Orchid and Lavender

Orchid had originally wanted to just be the group's cook. Her ability to take pretty much any edible substances (and sometimes less than edible) and dump them into a pot, cook it up, and somehow have it turn out rather tasty and nutritious was pretty stunning. Headcrabs don't taste like crabs, but they don't have to taste bad either! Her power over plant matter became more and more important as they had to find food in the rugged terrain outside of the Aperture lab when they left, fortunately Maroon could attract the animals, so Orchid covered the veggies.

Lavender on the other hand was always into the gross insides of animals, and people - she'd heal things up, but only after taking a good long look at how they worked. On their way out of the labs, during the lull after the Combine had briefly been chased away from several large chunks of the land, Lavender discovered a hospital that was more or less intact. And: episodes of old television shows like CSI and Court TV documentaries. It's perhaps unsurprising that she had modeled herself after notable characters in some of those shows. If it was bleeding, that was her domain.

That isn't to say that either of them sits at home and waits for someone to get hurt. Oh no. They go out and find injuries. (Neither of them quite going so far as to cause them... at least, not without asking permission from their sisters first!) Lavender could teleport directly to an injured person, knowing exactly where they were by the tone of their emotional state.

On arriving to Carramba, both of them fell in love with the Caffetorium - for completely different reasons. The nuclear reactor buried deep within the grounds (and its attendant supercollider) was of some interest for the mutation and radiation therapy that Lavender liked. The food staff and patrons enjoyed Orchid's presense for the obvious reasons: missing an herb? Don't worry - she's got it.

Orchid's class schedule reflected her interests, but also some needed practice and background. The classes shared with others, You And Your Clone, and Measuring Up, both gave her the instincts to help out in the group without even blinking an eye. How much to add to the stew? Take a look around and see how many extra mouths to feed.

Aside from those things though, her interest in helping other life forms would get a boost from her Multiplanar History and Alien Evolution classes. Both had numerous aliens and alternate-reality folks attending, she could test out almost anything on the students for sharing-events.

Clearly, though, Cake! and Herbs and Veggies were her two favorite classes, which she of course excelled at. Ihrinnah enjoyed her company, becoming a bit of a guidance mentor to Orchid - while Shy... oh, Shy just loved these girls. After all he had a genetic engineering class too. Maybe they could get together some time.

Weirdly rounding out her education though, studying Olde Englyshe just for the hell of it (she liked to try and pronounce names and words, and inflict recipes based on old documents on the class too), and Exotic Team Sports because well, she was part of a built-in team! It was in fact Orchid who arranged the first (but not the only) cream pie fight event...

Lavender's preferences for reasonably intellectual classes showed in her choice of Honors English, challenging her knowledge and expanding her sisters' memories of the 'classics' and difficult writing tasks. She truly excelled at Earth Anthropology too, getting an even better grip on how humans work inside and out. Like others taking the class at different times, Lavender learned a lot about the whole of the universal culture in her Universal History class, but she enjoyed the 'fully interactive' portions when they got to visit battlefields and spaceways.

Also of tremendous joy to Lavender was Doc Sanger's Practical Anatomy class. He like all medical specialists knew the value of properly exploring the body. Yes, even like 'that'. Maybe especially like that... Hands-on approach was something Lavender wanted, and got, from the Semi-Professional Massage class, and she knew a thing or two that she's kept private from her sisters after realizing how to add those two classes together...

And then there were the more specific classes geared for what she really wanted to do: Healing, and Dragon Care. She learned enough from the Dragon Anatomy class to add to the one that Maroon took, that the others would likely not need to take it themselves. Of course, Maroon was more interested in the outside features of what made each species different from another, and Lavender was by far more intrigued by how each dragon's body actually worked.

So they went through the school and gathered every evening, Indigo and Opal sitting everyone down privately or more often in one big collected group to share. It came out that they would all like to befriend or at least see dragons, and any worries about their size or danger level were alleviated by both Orchid and Lavender assuring the others they'd fix whatever might go wrong.

Lavender hitched a teleport from her sister Indigo, heading 'where she was needed'. She had no idea what to expect, and hadn't really been prepared for the size and beauty of these dragons. Their caretakers, their surroundings...

"Oh..." She blinked rapidly, "I didn't know we were supposed to bring gifts," Lavender glanced away, a bit embarrassed about that. Had she known, there might have been any number of things she would have convinced Orchid to prepare for her. Wide-eyed, she watched the great number of people that gathered around. They exchanged flower wreaths, something she wasn't sure would ever happen at home - there were hardly enough flowers to go around after all. But Lavender enjoyed the smells and sounds, oh how it was filled with both of those here! Being at Carramba for a short time hadn't been bad, she liked the press of people. This was bigger than most Carramba parties, though.

Plus, the dragons.

