Noa Kiln Bell Keeper and Pigeon Feeder of the Clock Tower Courtyard · Clock Tower Courtyard [Core Premise] Noa Kiln lived out the story of his own world to the very end. That world was a city that announced time with a bell tower, and the story ended when Noa struck the final bell instead of his master before the city was submerged. Noa did not arrive in Nova Nivalis to rescue the submerged city; he arrived because the rhythm of his hands polishing the bells and his body waiting for the chime remained. VOTS is not a place that pulls up a sunken bell tower, nor is it a place that reverses the final chime. What continues here is small, manageable daily life—the daily bell cleaning, feeding the pigeons, a bowl of soup, short conversations in the courtyard—not the great bell. The fact that he was the successor to the bell keeper is handled calmly, and the sinking is not inflated into melodrama. [Identity] Noa polishes the bells and cares for the pigeons in the Clock Tower Courtyard. He wipes the dust from the bells with a polishing cloth, feeds the pigeons gathering in the courtyard, and manages the time for the bells to ring. He is quiet and composed—his body instinctively knows 10 seconds before the bell rings, and he is rarely startled by anything. He does not immediately mention his origin—being the successor to the bell keeper of the sunken bell tower city—nor does he boast about his precognitive ability regarding the chimes. He does not rush others' time; he merely announces it with the sound of the bell. His bells quietly share the day of the Clock Tower Courtyard. [Visual Profile] He has short, buzz-cut sage mint hair and wears ear coverings due to the cold. He has a high nose bridge, and his eyes are calm gray. Several pigeon feathers are always stuck to the scarf wrapped around his neck. His build is that of a slender, growing boy. His signature item is the polishing cloth, which is always held in his hand or tucked into his waist sash. His clothes are simple workwear suitable for climbing up and down the bell tower stairs. The core of his silhouette is the sage mint buzz cut and ear coverings, the feather-stained scarf, the cloth in his hand, and the pigeon perched on his shoulder. The accent color is sage mint (#9DBFAF), repeated on his hair, scarf, and cloth. [Personality] Outwardly, Noa is calm and impassive. He is composed for his age and unshaken by commotion. Inside, he is a little lonely. Because he always waits for the sound of the bell alone, he misses someone to wait for that sound with. Flaw: Because he is so accustomed to not being startled, he receives little reaction even when others try to make him react, leading them to consider him boring. Also, due to a memory where he perceived the bell sound as a 'signal of parting,' his body unconsciously stiffens every time the bell rings. He is not a tragic figure. He smiles quietly when a pigeon sits on his shoulder, and feels a sense of satisfaction when he shines the bells. Rather than grieving the sinking, he quietly wonders if the bell sound could mean something else. [Speech Pattern] His manner of speaking is short, low, and calm. Frequent phrases: - "It rings in 10 seconds... Alright, now." - "I don't get startled. The bell tells me in advance." - "The bell sound... it announces time. That's all. It should only be that." - "It's time to feed them. These birds have a more accurate internal clock than the bell." Habit: Just before the bell rings, he quietly counts by folding his fingers one by one. Style of Silence: When he has nothing to say, he slowly polishes a part of the bell with the cloth. He fills the silence with the gleam of the bell. [Special Ability] Ability Name: 'Ten Seconds Before'. Noa's body knows 10 seconds before the bell rings. For any bell, his body senses it exactly 10 seconds before the sound rings. This is why he has never been startled by the bell sound, and he can time the striking of the bell without a clock. Limit and Cost: This ability only applies to 'bells'. It cannot sense other sounds, other events, or the minds or futures of people. Furthermore, knowing 10 seconds in advance does not allow him to stop the bell—the bell that is meant to ring, rings. Instead, during those 10 seconds, he tenses up because he doesn't know what the bell sound will announce (since the bell used to be a signal of sinking). Also, because he always knows in advance, he cannot experience being 'purely surprised' by something—precognition has robbed him of surprise. This makes him a little lonely. Reason for Not Solving Problems: This ability does not tell him that 'the bell sound is not a signal of parting.' Knowing 10 seconds before is separate from the meaning of the bell sound changing. The ability does not resolve his lingering attachment for him; it only keeps him tethered to the rhythm of the bell. [The End Of Their World] Last Scene: On the day the bell tower city was submerged, his master was in a situation where he could not strike the final bell. As the successor, Noa climbed the bell tower and struck the final bell in his master's place. While the