PLATFORMS

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WHO IS HELLEN?

Hellen is a blue-green Siamese spitting cobra who was born in 1994 in Turkey, but would later move to the state of California at the age of 14 in 2008. She'd do so not out of her own will, but instead because of the rest of her large family did so. All being snakes, obviously they would want to be closer to warmer areas and what not. Cold-blooded and all that jazz... But thats not what Kaylana Nagastraff wanted... Who's Kaylana Nagastraff you ask...? Well, that's Hellen...You see, Hellen wasn't always "Hellen". Growing up, her father (the mother was absent) would tell her stories that her family has heritage to Scandinavian Vikings. This idea was something that her father wanted her to believe, because it was something he believed as well. The idea of it was passed down from Kaylana's father's father, which was passed by his mother, and his mother's mother, and etc etc etc. The last name "Nagastraff" was a name that had relevance in Norway as well, one of the Scandinavian countries in which Vikings roamed... and Kaylana became obsessed with it.Kaylana lived for Viking culture. She believed in everything she did research on. She became an expert on Norse Mythology, and when she was 24 in 2018, you better believe she was there to judge "God of War" when it came out. But she isn't a nerd about it. She very much kept it to herself, because she knew to have her priorities straight. She went on the grind and became a very successful secretary to a large company in 2023 at age 29, and her authority was something to be respected. Being a large snake as well also improved that authority... Whenever anyone, even her own boss, questions her decisions... her smile fades, the eyes go wide, and the hood frills up. She gets very scary at times... But the only decision she can understand people questioning her for... was changing her name to "Hellen"."Why would you do that...? What's the point? Do you still at least have your last name?" people would ask. Of course the last name was there, but she very much insisted people to only call her as "Hellen" when she legally changed her name to that. Sometimes people would even shorten it to "Hel" without her asking. She did this because she was acutely aware of what kind of woman she was, and she wanted to embrace it. So taking her Norse mythology obsession, she took inspiration from the goddess of Norse's underworld herself... "Hel".Hellen loved the HELL out of Helheim, and WANTED to be in that realm, because it was so different to the popularized "Hell". She didn't believe in Christianity, Buddhism, Taoism, or anything like that. She believed purely in Norse gods and Norse mythology, and she believed that when she dies, she wont be going to HELL, she would go to Helheim. Plus if she does have Scandinavian heritage, it only made more sense for her to be sent to there and not Christianity's "Hell". It made sense to her. But what didn't make any sense... was that her ENTIRE family...

WERE ALL SNAKES.

You see, vikings roamed in Norway, and Norway is in Northern Europe, and that place has very cold temperatures. So if the Nagastraffs really DID originate from Norway, how did those snakes grow their offspring in those environments? Cold-blooded remember? Of course there COULD have been some in-breeding or, god-forbid, very early on trafficking. Or maybe even someone from Scandinavia TRAVELED to Southeast Asia, and gave some random Siamese cobra the last name "Nagastraff", and that snake traveled around or something... But no... That can't be... There's no way something so important to them could be so lack-luster, so Hellen and her family REFUSES to believe it... and they were right in doing so.They've ran tests on their DNA... It always came back as mostly Siamese spitting cobra, with NO DNA of ANYTHING that could even survive in those cold environments.
They did as much research into their family records as they could... It would always say that there was NEVER any other species of animal with their last names, in their family tree.
They've even asked friends who CAN go over to Norway, to see if they recognize anything with a "Nagastraff" title to it... and there has always been confirmation of some...So then HOW... HOW could they NOT be from Viking heritage? But then again... How COULD they be? They basically HAD to have had a family member who is a snake, be born into a Viking family, given the last name "Nagastraff" and survive the cold, to THEN make it back to Southeast Asia or even Turkey... But it sounds too complex to be true! But Hellen was going to prove it... Hellen Nagastraff was going to find hard evidence that someone in her family was a snake born in the cold, who SURVIVED to pass down their last name... No matter WHAT.

• THE SEARCH
• CHARACTERS
• HOME

WHAT DID SHE FIND?

