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Hatching
Name: Lorn Murkish

Minor Stage: Toddler

Dream Type: Nightmare

Specific 'Nature' Doom Raven

Physical Features:
Face: Pale and humanoid, with a sharp smile. Eyes are not visible and hidden in shadow partially explained by their bird hood.
The bird's head is frightening and strangely detailed, and it's beak is jagged and cruel looking. The eyes glow a hellishly spectral red.

Body:
The body is scrawny and small, and seems to be very formless or ethereal, almost misty. Dhe wears a robe, but that robe seems almost a part of it, seeming to blend and blur with it's surroundings and blow in a gentle wind that is not there.

Feet:
The legs are mostly human, but the feet are bird talons.


Arms/wings:
(Inspired by THIS THING)
Its wings are attached to its arms and feathered, slightly less ethereal than the rest of the cloak. Since Lorn is a baby, there are downy feathers among the pinfeathers, and they have a simplified look to them.

Hands:
The doom crow's hands (at the ends of its wings) are like the black silhouettes of five-fingered claws.

Since Dhis robe is a part of it, dhe cannot take it off.

Personality:
Thief:
Lorn likes things, especially shiny things, and doesnt care if they don't belong to them yet. With nimble fingers and reflexes, lorn takes what they want. Lorn doesn't understand the concept of people's posessions being inviolable, or even theirs. Everything is either theirs, or not yet theirs, and even if they are trained otherwise the urge to just take something would be hard to manage.

Trickster:
Lorn is a mischeif maker, always playing tricks on people. They love deception and especially love to play games. When they are getting things legitimately (to mix things up) they earn money by cheating people in games. Sometimes, though, they like to decieve for it's own sake. Its a huge thrill and, to Lorn, everybody is a sucker and exists for their own amusement.

Curious:
One of Lorn's weaknesses is their desire to know whats going on. They are drawn in by the lure of novelty and the promise of something interesting, sometimes against their better instincts. This can be about people as well as objects- they are going to be inquisitive and nosy as hell.

Mocking:
As a corvid, Lorn is a natural mimic. They like to imitate what they hear and see, sometimes to an intentionally unflattering degree. They happen to like this skill and think it is funnier than it is. This also manifests as a facination with people and what they do.


Facinated with Death:
Lorn loves to watch people. They are fascinating. But whats more fascinating than what people do every day, is what happens at the end. Lorn would love to taste the emotions of someone about to die. Heck, they would just like to watch someone die, that would be great! Whether this evolves into a desire to actually do the killing depends on how they grow up. In the meantime, sneaking into/lurking around morgues and graveyards and hospitals is going to be a common thing for Lorn.

Cruel:
Lorn likes the taste of despair, and is happy to cause it. Lorn is not going to be very nice to people they victimize, and they will torment their victims without empathy or compassion however long they want. They would also probably be the sort of person who would watch ants die by putting them in a spinning bucket of water. Things like that.

Creepy:
Lorn can't really help being creepy. Lorn is a nightmare creature with a huge basis on creepiness, plus they spent a good bit of their early formative hatching with other nightmares. Their facination with death means they know all sorts of disturbing stuff about it, and their fascination with people means that sometimes they focus a little too much on specific individuals. They also have a tendency to stare and say really unnerving things.

Poetic:
Lorn likes words, too. They like to put words together in pretty and evocative ways. Sometimes they just say it out loud, sometimes they write them down. Eulogies are one of Lorn's favorite things, for obvious reasons.

Playful:
Lorn is not a serious person. They think in game terms often, and even their malicious acts are all in fun. Lorn really wants to have fun, especially with other people, but they sometimes take it too far and play too rough.

Energetic:
Lorn has a lot of energy to spare. They keep going and going and they don't seem to run out of steam. They actually do get tired- when they are alone they sleep like the, heh, dead... but people and being around people give them energy, and not just because of their emotion vampirism.

Sociable:
… Lorn just likes people. They are an extrovert. Though they don't mind being alone, they would rather not be so forever. There are times to be alone and times for other people, and Lorn enjoys both, though they are happiest with people.

