#nicole hedgeway

[mysdrymmumbles]

Getting Into My OC

A comprehensive breakdown of your OC.

Thank you to the wonderful @ellenembee​ for tagging me with this! I’m going to do Finley from Andraste’s Witch and Weslyn and Nicole from Tales of Mysdrym. 

Thank you so much for the tag!

NAME: None, though she calls herself Finley as of the Conclave

AGE: 27 at the time of the conclave 

GENDER: Female

ORIENTATION: pan

PROFESSION: Wilds’ Apostate

BACKGROUND:

Finley’s father was a heartless maleficar and her mother was an abomination. The demon inside her mother was a third parent of sorts, the only one who cared for her, and the only reason the others didn’t drown her when she was little, instead tricking her maleficar parents into believing that Finley’s blood would enhance their blood magic, thus ensuring they would keep her alive.

Around four years old, templars came and killed her parents. Because she had been a hostage of the blood mages, as far as the templars knew, they kept her with them, initially to keep an eye out for signs of possession, though they ended up becoming very protective of their dear, odd girl. 

For the first time, Finley knew what it was like to be safe, to have a home. Her templars -- Ser Caudry, Ser Ross, and Ser Neil -- doted on her and treated her like their own child, telling her stories to make the world less frightening and always there to hold a hand when her nightmares were too much. She would steal the templars’ shields and run around, imagining herself a savior to others from the terrifying blood mages and monsters in the world. She didn’t want anyone else to be trapped with monsters like she had been and was determined to be like her heroes, even if she was very afraid of most all other people.

After 3 years of living with the templars, one of them, Ser Caudry, was brought back severely injured. Terrified that one of her heroes would die, Finley’s magic woke up, and she expended almost all of her energy healing him as best she could.

When she woke up, one of the other templars, Ser Neil, was taking her into the woods, telling her that she would be safe with the Avvar, as he feared what would happen to her if she was taken to a Circle when she was already so skittish and mentally frail. The Revered Mother from the Chantry they’d been living at, however, had already alerted the Circle of Finley’s magic, and the Circle templars caught up before they could get far into the mountains. 

Ser Neil tried to fend off the templars, but one snuck up behind them and ran Finley through, just barely missing her heart. Distracted by Finley’s cry from getting hurt, Ser Neil was cut down in front of her.

When Finley next awoke, she was with the renowned Flemeth and one of her daughters. The great Witch of the Wilds had caught sight of the templars attacking Finley and Ser Neil and had been curious because Finley seemed a bit closer to the Fade than most her age, so she had intervened. 

Flemeth told her that going back north would result in death, at best, and that there was a sliver of a chance she might survive if she fled into the Wilds. When Finley woke up, she was alone in a deserted camp that looked like it hadn’t been used in months.

Life in the Wilds was hard at first, but Finley learned that most of the creatures people deemed to be monsters could be allies of sorts, if one offered them the proper respect and understood that they simply followed their nature.

Seeking peace and quiet, she became known as the Green Witch, as her magic dealt mostly with nature and she wound up helping the lost find their way out of the woods and the like. Mostly she did it to prevent search parties from drawing too much attention to herself and bringing in the templars, but in the stories that sprung up around her, people lauded her a kind Witch. 

Heartbreak and betrayal, as well as the demon that had possessed her mother, followed her through her life, leading to some hellacious trust and abandonment issues.

After the Blight, she devoted herself to finding a way to heal the Wilds and return them to the way they were before the arrogance of man had destroyed so much of it. It was during her research that a familiar old Witch came by to tell her that there was someone who could help her with her research, though she would need to go to the Conclave to get their assistance.

PHYSICAL

Body type: lithe

Eyes: blue with gold flame-like center around the pupils, fade-touched

Hair: fiery orange

Skin: tanned with oodles of freckles

Height: 5′3

Weight: 105   

SKILLS (S.P.E.C.I.A.L + M)

Strength: 5/10, but only because she can heal herself well enough that she can over exert without too much in the way of repercussions. 

Perception: Varies. 9/10 when she’s in the Wilds, on her own, 5/10 when she’s dealing with a lot of people, mostly because she may see what they’re doing but doesn’t understand what their little movements/tells mean so seeing it is meaningless, 6/10 when she’s in a fight and collected, 3/10 when her side is losing and she’s panicking that someone is going to die and she’ll be blamed. She tends to get hurt most often with the last one because she forgets to look after herself.

Endurance: 9/10. She’s been through some shit and is used to having to outrun/outlast templars. 

Charisma: 2/10. Her general paranoia and fear of people betraying her does not lend well to being charismatic.

Intelligence: 7/10. Finley picks up on things quickly, so long as she can make sense of why it is done or why it is necessary. Her lack of understanding of currency, for example, stems from her not seeing a point in having tiny coins when one can just do favors for one another. Spells, she learns incredibly quickly, flips, and the like. Nuances to conversation and culture, not so much. Most of the time, her problems also stem from the fact that if she knows (or thinks she knows) one way to do something, she sees no point in learning another way when hers is already effective. She’s her own biggest obstacle.

Agility: 9/10. One does not outmaneuver a templar if one is slow.

Luck: 1/10. Father - maleficar. Mother - possessed and dead. 3 Templars - dead or exiled from the order. 1st love - possessed and dead. 2nd lover - possessed and dead. 3rd lover - was a liar who tried to sell her to the templars and Finley was almost beheaded while she ran away (she doesn’t like to talk about it). Demon stalker. Wilds ravaged. People messing up her wards and making them clunky and cumbersome. Stuck around a ridiculous number of templars. Expected to play nice with idiot nobility and mage haters. Favorite spider - stepped on by Hawke. Hawke - exists. 

As far as Finley’s concerned, she has no good luck. Well, except for getting to meet the Alistair Theirin and a few other grey wardens. 

Magic: 10/10 Finley is very good with magic, also rather condescending to anyone who doesn’t practice her style, which is everyone. 

LIKES

Colors: birds, wild animals, the Wilds, not being around people

Smells: Fresh rain, ocean breezes, wildflowers 

Food: For someone as picky as she is, she’s surprisingly blasé toward food in general

Fruit: any of them

Drinks: Anything non-alcoholic

Alcoholic drinks: she doesn’t like them because she likes to stay alert.

