Manami Arai's Links
Manami finds Wiz a TAD suspicious, but still a friend nonetheless. Nami struggles with Wiz’s obliviousness sometimes, but takes it as a learning experience on how to communicate with others, and still get a point across.
She enjoys spending time with Wiz, as Wiz shows her different things Nami hasn’t seen before, and provides almost an escape from all the problems and issues Nami deals with daily.
Wiz finds Manami fascinating due to what is viewed as a suboptimal body for swimming working perfectly fine underwater (seriously what hair?). Beyond that Wiz keeps a friendship with Manami to help her other land friends and have someone near with working hands!
Manami is Rotui’s childhood friend, sister-like figure, she’s seen a lot of Tui’s life, and witnessed the friendship fallout between him and Ger’Ar. She’s been there for Rotui since, and puts a lot of trust in him.
She recognizes his intelligence in non-academic subjects, and would do anything at the drop of a penny to help him, getting a last minute deal to go through, letting him stay over when he's feeling down, letting him raid her fridge, basically anything short of murder, but even then maybe Tui had a good reason? Ont that note, as any good sisterly-figure, she would murder for Rotui, but would laugh at him for eating shit while surfing.
They currently work together at their own organization trying to clean up the reef and the shores, unfortunately for Rotui, Nami always seems behind on paperwork, she brings him coffee and food as thanks for helping her catch up.
Rotui has a level of trust with Manami to the point where she could literally shoot him and he'd understand that that was a haha funny. She's been a dependable friend for almost as long as he can remember, and he wouldn't know what to do without her level-headed guidance.
They share a work partnership together. Both hosting large scale Volunteer guided events to help clean up beaches and reefs that have been littered to nothing but echos of their past glory. Rotui, unfortunately has been put to the mostly paperwork and meeting side of things. He may not understand the most of what he's doing, but he'd rather do it than hear Nami complain because she doesn't like it either.
Manami is fond of the Professor. She highly enjoyed the classes she attended of Willow’s and used to meet with her for coffee, or brunch after she finished her courses. SHe follows attentively Willow’s new research, and the papers she consequently writes. You can say Manami was a bit of a teacher’s pet, but in a /pos way.
When Manami delivers speeches about Pollution and the affect on Marine life, she references Willow a lot.
Willow loved having Manami as her student, she was always very attentive and asked engaging and thought provoking questions. She enjoyed hearing about Manami's exploits on their random meetings with each other and watching her speeches on the news. She wishes she could've seen Manami one last time to warn her...
Manami appreciates Michelle’s strong will to help people, and highly respects her business practices. Manami normally does not enjoy business’s, but Michelle’s passion for reducing waste, and re-using materials that are sustainable are a huge part of Manami’s respect towards her.
She wears customs outfits made by Michelle when she gives speeches about marine and ocean pollution, and relies on Michelle to meet her and Rotui’s mission statement of cleaning up the shores, and introducing sustainability into the futuristic world of Alph’Ea.
They also enjoy exchanging drink recipes :>.
Michelle respects Manami's work ethic, however wishes she would just take a rest sometimes. Especially due to recent events Michelle wishes she could just pick up Manami and drag her to a place to take a break. Even if it's just her office with a couple of drinks around.
Appreciates that Manami thinks highly of her business practices and enjoys doing clean up sessions with her. She's wary to tell Manami some of the more recent things that has happened with her mentally due to the earlier events mentioned above. However she's hoping that she can be a comforting rock to Manami either way.
Really thinks she needs a break now.
Manami cares a FUCK ton about Ger. She’s watched him grow up, taught him the ropes of hybrid life, seen him make mistakes, but stands by him always and forever. She doesn’t always agree with the Ger's desicions, but still cares for him like a little brother, nothing can ever change that. If anyone ever hurts Ger'Ar she is sure to hold a grudge about them for a lifetime. Due to his line of work she can't really go through the whole "I'll hurt them back" physically shtick. But when having authority over a large area of land like a Shore, if that person ever tries any deals, Manami will ensure the deal does not go through.
