Editing Natalie Matteson (section)

==Personality==
Sees things through the lenses of her profession. Is interested by her new job. Tries to make sure everyone is keeping to the rules.

She considers her own stress response patterns atypical,<ref> “At a television studio?  I wouldn’t mind, I don’t think,” Natalie said.  “But I’m weird.  There are a ton of things that bother me that other people treat as normal, and a ton of things I wouldn’t blink at things that annoy or freak out other people.”<br /><br />“I respect that,” Chris said.  “Yes, you have to find that nugget of you and cling to it.  That stuff that makes you different.”<br /><br />“It’s not anything fancy,” Natalie said.  “I’m anxious about the stupidest stuff and I can get zen with routine work and chores.  There are maybe three times in my life something horrible happened near me, and I kept my cool while other people were breaking down.  That’s basically it.”<br /><br />“Fancy enough,” Chris said.<br /><br />“It’s really not,” Natalie replied. - [https://www.parahumans.net/2018/08/04 Excerpt] from [[Beacon 8.10]]</ref> worrying over ordinary things and yet very calm in the face of danger.<ref name="8.xe1">How could she feel so weirdly calm like this, and panic to the point of crying over an exam for a class she was doing well in?  She could be held at knifepoint with zero idea of what to do and be almost okay, and yet when her sex buddy said he wanted to fuck her, she didn’t know how to deal. - [https://www.parahumans.net/2018/08/14 Excerpt] from [[Interlude_8.x_II|Beacon 8.x]]</ref> In the face of deadly danger, she considers regretting not acting to protect others a worse fate than death or maiming.<ref>She was finally here and she might die or be maimed for it.<br /><br />
No, that wasn’t even the worst possibility.<br /><br />She was here, finally, and Kenzie or Tony might die, with her left intact, agonizing over how she’d had no heroism in the end.<br /><br />For that, she couldn’t move. - [https://www.parahumans.net/2018/08/14 Excerpt] from [[Interlude_8.x_II|Beacon 8.x]]</ref> She'd thought capes were cool and imagined getting powers since she was a kid.<ref name="kid capes">This… she’d always thought capes were cool. It felt like just yesterday that she’d been Kenzie’s age, utterly enchanted by the idea of getting powers and doing something.<br />...<br />As a kid, she’d imagined getting powers and facing down impossible situations and weirdness like this made her think maybe it was what she was meant for.  She could trigger, especially if it was only during the bad events, and-<br /><br />
And people who thought they might trigger didn’t.  Wasn’t that the rule?<br /><br /> - [https://www.parahumans.net/2018/08/14/beacon-interlude-8-x/ Excerpt] from [[Interlude_8.x_II|Beacon 8.x]]</ref> In her imaginings, it was the critical defining ''moments'' that stuck with her, good or bad,<ref>When she reflected on the fantasies of childhood and adulthood both, it was the moments that stuck with her.  Endless replays in her head of a given monumental scene, the crux of a decision.<br /><br />Not even all good moments, either.  Just moments, the key scenes.  When she’d wanted to be a lawyer, it had been with a mind to having those moments in the courtroom.  When she’d started working with the capes, a part of it was that she’d wanted to be adjacent to those moments. - [https://www.parahumans.net/2018/08/14/beacon-interlude-8-x/ Excerpt] from [[Interlude_8.x_II|Beacon 8.x]]</ref> and she was disconcerted after [[Beacon 8.12|the interview]] at the way time just kept flowing, continuous.<ref>Tonight had had a few of them.  She’d been adjacent.<br /><br />Except they weren’t any moments.  Time didn’t stop, and there was no room to think about each decision.  Events came, they went, things moved on, people adapted, conversations led to them and from them. - [https://www.parahumans.net/2018/08/14/beacon-interlude-8-x/ Excerpt] from [[Interlude_8.x_II|Beacon 8.x]]</ref> Kind of like [[Chris Elman|Chris]].
=== Relationships===
====Family====
Natalie is a lawyer in defiance to her mother's wishes.<ref>“This wasn’t what I wanted for you,” her mom cut in.  “You would have been safer going into medical school.”<br /><br />“If I worked in a hospital, I’d have belligerent drug-seeking patients to deal with or something, and I’d be miserable.  I’m working under some excellent lawyers and my prospects are good.  I’m only three-quarters miserable doing what I’m doing.  If I put up with the three-quarters I don’t like for a little while longer, I’ll be able to move to doing things I like.  And I get to do this stuff with the hero team too.  Scary moments aside, it’s really neat.”<br /><br />“The hero team is too dangerous for what you’re getting.”<br /><br />“You don’t even know how much I’m getting.”<br /><br />“I know it’s too dangerous!”<br /><br />“Thank you for coming, Victoria, you don’t have to feel obligated to stay for the family squabbling.  Can you keep me updated?  I may drop by at four or five.”<br /><br />“You should rest,” her mom protested. - [https://www.parahumans.net/2018/08/21 Excerpt] from [[Gleaming 9.1]]</ref>
====[[Carol Dallon]]====
Carol is Natalie's mentor and considers the younger women to be exceptional.<ref name="10.1e2">“Can I give you something to pass on to Natalie?” I asked my mom.<br /><br />“Of course.”<br /><br />I put my bag down and fished inside.  “A bit of a thank-you for looking after Lookout and an apology for her having to put up with us while we were mind controlled.  She did well.”<br /><br />“I have an eye for exceptional people, Victoria,” my mom said.<br /><br />“You do.”<br /><br />I handed over the package, gift wrapped as best as I’d been able with the supplies I’d had. - [https://www.parahumans.net/2018/10/23 Excerpt] from [[Polarize 10.1]]</ref> Natalie admired Carol's cultivated confidence<ref>Natalie didn’t miss those fleeting moments, when Victoria was mid-stretch or talking about how this was expected or wanted, when she looked a ''lot'' like Carol had a few times back at the Wardens’ office.  Not happy, ''far'' from happy in this case, but fully confident.<br />...<br />She did her best to switch to unflappable lawyer mode, like Carol so often did. - [https://www.parahumans.net/2018/08/14 Excerpt] from [[Interlude 8.x II|Beacon 8.x]]</ref> and talent.<ref>Even when Mrs. Dallon took the gloves off and made it look like she was a superhuman lawyer, not just a superhuman in costume, Natalie had kept her perspective in check, or so she liked to think.  Mrs. Dallon was a person to look up to, one with a lot of talents, but she was a person. - [https://www.parahumans.net/2018/08/14 Excerpt] from [[Interlude 8.x II|Beacon 8.x]]</ref>

