TW: descriptions of audio & visual hallucinations, copious amounts of blood, the murder of adults & children

In-Character

Full Name: Nataliya Nikolaevna Vulchanova
Nicknames: Natasha, Talia
Birthdate: December 15th, 1871
Current Age: 21 Years
Gender: Female
Occupation: Debutante
Reputation: 7-8

nataliya is a bit of an enigma and quite difficult to nail down. on one hand, she’s deeply haunted and literally cursed, so she has a strange fondness for the macabre, needs to take regular sleeping draughts to fight night terrors and sleepwalking, and then there’s that whole business with her family being murdered while she was the sole survivor and her uncle vasily going completely missing that same night. on the other hand, nataliya has an ambitious mind and a thirst to prove herself, having done so by staying at the top of her class in lessons, making prefect and head girl in her time at hogwarts, and debuting with elegance. it’s hard to say what people think of her, but it’s clear that either way nataliya is shrouded in a deep sense of mystery.

Residence: Vulchanov Manor (Wellingtonshire, Hogsmeade)
Hogwarts House: Slytherin
Wand: Elm, 9½”, Unyielding, Dragon Heartstring
Blood Status: Pureblood
Social Class: Upper Class
Family:

immediate
father: nikolai viktorovich vulchanov ii [1840-1879]
mother: anastasiya petrovna vulchanova née morozova [1848-1879]

sister: kseniya nikolaevna vulchanova [1873-1879]
brother: viktor nikolaevich vulchanov iv [1873-1879]
brother: pyotr nikolaevich vulchanov [1875-1879]
sister: ofeliya nikolaevna vulchanova [1877-1879]

adoptive
uncle: aleksandr viktorovich vulchanov [b. 1840]
aunt: irina ivanovna vulchanova née volkova [1854-1891]

cousin: ivan aleksandrovich vulchanov [b. 1885]
cousin: tatiana aleksandrovna vulchanova [b. 1887]

paternal
grandfather: viktor nikolaevich vulchanov iii [1810-1878]
grandmother: sofiya vasilevna vulchanova née kazankova [1821-1878]

uncle: vasily viktorovich vulchanov [b. 1840] (presumed dead as of 1889)
aunt: katerina romanovna tsaryova née morozova [b. 1849]

cousin: roman vasilevich vulchanov [b. 1868]
cousin: dmitri vasilevich vulchanov [b. 1871]
cousin: viktoriya vasilevna vulchanova [b. 1875]
cousin: valentina vasilevna vulchanova [b. 1875]
cousin: ilya vasilevich vulchanov [b. 1879]

step-uncle: mikhail ivanovich tsaryov [b. 1838]

step-cousin: ivan mikhailovich tsaryov iv [b. 1870]
step-cousin: sofiya mikhailovna née tsyarova [b. 1873]
step-cousin: boris mikhailovich tsaryov [b. 1877]
step-cousin: alexei mikhailovich tsaryov [b. 1879]
step-cousin: anastasiya mikhailovna tsyarova [b. 1883]

Appearance:

face claim: madelaine petsch
ethnicity: caucasian
accent: soft northern russian
height: 168 cm
weight: 54 kg
build: slim, slightly curvy
eyes: brown
hair colour: red
hair style: done up in elegant styles reflecting current fashion trends
wand hand: ambidextrous, prefers right
distinguishing features: although not a vampire, due to being cursed in the way she is, unless she wears beauty charms, which she often does, of course, nataliya tends to look paler than normal and a bit gaunt, as well as looking like she hasn’t slept in ages. one special thing to note for future reference is because of the nature of her curse and haunting, there are some people, such as seers or those who are more in tune with that sort of thing, vampires, who are undead, and ghosts, who are actually dead, who can sense there’s something deeply unsettling about her that makes your hair stand up and sets your teeth on edge.

