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[Kusarigamaitachi]

"You’re leaving."

Because of his mildly puzzled expression, it seemed like Shriver might've been asking a question, but his tone said otherwise. It was more like he was just making an observation. He didn’t see any reason Vogel would have to leave now. Since she’d carried all of her luggage onto the plane and had already gotten money exchanged, there was no reason for her to wait, either, so it wasn’t entirely surprising. It was just unexpected, he decided, although maybe he should’ve foreseen this when she made the decision to go to the bathroom in the plane instead of waiting for the airport, like Shriver had.

He didn't know why, exactly, he'd expected her to wait. He should be more careful about his assumptions - he didn't like being wrong.

His words had a purpose, too: he expected her to stop for a second, even if it was just so she could get off a sarcastic remark. It looked like Vogel forgot that they'd left their cell phones behind, so he'd have to remind her.

"Let me get my pokénav so we can exchange numbers before you go, then," Shriver said. He shifted the messenger bag so that it was resting more on his shoulder than his neck, and glanced over the carousel for his backpack. Since it would come around again, he could leave and then return for his luggage later, when it was less crowded. "I’ll give your hatchet back after I get my pokémon." It was probably better not to do it here, after all.

He paused and glanced at her belt, searching in vain for the "funny orange potato"-like device. Naturally, it could have simply been in her pocket or her belt pouch, but he decided he should make sure. "Did you get your pokénav?"

[Negrek]

Vogel snorted and hoisted her backpack onto her shoulder with one hand, fishing in one of her pockets with the other. "Of course. How could I not, with that shiftry waving it in my face like it thought I was blind or something?" She held the device up for a moment so that Shriver could see, then dropped it back into the pocket it had come from. "I guess I can wait around while you get yours. The last I saw, the shiftry was over by currency exchange. It looked like it had plenty of 'navs to go around." She seemed distracted, glancing out of the window at the cars and taxis queued up outside, rather than at Shriver himself. Perhaps this accounted for her uncharacteristic lack of sarcasm.

Regardless, if Shriver did decide he wanted to head to the exchange desk, a sign over a nearby carousel informed him that it was up the escalators at the back of the baggage claim.

[Kusarigamaitachi]

Shriver narrowed his eyes. Her focus was on the cars and taxis outside, which probably meant a desire to leave; this was consistent with her previous actions. But still, there was something off, and if he could process that subconsciously, it was probably fairly severe. He could be wrong, though, and she'd tell him if there was something she wanted him to know, so he didn't comment.

"If you see my backpack, pick it up for me," he said, attention switching to finding the currency exchange desk. He found the sign after a few seconds, so he walked toward the escalator. He would exchange his currency as well, as it would save him time, even if it meant Vogel had to wait a few minutes longer.

[Negrek]

Vogel nodded and took her eyes off the cars outside long enough to watch Shriver leave. If he cared to look back, though, he would find her staring instead at the baggage on the carousel as it went slowly round and round, hopefully soon to bring his backpack into Vogel's reach.

At the top of the escalator, Shriver would find himself back on the concourse by the gate their plane had flown into. According to the airport's signs, the currency exchange was off to his left; it was a bit hard to see, crammed in amongst the tumult of shopping experiences offered by the airport, but he wouldn't have any great difficulty finding it. Unfortunately, though, there was already a man at the counter as Shriver approached. He looked like some kind of upper-class businessman, with attire that surpassed even Shriver's stiff formal dress and a briefcase slung over one shoulder.

[Kusarigamaitachi]

Shriver didn't look back. He didn't usually have to pay attention to her unless they were talking and there was nothing else to do.

He had been here, Shriver realised when he stepped off the escalator. He hadn't been looking for the currency exchange desk until now, though, and the sign was easy enough to find when he tried. The actual desk would not have been so easy without the sign's guidance, which meant that there were probably people who missed it. Since Kutho had a different currency than Tomoghy, the more famous regions, or anywhere else he knew the currency of, he didn't know whether to attribute this to malice, lack of foresight, or unwavering faith that anyone who knew about Kutho would invariably notice the kuts. Since some trainers probably learned of Kutho by word-of-mouth and didn't bother with research because they stopped going to school at ten years of age, the latter was unwarranted.

Regardless, it was there, and he noticed it, so he weaved through the crowd to get there.

