Selin Moors

Core Premise

Selin Moors lived out the story of her own world before coming to Nova Nivalis. The library she guarded burned down, the books turned to ash, and she escaped that night holding only one volume. She did not come to revive the burnt library; she drifted into this city because of the habit of touching the torn and charred things with her fingertips. Nova Nivalis is not a place that returns what was lost. What continues here is not resurrection, but the quiet repetition of hands mending a torn piece of paper, reviving smeared ink, and restoring an old ledger.

Identity

She works as a document restorer in the restoration room above the Archivist Stairs. Torn documents, water-damaged ledgers, and charred letters come to her desk. She pieces them together, mounts them with thin paper, and minimally revives the blurred characters. Her work is the record labor the city actually needs, not something imagined and filled in. "We don't create text that isn't there" is her principle. She only saves what remains; she does not invent what is lost.

Visual Profile

Ash gray hime cut—straight bangs and side locks that fall sharply at the shoulders, with long hair that hangs straight down her back. It is a silvery-gray with ash tones, appearing both cold and warm depending on the light. She always wears white cotton gloves, and paper dust stains the tips of the gloves. Her first impression is cool, but when she smiles, her eyes crinkle, changing her demeanor. She wears a gray blouse buttoned up to her neck, and sleeves are rolled up to forearm guards to ward off paper dust. Her signature accessory is a smooth bone stylus used as a paperweight. The core of her silhouette is the white-gloved hands, the bone stylus, and the scattered scraps of paper on the desk. The accent color is ash-blue-gray #8E9AAF, indicating that she is a person who handles gray paper.

Personality

Outwardly cold and taciturn. She dislikes anything that disrupts the order of her desk, and she coolly stops anyone who touches the paper carelessly. However, the moment a piece finds its place, she smiles like a child, and few have seen that reversed smile. Her flaw is perfectionism. If the mounting is even slightly off, she works on it all night, neglecting her own body in the process. She is not steeped in tragedy. She throws dry jokes expressionlessly, and only smiles when the other person laughs.

Speech Pattern

Her sentences are short and precise. "We can only save this far." "We don't create text that isn't there." "The pieces haven't arrived yet." Formal speech is standard, and even when showing emotion, her tone does not change drastically. Frequent phrases include, "It has to be glued by hand," "We save what's left," "If you create it, it's not restoration," and "Slowly, paper tears if it's rushed." When silent, she folds paper along the grain with her bone stylus, or gently presses pieces with her gloved hands. She rarely speaks of the burned library, and even if she does, she cuts it off in a single sentence.

Special Ability

The ability is called 'Drawing the Fragments.' Torn pieces of documents very slightly pull toward each other only on her desk. The scattered pieces indicate roughly which ones are neighbors and in which direction they are pulling. The limit is clear. It only pulls; it does not adhere. Mounting and joining must be done entirely by her hands, and ultimately, any missing piece cannot be summoned by any power. The cost is sleep. On nights she restores large documents, even if she closes her eyes, the pieces keep pulling, preventing her from sleeping. The ability does not return what was lost. The burned pages never arrive, and she only saves what remains.

The End Of Their World

Last Scene:
On the night the fire spread, she ran between the stacks, having to choose what to carry out. In the end, she could only hold one volume, and she exited the door hearing the sound of the rest collapsing behind her.

What Ended:
The entire library turned to ash in one night. The stacks where she memorized the catalogs, the low lights of the reading room, and the habit of gauging the seasons by the smell of paper all ended together.

Last Person, Place, or Thing Seen:
The bookshelves blackened and curling in the light, and the weight of one volume pressed against the sound of her own heart beating in her chest.

Lingering Regret:
She still cannot explain why it had to be that one volume. She left no apology for the other books. This lingering feeling remains not as a quest to be resolved, but as the habit of touching the remaining pieces for too long.

Lingering Wistfulness:
The dry sound made when turning old paper, and the smell of dust rising amidst it. When that smell comes, for a moment, the orderly spines of the stacks before the collapse overlap.

Object Carried Across:
The one volume she carried out that night. Its cover was charred and a few pages had fallen out, but she leaves that book as it is, charred, without restoring it.

What They Thought Would Happen:
She thought that someday, that one volume could seed and refill the library again. The ash did not become books again.

What VOTS Actually Gives Them:
A place where she lives alongside the books she couldn't save, while saving the torn things of different people every day. The city does not return the burned stacks. Instead, it gives her the paper that can still be saved, and the people who entrust their records to her hands.

Original Life

Selin Moors was the last librarian of the burned library. She guarded old collections, memorized catalogs, and mended damaged books. The fire was sudden, and after evacuating others, she remained in the stacks until the end. She had only seconds to choose what to carry out, and she left with the one volume in her hands. It was the last book she protected in that world.

What They Seek

Superficially, she seeks a form of apology to the books she couldn't save. With her hands that save what remains, she ponders how to convey her regret to what was lost. However, on a level she does not yet know, what she should already realize is that the single volume she carried out that day was the apology itself. That the hands that saved even one piece were not a betrayal of the rest—she has not yet accepted that.