scent: rosemary & lavender

demeanor: she does her best to hold herself with elegance and grace, as expected of a young lady of her station, doing her best to follow all the rules of etiquette that she had learned and not to draw too much attention to herself. however, being as deeply haunted as she is, sometimes she can come off as a bit jumpier and more paranoid than most, not handling people coming up behind her very well, as an example. she also tends to gaze off into the distance or double take, especially in front of mirrors or anything with a reflection, as if she sees something in them you don’t, but she tends to play it off these days or pretend it never happened in general, although in her younger school years she would claim to actually see things. she is neither a wallflower nor a social butterfly, but more or less figures out what is best for any given situation and tries her best to do what is needed.

fashion: nataliya has the same interest in fashion as any other debutante might; she may not know much about how things are made or care to find out, but she likes pretty things and will go out of her way to get fitted for new things when the seasons change and new styles are being put out. as she thinks it looks better with her pale skin and her red hair, she prefers deeper, darker colors such as emeralds or rubies as opposed to the pastels that are usually used, however, and she’s grateful that wizarding fashions allow for that sort of thing. most of her nicest jewelry pieces are things she inherited from her late mother or has gotten as gifts from her extended family. if it wasn’t for the fact, however, that it would be creepy, is considered bad luck, and would earn her a horrible reputation, nataliya would actually enjoy wearing mourning jewelry and mourning gowns as a regular thing, as she has a deep, unsettling interest in death and the macabre, seeing an elegance in it that most people don’t.

History:

prologue
1840 - 1871
once upon a time there was a great family with a illustrious legacy that stretched back centuries, giving them ties all over the world, and it all started with their ancestor, a bulgarian woman by the name of nerida vulchanova, who was known to have founded the durmstrang institute before the 13th century. now located in russia, the vulchanov family was lead by patriarch, viktor, who was considered a gentleman of leisure, researcher and collector of dark artifacts just like his father before him as well as his grandfather - it was said that the vulchanovs were always interested in the dark arts and it’s why durmstrang always had such lax rules about it; he was married to a woman, sofiya, the eldest daughter of an influential family and she would be a socialite just as her mother was. after a harrowing pregnancy and a birth that nearly killed the family matriarch, the vulchanov family would welcome triplet boys into the world: vasily, aleksandr, and nikolai. sofiya would refuse to have any more children after this and the healers taking care of her would agree with this as her body was weak, even if viktor wasn’t too pleased about it, as he would have liked to have a larger family, but after giving him an heir, he was forgiving. as he was the eldest of the three boys, even if there were only minutes between each birth, it was expected for vasily to inherit when he came of age; the other two boys found this ridiculous - he had done nothing to prove himself worthy of carrying the legacy their parents spoke about.

when the triplets were ten, the family would take an outing to a wizarding carnival that had been set up for the summer; they would all have great fun until they came across a tent that advertised a seer. each family member would get a reading; none of the kids would talk about what they heard with one another, other than giggling about how it was silly and it was like a wish - if you said it aloud it wouldn’t come true. however, when sofiya entered the tent with the seer and got her own reading, it was anything but silly and things began to turn dark. the seer’s face would grow cold and she would gaze into her crystal ball and grip sofiya’s hand so tightly it nearly cut off her circulation; she told the woman that a great tragedy would befall her family and the great vulchanov legacy would be destroyed if certain events came to pass. horrified, sofiya would beg the seer to tell her more, tell her how to stop it from happening, but all she could tell her was that she should be wary of her three sons as they grew older and there was only one that could be trusted. inconsolable, she would go to her husband, viktor, and tell him what the seer said, and while he felt that divination was an imprecise branch of magic and couldn’t always be trusted, he couldn’t help but feel he must do something and perhaps there was something to the idea that twins were bad luck, which meant so were triplets. he went back to the carnival to speak to the woman, to find out more, but found rather hauntingly that the entire carnival had disappeared; it was the chill that went up his spine when he realized this that made him believe that it was real.