OTHER

Smoke: none. Smoke makes it easier for someone to find you.

Drugs: none, unless she’s slipping them to someone else so she can run away

Driver’s license?: much to Varric’s amusement, she claims she can ride kelpies, but not much else.

NAME: Weslyn Kagris, 2nd son of Jasserai Kagris

AGE: 28 at the beginning of the book

GENDER: male

ORIENTATION: gay

PROFESSION: emissary/make-shift monarch (not by choice)

BACKGROUND:

Weslyn grew up in Kyvrell, Mysdrym’s southern neighbor who has poor standing with Mysdrym ever since the Demons’ War four thousand years ago, during which the lands that now make up Kyvrell were abandoned by the crown. The people who survived the demonic onslaught and fall of their sacred temples refused to return to the rule of the people who had left them to die, and it is a point of pride that they have survived so well on their own. Especially considering that they are the ones who are most frequently attacked by the Chaotic shifters from the islands to the south.

While Weslyn had expected to join Kyvrell’s prominent military, being the second child of noble parents, when it became clear that the demons were reemerging after four turns (1 turn is 1000 years) of silence, he was elected to go to Mysdrym on behalf of Kyvrell to request the ancient seals that could lock the demons away once more.

He was nearly laughed out of court when he presented himself to High Grace Norwrithe of Mysdrym.

Even as he’d considered what he could do—he couldn’t return home without the seals, but knew he couldn’t expect the High Grace to take him seriously—he was approached by Lord Sehnswrift, a noble who had fallen out of favor with the high grace. Lord Sehnswrift was adamant that Weslyn was right; the demons were returning.

They began working together, gathering support where they could—even though he’d fallen from favor with the court, Lord Sehnswrift still held a great deal of respect among the soldiers.

Then, abruptly, Lord Sehnswrift staged a coup, with Weslyn at his side, murdering the high grace and scattering the surviving nobles from the capital. Despite taking power, Lord Sehnswrift showed no desire to take over the duties of running the country, instead handing the job off to Weslyn, who—despite pleas that him running things would make it look like Kyvrell had declared war on Mysdrym—finally accepted with great reluctance.

Despite the rather legitimate fear that he will be assassinated, Weslyn has done what he can to ease tensions, working on redirecting funds from the high grace’s parties to doing construction around Mysdrym’s capital and attempting to show the people of Mysdrym that he and Lord Sehnswrift wish to help.

He keeps his sword near him at all times, so that he will not be taken unawares.

After a few months of somehow managing to not have a heart attack whilst running a foreign country, Lord Sehnswrift gathered him to go and meet fabled other-worlders, who are sent by the Gods in times of strife. Weslyn is not particularly pleased with their arrival, as that means that the return of the demons is likely to be so devastating that the Gods thought other-worlders were necessary.

PHYSICAL

Body type: well toned

Eyes: gray

Hair: dark brown

Skin: coppery

Height: 5′11

Weight: idfk, he’s got muscle though  

SKILLS (S.P.E.C.I.A.L + M)

Strength: 7/10. He’s a pretty solid fighter. 

Perception: 7/10 He’d probably notice more, but he’s kind of paranoid about being assassinated, so what he thinks is hyper-vigilance does make him miss some stuff because he gets so easily distracted by harmless sounds and shadows. 

Endurance: Varies. 9/10 in a fight, 6/10 dealing with the upkeep of the castle, 2/10 dealing with other-worlders’ bullshit, but he’s working on that last one.

Charisma: 5/10. He’s not great at hiding the growing terror that he’s going to be deposed with the Lord he sided with, should people come to reclaim the throne for the young grace. 

Intelligence: 7/10. He’s a quick study, and a fairly good tactician. 

Agility: 7/10. Not the fastest, but good at dodging stuff, in a fair fight. Demons don’t fight fair, though. 

Luck: 4/10. He went to a foreign country to find out how to save his, got stuck running said country and accidentally freed the demon lord, when all he wants is to go home, so... not the best.

Magick: 3/10. He is not a fan of his healing magick, as it wears him down, but he is trying to strengthen it, as the other-worlders are so accident prone and it would help to have a healer while fighting the demons. 

LIKES

Colors: reds, browns, golds

Smells: ocean breezes, baking bread

Food: He likes a good wyvern steak. 

Fruit: eh, star flower fruit is alright

Drinks: something to take the edge off

Alcoholic drinks: yes, please

OTHER

Smoke: a good distraction tactic, if necessary.

Drugs: he sees enough shit hiding in the shadows, he doesn’t need drugs adding to it.

Driver’s license?: He does not come from a world with driver’s licenses, but he’s fairly good on a horse.

NAME: Nicole (Nik) Katerin Hedgeway

AGE: 21 at the beginning of the book

GENDER: female

ORIENTATION: pan

PROFESSION: other-worlder

BACKGROUND:

The first five years of Nik’s life are never brought up or talked about, other than to say her mother was unwell and unfit. Zachary’s father found Nik living in the woods behind their house, scrawny and underfed and terrified of people. He talked her into coming home with him, and while his wife and son talked with her, he called for help.

Nik’s mother had failed to inform anyone that she’d been missing, and had a breakdown after her reappearance, saying that Nik was the product of rape, and she couldn’t look at her. While Nik has always doubted this, her mother’s family did not, rallying behind her mother. When her aunt refused to shun Nik, saying she deserved to be with family, Nik, her aunt, and her cousin Samantha were all disowned.

Nik has fought with guilt over that for most of her life, though she can’t say that she thinks Samantha is missing out on much. Still, she knows it hurts her aunt and wishes she could fix things.

Because of a freak accident in the woods when she was 7 that left Nik severely injured, she was unable to go to school for two years and ended up being in the same grade as Samantha, Zachary, and Ella.

Her injuries have caused her problems ever since, and she’s been in and out of the hospital far too many times.

One of the things that has helped her the most throughout her life are stories that have been in her head for as long as she can remember, of fantastical creatures and magick. She is sure that they are as real as she is, and often claims to have seen them or other magickal creatures wandering the world.

