Daz whatever Iray (I can't remember) Photoshoperoonie CS6 This is the black and white version of Cotton Candy: Original OK, our man RodS wanted a back story, so, he gets one! Who says I don't do requests, I could be a DJ! If I could figure out why you tube vids refuse to embed, I would be a dj! Until then, you'll have to settle for a Sunday story. Le Story. The world of Vainola is a strange one and full of odd stories. Originally settled and terraformed from the late 4800's, it had originally been acquired in negotiations with the godlike Omicron. As they weren't doing much with the surface, it seemed reasonable to lease the world in perpetua to a joint colonial effort between the worlds of Upsala and Memphis. The fact that the Omicron and others like them might actually have extensive facilities below ground never concerned anyone. Most don't talk of 'Those Below' Few areas were off limits save the Dragon Selka Mountain chain, and The Eyeball, an ancient 100km crater with a lake that formed the southern tip of the mountain chain. From that flowed a great many rivers; none as famous as the one that flowed out of the south eastern portion of the Eyeball. The Wong River was named after one David Wong, surveyor and scout. Visitors called it the Wong Way River, after it's namesake somehow wound up 15km down river and going in the opposite direction to the one he started. Locals aren't laughing however as the region around the Eyeball seems to do strange things to space and time. The normally independent folk of the area from the Selka down to the Ten Thousand Lakes region are more than happy to obey the OFF LIMITS signs in the area. The frequent deep bass noises coming from deep in the earth and blazing Aura leaping from The Eyeball into the sky send all but the most foolish running for the nearest roads. Every year someone vanishes. Some are found dead of natural causes. (Squirrel Bears are notorious in the area), plus it's deep canyons, and steep rugged terrain chocked with fuck-you pines* (as locals call them) are treacherous even without the wildlife. Some are found wandering far from where they started, confused, bewildered but in many cases, surprisingly healthy. A few however, are lost to the universe as though they stepped out of it altogether. It was out of this region that Taika came. She speaks a pre Suomi-Sayleshi dialect called Kareli that hasn't been spoken since the early terraforming days. She first walked down from the southern Dragon Selka region bordering The Eyeball in 6559, two years after the 1st Halon War started. The Galactic Union originally had her classed as part of the local underground resistance during the Technocratic Republic occupation, until she resurfaced during the 2nd halon war. Taika has been active since Vainola and the rest of the Coalition seceded from the Galactic Union and formed the Five Stars Alliance with their interstellar allies. She has remained unchanged, elusive, and entirely enigmatic. The Sayleshi people call her "The Ancient Grandmother". A human woman may once have wandered up into those mountains long, long, ago but whatever walked down out of the Selka isn't human anymore. *The F-You pine as it is colorfully known by locals, is a variant of the Pseudotsuga menziesii (Douglas Fir, which is not a fir tree but a pine...but I digress). When Terraformers insisted nothing would grow in the rocky slopes of the Selka foothills and canyon regions by The Eyeball, a variety of Douglas Fir grew there anyway ... in abundance. They are loved by squirrel bears who are notorious for being aggressive and living in packs.