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valentinexdupont · 4 years ago

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Valentine “Val” Dupont is a 29 year old nonbinary blind author who uses the pronouns he/him or they/them. He is a troublemaker, a partier, and a hard worker. Please read below for his full intro!

Val was born in Kilkenny, Ireland and lived there for most of his adolescent life. He grew up with 2 sisters he loved very much, and his mum and dad. The five of them were a tightknit family- his father did a lot of traveling for work but he was around often enough, and his mom was a journalist, doing remote work so she could take care of the three kids. His family was never very affluent- they had just enough to get by, with three kids attending school with various hobbies. Benna grew up to be a lawyer in the States, while Ruth created her own art gallery in Ireland. Val always loved his mother’s job and her freedom with words. From a young age, he wanted to write, though he wasn’t sure in what context. But he had a very active imagination, sometimes to a fault- he would play all sorts of silly games with his sisters, and often wore their hand-me-downs to school. Even if he was made fun of, he never really cared. People joked and snarked, but Val was always too witty for his own good. He’d be one step ahead with a snappy comeback before anyone could really ever touch him.

He grew up to be a very fun and spontaneous individual. Val was the life of the party in high school, dating women and men with little care to what was thought of him. He went to University in Ireland for journalism. Val made a lot of friends, and easily- many of them came from classes, others from assorted clubs in college, LGBT events, even penpals. Val did exceptionally well there, participating in a lot of events from karaoke nights, drag nights, and poetry slams, but also doing surprisingly well in school. This was where he started to understand his own gender identity a bit better. However, he noticed that he was having trouble seeing from a distance, including looking at the whiteboard or projector screens at school, and his eyes were blurring seemingly randomly. He tried not to make it a big deal- Val had always been incredibly independent and hated relying on others, to the point where any sign of weakness was pushed down so he didn’t have to think too much about it. But this issue kept arising, and it seemed like his eyesight was getting worse and worse.

After seeing a doctor, he found out that his vision was impaired- and that it would only decline from there. Val was devastated. For a while he didn’t tell anybody. He was ready to keep it a secret, but soon found there was no way he could do that. His grades were failing and he was on a slow decline in his own emotional wellbeing. He finally divulged the truth to his English professor- and after that, a few close friends, all of which rallied around him. His teacher was the first to introduce Braille to him, even recommend accessibility options on his phone and computer. His professor had always been blunt and honest, which Val respected. And she told him that his eyes weren’t going to suddenly improve. And that he could sit and feel sorry for himself and watch as all these things he did so easily suddenly disappeared. Or, he could learn now, while he had time. More audiobooks, more speech-to-text. Typing on a keyboard more and more, getting used to where each key is. She helped him work on a project he’d kept quiet for a long, long time- a fantasy novel he’d been afraid to release out into the world, afraid it’d come back littered in rejections. With her help, he finished a manuscript for his riveting fantasy novel entitled ‘Margot Sees Magic’, and by his graduation, he had a published novel on the shelves of book stores. He couldn’t believe it- he was an author. And not only that, but it had soon reached the YA audiences he’d hoped for. The book hit as a number 1 Bestselling novel on the New York Times list and Val was gobsmacked.

It’s been a while since his last year of college. Val has been legally blind for 5 years. He still works independently, writes on his own, and is fiercely against those who coddle him. He is currently on his fourth book and working closely with an assistant. He has been on multiple book tours across the US and UK to not only support his new book, but to talk about his experience as a blind LGBT author. Val is outspoken on issues of gender, being non-binary. Val moved to Boston as his first foray into the States, moving up slowly as more money came to him, and moved to Chicago more recently.

#valbio #HIII #Vals been here but #I moved him to my main account #and am re-posting a few things #so heres his info again!!!!#my sweet child!!

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aloserwithakeyboard · 7 years ago

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"Here's that sandwich you wanted."

