Nathalie LeRoux

Chesterfield Act Registry of the Expressive Database

File #11 Feb 2018 05:03

Summary

Name Nathalie LeRoux Aliases Berlin Beckett Status Registered Expressive (Class B Biological) Ability Life-Force Manipulation Gender Female Birthdate January 2, 1998 Age 22 Height 5'4" Build Athletic Eyes Blue Hair Brown Residence ??? Employment Wolfhound Parents Avi Epstein Sarisa Kershner Siblings Emily Epstein; half sister Taylor Epstein; half-brother Taylor Epstein; half brother, deceased Frederick Kershner; half brother, deceased Marital Status Single Children None First Scene Operation High Road, Part II Last Scene Profile A young woman lost and found, sacrificed and resurrected.

portrayed by Hailee Steinfeld

Background

Berlin wasn't always Berlin. As a child, Nathalie LeRoux was orphaned and raised in the care of the Ferrymen in northern Mexico. She was a quiet and serious child who knew more than her share of sorrow before she really should have. It took her time to warm up to the odd family of Ferry operators and their wards, but in time, she made friends with the other children and came to feel something like family for the people who lived there with her. Alejandro, in particular. She wasn't evolved, but they cared for her all the same. And she was fascinated by what they could do.

She was eight when the bomb took Midtown off the map.

Her memories of the time involve a lot of whispers between the adults, and by the time they had decided how to explain it to the kids, Nathalie had already heard the news. The kids often pooled their knowledge, what they heard which adult say, but this time she wished for a moment or two longer of ignorance. But once she knew it, there was no unknowing it. She watched the news in those days as much as she could, with Alejandro often sitting with her. Or trying to distract her from it. It was a trauma she couldn't look away from. The feeling lingered, like the other shoe was about to drop. And it eventually did. When the announcement went out that the SLC- Expressives were public knowledge, she felt a knot of fear sink to her stomach. She worried about her friends, her odd family. The fear of losing them hung over her head like a cloud. Reserved again, she found it difficult to talk to the other kids, to listen to the adults.

And then Joy came. She was hurt when they found her and when she came to in the basement of the commune, she nearly shook the place down. Nathalie watched from the stairs, and was the only one of her peers to venture down when the shaking stopped. She was dangerous, they all knew, but Nathalie saw someone as scared as she felt. It would be the first of many days spend in Joy's company. She knew so much and told so many stories. Nathalie was never far from her if she could help it. Joy, as her name promised, brought Nathalie back out of her haze and into the world. She laughed again when Joy was around. But sometimes she would wonder when the other shoe would drop.

It came when gunmen raided the commune. Nathalie heard the gunfire first, then saw her friends, her family getting shot in cold blood. When she ran, she ran for Joy. Her eyes stinging with tears, she didn't see the bullet hit the woman, but she watched her crumple to the ground. She couldn't help but cry out, and the cry seemed to draw their attention.

She heard the gunfire first. Then felt the pain drill through her chest.

Joy came for her, instead, but Nathalie fell unconscious before they reached each other. And she remembered nothing until she woke up again in a cold, sterile lab.

Her time at the Commonwealth Arcology was long, far longer than she can recall. Mostly she remember the cold and the pain. And doctors in white coats standing over her talking too fast for her to catch it. And sometimes she would wish not to know what was happening around her. She learned about her own ability during this time. An ability she didn't remember having before. She never volunteered that information — she didn't volunteer much of anything. Sometimes she would start to turn a doctor to ash when they got too close. After that, they would only send the nurses in. She learned some of the limits of her healing, too, when they would push someone into her hands while she was still in a daze. When they would make her use it. It was a crash course, and not a pleasant one.

But once, she woke up in a man's arms, gunshots going off in the distance. And close up, too. It was hard to clear her head, and by the time she was able to focus and not panic, it was Joy's face in front of her. The pair made a frantic escape together. This time, they made it out and even managed to bring a couple people with them. They were in bad shape, but they were on the right side. The side that sank her prison deep into the earth. It was the first time she used her power on her own terms, when she brought Gillian Childs back from the brink. And she didn't cry when Joy left her — except maybe a little — because these people were like the people who took them both in in Mexico. It wasn't trust, exactly, but when Joy told her to go with them, she went. And the trio had to escape and find their way onto an island hidden in plain sight.

