[Fin] Curriculum Vitae

[BlackFireKitsune]

"Sounds good," the blond put in with a nod. Somewhere safe, preferably. He'd never stayed in a pokemon center, but that sounded fairly safe, though if it were him he'd prefer a hotel. At least, he'd stayed in a hotel while finding appropriate permanent lodgings when he'd first arrived.

Hm? Oh. "Oh yeah, there's plenty of places to eat along here," cue vague tired gesture again. "We can go find you a newspaper and something to eat, if you want?" He paused, then added with a rueful half-smile, "I'll buy the paper, but I'm not gonna buy you dinner." Hell, he could scarcely afford to buy himself dinner - maybe just some snacks for his pokemon instead - though he wasn't about to mention his unfortunate financial situation to a stranger.  

[TawnyAngel]

Naaaagh, now he felt stupid for some reason? Probably just him being weird and awkward. Taavi laughed, hoping that would make him feel less out of place. "Um, that sounds good? And uh, I wasn't going to ask. That'd be weird right? And I had a good lunch, so as long as I can get sandwiches or something for myself I'll be good. But uh, you know the area?" Okay, he was going out on a limb here but it had been a long day and he was tired and alone and; "Ah, maybe... we could hang out sometime? Or. Battle. Or something. Eh. Um." Taavi laughed awkwardly and brushed a hand back over his hair. "Sorry, just uh... well, just got here, I'd like to make some friends? If I haven't totally weirded you out."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Despite Taavi's phrasing, Abel gave it a bit of thought - not much, of course - then shook his head with a light frown. "Nah, I don't think it'd be weird to ask about the area when you're so new. It'd probably be more weird not to ask, or at least not to try to learn it by exploring or getting a map or something, especially if you're planning on being here a while." It sounded like he was, given he was on the hunt for a job and somewhere to stay, so he felt it was a safe assumption to make. He didn't seem to realize Taavi had meant it about asking him to buy dinner, rather than asking about the area.

"I do know the area, yeah," the blond replied as he slipped his hands back into his pockets and nodded, taking the initiative to start walking towards the lines of shops since they had already agreed on heading there anyway but had yet to move. "I've been here for two or three years now," he was far too tired to bother trying to remember exactly how long and that time span seemed appropriate enough. Taavi's question caught him a little off-guard, and he looked at him a moment or two with a mildly surprised expression before a smile took its place. "Sure," he replied amiably, then fished his phone out of his pocket. After ensuring he had no texts up that would be mistakenly read - a stranger seeing Alyssa's texts was the last thing he ever needed ever - he brought up the contacts screen and offered it to Taavi, "Here, my battery's almost dead but go ahead and put your number in." More friends would be good - so long as they were good friends, of course, and not the kind of friends you could do without.  

[TawnyAngel]

"Oh, um, sure, great!" Taavi beamed and paused in order to tap his contact details into Abel's phone. "There," he passed it back, "heh, when I actually turn my 'gear back on you can reach me." Success? Success! It seemed that way anyway. He was painfully aware that he was tense and awkward today even for him in the context of meeting new people but Abel didn't seem to mind too much. "So uh, what do you make of Kodo as a whole then? Good place to come to, or should I have turned around and gone back on the boat?"  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Once Taavi finished, Abel accepted then tapped away at his phone. "I'm gonna send you a text now," he said as he typed out a short message and hit 'send' then slipped the device back into his pocket. "There, now you'll have my number whenever your gear's charged again."

If Abel noticed or minded how tense and uncomfortable Taavi was, the blond gave no indication. Instead he merely walked along at an easy gait, his thumbs hooked into his pockets, then paused in front of a shop and squinted to better see inside. Unfortunately it looked like it only sold sports-related merchandise - hats and jerseys and the like - so the blond turned and moved on to the next. "As a whole? I live and work here in Camphoreon so I don't travel around it too much, but Kodo's nice enough. I have friends here, too, so it's nice for that reason, but the island itself I don't have any strong feelings about," he admitted with a shrug. After a moment or two of thought, he added, "Having the Egg of Arceus is pretty cool though, so I guess I can't say it's boring here or anything. Have you heard about it yet?" He was still new to the region, so there was a possibility he hadn't - but there was an equal opportunity he'd heard about it before even coming to Kodo.  

