Natalie Duclert is a side character that appears in Muv-Luv Alternative Total Eclipse. She was a French hostess at the Polestar, a restaurant and bar that was a common hangout for Argos flight Yukon base, and was good friends with Tarisa Manandal.
Total Eclipse[]
Natalie is first introduced when Yuuya Bridges was invited by the rest of Argos flight to the nearby town of Lilfort to take in the sights and relax. She acted as their server and introduced herself as a refugee from France, but despite her background she remained in high spirits and often teased the high-strung Tarisa. On more than one occasion she was seen making Tarisa wear different kinds of outfits to get a reaction out of her, and she sometimes put her to work in the restaurant as a server.
During nights, she worked as a bartender and wore a more formal suit as she attended to patrons. Her mood shifted along with her role, and her light attitude from before became much more restrained. She acted as a silent observer to many of the conversations that occured in the bar between members of Argos flight, as well as the Infinities American squadron when they arrived. Every once in a while, she would offer her own opinion to the troubles Yuuya and the others were suffering from, and she was often considered to be correct in her assumptions.
Natalie once recalled her days in the refugee camps as she served drinks, when she was forced to evacuate with her family when France fell to the BETA. The living conditions were terrible, and eventually Natalie was forced to fend for herself. One of her most vivid memories is of her young self sitting naked in a tent, face buried in between her legs as she sat next to a bloodied corpse. The experience left a lasting impact on Natalie and gave her a new perspective of the world and the dire straits many people were stuck in, and built a kind of enmity in her against those she felt were in power and did nothing to solve those issues.
Later, during the course of the Blue Flag exercises, Natalie secretly made contact with members of the private contracters Coleur Express that were moving supplies for the UN base due to lack of manpower. It turned out that they were disguised members of the Refugee Liberation Front, and that Natalie was not only an informant of theirs but a full-fledged member. Her work in Polestar allowed her to interact with base personnel and gather information when they let their guard down, either through alcohol or from Natalie's pleasant company.
At some point during this time, she also engaged in sexual relations with Valerio Giacosa, as well as numerous other UN personnel with the objective of gathering information for the upcoming RLF takeover of Yukon base.
She was later involved in the Yukon Base Incident, donning the uniform of the contractors as she drove a moving truck as part of a convoy toward the base. Her objective was to capture the front gate and blockade the road coming in from Lilfort to enforce the RLF's jurisdiction of the military compound. She was part of the team that stopped Yuuya Bridges, Cui Yifei, and Tarisa Manandal from entering the base. Natalie confronted them and attempted to recruit Tarisa, a fellow citizen from a country completely overtaken by the BETA, to join the RLF and fight for the refugees. Tarisa was unconvinced, however, because she had made a promise to her family to avenge them and as an Eishi, it was her duty to fight the BETA and not humans.
When she realized that Tarisa could not be turned, Natalie paused. To that point in the conversation, she had taken on a friendly, even pleading nature with Tarisa despite holding a gun aimed at her. Natalie then launched into a vicious tirade of what the RLF's plans were: how they planned to blow up all of the UN's experimental TSF's, and how they were in control of multiple facilities and had managed to capture several high-ranking officials in the Soviet, US, and UN armies. Despite her hostile tone, Yuuya and Yifei both recognized that she was talking too much, and that revealing all of that information wasn't typical of an enemy agent: they surmised that Natalie was attempting to warn them, perhaps having sympathized with Tarisa's words.
Before Natalie could tell them about the American's top-secret research, relating to the hibernating BETA strains being studied underground beneath the Yukon base, she was shot by one of her comrades for "talking too much". Her death enraged Tarisa, but also offered the UN pilots the necessary distraction they needed to escape into a nearby storm drain.
Trivia[]
- Despite being a member of the RLF and supposedly sympathizing with their goals, Natalie's friendship with Tarisa Manandal, and perhaps with the other pilots, was revealed to be true when she revealed her organization's plans to them even after she declared she was their enemy. This implies she had no intentions of killing Tarisa and in fact wanted her to escape and perhaps even stop what they had planned.
- Her sacrifice directly saved Yuuya, Yifei, and Tarisa as well as countless others as they used what information Natalie gave them to deduce what the RLF's plans were, and how to counterattack.
- Natalie, along with many other suspected members of the RLF, were engaged in sexual liaisons with Valerio Giacosa, aka VG.
- Natalie's appearance in the Visual Novel differs significantly from her original look in the Anime adaptation. She has longer, smoother hair down her back; is missing the freckles above her nose; and is without of her trademark cowboy server outfit. Instead, she wears a more formal vest blouse and trousers, with a bow tie choker.