[OOC] GSRP 3.0 Valant Gramarye Profile
ABOUT YOUR CHARACTER
GENERAL
[Name:] Valant Gramarye
[Age:] 37
[Gender:] Male
[Marital Status:] Single...forever
[Sexuality:] Falls for women who will never love him in return. After his downfall, to his dismay, the tabloids will spread rumours that he swings both ways! (They may or may not be true.)
[Occupation:] Famous magician. Rather, struggling fallen magician.
[Ladder Preference:] When planning a magic trick, it's important to indicate whether a ladder or a step ladder is in need!
CONNECTIONS
[Family:] Valant has no true family to speak of. His parents are both dead and he's been estranged from his brother. Until the dark curtain fell, he considered Troupe Gramarye to be his "family".
Zak Gramarye: Valant and Zak were on good terms until their teacher's only daughter, Thalassa, entered the picture. They both fell for her and Zak won her affections. Any time their relationship progressed -- the engagement, the wedding, their first child -- it dug at Valant's heart more and more. He became deeply resentful of Zak. Not only was Zak the better performer, but he had taken away the only woman he's truly ever loved. Things became even more complicated after the Shootem accident. Valant grew to hate Zak for killing Thalassa and making him unsure of whose bullet was the one that killed her. He tried, however, his best to keep his dark feelings hidden, for the sake of the Gramarye Troupe. His grudge against Zak was made evident when he tried to frame him of the murder of Magnifi. Valant will eventually become convinced Zak's corpse is lying in a ditch somewhere; he'll begin to wait for the law to hand him the rights of the Magnifi repertoire, in seven years.
Thalassa Gramarye: Valant never believed in love at first sight until Thalassa cast a spell on him. He was so serious about his affection for her, he didn't want to scare her away by coming on too strong. The fact that she's Magnifi's daughter made things harder. He was crushed when she married another performer (this was around the time he found out Zak had a thing for her as well), but when her husband died and she returned, he took it as Fate's way of saying he should confess his love. However, Zak was the first to comfort her and she fell for him instead. Valant never hated Thalassa for it; his animosity went straight toward Zak. He was devastated when she "died" during practice, and blamed both himself and Zak for her death (but mostly Zak). The fact that he was never able to reveal his feelings for her still haunts him. Sometimes he wonders how things would've been like had he simply gone for her heart before Zak -- perhaps they could've married and life would've been better.
Magnifi Gramarye: While Valant understood it may've been traumatic for Magnifi to lose his only daughter at the hands of one of his disciples, he feels it cowardly of Magnifi to hold her death above them constantly. He had great respect for Magnifi until the blackmail began. As unfair as he feels it is, he still obeys Magnifi's every command since he feels partially responsible. When it came time to end his master's life, Valant tried to go through with it...then got cold feet. He was hurt when Magnifi's repertoire got passed onto Zak, and when Magnifi killed himself, he was too preoccupied with the golden opportunity to claim inheritance to care about his teacher's death.
[Friends:] Any friends Valant may have had all forsakened him when he was suspected of murder. Except for his rabbits and doves. Though they'll begin dying off.
[Enemies:]
Brushel Spark: The pesky reporter began sniffing around him after the Shootem accident. The thorn in Valant's side. Valant will grow to despise the man and his minty aroma. Valant will hate the press in general when they begin to ruin his reputation and career. Brushel...!!!
[Other:]
Trucy Enigmar: Trucy was born to Valant's rival and unrequited love. Valant holds nothing against the sweet and innocent girl who inherited her mother's looks, but the dark demon within him brings up complex feelings of jealousy whenever he sees her. The guilt over framing her father for murder and possibly having killed her mother will prevent him from reaching out to her when she suddenly finds herself alone. He feels she'd be better off without him in her life.
Phoenix Wright: When Phoenix presented forged evidence at the State vs. Enigmar trial, Valant saw Phoenix as one like himself -- a good man who succumbed to the little demon inside him. Actually, he gives Phoenix the benefit of the doubt, but only because he knows how it feels to be wrongfully accused. There is no solid proof Phoenix forged evidence, nor is there solid proof Valant killed Magnifi. He's astounded by Phoenix's ability to find out the truth despite how hard he tries to keep an air of mystery. Trucy, he believes, will be fine in Phoenix's hands.
Klavier Gavin: A young, inexperienced prosecutor who called on Valant as a vital witness during the State vs. Enigmar trial. Valant believed in the teenage boy's talents, confident there was enough evidence to prove Zak guilty. Valant remains mostly neutral toward Klavier after the trial, but he's a little grateful, too. Without Klavier, he may have been found guilty! Perhaps he'll assist in one of the Gavinner's concerts one day.
CHARACTER
[General personality:] Valant was born to be a showman. He's happiest when performing magic and feeds off the energy of the audience. Maintaining his persona of Valant Gramarye is of utmost importance -- image is everything. Therefore he's rarely seen without his trademark yellow magician's outfit. When he speaks, he's theatrical and dramatic, using metaphors and similes and alliteration as he carefully enunciates every word. Even when he's down on his luck (which is going to be quite often from this point) and his career is dwindling, he doesn't let that stop him from performing. His perseverance is admirable, if not pitiful.
Valant is a private person and keeps an ooh-ahh-mysterious air around him. He figures the less people know about him, the more interesting he is. Reveal too much and the magic is ruined, after all. He hates people who ask too many questions and pry to get at the skeletons in his closet, i.e. nosy reporters. He's not shy about telling people to buzz off, either. He can be rude and arrogant and sleep just fine at night (except when his stomach is bothering him from stress...he's well acquainted with karma).
He has an affinity towards the colour yellow, which he considers his lucky colour. Among other things he likes are balloons, giant signs, and other attention-grabbing things. He loves the spotlight so, and without it he feels so insignificant, he'd even take negative publicity since it's better than nothing.
Being a stage performer who enjoys flashy, dangerous stunts, he has very few fears. The only thing he's afraid of is fading into obscurity, dying as a commoner. He wants to make front page news when he dies, not shoved into the second page of the obituaries.
[Appearance:] Same as in the flashback scenes of AJ.
[Background:] Valant was born in the US but his family is of Russian origin; his real name is Valery Tverdokhleb. He had always been fascinated with showbiz and illusionists, and dedicated his life to becoming famous. Though he's diligent and talented, he's spent his entire life being number two. Second born in his family, second best student in his class, and second most popular act in the circus he was once a part of...that is, until one day he was recruited into Troupe Gramarye (though he was Magnifi's second choice), which became number one in the country.
It was a wonderful life of fame and riches -- he was able to buy his own house! But life has never been the same since the tragedy involving Thalassa, and now this. The State vs. Enigmar trial ruined his reputation, and he's labeled as a murderer even without evidence that he did such a thing. In the next seven years he will have to sell his house, take any job he can, cope with the loss of his pets, and age horribly.