October Valentine
Posted: Fri Apr 09, 2021 10:21 pm
Name: October Valentine
Gender: Female
Age: 18
Grade: 12
School: John Endecott Memorial Academy
Hobbies and Interests: Art, graffiti, punk music, piercings, boxing for exercise
Appearance: October is 5'10" and weighs 138 pounds, her height helping to give her a more impressive aura. She is Caucasian and slightly on the pale side, although not drastically so. Her body type is mostly average, although her arms are clearly toned, as can be seen when she bares them in most of her off-campus outfits. Her legs are also quite long, as can be seen when she runs with long, fast strides.
October has jet-black hair that is cut almost short enough to be a crew-cut, aside from a spiky fringe that is left longer and dyed fuchsia. Her nose is medium-sized and sharp-looking, and her cheeks are smoothly angled. Her thin lips wear a frequent scowl, often accented by black lipstick. Her eyes are a very pale blue, sitting underneath a dark brow. She also has an enthusiasm for piercings that is visible just from a glance. She wears two small silver rings in the helix of her left ear, a barbell piercing in her left eyebrow, a black tourmaline crystal on a chain attached to the lobe of her right ear, and a ring in the right side of her lower lip.
Her dress sense tends to be very dark, only lightening it up a bit in order to skirt past the dress code. It acts as a boost to her intimidating image. Band shirts and graffiti-like graphics are the norm for her, as are black jackets.
Biography: For most of October's life, she has felt like she was somewhere she didn't belong. Born to Pam and Matt Valentine, a human resources representative and a stockbroker, her early life was spent as something of a loner. From preschool through elementary school, she kept to herself, drawing pictures with her pencils and crayons. She was usually not interested in the games that the other children played. She was easily annoyed and preferred to do things on her own, especially hating when other people messed up her work. Her social circle took a long time to grow as a result, and it wasn't until middle school that she joined an art club and started forming concrete friendships.
Her home life wasn't very enviable. Her parents were extremely strict and obsessed with appearances, being very controlling over October's time and activities. This rigidity often frustrated October, and she hated having to follow their instructions to the letter. Her attempts to rebel were always punished swiftly, and being grounded eventually became common to her, leaving her in the familiar situation of drawing alone in her room.
Once October turned twelve, she started developing more alternative tastes, taking a liking to goth and punk styles and music. The style was a complete reversal of the buttoned-up, clean-cut way that her parents always tried to present themselves, and she loved it for that. She took a particular liking to bands like Rise Against and The Offspring for their loud, unmistakable sound and catchy rhythms, although she did take a particular liking to their slower, more melodic tunes. This did not go over well with her parents in the slightest, who saw such things as a symbol of anarchy and delinquency. They tried to clamp down on October's explorations into her burgeoning interests, and all it did was drive more of a wedge between them. October started trying to spend as much time away from home as possible, signing up for art projects for extra credit and hanging out with friends after school, all to keep from having to spend time with her overly-strict parents. The continual conflict between them caused October to develop quite a temper, becoming very short-fused when she became upset.
By the time high school rolled around, it seemed that they couldn't talk to each other any more without a fight breaking out. With October growing more independent and openly ignoring their rules, they had been clashing more and more. Her parents tried to confiscate her aggressively dark clothes and punk albums, and she just grew more resentful of them. However, all this did was make October try harder. One of their major rules was that she was forbidden from having any piercings or tattoos. However, she thoughts that piercings were cool, and in certain cases, attractive. She took a bunch of Christmas money that she had saved up, and after a trip to the mall with her friends, she came home with two rings in her ear. Her parents were livid when she got home, but the fact that they couldn't directly do anything about it felt empowering to her.
She went on to find more ways around her parents' restrictions, partaking in racy and violent movies and games while hanging out with her friends, and sneaking out during afternoons and nights to do graffiti. She started on the outskirts of the neighborhood, but eventually got more daring with her targets, tagging deeper in town and developing a signature tag, a crudely drawn eyeball. She lifted old spray cans from the garage, and was lucky to avoid getting caught.
Although October did make some friends in high school, she still liked to have plenty of time to herself. With Endecott's sports programs in the sorry shape they were in, that meant that the gym was a frequent place where she could spend time without too many people bothering her. It was here that she discovered some old boxing equipment, and she started doing some drills to pass the time, which eventually turned into a frequent hobby. At least once a week she would run some footwork drills or shadowboxing, and that built her stamina much higher than it used to be. Once she got into a groove of working out frequently, she started putting in some time with the weights, taking great satisfaction in feeling herself get stronger. However, her boxing drills were still her preferred exercise.
