APPLICATION

[whowhatnow]

PLAYER INFO
Name: Crystal
Contact: vampirize
Are you over 18?: Yes!

CHARACTER INFO
Character Name: Nathaniel Horn (real name unpronounceable by human speech)
Canon: Original Character
Canon Point: Some time after he spooks the previous Nathaniel's gang into leaving him alone

Appearance: Nathaniel Horn looks like a somewhat short (5'8"), dark-haired young man in his twenties who honestly looks like a total nerd. This is not what he really looks like. His true form is a large (7'1") weird and rather gross-looking creature of exposed flesh, tissue and bone. As he is a shapeshifter, these are not the only two forms his body can take, but his mostly used forms are his true alien form and the human form he technically stole from the young man he accidentally killed.

Age: in Earth years, he would be in his 70s, which is still relatively young for his species (who often live to their 300-400s); his human appearance looks in its 20s

Setting:
Earth is a planet. A lovely planet, to be sure, but it is a planet that is relatively isolated from the going-ons of the universe it's a part of. That is, to say, Earth has no idea what the heck is going on out there in the great big black void of space.

The fact is, there are many galaxies, with many planets, and many, many alien lifeforms. There was one planet in particular where one such alien lifeform lived - they were technologically advanced and very intelligent, building great cities and encouraging studying and learning for all. One day, a stray meteor shower suddenly occurred, but no one was hurt. A few craters were all fine and good in the long run. There was nothing to worry about.

But they should've worried about it a lot. It's a tragedy they didn't. One of the meteors had a stowaway that somehow survived the crash, a small organism that made its escape before no one could find out about its existence.

The organism thrived and adapted to its new world. It divided, expanded, formed a neat little population of creatures that looked upon the great civilization of the aliens that lived on the planet and found themselves wanting what they had. But they had no firepower or technology to call their own. However, they could mimic other things, change themselves to fit in where it didn't belong. So, what if it just conducted a war on a quiet scale, infiltrating the race and getting rid of them for good?

Long story short, the race of organisms literally killed and replaced every single individual of the main alien race on the planet that they had inadvertently invaded.

One would think that after basically conquering an entire world, the next step for these invaders would be to move out and try to conquer other planets and gain more power. But instead, they kind of....stayed put. They liked the world they had stolen for themselves. What interest did they have to abandon their own world to try to find a better one? And, besides, they wanted to try a hand at this "creating society and culture" thing. They would be better than the previous civilization had ever hoped to be.

And so, the rigid, bureaucratic, stubborn alien race known as the Karnonians was born. You see, they believed that rules were important to creating a nice, structured society from their personal observations, but they went way too overboard with that idea. They instated a council that added more rules to their collection of laws every once in a while for the strangest and smallest reasons, monitored every member of the Karnonian race incessantly, and even created extensive forms to fill out for things as mundane as trading wares. They also limited the process of shapeshifting, only enabling it under express permission from the council or in the most dire of circumstances.

Other races eventually found out about the Karnonians. They sent their ships in to investigate. They soon discovered that a) there was nothing really of use on the Karnonian's planet that they didn't have already, b) their planet didn't hold any value in terms of location and military power in their galaxy, c) the Karnonians were honestly pretty much xenophobic jerks who thought they were better than everyone else, and d)....their scientific knowledge wasn't half bad, actually. They were very quick to learn and take on new forms of technology to use, and also were noted for their odd expertise in dissecting and understanding the bodies of other aliens. The Karnonians, possibly due to their fleshy, shapeshifting nature, taught themselves how to examine and understand the innards of the creatures they desired to mimic, partly because they wanted any shifts they were allowed to perform to be as close to the real thing as possible. The Karnonians, for this reason, were nicknamed Corpse Monglers by other races, who also called them names such as Fleshies, Fleshmen, and Karnies.

But still, their knowledge and discoveries were somewhat valuable. Although relatively unpopular, the Karnonians were sought out by others in the galaxies in the same way grumpy old professors from a super privileged stuck-up university are sought out: not for their friendship or power, but for their knowledge.

It's been a long time since the initial invasion, and the Karnonians still live their strict, rule-filled lives just as they planned. Having learned the ability to construct their own spaceships, a select few travel to other planets to give lectures about their knowledge to others. (They see it as a way to show off to these clearly uneducated races who should be honored to share the air they breath.) Overall, everything is working according to the rules. Everything is structured and clean and orderly. Everyone in the society has their place and would never dare leave it.

