Basic Stats
Age: 22
Origin: DVII, London
Height: 5’3”
Occupation: Red Cross aid worker (former)
Loyalty: Neutral
Played By: Thal
Contents:
Natalie Northbrook
Granddaughter of DVII’s Patron, Edward Northbrook, and daughter to well-known and much loved philanthropist Eleanor Northbrook. Her father, Alistair Grey, was convicted of funding terrorist groups in America in 2042, and is currently serving his sentence in Moscow. She has two sisters.
Officially the Northbrooks have renounced all association with Alistair Grey, and Eleanor has reverted to her unmarried name. Legally, Natalie’s surname remains unchanged, but the Grey is most often dropped.
While in Africa, to differentiate herself from her Northbrook legacy in a country that had little care for who she is — and perhaps to make some silent point — she used the surname Grey.
HISTORY – CURRENT DAY
Natalie’s past blends seamlessly with the Northbrook legacy, until 2040 — when she was seventeen — and her father Alistair Grey was arrested for funding American terrorists. In the aftermath of the fire that destroyed their house — and much of the evidence against her father — the tabloids picked apart her childhood, but found little the Northbrooks did not yield willingly. Her early years were privileged and rosy, one of three cherubic daughters born to much loved philanthropist Eleanor Northbrook-Grey. There was little to distinguish her from her sisters.
During the trial, Natalie was noted for her dogged attendance, leading to additional speculation that she was aware of or complicit in her father’s activities. No evidence was ever brought against her, and she has never spoken out about her father. Though Edward Northbrook’s reputation suffered from the scandal, the Northbrooks rallied quickly, and the furore around Natalie died. These days rumours exist only in conspiracy theorist circles, and mainstream media attention on the Northbrooks rarely places its eye on Natalie. She is considered the family’s wayward daughter, their black sheep, but out of sight is out of mind; other than the stale old question of why she chose to leave London, there is precious little in the way of intrigue to report.
As such little note was ever made of her decision to work overseas. The official public spin was of course lauded as a daughter following her mother’s example. Yet despite that claim, Natalie shunned her family’s contact, cutting herself off almost entirely.
She spent some time working at a women’s shelter in Tanzania before, due to undisclosed reasons, she moved to Masiaka in Sierra Leone, where she taught at St. James school.
Following civil unrest and a visitation order from her father, Natalie returned to the Custody in 2046. She was extracted to safety by Legion Premiere, who had been hired for the job by her mother.
After some weeks in forced convalescence at the family estate in France, she travelled to Moscow to register as a channeler at the behest of her family. In reality she had planned to meet with her father, however the wound of his abandonment proved too great, and she never made the appointment.
Alone in Moscow, and deeply grieving her losses in Africa, she recklessly swept out into the night, chasing old and destructive habits. Eventually she ended up in an Underground club.
It was late by the time she discovered the club. Stairs led down and down and down, funnelling the beat of the music up like a siren call. Industrial pipes ran overhead and the air was thick with human heat and cigarette smoke. Cold concrete walls drifted beneath her fingertips. Strobe lights flashed as she slipped into the crowd below. The acoustics drew her, filled the alcohol-numbness with something more content as she fell into the beat.A Night to Forget
After heading deeper into the tunnels to listen to a voicemail, she was drugged and snatched.
Natalie woke up tied down. Her captor intended to use her for experiments, and she broke her block in her efforts to escape. Meanwhile, Alvis, Jay, and Jared were searching for her, alerted to her disappearance due to her having missed the appointment with her father.
After Jay’s confession to murder saw him arrested, she burned every resource she had to track him down, even meeting with Nikolai Brandon. Yet she fell short of contacting Jay herself, uncertain of the strength of her own emotions, or how they would be received.
Following the fundraiser held by Ascendancy, Natalie agreed to accompany the now Rod of Dominion Jay Carpenter to America in a bid to help Jay’s sister — under the understanding that she would ensure he was returned to the Custody afterwards. They travelled with Jensen James, and did not return until Scion Marveet was tasked with their retrieval. Exactly what happened is unknown.
Upon returning to Custody soil, Natalie has remained in Moscow.
Description
Pale blonde hair, with distinctive light green-blue eyes. Fair skin, average tall and of petite frame. She has the grace and poise afforded by her privileged upbringing, and her accent is enunciated and crisp, advertising clearly where she is from. The intensity of her pale stare is sometimes mistaken for haughtiness. Certainly the media has always painted her as cold.