[TawnyAngel]

"Great, thanks! And uh... well actually that's kind of why I'm here. And scratch the kind of." Taavi grinned sheepishly and shifted the hang of his pack on his shoulders. "I guess it's a bit much really, moving regions, but... well you only live once right? And I didn't have anything too much tying me to Hoenn, only my job, so I thought why not?" Ah, Abel was probably going to give him that look of 'you're crazy' that the other ranger had when he'd told them he was coming here but he wasn't going to lie about his reasons for coming. "Have... did you see it? I mean before they built around it."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

"Really?" Abel raised his eyebrows a bit as he looked at Taavi. He had expected some people would be drawn to Kodo because of the egg, but that was always just a passing thought. It was kind of neat to actually meet someone who had moved there because of it. "That's fair enough, especially if you aren't too tied to the region and want to move somewhere else. It is pretty cool, in and of itself," he added, not giving him any such patronizing look as he expected, and instead hummed a little thoughtfully as he tried to think of a good way to answer. "Sort of? I mean, have you seen how far out it is?" He gestured in that direction without bothering to look and see if he could see it from there or not. "It isn't a super big thing anyway," here he gestured with his hands to give a very rough estimation of how big the thing was that he'd never seen up close for obvious reasons, "and it was way up high on a platform, so it was pretty hard to see at all before they even built around it. You had to get up on a tall rooftop somewhere and use binoculars to see it. It was hard to see during the day, but at night you could see it kind of glowing a little, and it was all white," he added, unsure if Taavi knew exactly what it looked like or not but figured he'd describe it as much as he could anyway.  

[TawnyAngel]

Okay? Okay! No judgement! Taavi grinned, relaxed, and nodded. "Really really! I mean, there's nothing like this anywhere else in the world! And all the stuff from the dig? I'd love to see some of those artefacts if they're still on display somewhere. Arceus was here, and now people are learning to understand pokemon? Heh. I'm surprised the region isn't totally swamped by immigrant pokemon fans. Um, I saw some descriptions of the egg? By people who were helping to guard it. But," Taavi sighed and shrugged, "it would have been nice to see it myself you know?... Still," he brightened again, "I'm here now! And even if I can't get to see it I can maybe see some of the finds from the dig, and experience its effects.... Can you understand a type?"  

[BlackFireKitsune]

"Heh, yeah, it's pretty much unique as far as I'm aware, which is really cool. I didn't go to the exhibition at the museum when they first opened it," the blond admitted, "because I was busy working, but I heard tell it was pretty cool. You can probably find pictures of it all - egg included - if you look online though, as I don't know if the exhibit is still open or if they've moved all of that stuff somewhere else for a while." Man, this guy was almost like an excited little Growlithe or something. It was vaguely adorable. "Hm? Oh, yep, I can understand ground-types," Abel replied and gestured to the Cubone that followed the blond very closely, always staying on the side furthest from what he considered the stranger and the big scary bird.  

[TawnyAngel]

"Really? Awesome!" Taavi smiled down at the Cuebone, it seemed kind of shy? Well, he sympathised. It had to be difficult to have to look up at most of the world for a start without even getting into 'oh sweet Arceus, strangers!'. "Must be pretty cool to be able to talk properly to Abel hu?" He really, really hoped it would happen to him too. Who'd have thought you'd end up wandering around hoping to get a persistent headache? The world was a pretty weird place sometimes.

"I'll have to go find out if the exhibit is still open, the last couple of weeks I haven't really had time for anything except planning, sorting things out, and selling whatever didn't fit in here," Taavi jerked his head at his enormous backpack. "Moving with just one bag certainly makes you evaluate your priorities in life, and also makes you wish you had smaller feet. Shoes take up a lot of space!" He hadn't had to get rid of anything that really mattered to him though, and having done rather drastic one-bag moves twice before it wasn't something he was unused to.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

When Taavi spoke directly to him, the Cubone did his best to disappear behind Abel's leg - except the blond didn't stop walking, so the ground-type's efforts proved nearly impossible. This didn't stop him from trying his best, however.

Abel chuckled a bit and nodded, "I hear that. That's what I did when I moved here - had to sell off or give away whatever I couldn't bring - and it took a while, though I did bring more than just a single bag. Shoes take up altogether far too much space," the blond agreed.

He paused at a stand with a variety of newspapers carefully laid across its surface, sorted into piles based on the type or brand of paper, and Abel gestured to them, "Hey, was any of these the one you had?"  

[TawnyAngel]

Well it was nice to know he wasn't the only one. "Oh!" Taavi's brows rose as they stopped in front of a stand; he scanned it and then indicated one. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure it was that one there! Camphoreon Star?" Yes that was definitely it, he recognised the shot on the front page though he hadn't bothered to read the dramatic celebrity related story attached to it.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

When Taavi pointed at one of them, Abel merely nodded, grabbed a copy, paid for it, then handed it to the other man with an amiable, "Here you go. Sorry Elizabeth torched your first one --" the fire-type in question at least had the decency to look sufficiently chastised; she disliked when Abel was upset with her, even if she didn't care about literally anyone else, "-- but hopefully this makes up for it." Or he assumed it would, at least, given it in all likelihood had an identical layout and an identical assortment of want-ads for new employees.

After that the blond began walking again, and eventually pointed out a small diner for them to eat at. Despite it being a very cheap place, the food was at least somewhat appetizing. Most of it wasn't even burnt!