Val's most-read genre is cheap, melodramatic dime novels--though he'll avidly read anything he can get his hands on, nothing quite beats the romantic escapism of Garamond's semi-monthly series. He goes so far as to sell them in his otherwise non-book shop JUST so he can have them around without it looking like he's buying them for his own enjoyment. Often starring outrageously dressed and even more outrageously salacious pirates, fairies, vampires, countesses, and princes, when he's reading them, he can pretend for a brief moment to be a different kind of person than he would EVER present himself as. That, and he just likes them. Get this man an Ao3.
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I actually tried to draw what a cover for one of these would look like, but i lowkey despise how it turned out so it's below the cut (warning: cleavage and abs. and bad anatomy)
The script for the second minicomic is now officially complete! (and 'better than the first one' according to my sibling lmao) While we technically already met him in the first minicomic, I figured that now would be a good time to formally introduce our second protagonist--the kind-hearted but deeply troubled merchant and fisherman, Valrou!
As one of few individuals to have escaped with his life from the geographically isolated and perpetually infighting Belourobor region, Val has taken up residence deep in the southern bayous of New Riona far, far away from his homeland. Ekeing out a simple, lonely life on his small houseboat, Val is resigned to living the remainder of his days out of sight and mind, viewing the long stretches of isolation on his trade route and the tormentous nightmares that plague him as karmic punishment for squandering what he believes to have been his one real opportunity to change the world for the better.
Considering himself to be of poor moral fortitude and undeserving of personal happiness, Val has dedicated himself to the service of others. Living for little more than the smiles on his customers' faces, he strives to bring small kindnesses to the people of South Lantern with goods from the city, low prices, and a big smile, even if that kindness is something that he feels he will never deserve to receive in return.
TRIVIA AND BONUS LORE!
-Since Belourobor has an Earthfolk population of zero, the first time Valrou saw one was when he was 17 and looking for work at the Fabanian ports. Since nobody else reacted to the terrifying giant moth creature diving down from the sky, he assumed that it was a punisher demon visible only to him. While many Earthfolk would have found his reaction of abject terror offensive, this moth-type was sympathetic to the poor kid and took him under her wings when he was contracted to work on the merchant vessel that she was the lookout for. Despite profusely apologizing to her about it multiple times over his employment, he still feels horrible about the interaction.
-Despite Fabanian being his second language, Val has been speaking it for seven years and tries...maybe a little bit too hard to sound like a native speaker. His voice is generally very controlled as he tries to pin down the subtle inflections of the language, which can lead to him seeming overly formal. It also doesn't help that he started learning the language using a 300 year old Belourob/Fabanian dictionary authored before the 40 Days Earthquake, causing some of his vocabulary to be a bit...outdated. However, many of his older customers find this formality charming and indicative of high-quality service
-While Val would go to the ends of the earth just to make a stranger feel happy and cared for, having any sort of fun for his own sake saddles him with INCREDIBLE guilt, to the point where he feels dirty just cooking himself a nice meal or purchasing non-essentials for his own use. This results in him turning down a lot of opportunities that he actually does want, such as attending festivals or participating in culinary events. However, this guilt can be alleviated if he convinces himself that doing the fun thing is 'For the Sake of Someone Else'. Juno has picked up on this and frequently pulls the "I'd be really happy if you did this fun thing with me" card to manipulate him into having a good time. It usually works.
-Sylvain and Lily Lumière are both customers of Val's shop and both approve highly of his friendship with Juno, citing him as a 'polite, hard-working, and positive role model' for their son. Val doesn't really consider himself to be an ideal role model, but he's generally just happy that Juno's parents like him. The Lumières have tried multiple times to get Val to come over for dinner, but neither Juno nor Val really want that to happen for...various reasons
-Despite being one of the more popular dock merchants, he turns very little profit due to underpricing his wares and frequently giving samples away for free. Any extra money he makes is either given away or spent on the lowest-quality whiskey he can find...it's like he doesn't even want to save for his future at all.
