Sometime later Himry came to his senses near the sound of softly running water. He was sitting cross legged on loose gray sand, in his lap was the tiny potted plant he had pillaged earlier and Joan's severed head.

He blinked, not understanding what had happened. The last thing he remembered was Joan attacking him. Had he somehow managed to fight back? He looked at the severed head in his lap. The stump of her neck and the wound at the side of her temple were caked with sand where it had stuck to the half dried blood.

"Don't move." Said a soft female voice from in front of him. She was crouched behind a device with multiple lenses mounted on a tripod. Eventually it dawned on him that this must be some kind of camera. "Now hold that pose for just a second more…"

The woman was human, short, round, and seemed to swing back and forth between very animated and impossibly still. Her head was shaved completely bald and her makeup was vividly over the top in terms of color and the elaborate designs of her eyeshadow.

Her clothes were a mish mash of different brightly colored and loudly patterned fabrics that seemed to be made up entirely of pockets. Those pockets themselves were overflowing with her photography gear.

Himry let the woman take her pictures, turning his head this way and that when he was instructed to do so. He didn't really have any reason not to. Eventually she stood up and stretched, giving Himry a thumbs up. "Yeah, that should be all I need. Thank you for being my muse for the afternoon."

Himry looked around. They appeared to be alone in some kind of park or green space. It was the middle of the day and the scene was almost aggressively idyllic. There was even a small stream and a pond with a pair of fat orange koi in it. "Where are we?" He asked.

"Holbrook." Replied the woman. "This is a gated community so it keeps most of the unsavory people out of the park. That's why we get to have nice things. Usually it's pretty packed but there must be an event going on. How did you get here anyway?"

Himry looked down at his boots, taking in the new tears in his pants and shirt. They were practically shredded. "I guess I walked?" He frowned, touching his right cheek. It felt metallic but warm. "Do you have a mirror or something?" He asked.

"Oh, of course." The woman pulled a large tablet out of her satchel . She handed it over and then retreated back behind her camera in case he did something interesting.

The tiger-like drekan carefully set down Joan's head behind him and put the tablet into mirror mode, grasping it with both hands. The screen went black for a second then transitioned to a live feed from the front camera.

Himry numbly surveyed the damage. The bullet had hit him just at the edge of the orbit of his right eye socket and exited out the back of his skull. Where the damage had been repaired there was a spider web of golden threads cascading out from the source of the impact like ripples in a pond, a lattice holding him together.

All down his chest and arms were signs of new wounds that had been closed up by that same living gold. He tilted his head to the side, there was a blossom of gold like a kiss in the place where Joan had slit his throat. He rubbed it thoughtfully.

"Did she do that?" Asked the photographer. "You don't seem to care much about the other wounds but the way you linger on that one suggests someone special gave it to you."

"Yeah… she said it was just something in her nature or some other bullshit." Himry looked over. "Do you know a woman who goes by the name Sophia Danika Lee? She's supposed to live in this area."

"I can't say I've ever met her. Why? Are you going to collect her head too?" The woman casually directed Himry's gaze to the armored dome of a sentry gun tastefully hidden among the rocks that bordered the sandpit.

"Nope. I was hoping to ask for her help with something." Himry slowly stood up, handing back the tablet.

He felt a message pop up in his head from Shiva. The recording was short but sweet. "Gershwin killed Joan for trying to kill you and a few other reasons I don't want to get into right now. I killed him for killing Joan. Reach out when you are feeling better."

He shook his head. Well, it was nice of Shiva to at least let him know what had happened. Himry looked down at Joan's head. It didn't feel right just leaving it there on the ground. "Um… is there some kind of trash bin where I should put this?" He asked. "Or other suitable disposal device?"

"A bin for severed heads?" The woman asked with a laugh at the absurdity of the question. "You mean like, cans, plastics, corpses?"

Himry shrugged, his connection to the collective was speaking to him through his wetware and he was tired of fighting it. He was tired of a lot of things. "Well I know that some places don't like you putting meat in the compost bin because it attracts pests. Then I thought about how since this is a human district body parts could technically be considered biohazardous or medical waste. Then I thought that it might frighten someone to open a trash bin and see a human head. Then I remembered that she was a demi-human and had a lot of wetware so maybe I would have to separate out the electronic waste-"

The woman cut him off. "Don't worry about it. All the garbage gets resorted at the facility anyway. They just dump all the bins together into the same container when they pick them up."

A little part of Himry died as he heard that. But luckily it was a hund part of him so he barely missed it. "How barbaric!" He said involuntarily in Döbian. Half his brain was still missing so the collective was temporarily lending him extra processing power while he healed. Apparently he was going to have to get used to the occasional memory leak.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Himry picked up the head and the potted plant. He looked at the tiny white and green leaves. They didn't seem to be any worse for wear. "Do you like plants?" He asked.

"Oh, I love plants!" The woman stepped forward to get a better look. "I was wondering what kind that was but I was trying to keep my distance."

Himry realized, not for the first time, that he was a drekan among non-drekan and that other species had certain taboos about carrying around random body parts. "Right, because of the severed head. Sorry, we aren't… drekan don't view stuff like that the same way humans do. Let me get rid of this." Himry set the little plant down and went over to find a trash bin.

Drekan weren't particularly sentimental when it came to remains, which was par for the course as far as cannibalistic carnivores went. Once the spirit had vacated the body what was left behind was just meat and you didn't waste good meat. On the bright side, drekan funerals were incredibly easy to cater for.

By the time Himry had returned the woman was holding the plant in her hands and looking around guiltily. He stopped short, there was an unmistakable smell of decay. The same decay he had smelled on that cactus back at the garden center.

