It was the summer when she was seventeen, and Valentine was chasing squirrels like some kind of dog. "Ah!" she yelled and kicked at the base of a tree.

An averagely intelligent human being did not kick trees out of anger, yet Val did not consider herself particularly stupid either. With brawn like hers, she could walk all over the mortal world without much need for her brain. In this specific case, she wanted to punt a mortal tree straight out of the ground.

A demigoddess did have her limits, though. The toe of her shoe drove into the wood where it left an odd, foot-shaped gouge. While the leaves of the tree rustled from the impact, the branches refused to rattle with it.

Atop one thick branch, that squirrel sat there and blinked down at her. It was mocking her, the puny, little demigoddess who could not even trump a squirrel nor a tree.

On the other side of the tree, Rosamer said, "Calm yourself, sis." He sat in the shade and lounged against the trunk. Presently, he read a thick book with miniscule text like his usual, boring self. "You need to be in control of yourself if you want any hope in controlling anything else."

"I am perfectly in control," Val said with a few blinks. When she wanted to—or needed to—she had an immense amount of patience. A demigoddess needed that to deal with mortals who were none the wiser to her identity.

As it was, a vacation in the middle of nowhere with her family did not require patience of her. They had traveled to the countryside specifically so that Val and Ross did not have to restrain themselves like they did in the city.

Out here, Val was thoroughly enjoying the way that she could run at her top speed and kick a tree as hard as she liked. Again, she walloped the tree with her foot and gave it a second, satisfying dent for good measure. "Do tell me another one of those dorky mantras that you are getting out of that book."

On a typical day, Ross filled his dialogue to the brim with philosophical quotes and sayings. He may only be a couple of years older than her at age nineteen, but he already took to sounding like an old man. His abilities did that to him. When a fourteen-year-old boy started to read the minds of adults and a fifteen-year-old boy started delving into premonitions of the future, this was the result: an annoying older brother.

"Actually, I am reading about time paradoxes presently, thank you very much. It might be especially applicable to you, if you keep venturing into the past."

Val rolled her eyes at the squirrel. "I only observe. I already told you that I am not able to interact with the past. I cannot even make a phantom of an avatar for myself, so you can stop worrying about me messing up all of world history. Presently, I still only have sight and sound in my visions. I am trying to work on smell next."

She was a late bloomer in regards to her abilities. The immortals with divine blood could do just about anything with their power, yet the only thing that Val could do was espy the past. Even then, her ability had many shortcomings. For one, she could not figure out how to make her sense of smell work in her visions—forget about touch or taste.

From her vantage point, time was linear, but the individual events within the universal timeline were a tangled mess. Val could hardly find anything of import within the web of time, unless she already knew the circumstances around the event in which she was searching. Her only ability, Past Insight, was rather useless, all in all.

If Ross thought that she could pose some danger to the order of time, then maybe there would be some hope for her yet. He was the one who could sense events in the future, after all.

"Your Past Insight is still stronger than my Future Sight, you know," Ross said. "At least you have the capacity to grasp something concrete and garner understanding from visual stimuli. I only have vague feelings and hunches. It is all abstract for me."

"Yeah," Val drawled. Whenever Ross talked, she found herself slipping into boredom. Despite that, his nerdiness came into great use.

As lost demigods growing up in the mortal world with their sweet but average mother, Val and Ross had to figure out everything by themselves. Initially, they were just two kids who were supposed to hide their golden blood if they ever got a nick or scrape at school. They were used to having only each other, never able to make normal friends with mortal children. It created a disconnect given the way that they always had to hide their true nature over simple things. For instance, they could never fairly participate in any sports or games due to their superior strength and athleticism.

Demigods and demigoddesses would need a sports league all their own. Val could laze around on the couch until springtime and eat nothing but potato chips. Then, once all of her muscle had degraded, Val could show up at the men's national track competition and sweep all of their titles, back to back to back. That was the sheer physical advantage that her divine blood offered her in comparison to mortals.

Then again, she also liked to think that she could kick a tree out of the ground.

The only person that she knew who could possibly make for worthy physical competition was Ross. Sadly, Ross was Rosamer: a big nerd. Of course, he would prefer being called an 'intellectual' just as he also preferred being called the old-fashioned name of 'Rosamer' by everybody.

Ross the Nerd took no interest in corporeal pursuits. Personally, Val would have made him train in kickboxing or mixed martial arts with her if she ever had her way. Instead, she was out here, trying to reach out to a squirrel with her mind just as Ross wanted her to do.

"I have this sneaking suspicion," he began, "that you should be taking your practice more seriously." There Ross went again with his responsible, big brother vibes.

While Val might have crossed her arms and shifted her weight nonchalantly, she grinned broadly. Despite the frequency in which he acted like a stick in the mud, she really did appreciate him. Ross was her mentor—her personal trainer in all things that related to their divine blood.

Usually, he was the one to figure things out first. Then, he would dedicate a significant amount of time trying to replicate his discovery and pass his newfound knowledge onto her.

It had taken them until they were old enough to use the Internet freely to discover what they truly were. Sure, the existence of gods and demigods was common knowledge to everybody in the world, but it took a long time to draw the connection between the stories that they had heard and their own life experiences.

When Ross had realized that their golden blood meant that they were a demigod and demigoddess, there had not been a more exciting time in their lives. Simply having divine blood gave them the potential for boundless power. The only limit would be their imaginations, or so they had thought back then.

They did what any kids would do with limitless power at their fingertips. Val and Ross had picked their favorite superpowers, and they ran with it.

Back then at eleven years old, Val had wanted to fly. Here she was, still bound to the ground.

Ever the nerd back then, Ross had wanted to read minds. That ability, he did indeed obtain after a year of aimless practice. His classmates and teachers provided a wealth of test subjects for him to practice on during school. As it turned out, reading people's minds was not as cool as it had sounded. According to Ross, he overheard too many boring thoughts, but at least that was better than the private musings that went on in strangers' heads that he wished to have never known at all.

In reality, they seemed to have some unexplainable restraints on what they could do with their divine blood. Ross could read minds. Val could not. Neither of them could fly, although Ross had never tried particularly hard to that end. He could sense the future, while she could not. At least Val had the realm of the past all to herself, yet she could not help but feel like she had gotten the short end of the stick with regards to her powers.

Presently, Ross tried to force an insufferably lame ability onto her. She was supposed to try calming agitated creatures with her mind. For this reason, she had been sprinting around the landscape, chasing squirrels.

"Trust me," Ross insisted. "This will be an indispensable ability for you to learn."

How could she disagree with the advice of a fortune-teller? Despite her sneaking suspicion that he just wanted to make her run in circles after squirrels, she played along with the pretense of his premonitive advice.

From behind the tree, Ross lifted one hand in a little wave. "Val, you need to use your head a little more."

She could use her head all right. Val thrust her neck forward so that she could bash her skull into the tree. Her head did not hurt at all from the impact; it just felt like a tap to the forehead.

In contrast, the sturdy oak shook violently. Another indentation marred the tree. This one followed the curvature of her forehead.

"Hey!" Ross said. The jolt must have startled him on the other side of the tree.

The squirrel fell from its perch, and thanks to her enhanced reflexes, Val caught its furry body in one hand. The little guy was terrified, all right, but she could not do anything to calm it. Val tried reaching out to its stupid, tiny squirrel brain until she gave herself a headache. Now, who did that make the stupid one?

She had to let go of the squirrel to keep it from leveling a savage attack against her. While she may be a demigoddess, having little squirrel claws scratch all over her hand did not feel good. The raw cuts and scrapes healed into new skin with a couple blinks of the eye.

As the one who had already figured out how to read human minds, Ross took to coaching her and counseling her in how to cross the natural divide between consciences. Before she could try again, Val had to chase down the squirrel first.

It was a quirky, little vacation that her family had for that weekend in July.

Character Update:

* All entries are based on what Val knows.

Valentine (Val) Title: None Rank: Demigoddess Attributes: None Abilities Name Class Description

Past Insight

cognitive

- watch a replay of the past

- four pieces of initial information are required

- can stay in tunnel of time for up to one second

- real time passes slower in the vision

- one day cool down after a failed vision