Nuelle's Story

Aloft a large strip of land floats above the deeper unknown levels of Nod, defiant to all forms of gravity and physics. The land mass is green, lush, with a waterfall flowing down from high into the sky, out of crack in a blue moon. The stream runs down from a series of mountains, leveling across the land, through stony tunnels, gathering into a small lake, then off the edge into the abyss. Strange ruins and half-built structures are littered about the sides of the river, among the center is a a massive clock tower in the middle of a small lake, mostly submerged and leaning yet still ticking quickly, and backwards at that. The clock face is pitch black, lacking numbers yet has two glowing yellow hands.

The clock hits 12, both hands lining up perfectly and freezing in place with a loud snap. The whole tower begins to shake, the lake rippling in small waves and then a light cuts through the center of the face, in the shape of a door. Suddenly it pops open and light shoots forth, a platform springs out, like cuckoo, but instead of the cuckoo bird, a tall figure, around seven feet, stands on the edge, holding an odd girl in its arms.

The figure in question, a long thin male from what can be assumed, dressed in a black suit, white undershirt and a red tie, wearing white like a butler. Folded red and black wings runs down his back. The long lanky arms,in fact, are red, ending in yellow clawed hands, and his face, a long black beak, birdlike with large unblinking yellow eyes that are green nearing the center. A crest of white feathers runs down the back of his head like hair. A bizarre creature to behold. The girl in his arms, however, appears human, pale pinkish skin, dressed in an odd hoodie that obscures half her face with three yellow eyes decorating it, the sleeves much too long. Aside from the hoodie she wears no shoes or socks, and what is visible of her hair is two long strips of hair down the sides of her face against her cheeks.

"Time t' rise Nuelle, ya lazy ditz," the birdlike man squawks, in contrast to his appearance sounding rather crass. He shakes the girl then drops her into the grass with a soft thud then kicks water into her face causing her to stir and snap to, sitting up and facing the strange creature. "No time t' sleep, no time t' lounge about, get up, get up, get up!"

"Wha-, who are y-ou," Nuelle asks in near incoherence, unable to form even a complete sentence just wobbles in a daze.

"Wh-wh-what!? Ya crack yer head, girl!? Surely you know me," the bird responds in a huff, a tone of indignation permeating his words. He puffs out his chest, closes his eyes and raises his head looking as dignified as he can. "I am Abdown, th' lord of time, th' partitioner of space, and on top of it all... ruggedly handsome." On his last statement he pulls forth a mirror and grooms his crest. He then notices Nuelle had nodded off during his spiel, causing him to to kick water in her face again snapping her awake again snapping to her feet, soaking wet, a bit lock kneed, and wobbily. "I said, rise and n' shine, Nuelle!"

"S-sorry," she apologizes softly, shaking her sleeves and wringing out her clothes as best she can. "Where am I?"

"Why the Fields of Overlake, girl," he responds narrowing his right eye, straightening his tie.

"Why... am I?"

"Why are ya what? Silly questions, girl, so many silly questions, questions, questions, questions!"

"I just..."

"Enough of this, ya go greet the guests and get the party started, it is a big day, big, big, big, day! Must prepare, yes must prepare f'sure," he squawks, before the clock shakes once more, snapping back in a rush with the door slamming shut with a resounding bang, disappearing once more within the abyss of the clock face. Then suddenly, silence, aside from the clicks of the clock as it begins to turn once more.

Nuelle stands there, her mouth agape and her arms hanging limp. All she had learned from this whole fiasco was her name, a place, and that bird men are very loud and rude. Another thing she has learned, is that she is quite so very... utterly alone now. She slumps to her knees and stares at the clock then down into the water at her reflection.

"Nuelle," she says softly, in an effort to confirm her own existence in some way.

Nuelle sluggishly raised herself back to her feet and gave one final look at the sunken tower. There were questions she wanted yo ask the strange bird man, but it wasn't looking like he was up for much talk at the moment. What was this party all about, and what guests? For all she could tell, she and the bird were the only people around, if he could be considered a person. Oh, but that is rather racist isn't it? What is racist, anyways?

