FULL NAME: Valkyrie Lucija Horvat II, named for her dear older "sister", Valkyrie I, an ancient kneazel that her mother credits for saving their family.
NICKNAMES: Val, Valica
AGE/DOB: 18 / November 15 / Scorpio
YEAR: Senior
BLOOD STATUS: Halfblood, 1/4th* Veela through her mother. Valkyrie's Veela ancestry is so watered down that no special abilities have developed; she's just a very pretty blonde who never gets zits.
* Or so her mother says. It might be less.GENDER/PRONOUNS: Female, she/her
SEXUALITY: ♥ Boy Crazy ♥ and bitter. (Val knows she's attracted to girls more than boys, but desperately wishes she weren't. She overcompensates quite a bit.)
HOMETOWN: Glittering Springs, an exclusive magical suburb just outside of
Bountiful, Utah. It's full of nearly identical but uniquely hideous McMansions, unconstrained by physics, muggle logic, or good taste. Most of them have a random turrets and towers. Some have several. (Randomly generate a mansion
here and you can probably find it in Glittering Springs.)
APPEARANCE:Val looks like she was born in Mothgarden, with her blonde curls and pink cheeks. Her pockets are full of crystals, and she always smells a little of sage and wildflowers. She has a long, delicate face and her makeup is always soft and perfect. "Makeup is best when you don't notice it," she brags sweetly as she applies highlighter for a subtle dewy look. This is easy for Valkyrie to say, because her Veela heritage makes beauty a breeze. Her skin and hair are always flawless, even after a big game (although she might be covered in tapioca or green glitter), and she's never counted a calorie in her life.
"BoHo Princess" is the best way to describe her overall aesthetic. Pastels, acid wash high waisted jeans, crop tops and draping cardigans that show off lacy bralettes. This "nature girl" look is one that's carefully curated, and pretty expensive. When not on the field or in the woods, Val wears a lot of jewelry. She tends to impulse buy it from any and every small creator, and has a formidable collection by now. Her closet is just as decked out with Etsy purchases and Free People or Anthropologie indulgences. At school, she regularly visits Junebug's and Spellunking for treasures that fit her aesthetic.
It's also worth noting that Valkyrie is
strong. Underneath those flowing shawls is a muscular, athletic girl. She has broad shoulders and a 6 pack that she's happy to show off by picking up classmates (especially cute girls shhh).
HEIGHT: 5'10" without heels
BUILD: Muscular.
Stealth strong. Okay, so maybe she's not
that ripped (yet), but she can lift most boys in her year and has a lot of muscle definition.
PB: Sarah Gadon
INSPO: Pinboard What would others say is their most prominent personality trait — what's the first thing people notice about them?Sugar and spice and everything nice. Val is a sugary sweet girl with a peppy disposition, but that's maybe not what makes her stand out. Barely hidden beneath the surface, Val is
severe. She thinks she's the nicest person in the world, but it's not that hard to tell her first impression is misleading. Is she nice? Yeah, sure. Is she kind? Hardly ever. Val's image is extremely important to her, though, and she expects (or even demands) that people play along. If she's "nice" to someone, she expects them to do as she asks, and when they don't? Things take a turn for the passive-aggressive.
This results in a girl that comes off as dishonest, two-faced and very difficult to read. If someone wanted to be polite, they might call her "mysterious." She gives very little away, and rarely explains herself or opens up. She's not nearly as soft and warm as she pretends, so attempts at getting to know her are like coming up against a brick wall. Meanwhile, she wants to know all about you. This is not a two way street. You give, she takes.
And then, of course, there's Val's outspoken love of (and ardent belief) in divination, particularly astrology, energy, crystals and her interpretation of wiccan beliefs. She's a spiritual kind of girl who talks a lot about auras and why your rising sign is making you so
annoying today.
How would this character describe themself? What do they think are their best and worst qualities?Valkyrie would tell people that her best quality is that she's really nice. This is blatantly untrue, and even she knows it. Maybe instead it's her
desire to be nice. If she performs niceness well enough, people will believe it and then they'll like and appreciate her.
And this is true about most of Val's "good qualities" in her eyes. She's not really that great, but if she just tries hard enough, she can trick people. Maybe she's not as spiritually attuned as other students, but
dammit she is going to dedicate everything to being one with the earth and the cosmos. Valkyrie's intense for a Mothgardener, but she's always aiming for the moon. Sure, she's a mess right now, but she can change it. She sees what the future holds, so she just keeps trudging towards it.