Having been unsure of whether to expect a line-up, Shriver wasn't particularly disappointed by the presence of the... businessman? Possibly, although Shriver had yet to determine the likelihood of someone's dress matching the appropriate stereotype. He took the time to look for the shiftry that Vogel had mentioned (because the alternatives were contemplating business prospects in Kutho or the meaning of someone's clothing choices, neither of which interested him), although he paid just enough attention to the man that he'd know when it was his turn to exchange his own currency (or any other noticeable movements like starting a conversation or pulling out a knife, but that was a given, really).

[Negrek]

The man at the counter didn't make any suspicious moves; for all appearances, he was just exchanging his currency like a normal, civilized human being.

Scanning the crowd for the shiftry would turn the pokémon up fairly quickly. It was stalking around behind him and off towards the center of the concourse, carrying a basket on one arm and trying to foist the items inside off on the people milling around the airport. Unfortunately, it was a rather intimidating sight, and the friendly smile it tried to put on, showing all its very large teeth, only seemed to scare people away.

Other than that, Shriver's sweep of the area didn't turn anything else up of note, save a crowd of people that had gathered near a moving walkway. They appeared to be watching something that Shriver couldn't see, and a few of them were dancing; faint techno music drifted from that direction as well.

[Kusarigamaitachi]

Since serial killers often acted like normal, civilised human beings when not indulging in their hobby, the fact that the man didn't immediately turn and attack Shriver was not particularly soothing. It didn't matter much, though, because he kept some level of alertness to danger even when he was alone.

He found the shiftry easily, and determined it was the right one because it was handing out items. If its facial expressions were similar to a human's, it was smiling, although people were avoiding the shifry and its items. Since people tended to want free items, it was possible they noticed subtle clues that the shiftry was unfriendly, but Vogel had managed to retrieve the items without incident.

He considered getting the pokénav now, rather than waiting in line. It was highly unlikely that going there would take less time than it took the man to exchange money, unless the man was particularly wealthy, and it meant other people would likely take their place in the line.

It had also probably been three to five seconds. Shriver could wait. So could Vogel.

This post has been edited by Kusarigamaitachi on Nov 17 2009, 11:12 PM

[Negrek]

As he stood waiting for his currency to be exchanged, the man shot a quick look around and crossed gazes with Shriver for a moment. He didn't do anything to acknowledge Shriver, though, and in a few more seconds, the exchange was made and he moved over to the larger information desk next to the currency exchange booth. Shriver's way was open.

As Shriver approached the counter, the woman behind it offered him a warm smile. "Hi there!" she said brightly. "Here to get your currency exchanged?" She was a fairly attractive young woman, with a ready grin and slightly curly blonde hair. According to the nametag pinned to her uniform, her name was Kate.

(( Hey there Kate! Where've you been, huh? Actually don't really remember what you look like, so we'll just go with whatevs... ))

[Kusarigamaitachi]

Shriver noticed the nametag before her expression, but there was no missing her tone. "Hello," he said, probably more cheerful than most other customers but nowhere near Kate's level. He couldn't tell if she was immune to the inevitable exhaustion from her likely boring job or if she was a very good actress.

"Yes, I am here to exchange"—although purchase was a more accurate term, Shriver thought, pulling his wallet from his pocket and placing the small amount of cash he'd managed to bring on the table—"these for kuts." It would be interesting to see if she recognised the Tomoghian ghys. Vogel might have exchanged her currency with Kate, but others could have as well, including Shriver's current (or future) targets.

[Negrek]

Kate didn't so much as blink as she smoothed out the currency Shriver had given her. It wasn't beyond comment, though. "Huh, this has to be the first time I've seen this stuff twice in one day," she said cheerfully, reaching over to tap a couple of keys on the keyboard for the computer next to her. "Tomo... Tomoggy, right?" She peered at whatever the computer had spit back out onto her screen, then began counting bills out of a thin black case on the table before her. "Three hundred and fifty Kuts," she said, pushing a stack of currency in various shades of blue towards Shriver. "Fancy that, huh?" The last seemed more to herself than to Shriver. Then she started, remembering something. "Oh, and have you gotten your pokénav yet? The airport gives them away for free, you know.

[Kusarigamaitachi]

"No, not yet," Shriver said. "The shiftry hands them out, right?" At least the people avoiding the shiftry would be getting the complimentary items, if Kate didn't forget to mention it. Shriver wouldn't have bothered with the shiftry if he didn't already know about the pokénavs, unless he had been personally accosted.

