#val swifte

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Just wanted to share this screenshot, taken by Saeko Kazehaya! (Considering I don’t have any screenshots of grandpa and Val, myself. x:)

Val may have snuck out of the apartment where she should probably still be recovering to go watch her teacher, Steel Rose, in the Grindstone. Which may have ended in a very grumpy Val snapping at his lecturing.

Moody students are the worst, amirite?

(It’s okay, she’ll feel awful about it later.)

@fortress-and-flame

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VALERA SWIFTE :  Character Appearance References

Figured I would throw up some of these images here for future reference for artists that I want to commission for Val art. So yeah, here you go! 

ADDITIONAL DETAILS (Not pictured) :

HEIGHT : Val is pretty tall for a Midlander woman, owing to some Highlander heritage. She is five fulm, nine ilm (5′9″ / 175.26cm) tall.

BUILD : For most of her life, Val has actually been underweight and slight of build. But now that she’s eating better and training more, she’s slowly heading towards a build more akin to this. Think sleek muscle and subtly feminine curves, as opposed to an hourglass figure. Though her bust is a fair bit larger than the reference pictured, coming in somewhere around a full C to small D.

FRECKLES : Not only does she have a light dusting of small freckles across her cheeks and nose, but they also cover the rest of her body as well. Across her shoulders, down her arms, back, stomach, legs.  As far as placement / general shape, think small and scattered like this. Though Val’s skin tone is a bit darker than the model pictured, so they don’t stand out in contrast as much as shown in the picture.

SCARS : The only readily noticeable one is the thin scar across the bridge of her nose as pictured in the refs above. However, she also now has a number of whip scars covering her backside, from her shoulders down to the back of her thighs. Think something like this in terms of general overall look, placement, etc., though a bit more healed up and not quite as prominent as shown.(WARNING: Reference is make-up art, but may still bother some.)

ARTWORK & ADDITIONAL REFERENCES:

Valera Fullbody, commissioned from @harpbeats.

Chibi Val, commissioned from @staranger.

FINAL NOTES :

If you’re in the market for needing doodle practice or whatnot and my trash child tickles your fancy, feel free to draw Valera! I will always swoon and squeal at the feet of anyone that does art for me, paid or not! Skill level is completely irrelevant; all art is great art!

Solo NSFW art is also alright by me! However, when another character or characters are involved in an NSFW piece with Val either as gift art or as requested by someone else in a commission, please ask me first! 

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☕ : Does your muse prefer coffee or tea?

“To be honest, I ain’t really a fan of either. Coffee’s too bitter for my tastes, and tea is just..” Failing to find the words, Val’s nose instead scrunches in distaste as she shakes her head. “I guess if there was enough cream and sugar in a cup of coffee, I could probably drink it. But I wouldn’t ever buy it for myself, just take it if it were offered to me to be polite.”

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☂ : Does your muse like rain?

“Ain’t ever been a fan of it, really. Always made findin’ work harder, and any work you did find it just made it that much harder to do. Not to mention that rain just doesn’t mix well with all the sand and dirt hangin’ ‘round Thanalan, neither.” Val shrugs a shoulder. “But.. I guess now that I ain’t havin’ to hunt ‘round the markets of a mornin’ for work and have a hot bath to soak in after gettin’ dirty, might be that I would enjoy the rain more’n I did in the past.”

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⚠ : How does your muse react to possibly dangerous situations? Do they face them head-on, or do they plan out their actions first?

Val lets out a sheepish laugh, rubbing at the back of her neck. “Well.. I mean, I try to be smart ‘bout thin’s like that when they happen. I like to think that I ain’t completely reckless. But.. the problem is, I just don’t tend to think thin’s all the way through ‘fore I do them, and just go with my gut. Sometimes, it just makes more trouble than there was to begin with.”

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Beren: Will you do anything for love?

(( I’m sorry but really, I had to. Serious answer time, lmao. ))

“Anythin’? That’s a bit strong of a word, even for love. There’s some thin’s I wouldn’t do even if the gods themselves asked me. A woman’s got to have some unshakable moral convictions, after all.” Val’s lips split into a grin. 

“But almost anythin’, aye, I would. My trust and loyalty don’t come easy, least of all my love. But once a person’s earned them.. Well, there ain’t much just short of walkin’ to the seventh hell and back that I wouldn’t do for ‘em. And even then, I still might have a go at it.”

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💓: how does my muse feel about physical intimacy?

“We, ah.. have a complicated relationship, me and physical intimacy,” Val answers, trying to brush off a bit of the awkwardness with humor. “I ain’t ever been keen on it much. Just hasn’t ever been an itch I’ve really felt a need to scratch so badly that I would actively go seekin’ it out, so to speak. My skin just crawls at the thought of goin’ at it with a stranger or a near-stranger.. or really just ‘bout anyone I don’t know inside and out.. Err, forgive the phrasin’.”

