs

and other amenities for active members!


Our Immortals raid base is still under construction and needs YOU to make it grow!

The layout of our compact raid base is basic and simple:

Workshop

Raid telepad

Infirmary

Power

Control

Vault

Defensive/Offensive items


If interested in joining our ranks and helping us grow please email: Vampire Joe or Deadly Orchid (both in game on Freedom server)


This recruitment notice brought to you by:

The Dark Vampires Blood Bar - "Where even the most peacefully at rest undead can find a frighteningly fun nightlife!"

New lights would be nice. Specifically the hanging crystal lights in Orenbenga and the hanging sewer lights.

The glowing cave mushrooms/crystals would be fun for a night garden.

The Banished Pantheon and Tsoo room screens would be great to decorate with. As would a smaller version of the Tsoo blood ink idol. The Pantheon 'witch doctor' totems and villainside tiki hut decor would be colorful as well.

At one point in the mishes I thought I remembered seeing open coffins and leaning coffins - great for zombie and vampire themes

As Orchid drank her warm milk a soft fog of one bittersweet memory softly caressed her demeanor. It caught her by surprise as a treasured reminiscence crept into her mind on velvety soft cat feet crossing her consciousness.

* * * * * * * *

The sky was gray, the air was cold. It was November and the leaves were falling from hibernating trees like multicolored tears in the soft mist of autumn rain.

Orchid had come to pay her respects at the grave. Her hands held a single white calla lilly as she approached the headstone in Dark Astoria's Moth Cemetary.

The name on the grave marker read Alex Stone, Beloved Husband and Father. Orchid took one searching look around before running her hand over the top of the stone and leaving the white lilly just at it's base upon the earth.

She knelt to pick a weed from the dying grass, "I wish that you had been mine, StoneCold. I wish that I could still talk with you about the hell I've been through." Orchid smiled a wistful smile as her fingers traced the carvings in the headstone, "We made a legendary team. We shared a legendary love. I miss you so much."

Orchid began weeding the neglected grave in earnest. "Do you remember when we met? My symbiote was in another body at that time. I thought you were the most handsome man I'd ever seen." Another smile crept across Orchid's lips, "We got off to a bit of an awkward start, both of us tongue-tied around the other. It was sweet..."

She tenderly pulled a tendril of ivy from it's dead grip on the headstone, "I loved you and grieved to let you go back to your wife and children. I pray that life was sweet to you and you found contentment."

Then Orchid sat and shrugged, "As for me? Well... let's just say I walk alone now. I've changed from the woman you knew in life. I've changed in my undeath."

She stood and looked one last time upon the marker, "I've reconciled to peace. Life is a little sweeter from having loved you."

One last caress of her hand upon the headstone and Orchid faded into the soft mist of shadows.

* * * * * * * * * *

A single tear fell into the last drops of milk in the glass in Orchid's hand as a soft and tender smile crossed her lips. She was content and at peace for a the first time in a very long time. She watched night begin to fall outside her window, unaware that she was being watched through a sliver in her room's unclosed doorway.

"That won't be necessary", said Orchid as her eyes opened and she caught the nurse's hand just ready to stab a menacing very long needled syringe into her heart.

The crashcart crew marvelled that Orchid was apparently alive, though there were no readings on the monitoring equipment hooked up to her.

Orchid released her grasp on the nurse, sat up and looked around. "I assure you I'm alright. Must've been a reaction to the medication you gave me - I'm still a bit woozy."

"Bu... but how?", stammered the nurse as she put away the syringe and checked for a pulse on Orchid's wrist.

Orchid pulled her arm away from the nurse and began disconnecting the monitoring devices stuck to her. "Medicine is full of small miracles - just chalk this up as one you've witnessed."

She handed the ends of the monitoring electrodes to the nurse, "I'm fine, really. I just need a glass of warm milk and a little rest while this wooziness wears off."

The medics left Orchid's room, a little disappointed they didn't get to shock someone back to life. The nurse left scratching her head after turning around for one more look at her charge. Orchid sat in bed a wry grin quietly spreading on her lips.

The symbiote spoke to it's host, "It's just a matter of time you know til the hunters come."

"Yes, I'm well aware of that", replied Orchid. "But the difficult question becomes... will be it be a void, a vampire or a vampire hunter?"

A glass of warm milk was delivered to Orchid and she sat deep in thought as she drank the warm smooth nourishment.

[ QUOTE ]
Love the Vampire theme!!

Very nice base and well thought out rooms.

[/ QUOTE ]

Thank you! We have beacons to 21 zones so far and every sort of storage available. It's turned out to be a very nice starter base.

The overhead view shows the circular design of the telepads around the infirmary. We have them arranged from low to high in a clockwise fashion and the bays numbered with floor tiles with our SG logo on them (bay 1 = 1 floor tile, bay 2 = 2 floor tiles, etc up to bay 6 with 6 floor tiles).

You can't really see it well in the slides but our infirmary utilizes 2 floor tiles to point the way to the base sewer entrance. This is very useful so our vampys can grab and go once rezzed in the infirmary.

Feel free to steal, er, borrow any of our base ideas!

Ours is a simple 8 x 12 plot.

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As Orchid slept she alternated between shallow and deep sleep as the drug that had been administered to her by the nurse cycled through her body and that of her symbiote.

Between bouts of numb darkness and immobilized consciousness her symbiote would awaken then sleep. During it's waking phase Orchid would dream more dreams of the underground base.

* * * * * * * * * *

She was flying through the tunnels of The Council underground base in Striga. Her purpose was two-fold, to escape her captivity and to settle things with the doctor.

