Vanman
Two Thousand Club
History
Fortune Valentine and his brother, Spirit, were born in NYC on June 21st, 1974 to Brenda and Nathan Valentine. Both Nathan and Brenda were archaeologists who taught at NYU. As a result, Fortune traveled the world at an early age. Just like when he was born, the birth of his twin siblings, Charity and Temperance, four years later only curtailed the family’s travels briefly. Nathan and Brenda took turns tutoring their children while the other worked in the field. Trips to their respective dig sights were often part of the curriculum. It was this early exposure to the world of archaeology – as well as other events – that sparked Fortune’s interest in antiquities.
Much of the Valentine’s work centered in Ireland. The pair were fascinated with the culture and history of the Irish folk. Two of the events that would shape Fortune’s life occurred in Ireland. The first was when Fortune was ten. It was on his birthday, and he was playing in and around a stone circle, close to a sight his parents were working. Since both his parents were busy, one working the sight and the other watching after his sisters, Fortune and Spirit wandered off on their own. It was during their rambling that they discovered the stone circle. It wasn’t a huge monument, but it was remarkably well preserved. There was a stone obelisk in the middle of the circle, and Fortune took to tracing the strange markings carved on its surface. The sun was setting and, as it sunk below the horizon, a strange light emanated from the obelisk. He stood transfixed for an indeterminate amount of time, during which he had strange visions – or was it dreams? – visions he was unable to remember. When he finally snapped out of his stupor, it was dark and his parents were calling the boys’ names. Thinking little of the event – they were 10 – the twins rushed off to their parents.
It just so happened that they were scheduled to accompany their father the following day to his dig sight. Nathan was studying a Celtic ruin, with particular emphasis on the Druids. Previous investigations pointed to the sight as having great significance for the Druids, and Nathan was hopeful proof could be found. A Celtic settlement had, indeed, been found, but nothing pointed to the presence of Druids. The morning’s work continued this lack of evidence, and Nathan’s frustration was palpable. Whilst at lunch, Fortune told Nathan about the stone circle. Nathan’s eyes got wide, as he was unaware of the circle. This could be the break he’d been looking for. He asked the boys to show him where it was.
Spirit was unsure where to go, but Fortune knew. He always had a way with directions, and this “way†helped him find the circle. When they reached it, Nathan was overjoyed. It was the link he’d been searching for. Something didn’t sit right with Fortune, though. The stone obelisk was broken, and the stones in the circle seemed so much older, so much more run down. This was, ostensibly, the circle he encountered before, but it was so much less….vibrant. He asked his brother if everything seemed right to him, but Spirit was odd, distant, and seemed somewhat in a daze. Fortune shrugged and allowed himself to be carried away in his father’s exuberance. The majority of Nathan’s remaining time at the sight was spent in the circle, and what time was spent in the ruin focused on finding a tie to the circle. When their time was up, the Valentines went home.
Fortune didn’t think too much about the visions he had in the circle. After all, they were just dreams, right? But something was different. More to the point, Spirit was different. It wasn’t anything easily identifiable. His parents seemed to think nothing was wrong. But Spirit wasn’t there. In his mind. He didn’t know what was missing until it was gone, but once it was gone, he noticed it. Many spoke of the bond between twins. Fortune didn’t pay those rumors much attention, before. But now? He knew it existed. And he knew the person claiming to be Spirit wasn’t Spirit. Conversations with his parents got him nowhere. They claimed Spirit was fine, that he was growing up, that everyone goes through changes as they grow. No matter how hard Fortune argued, it was, ultimately, fruitless.
So Fortune followed in his parents’ footsteps. He started researching. He researched missing persons, he researched stories of doppelgangers, he researched stone circles – in short, anything that might give him an idea of what happened to Spirit. In his investigations, he came across stories of children being stolen in the night, to be replaced by doppelgangers. Unfortunately, they were just that – stories. Fortune dug deeper, trying to find the origins of these stories – because, as most people knew, stories often had a foundation in reality. His search began with his parents’ library, but then spread to the public library, then to bookstores, then to occult bookstores.
One theme kept coming back – the perpetrators of the kidnappings were fairies. That’s right, fairies. Fortune remembered the stone circle he was in when he had those visions. This led him to research stone circles. There was a definite connection between fairies and stone circles. Some said they were gates to the fairy world, some said the Druids used them in their rites, and some of their rites supposedly dealt with the fairy world. Fortune became convinced this is what happened to his brother. He was somehow stolen from this world and taken into Faerie. Further research told of an item – a clockwork timepiece that would open the door to the Realm Fantastique. There were other items that supposedly did the same thing – a petrified charcoal stick that could draw a doorway, a particular rowan branch that, when knocked in a fairy circle, would open a door, and a brass doorknob that, on the night of a full moon or a new moon, depending on the story, will open a door. All of these stories, these rumors, gave Fortune hope. Hope that he would find his brother. Hope that he could do something to bring about Spirit’s return. Despite his parents’ disbelief.
