| Author | Message |
|---|---|
Digithe Joined: 24 Aug 2003 Posts: 884 | Posted: Thu Mar 19, 2009 9:09 pm Name: Natalie Poulain
Alias: Mirage Age: 24 ( claims 18 ) Occupation: Student at Xavier’s Academy Alliance: X-Men Items: (None?) Description: There is one thing about Natalie that few would disagree about. That is, it doesn’t necessarily follow that where she is, her mind is also. In fact, her mind is often somewhere far removed from the rest of her. Consequently, she also has a tendency to be rather forgetful. It’s not that she’s slow – though some strongly suspect that she is – rather, Natalie is simply focusing on something else that she deems more important. Her judgment is not always correct, of course; she often misses important lectures notes while trying to solve a math problem in her head. Because she has always been naturally lucky, she tends to see almost any event in a positive light. Furthermore, she has the charisma to get people into motion if the need arises. Still, though she has successfully been placed into a leadership position, she is hesitant to volunteer herself for it because she knows that she has a tendency to panic when things start looking grim. Even her considerable optimism cannot save her from panicking in the face of extreme danger. Also following from Natalie’s natural luck is a tendency to be almost naively trusting of others. Though she has, of course, experienced unfortunate events in her life, they were never the result of a bad decision on her part, so she has come to believe that no matter what lies she believes, things will eventually work out alright for her. And, besides, nothing good can come from doubting others – or so she believes. Though few would normally call her high-strung, when working on some large project she can start to lose her patience quickly. Of course, it probably doesn’t hurt that she also has a tendency to procrastinate and work only sparingly until right before the deadline. While she claims that this is because she works better under pressure, most who know her well might suggest that this is only a weak excuse for her procrastination. One source of Natalie’s procrastination is her love for sleep. Left to her own devices, if she has nothing important immediately due, Natalie can and will sleep through a whole day. Sleeping and eating are actually two of her favorite pastimes. She can and does eat a lot, but never seems to gain weight. Some suspect that her optimism uses a lot of energy and keeps her thin, but in reality she is just generally quite active. Her adopted parents had her enrolled in various self defense classes from an early age, to later include taekwondo, and she has kept it up since. Natalie is roughly average height, though she often laments that she is too short. Her curly, light-brown hair is generally just a bit longer than shoulder length and often kept up in a braid. Natalie is almost obsessively protective of her hair – woe to anyone who thinks that pulling a prank on her involving her hair might be funny. When her hair is down, she will often play with it almost subconsciously while reading or thinking about something. Some have suggested that she keeps it up to prevent exactly this. Natalie’s eyes match her hair for color, and always have a sense of warmth, even if they tend to be staring off at some distant, invisible planet. She also possesses a kind smile that, when combined with a friendly look from her eyes, can warm the heart. Mainly because of this, but certainly also because of her optimism, she is the type of person that can brighten a person’s day just by being nearby. History: Natalie’s life is a dance with luck. While generally she is quite lucky, every now and then her luck seems to run out. Though she was left in the care of an orphanage almost immediately after birth, she was quickly adopted by a wealthy family, the Poulain’s, who raised her as their own. In her younger years, Natalie attended private school in the heart of Paris. While she was generally a pretty good student, it soon became apparent that the arts were not for her. Art, in particular, seemed to her entirely too subjective – with enough luck, she could chuck a few buckets of paint at a canvas and have it called modern art. Furthermore, anything with a multiple-choice test was beyond boring for her. In one particular instance, she completely forgot about having a history test the next day, and had neither studied nor slept enough. Consequently, she slept through the first half of the testing period, and used the second half to fill in random circles, without even reading the questions. She received almost full marks on that test. From then on, Natalie devoted herself to math and science. Rather than become obsessed and cocky because of her abnormally good luck, Natalie became disillusioned by anything that could be left to chance. Numbers, then, became her only solace. Numbers were either correct or not, after all – there was no room for luck. On Natalie’s 14th birthday, a freak car accident left her father dead and her mother in the emergency room. Though her mother eventually survived, she was paralyzed from the waist down. Perhaps because of the shock of the injury and losing her husband, Mrs. Poulain was never quite the same. Or, as some suggested, perhaps it was because her daughter escaped from the vehicle with just a few scratches. Though Natalie had hoped to return to her old school as though nothing had happened, it was a doomed mission from the start. Children being as they are, she was teased endlessly for being the daughter of a cripple, or being a witch for surviving the deadly accident – it turned out that nobody in the other vehicle survived either. It was only the rare soul who actually had the courage to commiserate with her. After finishing the rest of her eighth grade at the private school, Natalie convinced her mother to take her out. Since her mother was afraid that they would be unable to afford another private school, Natalie started high school in the public school system. Though rather nervous about the whole thing at first, Natalie got used to the public school system quickly, and, with her warm personality was able to make friends without too many difficulties, particularly through the taekwondo club. It was not long into the year, however, before Natalie came down with a serious illness. She stayed home from school for three days before finally feeling well enough to go back. That first day back, however, was not something to be celebrated. Upon returning home, Natalie discovered that her mother had picked up the illness, and was doing even worse than Natalie herself had done. Within a week, Mrs. Poulain had passed away. Unable to bear the loneliness of that big, empty house, Natalie took to wandering the streets at night instead of going home. Every night she managed to find food for herself, but it