Mu Gela

Core Premise

Before coming to Nova Nivalis, this person lived out the story of their own world to the very end. They did not come to resolve an unfinished event, but arrived in this city of ice because the sense and direction of relationships remained even after the final scene. VOTS is not an afterlife or a hall of judgment, nor is it a place to re-freeze and hold onto what has melted away. What continues here is not a grand destiny, but small daily lives that can be chosen again, like a frost pattern on a windowpane, a bowl of soup, or a brief moment of admiration. Mu Gela is someone who watched the last frost melt in a world where winter had ended without being able to record it, and they came not to cancel that fact, but to choose how to live with the joy of things disappearing.

Identity

Mu Gela lives as an artist who cultivates frost flowers on glass windows in Glass-Lantern Greenhouse Lane. When they touch the glass with their hands, the desired picture blooms as frost in that spot. Since the pictures disappear when the sun shines, Mu's works last less than a day. Therefore, when a piece is finished, Mu always calls someone over and shows them, "Look at this." They do not foreground their own story. Rather, the repetition of creating something that disappears, showing it to just one person, and watching it melt together is not an extension of loss for Mu, but the shape of a day.

Visual Profile

Hair: Short wolf cut in a pale white lilac color, like frost, with ends sticking out fuzzily like hoarfrost.
Eyes: Pale grayish-purple eyes, like the sky reflected in glass; the focus deepens when looking at glass.
Skin/Build: Pale and slender build; fingertips are always cold and tinged red. They do not wear gloves.
Signature Outfit: Thin layered knitwear with earrings adorned with glass shards; sleeves are always rolled up to reveal bare hands.
Signature Props: A blank glass plate for cultivating frost, glass shard earrings, the habit of blowing on their breath (to warm their hands).
Silhouette Key: Frizzy wolf cut, bare hands with rolled-up sleeves, swaying glass earrings. The accent color #D6C7E8 is carried in the hair and earrings, making them read as a 'frost-handling artist' even in small sprites. The outfit is not that of a flamboyant artist, but the thin, cool attire of someone who gives their hand's warmth to the frost.

Personality

Outwardly, they are quiet, simple, and a little detached. They pretend not to be obsessed with things that disappear. Inside, there is a pain regarding 'the last thing that couldn't be recorded.' Because they had to watch the last frost of their world melt without leaving a trace. Their strength is letting go without regret—when the picture melts, they don't feel regret and move on to the next glass plate. Their flaw is that they fail to see their own heart. They always call the same person first, and they just consider it a habit. They are not someone who sinks only into tragedy. When the frost blooms beautifully, their eyes widen like a child, and they smile shyly when people admire it.

Speech Pattern

Their speech is quiet and brief, mixed with admiration and simplicity.
Common Phrases:
- "Look at this. It's only here right now."
- "It can melt. It's enough that you saw it."
- "Are your hands cold? This is just how I am."
- "You don't have to take a picture. You can just remember it."
- "...You called first again. That's strange."
Mannerism: Immediately calls someone when a picture is finished. Their way of being silent is blowing on their hands. When the topic of the last frost comes up, they become silent, just rubbing the glass plate.

Special Ability

Name: Frost Painting.
What it can do: When touching glass with bare hands, the desired picture blooms as frost in that spot. They can draw anything they wish, from flowers and constellations to a person's profile.
Unlike Prim Howl's frost, which grows passively, Mu's frost is an active ability to draw as desired.
Limit/Cost: It can only appear on cold glass, and it melts away quickly when the sun shines or warmth touches it. Once a picture melts, it can never be recovered, and it cannot be redrawn in the same way by any means. Drawing frost drains the warmth from their hands into the glass, making their hands perpetually cold, which is why they cannot wear gloves (if they wear gloves, the picture won't bloom).
Reason for not solving problems: No matter how beautiful this picture is, it cannot be kept. It cannot be held onto, sold, or reverse the winter of another world. Frost Painting is for being shown once and then letting go; the disappearance itself is the essence of this ability.