While Samantha and Zachary—and later Ella—were fond of her stories growing up, Samantha has become disenfranchised with them, feeling that Nik is using them to avoid reality. Nik is annoyed that Samantha would be so quick to insist they are not real, but tries to keep the peace, as she knows Samantha will not accept her truths.

Knowing that Samantha has spent much of her life giving up too many things so that she can stay with and help her, Nik fakes getting accepted into a local college so that Samantha will go off into the world and have a chance to find herself, free from Nik’s shadow.

It doesn’t quite work, and when Zachary finds out she’s not in college, things get uncomfortable as she realizes she’s going to have to tell Samantha she lied.

However, before things can fall apart completely, Nik and Ella are whisked away to Mysdrym by a dog made of shadows.

Needless to say, Nik is ecstatic.

PHYSICAL

Body type: a bit too thin

Eyes: gray

Hair: brown

Skin: too pale

Height: 6′0

Weight: underweight 

SKILLS (S.P.E.C.I.A.L + M)

Strength: 4/10. Despite being so thin, she can carry about as much as her healthier friends, and insists she could do more, if given the chance. She is never given the chance. 

Perception: 4/10. Nik’s pretty thrilled to learn new stuff, but she doesn’t pick up on danger really quick. Like, she’ll be inspecting an awesome flower she’s never seen before and would be so entranced with memorizing the details on the pistils that someone could easily sneak up on her. She tries to pay attention, but gets distracted really easily. 

Endurance: 7/10. She’s pretty proud that she’s been improving lately, not falling over and collapsing like she used to.

Charisma: 4/10. She’s friendly enough, but people often find themselves experiencing an innate unease from merely being around her, and as a result, a lot of people just try to avoid her.

Intelligence: 9/10. She catches on to stuff really quickly, even things she’s not able to do herself, and can walk others through how to do it (i.e. magick).

Agility: 8/10 fast for someone who looks like they’re about to fall over, and when Ella and Zach catch her doing things like backflips, they wonder how. Samantha threatens murder, though, so Nik tries to be subtle with any acrobatics, so that word doesn’t get back to her dear cousin.

Luck: 4/10. Things are always trying to kill her, when all she wants is to have fun and go on adventures.

Magick: 0/10. Much to her chagrin, she cannot use magick. 

LIKES

Colors: all of them

Smells: leaves, wind - yes, she insists it does have a smell unto itself, nature-y things

Food: salad

Fruit: fuck yeah

Drinks: water

Alcoholic drinks: she is wary of alcohol and other mind-altering things

OTHER

Smoke: her cousin, Samantha, would kill her.

Drugs: just got off a bunch of prescribed bullshit against her doctor’s orders, and is not a fan of any type in general

Driver’s license?: due to her health issues, she’s not really allowed to drive, since she was prone to passing out and stuff for a while. Though she’s doing better, she doesn’t need one because she’s in Mysdrym now.

Tagging: @cometeclipsewriting, @momopichu, @commandershepardvasfuckit, @slothquisitor, @rederiswrites, @gugle1980, and @thesecondsealwrites. No pressure :D

[talesofmysdrym]

Character Profiles - Nicole

Name

Nicole (Nik) Katerin Hedgeway

Title

Other-worlder

Age

21

Height

6’0” (182.88 cm)

Body Type

too thin

Physical Description

Nik has long, long dark brown hair that falls all the way past her waist in straight locks, a contrast to her cousin. Her eyes are pale gray, and she is incredibly pale. Her long list of doctors have debated whether she has marfan syndrome because of how tall and thin she is, though they’ve not been able to come to any conclusion.

Personality

Nik is a bit too chipper and carefree to most. She accepts that magick is real and doesn’t even question if something odd happens. She is most enthusiastic when talking about the Tales of Mysdrym games or stories of magick and adventure. Despite occasionally being frail, she has a surprising resilience to her as well.

Background: The first five years of Nik’s life are never brought up or talked about, other than to say her mother was unwell and unfit. Zachary’s father found Nik living in the woods behind their house, scrawny and underfed and terrified of people. He talked her into coming home with him, and while his wife and son talked with her, he called for help.

Nik’s mother had failed to inform anyone that she’d been missing, and had a breakdown after her reappearance, saying that Nik was the product of rape, and she couldn’t look at her. While Nik has always doubted this, her mother’s family did not, rallying behind her mother. When her aunt refused to shun Nik, saying she deserved to be with family, Nik, her aunt, and her cousin Samantha were all disowned.

Nik has fought with guilt over that for most of her life, though she can’t say that she thinks Samantha is missing out on much. Still, she knows it hurts her aunt and wishes she could fix things.

Because of a freak accident in the woods when she was 7 that left Nik severely injured, she was unable to go to school for two years and ended up being in the same grade as Samantha, Zachary, and Ella.

One of the things that has helped her the most throughout her life are stories that have been in her head for as long as she can remember, of fantastical creatures and magick. She is sure that they are as real as she is, and often claims to have seen them or other magickal creatures wandering the world.

While Samantha and Zachary—and later Ella—were fond of her stories growing up, Samantha has become disenfranchised with them, feeling that Nik is using them to avoid reality. Nik is annoyed that Samantha would be so quick to insist they are not real, but tries to keep the peace, as she knows Samantha will not accept her truths.

Knowing that Samantha has spent much of her life giving up too many things so that she can stay with and help her, Nik fakes getting accepted into a local college so that Samantha will go off into the world and have a chance to find herself, free from Nik’s shadow.

It doesn’t quite work, and when Zachary finds out she’s not in college, things get uncomfortable as she realizes she’s going to have to tell Samantha she lied.

However, before things can fall apart completely, Nik and Ella are whisked away to Mysdrym by a dog made of shadows.

Needless to say, Nik is ecstatic.

Additional Info

Nicole gets a piercing for every year she outlives doctor’s expectations. She has 14 to date.

[mysdrymmumbles]

What would Nicole’s favorite band be?

First, thank you so much :D 

Not quite a band, but her favorite singer is Ke$ha. She has Tik Tok as her ring tone, or typically changes it back when Zach steals her phone and tries to put something else there. 

