Val

### Aliases

Virtual Arcane Lifeform version 6.27 (official designation); 6.27 (shorthand designation)

### Relatives

Edmund Okada (father/creator); several other sentient artificial creations, incl. other Vals, Daves, Rogers (siblings)

## Appearances

### Debut

*A Hole Lot of Murder*

**Val**, full designation **Virtual Arcane Lifeform version 6.27**, is a main character in *Stories on the Subjugated Straits*. A sentient mirror created by her father, the artificer Edmund Okada, she is rescued by the Wornor party, and soon after joins them on their travels.

## Physical description/biology

Val is a fully sentient, ornate rose gold hand mirror, appearing completely ordinary save for her ability to speak, for which there is no clear mechanism, nor visual indicator. As a mirror, she has no way to move on her own, instead relying on others to take her where she wants to go. She can see anything that is reflected in her mirror face, as well as hear those around her, but possesses no way to taste or smell; her ability to perceive touch is unclear. Val does not need to sleep, but does go into an automatic "sleep mode" when she is placed flat on any surface, during which she perceives nothing and is essentially comatose. She does possess an internal clock, but it seems to only tell the time and not the date, since long stretches in sleep mode still leave her unsure of the amount of time passed.

Val has a small number of special abilities, one of which is the ability to act as a flashlight through her mirror face. She can cast Detect Magic in this same way, identifying any object within the beam of light.

## Biography

### Pre-series

Val was created by her father Edmund at an unknown time; she is unsure of her own age, as her perception of time is muddled by going into sleep mode, but owing to her designation's placement toward the end of her siblings', she is a recent creation and most likely dates back to the late 690s P.D.F, making her no more than a couple years old at the time of *SoSS*. She is the sibling to several tens of creations, many of them sentient, including at least one - Val 6.01 - who is a mirror like her.

Val considered herself Edmund's most successful creation, indeed being one of - if not the - first to be fully sapient and able to communicate. However, Edmund seemed to only view her as the latest in a continuing line of experiments, and did not share the familial connection between them that Val felt. It is implied that she spent much of her life with Edmund placed down in sleep mode, contributing to her hazy knowledge of her own life timeline. Overall, Edmund displayed a general indifference to Val and his other creations, which Val recognized but remained largely in denial of. Conversely, she was well known and liked by her neighbors in Devo, who seemed to dislike Edmund's neglectful nature.

Perhaps due to Edmund's indifference and neglect, sometime in January 700 P.D.F., Val was stolen from her home in one of a series of raids by kenku bandits, and taken to the bandits' hideout outside the town.

### *Stories on the Subjugated Straits*

#### Book 1

The Wornor party was sent by Devo's town elder to find and eliminate the kenku bandits, in large part due to their kidnapping of Val. Upon being led to the kenkus' hoard, they were surprised to find that she was a sentient mirror, having only heard her described as "Edmund's daughter." Val made fast friends with Lynx and Nati, who she complimented as beautiful, but was more critical of the fashion of the others.

The party took Val back to Devo to return her to Edmund, finding his home filled with artificial creations like her. To their surprise, Edmund seemed indifferent to her arrival and prior absence, primarily relieved that his neighbors would stop hassling him over Val's disappearance. Instead, he favored a new creation, 7.01, a self-animated canine golem. Noticing Val's discomfort, Lynx quietly offered to bring her along with them, and Val accepted. The party left the house with Val in Lynx's possession, and Edmund was too distracted to notice.

Returning to the tavern, Lynx gave Val to Nati, with whom she would stay for the better part of her travels with the party. Val seemed enamored with Nati, complimenting her constantly. She helped Kaseos and Voy identify the Crest of Elmore in the former's locket; later, on the way to Oz, she entertained questions from Cassandra about her existence as an artificial life form. Following the party's encounter with the devil in Oz, she accompanied Nati to restore her memory at the altar of Drolene, and helped distract her from the return of her traumatic memories the next day. When Cassandra went on a tirade about the new gods' supposed true nature as spacefaring legions of humans, Val asked Cass to leave upon sensing Nati's discomfort, and assured her that the claims were nothing but conspiracies.

#### Book 2

Witnessing Nati's distress after a conversation with Kaseos, Val spoke with her and discovered that Kas had told Nati she was something called an "android." Knowing the term from theoretical artificing, Val explained the term to Nati more thoroughly, calming her nerves somewhat, and later educated Kaseos about it as well.

Val supported Nati as she confronted Lynx over sharing her secrets. She then asked to meet with Detonia, to whom she confessed that she had a crush on Nati. When Lynx later slipped Nati a kind note, whose contents she then seemed unable to speak openly about, Val and Nati tried to devise a plan to help her.

#### Book 3

Val accompanied Nati and Cassandra to the Forest of Thicketswood to support Detonia and Silence in dealing with the dark gnomes. On the way, they met a rival adventuring party, including the sorcerer Thomas Psar, who Val thought attractive; she later helped deduce that the party in question was responsible for inciting the gnomes' raids on Peach Creek. Upon the parties' return to Elmore, Val was present as Nati used Detect Thoughts to confirm that Lynx, like her, was also an android.

Following the Battle of Endsville, Val met with the recently-captured Muriel Morosue to confirm that she and Silence would be a perfect match for a political marriage. During Silence and Muriel's first meeting, she then went with Silence to keep him from saying or doing anything stupid, to questionable effect. While returning to Elmore from Endsville, she attempted to get Voy to open up about his recent depression and isolation; he responded with a bitter tirade about the world, to which she responded by trying and failing to convince him of the beauty of life.

The next day was Elf Laser-Eye Day, in which all elves project beams from their eyes whose color is said to match their soulmate's. Nati, an elf, had bright blue lasers; during the day, Lynx noticed that Val's reflection contained the same color lasers, suggesting she was Nati's soulmate. Panicked but suddenly determined, Val planned an extravagant romantic gesture with Lynx and Lemon Mint, in the form of a colorful fireworks display. However, when Nati returned from the Laser-Eye Day festival drunk and quickly fell asleep, she rushed Voy to tell her co-conspirators to call off the fireworks; Lemon Mint, misidentifying Voy, instead set off the display. Val was disappointed, but upon returning to Nati's room, she found that Nati saw the display through her window and enjoyed it, though not knowing who it was from or for.

## Personality

Upon first meeting the party, Val's first defining trait was her fixation on physical appearances, alternately complimenting, criticizing, or offering suggestions for her new friends' appearances and clothing. She is, however, overall very personable, quickly becoming comfortable with most of the party, even those such as Voy or Detonia who are typically harder to befriend. She is the closest with Nati, who she regularly compliments and virtually never criticizes like she does with others, and is eventually revealed to harbor romantic feelings for.

Owing to her nature as an artificial life form, Val is often more knowledgeable than she is wise. Occasionally, she displays an underdeveloped sense of morality, such as mistakenly believing that sharing the secrets of others is a good thing, or momentarily judging King Rasp on his owning a puppy instead of his various crimes against humanity. However, she is insightful when it comes to the people in front of her, often second only to Lynx when it comes to reading people, and is reasonably skilled at helping her friends navigate complex emotions.

## Trivia

* Val can be seen as a spiritual successor to *Episodes on the Disni Channel'*s Dexter, as both are immobile but talkative artificial constructs, adopted by the series's party from their creator's home, and are primarily carried and cared for by a specific party member (in Dexter's case, Baka).
* Val's name is a reference to Valentine's Day, the day before which her debut episode aired, which may also further connect to her quickly apparent romantic feelings toward Nati.