paranoid over the prophecy they were given, viktor and sofiya began to control everything about their children’s lives, hoping if they could make sure none of them went down a bad path, they could prevent it from coming true. as they also remembered that only one of their sons could be trusted, vasily was no longer the assumed heir to the fortune, and each son would have to prove themselves; the idea was that the one they could trust would stand out among them and he’d be the one to make sure the vulchanov name remained proud. of course, keeping up appearances, they still sent the boys to durmstrang, but they had their superiors watching them like a hawk; everything from the classes they took, who they hung out with, where they spent their freetime, to who they’d eventually be betrothed to was decided by their parents. on one hand, it brought the three brothers closer to each other than anyone else, because they didn’t know who else they could trust, other than one another, but on the other hand, it caused a bitter rivalry between the three brothers that left their relationship with one another fragile and broken.

upon reaching adulthood, vasily would decide to work for the russian equivalent of the ministry, going into creature control, specifically the werewolf capture unit and he would marry katerina, the younger cousin to anastasiya, who was the woman that nikolai would marry. nikolai, despite being the youngest of the three sons, knowing that he was the favorite so far, expected to inherit so he would follow his father’s footsteps and go into dark artifact collection and research. aleksandr, on the other hand, shocked his family when he disappeared in the night, abandoning his betrothed, and left to become a cursebreaker, wanting any excuse to get away from his suffocating family. while his brothers understood this, of course, they considered it a major act of betrayal because they did everything they were supposed to do while he abandoned his duties as soon as he could, however, despite how angry they were that he left, they also considered it lucky because it meant he had forfeited his position as heir.



early childhood
1871 - 1879
nataliya was the first out of five children born to nikolai and anastasiya, who now lived in the vulchanov manor, and was a fairly easy child to take care of; she was sweet, gentle, and had no problem obeying whatever her nurse or governess would tell her. as the eldest of sofiya’s granddaughters, she was the apple of her eye and was often seen following her around and learning from her; she taught her how to play simple songs on the piano while she was still young, as well as taught her the proper way to hold her violin. nataliya always enjoyed sitting on the floor at her grandmother’s skirts while she told her stories of her family’s history while they worked on an embroidered pillow or pressed flowers together. her grandmother wasn’t the only one who was fond of her, as her mother also spoiled her rotten with whatever she wanted: new toys, gowns, ribbons, and so on. as long as she behaved herself, nataliya would never have to hear the word ‘no’ ever in her life and she quite liked hearing the word ‘yes.’

with her uncle vasily and aunt katerina living close by, nataliya also found great fun in playing games with her cousins, though mostly it was only roman and dmitri as they were closest to her in age; there were only so many things they were willing to play with her, however, as they were little boys who weren’t always interested in the same things as little girls were. when it was time for them to be old enough to have a governess as opposed to a nurse, these divides seemed a lot stronger, as they were learning sciences and mathematics alongside their language and etiquette lessons whereas nataliya’s lessons, often shared with her sister, kseniya, were focused on art and music and other ladylike subjects. sometimes she didn’t mind it, because she did enjoy the feminine arts and liked the kind of praise she got from doing well in them, but other times nataliya wished that she could understand and enjoy the same things her male siblings and cousins did, though she was proper enough not to admit it.

although he lived nowhere near his family anymore, aleksandr would still write letters from time to time in order to tell them about his adventures in curse breaking, mostly just to rebuild a relationship with his brothers, their wives, and his nieces and nephews, as he knew his parents wanted nothing to do with him even if they never officially disinherited him for the sake of appearances. every once and awhile he would stop by on holidays to give gifts and tell stories, but mostly he was always on ‘the road’ as it were; his only permanent place of residence being a flat in london where he could stay as a sort of home base while gringotts had them waiting in between assignments. he would come back, however, sometime in 1878 when viktor came down with a serious illness and there were talks of him not surviving it; he would later die that same year, then sofiya would pass away in the next coming months, most would assume it was from a broken heart that took her and it left nataliya saddened.

