Valentinite Concept Sketches - Cyat
Cyat helped me design Valentinite (or Val) for a Starfinder gameSee, fav n comment on the original!
Here's some unorganised info on Val I have!
Name: Valentinite Halides Node Five Grandiloquent-Biometry-Manipulation
Nicknames: V, Val, Valentine, Hal, Halli, Grandie
Age: 223 (220 on EJ form)
Height: 14.47 ft
Weight: 753 lbs
From: Akiton
Deity: Oras
Background: Old Hand
Theme: Quatermaster
Born & Raised: Akiton
Species origin: Dykon
Personality:
Blunt
Single minded
Exact
Curious
Cannot read a room
Gives no extra respect to those demanding it
Tends to interrupt or get nosey/overly close to examine
Ignore/wander away when bored
Point out mistakes
Distrusts non-Urog schools
Considers rules to be guidelines
Will defer to those she considers an expert in a field she's unsure of
Languages:
Common, Dykonian, Brethedan
Vesk, Shirren, Draconic
Terran, Akitonian
Likes:
Music & dancing
Exactitude and efficiency
Patterns, cascades, fractals
Beauty of nature (like the maths involved for light refraction in waves)
Certain je ne sais quoi of carbon's way of doing things
Flesh/fur (the way a mineral collector likes rocks)
Given how different flesh is from her own biology she doesn't find it gross - (this can distract her from danger if she sees an particularly eye catching blob of flesh from some horrific event concentrating on blood patterns and flesh shapes, not the obvious shotgun blast that created them)
Trying carbon hobbies, like learning to play instruments
Anything involving dexterity
Main emotions:
Satisfaction on solving a problem, aiding friends
Disappointment at failure
Excitement at promising line of inquiry
Curiosity about carbons
Burning "curiosity" about certain carbons she likes
General annoyance at things taking too much time
Expresses herself via head stalks, using them like eyebrows when she can remember to
Defensive/possessive of friends though wouldn't admit it
Knowledge:
Military technology, movement, maintenance, transport
Biology, Chemistry, Physics
Music
Spotty, misinformed ideas of carbon emotions and biological processes
Quirks:
- Generally talks in 3 word sentences
- Uses more words the more engaged she is in a subject
- Telepathic communication has nuance she may not be aware of
- Easily distracted by the wrong things
- No concept of personal space
- Eats her tools if replacing them or they break due to feeling an emotional bond to them
- Tries to eat via her beak and throat but sometimes just enjoys demolecularising a mug of hot chocolate between her raptorial legs while watching friends bicker, figuring out the more efficient way to argue
- Attempts more carbon pass times as she felt she was stagnating only doing what her fellow Urogs were doing
- Enjoys trying to learn instruments, has settled with a acoustic guitar due to the complaints from her ship mates when she started playing the accordion and banjo to begin with
- Understands more about carbon sensitivities than she lets on, but in her older age cares less about keeping up appearances so enjoys being more herself around them and watching how they deal with it
Traits:
Large magical, 10 feet
Electrical Resistance
Electrolocation - crystalline/metal - 60 feet
Telepathy - 30 feet & same language
Low-light vision
Darkvision - 60 feet
Physical/Life Science instead of Mysticism for serums
Proficiency in Longarms
Holds her Microlab in the pleopods against her body
Geo (like a bio but for non-carbons):
Born on Akiton as part of the Pillarist Meld, Val was given the best education she could be given by Contemplatives, fellow Urogs and a large number of guests, teachers and refugees passing through. She learnt a lot of "basic" (by their standards) sciences and a smattering of military organisation and protocols.
Val saw many bodies growing up, as well as those still breathing but well on their way.
The carbons around young Val wished to shield her from the grim realities of living on such a rough planet, but her parents made sure that she saw her fair share.
She never became used to it; every time was different and a shock and tragedy that someone couldn't be helped.
While Val didn't understand the violence, suffering and death of carbons viscerally and instinctively like a carbon would, but knowing so many carbons, plus seeing some of the ones she knew also die instilled in her the associated feelings one would expect.