She and Zach got in a bit of a war with each other, changing each others ring tones -- she’d change his to various Ke$ha songs and he’d swap hers out for country. Ella had to threaten them both with Nickelback to get them to stop. 

[mysdrymmumbles]

If Nicole got trapped all alone in the middle of nowhere and had to choose only one person to be her Survival Buddy in the rough journey towards civilization, who would she choose to help maximize her chances of survival?

In book I, she’s stranded with Ella Wallen in the middle of nowhere, but that wasn’t by choice. She enjoyed the company nonetheless, haha.

Nicole isn’t really one to worry about survival and all that. She gets too distracted with how cool things are or if they can be played with or what makes them work, and so the best person to ensure her survival would be someone with a level head who thinks ahead. Weslyn would be great for this, though her nonchalance at being stranded would probably drive him up the wall.

She’d probably pick Zachary, though, because they are besties and they’d both get distracted by the same things and have all kinds of fun until they realized they needed food or shelter or something.

Thank you for asking

[mysdrymmumbles]

Tales of Mysdrym - Drabble

dafan7711 replied to your post “I need prompts”

Chocolate.

So here’s a Tales of Mysdrym snippet. This is just three of the main characters interacting and arguing, really.

Thank you so much for the prompt!

Word Count: 1037

Chocolate

“Fucking chocolate.”

Samantha’s voice broke on the second word and both Nicole and Zachary looked up, first to each other and then her, and then back. “What was that?”

They were surrounded by old tomes and various other references that they’d been using to try and figure out magickal affinities, though Zachary was a mite bit suspicious that Nicole wasn’t attempting to cast anything herself, instead simply directing his attention to useful tidbits she found that would help him.

Nicole was the biggest Tales of Mysdrym fangirl Zachary had ever known, and he knew she adored the games’ magick system. She’d tried casting spells back home, in their world where there was no chance of magick, so for her to be in a place with actual magick and to not try to completely abuse that was…suspicious.

Samantha wasn’t casting anything either, instead pouting about how she didn’t want to be there, as usual.

She was glaring at them from where she sat, arms crossed. She’d been busily trying to decipher an old code with one of their Mysdrian friends when they’d told her it was time for magick lessons, which Zachary had a feeling both he and Nicole were regretting. Samantha was so miserable here, and that decoding project seemed to be the only thing she even remotely enjoyed herself—probably because it had nothing to do with magick and everything to do with things that would make sense in their world.

Nicole had suggested they leave Samantha to her work, but the one time they’d tried, Samantha had thrown a fit about being abandoned.

So every day, they gathered her for their lessons and tried to keep down the urge to strangle her as she complained her way through them.

Today was no different from the norm, though their teachers had all been called away for some reason or another and now the trio sat alone in their corner of the library, staring at one another as though they might develop telepathy.

“I miss chocolate,” Samantha finally clarified, lips forming such a pronounced upside down U that Zachary and Nicole both had to bite back their laughter. The last thing Samantha needed was to feel like her pain was a joke.

As soon as she’d explained herself, Nicole had perked up. “Oh, they have these flower candies here that I bet would be sweet.” She turned to Zachary for confirmation. “They were in the second game in that one stand in the city. You could use them for health boosts.”

Even as Zachary considered that there had been some sort of flavor text saying the flowers were sweet, Samantha let out a half screech. “Eating flowers is not eating chocolate.”

“Well, I mean, they don’t have cocoa plants here,” Nicole argued with a shrug. “You’re gonna have to settle for something else.”

“I don’t wanna settle for something else. I want chocolate.” Uncrossing her arms just to recross them pointedly, Samantha glared at Nicole. “Maybe the Gods should have thought of that before they kidnapped us.” Even as Nicole furrowed her brow, eyes narrowed, obviously about to harp on the wrong part of Samantha’s problems, the smaller woman scowled and kicked the table between them. “Chocolate. Things we’d want. Making us comfortable. They should have thought of those things if they wanted willing heroes.”  

While Nicole was ready to argue, Zachary caught her gaze and shook his head. It wouldn’t be worth it. Nicole was enjoying their adventure and Samantha wasn’t and there was no easy way to get them to see eye to eye.

The greater argument averted, the three of them settled into a quiet brooding.

Well, Samantha was really the only one brooding, but the energy she was putting into it was enough for all of them.

“You know, Sam,” Nicole finally broke the silence as she got up and trotted over to where her cousin sat and held out one of the books. “This method’s a little archaic, but at the time it was made, it seemed to help people a lot when they were having trouble casting—”

“I. Am. Not. A. Fucking. Weaver.” Samantha replied, each word filled with venom. While Zachary damn near would have actually abandoned her for that, Nicole simply stared down at her, neither Hedgeway turning their gazes away.

There was a blessed, blessed moment of silence before Samantha snatched the book from Nicole’s hands and glared at the pages. “Which part?”

Nicole was already leaning over and tapping the page. “Right here.”

“Will it let me conjure chocolate?”

“No, just wind, if you have an affinity for it.”

At that, Zachary let out a sigh. “Nik, please stop. We already told you. They said since we’re other-worlders we can use any of the spell sects.”

Nicole tilted her head slowly, long hair falling over her shoulders as she appraised Zachary for a moment. “Everything has some level of magick component to it. Everything. Even if you can use all the types, you’ll still have one sect you’re better at.”

“Then why the fuck aren’t you tearing shit up?” Samantha snapped. “You probably remember all the summoning spells and everything from every game. Just call us up an ancient guardian and take out the demons.”

“I can’t,” Nicole protested, crossing her arms. When both Samantha and Zachary paused to eye her, she blinked and then let out a half laugh. “I never told you, did I?”

As Samantha’s face deadpanned, Zachary leaned against the arm of his chair, cupping his chin in his hands. “Nope.”

“Are you sure?” Nicole considered it a moment before shrugging. “I’m not allowed to use magick, apparently.”

“Not allowed?” Samantha echoed, brow shooting up. “Says fucking who?”

Nicole leaned toward her as though to whisper in her ear, though she still spoke loud enough for Zachary to hear. “One of those ancient guardians you want me to summon.”

Samantha stared up at her blankly as Zachary paused, thinking back to their own encounters with the ancient beings. They’d never been warned against using magick, so why would Nicole be…?