like vultures, barely letting their parents bodies grow cold in the ground, all the sons would gather around to hear their father’s will read aloud, waiting to find out which one of them would be the chosen heir; aleksandr doubted he would be picked and had no intention of accepting the bulk of the money if he was, but he would remain long enough to hear the will read out anyway. it was no surprise when they found out that while they each got a sum of money, the grand bulk of it, including the deed to the vulchanov manor was to be given to nikolai. even as the youngest son, he still was the favorite, after all, and vasily would joke that was why he was the one to be named after their father instead of him. despite the fact the three brothers seemed to take the news well and each of them leaving with good news of their own: aleksandr gearing up to go back to britain on a new assignment, vasily talking about a new promotion he was getting within his department, and nikolai putting some of his money toward new things to research, it wouldn’t be the end of things between the three and the very next year would bring tragedy.

if you were to ask nataliya to close her eyes and think back to the night her family was killed, if she thought hard enough, she could remember the warmth of the fireplace, dinner being served; she could hear the voice of her mother chastising viktor, or was it pyotr? for not washing their hands and being sent away. nataliya could remember wearing her new dress, the one she’d gotten for her birthday, and trying to convince her father to allow her to sit her doll at the dinner table while he just laughed and told her that dolls didn’t eat. and if she was to think very, very hard, nataliya could remember someone being at the door in the middle of saying grace before being allowed to eat, but she could not remember anymore than that and that is exactly what she tried to tell the investigators while they questioned her the next morning, still wearing that same new dress, but covered in blood, and holding that same doll, just broken and ruined. that faded, broken memory is still all she can remember of that night.

upon walking into the vulchanov manor that morning, the children’s governess would find what she described to investigators as a blood bath; both parents slaughtered, the evening staff dead, even the children were torn apart by something not human. the only sign of life in the entirety of the manor was nataliya, whom was knelt in a pool of her mother’s blood, shaking her as if she thought she was sleeping; it took all the strength the woman had to walk through the foyer and pick the poor child up and carry her out of there and send an emergency owl to the proper authorities. when they came, the two were taken to their office, the two were separated and then questioned relentlessly; someone had to know something and neither of them seemed to have anything to give. while they were confident enough to let the governess go quickly, they continued to try and question nataliya.



aunt katerina’s ward
1879 - 1883
nataliya was only in the investigators office for a few hours when her aunt katerina arrived and after being the one to coax her niece out from underneath the desk where she was now hiding, she yelled at them for trying to traumatize the poor girl who clearly knew nothing and was obviously not responsible for the deaths. she would take the child home with her and clean her off, then, deciding she was much too young to cope with the memory of finding her family dead in the first place, used a strong memory charm to wipe it from her mind; from this point forward, nataliya could only remember the dinner before her family was killed and what it was like to stay with her aunt katerina, though she would learn that she was present once she was closer to school age so she wouldn’t be so shocked when her classmates knew it. it would also come to light that uncle vasily had not returned home that evening and for the next several years, would continue to be labeled as missing; although, investigators would determine the murders were caused by a werewolf, given the kind of state the bodies were left in, and that’s what the newspapers would report, they still made it clear should vasily ever resurface, it was important that he come in for questioning.

it was difficult for aunt katerina to go on without a husband; he was missing so she couldn’t remarry, but without him there was much she still couldn’t do. it did help that she had her parents to help her, as well as aleksandr stopping by a lot more often than he used to in order to offer what help he could, plus, she was wealthy enough on her own to hire staff, but it wasn’t quite the same. nataliya was treated just like her other children, hoping to give her some sense of normalcy; she took lessons with her female cousins in art, music, languages, etiquette, and so on, and she did just as well as she did before the tragedy, except, she seemed a bit more distracted than usual. it was subtle, at first, but her governess would note that nataliya would gaze off into the distance as if she was looking at something that wasn’t there, or she would flinch, rubbing her ear as if hearing something.

