Hayden Vance

Hayden Vance, known as the Viper, is the navigator of the Skull Pirates. He joined the crew in Loguetown.

Personality
Vance is an odd mix of willpower and a devastating ignorance of his, as he sees them ‘Neccesary but boring duties’. He’ll work hard at training and practicing his techniques, or performing a favour for someone, but if another person comes along and mentions something like “Dinner” or “Go fishing” or, heaven forbid, “Party”, it’s as if he completely forgets what he was supposed to do and decides that it can be done at a later time, and that there are more important things to be done with his time.

He does, however, have his limits, and if he knows that someone is entrusting him with something very important, he’ll do what he can to pull through and prove that the trust put in him was well-placed. He’s a cheerful, easily-affected young guy that enjoys relaxing, most likely due to the pressure put on him and the high hopes for him during his childhood, which is a hard thing to cast away and simply forget about. This doesn’t mean he isn’t intelligent, however, as he was actually among the top students of his class, mainly in regards to meteorology and navigation. He simply prefers to take it easy and enjoy himself.

History
Brought up in the sea of South Blue, Vance had a hard start to his life, as his father, a marine captain, was shifting between being home and working, his father telling him that his mother had been killed by pirates not long after his birth in an act of revenge against the marines. Even when his father was home, Vance didn’t have it easy, as his father wanted him to follow in his footsteps and become a marine himself, especially in the face of the king of pirates, Morris D. Rallo, controlling more and more of the ocean.

As such, Vance’s early life was full of studying, combat training and very little room for stopping to smell the flowers of the rocky, mountainous island he was brought up on. Despite the tough training from early on, Vance couldn’t invest himself entirely into the thought of living life as a marine soldier. He’d heard stories about the world outside of his island from his father’s crewmates when they docked in the little harbour of the island, about entire islands partying for days on end, islands of dinosaurs, of eternal snow, of wide-spanning, grassy fields with peculiar, strange animals roaming across it. He respected and loved his father too much to tell him that he didn’t want to be a marine, that he’d much rather be an adventurer, a treveller, so Vance continued his training, getting progressively more strong and clever as he grew up.

Eight days ago, however, Vance received a letter via a seagull. It had a red seal on its front, in the shape of an anchor and as he opened it and read through it, his eyes widened. It was a letter from his mother. It didn’t say a lot, but it convinced him that his mother was definitely alive. He hurried inside of the house to tell his father the news, but after he had read through it, the large man tore it up and threw the pieces into the fireplace, much to Vance’s horror. He placed his hands on his son’s shoulders and stared into his eyes. “Your mother is dead. She’ll never return and this is just some ploy to kill me and you as well. Don’t fall for it, son.”

Vance wasn’t convinced though, and from the information he had gotten in the letter, he knew what he had to do. He gathered his belongings and ‘borrowed’ a few thousand belly and a small boat docked in the little harbour before setting off to Loguetown. He was going to go witness the death of the pirate king’s first mate on his own.

Abilities and Powers
Having grown up as the son of a marine man, Vance was trained in the arts of Rokushiki and thus, has learned a few of the techniques. He has full control over Rankyaku, Soru and Shigan and he’s still working on learning to use the remaining ones. Vance bears two daggers with a rope tied to each of their hilts, which he can throw out and pull back, said ropes seemingly just coming from underneath his shirt, possibly wrapped around his arms or torso. However, he doesn’t always make use of his daggers, as he much prefers his hand-to-hand martial arts combat, utilizing a mixture of punches, kicks, chops and the like. His fighting style is seemingly to deliver many smaller blows to wear down his opponent, even if his attacks on their own are still fairly strong.

Goal/Dream(s)
Sailing and seeing the wonders of the world, finding out what happened to his mother and where she is.

Quirks
Vance is a very decent fighter and could easily hold his own thanks to his early training. However, if there's an opponent he deems too strong for himself or those he's fighting with, or they are planning to fight, he'd prefer a hasty retreat, and, in general, just to avoid fighting if possible.

He adores coffee of all shapes and sizes, but much favors ice coffee and will do quite a lot to get a hold of a glass or a cup of his favourite beverage.

Gambling is also a bit of an addiction of his, as he enjoys the thrill of seeing if he'll have lady luck on his side or not, it doesn't even have to be a big bet, but something needs to be at stake.