As she flew to a room the soldier on sentry alerted and a skirmish ensued. Orchid blasted the soldiers with negative energy rendering them unconscious, their life monitors alerting their Infirmary to teleport them away for treatment and recovery.

"So help me, when I find that doctor I'm going to make him suffer like he made me suffer..."

The symbiote spoke quietly and clearly, "You cannot. The Mandate states you may not take a human life."

Orchid paused halfway down a tunnel. "Mandate? What Mandate?"

The voice within Orchid began to explain. "When we were exiled on this planet it was because we chose adhere to The Mandate. The Mandate was created to aid in the fight against genocide of the human race on this planet you call Earth. Too long have we, the warshades in the employ of our overseers, allowed the extinction of intelligent life in the multiverse."

None of this made sense to Orchid, "What do you mean genocide of the human race?"

An audible sigh came from the symbiote as it continued. "Our Masters believed themselves superior to all sentient beings. Those they allowed to survive were due to some immediate value as slaves to them, all others were deemed inferior and sentenced to oblivion, what you call death."

"Whoa... wait... wait... Are you saying that you were a slave to these Overseers? What, exactly, was your purpose? And why were you exiled to Earth?" Orchid hovered in the hallway.

"Your species, humans, were deemed inferior to serve as slaves. I was a slave to the Overseers. I am what they call a warshade - a soldier in their destruction of unfit species. We have been observing the progress of humans since the dawn of time. Because of your warlike nature you held great promise in being absorbed by our masters. Unfortunately your resolve to the concepts of 'freedom' and 'free-will' in determining your own destinies has made you rebellious and unfit as slaves. Because some of us respected these concepts that made you so determined to live 'free' we were thought to have been infected with an ideal. Perhaps we were - 'freedom' is an appealing ideal if tempered with tolerance and patience. Those of us thought to have been infected were subsequently quarrantined and then exiled from our homeworld." Another audible sigh eminated from the symbiote inside of Orchid.

Orchid paused and hovered in thought for a minute. "Are you saying they banished you for wanting to be free?"

"In a word, yes. So those of us banished from our homeworld were loaded onto what you call a spaceship and we were jetisoned to land here on Earth."

Orchid was having trouble wrapping her brain around the concept of anything but a democratic society. It was totally incomprehensible that anyone would choose or be forced to live any other way. After all, it's all she knew living on Earth in Paragon City.

Orchid felt a slight pain in her heart that jolted her back to reality as a Council soldier on patrol fired a bullet through her gelatinous form hovering in the tunnel.

"We'll have to continue the history lesson later. Right now, I... we... need to get out of here alive."

* * * * * * * * * *

"Code Blue!" announced over the psychiatric ward intercom as the sound of squeaking wheels of a crashcart and stampeding rubber soles of shoes hurried to Orchid's room.

The squeaking of what seemed to be an army of loudly stampeding mice as rubber soles ran on linoleum went unheard by Orchid.

"Syringe!" ordered the nurse as she then expertly slid the long needle into the batlike Orchid's exposed back between her wings.

As the medication coursed through Orchid's body like liquid fire her muscles began to relax. As it flowed into her brain like a slow motion explosion of a locomotive hitting a brick wall, first one foot slipped it's grip from the rafter then shortly thereafter the other foot slipped it's grasp from the rafter.

Orchid fell headfirst to her soft bed below where the nurse and orderlies wrapped her securely in a cotton blanket as she began to change back into human form.

Orchid was blissfully unaware of the indignity she had just suffered in her fall. The inner voice continued to speak to her in the dark dream.

* * * * * * * * * *

"I'll spare you the memory of what the vampyri did with you but I will show you how you survived", the voice was calm and almost detached as Orchid remembered.

* * * * * * * * * *

In Orchid's vision she saw the reservoir in shambles. Vampyri bodies disappearing as they lay newly re-dead. The machines had been blown up and destroyed, the doors off their hinges and the power cut.

"I must get out of here. I must escape", was Orchid's only thought.

As she approached the blast door her shadow was not that of a human being. It looked to her like some giant horseshoe crab. She reached for the blast door and was instantly taken aback. Instead of human hands Orchid now possessed claws. "What the...."
Upon examination of her feet she saw the same.

"What kind of monster did The Council turn me into?"

"Orchid..."

Orchid wheeled around startled by a voice in the quiet as a tomb reservoir, "Show yourself."

"I am. I'm you", continued the mysterious voice.

Orchid ran her fingers along the stitches scars of her abdomen.

"That's right, I'm what they put inside of you. I'm your symbiote. Thankfully I"m adapting to become more compatible."

Orchid shook her head, "No, this can't be happening. I know... I'm dead and this is purgatory."

"Orchid, you aren't dead. You're very much alive - WE're very much alive."

"When I heard you speaking to me in my cell I thought I was insane. I'm glad to know I was wrong." Orchid began to bash the blast door with superhuman strength to escape from the room of doom. "But how is this physical change possible?"

"In laymen's terms? Everything in the universe is composed of atoms. I merely rearrange the bonds of yours to suit what form is necessary at the time."

"Neat trick but can you change me back to me once we're outta here?"

"As you wish. As we adapt to each other you'll have more conscious control of shifting into two alien forms."

"Wait... wait.... two? What's the other one?"

The blast door crumbled to the floor as Orchid broke through.

"This is the other form", said the voice as Orchid in a puff of matter changed into something akin to a squid. "Not only can you blast beams of energy but in this atmosphere you can fly."

Orchid looked and indeed she was floating. She saw tentacles and a somewhat gelatinous body in her new form. "Guess I won't be winning any beauty contests huh?"

"I believe there's a saying in this world - Beauty is in the eye of the beholder? You may not win one on THIS planet..."