"I'm so sorry." Sophia Danika Lee said as she set the already visibly wilting plant down on the ground. "I am really really bad with plants. I don't know what it is. It's like they just don't like me or something."

Himry shrugged. "Nobody is perfect." He said, then he felt something ping against his subconscious. Something she had said earlier had just now begun to process. "Wait, do you really not know what's going on? Do you not know where everyone went?"

Sophia shrugged back at him. "I'm an artist. If I'm not in the mood and don't have a gallery showing I barely go outside. Why?"

The drekan smiled, showing golden teeth. "Tell me, how would you like to go see a plant that you probably can't kill?"

The woman considered this. "I find that doubtful. I'm literally classified as a bio-weapon. I'm actually banned in sixteen solar systems and all major garden centers. The botanical society has tried to kill me sixteen times just this year."

Then she seemed to reconsider. Sophia really liked plants and the prospect of finally finding one she couldn't kill was incredibly tempting. "I mean, it should be fine so long as I don't touch it. I'm not going to touch it. So it should be ok for us to just check it out. Where is it anyway? Is it far? Can we walk?"

"I'll get us a shuttle. Let me make a call first."

Himry placed a call to Rimma through his wetware so he wouldn't have to speak out loud. With a clear tone of annoyance his government contact answered the phone. "This had better not be a telemarketer." She grumbled. "The number you're spoofing belongs to a drekan that's deader than my love life."

"Hi, I'd like to schedule a botanical tour." Himry said cheerfully. I've got a very excited lady here who wants to meet the incredible unkillable kudzu."

"How the fuck are you still alive?" Rimma demanded. "Is this some kind of joke? Am I being pranked?"

Himry laughed. "So what was this about your love life?"

"Shit… it really is you." Rimma said with amazement in her voice. "And you really found her, didn't you?"

"Yep." Himry said as he sent a text message to Shiva detailing what he needed and felt her ping his wetware in return. An ETA for an inbound shuttle flashed across the lower left corner of his vision in rapidly decreasing red numbers.

He continued his conversation with Rimma. "You gonna pay me out? Maybe take me clothes shopping? Stop for drinks after? I ruined my favorite shirt and these pants are pretty fucked as well. They're basically short shorts at this point."

Rimma seemed to contemplate the idea of Himry in ripped short shorts for longer than was strictly professional. "Yes." She replied.

"Yes to what?" Himry pressed, feeling the slightest hint of what might be sparks. Or in his case possibly residual brain static from shooting himself in the head. It was hard to tell, but Himry was optimistic.

"I will take you shopping for new clothes and make sure you get paid out if she can kill the plant. I may even buy you one, and I mean one, celebratory drink." Rimma said with a slight air of self disgust. Apparently she had a type. "Tell me Himry, do you play a musical instrument?"

"Yes, why?" Himry scratched his chin thoughtfully. "I was actually in a band for a while but I pawned my stuff. And some other people's stuff. It was a lot of stuff."

"Yeah, that tracks." Rimma sighed. "Do you even know what species I am?"

"Nope. But I need to crash on your couch. My apartment got nuked or something."

"Are you going to stay on the couch?" Rimma asked pointedly.Himry considered the question. "That is entirely your choice. I am also cool with some kind of hammock."

Rimma let out another sigh. "Himry…"

"Yes Rimma?" He asked hopefully.

"Stop trying to seduce me and just go kill that fucking plant." Then Rimma considered who she was speaking to and decided to change her tactics. "Actually, I would consider it very sexy if you were to kill that plant for me. Can you do that for me, you big orange himbo?"

"I'm on it boss! I'll call you when it's done." Himry replied happily as he ended the call.

Sophia was watching him with fascination from behind her camera. "Your whole range of facial expressions are absolutely amazing. Before you were so dark and brooding but now you're so happy!" She waved a hand in front of her face for emphasis. "It's like watching a fourteen year old boy get free mozzarella sticks after his grandfather's funeral. If you were human I would wonder if you were bipolar or something."

Himry cocked his head to the side with confusion. "What's a mozzarella stick?" He asked, wondering if it was some kind of food or possibly a type of toy. He understood that sticks could go either way but had no idea what mozzarella was.

Sophia looked at him with pity. "You poor tragic creature. We are getting you some mozzarella sticks right after we check out that plant. Ok?"

"Oh… ok." Himry looked up at the approaching shuttle. He opened a call to Shiva."What are mozzarella sticks?" He asked.

There was a pause before Shiva replied as if she couldn't believe she was being asked such a banal question. "They're deep fried cheese, Himry." She replied before abruptly ending the call.

The two door transport landed gently on the grass and the doors slowly slid open. Shiva was strapped in already and was wearing full battle rattle. Guns, armor, the whole deal. She looked up at him with frustration. "Damn it. I want mozzarella sticks now. I can't get them out of my head."

"That's because they're awesome!" Sophia said as she loaded her camera gear into the transport. "I told Himry we should get some after we check out the plant thing."

Shiva looked at him and shrugged. "Yeah, fuck it. Why not?"

Himry smiled. Yes. Why not? Mozzarella sticks sounded perfect. As the transport took off he thought about how much he had gone through in just a few days. Yesterday seemed like a dream and last week was a distant memory. He was a new being in a world about to be rebuilt after a cataclysmic tragedy. There was limitless potential now.

Himry frowned. Those thoughts didn't seem like his. He chalked it up to the memory leak and decided to not dwell on it. He had never been one for introspection and he wasn't about to start questioning his new reality. That sounded unpleasant and very uninteresting. He would much rather think about the future prospect of trying these mozzarella sticks that everyone seemed to love.

Himry should have at least wondered what was going on in his head or asked Shiva about it. He really should have, but of course he didn't.