Val's a little blind to her own good qualities, but she could write an essay on what she finds lacking... if she ever were to open up to anyone. She knows she has a passive-aggressive temper and that she's embarrassingly emotional and dramatic. She's never satisfied, and the second she gets what she wants, she wants something better. Her perpetual dissatisfaction makes her irritable and easily bored. She's a fairweather friend at best. In the heat of the moment it's so much easier to blame someone else and play the victim, even if she knows better after her head clears.
And so on and so on and so on. Val uses astrology to emotionally self-harm by obsessively reading up on why the stars have cursed her to be a sub-par person. Feeling like her flaws are out of her control is somehow reassuring, and relieves her of responsibility.
What drives them to action? Doing good? Getting rich? Receiving praise?Control, autonomy, and getting her own way. Val might have more edges than some other Mothgardeners, but she still has her gaze pointed ever upwards. Her childhood was one where she followed her mother's example every step of the way, but now she wants to stretch her wings and find a new path. She's loathe to take orders from
anyone, and has seized every opportunity to be the one in charge for once. While she'll always play nice, she sees the word "no" as merely a polite request.
Val also craves glory, and she's always reaching for more. Years of being denied personal autonomy means that she wants to make up for all that lost time, but ends up coming off as a little entitled. She wants it? She gets it. No questions. She
hates being refused, and the quickest way to get on her bad side is to imply she doesn't deserve something. She works hard and expects to be rewarded for it, period. Val never does anything if it doesn't benefit her in some way. Selflessness doesn't really factor into her worldview.
Lastly, Val wants to be liked, adored, and desired. Her image is very important to her, and it's directly linked to her self-esteem. She wants so badly to be the YA protagonist everyone thinks is beautiful and strong but in a totally natural way, but she's just... not that girl. From her looks to her personality, Valkyrie is a very different archetype. Still, anything less than everyone being a little in love with her makes her feel unappreciated.
How ambitious are they? What are their short term and long term goals?Val wants. She wants
everything. Nothing but the best for Valkyrie. From her point of view, she's spent so long being second best that the world owes her. She wants success, she wants money, she wants the Prince Charming that all the fairytale princesses got. Of course she knows she has to work for these things, but she also feels like it's just a matter of time. If she pushes herself and the team, they WILL be number one this year. If she just smiles a lot and compliments him plenty, that boy WILL date her. She's poor at compromising her ambitions, and is known for being a pretty sore loser.
Long term goals don't cross Val's mind very often. The furthest she's thought is getting on a pro Quodpot team, and then after that it'll just be success, success, success. She's been told all her life that having a family is key, so to a degree she wants that. The logistics haven't been sorted out, but Val's not much of a planner. As a captain and athlete she doesn't really keep track of stats or macros. As always, she'll just use her best judgement and keep getting better.
How sensitive are they?More than she likes to admit. Valkyrie would love to be strong and untouchable, but she's very easily offended and has a biting temper. When something sets her off, she can get pretty melodramatic. If you've hurt her feelings you'd better
believe she has torn you to shreds to her friends and gone on about what an awful person you are. When Valkyrie's upset, she doesn't know loyalty, so even friends can get this treatment. (The dramatics when she learned Jupiter had "abandoned" the team were sure something.) Typically she won't come to blows with anyone because it damages her "nice" image, but she can be dangerously passive aggressive, and tends to hold grudges way longer than she wants anyone to know.
How social are they and, introvert or extrovert, what sorts of people do they gravitate toward?Val is an extrovert, but not a very giving one. She loves to be out there having fun and socializing, but she wants to receive more than give. She'll often neglect to ask about
your love life, and can't really be bothered to keep up with it anyway. She's not going to help you with your problems unless you really push her, and asking for her aid will probably just net you some judgmental disdain. She looooooves to complain, though, and will happily indulge in hours of bitching about some girl you hate or how all the good boys are taken.
On the other hand, she's not too particular about who she befriends. Val's very open-minded, and while friendship with her might not be easy, she doesn't have any real biases. For all her shortcomings, Val is an adventurous, enthusiastic girl who likes to do things, and she wants to do them with other people. She may not be very helpful, but she
can be very exciting. Partying, drinking, a little light rule breaking. Hiking, camping, wild broom races. She wants to be exhilarated, and bores
very easily. Unfortunately, she also bores of people, so friends have to be able to keep up with her break-neck pace. If you're not exciting, interesting, or both, she doesn't really see the point in dragging you around.