Which is why it comes as a great surprise when a single individual from their society decides to rebel by stealing a spaceship and going on a joyride across the universe.

Guess everything in their society wasn't as regulated as they thought.


History:
Nathaniel Horn was not always Nathaniel Horn. He had a different name back then, an unpronounceable one in an alien language, because, despite appearances, he is from a world far, far away from Earth.

From birth, Karnonians are already forced to fill a slot in their society. They have no real concept of childhood - Karnonians are already born with the basic knowledge of what they need to survive without need for parental supervision and guidance, and they immediately are assessed by the council to see if their aptitude fits whatever role they have in mind for them. If they don't fit the role, then they're destroyed, and the next newborn is brought to the metaphorical table to see if they'll fit.

When Nathaniel was born, he was deemed smart and ready enough not to be destroyed, and was immediately slated to become a pilot and escort for those Karnonians that were requested to share their knowledge on other worlds. He was taught how to fly spaceships and ensure the safety of travelers. And that is what he did for quite a while. Looking back on it now, that period of time seemed like a blur to Nathaniel - he piloted ships, he escorted his kind, he sneered at aliens who sneered at him. It all seemed like he was in a dream, acting out the same play every single day without little original thought outside of "I'm doing this work for my society. I'm following these rules of my society. This is good."

Until something changed.

It was a trip like any other. Nathaniel escorted the lecturers and stayed outside of the building to wait until they were done. He had all that time to himself, but often he would just use it for nothing more than going over rules in his mind. He was on Rule #44,567 (Do not walk on the right side of the street at this hour of day, lest the shade will cast an unfavorable light on your countenance) when suddenly, a ball sailed out of the air and bounced off of his head. The ball belonged to a couple of young alien children, who were too young to know any better, and as the ball rolled down at his feet, Nathaniel turned his head in their direction. They laughed in childish delight.

And something stirred within Nathaniel, a strange feeling to want to know why they were laughing. This wasn't the laughter that he had seen from others, who spit insults under their breath about how ugly they were (for Karnonians were proud in their disgustingly fleshy skin, and would only rarely change to suit any other creature's comfort). This was...something else. He didn't know what it was.

"What are you doing?" He asked, gruffly, as one of the children pointed to his many teeth, his eyes, his bony spiked tail, like pointing out stars in the sky.

"You look funny. And we're playing a game," they said.

"Funny? What's a game?" He replied, having never heard the word before.

But they only picked up their toy and ran away, chattering to themselves. For the first time in his life, Nathaniel felt confused. None of the rules covered "funny", or "games". It was very odd. The lecture eventually finished, but for the rest of the trip back to their home planet, he couldn't get the image out of his head. Before, he hadn't really even given much thought to what other races did - they could do whatever backwards rituals they wanted to do, in his opinion, - but here, now, he actually was curious as to what that whole situation had meant.

One thing led to another, and on another trip, he found some poor homeless sap and made them tell him what a "game" was. He learned it was "something where you have lots of fun, y'know?". Another planet, another person. "Fun" was something you did for your own "enjoyment". And so on and so forth, he started to gather information, started feeding the seed of curiosity that was growing in his mind. He kept it hidden from his fellow Karnonians, mostly because a) there were no rules governing "fun" and finding out about it from other races, and b) he didn't know how they would feel if he shared it. So, he kept it all to himself. It was his own little secret.

Eventually, he broke his first rule: Rule #3,210: Do not make yourself more appealing to get in the good graces of other insignificant races. But there was an alien on one planet who cowered at the sight of his gnashing teeth, and wouldn't answer any questions about the card game he was playing until Nathaniel got rid of them. So, he did, just momentarily. And there began the first of many small thrills that came with breaking the rules without being punished for it. If he was back home, he would be destroyed immediately, but here, there was no escort for the escort. The lecturers were doing their own thing, and he had quite a lot of time to engage in the strange concept of doing what he wanted to do.

Eventually, his hidden addiction for breaking the rules culminated in an impossible, amazing wish: what if he just left? Just flew away and discovered the world on his own terms? Yeah! That sounded like a great idea. And so, on one of his trips, he made his way back to the ship unnoticed and took off all on his own. He didn't have a plan as to where he would go. Just anywhere would be best.