He picked up the blue bills. Kutho used different shades in the same way Tomoghy used different colours, and he found he liked Kutho's way better. He looked to see if there was the same braille found on ghys bills, then put them away.

There were no direct flights between Tomoghy and Kutho, and some people exchanged ghys for kuts in another region so they could get out of the airport right away. Still, two people in one day were not a lot. "Thank you. Are Tomoghians a rare sight in Kutho?" he asked. There was not much appeal to this region other than committing crimes, but there were more than enough Tomoghian criminals for two regions. "How often would you say you see one of us?"

[Negrek]

"Yes, Rippa's handing them out on this floor. Sneak and Manny ought to be down by the baggage claim--that's a sudowoodo and an exeggutor," Kate said. She didn't seem averse to chatting even though the exchange had been made; luckily there was no one else waiting in line at the moment.

The Kuts Kate had given Shriver had no sign of braille on them.

"Oh, let's see... now, you have to remember that I don't work here all the time, so I only see some of the people that come through. But, I'd say that I see people from... Tomoggy, right? Umm, maybe once a month or so, most of the time. There were a couple of weeks a year or so back when there were a bunch of them around, but they were there for some sort of special event, I think."

Update: You have received 350 Kuts.

[Kusarigamaitachi]

He could have gotten the pokénav without coming up here? That would have been more convenient, but it was irrelevant now. Vogel might be irritated if she found out, though.

She'd also probably want to correct Kate's mispronunciation of their homeland, but Shriver didn't think it was that important, and it might have just been the accent. His mind skipped instead to the information. That Kate saw a Tomoghian roughly once a month didn't give him any concrete information, but he estimated there were 30-100 Tomoghians arriving a year. Relatively, there were very few in the region. He'd recognise any of them by their accents (or, to him, the lack thereof), unless they adopted a different one.

"Well, that's not too bad," he said. "Maybe I'll see one of them." Hopefully he'd see them before they saw him. "I'd better get going so I can catch up to them, then. Thank you,"—he'd said that—"and it was nice talking to you." It wasn't particularly spectacular, though. "Have a nice day." That was probably unnecessary.

The slightly awkward feeling he often got when ending a conversation vanished about ten steps toward Rippa, mainly because he could now focus on a new task. As he approached the shiftry, he made his own, more convincing attempt at a friendly smile. It wouldn't surprise him if Rippa couldn't tell the difference, either. "So, Rippa, heard you were giving out some free stuff. What have you got for me?"

[Negrek]

"You too," Kate said cheerily. "I hope you enjoy your stay in Kutho."

Rippa had been trying to attract the attention of a harried-looking businessman in a threadbare suit when Shriver approached. The pokémon whipped around rather suddenly when Shriver addressed it, but whether or not it understood what his smile meant, it returned it with a big grin of its own. The shiftry's teeth were large and gleaming, but it seemed to be doing its best to look friendly. It jabbered something in its own language and held out a wicker basket to Shriver. It was piled high with small orange electronic devices and purple spray bottles that sloshed with some unkown liquid. Rippa pointed to one of the orange things, then held up one leafy finger; it then pointed to one of the purple ones and held up two.

[Kusarigamaitachi]

The pokémon's simplistic, obvious nonverbal language made it easy for Shriver to understand (although simply having it written on a sign would have been easiest), so he took one of the pokénavs and two spray bottles. "Thanks," he said, and walked back to the escalator. From there, he'd make his way back to the carousel.

On his way, he glanced at the spray bottles. The design was different from the most common brand of any pokémon medicine in Tomoghy, so he didn't recognise it. He looked for a label; whether or not he found one, he'd stick it in his bag. By the time he reached the escalator, he'd pulled his calculator from his pocket to determine the exchange rate between kuts and ghys (including the exchange fee, about four ghys to one kut) and, when he stepped on, more closely examined the orange device.

He didn't see how it could be much better than a cell phone. It didn't seem to have a proper tiny keyboard for texting purposes, which meant he'd stick to email to avoid the inevitable shorthand not-words that he didn't know very well. Since he could count the number of buttons on one finger, he'd also have to adapt to using it. If it had come with a manual, it would have been easier to learn.

The main reasons a pokénav was useful were the Kutho map and the related navigational options, from which the pokénav had presumably gotten its name. He'd check those out later.

The most noticeable feature was one that he would comment on upon reaching Vogel.

"This looks nothing," Shriver said, "like a potato."