Val
really likes boys, or at least the idea of boys. She's pretty flirtatious, but her approach isn't always charming. She's pushy, for one, and doesn't really care
which boy it is. She never focuses on one for long, and they seem pretty interchangeable to her. She'd be as happy going to the dance with Kermit as she would with Joshua, but while they have her attention she can become pettily competitive with percived romantic rivals, especially other girls. In fact, she gets
particularly hung up on their girlfriends, obsessing more over them than the boy she supposedly wants to date.
What sense do they most rely on?Val does not rely on logic, but rather
intuition. This makes some of her classes very difficult for her, because when magic is involved, the "feel around until it works" method can be either totally ineffective, or potentially dangerous. Still, Val has a knack for absorbing information and letting it passively come out later, making her one of those students who glides through school with a B average and very little studying.
She's very perceptive when it comes to people, too. Valkyrie can tell when you're not yourself, for better or worse, and she's great at snap analyzing a broomsport player's strengths and weaknesses. This has been a real asset as a captain, and ever since taking over last year she's been pushing for real improvement from the team. She conflates her keen eye a little bit with her divination skills. It's hard to tell where her innate perception stops and divination ability begins, even for Val. She often says she can "sense auras", or she'll attribute her observations to what she knows about your astrology chart.
What is their sense of humor like? Are they chronically unserious? How's their comedic timing? Do they hate potty humor?Val is, and this cannot be overstated,
extremely unfunny. It's not that she's humorless, it's just that her comedic timing is awful and her sharp tongue completely loses it's edge when she tries to joke around. It can be endearing, perhaps, but if she gets any laughs it's probably not because she told a good one. Valkyrie wildly overthinks her jokes, which range from uncomfortable attempts to tease people, to very poor puns. Not even in the way puns are usually bad, but in a manner that suggests a tragic lack of skill with wordplay. Val has the comedic stylings of your dad when you were 13 and stuck in the car on a road trip.
If she's lucky, her "humor" will be so bad that it comes all the way back around and becomes funny again.
POSITIVESweet
Hard working
Ambitious
Optimistic
Intuitive
Perceptive
Open-minded
Adventurous
Determined
Enthusiastic NEUTRALMysterious
Emotional
Strong-willed
Independent
Image-conscious
Glory-seeking
Bad jokes
Flirtatious NEGATIVESelfish
Entitled
Jealous
Demanding
Duplicitous
Passive-aggressive
Dishonorable
Easily bored
Closed-off
Dislikes cats FUN FACTS:Is a casual Teal Swan fan. She went to one of her talks and charged a few crystals with Teal's unique energy.
Uses essential oils unironically to help with stress and concentration.
Always smells good, even after practice.
Was briefly in love with Florence Welch in middle school. Val was disappointed to learn she wasn't a real witch.
Has been catty about Quidditch ever since it "stole" Jupiter Quigley from the Quodpot team. She's always seen the other sport as lesser, but now it's personal.
Protection sachets.
LANGUAGES: English (native), Croatian (broken - just enough to know what her mom is yelling at her/her dad/employees)
HOBBIES: Pursuing unavailable boys, collecting crystals, white witchcraft, hiking, Quodpot, inspiring Instagram envy, weight training, meditation, being one with nature, picking up Merlin against his will.
SKILLS:
❥ Quodpot & Flying. Valkyrie's name practically demanded she take on broom sports. In grade school, her parents put her on a team to help work out her energy and use her temper more productively, and it worked. Val is a passionate athlete who's excited to work, and has been ever since she learned to fly. Her individual style is that of an immovable force, carefully watching the opposing team to get a read one what's going to come next. She can be a bit of a glory seeker, but not at the expense of winning (... usually). She likes to instruct her players to do similarly, making the Peckenpaugh team one that's very reactive, and somewhat unpredictable. Everyone is expected to keep their eyes open for an opportunity, a crack in the armor, and then be willing to risk it all. She trains her team mercilessly so everyone is at their peak, ready handle whatever is thrown at them. Meanwhile, Val's not particularly interested in tried and true strategies, and as a tactician she's lacking. It bores her.
❥ Lifting. Valkyrie makes sure to do some daily weight training to keep her physique the way she likes it. She has a pair of magical weights in her room that are charmed to change how heavy they are.
❥ Outdoorsy. Valkyrie hates being stuck inside, and Peckenpaugh gave her excuses to avoid it. She's no born and bread outdoorswoman and the idea of her parents taking her camping is laughable, but Peckenpaugh was all the instruction she needed. Val's survivalist skills come with a spiritual bent about appreciating and respecting nature, taking in exquisite views, and not disturbing the ecosystem.