Orchid began to swim in the air and as she did she began to fly down the tunnels of the underground base...

* * * * * * * * * *

Orchid's dream went black, her vision faded into nothingness.

"Good she's resting easier. The medication has done it's work. We'll need to monitor her through her recovery", said the nurse as she and the orderlies began to attach monitoring devices to the sleeping Orchid.

Orchid began to tremble in her sleep, her body visibly shaking within the leathery shroud of her wings.

The voice began to speak once again, "Orchid... Orchid... dream and remember what The Council has done to you..."

* * * * * * * * * *

The small metal window in the door to her cell snapped open as two eyes filled with a blackness of evil searched Orchid's cell.

"Test Subject 223, on your feet! We have much to do today and little time in which to do it", said a voice as cold as midwinter ice in Antarctica.

Orchid rose to her feet as the door to her cell was unlocked and the guards told her to come out for the good doctor to examine.

"One day I'll kill this twisted little madman they call a doctor", was all Orchid could think about as she was taken to the research lab of the underground Council base, "and when I do... it'll be slow and painful for him..."

She was strapped to a table to be poked, prodded and punctured. The doctor clearly enjoyed inflicting as much pain on Orchid as possible, but she had will enough not to cry. No, she wouldn't give him that satisfaction as her mind plotted how she would take him apart piece by piece and bit by bit... slowly, so slowly...

* * * * * * * * * *

"Test Subject 223 has not rejected the symbiote - this is good. Extract her DNA so we may try the machine on the corpses."

* * * * * * * * * *

The doctor stood alongside the strapped down Orchid, she could smell the corruption of his flesh in his foul breath. His pores wreaked with polluted stench as he raised the examination table into a sitting position.

He half whispered and half hissed into her ear, "Now my dear, you are about to make history. You are the first test subject not to reject your implanted symbiote... You should feel honored to make this sacrifice of your DNA for the sake of science. With your contribution The Council will be able to create super soldiers from the dead."

The doctor's rotten warty tongue then licked Orchid's cheek and neck as his hands trailed an instrument of torture down her body. When his hands trailed to her feet he took up the instrument and made his assistant hold her head so she would watch what he would do to her feet.

A small device that looked somewhat like a small guillotine was held up by the doctor. The light from a single naked overhead bulb bounced off the stainless steel object as the doctor squeezed the trigger to check the slicing action of it.

Orchid's eyes grew big as the device was placed over her little toe on her left foot.

"And now my dear, it's time to make history." With a quick snip Orchid's toe was detached from her body and fell into a bottle of fixative.

Orchid could only watch in horror as the procedure was duplicated on her right foot. She was so shocked she couldn't scream. She couldn't cry. All she could do was whisper "I'll kill you" before the icy fingers of shock drained the color from her face and gave her mind and body rest from the horror that had just happened.

* * * * * * * * * *

Ice water drenched and half drowned the fainted Orchid as she was revived from shock. She was still strapped down in a sitting position on the table that had now been wheeled into a large underground water reservoir. Her eyes wandered to where her little toes had been replaced with crude black stitches.

An Archon was standing to one side of the table, the doctor was standing on the other.

"The machines are ready, Archon. The extracted DNA from this test subject has been primed into the receptacles. The machines are waiting", said the doctor.

"Gentlemen, today we shall make history. Today The Council will create vampyri to be our super soldiers! Begin the process!" said the Archon.

Orchid could only watch as the machines that looked like giant coffins to her were started up. Among the noise and lights their doors opened and out stepped the abominations called 'vampyri'.

"You monsters!" whispered Orchid to the Archon and the doctor.

"My dear, you are Eve to our Adam. You should feel honored that this is a success! You have ushered in a new era of The Council", replied the doctor.

The Archon smiled to the doctor, "Do you think these new soldiers might feel a bit.. thirsty? Why don't we leave them with our new Eve that she might get to know her children?"

Thus the Archon and doctor left Orchid to the appetites of the undead.

As they walked away laughing Orchid shouted, "I'll kill you! By Heaven and Hell, I swear to the end of days, I'll find you and I'll wipe you from the face of Paragon City! You'll pay for making me part of these abominations to humanity..."

But the Archon and the doctor were busy bolting the blast door closed, locking Orchid in to be devoured by the thirsty vampyri.

* * * * * * * * * *

And so it was that the underground base echoed with the screams of this Eve as the children of this Adam fed upon their own mother...

* * * * * * * * * *

The halls of The Clinic's psychiatric ward echoed with the tortured screams and wild sobbing of Orchid in the deep dreaming of her nightmare. . .

Here's mine about Deadly Orchid my warshade ostensibly from Talos Island:

Shadow of Mourning
Preserver of Innocents
Mermaid of lost dreams

Orchid began to feel uneasy and irritable as she hurriedly walked toward her room. Along the way she began leaving a trail as the items she was carrying dropped from her arms one by one. She also began to peel out of her clothing as her body temperature rose with the result of her breaking into a sweat.

She stopped at the nurse's station on her floor, "I need to feed, I need my Bravo menu... just leave it by my door and knock... I'll take what I need from the tray." Orchid turned to hurry to her room then turned back around to growl at the nurse typing in her request into the computer, "And hurry, I"m changing already!"

As a precaution the nurse also notified Security - just in case things went badly.

Once inside her room Orchid paced back and forth like a caged animal. The feelings of anger and hotness washed over her in waves as she peeled off her sunscreen suit. "I must feed soon - where is my tray of food?"

Just then there was a knock at her door as her food arrived, "Sorry to bother you, Orchid. Your meal is by the door... we'll come back for the empties later." She could hear the squeak of rubber soles practically running from her doorway.

