there's bravery in being soft

#SNOWBRAVE: NOELLE HOLIDAY of DELTARUNE. aborted weird route, spared berdly. NOT INDIE FRIENDLY. mutuals only. low activity. 18+. CONTAINS UNMARKED SPOILERS FOR DELTARUNE CHAPTERS 1 AND 2.

girl next door

a sweet [Angel]

has like 100 christmas sweaters

that kid you knew in high school who was part of every club and aced every course

will help you with your homework

afraid of literally everything

(watches lots of horror movies anyway)

only knows one human

white mage x2 (healing and ice magic)

sleigh bells

Verified Gamer Girl™

Coming up from behind, Majora can’t help themselves– they spring forward, attempting to grab the girl by the antlers and tug backward as hard as they can.

( They let out a wicked laugh as they do, @snowbrave​. )

clumsy even on the best of days, with her nose in her notebook, noelle doesn't stand a chance. her knees buckle, arms flailing helplessly, and she screeches a terrified falsetto before crashing to the ground. the book and pen follow shortly after— and with them, an hour of research scatters to the winds.

       PAY NO MIND TO THE STRANGER sleeping off his nausea— on a park bench, a book laid open over his face.

attention, she's certain, is not what v wants; not attention, certainly not from a girl who barely has the spine to stand up to her own shadow. noelle can't even begin to explain why she walks towards him— approaching strangers is far from her forte, she never knows how to act, what to say— but she has a feeling that if she isn't the one to approach him, someone far less tolerable will come along.

well... she thinks to herself, not just her. it's the similarities she shares with queen that had made noelle nearly shriek when first approached, considering her proximity to queen and cyber city (kris' odd behaviour, the ring...) can be counted on one hand. and even though she does sleep eventually, noelle does not sleep enough. in the stillness of night her mind continues racing.

it always leads her here: blankets tossed around, pillow on the floor, window open. frost nips at the grass but noelle feels no need to shiver, even as she rests her arms on the thin layer of ice on her windowsill. each home her gaze falls under is dormant— in truth, she had only seen a handful even occupied. surely the bustle of the underground all called some place home, but wherever that was, it certainly was not on the surface. this thought badgers her endlessly, mouth falling into a small frown, until she's hopped out the frame and decided to investigate for herself.

it makes her nostalgic, but it also hurts.

she passes swiftly by the grass domes she's already seen people traffic, moving to the ones that had been dark since her first night here. she scrutinizes each lawn, façade, door, noting the small customizations that had been given to each; her mind tumbles the idea of who might own each one like you tumble rocks into gems. who preferred daisies to peonies? green door to white? one had a wooden hitch for horses— or what noelle thought was a horse hitch, her only exposure to them coming from a human history book. she thinks of lissandra’s home, how she had been so shaken by the whole encounter that she had hardly managed to take in the ways her space had been arranged. would she have holly bushes? tundra shrubs? how do you decorate for someone with as much power as her? she tries to imagine what the freljord must have been like, endless ice and snow...

a figure drifts into her vision. prey animal instincts make noelle pull in a sharp gasp, hands covering her mouth and buck teeth. three stomach-churning seconds pass without even so much as her heart beating before it resolves itself as lissandra, and she lets out a shaky sigh of relief.

                  “lissandra?" her tone rises uncertainly until it forms a question. she swallows thickly around her apprehension and prays to the angel lissandra can’t hear or feel the whole extent of her nervousness as she approaches from the empty home. strangers made her uncomfortable. but lissandra seemed like a leader, and that helps noelle relax somewhat. she was taught to respect people in positions of authority. "it's me, noelle. I was just—”

thinking about you, she’s about to say, but swallows the words before they can incriminate her.

                 “... having trouble sleeping.”

noelle racks her brain to think of something she can say to make colette feel comfortable enough to get a conversation going. the words she settles on feel so mild compared to the gale of questions she wants to ask colette, ask anyone here, but she knows they are better than nothing.

                         "so, what do you usually do with your free time?" she guesses her most boring of questions is actually the most engaging. she hopes.

CHRONOLIUM INFORMATION.

SPONSOR. whisperwood HOUSING. WW-01 RANK. unstable LIFELINE. the colour of first snow

COUNCIL BENEFITS.

none.

BASIC INFORMATION.

