[b]Setting:[/b] Modern Earth Basic [hider=Nataliya Ivanov (ME Basic)] [center][img]https://images4.imagebam.com/ea/85/05/MERA6D2_o.jpg[/img][/center] --| [color=6969af]Name:[/color] Nataliya Yakovlena Ivanov --| [color=6969af]Age:[/color] Mid-to-late 20s --| [color=6969af]SpecID:[/color] Human --| [color=6969af]Gender:[/color] Female --| [color=6969af]Sexuality:[/color] Lesbian --| [color=6969af]Height:[/color] 5'5" (165 cm) --| [color=6969af]Weight:[/color] 155 lbs. (70 kg) --| [color=6969af]Eye Color:[/color] Blue --| [color=6969af]Hair Color:[/color] Blonde --| [color=6969af]Ethnicity:[/color] Russkie --| [color=6969af]Personality --[/color] Nataliya has a bit of a tough demeanor, and is somewhat rough around the edges, but is honest and straight to the point. She tries to keep her dishonesty to a minimum, for both moral and practical reasons. Despite the rough exterior, she hides a soft, caring and protective side of her that drives the vast majority of her actions. Her relative neurodivergence creeps its way into how she acts, though she does her best to mask it. In most instances, she is mainly motivated by the desire to find happiness and oneness with herself, to find the warm company of friends, and maybe, just [i]maybe[/i], find the warm love of a another woman. --| [color=6969af]Appearance --[/color] Nataliya's light skin, blonde hair and blue eyes come alive from a fit and trained feminine body. While her clothing can wildly vary, as she dresses to her needs, she usually likes to wear clothes that are practical and maybe a little fun. When she can get away with it, she often dons a leather jacket and a pair of shades. --| [color=6969af]Biography --[/color] Born and raised in Saint Petersburg, Nataliya spent most of her childhood in a small apartment with her mother Ludmilla and her sister Polina. Her life was boring for the most part, as she spent most of her time either studying, fiddling with technology or getting bullied by Polina. Into her teenage years, her mother dated and eventually got married to a fighter pilot named Viktor. Polina was the newlywed's favorite, and Nataliya found herself feeling more and more alienated from her family. She spent more and more of her free time with her friends, whom she learned a lot from, especially about the changes she felt about herself. She learned that she was what most called a [i]lesbian[/i], but considering the societal pressures of the time, it was something she mostly kept to herself. She thought about her options, and while she wanted to go to art school to become an actress, her parents weren't capable of footing the bill for her tuition, as they were already doing that for Polina. Her parents presented her with two options, either find her way from the house at 18, or join the air force and earn her schooling through it. She went to the gym the next day and trained for boot camp. Victor used his connections to get Nataliya a decent position in the Air Force, where she trained and worked in communications for the forces stationed in Saint Petersburg. She had a rough start at the beginning, especially with sexual harassment problems, but it was a problem that didn't last long after her stepfather used his connections to ruin the lives of those responsible. There she served for five years, taking acting classes when she was off-duty. Over time, more doors opened to her, and she was granted more opportunities. She's learned quite a bit about the western world from both her friends and her duties in communications, and it appealed to her in a way that made her feel somewhat guilty about it. She finished her contract service at age 23, and was faced with many more opportunities now that she had some cash and experience. She took a long and hard look at her options. She made her choices. [hider=Pathway 1: Military]--[b]Military[/b] While Nataliya was in the Air Force, she served well enough to earn a recommendation to join one of the Air Force's flight schools. While she did join at the request of her stepfather, she only agreed to do it if he let her earn it on her own. She served well in flight school, and was a quick learner. She already had a leg up due to her experience in communications, and was quickly able to learn how to fly. It wasn't long before she had enough rank, clout and trust to slither her way into the fighter program. She graduated the school at 28 with high marks, and earned her way into the cockpit of a genuine Russian warplane. However, it wasn't meant to be. While Nataliya did earn high marks and had high praise spoken about her, many officers in the Air Force considered her a threat, so they grounded her and shuffled her aside, allowing more men to fill spots that were originally meant for her. After a fistfight with a particularly sexist officer, she was court martialed and imprisoned, despite her stepfather's best attempts to defend her. She spent three long months in a military prison until she was approached with an offer from a suspicious looking person. [i]Join us, and earn your American citizenship.