The change was starting and Orchid covered the mirror in her room with it's attached curtains. She knew perfectly well how she looked and it frightened her to gaze upon her own reflection when she changed. Her lower body had changed into something monsterous covered in fur with small claws where her feet usually were. Her torso was becoming more rounded and barrel shaped with the same covering of fur. Her arms had become more zombie-like with clawlike fingers and covered in the same fur. Huge leathery wings began to sprout from her shoulderblades and back.

Her face was what she couldn't bear to see in her reflection. Rather than the beautiful bronze human face, it had changed into a more bat-like look. Not horribly ugly as far as a flying fox might be concerned, but nontheless a bit startling to most humans.

She cracked the door a sliver and with a hint of paranoia examined the outside world for anything that might harm her in her condition. Seeing nothing but an empty hallway, she tentatively reached out a hand that now looked more like a zombie claw, to bring the tray of goodies into her lair.

She didn't notice the door hadn't latched all the way shut as she began to pick through the goodies on the tray. As she picked up the rubber pouch of artificial blood she could 'taste' with her hands the telltale metallic ions of the iron carried by the hemoglobin. She placed it to her cheek and blissfully purred with her eyes closed before savagely biting through the pouch with her sharp fangs. A hunched over Orchid held the pouch with one hand while sucking out the contents as she now more calmly perused the remaining items of her meal on the tray.

When the pouch was drained dry a much more content and relaxed Orchid started on the container of warm plain yogurt. She didn't know what it was that satisfied her cravings but she relished the fermented milk proteins. Perhaps it was the tangy acids produced, perhaps not. Once the warm yogurt was devoured she took up the container of lightly pureed tofu and delicately indulged in the taste and texture of that protein bullet.

She shoved the tray with the empty containers back into the hallway with inadvertant force, bouncing them off of the wall opposite of her room and bending the metal serving tray.

A now satiatied and monsterous bat-like Orchid yawned and stretched her wings. Her stomach was full and bulging in a small potbelly as she looked at the rafter in her room. "I think a nap is in order... I've had a busy day", was all she said as she hopped onto the rafter and positioned herself to hang upside down by her feet. Her wings wrapped around her like a shroud, her security blanket to hide her from any prying eyes as she slept. And so she slept, like a caterpillar in a cocoon waiting to transform into a butterfly, a soft snore escaping now and again to indicate this was a form of life...

As Orchid searched for Jaime she couldn't shake the eerie feelings conflicting within her mind or her rising physical hunger as day began to turn into evening. An internal dialogue between the voices and herself began as it had a thousand times before.

The voices began their well practiced dance, "You leave destruction wherever you go... just accept it and live contentedly in your undeath."

"I can never just 'accept it' and be content. These are human beings not cattle, not lab rats to be conditioned and modified for some purpose not their own will", Orchid retaliated.

"We created you in our image, submit to our will Orchid..." a soft voice chided her, goaded her, dared her.

"Never! I still have some shred of my humanity and it's ensuing decency. You must not prevail... I must carry out The Mandate!" Orchid lost her footing momentarily as she inwardly argued.

"Think Orchid... what is your precious Mandate? It's a misguided hope for the pathetic and undeserving masses. A panacea to lull them into a false state of security so they'll lower their guard against us. Submit, become one of us...", the voices tortured Orchid as she stumbled and fell onto hard concrete of the sidewalk.

"I must not. Paragon City must not be obliterated. There are innocents here, non-combatants in the interstellar battle of good against evil. You cannot win... You must not win or all hope is lost", Orchid did not feel the blood oozing from her knee, her mind was elsewhere, her senses keenly focused inwardly.

A warm breeze carried upon it the scent of night blooming jasmine as Orchid closed her eyes lost in a far distant nightmare.

* * * * * * * * * *

Furtive ice blue eyes watched the darkness longingly. The fog was slinking in on velvety cat’s paws and languidly prowling the streets of the parish.

It was night. It was her element. It was time.

Through the darkness she would linger by the doorways and windows to listen and watch. Inhabitants went about their nightly routines – some argued, some sat and read, others ate their meals, lovers kissed and caressed.

How she longed for a human touch to her cheek. How she ached for kind and tender words to her ears and heart.

She continued to observe, silent in the prowling with her lover the fog.

A young priest stepped from the safety of a church, he didn’t go unnoticed in the soft blanket of shadows enveloping the night. He turned sensing he was being studied. Orchid approached him.

“Father, I’m going your way, may we talk as we walk?” she asked. Her voice was calm yet seductive.

The priest pulled his cloak tighter before answering wearily “How may I help you, my child?”

The two began a slow walk into the night, the fog enveloping them like a vaporous shroud around the newly dead.

His eyes studied her exotic face, she was not unbeautiful nor was she unremarkable. “I haven’t seen you in this parish before, have I?” he tried to break the awkwardness he was feeling.

“I’ve been here for quite some time, many years in fact” she countered. “I have been meaning to drop in for Mass but my line of work keeps me busy and things always seem to keep me from attending.”

The priest looked a bit pained but nodded in polite understanding. They walked a bit longer in silence – each trying to find the words to break the silence.

They passed a cemetery on their route and it was a few moments before the priest noticed his traveling companion had stopped at the gate.

“Something wrong my child?” the priest asked.

“This is where I must leave you, Father. I can walk with you no further this night” replied Orchid with a trace of sorrow in her voice.

“Strange” thought the priest to himself.

“Shall I show you what causes my sorrow, Father?” she opened the gate and beckoned him to follow her into the cemetery.

Neat rows of markers and the crypts of the wealthy marked their passing into a long forgotten corner of the resting place.