Shortly before the beginning of her junior year, October found herself in real trouble. She attended an LGBT rights demonstration, and wound up brawling with someone who came to disrupt the event. She ran through the crowd and descended upon him with a series of punches, breaking the man's nose and creating a bloody display in the process before she was pulled off of him and arrested. When the trial came, she got some sympathy for her reasons, but the video of her attacking the man was a heavy anchor on her case. In the end, the ruling stated that she had to pay the victim's medical bills, which came out of her college fund, and six months of house arrest. With the state of her relationship with her parents coming out in interviews with the court, it was decided that she should serve out her sentence in a halfway house, in hopes that it would provide a less tense environment for her rehabilitation.
During October's stay in the halfway house, she felt demoralized. The people running it seemed nice, but she had to abide by very strict rules, including an early curfew and limited time on the internet, with her studies being an exception. The combination of the pandemic and her sentence forced her to do her learning remotely, further restricting her activities and interactions. She didn't make friends with anyone else there, and spent most of her time off on her own, continuing her art under supervision. She made sure not to draw anything that could be construed as threatening, but aside from that, she was drawing almost constantly unless she was mandated to be elsewhere. Although she lost her access to her boxing drills, she shifted to a regular regimen of sit-ups and push-ups to keep from falling out of shape.
As part of her sentence, October received regular anger management sessions with a court-appointed therapist. At first she thought that it would be a waste of time, but her sessions made her realize that her actions at the protest weren't a bout of sudden fury from nowhere. She had been building up anger for a long time, and that was the stressor that let it all out at once. Through their discussions, October realized that various factors, such as her lack of patience with people and hatred of losing control, had been weighing on her. However, it was pretty easy to see that her severely strained relationship with her family was the biggest thing affecting her.
When her sentence finished, she was evaluated and deemed to not be at serious risk of reoffending. However, due to how deep into the school year it already was, she would finish out the year with remote learning before returning to Endecott for her senior year. It had been almost a solid year or trials and tribulations, but October finally had a chance to go home and put all of that behind her.
Coming home wasn't much of a relief, unfortunately, as her parents had effectively written her off as a lost cause after her conviction. After a few fraught months where they scrutinized her constantly, she packed her belongings in a duffel bag and left, unwilling to try to live with their relationship anymore. She currently lives at the home of her best friend, Monti Morgan, and has not spoken to her parents since she left, nor does she have any real desire to.
Life at Monti's house proved to be a completely different experience from the world October had known. Monti's parents accepted her with open arms despite her history, and they proved to be extremely open-minded and pleasant. However, sometimes October wondered if they may be a bit too passive, considering how irresponsible and flighty Monti could be. She earns her keep by helping with chores and other errands around the house, and always cleans up after herself. In the Morgan house, October feels much more comfortable than she ever did in her own home. The parents are always happy to see her and Monti, and Monti's mom even complimented her tourmaline chain piercing when she got it. She often found herself wishing that they had been the family that she had been born into.
Her senior year has been a bit of a mixed bag. She still performs quite well in most categories, and she wasted no time in rejoining the art club and returning to work on their projects. However, the stigma of having been arrested had a significant effect on her social life, especially in a school like Endecott Memorial. She felt like there were always eyes on her, be they from students expecting her to go off, or teachers waiting for her to mess up so they could march her out of school. She keeps her head down and keeps her nose clean, doing her work, getting good grades, and going home.
October's plans for the future presently involve graduating and moving on to art school, with a gap year or two to earn some money not out of the question. She's bookmarked a few school websites on her computer, and she's trying to come to a decision before graduation. She doesn't plan on staying in town for too long after she graduates. She just wants to get away from her past and find a place where she fits in, wherever that may be.
Advantages: October is in good physical shape and has decent endurance to boot. She has more stamina than most, and can run, work, or fight for longer periods without exhausting herself. Her experience in sneaking out of the house and around town gives her some competence in moving around silently and unnoticed.
Disadvantages: October's reputation is a significant red flag that would hurt her chances at finding allies outside of her immediate friend group. In addition, her temper may hurt her ability to handle delicate situations, which would only degrade as time goes on and situations get worse.
