[Naveta Lejori]

"The fuck?"

That was the only thought going through her mind when she discretely received a physical message from Origin while she was out stocking up on supplies.  While she was glad that they were willing to use more than just electronic means to communicate, the contents of the message just made her paranoid again.  Apparently she had been promoted, not that this promotion meant anything more than they determined that she wasn't utterly incompetent.  What made her so suspicious was the speed at which this happened.  Had the sun even set once yet?  She wasn't quite sure really.  She think it might have once, but wasn't quite sure anymore.  That still seemed ridiculously fast to her.  Naveta figured that they'd at least want to do some kind of background check (and inevitably fail), and make her do a bit more than mop the floors (while swearing under her breath), but apparently not?

Even though it was the middle of the day, Naveta opted to go to the beach to ponder this.  As long as she took her boots off and rolled up her jeans, it was a nice place to pace.  The sand was soft, and the water would keep her feet cool.  She just for the life of her couldn't figure out what they were looking for before saying they could be a real member of Origin.  They approached her as 'Curie,' the name she was using about three regions back when she first ran into serious trouble that she didn't know how to handle.  It didn't take a genius to figure out how they got the name given they knew she was in trouble, so she always assumed that they knew what she was capable of already.  If that was the case why did they even bother to put her on this trial period in the first place?  Would it make their grunts jealous or something if they didn't?  Was it just bureaucracy?  Or was there really something they were looking for in the...however long it was it had been?  She figured it had to be something.

This amount of time wasn't really enough time to track down some of her past lives given she never used the same name twice, and would often use two or three at the same time anyway.  She hadn't used her real name in nearly a decade, and given she spent most of her time in school with her hair dyed black she was pretty sure no one would even recognize her with her natural hair color, or her face given how different it looked.  After that, she lived completely off the grid exactly so she would be really difficult to track down.  She didn't even own a credit card or cell phone.  Naveta knew she wasn't perfect, so it seemed possible that someone would be able to find out about her, but this fast?  She couldn't believe it.

Were they just making sure she wouldn't run?  Was waiting for like uh...well it couldn't have been more than two days, really enough time to gauge such a thing?  They couldn't have been waiting for research because the extent of her discoveries were 'the beach has sand' and 'the swamp is weird.'  It could hardly be considered a great discovery.  Maybe they were just REALLY impressed with her floor mopping technique?  That other guy made it sound like some grand achievement that took a little while, but she supposed that didn't actually mean anything.  Naveta had no idea at this point and it was bothering her.  Maybe she was over thinking this, but any successful group, especially one like this, wouldn't just do something for no reason.  Not knowing what that reason was was jut maddening.

After pondering this for...well she was pretty sure it was a good amount of time if she was getting tired.  Even though she wasn't very strong, she was in pretty good shape thanks to the nature of her research.  What she did know, was that she didn't want to walk anymore, so she opted to sit on a big rock sitting in the water.  It was close enough to shore that the water was only brushing up against the very bottom of it.  It was flat on top, so it was actually relatively comfortable, and was large enough that she could lay back if she felt like it.

Sadly, as always, she lost track of the time.  The tide was low when she came to the beach, and she didn't realize how late it was getting until the tide started brushing off her feet, which were hanging off the side of the rock.  The cold water against her feet was enough to immediately snap her back to reality.  A quick look around her revealed that the part of the beach she was walking on was now completely submerged, and the closest bit of dry land was a pretty good swim away at this point.  Naveta swore under her breath.  She knew the tide had to come in eventually, how could she be so careless?  She could swim, but not very well.  Having to swim that far would be a challenge.  The worst part was she intentionally went to a part of the beach that less people did so that they wouldn't bother her.  The area was pretty much deserted.  Having to walk back to base completely soaking wet would draw attention too, and that was the last thing she wanted to do.  Naveta rubbed her forehead.  She couldn't exactly stay here until the tide went out again, so her options were pretty limited.

