[hider=The Darkened Blade of the Scarlet Dagger][center][color=f7b6c7][img]https://fontmeme.com/permalink/190425/e8e27565dfe88fd32dc865ad958c8e49.png[/img] [color=8a2cb5]Nat 🗡️ Natty 🗡️ Dagger [img]https://i.imgur.com/x0EeB8u.gif[/img] Jordan Miller 🗡️ 8a2cb5 Natalia "Nat" Pereira 🗡️ 24 (looks 27 to her dismay) 🗡️ 11/25/1996 🗡️ Female 🗡️ Bisexual 🗡️ Single 🗡️ Her loyalty is to the loft.[/color] - - - - [color=8a2cb5][b]Occupation:[/b][/color] 🗡️ Lead singer / Guitarist for "The Scarlet Dagger", a two-person band with her sister Mina. They could have interest in a drummer, should they be able to hang with both Mina's symphonic concertos on the keys and Nat's alternating rock-heavy shredding on the electric guitar and soft strums on the acoustic. They could have an album deal in the works. 🗡️ Bartender / Bar-area Bouncer at Amnesia NYC. She keeps the job despite the band's recent successes because the tips are really good, she gets to dress as she pleases and she can keep a close eye on the friskier patrons that try anything when her sister is up on stage dancing. They get to find out why she is called Dagger. [center][color=8a2cb5][b]Affiliation/Loyalty:[/b][/color][/center] Her loyalty is to her family, what little is left. It's her and her sister until the end. She also will fiercely defend the loft and her roommates from the scourge of vampires and men. However, in an effort to get info on her father's killer, she has maintained friendly relations with the Artois, unbeknownst to her sister. [color=8a2cb5][b]Personality (3 positive traits, 3 negative)[/b][/color] 🗡️ [color=forestgreen]Loyal[/color] It takes a lot to earn Nat's trust. However, once someone has it, they have an ally who will fight to the death (or undeath) for them. She does not take slights very easily and will defend those she cares about in whatever manner she has to, especially if it involves violence. 🗡️ [color=forestgreen]Creative[/color] Nat has grown up being an outside-the-box thinker, and it's led to some beautiful things. The creation of "The Scarlet Dagger" was one, combining her sister Mina's classical talents with her own rock-honed strains to make something truly unique on the New York scene. It's also led her to come up with some very innovative ways to get her daggers exactly where they need to go. She will not be pegged as some straight-shot simp. 🗡️ [color=forestgreen]Unafraid[/color] The worst of the world already unveiled itself to Nat, so what does she have to fear from it? She will not back down from any fight, she will not shirk away from any tenuous situation, she will dive in and face it no matter what. Daggers drawn. 🗡️ [color=9e0b0f]Overprotective[/color] She may claim a lot of lovers, but there is only one woman in the world that matters to Natalia, and that is Mina. She will literally do whatever she needs to in order to protect her lone surviving non-insane family member, even if that means sacrificing herself for her sibling. She is the smart one. She has the world-changing talent. She must survive, even if that means Nat must not. 🗡️ [color=9e0b0f]Hot-headed[/color] Nat has a temper, especially when it comes to protecting her little sister. There have been many drinks offered to patrons to make up for being on the wrong side of the Dagger's anger, although she argues that 95% of them deserve what they get. It's led her to be a little rash, but she is so good at what she does that the management of Amnesia and Envy usually look the other way. 🗡️ [color=9e0b0f]Free-wheeling[/color] Definitely not as meticulous as her sibling, Nat is usually not one to go into things with a plan, other than attack. In any aspect of her life, be it finding her next make-out partner or finding the next off-kilter vampire to slay, she just charges in with her weapons and hopes for the best. Heck, getting a job at a popular vampire hangout and bringing her sister in blind to work with her wasn't exactly planned out, but here they are. [color=8a2cb5][b]Aspirations/goals/philosophy:[/b][/color] 🗡️ [b]"There are two powers in this world; one is the sword and the other is the pen. There is a great competition and rivalry between the two. There is a third power stronger than both, that of the women."[/b] - Muhammad Ali Jinnah 🗡️ Natalia subscribes to being a master of all three mentioned in the quote above. As a woman, songwriter and mean wielder of daggers, she believes in herself and what she continues to do. She has to do so. There were few who did at the start. 🗡️ It feels like everything has been building towards this era in time for Natalia. The band is finally getting some buzz, enough to get notice from at least one record label thanks to her friend Angie. Loft life is good. Her sister is still good, and starting to come out of her shell a little bit. Things may finally be looking up for the Pereiras, and Nat will do whatever it takes to keep it going. 🗡️ Long term, the goal is to eventually get out of the loft and find a family home again, for her, Mina and their mother to live in relative peace and harmony, like they did before talk of vampires and serial killers entered their lives. Maybe even back in her birthplace. If its good enough for all those hockey players, it's good enough for them. [color=8a2cb5][b]Skill Set:[/b][/color] 🗡️ [b]Guess Why She's Called Dagger:[/b] With her sister needing protection following the disintegration of their family dynamic, Nat sought ways to protect herself and her sibling. A chance visit to a pawn shop on the Lower East side netted her a pair of daggers that she quickly became skilled with. It took many nicks and cuts that Mina had to treat, but she is now ruthlessly efficient both in stabbing someone wherever she wants and throwing her daggers wherever she wants. She has accumulated many daggers for her continuing training as a vampire hunter, enough that there is a door in the loft that others open at their own risk, as it has become her "dagger closet". 🗡️ [b]Beaten to the Punch:[/b] That isn't to say that Natalia would be helpless without a blade in her hand. Prior to acquiring her collection of weapons, she became proficient in bare-handed combat after being enrolled in a boxing class for "troubled youth" when she was 13. She enjoyed fighting, and learned how to defend herself, as well as the other members of her family, since her sister was loathe to fight and her mother's ability to battle steadily eroded. It's given her the ability to essentially be her own bouncer while tending bar. 