Nemo

So... One of the first criticisms I received about my short stories was that it seemed impossible that a character who had suffered long periods of torture could save himself from a vampire as powerful as Gaia without a hitch.

They were right, but I didn't have to be happy about it. Around the same time, I had these weird... dreams. A couple times I woke up and I could swear I could see some woman's face above me... almost like she was sitting on the ceiling. Usually I'd wake up again and realize that I was dreaming. Either way, the two stimuli... literary criticism and bad dreams led to the next character I created: Nemo.

For those in the group who are young, under-educated, uninterested in words, ignorant, or just plain stupid, "Nemo" isn't the name of a fish from a Disney movie... Well it is, but first it was a name used in The Odyssey by the clever Odysseus to trick a cyclops. You see, "nemo" means "nobody". So, Finding Nemo, the movie every loved? It's really called Finding Nobody. Yeah... Nemo's mom was a bitch. That or Marlin is psychotic and his son never existed and the events of the film all took place in his head.

Wow... That places a whole new depressing spin on the story...

Anyhow, MY Nemo is a woman. She's always been a woman. She's pretty nondescript for a woman besides two things: her hair seems to contain a strand of every color making it seem to be generally brown or sort of incandescent... and her eyes are blank, empty... they aren't black eyes that you see in movies or films... it's not like she doesn't have eyes... they're just... like voids. Looking at them too long makes it seem like she'll suck out your soul at anytime.

Here's the first time I wrote her into a story. It's pretty short. Feel free to scroll past it if you aren't interested. As you can see, it's also Azrael's origin story... sort of...

                        The vampire, Thanatos, wished he was dead and with good reason.  He found himself in quite a fix at the current moment and he hung, held by his wrists to a wall as blood seeped out of wounds and lacerations all over his body.  The most notable was the wounds from the leather thongs holding him up which had glass and various pointed objects in them, like cords from a flail used especially to torture him.  He was not going to get out of this little problem easily.  Though, the idea that he would get out of this situation alive was one thing of which he was most certain.

            Of course, his pain was in no way decreased by the loveliness of the room he was in which was painted gold from floor to ceiling.  Before him was an empty throne with a chalice on it that he knew held his own blood.  The knowledge sickened him and piqued his curiousity all at one time.  Who, in their right minds would go through the trouble of capturing him, torturing him almost to death, and then just holding him there until they had time to get around to him?

            Thanatos had many beings who would consider him their enemy.  He'd killed several of the vampire queen's messengers simply because he didn't want to go pay homage to her.  He had feasted on the grounds of many of his elders without a second thought and even dared engage a few in battle.  He'd killed the lovers of Aphrodite and Zeus on two occasions just because he wanted to taste their exquisite blood.  He liked to cause trouble for himself and others.  He lived for it.  It didn't help that causing trouble for humans had lost its glamour and fun after the first ten years.

            His only question was which vampire would be so angry at him, he or she would have him captured, beaten, and tortured almost to death before seeing him to explain his little indiscretion.... whatever if was.  Oh well, the footsteps he could hear headed his way would tell him just what he needed to know.  Soon he found himself facing a rather beautiful, rather angry looking woman with dark skin and dark hair.  She was royally dressing in a crimson dress with gold trim and gold jewelry with rubies in it.  Smiling wickedly at him, she took a sip of a goblet she held and smiled at him, her teeth stained red with what he knew was his own blood.

            "I suppose you  know who I am," she said with her musical, haughty voice.

            Thanatos could do little other than grunt, but he had one name on his mind.  Only one enemy of his could be so vicious, so cruel: Gaia, the self-proclaimed queen of the vampires, the witch-vampire.  The most evil, twisted being in the universe.  Some even claimed she slept with her own children.

            "I'm sorry I had to have my men torture you," she said, not looking apologetic at all, "But your reputation precedes you, Thanatos."  She looked him over, obviously looking very pleased with the damage done to him.

            This time, Thanatos managed to murmur, embarrassingly weakly, "As does yours..."  He cursed himself inwardly.  He should've saved his strength longer.  Then he could really give her a verbal lashing.

            Gaia chuckled, obviously pleased, "I'm very disappointed with you, Thanatos.  You killed all of my messengers."

            Thanatos waited.  He couldn't deny that he hadn't. He had and he'd enjoyed it every time.

            "Don't you know what the penalty is for killing my precious messengers?" Gaia's hand went to stroke his bruised and cut cheek as she asked him, acting extremely tender... almost loving.... the twisted bitch.  He knew exactly what the punishment was.  Not that it really mattered.  There were worse things she could do to him.

            "It's death!" She exclaimed, as her nails dug into his cheek, practically grabbing a chunk of his flesh to yank it out, yet leaving it hanging there.

            Thanatos merely grunted, her servants had done worse.

            "Well, I shall forgive you... if you promise to bow down to me as my servant and slave," Gaia licked her bloody fingers as she drew them away from Thanatos's face.