Abruptly, Nicole straightened up, smile in place. “You keep studying. I’m gonna go see if I can find you a chocolate equivalent.”

[mysdrymmumbles]

A Tales of Mysdrym Drabble - The Beach

dafan7711 replied to your post “I need prompts”

Water.

Nicole has always believed in magick and things that others can’t see, and while her cousin Samantha thinks it’s a coping mechanism, the truth of it is that Nicole’s seen enough to know to believe. 

Warning: body horror

Word Count: 1641

Tales of Mysdrym

The first and only time Nicole ever went to the beach was the summer after she turned eleven. It had been almost four years since her freak accident, and despite her aunt and uncle’s concerns that she might not be healthy enough to play in the water, she’d begged to go.

She’d never been to the ocean, but her cousin Samantha had when she was younger, and she missed it tremendously. Samantha had heard her parents talking about the beach a few weeks prior and had asked if they could go, only for them to softly tell her they couldn’t leave Nicole alone.

Nicole had been coming out of her room to dinner and she’d stood in the hallway for a few minutes, wondering if she was more of a burden to her family than not. Then Samantha had rounded the corner, exclaimed that they had perfect timing, and dragged her to dinner.

For the next few weeks, Nicole had found reasons to see pictures of the ocean and make little comments about how she’d never been and how she wondered what it was like. She made sure to be careful, to look as poised and healthy as she could muster. No coughing fits, no sleeping in late or going to bed early. No complaints of aches or pains.

And finally, it had paid off.

The doctors had given her the okay, telling her aunt and uncle to be careful with her, and then they had been in the car on the longest trip of her life.

She’d been a bit restless to be cooped up so long, but Samantha had been ecstatic, pointing out the window at every animal she saw. Regular squirrels became beach squirrels and swamp turtles became ancient sea turtles.

Samantha’s excitement had been infectious, and Nicole had found herself looking through her own window eagerly, naming the crows she saw Sun Crows—that made Samantha giggle to no end.

She’d been excited to see what the beach would be like.

When they got there, the empty beach hadn’t had many shells, like the pictures implied, and the water was darker and murkier than any of the catalogue images, but Samantha had quickly explained that different beaches looked different based on where they were—the sort of nine-year-old logic that was wise beyond years—and had dragged Nicole down to sit on beach towels and watch seagulls fly overhead as sand fleas buried themselves in the sand.

There had been strict applying of sunscreen and talks of whether swimming would be wise or not. Most of the people on the beach—there weren’t too many—seemed content to stay out of the water sunbathing or collecting the few shells present.

That or fish.

They’d kicked about in the shallows a few times, and the rush of water had been amazing, but Nicole had started to get tired and despite her best efforts, the others had noticed.

Samantha had been first. She’d dragged Nicole back to their towels and sat her down, telling her that part of the fun of being at the beach was just doing nothing.

Nicole wasn’t sure how much she believed that, but it was nice to rest.

It wasn’t until they decided it was time for lunch that she noticed him.

Her uncle and Samantha had gone to get everything from the car, and her aunt was half asleep, basking in the afternoon light.

The others on the beach were all too preoccupied with their own adventures to notice him.

From the angle she first saw him, he seemed incredibly pale, with long, black hair. Somehow it never crossed her mind that he might be anyone she might have met before, but she felt an odd kinship with him, and so she checked to see if her aunt was paying attention and then wandered over to him.

As she drew closer, she saw that his hair wasn’t black, but a deep blue-green, with some sort of sludge making it stringy and darker. Most of his skin—what she could see beneath his hair and the side of his face as she came nearer—was a tawny, warm hue, though his left arm was deathly white.

His fingers curled in upon themselves, claws far longer than a human’s fingers would be, bent in what looked to be most painful, and unmoving, as though his hand was simply bone.

The water lapped against him, coming up that murky brown and going back into the ocean as a blacker, sludge, sickly rainbows across the top of it.

Oil.

She stopped a few feet short of him, suddenly unsure if she should be so close. Claws like that would hurt, and just because he didn’t seem able to move the one hand didn’t mean the other would be immobile.

His toes were clawed as well, and made little divots in the sand as he drummed them down, little waves of sickness leaving with each tap.

Before she could decide to go back to her aunt, his head snapped toward her, a pronounced frown in place. His left eye was little more than an empty socket that leaked that same sludge in his hair, as though he were crying.

His other eye, though, was a crystal blue, with a thin, slit pupil running down the center of his eye, still sharp and alert.

It was like looking at two faces at once, one decayed and twisted beyond recognition, and the other still strong and healthy and powerful.

That crystal blue pierced her, and for a moment, Nicole forgot to breathe.

“You’re one of the ones who shouldn’t be here,” he said abruptly, losing interest in her and looking back out over the waves.

Nicole hesitated, unsure if she should dare let her gaze off the man. He wasn’t well, and it wasn’t just his looks. She could hear an odd dissonance in his voice, feel a prickling wrongness now that she was too close.

Any sense of kinship was gone.

“I thought you’d be more intimidating,” he offered, turning back toward her.

She didn’t know whether to stare at that sharp, intelligent eye or the empty one.

He cocked his head suddenly, squinting and covering his damaged eye to peer at her more closely. Then he let his good hand fall back to rest on his knee. “You’re the little one. Not the one that comes and goes.”

Nicole shrugged a little, not sure what to say.

“I wonder. Are you a sign of the end?” His voice sounded like drowning men, and breaking ships, and heavy rain. “It would be nice. We need an end.”

“An end to what?” she asked, voice barely a whisper.

“Them.” The word was a hull breaking on rocks. His gaze left her, instead focusing on the others on the beach. “Them and all they do.” His fingers cracked loudly on his left hand as he abruptly moved it, dust falling away at the joints as though bones were grinding together. There were little holes in his arm that reminded her of pictures of coral.

It was too pale, too dead.

The pointed tips of his fingers disappeared into the sand and oil rolled off him like spatterings of rain as he leaned toward her, fracture lines running up his arm as though it would break from the use. “Want to help me, little one? Draw a few of these monsters to the water. Pretend to drown.” He hesitated and then smiled, though only half of his face moved the way it should. “I’ll keep you up. It’s them I want.”