The blonde clears her throat then, a hand rising to rub at the back of her neck in her usual uncomfortable manner. “But if I do get on with someone well ‘nough that we had, you know.. that sort of rapport.. it’s pretty nice and all. I’d be lyin’ if I said I didn’t enjoy it, with the right person.” She pauses then as the red rises to her freckled cheeks. “But, I mean, that’s natural, yeah? ‘Course it is. Why are you even askin’, anyroad? Why am I even answerin’?”

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INFAMY : Drabble (pt. 2)

PART ONE :  Read here!

Val knew that she shouldn't let her nerves show, but that was near impossible while sitting and waiting for Thorne to grace her with his presence. It had been months -- over a year, maybe -- since she had last found herself having to meet with him face to face. She had been just as nervous then as she was now, and just as nervous now as she had been as a teenaged girl when she had first dealt with him herself.

The lackey that had brought her in had left her there alone while he went to announce his return. In an effort to distract herself, she briefly wondered what sort of deal with the devil he had made to find himself in Thorne's employ. It usually came down to money, she had found, but the situations varied. Honest merchants and storekeepers indebted to him just to keep their doors and stalls open. Money borrowed for sudden, crushing expenses desperately needing paid. Those with nowhere else to turn for employment who would do whatever job asked of them to support themselves, their families, or even just their vices.

Fear lay at the heart of the matter just as reliably as money did, at that. The snake of a man had resources and influence in no short supply, and connections from all facets of Ul'dahn life. Val didn't know the true extent to which he was involved in the city's seedy underbelly, but she didn't need the details to know that he was a player in the game. A player not to be trifled with. He was the type that needed not to speak a threat aloud for it to be understood all the same.

She had been lucky that for most of her life, all he had wanted from her was the money she owed. Otherwise, he had paid her little mind. Others she had known in similar predicaments had been called upon at points for 'favors' or offered 'alternate means' to pay off their debt, most of which had been less than savory and all of which had been demands and orders rather than suggestions. The Hellsguard that brought her in had probably been in similar circumstances. He seemed far too nervous of Thorne's ire to simply be a hired thug.

As the door to the office swung open behind her, Val jumped, abruptly torn from her train of thought. The other hyur was in the lead with the Roegadyn following behind, lingering at the door with his arms crossed. He gave Val a dark glare, which she could only assume meant that Thorne had been displeased with the timeliness of her arrival. Yet the moneylender himself didn't so much as give her a sideways glance until he had sat behind his desk, leisurely taking his time in settling before he spoke the first word.

"I'm pleased that you could meet with me on such short notice, dearest Valera," he began as a pearly white smile spread across his lips, in that voice as sweet and smooth as warm honey. A voice that made her skin crawl, knowing just how disingenuous it was. "I'm afraid that we have some alarming business to discuss."

The payment she had missed. She had a feeling that was what this meeting was about, but even knowing didn't make her any less uneasy. It must have showed on her face, as Thorne's brow knitted and his smile pulled into a softly concerned frown.

"You know that you are late in making your payment this month," he stated without room for question. "This surprised me, Valera. You have always made your payments on time, without fail. The past few months, you've even paid at least thrice your usual. You had said that you were intent to finish your payments altogether. So naturally when this month's payment did not come, I was very concerned for you.. that something terrible may have happened."

Concerned for your money, you mean. But she didn't dare speak the thought aloud, truthful or not.

"I'm sorry, I--" Val cut herself suddenly short as it dawned on her. They had planned for her to cease her payments to try and coax Thorne into sticking out his neck, that it might make it easier to cut him off at the head. But they hadn't planned on him dragging her back into his snake's burrow instead. And without a plan, she found herself suddenly scrambling to make up lies that wouldn't get her killed or worse.

"I'll have the money soon, I swear it." A lie, and one that hit her with a dizzying amount of deja vu. She was sixteen again, sitting in this very same spot, terrified and trembling as she tried to convince him to let her keep the bakery. She roughly pushed the unpleasant memory away. "I.. I had your payment ready, I did, but it was stolen. I had it hidden with my thin's in the camp and someone must've snooped 'round and found it."

Thorne gave her a long look then, as if seeming to weigh the story's veracity. Only after a long silence that seemed to span bells to Valera, he breathed out a sigh through his nose and leaned back in his chair.

"You should know better than to keep your money in the refugee camps," he chided. And as she opened her mouth to answer, his next words cut her off sharply. "Especially when you have not even been staying there yourself to watch over your belongings."

He had been watching her. The blonde was quiet for a long moment, desperately trying to recover from the unpleasant surprise and find a way to salvage the lie he had caught her in. Before she could speak the first word, he held up his hand to stop her in her tracks.

"I took an interest when you surprised me with that first hefty payment of yours," he admitted, professing his spying as casually as one comments on the weather. "You've been staying in the Goblet for weeks now. Why?"

"I.. That's where I've been workin', for a tradin' company that's got an office there," she explained, tripping over her words from her nerves. "It's--"

"Yes, a quaint little business by the name of Moonlight Trading. I am well aware. But that does not explain why you have been staying there overnight. Nor does it explain the bruises, the cuts, the limping.." There was steel in his voice suddenly, something she had only heard once before. It sent a bone chilling shudder down her spine. "Why?"

