[Insert interesting topic name here]

"WHERE IS IT?! I KNOW YOU TOOK IT!"

"Woah, calm down! What are you talking about?!"

"DON'T BULLSHIT ME!"


So much drama. When Mikhail picked the pocket of the man that was now so passionately belligerent, he hadn't expected that the male would react in such a way. Though it was true most people never really reacted in positive ways when a possession of theirs had been stolen, he hadn't expected a reaction like this out of someone that Mikhail initially thought of as "meek". It was obvious that this had been a prime example of "judging a book by its cover". In spite of this unexpected reaction, Mikhail found this entire fiasco quite entertaining. It probably wouldn't have been this entertaining had Mikhail been the target of this male's outburst, but since the man had his sights set on an innocent bystander as being the perpetrator of the theft Mikhail had been able to sit back and relax while watching the events unfold.

Even though Mikhail would never admit it, he loved the drama that a majority of his actions always seemed to cause. There was something almost addictive about seeing how much your actions could affect the world around you, and how easily one could influence the emotions and reactions of another. The atmosphere within the tavern that was once filled with nothing but peace, love, and good vibes had now been replaced with a tension so thick that it could be cut with a chainsaw. The fighting between the belligerent male and the innocent bystander even seemed to infect others, causing them to do the same. People were now frustrated and arguing about inconsequential matters. Anger seemed to always be the easiest emotion to infect others with, and despite how entertaining this all was, Mikhail knew he needed to make an exit before he ended up a victim of his own doing.

With his ill-gotten gains in pocket, Mikhail made his way for the door of the tavern and made a hasty exit. Mikhail found himself surprised as he looked around the town, wondering why it looked completely different than it had only hours earlier. It then occurred to him that he'd walked inside of that tavern in the middle of the day, and the scene was now completely dark. He hadn't been in this town long at all and he knew almost nothing about it. This ignorance coupled with the fact that it was now completely dark outside (save for a few street lamps), meant that Mikhail was completely and utterly lost. This of course didn't stop Mikhail from deciding that his best course of action would be to just walk straight and hope he'd run into something that gave him an idea of where he was.

The night time noises and chatter of Talonia's shopping district was rudely interrupted by the sudden arrival of a seemingly out of control vehicle that had burst through the glass of the only motor shop in the city, scattering people and street lamps alike as it careened past at unsafe speeds. The driver was oblivious to the streams of curses erupting in her wake, laughing to herself as if she was thoroughly enjoying herself.

It was true. Valerie was having so much fun that it was absolutely criminal.

Earlier that day, she had happened upon the realization that she didn't know how to drive. It was a tragedy. A grave lapse on her part. Of course it went without saying that she had immediately sought to rectify it - by taking a vehicle from Motor City's latest shipment out on a test drive. The employees had been too stunned to do much more than stare after her with their mouths agape.

It also went without saying that the girl saw rules such as paying for something before taking it as nothing more than amusing suggestions, as was the speed limit and traffic laws.

"I don't get what the big fuss is all about. This is all quite easy."

The girl honestly couldn't fathom why people tended to make such a big deal of it. She was doing perfectly fine, after all.

Perhaps it needed to be said that while normal people needed to learn how to drive properly with the help of an instructor, someone who paid no attention to traffic laws wasn't held back by such things. Valerie didn't simply drive. She attacked the wheel as if she were wrestling with a giant snake.

At the breakneck speed she was driving, the shopping district was long behind her and she soon entered into the more shady parts of town. The streets were quite empty by comparison, and rather dark as well. Gone were the brightly lit shop windows and crowds to be replaced by seedy looking buildings and narrow alleyways. She couldn't maneuver well enough and was forced to slow down a little, albeit petulantly. There didn't seem to be as many street lamps to knock over either - an activity she'd discovered she liked quite a bit. Sighing to herself, Valerie found an interesting place to park the vehicle and decided it was time for it to stop, fun as the ride had been.

Said interesting place was the roof of a squat looking building.

Going up the conveniently placed ramp had made her teeth hurt, but was well worth it in her opinion. Valerie got out of the car and proudly admired her handiwork for a couple of moments before hopping onto a stack of crates and then down onto the street.

Humming to herself, she smoothed down her windblown hair and patted her jaw a bit as she backed away to look up at the car from her position on the ground. The car looked battered as if it had raced along with a herd of stampeding elephants, but it wore the battle scars well in Valerie's opinion.

It was only when she turned around that she noticed another person standing there, looking quite suspicious in his hoodie. More people would be arriving soon to check what all the noise had been about, undoubtedly. Still, Valerie wasn't entirely too worried about it.

"You know, you look awfully shady just lurking there in the shadows. Are you some sort of criminal?"

Mikhail continued to stumble, tumble, toil and fumble about the darkened alleyways of this city whilst attempting to find a way to the Inn. This place felt as though it were some sort of maze, and Mikhail could only assume some Minotaur would randomly show its face sooner or later. This thought had only come to Mikhail in jest; but once random screams began to sound off nearby he couldn't help but think that there may have been more truth to this than he'd initially thought. Suddenly, a multitude of screaming citizens began to rush past Mikhail's position. He wondered where exactly these people had been all this time given the fact he'd been wandering these alleyways for the past hour now and had yet to see another soul until now.

