up and beyond what we now see

lives an adventure for you and for me

[upandbeyond]

L O O P .

introducing victor verity, the member of the supernova expedition that makes you ask yourself, “are his navigation skills more trouble than they’re worth?” considering he’s probably planning his prank of the day right now…yes. they sure are.

a dependent blog for spacelovehq. written by sabrina (25+, cst, she/her).

read on for victor’s full intro!

a little look at victor verity

BASICS —  full name: victor io verity  /  gender and pronouns: cis man, he/him  /  orientation: bisexual/biromantic  /  occupation: official navigator™ (the trademark on “navigator” is victor’s—he insists he is the one and only, “if you’re being honest with yourself”) of the supernova expedition  /  age and birthday: 27 and august 1  /  faceclaim: archie renaux

MORE IN DEPTH —  home planet: quest  /  family: two (adoptive) parents and a younger brother named saturn  /  alma mater: remus navigation academy (with honors)  /  instrument of specialty: rhythm guitar  /  height: 6’1”  /  hair color: dark brown  /  eye color: dark brown  /  other: aerobically fit (likes to run on the treadmill every day); has a tattoo of a bridge over a river on his right upper back

PERSONALITY — mbti: entp (“the debater”—this isn’t an accurate label for victor, although he highly values honesty and directness in communication)  /  enneagram: 7w6 (“the enthusiast” and “the loyalist”—together, “the entertainer”)  /  self purpose: to make life “genuinely” fun (“not fake fun, like whatever my nav school’s attempt at prom turned out to be”); to laugh; to heal others from subtle hurts in their past through unconditional acceptance  /  obstacles: a belief that he is never in need of help in whatever he does; deep-seated doubts about “sticking out”; audacity that borders on stupidity

how to understand victor

Picture this. You, a dedicated, well-intentioned (though not without your own battles in life) crew member of the Supernova Expedition are ready to finally relax after a busy workday. Two things are likely: that you do not have Victor on your mind at all, and that you are at the same time very grateful (if you were to be asked) that Victor has not done anything today to impede your progress or efforts at a good mood.

Now picture arriving in the very area in which you hope to unwind and finding a live animal. A large live animal.

(You haven’t been docked at a planet or a space station in three entire days.)

Oh, no. Oh, no.

What in the world do you do next?

Two more things are now likely. That you 1) do not want this live animal in your intended space for relaxation, and 2) that—unlucky you, to have found this creature first—you feel somehow responsible for what it does on the ship, because—

Oh, wait. Now it’s clicking. Now you remember who’s in charge of this animal, because you saw none other than Victor Verity get on The Supernova far later than everybody else three days prior, and he was holding carrots. He despises all vegetables.

The animal whinnies, and you realize that this problem is not going to go away. At least not for somebody responsible like you. God help you.

As of this moment, you realize, you’ve officially been “pranked”. By Victor. The number of days you or a crew member has not been pranked, by Victor or by his two earnest accomplices? …It’s deeply dismaying, deeply bad for the nobility of this expedition, that the answer is zero.

There is an animal standing in front of you, and you are the only one around to take care of it.

So…exactly how should one understand Victor Verity?

I’d ask you not to understand him through his (admittedly highly proficient) navigation skill. Don’t understand him through his little kindnesses, through his encouragements when you’re both working, through his unswervingly good moral compass that you can’t classify as either naivety or plain, unfiltered hope.

Understand Victor as if you’re standing in the area in which you were about to hang out, and there is a large animal staring back at you. Picture yourself there, commit to memory that feeling of “AGH!” That feeling of “I literally have no idea what comes next.”

That mixture of absurdity and insane inconvenience.

And then imagine that Victor comes into the room a second later, and he’s holding a carrot. He sees you; he starts laughing, laughing, laughing.

“This isn’t even the prank,” he says. “Oh my God, this is… Wow. What a breathtakingly beautiful moment, right? Just having him in the room with you? Are you pissed about him being on the ship or what?”

And then imagine that the animal drops a half-eaten carrot from its mouth on the freshly-cleaned floor, and Victor just gives him the carrot he’s holding.

That is how you should understand Victor Verity.

about victor's good side

Victor is loyal. He’s faithful to a fault; if you are a member of his circle in life, whether that’s family or friendship (or even just a professional connection of his), he’ll guarantee, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that he’ll have your back. …When you need it. (Because when you don’t need his help, he’s probably either making plans to mess with you or knee-deep in the act.) In addition to loyalty, Victor has a lot of ability to change a situation—any situation, actually—for the better. The secret to this is that Victor sees life as “negotiable”—something that can be viewed differently (which helps him get crew members out of mental ruts), something that can be reorganized at will (which helps him do his navigator duties like a pro), and something that can, ultimately, be what you want. This last one gives Victor the ability—and willpower—to both give team members who are naturally hard on themselves the grace and compassion that they deeply deserve, when situations come to that…and make team members’ lives a living hell when Victor feels that’s what’s called for. (But we’ll get to Victor’s “misguided” views on how to improve people’s moods in the section below this one.)

