On the Upper East Side, there is little that is more important than the value of a name; often, living up to the family name is often considered more valuable than being a good person. In the Archibald family, legacy is law. Even from a young age, Nathaniel Archibald had the history of the Vanderbilt legacy drilled into his head, often being told that it is of equal, if not more, importance than the history of the country he grew up in. Still, the young Archibald led a happy childhood, blissfully unaware that he was being groomed by his family to be their idea of the perfect gentleman. He was also still blissfully unaware that there were certain expectations of a Vanderbilt man and that anyone who strayed from those expectations would be cast out of the family altogether.
The expectations for Nate had been perfectly clear from the moment he had entered the world, though he had either been too blind or too young to see them. After all, being born into one of the wealthiest families in the country, being on the fast track to attend an Ivy League school and a beautiful girlfriend on his arm, Nate seemed to live a very charmed life. It’s obvious to anyone that being an Archibald didn’t leave much room for complaint.
Except attending Dartmouth, marrying Blair Waldorf and taking over the family business was never what Nate wanted. Truth be told, he would have rather have attended pretty much any school but Dartmouth and he had no desire to marry Blair. True, he did love her, but if he had been honest with himself, he would be able to admit that he was never in love with her. In his heart, he had always held a torch for Serena van der Woodsen, who just so happened to be Blair’s best friend.
To add insult to injury, Nate had been keeping another secret from Blair. At the Shepherd Wedding during their sophomore year of high school, Nate and Serena, already drunk from too many glasses of champagne, had snuck away from the hustle and bustle of the wedding reception to find more alcohol. In their wasted celebration at having found another bottle, one thing led to another and they ended up having sex right there on the bar. After passing out when the deed was done, Nate woke up only to find that Serena had left him there - alone - and he had lost his virginity, his dignity, and most likely his girlfriend in the process.
As the years progressed, Nate’s feelings for Serena only grew stronger, though his familial expectations remained clear, the subject of his trust fund a constant, silent underlying threat if he ever chose his own path. Both luckily and unluckily for him, the minute his father was arrested for embezzlement and fraud, his parents lost their leverage. It didn’t take long for Nate to end his relationship with Blair and finally explore what exactly he wanted in his life. It turned out that graduating Columbia, getting hired at The Spectator, and forging a path out of reach of his family’s hand was the key to Nate’s happiness. At least for the most part.
Though Nate has found two best friends in the form of Serena and Blair, there’s no denying that the friendship between Chuck and Nate is next level. Where there is the Golden Boy, you can be sure there is the Dark Knight following shortly after. Nate wasn’t sure when or how Chuck and him had become friends but somehow, against all odds, the pair have remained friends their whole lives, even though their personalities couldn’t be more different. Even though he’s witnessed Chuck’s shadiness firsthand, Nate knows Chuck will always have his back and vice versa. Despite a few bumps in the road, Chuck remains Nate’s best friend, to this day.
♔ EMMA & NATALIE VANDERBILT ♔
Along with large amounts of money, the Vanderbilt family comes with a large amount of cousins. Growing up, Nate loved going to his grandfather’s for family holidays and hanging out with his cousins. Though Natalie and Nate have never been extraordinarily close, he still respects her and would do just about anything for her. Emma and Nate, on the other hand, have always been thick as thieves. During the holidays, it was always Emma and Nate running around with one another, making a mess and causing trouble, much to the chagrin of their parents. Though Emma has a wild streak that Nate doesn’t really understand, he’s always felt like no one understands him as well as Emma does.
If ever there was to be a king and queen of Constance and St. Jude’s, Blair and Nate would have been it, no contest. They’d been dating since kindergarten, as everyone liked to remind him, and there appeared to be no end in sight. He’s been told time and time again that what the pair of them have special, a story for the books, even. There was just one tiny problem, and that was the fact that Nate had always held a torch for her best friend. The pair broke up during the midst of their junior year of high school, both of them going their separate ways up until about about a year ago. Getting back together with Blair had never been a part of his plan, but he couldn’t help falling back into such a familiar relationship. They’ve only been officially dating for the past four months, but it seemed like their relationship had just been on pause since high school. Despite him feeling like she was a burden back then, and he still misses Serena, he has to admit that the past four months with Blair have been the happiest four months he’s had since Serena left.
♔ SERENA VAN DER WOODSEN ♔
Nate and Serena have been friends for as long as he can remember, which, coincidentally, is about the same amount of time that Nate has been in love with her. The night of the Shepherd wedding, Nate had somehow found himself in a compromising position with Serena, his girlfriend’s best friend, and ended up losing his virginity to her on top of a bar. Nate spent the rest of high school pining after the blonde he could never seem to capture, until he finally did the year they graduated high school. The two of them dated for nearly a year, the best year of Nate’s life, until Serena broke up with him and moved abroad. He’s heard now that she’s back in town, dating some hotshot movie star, and he hates to admit how, even after all this time and even though his relationship with Blair has never been better, the thought of someone else touching her makes his blood boil.
Nate knows well enough to stay out of the business of the Bass twins, but when it came to Fletcher Murdoch, he had a hard time following his own rule. He had known Fletcher forever, but it wasn’t until their junior year of high school that Nate realized they had a lot more in common than anyone could have predicted. They shared an unlikely common trait in the fact that their dads had been arrested and found guilty on charges of embezzlement and fraud. The only difference was, Nate had somehow come out just as shiny as before, while Fletcher had landed somewhere near the bottom of the heap. He knows that Chuck and Octavia have special plans for Fletcher, as they are convinced he’s the one who’s up to no good, but Nate can’t help but feel a little bit sorry for the guy, and often wonders whether his morals will get the better of him in the form of some kind of warning to Fletcher.
If anyone were to ask who Nate’s closest friends are, they might be surprised to find Jenny Humphrey’s name lumped in with them. During the time that Nate spent living in the Humphrey household, he grew close to both of the Humphreys, though he could only claim a friendship to one of them now. They had a brief fling, Jenny and Nate, though they’d never really gotten to explore it given the circumstances of the time. Despite ending things romantically, Jenny and Nate remained close. Now, Nate even considers Jenny one of his only consistent friends, and one of his closest confidants.
One thing that has been ingrained in his mind since childhood is that family is more important than anything, and sharing a common enemy just so happens to be a part of his role in the Vanderbilt family. Though Bree has never done anything particularly bad, he finds them to be quite annoying, especially since they has this inane ability to charm him with their sugar-coated tongue. Jamie, on the other hand, he finds to be absolutely unbearable. Whenever Nate sees them around, he does his best to be cordial (as is expected of a Vanderbilt man), but, in reality, he’d rather not been seen with either of them.
NATHANIEL ARCHIBALD is currently UNAVAILABLE.
His faceclaim is CHACE CRAWFORD and it is NON-NEGOTIABLE.