HEALTH & LIFESTYLE

DIET: Ari does all the cooking. She makes very healthy, usually vegetarian food. He sometimes craves junk food and dips to indulge on some WcDonalds, but since his stomach isn't used to processing that sort of stuff, it usually ends poorly. This does not stop him.

EXERCISE: Works out a few times a week. Mostly light exercizes.

SLEEP: Can fall asleep on a dime and is a very light sleeper, like how all Valerians are trained to be. Due to this, he has a very rigid sleep schedule (falls asleep at 10, wakes up at 6am sharp)

HYGIENE: Always clean and neat, usually wearing cologne.

ADDICTION: None.

HISTORY OF PHYSICAL ILLNESS

Oh, you know those Academy kids. What hasn't he broken?

SCARS: Had one across his forehead as a child, at the Academy it was removed.

ALLERGY: Used to have a peanut allergy as a child, at the Academy it was removed.

INTOLERANCE: None.

STRENGTHS

Charming - Andy has a natural charisma that makes it easy for others to trust and open up to him.

Caring - Andy takes almost everything very seriously and will always do his best to help where he can.

WEAKNESSES

Empathetic - his emotions often get the better of him, interfering with his ability to do his job.

Righteous - he can become blinded by rage and lose control of himself if someone is crossing the lines of good taste. He knows the impact that certain actions can have, and he'll be damned if he ever sees it happen again, not now that he has the power to stop it.

FLAWS

Is sometimes overconfident, overestimates what he can handle and gets his ass kicked.

Since he's spent most of his life protecting, and also being a Valerian, he finds it hard to let people in, and struggles to ask for help, usually keeping his troubles and worries inside for himself to deal with.

HABITS

Always checks if someone is armed.

Always has a plan on how to knock someone out.

Always pays attention to all the methods of ingress in a room.

PET PEEVES

Misuse of language. This is not about speaking perfectly and more about people disrespecting dialects (mocking language, using it incorrectly, etc)

People incapable of carrying out common decencies (e.g. you can't return the fucking shopping cart seriously whats wrong with you)

WISHES

Would love to have a family... would love to have kids. But raising them in this society, knowing they'd go to the Academy... He's not sure he could do it.

Oh, to be free to pursue... literally anything else! He wishes he never went to the Academy. Flying isn't worth it.

PREJUDICE

Francophobic

SECRETS

That's for him to know, and for you to worry about :)

PHILOSOPHY

All's well that ends well!

ETHICS

Superhero-level ethics. Help those who are in need. Be kind to others, even if they might not be kind in return. Murder is never the correct answer. His past actions haunt him, and he often finds it hard to reconcile. He wants so badly to be a person, but the Academy will only ever see him as a weapon.

HISTORY OF MENTAL ILLNESS

Complex PTSD. If he has an episode, no one will notice it. He's become a master of completely disguising it.

TRIGGERS: That's a bit personal, innit :)

PHOBIAS: Claustrophobic

DEFENSE MECHANISM: Compensation

THREAT-BASED MINDSET: Fight

BIRTHPLACE: Pandong, Heixia

ENVIRONMENT: A relatively poor province with an abundance of Academies, and limited opportunities for Hybrids outside of them.

OVERALL HISTORY

CHILDHOOD: A human woman, after a drunken affair, is horrified to find she's given birth to not one, but two hybrids. Her well-to-do parents would be angry with one child - two hybrids is just begging to get thrown out.
So she throws them out first. Since they're just hybrids, no one stops her.
One of the nurses, a Hybrid herself, quietly rescues the two infants, keeping them in the hospital under care until they can be delivered to the nearest orphanage.

Neither Andy nor his sister Ari know anything about this - as far as they know, they were born into the orphanage they'd grown up in. It's not a great place. But they don't know anything better. Sometimes people would come in, prospective parents, but they almost never actually adopted anyone - and if they did, it was almost always humans. They quickly learned to hide when someone came in searching for Hybrids specifically - it was uncommon, but always bad news. Still - it was hard for Andy not to dream, always poking his head around the corner, wide-eyed, hoping the nice woman who had come in would see him and his sister, fall in love, take them somewhere warm and safe and they could live a normal life, like in the movies he'd watch on the barely functional VHS they had in the main room.
Ari was more concerned about staying alive, working hard to be the best at chores and stealing extra food when she could - kids were regularly purged as more came in than left, and those thrown into the streets usually didn't last long. A body in the back alleyway of a kid that used to sleep beside them. Andy tried to cover her eyes, but Ari refused.
They did their best to give them a proper burial.

