Appearance:
Full Name: Nathan Armstrong
Age: 14
Gender: male
Species: human
Significant/Special Belongings: none
Fighting Skills/Techniques: Run. Hide.
Weapon of Choice: none
How You Came to be in Azure: born here to mortal parents. His parents have never told him how they came to be in Azure however he does know they arrived only 3 to 4 days prior to his sister’s birth.
Job Title & Description: none yet. He is uncertain but he has a knack for prestidigitation and hopes to perhaps be a stage magician as well as help his sister with her act.
Number of Souls You Have to Collect: 800
Number of Years You Have to Collect Souls:4
What Was Your Wish: that my mother’s illness be healed (part of a twin wish) once and for all
How Many Souls Have You Collected: 0
How Long Have You Been at the Carnival: <1 day
How the Collection of Souls has Affected Your Character—have not collected any as of yet
Personality: Nathan, or Nate as he has always been called, is very scared and nervous. Shy and withdrawn he makes friends very slowly. He has never been away from home, even for a day. He has always been serious and withdrawn, the boy that everyone knew but no one actually
knew. He is bright and has a dry sense of humor when he is around those he is comfortable with. He loves his sister and sticks close to her. Anyone else it would take some time to feel comfortable with, as he is truly among strangers here. And not just ordinary people.
Biography & How You Came to be a Member of The Carnival?:
Born in Azure Nate grew up used to the odd and unusual. As a mortal however he was often mocked, outcast, and treated as a lesser being. He never really got close to anyone because of this, anyone save his own family. They raised him, his mother and father taught him as best they could, but his mother grew more and more ill. It was devastating to Nate who was extremely close to his mother. His father was obsessed with his mother, constantly hovering over her. It fell to Nate and his sister Nalia to keep the family together, take care of everyone including themselves. The only thing his father did anymore was work, he woke up, went to work, and came home.
During the day Nate would spend the time with his mother, reading to her, helping her with anything she needed, and in general doing whatever he could to make her life easier. He loved his father but he was truly attached to his mother.
By the time he was 13 she could no longer leave her bed. No one knew what was wrong with her, and his parents never told him anything. They talked in hushed whispers and went silent whenever he entered the room. He is very clever, quick thinking, and quick witted but because he has always been overlooked due to his shyness few ever realized this. Even his parents did not know and he always longed for more schooling.
It was his sister that helped him with this. She shared with him everything she was learning. She protected him when she could. She was really the only one that knew him and his only friend. She knew how hurt he was by their mother’s illness and she had no way to help him with that. All she could do was be there to hold him when he cried. Usually after he returned from his mother’s room, having spent time reading to her. He always read to his mother in bed, much as she had read to him when he was younger.
Nalia too had been kept in the dark about his parents, or she would have shared everything she knew with Nate. She knew he was mature enough to handle it, despite his age. Not to mention his mother’s withdrawal from her children and her slow death was tearing Nate up in a way that Nalia couldn’t understand or help with.
It was his mother’s illness that brought his father, sister, and himself to the Carnival. It was one of her particularly bad days. She could barely move and every noise caused her pain. His father took them to the carnival to give her some peace and quiet, and to give the children a fun day away from home. He had grown so withdrawn with his wife’s illness that he hardly even talked to his children any longer, and this day was supposed to help give them some time together again. It started out with high hopes, excitement, and even a feeling of togetherness that had been missing for so long from their family.
Until his father learned that Mr. Seil granted wishes. Nate’s whole life changed that day. His father, desperate for anything that would help his wife, bargained with Mr. Seil. Nate, seeing how sad his father was, how desperate offered to help. He too wanted his mother well, he remembered her as a happy outgoing woman and he was very close to her. Thus he was excited to learn that Mr. Seil could help, could heal her illness and restore her to the way she was. He volunteered “anything” to help her get well and his father, without as second thought, signed the deal in Nate’s name, after all Nate was still his child and if he could sign him into any other apprenticeship, willing or unwilling, why not bind him to this contract. Nate was given over to Seil to work off the debt of his father’s wish. Nate didn’t realize what had happened until his father told him he would have to “stay and work” at the carnival in order to pay Mr. Seil back for helping them. He had no understanding of what that entailed, and no idea of how long he was to be here. His father caring only to rush home and see if his wish was granted, did not bother to tell Nate the real truth of the contract. Only that he needed to “work”. He assumed that it would be things like cleaning the grounds, keeping the gear tended, whatever the usual grunt work was.
When his father left Seil sat down and explained what the contract really meant. Nate was intelligent, he grasped the true nature of what had happened when his father had signed the contract almost as soon as Seil had begun explaining it. The idea is almost unthinkable, but Seil assured him that his wish…that his mother’s illness be healed…would be granted and so Nate has resigned himself to the work. He hadn’t been entirely exaggerating, he would do nearly anything to help his mother. And though he felt betrayed by his father, he still loved him. Over time, and years at the carnival, he would be exposed to things that he had never even though possible. His love for his parents, those that bound him in this job, would change to bitterness and hate. But that is not his history, that is his future and it is yet to be written.