Gender: Female
Age: 18
Grade: 12
School: John Endecott Memorial Academy
Hobbies and Interests: Art, graffiti, punk music, piercings, boxing for exercise
Appearance: October is 5'10" and weighs 138 pounds, her height helping to give her a more impressive aura. She is Caucasian and slightly on the pale side, although not drastically so. Her body type is mostly average, although her arms are clearly toned, as can be seen when she bares them in most of her off-campus outfits. Her legs are also quite long, as can be seen when she runs with long, fast strides.
October has jet-black hair that is cut almost short enough to be a crew-cut, aside from a spiky fringe that is left longer and dyed fuchsia. Her nose is medium-sized and sharp-looking, and her cheeks are smoothly angled. Her thin lips wear a frequent scowl, often accented by black lipstick. Her eyes are a very pale blue, sitting underneath a dark brow. She also has an enthusiasm for piercings that is visible just from a glance. She wears two small silver rings in the helix of her left ear, a barbell piercing in her left eyebrow, a black tourmaline crystal on a chain attached to the lobe of her right ear, and a ring in the right side of her lower lip.
Her dress sense tends to be very dark, only lightening it up a bit in order to skirt past the dress code. It acts as a boost to her intimidating image. Band shirts and graffiti-like graphics are the norm for her, as are black jackets.
Biography: For most of October's life, she has felt like she was somewhere she didn't belong. Born to Pam and Matt Valentine, a human resources representative and a stockbroker, her early life was spent as something of a loner. From preschool through elementary school, she kept to herself, drawing pictures with her pencils and crayons. She was usually not interested in the games that the other children played. She was easily annoyed and preferred to do things on her own, especially hating when other people messed up her work. Her social circle took a long time to grow as a result, and it wasn't until middle school that she joined an art club and started forming concrete friendships.
Her home life wasn't very enviable. Her parents were extremely strict and obsessed with appearances, being very controlling over October's time and activities. This rigidity often frustrated October, and she hated having to follow their instructions to the letter. Her attempts to rebel were always punished swiftly, and being grounded eventually became common to her, leaving her in the familiar situation of drawing alone in her room.
Once October turned twelve, she started developing more alternative tastes, taking a liking to goth and punk styles and music. The style was a complete reversal of the buttoned-up, clean-cut way that her parents always tried to present themselves, and she loved it for that. She took a particular liking to bands like Rise Against and The Offspring for their loud, unmistakable sound and catchy rhythms, although she did take a particular liking to their slower, more melodic tunes. This did not go over well with her parents in the slightest, who saw such things as a symbol of anarchy and delinquency. They tried to clamp down on October's explorations into her burgeoning interests, and all it did was drive more of a wedge between them. October started trying to spend as much time away from home as possible, signing up for art projects for extra credit and hanging out with friends after school, all to keep from having to spend time with her overly-strict parents. The continual conflict between them caused October to develop quite a temper, becoming very short-fused when she became upset.
By the time high school rolled around, it seemed that they couldn't talk to each other any more without a fight breaking out. With October growing more independent and openly ignoring their rules, they had been clashing more and more. Her parents tried to confiscate her aggressively dark clothes and punk albums, and she just grew more resentful of them. However, all this did was make October try harder. One of their major rules was that she was forbidden from having any piercings or tattoos. However, she thoughts that piercings were cool, and in certain cases, attractive. She took a bunch of Christmas money that she had saved up, and after a trip to the mall with her friends, she came home with two rings in her ear. Her parents were livid when she got home, but the fact that they couldn't directly do anything about it felt empowering to her.
She went on to find more ways around her parents' restrictions, partaking in racy and violent movies and games while hanging out with her friends, and sneaking out during afternoons and nights to do graffiti. She started on the outskirts of the neighborhood, but eventually got more daring with her targets, tagging deeper in town and developing a signature tag, a crudely drawn eyeball. She lifted old spray cans from the garage, and was lucky to avoid getting caught.
Although October did make some friends in high school, she still liked to have plenty of time to herself. With Endecott's sports programs in the sorry shape they were in, that meant that the gym was a frequent place where she could spend time without too many people bothering her. It was here that she discovered some old boxing equipment, and she started doing some drills to pass the time, which eventually turned into a frequent hobby. At least once a week she would run some footwork drills or shadowboxing, and that built her stamina much higher than it used to be. Once she got into a groove of working out frequently, she started putting in some time with the weights, taking great satisfaction in feeling herself get stronger. However, her boxing drills were still her preferred exercise.
