Welcome to Gaia! ::

Luke gestured for his companion to present the coat to the cashier as the queue reached them, presenting his card to pay for the item. He glanced to the kid - Emil - as he gave his name and promptly looked away, donning his usually forced air of disinterest. "'M Luke," he replied simply, pocketing the receipt as it was handed to him and stepping away from the line. "Anything else you need, long as we're out here?" His tone was rough again, a quality which Emil might have started to understand usually accompanied any of the young noble's offerings of goodwill.

The arbitrary compliment caught Luke off guard, and he folded his arms with a huff, as if the comment were something that that he found offensive. His expression, however, as much as it tried to look indignant, betrayed only the fluster that comes from unexpected flattery. He instead directed his attention to the sprawling shopping district on the other side of the department store's sliding glass doors as he wandered back into the city proper. He raised his hands and folded them behind his head, taking a few idle steps forward before turning slightly to address Emil, "What brings you to Camphoreon anyway? Doesn't seem like you were too prepared to visit." A nosy, tactless question, perhaps, but the best effort at conversation Luke could think to give.

There was a surprisingly genuine, if not slight, laugh, and Luke dropped his hands to his pockets and his gaze to the empty sidewalk ahead, though a unwitting smile accompanied his reply, "Sounds familiar. A lot like me, actually. 'Cept I came in summer and it didn't really matter if I didn't have a coat." He grinned bitterly at the memory, recalling his fumbling grasp of the basics of exchanging payment for goods and services and his confused navigation of the city. He cast a sidelong glance at his company, "Well anyway... Don't worry about it, if you can help it. Camphoreon's a good place for relaxing."

Because Luke didn't especially like talking about the circumstances surrounding his visit to the region, he assumed that Emil similarly preferred to let the issue go without discussion, and so he pressed the matter no further. Instead, he hummed idly, letting the sound lead into a different question, "You know where you're staying?" He remembered Rosie's recommendations and assistance when he had first arrived in Camphoreon, and so he understood the severity of the answer well enough to concern himself with it.

"Huh." It was a contemplative sound, though only briefly so, as if his wonder had been answered just as soon as it was given too. "Just come with me then," he said abruptly, starting down the sidewalk at a pace that could be called idle but would increase to a normal speed when it became certain that Emil was following. "We'll figure something out back in the room." If all else failed, Luke certainly had no issues with lending the space of his own quarters to the boy.