A little hot Tea and an old board game. (Hitomi)

[soap]

Jack smiled, pulling out and old wooden board and throwing a few pieces on it, wondering if he could convince someone to play. He knew Lucidia would be up for a game, and she was sitting beside him already, but he was hoping for a new opponent, mainly because him and Lucidia had done all sorts of things lately, and both of them could use an influx of new strategies.

He gestured towards one of the cafe workers. "Um, excuse me miss, could you get us some hot water and teacups?"

He smiled as he looked at the old wooden board. One of his favorites, actually. It was old, teak and had 64 squares form by simply carving straight lines in it. It was an old teak board, given to him by Dojima.

He smiled as the tea came and gave the waitress a fiver, mumbling about keeping the change. He then proceeded to open a small bag, take out some checker pieces, and put them on the board absentmindedly. He then smiled. "Alutar, Fithos, Webos, Calimdar, Vinosec.....Ilia Tempus nos Calumj Tei."

Lucidia raised an eyebrow. "Singing old songs again, Jackie? You're starting to snap."

"Nah, just keeping things interesting."

[Hitomi ~ M.D.~]

Coffee. Coffee sounded unbelievably good right now.

She had just barely gotten hired (and barely founded out that the one hiring her was blind... literally.) and was ready to find herself some form of 'uniform.' The most 'waitress' like outfit she had was a nice blouse, but that was in pieces from a wound she had to patch up on her utterly naive Arcanine.

And she woke up so utterly early this morning (just to take aforementioned Arcanine for a walk, the dumb thing) that she could not simply just go right back to bed. She was now fully awake, and if her first day of work was to start .... tonight... she had a little bit of caffeine to pour into her system.

She was utterly overjoyed that she had enough money for a large... erm... grande beverage, complete with two shots of espresso and tons of sugar. She was in the mood to kill herself with such a concentrated amount of caffeine, so she got it with a third espresso shot as well.

As she awaited her coffee, she glanced over at the other occupants. One of them caught her eye a little more than the others, and she smiled lightly. The Pokemon that floated about him was one she had not seen since she entered the gym of Fantina, the Sinnoh ghost pokemon extraordinaire, but this one was much less threatening, and much cuter.

Not that Fantina would appreciate having someone else's ghost complimented more than her own Pokemon... that stupid Contest whore...

She grabbed the large cup full of warm beverage, and made her way over, stopping at his table and smiling.

"Couldn't help but notice your adorable Ghastly was prone to catching some attention 'round here..."

There were some other looks, some more hostile than others, as it seemed a Pokemon of Luci's caliber (ghost types) were not exactly welcome up this far away from the lower regions of Nada.

"You wouldn't mind if I joined you, would you?"

[soap]

Jack snickered. Of all the words he had ever heard used to describe her, "Adorable" was definitely a new one.

The ghost, on the other hand, was flattered. If there was anything Lucy still had after all these years, it was vanity. She grinned widely and hopped over. "Of course you can have a seat, love. Air might be a little could by me, though. Usually is..."

Jack slowly lifted his eyes from the wooden board, having decided not to look at he young lady up until now. "Now who am I to chase of one of the few people not to give me and Lucy here a dirty look since we came to this town? You're more than welcome to have a seat. This is Luciidia, and I'm Jack."

He smiled, and gestured to he board. "Care for a game? I have a few good pieces for chess, or checkers or Othello. Whatever suits you, miss,"he said with a slight smirk creeping on his face. "Honestly it's a good way to spare some time, in between looking for jobs," he then laughed slightly. She seemed nice. Not necessarily his type of girl, but definitely someone with a good sense of confidence, and a fighter, from the look in her eyes. Although he also picked up a bit of fear...strange. What on earth could she have to fear? Ah, well. As long as he didn't fear him.

[Hitomi ~ M.D.~]

Hitomi smiled at the man as she sipped her drink, sitting down in the seat across from this man. Whoever he was...