The second event that was to shape Fortune’s life occurred, again, in Ireland on his seventeenth birthday. The family were working a sight not too far from the sight they worked seven years earlier. The family had had a nice birthday celebration for Fortune, and he was in his tent, reading a book on Irish myths and legends. As the clock wore into the night, he thought he heard a sound – a whuffle or snort – but he paid it no mind, and eventually went to sleep. That sleep was interrupted by his mother’s screams. Charity and Temperance were gone. Their beds were slept in, but the girls were gone. Fortune and his father spent a good deal of time trying to figure out where they might have gone or – more terrifying to consider – who might have taken them. Their search was futile, however. The police arrived, and their searches, too, proved fruitless.
Fortune was torn up, naturally, but he was also suspicious. He watched his “brother†closely, to see how “Spirit†reacted to the news. The reactions appeared genuine, but, again, something seemed…off. Whilst Fortune had his suspicions, the circumstances to these disappearances were different. It happened while the twins were sleeping, and they were obviously taken from their beds. There was no stone circle, and no other clues pointed to supernatural involvement. Now Fortune’s research focused on items that could locate lost objects or people.
The elder Valentines stopped their fieldwork after Charity and Temperance’s disappearance. Despite their protestations, Fortune was determined to pursue a career in archaeology. Not for the digs themselves. No. He was much more interested in finding items that could aid his search, both for his brother and his sisters. Many of his peers at university saw him as something of a nutcase, but he didn’t care. He was unwavering in his desire to find his missing family.
It was while at university that he first met Hank Blaylock. The two struck up a strange friendship. Hank was outgoing and personable - a people person. Fortune was quiet and studious - a bookworm. Yet the two became fast friends. What held them together was both had lost siblings - Fortune as already explained, Hank to kidnappers. His brother had been taken by kidnappers, and he, too, had not been found. When Hank found out Fortune was trying to find a way to find his sisters, the two became close friends.
Once he graduated, he started traveling the world, accompanied by Hank, searching for those odd and strange items he read about. He was moderately successful in finding them. None of them helped him find his brother, but he found that certain people would pay money for his discoveries. Soon, people were coming to him asking him to find artifacts for them. Hank, being a people person, was very good at discussing prices and being the face of the business. After a while, he was making a decent living finding people’s lost treasures.
It was in this capacity that he was introduced to Alejandro Dumas. Dumas was looking for some Aztec items. Of particular note was a silver skull, reportedly used in their blood sacrifices. It took some searching, but Fortune found the item and recovered it. Dumas seemed impressed. He asked Fortune to find a ceremonial dagger supposedly used to remove the hearts of Spanish missionaries captured by the Aztecs. Again, Fortune brought the item back. The last item he asked Fortune to find was the Blood Shield, the shield Montezuma carried into battle. This item was much more difficult to locate, and its recovery even more problematic. But recover it he did. Dumas asked Valentine to his home for a celebratory dinner.
Some might call it perverse irony that the date of this dinner was December 21st, 2004. The opening of one door occurred on the Summer Solstice. The opening of a second door – or the closing of a different door – occurred this night. For this was the night that Fortune Valentine was embraced. The two spent the night discussing archaeology, artifacts and Fortune’s work. They drank a lot of wine. Events got hazy, but lucidity returned with Dumas’s teeth in Fortune’s throat, the life slowing draining from him, death kissing his lips, taking him in, and then death breathing life back into him through Dumas’s blood.
After the requisite neonate…difficulties – the hunger, the horror, the Beast – Dumas told Fortune his skill was prodigious, and he felt it would be better served if Valentine had endless nights to pursue his passion. Dumas spent several months explaining the necessities of Kindred life. Fortune, on the other hand, despaired somewhat. His travels were now relegated – by necessity – to the night time, and searching for artifacts located in remote locations posed problems should he not be able to find appropriate shelter. Dumas had an answer to that. He said there was a Gangrel, Maric Sterindovic, who owed him several favors – boons, he called them. Gangrels had a particular discipline that allowed them to sleep in the earth. He would have Sterindovic teach Valentine that discipline.
