”The fuck you looking at?”
Name:
Noelle Marcelline Laurents
Age:
19
Gender:
Female
Race:
Sollan
Origin:
Solitude, Skael
Class:
Gunslinger
Weapon:
While proficient with many types of firearms, Noelle tends to prefer handguns for her standard operational loadout - favoring the inconspicuousness of compact, easily concealed arms over pure stopping power. Her weapons of choice would be a pair of SkaelSec YX2 “Tiny Bee” variants - low-caliber high-capacity pistols.
In addition, Noelle is equipped with a highly experimental materia cannon - a long barrel rifle capable of converting the aether stored in slotted materia into incredibly dense bolts of charged aether. While the bolts possess excellent stopping power and may serve some function as a siege engine, it is rather prone to frequent jamming and has a chance to detonate should a catastrophic enough failure occur.
Inventory:- SkaelSec YX2 “Tiny Bee” x2
- SkaelSec MC7 “Sister Ray”
- Flask of sedatives x3
- Leather Carrying Case for MC7 “Sister Ray”
- Leather Travel Bag
- Spare pistol magazines x3
- Survival Kit - waterskins, knife, tinderbox, bedroll, mess kit, torches, travel rations
Materia:Limit Breaks:- Sister Ray - use of the MC7 Sister Ray is ill-advised in practical combat scenarios due to its highly volatile nature - with it being strongly recommended that the materia cannon be operated at minimum output to reduce chance of failure. In an emergency, operatives may override the limiter to increase the potency of bolts greatly at the increased risk of catastrophic failure. In addition, removing the limiter allows for a continuous beam to be fired. Doing so is guaranteed to deplete the materia used however.
Appearance Details:Noelle could tell you she’s from Skael, but it’s hard not to place the telltale pale of her freckled skin from the land of constant hail. Her dull grey eyes and cold skin give ever the portrait of a living corpse. Her slight build does her little favor in that matter, as she could stand to put a little more bulk on her 5’10” frame. Her shock of red hair is about the only color that’s ever really seen on Noelle of her own volition. Her usual outfits are more practical - travel leathers or dark cloth garments, but ultimately she’s a master of conformity. She’ll not show up to a ballroom in armour, nor will she don a ballgown to a battlefield. Every aspect of her appearance that she has control over is meticulously planned to draw as little attention as possible given the environment she finds herself in. When possible, she does tend to favor slightly bulkier clothing or garments with pockets. It’s incredibly rare to find her completely unarmed, as she’ll always figure out some way to sneak a pistol.
Personality:Noelle is the kind of person who consistently laughs second. Capable of leading, yet choosing to follow, the girl is hyper perceptive of people. Of little nods and knowing looks one makes without thinking, of when to chuckle politely as opposed to when to genuinely laugh, of what is appropriate and what is not. She is a social chameleon, being exactly who she is needed to be at every moment.
Reading that, it might seem as if Noelle is fake.
She is.
Getting people to like her and talk to her is her speciality - something that she had been trained for from childhood. Feigning interest comes as naturally as breathing to her. But the real Noelle is detached. Distant. Cold. Callous. While perfectly capable of putting on a cheerful, careless persona - something she settles into quite comfortably as her day-to-day demeanor - the fact of the matter is that Noelle doesn’t care for people. Any people. It’s not exactly hate, mind you, it’s more of a disinterest. Other people, their lives, their dreams, they mean nothing to her. All that truly matters is her mission. And her dedication to that mission borders on fanatical. Her loyalty is absolute.
But the heart of Noelle is difficult to peer into. She keeps interactions focused on her conversational partner, proving to be a very active listener. Being incredibly detail-oriented with an excellent memory, Noelle does not forget what she sees, nor does she forget what she hears.
Biography:Those who come up on the streets of Solitude learn early on just how apt the name is. Noelle’s mother was a whore and her father a bastard knight of no renown. She was laid at the door of a rundown orphanage in the city’s slums, where she most likely would have succumbed to famine or weather had she not been chosen to be presented as a pet to the barren baroness of House Laurents. The Lady Laurents had tried and failed for a decade to produce little more than a stillborn pair of heirs for the Lord Laurents. Having given up, the couple chose to adopt a child with no existing ties that they might parade before the court as their own.
A flimsy plan and one that proved altogether unnecessary as the pair would welcome their first trueborn son a summer after bringing Noelle into their home. The second son and second daughter would follow two and fours summers after. The Laurents manor had become more and more lively, but there was, of course, the chocobo in the room to consider. In their desperation to hide their shame, the pair had introduced Noelle to society as their heir. To name a new heir amongst their true borns would risk exposing the truth - which was out of the question - or leave open a door for a potential power struggle on succession. The solution, it would seem, would be the method of choice for families across history who, for various reasons, had decided that it wasn’t always the most terrible thing for a parent to outlive a child: they would send her out to die honorably on the battlefield.
Noelle’s time at the Garden was remarkable only in how utterly unremarkable it really was up until her final couple of years at the academy. Before then, Noelle proved to be a mediocre student - not particularly proficient in much at all. Her only notable aptitude appeared to be in firearms. Yet by the end, she was earning top marks among her class and she proved herself to be a deadly shot - something which would earn her eligibility to become a proper Seed, an opportunity that Noelle eagerly accepted after having become rather enraptured with the Garden’s mission. In her final years, she had really seemed to have found herself, almost having become a different person entirely. She voluntarily, publicly, renounced her claim to House Laurents’ fortune, and soon found herself traveling the breadth of Ibros, moving from contract to contract in service to the Garden.
Noelle’s presence in Balmung is due to the Lord Leonhart’s proclamation garnering the attention of Noelle’s handler who dispatched her to petition the Lord in person to earn a contract for whatever ridiculous scheme the man had in mind.
Traits:- Observant
- Excellent Memory
- Pathological Liar
- Enjoys Reading
Relationships:- Lady Amelia Laurents - Adoptive Mother - Noelle’s relationship with her mother has improved in recent years with the two writing each other often. Noelle shares stories of the places she’s seen, albeit remaining as vague as possible as to not reveal any sensitive information. Amelia keeps Noelle updated on the family’s business.
- Lord Francis Laurents - Adoptive Father - Noelle and her father are not particularly close. Their relationship has improved since Noelle stepped away from the family, but neither seem too pressed to continue their relationship.
- Oleander Laurents - Adoptive Brother - The heir apparent of House Laurents is much like his father, keeping Noelle at a safe distance. There is still some tension regarding the passing of the heir title between the two, but Noelle seems uninterested in fighting him for it.
- Gabriel Laurents - Adoptive Brother - Noelle and her youngest brother are rather close, keeping in rather frequent communication.The younger Laurents boy is a bit of a storyteller and Noelle seems to genuinely enjoy his writing.
- Odette Laurents - Adoptive Sister - The youngest Laurents child is rather reserved, but still has a fond spot for her eldest sister.
- Xu - Handler - Xu is the woman responsible for Seed operatives operating in the Edren region. Noelle seems to respect her enough to obediently follow her directions without protest.