VALENTINE

[RUSH!?]

Name: Valentine
Gender: Male
Breed: Malayan Tiger
Age 5

Year Created: One
Season Created: Summer

Appearance:


Roleplay Sample:

There were no piranhas in this part of the river.

That was definitely the highlight of his night. Well, okay, maybe not the absolute best thing of the night, but it was most certainly up there. Certainly within the top five things about tonight. Maybe even the top three. But whatever; it was near the top somewhere. That comment actually made him relax for a while, allowing him to take the one eye he had been keeping on the river away so he could focus more on where he was going. Yes, he had still been trying to find those little buggers. Valentine wasn’t an expert on piranhas and he had been scared that they might leap out of the river and eat him. He would have nightmares about that for sure. Still, it must be an improvement on his usual nightmares.

Without doubt, that second where he took his one-eyed gaze off the river was indeed, reassuring. That was, until he heard the next words out of Saga’s mouth. Then his eye immediately shot back, once again, to the water. What could be so bad that it would make him not want to go into the river? Of course there was the war, but what would that have to do with the river? Maybe there had been a battle here? Still, he wouldn’t mind bathing in the water even after that. Surely it was clean enough by now, right? Nagging questions bit at the back of his mind, working their way throughout him and eventually into his throat, crawling out his mouth before he could stop them. “Why, what happened?” Luckily the words did not come out too quickly nor sounding too eager. “You’re not ruining the fun, don’t worry. Hah, if I hadn’t met you, what fun would I be having? Standing in the river, staring blankly at the moon, being slowly nibbled to death by the piranhas...” He snorted loudly out his nose, freaked out by the very thought. He could just feel them...nibbling at his ankles...it made him shudder. “That sure doesn’t sound like much fun to me!”

Daring to take his eye off the river, Valentine turned his head to look at the mare beside him. True, he was greatly enjoying her company, but he couldn’t help but feel that she wasn’t all there... Although he couldn’t blame her, with the way their conversation had been tonight, anyone would feel just a bit unsettled. He would be lying if he said he didn’t even feel the slightest unnerved. All this talk of death, ghosts and bringing the dead back to life wasn’t the most uplifting conversation one could have. Not to mention the piranhas... Valentine couldn’t get those stupid fish out of his head. Great.

He shook his head to clear his thoughts, loose hair falling off and being caught by the light breeze, carried off into the night air. His mane and fur was already drying and he was left with the sticky moist feeling. But the night air would soon rid his body of that, making him just a bit more comfortable. Although he had thought it would be quite hard to achieve that as he already felt almost entirely at ease in the company of the grey mare. Despite having only known her for a short while. This was perhaps the longest and deepest conversation he had had with another in a very long time.

He returned her half-hearted smile, adding the other half himself and closed his eyes in contentment. He was happy just enjoying the short silence between the two of them, listening to the sound of their hoofbeats on the soft grass and the gentle lapping of the water at the banks of the river. Considering the peacefulness of this scene, it was hard to imagine that the tensions existed between the two alliances or that the land had been ravaged by war so terrible that, even countless years later, it’s marks were still left on the land. But then, Valentine, for one, had always been oblivious to the goings on of the others, even if he did belong to the white alliance. Valentine was content in his own little world and he was content with the peace now. He was completely at ease.

So it completely threw him when Saga spoke next.

Blue eyes widened and he tried to hide his slight gasp as he stopped walking as well. Of course...of course he had been curious as to how her power worked. He had wanted to know the details, the insides and outsides of it. From the very moment she had told him she could talk to the dead. From the very moment he had learned that she could raise the dead. If it would mean he could have a second chance. A chance to apologise, to make things right, to be happy again. A chance to regain the very meaning to his life. He would have jumped through hoops to bring her back. But then he had learnt the sad truth of the matter. Sure it was possible to bring the dead back to life, but it was also...not. Meaning they came back in body (did they? He wasn’t too sure on the details of that, having never seen one before), but their minds, their souls didn’t return with them. They were empty, hollow beings. That was what Saga had told him. That was what he himself had been like so many years ago. It was truly a cruel world.