While she rolled up her jeans further and tied her boots to her waist, she noticed a figure in the distance.  They were pretty far away, but Naveta knew how to be pretty loud when she needed to be.  She stood up on the rock and started waving her hands.

"Oi, person over there!  Yeah, you, over there!  You got anything that can float me out of here?"

She wasn't sure if they could hear here, but she was going to pretend like they could.  If they didn't react, she'd just keep shouting the same thing until the helped her or left her field of vision.

[Louis Beckett]

Having come from an extremely warm area earlier that day, Luu was all too glad to be in someplace more familiar and definitely a lot cooler. His Turtwig, having been snuggled safely in her Poke Ball at the time of his 'exploration' was now on her trainer's shoulder once again, almost dozing off in the nice sea breeze. Since the two of them had grew up in Sinnoh, they were more used to cooler weather, and the beach nearby their dorm was a nice alternative. Luu had never really seen a beach before until he had moved to Harmonia Island, so the view of the endless sea was a nice plus too.

He had been strolling along the sand, having no intention of wading in the water, but nevertheless had rolled up his jeans up to his knees in case the waves would make an unexpected attempt to grab him. The tide was much higher now, as he remembered the other day the ratio of sand to beach being bigger at the time. Though honestly, he wasn't giving his surroundings much thought - in fact he felt like he was getting lost in it, just listening to the sounds of the sea and the distant cries of Wingulls. This part of the beach was certainly nicer than the more crowded area near his dorm since the noise of other people's voices wouldn't bother him -

Or so he thought. What broke him out of his trance-like state were a series of loud shouts coming from the water. Odd, he thought, why would it be from that direction? One glance told all he needed to know, and upon seeing the girl stranded on that lone piece of rock, he immediately put his attention on her so that he could hear her better, "Anything that can float?" he repeated, mostly making sure that he heard her right. Sure sounds like a mission to him, Luu immediately thought. He certainly did not count in encountering one, but side quests in RPGs could always turn up in the most unlikely of places.

He quickly got the Poke Ball in his belt and let out his Buizel, Didi. Said Water type had immediately dove into the water, looking very refreshed and ready to listen to his trainer's orders, "Hey, Didi, there seems to be a little lady that got herself trapped on top of that rock. Can you help her out?" the Buizel let out a cry in understanding as he swam effortlessly to Naveta. Despite the rising tide, the current wasn't too strong to push back Didi, and so reached her within a matter of minutes. He let out another cry once he was beside the rock, ready for him to bring her back to shore.

[Naveta Lejori]

Naveta squinted.  She could tell the person was doing something, but he was far enough away that it was hard to tell exactly what.  Gradually, it looked like he was getting closer.  Good, it looked like he heard her.  At that point, she stopped yelling, though she continued waving her arms just in case.  With any luck she'd be able to get off this rock without having to work that hard, and without getting too wet.

What she got was not quite what she expected.  The person sent a tiny little pokemon rather than anything she could actually ride in.  Seriously, the thing was less than half her size, and given how short Naveta was that was saying something.  She just stared at the buizel as it approached, and even once it reached the rock like it was just waiting for her to cling to it or something.  Naveta blinked slowly, looking between the pokemon and its presumed trainer.  The kid was just standing over there with a stupid expression on his face as though he had just done his good deed for the day or something.  Seriously, if was just going to jump into the water and completely soak her clothes and hair she would have used her own frillish to get off.  

"This isn't quite what I had in mind!"

Naveta's expression remained flat as she rubbed her forehead.  Oh well, beggars couldn't be choosers, so it was time to get creative.  Because she was so short and skinny, she weight about half as much as any normal human.  She was probably still heavy enough that this thing would sink if she tried to stand on it, but if she divided her weight between two pokemon and used a third to stabilize herself it might be enough.  At the very least, it was worth a shot.  If she tried anything else she was guaranteed to get wet.  With this method, she was only likely to get wet, so it was at least improved odds.  With a sigh, she released her frillish and misdreavus.

"Swash, go float next to that thing," she indicated the other person's pokemon.  "Arkose, float above them.  I'm just going to grab your head.  Swash, don't look at me like that, and no you can't beat up the weasel!  Just try to keep up with it!"