Affectionate:
When Lorn likes someone, they LIKE them. They are very snuggly, cuddly, and clingy. It can be uncomfortably stalkerish at times, but in this regard they mean no harm. They just like people.


Outfit:
Their flowing ethereal cloak and bird hood is, at this point in their lives, as much a part of their body as their feathers. Later on, as they manifest, it might separate out.

Other:
At hatching/living out in the wild and alone for a while, Lorn's pwoers include:

~ Able to eat both solid food such as meat and vegetables (particularly seeds and fruit) and negative emotions such as despair, depression, and emotional or physical agony. Emotions are eaten by touching the person with their clawed hands.

~ Able to fly decently for short bursts with their little wings. Can also glide to an extent, but wings and stamina are not mature enough for much more.

~ They can magnify negative emotions in others. Currently, this is an at-will very unrefined power whose magnitude is uncontrollable- they basically just poke it at a potential victim until they get what they want.
Later on, this will manifest as a toggleable despair aura, a more modifiable power, and, much later, the ability to directly incite the emotions that they eat

A Day in Life, ends with Death - Nano Warmth - 1671 words
TRIGGER WARNING: Suicide

Lorn was hungry, but dhe knew that dhe would be full soon. Dhe had a perfect person to fill them up. She was a grown up adult human woman, and Lorn had sensed her while prowling. Maybe she wasn't as grown-up as some of the other people where she worked and lived, but it was still hard for lorn to tell the more grown up from the less grown up. They were all big.
Her mind had sung to dhem from the alley that dhe prowled- it was full of the potential for despair, like unripened fruit on a tree, and it made dhes mouth water in anticipation.
Dhe followed her on silent wings, poking at her with the powers that dhe knew dhe had but that dhe didn't quite understand and drawing out her pain bit by bit. She didn't understand her pain- dhe couldn't read minds and didn't understand adult problems anyway, but dhe felt her despair grow and dhes tummy began to growl. Dhe silenced it- dhe didn't want the woman to know dhe was here. People were more interesting to watch that way.
She unlocked a door, staring at it with a almost hopeless expression. Lorn cocked dhes head at her and wondered why a door made her sad.
Lorn waited for a moment, then swooped down to the door and, with nimble hands and lockpicks dhe opened the door like he had seen some of dhes brothers and sisters do. Dhe slipped in like a shadow and closed it behind dehm, following the woman's lonely shadow up the stairs. Despite dhes claws, dhe was silent and quick, hiding easily behind things and remaining unnoticed, even up the seemingly endless stairs.
Finally, the woman stopped at another door and unlocked it. She was carrying a bag of what smelled like vegetables (ick) and placed it on a table just inside, before closing the door, but not before Lorn had slipped in behind her and hid in a darkened corner. The door was interesting to Lorn. It was not at the highest part of the building, or the lowest point of the building, but right in the middle. Lorn had always liked the middles of things. Dhe rarely saw the beginnings, and dhe often saw the ends, but the middles were the most interesting parts of anything. The middle was where all the things happened.

The woman took a microwave diner out of the bag and put it in the microwave, staring at it as it turned on the turntable. She took it out and stared at it's steaming surface some more. Lorn didn't think she was thinking about it though- her face was too sad and distant. Lorn poked her again with dhes power. Dhe liked to play a game where dhe tried to figure out what these yummy people were thinking. Lorn was young and didn't have much experience, but dhe thought that maybe she was thinking about family or a friend. Dhe got that expression too when dhe thought about dhes brothers and sisters. Dhe missed them so, but they had other things in their lives. Dhe was alone now, and dhe was sad and cold in dheir graveyard home without them. But dhe knew dhe had to understand that they were mostly older and had other, more pressing matters than little Lorn Murkish. Lorn was on dhes own for now. Maybe this woman was on her own too!

She brought the meal to the table. Lorn could see it was mere mush, but hungry as dhe was, dhe couldn't help drooling- both over it's salty and fatty smell and over the feeling of her deepening despair. Lorn was so hungry.

