Nebula by glittermiilk on DeviantArt (original) (raw)

Name: Nebula

Nickname(s): Neb, Nebbie, Princess

Gender: Female

Species: Fungal (u get it....fun....gal........)

Height: 5'2"

Alignment: N/A

Ability Levels: (★★= Decent Human Proficiency)
[Strength]★★★
[Resilience]★★★★★
[Agility]★★★
[Intellect]★★★
[Spirit]★★
[Guts]★★

Character Notes:
- Nebula actually has another eye on the back of her head, it's just that I never draw her in a way that you can see it lolll

Bio TL;DR: An unfortunate human space explorer that got mutated by some alien fungus. Now she's immortal, and resides as royalty over her planet with the help of her infected buddies

---------- Bio Start: **----------**Nebula began her life as nothing more than an ordinary human living on Earth, not too far off from what we would consider 'modern day'. She was a highly intelligent individual, and aimed to study and become a surgeon or a doctor, however coming from a relatively poor family she didn't have the means to train for such a role. However, in her desperate search to find a way to achieve her dream, she came across an opportunity which would allow her to be trained for free. That opportunity came from a certain space exploration program that was in development by her country, who had just developed the technology to travel through space at a pace close to light speed. Their interest in particular was in a planet in another star system, which appeared to have similar conditions to Earth and perhaps even evidence of alien life. They were offering free training to the country's brightest prospective students, and in return those individuals would train aboard the spaceship as it made its way to the mysterious planet over the course of several years. Nebula of course applied for this opportunity, not realising that it was simply a way for the space program to hire unpaid, non-professionals on a mission that no one really expected anyone to survive. Regardless, after a tough screening process Nebula was deemed one of the ideal candidates to take part in this mission, and after giving a tearful goodbye to her family was sent off-planet with a large shipful of other engineers, scientists and doctors. Like her, 90 percent of these people were also largely untrained.

Though the mission ran smoothly initially, after a while more problems began to arise. The ship's fuel consumption had been hugely underestimated, and unforeseen perils in space travel such as asteroid fields led to damage to the ship that couldn't easily be fixed from space. Gradually, those aboard the ship began to realise that they were merely throwaway pawns in an experimental mission, and that it was unlikely they would never be going home. By the time fuel consumption had been properly recalculated, and the damages to the ship assessed, it was impossible for them to make the return journey to Earth. However, the unexplored planet they had been aiming for was still potentially within reach, and if it was true that it possessed similar conditions to Earth, then there was a chance they would at least be able to delay the deaths of hundreds of people.

Sure enough, their ship just ran empty on fuel as it was caught in the gravitational pull of the planet, meaning it managed to pass through the world's atmosphere and crash onto it's surface without badly injuring anyone, though the ship was rendered practically useless. It quickly became apparent that the conditions of this planet were indeed similar to those of Earth, with the air being breathable and the gravity of a similar strength. As people began to explore and research more, it was discovered that there were even important resources that could be taken from the environment, including safe food and water. Gradually, as rations brought from Earth ran out, the ship's crew began to organise expeditions to gather such resources in order to survive, and at the same time chart more and more of the planet. Initially, things seemed to be working out as well as they could have been, but then groups started disappearing.

No one knew the reason for this, as there were never single survivors from missing groups, and anyone who went to look for bodies disappeared in a similar fashion. All people could do was chart which areas took people most often, and avoid those parts of the planet. However, it seemed the 'safe' areas were also the ones with the least resources, and with such little food people were driven to desperation. An economy began to develop, with those most athletic or simply lucky to survive able to trade their excess resources for other services. Largely though, the community fended for itself, which is why eventually Nebula too was forced to go out into the wilds.

It was only her second outing when everything happened. She was foraging as usual when she came across a strange sight, and upon closer inspection she realised they were the corpses of humans. It was difficult to tell though, because they had been greatly deformed, with most of their soft tissue having dissolved or transformed into some kind of glistening black goo. It also seemed that there was some kind of plant growing from their bodies, a strange cross between a pink flower and some type of fungus. Not knowing the cause of these people's deaths but realising she was in an extremely dangerous place, she tried to escape back to the ship, but before she could even move she was ambushed by some kind of four legged creature. With no way to defend herself it defeated her easily, pushing her to the ground and tearing out her stomach with one huge bite from its jaws. It only attacked her the one time, content to feast on whatever flesh and innards it had torn from her whilst she watched on, dying and in unbearable pain. She coughed and spluttered as she laid there, vomiting the same black goo that stuck to her hands and burnt her flesh when she tried to wipe it away. It wasn't long before her vision began to turn black, and she realised in one last agonising moment that she was dying.

