Tumgik
#i gotta sit and think about this in great detail. i'm unwell
katsigian · 3 months
Text
ᴠ ᴀ ʟ ᴇ ɴ ' ꜱ ʟ ᴏ ʀ ᴇ 007. ⁺ ───────────── ⁺
⤷ ℑ 𝔡𝔬𝔫'𝔱 𝔥𝔞𝔳𝔢 𝔞 𝔠𝔥𝔬𝔦𝔠𝔢. ℑ 𝔥𝔞𝔳𝔢 𝔱𝔬 𝔡𝔬 𝔴𝔥𝔞𝔱
ℑ'𝔪 𝔟𝔢𝔰𝔱 𝔞𝔱
I'm reframing how I describe Valen's particular set of skills. He was raised in a criminal syndicate, his dad taught him how to be a good criminal, he routinely does criminal things. I think he tries to keep it contained and be civil, but there's times where he can't and doesn't want to. He spent 8 of his formative childhood/teenager years in a gang being taught by a father who wanted nothing more than to see him become a useful piece of said gang.
Valen is a gangster/thug at his core whether he likes it or not (spoiler: he does).
Imagine someone's bothering his husband Nathan while they're out, or maybe someone from his past returns and scares/upsets him. Or maybe somebody is threatening/interfering a person close to him, or he's working with Reid and it feels really good being in a gang again.
Guess Valen doesn't have a choice and has to act like a thug again.
Truth be told, Valen enjoys being a threat. Enjoys the aggression and the violence. It's in his blood, it's where he came from. He gets a certain kind of charismatic assuredness when he's given the green light to be a thug. He's a violent, loyal guard dog who's so devoted that it corrupts him, so of course he gets a bit of delight from doing what he's made to do.
The situation happens where someone doesn't listen when he tells them to leave, let's say Vesper, alone, only for them to continue being a pest and harassing him, then Valen will just have to act like the gangster he was raised to be. I think the criminal in him comes out a little too easy and I think he enjoys it more than he lets on. There's a large part of him that rejoices because it feels right.
Afterwards, there's not much guilt at all. There's the feeling of satisfaction knowing that he protected someone he loves. But there's also the feeling of relief. Valen relieved because he was able to do what he's best at and he feels like himself again. All because he got to be a gangster again, like he was raised to be.
Maybe it's not good, but Valen doesn't mind. He's always known that he's the one who can do all of the bad things and dirty his hands just for the benefit of someone else. He'd rather he be the one labeled as a mean dog than someone he loves. Valen can handle it, can handle the weight of his actions, not everyone else can. If him being a gangster keeps someone else safe, then there's really no reason for him not to.
(Both Valen and I are well aware that this isn't exactly healthy, but he genuinely doesn't care that much. Valen is very self aware and knows what he is. He makes sure others know what he is and allows them to choose whether they stay or not. He enjoys that part of him too much to ever just put it down. He's unable to anyway. He's tried, and it felt like losing a limb. Completely ceasing that kind of behaviour would be cutting off a substantial chunk of his personality.)
47 notes · View notes