A stone angel wept over a plot in disrepair. This is where she pointed to a name upon a marker.

“Who’s name is there?” she asked.

He knelt to wipe away the vegetation and read aloud the name to her.

She knelt beside him and whispered “That’s my name, Father. This is my home”.

A look of curiosity washed over the priest’s face, then a look of disbelief and then pure horror.

“Yes” she nodded as her teeth severed his jugular vein. She drank deeply and was satiated for the night. She had fed well on the richness of his warm blood.

In the daylight no one noticed yet another withered and lifeless corpse stashed in an ancient now derelict tomb.

“I wonder” she thought as she daintily dabbed the last vestige of her meal from the corners of her mouth, “Will the next priest they send be as gullible?”

* * * * * * * * * *
Orchid startled back to reality as the voices stopped and the dream receded. "My hunger pangs begin to grow with the approach of night... I must feed soon. I must hurry and lock myself away so as not to harm anyone who may cross my path during my time of hungering."

Thus Orchid forgot all about finding Jaime or being involved with any sort of search for answers with Void. What she needed soon was food - thick, warm and liquid down her throat. The nourishment she would soon so blindly crave...

Psssst!

Oklahoma City is centrally located and has a nice convention center within walking distance of hotels and restaurants in the Bricktown canal walk area.

Prices are affordable, people are friendly and there's lots of things to do. Plus - we're geographically centrally located! Would be fun to get the North, South, East and West gamers together.

Orchid looked at the crestfallen Void Blazer dressing back into his costume. Orchid thought to herself, "Way to go oh heartless one... you've hurt yet another tenderheart's feelings. He took your honesty as cruelty, probably thinks you don't like him. The young always take things so personally..."

But what could she say to him to ease his emotional bruise? "It's not you, it's me Void," would sound even worse like the obvious cop-out it would be. "I like you like a brother." Riiiight... might as well call him a child and watch him sink further into a deflated mood. "I consider you a comrade in arms," let's just show our age from this incarnation, shall we? No, there was nothing she could think of to say to lift Void out of the hurt she'd inadvertantly caused.

So Orchid said nothing as she traced a hand over Void's shoulder, ostensibly to smooth a wrinkle from his costume. She then gently cupped his cheek in her hand and smiled a sincere smile.

"Hali's probably needing to find Jaime for some reason, should we help look for her?" is all she could manage before taking her hand back to her belongings and turning to begin calling for the missing small one.

* * * * * * * * * *

Orchid's thoughts turned back to a moment in her childhood when she had run away from her grandparents.

It was a warm summer day when she had visited her grandparents in the countryside. She had risen with the sunrise and taken her fishing pole and tackle box to the dock jutting out into the pond. She had not latched the gate securely and her grandfather's sheep had taken full advantage to forage on the greener side of the fence in the newly sprouting wheat field as Orchid fished.

When her grandfather yelled for Orchid she had smiled and waved and continued fishing - totally unaware of the escaped sheep. It wasn't until her grandfather stood on the fishing dock, his face red, the veins popping from his neck that Orchid knew she was in trouble.

Rather than yell at Orchid her grandfather merely took her fishing pole and swatted her with it. "Help me round up the sheep and you're grounded for a weekend! And don't you sass me girl or I'll make you cut a switch and I'll swat you with it."

Orchid didn't say a word as she helped herd the sheep out of the wheat and back through the gate she'd left open.

In fact, Orchid didn't say a word for the rest of that day and the next as she tried to make things right for her grandfather. Even her grandmother snubbed her as they worked together in the kitchen cooking for the ranch hands.

That night she sat on the stairs to the loft and overheard her grandparents talking. "Well I can tell you this the fruit doesn't fall far from the tree... What did you expect when her father married our daughter - you know how he can't keep a job with his drinking..."

Their words cut through Orchid like a knife in her heart as she thought, "Fine, my parents shove me off on my grandparents for the summer because they don't want me and now these two don't want me either. I'm out of here..." So Orchid packed a small bag and left.

She didn't know how far she walked that night but it seemed longer than the miles of rural gravel road. The Sheriff found her curled up asleep in a family graveyard on her great-grandmother's grave.

A highly polished black boot gently nudged Orchid's foot until she woke up. "Is your name Orchid?" the Sheriff asked as he offered his hand to her. "You've got some grandparents worried sick about where you've run off to. Are you alright?"

"I can't go back, I'm in trouble and nobody wants me. I'm more trouble than I'm worth", Orchid told the Sheriff. She then related the whole incident as they walked to the Sheriff's car.

"Are you gonna arrest me and put me in jail, sir?" a little girl asked.

The officer smiled and bent down to look Orchid in the eyes, "No, but do you want to go home or to the station?"

"Could I have breakfast if I go to the station?" asked Orchid.

The officer smiled and opened the car door for her, "I think we might be able to find a couple of donuts and a glass of cold milk for you there."

The Sheriff had a nice little chat with Orchid and her grandparents who came to pick her up at the station and things did get better for Orchid for the rest of the summer. The Sheriff dropped by from time to time on his rounds to check on her.

* * * * * * * * * *

"Jaime?" "Are you playing hide n seek? We'd like to find you..." "Jaime?"

Orchid walked past the thawing spa and marvelled for a moment, then grew more concerned about the little one's safety, she continued looking. "I need to find this little one before Hali or the staff chews her out."

"Jaime? Where are you? You need to say 'tag' to me if you want me to play 'It' for your game... Jaime?"

