Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
ā Live Streamingā Interactive Chatā Private Showsā HD Quality
Anya is LIVE right now
FREE
Free to watch ā¢ No registration required ā¢ HD streaming
So, instead of just playing with the idea of Nelson being a changeling, Iāve actually started writing something for it. Like, him actually gaining the features from the drawing I posted earlier in the week. (Also, I wanna draw more of that. And get better at drawing Nelson himself.)
Itās far from done, but Iām having fun with the idea and want to share some of it with the few other Puzzle Agent fans out there. Feed back is appreciated!
If he had to pick a point where everything started, where the first signs had made themselves known, Nelson would say he had no idea. But, after thinking for a bit, he would say it started with a toothache.
It started just before (or maybe just after?) being told about his field assignment in Scoggins, Minnosota. At first, it had been little more than a faint pressure in his back molars. Almost as if heād been gritting his teeth for too long without knowing it. The sort where youād just stop letting Ā your teeth press together for a while and it would go away. But it didnāt.
Instead, the ache seemed to slowly spread. Until the whole of his mouth was throbbing dully. At that point in time it wasnāt painful, but it was notable. Enough that he was planning to schedule a dentistās appointment just to figure what was going on in there. Chewing on gum made it easier to ignore, resulting in him working his way through pack after pack at a much faster rate than he normally would. A habit that quickly became a problem when he arrived in Scoggins.
During his stay in the small town, his fingers began to ache as well. At first, the agent had thought it was due to the note-taking and snowmobile riding heād been doing on the case and had dismissed it. (Nevermind that he would usually spend his entire gripping a pencil while solving puzzles.)
But, like the toothache, the ache got worse instead of better.
And then the Gnomes appeared, causing his annoying aches to shift into spikes of pain. Complete with a brand new throb of pain from his lower back. The alarm (and pain) had almost driven Nelson from town then and there.
It probably would have sent him away, if the Innkeeper hadn't mentioned that the Sheriff had told her to let him know when Nelson left. Not if he left, but when. He had no idea what had made the man think he would leave, and so soon after heād arrived in town. Something didnāt feel right about that.
Something that the FBI agent found suspicious enough to change his mind.
So he swallowed back the aches and pains (along with some extra strength aspirin) and trooped back out into the cold, snow covered town to solve the case and get the factory going again. Just like heād been sent to do.
And once heād gotten the factory open and running again, Nelson returned home with notable pains and an unsatisfying end to his field mission. He couldnāt get his mind off of what had transpired, or what he had seen.
Yes, heād succeeded as far as the FBI was concerned, but the factory forman was missing and now he knew of impossible things. He couldnāt just leave it at that.
Okay, this is all Iām gonna post for now. Some of it sounds wierd/off, I know. But my major focus right now is to get as much of the story out as I can, just so I can say I have it out. Iām gonna clean it up at some point. Right now, this is just so people can have a taste.
If people have suggestions for making it flow better or stuff that can be clarified or even details I could stick in feel free to tell me. And if someone wants to beta or get a look at the main ideas for whatās gonna happen, again, go ahead and ask.
Iāve love to talk more about this idea with someone.
*Kicks in door* Alright! Iāve finally finished the short/story!
Itās not terribly long, and I tried to make the events of the two games (and the time between) seem a bit more stretched out. You know, to seem more realistic?
But the main focus was Nelson going through his transformations (and the build-up to each change) without too much focus on what happens in the games. As in, the story isnāt a play-by-play of what happened in them. So it doesnāt spoil anything for people who havenāt had the chance to play/watch the games.
I hope people like it, and if you have ideas for more stuff I could write for this, feel free to tell me. As either an ask or a comment/reply to this post.
If he had to pick a point where everything started, where the first signs had made themselves known, Nelson would say he had no idea. But, after thinking for a bit, he would say it started with a toothache.
