❥ THIRD DRAGONSTONE | ACTION [CHERRYGROVE] / VIDEO

[invigorating]

[ ACTION (CHERRYGROVE CITY) ]

[It's pretty cold out today, but that doesn't stop Nowi from wearing shorts and her ridiculously long boots. She's got a coat on at least, but the cold definitely isn't the most important thing on her mind.]

Hmm... Hey, Mana? How much chocolate should I buy?

[The Dratini wrapped around her neck like a scarf just looks at her. It's the most deadpan expression and that apparently says everything Nowi needs to know.]

You're right! I should totally buy as much as I can! I hope they have those really nice ones with the cream filling!

[And into the shop she goes, though she spends a moment just... staring at all the Valentine's Day merchandise.]

Oh my gosh, I want a giant Sylveon plushie!!

[Well, it looks like she's found her favorite holiday.]

[ VIDEO ]

Sooo... I've got a question.

[Nowi's sitting on a bench somewhere in Cherrygrove. She's got her head tipped to the side as she thinks.]

What's Valentine's Day? It sounds like it's super important, but I don't know what it is! People keep saying stuff about my "significant other", whatever that is, so uh... anyone want to tell me?

...Also, why is there so much chocolate?

Comments

[Video]

[charcoalfeather]

.... "Valentine's day"? Maybe... it's a holiday? With lots of chocolate?

[Looks who's joining you in this boat, Nowi. It's Rakka! She's not on a bench anymore! In fact, she's somewhere else entirely.]

[invigorating]

That seems to be it, but I don't really get it... I'm not going to complain about the chocolate, but this is kinda weird...

[charcoalfeather]

Well, chocolate is nice!

[But that's not what Rakka is focusing on. Not entirely.]

Maybe all the chocolate is supposed to be a gift? Back home, we have a holiday like that too.

[invigorating]

Oh gosh, really? What kind of holiday is it? We don't have anything like that!

[But then again she also comes from the land of getting married after four conversations, so who knows what's up with that world.]

[charcoalfeather]

Well it's a holiday, but it's also a festival, a big one that gets set up right in the center of town to celebrate the year ending and a new one beginning! The last time, there were fireworks, and you could go around handing out bellnuts.

[It's funner then it sounds, honestly!]

[invigorating]

What's a bellnut? Is it a kind of nut or a kind of bell?

[As usual, Nowi's priorities are in exactly the right order.]

[charcoalfeather]

Well, they're about this big... [Hang on, she's... she's going to attempt charades here, apparently.

No, Rakka's trying to create a shape with her hands, something to give the impression of what the bellnut would look like for Nowi. Roughly speaking, it seems to be about the size of her fist. And Rakka's fists are rather tiny.]

And they're tied to strings, so if you give it a shake, you can hear the nut inside the shell. So it is like a bell! They're also in a lot of different colors, and each color stands for something. So I'm pretty sure that's why people give them to each other.

[invigorating]

Oh wow, that sounds super neat! What kinds of colors are there and what do they stand for?

[charcoalfeather]

Uh... Wait... [She's thinking about this. It's not something she really focused on in the first place.]

Um, first there's red; it means "thank you". Then there's green, which stands for "congratulations", brown is "sorry", yellow is "love"....

[... A frown is sneaking onto her face.]

The last one is white; it stands for "Thank you and goodbye".

[invigorating]

Goodbye? Why would they have something for that? That sounds kinda... not good.

[Nowi really doesn't like goodbyes, alright.]

[charcoalfeather]

Yeah... It's a special one, I think. I've never used it, but a friend of mine did.

[The meaning is, hopefully, obvious.]

[invigorating]

Oh... Oh no... I'm so sorry...

[She's not entirely sure why someone would need that in the first place, but she's (trying) to be sensitive.]

[charcoalfeather]

I... It's alright! Really! I'm actually alright with it now. It's just something that happened a while ago.

[invigorating]

Still, that sounds awful...

[charcoalfeather]

W-well, uhh... [Welp. She hadn't really planned on this conversation taking a turn like that. And now Nowi looked distressed and it was distressing Rakka too.

How distressing.]

No, no! It's fine now, Nowi. Actually, it's been a while since that happened. And the last time I saw her, we were both happy. I don't think it could have been better.

[Not that she didn't cry. Because of course she did.]

[invigorating]

Well, being happy is definitely good!

[She's just had some Bad Experiences with losing people so that's... something that she's going to take hard no matter what. She's trying though!! Being depressed and depressing isn't helping.]

[charcoalfeather]

Uh, it is...!

[This entire conversation has taken a depressing turn... how can they possibly turn this around...?]

I'm sorry for that. It sounds like we should be happy right now, since there's a holiday.