❥ Cat Grooming/Care. Ugh, unfortunately. Although in all honestly, Val can't bring herself to actually hate the animals her mom makes her help with. She'll talk nonstop about how much she loathes cats as a concept, but the hours she spends brushing hair, wiping away eye boogies, and fussing over infant kittens is different. To her it doesn't count. I mean, sure, she hates them, but she's not a monster. Val makes a little extra money on break by grooming cats belonging to her mom's rivals. Secretly, of course. Val is excellent with cats, and can make even the meanest feline tolerate her. She takes no joy in it.
❥ Leadership(?). Valkyrie is bubbly and chatty, even if there's a definite edge to it. If you don't assert yourself, she has a knack for taking the reins and guiding things exactly how she wants them. Her Mothgarden nature makes her prone to following whims, but her steely core wants you to go along with them. Val always have a vision, and at her best, inspires people to share it with her.
❥ Divination. It's not yet sure if Valkyrie has the Sight or not, or if she's just very intuitive, or if it's a latent Veela thing. Either way, she's been sucked into Divination these past three years, and is particularly interested in astrology and auras. She likes to draw up star charts for her friends and teammates, and often talks about the "energy" and "vibes" she's getting off them. Her accuracy depends on who she's talking to and how much they're inclined to believe, but Val's convinced of her own abilities.
❥ Witchcraft. Her Divination often bleeds together with her love of witchcraft. No, not wands and spells and "real" magic, but crystals and sage and the sorts of things Muggles call magic (alternatively, magick). Val believes that there's some truth to it, and tries to use hermeticism to tap into ~crystal energy~. It's still up in the air whether this is all bullshit or not, but it makes her happy. She likes to prescribe crystals, oils and other rituals, and her approach falls somewhere between her witch heritage and whatever she absorbed from occult stores. As with most things in Val's life, she's just kind of winging it, but with a lot of enthusiasm.
FAMILY:❥ Tereza Horvat, mother, prize winning cat breeder, MLM "Boss Babe", 1/2(?) Veela. Tereza arrived in America at 16 with a few dragots, her kneazel named Valkyrie, and a dream. Everything before that is a bit of a mystery, though there are rumors that she might have been escaping the purist inclinations of her family in Croatia. She quickly married Drago, a fellow Croatian immigrant, at 19. Since then, Tereza has made a comfortable life crossbreeding kneazels with Persian cats, resulting in a highly sought after familiar. She shows her cats in cat shows, but for the past year her prize show cat, Tigrice, has been replaced as reigning champion. The competition has made her even less stable than normal.
Tereza is also a successful consultant for several MLM schemes (namely essential oils and yoga pants), and has a few dozen underpaid and overworked mothers in her "team" helping her to achieve that Boss Babe lifestyle. It's possible that her veela bloodline has allowed her to ensnare more victims than the average consultant.
❥ Dragomir Horvat, father, accountant. A barely-there type of father who always finds excuses to work late. Val has surprisingly few opinions on her father, who's never seemed particularly interested in her either. He doesn't care for sports, hiking or camping, and instead spends most of his free time "with the boys" or listening to Magical Artifacts Road Show on the wireless. Val thinks he's having an affair.
❥ Valkyrie Horvat I, a kneazel. Valkyrie I is an ancient, toothless kneazel who once upon a time helped Val's mom get her business up and running. She's mothered many a litter of kittens that ended up in the arms of celebrities or taking home first place ribbons. She also hates Val, but the feeling is mutual.
❥ "Aunts". Val has been a part of the cat show circuit since she was a small child, and unsurprisingly it tends to be the same group of people going from show to show. She's found more maternal support from the group of middle aged women at these shows than her mother. It's common knowledge that Val and Tereza's relationship is, well, not great, but everyone's too polite to confront someone like Tereza about it.
BACKGROUND:Valkyrie was in second place from infancy. Her family had been desperately poor before her birth, but in the last couple of years things had been turning around, all thanks to her older sister, Valkyrie the first.
Except this first Valkyrie was a kneazel, not a human. She had crossbred with a persian cat, which resulted in a beautiful litter of familiars that made the Horvats a tidy sum. Soon, Val's mother was the real breadwinner of the family, selling these designer kittens to the wealthiest witches and wizards in North America. Val-the-human only remembers a little bit of what it was like to be financially unstable, and after that she was showered with whatever she wanted. It didn't mean her parents were any more attentive, though. Her father barely spoke to her or her mother, and Tereza saw Val as a live-in assistant.