That "anywhere" turned out to be good old Earth, third rock from the sun. Nathaniel crashed and barely escaped alive, his ship practically burnt to a crisp from entering the atmosphere, and he started to explore what this strange planet had to offer. His first lesson: the aliens on the planet were called human beings, and they did not like his true form. Not at all.

Nathaniel spent the next several years learning all he could about human culture. He snuck into movies, taught himself languages by going to the library, stole their food to get a taste of what their cuisine was like. After a while, he got the courage to shapeshift into a human and spend time among other humans, but he soon found that while being a human was a fun experience in and of itself, he was still missing something. Perhaps it was a home (he would tell others he had none), or a family (Karnonians never had the concept of one), or something else. But he always felt awkward and out of place, no matter how much he learned.

And then fate offered him an opportunity in the form of 20-year old "newbie drug dealer who has no idea what he's getting himself into" Nathaniel Horn.

The alien who would later become Nathaniel spent his time near the sewers in his true form at nights. He had no place to stay besides that, because even though he had tried to sneak into abandoned apartments and houses, somebody always grew suspicious as to why there was activity in places that should've been empty. So, the sewers were his technical home. Nobody would go there and see the giant alien monster hanging around. At least, that's what the alien believed.

Nathaniel Horn was the black sheep of his family. He always had been troubled as soon as he hit his teen years - far too insecure about his own prospects for his future, he fell into the terrible net of peer pressure and found himself dealing drugs for the local gang. His family always attempted to rope him back in, away from the bad influences, but Nathaniel wasn't having any of it. That night, he scheduled a deal near the sewer entrance at the edge of town for the same reason that the alien had chosen the sewers, thinking that any nosy cops or passerby wouldn't interrupt. The deal was completed, and Nathaniel stayed behind to take a quick smoke. He flicked the cigarette into the sewer entrance, ready to leave-

And instead saw something tall, monstrous, and terrifying wander out, hissing because getting slightly burned by a still-burning cigarette thrown by a guy isn't a pleasant experience.

Unfortunately, for Nathaniel, the first reaction was "fight" rather than "flight". He pulled out a knife, trying to stab the monstrous thing to save himself. There was a scuffle as the alien tried to defend itself, and it twisted the hand holding the knife away from itself.....right into the chest of Nathaniel Horn.

For a long time, the alien stared at the bleeding, now-very dead human at its feet. And then, the alien got an idea. What if he just replaced the person it had just killed? It was a selfish wish, to basically steal the life of a person he caused the death of, but to the alien, it was a chance it knew it would never get again.

And so, thanks to the driver's license he found on Nathaniel's person, the alien learned his name and address, and then proceeded to DO SOMETHING INCREDIBLY GROSS by dissecting Nathaniel's remains and then, uh, eating them when he was done. Because Karnonians are omnivores and aren't terribly picky when it comes to food, and because the last thing he wanted was for somebody to discover a dead Nathaniel while he was being Nathaniel. Still, pretty gross.

ANYWAYS he found his way to the police station, made up some lie about how he hit his head and got amnesia, and was sent back to his loving family in their lovely home. To his new family it was like the return of the prodigal son. Gone was the brooding, insecure figure that they were so disappointed by. This Nathaniel was more outgoing, willing to listen, always there to lend a helping hand. It was practically a miracle. It was like a totally new person, and his family, while concerned at first, soon accepted that Nathaniel had turned into the outstanding young man they had tried to help him be.

Except he wasn't really Nathaniel at all. He was a cuckoo, a changeling, an imposter.

And as far as the new Nathaniel was concerned, nobody would ever have to know.

Personality:

If Nathaniel had to write down a quick one sentence summary of what kind of guy he is, he'd jot down in two seconds that "I'm just a guy who likes having fun". And honestly, that's the truth. People who meet Nathaniel see a young man who doesn't seem to take life very seriously. He makes jokes and wisecracks in the face of danger, and always seems to have a mischievous grin ready when dealing with people who think following rules is the way to go. He'll fool around and do things for himself that make him happy. You want him to go do something? He might consider it, but there's always a chance he might take the route off the beaten path to do it because it's just more fun to do.

