for char/hc ask game. providing a couple options, feel free to just pick your favorite!
Vincent Valentine - 8, 16
yayyy thank you for the ask, i love doing these!! i pick all of them they're all my favorite
-8- smell/personal scent:
i have very specific and detailed headcanons about the way that Vincent smells (gasp). i don't think we have reason to believe he sweats or produces much personal body odor, since he's an indestructible undead shapeshifting monster —however— his hair grows. so maybe some of his body functions are normal. who knows. also, his training as a turk likely taught him some scent masking, so he might not have any particular smell, but that was a long time ago and he really has no reason to practice that now. anyway i like to think he does have a distinctive personal scent
Mahogany. This just plain has to be an element of his scent profile. He spent decades sleeping in a coffin, of which one of the most common materials is mahogany. Also, the coffin Vincent uses in the Shinra Manor basement just looks like mahogany. Mahogany has a deep, woodsy, slightly spicy scent. Kind of perfect for Vincent.
Leather: He is covered head to toe in armor constructed of several different kinds of leathers there is no way he doesn't smell like it. That also happens to be a very sexy scent, so good job Vincent.
Old books: He's been holed up in the Shinra basement for decades, and there is a lot of evidence he's been actually living down there, not just comatose in the coffin. There is literally nothing else but a huge library, packed with old books. Don't tell me he hasn't wandered in there and whiled away countless hours reading them.
Pipe tobacco: Unexplained. We have never seen him smoke a pipe but no one can prove he doesn't. Also before you say yuck, pipe tobacco is an ENTIRELY different scent from cigarettes and even cigars. it's very aromatic and mellow and sweet. A highly attractive masculine scent.
Petrichor: He lives in a basement full of wet rocks.
Blood: Dependent upon how recently he's been in battle.
Gunpowder: Same as above.
Bourbon and cigarette smoke: Dependent on whether or not he's been hanging around with Cid.
Conclusion: Vincent possesses the sexiest personal scent imaginable.
Vincent's coffin for reference
-16- home/place that they live:
You're never going to believe this, I have a bunch of headcanons about this, too.
We all know about the Shinra Manor basement, but he wasn't born there and stops living there when he gets picked up by Cloud's crew. In Dirge of Cerberus, we see him in a room, in Kalm, that looks very lived in (bottles of wine, etc.), so it's clear he's staying there. I prefer to think this is some sort of inn or extended stay situation. Vincent doesn't actually strike me as the kind of person who maintains a fixed abode, long-term. if he had someone important enough to him, however, he'd be perfectly happy to make a home with that person/people. It's just not something he seeks out for himself
Now, hear me out, I HC that Vincent's vampirey habits and aesthetic have nothing to do with him having become a monster. He already had pale skin and red eyes, before he was undead—he just looks like that. Lucrecia even mentions how much he resembles his father GRIMOIRE who also dressed and looked just like a vampire, for no explainable reason except that he wants to and no one can stop him. I believe this is just the Valentine family aesthetic. They're weird people. Vincent only wore a suit in the Turks because that was required dress code. Red capes, pointy armor and black leather are his comfy clothes. What does this have to do with home/place of residence? The Valentine family home. I very strongly HC the Valentine family as being from Old Money. Like, the old-world, 1200 years of ancestors buried in catacombs on the premises, kind of Old Money. And by premises, I mean the sprawling grounds of the massive, gothic-horror style mansion that is the Valentine ancestral castle. Do I think Vincent lives there currently? Almost certainly not, and he probably avoids visiting, too, because of painful memories. If one knows anything about the way hereditary lands and estates (in Europe) traditionally work, though, they are a business unto themselves, and such a property would have many dedicated caretakers and staff, usually offer tours of the property as a historical site, and generate its own income, without much interference from the owners. Thus the Valentine family home, huge and dark and creepy and amazing and perfect as it is, would be respectfully maintained by the loyal staff, in the event that the Valentine heir shows up any time and wants to skulk around like Dracula frightening away tourists. This is very likely the reason Vincent chose a coffin in a creepy basement for his self imposed exile, and also why he really seems to like the haunted hotel. It's just like home!
the Valentine family castle probably
-18- beloved or important items or property:
This is a tough one, because Nero was born and raised in Deepground, and likely had very few pieces of personal property. He probably learned very early to never become attached to things, because they could and would be taken away at the whims of the people in charge. However, he keeps one thing that is deeply important to him, and if anyone dared to touch it they'd never even know how they died.
This precious item is a picture Weiss drew of them together, on the back of a pilfered prescription slip from the medical ward, when Weiss was eight and Nero was six. They weren't allowed art supplies or other such frivolous items as children, so that's the closest they got. the lines are wobbly and childish and the heads are a bit wonky and out of proportion, but to Nero, it is the greatest work of art the world has ever produced. He treasures this above all things and always has it with him, tucked safely away in a little pocket of darkness.
Nero is a scary motherfucker. He commands people-eating darkness tentacles, he can suck out your soul and make your corpse into a puppet to fight for him, and he has huge metal wings with knives on the ends. Nero hates human beings for their cruelty and cares for nothing but his brother, who he calls the only person who loves him and the only one he'll ever love, so it stands to reason that his greatest fear would be losing him or harm coming to him. This is evidenced by...literally every word out of his mouth. I think that deep down, Nero fears being alone. Not that he likes being around people (he literally hates it) it's that there is a bone-deep sense of loss and emptiness in him, that he was born with and he can never seem to escape, and when his darkness voraciously consumes souls, it's an unconscious to attempt to fill that emptiness. But when he's with his brother, the emptiness goes away. They seem to share a psychic bond, too, so even when they're not physically in the same location, the two are 'together'. The only way Nero could truly be alone would be if Weiss were to be taken from him. So it's no wonder he mobilized all of Deepground to try and revive him, when he was in that deathlike state. Only to be betrayed by Hojo of course, who tricked him by saying he could revive Weiss because he wanted to steal Weiss' body. Hojo you stupid bastard I just got fuckin mad at you all over again.
Here's a picture of Weiss smiling probably about something evil to cheer us back up.