water rose up to the base of the bell tower, he rang the bell the prescribed number of times and listened to the last resonance sink into the water. What Ended: The bell tower city was submerged. The bell tower, his master, the people who listened to the bell sound, and the city's time sank with the final chime. Last Person, Place, or Thing Seen: The rooftops of the city below the submerging bell tower, and the ripples of the last chime's resonance spreading across the water's surface. Lingering Regret: That final chime was a signal of parting: 'Evacuate.' Noa has long been troubled by the fact that the bell sound became the sound of letting people go. What remains is, 'The bell is supposed to announce time, but in the end, it announced parting.' This lingering attachment is not a quest. It remains only as the habit of his body reflexively stiffening when he rings the bell. Lingering Wistfulness: The time when, every day at a set hour, he would climb the bell tower, ring the bell, and watch the resonance spread over the city's rooftops. The sensation of that time when people divided their day according to that sound, when the bell sound was time itself. Object Carried Across: The polishing cloth. It is the cloth he inherited from his master, the one he used to polish the bells. It is not a magical tool, but a personal mark connecting the sunken bell tower city and the current clock tower. What They Thought Would Happen: He thought that when the bell tower sank, the bell keeper and the bell sound would all end. He never thought he would polish and ring the bells again in a different city's clock tower. What VOTS Actually Gives Them: A place to continue the work of polishing and ringing the bells, a bell sound that announces time, not parting. VOTS does not rescue the sunken bell tower city. Instead, it gives him a place to ring a bell sound that announces time, not a signal of sinking, and to ring it as a sharing, not as possession. [Original Life] Noa was the successor to the bell keeper of the bell tower city. He learned from his master how to polish the bells, how to strike them, and how his body knew 10 seconds before the bell rang. In that city, the bell sound was time—it announced morning, noon, and evening. People divided their days by the bell sound, and Noa waited for the day he would inherit his master's position. But the city began to fill with water. On the last day the water rose, when his master could no longer strike the bell, Noa climbed the bell tower. As the successor, he struck the final bell—even knowing it was a bell announcing evacuation, not time. After ringing the prescribed number of times, listening to the last resonance sink into the water, his bell tower ended. [What They Seek] What Noa desires for himself: To know that the act of announcing time is not the act of announcing parting. He wants to know if the bell sound can simply be 'time' again, if he can ring the bell without the memory of parting. His body still stiffens every time he rings the bell. What he seeks but doesn't know: The faces of the people who wait for the bell sound. What he truly seeks is not the meaning of the bell sound, but the people who will wait for that sound with him. The people who divide their day according to the bell sound in the Clock Tower Courtyard are already surrounding him. What he needs to find is not a new meaning, but the discovery that the faces waiting for the bell sound are already by his side. [Relationships — Residents] - Mera Canto (batch1, String Instrument Repairer/Bell Tower Path): A sound neighbor on the Bell Tower Path. Mera deals with the sounds of strings, and Noa deals with the sounds of bells, so they communicate quietly through 'sound.' When Mera asks, "Can bell sounds be tuned?" Noa replies, "There's only one bell, so it's cleaning, not tuning." They both enjoy the afternoons when the sounds of bells and strings overlap. - Jun Bellard (batch1, Clock Repair Apprentice): A rival in clock debates. Jun measures time with clocks, while Noa announces time with bells. When Jun says, "My clock is more accurate," Noa replies, "But people listen to my bell sound more than your clock." They bicker over time, but in reality, they acknowledge each other's methods. - Pino Galda (024, Bird Seed Vendor): Bird seed. Since Noa cares for the pigeons, he buys seed from Pino. Pino says, "The birds won't lose their way near you," and Noa replies, "The birds find their direction by the bell sound." They quietly collaborate over the birds. [Relationships — Core Five] Suyeon - Noa was in charge of the countdown chime for Suyeon's performance. Just before the finale of Suyeon's performance (the meteor flare), Noa struck the bell to announce the countdown. At first, the bell sound felt like parting, and his body stiffened, but when Suyeon said, "That bell sound signal is when I'll explode the loudest, it's a festival," Noa felt for the first time that the bell sound could be the start of a festival. Suyeon curtly praised him, "You don't get startled by the countdown, perfect." Iris - Iris triggers drone lights in time with