As she fumbles with her thoughts she finds herself wandering along the riverside, head cast down watching her feet and feeling the grass pressed under them. She finds it peculiar that she has no form of footwear, not that she ever remembers wearing any. In fact, it did not seem she was at all properly attired for a party. She turns and looks back, in hopes to ask if Abdown had clothes to spare, but found the lake was now miles away.

"Oh," she mutters, somewhat astonished. She had sworn she only took a few steps, but perhaps she zoned out in her thoughts. It was a bit disconcerting that she had lost track of time. To anyone watching, she had in fact teleported forwards a few times along her stroll. Casting her face back down, she turns back to continue her stroll but freezes in place upon hearing a voice cry out. It was that of Collin, not too far from where she stood. What she saw, however, was the ground, and the first thing to come upon her path on the ground was a rather long bright blue snake with green eyes and feathery scales upon its back and at the tip of its tail. Fearlessly she kneels down and pokes its back to get its attention. It turns to her and rises up in response.

"You are lost, but here you are found," she says in a matter-of-fact tone to the serpent. It simply cocks its head in confusion then slithers off into the river without even a sign of gratitude. She scratches her head. If the snake wasn't the one who called for help, then who did? She slowly lifts her head to see four hooves, those attached to four legs, then a horse's body, and then... then a human torso?

"Ah, I'm so sorry I-" she exclaims all of a sudden, flailing her arms causing her sleeves to flop about. In her panic she loses her balance and falls upon her rear end. "I didn't see you."

As he walked down the river sill calling for help, hoping somebody, anybody would hear him he began to lose hope. What if there was no one else here? What if he was alone, and never finds a way back home? What if he was stuck like this, in this strange body forever? These were not good thoughts.But regardless he had to keep moving, standing here doing nothing was not going to solve anything.

He stopped for a moment, his new tail swished back and forth in the silence. He sighed in silence. It didn't seem like there was anyone here, and it seemed like he had walked quiet a distance, though oddly enough the boy was not physically exhausted. this di dnot surprise Collin much, a horse had far more stamina than a man after all. No it was the seeming pointlessness of what he was doing that was starting to get on his nerves. This whole ordeal was beginning to grate on the boy, and he suddenly wished that whatever force had whisked him away here and twisted his body into what it was now had the decency to leave him a pack of smokes or a nice cool beverage to take the edge off. No instead all he received was a bow and arrow.

Just as he was trying to think of a new course of action he noticed a what looked like a girl not to far up the river. He was astonished to see another person her just as he was giving up hope and galloped towards her direction. It was only as he was heading towards her that he realized he'd soon be forced into talking to this girl. Talking, with a stranger. Not something he was good at.

When Collin had reached the girl he paused for a moment trying to think of what to say and after a few seconds opened his mouth to speak, only for the girl to end up falling onto her backside. What was he thinking running up to her like that? The girl obviosly wasn't used to seeing a centaur, then again Collin wasn't exactly used to being one. "Oh uh no don't apologize it was um my fault. I didn't mean to startle you or anything. My name's uh Collin." He looked down at himself and hunched over slightly to more comfortably reach the girls height, and offered her a hand up. "I don't normally look like this by the way. You wouldn't happen to know where I am right now would you? Do you have any idea what's going on, I'm awfully confused."

The cave was pitch black. There was absolutely no light. In fact, it was dark to the point that it reminded Stian of a black hole. He kept bumping into things as he tried to feel his way around, although eventually he got the hint and just walked in the middle where there was a clear path.

He was surprised there weren't any animals inside. 'Shouldn't there be bats or something? They live in the dark, don't they? Ugh, this place makes no sense!' He pondered, feeling annoyed at the fact that this dream world was completely nonsensical, yet also relieved that there weren't any wild animals. Especially wasps. 'Oh, there's the exit... Yay, light!' Stian finally emerged from the cave.

