#no spoilers for the fog mother situation in my fic but nora's refusal to believe she's a ghost

[new-eyes-extra-colors]

👻💢💤💐🌙☀️🌌🍼✏️🔫

Thank you for the ask!! For sole survivor Nora Navarre:

💢 ANGER answered here!

👻 GHOST - do they believe in ghosts? what are their “ghostly experiences”, if any?

Nora emphatically does not believe in ghosts, psychics, or the supernatural. A few of her companions, notably Nick and Deacon, point out that there's plenty of stuff out in the Commonwealth that's arguably weirder than ghosts and it would be silly to discount that sort of thing wholesale and--frankly--arbitrarily, but she's stubborn.

Meeting the Fog Mother is... quite an experience for her.

💤 SLEEPING - do they fall asleep easily? what helps them sleep?

Nora suffers from insomnia and struggles with sleeping restfully and regularly. She listens to the radio turned down low, or tuned to static for white noise. When her husband was still alive, he would rub her back to help her sleep. (Later, Nick does the same thing.)

💐 BOUQUET - create a bouqet for them! what do those flowers mean? are any of the flowers their particular favourite?

Daffodil, calla lily, moonflower, zinnia, forget-me-nots, sunflower, and morning glory.

Daffodils for spring and new beginnings, calla lillies for life (and death), moonflowers for the night/darkness (the safest time for a Railroad agent to operate), and zinnias and forget-me-nots for remembering absent loved ones. Sunflowers are too big for a bouquet, but they remove harmful pollutants and radiation from soil by absorbing it through their roots, and of course resemble the sun. Morning glories because she likes them; they're her favorite of the bunch. She grew them along the fence behind her home in Sanctuary.

🌙 MOON - what is your oc’s greatest wish? how far are they willing to go for it?

More than anything, Nora wants Shaun back. She is willing to go very, very far to that end--and tells herself that no matter what, she'll be satisfied if she can find the truth.

☀️ SUN - are they a morning person? what is the first thing they do in the morning?

Nora's dead to the world until her first cup of coffee or tea in the morning, but brushing and rebraiding her hair is her first priority.

🌌 MILKY WAY - what was the inspiration behind your oc? what was the first thing you decided about them?

Actually, when I first started playing FO4, I played as the male sole survivor, and so I thought of Nora originally as a background character who was only relevant as far as he knew her. Then I got like 20 hours in, realized how many other characters had dead wives, and went "okay, I'm playing the lady character now."

So the first thing I decided was her appearance. I had an idea of what she looked like before but didn't draw her until I switched protagonists. She's changed a little since my initial drawings of her back in late 2020, but the angular features, long hair, dark skin, and freckles are the same. Compare and contrast:

It's cool to see how she's changed over the last two and a half years (and how my art has improved--I think it's more consistent and less rigid).

As far as inspiration, I pulled some of her personality--the toughness and determination combined with a love of dressing up and looking nice--from stories my grandmother told me of her grandmother.

🍼 BABY BOTTLE - what are their thoughts on children?

Before having Shaun, Nora was ambivalent about children. She's always been good with them, as a lot of the responsibility for her two younger sisters fell on her when she was a teenager. But she didn't want any of her own.

After Shaun, and while she's searching for him, she dotes on children she meets in her travels, especially Duncan MacCready. She would like to do the same for Nat Wright, but Nat doesn't let her.

✏️ PENCIL - is there a particular quote / lyric that you associate with them?

Quote: "A mother’s love for her child is like nothing else in the world. It knows no law, no pity. It dares all things and crushes down remorselessly all that stands in its path." --Agatha Christie, The Last Seance

Lyric: "Illuminate my way with bricks of yellow / a painted road to follow fallen hallows / and through the forest haunted / I sojourn forward dauntless for I know / I've no place like a home." --Dirt Poor Robins, "Wax Cylinder Sonata"

🔫 PISTOL - do they trust people easily? how easily will they turn their back to someone? have they been backstabbed before? will they betray someone if given an ultimatum?

When she first wakes up in the Commonwealth, she's in a situation where she can't help but trust complete strangers (Preston, Danse, Piper, and Nick), because there is no way she'd be able to navigate this new and unfamiliar world on her own. On the other hand--this is a new and unfamiliar world, and she has zero context for anything. She's completely out of her element, and doesn't want to trust because of that. So she's quite conflicted for a while.

After she gets her bearings, she doesn't trust easily, but she is willing, and willing to give people second chances as well, depending on the circumstances.

Nora would never intentionally/willingly betray a friend or loved one, though if given an ultimatum she may try to deceive the one giving it to her into thinking she's going along with it. (In my fic, this is basically what happens with the Railroad and Institute--Nora convinces the Directorate to let the Railroad and Brotherhood fight it out instead of getting the Institute involved in a direct conflict. It doesn't go the way she plans.)