Boulevard of Broken Dreams

> "If history should see me as the bad guy then so be it." - Boulevard of Broken Dreams
>
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## Boulevard of Broken Dreams

* Shadowy Trench Coat
* Shadowy Hat Off
* Battle
* Trench Coat
* Hat Off
* Black Trench Coat
* Star Road Now

### Namesake

Boulevard of Broken Dreams (Green Day song)

### Relatives

Franklin Valentine (user)Gloria Viva Valentine (mother)

## Physical description

### Gender

Nonbinary (mostly)Male (sometimes)

Female (rarely)

### Height

195 cm (Excluding ear)222 cm (Including ear)

## Stand information

### Stand type

Far distance autopilotLong distance manipulation

## Appearance

'Vard wears white gloves and a dark brown trench coat with a light but faded blue "V" on one of the sides of the collar, as well as a matching hat they always cover their face with. When wearing this they use Stray Heart to appear much shorter than they really are.

Underneath their coat, 'Vard is a very muscular build, with stitch lines all over separating the colors blue and pink. Their shoulders are a vibrant pink and blue On their waist they have a grey heart with a light but desaturated "V" on it, as well as a belt with a heart that reads "Boulevard of Dreams" around it, with the area that says "Dreams" cracked and faded. They also have pink shoes with a similar "V" on them.

Their head is primarily pink with some blue, the line of stitches reaching over their nose and around their head. A pink heart is over their left eye, with one upper part over the stitch line blue. Their right eye is a faded blue, and the left is a faded pink, with similar eyebrows. They wear a purple mask with a line of stitches down the center.

They have pink bunny ears on their head, one flowing behind them and the other sticking up with two folds.

## Personality

'Vard is a very polite individual, who doesn't let their emotions show whenever they can. They always attempt to have an air of knowing what is going on, even if they don't. They are also very bad at lying, so they try and always talk in a way that they are never actually lying.

'Vard has been shown to be afraid of themselves, refusing to ever put on a Dramaturgy mask to see who they are on the inside.

## Background

### Before Severed Strings

'Vard was awakened when Franklin was a child. They hid from Franklin due to the circumstances about when they were awakened.

As a teen, 'Vard met 25 or 6 to 4, and severed him from his user. Together they decided to free others who might want freedom. They decided to try and only free stands from people who were close to death already, or terrible people. In the coming years, they would gain a group following which they called Overlooked Dreams. 'Vard was voted to be the leader, despite not thinking they could properly lead.

In 2130, during the vampire apocalypse, they found out about nightmare stands and Star Road from Zeus Brando. They also gained their sub-stand, Stray Heart.

'Vard freed a group of nightmare stands right after the Great Reset, one of which being Eleanor Rigby. She changed her name to Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds and became 'Vard's body guard, where the two became very close. She told 'Vard what she knew, including a lead to follow to find some more by tracking down Mallory Savel. They found Mallory, and by extension her brother, Bernard, who gave them his old trench coat. They severed Bernard, and there they met Giuseppe Gibson.

'Vard and Giuseppe worked together with an idea 'Vard had; artificial stands. They wanted to see if it was possible, in case stands ever wanted to have children despite not having a means to reproduce. Through this, they created the stand I Dont Know How But They Found Me.

During this, 'Vard realized Overlooked Dreams needed funding for various things the group was doing. 'Vard approached few people, and eventually approached Duke Wynd, due to the fact that he had a stand and would be easier to discuss with because of this. Duke agreed to fund them. Years later, Duke Wynd betrayed them, and caused a massacre in Shelter. 'Vard protected as many stands as they could, and only got to Duke after he had already died.

This event hardened 'Vard, and made them more closed off. They became less trusting and more paranoid. They even chose an ex-nightmare stand, Luck Be A Lady, to pose as Franklin's true stand, to use their ability to protect them if Franklin ever found themselves in danger.

'Vard wouldn't trust another human for roughly two years. They eventually needed funding once again, and went to the Joker's Wildcard casino after hearing rumors of Jacob A. D'Arby and his stand, Ace of Hearts, with the capabilities of sharing memories and emotions. After sharing 'Vard's experiences, Jacob awoke ACT II of his stand. 'Vard chose to trust Jacob due to ACT stands being a rarity, and that for him to have gained a second ACT from seeing that, he must have been truly moved. 'Vard then made Jacob Overlooked Dreams' treasurer.