It started just before (or maybe just after?) he was told about his field assignment in Scoggins, Minnesota. At first, it had been little more than a faint pressure in his back molars. Almost as if heād been gritting his teeth for too long without knowing it. The sort where youād stop letting your teeth press together for a while, and it would go away. But it didnāt.
Instead, the ache seemed to spread slowly. Until the whole of his mouth was throbbing dully. At that point, it wasnāt painful, but it was notable. Enough that he was planning to schedule a dentistās appointment to figure what was going on in there. Chewing on gum made it easier to ignore, resulting in him working his way through packs at a much faster rate than he usually would. A habit that quickly became a problem when he arrived in Scoggins.
During his stay in the small town, his fingers began to ache as well. At first, the agent had thought it was due to the note-taking and snowmobile riding heād been doing on the case and had dismissed it. (Nevermind that he would usually spend his entire day gripping a pencil while solving puzzles in his office.)
But, like the toothache, the ache got worse instead of better.
And then the Gnomes appeared, causing his annoying aches to shift into spikes of pain. Complete with a brand new pulse of pain from his lower back. The alarm (and pain) had almost driven Nelson from town then and there.
It probably would have sent him away, if the Innkeeper hadnāt mentioned that the Sheriff had told her to let him know when Nelson left. Not if he left, but when. He had no idea what had made the man think he would leave, and so soon after heād arrived in town. Something didnāt feel right about that.
Something that the FBI agent found suspicious enough to change his mind.
So he swallowed back the aches and pains (along with some extra strength aspirin) and trooped back out into the cold, snow-covered town to solve the case and get the factory going again. Just like he was sent there to do.
And once heād gotten the factory open and running again, Nelson returned home with notable pains and an unsatisfying end to his field mission. He couldnāt get his mind off of what had transpired, or what he had seen.
Yes, heād succeeded as far as the FBI was concerned. But the factory foreman was missing, and now he knew of impossible things. He couldnāt just leave it at that.
That was when the first significant sign of change made itself known.
Nelson had been in his office, trying to solve a crossword puzzle and get his mind off of Scoggins, when he bit into his chicken sandwich and felt something hard in his mouth. Something that was not food. He froze mid-chew.
That was not part of his lunch.
He used his tongue to carefully shift the hard thing to the front of his mouth, and, lifting a hand, he pulled it out. He stared in disbelief when he pulled away enough for him to see.
That was a tooth. A back molar, if his memory was right.
He swallowed his mouthful of chicken, which suddenly didnāt taste as appetizing as it had before.
One of his teeth had just come out. His tooth had just fallen out.
He was too old for his teeth to be falling out. He was starting to shake.
He carefully slipped a pair of fingers into his mouth and brushed them along his gums, trying to find which molar had come out. It was the bottom, back molar, on the right side of his mouth. What bothered him more was the fact that the spot where the tooth had come out didnāt feel empty.
Nelson looked down at the tooth in his hand. It looked whole and didnāt seem chipped or damaged, so he couldnāt be feeling broken remains that were left behind.
Dropping the tooth on his desk, Nelson all but sprinted to the office bathrooms. He nearly stumbled outside the menās room, but caught himself and hurried inside. He darted to the mirror hung over the sinks; he needed to see this. Not just feel it.
Hands shaking, Nelson hooked a finger into the corner of his mouth and pulled his lips back until he could see the space in question.
The molar was gone, and it looked like there was a new tooth growing in. One that definitely wasnāt a molar.
But that couldnāt be possible; Nelson was too old to be growing new teeth. And he was pretty sure he wasnāt old enough to be losing his adult teeth yet. That couldnāt be possible.
Except there was a very real tooth lying on his office desk that said otherwise.
He rubbed a finger over the surprisingly sharp tooth that was, apparently, growing in.
I guess itās a good thing I hadnāt made that dentistās appointment yet. I donāt think I could ever explain this. He thought dazedly, still rubbing a finger over the strange tooth. Is-is this why my teeth have been hurting? Because Iām growing a bunch of new teeth?
His heart froze at the thought. It seemed like a worryingly plausible idea.