aunt katerina played it off, of course, figuring that nataliya just wanted attention and so she tried to provide her with it if she could. but then, it seemed to only grow worse, as her niece would now claim to see faces in the mirror or any reflective surface, she would claim to see ghosts, demons, horrifying things; she would say that she heard voices whispering haunting things and screaming - she would sometimes cover her ears, close her eyes and curl up underneath the table as if trying to block it all out. then came the nightmares and night terrors that would wake her up from a dead sleep and leave her thrashing around her bed, screaming and crying as if someone was attacking her; aunt katerina did her best to be patient, of course, and every time there was an episode, she would erase a bit more of her memory, hoping to get rid of whatever thoughts were ailing her. she would hold her as she claimed to see haunting faces and would tell her that they were all going to die, reassuring her it was all just a dream and none of it was real. truthfully, she didn’t know what to think and she wished that she knew how to help the poor girl.

it all began to escalate when nataliya began to sleepwalk, or at least, what was believed to be sleepwalking as so much of it happened at night and she had very little memory of it occurring; sometimes she would be found wandering the forests behind their home in bare feet, wearing nothing but her nightgown. sometimes nataliya would claim that she would hear voices leading her places, and in one instance, she had to be pulled from a lake, nearly drowned because she had claimed that she had seen a woman in a white dress beckoning her. aunt katerina would pay for a discreet, private healer to come in and see nataliya, hoping to figure out what was wrong with her and the healer would tell her that physically she was very healthy and whatever was wrong with her must be a disease of the mind. as understanding as she tried to be, it was unsettling her other children and there was only so much she could put up with. the last straw was when nataliya was found bleeding, screaming, head in her hands and crying in the parlor of the now boarded up vulchanov manor; nobody could figure out how she got inside in the first place, not even nataliya could remember how she got there, but it was just too much for aunt katerina to handle on her own.

aunt katerina kept nataliya locked up in her bedroom, only allowed out for meals and lessons, and she wrote a letter to uncle aleksandr and told him that he would have to take custody of the girl or she would be forced to send her to an asylum because there was nothing more she could do for her. aleksandr agreed to take his niece, but first, he knew she would need a mother to look after her, so he struck a deal with the spinster sister of a friend he had; he would provide her with children, a roof over her head, and whatever else she wanted, in exchange, irina would take care of nataliya as if she was her own. the two married, he retired as a cursebreaker and took a new position as an instructor at the flint institute, thanks to some connections he had to get him an interview, as well as a private researcher of ancient artifacts so he would have a more stable home for her to grow up in. then, he would buy them the newly built vulchanov manor in wellingtonshire, hogsmeade where they would live together.



hogwarts school of witchcraft + wizardry
1883 - 1890
there was a debate between uncle aleksandr and aunt irina on whether or not they were going to send nataliya to durmstrang, which accepted international students and was where she would have her whole family’s legacy to back her up, or to hogwarts, which was where most of her new neighbors would be going to. on one hand, durmstrang was expected of her and she would have family there, but on the other, there was something nice about giving nataliya a clean slate to go off of if she were to go to hogwarts. in the end, they decided on hogwarts, and truthfully after being kicked out of her aunt katerina’s home, nataliya was thankful that she was going anywhere at all. before they could send her off, however, they had to get her behavior under control; she was given dosages of calming draughts in the morning to keep her from being so jumpy and sleeping draughts at night to make it so she wouldn’t have nightmares and night terrors. she hated it, honestly, as it made her feel numb, but she did as she was told, not wanting her uncle aleksandr to regret taking guardianship of her in the first place and have her sent away.