There were ... mostly dragons. Hardly any humanoids, like herself. In fact, at least one of them attracted one of the little hatchlings that had been brought out. It was kind of spooky, really, because that little dragon had a pretty big vocabulary. Where as the lovely purple-shaded female that came toward Lavender didn't say a word. There was no need.

"She's a healer," Lavender said to Indigo as they watched the dragoness play. Though she wasn't as rough-and-tumble as her clutch mates, Anira could be as physically active, and knew her limits. She didn't wind up exhausting herself, and she didn't gorge on those little biscuit things and cakes that had been in plentiful supply. At least one of the hatchlings was groaning about its stomach, and in a rare moment of gloating, Anira chuckled to Lavender while gazing at her sibling.

They enjoyed a few weeks at Aanusil, and then departed. Since there was a thriving dragonry at Carramba, as well as a magic department, Anira would hardly be neglecting to learn the habits of dragons. But she was more interested in humans - like Lavender was, how they worked and what went on beyond what one could see. Her healing magic would take a while to truly blossom, but Anira knew that if she had a good grasp on Human anatomy herself, there would be no mistakes. Given what Lavender had said, and Indigo had shown her when they traveled back "home" briefly, her skills would be sorely needed.

In the mean time, her skills were already needed at Carramba! The school was participating in numerous sports events, and there was always someone who tripped or skidded across the gravel, landed wrong and broke a limb, or any number of other injuries. Having a dragon on hand to aid them was just bonus points for Lavender!

Orchid waited patiently by the office, or weyr, or whatever they called it around here. The mountainside was gorgeous, she'd obviously never seen anything like this Isla place in her life, and hoped that she would get the chance to do so again. Maybe after she befriended a dragon here?

Impressed, she thought to correct herself, they call it 'impression' here. When the leaders of the place finally got to her, they knew that it would be best to place her with the ... less traditional of the candidates. Here was a girl who lived in a world of danger, ever-present, not like the whim of the Red Star which was predictable as well as preventable. But she knew technology, and many other odder things than any normal Human might see.

For a few days she was given free rein, allowed to check in on different classes and locales - and settled in the kitchen where she felt most comfortable. It was a toss up between that and the Healer's area, but many of the herbs that were used in Pernese healing weren't even found on Twoarth where Carramba was, let alone on her home Earth. Spices and basic grains, though, they were plentiful here.

She put her Cake! knowledge to the test, while they fixed up the hatching-celebration feast for the new riders, but then she was needed down there at the hatching itself. Her hands trembled, maybe she'd Impress, maybe her other psionic skills of healing would be needed. Sometimes, she'd discovered, there were injuries in the Hatching sands. Cuts and bruises mainly but what if someone's eye was gouged by a piece of shell or an errant wing-claw? Well she wouldn't do to dwell on those thoughts, so she straightened herself up, bid the cook staff a brief nervous farewell, and headed to the hatching sands...

So many eggs, so many little dragons from them! The hatching was chaotic to say the least, but Orchid did her best to focus on one or two hatchlings. That gold egg sure was pretty, she could see it past the numerous and very colorful hatchling dragons that milled about.

A pale copper, speckled richly in white, slipped through the remaining candidates until she found the one she wanted. But Orchid wasn't paying attention to her. She seemed to be staring at the queen egg in front of her as it rocked and began to crack in a lazy, unhurried fashion. With a soft growl and a snort, the pale copper jumped up and grabbed the robes. But she was tiny and really didn't get the effect she wanted which was to pull Orchid around. Instead she hung their, refusing to let go. Orchid did feel the tug and looked back over her shoulders at the pale copper, eyes looking up at her and blinked. “Oh...what are you...doing?”

You make food? the voice in her head asked plaintively. Can you make me food?

Orchid laughed. “I don't think what you eat is something I can make, Akieth.” Her dragon let go of her robes and she picked her up, carrying her off the sands, the queen egg forgotten. Akieth would not be very big, especially compared to some of those burly browns and coppers! Heck, compared to most of the little greens! But still, this gorgeous speckled copper white was Orchid's world. Because she was well trained in telepathic communication, Orchid could easily listen in to her new little dragon's mind. So curious, so hungry!

Wouldn't the others be pleased! This would be the start of a great movement in their world. Orchid knew that as they collected their dragonets from across the multiverse, their chances for not just survival, but thriving against the Combine increased dramatically! Akieth would be able to help Orchid slip in and out of occupied territories, and since she was small, she could remain unseen for the most part. Orchid got giddy when she realized that she could also help distribute food and supplies with this little girl, though probably not too much at a time, given her stature.

Orchid & Akieth

Color: pale copper w/ white (female)
Color Size: sport
Length: 17'5"
Height: 4'10"
Genetic Code: Xgw d F Xgw d F Rr Bb hh LL UU C2C6 T1T1 o2o4 (Ss N2N3) M1M2

Clutch 14 - Nysheth & Ainnth

** Note adult form is extrapolated and created by Lethe, not by Falas' owner, due to not having images come out