Val tried to help when someone injured was brought in. Many didn't make it, their wounds too serious.
Every death witnessed was a failure to Val. A family that could have had their parent or child back no longer having that chance.
To everyone else, it was so commonplace that such situations were just dealt with as they could, but not as shift or as serious as Val wished they would.
She started to become distant to everyone around her over this and other related ways of thinking.
When Val finally reached the conclusion that it wasn't for lack of care, but for the fact the hurting would never stop, it wasn't something she could handle.
Isolating herself, she felt unwelcome and unsuited to such a harsh place.
After she turned 50, she decided she should visit her roots by travelling to Dykon. What felt like a paradise made specifically for her kind started to feel more and more unsuitable for her each year she stayed, learning advanced sciences and anything else that caught her interest. She was considered unusual in her approach as Urogs generally figure out what they want their field of study to be and stick to it.
She found an uneasy peace among her own kind, but she felt tainted by her experiences and found herself wishing her fellow Urogs would Actually Do Something To Help People rather than their almost entirely academic.
She loved her fellow Urogs, but the ones here were so used to peace and being left to their own devices that she felt alienated. Plus, the lack of variety of people felt strange, with almost no carbons to speak of. It was freeing, in a way, to not be constantly shut out by carbons who didn't understand her, but she realised she missed their interesting, conflicting manners of being.
Back on Akiton, she had been raised to know how dangerous it was to not have friends, and though it took her Urog sensitivities a while to understand, she had come to realise that sparing a bit more time for the carbons for their sensitivities could mean the difference between a shipment of much needed materials arriving on time or having to make do with what they had. This was something her Dykonian brethren had no concept of.
Science and discovery, plus learning how to use and apply both, were fascinating, but true application didn't seem to be so much of a goal on Dykon. Not in a way that mattered to Val, who was constantly seeing ways to shorten routes, fit cargo more efficiently or finding ways to keep her friends safer back home.
When she returned Akiton some 30 years later, now in her 70s, Val attempted to help the familiar traders to maximize their efficiency in many ways at once. They didn't take too kindly to her manner, but did see how it would help and did try as many of the suggestions they could reliably try without total restructure of their work (or their bodily make-up at times).
After a while, word of her general interest and skill in aiding those around her reached the ears of the Jaimisson Corporation, and she was invited to work for them.
They listened to many of her ideas, braving the litany of critique she happily burbled while being shown their base of operations. They implemented a couple of her suggestions before putting her to work on freight, possibly to get her away from them, where she felt her skills were somewhat wasted. They also conveniently forgot that it was her who helped them sort out better routes and fuel mixtures, so she was too poor to do much else but continue to work for them.
This, coupled with her carbon workmates not appreciating her non-stop studies of their behaviours, habits and inclinations, which was in the hope to aid them live more efficiently, Val found herself feeling very isolated.
Unsure where to turn, Val turned to carbon literature on file in the ship's banks, and, even worse, fiction. She had been of the understanding that fiction was not for consumption, as it was not real, but after reading many various sci-fi, romance, military and body-horror (Which she found fascinating and not gross at all), Val came to the conclusion that maybe her kind had discounted carbon fiction a little too early. Now she believed that perhaps truth, such as it was, could be conveyed through fiction in a way that sheer numbers and facts cannot.
She hadn't considered her deeper emotions much, and having read them through the lies of fiction, she learnt many truths about her own, very real feelings.
She was reminded of how much she wanted to help those around her in her youth, which she had buried by obsessing over efficiency as her kind was known to do. It was something she avoided thinking about if she could all help it.
Delving deeper, she discovered her love of music around this time.
Music unlocked her feelings further, some songs feeling to her that they already knew her fear and pain and were made to express them for her.
She couldn't help but feel the huge weight of failure she'd carried on her shoulders from every failure she attributed to herself, it made her feel like trying to help anyone is only a drop in the ocean and was never enough.
Her isolation and the hollow feeling she never had a word for swam into focus: loneliness.
