22, 28, 50, 66, and 77 (though everyone knows both Valk and Oksana are good in a fight LMAO more the second half of the question), for Valk and/or Oksana!!!
@garagoose Gonna put these under a read more because I’m incapable of short answers!
22. Do they have any nervous habits? If they know, what made them start doing them?
Oksana will sometimes end up ruffling her hair plume or rubbing the back of her neck if she gets anxious in a non-military situation–she picked up this habit from her baby brothers back in the day and hardly even realizes that she does it any more. In a more militaristic situation, she has a tendency to fidget. This includes usually tapping the tip of a finger against the side of her rifle or the toes of her boots/prostheses against the floor. These started because when she was first beginning her military career, her CO insisted they each learn and develop their own tells for when things didn’t Feel Right. Because she often hung back in the nature of her position as a sniper and out of sight of her company, she would double-tap her comm-link to communicate. This she also used in social situations with her husband and other socialites to indicate spotted untruths and suspicions–through tapping bracelets or the links in indicative patterns.
28. When your character was younger, how did they picture themselves growing up? Does it differ from how they really turned out?
Valkurius has all intentions of becoming a dedicated priest of the Vigilant Church. While he had always been a child with a volatile temper growing up, he found a lot of peace in the teachings of the church and the hymnals they were taught. He never expected to indulge in those violent urges that he fought quite hard to control; the military was the last place he expected to end up. Had he not gone into the church, he expected he would have joined the political playing field, as he was raised to focus on.
Needless to say, although he did serve with the Church’s military forces in multiple levels, he did not become a priest at all, and now no longer serves the church in any capacity.
50. What’s their earliest memory?
Although I don’t know I’d say it was Valkurius’s earliest memory, one of the earliest he cares to recall for anything is the first one perceived in his haunting. He was a small child and his elder brother had left him alone for the day because of his studies, and both of his parents were engaged with not only their own professional and social lives, but each other. He remembers the face and voice and name of the nurse who tended to him, who comforted him and attempted to give him that gentle hand, but not only was she barred from too much of that ‘babying’, but he also knew that it did not come from the source he wished–his parents.
While it isn’t entirely a fond memory for a variety of reasons, it is a foundation for much of his home life and shaped much of how he raised his own children.
66. If they were free to do anything, be it cruel, kind, or otherwise, without fear of repercussions, what is it that your character would do?
The answer for Valkurius is simple–return to the Dominion. Now that some pesky people have situated themselves close enough that he considers them friends (ew, gross), he would have a mite of hesitation in returning, but overall his heart still belongs to the Empire.
Although Oksana’s feelings on Lazarin and his fanatical followers are complex, there is a driving anger inside of her toward him because of his cause of the downfall of their people (alongside their own hubris, of course). To this end, she would likely do what she could to kill him and ferret away his research to get into the hands of scientists she trusted much more than he to halt the progression of the Contagion, if not cure them outright–although she isn’t entirely certain that’s possible, as much as she wishes it was.
77. Are they capable of handling themselves in a fight? And, what was the worst fight they’ve gotten themselves into, if any?
Naturally, Valkurius is very much capable of handling himself in a fight considering combat has been his focus for… a long time. He doesn’t use many ranged weapons, although he does know how to use firearms and the like (although he has a preference for throwing knives because of an old military game he and some of his soldiers would play and because he’s showy and traditional).
The worst fight he’s gotten into is… kind of a tie. There’s the first one, which happened when he was in his late twenties and even cockier than he is now. He was eyeing a Draken’s side-arm and blade a little too openly, and the look was mistaken as another sort of attention. Long story short, tempers were heated (as he hadn’t yet mostly perfected his art of anger control), and he ended up with his spine broken over the Draken’s knee. Had it not been for the miracle of medical augmentation and his owns stubbornness, he probably wouldn’t have been able to walk again, much less do a lot of other things he does.
The other tied fight is actually he mess of what was the all out brawl with Jarekai. He doesn’t regret it, not exactly, but it doesn’t sit well with him. And it also left the both of them in disastrous states. Naturally, of course, he hasn’t spoken of this contest between them to… anyone.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