She poked at it for a moment, then stood up again to pick up a bottle and a glass. She drank it, and Lorn could tell from the stink that it was alcohol. She drank it and drank it and drank it and the bottle- half full before, was all gone. More than half of the food remained. She tossed it in the garbage and held her head in her hands and cried. She cried and cried. Lorn wanted to run dhes hands through her hair and along her back. Not to comfort her, though that was what it would seem, but to feed. But lorn stayed hidden- Dhe wanted to know what came next.

She stood up and Lorn, staying silent in the shadows, trailed her to her bedroom. She took out a rattling bottle. Pills.

She opened it and looked in, and for a moment Lorn saw a hope that was not hope on her face. She put the pills on the bed and grabbed a pen and a piece of paper, scribbling on it and placing it on the desk, arranging it just so. Lorn, curious, poked her with dhes power again. Something interesting was about to happen. She shuddered with another repressed sob before she made herself a glass of water and turned to stand over the pills. She looked at them for a moment, sadness turning into something more resolute. She opened the pills, shaking them into her hand, then a few more. She tossed it on the floor, and Lorn flinched away from the hot anger dhe felt flash briefly. Fiercely, crying, she swallowed the handful of capsules and sat down on her bed.

Lorn stalked out of the shadows as dhe felt her emotions turn thick and sluggish. Dhe clambered onto the bed with dhe's not-yet-fully-developed limbs and crawled behind her as her eyelids fluttered. So absorbed was she that she did not notice Lorn until dhe ran it's claws gently through her hair. She turned to look at dhem, confused, afraid, and tired- so very tired.
"Ish okay." said Lorn, smiling at her as sustenance flowed from her to dhem, "I ish here."
She looked at dhem, increasingly confused, as dhe pet her face and hands. Dhe was being nice and feeding so well!

"Are you... death?" she asked, her words slurred and anticipatory, if not hopeful.
"Mmhmm!" said Lorn, giving her a hug, dhis feathers brushing against her clothing and tickling her face. Lorn was feeling more and more satiated by the second. It was a good feeling, better than hunger.
"Oh..." she said, her eyes drooping as she slumped, her head against the pillow. "Oh."
Perhaps she would have said more to the doom raven, but the pills were taking effect as she drifted into a wakeless slumber.
Lorn cuddled up to her, smiling. It didn't take long for Lorn to be full from her- Dhe was only a young manifest, after all. Dhe snuggled closer, feeling full and sleepy. She was warm, and dhe could hear her heartbeat through the clothes as she breathed softly. Dhe liked the warmth and the closeness. It reminded dhem of dhis siblings. Some were scary and mean, but dhe didn't mind. They were dhis siblings, after all. Dhe loved them.
Some gave dhim good hugs. Some were warm and comforting even in the dark and hungry times they had spent in the wild. Now Lorn was alone, a small nightmare in a big city. The others had said that they could live here now, and dhe had been happy. There were people in cities, and Lorn loved people. But dhe hadn't realized that living in a city didn't mean living together with dhis family. Dhe was sad. Dhe was alone. And it got cold in dhis graveyard nest.
Dhe cuddled closer and listened to the woman's heartbeat slow bit by bit. Her breathing grew quieter and quieter, and Lorn snuggled as close as dhe could, just to hear it and remember the cold nights in the wild when he would cuddle up to a willing sibling for warmth. When the nicer ones would stroke dhis feathers and tell dhem that things would be fine, that everybody would eat the next day.
Her breathing slowed to nothing, but her heart kept going. Lorn listened to it until it was thready and wavering, and then, it was gone. Lorn was awake for a while longer net to the empty body. Dhe was smiling.
Dhe did like the endings too, after all.

