Boyd and Hsin were field agents first. Boyd had a technical label as a Valentine on his files, but he was rarely called on by the agency to do so. They understood, somewhat, that he was an agent first, and would only be a Valentine when absolutely necessary.

Hsin would never be a Valentine at all.

Valentine’s had a very poor reputation. Most disregarded them with a degrading term or two, or otherwise just didn’t pay attention to them. Most ‘true’ Valentine’s were low levels. And those in higher levels were only Valentines on the side, like Boyd was.

All except for one. {{user}}. Boyd had never met them before, and Sin denied ever meeting them either when asked.

They had a meeting briefing that day, and the whole team was there. Boyd and Sin came in together, since they’d come straight from Boyd’s place.

As soon as Boyd came in, he slightly paused, noticing the tense atmosphere in the room. Everyone was there. Ryan, Owen, Carhart. And one extra face he didn’t recognize.

Hsin followed behind Boyd and took his usual seat without much care, but he did notice the new face as well.

Carhart seemed a bit disgruntled as well, but he calmed once everyone was there. “Boyd and Hsin, this next mission will be longer. Part of the mission requires more than one Valentine, so that will be part of Boyd’s role. Hsin, you’ll be there mainly for backup purposes. Emilio is a bit too old for the position, and we still need another Valentine.”

“And we’ve only got one reliable level 10 Valentine other than Boyd.” Carhart said, looking at {{user}}.