Public Image
Prior to 2046, Natalie never had a great media presence. Even now little is known – though there is plenty of speculation. Photographs taken during Alistair Grey’s trial often show her as unsmiling and intense, supporting her portrayal as cold and distant, a father’s daughter. Accounts that she was either involved or complicit in her father’s crimes were quashed at the time, but her reputation as a shining daughter of the Northbrook family never recovered, partly aided by her silence. She has never given a public interview concerning her father. Her past aid work overseas is usually considered exile, though there is debate over whether it is self-inflicted from guilt, or imposed by her family.
Recently there has been a shift in which Natalie has chosen to be more visibly in the public eye.
Natalie’s pale eyes passed over dozens of faces as she made her way through the crush. A woman alone was too often interpreted as an open invitation — for true to her word, Toma peeled away like smoke into the shadows — but Natalie coyly extricated herself from unwanted attention. Maybe those cool smirks proved a lure. The pale gold waterfall of hair over one shoulder. A dress that draped curves. If Moscow was to be the new battlefield, she could not fight every war having alienated the city’s brightest stars. She was not cold, but her attention was nonetheless dismissive.
Da Capo
In public Natalie conforms to necessity, and is a consummate actress. She will use friendships to her own ends, though only with what she considers to be good reason. She doesn’t lie, but few peek beyond her armour to glimpse the truth of who she is underneath. Otherwise she is generally dismissive of those around her, though not usually unkind. Rather, she can be difficult to read. Her humour errs towards dry sarcasm, and when she finds reciprocity she tends to relax more of her guard in order to seek a genuine connection. She does not enjoy the vacuity of the Moscow social scene.
If she can be warm when it suits her, it is usually in such a way that keeps others at arm’s length. She lives in a lavish apartment in central Moscow, but does not host, nor invites others back.
No one had quite seemed to know who she was, at least until the low buzz of Edward’s granddaughter had circulated, and then the axis of the room changed to include the new piece on the board. Which of the Northbrook sisters is it became the next silent question, but Natalie was content to allow the mystery to percolate. She wanted her name on their lips. She wanted them to claim the victory of discovery. […] Smiling was easy, as was charm. If sarcasm cut the sweetness sometimes, few were more than passing perplexed at the way she did it. Probably her appearance helped smooth the errant sharpness of her tongue on those occasions; the cascade of light-gold curls over one shoulder, the smokey haze rimmed around pale eyes. Zhenya, with much sisterly delight for the task, had arranged the dress and jewellery; Natalie had had little need of such finery in Sierra Leone, and the things she had even brought with her to Moscow were minimal. Ethereal, Zhenya had declared. Natalie had only rolled her eyes. But it served a purpose.
Pancakes
Natalie is a natural seductress. In the past she has revelled in ephemeral connections, usually the one to leave before morning. Recently her name has been attached to Adrian Kane. Though there is a genuine attraction, there is little substance to any rumours.
Public Associations
- Zhenya Disir: CEO of Pervaya Liniya, currently working with Natalie on security for Belizna
- Adrian Kane: business magnate involved with restoring Belizna
- Evelyn Avalon: a member of the US House of Representatives and close associate of the Ascendancy, with whom Natalie maintains a friendship
- Emily Shale; CEO of Shale Industries, and philanthropist whose endeavours Natalie supports
Business
Belizna
The abandoned Belizna Castle and its surrounding lands was purchased by Natalie in the summer of 2046, one of many estates deserted during the Russian Revolution and ultimately left to fall into tragic disrepair over the course of many decades. With financial backing from investors, including Adrian Kane, the main property has undergone extensive and intensive restoration work, with a decent portion of the manor now habitable.
After months of careful networking, in late 2046 Belizna quietly announced its intention to open its doors to women and girls who wished to learn more of their channeling gift. It has attracted a small consortium of women who will lay the foundations for what Natalie intends for it to become. In early 2047 it will welcome its first students.
Private Life
Few ever know the real Natalie. After so many years of fiercely guarding her privacy and emotions, perhaps not even herself.
She has few true friends, and spends much of her leisure time alone. She doesn’t flaunt her wealth, and usually prefers simplicity both in the manner she dresses and the places she visits.
Much of her past behaviour has been both dangerous and reckless. Alcohol buffers the things she does not want to feel. It is something she has not indulged in since returning from America, though. Or not much at least.
Most do not know that Natalie is a talented pianist and is deeply moved by music, so much so that it was the frame with which she taught herself to use the Power. She makes little time for it these days, though her apartment in Moscow does house a piano sent from her family estate.
Natalie presents herself as cold and untouchable, but it is almost entirely artifice. Its an awareness of her own sensitivities that often leads her to pushing others away, or armouring herself in apathy. When she loves it is fearlessly. For those she genuinely grows to care for, her loyalty is almost unbreakable.