Altough Ger is busy, and so is Manami, they now try to meet as regularly as they can considering their lines of work for drinks, and just catching up with one other. It's not suprising to see Manami after a hard day at work napping on Ger's tail, and if Ger has had a tough day to see him and her taking a fat nap on the water. Ger’Ar would be the first to know if Manami was in trouble.
Manami is one of the few people who knows Ger'Ar from his younger years, and quite possibly is the only one that he still speaks to on good terms. He knows his sister doesn't approve of what he does, but on some level is thankful that she accepts *him* regardless of it. He'd kept his distance for a long while, simply out of concern that if he were seen with her it'd put her in danger. Over those years however, he'd grown to miss her too much, and so now carefully swings by when he's able to spend some much needed time catching up with her. They get up to all sorts of shenanigans together, from Nami using him as a test dummy for drinks to simply wrestling on the beach, or seeing who can make the biggest bubble with their tail (it's still Nami), his time spent with her is something that reminds him that he is, in fact, cared for. He hopes that she knows even through his taunting and teasing how much he cares for her too, and that he'd come running if she ever called.
Manami sees Dustin as "that friend she can talk to about all weird things in life, because they survived a life-and-death situation together". Although she doesn't talk to him much, she feels as if there is a mutual understanding that if something is happening that needs to be talked about without judgment, that she can approach him about it, and him her.
She occasionally sends Dustin little gifts of non-perishable snacks and shells. She lately is concerned with how he's doing after a little incident happening with Victor and Lea . . .
Before the port confrontation, Dustin didn't... really know a lot about Manami. Sure, he looked back through the chats to get a sum of her character, but that doesn't count for true character... which he saw that night. He may not see her as a "comfort" as others in the chat do, but she is one of the few he can feel like he can speak with about that night without worry.
Manami enjoys Nun's presence quite a bit, having struggled with making friends when she was younger, and trouble with reading the situation, Nun's non-judgemental nature and mannerisms make her feel comfortable.
She also loves indulging the orca's food curiosity!
Nun enjoys of Arais company, mostly because she has low levels of aggression towards people. She helps him understand alphean mannerisms better. Also she has tasty food...
Manami sees Taya as a big ole himbo, a destructive one at that. But now that his transition from water to land is more or less complete, she enjoys seeing the Ean splash around the shores.
She still will throw her sandal at him if need be ...
Seretaya is an absolute menace to Arais beaches, mostly because he has the bad habit of being reckless on his transition to the land and water. He describes her as the "nice dude from the beach that hit me once!"
Manami always appreciates Zhou's professional manner, and generally trusts him, even in riskier situations. She feels as though he cares for others around him so much, despite his sometimes cold demeanor, adding to her trust in the dragon.
She worries for him, but knows not how to approach him about it, especially with her interesting relationship with the aspect of Juan, Oracle.
Manami and Zhou have a strict professional knowledge of each other. Due to the dragons nature they have gone upon her shores and requested information for current events. He finds a bit of pity on her and her ability of caring so much for others, but he will not speak about it directly to the lifeguard.
Manami sees many similarities between her and Arata, and she, despite not knowing them very well, empathizes with the professor quite a bit. Especially after the incident with Oracle, she has someone to talk to and someone that understands, and she cherishes that a lot.
She brings Arata snacks she knows they like, and does her best to help them when she can. She hopes to become close friends with Arata.
Manami likes Dani's attitude and has only met her once so far, during a rather strained incident involving Lea and Victor. She sees that Dani cares a lot for her friends and respects her for that.
She would be keen on meeting with Dani more often, just to learn more about mechanics and get to know the mechanic a little better.
Doesn't know much about her honestly, but they are rather interested in her strenght since they already know that the lady is big and buff as hell. Dani wants to eventually test that by doing arm wrestle,
They also discovered that the alphean was very interested in collecting vintage stuff, something Dani also very much likes, so they offered her to see it all by herself at their place one of these days.
Manami loves Daiana's work, and listens to it often! The vibrations of the music are very calming to her.