The island was also in bad shape, but Nathalie couldn't fix it. Not completely. When people started getting sick — or rather, when people started dying from being sick — she did what she could to slink around and heal the H5N10 before it took down the whole island. But, she mostly tried to stay quiet and out of sight and to hide whenever things got too tense. Which was a daily occurrence on Pollepel. The situation there quickly devolved, as the military surrounded them and they were forced to flee under fire.

Nathalie wondered if her whole life would echo with gunfire.

After the evacuation, she was taken to Quebec with the other survivors. She was only thirteen with a lot of gaps in her memory. And holes through her heart. It was then, settled away from the disaster, that she cried for Joy. For Alejandro. For her parents, long since gone. And for herself, alone in a refugee center in a faraway place.

When they asked her her name, she gave them a fake one. She called herself Berlin and told them her power was Life Sensing. When it was explained to them that the Ferrymen had pulled her out of the facility, they made assumptions about how long she had been there and she didn't correct them. They got her some paperwork to prove who she was and gave her a cot to sleep in. Paperwork and the clothes on her back were all she had in the world. It was the Ferrymen who took her to Brian's safehouse. With the other orphans. She spent the years of the civil war tucked away, getting a basic education that she had missed out on for several years. And learning to fight. And relearning how to talk to people, how to make friends. How to trust. Brian and Samara weren't Joy, but they were good.

When word came about the tribunals, she was approached about it. Mostly, the former Ferrymen wanted her to know she didn't have to partake, the ones who knew she had been a captive there. Plenty of others were testifying, the promised, and she could stay out of it. And for her part, she knew that doing so would be risky, since her name was not the one the institute had for her. Her power was not the same, either, as what she now claimed it to be. But she wanted to do it. To look at the people who killed people she loved and put her in a coffin of her own. Experimented on her. To look them in the eye.

She didn't return to Canada after. She took her reparations and settled back in New York. In the Safe Zone, at first, but when she had the opportunity, she joined Wolfhound. To try to look as many of them in the eye as she could find.

Psych Profile

Nathalie is slow to make friends. She's always expecting the worst to happen and generally thinks the world is mostly full of terrible people waiting to screw each other over. But individuals can prove her wrong, at least on a case-by-case basis. She has no trouble talking to people, so long as the conversation doesn't entail anything real. That's when she turtles up and starts looking for her exit strategy. Empathy is hard. Hurting people is easy. And she would rather talk about herself as little as possible. She has a pretty big grudge against the people behind her imprisonment and thinks about payback maybe a little too often. But she is dedicated, when she picks a purpose or a people, she follows through with conviction.

Due to layers of trauma from her earliest years right up through her escape from Pollepel and into Canada, she is sometimes a little unstable. She is always waiting for the other shoe to drop, even if that means there will be three shoes. Her life has been a difficult one and she often finds herself numb to acts of violence. Witnessing them or doing them.

But she knows the trauma is there and on some level… and hopes for a day when she can feel normal. (Whatever that feels like.) When she can find herself a family. She is deeply lonely, but terrified of losing another person she cares about. She holds in high esteem things like bravery and self-sacrifice, and they often feel like concepts distant from her. That is something tucked away from her conscious self, but it influences her all the same.

Evolved Ability

Binary Conduit (Life-Force Manipulation)

Nathalie possesses a perfect fusion of the Black and White conduits, turning her into a conduit of both life and death. Neither the White conduit, nor the Black.