🗡️ [b]Flexible In All Ways:[/b] The training she undertook as a teenager has given Nat a very flexible body, as well as a flexible mind. Boxing trained her to think quickly, look for openings and try and come up with battle plans on the fly. She is relatively new to applying that to hunting, as she is still learning about the trade from her roommate, but certainly it can't hurt. 🗡️ [b]Drawn To the Rocks:[/b] While her sister is more of an operatic singer when she performs vocals on stage, there is a rough, jagged quality to Natalia's singing voice that suits her rock leanings. However, when switching to the more hushed, acoustic songs, Natalia can get quiet and smooth to convey the tone. It allows her to match whichever muse Mina has when it comes to their music. 🗡️ [b]She Can Dance If She Wants To:[/b] While not as taken to dance as her sister was, Nat still shared in the classes if only to maintain the family cohesiveness that it bred. She is a passable Latin dancer because of this, but she did not go to the lengths of Mina. 🗡️ [b]Puny Gods:[/b] While Mina has her own god she prays to, Natalia has become something of an atheist. Hard not to after what happened to her father and what she learned about the world that got him killed. No, bless her soul, Nat found her rapture in the rock and roll, and sweet blasphemy guides her in much of her daily dealings. [color=8a2cb5][b]Fears:[/b][/color] Her main fear is something happening to Mina, especially given how little she knows of the world she finds herself on the fringes of. She doesn't want her to fall in. - - - - [color=8a2cb5][b]History:[/b][/color] Natalia Alicia Pereira was born on a brisk fall day in North Caldwell, New Jersey to Mónica and Justin Pereira, who married following a whirlwind romance after Mónica came to America as an exchange student from Mexico. She met Justin, an aspiring architect, who when they got hitched, adopted the surname Pereira as his own, out of reverence to Mónica's family, and to be rid of the last name Dyck once and for all. They doted after their little brunette treasure, and Mónica became even more devoted to family life when Mina came along a little over two years later. They were happy in their idyllic New Jersey town, but a job offer forced Justin into the city, and the family, against their better wishes, followed. This lasted for a couple years until Natalia was 12 and the disappearance of her father rocked her world. She and her mother were at one of Mina's recitals when they got the call from the local precinct that they had reason to believe that Justin had been claimed by the Bonekeeper, a serial killer who had been working in New York for some time. It was incomprehensible to Nat that her father would just be vanished like a cheap trick. It couldn't be. The world didn't work like that. Mina didn't take it well and Nat did her best to be strong for her sister, but it was hard. Nat started lashing out at school, in anger at the world for what it did to her family. It led to her enrollment in boxing lessons to try and corral some of that rage. However, the money was drying up at a rapid rate. The Dycks, never thrilled Justin took Mónica's name, cut the family off from their resources and Mónica had to do terrible things, mind-wrenching things to try and keep the family afloat. Nat took a job at 16 at a local music store, doing janitorial work and odd jobs to try and help, but it wasn't enough. Mónica got worse and worse. When she was 18 and Mina was 16, Nat became the legal guardian, and Mónica was committed to a mental hosptial to try and get help for her various problems. Nat continued to work at the music store and Mrs. Mitchell was happy to indulge the young woman in this world, leading to Nat's dreams of a band of her own to perform and serve as her outlet. She learned how to play the guitar and got very good. This was also when she bought her first set of daggers, for protection on the mean streets of New York. However, when she was 21, Mrs. Mitchell sold the store to a national conglomerate who just wanted the retail space for another bloody coffee shop. As thanks for her hard work and to give her a bit of a payout from the sale. Mrs. Mitchell offered Natalia a loft above a different record store that she owned as a rental deal, given what the family had to go through and how she just uprooted her from her spot. Natalia accepted. By this time, Nat was on friendly terms with the folks at Amnesia, who had allowed her in for a couple open-mic nights with her guitar. She picked up a job there as a bartender, and then learned just how much she didn't know about this city she was moved into. It was at Amnesia when she had her first encounter with a vampire, a smooth-talker who liked the bourbon and was convinced Natalia was a reincarnation of a 16th century Spanish countess. He got handsy, and as such got punched out. A couple of the other co-workers revealed their statuses as vamps and informed Natalia exactly what Amnesia was about. Nat was angry at first, having associated the surreal with the disappearance of her father, but she needed the money, so she stayed. It was especially surprising when Angie Park, her former friend from the music store, resurfaced as a vampire in the most obvious way possible, but in a way it made sense. Rekindling that friendship helped Nat get over the initial shock of being knee deep in a bloodsuckers' world. Eventually, she grew accustomed to having vampire co-workers and patrons, like it was just normal, and her fellow barkeeps helped keep her sharp when dealing with the unruly customers. However, while Nat was now convinced that not all vampires were evil, she had to know what happened to her dad. In addition to living in the loft with her sister, Natalia has allowed a couple other women to move into the loft. Vampire hunters. People she could learn from in exchange for a substantially reduced rent in the big city. Mina still doesn't know that Natalia plans to try and figure out what exactly happened to their dad, or how, but that's a worry for another day. [/color][/center][/hider]