Val and Tereza's relationship was never very good. Both were stubborn, but Tereza saw herself as the authority, and Val as a disobedient girl who needed to be controlled. Val was working for her mother as early as 7, waking up in the middle of the night to feed kittens, and spending her weekends grooming those luxurious coats. Summers were taken up by traveling to cat shows or delivering kittens to the obscenely wealthy. Her father wanted little to do with the family, even when Valkyrie was put on a Quodpot team. Tereza signed her up after Val had one too many blow-ups, diagnosing her daughter as having "too much energy". Val hoped her father would be interested in her once she was a sports star, but he wasn't. Her mother attended her games, but largely ignored the action to chat up the other mothers.
During middle school Quodpot, Val became close with
[a girl], and their friendship became unusually close. The two were caught kissing behind the bleachers later in the year, and Tereza abruptly switched Val to another league and refused to discuss it with her daughter.
After that incident, Valkyrie's childhood was mostly uninteresting to her parents, even though she flourished at Quodpot and began to dive into the world of new age spirituality. At most, her mom would sometimes tell her to stop wasting money on "rocks and candles." Meanwhile, Tereza became increasingly obsessed with showing her cats at magical cat shows. In earlier years this had been a boon, as the Horvat litters secured win after win. The renown meant more customers. Val's free time was spent caring for kittens and grooming cats, and the Horvats moved into an exclusive magical suburb. The new house was too big for the three of them, but Val liked it for that. She could disappear into a corner of the huge mansion and no one would see her for hours, or she could take her broom out into the yard and practice uninterrupted.
Val spent Freshman year going to Pioneer High School in Utah, but quickly learned that the Pioneers Quodpot team was... lacking, and the Salt Lake Seagulls were not doing Utah any favors in the national league either. She wanted out, and began desperately applying to any schools with a Quodpot team in
at least the top ten. And so sophomore year, Peckenpaugh welcomed her with open arms, and as a bonus, it was a boarding school. Goodbye, cats! Goodbye, parents! Her mother sent her away with a kitten of their own breeding, but Val was so desperately sick of her mother's business that she immediately gave the animal away. Tereza was furious, even though Val never asked for the kitten. It put yet another wedge between them, but Val already suspected the relationship was beyond repair.
And then last year
[maybe your character's relative] came along. Their cat caught up to Tereza's winning cat, and threatened to oust Tereza's star. This tension was taken out on Valkyrie, who spent as much time as possible practicing Quodpot and avoiding her mom. Val had been made team captain at school, but that victory was overshadowed by her mother's feline drama. They were happy she was captain, of course, but Drago was spending even more time at work, and Tereza couldn't stop talking about her rival.
This summer, Valkyrie began to suspect her father was having an affair. It upset her more than she thought it would. Her parents had never been in love, but it made the home feel even more hollow and empty. Tigrice came in second place, and for the first time, her mother had lost. Valkyrie made captain again for senior year, but celebrations were lost in the shuffle of cat drama and working late at the office.
And this time, Val lost Jupiter Quigley, her fellow falcon and key strategist. The idea of going on without her #2 was terrifying. Valkyrie had never been much for Quidditch, but that neutrality twisted into jealousy. What's so great about Quidditch? Why would
anyone pick Quidditch over
her Quodpot??? But those are sentiments NOT expressed in the Horvat household. In fact, Val is, like, soooo happy for Jupiter! Now they're
both captains! How cool is that???
Although Val is used to going it alone, this year feels particularly precarious and hollow.
WAND: 13", pink ivory, rusalka hair, unyielding.
FAMILIAR: At the start of sohomore year, her mom sent her off with a Kneazel-Persian kitten, which she promptly gave to another student. This sudent then gave the kitten to another student, then another and then another. The mischievous cat bounced from dorm room to dorm room until she ended up in the possession of
Ramona Grimsditch. She's casually known as Free Cat.
Val still hasn't found a replacement, because her mother doesn't want any other animals in the house... and she's still angry about Val giving away her
very expensive kitten.
CAREER GOALS: Before Peckenpaugh, Val didn't have many goals. It was assumed that she'd keep helping her mom with all her (stupid, squash-faced) cats, and then when she retired, Val would take care of her so she didn't have to go into a nursing home. Maybe somewhere in there she'd have time to get married to a boy her mother would criticize relentlessly.