            "Like Hades I'll do thaAAGGHHH!!!" he screamed as Gaia thrust her fingers into his chest, clawing and stabbing him at the same time, causing immense pain.

            "What was that?" Gaia asked with a smirk, obviously pleased with the pain she'd caused him as she pulled out a dagger with her other hand, "The answer is no?"

            She yanked her fingers out of his torso and began to lick them, shouting, "Guards!" 

            Just then three men appeared and, in unison marched up to her, awaiting her orders.

            "Take him to the dungeon," Gaia said to them, "Make sure he has the special cell.... with all the extra equipment. Lay him down in the special bed."  She smirked a second, gruesome time and then marched to her chair to sit there.  Finishing one goblet, she began to drink yet another goblet as the three guards to Thanatos down from the pillar and dragged him out by his already bleeding wrists.  They dragged him down a flight of stairs into a row of barred rooms to the last one which was sealed shut with a stone door.  They opened the door and dragged him through.  Then the three guards lifted him off the floor and set him into a spiked coffin.  The lid as well as the bed as spiked with a small window where the face was meant to be.  Once set on the coffin's spikes, they closed the lid, forcing him down on the spikes.  If he were human, this would've killed him.  However, he was a vampire.  His kind only died once they'd lost all of their blood, they were beheaded, or they're hearts were destroyed.

            Thanatos didn't know how long he was in that room after that.  Sometimes Gaia came him to torture him.  Sometimes one of her guards would heal him to the point that he only needed to drink blood and he would be able to walk out just so that he could be tortured some more.  Time stretched on for him and he began to wish he had never been born in the first place.

            Then, one day, the unusual happened.  He heard a voice that sounded like every voice in the universe, yet at the same time only one source shouting, "You'll never keep me here alive!  Your queen is making a dangerous enemy!"

            What seemed like moments later, the voice was in his room, coming from above him asking, "Now what have we here?  Is it a prisoner in a coffin?  Or a present just for me?"

            The coffin he'd been confined to after he'd nearly killed many a guard in a desperate attempt to escape opened to reveal a beautiful girl... or woman with hair that shown with a brightness and beauty that toppled the color of every human's hair.  The color was... indescribable.  It reminded him of the sunset and the rainbow all into one.  How could he think of that in the state he was in?  Of course, all of those thoughts fled his mind when he saw her eyes.  They were completely devoid of anything.  There was no wisdom, no emotion, no anything.  It was terrifying!

            "Aww... it's both!" she gushed, the eyes remaining completely empty.  She pinched his scarred and sore cheek and murmured, "You're so cute!"

            Thanatos tried to move away from those eyes, but the woman grabbed him by the shoulders and lifted him up, flinging him over her shoulder like a bag of grain.

            "Gaia thinks she can hold me captive," the woman muttered, "Well, she's going to get a rather nasty surprise when she finds me and her most important captive missing....  Not only that, I'm going to give you a special treat my pretty... Once we're out of this place, I'm going to make you invincible as far as that bitch is concerned... then we'll see who's the real female power in this world..."

            Once her little tirade was over, they were somehow out in the open air.  Thanatos didn't know what had happened, he didn't care.  He was free.  True, he was in the hands of a woman who had to be completely insane.  However, she'd freed him from Gaia, that had to mean she was at least better than that woman.  She had to at least be more merciful or helpful.  How had he gotten so lucky?

            She dropped him by a large oak tree, causing him to groan. Then the woman crouched beside him and looked him over.

            "You look horrible!  How long were you in there?  You don't know, do you?  You must've been in there a long time; you're covered in scars.  I didn't think vampires did that easily," she said, in a manner that made Thanatos just want her to shut the hell up.

            "Well, I have just the thing for you, sweetie.  It isn't as powerful as my blood, but it's more powerful than human blood, which is what you need right now," the woman said as she plunged her hand into the earth and pulled out a flask the size of her forearm.  She tilted his head back and poured the liquid, he suspected down his throat.

            At first, Thanatos thought he was drinking the most delicious ambrosia in the universe.  It was like fine wine mixed with honey and the blood of a very beautiful virgin, possibly of royal lineage.  Then, He began to feel fire throughout his veins, burning his body.  It was worse than the pain he felt when he was being tortured by Gaia and her servants.  It was terrible.  He let out a wretched scream at the top of his lungs and began to convulse.  Then he received a very strong punch to his head, knocking him out...

            Thanatos woke up a few hours later, feeling much better and stronger.  He sat up and found himself in a clean bed... with the sun shining on him.  Thanatos had not seen the sunlight in centuries.  Vampires were weakened in the sunlight.  He'd never wanted to feel weak so he'd stuck to the nighttime.  Now, he was strong and in the light.  What had that woman fed him?  He sat up, wonderment on his face as he looked around, astonished at the clean room with a stone floor and walls.  The woman was there... sitting, cross-legged on the ceiling, sewing what looked like a very large coat.

