A/N: Hello. This is Miri, one half of the duo of Black Wings-White Wings! Welcome to our first story. Almost all of these will be based on the Otherborn roleplaying website, but you may eventually find some that won't be. This particular story has a long history of "What if" - mostly, "What If" Neku from the Otherborn website had never lost his memories. Because Otherborn itself requires some description, I'm dedicating this first chapter to a description of the setting itself. I hope you enjoy!
Urbadelphia City. It's a place full of hopes, dreams, sadness, despair, joy, laughter - the place people find their way to when they're looking for answers, or have no answers to find. It's a city with a secret, but aren't all the best cities?
Most importantly, it's home.
My name is Neku Sakuraba. The story of Urbadelphia, in all its forms, is my story - but it's not just my story. It's the story of all the amazing people who have made this city shine.
This particular story is about myself, and a girl named Namine. It's our story, so we'll take turns telling it; each part is a part that only one of us can tell correctly.
As I mentioned before, Urbadelphia has a secret. Actually, the whole world has a secret - that secret is the existence of Otherborn, human beings with special abilities, and the existence of the Otherworld from which they, and far, far darker entities, draw power. The Otherworld is a hellish dimension between here and the true Underworld; it's the home plane of demons of all kinds, from all mythologies and of all eras. Those demons, unsatisfied with their home and their lives, often strive to come here, to Earth, past the Veil which separates our dimensions.
The truth is, to most demons, humans are like food and toys. Playthings, nourishment - that's all humans are to the hellish inhabitants of the Otherworld, and their own half-blooded offspring, the Halfers, are no better, slaves to the demons' whims. To gather slaves, to sow dissension, to conquer - those are the reasons demons infiltrate our world.
Otherborn are the only ones who can stop them. When a demon crosses between dimensions, a pocket of space that is neither Earth nor Otherworld is created; normal humans can't perceive this pocket of space unless they're drawn directly into the center of it. Otherborn can. They experience the pocket, called a Crossing, in full - and if they destroy the demon holding the rip open, the Veil itself is restored to normal. So they've banded together, forming organizations and groups across history and the world to help repel the demonic threat.
It's with one such Otherborn that our story starts - Namine LeBeau, daughter of a wealthy family, whose ability is to strengthen the powers of other Otherborn in battle.
As for me, I don't come in 'till a little later, but you'll see me soon enough.
I hope you're ready to begin; I know Namine and I are.