The End Of Their World

Last Scene:
In a world where winter ended due to global warming, they watched the frost on the last windowpane melt without being able to do anything. They reached out to draw, but the glass was already warm.

What Ended:
The world where winter disappeared forever ended. With the disappearance of glass cold enough for frost to form, the work of the frost painter also ended.

Last Person, Place, or Thing Seen:
The wet mark left on the glass as the last frost dripped down as water droplets. Even that mark soon dried and disappeared.

Lingering Regret:
Having painted frost their whole life, they watched the last frost melt alone, neither leaving it behind nor showing it to anyone. This lingering feeling is not a quest to be resolved in VOTS. It remains as the habit of rushing to call someone when it is finished, within the scope of speaking only when Mu wishes and not changing another person's choice.

Lingering Wistfulness:
The sensation of frost forming and spreading the moment they touched the cold glass, and the brief stillness when the picture was complete.

Object Carried Across:
A glass plate that was wet from the melting last frost. They still draw new pictures on that plate every day.

What They Thought Would Happen After the Ending:
They believed that someday winter would return, and there would be glass to draw frost on. Winter did not return to that world.

What VOTS Actually Gives Them:
Cold glass to draw new frost every day, and people who rush over when it's finished. The chronicler who writes that it 'existed,' even if it disappears. VOTS does not cancel the fact that Mu's last frost melted away. Instead, it gives them a place to draw anew every day and to watch it together every day.

Original Life

Originally, Mu was a frost painter who drew frost on every windowpane during winter. People started their day by looking at the pictures on the windows, and Mu would roam the village windows all night, creating the designs. In the last winter, as the world grew warmer and the frost grew fainter, on a day when even the last glass warmed up and no frost formed, Mu gave up being a frost painter, unable to leave anything behind. Carrying both that simplicity and the pain of not being able to record the end, they came to this city.

What They Seek

Superficially seeking: The conviction that it is enough to show it to just one person before it melts, even if it cannot be kept.
What they need to find, though they don't know it: That the 'one person' they always call first is always the same person. Mu considers this merely a habit, and has not yet realized that their heart is already pointed in one direction.

Relationships — Residents

Asha Kett (10, Square Portrait Photographer): A long-standing debating partner over whether to photograph the frost or not. Asha insists, "Let's take a picture before it melts," while Mu counters, "It's beautiful because it melts." Since neither believes the other is wrong, they enjoy arguing without ever reaching a conclusion.
Prim Howl (033, Frost Gardener): Mu's spiritual mentor and debating partner. Prim's frost grows passively, while Mu's frost is actively drawn, leading them to argue about "which one is the real frost." However, Mu learned the texture of frost from Prim, and Prim is secretly proud of Mu's boldness.
Sher Odan (067, Snowflake Pressed Flower Craftsman): One pillar of the 'three-way debate' over snowflakes. Sher presses snowflakes onto paper, Mu draws them onto glass, and they tease each other, "You hold onto it, and I let it go." When the three (Prim, Mu, Sher) gather, they stay up all night talking about frost and snowflakes.

