Fodessa's Origin Story
With grateful thanks and deepest apologies to Samuel Delany and his short story "Time Considered As a Helix of Semi-Precious Stones." This was told at Shared History Night on TigerMUCK some time in March, 1997.
At Tai Shien Foundling Home in the city of Shenking, they gave me the official papers that said I could be placed in a work situation when I turned 16. They placed me with this old dairy farmer, a human yet, in a rural area as an apprentice.
I think his name was something like MacDougal. Yeah, what the humans call a white guy. I think they have this weird thing about skin colors, you know, and white humans were rare on the planet Bournabi, even though they once settled and named it.
Anyway, end of digression...I was supposed to get some real-life Work Experience by learning how to work ten freaking hours a day on his dairy farm, helping by working with the intravenous fluid they use to nourish the cows in hypostasis. The damn stuff is sticky, pink, and messes up your fur something just awful.
After five hours of honest manual labor, at an unsupervised moment, while MacDougal wasn't around to yell in my ears, I took a rest and considered what I was really meant for. I concluded I was surely meant for bigger (and easier) things.
Well, one fine night, I got him to invite me to a private poker session. Actually, it turned out to be more booze than cards. I had to drink with him, just to socialize, and besides I wanted to see what other furs' fuss over alcohol was about. I poured some of the stuff on the floor, especially as he got drunker and less attentive....
Finally he passed out, which was what I had been waiting for. I grabbed as much of his credits as I could find around the house and grabbed his ornithopter to get the hell out of Hicksville.
Unfortunately, I'd had a bit much to drink myself by that time. Ever try to land an ornithopter on the roof of the World Nenking/Mitsubishi Building, drunk, at night?
That caused me to spend some time as a guest of the city...a year, to be exact. Of course, one of the advantages of prison is that you get a chance to learn from furs who've had much more experience than you...and you also get the chance to learn from their mistakes as well as your own.
After a year of learning, talking, thinking and planning, I was released, and began to ply my career, or several careers, with more skill and grace. I got my first fake ID less than a week afterwards...
Did I mention my name when I got out of the orphanage was Daisy Mae Ruggae? I think the female monk who tagged me had an affection for Euro culture. May I never run into any more!
I've had a lot of names since...but no one, fur or human, has ever again called me Daisy Mae Ruggae.
Of course, I eventually got off Bournabi...but that's another story for another time.