With her rig of pokemon set up, she stepped onto both the buizel and her frillish, while holding onto her misdreavus to help her keep her balance.  With the same flat expression, she told them all to go and they started to make their way to the shore.  They kept moving at different speeds, which required her to perform some awkward acrobatics with her legs to prevent her from falling over, but somehow she made it to shore with only the bottom parts of her legs wet.  At the very least, her clothes and hair were spared so she wouldn't have to be walking around in wet clothes all afternoon.  With that adventure over, she recalled her pokemon and turned back to the other trainer.

"Thanks for that.  You almost managed to perform acceptably."

((Hope you don't mind me controlling your mon there.  If something's off let me know and I'll edit.))

[Louis Beckett]

{ooc: nah it's alright XD}

Didi seemed rather confused at first with her frustrated expression, but then he soon figured out why the girl was calling out her other Pokemon. How picky could she get, the Buizel thought in annoyance, but he supposed human females were a lot more finicky when it came to certain needs. Apparently one of them was not getting wet - and who was she to call him a thing?! He had let out a low growl at the Frillish, sensing its hostility and would battle it if he must, but not now. This was certainly a strange sort of set up they had, and Didi was definitely not used to carrying someone on his back (like, with her foot on him, that was not sitting well with him one bit). But somehow they managed to get to shore without something going horribly wrong (i.e. their passenger falling into the water), just some little close calls along the way.

Meanwhile Luu was watching from the shore with Gogo still on his shoulder, and even if he was pretty far away he could see the other Pokemon she brought out and the extra condition that he did not take note of. Well, if he were to find something that could actually carry her across without getting her wet (like a boat), well, that would've taken a lot longer. He was rather irked on how she had decided to treat his Buizel, but he was glad too that there were no mishaps that seemed to have happened. Didi had quickly retreated back to his trainer's side as soon as he was allowed to, but still kept some sort of glare at Naveta.

"I'll take that as a compliment." he replied, showing a small smirk as he pet his Buizel for a job (fairly) well done, "Out of curiosity though, little lady, what were you doing on top of that rock? You clearly don't want to get wet, so I'm assuming the tide actually goes that low? Huh, I didn't know that." well at least he knew now that if he wanted to rest on a rock, he probably shouldn't unless he wanted to get wet.

[Naveta Lejori]

Naveta caught the look the trainer gave her, but she didn't particularly care.  In the end, she got what she wanted, and the chances of them actually speaking to each other again were so slim that it wasn't even worth considering.  Plus, even if they did she didn't particularly care if people were happy with her or not.  His irritation barely even registered at all.  She just untied her boots from her waist and slung them over her shoulder instead.  Walking along the beach barefoot was still preferable to walking around it in combat boots.

When he asked what she was doing out there, her face contorted into a similar expression to the one she gave his pokemon back on the rock.  The difference was that this time she wasn't looking at anyone, rather she was just looking down the beach.  She sighed and ran her hand through her hair.

"I zoned out.  Not one of my prouder moments."

When he asked about the tide itself, she turned back towards him with a raised brow.  She figured that anyone that lived anywhere near the ocean would be at least a little aware of tidal patterns unless they were either ridiculously oblivious or just never went outside.  She certainly couldn't discount either of those things, but it seemed more likely that he just didn't live near the water.  She forgot that most people didn't travel as much as she did, and that Harmonia Island was full of people from god knows where.

"Ah, I take it you're new here and have probably never seen an ocean before.  In simple terms, yes this happens with every beach at least a little.  The tide is basically pulled by the moon, and other celestial bodies but mostly the moon, causing it to be higher or lower depending on its position.  There's some other things that influence it too, but that's the short version of it.  Basically, if you're on a beach, just don't expect the tide to be in the same place if you're there for half a day or longer."

