First Step

First Step is a drug rehabilitation program turned pigment cult. It is one of the spinoff organizations from the Missionary Works of the Holy Ghost and serves to further Uriah Bishop's pigment distribution plans.

It started as a legitimate agency in the 1980's, using counseling, prayer, support, and alternative medicine to assist drug addicts in regaining their lives and renoucing their habits. It was successful in this for most of its history; however, success rates were falling while more people sought the agency for help. Dr. Sarah Franks, the project director, recommended a new compound manufactured by Terrel and Squib Pharmeceuticals that seemed to ease the symptoms of their drug withdrawls and helped in the weaning process.

It does not take much to figure out the compound was pigment; Franks herself became an addict, as well as many of First Steps clientle. She co-manages the cult with Harper Forester, a Flatliner and follower of Bishop. Unlike many of the other organizations the Missionary Works holds, Franks, not the Flatliner, does most of the active leading.

A growing problem, as word of First Step's treatment program spreads, are those who seek out the organization for the pigment and not actual treatment. Franks is concerned for the well-being of these misguided individuals; Forester is also surprisingly concerned, but it is more about the fact that First Steps' secrets have been leaked to others; Forester knows he had better find a way to make the members stop talking, and fast.


 * Orpheus: Shades of Gray, p. 76-77