Throughout the years since Duke Wynd's attack, 'Vard became more angry, and the line for the kinds of people they aimed to free stands was slowly moving to be less and less strict, killing people who in the past they would have left alone. Seeing this happen, Lucy chose to leave Overlooked Dreams, and their position as one of 'Vard's closest associates.

In early 2140, it was brought up that requiem stands had sentience, and that they would have been given sentience for a short amount of time, only to have it ripped away. 'Vard held a vote with their closest associates, the leaders of each division of Overlooked Dreams, the Rainbow Squad, various others who would be related to the outcome, and a public vote of all the stands in Shelter. Despite being unhappy with the outcome, they wanted to follow the wishes of the people.

## Abilities

### Physical Abilities

'Vard is very strong, and wields a stop sign as their main weapon. They can use it in one or both hands, holding it similar to a glaive. They use it for bludgeoning attacks with the face of the stop sign, and occasionally use the sharpened other end for piercing.

### The Rainbow Squad

By putting phones inside their coat and using Radio Ga Ga's abilities, other stands can put their hands through to use their abilities for 'Vard. The Rainbow Squad includes:

* Sultans of Swing
* Man On The Silver Mountain
* Kill The Lights
* Why Worry
* I Dont Know How But They Found Me
* Virtual Insanity
* Innocence

### Stand Abilities

#### Severing

'Vard's main ability is to see and manipulate a string that connects from the center of a user and a stand's chest. By tying the string into different kinds of knots, they can change the intricacies of the stand and user's relationship. They can change things such as:

* Changing which can interact with stands.
* Changing which can phase through objects.
* Changing which unsummons which.

By taking two different strings and tying them together, 'Vard can also change which person has which stand; even making it where the two users are the "stand" and "user."

These changes are all temporary, unless 'Vard is given a lot of uninterrupted time to make it permanent.

If the stand user is either willing, or on the verge of death, the string can be cut, by making scissors with their pointer and middle finger, and cutting it. This causes the connection to be permanently severed. Whichever side has the shortest end of the string—even by a millimeter—dies. Stand's freed via this method become "Severed Stands," and any mind they had is brought to the surface. If the connection is between a stand and a non-living thing, and the non-living thing gets the shorter end, the other side is severed and freed with no death occurring.

#### E̷̦̿m̵̤̍p̷̙̃t̶͕̏y̸̬͠ ̶̣͠S̷͚̄t̶̼́r̸̼͑e̴̠͐ȅ̷̫t̵̗͠

'̴̡͗V̵͈͑á̷̹r̵͓̂d̸͇͠ ̵̘́h̸̪̅a̵̩͝s̷̯͐ ̸̤̋ẗ̸̡́h̸̝̾e̸͖͘ ̶͎̆á̴̲ḇ̵̃i̷̱̍l̶̗̍i̴̅͜t̸̟̽y̸̧̛ ̴̽ͅt̸̙͆ö̷͙́ ̴̳͝c̶͚̅o̸̱̓n̶͍̆t̷̛̫ṟ̸̂o̵̰͂ḽ̸̃ ̷͙̓a̵̧̒s̵͕͋p̵͙̄h̸̬̀ḁ̶̊l̴̆ͅt̸̬̒ ̶̘̄u̵̲͑s̸̩͠î̴̯n̶̹̉g̶̡̕ ̶̙͋s̷̖̀m̷̬͋a̷̻͠l̴̈͜ĺ̸͜ ̵̩̓h̶̘̍a̶̠̓ṇ̴͐d̵̦́ ̶̹̈́m̷͉̓ó̵̟v̵̡̍e̵̞͌ḿ̸̩ĕ̷̦n̸̻͌t̶̜͂s̶̤͛ ̴̯̉ã̷͔n̶̢̊ḍ̷̚ ̴̣͘t̶̞͋h̸͖̍o̴͉͘u̷̘̓g̵̉͜h̵̫̋t̶͉̐ș̸̌.̷͓͆ ̶̪̽Ẅ̸͜ĥ̵͈e̷̛͉ǹ̵̻ ̵̫͝b̶̘͠e̶̥̎ḭ̴̄n̵̳̓g̶̨̈́ ̴̼͊c̵̣͊o̴̼̍ǹ̵̨t̸͎͠r̷̗͘ó̸̗ḽ̷́ĺ̸̡e̸͓̾d̴̀͜,̴̺̈ ̶̳̏ť̷̖h̵̡̉e̷͚̐ ̶͓͠a̶̹͐ş̷̄p̵̰̒h̷̳͐a̴͓͗l̴̙̕t̸̰̉ ̸̤̑c̸͛ͅa̷̱͘n̷̛̩ ̵̱͊ỏ̷͔ǹ̸̝ḽ̸͝ỳ̶̖ ̶̟̄ḅ̴̄e̷͓͂ ̸̢́a̶͕̚t̶̤̄ ̸̛͉a̶̰̓ ̴̝̊s̴̜̍ţ̸̇ō̴̯p̶̥͆,̵͉́ ̷̙͑ọ̷̊r̷̮̽ ̴̥̅m̵̖̀ȏ̷͖v̶̼̔ī̷̱n̷̦̅g̶̛̮ ̶̭̐ä̶͕́t̴̥͋ ̸̬͘r̶͖̆o̵̡̓ṷ̴̓g̸̯̚h̵͖͋l̶͕̒y̷͍͂ ̴̥̕5̸̱̅0̶͈̂ ̴́͜k̵̟͝p̷̤̆h̶̦̓.̴̳̒

