Nathaniel Ashton

[Stockmon]

NATHANIEL MARK ASHTON

GODSPEED THIS LETTER AWAY FROM HERE
i've sealed it with my tears
and stamped it with my fears

•• nicknames: Nate, Nathan, Ashton
•• age: 24
•• birth era: Victorian
•• date of birth: August 15
•• as portrayed by: Matt Cohen

•• your character’s body: No one ever accused Nate of being too modest. And why should he be, the man is gorgeous. But beauty lies in the eye of the beholder, and it just so happens most women find him attractive, lucky him. Overall Nathaniel stands at five feet and eleven inches tall, and he is ripped with muscles. Since he rarely wears short sleeves, as that isn’t modest, you can’t necessarily tell, but he does carry himself in such a way as to express the amount of muscles he has. He is fairly tan, but not overly dark, though in contrast to his sister he looks much darker.

Nathaniel has a charming smile, any way he presents it; he manages to get some girl swooning. His hair is dark brown, but contrary to popular belief, it is not actually black. His eyes are grayer than anything, but if they weren’t gray they might be hazel. Nathaniel has a bright smile, and he is almost always smiling, even when he is pretending to be taking things seriously. He keeps his hair short and trim, but he sometimes grows a beard, or more some stubble and then shaves it off. He is generally thought to be attractive, and has a rounder face than his sister.

Nathaniel dresses like any other Victorian man in the upper class. He has a top hat, though he rarely wears that, except when going to parties. His somewhat fluffy regal purple tie is shown under his double buttoned blue jacket, which is worn under a brown coat, and above black slacks. He doesn’t wear white slacks like some other men, it would annoy Nora. He has a black walking cane and the shiniest shoes around, black, of course. Otherwise he tends to just wear button up shirts over white undershirts, and slacks. He likes to keep his cane with him to smack things randomly, usually out of boredom.

MY WORK HERE IS THROUGH
i’m on my way to better days
and so are you

•• likes: Color, Italy, Languages, Music, Nora, Romance, Flirting, Kissing, Being Rich, Miss Smith, Architecture, Realistic Art, Nora’s Approval, Laughing, Smiling, Sports, Running, Working Out, His Cane, Simon, and Joy.
•• dislikes: Being scolded by Nora, Death, Funerals, Cemetaries, Illness, Midnight, Superstition, Lectures, Opera, Weddings, Pain, Complaining, Complains, Begging, Being in trouble, Being scolded by Miss Smith, Old Horses, Prissy People, Being Laughed at, and Being Confused.
•• general personality: Nathaniel Ashton is a rich and educated individual. But to Nora Ashton he is just Nate, her baby brother. Nate is very loving toward Nora, and he wants to please her more than he would openly admit. He is honest, affectionate, and goofy around her. He knows how she is beneath her layers of distrust, and that makes him happy. If she is sad he is protective. Although he makes friends easily, he knows the way to Nora’s heart is through him, and thus he keeps any possibly harmful men away from him, so they will be kept away from Nora. Even though he is a rake, he doesn’t have many rake friends.

For Patience Smith Nate has a rather amusing demeanor. She knows what he is capable of, and so she lets him slide on a lot of his antics. He is not flirty in front of her, if he can help it, which confuses some people, but he is a jokester. Since she is rather un-amused, Nate makes it his personal goal to make her laugh, but she rarely does. He is respectful of her, but slightly more energetic and fun loving when she is around and he teases her a lot.

In Romance Nathaniel is suave. He is generally found to be attractive, and that is the first thing people notice about him. Next his smooth voice, and then his charming personality. He makes girls feel like princesses, but if they are arrogant and assume they can have him, he makes sure they have to chase him, but gives them enough to make them think he is attainable. What goes on behind closed doors in his secret, and Nora rolls her eyes at him more often than not. All in all, when it comes to Romance, Nate knows what to say, when and how, and he always gets his prize. But if something is too hard, he won’t let it get him down, and can move on without being upset.

In romance, Nathaniel wins. In sports, it is a tossup. This is where Nathaniel’s competitive spirit rises to the occasion. Though he isn’t the best loser in the world, his charm gets the best of him, and he can shrug things off after a moment or two. But he is a gracious winner. He doesn’t rub people faces in things, and he likes to make everyone feel good about the outcome, especially if he won. He would rather win than enjoy himself though. He is constantly running and working out to get better. Even with chess his concentration skyrockets and sometimes he loses himself in a game.