Soon enough these realisations and the pain they flooded her with were rerouted and moved aside, as she couldn't function correctly with them pressing down on her. They were filed away as they had been before, but with a small outlet helping her find a path to follow.
An interest in biology, flesh and the more complex emotions of what "love" and "camaraderie" could really feel like took root in Val's mind.
She began to experiment in ways she hadn't thought possible - with other people and herself. Most of these "study partners" came away unscathed if not slightly squeezed by her large bulk.
This plethora of new experiences and data to munch on helped Val during the long hauls, giving her many new lines of inquiry to test next time they came to port.
This unique mixture of experience, her past, her other desires, plus The Swarm invasion lead her into biohacking, to help friends and confound foes.
She returned to Dykon to learn some more specifics from the old masters of her race until she was able to refer to herself as her now known title: Valentinite Halides Node Five Grandiloquent-Biometry-Manipulation.
Val had tried many things and still wasn't quite settled on What She Wants To Do With The Rest Of Her Life. At 223 (or 220 as her EJ info states), she'd drifted into middle age for her species, though still assumed she has another 100 years or more left if she plays her cards correctly and efficiently.
She's still curious about her fellow sentients, but has always remembered her nativity and being used by various corps - though solving a problem is its own reward of course... why shouldn't she be rewarded the same as any carbon? Rewards would mean more capitol to further studies after all.
Plus, for Some Reason, she gets the vague feeling she puts others off when she's closely examining someone's skin, or an interesting graft, or even a fascinating chunk of flesh she discovered, turning it to catch the light in a cascade of reflection, shadow, and the interesting mathematical ways the light may refract on the skin's various oils, and the blood of course.
Between hauls, Val was at a dive bar back at home, where she saw Juniper getting into a bar fight. Finding her attractive and interesting, Val used telepathy to impart some military CQC information she remembered, which helped Juniper defend herself. This got them chatting, and soon going back to Juniper's place.
When Val discovered that Juniper was wanting to get a way off the planet, some money and to lay low (and not just in bed) - Val vouched for her at EJ, as it was called now, solving the problem her new friend had, though potentially causing a lot more problems for a lot more people in the process. But such are the actions of one Valentinite Halides.
She's become tired of a lot of things with carbons and has receded back into her Urog nature somewhat in her middle age, coming to the realisation she'd never truly relate to a Urog or a carbon.
She'd be considered a diplomat of high order back on Dykon no doubt, but to an uninitiated carbon, she's rude, blunt and quite withering when the mood takes her. That, plus her occasional intimate interest to certain people and her... direct way of letting her desires be known to them, don't make her her crew member's number one choice for dealing with trading or diplomacy.
Val is very straight forward and don't differentiate much on the intricacies of relationships - if she likes you and finds you attractive, she will inquire if you wish to enjoy yourself with her sexually - there is no pretence or expectation other than spending time together and helping each other feel better than before.
Over the years, Val adopted various carbon habits to understand and relate to them better, such as using a blanket when she "sleeps" (has found sleeping together with others to be comforting as well), fiddling with a lighter, playing instruments, grooming her plating... things that were always pointed out in the fiction she'd read, which had made her begin notice it in real life, and for some reason made her yearn to be described that way too, even if just in the privacy of some observer's head. Don't ask her about her flesh collection.
Val is 14.47 ft and weighs 753 lbs, currently she's using supplements she's concocted to imitate the effect of certain minerals back on Dykon - the result making her carapace a variety of deep pinks.
Her body is covered by a custom tailored lab coat that has aspects of a aviator jacket, namely the faux fur around the neck. In her small abdomen arms she carries her trusty microlab.
Owns a blanket, lighter and grooming kit, it's uncertain if she benefits from these items at all, or if it's her attempt at embracing the carbon culture
She has a pet rock named Samuel, though no one's been able to tell if she didn't understand the joke of it, if Samuel is an actual living being like herself, or if the joke is on anyone entertaining the notion.
Category Artwork (Traditional) / All
Species Unspecified / Any
Size 2284 x 1613px
File Size 625.3 kB
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