Was she really there for that long?  I didn't feel like it.  The worst part was that she didn't even resolve what she was thinking about in the first place.  Naveta knew Origin was new, but were they seriously that desperate for people that they'd take some random hobo like her without doing any kind of checks?  Well, if she really was there long enough for the tide to come in running scenarios in her head and making no progress, it clearly meant she wasn't going to make any in this case.  She could try to get more information if she was feeling so inclined, and if things continued to be this suspicious maybe she would, but right now she could handle ignoring it.  She needed to lay low for a bit, and really didn't need the money she'd normally get for digging into things like this.  For now, she was just going to stretch.  Being in one position for that long always made her feel stiff.

"I suppose I just saved you from being as stupid as I am, so we're even now."

With that, she started to walk down the beach and waved at the trainer as she walked.  After a few steps a loud growl came from her stomach and her legs felt weak.  She stumbled, nearly falling over.  Her head felt light, and she didn't quite understand why.  All things considered it was probably a good thing she didn't try to swim that.  When was the last time she ate?  She was pretty sure she at on Harmonia once she arrived, but how long ago was that?  It wasn't that long ago was it?  She retraced her earlier thoughts.  It had definitely been at least a day, possibly two?  She couldn't remember, but based on the thoughts going through her head on that rock, it was probably long enough to be problematic.  She attempted to take another step towards the city, only to flop onto her knees.

Now she was really glad she didn't drench herself in the ocean.  Maybe she should consider carrying some rations around given how often stupid stuff like this happened.

[Louis Beckett]

Luu could tell that this girl was definitely not one to make friends. Still, it would be rude to just brush her off, and it wasn't like the conversation had turned sour. For now he would stick around, but who knew what was going to happen next. She didn't seem dangerous though, but then again she also had Pokemon with her. There was no telling if she was more experienced than him or not, but he was too much of a rookie at this if ever a fight would occur. He needed to be careful.

He had guessed that asking what she was doing on the rock was a bad move, but was nevertheless curious, "Ah, well, happens to everyone from time to time." he was similarly zoning out not too long ago while he had been walking on the sand, "And yeah, I'm new here. Harmonia's Beach is the first I've seen in my whole life." he replied, but truth to be told he wasn't asking for an explanation of how tides worked. He knew at least the basics of it, but rather had been mulling to himself how far the moon could really pull back the sea, "Well obviously there has to be something keeping the moon from drifting too far away from the Earth, but is that really the only thing the moon does other than look pretty? I once heard a wacky theory that the world would be better off without the moon, but that would make the sky look rather lonely at night, don't you think? 'specially in the city where you can't even see the stars anymore." if Naveta had stopped listening to him at that point, Luu hadn't noticed. His Buizel was starting to wander around the beach, sifting through the sand for seashells.

The trainer had let out a laugh, "I guess so, at least I know that rock isn't a good napping spot." he said breezily. Luu was a little surprised that she was planning to leave him after that, but didn't bother stopping her. He just waved back, completely forgetting to ask her name, but it seemed that fate wasn't quite done with their interaction. Just as he was thinking of walking the other direction, Naveta stumbled; her knees buckling. Didi had reacted first and approached her with a concerned look; his trainer following suit. He didn't outstretch his hand though, but just bent down to her level, "Hey, you alright, little lady? You don't look so good." it was then he heard her stomach growl, "Oh, you're hungry? Hmm," he didn't have anything to eat with him, unfortunately, and the nearest food stall was pretty far away, "I could get you something to eat, but you'd have to wait for a bit. Or, well, there's always the alternative of bringing you to the food, but you don't look like the kind of person that wants to be touched, let alone carried." his more singsong attitude returned, and he was smirking slightly as he was suggesting the latter idea.