“Nik!”

Footsteps pounded into the sand as Samantha came stumbling to a stop beside her, mere inches away from the man, as though she couldn’t see him. “Nik, what are you doing?”

Nicole looked from her cousin to the man and back, feeling her stomach drop as she noted the way he watched Samantha, like she was something vile that needed to be snuffed out.

“…I don’t feel well.”

Samantha’s brow pinched together, gaze on Nicole, as though she couldn’t even feel the man watching her. “What?”

“I feel sick. We need to go.” She stumbled back, tugging Samantha with her as clawed fingers sliced through the air where her cousin had been standing.

Couldn’t she see him?

“Are you sure?” Samantha hesitated.

Nicole saw the waves coming in and felt like she might throw up. “We need to go.”

When she dared a look toward the man, she saw his eyes were narrowed, lips twisted into a frown. Even as she watched, his body dripped away into nothing, going back out into the sea with the next wave. The only signs he’d been there were a slick patch of sand that looked like oil had spilled upon it.

“What are you looking at?” Samantha’s gaze searched the area around them. Fear tinged her words.

“I just don’t feel well,” Nicole whispered, gripping her cousin by the arm and leaning into her a little to force Samantha to help her up the beach.

Despite her disappointment, Samantha never complained once, instead helping Nicole to her parents.

They stayed the night in a local hospital, with the doctors inspecting her and saying it was likely just fatigue that had overtaken her. As she and Samantha played cards on her bed the next morning, she heard the nurse talking to her uncle.

“We don’t see that she would need immediate medical evacuation or treatment, so you won’t necessarily need to cut your trip short.” The woman hesitated and then sighed. “But if you want to go back to the beach, I’d avoid the water. The tides have been crazy lately, dangerous for even the best of swimmers. Seven people drowned just yesterday.”

Nicole made sure that the Hedgeway family stayed inland after that.

[talesofmysdrym]

On Daem - Nik. H.

I should like to note that I found this in my journal today and thought it appropriate to include. A quick note, Ser Other-worlder Nicole Hedgeway seems to prefer to go by Nik H., though I cannot fathom why. Regardless, I will respect her wishes.

…-…

Hey guys,

I just wanted to give my two cents about daem, just because. This may be a lot of theory crafting, so feel free not to include this in your final book, Lithenial.

First off, I want to say that maybe the daem didn’t threaten anyone. Did you ever consider that maybe they said that they’d leave Mysdrym alone so long as Mysdrym left them alone? That would explain why they don’t attack as a people and why Cor told drians not to trespass.

Moving on, I think the daem are a lot more prevalent in your world than you realize. Everyone talks about how you can tell they’re around because of that frightening aura they have but, truth be told, I’m not so sure. I think, like the newer demons, they can hide themselves in plain sight and, while my own experiences confirm their terrifying presence, I don’t think that it’s a permanent thing. I think they may be a little unsettling in general, but it’s nothing that can’t be overcome or even forgotten once you’re accustomed to their presence.

I also think the genuine terror thing is a controlled spell and that it’s basically just a dick move on their part to keep people afraid of them.

Further, in regards to their names: In Mysdrym, people are always afraid that if you say a daem’s name, they’ll just show up and shank you or whatever. If they aren’t allowed in the world of Order, then I don’t think they’d allow themselves to be summoned here. Like, maybe they hear their names being used, but don’t come so as not to anger your Gods. However, I do think they keep that rumor going so that you don’t record their names, because think about it. If you can appear when someone says your name, that means on some level you’re registering them saying it, right? Well, if their names got out and even ten or twenty people were saying their name at the same time, it seems like that would induce a huge headache.

Maybe I’m dead wrong about all this, since we don’t know much about daemic culture overall. Anyway, I just thought I’d offer my insight.

— Nik H.

[mysdrymmumbles]

OCs Waking Up

I think this is the last thing I was tagged in by the fantastic @ellenembee. I’m gonna do my Mysdrym crew :3

Samantha Hedgeway doesn’t wake up easily, and when she does, she looks a litlte like a grumpy gremlin.

Ella Wallen wakes up pretty quickly and then she’s ready to go.

Nicole Hedgeway doesn’t sleep much, and normally lies in bed thinking fore a long time before officially starting her day.

Zachary Hiyuzaki needs an alarm or someone bothering him to wake up, and once he’s up it takes him about half an hour to really be aware.

Weslyn Kagris doesn’t sleep well, and wakes up at the fainteset sound, paranoid that someone’s coming to kill him.

Tagging: @jurvektheblogsmer, @gugle1980, @roguelioness, and @official-talothin-lightstrider.

[mysdrymmumbles]

Little Things II

Ella Wallen used to be a total brat, asking for things that would be impossibly hard to get, and knowing that her father would do damned near anything in hopes of making her happy, because he blamed himself for her mother’s death. He never said why. 

Zachary Hiyuzaki was fourteen when his parents got divorced. His mother tried to get him to go with her, but he felt like she was abandoning his father, and stayed with his dad instead. 

Samantha Hedgeway decided she would be a doctor when she was a little girl, because she wanted to save her cousin, Nicole.

The only thing Nicole Hedgeway knows about her father is that she has his eyes. 

Weslyn Kagris actually admired Shairen Essaris and Bhaevin Krystlaenn before the fighting forced them to different sides of the conflict. 

Bhaevin used to play fight with her brother, and they would pretend to cast great and powerful spells, like the weavers of old.

Lord Dhayal Sehnswrift braids his hair when he’s bored or when he’s trying to figure out a problem. 

[mysdrymmumbles]

For OC Questions; 2 for your four favorite characters, 5 and 21 for any characters they apply to, and 37 with one of each type of cinnamon/sinnamon roll.

Thank you for the ask! I’m gonna do a mix of my fanfics and my Mysdrym crew here; hope you don’t mind!

2) describe their personality in three words:

Nicole Hedgeway from Tales of Mysdrym - cheerful, daydreamer, carelessLascrieg from Tales of Mysdrym Book II - patient, careful, observantFinley from Andraste’s Witch - careful, mistrusting, pridefulKaitrith Lavellan from Kaitrith Disapproves - angry, fierce, loving (to Josie only)

5) any allergies?

