Cholera wakes. The first of their kind, this second generation of inhabitants beyond the moment. A genetic triumph. The collection of lab techs and scientists fall away from her when her "father" approaches.

"Cholera," he tells her, and she smiles.

Though it takes a while, days in fact, to get ahold of her true body's workings, Cholera - calling herself Chloe or Colly - makes her way through the hospital and discovers that she does enjoy being alive as much as her siblings and sire.

For some reason she is attracted to the food court - along side of her brother Escher. They don't allow Typhia in with them, because she'd just contaminate everything.

A joke, you see.

Cholera's yellow eyes see everything. But they are tuned most frequently to the tidbits of fishy-foods. Is that crab? Or just whitefish? Could an oyster be hiding out anywhere in here?

Darn.

Slightly miffed that her brother is having all the fun with the food products, and well aware that both of them get the staring and amazed looks not becuase they are handsome - but because they are what and who they are - Cholera decides to take a day trip.

Outside, the air is clean and warm. Such a beautiful day to taint something. Beyond the facilities there are barracks for a local paramilitary installation. Training field? Sweet.

"If brother Botulism were here, he'd be showing them how those rations are totally unsafe..." Cholera giggled. Instead of their food supply, she headed to the latrine. Typhoid would be proud of her.

These men and a couple women swam in water that she just had to stir up. Billions of microscopic parasites lived in the lake - next time they did so, they'd probably regret it. And fishing? In this?

Cholera swayed her way back into the labs, and to her shared room. Things were going to be great.

(back)

Where could she go? Almost everyone else had paired up with someone. With a beautiful dragon. She had yet to make her decision...

Then her father came with good news. He'd been wandering around since their birth and long after, but whenever he came back it was with something neat. He pulled her aside, and smiled.

"There is a clutch you will definitely be interested in," he said. "It is at the Ring of Fire, where Henshuth and I paired."

Excited, Cholera clapped her hands and yipped with joy. "Oh at last..." She said. "Now... what should I pack..."

What she packed, was nothing less than all the disease she could, into a small pretty shell...

***

Like her siblings and father she had to learn how to control herself when in groups or around new people. Though her first instinct was of course to infect just about everyone, she refused herself that.

Nature had a way with dealing with disease. It invented resistances, it learned to combat the diseases... And she didn't want to risk that! Though it would be hard to combat her, really.

When she got to the Ring of Fire's main halls, she stalked around until she located the water supply. And, finding it damnably clean, she headed off to the disposal and waste areas.

There, she allowed a generous portion of bacteria to spread from herself. While the place kept itself clean, if something happened - like, say, a toilet backup, or a sewer break? That might help her infect a batch of folks...

The dragons themselves proved completely immune to her wiles. That was all right - she didn't have anything against dragons of course. Now if only she could get into the kitchens...

It would be a terrible waste to have all this food thrown up and squirted out, Cholera thought absently to herself while taking a tour of the dining hall. She enjoyed food - loved the way she could sense every little cell in it, dead, as her body broke it down. Perhaps she was attuned to the ways of food because her personal take on disease affected the intestines?

On the third or fourth day of her residence here, she was finally able to see the water dragon sands. She fell in love with it immediately. Though it was mostly untainted water, it had to rely upon the feed from the bay. So many people would be here... yes. Perhaps if she dropped a bit of herself near the eggs - when they hatched, it would be a muddy mess, and everyone would get some on themselves!

The dam of the clutch, however, had other ideas. The purple colored Liara glared at her and gave a draconic cough, and Cholera removed her hand from the sands slowly.

"Sorry," she said.

That does not begin to address this issue, but I will still allow you to stand. If only because you are suited toward a water dragon, and I hardly want my children left wanting for a partner.

The dragon sighed, clearly ill at ease with Cholera. But it was a little victory. Perhaps she'd do it while the eggs were hatching, and then no one would notice...

Cholera stood calmly while the hatching began. The potential bonders for the smallish Quatari clutch scrambled around a little because one of the eggs had fallen back into the water near the dune they'd been laid on, but Cholera knew better than to think it'd be in any danger. After all, these were sea dragons. Apparently that egg was hatching, but two others took the attention away from it when they both broke open.

One of those paired off quickly, while another looked about. The first to hatch finally slipped from the water onto the packed sand, and paired off with a Katri - Chloe had heard of such creatures, but wasn't sure what to make of it. Animal powers were hardly outside of the realm of sensible thoughts. She after all was a disease...

While that went on, another couple eggs broke and everyone was looking in different directions.

Cholera almost made her move, to start contaminating the water while everyone was distracted. However, something else caught her eye while she did so... It was a dragonet, slithering across the sand and leaving a weird muddy trail in the process.

"Interesting skills, Jicrami," Cholera said. This would be good. Her mind felt warm near the new hatchling.

"Why thank you, my dear bond!" The dragonet replied. With a smug look, Cholera helped her away from the mess of people and dragons. They would have such fun together now!

***

"I'm glad that you can fly too, Jicrami," Cholera stated with a smile. Just before leaving the watery nesting area, they'd snuck in and tunneled around a little. With Jicrami's unique form of ground-mud magic, combining water and earth powers, they burrowed a pocket of disease to fester until the next clutch that was dug into this cove.

"I think that will do," Cholera said with a nod and grin. Her partner in crime was still less than a tenth her adult size, but she certainly could dish out the pranks.

"I agree - now let's go... I think there's someone coming."

They left the dunes as pristine as they'd found them - no foot prints, not a grain out of place. Indeed, unless someone actually did dig up the offending patch of muddy sand, no one would ever know about their presence!

And hopefully, Cholera thought to her bond as they escaped back to the Hospital grounds in another universe... By that time, no one will even remember we were here at all!

Name: Jicrami (Jee-cray-mee)
Gender: Female
Bond: Cholera
Size: 4' s / 6'4" at the head on all fours, 30' long
Color: Violet with Bright Pink spots, Light Lavender wingsails.
Eyes: Teal
Physical: 7
Mental: 7
Rank: 14
Abilities: Hydromancy (Level 5), Geomancy (Level 7), psionics (Level 3), spirit walking

The black sheep of the clutch, Jicrami is a sneaky little dragon. She's always seeking a way to cause the most trouble with the least amount of evidence. Among her skills is the ability to stir up mud and other unsavory things to do with water, a compliment to Cholera's disease abilities. Jicrami also has a rather competitive streak, and is likely to challenge her bonded to see who can make the biggest mess in the least amount of time.