Everything's imaginary, especially what you love

Born on Valentine's Day in Portland, Maine, Vale's parents weren't subtle when it came to naming him

Vale only lets a select few people call him Valentine; otherwise, he hates it

From a young age, it was pretty clear that Vale was exceptional. Incredibly intelligent, he was advanced for his age almost from the start. This was especially true when it came to music

Vale started teaching himself the piano as soon as he could read and understand sheet music when he was 6. Recognizing this, his parents enrolled him in piano lessons

It wasn't long before Vale was blowing the rest of the music students out of the water, and not much longer before he could hold his own with his teacher. Before he'd even entered middle school, Vale's teacher recommended to his parents that they seek an even more advanced teacher because Vale was extraordinarily gifted. So that's what his parents did

By the time he was a teenager, Vale was at the top of his game. He was accepted into Juilliard early and excelled there as well, and he only got better.

After graduation, Vale remained in NYC. He became one of the youngest members of the New York Philharmonic, quickly rising in the ranks even then. It seemed like Vale's rise to becoming a world-class pianist couldn't be stopped; it was an inevitability

It turned out that nothing is certain, as Vale learned one rainy night while walking home with his boyfriend. A group of men saw them and correctly surmised their relationship, and they attacked them both with hate in their hearts. Vale's boyfriend ran (to get help he said, though Vale noted no hesitation on his part), but Vale wasn't so lucky

After the brutal attack, Vale could barely move, and by the time the police found him lying on on the cold sidewalk, alone and wet from then rain, he was barely conscious

When Vale woke up in the hospital, he knew something was wrong immediately: his right hand was covered in a bandage, and he couldn't move it. He couldn't even clench his fingers, not even a little bit

That was when the doctors explained: his hand had been injured in the attack, and it wasn't just broken. There was severe nerve damage, and even with surgery, his hand would never be the same

Vale had the surgery, and eventually he regained most of the use of his hand. But he would always have a tremor, which was worse when he tried to focus on precise movements (as well as in other cases such as when he was stressed or upset, as he often was these days), and even when the tremor abated, Vale realized he no longer had close to the dexterity that he had before; he could no longer play the way that he had

His future shattered, Vale became distant and bitter. He never forgave his boyfriend, and he ignored his friends, hiding out in an apartment he could no longer afford. He moved back to Maine for a bit, but he couldn't take the way his family and everyone else he had known his entire life looked at him now, like he was broken. He needed to get the hell out of there

The solution came from Vale's grandmother, a former actress. She was retiring to Europe, and she offered Vale her opulent mansion in Port Carroll. She said he was just "watching it" for her, but Vale knew the truth when she told him he could make any changes he wanted. This felt a little like pity but mostly like love, so Vale accepted. Within a week, he had moved to Carroll, living alone in a huge, lonely mansion

The one condition for his grandmother's gift was that Vale do something with his life. So with help from her (Vale really did owe her a lot), he opened a musical instrument store in Port Carroll called Harmonic Resonance. It's sometimes difficult for Vale to be among budding musicians, especially pianists, but this is the only thing he knows how to do. What else could he do with his life?

Wanted connections:

Employees: these are people who work for Vale at the shop

Former friends/coworkers from NYC or Maine: people Vale knew in his old life

Ex-boyfriend: the man who - in Vale's eyes - left him alone on the streets of NYC, though maybe there's more to the story