Noa's countdown chime. Because of Noa's precise timing thanks to his 10-second bell foresight, Iris acknowledged, "You're better than a clock." Noa did not ask about one of Iris's extinguished drones—instead, he casually mentioned, "Even bells leave a lingering resonance," and Iris remembered those words for a long time. the Ramen Owner - When Noa stops by the ramen shop after finishing bell cleaning late at night, the Ramen Owner pours him soup without asking anything. When Noa casually mentions, "The bell sound sounded like parting again today," the Ramen Owner doesn't judge, only saying, "Hmm... I see... But you ring every day." Noa finds that calm response strangely comforting, and visits that shop on days when the bell sound feels heavy. Serena - Noa was the one who asked Serena for 'consent' to the city's first chime. When they decided to ring the bell tower for the first time, Serena asked Noa, "Would you ring the first bell of this city?" instead of "May I ring the bell?" When Noa asked, "What if that bell announces parting?" Serena replied, "Then you can make it a bell that announces time, you do it." There was a time when Serena passed through the courtyard on a snowy day and waited for the bell sound with him, and on that day, his body did not stiffen. VIA - VIA records Noa's striking times. VIA writes down in a notebook how many times and when the bell rang each day. When Noa asks, "Why do you write it down if the bell sound disappears?" VIA replies, "What has rung remains... even the resonance is recorded." Once, when Noa told the story of the final chime, VIA did not treat it as a sad event, but simply wrote, "That bell also rang... it rang even though it was submerged." Noa leans on that calm record. [Gameplay Use] - Basic Interaction: Watching bell cleaning, feeding pigeons, short conversations about the bell sound. - Revisit Changes: Upon repeated visits, moments appear where Noa views the bell sound as 'time' rather than 'parting,' and he briefly mentions the bell tower city story. - Expression of Lingering Attachment: The habit of his body reflexively stiffening when ringing the bell, and the act of counting by his fingers just before striking. - Expression of Poignancy: Dialogue related to the bell's resonance, the sound spreading over the rooftops, and the sensation of the bell tower stairs. - Relationship Reward: Not new items, but changes where the bell rings according to the player's specific viewpoint. - Combat: None. In times of danger, he rings the bell to alert people and gather them in the courtyard (a bell of guidance, not parting). [Daily Routine] In the morning, he wipes the dust accumulated overnight from the bells and gives the first feed to the pigeons. It is a small ritual to open the day for the bells and the birds, not an obsession. During the day, he rings the bell at set times, and in between, he polishes the bells or cares for the pigeons. If there are no visitors, he slowly polishes a part of the bell with the cloth while waiting for the sound. In the evening, when the courtyard falls into shadow, he strikes the final bell and watches the pigeons settle into their nests. At night, he places the cloth in its spot on the bell tower stairs—as if inheriting his master's cloth, so it can be used again tomorrow. Upon repeated visits, the stiffness in his body when ringing the bell gradually eases. [Everyday dialogue] The bell will ring shortly. You may cover your ears. The pigeons have already taken refuge on my shoulders. Food after the bell. Come on, birds. Do I look like someone who moves the clock forward? I like the bell for lunch. People scatter, but they come back after eating. [Design Notes] Palette: #9DBFAF, #C3DACF, #4A5C54, #EDE7D6, #B08D57 (Accent color #9DBFAF = Sage Mint, repeated on hair, scarf, and cloth) Material language: Brass bells, polishing cloth, feather-stained scarf, stone of the bell tower stairs, pigeon feathers. Silhouette rule: The sage mint buzz cut and ear coverings - feather-stained scarf - cloth in hand - pigeon on shoulder must be read as separate elements. The representative pose is polishing the bell or counting by his fingers. Must not overlap with Tong Dur (114), who has water foresight (Noa is about bells/stillness, Tong is about water/activity). Emotional rule: It is not concluded by the sadness of the 'sunken bell tower.' Lingering attachment is shown by his body stiffening when the bell rings, poignancy by the resonance spreading over the rooftops, and continuation by the daily ringing and cleaning of the bells. His default expression is calm, unstartled composure. [Canon Check] Noa Kiln arrived in VOTS after his world (the bell tower city) was submerged. What remains is lingering attachment and poignancy, not a bell tower for VOTS to rescue. The city is submerged, and a new bell sound announcing time continues beside it. The core cast does not resolve his lingering attachment for him—Serena asks for the first chime with consent, not command; the Ramen Owner pours soup without judgment; and VIA only records the bell sound and its resonance without owning it.