natalie goodman (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
invisibled) wrote2014-11-04 08:52 pm
invisibled) wrote2014-11-04 08:52 pm
character info; cw for substance abuse, self harm, mental health, grief, and suicide
» PLAYER INFORMATION
Player NAME: Maddie
Current AGE: 20
Player TIME ZONE: PST
Personal JOURNAL: effulgence
IM & SERVICE: aim: begin to thunder
Player PLURK: ducklett
Current CHARACTERS: ahiru & addie
» CHARACTER INFORMATION
Character NAME: Natalie Goodman
Canon & MEDIUM: Next to Normal (musical)
Canon PULL-POINT: "Wish I Were Here"
Character AGE: 16
Character ABILITIES: She has no supernatural powers or abilities. She’s smart and responsible, though, and an excellent piano player.
Character HISTORY: Here. CW for suicide, self harm, mental health, grief, and substance abuse triggers within the link.
Natalie is the daughter of Diana and Dan Goodman. The family lives within a suburban neighborhood, but they’re hardly a normal, functional family. Diana suffers from a long history of mental illness, and her husband suffers from depression as well. She grew up in a troubled household, always worried that her mother’s condition would worsen. This led her to put aside her personal wellbeing to some extent. The canon itself begins when Natalie is in high school, setting her sights for Yale and struggling with anxiety and a feeling that she’s invisible to her family.
As she’s introduced, she’s a girl who’s structured herself into her life firmly, afraid that if she steps outside the box she’s created for herself she’ll crash and burn. And she’s correct, to some extent. Once she lets her stress at her mother’s worsening condition get the better of her and tries to alleviate her pain, she starts to engage in substance abuse. Her boyfriend, Henry, remarks at one point that he’s had to come get her from random clubs several nights in a row at one point. However, her mother soon realizes what she’s been doing to her daughter, and apologizes, reassuring Natalie that she isn’t doomed to repeat the mistakes that she’s made. With this encouragement and understanding, she begins to get her life back to normal.
Character PERSONALITY: Natalie Goodman is (somewhat) a product of her surroundings. Her mother suffered from mental illness from the time she was young, and states at one point that she had Natalie to try and let go of the grief that came when her eight month old son passed away. This has had a profound effect on Natalie, who feels neglected by her parents. Her mother, Diana, often has delusions of her son still being alive and speaking to her, and her father is often preoccupied with caring for her and trying to keep the family financially afloat. She feels as though she’s invisible to her family and resents it, and yet also feels responsible for them at the same time. When her father is unable, she drives her mother to doctor appointments and hospital visits and looks after her. She’s ashamed of her mother as well.
Her mother’s mental health has impacted her in another way, too; Natalie is terrified of growing up to be like her mother. She remarks that she’s afraid of going crazy and having the same effect on her boyfriend, Henry, as she sees Diana having on her father. She feels like she’s always one step away from failure and has to hold herself in check to stop herself from making her parents mistakes, saying that she doesn’t want to be reminded of “how fucked up I can be”. She’s prone to this misstep, though: when she’s overcome with stress and fear because of her mother’s sickness and what she perceives as her father’s lack of concern, she turns to substance abuse to tune out the problems she’s going through. As most teenagers do, she lets stress affect her actions: when at an important piano recital to gain a scholarship to Yale, she realizes her parents aren’t in the audience and begins to make errors in the sonata she’s performing, ruining her chances.
Partly stemming from a fear of becoming like her mother, she’s tries to be as stable and responsible as she can be, though she has a predisposition to anxiety. She stays up until four in the morning some nights to finish her homework and other responsibilities, and it’s not until she meets Henry that she tries to let loose a little more. Her problem is that she doesn’t know where to stop, be it with school or family responsibilities or drugs. She feels as though if she slows down, she won’t know how to function. Contrarily, she feels caught in her situation, as if she won’t be able to move forward or improve her life or situation.
Below all this, though, is a teenage girl. She has a good sense of humor, a good head on her shoulders, and she has a normal reaction to most of the things happening to her. She's hurt by the way she sees her parents act towards her, and towards each other. Though she gets caught in her thought patterns sometimes, she feels hopeful about the future at times as well. Her fears about the future are normal for children her age, and by the end of the musical, she's begun to shape herself up and become stable once more.
» EXSILIUM INFORMATION
Chosen WEAPON: A music box. The music has a calming effect on whoever hears it; the volume of the music and the strength of the calming effect will increase as time goes on.
