Full name: Noah Marten Kingfisher
Gender: male
Pronouns: he/him/his is fine but, like, meh
o t h e r
Family: he was raised largely by his grandmother, as his mother, Marie, took to her sickbed shortly after he was born and never recovered. his father is the World-Breaker Currently Known As Atom.
Birthplace: NYC
Job(s): robotics engineer, General of the Minutemen, Director of the Institute (in a parallel Wasteland, it’s more like robotics engineer, Director of the Institute, High Confessor of the Church of Atom)
Fears: Atom, certainly; deep nighttime, blindingly bright light, the nightmare scenarios his active imagination dreams up, and losing Preston. oh, and mirelurks. (even though they’re delicious.)
Hobbies: cooking, tinkering, exploring, trying to learn how to play various instruments
catpile: Preston Garvey is top-tier because they are an-tet and separation would be actually devastating. it’s funny that I mention Preston before I even mention Noah’s wife from pre-War days, Zora, but that’s just how important he is to this story. there is also High Rise, and whatever that is that happens with DiMA (blame it on the weather, or something, idek).
Noah Kingfisher III coughs, coughs harder, tries to force his gluey eyelids open. Vision does return to him, but not the vision of his eyes.
“Remember me?”
Noah stops trying to move his body, stops struggling against what felt like an icy shell, and sighs. Oh, he remembers. “Dark Man.”
“Good, cully. What’s the last thing you remember?”
“The bombs fell.”
“After that.”
Pushing, crowding, a loud and grinding elevator, smell of metal and machine, strangers prodding at him, inspecting him. Shaun crying in Zora’s arms, Shaun being passed into his arms, Shaun heavy and warm and familiar, smelling of powder and Zora’s perfume, and then Zora taking him again as strangers ushered them into... “The pods. What were they for again?”
“Doesn’t matter, Dead Man. And before you go telling me how you’re obviously not dead, that doesn’t matter, either. Because to the world you knew, you might as well be -- and this might as well be your drawer in the morgue.
But never mind that. I’ve something to show you, old friend.”
Noah’s eyes pry open.
“Is it over?” Zora’s voice is muffled through the thick glass. Noah starts to smile, seeing her, seeing Shaun, but then his perspective widens, and he sees the men around her. He feels cold in a way that has little to do with the cryogenic pod.
“Everything’s fine. Just give us the child, and...” Their first mistake, Noah thinks pityingly. She loathed strange hands on their child.
There is a struggle. Noah raises his hands to the glass, tapping at first, then slapping, then pounding. “Hey! Hey! What’s going on out there? Don’t grab him like-- don’t grab her like that! Stop! Let me... out...”
He subsides as the coldness spreads through his veins, into his lungs, into his heart. One man, the bald one with the scar, raises a gun.
“Oh,” Noah sighs, “oh, why, god,” and Zora jerks back against her pod, blood blooming from the center of her jumpsuit.
He watches without seeing as the men take Shaun and exit his line of sight. He feels in flashes-- feels lancing pain at the sunlight glancing off a mobile, at impossibly tiny fingers curling around his thumb, feels bleak emptiness at the peek of Zora’s laughing eyes under a gauzy veil, at her body tight against his. Feels nothing, eventually, as he closes his eyes and falls back into the blackness.
“Sure, Dead Man. Sleep a little longer.
It’ll still hurt in sixty years. And I will still be here.
See, I... I never change. But, heh... maybe you will.”
2. Their mother? How do they think of her? What do they hate? Love? What influence - literal or imagined - did the mother have?
His mother is a messy subject, ngl. He did love her, but it was only after she died that he fully realised how much. Also, he never realised the truth of his conception and her illness until much later, and that really added weight to his survivor’s guilt and his awe of his mother.
When he was young, because he was young and didn’t know any better, he hated that his mother was always too tired/sick to do anything with him. Even though his grandmother was there to help, he felt neglected and unimportant for a lot of his childhood, until he grew up a little and realised it wasn’t exactly about him, it was something out of their control. He felt guilty about his brattiness for a long time, even though his mother never seemed to hold it against him. (It always astonished him how much she understood.)
