Natalie Watson - Toreador

Background | Allies | City

"I had a dream last night and it fit like a glove"

Butthole Surfers - Whatever (I had a dream)
Natalie was born in 1914 in Milan, Italy to a large family made up mostly of sons. Her father put more worth and concern into his five sons and left Natalie and her younger sister, Regeane, to be raised by a nanny who didn’t want to be shackled with the responsibility of them any more than their father did. They were made to cook and clean after the men who did little more than drink and whore their way through their existences.

Natalie was forced to marry a friend of her fathers when she was 17. Her new husband was as old as her father and just as mean and spiteful. He died within two years of the marriage, but because of the impending war, Natalie found that she was forced to return to her father’s house instead of earning the freedom that she had hoped for. When the Second World War came all her brothers were killed serving under Mussolini, leaving their father a crumpled man. Natalie’s father became lifeless individual who mourned for the sons that would never return, serving to further harden Natalie’s heart toward him.

Finally she couldn’t take anymore. After her sister was safely married into a compassionate family, Natalie left the family’s farm at age 33 in 1946. She had only the small amount of money that she had been able to hoard away and steal from her father since he had managed to drink away everything she had received from her husband’s estate, but she had dreams of seeing the world and being more than a puppet to any man.

Natalie moved cautiously through Europe for the next five years, taking on the persona of a widow who was trying to start over, her husband one of thousands who were killed during the war. She met Gene Lapierre in Paris in 1951 and they became friends.

She found herself in love with him rather quickly. He was a charming man who sheltered her from the hardships of life after the war and she never questioned why she only saw him in the evenings. She had finally been able to put her trust a man and that was something she wouldn’t question for any reason.

When Gene admitted that he was actually a vampire, Natalie accepted the news as if he had told her he was the Boogieman. He embraced her soon after in 1952, but he was killed a short time later in 1957 by a lone hunter. Afraid for her own life, and full of sadness by her loss, Natalie fled to America where she stayed for six months in Flint, Michigan with Griffin Van Vleet, her ‘uncle’ and the Gangrel Primogen there. She lived in Norfolk, Virginia for a while and picked up a ward there named Matt Grimes, who Griffin does not like.

Over the years Griffin came to her in dreams more and more often. They talked of philosophy and history, and he seemed to trust her. He asked her to come to Flint and when she did, they began a relationship. She decided to stay with him in Flint, finally admitting that there was a man that she could safely align herself with who wouldn’t leave her.