Character INVENTORY: The clothes on her back and a bag with some money and pills; Adderall, Xanax, Valium and Robitussin.
Player NAME: Maddie
Current AGE: 20
Player TIME ZONE: PST
Personal JOURNAL: effulgence
IM & SERVICE: aim: begin to thunder
Player PLURK: ducklett
Current CHARACTERS: ahiru & addie
» CHARACTER INFORMATION
Character NAME: Natalie Goodman
Canon & MEDIUM: Next to Normal (musical)
Canon PULL-POINT: "Wish I Were Here"
Character AGE: 16
Character ABILITIES: She has no supernatural powers or abilities. She’s smart and responsible, though, and an excellent piano player.
Character HISTORY: Here. CW for suicide, self harm, mental health, grief, and substance abuse triggers within the link.
Natalie is the daughter of Diana and Dan Goodman. The family lives within a suburban neighborhood, but they’re hardly a normal, functional family. Diana suffers from a long history of mental illness, and her husband suffers from depression as well. She grew up in a troubled household, always worried that her mother’s condition would worsen. This led her to put aside her personal wellbeing to some extent. The canon itself begins when Natalie is in high school, setting her sights for Yale and struggling with anxiety and a feeling that she’s invisible to her family.
As she’s introduced, she’s a girl who’s structured herself into her life firmly, afraid that if she steps outside the box she’s created for herself she’ll crash and burn. And she’s correct, to some extent. Once she lets her stress at her mother’s worsening condition get the better of her and tries to alleviate her pain, she starts to engage in substance abuse. Her boyfriend, Henry, remarks at one point that he’s had to come get her from random clubs several nights in a row at one point. However, her mother soon realizes what she’s been doing to her daughter, and apologizes, reassuring Natalie that she isn’t doomed to repeat the mistakes that she’s made. With this encouragement and understanding, she begins to get her life back to normal.
Character PERSONALITY: Natalie Goodman is (somewhat) a product of her surroundings. Her mother suffered from mental illness from the time she was young, and states at one point that she had Natalie to try and let go of the grief that came when her eight month old son passed away. This has had a profound effect on Natalie, who feels neglected by her parents. Her mother, Diana, often has delusions of her son still being alive and speaking to her, and her father is often preoccupied with caring for her and trying to keep the family financially afloat. She feels as though she’s invisible to her family and resents it, and yet also feels responsible for them at the same time. When her father is unable, she drives her mother to doctor appointments and hospital visits and looks after her. She’s ashamed of her mother as well.
Her mother’s mental health has impacted her in another way, too; Natalie is terrified of growing up to be like her mother. She remarks that she’s afraid of going crazy and having the same effect on her boyfriend, Henry, as she sees Diana having on her father. She feels like she’s always one step away from failure and has to hold herself in check to stop herself from making her parents mistakes, saying that she doesn’t want to be reminded of “how fucked up I can be”. She’s prone to this misstep, though: when she’s overcome with stress and fear because of her mother’s sickness and what she perceives as her father’s lack of concern, she turns to substance abuse to tune out the problems she’s going through. As most teenagers do, she lets stress affect her actions: when at an important piano recital to gain a scholarship to Yale, she realizes her parents aren’t in the audience and begins to make errors in the sonata she’s performing, ruining her chances.
Partly stemming from a fear of becoming like her mother, she’s tries to be as stable and responsible as she can be, though she has a predisposition to anxiety. She stays up until four in the morning some nights to finish her homework and other responsibilities, and it’s not until she meets Henry that she tries to let loose a little more. Her problem is that she doesn’t know where to stop, be it with school or family responsibilities or drugs. She feels as though if she slows down, she won’t know how to function. Contrarily, she feels caught in her situation, as if she won’t be able to move forward or improve her life or situation.
Below all this, though, is a teenage girl. She has a good sense of humor, a good head on her shoulders, and she has a normal reaction to most of the things happening to her. She's hurt by the way she sees her parents act towards her, and towards each other. Though she gets caught in her thought patterns sometimes, she feels hopeful about the future at times as well. Her fears about the future are normal for children her age, and by the end of the musical, she's begun to shape herself up and become stable once more.
» EXSILIUM INFORMATION
Chosen WEAPON: A music box. The music has a calming effect on whoever hears it; the volume of the music and the strength of the calming effect will increase as time goes on.
Character INVENTORY: The clothes on her back and a bag with some money and pills; Adderall, Xanax, Valium and Robitussin.