[Naveta Lejori]

Naveta took a deep breath and slowly rose back to her feet.  The effects of her hunger wouldn't have been so bad if she at least remembered to get something to drink between the last time she ate and now, but that was clearly forgotten about too.  She didn't THINK she had forgotten something like that again, but she was pretty sure she wouldn't be feeling this lightheaded if she had.  Her vision was blurring in and out somewhat as well.  It was fortunate she was in a relatively safe place this time.  All she really had to do was make her way across the beach and then some grass to get back to the city, and there wasn't any incredibly dangerous wildlife around here.  Most of the pokemon she'd seen had been pretty harmless and were certainly nothing her own pokemon couldn't handle, even with her not being entirely sure what was going on.  It seemed she was still going to have to deal with the human wildlife though.  He just kept talking even though he clearly had no idea what he was talking about.  She got the impression he was just kind of saying stuff and didn't really care about what kind of inane bullshit came out of his mouth.

"Well, whoever proposed that clearly knows shit about how the world actually works.  Seriously, the sky just being 'so lonely,'" her voice got higher pitched on those words before returning to normal, "would be the least of our problems.  Unless not being able to see at night, having a 6 hour day, loss of seasons, or the poles moving to the equator and back sounds like a fun time to them."

Naveta just swatted at him when he got close.  She didn't need help getting up, this was perfectly normal for her.  She just got caught up in the excitement of not just coming to a new place, but coming to a really awesome new place with a lot of weird stuff to look into.  It was no big deal really.  She just raised an eyebrow at his offer.  Waiting for him to get somewhere and back would probably take longer than just walking there herself, and she was more surprised than anything that he had any interest in carrying her.  He probably could all things considered, but most people seemed to be afraid that they contract some kind of infectious disease if they ever came into contact with her.

It had only been a day or two, probably, since she got here and thus last bathed, so she was probably cleaner than usual all things considered.  That wasn't saying much though giving how much time she was spending wandering around the island.  The wind, her own sweat and the day-to-day wear had already turned her hair into a messy wad.  It was a miracle she could even find a spot to get her fingers through sometimes.  Her skin showed obvious signs of extensive time spent in the dirt, and there were numerous little nicks and callouses all over her hands.  While her nails were longer than average, every single one of them was broken in some way, and all of them had a pretty good amount of dirt, and sometimes blood, under them.  On her face, her lips were pretty dry and cracked in some places.  The dark rings and bags under her eyes would put a raccoon to shame; she looked like she hadn't slept in about a decade.  She was wearing a simple t-shirt that was mercifully black, thus covering most of the obvious issues with it.  There was some obvious sweat buildup in the armpit area, and a little bit around the chest too.  There was also a strange dark stain near her stomach, but it wasn't clear what caused it.  The end of the sleeves and the bottom of it were torn and worn to hell, and there was a large tear up the side that had clearly been hastily sewn back together.  Her pants were only in slightly better condition because they were thick jeans, so the material was just more durable.  The knees had clearly been worn through multiple times, as there was a stack of patches on it, and there were a few in other places as well.  It had numerous stains, most of which were different colors, including one small blood stain around the ankle.  That stain likely coincided with small rather ugly looking scar on her ankle.  All things considered, she never considered herself the kind of person that people would be willing to touch unless they were trying to put a shiv between her ribs or something.  She looked at herself, then back at him.  For a moment, she just stared with her eyebrows up.

"More like I'm not even used to people offering.  See, normally when people look at me, they think I'll give them cancer by breathing on them.  I can walk, but if you really want to carry me back to town knock yourself out.  It'd save me a lot of trouble."

[Louis Beckett]

Luu only snickered at how annoyed she seemed with her more sentimental approach on the moon. He supposed he should've expected this considering that she had chosen to explain to him about the tide, "The theory was speculative on what if life on Earth had evolved without a moon, actually, so the world would be very much different from our own, or so he says. But I won't argue with you, little lady, you're clearly more knowledgeable than I. Besides, as far as I can recall, the world he was speculating of had no Pokemon in it." as much as he wanted to annoy her, it would probably only make the situation worse for her. Though then again, maybe it would be a lot easier to deal with her when she had fainted from hunger rather than how they were right now.

He had barely dodged her 'swat', but had to use one of his hands to regain his balance and stay where he was. Perhaps this wasn't the first time that this had happened to her, though he really wondered what could get someone to just completely forget about one's hunger...oh, and hygiene too. He had noticed it earlier when she had first stepped into shore, but it was a lot more obvious to him now that he was closer to her. Honestly, she looked like a homeless, wild child, but the way she spoke had weight and malice on them, so Luu figured that mentally she was definitely not child-like. Childish was debatable.