But, the matter of the fact is, it's not necessarily fun that Nathaniel likes having. It's freedom. He's never had the chance to do anything that he wanted to do without fear of stepping outside the lines. In his society, he was a cog in the system. Like every single individual of his species, he was trapped by his inflexible, bureaucratic society that was never open for any change. When he rebelled, he found himself in a world teeming with possibilities to be whoever he wanted to be. He was the master of his own fate. No council or rulebook could tell him what to do anymore.

However, despite his attempts to turn his back on his own people's ideals, Nathaniel can't simply erase everything that has been ingrained in him by his own people. He's remarkably selfish, just like the rest of his race; he's more focused on how things will benefit him in the long run. Sure, he may not have any desire to hurt or kill people, but he doesn't do it not because it's morally wrong, but because it doesn't give him any pleasure. For the longest time, he saw himself above human beings, because he grew up in a society where they viewed other alien races as insignificant, idiotic, and naturally disadvantaged, a society where the concept of "caring for others" was something strange and alien.

ADDED REVISIONS

To ponder the question of whether Karnonians have empathy is much like asking whether insects such as ants have empathy. That is, to say, Karnonians, from the outside, look like very social creatures - they help one another, they heal one another, they (on occasion) can even sacrifice their own life for one another in dire circumstances. But to say that they really care about one another is something that might be somewhat of a stretch. They do not help each other because they feel for one another, but because they are all, essentially, cogs of a much larger machine. The machine must be kept running smoothly - if a cog is out of place or broken and cannot be replaced easily, then the cog must be fixed. And if it cannot be fixed? Well, it has to be destroyed, if its existence is doing more harm than good. Karnonians started out as a group of sentient cells trying to survive as a whole, and this self-perception has essentially been carried over to how they now carry themselves as a society.

This rather cold, mechanical perception of themselves is another thing that has set them apart from the other alien races of the universe. They have seen how other societies run, and do not fully comprehend the desire of someone helping others if it provides no benefit towards themselves or their race. Empathy isn't something they smothered, as there was very little of it to smother in the first place; it was something they saw and decided wasn't something at all important or necessary.

So, for Nathaniel, it has been a bit of a walk up a mountain in terms of learning about the concept of truly understanding someone else's feelings and pain. In his many years on Earth, he was exposed to empathy on a number of occasions, from people who he met who were asked about his well-being to those who went out of their way to help him (like one of the librarians he met in his first year on Earth who helped him with learning how to read a language he had never seen before). The more he encountered sincerity and kindness from others, the more confused he became. He had really nothing to compare it to from back home, after all, and for a while he just saw it like his race did - as some sort of fluke of a trait that wasn't that important.

Karnonians do not grow up with families or family members - they do not care about what two creatures they are the progeny of and they often do not share any bonds with any of their kind that run deeper than "we are both members of the same race". So, when he became Nathaniel Horn and took his place in his family like an alien cuckoo, he was absolutely shocked by the experience at first. Here, there were people who were checking on him, doting on him, actually happy he was back in their lives. If he did something they liked, they lavished praise and love on him. If he did something that hurt their feelings, they would be upset but would eventually forgive him. They showed him pictures to help spur the memory he said he had lost, and he saw the owner of his stolen face as a young boy, smiling and surrounded by his family who loved him no matter what he had done. It was fair to say that he suddenly felt strangely humbled by the experience. He didn't know his role within this odd group called a family - he didn't provide money, or strength, or power for them. The previous Nathaniel had caused trouble and heartache and anger, and yet, when they saw his face again, they had put all those feelings aside to allow him to come back. There was nothing gained from all of this. This didn't benefit human society in any way, as far as he could tell. And yet, they were still doing it.

It took some time, but he started to reach out on his own, somewhat out of curiosity, and somewhat because he felt he had to - he felt like he had to do something in return. It was like treading new waters, and he still didn't understand the half of it, but seeing other people happy with his attempts made him feel...something. Like a weird twinge he couldn't quite comprehend. But it felt oddly good, so he did more. And more, until the feeling became something a little more familiar instead of just a strange fluke of another alien race that wasn't his own. He started to learn how to care, and that was much more than any member of his race had ever done.