ADOLESCENCE: On their 12th birthday, the two were finally called out to meet their new handler. Almost every orphanage would simply sell off unadopted hybrids on their 12th birthday - why wouldn't you? Who would want a teenager, let alone a teen hybrid? It was easy money, and a good way to get rid of them. Andy was excited to finally be free of the orphanage, but the thought that no one had ever wanted him weighed heavily upon him.
Desperate to prove himself, he began diving into his new role at the Academy. Academy work was head and shoulders more exciting than polishing toilets and washing floors - learning to read, history, philosophy - even fighting was more fun. He begins making friends and easily settles into his role as class clown. His house suited him perfectly, and he began climbing up the ranks. Ari was slower at first, with her house being more reading-heavy, and they both started illiterate. But it didn't take long for her to catch up, which built up to a competition between them - who could rank up faster? Get the better grades?
It was definitely a fun competition to drown out the agony of everything around them. They'd foolishly thought the orphanage had prepared them for the worst in everything - but lo, there were fresh horrors waiting to be discovered within the Academy walls. And Andy often found himself in trouble - both due to his troublesome nature, and also due to his inability to sit back and let horrible things happen. Time and time again, he would step in to protect someone - even people he hated - once going as far as charming a house leader to protect a fellow student. His handler was at her wit's end trying to think of a way to break this child's spirits. With how fast he was ranking, however, the answer presented itself to her quite easily - while he may have had leeway to fuck around in the Academy, he couldn't escape when it came to work.

ADULTHOOD: With his natural charisma and likeability, Andy was pretty much immediately thrown into undercover work. He had many mixed feelings about it - on the one hand - it definitely required less murder. On the other, it did require him to get to know people with families and histories and brutally betray them, which is something he gravely disliked. After reaching Rank 8 at 17, he was forced to fake his own death for a long-term espionage assignment in Hiver, where he pretended to be an adult. After two long years of pretending to be someone else, becoming entwined in the Hiver government and taking stock of their assets, he was finally able to return back to An Yuan.
Ari didn't take it well. He didn't expect her to.
A lot had changed while he was gone. A bunch of friends were now dead. The return was disorienting. He kept speaking with a fake French accent before correcting himself. When he left, he was a child, but now, him and everyone around him were adults. He moved in with his sister, who had been hired by a local hospital. The Academy released him onto vacation, looking for more assignments to send him out on.
Almost every Valerian with unclear parentage eventually succumbs to the burning urge to find their birth parents. Andy is no different - after swearing to Ari that he would never, he eventually begins his hunt for their origin. Andy's case is a little more difficult than most - with no paper trail to even follow. But in this brief period, where he has nothing but time, and feels uncentered to begin with - it's worth the effort. He finally finds her - a middle-aged woman, married to a rich man, with three perfect little human children. Without thinking about it, he decides to "meet" her - running into her at the supermarket, having a brief exchange about cereal brands and children. She doesn't recognize him. He didn't expect her to. He keeps this entire endeavour to himself.
The government has found another assignment for him. He has a crisis no one sees - no one sees anything about a Valerian, unless they allow it. Is this it? Is this all he gets to be? A murderer? A traitor? A spy?
Catching wind of a new Academy opening, looking for a teacher, he desperately applies. The Academy ignores him until its clear no one else wants to move to Yun, before begrudgingly allowing him the assignment, on the understanding that if they find someone else, he's back to work. Ari, determined not to be left behind, also stubbornly applies for the other teacher position.
"Another competition is it?" Andy grins.
"Aren't you tired of losing?" she retorts, giving him a sharp look.
He chuckles. He feels better than he has in years. "Only if you're tired of catching up."

BEST MEMORY: His fifteenth birthday, wandering around the city with his friends, getting into trouble, just for one night, he feels like a normal kid.

WORST MEMORY: In a haze of blood, Andy finally snaps back to lucidity - staring at his hands. He can hear Ari crying in the corner distantly, the man beneath him inches from death. In this moment he begins to realize he might actually have a problem with his temper.
"No, don't- touch him. I... I'll call someone... I can call..."

SHORT-TERM GOALS: Teaching these kids! They all grow up so fast, huh?

LONG-TERM GOALS: He has to get out of this somehow. If he could dig his heels in and just stay here, doing good and keeping others safe, instead of being sent out there to hurt people - there has to be a way, right?