Something crucial to keep in mind about Victor Verity is that he’s always trying to make people’s day. As some on the ship have observed, Victor has a certain “innocence” about him; that’s his belief that everyone—no matter who (and this has gotten him into trouble in his past)—needs a little bit more sunshine. That everyone needs the gift of a smile. That’s why, when Victor isn’t being a pain in the collective crew of The Supernova’s neck (for the sake of the levity), he’s surprisingly up-front about what he sees in everybody he’s familiar with—and that is a lot. …You just can’t get there right away, or even remotely easily, from the standpoint of a victim of Victor’s near-constant shenanigans. Still…he likes people to know he cares, at the end of the day. That’s (hopefully) what makes him tolerable at his worst and hard not to appreciate at his best.

about victor's worse side

Well. Where exactly should we start?

Victor is a prankster. That alone singles him out as the biggest threat to a person’s unobstructed workflow, any day of the week. I could go into specifics—his love of “the exciting element of surprise!”, his uncanny ability to “replace” things, and his inherent need for the fallout of any given prank to be “ABAP” (as big as possible). But I’ll instead focus on the aftermath of any of these things, which is a lack of remorse in Victor and a lack of accountability for anything he did to disrupt the workday. In a serious environment like The Supernova…that’ll be a big deal.

So yes, expect grudges because of this. Expect issue to be taken with Victor’s undying laughter and amused eyes at the scene of the crime; expect anger; expect disappointment in a fellow crew member. But more than any of that, expect Victor to keep doing it. To rub salt into the wounds in people’s pride. …To not see anything wrong with any of this; to still somehow expect everything to continue as normal in the face of his lovingly-crafted disasters. (Because it all does come from a place of love for the crew and desire for everyone to laugh about a silly moment rather than sigh about everything they’re up against. But that doesn’t change that some people really don’t like pranks.)

Another routine fault of Victor’s is his tendency to view himself as strange, or incapable of belonging, or the “odd one out”. His quirky sense of humor and his intense optimism set him apart from almost everyone he encounters, it is true. And his childhood in which he was ferried back and forth between an aunt and uncle who didn’t seem to like him and, eventually, adopted into a more stable home environment (though it felt like being given up on) did impress upon Victor that there was something about him that was “too different”. But truly, this premise of not belonging is all in Victor’s head. The reality is that he’s great fun to be around and a refreshingly genuine guy; most of the people he’s met have thought so (or even tried to tell him, in their own ways, though he has a hard time believing it). The takeaway from this is that Victor doesn't fully comprehend or accept deeper compliments, and he’ll close himself off if he feels he won’t be understood (or appreciated) by a particularly astute crew member. But for the most part, Victor’s good nature gives anyone ample opportunity to connect with him, talk him through his false beliefs (if a conversation should go there), or even convince him that he’s not so out of place on The Supernova after all.

a biography?

Stay tuned (in the next couple days) for Victor's full biography!

a few headcanons (for now)

A few things you should know about Victor…

Created designs for his middle school/high school garage band’s logo before he even knew how to use design software. This was actually his introduction to some computer software that he now uses (in a very different capacity) professionally.

Loves fruit. Hates vegetables. Indifferent to most meat. Will devour without emotionally processing any and all dessert.

Obsessed with interfering with the Supernova Girls’ studio recording sessions (not in an awful capacity—just to replace the audio feed into the booth with meme songs.)

On that note—pretends that he will create a rival vocal group for any “likeminded crew members” that will compete directly with the Supernova Girls, called the “Supernova Gang”. The Supernova Gang, Victor maintains, will be the first thing associated with the name of both the expedition and the spaceship.

Victor is actually inexperienced in a lot of things because he studied very hard in school and devoted the rest of his time to making music. However, you will never get him to admit this.

And Victor loves holidays!

connections

Pending… stay tuned…

[upandbeyond]

closed starter for @diamcndskin location: supernova dining area time: morning after the welcome dinner

“Lina, tell me what you’d do if you were me.”

Victor and Lina had decided to grab breakfast together the morning after the welcome meal. To Victor, meeting Lina was the perfect opportunity to see them—to understand who they were as captain of the Supernova Expedition and why they approached it with such bravery (which was already plain to Victor); to know the ins and outs of her communication style; and, perhaps most importantly, to get a read on what she thought they’d be up against. That was what Victor had thought about the entire restless night prior. Argos, and the Blight.