One of the reasons why Nathaniel started to learn to think and care of others is the fact that he desperately didn't want to be on his own. Perhaps it's because of his upbringing where everyone relied on one another to uphold the structure of society, but being alone is a foreign, terrifying feeling to him. He needs attention and acknowledgment. When he landed on Earth, he could've shirked human society and lived on his own, but his desire to feel less lonely made him reach out to these strange bipedal aliens that inhabited the planet. Nathaniel comes off as friendly to others because he'll chat with anyone on a whim, but in reality he's just trying to get the attention he wants and needs.

In the beginning, Nathaniel saw the previous Nathaniel as nothing more than an empty space that he could put himself in. Now, seeing everything that the previous Nathaniel left behind, the good and the bad, has made him feel that there was a lot more to him than he thought. Nathaniel doesn't feel guilty, necessarily, he still feels justified that it had happened because he was defending himself - but he does feel a kind of heavy weight over what he did. He destroyed the life of someone that never wanted to give their life to anyone else, and he took it for himself. He mostly feels fear over what his family and friends will do to him if they find out the truth, and it has made him realize that while he enjoys his life as a human, it's built on a tragic foundation that could ruin everything if he isn't careful enough. He's never going to be very open about what he had to do to get his current name and face for this reason.

Nathaniel still has a while to go before he becomes a truly empathetic individual. Even though he is starting to understand empathy and does go out of his way to help others if he likes them, he still is, at his heart, pretty selfish. Not to say that he doesn't want to become better at this empathy thing - its just a matter of trying to shake off years of Karnonian indoctrination and perceptions and learning that he shouldn't always put himself as the first thing to benefit in any given situation. It may take some time, and he will make mistakes, but Nathaniel is willing to push himself forward to fully comprehend the human experience all because he's interested in finding out as much as he can.

END OF ADDED REVISIONS

After all, Nathaniel has a immense curiosity that cannot be sated - he'll often be the starter of conversations because he's just genuinely interested in what the other person has to say. He wants to know as much as he can, because there's so much that he feels he's missed out on because of his upbringing. He learns quickly, and will be eager to do something just for the experience of it if there's no order or command behind it. A Nathaniel who is allowed to run wild and do his own thing is a happy Nathaniel, indeed. If one orders him around, he may be generally obedient, but will not be so enthusiastic about being forced to do something he may not want to do.

His sarcasm and jokes are a large part of his vocabulary. His race always liked to toss around their pride in the form of snide remarks about other races, and although Nathaniel generally is less mean-spirited, he still has the same sarcastic attitude towards other people. He jokes around mostly to entertain himself more than others; there's nothing like seeing the reactions on other people's faces after a well-timed joke. He can come off as very immature for this reason, but even if scolded, he won't back down. That doesn't mean he can't get serious (and even bitter) if the situation calls for it, but more often than not, he'll be found annoying by pretty much anyone he can bother.

Overall, Nathaniel is still trying to figure out himself. He went from a mindless drone to a fully-fledged fun-loving figure in a short amount of time, and he has no idea where his exploits will take him in terms of his identity. He's stuck in the middle between fully letting go of the strict values ingrained in him from his past and fully embracing a world full of opportunities where he can be whoever he wants to be. He's a shapeshifter to his core, changeable physically and metaphorically, and he has yet to see what exactly he'll become.


Canon Abilities/Skills:
Nathaniel's major ability is his shapeshifting. Within seconds, he can force his body to mimic anyone he sees, right down to the number of pores and amount of hair they have. While the mechanism of his shapeshifting is somewhat uncertain (Karnonians have been known to just say that all they need is a good look at someone to fully mimic them, and it is believed that they have a very powerful form of three-dimensional thinking), it is known that his species are more like a collection of sentient cells than one cohesive organism. Nathaniel can grow and kill his own cells on his own whim, allowing him to expand or shrink his own body in little to no time at all without any damage to him. (The closest approximation to his kind is a slime mold, if that helps understand what his deal is.) Nathaniel's shifting is only limited to organic living creatures, however - he can attempt to mimic something inorganic (like a robot), but the biological nature of his shapeshifting would result in a very uncanny valley effect (try to imagine a metallic exterior of a droid trembling and shifting like its got worms under its surface and then try to erase that image from your mind forever).

He can shapeshift not only into humanoid forms, but animal/alien forms as well. In terms of size goes, the largest he can go is the size of a moose and the smallest he can go is the the size of a medium-sized dog. He can increase his strength by expanding his muscle mass, but can only do this to a certain point, and he has little to no fighting experience to use said strength.