Noah’s mother is the foundation of Noah’s goodness and compassion -- he learned to show it to her, and she gave it back to him and taught him how to show it to himself. In the same way, he shows it to everyone, because he learned how everyone deserves it, even (especially) when they are not easy to be compassionate to. (This is a great weapon in his arsenal when it comes to dealing with the Wasteland problems, and avoiding Atom’s influence.)
7. What was the economic status of their family?
Noah grew up lower-class -- his mother’s illness prevented her from being able to work, so she collected disability instead. He never really wanted for anything, but he also didn’t have anything extra very often. He only got into CIT on a full scholarship, which was fortunate.
When he married Zora, their assets combined put them comfortably in the middle-class bracket.
10. Is your character street-smart, book-smart, intelligent, intellectual, slow-witted?
I call Noah dumb a lot, affectionately, because although he’s very intelligent -- remember that full ride to CIT I mentioned? -- he... falls prey to predatory people easily, and he’s rather gullible at times. He is soft-hearted and doesn’t have a whole lot of faith in himself or his ability to do good, which makes him an easy target.
But he can jury-rig almost anything in the Commonwealth, he can fix synths (with a little training), and he has the diplomacy skills of a professional. So, you know.
16. What does your character do for a living? How do they see their profession? What do they like about it? Dislike?
He works as an engineer (robotics engineering is his speciality, but he does other kinds in a pinch) in the pre-War days, which is a pretty lucrative and stable profession. Those skills end up coming in handy post-War, too, seeing as knowing how to make broken or otherwise-useless things work in one’s favour is a survival necessity when you live in a nuclear wasteland. People have an easier time depending on someone who can rig their water pump or outfit their settlement with multiple defenses and will do it for nothing except the joy of the practice.
He is also the General of the Minutemen, which isn’t as much a profession as it is a... duty, I guess you could say. He (with Preston’s help) does the boring work of managing an outfit like the Minutemen, so that the Minutemen can focus on doing what they do best -- helping the Commonwealth. It is boring work a lot of the time, but he believes in the Minutemen, and he considers it an honour to help them.
Later, he is Director of the Institute, and that’s a lot like being the Minutemen’s General, except with even greater responsibility and notoriety. The Institute’s abysmal reputation in the Commonwealth is now his problem, and although he is determined like hell to fix it, it’s... definitely not easy or fun, and for a while it almost seems futile. But, hey, that’s Noah -- Patron Saint of Causes So Lost They Seem Fuckin Stupid.
22. Who are their friends? Lovers? ‘Type’ or ‘ideal’ partner?
Zora was his wife, in pre-War times. Preston Garvey is the most important person in his life in post-War times (within a few years, everyone just calls them husbands, because that’s functionally what they are). He also takes other close companions, like High Rise and Ellie Perkins, and he loves them just the same-- but none of them have quite the impact that Preston does on Noah’s life.
27. How do they relate to their appearance? How do they wear their clothing? Style? Quality?
Before the War, Noah dressed respectably during the day and like a biker heathen at night (much like Zora, although Zora found it harder to maintain her dual identity). He cleans up nicely, but he’s never been more at home than he is in the Wasteland, where his leather jacket, ratty jeans (complete with gun holster), shitkicker boots, and permanent five o’clock shadow is like a uniform for him. He is the quintessential “looks like he can kill you / is actually a cinnamon roll (who can still kill you but will cry about it later)” trope, lmao.
33. Do they drink? Take drugs? What about their health?
He does drink, but not terribly often -- it’s not good to work on machinery or manage fragile intra-community relations while drunk, you know. Mostly he does it with his friends and lovers, during downtime. Also, he’s a lightweight, so it’s not like he has to drink a whole lot anyway.
The stimulant chems disturb him (largely because of what happened to Mama Murphy, but also just in general) so he avoids them. But either way, radiation itself has psychoactive effects on him, to the point of being a potent hallucinogen and dissociative -- this is obviously a direct product and therefore a mark of him being Atom’s son. It’s the state of being that all Children of Atom (the religious kind, none of them literal children of his, as much as they’d like to be) aspire to -- being immune to the harmful effects of radiation and instead being made porous by it, their consciousness transcended, their knowledge expanded.