            "Welcome to the new world, my sweet," she said as she continued to sew, not laying her dead eyes on him, thank the gods for small favors.

            "Where am I?" he asked her curiously, his voice sounding strange and foreign and more scratchy than it used to be.

            "You're in my home, handsome," she replied with a smirk, "The dragon's blood I gave you seemed to cause you more pain than help you, so I gave you some of my blood to help you.  It's changed you quite a bit.  I hope you don't try to kill me for it.  Though, Gaia will find trying to kill you much more difficult."

            He still wanted her to shut up.  He looked at his hands.  They were much paler than before and scarred... and large.  In fact, he felt much larger than before.  He immediately climber out of the bed to look at himself in the mirror.  His once beautiful, smooth skin was now terribly scarred all over.  His once silken black hair was now coarse and oily.  His once beautiful brown eyes were now beady and black.  He was an ugly monster!

            Thanatos gasped and then punched the mirror, shattering it, suddenly realizing that he was much taller than before, and completely naked.  His whole body was just as scarred.  From his neck to his torso to his legs and feet.  His nails were cracked and misshapen.

            Thanatos turned to the woman on the ceiling and demanded, "What in the gods' name have you done to me?"

            "I already explained.  I gave you a mixture of my blood and vampire blood.  It has terribly transformed you.  Just look on the bright side.  Gaia will never be able to torture you properly again.  You aren't a vampire.  Blood loss won't affect you the same anymore.  Now you're more powerful than a vampire and less powerful than me," the woman said as though she was talking about something trivial and unimportant.

            Thanatos hated that.  This was his identity she was talking about!  He was a vampire!  That was all he knew.  How could he be something else?

            "Who are you?" he demanded after trying to think of what to say or do.

            "You may call me Nemo. I am the only true immortal to ever exist.  I will never age or die.  I don't remember coming into existence.  You can stab be, burn me, decapitate me... I always come back," she told him cheerily.

            "What am I?" he asked her.

            "Something new and exciting," she said with the same tone, "I think I'll call you Azrael.  That name seems rather fitting for you, spirit of the dead.  You were near death when I met you, after all."

            "What am I supposed to do?" he demanded, still furious.  How dare she toy with him in this way?

            "Well, I'd think you'd want to live and be merry.  Return to being a trickster.  Perhaps you can kill Gaia.  I don't care," Nemo said helpfully, "And do it all wearing this."

            She dropped the thing she was sewing and it turned out to be a very large cloak.  It was so large that once Thanatos had tied it onto him, it dragged on the ground slightly.

            "I'm not going to thank you for this," he growled, "I'll curse your name until the day one of us dies."

            "Good," Nemo beamed, "I always look for a good adventure!"

            With that, she was gone and he was left alone in a castle.  He remained there for a few months, but she didn't return.  After that, he got bored and left to go make a new life in the world as the new creature he was.

I've never really had a good handle on Nemo. In the beginning, I was convinced she'd once been human, but she chose to strip away her identity to become something more... she traded the very things that made her... herself to be immortal.

Then I spent a small period of time convinced she was one of eight creators of the universe called Ethers, body-less immortals who controlled the universe. She was the eighth Ether who rebelled against their tenant never to possess a female to give birth to oneself and the other seven Ethers joined together to destroy her, permanently binding her to an immortal body and stripping her of the vast majority of her powers and storing it into eight objects. In doing so, they stripped themselves of their own powers which were also placed into those eight objects.

That didn't work for me either.

Nemo is certainly villainous, but she wasn't on universe-destroying villainy like that character was.

She's the hardest to define, but I do know one thing... Nemo is connected to the Void, the space between universes... the emptiness, the place where nothing can exist.

Nemo is the guardian of this the way Porfirio is the Guardian of the Veil (the barriers between universes). While Porfirio can sort of claim power over universes due to his affinity, Nemo has the same sort of connection with anyone who gets to close to the Void or to nothing. She was able to claim Azrael because she had found him when he was so gone to torture he had nothing to lose and nothing to live for.  Nemo never lets go of those she claims. Once you belong to her... that's it. It's sad, but that's how she works.

Nemo's moral compass also doesn't work the same as everyone else. Since she can pretty much do whatever she wants without consequence, she literally does whatever comes to her mind. She's completely free of social mores and values and doctrines. No one can kill her. No one can stop her. She's an invincible machine that will torture you to death if she feels so inclined.

She's like a Lovecraftian God who looks like a harmless woman... until you look into her eyes.

However, I have flirted with the idea of how a person would go about killing her because she's... insane, but I'm pretty sure that would just lead to another Nemo coming into existance. Someone has to control the Void... I'm not sure why, but that's the way my brain works.

Next time: Cassandra Troy... who I'm pretty sure doesn't appear in anything I've written yet, but she's in a number of stories I'd planned to write.