Ella Wallen from Tales of Mysdrym has seasonal allergies. Dunno if it counts in the truest sense of the word, but Lascrieg is allergic to Order, Wind, and Water.Zachary Hiyuzaki is allergic to latex. 

21) any mental illnesses?

Samantha Hedgeway from Tales of Mysdrym has pretty bad anxiety issues. Finley from Andraste’s Witch suffers from paranoia and ptsd. 

37) looks like they could kill but is actually a cinnamon roll, looks like a cinnamon roll but could actually kill you, looks like a cinnamon roll and is actually a cinnamon roll, looks like they could kill you and could actually kill you, or sinnamon roll

Nicole Hedgeway from Tales of Mysdrym seems like a cinnamon roll and is one. Marra from Tales of Mysdrym  looks like a cinnamon roll, but could and will kill you. For fun. Because she’s a terrible person. Lascrieg from Tales of Mysdrym Book II looks like she could kill you, but is actually a cinnamon roll.Kivane from Tales of Mysdrym looks like he could kill you, and could and will. Again, for fun. Kivane is a douchebag.

Have any other questions? Ask Away!

[mysdrymmumbles]

Little Things III

Nicole Hedgeway once befriended a wild turtle in the woods behind her and Samantha’s house. She fed him treats and called him Tumbles.

Zachary Hiyuzaki got into wearing eyeliner because of a bet, and found that he actually really liked it. 

Samantha Hedgeway had a few relationships in high school, though none ever lasted very long. One of her boyfriends accused her of being too overprotective of her cousin, always dropping everything when there was even a hint that Nicole might not be well. He told her that she was too busy managing Nicole’s life to live her own. 

Ella Wallen heard the barking of wild dogs every night for almost a month before she ended up in Mysdrym.

Weslyn Kagris has a poor relationship with his older brother, mostly because his brother is so much more laid back and willing to bend the rules than he is. 

[mysdrymmumbles]

TMI Tuesday: Mysdrym Edition

Ask me about my book characters :D

From left to right, back to front: Weslyn Kagris, Ella Wallen, Samantha Hedgeway, Zachary Hiyuzaki, and Nicole Hedgeway. 

[mysdrymmumbles]

Little Things

Zachary Hiyuzaki has a fan club around the castle, different staff members who think he’s great and handsome and all that. However, it is painfully obvious that Samantha has a thing for him, and so everyone is too afraid of incurring her wrath to inquire after him. 

Despite agreeing that they should keep their phones off to conserve power, Samantha Hedgeway sometimes turns her phone on to listen to the few voice mails she has on her phone from her parents and friends, to remind herself that her world is real. 

If Nicole Hedgeway could, she would hug literally every damn thing in Mysdrym. The trees, the trey, the people. There is no story they could tell her, no aspect of society, no plant, no cloud that could bore her. She loves it all. 

Ella Wallen is a little disappointed that she never got to see any of the sandwolves or plains wyrms from the games when they traveled. It would have been a terrifying fight, but she really likes the different creatures in the Mysdrym universe.

Weslyn Kagris’ favorite patrol route in Kyvrell was the one that bordered the Graysm Wood, where the trees are metal spirals that gather lightning. The graymists used to live there, and he always hoped to see one flying overhead. 

Lord Dhayal Sehnswrift likes to go into the library and rearrange the books, then wait to see who finds it and see how badly they freak out. There is one particular castle aide who keeps finding his mischief and has been angrily stalking the library, looking for the culprit. He’s almost been caught once.

Bhaevin only ever visited the Remnant Mountains once, when she was younger. While she was there, she got lost and met a stranger who offered her their cloak when it started raining. When she returned home, her mother was beside herself, took the cloak away, and never allowed Bhaevin to visit the mountains again. She never found out why her mother was so upset. 

[talesofmysdrym]

Character Profiles - Zachary

Name

Zachary (Zach) Michael Hiyuzaki

Title

Other-worlder

Race

Human

Age

19

Height

5’10”

Body Type

thin, but toned

Physical Description

Zach’s hair is a light brown, though since college he’s been dying it black. He keeps most of his hair short, save for his bangs, which he keeps over one eye. Zach is also a fan of eye-liner and sometimes lipstick, depending on the day. His eyes are dark, and his skin is a tawny color. Zach is half Japanese and half white.

Personality: Zach is pretty laid back and very artistic, though he will get protective if he thinks any of his friends are in danger. He tries to keep an even head, but he’s always been fond of magick and the possibilities that there’s more to the world than can be explained with science. Also an avid gamer, he prefers first person shooters, though he does have a fondness for Tales of Mysdrym.

Background: Zach’s life has always been a little complicated. His grandfather was extremely against his mother marrying his father, and even though his father opted to take his mother’s last name in a show that he was more than happy to make sure Zach knew and embraced his Japanese heritage, his grandfather never quite got over the fact that Zach’s mother had gotten into a secret affair behind his back.

One issue that caused his parents to fight quite often was whether or not he should be allowed to consume media and stories that included magick. While his father didn’t care—he was Irish and a strong believer in faerie folk and the like—his mother was adamant that he needed to accept the real world.

The one time her stance ever wavered was when his father found Nicole in the woods and brought her to their house while he called for help. Zachary had thought she was a forest spirit because of all the leaves in her hair, and his mother had humored him, saying perhaps she was something other-worldly.

Through Nicole, Zach’s family met the Hedgeways and found that they lived not far from each other. He and the Hedgeway cousins became fast friends. They did just about everything together, and like Samantha, Zach has a way of stumbling into most of Nicole’s secrets, and because he’s so much calmer than Samantha, Nicole has a tendency to go to him more freely than her cousin.

Zach’s been fond of Samantha since they met, but the few times he tried to drop hints that maybe they could do something, Samantha always changed the subject to how Nicole wasn’t feeling well lately or how she liked how well the three of them got along. When Ella joined their group in high school, he’d thought he might have a chance with Samantha, but she’d again avoided his advances, and he chose to respect her disinterest.

His mother had a particular dislike for the Tales of Mysdrym games, so he tended to only play them over at the Hedgeway house. However, when his mother found out about that in high school, it led to one of the biggest fights she’d ever had with his dad, and she left.