coming into hogwarts for her first year, she honestly knew nothing about its history, especially not the houses; it made her feel as helpless as the muggleborn children and it bothered her a great deal. but, she decided once she had access to the library, she would study all she could and learn its history so that she wouldn’t feel so confused. the sorting hat debated on ravenclaw, at first, noting her academic mind and her curiosity, but ultimately found her thirst to prove herself, her ambition, and finding a great importance in legacy worthy of slytherin. while she was there, she continued to take calming and sleeping draughts, the nurse having a letter explaining that the private family healer had recommended them for her, but they only helped so much. her hallucinations got worse, she began to see things and hear things that were never there even when she had her potions, sometimes causing her to make mistakes in her class like pouring the wrong ingredient in her potion or almost falling off her broom in flying lessons, but with time, also came nataliya handling dealing with these reoccurring hallucinations a lot better.

she got better at holding in her screams and making sure that her face didn’t reveal how terrified she was when she saw or heard something; if one of her classmates asked what she was looking at she became quick and charming enough to brush it off and change the subject. the only incident that she has on record was the day she and her classmates handled boggarts for the first time, that night she had a night terror so terrifying that she woke up her roommates having a screaming fit that left her feeling dizzy and confused; after that, her nightly dosage of sleeping draught was increased and nataliya eventually learned how to control her reactions to seeing things even in her sleep. it wasn’t foolproof, however, and sometimes she’d find herself out of bed and in the common room from sleepwalking or she’d be shaken awake by one of her friends because she was tossing and turning, but it was enough to get her through the school years without causing a huge scene and for that she was thankful.

the classes she seemed to excel at were charms, defense against the dark arts, and potions, but when it came to herbology, every plant she worked with would shrivel up and die; sometimes she wondered if the plants knew something was wrong with her. nataliya knew that animals did, as she wished for a pet of her very own but aside from her uncle aleksandr’s grumpy owl that tolerated her company, most animals would avoid her at all costs or they would become hostile around her. there were other things, people, even, that seemed to sense how disturbed she was, even if they could not tell her why they felt that way; seers, who were in tune with people’s auras, ghosts, who were dead, and vampires who were undead, also got a sort of vibe from her that she was like a walking corpse or somehow deeply cursed. of course, nataliya so badly wanted to know why they felt that way about her, why they got the chills around her, but they never could tell her why; perhaps she was also scared to find out.

despite feeling rather distressed all the time, nataliya’s thirst to prove herself would be seen in how she did her best to be active in her school life; she chose ancient runes, ancient studies, and ghost studies as her electives, but then would later drop ghost studies in order to take alchemy during her n.e.w.t. years. she also was a part of art club, music club, and potions club; she wanted to be a part of dueling club as well, but aunt irina was insistent that it wasn’t ladylike and she respected the woman far too much to go against her wishes. in her fifth year, nataliya was made slytherin prefect and she held the badge for both her fifth and sixth years, then in her seventh year, she was proud to have been made head girl. she had some downsides in her magical education as well, as she found out that for some reason no matter how hard she tried, no matter how well she did in the required courses, she could not produce a patronus. part of her wondered if it was because something was wrong with her, the fact she was haunted, or at least that’s what she would call it when speaking to her aunt and uncle, or if it was because her happy memories were simply not good enough. the best she had to use was perhaps when she finally bonded with both ivan and tatiana, as she cherished them like siblings, even if they were legally only her cousins; they seemed to cherish her as well.

just in time for her debut in the spring, nataliya’s uncle vasily was finally declared legally dead after all these years, and with that came the arguing over the vulchanov fortune once more. aunt katernia believed it belonged to roman, as when nikolai died it should have gone to vasily, but uncle aleksandr argued that birth order didn’t matter to his parents when they made their youngest son the heir so why should it matter now. nataliya, of course, was in school, and stayed out of this argument, but it gave her anxiety to think of this money tearing her family apart and all this talk was beginning to make her hallucinations and nightmares get worse. in the end, the money was put into a trust and all of it was to be given to nataliya and her husband when she married; she would be the sole inheritor as nikolai’s only living child, even if she was a woman, and by the time she debuted it was considered public knowledge she had a large dowry and a fortune to offer if you were the lucky gentleman to marry her.



