Blue moon over Long Beach

Attack of The Cookies, Part I

She thought of herself as a gypsy. Not of the unintended racist meaning of the word, but of the person-of-whimsy-on-the-go meaning. Veda wore huge, dangly hoop earrings and scarves in her hair matching her long skirts. It was her uniform, worn everyday with little variation, which she thought gave her power. Her true power, though, the most elegant part of her, was actually love. She had the ability to see beyond the shortcomings of others, into the goodness within their hearts. Her magic was that she could look into the eyes of people forgotten, ignored, and misunderstood by others and love them.

She never noticed the small things about people that might drive others away. She never snubbed people when they needed to vent. She sincerely wanted to help those in need. 

But there was no helping The Cookies; evil creatures who resembled stunted humans with limp wavy hair, fuzzy bodies, and angry, colorless grey eyes. They were infamous for their passive aggressive behavior and undying love of sweet delicatessens, from which they earned their sticky nickname. 

The Cookies could not go past a certain amount of time without eating sugary foods, or dire health circumstances might unfold that would be unhealthy for The Cookie and anyone around it. This worked well enough on their home planets, where they had a variety of sweet yet healthy options. However, upon arriving on Earth, or, more pointedly, in Southern California, they promptly became addicted to processed, chemical laden, overly died and unnaturally colorful sweet junk food. This amused the welcoming Earthlings, who had never seen beings quite so egotistical (and, mind you, that's saying something for Southern Californians) and so loathing of all those others different from them while simultaneously taking an extreme and almost hedonistic pleasure in HoHos and cupcakes, and pop tarts, etc. These aliens now consumed not only sweetness, but strictly artificial sweetness, for every meal and snack. For all the sweet pleasures they sought, all The Cookies put back into this world was cranky negativity by way of condescending comments, cold stares, interruptions while others are speaking, and an awkward disregard of the warm welcome Americans gave them, despite the sharp criticism given from other countries. 

So pleased with our society's artificial food resources, The Cookies decided not to make the horrendously long trip back to their home but instead gave up the least favorite member of their pack to the American government to be tested and dissected in exchange for Naturalization, the ability to maintain confidentiality of from where they came and, of course, plenty of junk food. 

The Cookies then entered the American workforce by the hundreds, snarking their way through awkward office politics they created. They weren't dangerous, war and battles weren't their thing. The only time their eyes would light up in conversation was when talking about cakes, cookies, themselves, or how much better life was on their home planet, and how, oh if only, they could have doughnuts there, too! Otherwise, they were cold, unfriendly, and frankly annoying to work with because they were always on edge. 

Which brings us back to our Veda, in all her fortune-teller-inspired threads, whose greatest power was helping, loving, praying for, and trying her best to please everybody; which, in of itself is an impossible task. But add The Cookie who worked with her at the button factory? Disaster was imminent.