0.0: closed to equivo

Before Noelle even has a chance to open her eyes, something hits her face.

"Ow," she mutters, quietly, and dirt works its way into her mouth. The taste makes her gag; her stomach churns. Noelle does not heave, but it is a very near thing. Instead, Noelle opens her eyes. She sees a shadow far above her and is suddenly, horribly aware of how small the space is.

The shadow, apparently, is the source of the dirt. Grumbling "could you not" is met with silence and more dirt. This time, Noelle does gag a little, sitting up as she coughs. Once she's somewhat vertical, she realizes these cramped quarters aren't that deep, after all. Noelle is able to reach her arms up - goodness, her arms are rather bruised and skinny, but Noelle can't imagine why - and haul herself up to a standing position. Fortunately, she hasn't been laid that deep. The ground only goes up to Noelle's waist.

"Excuse me," she says, privately annoyed at the fact that she's being polite to someone who's shoveling dirt on her, but what else is she supposed to say? Noelle expects to haul herself out of this hole with ease, at least. She'll just jump up, and swing her legs around, and then -

- Noelle looks down. She sees what's become of her legs. She screams.

If you encounter Noelle in the hedge maze, you might initially think that she's an obstacle, and not a girl. Noelle wouldn't entirely disagree with you on that.

She's almost impossible to miss. From the waist up, Noelle looks like an ordinary, if sickly, teenage girl. She's tremendously gaunt, with deep bags under her eyes and a pronounced hollowness to her cheeks, all framed by limp, greasy hair. She doesn't exactly hold herself with confidence, instead opting to cross her arms in front of her chest and bring her shoulders close together. At least her top is cute - a red peasant blouse, with delicately puffy sleeves and a little string bow in front.

But while Noelle's upper half doesn't cut an imposing figure, her lower half does. From the waist down, the towering, eight-foot tall Noelle is an analgamation of body parts: flesh, limbs, heads. Blistered, eyeball-filled tentacles stretch out in one direction, while something that looks like a cross between the head of a dog and the head of a pig takes another. A mammalian leg is made from shiny green, reptilian skin, culminating in a talon. Some parts of her lower half breathe, others blink, and one or two faintly groan. There is far too many teeth. She is made up of scales, of tails, of exoskeleton - anything fit for a monster.

When she speaks, her voice is quiet, tentative, and hoarse. She raises her human arms, as if in surrender. As if that makes her any less frightening.

"Hi. I'm sorry." The apology comes out like a reflex. Noelle doesn't think much of it. "I'm lost, too. I promise I don't bite, but. Um. You should be careful of the flowers back there. They do."

Noelle's cheeks flush. Honestly, this is just embarrassing.

It takes a while for Noelle to work up the courage to venture into the courtyard. Running into a stray individual in the maze was bad enough. The possibility of confronting multiple people, all at once, in a public space? Agonizing. But if she's going to have a shot at leaving this place, or fixing herself, or getting a bite to eat, she's going to have to enter the breach sooner or later.

She visits the courtyard at night. Hopefully, under cover of darkness, no one will look at her.

Noelle gets as close as she can to the large flower. It feels... important, for some reason, like a landmark or a shrine. She doesn't manage to touch it with her human hands, and her lower half squirms and writhes away from it, as if frightened. Its smell is awfully strong, like a butcher's shop, but that's important, too. It's all information she can use to build a strategy.

Noelle breathes in. She breathes out. Her lower half gurgles, and as she steps away from the plant, her human face goes stricken.

Her lower half, meanwhile, burrows itself into the ground, scooping up dirt and grass and stone and shoving what it can into its many mouths and other orifices. Her lower half swallows; the eyes in her upper face go glassy.

"Please," she begs her body, "stop."

Noelle gets her wish. Noelle's lower half - all of its mass of heads, teeth, limbs and tentacles - reach for whoever comes within a few feet of her.

Unfortunately, that may be you.

[ One fine mid-morning, all walkie-talkies tuned to channel one will broadcast the hiss of static, followed by the soft, slightly timid voice of a young woman. ]

"Hi. My name's Noelle. I'm new here, so I don't really know if these things work or not, but I was wondering if someone could tell me some things about the town?"