[Private/Social/Mossino/Vale]

It was a beautiful night in the City of Roses and a certain ReQuip mage had decided to go out on a peaceful stroll all by herself. In her opinion, there was no way to truly know a city unless one had witnessed the changes brought forth by the cover of darkness. While the boring honest citizens slept in their comfortable beds and dreamed their mundane dreams, the more interesting people were out and about. Valerie had no particular desire to involve herself in any of it as she was merely visiting as tourist this time.

As such, she had been walking by a rather normal looking shop when she happened to witness something occurring inside. A suspicious looking man stabbed another more inconspicuous looking one through the throat, and as if this wasn't enough, he proceeded to bash the poor fellow's head into a desk and splinter the wood in the process.

While witnessing such a scene would have shocked or frightened most people, Valerie wasn't fazed by it in the slightest. Her only thought for it was that she deemed it a tad excessive.

The murderer then began to pick up random items for himself as she watched with mild interest. What managed to really peak her curiosity was the way how he had caused the pooling blood to reverse its course and flow back into the body with a mere flick of his fingers. Within seconds, the place looked decently clean. She blinked in surprise, finding herself wanting to know more about the magic.

The most logical thing to do in this situation, clearly, was to greet the man.

"That was quite the interesting trick with the blood. How did you do that?"

A normal person would have run away long before then and called the authorities. There were far too great a number of things that could go wrong, after all. Even though she was keenly aware of all this, curiosity got the better of her as it often did.

The man turned around, letting Valerie get a better look at him. It seemed that he had read the fashion section of Dark Mage Weekly one too many times, for he was dressed head to toe in dark clothing that could only be properly described as edgy or sinister. He looked the very image of how one might imagine a dark mage to look like.

"Oh, I see. That's actually pretty impressive." She said in reply, nodding appreciatively as he put on a little demonstration for her benefit.

It certainly seemed like an extremely useful magic for those in his line of work. Valerie herself though, didn't leave much of a mess behind. She preferred to be quick, clean, and efficient.

"Well I suppose I could start screaming like a lunatic, if you find that more appropriate."

She was kidding, of course. Screaming just then would have been a terrible idea and would have brought all sorts of unwanted attention to themselves.

"I was actually just curious about your magic. I've never encountered a blood mage before."

Judging by his replies, the thieving murderer who appeared to have taken fashion advice from a textbook villain was beginning to seem more and more like he had psychopathic tendencies. Any sane person would have chosen to make their exit then, curiosity satisfied or not. Instead of leaving, the lilac haired girl returned his grin with one of her own. Valerie had never been accused of being entirely sane, after all.

"I guess I'm not most people." The girl replied with a shrug of her slender shoulders.

The ReQuip mage wondered for a moment if the man assumed that she was afraid of blood but then quickly realized that he had meant the death of the merchant. It didn't particularly faze her as violence and deaths weren't exactly rare occurrences in Talonia - some of it being the result of jobs she had taken. Though it wasn't something she enjoyed, it didn't keep her up at night or litter her thoughts. Her morality was a completely grey area and her empathy only kicked in at the strangest of moments.

"I've never really gotten the point of screaming if you were running away. Wouldn't that just give away your position?" Valerie mused out loud and thoughtfully tapped her lip with a finger.

"So, what else can your magic do? What is the extent of your abilities?"

Valerie picked up on the challenge in his words and narrowed her eyes a fraction, her friendly smile taking on a sharp edge. The girl enjoyed witnessing different kinds of magic and the best way of doing such a thing - in her opinion, of course - was to spar.

The nightly stroll she had decided to go on was becoming quite exciting.

"Care for a spar, then?"

She straightened her casual posture and looked around the shop they were both standing in. Dead merchant aside, the place was actually pretty decent. Not too shabby or cramped, though it was no stadium by any means. The only obstacles were a couple of shelves;  empty for the most part as the guy had taken it upon himself to clear out the place.

Faster than the blink of an eye and without fanfare, Valerie called forth her ReQuip form and readied herself. She wasn't going to randomly start attacking this man if he refused to spar, disappointing as it would have been.