Orchid's eyes fell as her hand recoiled from Void's grasp. Her gut feeling was something just wasn't right. Her lips rolled in upon themselves before a smirk lifted one side of her mouth. She raised her hands as if in prayer, her thumbs supporting her chin as she leaned her elbows on the table. Her nose fit into the pocket of her hands, her index fingers resting in the inside corner of each eye, her middle fingers on the bridge of her nose. She lifted her soft dark eyes to look at Voids' face and crew-cut hair.

A mischieveous grin baring tiny tips of fangs spread from one corner of her mouth to the other as she quietly spoke, "Well... aren't we a pair, soldier? Neither of us can trust the other - or ourselves - to knock off the doublespeak long enough to relax enough to help each other, huh?" Her eyebrow lifted slightly then fell back into place.

She couldn't answer his question until he had answered hers. She looked him dead in his eyes again as she calmly spoke, "Therein lies our quandry - WE have a problem it seems. Until you and I - and our inner demons - are ready to be laid bare and exorcised, I think it best we part on polite terms. I think it better if I wait to talk with a specialist, no offense. You don't really need to be concerned with my problems. If you see it as a challenge, s hall we just.. call it a stalemate? Shall we look for your friend's child?"

Orchid wanted to tell Void about her voices, about what she had suffered at the hands of The Council, but her inner voice had inferred that "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" was a wide open invitation to betrayal. There was just too much at stake to risk trusting someone when she still couldn't trust herself to be completely sane or rational.

"Is the lost child a little girl? Did she say her name was Jaime? What does she look like?" asked Orchid as she began to gather up her things to carry with her.

"So, am I with you on this or not?"

A chill went through Orchid and she visibly shivered when Void took her hand and her inner voice whispered, "Ask him if he hears the voices too."

"Void, I... your eyes... you look a bit haunted. The Council tried indoctrinating you too... Void Blazer, do you hear voices too? Do they torment you as they torment me? I need to know before I can answer yes or no to your offer." Orchid watched Void's face, his eyes in particular, for his reaction and answer to her question.

But Orchid had no intention of trusting anyone about anything until she could understand then trust herself. It was slowly dawning in her psyche that not all things may be as they appeared. This 'thing' inside of her might not be there to harm her - it could have done that many years ago. Though she may have been tormented by 'it' chiding her, goading her, to do things she didn't wish to do she was still firmly in control of 'it'.

True, she had memory laspses, some lasting days or weeks or even a month but it was usually after some direct threat to herself. "Could I have been in some sort of survival mode of operation?" she questioned.

"Now you're beginning to understand and with understanding comes wisdom", the inner voice answered Orchid and she began an inner dialogue with a voice that was now not aggressive or threatening.

She watched and waited for Void's reaction to her question about his hearing voices.

Void Blazer knelt down, and then began to move his hand over to her forehead...

Orchid blocked his hand with her water bottle, careful to keep from accidently touching him. "That might not be wise. Do you wish to end up like the grass here?"

She shoved her water bottle into Void's hand and put one glove and both booties back on. She quickly glanced around then got up to walk over to a camellia in bloom. Void followed, still looking for Hali who was long gone looking for Jaime. Orchid then picked a flower from it's stem and held it so Void could see what happened next.

"I don't want this to happen to you", was all Orchid said as a soft violet glow enveloped the flower. Void watched as the life drained from the bloom leaving behind a shriveled dried blossom in Orchid's hand.

"What... How... oh wow..." was all Void could manage as the breeze carried bits of crumbling flowery decay away like a tiny blizzard of winter snow.

"I'm not sure, but I think it works on a cellular level. I absorb energy. From plants... from insects... from animals..." Orchid was cut off from talking.

"From people?", Void completed Orchid's sentence for her.

Orchid rubbed the bridge of her nose as she nodded yes.

"So far, I've not damaged any animals or people beyond repair... but I'm afraid, in the right circumstances, that I might." Orchid replaced the glove onto the hand that had held the camellia flower and then rested it on Void's shoulder as she looked him dead in the eyes. "That must be why I'm here. To find out what this 'thing' is inside of me and why it's there. I'm terrified of losing control and killing someone. Life is precious to me and I don't have the right to be Judge, Jury and Executioner."

She let her gaze and her hand drop from Void's shoulder as she turned, exuding a slight scent of camellia perfume, to walk back to the shade of the umbrella and the table.

Orchid had stopped swimming to listen to Void's story.

"Nice to finally know his name is Void Blazer and that he's not a patient here, he's a spa guest. I will definately watch what I say around him." Orchid felt her fists clench and release with the anger rising in her as he told his story, "Funny how tyrants seem to pick the young and very old for their victims - the idealists and the most helpless of society."

As she continued to listen to Void's story she realized she didn't know if she wanted to slap him for being a nictus or hug him to her as if he were fellow soldier. "He's so young, at least his eyes are opened now to the truth..." the voice whispered in Orchid's mind.

Orchid began to feel queasy in her stomach as Void's story unfolded and the voice continued to speak in her mind, "Yes, The Council learned the indoctrination techniques of the 5th Column well as they adapted them for their use.. but you, Orchid, we, gave them a challenge. You were first indoctrinated and educated by the same agency as Indigo and Crimson, though I've blocked that memory from you..."

Orchid splashed cool water from the pool onto her face - was what she was hearing true or merely programming by The Council? It was all so confusing. How could she trust herself in what she chose to believe?

Void Blazer looked towards Orchid to see how she would respond, quickly adding in, "I hope that cleared everything up for ya..."

Orchid smiled a sickly sort of smile, "I'm glad you weren't subjected to the full brunt of The Council's cruelty, Void. It's probably good that you were cooperative with them, they were gentle with you."

Void had just finished relating his story to the young woman. Hali was too preoccupied on her approach to listen.