Still, a person in need was a person in need, no matter what he or she looked like. He could always just take a long shower or something after this was all over - and besides, he was sure that he had sweated a lot in his last expedition of sorts, so it wasn't like he was squeaky clean either, "Well I can see why, but it's not like I'm a clean freak, so I think I'm good." he even stuck his tongue out playfully, "Alrighty then," he moved around her until the boy was positioned in a piggy back in front of Naveta, "Climb aboard, little lady." His Turtwig at this point had jumped off his shoulder and stayed close to Didi, looking at their trainer quizzically but not really protesting either.

[Naveta Lejori]

For a lot of people, riding on some stranger's back would be a little weird.  Naveta simply didn't care about any kind of cultural norms or the like.  He offered, she was in a state where she would probably be falling over more often than she would be if she was ridiculously drunk, so this was just convenient.  There was no need to give up such luxuries because some people claimed she should.  After all, even in her current state she would have both his arms occupied carrying her, so it's not like he could unexpectedly pull out a knife or something, and she could easily tell if he was going the wrong way or otherwise doing something suspicious due to her knowledge of the island.  All things considered, there wasn't a lot to worry about.  Granted, she was pretty sure most people wouldn't be worried about random people wanting them dead and that the awkwardness likely came from somewhere else, but that was a small, unimportant detail.

Naveta slowly made her way over to where he was.  Even though he was only a few inches away, it took her a moment to get over there since she had to carefully place each of her steps in order to not fall over.  This was proof enough to her that she could at least walk on her own if he tried to dump her somewhere, so her personal pride was sated.  Sadly, on the last few steps her knees buckled on her again, causing her to just flop right onto his back.  She twitched a little bit like she was going to try to get up to reposition herself, but then just shrugged and stayed like that.  It was close enough to what he asked for, he could figure out the rest.

"Ah, that's completely different then.  It's much easier to appreciate the utter chaos the world would be without the moon when you're not the one that has to deal with it."  She briefly considered what this mystery person would have proposed to him.  "It wouldn't be that unreasonable.  Life is weird, and also not my field, but I know enough to know how both fragile and adaptable it is.  Even a change less drastic than not having a moon could lead to some pretty big differences."

She shrugged again.  It was interesting to think about, but in the end she had more interest in what actually was than what could be.  There was enough left to learn that thought exercises like that seemed more like getting side-tracked.  She couldn't say she was unhappy that other people were looking into it though.  If they wanted to be accurate, it might even drive them to figure out the world's history themselves.

"Alright, I'd almost be willing to eat dirt at this point, so you can choose where we eat if you want.  At least, I hope that any professional restaurant can do better than nibbling on that rock I was on."

[Louis Beckett]

Luu had to admit he was wondering why it seemed to take so long for Naveta to climb on him, but then again the situation could potentially be awkward for someone - well, she wasn't reacting like those girls in those cartoons would, so it seemed that the more likely case was that she was too weak to even do this action with little effort. Still, he patiently waited, until he suddenly felt a weight on his back that wasn't exactly carefully placed. He thought that she was going to fix herself, but that didn't seem to be the case. Hrm, he guessed that he was like Didi now, huh? Well it shouldn't be too hard to carry her -

Luu never actually carried someone before, but her size made it not too hard to figure it out. As soon as he felt that she wasn't going to fall over if he stood up, he mustered some strength in his legs to push himself upright. Oh wait a minute, wasn't he physically poor?...hmm, he didn't really think this through, but at least he was standing up without showing immediate signs of strain. How far were those beach stalls from here again? He sure hoped that all the walking and whatnot he was doing the past couple days in this island had given him more stamina to do this.

