LOCKED TO nullorvoid

[invigorating]

[Nowi's adapted to Johto far better than most people would have expected. Sure, she's a human now and most of the time that's kind of sad, but she doesn't let it get her down for too long. After all, there's tons of new things to see and do, so she's been kept busy. When she's not looking after vacationers' Pokémon, she's exploring every inch of the town and maybe the routes, though she never strays too far.

After all, she's got a traveling companion to look out for. Speaking of traveling companions...

It's close to midnight and as usual, Nowi's not tired at all. This is probably because she slept in until one in the afternoon today (and boy has she been loving getting to sleep in), but she's getting bored. Her Pokémon are all tired out from playing all day, which leaves her with only one option: locate Ginti.

She knows where he should be, of course. He's like most people and has an actual job that doesn't involve playing with Pokémon all day. So Nowi makes her way to the hotel, Dratini draped around her neck like a scarf. She's wearing a halter top in an eye-searing green color and pink shorts, but thankfully her outfit is much saner than the thing she showed up in. She does have the cape and the massive belts on though.

Nowi pushes the doors in and immediately walks up to the front desk. She knows better than to shout, thankfully, otherwise she would have greeted her best friend that way.]

How much longer are you stuck here, huh? I'm really bored, Ginti...!

[...she's whining before she even checks that he's behind the desk, so hopefully she didn't just waltz right on up to some poor NPC.]

Comments

[nullorvoid]

[...Unfortunately for Nowi, Ginti's in the room just behind the desk checking something when she rocks up; fortunately for everybody, he's close enough to acknowledge that Minimum Wage Slave Jason, who is at the desk, absolutely doesn't deserve this and awkwardly hustle him off to the back to go look for the records they're supposed to find because god help us all.]

Don't you have Pokémon to mess around with, or did they all fall asleep?

[His gaze darts over to the Dratini for a second.]

Except that one.

[invigorating]

[Oh. Oops. Sorry about that, Jason!! Nowi doesn't seem too bothered and she brightens up for a moment once she sees Ginti, only for that pout to resurface as soon as he speaks.]

That lady with the pigs took them back today, so all I've got left are mine and they got tired after only five hours of tag!

[Nowi folds her arms on the counter and leans her chin on her hand.]

Mana's kinda awake, so I figured I'd bring her along, but she won't play with me.

[The Dratini rolls her eyes. Nowi's definition of "playing" and a normal person's definition are two very different things.]

So I'm really bored! You should be off work soon, right? Right?

[She actually has no idea when Ginti gets off of work. It never occurred to her to ask or actually pay attention to when he gets back.]

[nullorvoid]

[He just leans over the desk at that, his chin propped on his hand and his posture idle as hell.]

And what're we going to do whenever I get off?

[invigorating]

Whatever you wanna do! Unless you say something like "sleep" 'cause that's boring. I'm not feeling really picky though! I mean we could play, but I dunno, you still look like you hate fun.

[She's grinning widely though, so obviously she's teasing.]

[nullorvoid]

You kidding? It's way too early for sleep.

[OUR SLEEP SCHEDULES, THEY ARE FUCKED.]

What can I say, though? Some of us aren't into tag for more than five hours at a time.

[invigorating]

See? You're no fun!

[Something occurs to her then and Nowi brightens.]

Oh, hey, what about games where you're from? There's gotta be some really fun games you can teach me! As long as they're simple, I don't really like complicated stuff.

[nullorvoid]

[Oh god, Nowi, no.]

They'd probably be pretty boring here, though. We play stuff differently over there.

[invigorating]

Yeah? I guess it would be pretty different back there, but you've gotta have some kind of interesting games even without the whole...

[Nowi waves a hand around, as if this will explain it.]

...thing.

[She's not sure how much Ginti wants her to say about it where other people might possibly hear, so she figures she's safer not saying anything at all.]

[nullorvoid]

[...Good girl.]

Maybe. I don't know, I don't really play them very much.

[...]