Except she woke up.

She was roused by an intense, searing pain that had her crying out immediately despite the fact that she had only just rose from unconsciousness. Her vision was still faded and blurred, as though she were dipping in and out of consciousness and only kept awake by the torture. She remained sprawled out on the ground for what felt like years, consumed by an unending agony that seemingly even death wouldn't save her from. But ever so slowly, the pain eased, her vision cleared, and only then did she regain enough awareness to see what had happened to her.

Her hands, once small and delicate, had now been transfomed into something huge and beastly, that black goo having spread all the way up her arms and her fingers transformed into weighty, mole-like claws. Not only that, but her skin had been transfomed into a thoroughly non-human shade of blue, and most startlingly of all, where her stomach had once been there was now a gaping maw, complete with a set of fangs and a long, panting tongue.

Of course, it was far too much to process, and for hours Nebula screamed and cried out, trying to rip the mutated parts of her away and even attempting to kill herself, though every wound she made on herself healed up after no time at all. By the time she was at least a little more calm, the sun had set and risen again, and eventually she decided that she had to confront the rest of her crew back at the ship. She had no idea how they would react, but even if they cast her out, she would at least be able to warn the others as to what had been the cause of all the disappearances.

Unsurprisingly, the crew's first reaction to the mutated Nebula was to assume she was hostile, and the girl was bombarded with rudimentary attacks from an unprepared group of scientists. Of course, her apparent invulnerability meant that she shrugged of the damage with ease, and with enough pleading she finally managed to calm the group enough that they would at least listen when she explained what had happened.

Endless tests were run on her to ascertain the nature of what had happened to her, and it was concluded that when she had been attacked by the creature, a type of fungal parasite had been transferred to her. It was assumed that the intent of this parasite was to form a kind of symbiosis with its host that allowed it to spread, however the non-native humans were seemingly unable to survive the trauma that the mutation caused. Nebula, seemingly, was an exception.

Taking advantage of her newly discovered invulnerability to damage, Nebula agreed to take responsibility for the gathering of resources in dangerous areas, so that no other humans had to risk their lives. Eventually it was discovered that not only was she immune to damage, but that also now the local infected fauna were no longer hostile to her, and instead regarded her with some strange curiosity and almost companionship.

With this unique quality, Nebula quickly became the most important member of what was now effectively a colony, and was treated with a fearful kind of respect by the rest of the humans. With resources no longer a strain to acquire, the group thrived, and soon new generations where being born and the colony actually began to expand. All the while, as people were born, grew up and then died, Nebula remained as young as she'd been the day she had been infected. She realised that perhaps ageing was another thing she was immune to, and so simply continued carrying out her duties as the years went on. Gradually, her status began to elevate from a mere infected human, and the story of how she became herself was exaggerated and altered to the point where eventually people began to revere her as a Goddess. Eventually Nebula didn't even need to gather herself anymore, as farms were constructed and the areas deemed safe for people grew larger.

After roughly 300 years, there was no one in Nebula's vast colony that doubted her status as their ruler and a Goddess. A whole religion was formed around the idea that she had been sent from the heavens to care for and protect the humans of the planet, and gradually even the Princess herself began to humor them and go along with the stories they made up about her. She grew used to the decadent life offered to her by the colony, though after so long her mind was beginning to wonder about other matters. She was intensely curious about why she had been able to survive the mutation when others seemingly couldn't; countless had tried to achieve her level of power by allowing the fungus to take hold of them but all had perished to it's effects. Nebula soon got the idea to experiment with the strains of the fungus that grew on her arms, and with the help of disposable volunteers she discovered that her strain was far tamer than the wild one, and that the mutation effect could be made far more survivable this way. However, the chances of survival were still practically zero, and after many deaths it was a human Nebula later named 'Xeraphim' that became the second person to survive the mutation.

Finally settled in her role as a Princess, Nebula now spends most of her days lazing around or exploring the planet with her friends. Since the creation of Xeraphim, she had only mutated one other girl successfully- a priestess named Amnesia- though through mysterious means she has also befriended another mutated girl called Severein who is kept alive with alien machinery. Together they get up to absolutely nothing some days and absolutely everything other days, and generally just watch as the centuries pass by.

Related Characters: Xeraphim
Severein
Amnesia

Character Group: Return to the Fungal Homeworld

profile template very courteously stolen from zeb uhuhuhu