#bea.

          He still didn't know that many people in town, but the ones that he did know by name, he liked—well, most of them anyway. Lucio smiled at her. "Yes, I have to admit that's probably the most normal thing that's happened to me here so far." He let out a little laugh, but knew it wasn't far off from the truth. "It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Jumping in leaves is a perfectly normal activity, you know." Beatrice replied, although she knew what he meant about the strange things that happen in town. "How long have you been in town, then? Because that was back in the fall." Not that she had much room to talk, still being pretty new to town herself. Although... it had been a year now, hadn't it?

          "Normal for Edgewood at least. I moved at the end of the summer, so it's been a while now." But through tales of his sister, sometimes he felt like he'd been here longer than that. "My sister moved here a couple of years ago and we've always been close, so I finished up a few things and eventually decided to settle here." He'd been all over the place though, travelling was fun. "What about you? How long have you been here?"

“Oh that’s nice, that you have a close relationship with your sister and we’re able to join her!” Being an old child, Beatrice longed for that kind of closeness with someone else, and it always made her sad when she heard about people who never spent any time with their siblings. “A little over a year now, actually. I came here because I enrolled in the university, but I wasn’t able to start until the spring semester. I guess that means I’m a sophomore now, doesn’t it? Oh wow, time flies fast.” She was surprised how quickly the time had passed, that she barely even noticed when she’s passed the year mark.

          "I guess." A first meeting shouldn't be spent complaining about his sister, no matter how much of that he liked to do. "Oh, wow! That's a long time." He'd never lived in a place for longer than a year. Usually a few months was the only time he needed to stay in a place before wrapping a case up. "So besides school, what do you do with your free time?"

"I take a lot of walks. Usually in the woods." Beatrice answered. "I do a little bit of gardening, and I spend a lot of time with my housemates." Usually that time was spent practicing her magic, but Lucio didn't need to know that. "It's not as boring as it sounds, I promise. What about you, what do you do? For work and when you're not working."

          "Oh, I bet you know tons of good places for picnics and whatnot." He grinned, thinking about how much time he'd spent in the woods. "That's fun. I guess you get along well with your housemates then? If you spend time with them." Lucio lived alone. "Honestly, that's about all I do with my time. Work takes up a lot of my spare time. I do enjoy the woods and hanging out with my sister." He couldn't exactly talk about weapons and hunting as his hobbies. "What are you studying in school?"

"I do, yeah. I don't really, uh, stick to the trails. I've always been really good at navigating in the forest." That was a bit of an understatement, but she figured that he didn't need to know that she tended to just wander around and not really pay attention to where she was going. She didn't need a lecture. "Yeah! They're not students, but they've really helped me out a lot. Charlie she... she's kind of like a sister, to me." Beatrice smiled when he mentioned that he liked to spend time in the woods. "I haven't declared a major yet, but I'm thinking something in the natural sciences."

          "Oh, that's cool! I've been trying to map out the woods a little so I don't get lost when I go out there. I've always loved camping." It was an easy enough lie he'd told over the years. Didn't work in major places. "So maybe next time I go out, I'll ask you to tag along if that's cool." He nodded. "Sometimes sisters are annoying, so a really close friend can be better." Everyone in his family was sort of intense. "That's cool. I just did a degree in criminology and then the police academy. Natural sciences seems fun."

"I mean, sure, I love walking in the woods, but I'm really not sure how helpful I would be. Being good at navigating and actually knowing where you're going and having a map are too totally different things." Beatrice kind of shrugged, like 'what can you do?'. "I wouldn't really know. I was an only child." And then a lonely child. "There's nothing wrong with that though. You knew what you wanted to do and followed it. Yeah! I feel like it might be a bit too on the nose to go into, like, botany, but I just really like nature and plants, you know? So maybe ecology?"

          "Ah, yeah. I see. But you've been there loads more times than me, it seems like. I'm just a casual hiker. Although Claudia probably knows the woods better than me." He laughed awkwardly. "I love my sister, I guess. I just was never real competition for her growing up." No matter what, he was never going to match Claudia. No matter how hard he worked, she would have always been better. "Cool! Do you like just plants or are you interested in the animals in the woods too? Does Edgewood have any unusual species of animals?"

"Yeah, I'm a couple levels up from casual." Beatrice laughed, shaking her head. Even if she wasn't as familiar with the forests of Edgewood as the forests of her childhood it really wasn't a problem for her, not with her magic and her pact. "Aah." She said, nodding in understanding, or as much understanding as she could have, having grown up without a sibling. "Animals are just as important as plants in the woods, or anywhere,  if not more so. No, I don't think that I've seen any usual animals on my walks."

          "I just want to know my way around in case I ever get lost. I think I'd be okay, but you never know." He smiled. He normally didn't have time to learn every inch of the woods, but since he was staying here, he might as well try. "Oh, well. I'm always interested in local species. But I guess Edgewood is weird enough without adding anything else strange."

"No no, that makes sense. It's important to be aware that the woods are wild things." Beatrice was well ware of this fact. She was really lucky that she'd never gotten horribly lost before. Even now, when she felt more at home in the woods than anywhere else she still had a healthy respect, and fear, for them. "I mean, sure some weird things happen in Edgewood, but is it really that strange?"

          He was sure he could handle himself in the woods if it came down to it because he'd been lost before. Though being lost wasn't an enjoyable experience. "Exactly. They can be unpredictable." Maybe not in regular places. "It's stranger than a lot of the other places I've lived. I don't mind though. The strange and unusual is interesting to me."

"Have you lived a lot of places, then?" Beatrice asked him, curious. Edgewood was only the third place that she'd lived, and the second place that she'd lived was only one town over from where she'd grown up, so it really didn't even count as somewhere different. "Coming here was my first big move, so I don't really have much to compare it's levels of 'strange and unusual' to."

          "Oh, yeah. I've lived all over the place." When he had a job like his, travel was part of it. Lucio really liked the travel part of it, though it did get exhausting. "I like it here," he said, a smile on his face. "There's lots of interesting people and the strangeness of this place doesn't bother me. Nothing really shocks me anymore." Not considering his job as a hunter. "Oh, it looks like our time's nearly up. It was great to officially meet you, Bea." Lucio smiled widely at her.