There’s only an hour left. An hour of worried parents trying to find the classrooms that their students will sit in everyday, and asking for snacks once they give up. It’s back to school night and I’m the only kid willing to man the cafeteria station. I’m serving food and giving directions. And 2 hours in, I’m definitely understanding why nobody wanted this job. “Sweetheart, do you mind telling me how to get to room 403?” A woman with graying hair asks. “If you go to the top of the middle staircase, it’ll be the first classroom on the left.” I respond with the fake smile shared by every student volunteer who is still at school as the clock hands reach 8:00 pm. The woman walks away after thanking me and I sit down behind the table full of dinner foods and snacks. No one will care if I steal a brownie off the dessert tray, right? I deserve a brownie after dealing with all these clueless parents. Most of them have come to this at least once before and they still have no idea where any classroom is. Someone asked me what floor Trailer 3 was on. On the bright side, no one brought their kid to this, so now the parents are learning to actually read. That’s always a good sign. “What are the chances of a cute boy giving me one of those sandwiches?” I’d like to revoke my prior statement. Clearly, some idiot parent still need to learn to keep their children at home. “Somewhere around 5%,” I answer, “Why are you here, Josh?” The junior takes a second to flash a smile and sit down across from me before addressing the question. “Well, my dad couldn’t make it, but my little sister is going to be a freshman here this year and I wanted to make sure her teachers are decent. I’m supposed to be in Mr. Grant’s room right now, but I already now he’ll be cool with her because we had him last year. I figured, why not take this time to go say hi to my favorite person willing to volunteer at this stupid excuse of a school event? Why are you volunteering here, anyway?“ “Wait, slow down. Why is it so important for you to know your sister’s teachers?” I question. Josh doesn’t seem like the type of guy to come just for the sake of knowing his sister will have nice teachers. Josh shrugged. “Kailey is blind. I’m making sure her teachers will make the right accomadations and be good about the whole situation. I already have to have administration switch her English teacher because Smith doesn’t want to let her use audio or Braille books. I mean, what the hell? Does he just expect a blind student to magically be able to read in his class? It’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard, so I walked out of his orientation and went over to Ms. Mell’s and she said she’d be happy to teach Kailey and make all necessary accomadations since I was such a pleasure to have in class.” Josh ranted. I scoffed at his last comment, but sobered up quickly. “You should report Smith, he can’t do that. It’s illegal. Mell’s class is a lot of fun, I’m sure your sister will love her. And to answer your earlier question, I’m here because I’m the only kid in our grade who is active in student government or cares in the slightest about our school.” “Well, you got that right, this place sucks ass,” Josh leans his arm onto the table, making us much closer together than we were before. “And so does SGA, everyone who’s on it just wants to pad their college resume a bit, they don’t actually care about what goes on at Ravena. And no one is going to do anything when Kailey’s teachers act intolerant just like no one did anything when Paige was being bullied, you know it, I know it, and we can’t even fix it.” Josh’s expression screamed of bitterness and frustration. Paige was what connected Josh and me. I knew them because our mom’s were friends in college. Josh and Paige played baseball together in middle school. Now, Josh and I were at Ravena High School, and Paige was… well, let’s just say not here. They had a hard time freshman year and their parents sent them to a different school. Josh won’t admit it to anyone, but you can tell he misses them horribly. I reached my hand out to squeeze his for reassurance. “Josh, SGA can’t fix that stuff, it’s up to administration. You know Paige is safer now.” “No, we don’t. When was the last time you heard from them. What if this doesn’t go well and we have to send Kailey to some special school? When will I hear from her again? How could I make sure she’s alright?” He kept one hand in mine and rested his head on the other. “Josh, listen to me. Kailey is going to be fine. If any teacher gives her shit, I will march down to their room and read the Disabilities Act to them word for word. We can make sure she’s safe here. I’ll ask Mrs. Levenson to call Paige’s school and ask if we can visit. Okay?” He looks like he’s about to cry and Lord knows I don’t need that right now. Especially since a bunch of parents are gonna come stampeding in to ask for directions to their next classroom in five minutes. Josh wipes his eyes before speaking up, “Thank you, that’d be nice.” He looks me in the eye, seemingly desperate to change the subject, “um, Danny?” “Yeah?” I inquire. He can’t have much to ask me about. We’re not that good of friends, I mean we both sit in the music room at lunch and we’ve had a few classes together. We used to hang out all the time together with Paige when they still stayed around here and after Paige first left he’d show up at my house and I’d show up at his, both of us visibly upset, as we’d lost our best friend. But, even that ended after we both got busy, it had been nice while it lasted, always having someone to talk to. “Um, well, I’m sorry if I’m overstepping with this question, but seeing as it’s after 8:00 pm, I feel like I kind of have to.” He pauses. This is making me kind of nervous, “What time did you put your binder on this morning?” I take my hand out of his and hunch my back. “Probably seven…” I mumble. “Danny, did you take it off afterschool? ” He looks genuinely concerned and it’s genuinely annoying. “No.” I reply staring at my lap while I twiddle my thumbs. “You know that’s not safe.” It feels like I’m being scolded. “I also know it’s none of your business.” I shoot back, “and you should probably be getting ready to meet your sister’s next teacher.” I try not to look at Josh when I hear him stand up from the cafeteria bench. The bell rings, signaling the transition of orientations and triggering the set of footsteps walking away from me and toward Kailey James’s period 3B class. The flood of confused parents makes it’s way to the cafeteria and I’m back to giving directions and handing out food. ••• I was really hoping I could make it out of back to school night without seeing Josh again. I almost made it, too. I had grabbed an extra sandwich from the leftover food in the cafeteria and started to walk out when I caught a glimpse of him. He saw me as soon as I saw him and now he’s making his way toward me. I make it to the bike rack where my bike sits before he catches up. I turn toward him as he starts to talk. “Danny, please talk to me.” “If you minded your own business a bit more maybe I would.” I say, unlocking my bike and pulling it in front of me. “I’m just worried about you,” I scoff and put my helmet on, but he jumps in front of my bike, “Danny, wait! I’m sorry, I just don’t want you to hurt yourself.” “Yeah, well, you don’t have to worry about me Josh. I’m a big boy now.” I mock. “That’s not what I’m saying, Danny. I care about you.” This is straight up pitiful. “No, you don’t. You cared when you thought I could be a replacement for Paige. When I seemed like a good alternative. You don’t actually care about anything that happens to me.” He reaches for my hand and I jerk away from him, horrorified. “I’m sorry,” He keeps trying to take my hand, “I’m sorry I kissed you this Summer. I didn’t mean to make you upset or anything like that. It’s just, you looked so-” “What? Pretty? Like Paige? I love how the one time you think it’s okay to kiss me is when my mother is parading me around in a dress. A dress that actually was a hand-me-down from Paige in case you were wondering. Their mom wanted them to start looking masculine again and my mother wants me to look feminine so I got the dress. I bet you really regretted it when I showed up to your house wearing a binder the next day. I wasn’t your prissy pink princess anymore. Sorry.” I glare at him, hoping it’s enough to get him to let me leave. “No, that’s not what it was at all. You looked out of place. You didn’t belong in the dress, and it was the first time I could tell. I knew you had some secret that you only talked to Paige about, I knew those clothing swaps you did every morning of freshman year wasn’t just for their benefit. They got whatever sweater or skirt your mom forced you in that day and you got their cargo shorts and oversized t-shirt. You were always happier after you changed. Every single time. I kissed you because you looked like you needed reassurance, nothing else. And I was happy when you showed up at my window in a binder, you looked like yourself. You looked handsome.” He tries to explain. “I don’t need your validation. I didn’t need anything from you, asshole. Now, get out of my way or I’ll run you over.” I grip the handlebars of my old bike, ready to peddle away as soon as he gives me the chance. "Fine. Just, please don't completely ignore me." He steps back from my bike and puts his hands up in surrender. "Here's that sandwich you wanted." I throw the leftover food at him and start to ride away. The soft laughter from Josh serves as audio for the beginning of my ride home. It's safe to say that was the quickest I've ever biked to my house.

