Nathaniel Valentine (Earth-616 OC)

Nathaniel Valentine

Name:	Nathaniel Valentine
Gender:	Male
Place of Birth:	New York City
Age:	28
Aliases:	N/A
Origin:	Altered Human
Origin Earth:	616
Present Location:	New York City
Occupation:	Real Estate Broker
Team:	N/A
Alignment:	Hero-ish
Significant Other(s):	none
Powers and Abilities:	Cat-like Abilities due to demonic possession
Portrayed by:	Rufus Sewel

Origin

Nathaniel In a Nutshell

• Born in New York City to a British mother and an American father.
• Grew up with both parents, had a reasonably well-to-do childhood.
• Went to college for business, studied to pass the test to get a broker's license.
• Became a real estate agent with a large company, made a comfortable living for himself.
• When surveying a house for possible sale, he followed a cat up to the attic, intending to shoo it away; instead he got pulled into a demonic realm.
• During that three weeks he was stalked and hunted by a demonic feline demon, who he managed to outsmart and kill. But not before it partially possessed him.
• Three weeks later, he walked out of an alley after an explosion, claiming no memory of the time between him disappearing and him reappearing.

Psyche

+ Jumpy

This isn't just because he's been kidnapped. It's because of his newly-implanted instincts, those of a hunter who knows that he's either predator or prey. His "lizard brain" is closer to the surface than the average human being. So while a horn honked down the street or the sound of a yell in the distance won't scare him, people coming up from behind him might get an unpleasant shock, or he might jump— really high— if someone in a car right next to him honks at him.

+ Night Terrors

Nathaniel doesn't remember exactly what happened in the demonic realm he ended up in. All he knows is that it was horrible, and involved him being hunted relentlessly. So he's often tormented by nightmares of something very much like the illegitimate lovechild of a panther, a tiger, and the Cheshire Cat from a horror production of "Alice In Wonderland" chasing him 'till he falls and then pouncing him.

+ Power Phobia

Nathaniel doesn't even know what he's capable of. All he knows is that whatever he's able to do, he shouldn't be able to do it. And that it's bad. It has to be.

+ Other Side

It's not quite a full other self, thanks to Nathaniel actually killing the demon that hunted him. But the instincts of the hunter demon are still there, and he often has to push away thoughts of, say, separating one human from a large crowd and running him down until he or she collapses.

+ GOALS

Nathaniel just wants a normal life, really. That's pretty well impossible now, he realizes, but it's a good thing to try for, anyway. And in between demonic things coming after him, he can sure make it look normal enough.

+ MOTIVATION

Broadly, Nathaniel wants to try and stop demonic forces from preying on people. More narrowly, he wants to figure out how to close that portal in that house, so no one else gets pulled in. But who's going to believe him if he tells people there's a portal to Hell inside an attic? He's on his own with it and he knows that. Though he doesn't know a thing about the supernatural. So he's got a ways to go before he can accomplish this.

Abilities

+ Low-Light Vision

Nathaniel can "tune" his eyes to see better in dim light conditions. This doesn't extend his sight range beyond normal human sight at all; while it's active all it does is bring his vision in partial darkness up to the level of normal human daytime vision, with the added caveat that he loses the ability to discern colors at all. But he can see shapes and movement in low light with the same visual acuity any normal human can in daylight conditions. However, bright lights can cause temporary blindness if shone in his eyes while this is active.

+ Communicate With Felines

Nathaniel can understand felines, both domestic and wild. It's not telepathic communication, so he has to be within eyesight and/or earshot of the feline he's attempting to communicate with. This doesn't give him any more understanding of what 'metal den that moves' (a car) is than he'd have normally. And it's also not CONTROL of felines, so it's generally not going to stop him from getting mauled by a big cat if he ends up in its domain.

+ Cat-Like Capabilities

Nathaniel can run (yes, on all fours if he choses), jump, and balance as though he was a cat, and right himself to land on his feet when he falls. Using this he can mitigate a fall of up to thirty stories (though he's probably going to be hurting when he lands; better than dying though). This is a passive ability, so he doesn't generally have to "activate" it.

+ Claws

Nathaniel's hands and feet have been altered so that his nails function as claws. On his hands they can be extended and retracted by similar muscle contractions as a normal cat. These claws can leave deep scratches in material as tough as asphalt without harming Nathaniel's hands. When retracted on his hands they look like nothing more than fingernails that are a little pointy, but a close examination of his hands can pick them out. The claws on his feet do not retract.