After all of that surface stuff there is the side that only Nora is permitted to see. Nathaniel is not secretly shy or depressed or constantly worrying whether or not he is good enough. But he has a sweet heart and he loves more than imaginably when he loves. Romance is a game, but when he loves you, you cannot get over just how much he loves you. He sacrifices for those he loves, and although he is fun loving, he knows when enough is enough. Sometimes he gets lost in his antics, the adrenaline, peer pressure, and pleasing others drags him down, but when he makes a promise, it is a promise. He is trustworthy, sympathetic, compassionate, and a good listener, but you have to dig deep to see most of those things.

Nate is afraid he will go too far with one of his romantic pursuits, but he doesn’t act like it. He fears disappointing Nora or Miss Smith. He fears hurting Nora or her being hurt, also getting married, any real commitment, and death. He fears Nora or Miss Smith dying, being poor, and that he will never grow up. He hopes he will fall in love, and that Nora will. He hopes Miss Smith will be happy, that he won’t get in too much trouble, and that he will be happy for the rest of his life. His hobbies include running, working out, schmoozing, flirting, and going to parties. He also likes making public appearances, polo, chess, climbing, and just having fun.

•• hometown: London, England
•• job(s): Upper Class
•• general history: Almyra and Jacob were young and completely rich. This meant to society that they should be married, and soon. But that was not why they got married. That was why they met, to be sure, and with Jacob being an only child, and Almyra being the only survivor of three infant deaths in her family, everyone was highly protective of them. But the pair seemed to work, both upper class, polite, attractive, and well liked by everyone, and everyone wanted to see them wed. So when Jacob was twenty two and Almyra was eighteen the two got married, and everyone was happy, though the pair did not get married to make anyone happy. They got married because they got along, and they loved each other.

The two were happily married for six years, until Almyra got pregnant. November first eighteen fifteen changed the Ashton family forever. Nora Helene Ashton was a giggling happy little baby girl with tufts of soft black hair already coming from her head. Two years after that, on the date of August fifteenth eighteen seventeen Nathaniel Mark Ashton was born. That winter Almyra grew ill and stayed in bed until June of the next summer. Everyone in the community loved Almyra, they pitied Jacob, and they paid little to no attention to the toddlers around the home. But after that summer Almyra was up and about, slower, but bright and healthy as ever for the next two years, until she took ill, December of eighteen twenty, and she was in bed until her death January eighth eighteen twenty two.

By this time Nora was seven years old, and Nathaniel was five, reasonably aware of the things around them. Only Jacob paid any mind to his children, as some people seemed to have forgotten they even existed. He set the two up with a childhood friend of Almyra’s, one Patience Smith, a testament to Almyra’s selflessness. Patience was a lower class working girl who Almyra befriended, and Jacob had hired as a gardener for their home only months after they were married. Patience would be the full time nanny for the two children. When Nora was eight years old all of a sudden people took notice of her. They started to question if she would be like her mother, better, worse. Could she live up to the family name? Would she shame them all? Jacob sheltered his princess from all this as best he could, rebuking gossips and getting somewhat fed up with the upper class. He stopped going out for the most part, except for the most regal of summons before Nathaniel turned seven.

While Jacob spent his time at home he taught Nora all about her mother, music, literature, and anything she showed interest in. Jacob also taught Nathaniel language and etiquette, although he learned less being younger. With Jacob’s lack of social activities the already rich family swelled their income even more, and Patience became practically a member of the family. One night, a few days after Nora’s eleventh birthday Jacob was taking a walk through downtown London, for reasons unknown to his children, and he was mugged and killed. Two days later, on November sixth eighteen twenty-six, Nora dressed in black for her father’s funeral, and it seemed that she never came out of mourning. Although Nathaniel came into the public view around the age of fourteen, when he fully established himself as a rake, Nora never left from the age of eight. London had seemed to decide that Nora would never be her mother, and it was only proper to whisper behind her back about her shortcomings in this aspect. Nora did he best to protect the family reputation, keeping Nathaniel from making a fool of himself and tarnishing the family name, and keeping herself from doing anything harmful as well. Both children received exemplary educations from a variety of governesses and were raised by Patience Smith, whom Nathaniel was strongly attached to, but Nora grew distant from based on her stronger attachment to her late mother.

Even at the age of twenty-five, Nora appears in mourning, and Nathaniel is carefree as ever. Nora shuns romantic advances and friendship is kept to a bare minimum, while Nathaniel is friendly toward most people and romance is like oxygen. The two cruise the social scene almost nightly. Nathaniel does this to enjoy himself, and Nora does this to make sure Nathaniel doesn’t enjoy himself a little too much.

Lyrics by Red Jumpsuit Apparatus