Jesse Valentine's Questionnaire

Jesse Valentine was born and raised in Detroit, he was present through its every ebb and flow, every stride it made, both forward and back. For people who grow up in Detroit, you either grow to love it or despise it. Jesse Valentine chose the former. Detroit is not like other big cities. Places like New York and Nashville advertise every square block with neon signs, but not Detroit. In Detroit, you have to know where to be to really understand the city, and Jesse knows Detroit like the back of his hand. There was a practical aspect to it, at first, as well. When you sign up for the police, it's better for your career to stay in one place. Hopping around from department to department looks bad to employers. And besides, Valentine is far too dedicated to Detroit to leave it to squalor. He knows that the crimes he solves and the closure his job provides are a drop in the bucket, but he has to try anyway.  

By day, Jesse Valentine works on-call as a consultant and homicide detective for the Detroit Police Department. When he is away from working to fix his city, however, Jesse Valentine's other job takes over. Having learned about the supernatural forces in the world and the harm that they can do to innocent people, Jesse Valentine dedicates his off-time as a private eye for hire on crimes of the more supernatural persuasion. Between these jobs, Jesse Valentine is able to maintain a comfortable enough lifestyle. In terms of his spending, Jesse aims any excess money he has after paying for bills at his hobbies, of which he has a few. Firstly, Jesse Valentine is an avid reader, and is the proud owner of a small collection of rare and old books. Secondly, Jesse has an appreciation for fine whiskeys and cigars, and points what he can of his money at fueling that hobby within reason.

As a lifelong resident of Detroit, Jesse Valentine is no stranger to crime, as his exposure to it was in more than ample supply. His father, a man he looked up to more than anyone, worked as a police officer. In the same breath as he instilled a strong sense of integrity, justice, and selflessness in a young Jesse, he contributed to the corruption that festered in the city he had once vowed to protect and serve, accepting bribes and falsifying evidence at the whim of the criminal organizations and gangs that thrived throughout the city. When, in his teenage years, Jesse Valentine saw his father accepting a bribe, he vowed to be better than him. Jesse Valentine's sole ambition is to solve crime, providing closure to destroyed families while upholding the standards his father imparted to him, but could never truly embody.

When Jesse Valentine was 16 years old, he was driving back home after spending the evening with some of his friends. After he, the only one among his friends who owned a car at the time, was driving his friends home one by one, he began the drive back home. On his way, he took a shortcut through some less-travelled side roads. As he rounded a particularly dark corner, he spotted his father, a man he respected above anyone else, violating every principle he dedicated Valentine's childhood to instilling. On that fateful corner, his father had accepted a bribe from a pimp on the street, payment for a blind eye. 

Jesse's father is one of the most important people in his life. Paradoxically, he is also the one that Jesse has driven the farthest away. Through Jesse's childhood, his father was an upstanding man, as far as appearances were concerned. He taught Jesse every ideal he now holds dear. When Jesse caught his father accepting a bribe, his world was turned upside down. It was this event that inspired Jesse to become a cop himself, to become a better man than his father. Jesse went on to deliver a testimony that would land his father in prison, and he would never visit him, save for a card every Christmas. 

Jesse hasn't heard from his mother in some time. She had known about his father's corruption for some time, and disowned Jesse for his actions and participation in his father's incarceration. In his childhood, Jesse's mother was just as supportive as his father was. With his father working long hours as a cop, it was Jesse's mother who picked him up from school and drove him to little league games. His mother raised him in a similarly tough but fair way to his father, but gave him a bit more leeway.

Neil McArthur is the man that Jesse is closest to, after his father's incarceration pulled his family apart. When Jesse made it through recruit school, Neil was assigned as Jesse's FTO. Right from the start, the two got along perfectly, working together to make it through no small number of scrapes. After a few promotions and an acceptance into the Detective Bureau, Jesse and Neil acted as equals, changing roles from teacher and student to partners.

Jesse's childhood was an interesting one, beginning in a near-picture-perfect environment until a single event upended it. His mother, Lisa Valentine, worked an office job for Ford. His father, Earl Valentine, worked as a police officer. By all measurable accounts, his parents were perfect. They raised Jesse with a tough but fair mentality, and his father instilled in him the importance of justice, honesty, and integrity. The family had more money growing up than they probably should have, but Jesse never questioned it. Looking back upon it, Jesse always half-suspected something more was going on, but he had always pushed those thoughts away, happy not to disturb his perfect childhood. Jesse attended public schools in Detroit from K-12, before going to Wayne State for college on a Presidential Scholarship. In school, Jesse went largely unnoticed, but he thrived in college. In college, his intelligence was appreciated in a way that it never was in middle school and high school. He built good relationships with his fellow students as well as his professors, and would go on to receive high marks in all areas of his college career. 

Jesse had only been in love once, and swore off the notion in the aftermath. While at Wayne, Jesse met Leah Smith, an economics major. The two met at a bar, The Old Shillelagh, where they both happened to be celebrating the end of midterms. The two quickly hit it off and, before the bar closed, exchanged numbers with plans for a coffee date next week. Their relationship only grew from there, and they stayed together after college. However, their relationship grew strained over Jesse's job and his dedication to it. Working late became a frequent occurrence and, one fateful night, he returned to find her gone.