But why? Why was he growing new teeth? How was it happening? And why was it happening now?!
He gripped the sink to steady himself. The cold, smooth surface under his hands helped steady his racing mind and cooled his aching hands. He couldnāt panic, panicking as a bad idea and could make him do something stupid.
āOkay, Nelson. Calm down; youāre okay. Everythingās okay. Itās just a tooth, one tooth. Itās come out, and it looks like a new one is growing in. Nothing to get frantic about.ā Nelson muttered to himself, rubbing a hand over his head. āYou just- you just need to calm down and think this through. Think of what to do about this.ā
He couldnāt speak up about this; he needed to keep it to himself just until he could figure out what was going on.
There was no way he could explain the teeth-thing to his dentist. Not without the man thinking Nelson was trying to prank him (not that the agent ever would) or that he was crazy.
No, it was best if he kept quiet until he could come up with some explanation. And maybe confirm it was just one tooth and not all of them.
He would be okay. He just needed to be calm about all of this. If he stayed quiet, everything would be fine.
At least, that was the chant he kept in his head as he returned to his desk and bagged up the tooth to bring home with him.
As the week went on, at least one of his worries had proven right.
More teeth began falling out, from back to front ā each one revealing a new, almost fang-like tooth growing in its place. Nelson started to tighten his smiles, letting his teeth show less and less as the new teeth made their way closer to the front of his mouth.
He started noticing other changes too.
His fingers, specifically his nails, didnāt look right anymore either. They seemed thicker and were changing shape ever so slightly from how he remembered them. Heād never paid a great deal of attention to his nails, beyond keeping them from splitting or chipping in ways that would hurt.
Except, now that his teeth were changing for reasons he didnāt know or understand, he found himself becoming hyper-aware of his body.
(He hadnāt felt this aware of his body since puberty, which was its own brand of internal terror.)
Heād gotten some help from one of his female coworkers, whoād given him a nail file when he mentioned that his nails were bothering him. She seemed to think he was having problems with splits catching on things. He had no plans of correcting her, but it wasnāt the root of the problem.
No, the problem was that his nails seemed less like nails and more like claws. Humans werenāt supposed to have claws. They could have nails that looked like claws if they got them specifically manicured that way. And Nelson had never done anything like that.
The man had no idea what was happening to his body, and it terrified him.
The anxiety was worse when he realized he could find a trend to the changes he was going through.
They were all in spots that had started with an ache that became progressively worse as time went on. And he remembered one other part of his body where heād been feeling pain.
The lowest part of his back, close to his tailbone.
(Maybe even at his tailbone? He didnāt know exactly where that was on his body.)
He had no explanation for what was going on with him, but there was something that made him wonder.
Every time his mind wandered back to his assignment in Scoggins, he remembered the way his aches spiked into pain whenever heād encountered the Hidden People.
Was there a connection of some kind? He knew it had started before he went there, but the way it seemed to accelerate while he was there.
It seemed like a crazy idea, but everything about Scoggins had been insane (and he appeared to be transforming), so it seemed like anything was possible at this point.
That left Nelson with few options.
He wanted, no, needed to find out what was going on and there was only one place he could go that seemed to have an answer.
The agent gathered up his supplies, submitted a request for vacation time, and headed back out, back to Scoggins, Minnesota.
When he arrived, he found the town just as still and unsettling as his first visit.
He felt terrible for poor Martha. It was clear the worry and stress were getting to her. Heād had to be very careful and persuasive to convince the woman to let him have a room there again, but heād managed.
Once he was settled and finally had the chance to start combing the town for information, he learned about the disappearances from Darryl, who was hanging posters of his missing brother, Darrel. About how often and how many there had been over the years. To the point where the residents were barely phased by it anymore. Something that was incredibly worrying in its own right.
Nelson threw himself into his self-appointed investigation and ignoring every spike of pain that hit him on the way.
