[center][h1][color=#af7ac5][b]Valerie Durand[/b][/color][/h1][/center]

"Today's parent visitation day."

[color=#af7ac5][b]"...Fuck."[/b][/color] Valerie muttered under her breath at the announcement, folding her arms in front of her. For the entire rest of the period, her expression was practically murderous and she stormed out of class without a word. The only thing that gave her pause was Haruko giving her a free card...

...Ash Blossom? Damn. They almost never printed this card, and Haruko was entirely comfortable just giving her one? Between this and last night, how the hell was this girl a Slifer?

[color=#af7ac5][b]"Wait, seriously? Look, you don't have to. All I did last night was get wrecked twice-"[/b][/color] 

"Just take it. If you don't, I'll get angry."

Well, there wasn't really anything she could say to that, could she? So with a resigned sigh, Valerie took the card and tucked it away, making a mental note to slot it into her deck later. 

___

Some time later, Valerie managed to slink away from the crowd of students waiting for the boats. Instead, she sat atop a shipping crate, pulling her deck box and her collection out as she went through her cards, retuning her deck to both include Ash Blossom and account for the weaknesses she'd seen in last night's duels with what she had. Damn, she really needed to hit the card shop soon. There wasn't much in her current collection that would help much.

[b]"Valerie."[/b] Ceruli materialized, sitting down on the crate next to her. [b]"Do you want to-"[/b]

[color=#af7ac5][b]"No."[/b][/color] She said flatly as she resleeved her cards. [color=#af7ac5][b]"I gave up on this changing years ago."[/b][/color]

[b]"Very well."[/b] Ceruli sighed as he propped himself up to his feet. [b]"Know that I will be present should you wish to speak of it. In any case, it seems you've a visitor. I'll make myself scarce."[/b]

[color=ed1c24]“Hey, Dark World girl! You got a minute?”[/color]

Oh, what now? Valerie glanced up at the familiar voice as she finished retooling her deck. 

[color=#af7ac5][b]"Oh. You're the HERO player from last night."[/b][/color] She remarked tonelessly, idly shuffling her deck and drawing a test hand. [color=#af7ac5][b]"Look, today's not great. Can we make this quick? You need something?"[/b][/color]

[@King Cosmos]