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YOU'RE ALL THAT I SEE

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[attr="class","freiwanttmid"]CHARACTER FACTION league

[attr="class","freiwanttmid"]CHARACTER RANK cadet

[attr="class","freiwanttmid"]FACE CLAIM gerome from fire emblem

[attr="class","freiwantttop"]ABOUT THE CHARACTER

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the besoras clan has always had a legacy to uphold, that of taming dragons and rising to any challenge presented. it's said they were once fearless warriors in times of old, that they rode on the backs of salamence and dragonite and fought alongside their partners to strike down any who defied them. they said it was for peace; they slayed the evil, purified the land.[break][break]

valentine grew up believing his family lineage was star-studded with heroes and legends. that very well may be true, but it did not constitute the amount of physical training he had gone through to satisfy his mother. siobhan besoras may not have been well-known outside of their tiny corner of johto, but in blackthorn - to valentine - she was larger than life, a storybook hero in the flesh.[break][break]

he doesn't know if she cared about him the way a mother should care about her son. she pushed him past his limits, emotional and physical, and when she passed those, she pushed him harder. valentine didn't resent her, but he didn't feel warmly toward her for it. it felt more like a sense of duty, that his mother was his commander instead of a blood relation, and she was under no obligation to treat him gently.[break][break]

so valentine kept his mouth shut. he endured the trainings with pokemon, physically fighting them some days, and then other times going head to head with his mother. he never stood a chance against any of them - never bested any of them, in his years there - but what mattered was that he always got back up. another scar, another loosened tooth - it didn't matter. what mattered was being strong enough to pick himself up off the floor he'd been flattened into, and going for another round.[break][break]

the one factor he didn't count on was another boy moving to blackthorn. he was the same age as valentine, something like fifteen, and he was everything valentine was not. charming, handsome, cheerful. maybe it was because they were the only kids in blackthorn; maybe the new boy really did like him. but he never left valentine alone, not until he had wriggled under his skin like a particularly stubborn splinter.[break][break]

looking back, that connection was likely the only thing that saved valentine from turning into a fanatic. it was almost as if valentine had received a peek into the outside world via this boy, sunlight given human form.[break][break]

of course he fell head over heels for this beautiful boy who smiled at him like he was worth something. like he wasn't covered in scars for the legacy of a family that didn't care whether the branches on its tree lived or died (pruning, his mother referred to it, once). valentine fell hard and fast, but within the year the boy was moving again.[break][break]

hope was a fleeting thing, and valentine had not been able to keep in touch - they were pen pals for a while, until his friend moved again and valentine did not receive his new address. the loss was like a physical ache, a void in his chest that he could not fill with the illusion of duty. he tried anyway.[break][break]

years passed - valentine never thought he would leave blackthorn, until his mother told him that she was leaving blackthorn, and that it was up to him to protect the town in her absence. when he asked where she was going, she told him hoenn and did not elaborate. instead, before she left, she handed him a mask carved from what looked like stone. cold to the touch, and valentine wryly - uncharitably, bitterly - thought it matched the woman handing it to him.[break][break]

"it was your great-grandmother's," she said in lieu of any other explanation, and then she was gone.[break][break]

one year passed; valentine turned around and the trees in blackthorn were shedding their leaves. he looked away from his home and then flowers were budding. he had not heard from his mother since, and with a growing sense of dread, he resolved to head to hoenn.[break][break]

even if it meant the death of him.