Noël Noire

Noël originally comes from an alternate Earth setting where a game called 'Initeverden' is sweeping the world with its innovative mechanics and way immersive world. He was raised by rich, CEO-type parents who trained him more to take over the Noire company. However, Noël had no interest in this once he had been introduced to a set of a film when his parents were asked to make a cameo appearance for a product placement.

With the money Noël earned from allowance or just simply 'needing something to keep himself entertained', he had invested in a camera that he toyed around with when he was younger. At thirteen, Noël had been able to actually go around and convince some of the maids and butlers that his parents hired around the mansion he lived at to be in some of his home made videos. It was fun, and it was nice to know that even the workers on the estate were also having fun helping Noël with something he actually had a budding passion for.

Since Noël had been homeschooled most of his adolescent years, he had been quick to delve into his home video making. His parents had caught him focusing more on the video and talked to him about it. While they appeared to have been understanding, they mentioned a lot that the Noire family had not been about film and production of media. This was something that had hurt Noël's heart as he heard it, though he quietly insisted that he was having fun and that it was something he wanted to do.

Noël discovered the website for iFilm in his middle school days and had started uploading amateur videos. Of course, his videos did not garner much attention, but keeping at it would have been Noël's strong point, and doing videos with middle school friends, that turned into high school friends, that eventually turned into long distance friends was something that had sparked interest as those friends help share those videos. Sure, comments at first were either praising the humour. Other times it had been people telling him his humour would never catch on and he should just give up on his iFilm channel.

Over time, however, Noël expressed himself for loving filmography to his parents and wanting to go to school for it specifically. Naturally, his parents declined this request, and sent Noël to Princeton University -- a university that he had not been wanting to attend. After a while and having gotten a following online, Noël realised that with the support of his fans, he could actually attend a college in California. Here, he had started going to school with Evan Askeland -- a friend from high school that were only associated because of their rich parents.

While it seemed that their friendship was rocky at best, Noël did much to keep each other on the right foot with one another. They both had passions in film and dealing with a lot of cinematography, and from there, Noël had often times brought food that either he cooked or picked up for Evan's sake. Mostly because he realised that Evan did little in the way of getting food for himself, or taking care to maintain a proper eating habit.

Both Noël and Evan became unlikely friends, even when considered by peers and potential colleagues. Noël did his best to just shrug off comments from others, though attained a kind of defence for when people decided to talk bad or down about Evan. While Noël noticed a lot of Evan's problematic behaviour, he overlooked it because deep down in there, somewhere, there was a good person.

Other than that, however, Noël used a lot of Evan's tips and tricks for lighting and setting up shots for his own iFilm shorts and skits for his fans. Evan learned about a lot of Noël's own set ups and tricks to setting up for perspective and framing in turn. While Evan will not admit it, Noël thanks Evan pretty regularly for tolerating his company and teaching him new things.

As Evan and Noël worked together, and Noël had been expanding upon his iFilm -- in his first year of college, his iFilm channel had 15,000 watchers that received updates for when he uploaded new content. There were times where Evan would come over, and Noël would be opening some of the fan mail he got; admittedly not that much. Though Noël had been the kind of person that would write back personalised cards and letters back... until one of his videos had become viral, and his water count sky-rocketed from 15,000 to 875,000 thanks to sharing from some big name bloggers and channels that caught wind of Noël's comedy skit titled 'Right Here is Nowhere'.

Though college life still seemed to go decently enough, as Noël was only recognised by a handful of people after the viral video had sparked greater interest, he continued through his classes. Eventually, he would get to know a girl named Heather Eckheart that would later confess to him that she had a crush on him. Noël had admittedly felt something for Heather, and decided to pursue his emotions and desires, and had committed himself to a relationship with her. Things seemed to have been going well; they would go out on some dates every now and again when they were not busy with homework and exams, Heather would watch Noël every now and again as he did his filming.

Noël did not really think much of it when Heather started expressing that she felt like she was being a distraction when she was present for his filming. While Noël insisted that she was not, Heather had started going back earlier. This left Noël a little concerned -- much to the point that he had come back early one day to check up on her with a gift in hopes that it would make her feel better.

As Noël reached Heather's dorm, however, Heather's dorm mate had answered and seemed a little surprised to see Noël. When Noël asked why she was surprised, she explained that Heather said she had broken up with him. Taken aback by this, Noël had pressed this, admitting that he had no idea, and that Heather certainly never talked about breaking up with him. He learned that Heather had been seeing someone else from her dorm mate and had accepted this information with a bit of a heavy heart; before leaving, he had given the gift to the dorm mate and said it was for Heather to help her feel better, but she could have it instead.

Sure enough, when Noël had been picking up lunch for him and a couple friends, he had spied Heather across the way hugging on the arm of another guy. A part of him did not want to believe that what he saw was what he saw, though when the guy leaned in to kiss Heather, that was when Noël had given up the shred of hope he hung onto and continued about his business.

Noël hung out more with Evan again, and they had started doing more of their film stuff. Evan had mentioned that he noticed Noël and heather no longer hanging out as much, to which Noël just kind of shrugged off. That was until Heather showed up a few days later and attempted to show Noël affection, claiming it had been such a long time since they got to hang out, and she was sorry that classes and studies had been eating up her time. Of course, Noël kind of shrugged this off as well, making Heather fall into a pout and ask if he had been mad at her.

Though Evan had been about to leave, he had stuck around after Noël said he knew that Heather had been seeing another guy and that apparently the two of them 'broke up'. Heather had been shocked by this, though instantly started going on the defence, asking where Noël could have possibly heard this, and why he thought that it was true. He explained to her the things he saw, and eventually Heather stormed off as Noël continued to calmly explain things he saw and how he felt about the situation.

The healing process took some time, but with Evan's tendency to video games, it did not take long for Noël to be sucked into Initeverden. With this game, he had met Evan's new love interest, Viola Basque, and some other friends. Namely, there was Elika Harel. This woman had piqued Noël's interest greatly as he found out that she was one of Viola's best friends and they typically attended conventions together with her (more or less against Elika's wishes). Learning more of Elika and her hobbies, Noël found it fascinating and admirable that Elika worked super hard for everything she really wanted out of life and still found time for her passion: soccer.

From then on, Noël has done a lot in his power to make sure that Elika's needs were tended to -- mostly in the form of small gifts. While Elika might chastise him for it, or just outright deny the gifts, Noël usually tells her that it is because he admires her dedication that he wishes to make things easier for her.

After two to three years, avoiding other girls that had approached him, Noël finally just asked Elika to be his girlfriend after a 4th of July celebration with friends. He backed up his proposition with the fact that they were all two or three years into their college years, and that since meeting her, all of his published films and skits had been better with her influence. That Elika was the reason he looked forward to a new day. That she was an inspiration all by herself. He also told Elika that if she felt he was coming on too strong, that he would back away and tell her to pretend the moment never happened.

This somewhat unconventional confession had flattered Elika, though she had admitted that she, too, had some feelings for Noël. Elika found him humorous, sweet, and very caring about not just his friends, but others out there. Elika told Noël that she admired the fact that he used his popularity to attempt making a difference for many out there, and that was to be respected.

"So is that... does that make us official?" was what Noël asked after mulling over his uncertainty. In that moment, Elika had taken his hand and simply replied with: "yes."