Isabelle Halloran

Personality:

Isabelle is, at a surface, stoic and levelheaded - or at least, she tries to. In truth, she is a woman bottled up with so much anxiety. She's quick to get nervous and back down, will take another person's insight over her own (even if she could be right), and tries her best not to step on another's toes.

Still, Isabelle can be very brave when she wants to be - such as when she protected Ollie, a dear friend of her's, from Allium. When she gets like this, she's still scared, and is probably crying through the ordeal, but very capable of putting her mind to anything if it means that someone she cares about will remain ok.

Background:

Isabelle comes from a simple family who had moved to Mazehart years back when her parents found better work there. She was around when Mazehart's chasms first opened up, and were fascinated by the strange rumors that came about since their appearance. Too scared to venture herself, she read up on papers documenting what they were like, and became rather knowledgeable of the creatures that lurked there. Her sister, Melody, was just as curious - if not more. It leads her to working with a team with the promise of discovering a 'breakthrough' in regards to how slimes can form an identity, but...one day, Melody doesn't return. Isabelle, unsure where her sister has gone, takes the initiative to become an impromptu detective of the sorts, searching high and low for her whereabouts, the research team's whereabouts, or anything that can connect her to her sibling once more. 

Then, on a whim, the newest version of DRcade comes to her attention. First recommended by her online friend, Ollie, the two join the beta version of the game and both come to find it a lot of fun. The two continue playing the game to get away from their real-life worries, each taking on a character that has a tied backstory with the other, which they both find makes the game more interesting for both of them.

This continues until one day, both of them suddenly find them in an actual killing game. Unsure what to do, Isabelle is guarded at first, but her worries are pushed aside when she encounters her friend in peril. This results in her killing Allium - Olive's brother - in order to save Olive's life. Unable to take the truth, and willing to work with Olive, Isabelle tries to hide the murder's truth in order to let Olive have his way, and more importantly, look away from the grim reality of the events. However, after realizing the situation she would be putting others in, Isabelle decides to come clean, even if it pains her to see Olive also come to terms with it.

Over the course of the game, Isabelle wrangles with the death that she has caused. Though she believes that what she has done was right - it was either killing Allium, or Allium killing her or worse, Olive - she still has to take into account that it's Olive's brother that she's killed. Many of the others keep their distance as well for the deed that she had done, leaving her often on her own to try and understand the nature of this twisted game. 

She expects twists, and isn't taken too off guard about the rules of the game not being enforced as strictly as first assumed. She's even relieved when she connects the dots about Cordelia's true motive, and knows that Caliber is alive and well. but the one thing that she does expect, the one thing that she decides to reach out to Susannah (per agreement) to talk about once they escape the game?

It's that the 13th person, who's identity was completely removed in order to make them unable to be identified, was once her sibling. Knowing this puts Isabelle in a difficult position - was there any way to have this person recall who they once were? Or should she accept that her sibling had effectively 'died' that day, and that this person was someone completely different? It's something that troubles her, but something she decides, for the sake of the game, to not unpack immediately unless it's necessary for everyone to escape. (She's relieved when Cassidy and Susannah try not to press on the subject, too). 

After the events of OFFLINE, Isabelle is uncertain as to whether or not she wants to continue being a detective, now that the truth of their sibling's whereabouts has been discovered. Her desire to know why her sibling did the things that they did that led to their 'death' eventually spurs her to look into the Identity experiments once more, though, and has decided that she can't move on unless she completely understands the motivations behind what happened.

Other Info:

• Isabelle adores sea creatures, which is part to why her DRcade Avatar has fish motifs. One of her favorites is the Jellyfish. 
• Though Olive's and Isabelle's online Avatars imply they dislike each other, the two are amiable friends outside the game, and mainly roleplay them at odds with each other for some added fun.
• Isabelle likes to solve puzzles, and takes interest in seeing how others might solve them differently. 
• Whenever Isabelle interacted with Solstice, or saw pictures of them, Isabelle would find herself getting somber. She later realizes that it's likely because, despite not remembering what Solstice looks like, something of them still reminds them of their sibling, even if only subconsciously.
• Post game, Isabelle has decided to let Solstice live however - effectively being a different person, Isabelle instead wants to focus on starting over with them, even if its hard.