There, he found at a quaint little river. The water was weirdly clean, almost sparkling.'So... Is there even anything interesting here?' He thought mildly, glancing around. It was very lush and green, in stark contrast to the icy hill Stian had woken up on. Putting his hand in the water, he found that it wasn't cold. Lukewarm, in fact, and it felt kind of gross so he took his hand out. Swimming through were some kind of fish -- they looked like angler fish, but they seemed to have feathers and tiny little wings that could never be used for flying. 'Perhaps I could call them angler birds!'. Floating, or swimming, towards the lights on the anglers' antennae, were tiny acorns that may or may not have been sentient. They were all heading towards the light, so either there was some seriously messed up gravity or they were alive and moving towards it. Either way, once they got close enough, the angler birds would swallow them up. 'This place is super weird...' Thought Stian, genuinely enjoying the strange artefacts of this land.

Then he spotted two people talking a little ways over -- were they even people? He headed towards them, and as he got closer up, he realised that one of them was part horse and the other was probably human. Stian couldn't really tell, considering the hoodie that person was wearing. "Hellooooo!!" He called out, waving at them. Upon closer examination, he saw that the person in the hoodie was likely to be a girl, and seemed to not be wearing any trousers for some reason. And then the centaur boy was, well, just that. "Oh, sorry, am I interrupting? I'm Stian! Who're you?" He attempted some conversation with them, hoping they wouldn't think he was weird or something.

She felt herself being pulled from the darkness that meant sleep between dreams. She tried to claw her way back to sleep, but it was no use. The birds were singing too loudly and the sun was too bright. There was something off about the song of the birds. The sound seemed sharper. In fact, she was positive she heard the soft sounds of a waterfall and... was that talking? Not the loud, angry sounds of home. Where am I?

She squinted at the light as she opened her eyes. She was under the canopy of a massive tree, bright blue sky peaking through the emerald green leaves. The colored were so much clearer, brighter, more beautiful than she had ever seen. She began to sit up, but found her arms to be weak, and her body aching. Her head hurt more than anything and it was making her nauseous. With a deep breath, she slowly rolled over and used the trunk of the tree to pull herself up. The bark was unnaturally soft against her hand, but cool in the shade. She rested her head against it, conserving her strength for a moment longer, before turning and leaving the tree behind.

"Where... am I?" Her eyes roamed the beautiful, but strange world around her. Wall fell down into glittering pools from a blue moon. There was a clock tower, leaning and in the middle of a lake not too far from where she stood. There were three strange shapes near the water, but what caught her attention and held it, was the massive white tree with golden leaves, reaching up into the sky. She felt herself drawn to it. It was like a dream.

She was dreaming... right? She rubbed at her forehead, hoping to rub away the ache and ran her hand through her long silver hair with a sigh. A strand came loose in her fingers and she shook it off, watching it float away in the wind.

Wait.

She reached back and gathered what was once dark blonde hair and pulled it over her shoulder. Silver. Her hair wasn't the only thing different. She was pale before, but the whiteness of her skin would put milk to shame. Her fingers were long and nimble. Her mind wandered to how well she would be able to play piano with these fingers. She shook herself once, forcing herself to focus and gazed down at herself.

She definitely didn't fall asleep in these clothes. A navy blue tunic with silver threading, black pants and boots. She circled, looking behind her. No tail. No scales or hooves. Good. A dark shape caught her eye back by the tree. It was a quiver of arrows made of a strange purple-black wood with blue fletchings and the most beautiful recurve bow she had ever seen. It was black as the night, but light as air. A quick pull told her it was of excellent make and perfect for her strength. The only thing that would make this any better was if she had wings.

She could barely contain her excitement as the voices of others carried to her--probably enchanced--ears and she turned to join them. Completely oblivious to the silvery wings beginning to unfold from her back. She wasn't even winded from running as she neared them. A grin stretched across her face.

"Hiya! Can you guys believe this place? It's better than anything I could ever dream of." She took note of the three characters in front of her. A girl in an oversized hoodie, a... centaur?, and a boy with kindness in his eyes. "I'm Liliana. But call me Lily." She probably looked like a nutcase with a bow tucked behind her, messy silver hair, and a grin that would rival the cheshire cat. At the moment, however, she couldn't care less. It was a world of her dreams and If this was, in fact, a dream she prayed to never wake up.