She hopes to expand on their friendship, simply because she finds her to be a very cool lady.
Manami is a long-time friend of Tabi, knowing them through family connections. The Pahl-ittos and the Arai families knew eachother and were friends, with this history in mind, Manami was always fond of Tabi, and sees em as a cute little cousin.
She cares for Tabi a lot, and will throw a sandal at anyone who hurts the little lizard.
One might say I ' m biased but , she helped watch me when I was younger . I care about her so much , even if I don ' t always remember to be active about it . I love her , see her as family . I 'd usually be more poetic about it , but it ' s just a type of care that . . . it ' s just there . How else are you supposed to describe it ?
Manami sees Mo wandering her shores some nights, and has sat with him many times over the nights.
Although she was scared by his presence at first, she was oddly drawn to him and sees him as an odd friend, curious about his past and current self.
Manami enjoyed meeting Vic beforehand on sustainability projects and shared similar views on socio-political issues and topics. And in general, talked about both their professions and how similar yet different they are.
However, after an incident, Manami is questioning her previous positive view of Victor, after a miscommunication on both parts, and has a slight gurdge against him because of it.
Victor first met Manami during beach cleanup and has continued to meet them intermittently while on related projects. Vic often gossips with Manami about rich people, including ex employers, since both share the “eat the rich” mentality. Victor also anonymously tries to send edibles whenever possible, he feels like she needs it.
Manami felt incredibly comforted by Oracle, and felt as though she could talk to him about anything. She enjoyed both the emotional and physical relationship they have, despite that relationship not having a label at all. He taught her many life lessons in caring for herself, and in general about boundaries both for her own sake, and for the people she interacts with.
She grieves the loss of Oracle immensely, at a loss for all the words she wishes she could still tell him.
As for Juan himself, she finds him as a very close friend, one she can gossip with and just chat shit with. She shares the same ideology as the deer and hence will help the guy out with whatever he needs. She enjoys the resevior the man keeps, and can be seen helping out around his farm quite a bit. Recently she's been finding herself very fond of him, going on dates and meeting with him are things that bring great joy and warm fuzziness to her.
[Oracle] Oh Arai, probably one of the few things that have given him a reason to stay around. Whatever they have it is hidden behind closed doors and silenced whispers. They indulge in each other, maybe giving each other some sort of comfort not often given by other people. He is aware of how much of a bad choice it is to be around him, and the effects this might have on Arai's life. Because of this, he is hesitant to put a name on whatever they have.
After his temporal passing, he is weary of approaching her, because he recognizes one of the reasons he didn't give in those months, was because he wanted to see her face again. This idea of - lingering yearning. It scares him.
Manami appreciates the friendly face on shore, having met the twins during their rounds, she considers Pandem to be the better twin of the two. Not to mention Manami loves any sort of animals so seeing the dogs is always a comfort for her.
Pan and Manami met on the beach one day when Pan was doing some training with the dogs. They quickly hit it off as they both share a similar endearment for animals. Pan will often ask Manami help out with training and use it as an excuse to talk with her about various topics under the guise of “work”.
Manami misses Terumi, being one of the closer friends she had during her college, she has tons of memories with Teru. Nami still sends her pics of the weirdest stiff she find on shore to still keep in touch with how she's doing. They're that sort of friends where you don talk for a while, but when you do ? You're spilling EVERYTHING. If Manami is ever feeling reaLLY rough she sends Teru a message, she likes to think Teru does the same as well.
Terumi's always been a big fan of Manami and what she does. She'll never outright say it, but she's actually quite happy she was able to make a really close friend with her throughout college, and even work as a lifeguard for a couple months while saving up for her thesis trip. If Terumi gets a little *too* riled up about something, Manami is one of the only ones to reason her down. Sharing beliefs, but sometimes being loud about it isn't the way to go.
Manami happens to stumble across the doctor quite often. Whether at the Rotui household with Hiroto or at their brunches together. She feels like Clover is a safe space to talk about the big feelings she has, both n her field and her past. She's glad that despite the weird stories and feelings she's expressed to Clover, they still keep accepting the brunch invites. She hopes to learn some macrame soon so she can gift Clover a couple pieces for their room.