“I feel like I’m making a decent impression on everyone else,” Victor told Lina as he pushed a sausage around his plate. “You know, me being me, which is…well. A lot.

“But I still feel as if I’m not doing something that someone like you would catch instantly.” Or doing something like scheming against fellow crew members on the daily. Victor pushed that truth to the side, though he noted that changing his ways would help people get along with him better. (...As if he ever would.) “I guess I’m less interested in the answer to that, though,” Victor admitted, “than I am intrigued by how you’re intending to get along with everyone. All the time. What’s your big secret to running The Supernova…seamlessly? Because I can already tell,” Victor told them candidly, “that you plan to do this right.” He offered a supportive half-smile.

[upandbeyond]

closed starter for @stcllans location: supernova common room time: first-night dinner

Victor had always wanted to add spiciness to a random person’s food.

Truly, a random person’s food. He didn’t know all that much about what percentage of the population could handle spice, but he had always surmised that how a person handled spice would be a good indicator of how they’d handle something they didn’t expect—namely, one of Victor’s pranks. And then Victor would have a potential new target for his shenanigans, which, if you know Victor, are the reason he gets out of bed in the morning. (And if you think making a stranger’s food spicy is uncalled for…well, you don’t know Victor’s pranks.)

The problem tonight was two-fold. One, Victor was not going to add spice to a random person’s food because the target wouldn’t be truly random—he’d already gotten a decent read on everyone from the preceding day (though there were a lot of things he’d have to learn more about). Two, Victor was not going to add spice to a random person’s food because he genuinely did not want to ruin the first meal the Supernova Expedition was having together as a team. It would actually break his heart if people were somehow deprived of the opportunity to bond tonight.

But…

None of that prevented Victor from humoring the topic—with someone he had a very good feeling about, prank-ability speaking.

“Now Stellan,” Victor said to the manager of the Supernova Expedition, sidling up next to him with the demeanor of someone who was very poorly keeping some kind of secret. (The secret was that Victor would probably be pulling a prank on him the following day.) “Very good speech over the intercom, by the way. Perfectly succinct, straight to the point. You even acknowledged that some people might just want to take food to their rooms—considerate of you.” (Victor genuinely meant every word of this.)

“Now, Stellan. Hypothetically speaking.” Victor put on the best straight face he could, although he was sure something in his eyes gave away that his thoughts were somewhere meddlesome. “I’m trying to ask each crew member a situational question tonight to see how they’d act in a…high-pressure scenario. And hypothetically, if you took a bite of that pasta—” and Victor pointed to the spread of food close by them “—and it was, just, the spiciest thing you’d ever tasted. Literally intolerable. What would you do? Would you…you know, pretend you were chill even though you weren’t, or would you actually be chill because you’re unruffled by anything ever, or would you react explosively and regret it later?”

Victor thought about it for a moment, then told Stellan something personal: “Me, I’d pretend I was fine.”

(He sincerely hoped Stellan was not that type of person.)

[upandbeyond]

closed starter for @n30nflights location: supernova common room time: first-night dinner

“So Fang is…serious about everything, right?”

Victor and his new pal, Neon (at least they were already pals to Victor—he already had millions of ideas about recent albums and various topics of conversation that Neon might like) were seated furthest from the action in the common room. What that meant was that they could point out select crew members and verbally determine whether or not their reads on said crew members were accurate, or total misunderstanding. Victor was tackling Xiao Fang next—a bona fide toughie, to be sure, although Victor couldn’t tell whether Fang was hard to read because she was literally tough or because she intentionally exuded an air of mystery. He’d find out Neon’s perspective.

“I get it—you’re the guard for all of us (or at least those of us who could never defend ourselves from whatever the hell we’ll be up against), and you naturally seem…mysterious. Every guard I have ever known in my entire life has had that effect. But Fang, she almost seems to be above the mystery, above the intrigue, so much so that she comes across…serious? Like she doesn’t care about anything. Correct me if I’m reading this crew member wrong, I’m trying my damndest to solve a mystery that doesn’t want to be solved and I’m almost completely working in the dark.”

Victor looked at Neon then, Neon’s eyes alit with that purple glow. Victor’s impression of Neon was overwhelmingly positive—he seemed like a real guy, someone who operated beyond the preconceived notions that others favored, someone who wouldn’t fail to be honest with you—but at the same time…there was something else. A wall. Victor hadn’t talked to Neon long enough to be able to figure it out.

“And when you’re done helping me figure out Fang…” said Victor, dipping his spoon back into his (very savory, very good) soup. “...When you’re done with Fang, tell me what you think they think of us.”

The question a part of him would’ve done anything to know the answer to.