Nuelle took a look at Collin, particularly his hand he had offered to her. Hesitantly she reaches out and takes his hand and allows him to help her back to her feet. The fabric of her sleeve being strange, unlike cotton or silk, perhaps it is just something exotic. She takes a moment to gesture a sheepish nod in gratitude. "This... we are on the Fields of Overlake, Abdown said-" before she could continue, another had arrived on scene giving her yet another start, at least this time she had managed to stay upon her feet.

The new arrival, a younger boy, had presented himself as Stian, so many names she had come into all of a sudden, yet somehow she felt she had already known them somehow. Peculiar, that is, given she didn't know her own name until that suited cuckoo spoke it to her. "Hello," she says in greeting, wanting not to appear rude to those that had gone out of their way to greet her. It was common courtesy, she thought, though common where she did not know. "I'm-"

Yet again another had arrived on scene, a woman this time, with silvery hair and pointed ears, and apparently older than each of them. It appears the small gathering had turned into something of a small crowd. It didn't exactly frighten the girl, really, more along the lines it overwhelmed her to see so many people in a short amount of time, especially given she has no memory of people prior to begin with. Besides, what what there to fear? They all seemed quite kind.

"I can believe it... this place I mean, as I feel it beneath my feet it must be real," the drowsy girl softly answers Lily, completely oblivious to her rhetoric. "H-hello, I'm Nuelle. At least, that is what the bird man in the clock had told me." To many that would sound like she had a few screws loose upstairs, but it was the honest truth.

She had taken a moment to look over each of the people who had gathered around her, and the words Abdown spoke last flooded back into her mind. "O-oh! You... you must be some of the party guests I was told to greet," she says, before rubbing the side of her face casting a look of confusion. "Um, what form of party it is I do not know... do you?"

(( sorry for not posted recently. I was waiting to see if one of the other characters would post first before my character responded, but I don't want the rp to die because I'm waiting so I'll post))


Lily's wings, still unnoticed by their owner, collapsed into her back as she gazed around. Everything was so beautiful! The sparkling waters, the crisp trees, even the people seemed to be beautiful though they were just people. The girl with the strange hoodie introduced herself as Nuelle. Lily smiled at her hand held out her hand in a greeting. "Very nice to meet you, Nuelle. That's a beautiful name by the way. It sounds like music to these ears." She reached up to touch them for emphasis and noticed that they were not the rounded sort of human ears. Instead they peaked into a delicate point. She nearly squealed in excitement, but she knew that would warrant strange looks from her new acquaintances and she wanted to make a good first impression.

Then she realized she had completely missed something in the girl's words. A party? "A party? In the big clock tower? I knew nothing about it! Oh, I'm so excited! A party in a world like this!" She twirled around, her silvery hair flowing behind her. Then she stopped and looked at them. "Speaking of. Where exactly are we anyway?

(sorry it's so short..)

Are awoke. Which was a surprise considering how much she drank last night. She leaned up. She must have slept for ages. She felt well rested and had no hangover. Which again was surprising. The tattoos moved slowly across her skin with a dark blue tint. She just sat their in the tall grass taking in the world around her.

She tensed up. The tattoos stopped moving and went to a solid black. She again had to take in the world around her. This place was foreign. The grass felt all wrong. The sky was different. The smell was again all wrong. Are stood up and started to run. She had no idea where to go but had to get answers. Dogging bushes and hopping over rocks. She tripped once but caught herself. All the sleeping made her body numb. She wasn’t as agile as she normally is.

It took a bit but she could see a person just behind the bushes. Not knowing if it was a friend or foe. She went full speed. I mean whats the worse that could happen? She cleared the bushes. It was an odd group. Very odd. One was a horse person. Hoping they spoke Galgreck she asked, “Irigeth? Sala eth macike?”

She hoped they could understand. Her tattoos began to move again but still a solid black. Just in case all went south she would be ready for a defense. Or if need be an attack.