She begged Zach to come with her, but he’d felt betrayed and had refused. Truthfully, he’d had it in his head that if he insisted on staying, she would, too, but she left regardless. While she had family, his dad was alone, and so Zach decided that he’d made the right call, not abandoning his father.

Even so, his mother strived to keep in contact with him and see him every chance she got, though at first, he wouldn’t see her because he felt so betrayed by her leaving. However, after a year of college, he was finally able to reconcile with her early in the summer after his freshman year. Their relationship is still strained, but healing, and his dad is happy that he has his mother back in his life.

Despite advice from damned near everyone to go into a profession that would make money, Zach followed his dreams to be an artist, attending college out in California for a change of pace from the east coast, and a chance to let his heart finally get over Samantha.  

That is still a work in progress.

Near the end of the summer, Zach had a dream about an old tree their group used to go visit and decided to paint a picture of it with all of them there, to give to Nicole who, according to Samantha, was taking a turn for the worse.

When Samantha showed up at his house to gather him for their reunion, they were whisked away to Mysdrym by the very tree they’d always hung around and a dog made of shadows.

Additional Info

Zach started seeing odd things in college, which made him have a long talk with Nicole over winter break about magick and whatnot.

[talesofmysdrym]

Character Profiles - Samantha

Name

Samantha (Sam) Jane Hedgeway

Title

Other-worlder

Race

Human

Age

19

Height

5’1” (155 cm) 

Body Type

soft

Physical Description

Sam’s chestnut brown hair is completely untamable, so she keeps it short so that the flippy locks don’t look too bad. Her eyes are hazel, and she’s got a bit of a farmer’s tan going on.

Personality

Sam is very loving, but she suffers from anxiety over pretty much everything, and she hates hearing about magick because she feels like people use it as a form of escapism to avoid dealing with their real problems. Despite that, she’s a huge gamer and does have a fondness for the Tales of Mysdrym series. She doesn’t pay much attention to storylines, instead preferring to just run around fighting the monsters.

Background

When Sam was 3, her cousin Nicole came to live with her family, and they quickly became best of friends. She’s always had a way of stumbling across Nicole’s many secrets, and prides herself in the fact that she helps keep her cousin safe.

However, two years after Nicole came, she had a freak accident where she was hurt very badly while playing in the woods, and she nearly died. While Nicole recovered, Sam’s parents explained that Nicole would be fragile, and they would have to work together to keep her safe. As a result, by the age of 5, Sam had become immensely protective of her cousin.

That protectiveness lasted through the years, though as they grew older, it started to cause fights between them, with Nicole insisting she was stronger than Sam believed, and Sam terrified that she would fail to keep her cousin safe and lose her.

In addition to the Hedgeway cousins, their little group also initially included Zachary Hiyuzaki, who Sam had had a crush on since she met him, when she was 3. However, after Nicole was hurt, Samantha felt it was her responsibility to make sure Nicole wasn’t alone, and ended up chastising herself every time she thought of confessing to Zachary how she felt.

Despite liking chemistry and other sciences, Sam decided to go to school to be a doctor because she wanted to find a way to save Nicole.

However, after the summer of her freshman year in college, she learned that Nicole—who had started talking about magick more and more frequently and rarely ever brought up the real world anymore—had stopped going to the doctor a few months prior.

Panicking, she got into a fight with Nicole the day before their group was going to have a small get-together. She’d run off to Zachary’s house both to make sure he made it to their reunion and to get out of the house for a little while.

They were about to head back to her house when a walking tree and dog made of shadows sent them to Mysdrym.

Samantha has not taken the transition between worlds particularly well.

Additional Info

Sam loves Sudoku and other puzzles that make you think.

[talesofmysdrym]

Character Profiles - Ella

Name

Ella Lenore Wallen

Title

Other-worlder

Race

Human

Age

19

Height

5’8” (172.72 cm) 

Body Type

Toned and muscular

Physical Description

A natural blonde, Ella usually keeps her chin-length hair dyed a deep red. Her eyes are hazel, and she constantly sports a tan.

Personality

Ella typically has trouble showing much interest in anything, namely because most everything bores her to death. However, when she does find something she likes and someone to like it with, she becomes more enthusiastic, though her tone still stays fairly even.

Background

Ella’s mother taught her a great love for magick from a young age, telling her that magick was everywhere and in everything, if one only looked for it. Her mother’s death when she was eleven devastated her, and she became quite withdrawn, showing nothing but annoyance when she showed any emotion at all. Her father enrolled her in wing chun to try to help her work through her anger since she wouldn’t talk to him, and it was one of the few things she threw herself into completely, spending hours of free time training and working, if only because practicing the motions required such focus that it helped her not think about anything else.

She also went through a bit of a brat phase after her mother died, during which she convinced her father she liked a game series, Tales of Mysdrym, to prove to a classmate that she could get the game before it officially came out. While her father managed to get it for her a month early, the game talked a lot about magick and magickal creatures, and it reminded her too much of her mother, so she couldn’t play it long.

Still in her rebellious and bratty stage at fourteen, she decided her father would have a panic attack if she ‘befriended’ some goth kids. They turned out to not be goth, just liking dark clothes and video games—Tales of Mysdrym, specifically—yet this time when she was introduced to the game world, she found people to share it with, who helped her to move on from the pain of losing her mom.

She became best friends with Nicole Hedgeway, who was, despite common sense, a staunch believer in magick and whimsy. While Ella liked to think herself more grounded in reality, she loved their conversations about magick being real and worlds beyond their own.

However, as high school ended, Ella found herself unable to think of an appropriate path to take for her life, and so, at her father’s suggestion, she enrolled in prelaw at Harvard. After one year, she knew this wasn’t the life meant for her, but she could hardly think of anything else she would want to do that was practical, and so she stayed in law school.

That is, until a dog made of shadows whisked her and Nicole away to Mysdrym, a world eerily like the one in their games.

The real Mysdrym, however, would prove both terrifying and wonderful, as Ella realized that magick was, in fact, quite real.

Additional Information

Ella is a bit of a pyromanic, and has a deep love for fire.