Nymph

Nymph is a 6-star character in Arknights. Nymph's class is Caster. Faction: Rhodes Island.

Facing the Soul: "As a Djall, Nymph is able to sense the feelings that others try to hide.

She must be careful about this ability in Kazdel, however, lest the anger and hate overcome her.

She does not want to run away, though. Time after time, she musters the courage to face the storms of the soul, opening a path with her key-whip.

She believes that she has seen a light at the end of the seemingly boundless storm."

PRI-X: Nymph looks at the little box in front of her and lets out a heavy sigh.

Without a doubt, this strange record player is her parents' handiwork.

Her sister had sent their parents a message, explaining the situation in Kazdel and telling them that Nymph joined Rhodes Island.

Ever since then, they've been sending her all sorts of oddities: pens that can't write, whistles that don't whistle, decorative glass flowers.....

and now this. Without inspecting it closely, Nymph takes the record that came with the record player and sets it on the turntable.

The disc just spins and spins on top of the turntable without properly locking into place.

Nymph fiddles with the device for a few minutes to no avail.

It doesn't play a single note.

She picks up the record, flips it over to check the other side, and measures its thickness with her finger.

It is a bit thicker than usual, and there's no hole on the back...

Hm? Nymph looks again. The back really has no spindle hole, but it does have a smooth lockplate.

Could it be? She takes out a key and, half-doubting, prods at the keyhole.

The tip of the key slides all the way in.

A gentle turn, and she hears the mechanism click open.

It really is a lock. Yet she doesn't feel any emotion from it.

It seems this record isn't a vessel for any emotions, it's simply for decoration.

She sets it back on the player. The key seems to serve as a spindle now, fixing the record in place.

As she lowers the tonearm, the record begins to turn slowly.

Nymph's room remains silent, but she feels it clearly, the emotion flowing from that key: the purest, truest love.

Though it was born from the pain-filled ritual of the Djall, it's soft and warm, like...

A knock at the door pulls Nymph from her reverie.

She opens it to find two young Sarkaz she often sees roaming the streets.

"Are you roasting sweet potatoes, Nymph?"

"Are you warming cystymilk?"

They're asking two different questions, but Nymph realizes they're asking them for the same reason.

They can feel the warmth in the room, not from food, but from the record player her parents sent.

Had her parents really done it? Shared a feeling unique to the Djall with every Sarkaz, maybe even—

"Feels like my grandma's sitting in a rocking chair knitting me a sweater," says a Feline Rhodes Island field operator.

Every Terran?

Nymph pulls out the key and slots it into her own heart-lock.

There are small differences, but the feelings they release are the same.

No doubt, this gift can share emotions with others.

So long as its owner is a Djall willing to do so, of course.

The thought makes her sincerely grateful for her quirky, idea-spinning father and her deft-handed engineer mother.

No one on the land understands their children better than a pair of Djall parents.

After mulling it over, she takes the record player and a key with a flame motif and heads for Ermengarde's place.

She has a bold idea—one involving the Soul Furnace.

PRI-Y: Nymph had less and less time to help the folks of Kazdel after she joined Rhodes Island.

To help her neighbors get used to life without her, she left behind a small box with a heart symbol on it, with wooden strips for writing next to it.

She would come back periodically to collect their wishes and fulfill them as usual.

She was holding one of those strips now.

Literacy rates in Kazdel were low: its denizens preferred to draw rather than write.

As for the strip she was holding—

It depicted a paper cup with wings and a halo, holding some kind of sticky substance.

A Lateran dessert? Did they want to try some?

Nymph looked at the symbol on the bottom-right: the sign of the neighborhood orphan gang, consisting of orphaned children who came together to survive in this city, facing the same harsh challenges as the adults.

The orphans would find a plate of muffins in front of their hideout the next morning.

Several weeks later, when Nymph returned to Kazdel from a field mission, she found a big wooden panel by the stuffed-full box.

There was a huge thumbs-up on it, with another small picture of the orphan gang's sign wrapped up in a heart on the bottom-right.

The orphans seemed to like the dessert, and they wanted to talk to her.

When she showed up at the orphans' hideout, she found herself surrounded by young Sarkaz who welcomed her inside, excitedly telling her how much they loved it.

Then, the leader of the gang, a nachzehrer by the name of "Blindie", made another request of her—

They wanted to learn how to make desserts.

That sweet flavor, so different from the bitter struggle for survival, was irresistible.

They wanted to keep that sweetness by their side, no matter the price.

Nymph translated the recipe into simple instructional pictures, and offered to provide ingredients to the children if they completed some simple chores for Rhodes Island.

She even modified the recipe to only use ingredients available in Kazdel.

It wasn't as good as the real thing, but more than enough to fulfill the children's craving for sweets.

Blindie quietly came to Nymph's side as she and the young Sarkaz tasted the freshly-baked muffins.

She wanted to know what Nymph expected in return.

Nymph gave her a key to the little box.

Open the box, take out a wooden strip, and fulfill somebody else's wish.

That was the payment Nymph demanded: that one act of kindness may lead to another, joining hearts and souls together.

It begins today.

As Blindie solemnly put the key in her pocket, Nymph took another bite out of the muffin, satisfied.

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