[/i] Nataliya knew the offer was too good to be true. But she also knew that anywhere was better than where she was at. So she signed a contract with a foreign mercenary group, and found herself in the pilot's seat once again. It all happened almost as quickly as she was court martialed, the whole thing stank to her. She hoped that this mercenary group would be her way to a better life, and maybe closer to herself, but she knew in her heart that things weren't going to be that easy.[/hider][hider=Pathway 2: Civilian]--[b]Civilian[/b] Nataliya marshaled whatever courage she had left in her and did everything that wasn't expected of her, which was to go to America to act. Easier said than done, as Nataliya had to use all of the money she saved to pay for all of the expenses of travel, and then go through the process of getting her student visa, which wasn't particularly easy. She managed it, and was on her way to America. She ended up in to take part in their university acting programs, living in international housing while working on-campus to make ends meet. Standard employment wasn't enough, she had to do a lot under the table in order to make ends meet. It was difficult to do so while also maintaining her dignity, but she managed. She continued to work hard, but the light at the end of the tunnel still seems so distant. Eventually, she ran out of money, and couldn't continue to afford schooling, not at the rate that she was making. She got herself a work visa and continued working. She's in the process of getting her green card, and is doing her best to keep things steady, taking on odd jobs on top of her normal-paying job to afford to go back to school. These odd jobs varied in payout, quality, safety and legality, though she drew a hard line at anything that required her to remain undressed. However, her time in America, despite being broke, allowed her to feel a little more closer to herself, now that she was exposed to new ideas, and new people. She hopes that once she finishes acting school, things will finally start going her way.[/hider][hider=Pathway 0̴̧̣͍̂̚: S̷̫͓̀͜ͅä̵͓́c̵͓̃͌̓r̵͖̻̱̖̥̈̈́̓̕į̸̛̤̫̂͒̕͘f̵̪́̆͛̚į̶̭͉͔͖̎̌͑c̶͕̬͖̄͒̌̂͘ȩ̴̘̭͍̰̍̌͝ (SCP/Horror)]--[b]S̷̫͓̀͜ͅä̵͓́c̵͓̃͌̓r̵͖̻̱̖̥̈̈́̓̕į̸̛̤̫̂͒̕͘f̵̪́̆͛̚į̶̭͉͔͖̎̌͑c̶͕̬͖̄͒̌̂͘ȩ̴̘̭͍̰̍̌͝ [/b] In her stint working in communications for the Air Force, she started to realize how bad her comrades had it. Especially with the ideas that her friends in Saint Petersburg gave her, she couldn't continue working for the Air Force in good conscious anymore, knowing that she was participating in a horrific war machine that consistently claimed the lives of innocents. She knew all of the propaganda tricks the State played. The whole thing was a sham. She considered the idea of going to America to live out her dream of being an actress. She had the means and opportunity, but she decided not to. She had a bigger fish to fry. She hatched a plan, and used her stepfather to bring her into the Air Force academy. There, she exceeded expectations, but didn't make many friends. Her experience in communications in the Air Force, combined with the abuse of nepotism, brought her into the Air Force's fighter program, where she learned how to fly some of the Air Force's finest fighters. She graduated with top marks and high recommendations. Thanks to Victor's meddling, Nataliya was quickly assigned one of the Air Force's fighter aircraft. After getting some flight hours under her belt at the local airbase, Nataliya pilfered her way through the communications centers, getting flight times and schedules. She exchanged some encrypted information with some unknown handlers, only knowing that they also benefited from the State's decapitation. Eventually, she hit paydirt, the President's plane was going to take off and fly somewhere close to her next patrol. She made her preparations. She did everything right. She took off in her assigned fighter, did the route as ordered, and then right on queue, the President's plane flew into her radar. She shut off her radio and transponder, and immediately diverted from her flight path to intercept the plane. She got close to it, visually identified it, pulled back and shot it down. She did it. She had assassinated most of the State's senior leadership all in one fell swoop. She quickly turned towards the border and flew towards it. She hoped that it would take them a moment for them to catch onto what was happening, but it didn't take that long. She ejected from her plane once it succumbed to a surface-to-air missile. She made it safely to the ground, but she was captured shortly after she continued her run to the border. Captured by who? Nataliya didn't really know, but she assumed they were the State's special forces. She didn't know where they were taking her, either.[/hider] --| [color=6969af]Extra --[/color] XXXXX [/hider]