Talents	Effort	Description	Learned From
Life Sense	None	Nathalie can pinpoint the presence all living things from insects to plants and animals within 30 feet. This bypasses invisibility, illusions, and other sensory-fooling forces states, except where biological functions are arrested, such as phasing.	Rouen
Life Draining	Low	Nathalie is able to siphon the life force from living things with a touch. When she does so she determines the severity of injury this life-draining applies and gains a wealth of life energy equal to that severity. Each level of severity of injury applied through life draining takes 5 seconds of continuous exposure. See Scale of Living Things below for more details.	Kazimir
Healing	Low	Nathalie is able to heal others of a full range of injury severities either by expending her own life-force (by accepting an equal number of levels of injury) or by borrowing equivalent energy from others by using Life Draining. This healing is performed by touch unless otherwise modified. (Note that using Life Draining and Healing together raises the Effort Level of this ability to Moderate)	Maes
Area Life-Force Manipulation	+1 Level	By focusing herself, Nathalie can expand the area of her life-force manipulation from a range of touch to 10 feet per level of effort added. This allows Nathalie to use Healing or Life Draining at a range or expand the range of her life sense by +10 feet. The effects of effort are cumulative. So if Nathalie wished to use Life Draining and Healing simultaneously at a range it would be a High-Effort ability (Healing [Low] + Life Draining [Low] = Moderate + Area Life-Force Manipulation = High.	Eilean
Immortality	None	So long as Nathalie remains in an area with abundant plant or insect life, she can sustain herself indefinitely by lightly draining life from the environment. She no longer needs to eat or drink and no longer ages.	Kazimir
Possession	High	With a touch, Nathalie can hop into the body of another conduit bearer (either Black or White) and possesses them. During this time the host's consciousness manifests as a ghost only Nathalie can see and hear and Nathalie cannot dismiss them. If this possession is unwilling, the original host can try to fight Nathalie's possession off and drive her back into her body. Nathalie returns to her body if she moves more than a mile away from it or if her host body is killed.	Nanaja

Severity Chart
Injury Severity	Description
Minor	A superficial wound
Moderate	A wound requiring medical attention but not hospitalisation
Serious	A wound requiring hospitalization
Severe	A life threatening wound
Critical	A life threatening wound requiring continuous intense treatment
Fatal	A wound that is almost guaranteed to kill a victim in short order. Or has killed a victim within a short time.

Effort Key
None	Requires no effort and is a part of the character's autonomous functions.
Low	Requires minimal effort and concentration, like walking, holding a conversation, or reading.
Moderate	Requires dedicated concentration. Moderate-effort abilities cannot be used while actively fighting or using another talent with an effort of Moderate or higher.
High	Requires undivided concentration. Cannot do anything other than move slowly or talk in short sentences while using a High effort talent and cannot use other talents that have an effort level of Low or higher.

Scale of Life

Life-Force manipulation scales on an order of magnitude exponentially. A Superficial injury for a human is a serious injury for something half their size (+2 injury levels) and a fatal injury for something 1/4th their size like a small dog (+3 injury levels). As such, in order to bring someone back from the dead it would require either another human or human-sized animal, or a box of fifteen kittens. Think of the kittens.

"You're not a monster," I said.

But I lied.

What I really wanted to say was that a monster is not such a terrible thing to be. From the Latin root monstrum, a divine messenger of catastrophe, then adapted by the Old French to mean an animal of myriad origins: centaur, griffin, satyr. To be a monster is to be a hybrid signal, a lighthouse: both shelter and warning at once.

- Ocean Vuong, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous

Appendices

Hooks

Known To Most

• Nathalie is an operative with Wolfhound, working as a bounty hunter.
• She grew up an orphan, one of the many kids that the Ferrymen took in over the years.

Known To Some

• After the fall of the Ferrymen, Nathalie ended up with the Lighthouse kids under an assumed identity. She stayed there until the opening of the New York Safe Zone and Wolfhound, which drew her to NYC and into her current job. LHKs would know her, but she was stand offish for the most part and didn't really bond well.
• She reportedly died in early 2020 after being kidnapped.

Known To Few

• Nathalie sometimes goes by Berlin Beckett. She exclusively went by that name from 2011-2019. Now, according to the government paperwork Nathalie LeRoux is Berlin Beckett's legal alias.
• She is a former captive of the Institute and was subjected to inhumane experiments.
• She has a blend of the Black and White Conduits, which are no longer two separate abilities.

Relationships

Family???