NAME. noelle holiday PRONOUNS. she / her AGE. sixteen (february 17th) TROPES. academic athlete, childhood friend, combat medic, the corruptible, cute clumsy girl, daddy’s girl extreme doormat, fatal flaw, gamer chick, grew a spine, an ice person, lonely rich kid, morality pet, shrinking violet, trauma button, weak-willed, youthful freckles COMMONLY FOUND AT. the library, parked behind a pile of books; the cafe, also parked behind a pile of books, but enjoying a hot cocoa loaded with whipped cream this time; waiting at the bus stop with her gamemonster advance out LIKES. sweater weather, fresh snow, hot cocoa, strings of lights, horror movies, jrpgs, the smell of books, a freshly-sharpened pencil, colour-coded notes, helping her classmates, her youth group DISLIKES. the dark, santa claus, baseball, the word december, mice, heights, graveyards, loud noises

PHYSICAL.

HEIGHT. 160cm (5'3") WEIGHT. 55kg (121 lbs) (includes antlers) EYES. warm brown HAIR. fluffy, light blonde down to her shoulders, usually worn loose or in pig tails BUILD. girlish, lean, with narrow curves at her hips. runner’s legs. VOICE. a bright, cheerful soprano. prone to stammering and abrupt jumps to harsh falsettos, especially when surprised or scared (which is often) DRESS. preppy. primarily wears warm browns and accents consisting of red and green. argyle sweater vests, collared shirts, a-line skirts, plaid. many, many christmas sweaters.  NOTABLE FEATURES. a covering of surprisingly soft fur, brown on most of her body but shifting to beige towards her stomach and limbs. buck teeth. her suspiciously cross-shaped antlers, currently covered in velvet, which will shed in the spring. 

MENTAL.

PERSONALITY. polite, kind, and friendly, noelle is the girl every teacher would describe as “a pleasure to have in class.” even when she dislikes something, noelle finds it difficult to say so; this timidness often ends with her being talked over, dismissed, or forced into a worse situation than if she had spoken up. her inability to assert herself and submissive personality cause her father to fret endlessly about her defenselessness, and he has reason to: it takes very little convincing for noelle to follow kris’ command to freeze victim after victim, becoming disturbingly accustomed to harming others simply because she was told. she’s also afraid of, well, everything, with very little self-confidence or regard for her own abilities, and occasionally shows worrisome signs of self harm: exposing herself to lethal colds, intentionally seeking out physical harm at the hands of the school bully, and willingly putting on an incredibly painful ring that continually saps her energy.   POSITIVE. generous, helpful, empathetic, polite, patient NEGATIVE. timid, submissive, easily scared OUTLOOK. surprisingly pessimistic, especially towards herself. convinced things will always go wrong no matter how much she tries to change it. a mess of learned helplessness.  FAITH. a devout follower of the deltarune form of christianity, which worships the Angel instead of god.

MISCELLANEOUS.

THIS BLOG IS MUTUALS ONLY AND FOCUSES ON PLOTTED DYNAMICS. I don't like introduction posts, and want to establish a vague relationship (as in, "we're neighbours and you play your christmas music too loud," or "I complimented your sweater on the street and now we're friends,") and general trajectory of our muses' relationship beforehand.

18+. I don't write with minors.

NOELLE IS MINOR-CODED. there will be no lewding on this blog beyond hand holding. 

SLOW AS FUCK. I have a full time job and hobbies outside of writing. I will reply to what I am motivated to, when I am motivated to.

NAME. ecto OOC CONTACT. ectophage @ tumblr AGE. 21+ PRONOUNS. she / her OTHER CHARACTERS. none

IN CHARACTER INFORMATION.

NAME. noelle holiday SERIES. deltarune SPONSOR. whisperwood CANON POINT. aborted snowgrave, spared berdly TRIGGER WARNINGS. emotional abuse, gaslighting, familial death, terminal illness, self harm 

BIOGRAPHY.

daughter of the mayor of hometown, noelle is the timid, studious counterpart to her older sister dess. while her father rudolph was always unshakably optimistic and showered his daughters in affection, the strict and icy demeanor of her mother left noelle feeling inadequate no matter what success she achieved. this and her chronic fear of anything that moved (and many things that didn’t) made noelle turn inwards at a very young age, opening up solely to her older sister dess and her only two friends in the world, their neighbors kris and asriel dreemurr. 

while noelle was scared of everything, she would still follow dess and the dreemurrs as they explored the woods behind the graveyard long after dark. the fear was exhilarating to her, knowing dess would keep her safe— until the outing when dess disappeared. her recollection stops in front of mossy red doors, then starts again in the back of an ambulance, shivering under the weight of a trauma blanket. everything between is a mist of terror. 

shattered, noelle turned even further inward, drifting from the dreemurrs. the hours not spent studying with berdly or running cross country with jockington were spent playing video games with her father, whose protectiveness of her grew tenfold after dess’ disappearance. 

then he was hospitalized.