It didn't take long for Lorn too to fall asleep, but dhe awoke in the morning. The body had cooled and Lorn was hungry again. Lorn wriggled out of the stiffened arms and flapped off the tall, tall (to dhem) bed to the kitchen. Dhe made dhemself breakfast from cereal and milk from the fridge and turned on the TV. It was the news, but dhe knew what a remote control was and found it, poking at it until it changed the channel to something fun. Cartoons.
Dhe wrapped dhemself in a blanket to fend off the cold air and sat there by the TV set, watching TV. Cartoons were switched to old films- dhes favorite were the ones where nobody was happy in the end, because they had good beginnings, middles, and ends, even though they were for grown ups- and then to the food channel because dhe was hungry again after the sad movies with bad endings. Dhe ate more food, and then dhe snooped around the woman's house. She had few things, which was sad. Dhe had been hoping to find some more of the warmth dhe had felt as she had gone away.
It wasn't long before dhe was bored, bored and cold. Dhe decided that it was time to find someplace warm to roost and play, maybe one of the big buildings called hotels. They would be full of interesting people!
Dhe wandered back into the room and patted the corpse on the face.
"Bye bye!" said Lorn, though there was nothing left to her to eat or say goodbye to- the lady was gone. But lorn had wanted to do it anyway.
Dhe opened the window and flew into the noonday autumn skies of the city. It was time to move on.

Dinner ~ Nano Love ~ 1581 words

Lorn thought dhe knew what love was. Dhe was only a little bitty birdy nightmare child, but dhe thought dhey had a pretty good idea. After all, love seemed to be the root of so many of its victims! Lorn had learned early on that fighting couples that left each other crying made for delicious angst, and couples whose people went to see other people also became ripe for dhes picking. Love, thought Lorn, looking out over the shady park, with all of its people and potential meals, must be despair. That was the only logical explanation that dhis yound mind could come to. Lorn Murkish ate despair. Most of dhis victims were sad because of love. Therefore, logically, love must be despair. So why wasn't love tasty to eat? It was too... sweet, like watermelon candy. Or too warm, like uncooled soup. Or too spicy and sticky like the bean-buns dhe'd tried once. Dhe did not like any of the the tastes of love, especially not the raw animal taste of lust and desire. Lorn did not like that taste especially. It was too strong, and dhe did not understand it. Dhe was scared of that taste.
Sometimes, though it was flavored by the crisp and airy taste of desperation, or cool and heavy loneliness. Then Lorn could tolerate it. If Love was despair, love would be tasty. That made sense in Lorns mind.
Lorn was confused. Love was and wasn't despair, and that couldn't be possible.
Dhe saw a family pass by below him- two mothers, two children, all of them happy and enjoying the sunlit day. Lorn watched them longingly. Dhe was so alone. Dhe missed dhis siblings, dhe missed them so much. It had been just them, together, before. Now, they were scattered in this city, and Lorn Murkish was all alone. Lorn loved them. Lorn loved them so much.
Lorn stopped, watching the family walk off into the paths beyond the tree dhe lurked in. Lorn... loved. They loved. It was not the same kind of love, but people called it the same thing. Dhe had never tried the love between family. Dhe didn't know what it tasted like. But, dhe realized, dhe knew what it felt like.
It was equal parts compassion and jealousy and anger, and also loneliness, warmth, and need. Lorn missed dhis brothers and sisters badly now. Dhe missed their bodies on cold nights and the comfort of knowing that dhe would always have company, and always have food. Dhe used to follow them around and feed off the despair they created. It had been tasty. It had been good. And now dhe had all the food dhe could want in this city, but dhe was unhappy because they weren't there to share it with dhem. Dhe was lonely and that loneliness became a deep hunger. Unfortunately, dhe could not eat dhis own despair- that would be like eating dhis wing. Dhe looked around the park for dhis next victim.