“Bonjour Void Blazier, ‘ave vous seen the little girl Jaime aboot?” She half turned to Orchid who was getting ready to start some laps. She smiled as politely at Orchid as her current worry allowed “Bonjour”

Orchid waved to the greeting. A few minutes later, when the greeter was out of eyesight, covering her mouth and muttering to Void, "I don't feel so good."

"Hey, are you ok? You don't look so good. Should I get a medic?" asked Void.

She hastened to the stairs of the pool and made a hasty exit from the water to lay for a moment on the cool grass as she pulled off her gloves and booties. The grass began to wither and die beneath Orchid's glowing hands and feet.

Void started to call for a medic. "DON'T call the medics. Just get me my water bottle, Void."

The voice was small and calm in Orchid's mind, "Do you really want to know what you've forgotten? Do you want to know why I live inside of you? I can tell you now, but are you strong enough for the awful truth?"

Void handed Orchid her bottle of water and knelt by her on the grass, "I don't know what to do to help you. I should get a medic..."

"No medics! Void, I... the voices... I don't know what to believe or who to trust..." Orchid took a long drink of water trying to figure out what to do to keep control of herself and keep from running away in a blind panic.

"Breathe, Orchid, just breathe", she repeated to herself until she regained a modicum of control over her panic. "There's no reason to panic and nowhere to run to, now breathe..."

Orchid respectfully tried not to be too obvious in watching Void strip to his swimsuit.

"So he is human after all, the Galaxy costume had me concerned. He wears a soldier's haircut - high on the sides, tightly shorn over the ears, short crew-cut on top. He's a bit thin though... unless he's young or a special operative... He bears watching and caution with what you say host", the voice spoke in Orchid's mind as she grew dizzy.

She steadied herself by curling both arms on the lip of the pool. "Not again", muttered Orchid as she put her head onto her arms for a makeshift pillow. "Get out of my mind!"

Void gently nudged her shoulder, "You ok?"

Orchid shook it off as she fumbled with her words, "Yeah, just uh... waiting on you to swim some laps with me. Forgive me for being nosey, but, interesting costume you have there. I'm just asking because I'm always looking for interesting costumes as kind of a hobby of mine. Are you one of them? A Galaxy, I mean."

Meanwhile she was thinking to herself, "It's not a lie... I do notice costumes on people. Don't tell me you're a Council - a Void, a nictual being. That would be the irony in my life - a new friend who's my enemy. Yeah, that sounds just about right for my karma these days..." She glanced up at the sky and continued thinking, "You have a really funny sense of humor about my life..."

Orchid turned back to Void and asked, "So... I'm sorry, I don't remember your name.... How many laps today? Five? Ten? Twenty-five?"

* * * * * * * * * *

As they swam their laps Orchid's thoughts turned back to her confinement by The Council in the underground base on Striga.

She didn't know how much time passed as the wounds from her surgery healed, she only knew she had to escape or go insane. The daily routine was maddeningly the same - lights on, interrogation, breakfast, doctor exam, lunch, intimidation, indocrination, dinner, lights out.

The voices began the third week of her confinement she guessed. At least if they were delusions they were company and a distraction from her wretched reality of captivity.

The Council accused her of being a spy when she was merely a passenger on the ferry. She had been a botanist studying the phenomena of the Devouring Earth in Talos Island. She was on her way to map out the spread of the new lifeforms when the ferry to Striga had been hijacked by what she thought were pirates. She seemed to vaguely recall an explosion, then water, then waking up in her cell.

Since her surgery she also felt something alien within her that moved from time to time as if she were perpetually pregnant. But she wasn't pregnant, her belly didn't grow, she wasn't hungry - there were just the voices...

The voices... fearful at first that they were dying, then growing bolder and stronger over time - and ever more aggressive. The only way she could consciously control them was by reciting prayers as her altered state of meditation.

Why? Why had The Council done this to her? What evil thing had they placed within her body and for what purpose?

* * * * * * * * * *

Void Blazer looked back at Orchid again, and said curiously, "So, you don't remember signing up at the Clinic? So you have some memory loss problems right? Any idea how you lost them, or theories on what lead to you coming here?

Orchid offered Void a bottle of water and unscrewed the top to one for herself. She took a long languid drink before replying. "Salude... um... who are you? No, I don't remember checking myself into the Clinic - for the last month I've been surviving in a bit of a haze. All I remember is waking up in a closet here."

She purposefully didn't mention draining the lifeforce from the doctor trying to help her back into the land of reality. There was no reason to, the rumor mill would start disseminating the incident from the Doctor's Lounge soon enough anyway.

She looked Void square in the eyes with what she said next as though it were something of importance, "Did you know I had to ask to have my room redecorated? For some odd reason they had everything draped in black. I felt I was in a mortuary instead of a hospital. I had them change it to something a bit more cheery - pastels!"

But Void didn't hear her, he was busy concentrating on the crossword puzzle on Orchid's forehead, "It's Atta. Five across, a troll chief who doesn't know if he's coming or going - it's an anagram. The answer is Atta."

Orchid decided to have a little fun with her new friend not listening, "The nurse said housekeeping would have my room done in about an hour. So I came out to the pool to look for Sally the Croatoa lake monster. Have you seen her? She's really very sweet you know... just swims in the pool and doesn't bother anyone unless they try to feed her suntan lotion... then she eats them."

Void nodded, "Unh huh. Um.... What? Did you know there's a crossword puzzle on your forehead?"

Orchid sighed as she rolled her eyes. "And I thought I was the one with problems that lead to memory loss and time lapses..." She took the wet end of the towel that had been in the pool and scrubbed the ink from her face with it. "Better? Less distracting now?"

Void nodded, still working the crossword puzzle in his mind as Orchid continued talking.