Hellen at first didn't know where to look. How would she be able to prove it to everyone, including her own family? Well, she had the immediate idea to go up there to Finland, Sweden, and Norway, but no that would be stupid. Those Countries' temperatures have a highest of around 30º Celsius and a lowest of around -50º Celsius. Snakes normally need a temperature of 60-90. There was no way she would survive out there. So after working at her company since 2022, she left in 2028 to go looking all around. She was extremely financially stable, and so she was not afraid to leave and pursue her goal at age 34.Of course she tried the usual methods again. DNA, family records, and reading up on books. But then she got a little more creative... She contacted other expert Norse researchers around the world to ask them to dig through their own research to look for the last name "Nagastraff" in any of their texts... nothing. She hired multiple archeologists to go digging in places all up north for skeletal remains of possible family members. The project became so big, that she started a company just for it, calling it "NAHN" (Northern Archeologists of Hellen Nagastraff) in 2032.This company would make dig sites in anywhere up north. Whether it'd be a random state like North Dakota, or an island like Greenland, she would always have land there. They would eventually find things like artifacts, books, and secret chambers, but she would always tell her workers to put them back or leave them alone. She didn't care for things like a nearly half-blank book written by a "Ravenhaul" talking about magic and spells, unless they had something to point to her heritage. "Throw it away" she would always say. But after looking and looking for 8 years... she gave up.In 2040 at age 46, she disbanded the company and with still lots of money left in the bank from investors and her past job... she retired early. Sitting in her lavish apartment, drinking her life away. Her father passed away at this point, she wasn't married, no kids, but did have multiple lovers...

ONE OF THEM
WAS ME AT THAT TIME.

She found me and my Arks on one of her searches in 2039, in the state of Nova Scotia where we tried to hide out in. She always knew about us, because everyone in the world did. But she didn't care that it was our land, she wanted to go digging... and we let her... because we were enthralled by her drive. So we decided to help her with her goal, and she valued us greatly. I mean, whats more valuable than an loyal-ass alien who can basically do whatever you ask it to do? We, specifically me (Arkhize), got on her good side... and we hit it off.Eventually though, she'd get this fire back in her... It was depressing in the years sticking around her after she gave up, but something snapped in her one day. She decided that she would go up to the North-most point in Norway to go looking for something, ANYTHING she could use a proof... After all what did she have to lose at this point? So she requested me, and only me, to come with her and keep her alive on her search. Since my atoms could do anything, I could become her personal heating lamp, and by bringing my pod with us, I could create anything she needed. So we went...She bought a cabin as close to the north-most part of Norway as possible, and we stayed there. It was cold, but by configuring my atoms, I was able to make my body burn as hot as I wanted, and as hot as she wanted. I could also extract the atoms from my pod to fill the air of the cabin, and make it warm inside... We'd leave somedays to go searching around the area for anything, while I stand by her side keeping her warm out in the cold. She wanted to find hard proof. Something like skeletal remains of a snake, or art telling a story, or text telling her of her heritage. We'd go at this for 4 months... and find nothing.She didn't know what she was doing anymore... But I was still there to encourage her, and support her every decision. She appreciated me. Then one day I decided I would go out searching alone for proof instead of her. My atoms kept the house warm while I was gone, so I had nothing to worry about. Walking around the area, it looked like a mini-quarry, because I used my atoms to dig in large chunks. I did most of the work, and I was happy to. So I worked that day for about an hour and a half, and I decided it was good enough for now, because yet again I found nothing. But when I came back to the cabin, I saw a note on the table... and Hellen was nowhere to be seen."Dear Ark,
I know you will come back with nothing, and I know we will find nothing. I'm tired of this song and dance, and even though you tell me its not, I know this whole search is stupid. But I have one very last attempt, which will tell me if I am who I think I am. One that you wont approve of, but you'll live on without me. Its kind of your thing. I'm sure you've had someone do this before, so please just let it go. For me. Let the cold take me, and let my death take me to her realm. My heritage will put me in the Hel I belong in, and if it doesn't... well, at least I wont have to live with the pain any longer. So please, don't come looking for me, don't organize a funeral, and don't tell anyone where I am. You're the only one I trust with this. Let the freezing cold take me to a place colder than here.
With love, Kaylana Nagastraff, or Hellen, it doesn't matter XOXO"I went looking for her anyway. Walking out of the house I saw a straight snake line in the snow and nothing else. She didn't have footprints. There was no snow storm, it wasn't night, it was perfectly daytime. The trail went on and on. I was thinking that maybe she would still be alive... that is unless she had left as soon as I did, because I was gone for nearly 2 hours, and with it being as cold as it was... And then the trail ended... there I saw her body. Completely still, lifeless eyes, laying behind a tree. I cried, but I didn't sob.She was right. I have been through this multiple times; a loved one who committed suicide. But that doesn't mean the pain of it went away, it just made everything numb... So I grabbed her body, laid it flat on the ground... and remembering her note... I left her there. Saying anything I needed to say to her corpse, I walked away with my head held low. Whenever anyone asked where her body was, I showed them her note. I was the only one she had trusted til the very end... So she laid there, and the snow buried her body... she had died...