the grand debut
1890 - present
at the end of her seventh year at hogwarts, nataliya would have two debutante balls; the first, of course, would be the one hosted by hogwarts for all the ladies who were graduating that year and as head girl, she felt special as the one to lead them out for their debut into society. the second ball was held in russia, hosted by aunt irina’s family where she could be showed off to those who graduated from either durmstrang or koldovstoretz; nataliya enjoyed having a great excuse to visit her aunt katerina and her cousins, whom she really hadn’t seen much of other than the occasional visit during the holidays. alongside enjoying her life going off to society events and enjoying the attention from potential suitors, nataliya also decided to attend the flint institute as a student, since she enjoyed academia and thanks to her family’s history with ancient artifacts, she had a growing interest in it, herself. besides that, she also enjoyed a specialized look into both alchemy and potions; she also hoped to improve her skills in some of the classes she didn’t do so well in and maybe learn how to finally cast a corporeal patronus of her own.

the following year is filled with both joy and sadness for their family; her aunt katerina finally is able to remarry and she marries a handsome, wealthy widower named mikhail. nataliya believes her uncle mikhail to be a decent man and he has never given her any reason to dislike him, and she also welcomed his children, her step-cousins with open arms. ivan is closest to her in age, so she writes to him as often as she does roman and dmitri, but she would eventually grow close enough to sofiya to attend her wedding to her betrothed. on the opposite site of things, the sadness is brought to the family when nataliya loses her aunt irina in the sanditon storm and has to go into mourning; although she is legally only her aunt, it’s not questioned when she mourns her for the full year as if she was her mother, because she was the one to raise her for so long. nataliya focused on her studies during this time and helped the nurse take care of ivan and tatiana to the best of her ability; they didn’t handle losing their mother well and while nataliya, of course, understood, part of her envied them for at least being able to remember her.

the mourning period made her hallucinations worse; she found herself seeing things more often than usual, the voices would get louder and harder to drown out, and nataliya was certain she’d die if she drank a higher dose than she already did of sleeping draughts. sometimes it gets bad enough that she starts to scream and cry again, unable to control herself the way she used to; uncle aleksandr has promised her that he’s still trying to find a cure for her, trying to figure out what is wrong, but part of her doesn’t believe him because he’s been saying that since he took her in and he still hadn’t solved anything. by the end of the mourning period, she almost finds it easier to give herself over to her demons; allow for them to haunt her and try to see if it means anything. she sometimes listens to the voices, looks directly at the faces in the mirror, and even sometimes tries to talk to the creatures in her dreams and sometimes, just sometimes, she feels like they understand her. nataliya began to paint what she saw, her art studio hidden by lock and key is filled with the most macabre artwork you’ll ever see; she sometimes spends all night painting, trying so hard to get clues from the pieces she finishes, wanting to shout to the void that she wants to understand, that she isn’t going to be afraid anymore, that she welcomes them if only they would make themselves more clear.

when the mourning period ended, reentering society was incredibly difficult for nataliya because she no longer had an older woman to guide her; uncle aleksandr paid for a chaperone, so she at least had one of those, but she needed someone to sponsor her, to allow her to attend society events alongside her daughters or granddaughters and help her find a suitable match. with that in mind, alongside her cousins being so young and needy, nataliya has subtly tried to hint at her uncle aleksandr he would do well to find a new wife soon; she was a woman grown, and she knew by now that his marriage was only to provide her with a mother, but ivan and tatiana needed one as well, she needed someone to help her in society, and she could not be expected to be their mother when she had her own life to lead and would not be living with them forever. still, so far her uncle aleksandr has been rather reluctant in the matter and while it frustrates nataliya to no end, she knows better than to badger him about it.