====[[Breakthrough]]====
Had a rocky start with the group. Disproving of the team's actions often especially during the early undercover operation.<ref>Past the curtain, I could hear Ashley’s power.<br /><br />“Hey!” Prancer called out.  “Civilian property.  They pay us, we leave their stuff alone.”<br /><br />Ashley said something I didn’t hear.  Nailbiter sniggered.<br /><br />Natalie was going to get upset with us again.  - [https://www.parahumans.net/2018/03/10 Excerpt] from [[Shadow 5.5]]</ref>

She defended Kenzie in the face of armed attackers <ref>“I’m not making them desperate and I’m not making them anything,” Kenzie said.  “Because I’m giving myself up.”<br /><br />“No,” Natalie said, seizing Kenzie’s arm as Kenzie walked past her.  “No.” - [https://www.parahumans.net/2018/08/14 Excerpt] from [[Interlude 8.x II|Beacon 8.x]]</ref> including getting stabbed for the kids sake.<ref>The knife’s point penetrated skin, stabbing her in the sternum, just below the collarbone.  It might have been the particular spot, but the contact of metal on bone was surprisingly painful. - [https://www.parahumans.net/2018/08/14 Excerpt] from [[Interlude 8.x II|Beacon 8.x]]</ref> She has become accepted by the group.<ref name="Ohyay">“How was your vacation with your boy?” Tristan asked.  He was asking Natalie.<br /><br />“He’s not ‘my boy’.  It was nice.”<br /><br />“Did you tour the sights?” Tristan asked.  “I guess there aren’t many sights, with the city being new.”<br /><br />“We hung out.  We drank, we completed a one thousand piece puzzle.”<br /><br />“I hope you did more than that,” Ashley remarked.<br /><br />“I don’t think I’m going to talk about ''that'', thank you.”<br /><br />“It sure sounds to me like he’s your boy,” Tristan said.<br /><br />“Victoriaaa,” Natalie said.<br /><br />“Yeahhh?” I asked, drawing my voice out in the same way.<br /><br />“Did you ask me along just so you could throw me to the wolves?” - [https://www.parahumans.net/2018/12/22 Excerpt] from [[Blinding 11.2]]</ref>
==== Tony====
Her "sex buddy"<ref name="8.xe1" />, not boyfriend: Natalie no wanting want to 'ruin' what they had.<ref>“Kenzie, it’s complicated.  I like things the way they are now.”<br /><br />“But he’s not your boyfriend.”<br /><br />“Not exactly.”<br /><br />“And you want him to be your boyfriend.”<br /><br />“Yes, but.  It’s weird and it’s fragile and I don’t want to ruin a good thing by trying to shoot for a maybe-great thing.” - [https://www.parahumans.net/2018/08/14/beacon-interlude-8-x/ Excerpt] from [[Interlude 8.x II|Beacon 8.x]]</ref> Found him intimidating and very attractive.<ref>He was intimidating.  Doubly so by candlelight.  He was growing out his red hair, and it was long enough that locks curled around the tops and to the backs of his ears.  His red hair and beard looked amazing in the warm light, and the play of light and shadow made the shape of his face, his neck and his adam’s apple very noticeable.  He wore a long-sleeved t-shirt, what might have been silk pyjama bottoms, and slippers.<br /><br />Approaching to stand closer meant she wouldn’t stare at him, but now she could smell his body soap, shampoo, and whatever else it was he used.  He’d just showered recently. - [https://www.parahumans.net/2018/08/14/beacon-interlude-8-x/ Excerpt] from [[Interlude_8.x_II|Beacon 8.x]]</ref> She spent some time recuperating with him,<ref name="10.1e1">The others.  Oh.  I turned back toward my mom, and put my bag down.  “Can I ask about Natalie?”<br /><br />My mom smiled, and she acted like we hadn’t just had a heated exchange of words.  “She’s well.  Healing from that chest wound while spending some time away with a friend.” - [https://www.parahumans.net/2018/10/23 Excerpt] from [[Polarize 10.1]]</ref> even bringing him around to meet Carol,  her mentor, and Carol's husband.<ref name="8.2">“I actually wanted to talk to Natalie,” my mom said.  “Check that she’s managing okay, with everything.<br />[...]<br />“Oh, Natalie brought Tony, I’ll introduce you,” my mom told my dad.  She laid a hand on my arm in passing.<br />[...]<br />She was a little ways away, having a conversation with Natalie at the very edge of the parkland clearing. - [https://www.parahumans.net/2018/07/07 Excerpt] from [[Beacon 8.2]]</ref>