AND SHE WOKE UP, IN A DIFFERENT PLACE.

• HER NEW JOB
• WHO IS HELLEN?
• HOME

WHERE WAS SHE?

Cold... Everything was so cold... The creaking of the trees echoed in her mind... But she wasn't shivering anymore, and inside her body, she could feel everything was cold... But she was alive. As soon as she opened her eyes, she shot up and leaned up straight breathing heavily. Every inhale was cold, and every exhale didn't have a visible cloud. Her insides were as cold as her surroundings, and her surroundings... barren. Looking around her, she saw a giant wall. The wall stretched into the distance from the left and right, and on her pathway, a giant open gate... She could see people. Humans and animals dragging their feet, claws, paws, and hooves, moving towards the gate. Then that's when she knew where she was... and instead of a face of worry and dread, Hellen had the biggest "fuck you" grin on her face.Helheim. She was in Helheim, the Norse land of the dead.She stood up straight and slithered into the gates. Inside, there were homes made of brick, wood, and this blue fiber-ish looking material. Some of the homes were bigger than others, some even looked more modern than others, but they all had very thin see-through ice as their windows. Everyone inside those homes and buildings had a blue freezing tint on their skin, fur, and feathers, while their eyes glowed pure white. Everyone looked sad and depressed, rightfully so as they were in Helheim, a place of death, sadness, and gloom... But not for Hellen. As she was slithering down the foggy main path with all the other deceased, it seemed like she was the only one with a smile on her face.The homes and buildings never seemed to end... She slithered for so long, until she heard and FELT the rumble of a howl. A howl so loud that everyone around, including her, covered their ears. When it stopped, straight ahead on the main path far into the fog and mist, stood the figure of a lone feral wolf. Its eyes glowed on it's dark figure through the fog. It just stood and stared at the deceased people, and then the figure of a robed figure slowly appeared. As they both walked closer, their silhouettes began to fade.The wolf was gray, with icicles hanging from it's fur, and it was as big as a king sized bed. While the robed figure, as they walked closer, removed the hood of their robe... It was a white human woman, with black hair and brown eyes. Her face was half normal, but the other half showed her bare skull... Half her face was decayed. They kept walking until they were about a few yards away. The woman began to talk, and even though she was speaking calmly, her voice still echoed in the mind of Hellen and the other deceased, almost as if she was right next to them. She spoke in a righteous tone..."Greetings dearly departed... If you are here, then it means you have met your unamusing demise. You all have died, and you will never be able to go back to your normal, unassuming lives. You will be dead forever... and because you lived unamusingly, there will be no reincarnation or Asgard for you... but you wont suffer. I will care for you all, and your lives will continue in my kingdom. My name is Hel... but you may refer to me as your queen... If you are here, it also means your ancestors have brought you here... to Helheim; The NORSE land of the dead. All of your ancestors were offspring of Norse gods, goddesses, kings, and queens... All of you have Norse blood flowing in your veins... All... Except for one..."Hel turned to face Hellen...