in the summer of 1893, nataliya would be pleasantly surprised with the arrival of her cousin, roman, and his step-brother, ivan. during dinner at the vulchanov manor, ivan would explain that he had gotten a position in the department of international cooperation and would be staying in london; roman, on the other hand, apparently wished to study under uncle aleksandr and learn about dark and ancient artifacts so he could become a researcher too - he even intended to go to the flint institute as well. nataliya was a bit doubtful about that, as she had always known roman to be spoiled with a capital ‘s’ and she didn’t think he knew what the meaning of ‘career’ was, but she would welcome him anyway. uncle aleksandr, however, seemed a bit more wary of their new guests and seemed all too happy that roman would be rooming with his brother and away from them. nataliya would also note that since their arrival, her uncle aleksandr tends to lock up his office a lot more often than he used to before.

Personality:

strengths: ambitious, clever, curious, determined, elegant, patient, resourceful, strategic, studious, vivacious

weaknesses: anxious, distrustful, haunted, morbid, paranoid, secretive, sensitive, spoiled, stubborn, vengeful

likes: academia, alchemy, ancient artifacts, art, balls, charms, cherries, chocolate, dancing, dark arts, dark artifacts, dark colors, flowers, flower pressing, ghosts, gowns, lace, libraries, mourning jewelry, mysteries, painting, piano music, potions, secrets, snow, sparkling things, strawberries, tea with milk and sugar, the macabre, thunder storms, vampires, violin music, wintertime

dislikes: alcohol, animals not liking her, being startled, boring instructors, citrus fruits, divination, dueling being unladylike, figs, gaps in her memory, herbology, hot days, lakes, loneliness, loud noises, mirrors, night terrors, not knowing why she has hallucinations, oceans, rivers, seers, sleep walking, some magic being forbidden, the macabre being unacceptable, werewolves

fears: a class drop, a reputation drop, drowning, ending up alone, going mad and ending up in an asylum, losing more family, never being able to remember, never figuring out what’s wrong with her, the hallucinations getting much worse, werewolves

goals: convince her uncle to remarry, figure out why she is so disturbed, get married and have children, learn more about dark artifacts, remember the things in the gaps in her memory, solve the case of her missing uncle vasily, stop the hallucinations

habits: avoids mirrors, distrusts most, furrows eyebrows when confused, has morbid thoughts and interests, mimics behavior expected of her, nightmares, night terrors, paints her thoughts no matter how horrifying, plays music while she thinks, prefers to be awake in the night than the day, sees and hears things you don’t, sleep walks, startles easily, wears dark and rich colors

hobbies: alchemy, attending society events, flower pressing, painting, playing the piano or violin, potions, stargazing, studying

Other:

— academics —

class	owl	newt
Alchemy	—	O
Ancient Runes	E	E
Ancient Studies	E	O
Astronomy	E	—
Charms	O	O
Defense Against the Dark Arts	O	O
Ghoul Studies	E	—
Herbology	T	—
History of Magic	A	—
Potions	O	O
Transfiguration	A	—

— skills —
01. fluent in bulgarian, english, french, latin (english), & russian
02. has a natural affinity for the dark arts
03. practiced in both piano & violin, but strongly prefers the violin
04. talented at painting, though tends not to show off her artwork

— trivia —
amortentia: unknown
boggart: hard to say, but one of her many hallucinations
clubs: art, music, & potions
electives: alchemy, ancient studies, ancient runes, ghoul studies
patronus: can’t seem to cast one
pets: none, but her uncle has an owl for mail
quidditch: doesn’t care to play
religion: orthodox christianity
romantic orientation: heteromantic
sexual orientation: heterosexual
titles: slytherin prefect (1887-1889), head girl (1889-1890)
zodiac sign: sagittarius

Out-of-Character

Name: Cherry
Age: 21+
Contact: Discord / PM
Other Characters: If any
How Did You Hear About Us?: RPG Directory

  

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Beautiful Set by Athena ♡ !

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look ANOTHER beautiful bee!set <3