36. Do they like to suffer? Like to see other people suffering?
There’s a part of Noah that does perversely seek suffering, and that part is probably the part that innately knows what he is and how he was made. Luckily, it seems to be pretty satisfied by, like... rough sex and whatnot. LOL
But the part of Noah that he inherited from his mother is the stronger part, and that part wants suffering for no one. Now, in the parallel timeline where Atom does win Noah over, and makes him Heir of Atom and High Confessor of the Children, the seed of darkness that exists in Noah has grown exponentially -- so that’s a whole different story, there. There is a wide streak of psychosexual sadism in High Confessor Noah that one day I’m going to have a lot of fun writing about...
42. What does your character want most? What do they need really badly, compulsively? What are they willing to do, to sacrifice, to obtain?
Noah wants to feel like he’s overcome the darkness woven into his genes and soaked into his blood. He wants to feel like he’s been of some good to the world, instead of just making matters worse. He wants to know that Atom hasn’t won -- at least, not yet.
He wants to know that Preston Garvey loves him, and is glad to have lived after all.
He needs to be useful, to be indispensable. He needs to be needed. He needs his suffering to have not been in vain, and he needs others’ suffering to have not been in vain, either.
And really, most of all, Noah wants and needs peace of soul and mind. He has never once in his life felt that, and he so desperately wants to just... breathe, and feel the warmth of something divine that loves him as he is, and know that all is well. He wants his mother to embrace him and tell him that he is everything she could have ever wanted, no matter how he was created, and that she’s waiting for him.
Companions: Who is your Sole’s best friend?
Companions: Who do they like the least?
Companions: With whom does your Sole travel most of the time?
Noah’s best friend is probably Glory at first, which makes what happens to her extra-awful (she’s one of my favourite characters in general, so it’s always awful). Glory is a lot like Zora, and apparently people like Zora are attracted to Noah (and vice versa). Noah had a crush on her at first, but Glory likes the ladies, so they just became really good friends instead.
After Glory dies, Noah ends up spending some time with Nick (who’s really good at making people feel better) and realises that Nick’s probably his other bestest friend. He is a good confidante, a genuinely honest and compassionate guy, and he sticks with Noah no matter what bullshit Noah does because he believes in Noah and doesn’t begrudge him a few mistakes here and there -- everyone makes mistakes, after all, doesn’t make them terrible people. Just people. So... yeah. Nick.
I think the person Noah would get along with the least would be Paladin Danse, but they don’t end up meeting except in passing so it doesn’t matter.
Noah usually travels with Preston, who is loath to let Noah out of his sight, lol. They often bring Nick along, and of course Oingo Boingo (the dog), although he’s a freewheelin’ pup and sometimes runs off on his own too. He’s got a good nose and always catches up to his humans later.
the only way I can describe Noah and Zora’s relationship sounds terrible, and that’s why it’s difficult for me to write about them
because when I think about Noah and Zora I feel this sense of... crushing weight. like a relationship that had to happen, that is so bound by ka that it’s made heavy by it. it’s like an arranged marriage, except arranged by like, duelling cosmic forces
and the thing is that it makes Zora (and, later, Preston) sound like just... tools. like they’re there to aid Noah’s purpose. but the thing is, that’s not what they are to Noah, or to me. Noah loves them both, deeply, and vice versa.
but from a meta point of view, from the cosmic view, it is all orchestrated. almost everything in Noah’s life is Atom-orchestrated. the intercession of Zora and Preston on Noah’s behalf is the work of that which stands against Atom (and has no name). I don’t think that makes them tools, I think that makes them profoundly important on all levels, but I also know how it sounds if you think destiny et al is a crock of shit. idk.
but a lot of Noah and Zora’s otherwise-lovely relationship was tainted by fear because they didn’t know what was going to happen to them. they didn’t know how much they would have to suffer.
when Noah wakes up in the Wasteland, he knows. and it’s not so bad anymore, because now he knows.
The food changed quite a lot in 200 years. What does your Sole think about the new meals they serve in the Commonwealth? Are they a good cook? What do they eat on a regular basis?
Ha! Noah couldn’t cook in the first place, even with all the conveniences of pre-War life. He did try his best, and it’s not like he burned water or anything-- he just never had the knack for making good food. Passable food was the most you could expect from him.
