Folkmore App

? Character Information

Character Name: Vincent Valentine
Character Age: 27 (physically) 60 chronologically
Character Species: Human-Monster Hybrid (experiment)
Current Health: Alive
Outfit: [Image] A frayed red cloak with a high collar, red headband. Sturdy black pants and long-sleeved shirt. His right hand is gloved, his left covered with a plated bronze colored gauntlet. Matching protective plates cover his left thigh. Plate boots, an empty gun holster on his right and so very many belts.

Character Canon: Final Fantasy VII
Link to History: Please enjoy this link.
Canon Point: Post Dirge of Cerberus (About two years after the original game)
Canon Iteration: Original Canon (Original Timeline)
Canon Iteration Explanation: Though from the original canon timeline, I do wish/intend to adopt some of the expanded mannerisms and footnotes found in FFVII Rebirth (Emphasis on deadpan humor, bit of a TCG nerd, pretty icons).

? Folkmore Roles & Attributes

Skills:

Combat: Vincent is an expert in combat and tactics. He excels in all manner of firearms, including excellent marksman and sniper skills. It can also be inferred that, as a former member of Shinra's Turks, he has at least a basic understanding of explosives, infiltration, surveillance and rescue proceedures, investigations, as well as most anything that would fit under a corporate specialized bodyguard/securities/fixer position.

High-Tech Society: The electricity and fuel may be mako, magic and potions still preside, but Vincent himself was raised in a society with a firm grounding of technology and science. Though still occasionally out of touch with the latest innovations and nuance of the most recent 20-something years, he would be comfortable and familiar with the concept of things like televisions, cars, radios and computers. And cellphones.

Science: While not a scientist himself, Vincent has a working understanding of scientific terms and theories. In part just being intelligent, self study and possibly some influence of his scientist father and personal need to understand his own experimental nature, he will not be lost in a technical conversation.

Materia Use: Like just about anyone of his world, Vincent has access to magic through materia. He is trained in its use. With the right materia, he could cast spells like any mage, enhance himself or obtain passive skills and resistances.

Queen's Blood: Has knowledge of and at least one deck for the (somewhat haunted) card game called Queen's Blood. Is aware of some of its more darker secrets.



Canon Abilities:

Subject of Experimentation: He's been given a 'nigh-indestructable and immortal' body, monstrous transformations, regenerative capability and heightened senses via intense experimentation on his body. His reflexes and strength are clearly far beyond the human norm and he seems capable of defying or manipulating how gravity affects him for limited periods of time. His resilent body allowed him to survive the integration of the quasi-WEAPON called Chaos. In balance it seems hinted that he has to fight the urge to sleep.


Heightened Senses: Somewhere between a strong connection to the Planet and the monster-senses, Vincent exhibits extrasensory abilities and a keen ability to sense or discern when something is amiss in the natural order. He seems able to sense oddities, fiends, and monsters despite there being some distance between himself and the cause. He's probably hard to sneak up on as well.

Magic Potential: While materia's generally the only means on his world for using magic, Vincent is a decently strong spellcaster in that regard, with a fairly generous amount of mana to draw on.

Shapeshifting: Part of the experiments have given Vincent access to other forms; a behemoth-hybrid called Galian, two humanoid creatures on par with horror movies and - for a time - the demonic Chaos (see below). While the intervening years have given him the ability to briefly transform without losing control, it is still a very feral, bestial state for him. A controlled transformation readily drains the same energy used to cast magic and would leave him unable to use spells for a while after. Less controlled transformations could last longer and sometimes might require that he simply be beaten down to stop the rampage.

Ancient/Proto Materia: Within his body resides an ancient materia created by the Planet. It is connected to Omega and Chaos and, when Chaos was within him, quelled its rage and allowed him to retain his human consciousness. Other than being something people might detect and having a type of energy one might expect from 'highly condensed lifestream' pulsing from it, it's so specialized that it has no other function than its connection to exerting influence over Omega and Chaos.