+ Feline Eyes

Nathaniel's normal sight actually isn't all that much better than a normal human's, in terms of range. He can pick out movement about three times better, but in return he can't see distinguish from shades of the same color very well.

+ Feline Ears

His hearing is noticeably better, with Nathaniel being able to hear sounds almost two octaves above human range of hearing. Though it's worth noting that his actual hearing distance is the same as any other human thanks to his ears being where they belong on a human head rather than able to pivot them like a cat's. While the remaining muscles around his ears are stronger than normal, it doesn't add to his hearing— it just gives him the ability to wiggle his ears quite well.

+ Feline Nose

Nathaniel's sense of smell is about ten times stronger than a normal human's, and he possesses a partially-developed vomeronasal organ in the roof of his mouth.

+ Feline Touch

It's Nathaniel's sense of touch that is his strongest, sharpest sense. He's able to differentiate between a number of different materials just by touch. His most impressive stunt by far is to get a mental map of his surroundings (about thirty feet max) via feeling the air currents in that area on his skin. Impressive or not, though, he rarely bothers unless it's necessary, for a couple of reasons. Mostly because it takes a goodly amount of time, at least a full minute, and he doesn't always have the option of that much time.

Advantages

+ House

Nathaniel's real estate training came in handy; he was able to buy a foreclosed property at a steal. All he needed to do was pay off the taxes. Which he did. This means that he lives the dream of every citizen of New York City— having rent-free housing! To be fair, the property is actually on the outskirts of the city, in the more suburban areas. But it's a nice place, and all he has to pay are the various house upkeep bills— water, electric, housing insurance, property tax, etc.

+ Real Estate Knowledge

It's one of those things that isn't terribly useful to have until one needs it, and then it's INCREDIBLY useful. Need to buy a safehouse? How about a place to put a superhero (or supervillain) lair? Or even just to know what properties are vacant so you can chill there for a while? Natt's your guy!

Skills

+ Salesman

We're not talking sleazy car salesman here. He knows how to talk to people to find out what they want, knows how to find what they're looking for, and spent much of his time before coming up missing connecting people who want things with the things they want.

+ Mental Pathing

Kind of a side effect of what's happened to him, Nathaniel can observe his surroundings and find a path around most obstacles if he takes the time to do so. Generally though, this will be a route that's over roofs. But he is capable of just picking a path through things on the ground.

Disadvantages

+ Degrees of Visibility

Most of Nathaniel's mutations are visible to the astute. Particularly those of his eyes— they possess a third eyelid, and produce eyeshine in certain lights. Thank God for sunglasses that are DESIGNED to be worn at night (to cut down glare from car headlights and streetlights). His hands and feet take close scrutiny to discover the claws, but it's possible, particularly with his feet. And seeing a man fall from thirty stories and get nothing more than a twisted ankle or sore knee is pretty much a dead giveaway that he's not normal.

+ Colorblind

Nathaniel isn't completely colorblind. He can tell red from blue, blue from green, green from yellow, yellow from pink, etc. He can also distinguish between light and dark shades of the same color— sky blue from cobalt blue, for instance. But he can't really tell similar shades apart— fire engine red from candy apple red, emerald green from Lincoln green, etc., are too close for his eyes to distinguish anymore.

+ Broken Mind or Missing Time?

Nathaniel's mind isn't capable of dealing with the horrors he experienced while he was inside the hunter demon's realm. If he's forced to remember it fully, it will doubtless cause some degree of psychological damage. But without remembering it, he's just missing that three weeks of time.

Reputation

He's got a bit of local fame around the New York City area, though not because of his stellar real estate talents. It's due to his sudden disappearance and reappearance three weeks later, since no one knows where he went. The investigation is still open, there's no suspects, and he isn't talking. The police might be watching him to see if anyone makes contact with him again. Maybe they can get some clues…

IC Events

Logs tagged with "nathaniel-valentine" or "re:nathaniel-valentine" will be added below automatically.

21 Sep 2016 22:07 (2016-09-21) Not Catman I Hope?

01 Oct 2016 23:41 (2016-09-17) The Prize for Stumping Serenity

21 Sep 2016 18:47 (2016-09-11) Back With a Bang

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