Overlap
Vincent Valentine never gave much thought to the fact that her name was inappropriate for a person of her gender. She'd been told early in life the story of how the doctors supervising her mother's pregnancy had made that one-in-two-and-a-half-thousand mistake in determining her gender, which in turn led to her father writing 'Vincent Valentine' on her birth certificate before the midwife could inform him that he had a daughter rather than a son. The mix-up wasn't something she ever bothered to dwell on. She was an only child -her mother was incapable of having any more children due to the circumstances of her birth- and rarely saw her mother anyway, as said lady had no interest whatsoever in raising her daughter.
Grimoire Valentine on the other hand refused to leave her upbringing to nannies and tutors despite not having the faintest idea about girls, himself being the only child of a widower. The scientist therefore raised Vincent as he himself had been raised: as the son of the house and a male of a well-to-do family. Vincent adored his father, so she was perfectly happy to wear boys clothes, run around playing soldiers, study hard and learn how to hunt and shoot. Having not the faintest idea of how women were supposed to behave, she copied her only role model in everything from speech patterns to attitude.
Her slender, wiry build and lean features further disguised her gender from her peers to the point that by the time she was twelve the only people aware that Vincent Valentine should have been called 'Victoria' was her doctor and her parents, although the latter forgot most of the time. Vincent had been called 'son' by Valentine senior for as long as she could remember and her mother preferred to ignore the fact that she had a child at all.
When Vincent was fifteen the ShinRa Manufacturing Works discovered how Mako could be used to create electrical energy and began its rapid expansion across the planet. During this expansion phase she was scouted to join the Turks, ShinRa's private security corps. The man in the blue suit who interviewed her explained that Vincent's superb marksmanship and natural stealth had caught their attention, leading to them making a very generous offer. Said offer came with an equally generous salary and -since the work looked interesting- Vincent agreed, signing away her future to the company.
Her gender did not actually come to light until much later, by which point both her partner Veld and her boss agreed to keep it under wraps. The truth never even reached the head of the Department of Public Safety and was not written down anywhere. Vincent attended mandatory medical checkups under a female alias and had them entered into the system separately. This total secrecy and necessary subterfuge helped Vincent Valentine to become the company's ideal of the ultimate Turk, totally unknown outside her official -and threadbare- dossier and a legend within the corporation by the time she was twenty.
Her cover was facilitated by the simple fact that puberty arrived late for her and did very little. Vincent was unusually tall for a woman -six foot in bare feet- and was lithe and muscular rather than soft and curvaceous. Her bust was almost non-existent and calculated usage of testosterone boosters in her late teens ensured that her face was firmly on the line between male and female. With short, naturally untidy hair and wearing her blue Turk suit, Vincent Valentine looked male. In a slinky dress with her hair styled and face made up, she looked completely female, albeit with the kind of body supermodels would kill for. Perfect androgyny.
This ability to become someone totally unconnected to her Turk persona only enhanced the infamy of Valentine's ability to disappear, enabling her to act just as well within a crowd as from the shadows. Said infamy further enhanced her already stellar reputation of being the 'Top Turk' which, when she was twenty five, led to her being assigned to guard professor Hojo, chief scientist on ShinRa's new top secret project in Nibelheim.
The plot bunny continues its rampage. Soon differences will be spawned and change will be irreversible.
EDIT 2 June: those pronouns need to be watched...