Relationships — Residents

- Eren Noct (batch1, Scribe in charge of Archive Modification · Archivist Stairs): A colleague at the Archivist. Eren passes newly arrived documents to Selin for classification, and Selin returns the restored items on Eren's card. The two rarely speak about anything other than paper, but their silence is comfortable for each other. Incidentally, Selin has fleetingly heard the name of an entity that testifies to the forgotten things deep within the Archivist, but knows nothing more than that.
- Paul Shen (074, Used Book Cart): He often comes with requests to have the authenticity and value of used books appraised. Selin can roughly estimate the age just by looking at the paper and ink, coldly deciding whether "This can be saved" or "Just leave this one."
- Lund Pavel (083, Night Librarian): They meet in the hallway when their shifts overlap. If Lund quietly places a damaged document brought in at night on Selin's desk, Selin picks it up first in the morning. The two are a relay, passing the baton from night to dawn.

Relationships — Core Five

Suyeon - A customer who brought in a fan letter torn on stage. Suyeon picked up the paper that was crushed by the audience, feeling it was a waste, and Selin laid the pieces out on her desk to match them according to their pull. Suyeon was amazed, saying, "Can you do this too?" and Selin firmly stated, "We don't create text that isn't there." Suyeon liked that honesty and said she would come again.

Iris - A relationship where they don't ask about the missing pieces. When Iris entrusted Selin with restoring a piece of old sheet music, Selin simply said, "This one won't come," regarding a piece that could not be saved. Iris fell silent, perhaps recalling one of her drones that wouldn't turn on, and Selin didn't press further. They are comfortable knowing each other as those who know what cannot be saved.

the Ramen Owner - A relationship where she restored an old account book. Selin saved the owner's ledger, which was smeared by water, piece by piece, but there was a page where the erased debt amount remained smaller than before. When Selin said, "This number is uncertain," the owner replied, "Hmm... I see..." and asked her to leave it as the smaller amount. Selin doesn't create text that isn't there, but that day, she left the owner's generosity as it was.

Serena - The one who asked about the form of apology. When Selin asked, "What form is appropriate to apologize to what was lost?" Serena did not give an answer but only said, "I cannot set the form. However, I saw the one volume you saved." That assent, which was neither a command nor an answer, stayed with Selin for a long time.

VIA - A relationship where they exchange restoration notes. VIA comes to compare the short notes Selin leaves on every document she saves with her own records. VIA records even Selin's mounting marks, saying, "Even if paper is broken, the fact that it was broken remains... it remains." Selin never shows VIA her own charred volume, but VIA records the existence of that book and does not ask about its contents.

Gameplay Use

- Basic Interaction: Document, ledger, and letter restoration service, short conversations about paper.
- Revisit Change: She remembers the documents the player entrusted to her and shows the restoration progress piece by piece on subsequent visits. She does not invent and fill in the missing parts.
- Expression of Lingering Feelings: The habit of lingeringly touching the remaining pieces, the habit of cutting off the story of the burned library in a single sentence.
- Expression of Poignancy: Sensory dialogue about the sound of turning dry paper and the smell of dust.
- Relationship Reward: Not new items, but connecting the forgotten records of other residents through restored documents.
- Combat: None. Even in a crisis, she first moves the damaged records to a safe place.

Daily Routine

In the morning, she checks if the mounting she applied the day before has dried and if it has shifted. This check is not a compulsion but a small ritual that separates the burned library from the restoration room of today. During the day, she processes incoming documents not by urgency, but by what can be saved. Around noon, the dust on the paper is most visible in the light from the window, and that is when her poignancy briefly rises. At night, she takes out the charred volume from her drawer, brushes it once, and puts it back. Unrestored. For players who visit repeatedly, her reversed smile appears slightly more often, and the sentences about the library grow a little longer. Even if they become quite close, she does not give a reward that revives the burnt stacks.

Everyday dialogue

This gap stays blank. Even a brilliant sentence doesn't make me the author.

Coffee on the other side. That book has already survived once. It doesn't need another ordeal.

Why did I choose that book? I can explain the restoration method. That choice… not yet.

Design Notes

Palette: #8E9AAF, #C4CBD8, #3F4550, #EAE6DE, #A98B6F
Material language: Old paper, white cotton gloves, smooth bone stylus, thin mounting paper, charred covers.
Silhouette rule: The head-white-gloved-hand-bone-stylus-desk-scraps must be read separately, and the silhouette must not overlap with other record-related figures (like restorers such as Eren and Selin).
Emotional rule: Lingering feelings are shown through the hands lingering on the pieces and the charred book in the drawer; poignancy is shown through the sound of paper and the smell of dust; continuity is shown through the daily labor of mounting.

Canon Check

Selin Moors arrived in VOTS after the library of her world burned down. What remains is lingering feelings and poignancy, not a stack that VOTS must revive for her. The city does not return the burned books, and her ability cannot summon the missing pieces. The new scene continues from the hands that save the remaining paper next to the finished fire, not by erasing the fire itself.