Welcome to Gaia! ::

He followed the text on the menu as Rosie read it aloud. He was familiar with the ingredients, though he didn't associate them all with a singular dish. It seemed like a strange amalgam, but he was hungry enough that it hardly mattered. Besides, he generally liked all the dishes with which he did associate the ingredients, so it could only be but so bad.

"All right, that looks find to me," he affirmed with a nod, looking to Mieu as Rosie did - not as much to gather the Flareon's opinion, but out of curiosity as to why she was regarding him as though he had something meaningful to contribute. As if to confirm Luke's inward criticism, Mieu gave a delighted "faaa," happy with anything and everything the two humans picked. It was nice being able to walk around with his master!

Oh Arceus there was food in front of him and it was accessible and he was sure this day was never going to come. Carefully, as if expecting the bread to disappear on contact with his person, he reached and extracted one of the pieces, tearing a bite away from it and popping it into his mouth with a nonchalance that did nothing to suggest the fact that he might have accidentally eaten his own fingers in his eagerness to get something in his stomach. He breathed a long, silent sigh of contentment. Glorious food.

An enthusiastic "faa!" that was soon muffled by garlic bread gained his attention first, Rosie's question pulling his eyes to her shortly thereafter. "Mm, no," he said, shaking his head slightly. "Grande Ile." It failed to occur to him that she wouldn't know where Grande Ile was.

The Flareon tapped his feet against the table in a brief dance of excitement before starting with the offering. It was warm, fluffy, and crispy, made even better by the fact that he got to eat in the company of his master and his new friend. Mouth too full of delicious to make sounds of thanks, Mieu instead waved his tail back and forth.

Hmm, well, it wasn't that he had expected her to know about it, Luke supposed. And, thinking about it, he did recall hearing gossip about Grande Ile's isolated status some time in the winter... "Well, it's a duchy overseas, near France. It's, uhh... mostly self-sufficient, so it doesn't have a lot of contact with other nations, or something like that..." His brow furrowed as he tried to remember the exact words he had overheard. That was about right, right? He didn't understand all the implications, but he was pretty sure that was what had been said.

"Mm..." He turned his thoughts to his memories in search of an answer. He had lived very differently from how he was in Kodo, certainly, but he had also lived very differently from probably any other citizen of Grande Ile. His knowledge of both his homeland and his current residence was so limited that he couldn't fathom a proper response.

"I mean..." He traced the rim of his glass thoughtfully. "I didn't really leave home that often, so I'm not not that familiar with the living standards..." He'd passed through the streets on his way to the ferry, but it had been so early in the morning that the city was essentially devoid of life. It had been rather eerie, actually, and he remembered feeling somehow relieved to run into the other passengers at the docks. He drew in the condensation idly as he attempted to find some point of comparison, but it was hard to compare life in a single house to life in an entire country or region...

"Yeah," he replied, lifting the glass slightly to give it a swirl and watch the ice cubes tumble about. "It really sucked. 'Swhy I'm here now." A casual shrug accompanied his brief explanation, though his expression didn't portray the same nonchalance. It was a dangerous move he had made, knowing so little about the world beyond the gates of his home, and despite all confidence, he was well aware of how stranded he was and how completely unknowledgeable he was about... practically everything. But he would figure it out. He had to. There was no way he was going back.

Mieu watched his master with his ears slightly lowered, picking up on the human's falling mood. He had been surprised when they suddenly left their home for the first time in years, and he had been expecting the boy to feel the weight of it eventually...

"I hope so. No turning back now." Even if it turned out to be a bad decision, he wouldn't regret it. Regretting it would mean his parents had been right, and he was never going to admit that.

"Dunno. I'm not sure what there is around here, so I guess I'll just explore until I find something interesting," he said with a shrug. Well, he said that, but he felt it would probably be better to hang around the city for a while longer. He wasn't very used to... well, anything, and it seemed a poor idea to go wandering the island without being familiar with even one place first. "Think I'll pick up a map or something and just make the circuit, see what I see along the way." It was at least guaranteed to be unlike anything he had ever experienced before.

The waitress reappeared bearing the ordered food - Luke had nearly forgotten they were expecting something other than breadsticks to eat - and he stared at the pizza as it was placed on the table alongside a pair of plates. The appearance and scent were unlike anything he'd been served in the past, different even from the pizza he had attempted to prepare himself. Rather than make a fool of himself by going about it wrong or asking how to do something that was likely obvious, he waited for Rosie to act.

He watched her reach for the fork and knife and moved to do so as well, staying his hand suddenly when he heard her address Mieu and saw her remove a piece for the Flareon. She then lifted the slice into her hands, confirming Luke's suspicion that the stuff looked like finger food. Equally careful, he removed a slice for himself, positioning it properly in his hand before testing a taste. His initial reaction was surprise, nearly to the point of vocalization - it was much better than he was expecting. He would at least retain his dignity, though, and so the only outward signs he made of his impression was a subtle lifting of his brow.

Mieu, conversely, was far less concerned for trivialities such as his impression on strangers, and visibly and audibly enjoyed the pizza's flavor. He shook his head a bit initially, startled by the hot flavor of the sausage, but adopted an obvious resolve to consume the treat in its entirety. It was challenge time!

Luke hummed thoughtfully as he considered Rosie's words. He wasn't at all experienced in reading people, but her former demeanor when speaking about Team Rocket and its dangers had been quite clear, and the fact that she would be traveling unprotected - and possibly alone - was something of a worry an oddity.

"I wouldn't mind going, if you're offering," he said with a shrug, gaze averted once more. "I've got nothing better to do." Truthfully he was a little concerned to leave the city so soon - it felt a bit as though he was tumbling from one unfamiliar environment to the next without any time to adjust - but it simply seemed altogether wrong to let Rosie wander around by herself.

"Fieuu!" It was the best! It was all kinds of best! It was beyond the best! Apart from being a bit hot, anyway, but that was dismissible.

At the question of how he could be contacted, Luke frowned. He had left his cellphone behind intentionally, and a phone application had yet to be released for his poketch. He began cycling through possibly meeting locations when Rosie mentioned the hotel. "Oh? Well that's convenient. I guess that works, then." Somewhere in the back of his head, a curiosity as to why her family was staying in a hotel when she said she lived in the city flitted about, but it was a distant enough question that he didn't think to ask. "What kind of class is this, anyway?" It seemed impossibly outlandish that the teachers expected their students to travel around the island for class, and he had to continue to remind himself that his lifestyle and schooling were likely unconventional. Perhaps wandering around in a place with dangerous criminals was commonplace here. ...That was just stupid.