Instead of taking the smartest action that he could and following the other scared citizens out of this place, Mikhail realized he had never seen a Minotaur before. This was of course an idiotic realization, but if he wanted to stick to the "horror movie protagonist runs headlong into danger"  cliché going he couldn't exactly afford to do something smart right now.

As Mikhail walked closer and closer to the sounds ahead, he began to realize that the sounds seemed to be of an almost mechanical nature. If this was indeed a "Minotaur" he would have expected to hear some growls or roars, but instead all he heard right now was the sound of glass breaking and metal grating against metal. Soon enough, Mikhail was now standing in front of wreckage caused by an obvious vehicle that seemed to have been misplaced atop a shanty. Taking a quick glance to his right he could see the multiple downed streetlamps that denoted the obvious route this vehicle must have taken.

While Mikhail admired this work of "art" he hadn't noticed that someone was actually still inside of the vehicle until a woman began to step out. As she stepped out, her first concern happened to be her hair. In a situation such as this one a sight like that was a bit weird, to say the least. Most people would have been concerned about any potential injuries they might have received, or maybe any injuries they may have caused to others. Mikhail decided to give this woman the benefit of the doubt and assume that she'd checked for things such as this prior to getting out of the vehicle.  He'd hate to think that she was oblivious of her surroundings.

"You know, you look awfully shady just lurking there in the shadows. Are you some sort of criminal?"

Mikhail was a bit confused by this question. At first he simply assumed that she had been talking to someone else for some reason...but once he realized he was the only other person there it was obvious she was directing these comments towards him.

"Well, if you hadn't destroyed almost every streetlamp in this area, I probably wouldn't be lurking in the shadows right now....and no, I'm not."

This wasn't exactly true...well, in this moment it was. It's not like he'd done anything illegal in the past five minutes.

"...I'm going to take a guess and assume that you are though. Are you running from someone?"

Once the hoodlum had gotten over his initial puzzlement as to whether or not her question had been directed at him, he shot back his rather witty answer about having to lurk in shadows because of her mistreatment of the streetlamps lighting the area. To his credit though, he didn't seem offended in the slightest. Valerie held up her index finger and opened her mouth to refute his claim, but was interrupted rather timely by the electrical fizzing of a dying streetlamp in the distance that seemed to prove his point. Snapping her mouth shut and shooting a glower at the traitorous object, the girl found that she couldn't fault his logic.

Even so, she wasn't about to take back her offhanded - and honestly sort of rude - query about his criminal activities.

"Are you sure, though? You do seem like you could go 'muahahahahahaha' at any moment. All you need is a cape and a twirly mustache."

Valerie pondered this for a second, brows furrowing thoughtfully as she looked the young man over once more. He didn't really seem like the type to own, or successfully pull off a villainous cape and twirly mustache combo.

"Wait, no. I take that back. A quietly mischievous chuckle would suit you more."

Nodding firmly as if this made far more sense, Valerie met his eyes to see how he would react to it. Though the initial comment hadn't been anything more than just a simple question she didn't truly even require an answer to, she found that she liked the current train of thought well enough to board it and let it lead her to whichever destination it was headed for.

Oddly enough, that seemed to pretty much explain how she went about life.

The guy then went on to state that he found it quite likely for Valerie to be a criminal, even going so far as to ask if she was on the run.

"What? No."

Valerie cast him a look to let him know how ridiculous he sounded. She certainly didn't consider herself one. Clearly, this needed to be explained to him, if he was mistaking her driving lessons for being on the run from the authorities.

"I decided it was high time I learned how to drive."

Turning partially to face the vehicle, Valerie framed it with her fingers and smiled proudly as she gazed at the smoking wreck that had once been a car.

"I think I've done really well. Do you know how to drive? Its all very easy."

Mikhail could only laugh the more this woman spoke. Usually when he laughed it meant he was laughing at someone, and not necessarily because of any funny situation in particular. Yet, the more she spoke, the more amused he found himself. She was quite witty; a quality that many people around these parts seemed to lack. This accompanied with the fact that she'd just caused quite a bit of vehicular mayhem was enough to give Mikhail the impression that she wasn't exactly from around here. Mikhail wasn't from around here either, and this was likely obvious to everyone, so it felt good to be in the company of someone else that could have been considered an outsider.

"Umm.."

Mikhail wasn't quite sure how he should respond to her question. He figured if he responded with a "no" she'd volunteer to teach him how to drive, and with the enthusiasm she seemed to show concerning the subject he wasn't exactly sure he'd be able to decline. Mikhail glanced over in the direction of the vehicle and had been able to note the poor condition of it...oil leaking from the bottom of it and smoke fuming up from the engine weren't exactly the best signs.

"No...but it's against my um...religion?"

Mikhail mentally kicked himself for adding the question-like tone to the end of his sentence, but quickly continued on.

"Because of my religion I'm against the act of driving, so yeah, I won't be able to learn how to."

He let out a sigh of relief as he managed to push through his lie. Hopefully it had been enough to save his life.

"Your driving skills are quite impressive though. I'm having a hard time believing that you never knew how to drive before this."