"Rejected Idea 2: Nix"

  One idea I had was really cool, but it was more suited for a sci-fi story than a fantasy.  Instead of re-writing everything about him, I'll just paste in his part of the summary that I wrote years ago.

     Now, we come to Nix.  Nix is an anomaly.  The sword was successfully forged on the second attempt.  Nix was a serious error with the first attempt.

  There were elixirs and potions created, but none were magical; it was all science.  I haven't gotten all the details worked out, but some potion or many potions were accidentally spilled in the molten steel while he was meditating, but he was not meditating properly, and the combination of all these factors lead to the creation of Nix.

  Nix is a shape shifter of an indeterminable material.  It's neither organic nor inorganic.  Fractions of my character's mind were sort of copied and transferred to Nix.  Nix' mind is made up of some of my character's thoughts, memories, and fantasies.

  Nix is sort of a schizophrenic as well.  Nix takes on a different humanoid appearance for certain aspects of its personality.  These figures are actual or imagined people my character relates to certain emotions or frames of mind.

  Understand that Nix doesn't have various personalities roaming around inside, but Nix is just very aware of the differences between (I'm going to call Nix a he) his emotions.  He has a personality similar to my character, but things are more separated in his head.

  He doesn't change forms every time his emotions change, but if he wants to express a certain emotion to its fullest, he becomes that representative figure.  He can take on a representative figure without feeling that emotion.

  He can take on any form whenever he wants.  He can also separate himself into more than one form.  His transformations are limited to his own mass, which somehow became the same as my character, but if he wanted to become something larger, he can make himself hollow.

  They've yet to find anything that can physically hurt him.  He can even make himself impenetrable.

  I haven't decided if I will make him vulnerable to anything physical, but I've been toying with the idea of if he tried to go through a doorway between the realities, he would be destroyed.  If I go with that, then I will have them know it.

  Here are some more things about Nix.  His mind is a lot of my character's subconscious.  Most of his emotions take on a female form.  There is a strong connection between Nix and my character.  It's not like a psychic or empathic connection, though.

  Nix prefers to be with my character.  Nix looks upon him as his source, his father and brother.  Nix is incomplete, and though he can grow mentally on his own, my character is everything that he is missing.  My character's mere presence makes Nix's existence seem less erratic.

  Nix sees my character as what he himself should be.  Nix doesn't try to imitate him necessarily, but sees him as an example.

  After my character and Crysta arrive, Nix peeks out from behind something or someone, and he's in the form of a little girl.  My character feels very lovingly toward him and understands all his forms.  My character sees him, has missed him, and greets him kneeling and with open arms.  Nix comes running to him, perhaps crying a little, and hugs him close.

  Crysta is surprised, thinking it is his daughter or something.  Nix' mind isn't specifically male or female.  I want to work in some romance in this, and Nix will be active in some way or another with both sexes.

  At one point, or on more than one occasion, I'll have Nix coat Crysta's body as an indestructible, form-fitted protective suit since she is inexperienced in the ways of battle.

  At another point afterward, I can have Nix alone with my character.  They can be having a serious conversation about something, and Nix can tell him that if he wanted, Nix could take on Crysta's form if he wanted certain privileges.

  Of course, my character would refuse the offer.  Nix would do anything for my character, and occasionally, happily in an almost servant-like manner.

  I was toying with the idea of, near the end of the story, Crysta and my character making a desperate rush to get through a portal, because sort of severe death is hot on their heels.

  It would be only them and Nix, with the portal provided by a physically distant "forest guy" [the mysterious man], and Nix would be coating Crysta's body to protect her, and they would be serving as a body shield for my character who would be running in front of them.

  Maybe there would be arrows and such, but I keep getting visions of fire from an explosion.  Anyway, the point is, if Nix gets off of Crysta, she will be killed before they reach the portal, and if they do not go through the portal, then they would all be encompassed by flames.

  Everyone had different ideas on what might happen to Nix if he went through a portal, and the big speculation was that he would get killed, because he touch a portal once, and it hurt him.

  So, in this scene, he selflessly remains on Crysta as they jump through the portal.  They land on the kitchen/dinning room floor of my character's apartment, and the portal quickly closes.  The two humans are getting up from the floor when they realize that Nix is sizzling and looks like liquid rust is running like liquid off of Crysta onto the floor.

  There's smoke and an acrid scent, and he's trying to pull himself into a form, but is having trouble.

  There will be more to it, but he will manage to form a head and maybe some resemblance of hands from the puddle of himself, and there will be some finale and extremely emotional dialogue between Nix and my character, and I suppose Crysta.

  And then Nix would die, becoming a mass of brittle rust.  Or I'd have him go through, suffer agonizing pain, but be able to make it back through in time to save himself.  Don't know for sure.