Another person had joined the fray! It was almost overwhelming for Stian, meeting so many strange people. He smiled at the newcomer, Lilly, and said, "Heya, Nuelle, Collin and Lily! One of my classmates is actually called Collin, you know! I've never met anyone named Nuelle though, it's a pretty strange name! Where's it from?". He would have waited for an answer, but there was mention of a party and he forgot all about his question. "Party?! That sounds great! Is it a themed party? One of those fantasy parties would suit this super well." Stian clapped his hands together in excitement, leaning forward with sparkling eyes. Then he had an idea -- "How about afterwards, we go mountain climbing! Do you see those huge mountains over that way?" He gestured wildly northward, "That would be so fun!".

He would have continued, if not for Collin having a sudden outburst of... Anger? Frustration? Something along those lines. In any case, he wasn't happy. "Uh... Are you okay? Anything else to say?" Stian asked awkwardly, surprised. "So... You're not usually a centaur? And that Lily isn't usually a... Fairy, is it? Elf? Felf? Elfairy? Whatever it's called!" He paused, thinking of what to say next, before adding "After all, this is a dream.".

Stian wondered if it was possible this wasn't a dream. That all of these strange happenings -- weather changes, rainbow penguins, turning into clouds and everything else -- weren't just a figment of his imagination. 'Well, this isn't like any of my usual dreams at all, so I guess it's possible' He thought. 'But there's no way that it's not a dream. Ugh, this is turning out very... Strange. I'd like to just wake up. Well, I'll climb that mountain and then wake up. Because it's a dream. Yeah, this is a dream!'.

And then another person showed up. This one was very strange -- tattoos all over... His? Her? Body, and an odd posture among other things. She spoke something in what seemed to be a foreign language, so Stian replied, "Um, I don't speak that language... Can you speak in English? Or Danish?".

Lily had barely registered the centaur's discomfort before he seemed to verbally explode. She could see anxiety start to shake him and she took a step back to give him space. "It's okay. Take deep breaths, alright?" she said, her hands up to show she wasn't hiding anything. Then what he said finally hit her. Her blue eyes widened in awe. "Wait. Wings?" She twisted around to look behind her and gasped. "Omigosh! I have wings!" She twirled around and around. She had never been so happy in her life. A land where dreams come true. If it was a dream she hoped to never wake up. This place was more than she had ever wished for on her birthday candles. "This is fantastic!"

She grinned at Stian. "I'm not normally a fae, no. But I'm super excited to find myself as one now. This place just continues to get better and better!"

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw something moving fast towards them. She gasped in surprise and nearly fell backwards, the weight of her wings nearly bringing her down. "Well hello to you, too." She muttered. Upon closer inspection she realized the being was covered in tattoos.. and.. did they move? She blinked. Maybe not.

It seemed to be taken forever to get out the forest. Maritza could still see the glow up ahead, but now she was hearing voices. They were distant and faint, but never the less voices. She hesitated, I wonder if they are nice people? Do they not see the shinning between the weird looking buildings? She thought. Pushing her hair behind her ears she sat against a tree trunk to rest. Maritza had no idea how long she had been walking, but it seemed like a really long time.

She went to tie her hair with her scrunchy, pulling it over her hand, when it started to glow. W-What the... now in her hand was a sword. It was almost the color of the lake, but had pigments of a darker blue. It was lite in her hand. This sword has to be as tall as me! How is it so lite?! She almost screamed at it. Standing up, while having the sword at a good distance away from herself, she measured its height against her own height. It was only a few inches taller than her. She grabbed the sword with her other hand and swung. It was clear she looked awkward doing so. Now how do I get it back to my scrunchy? She thought.

Maritza tapped her wrist with the sword and it transformed back to the scrunchy. Ha! She was glad it was a simple way. Now that she knew she had a weapon she headed toward the voices, hoping they were nice.

Nuelle was overwhelmed once again, so many were talking around her, the centaur named Collin was growing excitable, and asked an odd question that she could not possibly answer. For all she knew he was always a centaur, and it was more a surprise to hear otherwise. Same with the Fae named Lily not originally being a Fae. In fact, if anything, it started to make her wonder what she really was all of a sudden. Who is the real Nuelle? It had only recently occurred to her that she was Nuelle, she doesn't remember anything prior to Abdown telling her that. No friends, no family... what is a family anyways?

