Valentine Ransom Carter [5-4]

» Name: Valentine Ransom Carter
» Alias: N/A
» Age: Hard to say, but it looks like he’s maybe 25?
» Gender: Male

» Association: Probably unaffiliated.

» Appearance Written: Standing a relatively modest 5’ 10” tall for someone of (supposedly) Balkan background, the most outstanding thing about Valentine’s appearance would simply be how...exotic it seems. No matter where one might be from, there is a profound sense of foreignness about him, likely courtesy of the fact that his appearance is not one which would especially align with any known ethnicity or nationality. His skin is a pale shade that does not suggest any ill health, but rather a lack of time spent in the sun. His hair could only best be described as "silver," a shade of grey that seems profoundly lively in spite of the inherent drab nature of the color. Most striking, however, are his eyes, a shade of yellow not often seen. They are not a piercing yellow, nor a majestic gold, but rather an almost-faded looking pale shade which evokes an old pressed flower or a lemon gone faintly overripe.

With regard to his build, one could only ever call Valentine’s slender. He lacks any particularly defined musculature, though he is not quite so thin as to look sickly or unhealthy. He simply has the look of a man who is not particularly well-acquainted with hard physical labor, and who has never made much attempt to change that lack of acquaintance. Most peculiar, however, is that he also seems to lack any of the traditional marks of an inactive sort of man. His body seems to be not perfect by any means, but rather in a perfect sort of equilibrium between the two extremes. To summarize, one could call his build "completely average."

Should one get past the rather strange initial appearance, however, they would quickly find a man whose entire appearance seems to convey a definite cheer. It is nearly impossible to find Valentine without a smile, and even his usual stance seems to suggest a certain level of contentment with whatever the current situation may be. His eyes, in spite of their eerie color, always seem filled with a childlike light, an innocence and gentleness which seems out of place for someone who seems well into adulthood by now.

» Appearance Image:


» “Normal”: To be entirely honest, Valentine is perhaps one of the strangest individuals most people will ever meet. He behaves in a manner that suggests a frightening lack of understanding of social cues, and every word he speaks, every action he takes, all of it seems as if he is trying his best to seem like as normal a person as absolutely possible. In spite of this, it is fairly unlikely that anyone would fall for this...facade? One would have trouble even discerning if it truly is a facade, or if Valentine simply is genuinely that socially inept, but there is a certain level of genuineness to it that would suggest he lacks normal social skills.

» Calm: One would be exceptionally hard-pressed to say Valentine ever seems hugely perturbed or upset in any instance. Even in the most extreme circumstances, he always seems to maintain an almost serene smile that suggests a lack of concern for whatever life might throw at him. It may occasionally border on the uncanny, however, particularly considering he seems to rarely consider his own safety in most situations, as though he had zero worries about being hurt.

» Innocent: It borders on the impressive at times how simple Valentine often seems. It’s often as though he were a child in a candy store, following after whatever strikes his fancy, and it is incredibly common that his fancy is struck by the most mundane interactions. In almost any given instance, the man seems to have a question at the ready about whatever happens to be occurring, and at times it seems as though he simply does not have much sense of the world, or of propriety.

» Friendly: Valentine loves to make new friends. A very childish statement, certainly, but a true one nonetheless. It isn’t any sort of desperation to have them, simply that it always seems as though he wishes for one or two more. He has a kind heart, and it seems he wishes only to share that with the world, if he can.


Frankly, there is very little to tell about Valentine’s past, other than that, presumably, he does in fact have one. There is not one single record of his existence in any database on Earth, suggesting that he comes from somewhere rather lacking in such databases. If you ask him, Valentine was born to two human parents in the small town of Starčevo in Serbia. According to him, very little has ever actually occurred there, being that the Balkans are not what one might call a profoundly important strategic area. Thus, he has spent much of his time generally avoiding any sort of conflict that might otherwise have come his way, and has only recently decided it might be in his best interests to explore the world more openly.

Apart from those snippets, however, there is little to tell, and his story does seem to line up, if only for the simple fact that one would be exceptionally hard-pressed to find any proof to the contrary. Should one travel to the village of Starčevo, there are plenty of people who remember young Valentine clear as day, even recounting tales of his youth. And yet...something still seems quite off. His parents themselves are nowhere to be found, and the most anyone can muster regarding them is that they seem to have gone missing some time ago. That had little impact on Valentine, however, they will be quick to add, as he was always generally an upstanding young man.

Whether or not one chooses to believe the tales of Valentine’s past, however, is of little consequence to him. He has little other past he seems to desire speaking about, and the little stories of his youth that he might tell if pressed offer little of substance. Most recently, he has found himself rather interested in the Vanguard. A noble organization with a noble goal, in his eyes. Perhaps he could be of assistance there...


» Books: Valentine, generally speaking, always carries a book on his person at any given time, but what this text actually is always seems different. Where he actually carries these texts is a mystery.


» Spiritual Anathema: Though the reason is not entirely clear, Valentine's presence seems not only void of spiritual energies, as per a normal entity without spiritual capability, but in a manner which seems entirely different, and perhaps far more concerning. To most, it would appear as though spiritual energy is simply...avoiding him. Not as though there were some mystical ward against it, nor some abstract form of fear, but rather a very clinical avoidance, akin to two magnets of the same polarity being near one another.

» Psychic: In what could only be called the world’s most apparently straightforward ability, Valentine appears to be a psychic. At a glance this might seem to be fairly mundane, particularly considering his powers seem to consist of little more than levitating small objects and very limited telepathy (as in, exceptionally short phrases at seemingly random times). However, one might find that there is something profoundly more off-putting and confusing about this ability, upon the realization that there is quite literally zero spiritual energy behind it, nor any other recognizable outside force. By all accounts, Valentine is indeed doing these things with nothing more than the power of his mind. Pretty cool, eh?

» Friend to All Creatures: While one might normally consider this more a personality trait than an ability, Valentine’s own brand of this is so staggering that it would most definitely be smarter to label it an ability. All non-human animals, no matter their species or temperament, respond affectionately to Valentine, and it is not a particularly rare sight to see him petting assorted birds which come and go from his shoulders as he walks about, or giving scratches behind the ears to all manner of scurrying creatures which would normally flee from any sort of human contact. The cause of this is not clear, but one thing is certain; much like his psychic abilities, there is no spiritual energy afoot.


Skill Sheet

General Skills

• Durability: Beginner/Adept/Advanced/Master
  
• General Speed: Beginner/Adept/Advanced/Master
  
• Strength: Beginner/Adept/Advanced/Master
  
• Weapon Skill: Beginner/Adept/Advanced/Master
  

Will Skills

• Willpower: Beginner/Adept/Advanced/Master
  
• Mental Deduction: Beginner/Adept/Advanced/Master
  
• Pain Endurance: Beginner/Adept/Advanced/Master
  
• Focus: Beginner/Adept/Advanced/Master