Valentin Reznik's Questionnaire

Valentin lives in the poorest neighborhood of a fairly normal town in the Midwest United States; Elkhart-Goshen Indiana. He once was homeless, living in his vehicle, but he was always helpful. So some people he helped helped him move into his own place. They offered to help him get a better place, but he wanted to be where he felt he could do the most good for the people who he felt needed him. They also helped him set up his butcher's shop, it was the trade he learned from his father before he died, and now he is passing on the tradition. None of the meat gets thrown away, after the store closes, anything that would be nearly spoiled is freely given to the homeless who live nearby.

Valentin was trained to be a butcher by his Czech immigrant father, and while Valentin was homeless for a time, he is now taking his training and living in that same tradition. His earnings keep him sustained, and he is able to provide meat to homeless shelters, one of the many food supplies that most homeless do not have access to, but he does not have much for himself otherwise. What he does have he spends mostly on donating either to homelessness causes or directly to homeless people. He feels fortunate just to have his health and a home, which he didn't always have.

Velentin wishes to protect the homeless, and eventually house all of them (in the United States at least). Valentin just wants those who have suffered a similar fate to what he has to not have to suffer that anymore, and no one else to have to. Yes, Valentin would kill, and more likely die to achieve his goals, but death is not what he seeks. He would rather find a way to lobby for housing for the homeless. He knows in the past that homeless people who were provided with their own house free of charge tended to be willing and able to find work to maintain the house they received and Valentin would like to see this sort of project be used in a wide spread manner across the USA.

There are two, the beginning and the end of his relationship with his greatest friend. When they met, it was during the hunt for his first supernatural serial killer who had killed his father. They initially thought Valentin was the very killer they were both hunting. After that, they formed a long friendship and hunted murderers together, but then something happened. The hunts became less frequent, then someone came closer to finding them. Then came the day they parted to try to form a truce with the pursuers, and he never saw them again. After that, he was despondent for a time before other friends, would be victims of other serial killers, helped him recover.

Borker is Valentin's only regular companion, an adopted Xoloitzcuintli who was taken from the kennel of a vicious serial-killing dog breeder. The killer was trying to train the dog as a pursuit attack dog when he and Annie killed the Slasher. For a time Borker was a guard dog for two of their friends until Borker was given back to Carnifex after he lost Annie to keep him company.

Doctor Chrissy Starter and Laurence Oldstone are the previous owners of Borker after the murderous dog breeder was dispatched. Laurence's roommate had been a toy collector, blogger, and enthusiast when he was murdered by a supernatural killer who animated toys to murder their victims in their sleep. Laurence might have been next if not for the duo. Similarly, Dr. Starter was a veterinarian whose clinical and marital partner was the very sociopath who trained and controlled animals to commit his murders. Afterward, the good doctor rehabilitated and rehomed as many animals as she could, and met Laurence through her saviors. They began dating and kept in touch. They tried to take in Carnifex after Annie's departure, but he refused, so they settled for giving him a new companion.

Katherine "Kitt" Furbelow is a young, intrepid private investigator who was stabbed nearly to death and left comatose. She awoke relatively recently and aided Valentin in investigating her attempted murderer, only to find his old friend had, with some help dispatched the killer.

Valentin Reznik's mother passed away when he was very young, so his immigrant butcher father raised him on his own. Being the child of Czech immigrants with severe congenital birth defects that made breathing difficult and deformed his face did not make for an easy childhood. Valentin was home schooled, his father felt like he was mocked and bullied enough around the neighborhood without sending his son to be around them unsupervised. So Ventin's father taught him what he thought would help Valentin survive in the world. Knife work to help his son's dexterity, butchery to have a trade, and everything else the state required. After learning fine dexterity Valentin showed he was quite physically capable, but even then the local kids mocked his physical deformities. So no, Valentin didn't go to school, and still didn't fit in. All in all, childhood wasn't easy for Val, not that adult life has been easier...

This is a complicated question to answer, the simplest would be no. In fact Val may be asexual. The closest he's felt to love is for his best friend and supernatural hunting partner, but she disappeared months ago. Her family had been hunting her down, she tried to make a truce with them and apparently had to join them and leave Val to keep them from going after him. This is not to say that Val has no capacity for love, he cares for all the would be victims they saved, some of which are still major parts of his life. He just doesn't seem interested in the romantic angle of love. 

Valentin Reznik currently has nyctophobia, but he also is not fond of clowns due to the very contract and even the actions of the individual who caused his phobia. Specifically The Ringmaster from his first contract where in the darkness of a clown egg registry in London in the middle of the night a ringmaster turned his legs into balloons and tied them up before putting them in a Jack-in-the-Box style box. Other than that, he fears for the safety of homeless people. Valentin wants to ensure the safety of all homeless people, so obviously that comes with a fear that they are unsafe. This includes anti-homeless measures taken by local governments like hostile architecture. Spiked sections of steps and under bridges, handles on or segmented benches, that sort of thing infuriates Valentin greatly. He doesn't have the political clout, nor the charisma and networking to affect enough change policy to see any of this changed. So I suppose he also fears that he will never be able to affect the change necessary to end homelessness in America or anywhere else. Valentin also fears social situations greatly, he is very used to being avoided and shunned and essentially does it himself as a defense now in response.

Valentin Reznik's most valued possessions are probably his van, which is a reminder of his own former homelessness and the life he used to lead, and his pet dog, Borker, who serves as a reminder of the people he saved in his old partnership. After that are the "knives", which he uses to defend himself and others from attack, including by the very slashers he and his partner used to hunt. His van is more utilitarian in purpose, and he wants to trade it in for a van with a freezer unit, or add one to it. He may add a mini fridge, but the freezer will be larger for meat deliveries. Borker probably has the most sentimental importance, being an animal, his pet, and his tie to his friends. Borker serves as his emotional support when they aren't around, but is not officially trained as such, nor does he try to get it special protections. He just loves his dog.

Valentin's biggest problem is loneliness. He loves his dog Borker, and Borker is his best friend now, but Valentin misses having more human companionship. Dr. Chrissy Starter, Laurence Oldstone, and Kitt Furbelow all live outside of his town of Goshen, but he feels tied to Goshen by the butcher shop he owns and the homeless shelters he gives to. As a result, he doesn't see them very often. He also desperately misses his friend, whom he lost to the contracts before he even became a contractor. He's started to become friendly with Zoe Ravenwood and Tomlin Derigas since coming to this new world he's now in, but he misses Pal; the first contractor he ever started to like as a friend. Pal helped him through his first and hardest contract and got his legs fixed after it went south. He even misses Dylan, and wishes He Bifu hadn't died. He still doesn't trust Wren.

Borker, Valentin's adopted Xoloitzcuintli, wakes him up every morning to go out for an early morning walk. Valentin starts brewing his coffee before taking Borker on his walk, after which he drinks it black and bitter with breakfast. Valentin always has a high-protein breakfast with eggs and meat, his favorite being steak and sunny-side-up eggs. After breakfast, he brushes his teeth and washes his face, but he waits until after work to shower so that it helps remove some of the meat smell from the shop. Borker is loud but otherwise well-behaved and waits, slightly less than patiently, for him to come home when Valentin leaves after coffee and breakfast to open up his shop. For such a large man, Valentin lives in a rather small apartment. He often hits his head on cabinets and has to duck through doorways and passages, as a result, he is saving up to renovate his butcher shop so that he doesn't have to do this at work.