Shortly after that, Dumas left. Valentine hasn’t seen him since. He spends his time much like he did before the Embrace. He tracks down items people want found, all the while conducting his own search. Hank is still with him, hoping against hope that his own brother can be found. Fortune’s been looking so long for a way to find Spirit and his sisters - and, by extension, Hank's brother - that he feels he can’t give up now. Even though his feelings for his brother and sisters seem….distant. Faded. Blackwater is an intriguing place. He’s heard of the blood grass. He’s heard of the history. He feels there might be business for him here. There also might be answers. Unlikely, but the possibility does exist. He continues to look….
Much of the Valentine’s work centered in Ireland. The pair were fascinated with the culture and history of the Irish folk. Two of the events that would shape Fortune’s life occurred in Ireland. The first was when Fortune was ten. It was on his birthday, and he was playing in and around a stone circle, close to a sight his parents were working. Since both his parents were busy, one working the sight and the other watching after his sisters, Fortune and Spirit wandered off on their own. It was during their rambling that they discovered the stone circle. It wasn’t a huge monument, but it was remarkably well preserved. There was a stone obelisk in the middle of the circle, and Fortune took to tracing the strange markings carved on its surface. The sun was setting and, as it sunk below the horizon, a strange light emanated from the obelisk. He stood transfixed for an indeterminate amount of time, during which he had strange visions – or was it dreams? – visions he was unable to remember. When he finally snapped out of his stupor, it was dark and his parents were calling the boys’ names. Thinking little of the event – they were 10 – the twins rushed off to their parents.
It just so happened that they were scheduled to accompany their father the following day to his dig sight. Nathan was studying a Celtic ruin, with particular emphasis on the Druids. Previous investigations pointed to the sight as having great significance for the Druids, and Nathan was hopeful proof could be found. A Celtic settlement had, indeed, been found, but nothing pointed to the presence of Druids. The morning’s work continued this lack of evidence, and Nathan’s frustration was palpable. Whilst at lunch, Fortune told Nathan about the stone circle. Nathan’s eyes got wide, as he was unaware of the circle. This could be the break he’d been looking for. He asked the boys to show him where it was.
Spirit was unsure where to go, but Fortune knew. He always had a way with directions, and this “way†helped him find the circle. When they reached it, Nathan was overjoyed. It was the link he’d been searching for. Something didn’t sit right with Fortune, though. The stone obelisk was broken, and the stones in the circle seemed so much older, so much more run down. This was, ostensibly, the circle he encountered before, but it was so much less….vibrant. He asked his brother if everything seemed right to him, but Spirit was odd, distant, and seemed somewhat in a daze. Fortune shrugged and allowed himself to be carried away in his father’s exuberance. The majority of Nathan’s remaining time at the sight was spent in the circle, and what time was spent in the ruin focused on finding a tie to the circle. When their time was up, the Valentines went home.
Fortune didn’t think too much about the visions he had in the circle. After all, they were just dreams, right? But something was different. More to the point, Spirit was different. It wasn’t anything easily identifiable. His parents seemed to think nothing was wrong. But Spirit wasn’t there. In his mind. He didn’t know what was missing until it was gone, but once it was gone, he noticed it. Many spoke of the bond between twins. Fortune didn’t pay those rumors much attention, before. But now? He knew it existed. And he knew the person claiming to be Spirit wasn’t Spirit. Conversations with his parents got him nowhere. They claimed Spirit was fine, that he was growing up, that everyone goes through changes as they grow. No matter how hard Fortune argued, it was, ultimately, fruitless.
So Fortune followed in his parents’ footsteps. He started researching. He researched missing persons, he researched stories of doppelgangers, he researched stone circles – in short, anything that might give him an idea of what happened to Spirit. In his investigations, he came across stories of children being stolen in the night, to be replaced by doppelgangers. Unfortunately, they were just that – stories. Fortune dug deeper, trying to find the origins of these stories – because, as most people knew, stories often had a foundation in reality. His search began with his parents’ library, but then spread to the public library, then to bookstores, then to occult bookstores.
One theme kept coming back – the perpetrators of the kidnappings were fairies. That’s right, fairies. Fortune remembered the stone circle he was in when he had those visions. This led him to research stone circles. There was a definite connection between fairies and stone circles. Some said they were gates to the fairy world, some said the Druids used them in their rites, and some of their rites supposedly dealt with the fairy world. Fortune became convinced this is what happened to his brother. He was somehow stolen from this world and taken into Faerie. Further research told of an item – a clockwork timepiece that would open the door to the Realm Fantastique. There were other items that supposedly did the same thing – a petrified charcoal stick that could draw a doorway, a particular rowan branch that, when knocked in a fairy circle, would open a door, and a brass doorknob that, on the night of a full moon or a new moon, depending on the story, will open a door. All of these stories, these rumors, gave Fortune hope. Hope that he would find his brother. Hope that he could do something to bring about Spirit’s return. Despite his parents’ disbelief.