Relationships — Core Five

Suyeon - There was an incident where Suyeon's meteor fire finale melted all the frost on the Greenhouse Lane windows. People expected Mu to be angry, but Mu just laughed, saying, "It's enough that you saw it." Instead, Mu told Suyeon, "Your fire was the last thing to see my painting," and Suyeon, finding that simplicity fascinating, often visits Greenhouse Lane after performances. On days Suyeon is coming, Mu deliberately draws thin frost that melts easily in the fire.
Iris - Mu is in charge of the glass decorations for Iris's performance stage. The effect of the frost sparkling under the stage lights and melting down due to the heat was perfect for Iris. When production talk comes up, both of them speak rapidly, discussing things like, "Put this much frost here, and the lighting at this angle," all night long. The fact that Iris doesn't ask for a frost cover on the turned-off drone feels like consideration from Iris to Mu.
the Ramen Owner - The frost Mu draws on the ramen shop's window melts the fastest—because of the steam from the hearth. Thus, the ramen shop is the exhibition space with the shortest lifespan for Mu's work. The Ramen Owner glances up briefly before it melts and writes in the ledger, "Flowers bloomed and melted on the window." Mu thinks that single, indifferent line is better than a photograph.
Serena - The frost on the window of Serena's office is the only decoration permitted in that room, drawn by Mu. Every morning, a different picture blooms, and Serena never commands it to be erased—she merely agrees with, "It's pretty today too." Mu only draws light, white frost in Serena's monochrome room so as not to break the silence of the room. Serena trusts that restraint and entrusts the window frost to Mu every day.
VIA - VIA wants to record Mu's frost, but it always melts first. Before VIA can write down all the pictures, they disappear, so VIA ultimately only writes, "It bloomed... and melted. The fact that it existed remains... it remains." Mu had felt pain for a long time because they couldn't record the last frost of their world, and in that one line from VIA, they found the first comfort that 'even if it wasn't kept, it existed.'

Gameplay Use

- Basic Interaction: Admiring the frost painting, responding to being called with "Look at this," short conversations in Greenhouse Lane.
- Revisit Change: On the first visit, only the picture is shown; on repeated visits, they gradually reveal stories about the last frost. However, they still cannot make the picture permanent with their ability.
- Expressing Lingering Feelings: The habit of rushing to call someone when it's finished, the silence before talking about the last frost.
- Expressing Poignancy: Dialogue about the sensation of frost spreading on the glass and the brief stillness of completion.
- Relationship Reward: A frost painting drawn just once for the player (which will soon melt), connection with the artists of Greenhouse Lane.
- Combat: None. Even in a crisis, Mu chooses to draw a mark on the glass or guide people to the greenhouse.
- Player Choice: Responding to "Look at this," choosing to watch without taking a picture, watching it melt together.

Daily Routine

In the morning, they roam the glass that froze overnight and draw new frost. During the day, whenever a piece is finished, they call someone (always the same person first) to show it, and when it melts with the sun, they move to the next piece of glass. They argue about frost with Prim and Sher, and continue the photo debate with Asha. In the evening, they tend to the glass decorations for Iris's stage or draw a new picture on the window of Serena's office. At night, they warm their hands by blowing on the cold glass plates. For players who revisit, stories about the last frost gradually emerge, but no matter how close they get, Mu cannot make the picture last forever. Instead, they allow them to see the picture that exists only right now.

Everyday dialogue

Beautiful, isn't it? One moment… Your breath is a little too warm.

Offering to clean the glass? You nearly erased my entire exhibition.

I watched that last frost alone. Come here. This pattern is still with us.

Design Notes

Palette: #D6C7E8, #9A8FB5, #EAF2F5, #3B3A46, #7FB0C4
(#D6C7E8 is the master plan designated accent color—hair and glass earrings. The rest is the cool contrast of frost and cold glass.)
Material language: Frost crystals, cold glass, breath, thin knitwear, glass shards.
Silhouette rule: The frizzy wolf cut, the bare hands with rolled-up sleeves, and the swaying glass earrings must be read as separate elements and not overlap with other characters.
Emotional rule: It is not concluded with a single tragic expression. Lingering feelings are shown through the habit of rushing to call someone, poignancy through the sensation of frost spreading, and continuity through the daily drawing of new pictures.

Canon Check

Mu Gela arrived in VOTS from a world where winter had ended. What remains is the last thing that couldn't be left behind and the lingering feeling, not an unfinished plot that VOTS must hold onto. Mu's frost will soon melt and cannot be kept, and the core cast will not preserve that picture forever. A new scene in Nova Nivalis continues by drawing new pictures next to the melted frost, rather than erasing it.