Microstory 176: Tamra Shore

This is an experimental Bellevue Profile microstory. The introduction can be found in Microstory 101. More to follow.

Until someone else was discovered to be slightly older, it was believed for a long time that Tamra Shore was the very first anomaly to have been born. That is, besides the long-running Generation Twos that preceded Dores Roach. Tamra was born in Stanton Parish, Louisiana in 1886, and appeared at first to be a normal child. But the older she became, the slower she aged. She looked like a regular infant, but then she looked a little young for her age, and then she looked suspiciously too young. By the time she hit sixteen, it was practically impossible to get people to believe that she really was an adult. There are a number of reasons for Tamra’s semi-immortality. She can accumulate a seemingly infinite amount of energy through simplex dimensions. Her body is in constant flux, allowing her cells to replicate quickly and subsist on dead cells with a more complex and efficient system of macrophages. Basically, her body is perpetually dying and recycling itself so that it never has to quit. Tamra’s brain processes data more efficiently as well, allowing her to remain awake and alert 20 hours a day, ten days a week, with no need for sleep. Lastly, she stopped needing to eat right around the time her mother weaned her off of breast milk. She was one of the very first members of Bellevue, which was surprising, since she was one of two anomalies who no longer lived by her original identity; the other being the one who found her. A couple of years into the program, a pathogen spread around Bellevue that caused abilities to turn against their user. Tamra’s cells continued to divide at a phenomenal rate, but this process was left uncontrolled, effectively giving her cancer. Fortunately, they had amongst them an anomaly with the unexpected ability to cure her. When this person was done, she began the long journey towards aging at a normal rate, but was able to keep a second ability she had been granted.