The Commonwealth forces him to learn how to get inventive. Sure, the irradiated pre-War food doesn’t hurt him, necessarily, but it does make his metabolism go a little haywire and his brain a little psychedelic while providing very little (if any) actual nutrition, so it’s not the smartest idea. He has to learn how to cultivate mutated crops and recognise which ones were edible, how to make tato taste like something other than gluey cardboard, how to prep and cook radstag and giant scorpion and deathclaw egg... it’s like learning how to live all over again.
And since he doesn’t have much to unlearn, it kind of works in his favour. He learns how to farm, and harvest, and hunt, and cook, and most importantly: it gives him something to do, something productive and energy-consuming, something that will take his mind off how fucked up from the floor up the world and his life are.
So Noah, hapless kitchen novice, becomes Noah, confident cook-fire adept.
He’s quite fond of grilled radstag with Nuka-Cherry glaze (don’t knock it til you’ve tried it) and yao guai roast when he can get it (rarely), but the real delicacy is softshell mirelurk -- especially mirelurk cakes, which got to be one of his specialities once he got over how fucking freaky mirelurks were when they were alive and skittering after him. (He never quite gets over it, but at least he stops screeching and trying to climb onto Preston’s head.)
What is your Sole’s favorite time of day? Why?
What are your Sole’s fears? Are they afraid of anything in particular?
Noah prefers the midday. His mind is overactive when there are too many shadows, when he can’t see the sun -- it’s very easy for him to fall into the thought spiral that the sun will never rise on him again, that darkness will devour him, that Atom waits for him in the darkness.
It’s a silly thought. Atom is the brightest light he’s ever seen.
These two questions belong together because Noah’s greatest fear is being sundered by Atom, and beyond the deadlights of Atom’s body, there is the most complete void [un]imaginable. He is afraid of the light, and afraid of the darkness.
(One dispels the other, though. Without Atom’s favour, he is destined for the void. With Atom’s favour, he will be sundered, but remade in a new and glorious image. The problem is that Noah can’t figure out what the lesser evil is.)
He is similarly afraid of losing Preston, which is a very logical fear because Preston is an extremely important part of his life, and not just in the mundane sense. He has nightmares about settlements put to the torch, of the Institute being attacked by dissidents (somehow), of Zora being stuck in some kind of Sunken Place and trying to reach him but he can’t receive the messages... I mean, honestly, someone like Noah has a lot to be afraid of.
How did your Sole react to being awaken from cryogenic sleep 200 years later? What are their thoughts about the Commonwealth and how things developed while they were asleep?
(I skipped 5 on purpose, didn’t feel like answering it)
The despair that Noah feels upon awakening in 2287 is so crushingly absolute that all he wants to do is go back to sleep. He even tries to knock himself back out in hopes that he’ll just magically slip into permanent unconsciousness or something. He’s not really thinking clearly, as we can imagine.
But innately, Noah wants to live. He’s a stubborn and curious bastard and he wants to see what a post-apocalyptic world looks like -- he’s just so blind with grief at the moment that he can’t access that curiosity. So his mind latches onto Shaun as a motivator -- Zora is dead but Shaun is still alive, and he has to find who took Shaun.
I think if he’d known off the bat that it’d been a full two centuries since the bombs fell, he might have had a harder time getting himself out of the Vault, but at the time he couldn’t fathom how long it’d been.
Anyway, it takes him about a week to get out of the Vault itself. Despite his supernatural resiliency and the sophistication of the cryo tech, 200 years is still 200 years, and it takes a few days to be able to take more than a few steps without collapsing, let alone find food and water, find a weapon, fight off the rad-roaches, scrounge around for salvageable items, and get the vault door open...
The Commonwealth is so alien to him that he doesn’t fully process it for a while -- overloaded, his mind focuses on a very narrow field of view to protect itself from collapse, and it’s a while before he’s stable enough to begin processing exactly what happened to the world and to him, and how utterly strange it is to be 240 years old but only feel 40, to be a man written out of time.
That protective brain-fog makes him seem like he’s taking everything in stride -- “oh, you’re a... ghoul? right. of course you are” -- but it’s an illusion. He’s in a constant state of quietly freaking-the-fuck-out for months.