Oh. Now she had a name. Jack. And his cute little Pokemon, Lucidia. Adorable as hell, but it seemed that the two clashed to some extent, but not in a bad way. It seemed that the two of them were like... brother and sister... if she could call it that, which she would, of course. That was the beauty of Pokemon-human friendships, they were so random that you could not help but call them normal anyways.

There were so many different Pokemon, after all.

"It's nice to meet you," she replied, "My name's Hitomi."

If they were not telling her much more than that, then why should she?

Though she did feel a little obliged to introduce a Pokemon of some sort... but were there any Pokemon that she had around?

Of course there were. One was out taking an (extended) walk, one was currently scoping around, making sure she was not going to get sniped, and her other two... well, she had absolutely no idea where they were.

Well... she did.

Reaching behind her, she pulled at the large, yellow and black ear sticking out of the bag on her back. It, as well as the other identical ear on the other side of it, twitched lightly, and a grumbly voice came from the inside of the bag. Soon enough, a small Pichu head peered from her left shoulder, staring at the two. The word that followed resembled something of a one worded introduction of some sort, but the Pokemon returned to his napping place.

"That's Thomas," Hitomi replied lightly, setting the bag on her lap.

As she watched the man gesture towards his board she tilted her head to one side. What a strange game board indeed. She had only ever played a game of chess, but she never really understood the mechanics of the game...

However, he seemed like a nice enough man. Maybe he would be willing to explain one of these games to her...

Well, the only way to find out was to ask...

"I'm sorry... I've only played a game of chess, but I'm more curious of the other games... how do you play those, if you don't mind me asking?"

[soap]

Jack smiled as he put down four pieces in the middle of the board, each one white one side and black on the other. "The name of the game is Othello," he said with a slight grin. He then laughed wickedly. "I'm black, so I'll go first."

He then smiled as he put one piece black side up opposite one of her white pieces and smiled. "Now, you move by jumping my pieces. Put a white one opposite one of mine, and then flipped all the black ones in between it."

He smiled and poured himself some more tea. "Long and short of it, the object of the game is to capture as many pieces on the board as possible. If your color out numbers mine when we're out of board, you win."

He then smirked slightly. "Go ahead and make a move. I find you can tell a lot about people by how they play," he said with a weak chuckle. "Dojima taught me that a long time ago..." He said as he stared out the window absentmindedly before Lucidia nudged him.

Lucidia grinned. "Zoning out on young women? You feeling alright Jackie?"

Jack roleld his eyes. "Behave yourself, or I'll elt you run suicide sessions with Hotaka again."

Lucidia made a slight "meep" noise and looked and Hitomi. "He's always guarding on his left a side a bit much."

"Only when I play you, Lucy dear," he said as he sipped his tea.

[Hitomi ~ M.D.~]

She analyzed the board a moment as he explained the game to her, and thought about the game, as if she was absorbing information for later use.

To be honest, she was doing a little more than that. She was filing all this information away under the metaphorical folder one could call 'board games I might never ever play again' as well as the folder known as 'random tidbits of knowledge to impress people at parties with,' just in case she would ever need the knowledge to blow someone out of the water with...

Not that she had any idea whatsoever what to do with the knowledge of this strange game, but there was no harm in storing it away, just in case.

She eyed the board for a moment as she thought of the first move she would play. It was a strange kind of strategy game, but she recognized that there was strategy to it. After a moment, however, she looked up, an amused expression in her eyes and a small smile on her lips.

"How would you be able to run suicide laps without any legs?" she pointed out, "Or does he chase you around with a vacuum cleaner in the hopes that it will work in making you work out, even though you clearly do not need to..."

She thought about this a little more before continuing on, this time adopting a slightly different tone.

"Anyone who calls you out of shape clearly needs their eyes checked or they failed basic geometry. Your 'body' is a perfect circle."

It was then she put a piece on the other side of his pieces, flipping over all those necessary in order to do so.