Sisters
	Luce has been Nathalie's closest friend for years, but in recent months, she's come to see her as a sister, rather than just a friend. Nathalie would do anything for Luce, and has. And Luce hasn't held her secret against her— neither the fact that she kept one nor the implication of what she is. Lucille didn't look at her like she was a monster or a ticking time bomb, and that has helped Nathalie feel like maybe she isn't one after all.
	Nathalie liked Colette from the beginning. But more than that, Nathalie counted her a friend almost immediately. They built a bond over the years that Nathalie cherishes. Even when the truth about her ability came out, Colette stood beside her. She is stuck with Nathalie now, and is considered family.
Blood
	Avi is something of a dual figure in Nathalie's life. As a leader, she respects him and looks up to him. His training is her favorite, and given that he seems just as happy to teach her as she is to learn, she partakes of it often. He was always part of the family she has been trying to build for herself out of the people she connected best with in Wolfhound. When he found out she was his actual daughter, he accepted her even knowing what she is. She's was willing to step back if that's what he wanted, but she is so grateful that wasn't the case. They're not perfect, but they're family.
	A little rough around the edges, but Nathalie found a kind person under the initial abrasiveness. She makes Nat wish she was the better person that Emily thinks she is. It turns out that Emily is her sister, and she finds it easy to step into that role. She has no idea if she's doing it right, but she suspects they'll figure it out together.
	Nathalie and Richard have something of a dark bond. As important as it was to her to find actual blood family, and as much as she treasured every sliver, that very vulnerability left her exposed. She fell into a trap and sacrificed her life to bring Richard back from the dead. And he very nearly did the same for her, but was able to restore her to life without losing his own. As hard as it was, as odd as it is, Nathalie cannot regret that act of sacrifice. And she is very grateful that Richard didn't have to pay the same cost.
	She gave up Nathalie early enough that Nathalie has no memory of her. She's heard how Sarisa could be, how awful she could be. But, too, she knows there is a version of her out there who loves a version of Nathalie. Now her feelings about her mother are complicated by what might have been and what she believes Sarisa was capable of— being a mother. Being her mother.
Practically Family
	Francois is something of an odd figure. She kept her conduits secret from him for years but he didn't hold that against her when she told him. Nat will never forget that he was kind when he had every right to be angry and his example is something she wants to emulate. She's always felt an attachment to him, but now she doesn't feel the need to hide it behind walls. She is grateful for his intelligence and insights when she gets them, and his words often help guide her.
	Nathalie stepped in to heal Ben Ryans from his cancer before it could claim his life. Initially, she did this for Lucille, to keep her from having to lose another parent, but it wasn't long before she grew attached to Ben himself. She's forever grateful for being welcomed into his home and his family. Even now that he's healed, she still visits to curl up on his couch with a book. And a cat. And sometimes to help him unravel his own altered history.

Fraaands

	About as supportive a boyfriend as there could ever be. He isn’t intimidated by her, which says a lot, and even when he found out it was dangerous to be around her, he didn’t want to leave. She will do what she can to protect him from the various people after her, except keeping him away. He didn’t take the out when she gave it to him; she’s not taking one either.
	Nathalie escaped Bannerman with Robyn’s help as a young girl. While she was hiding from her own past, she didn’t realize that Robyn was looking for her. She knows now, but can’t help but feel like the Agent is better off not having Nathalie LeRoux dragging her down. But Nathalie knows she’ll have to tell Robyn who she really is now that her identity is unraveling. The fact that she’s grown fond of her while she’s been assigned to Wolfhound makes that prospect both easier and harder.
	Nathalie saved Gillian's life once. She was dead and gone, but through a mix of augmentation and her own healing ability, she was able to bring her back. Since then, she's felt a responsibility for Gillian only tempered by distance. Borrowed memories intensify this feeling and Nat can't help but feel like this woman is family. Aware of how odd that is for someone who barely knows her, she tries to keep tight rein on her emotions around Gillian. Some of them aren't even her emotions, after all.
	Lene, Gillian, Joy, and Nathalie escaped the Arcology together. They shouldn't have made it, but they did. Nat has felt a connection to Lene ever since and learning about her experience in the Second Civil War was a shock for her. She feels like she let her down. On some level, she feels like she is always letting her down. She's not sure how much of that is her and how much is borrowed, but much like Gillian, Lene feels like family.

Hounds

	Adel is fearless. Berlin has picked this up from her fellow Hound and enjoys when they get to do something a little crazy on a mission. Or off one. But like her other teammates, Berlin trusts Adel with her life and does her best to be part of her support system.
	Scary. Beautiful. Deadly. Berlin likes having Huruma at her back and when they're on a mission together, Berlin always knows they're going to get through it smoothly. She might literally have to look up to her, but she also looks up to her for her skills and experience. But instead of feeling like she has to prove herself, Huruma gives Berlin confidence.
	Devon is sweet. Like many of the other Hounds, he wasn't what she expected to find in a paramilitary organization, but she finds something comforting in his disposition. His willingness to help her with her patchy education has endeared him to her a little deeper.
	Berlin can't help but think Dearing is always two seconds from patting her on the head and telling her to let the grownups handle it. He's never actually done so, but there's something about this guy that makes it seem likely.