Manami is someone that Clover has quite the curiosity about. Not for any one particular reason, the doctor just happens to think that she's a fascinating individual. One that they'd like to get to know much better. So far, they've established a casual relationship with Nami, finding it quite comfortable to simply spend some time with the lifeguard when they're on her turf. They've also managed to set up a loose schedule of brunches with her, which allows the both of them to take some time away from their busy jobs helping others. They think it's nice to have someone to have more in depth conversations with about some of the complexities that come with working in a field saving lives, even though they're in vastly different branches of it. Clover hopes that Manami can eventually trust them to listen to her troubles regarding things like this, though for the time being they're just as content to laugh about the more ridiculous aspects of the job. Sometimes that can be enough, too.
While Manami at first pitied Hiroto, during their energy drink dependency, she sees him as a close friend now, almost like a pseudo-sibling, sees as him and Rotui live together. She enjoys her time off crashing at their place, showing Hiroto new ocean-walker sweets and new drink recipes.
He first really knew of Manami through Rotui, back when the surfer was trying to get him off those damn energy drinks. One of the mixes that Nami whipped up was being used as the substitute, and honestly- he's still drinking it. Aside from that, however, he thinks Nami is great company when Tui and Lea get into one of their long arguments about- something. Anything. He likes to make little bets with her (in food) about who will win. He always bets on Tui, even if he's on a losing streak.
Manami has kept in touch with Abril after her trips to Ono. Having Lea travel with her, she always gets sent to customs, thinking she's hiding something in Lea's bot. After many laughs of the boiled eggs Lea carries, and the 1 or 2 times Abril was very hungover, she eventually got her number when seeing her in the bar. She sends Abril her successful cocktail recipes, stupid lifeguard incidents and goofy looking rock pictures.
Nami sees her flirting, while they both recognize it would never be a long term thing, the friendly flirting is a highlight for the both of them.
Abril and Manami met through pure circumstance. Abril has never had a worst first impression, stumbling over her words when a pretty lady came up to her booth, declaring that she did have eggs from another planet, stuttering and hungover they both ended up laughing over the interaction, and after a couple more visits, Manami recognized her at an Onoian bar, they definitely hit it off, and Abril tries her best to flirt when she comes over.
Manami adores the little fella, while they met somewhat spontaneously, the experience definitely was not one to forget for her. From thinking they died, to property damage, she quickly gained a small protectiveness over the small guy. She thinks Wun is a very sweet fellow, and plans to visit again when she takes her trips to Ono. The next time she visits she's bringing more eyeliner for them to try.
Miss Arai and Wun’s first meet was through… an odd set of circumstances to say the least. Basically just a goose chase for some radically different items that led to wun’s house being smashed in with a big clock. However, through the whole endeavor, Miss Arai was incredibly sweet to Wun and the world around them. Wun wishes that their paths cross again, of course without another thing smashing into their ceiling afterwards.
Manami met Lea through Nun. Seeing the lil robot hop around from place to place, learning from person to person, her instincts kicked in, making space for the little lady in her home. She made ti clear she didn't have to stay if she didn't want to, but having her around to set the tea, and chatter away with was a delight. Having a little pink robot with her on her Beach patrols was also so incredibly fun, from Lea seeing the atrocities to sillies on the beach. After Manami's trip to Ono, and talking again with friends, she learned of a certain contract that could give Lea all she's ever wished for.
Lea met Manami through friends, but eventually, when she kept seeing her around, the curiosity got to her. Especially when one night she learned of Manami's job; one that exclusively deals with people. After being Manami's shore buddy, she was over the moons when Manami asked her to be a roommate. Learning to love the msuci Manami plays, and having a many nights of venting to her, she's grown to see Manami as a big sister, or even that one aunt you're super close with. Especially after Faraxe's contract, she's eternally grateful for the patience Manami had with her learning her senses. She even borrows Manami's scarves and clothing fabrics to wear as headscarves.