There. A couple, arguing on a bench. Dhe hopped over, tree to tree, to listen in, poking at them with dhis powers to help them ripen. But dhe had to stop and stare, still a tree away, as the couple kissed and made up, their emotions changing from anger to reconciliation. Dhe watched, confused, as they walked away, hand in hand. Normally, that worked. Anger turned to frustration at dhis mental touch, which turned to a brief depression that dhe could eat. But this time anger had turned to something warm. Something that smelled sweet and warm like cookies. How had Lorn turned anger into love? Had dhe turned anger into love? Lorn pouted, dhis stomach grumbling. This was the first time dhe had ever encountered something like this. It was supposed to work every time! It had always worked before! Lorn glared at them as they left. Meanies! Lorn was hungry and dhe wanted them to feed dhim. A thought occurred to Lorn. Maybe they had had TOO much love. Maybe dhis ability had cooled the anger to love. Maybe it was true love, like in the stories that dhe had found in the library.
Dhe had thought, when dhe had read it, that true love couldn't exist. It was silly! Dhe had been out to feed and feel a lot in their short life, and dhe hadn't felt anything even vaguely like true love. There was no emotion that dhe could feel that was pure enough to call true. Everybody had flaws in them, differences. It made them like juice and not like the pure water that Lorn sometimes found in their victim's sinks. Real water and juice had lots of things in it. That gave them unique flavor. People were complicated and dhe didn't understand them- dhe was only a child. But dhe knew enough to know that there wasn't- couldn't be- any pure emotion like true love.
But, watching the couple reconcile and take a walk around the park, Lorn was starting to consider the possibility. What would pure anger taste like? Or pure despair? Were they possible too?
Thinking about eating set dhis stomach to snarling at dhim again, and dhe's attention was taken up looking for another victim. Dhis eyes rested on a dog, but the dog only looked sad. Dhis eyes rested on a moody teenager on a skateboard, but they only thought they were sad and angry. Dhis eyes rested, finally, on a little child, scared, lost, and afraid. Dhe smiled.
Perfect.
The child was about their age, in looks anyway.
"You ish lost? I helps!" said Lorn, fluttering in to stand next to the child, nudging their emotions with dhis power. Yes, almost ready for a meal.
"I'm lost..." confirmed the child, "I want my mommy!"
And I wants my brothers and sisters. thought Lorn, keeping a smile on dhis face as dhe thought of all the things dhe could do with the child. It would be so much fun! "I helps you find." dhe said, taking the boy's hand and starting to lead him along a path. Dhe didn't mind the surge of hope that the boy had- hope was fine. It wasn't tasty, but it covered despair like frosting on a cake. It wouldn't be hard to get a meal out of this kid.
There were lots of adults, and dhe, glancing back, knew that the other kid- a boy, dhe thought- was looking at every face, searching for recognition. Dhe felt uncertainty grow again in the boy's chest and nudged it along, just a little.
"Your mommy ish looking for you too, I thinks!" said Lorn, smiling disarmingly at the boy, "We finds her soon, I promishes!"
Not if dhe could help it. "What doesh your mommy look like?" dhe asked. Dhe wanted to keep them away from her as long as possible, until dhe had had dhis fill.
"Her hair is brown and short and..." dhe smiled at the choked back sob- dhis meal was getting close to ready, "she was wearing a yellow dress..."
"Okaysh. I look for her too." Unfortunately, there were a lot of women in yellow dresses today, and some men too. Lorn didn't know who to keep away from. But Lorn was lucky. They didnt find her, and she didn't find them, and the boy was almost ready to be fed on. Lorn tried not to tighten dhis grip on them too much in anticipation.
"You see her yet?" Lorn asked. Lorn knew that nobody could tell when dhe was feeding. Lorn's feeding left no mark, just an emotional dullness that refilled with time. Sometimes people killed themselves, but Lorn dhimself had never killed anybody. But dhe still didn't want to be interrupted while feeding, because that only made dhim hungrier.
"No..." sniffled the kid. It was perfect. Only a little nudge more, and they could go to a park bench and Lorn could give him a hug and have a full belly.