But now? Valkyrie
is going to go pro and become the next Quodpot sensation, with all the glory and fortune that entails. She's convinced that her divination helps her to hone her skills as a player and a leader. You
can't discount the stars when victory's on the line.
PART-TIME JOB: Who has time for a job when you're as
dedicated to school as Val is? During the summer she grooms cats for a little extra spending money.
CLASSES: ❥ Charms. Valkyrie is an above average student, but does a much better job when she can be shown how something works. Given a little elbow room, she's a precise and delicate spellcaster with a nice flair for detail.
❥ Magizoology & Cryptozoology. (H) Val loves being one with the living world and shows uncommon compassion for nature and animals. ... Unless they're feline in nature. Fuck cats. She's sick of them.
❥ Transfiguration. This is a subject Val has mastered through blood, sweat and tears. The exacting nature of Transfiguration has pushes her to her absolute limits, and sometimes she still panics at 3 AM because she thinks she's going to fail an exam.
❥ Hermeticism. Valkyrie's pet project is to prove the efficacy of crystals as a magical focus. Results are currently
bad mixed.
❥ History of Magic. Boring but easy enough. She shows up, she does the readings.
❥ Outdoor Magic. (TA) Yay, her fave subject! That's what she tells Mr. Youngblood, anyway. Their approaches are wildly different, but their attitude towards people is unfortunately well aligned.
❥ Divination. (H) Valkyrie's
actual favorite subject. She's
very serious about Divination. It's real and she has the Sight, thank you very much.
❥ Animagus Studies. (red fox) Valkyrie dreams of the day she can run untamed through the forest as... something. Hopefully not a cat. Please, Merlin, let her be
anything but a cat.
EXTRA-CURRICULARS: ❥ Quodpot (captain) This is Valkyrie's second year as Quodpot captain, and she's absolutely certain the team is destined for victory this time. The energies are
perfect, but make sure your crystals are charged before every game. You can't be too careful.
❥ AV Club. During the Quodpot off-season she covers Quidditch games, and is known for being a brutal critic.
❥ Adventure Club. More time outdoors, more exercise, more nature.
❥ Appalachian History. Valkyrie is curious about the woods around Peckenpaugh, but is somewhat less interested in local history.
SORTING?: Wildgulch called to her, but then Mothgarden promised something irresistible: doing whatever she wanted just because she wanted it. Before then, Val had never opened up to a single soul, but at that moment she broke down in tears and sat on the dirty floor. She told the faceless trial how she'd never made a choice for herself her entire life. She wanted to follow her dreams, except she had none. Mothgarden asked just the right question in response, and Valkyrie turned down everything else for it.
It was on the longer side in terms of sorting, and Valkyrie came out with puffy eyes and a stuffy nose.
NAME: Meggie
EMAIL: what.it.seems at gmail.com
CDJ: ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
swashbucklerOTHER CONTACT: TIMEZONE: MT
no subject
POSITION: Quodpot Captain
WHY THIS SPOT?: Valkyrie is a determined, tenacious athlete and Quodpot caught her heart at a young age. As someone who's very easily bored and needs an outlet for a repressed temper, Quodpot fit the bill. At Peckenpaugh she began to take it seriously and saw playing professionally as a valid career goal. And so it goes, she just had to make captain.
Valkyrie is a very involved, authoritative leader. Her standards are high, and she's not afraid to bench people that are disappointing her. Are you having a hard time in school? Here's a crystal, do some meditation... but whatever you do, don't bring that negative energy to the pitch. She has an eye for seeing what needs to be tweaked or improved in a player, and often expresses it through astrology, energies, crystals, etc. Her advice is always spot on, but some people might have a hard time swallowing its presentation.
Val's not a fantastic strategist, though, and instead focuses on keeping the team in tip top shape and working their reflexes. This makes Peckenpaugh's team slightly chaotic, which can work for or against them. Last year, Valkyrie counted on Jupiter Quigley to provide tactics... but that's not exactly an option anymore. Of course she's happy for Jupiter, though!!! Sooooo happy. :))))
And then there's Adrian Gildersleeves. Val sees herself as The Captain and him as The Other Captain, and expects to be deferred to on account of her seniority. However... Valkyrie knows she has some shortcomings, and if Adrian can help her make up for those, she's glad he's there. She's not going to risk losing by squabbling with her co-captain, and at the very least, she respects his expertise on running the team's Kestrels.
IDEAS?: