Inside of the shelter, Foofy walked calmly enough on the leash as Val headed towards the door with him. Foofy walked a few steps ahead of her yet allowed the leash to have a fair amount of slack. With his proud posture, he strutted out into the daylight for their first walk together.

As soon as they stepped into the fresh air outside, Foofy took off. He pulled at the leash with all the might of an excited Dobie.

“Hey! Wait up.” Val jogged along with him to keep from falling face first onto the sidewalk. While she may be stronger than any ordinary mortal she could be caught off guard as easily as anyone else.

Even without her amplified strength, she assumed that she had a good forty pounds on Foofy, at any rate. To regain control, she simply planted her feet and stood fast.

Foofy kept going until the leash drew taught. The collar yanked back at his neck, forcing him to an unceremonious stop.

“I’m sorry.” Val had to wince at the poor Dobie’s neck, surprisingly thin for such a fierce-looking dog. “You can’t pull, Foofy!” Val reined him back in to her with some tugs on the leash.

For better or worse, she wrapped the leash around her hand. If rope burn would be the price to pay to make Foofy walk at her side, so be it. Any marks upon her hand would heal like nothing, so Val figured that she might as well help his chances of adoption by teaching him how to heel nice.

Her ability of Keep the Peace only helped Foofy come so far in walking on the leash properly. While Val could cease aggression in other beings, she could not exactly make them bend to her every will. At least, that made up Val’s current understanding of this new power that she had begun to cultivate.

Perhaps she could shift this particular skill’s development into something more sinister, something more along the lines of mind control. In the future, she could not only placate aggressive dogs, but also zombify them to walk at her side.

The idea brought about a sense of moral revulsion within her. To make others cease wrongful aggression would be one thing, but to fully overrule every aspect of their free will seemed beyond her right to intervene. Especially since Val planned to use her ability on humans in the future, she saw no use in developing immoral applications for her power.

While Foofy tramped at her side during this walk, he always pulled to get ahead. There were so many sights to be seen in the bright day. There were so many smells to be sniffed on the gentle breeze. His well-defined head jutted forward, ending in that twitching nose. The nub of his tail—cropped in the typical Doberman fashion—wagged with an unmarred happiness. Would his tail stop wagging if she overpowered his will completely?

Her heart went out to these philosophical considerations. Val intended to use her power for nothing but goodness. In the process of developing this power of hers, Val would instill in herself the responsibility to use it well.

Besides, from a practical standpoint, it had already taken Val the better half of a month of practice on squirrels, forcing them to stop chasing each other in order to get to this point. To completely dominate another being, Val would need so much more training, but she wanted a usable ability sooner rather than later. Further refinement of her ability could always happen later down the line. Never, would Val stoop below her own morals, though.

During this walk, the noon day shone brightly overhead. Val squinted upward with a smile. At her side, Foofy had begun to pant on their walk. To better enjoy this perfect day, she looked down to take in her most beautiful companion.

Before her gaze managed to set solely on Foofy, her eyes happened to catch another young woman across the street. “Suvier,” Val whispered, the name of the God Supreme.

Black hair, tied back in a braid, fell between the young woman’s slender shoulder blades. A dark green ribbon formed a bow at the bottom of her braid. Based on the young woman’s physical appearance from the back, Val swore that she could recognize her as none other than Gina Alcove.

Without thinking, Val had ended up taking Foofy on a walk near the local high school. On this corner, a pizza parlor had set up shop, conveniently within walking distance of the high school. Certain students enjoyed taking advantage of the off-campus lunch privilege to eat here.

Those also happened to be the worst sorts of students that Val wanted to avoid. Namely, Val despised Gina. She would go so far as to say that Gina contributed a small part to the reason why Val would rather volunteer at an animal shelter than attend school on a day like today.

To be fair, Val never wanted to bother with her high school education regardless. For her, training her powers would be far more valuable than any high school diploma.

Still, the fact remained that not having to deal with Gina as a byproduct of missing school made for a small, but noticeable benefit to truancy. That much influence over a demigoddess such as herself was a mere mortal human to have.

“Let’s turn around.” Val whispered this down to Foofy, as if he could understand.

Foofy’s steps became heavy like he would rather drag his paws across the concrete than head back toward the animal shelter. For him, that was likely the case. Despite her tugging on the leash, he stood with all four paws locked to the ground. Foofy refused to budge an inch. As if he could read her emotions, his pointed ears perked up and his paws assumed a guard stance. Foofy’s eyes bore into Gina.

Per usual, Gina was followed by her number one crony, Melaney. It was not uncommon for Gina to have a few additional girls surrounding her, but only Melaney backed Gina up mindlessly enough for Val to bother with granting her some acknowledgement through a bit of secondary hate.

In that same moment, Gina happened to turn around. Her long braid swung through the air. Her eyes, an evil green, bore into Val. Of course, she just had to look her way.

It seemed that Val would have no other choice but to contend with her annoying bully, Gina Alcove. That mortal fell so far below the likes of herself that Val simply had to let her get away with such petty behavior. The greatest struggle here would be in restraining herself.

As much as Val wanted to put a despicable mortal like Gina in her place, she needed to hold herself back. For Gina’s sake, she had better hope that she would, anyway. One stray punch might just split the mortal’s jaw in two.

Anxious to get this over with, Val cracked her knuckles of the hand that held Foofy’s leash.

Character Update

* All entries are based on what Val knows.

Gina Title: None Rank: Mortal Attributes: None Abilities Name Class Description

Mean

n/a

- mortals do not have abilities

- but this one is particularly mean