"Billy! Oh Billy, I've been looking everywhere for you!" said a woman's voice, and Lorn had to let go of the boy's hand from the surge of positive emotion that welled up in his victim. Dhe glared at the yellow-dress woman who scooped up the boy in her arms for spoiling dhis meal. Then dhe stared longingly, for dhe wanted to be picked up and hugged too, and dhe had nobody to do that for dhem. She loved her child, in a way that Dhe wasn't sure his siblings ever loved dhim. Dhe wanted it, dhe coveted it. But dhe couldn't have it.
"Bye." dhe said, flying away right as the woman turned to thank him, leaving her relieved but confused. Dhe didn't care.

Dhe was frustrated, and lonely, and hungry, and it was all the fault of love. Dhe hated love. Dhe wanted love. Dhe flew and, when dhis wings tired, walked, back to their cemetary home, and curled up next to dhis favorite tombstone, and cried tears of frustration. Finally, someone went to visit the grave of someone they cared about. Dhe joined them, and patted their hand and said dhe was sorry for their loss, but dhe wasn't really. Dhe was happy for their loss. It meant that dhis stomach was full of their sadness.
Maybe I like love after all, dhe thought as dhe curled up to fall asleep on the cold hard stone of the crypt they called home, it makes people sad when ish gone.

Nice Lady ~ NANO Treats ~ 1581 words

Lorn often spend dhis days watching people from a perch. It was a great way to find their next meal, it was interesting, and, plus, it was a great way to try to find dhis brothers and sisters! Surely, someday, one of them would pass by in the crowd beneath the lampposts of the busy streets, or the trees along the walkway of the park, or the fence near the graveyard. It hadn't happened yet, and Lorn was very disappointed. Those days were spent either full and happy, or cold and hungry, or perhaps with a bit of pilfered coin or shiny trinket jingling in the folds of dhis mysterious robe. But always, always disappointment.
Today though, was different. Lorn hadn't found one of dhis siblings, but they had found something wonderful, interesting, and just... special. Lorn pressed their nose against the glass of the store, their hood pushed up but their face still in shadow. Dhe licked away the drool that had begun to form at the lorners of their mouth as they thought about what they could do with the delight that sat in the window to lure in customers.
An apple, made shiny with caramel and cloaked with chocolate and nuts and all sorts of other goodies that Lorn had never thought could exist in the same place at once. Only in their wildest dreams had Lorn ever imagined a candy apple like this. The only way it could be more interesting to the little doom raven is if it somehow radiated despair. But it didn't have to. A child was a child, bird, nightmare bird, or no. And this child longed for that candy, for the sweetness and nutty fattiness that would wash away their lonliness and make them happy. Dhe pawed at the glass, their claws scritching against its smooth surface. If dhe could have that, then dhe could be happy forever. Dhe could be not disappointed, if only dhe could have that apple and hold it's stick and chew on that sweet, sweet, crunchy encrusted fruit.
"But... I has no monies..." said Lorn sadly to dhimself, slumping in disappointment, and dhe didn't even think about stealing it. Lorn had never stolen things from Inside a place before. Pockets and shelves outside, yes because people just left them out. But inside? Lorn was scared of the adults inside. They were so big, and dhe was sure they could see them no matter what dhe did. When adults saw dhim steal, they yelled and fussed and then Lorn had to run. Running made Lorn hungry, but it made it harder to find a meal too. Lorn didn't like to be caught, and run, and starve.
But Lorn also knew that things had a price if you didn't take them, though dhe didn't understand prices. But if you had no money, you couldn't buy anything. And Lorn had nothing today. Dhe turned to leave, looking back at the gloriously golden candy apple shimmering on the display with all manner of other treats and chocolate. Dhe sighed.