"Perhaps. My memory of it isn't the best since I had read it a few years back." he said as he tried to remember what else was in that essay, "The one thing that stuck to me the most was how humans would change their perspectives of themselves without the moon. He said that it was the moon that confused us on our standing in the universe, that it made us think that everything revolved around the Earth rather than the sun, since the moon does just that. Without the moon, mankind may have been humbled as it grew to learn and adapt. Maybe we wouldn't be as selfish since we'd know that we're just a small fish in a really big pond." he continued to mumble about more things as he tried to recall what he had read - it was certainly an interesting one. He had carried on even when Naveta had stopped replying to every little thing he was talking about, though at some point he had changed topic, "Oh yeah, you said that it's not your field, so what kind of field do you specialise in? Also I'm not really familiar with the food 'round here, so you're free to give me directions as we approach some place more familiar or something."

Throughout the time he was talking he had been trudging on, with Gogo and Didi hanging on to Naveta's boots that she had dropped when she plopped herself on Luu. He found it amusing that since he had been talking the whole time, he hadn't noticed that his legs were starting to burn. Well, he knew he was going to really feel it when they had stopped moving.

{ooc: the book (or chapter) I'm referring to is the first one from the book 'What If The Moon Didn't Exist'. It was something I had to read in Chem class two years back. And yeah, it was pretty unrelated to the class, but I found it cool.}

[Naveta Lejori]

Naveta took a moment to think about what he was saying for a moment, if only to make sure she was actually hearing him right and that she wasn't in a complete dehydrated stupor.  After that moment though, she burst out laughing.

"Blaming humanity's ills on the moon of all things?  That's a new one.  Based on how you've described the rest of this it sounds like the author was trying way too hard to be profound and failed miserably at it.  Even a cursory glance over world history will show that humans likely acted like this before orbits, or even space as we know it, were even a concept."

She continued laughing for a moment until the absurdity of the situation passed.  He just kept talking though, confirming her theory that he just likes the sound of his own voice.  Eventually, the conversation shifted though.  Naveta sighed when he said he probably knew about as much about the civilized side of the island as she did.  It was hard to get good help these days.  She also continued to be annoyed with herself for not knowing how long she'd been here herself.

"Geology.  More specifically, historical geology.  Basically, I look out how the world formed, where it came from, and sometimes using that information to predict what might happen in the future.  I haven't actually eaten anything since I got on this island, so I have no idea where anything is right now.  It shouldn't be too hard to find something in the city proper.  At the pace you're going it should only take about 30 or so minutes to get there."

Her tone was nonchalant.  To her a 30 minute jog was no big deal, even with something as heavy as she was on her back.  The kind of work she did was much more physically intensive, so she was actually in very good shape and was quite strong.  The fact that other people may not be like that wasn't exactly entering her mind now.  It was pretty hard to think of anything but food.

((It sounds interesting!  I've certainly been happy to have an excuse to look it all up myself, it's pretty neat.  It's always great to have an excuse to let my nerd characters sperg too.))

[Louis Beckett]

Luu had let out a small grunt at that comment, but perhaps he was just poor at explaining and couldn't really encompass what the author was trying to say. Oh well, to each his own, and besides, "Well at least you find it funny. You look like you haven't smiled in decades." he said with a grin of his own.

It was his turn to listen, which wasn't so hard since talking and trudging on this sand at the same time was a lot more exhausting than he expected, but tried not to show any sort of fatigue in his voice as he replied, "Geology, eh? So I was right when I assumed that you were a lot more knowledgeable than me. I just pick up stuff on the net after all." thirty minutes? He didn't think he could last for thirty minutes, but right now he didn't want to be humiliated, and that would have to keep him going. Man, he sure wished this was just flat road. That would've been a lot easier to walk on.

Letting out a sharp exhale, he noticed that they were approaching some stairs that would lead to the sidewalk. That would've been a lot better than just sinking in the sand, surely! His determination renewed, he moved towards the stone stairs and climbed up, letting out a sigh of relief after going through that ordeal. It seemed like they were still in the suburbs, so the shopping districts may still be blocks away. Well, at least he was on cement this time. He continued to walk, "So do you have a place to stay around here? Or are you staying in a hotel of some sort?" it would be much faster to find a house here rather than walk all the way elsewhere, but by how she looked he was probably just getting his hopes up.