-Valrou is an avid enjoyer of melodramatic dime novels, particularly the variety popular among middle aged women. The more romance, scandal, and heartbreak the better. The only reason he sells them is so that he doesn't have to feel ashamed buying them for himself, though they have become a surprisingly popular item in South Lantern since he started stocking them
-Believe it or not, Val is one of the only double allo individual in the ENTIRE main cast. I am not kidding when I say that everyone but him and one other major character is aspec. I didn't set out to do this, it just...kind of fell into place that way. This fact is only slightly plot relevant
-Despite having never been in a committed relationship, Val considers himself a ''''''''''''romantic soul'''''''''''' and loves to give unsolicited relationship advice.
His advice isn't always very good.
-Val has picked up on a variety of different cuisines during his travels, and as a result, he's a pretty good cook! He usually just...eats some of whatever he is selling (literally eating into his bottom line), but again, saving up for the future isn't something that is really on his mind. As a result of this, his diet is mostly based on rice, fish, and whatever dry goods he is transporting at the time.
-He has a hard time justifying making any kind of complicated dishes if he's eating alone, but has discovered that Juno coming to visit is a great excuse to prepare delicious meals guilt-free. He really enjoys preparing food for others and harbors a secret pride for the quality of his culinary work. Juno, of course, is very pleased with Val's insistence on feeding him every time they meet, citing Val's cooking as being "almost as good as Mom's!" High praise...
-Val has terrible memories of some of the things that he ate as a sailor and is horrified that Kina (the next protagonist!) would CHOOSE to carry hardtack with her to eat. Kina's hardtack is weevil-free and mainly for emergencies...but ever since she found out about how much he hates it, she's made sure to scrape away on it with her teeth when he's around just to bother him a little. Is it an asshole move? Yes. Is pushing the few buttons that Val "Friendliest-Guy-Ever" Alnavar has funny? Also yes (according to Kina, anyway)
-Val has a general problem of being overly considerate to others and worries extensively about his prominent facial scar making the people around him uncomfortable. (IT IS LITERALLY NOT HIS PROBLEM IF THEY'RE UNCOMFORTABLE. HE SHOULDN'T HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT THIS) While he never had high self-esteem before his injury, losing an eye has taken a definite toll on how much he thinks he should be interacting with others. To an extent, he prefers dealing with the Earthfolk over other humans because he doesn't think that his injury will be as viscerally disturbing to non-biological creatures. Again, he shouldn't have to worry about this, but...he's a worrier. About everything.
-While Val has adjusted many of his behaviors over the years to accommodate for the missing eye, it still physically impairs him with lack of peripheral vision on that side, headaches, and occasional phantom pain. Since he spent most of his life with full eyesight, he still 'sees' with the eye that isn't physically there anymore when he is dreaming, which can cause even worse flare-ups of the phantom pain when he wakes up
-He has taken to positioning his face in a slightly turned and tilted way to better align his sight when reading/writing/talking to people, which has put repetitive strain on his neck over time. He has developed unfortunate neck pains as a result of this.
-He doesn't like to bring up the origin of his injury, and not even Juno knows what exactly happened. When they first met, he chalked it up to "oh, Val used to be a sailor, sailors have eyepatches sometimes"--and three years of friendship later, this assumption was never re-evaluated. Maybe Val was right that the moth-types just don't think much about the appearances of humans...or maybe, deep down, Juno doesn't really want to know the answer. Either way, Val's thankful that the question never got brought up
-He is especially fond of puns and clever wordplay, but most of his favorite ones don't translate well from Belourob to Fabanian. Nobody will ever know how funny (he thinks that) he is...
poor fellow.
-The Watsonian explanation for his name is that in southern Belourobor, Valrou means 'brave warrior' and is a relatively common name there. The Doylist explanation is that I stole it from an entirely unrelated minor Zelda OC I had as a kid. In all my old Secret Stuff notes, Val is just referred to as 'the altruist' since it took me AGES to figure out what to finally call him. If one good thing came out of my early Zelda fic days, it was this...
-Val really just needs a hug. And a vacation. And a hot bath. And some new pillows. But mainly a hug. He'd appreciate that.