"Excuse me, little boy?" said a voice, close by.
Lorn prickled at the voice and turned defiantly towards the person. A grown up woman was looking at dhim with a concerned expression on her face. Lorn puffed up dhis feathers. "I'm not a little boy!" dhe said, pouting.
"Oh! I'm sorry!" the woman looked confused for a moment, "Girl?"
"No!" Lorn was not a little boy or a little girl! Dhe stomped their feet and flapped their wings, "Ish a Lorn!"
[B}"Oh! I'm... I'm sorry!" the woman said, thrown off her game. She bit her lip and hesitated. "I was just wondering..." she said after a few contemplative moments, "Did you want that candy apple in the window?"
Lorn perked up, curious. "Mmmhmm!" they said, then slumped. "But... I has no monies... I can'ts buy the apple." dhe sniffled and wiped tears from the shadows where dhis eyes surely were. "It looks so tasty. I wants it bad. But has no monies, so Lorn has to go somewheres else..."
"Well little... uh... What if I bought it for you?"
Lorn looked at her, confused. "Why?" dhe asked, pouting.
"Well," she said, offering a hand, "Where I come from it's considered good luck around this time of year to buy less-fortunate small children a candy they want."
"Reallys?" Lorn asked, not understanding her entirely but taking her hand anyway. It was in a glove, and soft and smushy from the wool that protected it against the cold. Lorn's claws were not so protected. Lorn had to sleep with them under dhis armpits so that they stayed warm in the cold nights. "You buys it for me?"
"Yes I will." she said, leading dhim into the candy store.
Inside, it was like a scene from a happy dream. It was warm in here, but not too warm. Chocolate and candies, including chocolate dipped nuts, lined the walls. If there had been fruit and sad people, Lorn would have been in heaven. As it was, the smell of chocolate was making the little bird's mouth water again.
"Hi." she said to the chocolatier at the counter, "I'd like two boxes of mixed chocolates and one of your specialty candied apples for the little one here." She placed money on the counter, beyond Lorn's ability to count it. The chocolatier smiled down at Lorn, then retrieved two- to lorn- huge flat boxes and one plastic-wrapped vision of delight. The man behind the counter handed the candied apple to Lorn with a kind smile. Lorn received it with awe. The woman took her chocolates and took Lorn back outside as Lorn undid the plastic and looked at dhis prize.
It was better in dhis hand than behind the glass of the store window. Bigger, shinier, more real.
"Well, thats my good deed done..." muttered the woman, watching Lorn begin to lick the candy. "Where are your parents?"
"Got none..." said Lorn, preparing to take dhis first bite of the pristine apple, "Sorry!" she said, flushing redder than the cold could paint on her face, "Guardian?"
"Don't gots." said Lorn, crunching down on the sweet treat.
Oh it was perfect. Sweet, crunchy, chocolatey, nutty, spicy, and just everything Lorn could have wanted in a special apple. Lorn chirped happily. This was what Lorn wanted. Already, the loneliness was fading away into a happy sugar-daze.
"Oh." Lorn felt a spike of interesting emotions from her- sadness, pity, unease, and looked at her curiously. Maybe she would be a meal too! "Well." she said, seeming to make up her mind, "I guess thats not my problem. Good luck, all right?" she said, waving to dhim and walking away, back into the crowd.
Dhe frowned after her, taking another bite of dhis candy apple before following her. Dhe kept to the shadows, but focused on dhis apple. It was tasty. Dhe had never had had candied apples before- the ingredients were always separate. Apples and nuts, swiped from farmstands. Chocolate and caramels swiped from other children. Salty foods swiped from cooked food stalls. But never had dhe had salt, sweet, chocolate, apple, and nut all together in one thing- on a stick, no less. It was so fun to eat off of a stick! It kept dhis hands and feathers from becoming sticky and icky, and dhe didn't like it when they did. Dhe licked the caramel, enjoying the texture as the woman went into her apartment building. Lorn sat on a bus station bench and worried at the dwindling apple.
The apple made the world a happier place. Its sweet fulfilling taste and texture and the sugar rush that came with it made all of Lorn's troubles a thing of the past and the distant future. Lorn didn't want to stop eating the apple, but the apple was going away, and that was sad. But, as the sharp tang of apple mixed with he silken sweetness of its coating, Lorn was, even in the cold wet night, comfortable on the bench. Lorn looked up at the building. Did Lorn want to go and find the lady? She could be made sad and perfect for feeding. Normally, Lorn would have said yes immediately. Food was food and food was yummy and Lorn liked to have lots of yummy food of all sorts because Lorn was a good little manifest who ate lots of variety. Variety in food helped you grow big and strong, Lorn had heard somewhere, and Lorn liked fruits and seeds and nuts and meat anyway, not just despair.
But the candy apple was so nice. It reminded Lorn of the fun times dhe had had with dhis brothers and sisters and the tasty feast of emotions he'd been able to have all the time. It reminded dhim, with the warm sweetness of its caramel and the richness of its chocolate, of the warm bodies of dhis siblings when they let dhim snuggle. Dhe missed them all so much. But this special magic apple let him be there again. And with them, dhe didn't need to feed off that woman.
Humming, dhe finished the last of the apple and skip-hop-flapped back towards the crypt.

Later, Lorn regretted dhis decision, if a toddler can truly feel regret, as dhe crashed from the sugar and realized dhe was hungry. Dhe found a person, followed them, nudged them to a ripened despair, and fed.

But it wasn't as delicious as their apple.