Others

	Nathalie has nothing but respect for Hana. She knows the woman took a chance on her, and she aims to live up to that. Nathalie takes a lot of her cues from her, as far as how to conduct herself with the sort of steady calm she admires in Hana. Of course, maintaining that is a lot harder than it looks. When Nathalie made the biggest, deadliest mistake, Hana came to help her in the aftermath. It meant a lot to her to have her support. She hopes to be worthy of it one day.
	As an adult, Nathalie felt a bond with the version of Eileen that crossed timelines and seemed to master the black conduit. She isn't sure how much of that woman is left now that Eileen from this time has merged into her body. But this Eileen comes with her own complications. Like how Nathalie witnessed her death when she was still a child. Felt it. Died with her. Finding her returned has left Nathalie spiraling and confused about where they stand. But she is glad they get a chance to figure it out.
	Entitled. Old. Asshole. He seems to want to use her to assassinate the leftovers from the Institute. This worries her because it seems to work, despite her best efforts to do the right thing. He knows too much about her and she knows too little about him. He is connected to some of the most dangerous people in this world and outside of it, too. And one day, she is going to have to face him again.
	Nathalie has complicated feelings about Rue, currently. She's not sure who she is or who she truly works for. It stings, as she once respected her.

Logs

Log Icons
blue eyes	going through it	that time she was dead	spooky
srsface	notsrsface	sunglasses	secret

Plot Icons
Bright	Wasteland	Flood

Miscellaneous

Skills

• Languages: Nathalie is fluent in English and Spanish from her upbringing with the Ferry in northern Mexico. But she also knows French and German through the strange nature of her ability. (If anyone asks, it was all through exposure to the Ferryman network and the mix of people who traveled through it and her own educational diligence.)
• Fighting: Through her time with the lighthouse kids and their caretakers, Nathalie learned to fight hand-to-hand. That was her favorite. But she also learned how to use and maintain various types of guns (that she could handle given her age, weight and stature). She has a long way to go before she can be well rounded, but her time in the field with Wolfhound has given her a lot of practical experience.
• Smuggling: Nathalie grew up with smugglers. Her education is of the practical sort, absorbed through years of observation until she was older and could pursue it more actively.
• Lying: She's good at it, especially through omission, but knows how to lie without giving it away.

Gallery

Music

• Regina Spektor - Après Moi (Lyrics)

Be afraid of the lame, they'll inherit your legs
Be afraid of the old, they'll inherit your souls
Be afraid of the cold, they'll inherit your blood
Après moi, le deluge
After me comes the flood

• Dessa - Children's Work (Lyrics)

But I've learned how to paint my face
How to earn my keep
How to clean my kill
Some nights I still can't sleep
The past rolls back, I can see us still
You've learned how to hold your own
How to stack your stones
But the history's thick
Children aren't as simple
As we'd like to think

• Poe - Control (Lyrics)

Surprised you to find that I'm laughing
You thought that you'd find me in tears
You thought I'd be crawling the walls
Like a tiny mosquito and trembling in fear
Well, you may be king for the moment
But I am a queen, understand?
And I've got your pawns and your bishops
And castles all inside the palm of my hand

Nathalie Playlist

A Poem

How do we forgive our fathers?
Maybe in a dream?
Do we forgive our fathers for leaving us too often or forever when we were little?
Maybe for scaring us with unexpected rage or making us nervous because there never seemed to be any rage there at all?
Do we forgive our fathers for marrying or not marrying our mothers?
For divorcing or not divorcing our mothers?
And shall we forgive them for their excesses of warmth or coldness?
Shall we forgive them for pushing or leaning?
For shutting doors?
For speaking through walls?
Or never speaking?
Or never being silent?
Do we forgive our fathers in our age or in theirs?
Or in their deaths, saying it to them?
Or not saying it?
If we forgive our fathers, what is left?

- Forgiving our Fathers by Dick Lourie

Alts

	Lynette is a former Ferryman council member and war hero and has a certain amount of fame from such. Her picture as been seen in books and in the news, interviews have been given.
	Monica is an cyborg ex-assassin dipping a foot back into her world-saving tendencies.