suddenly noelle was grateful for berdly demanding every hour of her time, throwing herself harder than ever into school and bible studies to cope with her father’s sudden illness. they met at the computer lab one late afternoon, intending to study as normal, but both tumbled downwards into the dark world instead.

initially scared, disoriented, and captured by the queen, (the queen said she was stong, but noelle didn’t feel strong,) noelle managed to slip out of the castle and find her way back to kris. as she and kris moved through the city, mist descends over her memory again: she remembers kris, she remembers they taught her about battles, about ACTing. she remembers kris told her to use ice magic. she remembers getting stronger. kris made her freeze enemies. kris made her stronger. she remembers a ring too expensive to buy and frost on her fingers when kris put it on her anyway. kris must have convinced him. kris is good at convincing people. 

she remembers a frenetic voice called to her, [Angel], [Angel], from inside a closed dumpster. she remembers a constant pain in her left index finger, dust trickling off into the city breeze. it made her stronger. 

the mist lifts then, and what happens next is clear: she told berdly to run. begged him. she didn’t know why, but she knew the danger he was in was grave. something about kris, what their next command would be, how wrong they sounded as they told her to proceed. how different they’d been acting.

they spared berdly. 

her relief was tangible. the rest of the night was benign, even fun: noelle convinced herself the entire thing— kris’ odd behavior, the ferris wheel ride with susie, the sweet and strangely familiar goat boy— had all been a dream. soon she’d wake up, and soon she’d be able to forget the worst of it.

when she woke, it was not in the library. 

when she woke, it was not at home.

it was in chronolium. 

PERSONALITY.

polite to a fault, noelle has always adhered to the idea of staying quiet unless she has something positive to say. she does her best to be friendly towards everyone, even those she dislikes, which makes her warm and easy to approach. the fact that she’s very eager to help others makes her beloved by the adults of hometown and relied upon by her classmates. she could generously be considered patient and affable for how easily she adapts to others’ desires, but a more accurate term would be doormat. noelle struggles to assert herself, her confidence chipped down to almost nothing in the wake of her mother’s strict expectations, often allowing others to talk over her as a result. 

her fear of conflict is just one of the long list of fears that noelle possesses, scared of everything including the kitchen sink, and it keeps her from being honest to susie about her crush (fear of rejection) and honest to berdly about the fact that she does not like him. (fear of retaliation). rudy knows this behaviour makes her dangerously susceptible to manipulation, and worries endlessly about her bening “defenseless” as a result. this isn’t unfounded— noelle obeys kris with little hesitance, even if she knew he was acting strange, even as she froze darkener after darkener at his command. 

worse is her masochism: fantasizing about being bullied by her crush, and the ring of thorns explicitly states noelle trades pain for power. 

oftentimes noelle downplays her own feelings, appearing timid to anyone who doesn’t form a close connection with her. kris, having known her since they were young, knows a more honest noelle: the noelle who playfully calls herself weird and scolds him (theatrically) when he pranks her. twice, she’s been outright brash: once when berdly admitted to having a crush on susie, and once the night her father was hospitalized, and she exchanged the last seething words she ever would with her mother.

finally, noelle is a devout worshipper of the angel’s religion, having made a doll of the angel for her father when she was young. without fail, she attends church every sunday, believing the angel lives in her and guides her path.

she might be more right than she knows.

POWERS / ABILITIES.

noelle’s magical abilities are:

HEAL PRAYER. “heavenly light restores a little hp to one party member. depends on magic.” one target. roughly equivalent to final fantasy’s cure.

SLEEP MIST. “a cold mist sweeps through, sparing all tired enemies.” all creatures in range. if a target is tired, sleep mist puts them to sleep.

ICESHOCK. “deal magical ice damage to the enemy.” one target. roughly equivalent to blizzard. (the freeze ring upgrades it to blizzara, and the ring of thorns to blizzaga.)

SNOWGRAVE. “fatal.” has never cast it. claims she doesn’t know it.

noelle’s mundane strengths are:

MARATHON RUNNING. a member of the cross country team and consistently records the second-best times. prefers running in the winter.

METHOD OF LOCI. noelle’s memory is near-perfect thanks to the cultivation of her mind palace, allowing her to recall facts with ease.

DEDUCTION AND EXTRAPOLATION. a diligent student from a young age, noelle doesn’t only recite facts, but works hard to understand the concepts being taught to her. she can glean a lot from little information, and tends to keep her mouth shut about what she sees. a fan of puzzles.

WEAPONRY.

none.

IMPORTANT ITEMS.

RING OF THORNS. a ring of metal spikes that bury themselves painfully into noelle’s finger. constantly drains her health, but greatly enhances the power of her ice spells, and allows her to cast snowgrave.