He can also mimic voices as well, even if he's in another form the voice doesn't belong to. The only thing that he can never grasp is any information or memories that belonged to the person he's impersonating - for example, if he shapeshifted into a person who has a sister, and he saw that sister, he wouldn't be able to recognize her.

As far as skills go, Nathaniel generally knows how to generally fly spaceships, as his role in his own society was to be an escort and pilot for those of his kind traveling to other worlds. Even if it's a foreign spaceship for an alien race, he is sometimes quick to orient himself and get the general gist of what it does after a few tries. Also, like the rest of his race, Nathaniel is weirdly skilled at performing autopsies and examining dead bodies of any creature great or small. He's no doctor (think more of a person who works in the morgue), but he knows his way around bodies enough to sometimes pinpoint how a person died.

Overall, he's smart and quick to pick up on new things taught to him - he's very eager to learn!

ON STATION 72
Symbiote Specialization: Rho
Symbiote Ability: Nathaniel may have the power of shapeshifting on his side, but just because he can turn into a person doesn't mean he can imitate them exactly - he's no mind reader, and convincing others that he really is the person he's claiming to be is quite a challenge, especially if he doesn't know the person all that well.

Now, Nataniel will have something akin to an ability of Persuasion- he will be able to force others to think or do things simply through the power of telling them to do it. This is a power not used lightly, and time will tell if Nathaniel will be tempted to use it for more amoral reasons.

The major limitation with this power is that Nathaniel has to be heard in order for he effect of his voice to take effect. If the person has earplugs or can't understand what he's saying, then the ability doesn't take effect.

This ability will ABSOLUTELY have a permission post up for fellow characters to fill up, especially when it gets to higher levels.

LEVEL 1

• (+) Simple commands will be followed without question (ex: "Pick up that ball", "Turn to the right", "Close your eyes", etc.) The simpler and easier to do, the better.
• (-) More complex commands will not be followed (ex: "Go and bake a cake", "Punch your friend in the face", etc.)
• (+) To somewhat get around this limitation, Nathaniel can use a collection of simple commands instead of one giant complex command to make his ability work better (ex: instead of "free the prisoners" he can say "take this key, go to this door, unlock the door"). However, this will not always work, especially if the person gets wise to what they're being made to do.
• (-) People with stronger wills will be much harder to use the power on.
• (-) There is a time limit to commands - for example, if Nathaniel tells a person to stay in one place, it can take around 15 minutes for it to wear off.
• (-) There is a chance people will remember that they have been manipulated after breaking free of the command. There is also a chance that some people will be aware that they are being commanded while they are in the command (which can add to them resisting Nathaniel's power).

LEVEL 2

• (+)(-) Somewhat complex commands will be followed, but will not be followed if they go against the person's limitations/general morals and/or values/desires (ex: telling a curator to close the museum early is okay, but asking the curator to tear paintings down with his bare hands will be met with resistance)
• (+) People will not be aware that they have been manipulated, and will forget about it after the command has worn off.
• (+) Commands last longer, up to one hour.
• (-) There is now a chance that a command will get stuck in a person's mind and they will repeat the directives of the command ad nauseum (imagine a guard constantly trying to open a prison door for about an hour before the command wears off)
• (-) People with strong wills will still be harder to manipulate.

LEVEL 3

• (+) Complex commands can be followed regardless of morals or values (ex: Nathaniel can tell a person to throw hot steaming coffee into their own face, or kill their friend, with little to no resistance).
• (+) Commands last up to 24 hours.
• (-) The more drastic the command is, the more likely it is for there to be serious and irreparable brain damage in the person being controlled as a result.
• (-) The "command getting stuck in a person's mind" phenomenon will occur more often, especially if Nathaniel pushes his power too strongly.
• (-) If Nathaniel gives too many complex commands, he'll get bad mental feedback and will be unable to speak for a while (like after telling multiple people to jump off a cliff, he'll be hit with a terrible headache and will be mute).

Inventory: Just the clothes on his back!

SAMPLES
Samples: Nathaniel bothers a ton of people on the TDM

Rescue Write-up (WARNING: BODY HORROR):

How could he have been so stupid? The place is on fire, and there's no way out. It was a trap from the very beginning, and he had walked into it like a perfect idiot.