Her mouth opened, then shut again. She had to be careful, so very careful. One wrong word and gods only knew what Thorne would do to her. Worse, one carelessly chosen word and she would give him the power to not only bring their plans with the fighting pits to a halt, but to have herself and Pyralis both killed.

"Valera," Thorne's voice softened then, growing quieter and more sincere. "I know that you have gotten yourself tangled up in quite the ordeal. I've heard that you have been making appearances in the fighting pits, of all places. Considering that you killed a man in your last match, I assume that you know how dangerous and foolish this is."

Val withered under his words, not bothering to try denying them. The fact that she had killed her last opponent was something she had carefully compartmentalized in the match's wake. It had been him or her, and she -- oddly enough -- didn't feel remorse that she had done what she had to do in order to survive. But it was that precise lack of remorse that had instead bothered her deeply, making her force the memory away to the furthest reaches of her mind.

"You are not a killer, Valera," Thorne reassured her, seeming to pick up on her discomfort. "You might be headstrong and hot-tempered, but you've the same gentle soul as your mother. No matter how desperately you wish to pay your debts, I cannot imagine that you would ever willingly take a life for coin."

He was right about that. If it had been about the money, she never would have agreed to step foot on the sands knowing what she knew. But there was so much more to it than coin, so much more at stake. Ignoble deeds done in the name of a noble cause.

"You're being forced to fight in the pits, are you not?" He asked suddenly. "Most are, unfortunately. Men and women who no longer have the liberty to have a say in their own lives, ordered to fight and die for the entertainment of others. But you know that already, better than even I do." He crossed his forearms on the desk in front of him, leaning in and dropping his voice low. "You call this man your 'boss' in front of others, but that isn't the truth of the matter, is it?"

Inwardly, in a peculiar way, Val was relieved. It was clear that, whether or not he had watched her, Thorne didn't know everything that was going on. He thought he knew more than he did, but didn't know just how far from truth his conclusion really was.  But that gave Valera some room to breathe, to lie and cover their tracks. It was time to play her part again.

"I.. I didn't know what I was gettin' myself into. Started out like any other good payin' job, 'til he asked me to fight for him. I thought it wasn't nothin' big, just like the fights people bet on in the city, you know? Just a way to make some money fast. No one hardly ever dies in fights like those. But once he had me, he.." She hesitated just long enough to make the emotional pause convincing, sucking in a trembling breath. She was getting better at this, if only out of necessity. "I can't walk away from it now. He won't let me. I asked once and he beat me bloody and said if I asked again, I'd get it worse."

Lies, all of it. But lies and illusion was what kept the plan going and what kept them alive, especially when problems like Thorne came sniffing around uncomfortably close.

The moneylender seemed to believe it, his brows knitting and his lips turning into a scowl. Anyone else might have thought he was actually moved by the 'revelation'. His propensity for manipulating the vulnerable was what had gotten him this far and made him so dangerous.

But Val knew that if he did feel something at the news, it was probably consternation that someone else was seeming to lay claim to someone that he himself had already claimed as his own. Thorne may not have been a slaver in technicality or title, but he didn't need collars and chains when debt and intimidation worked well enough for his purposes.

"This is troubling," he finally sighed, straightening in his chair. "Very troubling, and I fear that at present that there is little even I can do to help you."

She forced a look of disappointment onto her face, though it was relief she felt on the inside. If he wasn't offering to lift a finger, then that must've meant that he didn't feel confident enough to make a move. That was for the best. Even if his caution would make him a more difficult problem to deal with in the long run, perhaps, it meant he was lacking information and that would but her time to find a solution.

"The most I can do is absolve you of the debt you have remaining. It's only a small sum that won't be missed, and the least I can do for a person who has been so loyal for so long having fallen into such dire straits." Thorne's lip twitched upwards at the corner in amusement at her very real shock. "You think quite poorly of me, I know. Don't bother denying it; I'm not fool enough to believe it if you did." He shook his head. "I am no saint, but I am not as cold and ruthless as you would like to believe. I doubt I can convince you of such, but still, know that I will be looking into a means to free you from this predicament."

Whether it was a charade or a veiled threat, she didn't know. Either way, he was right. It would be a cold day in the hell of fire before anyone would convince her that Thorne had even an onze of humanity within him. Still, she played along, meekly nodding her head and murmuring some vague gratitude.

"Now, I have kept you quite long enough. Best get back to your tasks before this master of yours becomes cross with you." He nodded his chin towards the door dismissively. "You're free to go, dear Valera."

He had barely spoken the words before she was hastily pushing herself to her feet, making for the door. The scowling Hellsguard gave her one last sour look as he yanked her linkpearl holder from his pocket and held it out to her. Once she had taken it back, he stepped aside to allow her to pass.

"Keep your chin up and your head high for just a bit longer," Thorne called after Val as she passed through the door. "And do take care that no one knocks it off your shoulders, Ironfist."

@rpaddictsneedapply