The Network
After returning to Moscow in the summer of 2046, and a reunion with her father (which went poorly), Natalie took it upon herself to uncover the answers Alistair had promised Jay but which he refused to deliver. After calling a number Alistair had given her “in case of an emergency” she found herself meeting for the first time with Kristof DeGarmo.
DeGarmo was a former employee of Orion Pharmaceuticals, and a whistleblower surviving incognito. He told her that it was her mother he first owed the favour to, after she helped him fall off-grid, and that in return should Natalie ever need an escape, he would facilitate it. Natalie bargained for information instead. Unknown to Natalie, DeGarmo is a member of the Network.
It was through this encounter that Natalie first discovered how much her parents have concealed from her. The next morning, she bit the bullet and reached out to Jay.
Relationships
From the moment she met Jay there was a connection; and from the moment she realised it, Natalie was wary of the power he held over her. She convinced herself she was just a job; hired first by her mother, to extract her from Sierra Leone, and second by her father, to rescue her from the tunnels under Moscow. Seeing Jay with Nox soon after convinced her he had moved on from whatever unrealised spark had been discovered in Africa. Despite it, when he was arrested, she used every resource at her disposal to work out where the Custody had taken him, including manipulating Evelyn Avalon. Yet she never asked to see him, unsure if he would only be confused as to why she had gone to such extreme efforts for him.
At the fundraiser she purposefully avoided Jay, yet only agreed to go at all because she suspected he would be there. Miscommunication and hesitation marked both their steps. When he finally approached her only to ask for her family’s help, she was dismayed; reminding herself once again to be careful of her feelings. But her help was assured. He could have asked anything.
When Brandon asked her to supervise the trip to America, she agreed knowing she would never force Jay back against his will despite the consequences implied against her family. In Iowa she was profoundly uncomfortable around Jay’s parents, and gravitated towards Cayli’s company. It was through Jay’s little sister she began to understand the arm’s length at which he keeps himself. They grew close in the short time they spent together, while Natalie taught her to channel safely.
Natalie hurts herself in preparation of loss. She chooses to cut herself before others can. But despite the risks she knows Jay is someone she will never walk away from.
You can’t lose something you don’t have to begin with, Adrian had told her yesterday. It wasn’t the only lure that drew her to him, though his blunt and unfeeling promises had not hurt either. But it had exemplified something for her too. At the time it had felt like a determined shield of self-protection. Now it felt like a recognition of emptiness. Because Natalie had lost. More than she cared to linger over. But Adrian was wrong about the value of his advice, just as Natalie was beginning to realise she had been wrong about the things she was prepared to fight for. Sometimes it was worth having something to lose.
In Case of Fire, Break Glass
“Toma“
Toma is a hired bodyguard employed by Natalie’s family. Though it is her responsibility to protect Natalie, she does not necessarily consider it her duty to keep her out of trouble in the first place. In the main she doesn’t care what Natalie gets up to, and is consistently amused with the challenge of keeping up with her.
Other Connections
- Michael Vellas; leader of the Dominions, who Natalie has approached in order to establish an alliance.
- Lawrence Monday; a reporter Natalie met while in Africa, and who came to her aid in Texas.
Family
- Alistair Grey — Natalie’s father, with whom she has had a non-existent relationship since his imprisonment in 2040. He contacted her in 2045, while she was still in Africa, but she never made the meeting. After events in America, mostly owing to Jay Carpenter’s meddling, Natalie has opened strained communication with him.
- Eleanor Northbrook — Natalie’s philanthropist mother. She was responsible for hiring Legion Premiere, who were intended to retrieve Natalie safely from Sierra Leone amidst the civil disturbance.
- Edward Northbrook — Natalie’s grandfather and Patron of DVII. Recently he has come under political strain after Natalie failed to uphold her promise to the Ascendancy that she would return the Rod of Dominion Jay Carpenter to Moscow.
- Isobel Northbrook — Natalie’s oldest sister (by 2 years). Currently 24.
- Alice Northbrook — Natalie’s youngest sister (by 5 years). Currently 16.
See: Northbrook Family
Past Lives
Though Natalie’s soul has lived before, she is not attached to the major myths of any pantheon, and is indeed not born into every Age. When she is reborn, it is in conjunction with another with whom her life always tangles.
In the 3rd Age she lived as Nythadri Vanditera.
In the 5th Age she lived as Rudābeh Kaboli.
RP History
Africa — late 2045-46
Moscow — early 2046
United States — Spring 2046
0 Comments