The second event that was to shape Fortune’s life occurred, again, in Ireland on his seventeenth birthday. The family were working a sight not too far from the sight they worked seven years earlier. The family had had a nice birthday celebration for Fortune, and he was in his tent, reading a book on Irish myths and legends. As the clock wore into the night, he thought he heard a sound – a whuffle or snort – but he paid it no mind, and eventually went to sleep. That sleep was interrupted by his mother’s screams. Charity and Temperance were gone. Their beds were slept in, but the girls were gone. Fortune and his father spent a good deal of time trying to figure out where they might have gone or – more terrifying to consider – who might have taken them. Their search was futile, however. The police arrived, and their searches, too, proved fruitless.
Fortune was torn up, naturally, but he was also suspicious. He watched his “brother†closely, to see how “Spirit†reacted to the news. The reactions appeared genuine, but, again, something seemed…off. Whilst Fortune had his suspicions, the circumstances to these disappearances were different. It happened while the twins were sleeping, and they were obviously taken from their beds. There was no stone circle, and no other clues pointed to supernatural involvement. Now Fortune’s research focused on items that could locate lost objects or people.
The elder Valentines stopped their fieldwork after Charity and Temperance’s disappearance. Despite their protestations, Fortune was determined to pursue a career in archaeology. Not for the digs themselves. No. He was much more interested in finding items that could aid his search, both for his brother and his sisters. Many of his peers at university saw him as something of a nutcase, but he didn’t care. He was unwavering in his desire to find his missing family.
It was while at university that he first met Hank Blaylock. The two struck up a strange friendship. Hank was outgoing and personable - a people person. Fortune was quiet and studious - a bookworm. Yet the two became fast friends. What held them together was both had lost siblings - Fortune as already explained, Hank to kidnappers. His brother had been taken by kidnappers, and he, too, had not been found. When Hank found out Fortune was trying to find a way to find his sisters, the two became close friends.
Once he graduated, he started traveling the world, accompanied by Hank, searching for those odd and strange items he read about. He was moderately successful in finding them. None of them helped him find his brother, but he found that certain people would pay money for his discoveries. Soon, people were coming to him asking him to find artifacts for them. Hank, being a people person, was very good at discussing prices and being the face of the business. After a while, he was making a decent living finding people’s lost treasures.
It was in this capacity that he was introduced to Alejandro Dumas. Dumas was looking for some Aztec items. Of particular note was a silver skull, reportedly used in their blood sacrifices. It took some searching, but Fortune found the item and recovered it. Dumas seemed impressed. He asked Fortune to find a ceremonial dagger supposedly used to remove the hearts of Spanish missionaries captured by the Aztecs. Again, Fortune brought the item back. The last item he asked Fortune to find was the Blood Shield, the shield Montezuma carried into battle. This item was much more difficult to locate, and its recovery even more problematic. But recover it he did. Dumas asked Valentine to his home for a celebratory dinner.
Some might call it perverse irony that the date of this dinner was December 21st, 2004. The opening of one door occurred on the Summer Solstice. The opening of a second door – or the closing of a different door – occurred this night. For this was the night that Fortune Valentine was embraced. The two spent the night discussing archaeology, artifacts and Fortune’s work. They drank a lot of wine. Events got hazy, but lucidity returned with Dumas’s teeth in Fortune’s throat, the life slowing draining from him, death kissing his lips, taking him in, and then death breathing life back into him through Dumas’s blood.
After the requisite neonate…difficulties – the hunger, the horror, the Beast – Dumas told Fortune his skill was prodigious, and he felt it would be better served if Valentine had endless nights to pursue his passion. Dumas spent several months explaining the necessities of Kindred life. Fortune, on the other hand, despaired somewhat. His travels were now relegated – by necessity – to the night time, and searching for artifacts located in remote locations posed problems should he not be able to find appropriate shelter. Dumas had an answer to that. He said there was a Gangrel, Maric Sterindovic, who owed him several favors – boons, he called them. Gangrels had a particular discipline that allowed them to sleep in the earth. He would have Sterindovic teach Valentine that discipline.
Shortly after that, Dumas left. Valentine hasn’t seen him since. He spends his time much like he did before the Embrace. He tracks down items people want found, all the while conducting his own search. Hank is still with him, hoping against hope that his own brother can be found. Fortune’s been looking so long for a way to find Spirit and his sisters - and, by extension, Hank's brother - that he feels he can’t give up now. Even though his feelings for his brother and sisters seem….distant. Faded. Blackwater is an intriguing place. He’s heard of the blood grass. He’s heard of the history. He feels there might be business for him here. There also might be answers. Unlikely, but the possibility does exist. He continues to look….