"YOU ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE HERE."

Hellen's heart was frozen solid and unmoving already, as she was dead... but the feeling of it dropping was still there. Her eyes shot open and she fell to her hands, and held her head low, thinking to herself. She... didn't have Norse blood in her body...? It was true then... all of her effort and searching was for nothing. Her death was for nothing... but if that were the case, how did she get into Helheim? Hellen felt her eyes dart around the ground and she lifted her head back up... Hel was standing before her, looking down with the a face of regret."But you still wonder why you are here, I assume... Well... Although you do not have Norse blood in you, Kaylana... or shall I say Hellen Nagastraff...? You have more than proven yourself as a woman of Norse. I have watched you, and I myself snatched your soul to bring it here, instead of the other underworlds. Your death wasn't a valiant one, but your desire and dedication to me, truly has made you deserving of MORE than just being a civilian of my kingdom. You look up to BE me... and for that, I cannot give you my place... But I can give you a place BESIDE ME."Hel reached for the top of Hellen's head, and Hellen instinctively lowered it. Hel's hand was small compared to Hellen's flat snake head and hood. Her palm made contact, and as soon as it did, there was a low hum... When Hel lifted her hand and lowered it to her side, Hellen immediately began to feel her body molting and shedding.She was used to shedding as a snake, but this was different... because her skin and scales were shedding then coming back and shedding then coming back, at a rapid pace. She felt no pain, but she began to grow in size. She felt two things prod her shoulders... from inside her skin. They kept prodding and poking until they burst out, hissing beside her own face. Her hood grew so large it covered the two things that just emerged... and then the shedding slowed down... and stopped.Looking around, Hellen grew twice her original size. About 16 feet in length, but just from her head to her waist, she was around 9 feet tall. Her skin was now a green-lime color while her front scales were a light blue. Looking beside her, she had grown two other heads. They had their own necks, no hood, and had bright yellow void-like eyes, with a small, yellow, glowing, upside-down triangle on their heads. She felt a connection to them... like they were part of her brain, but still had semi-sentience themselves. She felt her heartbeat again... and she also felt her stomach feeling bottomless, yet full at the same time... Like she was hungry, but not starving. She looked down at Hel, looking up at her creation."Hellen... You are my choice to be The Sentinel of Helheim...
You are the gateway, the chooser, the ambassador, and hunter of my kingdom. You will have the role of seeking those who's time is up, and you will devour them... When you do, your body will open a gateway into my domain... severing their soul and sending it here, but saving the body to fill your near endless hunger. And when you are not finding those who are on the way to my domain, you will be hunting those who escape it... You will help me communicate with the other sentinels and rulers of the underworlds. You are the only one other than me, that I will allow to travel between Earth and Hel... You will never die, never be alive, but you will always have purpose... Do you accept?"Hellen looked around, as the deceased looked up at her in awe, while some others bowed. She turned to her two heads, both had the same shocked expression as her... She thought about her whole life... Was her last name just something made up? Was it given to her family by a drunken Viking as a joke? Is she the only one in her family who made it here...? She and her heads slowly began to smile, thinking about here and now... All that matters is that SHE made it... So she spoke...

"YES... I ACCEPT YOUR MAJESTY."

• PRESENT DAY
• THE SEARCH
• HOME

That brinngs us to now.