(But he remembered it. Every surge of pain that shot down his spine. Each one, coupled with the silent prayer that whatever was happening would wait just a bit longer before actually taking effect.)
That visit had been a whirlwind investigation and discovery, shock and fear, and danger and pain.
Heād met a few new people, agreed to help Glori get her husband back, broken into the Sheriffās office to get more information, and met a fellow puzzle enthusiast. (Who was- Not crazy but most definitely misinformed. If he was polite). Heād had his investigation crashed by fellow FBI agents, was made temporarily mad by the Hidden People, fought the other agents, was his by an insanity-inducing raygun, and destroyed said ray.
Nelson had come out on top; Heād found the missing Issac Danvers, destroyed the Lunacy Ray, and helped the Hidden People finally return home.
And was mildly traumatized by everything and reasonably sure he wasnāt going to have his job for much longer.
He dragged his tired, slightly frostbitten body back to his hotel.
But he knew that once he got back to work, or at least back to his office, there was a chance he wouldnāt have a job anymore. If he was lucky. If he wasnāt, well, there would be a decently comfortable jail cell waiting for him.
But there, safe in his hotel room, having solved his case with no more mysteries dogging his mind, Nelson could rest. He could finally let go of the stress and tenseness that had sunk its claws into him the entire time heād been in Scoggins. He could finally let himself relax.
And the wall hit him.
It was a sudden, blindside of pain that brought Nelson to his knees. It cut his perception to his body alone, leaving him on his hands and knees on the floor, gasping for breath. He coughed and wheezed, fighting to get his lungs back to their average pace. (Had he screamed? He didnāt think heād screamed.)
What-what was that?! That wasnāt like anything Iāve felt before. Nelson thought in a pained daze. He vaguely registered something behind him move. Looking back, he felt his brain stalled.
That was a tail. A dark brown, fur-covered tail. A tail that looked like it was attached to him.
Stunned, he reached behind himself and rubbed a hand down his back, confirming that the tail was very real, and very much attached to him.
Laying on the floor of his room, all Nelson could think was that he was glad heād asked for two weeks of vacation when heād first set out. So, whether or not he still had a job, no one was expecting him back for a while.
And he needed all the time he could get to deal with this.
And thatās the end! I hope this came out well, and that you all like it. Feel free to leave comments or even give your own two cents on it.
So, an odd detail just popped into my head that I noticed about Nelson Tethers.
In the "pictures" of Nelson as a kid, I noticed that he looked like a tiny version of himself. It didn't register until later, but he looked exactly like a kid version of his adult self. Including the fact that he was bald.
Now, in the distant past, a kid being completely bald would be very strange. They would think the kid was sickly, or even "ugly". It's an "undesirable" trait, which makes sense considering the ailments of the era.
So Nelson having no hair is odd. Some could argue that his parents would shave it due to some form of natural problem (like being really difficult to maintain), or that Nelson himself liked it that way, but I think it's more likely that he was naturally bald.
This could either fit into my ideas for Nelson being a Changeling, or it could just be an interesting detail. What do you all think?
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
ā Live Streamingā Interactive Chatā Private Showsā HD Quality
Anya is LIVE right now
FREE
Free to watch ā¢ No registration required ā¢ HD streaming
I'm actually pretty pleased with this one. The white outlines against black looks nice. And the red-when-angry eyes seemed like a fun thing to throw in.
So, I finally settled on a design for Changeling!Nelson Tethers. The actual drawing bugs me a bit, but this gets the major points down.
I wanted his appearance to stay as human as possible, with his tail as the only major detail that could stand out. All of his nonhuman features are meant to be SUBTLE. So subtle that unless they were pointed out, or you were looking for them, you would never notice them. Because one of the traits that mark a Changeling is their ability to pass as a normal human.
Nelson doesn't have a lot of powers, but one I wanted to give him was the ability to make his tail "vanish" so he could further pass as an ordinary human. The only flaw with it is that his still visible in his shadow. But he keeps it close to his body to prevent people from noticing.