He thought he was done with the whole "previous Nathaniel's gang" problem. They had searched him out a while ago, when he was just getting used to his new identity. When he had told him that he was no longer interested in their affairs, they had laughed. Then, they had threatened him, saying that there was no way out. All Nathaniel did was just smile and unfurl his head like it was a blooming flower, revealing so many lines of shiny, beautiful, jagged teeth. Those grown men screamed like little girls, and ran as far away from him as their legs could take them.

After that freak show, he thought he would never see them again. And yet, he found a note slipped into the mailbox one day from one of the gang's lackeys, declaring that "their business wasn't finished yet" and that just because "he did some freaky things" didn't mean he was off the hook. It gave an address at an old closed-down storefront at the edge of town and a date and time to meet.

At the time, he didn't think much of it. Probably, they had thought they had hallucinated the whole thing, and had gathered their courage enough to face him again. That's fine. He would just make his horror show worse this time, really get them shaking to their bones to the point where they would leave him alone. He had a life to live here, and he was getting more annoyed by these hooligans who thought that they owned him.

So, he made his way there. Nobody was inside. He had walked inside, still finding it bare, and had opened what looked like the worker's office at the back. No one here, either. He was about to leave, when suddenly, somebody gave him a shove into the room and locked the door behind him.

Then, he smelled smoke.

They had led him into a trap, not to threaten him, but to kill him. He almost couldn't believe it. This had to be a joke. And yet here he was, stuck in a room with an electrical fire that was licking up the walls like a hungry beast.

He bashed on the door and yelled. There was no answer. The door was, of course, locked. It didn't have any windows to break, or any other exits. It was getting hot now, and Nathaniel hissed, trying to force himself to think faster. No vents, no openings, just an electrical socket and some crudely-made electrical apparatus hooked to it that had caused the fire in the first place. There was no use detaching that thing now, the fire was already going.

The only thing standing between him and escape was that damn door. He stared at it, before raising his hand, forming it into large, jagged claws befitting some prehistoric creature - he had copied these things off an alien race noted for its brutality in his earlier years as a pilot. He slammed them into the door, again and again, feeling the wood splinter under the force. Finally, a hole wide enough to slip through, and he squished his form small enough to do so-

Only to escape into an abandoned store that was also on fire. Even more so than the office.

The store was large. The fire was too strong, smoke too thick, and he already felt the acrid air burning his lungs. They had set the fire when he was trying to get out, probably knowing he would somehow find some way to escape. This was their Plan B, their final shot at getting rid of some inhuman abomination they were too scared to even face.

Cowards. It almost made Nathaniel want to spit, if he wasn't so wracked with the sudden pain of his body trying to keep itself together with the flames licking higher. Anywhere he moved, there was fire. He couldn't even see the entrance at this point. If he turned into something able to fly, he wouldn't be able to direct himself.

He was a goner. He had escaped his world only to die on another one. Out of the frying pan and into the fire, in more ways than one. What a way to go. At least it wasn't death by choking on a peanut or something equally mundane.

Very funny, said a sudden voice, cool and smooth, so unlike the raging fire around him. Joking until your last. But it isn't true.

"What isn't true?" Nathaniel managed to choke out, his form practically melting from the heat. He couldn't see anyone. Maybe he was hallucinating. Maybe his cells were feebly trying to give him some weird semblance of hope, like a weird chemical reaction that only activated when they were close to death.

It isn't your time yet. Reach out a hand to me, and I shall help.

Suddenly, there was a shadow, void of light and warmth, yet somehow comforting in the way it loomed over him, like it could somehow cover him and shield him from the flames covering his trembling body. He couldn't recognize it's shape. It wasn't human. It couldn't be. A human wouldn't survive such a thing.

"Help...?

You shall survive. Just reach out a hand. You still have so much to discover.

Nathaniel paused, and then, slowly, he pushed himself off the ground, reaching forward a melting tendril, bones sticking out like gangly twigs, bones that had once been fingers.

"Please," he said, pleading, the room growing dark in front of his eyes. Images briefly flicker in his mind. His new family. The previous Nathaniel, dead, bleeding and staining the grass under his lifeless body. Children, laughing, playing games he wanted to understand. "Please..."

"I want to live."