Dawning a simple black and white suit and tie, cat-eye glasses, and a clipboard in-hand... Hellen would become Helheim's Sentinel, and gain multiple abilities, gifted by Hel herself. The ability of being able to swallow people whole was the first thing. Due to her new size and flexible jaw as a snake, it was extremely easy to simply pick up anyone she had on her list using her new strength, and swallow them without chewing. Any name that magically appeared on that list, she would teleport to find... and let them know that their time is up, which was another one of her abilities.Traveling by... tail (?) all around the world obviously is not quick enough. So thanks to Hel's blessing, Hellen was given the power to open gateways and use a minimal amount of telekinesis and telepathy. Each of these three powers were split to one for each of her three heads. Her main head with the hood, was the devour ability, the one on her right was able to open gateways, and her left was telekinesis and telepathy. All three heads, with their own thoughts and sentience, but all of which were copies of Hellen's brain at the time of Hel's gifting. So they communicate amongst each other, but rarely argue due to them thinking exactly the same.Hellen became a "grim reaper" of sorts, even though the OTHER Grim Reaper exists as well already... Traveling around Earth taking the lives of those who had Norse blood in them. Maybe it was therapeutic for her as well, just maybe... Only because she couldn't be LIKE THEM. But she would never tell you that, because even with her newfound purpose, she was still the same hard-working, even scarier now, business-woman she always had been.Hellen would do exactly what Hel requested of her, not even because Hel told her to, but because she loved this job. She was unkillable, she was strong, she was powerful, invisible to the living, and even though she didn't get the truth she wanted, she did get the respect of someone she looked up to. She loved her new purpose. She would also soon discover what Hel meant by "You will help me communicate with the other sentinels and rulers of the underworlds."

Helheim was not the only underworld of the dead.
Every Religion, Region, and Ethnicity had their own ideas of what happens after death... and every single theory was right... minus the idea of a land for the "good ones". If you are good, you are not gifted Heaven or something like that, you are just simply reincarnated. But if you are bad, you simply go to an underworld, to live for all eternity. Of course there are multiple theories of the SAME underworld, but only one is real for each. All of these "Lands of the Dead" exist, and your own belief in WHICH ONE exists, and the blood in your body, determines which one you go to. So a Christianity believers goes to Hell, Hinduism believers will go to Patala, and someone with Norse blood, you get the idea... But ALL will be reincarnated if they lived self-less. But what about a mix of two ones?Say for instance, a Greek man who believes in Shinto. He has Greek blood, but believes in the Shinto religion... So would he go to Hades or Yomi? Well, it all determines on the rulers of each underworld and their respective Sentinels. When that man dies or is ABOUT to die, whoever can get their hands on his soul first, gets to keep him. And if both get their hands on him at the same time, then they have to fight for it... legally. Court-style. With the biggest, baddest, and most popular of them all as the judge; Satan.Thankfully Hellen is a smart woman. Ever since she started her new job in 2041, she has been one of the best at it for all of these hundreds of years. She's always been one of the quickest to snatching souls, and one the best at winning cases. She's made Hel proud. But one other thing Hellen had to do, was catch any people who ESCAPE from Hel... because there was a way.Off in a cave somewhere in one of the Northern-most points in Greenland, was the entrance to Hel. But its not some doorway... You have to do a ritual in an unsuspecting dead-end in said cave, and the portal will open... and the only two who know how to do this ritual are Hel and Hellen... But if you are already in Helheim, then escaping is as easy as walking to the edge of the realm... which would take you a month in Earth time.The walk from Hel's wall to the Exit of Helheim, without stopping, would take you nearly 730 hours. But with Helheim being the land of the dead, you COULD do it... Of course you'll still feel the pain of your feet, the freezing cold of the wind, and fear that you will be lost in the endless cold cloudy winds. But you wont starve, freeze, or lose your breath and die... You just have to be sure you're going in the right direction.The pathway on the ground to Hel's Kingdom will guide you in a direction, but after a while, the pathway will fade. You will be left on your own to go in a straight direction, because there is ONE exit... If you lose your direction, you will be lost in the endless cold fog. Other than that one exit, the rest of Helheim is literally infinite, and the only landmark is Hel's wall that is also infinite, and only takes you right back to where you started; The Entrance of Helheim... The place you were trying to escape...But Hel is a merciful goddess. If you are lost in the endless cold, and you beg her for mercy, calling out into the fog, she will answer your call in a disembodied voice... She will offer you a second chance in her Kingdom... And if you accept, Hellen will appear to open a gateway back to the entrance. But if you try to run again, be SURE you get to the exit that time... because Hel will NOT answer you if you are lost in Helheim the second time. But even if you did manage to get to the exit, Hellen WILL eventually find you anyway...