Shortly before the beginning of her junior year, October found herself in real trouble. She attended an LGBT rights demonstration, and wound up brawling with someone who came to disrupt the event. She ran through the crowd and descended upon him with a series of punches, breaking the man's nose and creating a bloody display in the process before she was pulled off of him and arrested. When the trial came, she got some sympathy for her reasons, but the video of her attacking the man was a heavy anchor on her case. In the end, the ruling stated that she had to pay the victim's medical bills, which came out of her college fund, and six months of house arrest. With the state of her relationship with her parents coming out in interviews with the court, it was decided that she should serve out her sentence in a halfway house, in hopes that it would provide a less tense environment for her rehabilitation.
During October's stay in the halfway house, she felt demoralized. The people running it seemed nice, but she had to abide by very strict rules, including an early curfew and limited time on the internet, with her studies being an exception. The combination of the pandemic and her sentence forced her to do her learning remotely, further restricting her activities and interactions. She didn't make friends with anyone else there, and spent most of her time off on her own, continuing her art under supervision. She made sure not to draw anything that could be construed as threatening, but aside from that, she was drawing almost constantly unless she was mandated to be elsewhere. Although she lost her access to her boxing drills, she shifted to a regular regimen of sit-ups and push-ups to keep from falling out of shape.
As part of her sentence, October received regular anger management sessions with a court-appointed therapist. At first she thought that it would be a waste of time, but her sessions made her realize that her actions at the protest weren't a bout of sudden fury from nowhere. She had been building up anger for a long time, and that was the stressor that let it all out at once. Through their discussions, October realized that various factors, such as her lack of patience with people and hatred of losing control, had been weighing on her. However, it was pretty easy to see that her severely strained relationship with her family was the biggest thing affecting her.
When her sentence finished, she was evaluated and deemed to not be at serious risk of reoffending. However, due to how deep into the school year it already was, she would finish out the year with remote learning before returning to Endecott for her senior year. It had been almost a solid year or trials and tribulations, but October finally had a chance to go home and put all of that behind her.
Coming home wasn't much of a relief, unfortunately, as her parents had effectively written her off as a lost cause after her conviction. After a few fraught months where they scrutinized her constantly, she packed her belongings in a duffel bag and left, unwilling to try to live with their relationship anymore. She currently lives at the home of her best friend, Monti Morgan, and has not spoken to her parents since she left, nor does she have any real desire to.
Life at Monti's house proved to be a completely different experience from the world October had known. Monti's parents accepted her with open arms despite her history, and they proved to be extremely open-minded and pleasant. However, sometimes October wondered if they may be a bit too passive, considering how irresponsible and flighty Monti could be. She earns her keep by helping with chores and other errands around the house, and always cleans up after herself. In the Morgan house, October feels much more comfortable than she ever did in her own home. The parents are always happy to see her and Monti, and Monti's mom even complimented her tourmaline chain piercing when she got it. She often found herself wishing that they had been the family that she had been born into.
Her senior year has been a bit of a mixed bag. She still performs quite well in most categories, and she wasted no time in rejoining the art club and returning to work on their projects. However, the stigma of having been arrested had a significant effect on her social life, especially in a school like Endecott Memorial. She felt like there were always eyes on her, be they from students expecting her to go off, or teachers waiting for her to mess up so they could march her out of school. She keeps her head down and keeps her nose clean, doing her work, getting good grades, and going home.
October's plans for the future presently involve graduating and moving on to art school, with a gap year or two to earn some money not out of the question. She's bookmarked a few school websites on her computer, and she's trying to come to a decision before graduation. She doesn't plan on staying in town for too long after she graduates. She just wants to get away from her past and find a place where she fits in, wherever that may be.
Advantages: October is in good physical shape and has decent endurance to boot. She has more stamina than most, and can run, work, or fight for longer periods without exhausting herself. Her experience in sneaking out of the house and around town gives her some competence in moving around silently and unnoticed.
Disadvantages: October's reputation is a significant red flag that would hurt her chances at finding allies outside of her immediate friend group. In addition, her temper may hurt her ability to handle delicate situations, which would only degrade as time goes on and situations get worse.