(Former) Chaos Host: Though the events of Dirge reveal Chaos 'returns' to the Planet, this is the energy that stablized the experiments he underwent. Being a creature attuned to and crafted by the dark evils, terrors and 'sins' naturally pushed out of the Lifestream, Vincent remains virtually immune to such influences as a result. Other than this resistence, barring Chaos finding its way back in him, he will not enjoy any of the transformation or enhancements drawing on Chaos used to give.


Role: Familiar

Role Qualities/Attributes: Vincent's default Familiar form will be a black chocobo. In FF7 a black chocobo can cross rivers, ocean shallows and mountains with the same relative ease as a normal chocobo can trot across a field but cannot fly. He will have feathers laced around his hair and a nice little chocobo tail hiding under his cloak. Vincent will retain the Familiar ability for psychic bonding but whether he'll use it is another matter entirely.

Note: Vincent will NOT be able to use his familiar shapeshifting as a cheat to access his monstrous forms without the downsides; these two types of metamorphosis will remain pretty distinct.

Attempting to would likely lead to a gamble on what his state of mind would end up being. And besides, trying to use Familiar shapeshifting to become the galian beast would most likely result in just turning into a small behemoth.


Role Reasoning: Vincent is neither hero nor villain. Though he cares about the dangers to his world more than his demeanor suggests, he tends to fall into the role of one who supports the heroic efforts of others or simply supportive of those he considers friends. He generally acts as the confidant and the one who offers aid from the shadows, willing to do both good and evil if it is what is needed to get the job done.

? Personality

Option 1.

Vincent's demeanor suggests a stern man, mysterious and sometimes cold. Even younger, he preferred solitude over company, showing signs of being easily flustered in social situations which aren't purely professional. Particularly so if it were someone he had feelings for. Locking himself away and extreme guilt only amplified this natural tendency, leading people to assume he has little or no interest in events around him. He's slow to warm to people, slower still to open up; this latter perhaps reasonably so. Social, outgoing events are extremely exhausting to him, causing a tendency to retreat to lonely corners if he feels he must stay and leave the moment he's done.

But underneath the cold demeanor lies a great deal of emotion. He possesses very little in the way of hatred for anything in particular, believing most have their own circumstances and it would be hypocritical at best given his own past as a Turk. But those rare occasions it manifests, it is absolute. Likewise he is not quick to anger, though it would often be for the sake of others rather than himself and particularly for those who have come to be regarded as friends. Despite a well-stated preference to being left alone with his own issues, Vincent can be cajoled into frivolous activities because of his own personal interest or to learn more about the people he journeyed with. He has a quiet, dry, and often sly sense of humor that belies his outward demeanor and catches people unaware. He cares about what happens around him and cares deeply, enough to drown himself in self-imposed guilt for his failures.

As a victim of terrible experiments, Vincent has suffered through massive physical and mental trauma. Severe nightmares plague him, blending the events and his guilt over failing to save his beloved from her own fate into an nigh-inescapable morass of guilt and self-loathing. Awakening to find himself an immortal, monstrous product of Hojo's experiments and Lucrecia's efforts to save him did no favors to his state of mind, with half-glimpsed memories of the proceedures leaving him confused and uncertain if the latter's efforts had been made for his benefit or her scientific curiosity. Though this easily lead to a virtually unwavering belief such punishment would have been no less than he deserved.

Emerging from his decades-long slumber had given him a wider world in which to process what happened to him but more importantly what is and isn't his sin to bear. And though he has recently been blessed with some closure over the long established survivor's guilt, it is only a first step of many into a future where Vincent realizes it is permissible for him to move forward. While it is and will be a long road, he's now in a state of mind where he might be more open to forgiving himself. And for a man who stated that he has never tried to atone for his sins, even this small step leads to a vast horizon of possibility.

? Player Information

Player Name: Maruah
Pronouns: she/they
Are you over 18?: Yes
Contact(s): Discord: Everyworker | PM | Plurk maruah
Who Invited You?: Originally Lark
Current Characters: Elidibus
Permissions: Here
Writing Samples: Vincent in Thoth's lab with Eugene here.
Vincent and Sephiroth in Folkmore here.