[Naveta Lejori]

Naveta let out a quiet snort.  "Common misconception, it's just my face.  The world is so unintentionally hilarious that I can't help myself sometimes."

She didn't blame anyone for thinking she was on the grumpy side.  Her eyelids were on the large side, and the bags under her eyes just emphasized the wrong parts of her face.  It made her expressions look flatter and border than they normally were.  The fact that she rarely had anything nice to say about anyone probably didn't help either.

"I would hope so, I've been studying this stuff for more than a decade now."

There was a little bit of uncertainty in the last part.  Not because she hadn't been studying geology for that long, but because she really had no idea how long she'd been at it anymore.  She didn't even remember how old she was because she had long since stopped keeping track of her birthdays.  More than ten years seemed like a reasonable enough estimate though.

"Nope, in the end I prefer being under the sun and the stars than a roof.  I don't sleep, so it's always been more trouble than it's worth to have a place to live.  You can just dump me in town if you have places to be."

[Louis Beckett]

"So...you're the real life version of the resting bitch face?" he asked innocently before he snickered a little, "But yeah, life can be hilarious as you say depending on how one wishes to see it. Sometimes people come up with the craziest things when they're bored." he let out a small grunt as his legs continued to burn, but outwardly he just frowned as he tried to fix Naveta's position his back - she was starting to slip.


"More than a decade, huh? That's...pretty long." he hesitated before asking, "How old are you now then? Or are you one of those kinds of girls that don't like being asked of their age?" honestly Luu didn't understand why they were so finicky about it in the first place. Was there something wrong with how old they were? Did it really matter that one looked older or younger than what their age was? It would say things about their lifestyle, he supposed, but that would be too vague anyway. Where was the actual harm?

"Hmm, that doesn't surprise me," he muttered when she told him that she didn't really have a roof under her head, "And I guess that explains the eye bags, but I guess it's not really my place to tell you that you should sleep more often, huh?" he had taken a couple more steps, "Well, I'm not really in a hurry to get home. Besides, I might as well at least bring you to some place that we can eat, like I promised."

The sun was starting to set now, and Luu knew that it was going to be dark soon. The streetlamps were already being lit, and that was when he saw a noodle stand of sorts in one of the streets. Further ahead from that stall were more flashing lights and the sound of bustling citizens - were they getting close to the shopping districts? He turned his head a little even if he couldn't really see Naveta, "So, would you like ramen for dinner?"

[Naveta Lejori]

"More or less," Naveta shrugged.  "Uh, it's definitely just not when they're bored.  Or just the people for that matter.  It's important to have a sense of humor, if only because it's gotta be hard to move with a stick stuck up your ass."

She had noticed that she was gradually slipping, but didn't think anything of it at first.  However, between his slowing pace and that grunt as he shifted her weight back to somewhere reasonable prompted her to actually take a closer look at him.  He was definitely shorter than average, but that didn't mean a whole lot.  His arms didn't look particularly toned, and he was a bit on the pale side of things.  All things considered, he probably didn't get out much, which meant he probably didn't get much exercise.  Even though she was tiny and light for a human being, she was still human in the end.  This whole excursion was likely more difficult on him than she initially expected.

"You okay down there?  You feel like you're about to keel over."

She paused for a second when he asked about her age.  She could just be honest and say she didn't remember, but that would likely take more explaining than she felt like doing.  In the end, she did go through the trouble to make herself a fake ID, so she might as well pretend like she's actually Darlene Anderson for the time being.

"Uh, 26.  I'm just short.  And one of those people that puberty thought it was too good for."  She shrugged again at his comment about her sleeping habits.  "You're welcome to, I don't really care what you do."  She blinked slowly a few times at his question about the food, not that he'd be able to see it.  "Like I said, I don't really care.  Just get me somewhere and hurry up before I start nibbling on your shirt."