Valerie (character profile) (Patreon)

Another new character finished up! And a bit of a different flavor this time; a human (non-Paeran) and a pred still. I don't think I've actually finished and posted a non-Paeran pred as of yet!

So this is Valerie! A human, as just mentioned, and living in Paeratopa. She is a shrewd businesswoman, and despite the pitfalls of being a human in this world (i.e., being on the menu), Valerie swiftly took her business skills and made a name for herself, as well as considerable wealth. She is now among the most powerful humans in Paeratopa; a merchant, investor, and of course a consumer of the shrunken.

Unlike the Paerans who shrink and eat people out of hunger and nature just as much as pleasure, Valerie is a pred purely for the pleasure of it, a bit of luxury and indulgence of her position. She's no huntress, and lacks magical ability; she's not particularly interested in chasing down prey either. Rather, she relishes the more mental conquest of convincing others to become her prey, toying with their pride and principle by such means as offering sums of money in exchange for allowing her the indulgence, or other deals. It's a game of business just like anything else, except in such cases, she has little to gain from consuming someone besides the simple delight of it, the thrill of power, a flaunting of her wealth.

She's been fun to brainstorm, a bit of change from my usual style while not venturing too far. She's ruthless, she likes bending rules and being the dominant one, while the same time she's not cruel or malicious; she wouldn't willfully put an opponent out of business, but she would definitely stack the deck in her favor to convince them to ally with her businesses rather than try to compete. And same for her predatory pursuits; she has no intent of causing harm or suffering, but she gets a lot of satisfaction and entertainment in watching someone's pride crumble as she entices them with juuuust a bit more money than they can turn down, toying with and taunting them as her prey before their consumption.

Side note, that's a, ah... a reasonable "slightly exaggerated" tongue size for a human, right? ^^; Honestly one of the trickier elements to work on, to make it long/big by human standards, but still plausibly human. Maybe some more work to go into there later, I dunno yet!