was only recently that she discovered just how she obtained it – at the time, all she knew was that at some point in the night she discovered that she was eating some bread or a pastry or some other piece of food. One night, Natalie discovered an empty apartment with the window unlocked. It wasn’t particularly glamorous, but it was small and cozy enough, with books and things lying about everywhere. For a reason that even today she couldn’t explain, Natalie decided to stay there at nights. While she knew someone must go there every now and again, as the books and things shifted regularly, the owner was never there when she arrived in the evening, and was always gone in the morning when she woke up. She saw this as a sign that he or she didn’t mind. However, around Natalie’s sixteenth birthday, the owner was suddenly gone. Though the window was still open, there were no more books. All that remained were a few papers left carelessly on the ground. It seemed very much like the owner had left in a bit of a hurry. Feeling confused and abandoned, Natalie regretfully returned home. She spent the rest of her high school days in that house, though she had begun taking long walks in the evenings, wandered almost aimlessly about the streets of Paris. One night, she had ended up near the old apartment when she absentmindedly stumbled into a group of imposing-looking men. She apologized, of course, and tried to go on her way, but they wouldn’t have it. Not eager to find out what their plans for her were, Natalie used her years of martial arts training to dispatch the men and fled back home. She wouldn’t stay there for long, however. Within a few days, Natalie was returning from an evening walk around the neighborhood to see several police cars and a crowd of onlookers outside her house. When she asked someone what was going on, they explained that a policeman on patrol had spotted a few men trying to break into the residence and called for backup. It turned out that the men had been in the mob. Whether these men were the same she had fought a few days earlier was something Natalie didn’t care to stay and find out. She took out whatever money was left in her bank account and bought a plane ticket to America. Her parents had always hoped that she would study aboard, anyway. Once safely in The Land of Opportunity, Natalie managed to talk her way into a small college in an even smaller town in a state called Virginia, where she began to take classes. She managed to make do for a couple years before she finally discovered just how she’d been managing so well without really doing anything. She was just leaving a professor’s office, when she suddenly came to her senses. Though she remembered going in to talk with the professor, and thought she remembered everything clearly, something was not quite right with the situation. It was then that somebody plowed right into her, knocking her over. The other student claimed that she hadn’t seen Natalie at all, and that it was almost as if she’d appeared out of thin air. That was impossible, of course, but the noise drew the professor out of his office. It was then that Natalie realized that she was holding the professor’s wallet. Without knowing what she was doing, she had been stealing! Filled with embarrassment and dread, Natalie left the college, and began to wander along the highway. It was not long before a man named Charles Xavier got in touch with her and invited her to attend his academy. He explained to her that she had a case of kleptomania, and that she hadn’t gotten caught so far because she had the ability to turn invisible, and that he would be able to help her. Though reluctant at first, since most of the students would be high-school age, she agreed that she needed to learn to better control her powers – perhaps it would help control her kleptomania as well. In order to stay somewhat under the radar, Natalie lied about her age to everyone at the academy upon arrival – for some reason, she thought it would be embarrassing to be so much older than her peers. Whether or not this would have been true, it was not long before she fell in love with the place. Powers: Though even Natalie herself is only vaguely aware of it, her primary power manifests itself as extraordinarily good luck. For example, she rarely loses at any card-game she plays, even (or especially) when she doesn’t fully know the rules; when driving, she rarely gets stopped by red lights; if she were to jump off a bridge, there will almost certainly be a boat passing beneath for her to land safely on. However, as she explains, eventually all of the bad luck that she hasn’t experienced will have built up and explodes all at once for a day of pure horror. This power is so far completely subconscious – that is, while she can feel when her luck is particularly good, she has no control over when it is good. Natalie’s secondary power – which even she assumes is her primary power because it is more obvious – is the ability to bend light. She can use this to render herself and others near her invisible and to create illusions. With enough focus, she can bend light into a narrow beam – essentially, a laser. Other: Natalie likes Professor Auclair for his easy-going attitude and shared love for coffee, but mostly because she can speak French with him. While she learned English from a young age at her private school and speaks with only a hint of an accent, she always prefers her native tongue. Otherwise, though, she cannot understand his obsession with language, and laments the lack of scientific journals and the like on his shelves. Her favorite teacher, is Professor Kaldev, whom she idolizes for her elegance and excellence in the sciences. Though many would expect her to be naturally clumsy just from seeing her spacey personality, but actually Natalie is quite graceful. When she does trip, like a cat she manages to catch herself before actually falling on her face. OOC: Questions? Comments? Strawberry Cheesecake? |
Asai Joined: 24 Aug 2003 Posts: 638 | Posted: Thu Mar 19, 2009 9:25 pm So fscking long. Must you keep doing this?
I'll get around to reading this soon. Promise. |
| Digithe Joined: 24 Aug 2003 Posts: 884 | Posted: Thu Mar 19, 2009 9:33 pm Pssh cry me a river. It's not really any longer than Christine's. I just use the enter key more liberally.
I guess the answer to your question is yes, because I'm not actually trying to write a lot. I just start writing and keep going until I'm done :P |
The Ace of Spades Joined: 7 May 2006 Posts: 398 | Posted: Thu Mar 19, 2009 10:58 pm I approve. It's not too long at all-- and I'm glad you added the drama-trauma stuff to her history. Always a plus. :)
She and Chavi would get along great, if they ever got a chance to interact... Chavi's more than used to being idolized. |
| [ You are here: Silver Hearts Role Playing -> Characters -> X-men -- Natalie Poulain ] | |