As Collin continued to become more upset, she could feel something in the air that began to make her feel cold within. It was such a discomforting sensation, causing her to give panicked glances about for any source. Nothing... She saw the others, but nothing else than that. Were they even able to feel it? They were continuing as normal. What is normal?

She held her head for a moment, the then looked straight to Collin and leaned in. "Well, I suppose whether it is normal or not, you are here, you are you, and at least each of you know who you are," she responds in a very matter of fact manner. "All I currently know is that I'm here, and now each of you are here as well. I had to be told my name."

She looks gloomy for a moment, rocking back and looking at her feet. It bothered her to no end that she can't remember anything beyond waking up in the arms of Abdown. And she felt like a fool, trying to offer comfort while she herself felt discomfort. "Plus," she mutters. "At least in spite of it all, we are unharmed at least."

As she looked back up again, ready to say something else, the ground began to shake. The bell of the clock tower chimes with unusual and loud tune, ringing out across the vastness of Nod. Beyond them, upon the isolated island with the massive white tree who's trunk reaches high and roots dig deep, some roots coil up then roll outwards, anchoring themselves upon the edges of the various drifting islands, including the one they were upon right now. The tops of said massive roots flatten and dip inwards, forming into elaborate bridge-like constructs equip with safety rails. At the entrance of the bridge a party banner sets itself, draped across the top along with some confetti. The words inscribed upon the banner were "Natalis Dormientis."

"I guess... that answers that question." She then noticed Are, who would perhaps appear strange had Nuelle known what normal was to begin with. She didn't understand the language, unfortunately, but understood there was some confusion. "I'm Nuelle... hello. Are you a guest as well?"

Are looked around at the people. All very weird. But they seem harmless. The tattoos on her body went from black to a grey and seemed to move up to her shoulders. The lower bit of the tattoos near the hands were a bit thinner. She loosened herself. If they were to attack her she had no doubt that she would win. They seemed harmless though. But hey at least they all spoke Rikan. "You know, eh, how you get here?" Well she knew the language. Not fluent but she knew it.

"W-we'd all like to know that," she stutters, giving the most honest response she could give to Are. She was already overwhelmed by everything, having to absorb all of it as if they were her very first memories. All she had to go on was what she felt, and what little she knew from what Abdown told her. In fact, she wishes that he didn't leave her holding the bag like this, it was kind of rude.

Nuelle turned to the newly formed bridge, and made her way over to it. Her sense of caution was at least very much intact, giving the bridge a few cautious taps with her foot. It seemed sturdy and steady, the strange white wood was in fact very strong if not a bit pliable. She walked onto it a bit making it clear that it wasn't going to give, at least not very easily. She turned to the others giving a lazy wave. As soon as she turned her back to the bridge, she felt a coldness rush over her body once more, this time more direct, more local, in fact the source felt like it was coming from behind her. So cold. Something had moved itself near her, she could hear its breath... sounding like... static. The angry sound filled her ears, or more accurately, her head. She slowly turned, the static getting louder, followed by a hollow rattle, then silence. The rattle was a sound that was not in her head, and to anyone nearby they too would have heard it.

Nothing. There was nothing there when she looked. No, there there was something there, she was convinced of it now, and could still feel it faintly. Instead of fear, she grew more and more curious. The curiosity driving her to walk forward as if in a trance across the bridge. To anyone watching, she would appear to cast two shadows briefly, the second seeming to just evaporate. She herself was oblivious to it.

Are watched as the girl crossed the bridge. Then the noise came. It wasn't much. Just annoying. But with the hangover it was like being repeatedly stabbed in the brain with a club or war hammer. She looked up and seen the second shadow. Something wasn't right. "Wait. Stop!" Are walked to the edge of the bridge. Her tattoos slowed down to a crawl and was a jet black.

Vennesa sat just out of sight cross legged in the grass. Her hoodie covered her head and helped blend with the environment. It didn't matter that the hoodie was a bit too large. System couched next to her cloaked. "Look at them system. All fools. they are starting to understand." she whispered to him. System rotated his head to scan the area. "[OBSERVATION NOTED.]" the volume was low. "You are a sarcastic douche." "[NOTED]"