Nova

Nova, drawn by the lovely Acorn!

Nova is a main character in Over and Out, a musical set in A New School. She is a Wild One who chose to leave the forest in search of a new life and knows nothing about how to be a normal human. She's a member of the DCD.

## Biography

### Early Life

It is unclear what Nova's life before The Forest was like. Though she may have come from an abusive home which would have prompted the Shadow Mothers to rescue her and bring her to the woods where she became a Wild One. She had a sister named Penya who also lived in the woods with her. Nova was likely taken at a very young age to explain for why she doesn't understand many things in the real world.

It is unknown if Nova had any sort of power when she was a Wild One (like Scarlett's ability to walk through dreams or Soren's ability to hear the dead).

Once in the woods, she caught a deer with her family for the first time. Nova has described the atmosphere of that moment as being "calm and serene" while the deer was visibly terrified. This moment has clearly stuck with Nova as she later reflects back on it when she realizes she knows how the deer felt.

When she reached the age of 18, Nova was given the choice to stay or to leave the Forest like all Wild Ones are. Nova chose to leave. Penya is still in the Forest, whether it's because she's younger and has not been given the choice yet or because she chose to stay is not clear.

### Life After The Forest

After Nova left, she was enrolled into A New School and joined the Department of Creation and Destruction. There, she went out on to the roof every night with a walkie-talkie in hopes of contacting Penya again. For many nights, she never got an answer.

At A New School, Nova was seen as a weirdo. People assumed she grew up in an uber-religious homeschool families, or maybe in a bunker. It seemed the most logical reasoning for why she can barely work the internet and doesn’t know who Shakespeare is.

In episode 7 of Live From Averno, it was mentioned that Nova got food poisoning from eating off-brand candy at Al’s. Will apparently told her it was a bad idea but Nova was a “woman on a mission.”

Ruth and Summer apparently had to deal with Nova, Cicero, and Quinn after every rehearsal.

### Over And Out

One night, while going out on the roof and trying to make contact with Penya again, Nova is answered by someone else: Solar. This person tries to talk to Nova, but is unsuccessful. Nova then returned to her empty dorm room, empty except of course for jars of acorns and moss.

The next day, when Nova went to to the school cafeteria to get lunch, she ran into her roommate and her roommate's friends. They made some jokes and Nova as usual didn't understand them. She ended up walking away feeling disconnected and lamented to herself how it seems "the rest of the world got a manual guide to being the way that they are," one she never seemed to get. This is only cemented further when a lunch lady asks her if she wants ketchup on her burger and Nova didn't even know what ketchup is.

That night, Nova returned to the roof with a walkie talkie and tries to talk to Penya but there is still no response. After a few minutes, however, someone else answered- Solar. After a bit of confusion where Solar thought Nova is an alien and Nova thought Solar is Penya, they eventually figured out that they weren't who the other thought they are, and they began to talk. They then agreed to speak to each other again, via walkie talkie. Every night afterwards Nova went on to the roof and talked to Solar about everything and nothing. Solar soon realized how Nova doesn't seem to know anything. So the two became “rooftop bookclub buddies” and read new books every week. They watched movies on Netflix and used codenames - Star and Lilo. They became best friends, and have not even seen each other in real life.

Some time later, Solar called Nova again and started talking about aliens and searching for something, which confused Nova. Solar mumbled "jesus christ" at one point and she responded, "Who's that?" Eventually though, Solar came out and said that they like Nova more than a friend and asked her on a date. She responded "The fuck is a date?" (but said yes).

Nova then soon realized afterwards that she will have to eventually meet Solar in person. She became extremely scared at this and lied awake thinking about how Solar makes her feel versus if she can bring herself to be seen by them and risk being seen in a different way. Solar then tried to tell her that they will still see her, that they WANT to see her, but she didn't listen. Nova broke it off.

Nova went up to the roof and tried once again to find Penya. Once again, there was no answer. Though just as she was about to leave the roof, there was a crackling on the walkie talkie, then she heard Penya's voice. Penya told her “I can’t talk yet. But soon,” but that is all Nova needed to hear. Soon can be enough. Nova held the walkie talkie to her chest.

Nova didn't answer when Solar tried to get in contact with her, until finally telling her that they would be waiting on the roof of the DDL. They promised that no matter what, if she wanted to, they wanted to get to know her.

Nova almost didn't come, but then she saw the fairy lights glowing through the haze of snow, and she knew she had to go. When she arrived, she was stunned by everything Solar had did for her and the two enjoy being in each other's company in person for the first time.

Before winter break, Nova and Solar shared a plate of fries at Skyline Diner while the snow fell outside.

## Appearances

* Over And Out - Nova is one of the two main characters of Over And Out.
* Live From Averno - Nova is mentioned in LFA episode 7.

## Trivia

* Nova's original name was Ketchup.
* Along that same thread, it's reported that Nova did in fact get ketchup on her burger in the song Ketchup from Over and Out, and not only that but afterwards became obsessed with ketchup, putting it on any and all foods.