"Who, may I ask, is Dojima?" she inquired after another moment or so, "If it's not too rude of me I mean..."

[soap]

Jack shrugged as he watched the girls movements and though, and laughed at her suggestion."No, suicide sessions aren't laps, they're more like endurance sparring sessions. Pretty exhausting, usually," he said with a smirk as he moved to counter her. Nothing fancy. Then again the first few moves never were with Othello.

He then smirked, sipping more of his tea softly. "Dojima," he said softly, "was one of my instructors. I suppose he still would be, if we ran into each other again. Although, I do outrank him, technically..." he then shrugged. "You see, him and I were instructors of the Lintu school of martial combat and spiritual techniques," he said proudly with a slight smirk. His smirk turned itnoa sheepish grin. "Well, what's left of it, anyhow," he then sighed, deciding to change the subject, by chuckling at the sphere joke.

"You've got a good sense of humor, although I think I'll try to remember that vacuum cleaner trick," he said with a grin.

"Watch it," Lucidia warned with a glare. "Else I'll start telling this young lady about some of your dreams," she said with an evil grin.

Jack nodded rolling his eyes in mock indignation. "Blackmail? No offense, Luci, but that seems kinda unoriginal."

Lucidia just laughed. "Original? Your wearing that shirt and lecturing me on matters of taste?"

"Actually I'm lecturing you on tactics, which you do tend to fail at grasping somedays," he said with a non-committal shrug. "And for the record, I clean up nice, when I bother," he said to Hitomi absent-mindedly.

[Hitomi ~ M.D.~]

She made another move, this time much faster than her first one. She did not have to cram all that knowledge into her head like she did last turn... mainly because she had already done so, but also because she did not want to seem like a slow player. She was far from it, actually, but that was far from the point.

Smiling at the other two, she shook her head lightly.

"I see... but if you strain your Pokemon too much then you'll never get to battle with them properly... you seem like a man who understands that finer balance though... it's just a shame to see any Pokemon strained by a negligent trainer."

Which this man seemed far from being, but it was always something she felt like bringing up, with pretty much every trainer she met. She had yet to bring it up with Devin, though the boy did seem to be at least relatively good with Pokemon. She admired the boy's Pokemon greatly, like she was admiring this Ghastly now, but she had yet to be able to tell whether Illusion or Cerberus were in good hands or not. It was as if Devin was hiding behind those strange sunglasses of his...

Oh well.

By the time she managed to knock herself out of her own reverie, she realized that both Pokemon and trainer were bickering with each other on originality. What a strange thought that was, but then again, this man had proven to be anything but normal.

Hitomi shook her head lightly.

"You didn't bother today?" she asked, "You could scare someone off with that get-up..."

She was quite honestly surprised someone had not come up to him and demanded he put his clothing out of his misery. Remoor had a rather rude and angry tone like that...

[soap]

Jack chuckled. "Yeah, balance is everything. Hence the meditation and long naps," he said with a chuckle.

Lucidia quickly nodded. "Yeah, you take the long naps and Hotaka does all the heavy training!" She then giggled, smirking evilly.

Soap just shrugged, noticing the girl's quick move. She was a fast learner. He countered with a quick move to the left, smiling. "You catch on quick. Makes for a good player," he said with a slight smirk.

The she said something about his shirt. "It's a tactical choice of clothing. People are always paranoid that everyone's out to get each other on this island. This is a shirt that says, 'I'm not here to start anything. I just want a drink and some good stories,' you know?" He said with a shrug.

"It also says you're a drunk tourist who's easy to mug," Lucidia retorted.

Jack nodded. "That too, is tactical. If I looked like someone who could take on twenty men with his bare hands, ladies would avoid me too often. And that'd be lame," he said with a chuckle.

Jack then smiled at her softly. "So, if ya don't me asking, where are you from, Miss Hitomi? You don't have an accent like anyone from these parts."