"As for my memory loss, I have been having long buried memories resurrect themselves lately and I find they haunt me like unwelcome ghosts in my mind. I hear their voices chiding me to do... things... I don't want to do." Orchid sighed deeply as she continued, "As for why I came here I think I have a faithful friend keeping a candle lit for me in church."

Another sip of water and Orchid said, "It's warm, I think I need to go for a swim. You're welcome to join me if you'd like. We can talk more in the pool."

* * * * * * * * * *

An easy grin crept across Orchid's face as it met the cool water of the pool. As she began swimming her laps she thought back to a less complicated time in Talos Island. She thought of prayers during Mass in a small church with a caring priest and his parishoners. The Rikti war and The Council had changed everything in her life, it was now so much more complicated. . .

At Void's voice Orchid sniffled and lowered the magazines from her face to wipe her eyes. She then nodded her head and replied, "Yeah, I'm just peachy, I'll be ok. This sort of thing happens to me all the time, though usually not so suddenly and not in public." She noticed Void's boots in the water next to her wet slippered feet, "Do you like having wet boots?"

Orchid wiped her nose on her sleeve as she lifted her soy ink temporary tattooed face to look Void in the eyes. "You'll excuse me if I don't shake your hand, mine are a bit full at the moment." She didn't want to touch him anyway for safety's sake. She had a habit of sucking the life out of living beings she touched during recovery from an 'episode'. She noticed him looking between her and the path as if there were something conflicting inside of him to stay or go. "My name's Orchid", she hesitated for a moment then continued, "I'm a patient here... I checked myself in, though I don't remember doing so. I seem to have alot on my mind lately and need a bit help in sorting it all out."

She followed the direction of Void's gaze down the path. "It's ok if you have more important things to do - I know how urgent things can be for heroes these days." Orchid stood and stepped out of the pool, leaving behind her soggy slippers as she walked toward the grass and a table under a shade umbrella. As she walked on the grass she left behind yellow footprints where the grass had sickened and died as she sucked the life from it under the softly violet glowing soles of her bare feet.

Void watched as Orchid instinctively put on her gloves and booties after placing her magazines and things on the shaded table. She hung her towel over the back of a chair and sorted out the things on the table - keeping a watch on Void in her peripheral vision.

She wanted someone to talk with about her 'condition' but was still guarded enough to not know who to trust. She knew the doctors there were trained to help her but how could they treat her if they couldn't relate to her life experiences? She needed someone who had 'been there and done that'. She needed a veteran of the Rikti War, she needed to be able to trust a fellow warshade who had witnessed the take over of the 5th Column by The Council. But who could she trust to unburden her fragmented memories on?

As Orchid followed the signs to the pool she'd step off the sidewalk onto the grass to let first one gurney, then several more that followed, pass. She didn't make eye contact with the people on them as they rolled by, partly out of respect for their embarrassment and partly out of not wishing to appear curious about what happened to them. But Orchid was curious and would doubtless hear all sorts of rumors and rumor control about what happened.

She continued walking to the pool when the entourage had all passed by. As she walked a memory surfaced that she'd thought was long buried. . .

* * * * * * * * * *

"Archon, this one's alive, shall we take her?", a man in a black uniform asked of another man in a black uniform. The 'Archon' merely nodded and the stretcher Orchid was on was put into a truck and whisked off to an underground base in Striga. There she and the other survivors were unloaded into a hospital facility.

"Doctor, this one's in shock. Get the team over here. . . ", the voice became a strange unintelligible drone to Orchid's ears as men in surgical masks worked over and around her to get the machines to stop beeping as their patient slowly stabilized.

They wheeled her into a recovery room where, in time, she regained her senses. As she did so the tubes and lines of fluids were removed, painfully, one at a time from her body.

"You sorry son-of-a. . . If I could get off this gurney I'd rip you a new one. . .", was all Orchid managed to say before she was rather rudely sedated and wheeled off to a holding cell to recover fully.

When she awoke she was in a sparsely appointed cell with only a metal bunk, thin mattress, wool blanket, and combo sink/toilet in her new abode. As she fell out of bed the window in the metal door to her cell opened. A raspy voice spoke to her, "I see you are awake. Good. There is a jumpsuit you may put on and in an hour will be feeding time." The window abruptly closed as footsteps hurried away.

"Great, I'm an animal in a zoo or the inmates are running this asylum. Feeding time indeed.", Orchid shivered as she crawled on the floor to retrieve the jumpsuit. "Why don't my legs work?" She fumbled clumsily for the clothing. "And why don't my arms work?"

As she reached for the jumpsuit she noticed the bandages covering her arms and legs. "What the...?" In a panic Orchid ripped the bandages from her arms and legs and sat naked on the floor staring in horror at what she saw. Her arms and legs were neatly stitched just below her joints - her wrists, elbows and shoulders, her ankles, knees and thighs. Her abdomen had been neatly stitched in an "H" pattern from her sternum to just above her bellybutton.

"You slimy bits of pond scum! What did you do to me?!?", was all Orchid could manage to scream before she started to cry as she pulled on the jumpsuit.

* * * * * * * * * *

Before she realized it Orchid was standing ankle deep in the pool, her slippers now soaking wet as was the hem of her terrycloth robe and a dragging corner of her towel. She closed her eyes thankful to be back in the present moment as she sat down on the dry lip of the steps of the pool. Her hands gripped the items she was carrying as she buried her face in them and started to softly weep. Her tears made the slick cover of the magazines stick to her face, the vegetable ink making unusual temporary tattoos on her bronze colored cheeks. A crossword puzzle was now temporarily tattooed onto her forehead.