Vincent Valentine

EDIT 4/15/09: I've put a watermark over the full-size picture because an art-thief stole this and posted it here on deviantART yesterday. Pretty dumb of them, since so many people have seen this picture and I have not posted it anywhere else, AND it's been here for over a year already. Thank you again to the person who notified me. Let this be a warning: I will not sit idly by and let my art be stolen. Especially by clumsy thieves who try to pass off an obviously digital drawing as PEN ON PAPER when I still have the original .xcf file. If anyone ever sees this picture in anyone's gallery who ISN'T NAMED JEREDULEVENIN, they are a THIEF. All of the accounts I've made on various websites all use the name JereduLevenin (except mediaminer.org, where I am simply Jeredu), making it very easy to tell when someone who isn't me is using my work.

That is all. Thank you for all of your comments and favorites and for taking action in my defense against art thieves.

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"Portrait of a Shadow"

Vincent Valentine. The crimson-cloaked enigma.

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Everybody knows so well

What's written on the Doomsday Bell.

Our fates are sealed by our own hand;

So let the dirge ring through this stifled land.

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No sacred hand to carve into your stone;

Those words may be graven by your hand alone.

A ghosted whisper of burning hope;

A path concealed by the lines you wrote.

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You search for what cannot be found

As your footsteps echo on hallowed ground.

A prayer uttered to stagnant air,

The truth, the lies, your life laid bare.

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Behind closed eyes we can truly see

The fraying rope of our destiny;

The path will find you in this cheerless land,

The stillborn questions entombed in sand.

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Trapped in this city of steel and lies,

You have no worth but what death buys.

Strive to secure your own damnation;

Your blood and tears are the only salvation.

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Tears of joy and tears of pain,

A sea of tears with nothing gained,

But when all is lost to death and shame,

The tears alone are what remain.

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Requiem loosed on static air,

Doom's bell rings the warning knell,

Come, Destruction, thy name is Ruin,

To wake me from this endless Hell.

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Battered faith to crack the stone

Of iron oaths that stood alone;

Before the onslaught of blighted Day,

The Devil bows his head to pray.

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Forsake the path you tread once more;

A key to find the hidden door

Of dark Delusion's sweet embrace,

The truth that you cannot yet face.

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The Sword of Judgement hangs above-

The fragile wings of tarnished Love;

The tainted blood that courses down

Holds promise of Judgement's fury unbound.

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You walk their path but stand alone

For sins which you cannot atone;

Chained and bound by ancient guilt,

Make foundations quiver by the faith you built.

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What is life with purpose spent?

What truth behind the laws you bent?

An answer comes on silenced breath:

The only promise made us... is death.

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The beat of ragged Angels' wings,

The only reason the soul yet sings.

A silence echoes where laughter once pealed;

We, the authors of the dooms we sealed.

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Requiem loosed on static air,

Doom's bell rings the warning knell,

Come, Destruction, thy name is Ruin,

To wake me from this endless Hell.


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"Requiem for Vincent Valentine," written by me. Goes with my fic, Running out of Time, which can be found HERE: [link]

Drawn in The Gimp. Vincent Valentine is (c) to Square-Enix.