#first chapter #ish #writing #ocs #lgbtq characters #trans character #gay characters #pan character #probably ace character #they come later #non binary character #they become more prominent later

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valentinexdupont · 5 years ago

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Hello!!! I’m Eli, and I’m so excited to be here! I’ve brought in my disaster boy Val! Short for Valentine- he’s a blind author originally from Ireland. He’s a sarcastic piece of shit who’s outgoing and tries to be the life of the party. He’s lived in London for 4 years! Please hit me up for any connections or plots! His info is below!

CHARACTER INFORMATION

First Name: Val (full name, Valentine)

Last Name: Dupont

Gender/Pro-nouns: Cis male, He/Him

Date of Birth: 29 years old, March 4th.

Place of Birth: Kilkenny, Ireland.

Current Residence: Notting Hill

Length of Residence: 5 years

Occupation: Author

Faceclaim: Robert Sheehan

Trigger Warnings: None

Are you applying for a wanted connection: No

BIOGRAPHY

He grew up to be a very fun and spontaneous individual. Val was the life of the party in high school, dating women and men with little care to what was thought of him. He moved for college to the States, studying at BU in Boston for journalism. Val made a lot of friends, and easily- many of them stayed in touch through email or letters from Ireland, and new ones came from unexpected places- assorted clubs in college, LGBT events, even penpals. Val did exceptionally well there, participating in a lot of events from karaoke nights,drag nights, and poetry slams, but also doing surprisingly well in school. However, he noticed that he was having trouble seeing from a distance, including looking at the whiteboard or projector screens at school, and his eyes were blurring seemingly randomly. He tried not to make it a big deal- Val had always been incredibly independent and hated relying on others, to the point where any sign of weakness was pushed down so he didn’t have to think too much about it. But this issue kept arising, and it seemed like his eyesight was getting worse and worse.

It’s been a while since his last year of college. Val has been legally blind for 5 years. He still works independently, writes on his own, and is fiercely against those who coddle him. He is currently on his fourth book and working closely with an assistant. He has been on multiple book tours across the US and UK to not only support his new book, but to talk about his experience as a blind LGBT author. Val is outspoken on issues of gender, being rather genderfluid himself. Val moved back to the UK in the past few years based on his books, moving up slowly as more money came to him. He moved from Boston back to Kilkenny for a bit before heading to London. The blind author moved to Notting Hill and has loved living there the past 4 years.

#valintro #valbio #londoncity:intro #:)#I hope this is ok!!!

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