Thinking of her words, Valentine was tempted not to answer, to say nothing, to keep his feelings, his past locked inside himself. He was sure he had lost the key ages ago, anyway. He looked down at the ground, focussing his eyes on the blades of grass between his hooves. Sure, he didn’t want to speak of his past mistakes to anyone, sure he wasn’t obligated to speak of them now...but...

It couldn’t have been easy for Saga to talk of her past. It couldn’t have been easy for her to talk of her powers. But she had still indulged him with answers to his many questions. It was only fair that he should return the favour. “...I...”

‘What are you doing?’

An angry voice hissed inside the stallion’s head as he opened his mouth to reply, stopping him in his tracks. Apparently his inner self was getting pretty pissed off at him. It had kept itself quiet until now, but the fact that he was going to reveal the pain he carried in his chest to another –a mare especially- was just too much. This was the part of him that wouldn’t, couldn’t let go of the past. The part that clung on for dear life, never letting anyone get too close unless they could soothe the pain in anyway. Usually, he would turn tail and run when they started with his past.

So what was he doing now? Why did he feel so...so...drunk on this mare that he couldn’t just leave now. Why was he so scared? If she learned that he had been responsible...would she leave him? Maybe he should just go. Maybe he should just change the topic. But...

No.

That wouldn’t be fair. She had spoken about painful topics to him, he should have the courtesy to do the same for her. Taking a deep breath and pushing the little voice down to the deepest, darkest parts of his mind, Valentine looked up into her eyes and began to speak, voice fragile.

“Hollow emotions, huh?” he started trying to keep his voice cheerful, but to no avail. “I guess you could say that. You’re very perceptive...And yes. I did lose someone dear to me. Someone I loved from the deepest depths of my heart. Someone I believed I couldn’t live without. But don’t worry, I won’t ask you to bring her back. I don’t know if I could take that, I don’t know if I could face her now after so long.” He averted his eyes once more to the ground and continued to talk. “Before I met her, I had no reason to live. There was just no point. It wasn’t as if I had had a particularly bad childhood, it was just...It’s hard to explain but...I just felt empty. What was the point? What was the point in living and doing nothing? I lived the first couple of years of my life not unlike those who are brought back to life. Hollow, empty, emotionless. But..when I met Katrina...I had meaning again. Suddenly the world seemed to be in colour once more. I was so happy with her, happier than I had ever been..just being in her presence was like paradise. She knew she was the reason I lived. She knew what I had been like before I met her. Not wanting me to return to that state, she asked me what I would do if she died. I told her I’d die that day too. So we promised each other that we would go together but...one day..she..died and, and I couldn’t follow her. At the time, I didn’t want to. And then, when I realised I wanted to go after her, I was too scared. To scared to face her after breaking my promise...”

Choking back a small sob, Valentine raised his head towards the stars, allowing one small tear to leave a salty track down his face. He couldn’t believe that he had said that much to this mare, he had never talked about his past to anyone. Of course, he had omitted some of the details on this occasion. He was sure she’d leave him if she knew exactly how Katrina had died.

After a small moment of silence, Valentine turned his gaze back to Saga and looked at her with glistening eyes.

“I won’t ask you to talk to her for me. I don’t know if I could handle it and I don’t want to give you the bother...Death is inevitable...maybe we shouldn’t dwell on it so much.” Trying his best to put on a wide smile, Valentine covered the hurt in his voice with a fake cheerful tone. “But, ah! The whole point of our conversing was to block out all those noises in your head! I say we go for a gallop, that’ll certainly clear our heads, eh? And maybe we’ll be quicker at getting away from those piranhas, I swear, they’re following me!”

Though, for the most part, this was just a quick tactic to get the mood back to the way it had been, Valentine felt as though –even if it was just a little- a weight had been lifted from his chest. Maybe he had been mistaken all along. Maybe it didn’t just take time to heal a wound...

_{( not the best post, but i believe that gives a little sense of Vally's history&personality; even if he was a bit more...developed at that time )}

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