INTERNAL CONFLICT: Your emotions have only ever gotten you into trouble. You can't control them. You need to get rid of them. But is it really selfish? To want to feel? Even with all its highs and lows?

EXTERNAL CONFLICT: It's always been the Academy, hasn't it? But sometimes it's more specific, like Vanessa, who can't stop hurting his fucking friends-

CURRENT CONCERN: Very torn between breaking up with Fuji or proposing to her on the spot. He really shouldn't... how did he ever let himself be convinced?

VERBAL

ACCENT: Mandarin

VERBAL TIC: None. He blends into whatever conversation style is currently being used by his conversational partner/group.

CATCHPHRASE: None.

SPOKEN LANGUAGE: All.

ARTICULATION: Has a radio-quality voice, with good projection and clear enunciation, unless he's situationally changing it.

BREATHING PATTERN: Perfectly balanced, as all things should be.

NONVERBAL

BODY MOVEMENT: Usually very casual, uses a lot of hand movements.

EXPRESSION: Almost always smiling, whether its brightly or deviously. When the smile drops, you know you've fucked up.

EMOTIONAL STATE: Usually very lighthearted, having a good time and trying to bring the general mood up. Has a natural charisma that helps people open up to him.

BODY POSTURE: Casual, fond of leaning.

WALKING STYLE: Varies by situation. Left to his own devices he's quite the powerwalker, but that's usually too outlandish for most situations.

SITTING STYLE: Will sit on a chair backwards unprovoked. Usually leans back into the chair.

SLEEPING STYLE: Flat on his back (result of training)

ABILITIES

Charm Path - Able to charm others easily and permanently, provided he is calm while doing so. These charms can change people's minds, alter memories, or lock them off entirely, or plant ideas into other people's heads that they would not otherwise have had.

Limited Omniscience - Has complete omniscience over the room he is inside, or in a 20ft radius while outside. Inside this range, he can see and hear every single thing occurring in a room.

R6 Ability - Tether. Andy places a small string of wind that plays a very specific tone he can hear from anywhere. This tether allows him to instantly locate anyone who he attaches it to by listening. When the wearer is frantic, the tone will increase in pitch, making it handy for rescues. It is currently attached to two people - Ari, and Fuji.

TALENTS

Learned how to perform magic tricks, even if half of them are a bit redundant now with his Valerian abilities.

An excellent actor and very talented at singing. In another life, he would've made a great actor.

SKILLS

Skilled in all the basic Valerian skills - lying, lockpicking, stealth, hacking, etc.

Skilled in espionage as an undercover Valerian - blending in, subversion, improv, manipulation, gaining trust, etc.

TRIVIA

Dreamed of being an actor ever since he was young, watching movies on the orphanage TV.

Will sometimes take a late-night flight to clear his head, if he has a lot on his mind.

Thinks Shakespeare was overrated :/

Perfectly content with his short stature, however, there's only so many short jokes one man can take, and sometimes he wishes he'd been gifted at least an extra 4 inches, it'd make his life easier-

Seems pretty suave on the surface, but is easily flustered/undone if a lady takes control from him.

Has the number 429 on the back of his neck.

HOBBIES

Loves reading. Is always making his way through a book or two.

Learned piano as an easy way to win people over. Still enjoys playing it from time to time.

REFSHEET

DESIGN NOTES

Link to full image

He's not handsome! He's definitely cute. He has big round eyes and a button nose.

Often has a hand in his pocket. There's nothing in there! It's just comfy :)

MOODBOARD

PLAYLIST

Suit & Tie - Justin Timberlake

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ATTITUDE

TOWARDS STRANGER: Friendly, polite

TOWARDS ACQUAINTANCE: A little friendlier, will often remember little details to bring back up.

TOWARDS FRIENDS: More playful, loves to tease his friends. Likes to check on how they're holding up, see if there isn't anything they need help with.

TOWARDS FAMILY: Ari and Andy often argue and fight, but it's usually in good fun, and he can't fathom his life without her.

TOWARDS LOVERS: Loves to tease, as well as cherish, spoiling them with gifts and affection as much as he can.

TOWARDS RIVAL: Good-natured competition. He won't cheat to win, it ruins the satisfaction of the victory.

TOWARDS ENEMY: Will remain polite, but keeps a close eye on them, sometimes making casual digs or engaging in antagonistic banter. If he dislikes someone to begin with, they're more likely to piss him off.