Yeah, yeah, I'm no fun, I know. I'm off in half an hour, you think you can amuse yourself until then?

[invigorating]

Half an hour? That's a long time...

[Says the dragon girl who's lived for over a thousand years.]

But I can wait! I can just go look at the pretty papers over there!

[She points in the direction of the brochures. Something occurs to her and she adds onto that.]

Oh, and I won't make a mess or take them all or anything!

[nullorvoid]

You'd better not. I've got no idea what you'd do with that many damn brochures anyway, they're not all that interesting.

[invigorating]

I dunno what I'd do with 'em all either! It's not like they're thick enough to play Tome Stackers or anything. I guess maybe I could rip 'em up and turn them into confetti or something!

[nullorvoid]

...Am I going to regret asking what Tome Stackers is?

[invigorating]

It's a pretty simple game - you just take a bunch of those big books and you set them all up in patterns and then you push them over and see how many fall! I'm really bad at it. I can never figure out just how far to put the books apart and it takes too long to set up! But it's really fun to watch when someone good at it sets things up!

[...it's dominoes. With magical tomes because this won't end in anyone getting burned.]

[nullorvoid]

[...Huh.]

...We've got something like that, but we don't use books for it. I've done it a few times when I was really bored.

[invigorating]

Really? What do you use then? I can't imagine doing that with something else!

[nullorvoid]

They're a lot smaller than that. I'll show you sometime.

[...]

So are all dragons like that, or is it just you?

[invigorating]

Oh, okay!

[The question gets Nowi to tip her head a bit, but ultimately she doesn't seem to get it.]

What do you mean?

[nullorvoid]

You know, with the playing all the time.

[invigorating]

Oh, that! I dunno if all Manaketes are like me. I don't know any others.

[She hesitates for a moment, then amends that statement.]

...Well, there's Tiki, but I don't know her very well.

[nullorvoid]

Are you guys just that uncommon?

[invigorating]

Yeah, we are. I've lived for a thousand years and never seen another Manakete! Well, besides Tiki, but I only recently met her. And there's my parents, but I don't really remember them.

[nullorvoid]

Huh.

[He's quiet for a moment at that, his gaze darting a little; it's due to thinking, though, not boredom.]

I told you about the place I work in, how it's a tower and everything. I stay there, too - everyone who's in my line of work does. There are a bunch of us, and sometimes we leave the building itself but we're always on the grounds, it's all enclosed.

So on the one hand, I'm pretty used to being around people like me. On the other, this is my first time outside at all. So it's not the greatest tradeoff either way, I guess.

[invigorating]

[Nowi leans back on the counter, looking up at Ginti as he speaks.]

Never going outside... I can't imagine that. I mean, I spend almost all my time outside! Staying indoors all day would be pretty boring, I think.

[She rests her cheek in her hand as she thinks.]

It must be pretty nice hanging around other people like you though! Is it nice? To be with them all the time?

[It's not something she normally dwells on, but the lack of Manaketes makes her feel very alone sometimes. She's asked humans in the past what it's like to have so many others around them, but no one really understands. She's not sure Ginti will either, but at least he always answers her questions.]

[nullorvoid]

[He has to think about it for a minute; it's kind of weird to consider it like that, and he's not really sure he can put what he's thinking into words when something finally does seem to come together, but...]

Yeah. I mean, I guess it is. There are some of them I'm okay with, and some of them I can't stand, and the ones that are higher-up than me - I only really see them when it's important. But even if I don't like them or don't see them all that much, they're still there, you know?

[He's pauses for a moment, glancing over his shoulder; he figures Minimum Wage Slave Jason probably already knows he's weird, he just doesn't feel like going into exactly what he is, but a bit more won't screw anything up and if Jason asks him later Ginti can always bitch at him for eavesdropping.]

I'm working with humans all the time, because that's how just my job is. But they're different. They don't think about stuff like we do, they don't see things the same way and a lot of the time the stuff we know doesn't even cross their minds. They can't really fathom it, I guess. So being around humans is one thing, being around the others is better sometimes. Make sense?