## Stand Stats

Stray Heart is 'Vard's sub-stand.

'Vard can un-stitch one of their limbs, sprouting a shadowy clone that is Stray Heart. Stray Heart is weak, but there can be many of them at once. Each one's vitality is proportional to how much shadow the clone is made of in comparison to how much of 'Vard they are. The shadow areas can be damaged without causing damage to 'Vard, however the limb of 'Vard can still be damaged normally. Because of this, Stray Heart prioritizes protecting those areas over anything else.

Stray Heart's mind is very similar to a hive mind, having one mind but many bodies. Stray Heart is also always in 'Vard's actual shadow, however in this form they cannot effectively interact with the world, and will fold under any physical resistance.

A shadowy limb replaces the limb on 'Vard's main body. 'Vard's mind is always in the body that contains the most of 'Vard's head.

Stray Heart is primarily used for observation and scouting, or small tasks such as moving objects.

Stray Heart does not speak, and only communicates through hand gestures, eye movements, and body language, more often than not exagerated. Their personality is nearly identical to 'Vard's, however is far more rash and easily annoyed. They often personify 'Vard's emotions they keep under wraps.

## Trivia

* 'Vard always plays scissors when playing rock paper scissors. They also almost always lose.
* When 'Vard lies, they stutter and trip over almost every word.
* 'Vard has a habit of letting people talk over them quite a lot.
* 'Vard's design heavily takes from D4C from Steel Ball Run. A more subtle example of this is 'Vard's stitches, which were originally done because Westley saw one of D4C's design elements as stitches at first, and loved the idea. A more obvious example is the bunny ears.
* Westley had the idea of 'Vard when he imagined a main antagonist starting to reveal their ability, before the stand punches the user through the chest saying "you're not telling them what I do," and the stand then becomes the main antagonist. The idea of 'Vard evolved from there to where it is today, so far from it's starting point that not a single bit of this idea remains.
* 'Vard's face was decided and finalized after one sketch Westley did while doodling in his college English class.
* 'Vard's design and stitched together nature was in reference to finding themselves and gander dysphoria, since they and Franklin are nonbinary but sometimes go by either gender.
	+ Despite this having been planned since before Severed Strings started, Westley didn't even realize their color scheme was that of the trans flag until Katie pointed out that Franklin's was after the first episode of Severed Strings.
	+ Westley is also proud of this visual representation of gender dysphoria, despite having never experienced gender dysphoria himself.
* The name "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" was actually a placeholder name, due to the fact that Westley didn't even like the song. It was selected as a placeholder due to one of the two lyrics Westley knew, "I walk a lonely road, the only one that I have ever known," worked rather well. Westley never found a song that fit better, as the longer it was the more he found things that made the name work better—such as the history of the band Green Day—that eventually he just decided to keep it.
	+ The song and band in general have since grown on him.