Traveling Around The East

[Guest]

Because of her visiting Amestris for the first time, Reina thought it would be a good idea to explore around the country...without her brother, Hayden Haze. Even though she doesn't know a lot of Amestrian, she believes she'll manage. Her brother was obviously worried for her, so he made sure that she would bring a Cretan/Amestrian dictionary with her on her trips.

First stop: East City. She'd heard the most about this city, besides Central, which was where she would now be living, since Hayden is stationed in Central.
She known that her father was in the military before he met her mother, and he was stationed in East City, until he resigned and moved to Creta, where he soon met her mother.

It was sort of like a family thing, Reina visiting this city. However, of course because of her difficulty in learning Amestrian, she'll get lost. Which she did. Yet again.
"Why do I have to be so stubborn when it comes to traveling around Amestris...? I guess it's just my curiosity," She sighed to herself, her dictionary out as she tried to read the street sign, to no avail.
Looking around for some help, she found a man walking around. Hopefully he spoke Cretan...or at least help her understand where she was.
"Excuse...me," She said gently to the person, walking up to him. "Do you...think you, um, could help me, p-please?" She asked, pausing every so often to check in her dictionary if she was saying it right.

[Guest]

Nathan was having a good day today. He was wearing a black coat today, despite the sunny weather and had his gloves on. He had no real plans and could relax, walking around East City, it was not the first time he was here, but he still didn't know everything about this place. He had delivered the message to the indicated person yesterday, so his business here was finished, now he had to go back to West City... but he didn't really want to, so he decided to relax a bit here.
He had bought a bag full of hot dogs just a few minutes ago and was walking down some street. He looked inside the bag - ah! So delightful! Marvelous! There were six - SIX hot dogs in there! Nathan couldn't help but smile when he saw that. He pulled out a hot dog and wanted to take a bite, but he heard someone talking behind him. He closed his mouth and turned around, noticing a rather attractive young girl near him with his deep blue gaze. She seemed to have some problems with talking, or not - he saw some book in her hand, and she was actually hardly reading from it. A tourist.
Nathan looked at her, still holding the bag in his left hand and the hot dog in his right hand, and spoke:

"That all depends on what you need, miss." - his voice was neither interested, nor annoyed - just plain.

[Guest]

Reina couldn't tell what he was thinking at first glance. She probably made a fool of herself in front of a total stranger...
Well, she had a dictionary for pete's sake! She looked like a tourist! She was going to be a resident of this country soon, she should at least learn the language.
...She should've studied more Amestrian rather than alchemy when she was little. Why didn't she take those lessons that were offered to her years ago?!

"Sorry if I come off as....um...a tourist....I'm having a hard time learning the...l-language, since I just moved to this country..." For the Amestrian she knew, she had to thank her brother for teaching her. She owed a lot to him.
"And because of that...I get lost a lot. Do you, by chance, speak Cretan?" The undertone in her voice sounded hopeful, but her expression didn't show much. Reina was always under-emotional about a lot of things, even if on the inside she was frustrated or upset, she never shows it on the outside. That's why she's always so calm, except sometimes she'll come off as a little troubled, like right now.

[Guest]

Nathan listened to the girl talk, as she explained her predicament to him. Well - her Amestrian was not that bad - there were almost no mistakes in it, and the only thing wrong was the time intervals, which indicated that she had trouble finding the right words. He could understand that, since he had to learn Amestrian too, when he was at the orphanage. Nathan looked back at the hot dog in his hand and put the fod back into the bag after some thought. He didn't want to drop it on the ground or anything - that would be a sin, for which he'd have to pay.
Nathan turned his attention back to the girl:

"Any other time I would not consider this, but I'm in a good mood today. I can help you with directions." - he frowned a little bit and continued. - "And no - I do not speak Cretan."

Nathan wasn't having any plans anyway, though he did not have a wsh to guide some girl around the city - he could do this just once. He was too important for tasks like this, but... he could make an exception. He needed to converse with the lesser folk from time to time after all.
Nathan turned his gaze back to the girl and examined her from head to toe, while waiting for her to speak again. He brushed his fingers through his hair, fixing it a little bit. Though he didn't do much, simply because he had his white gloves on - the ones with alchemic circles on them.

[Guest]

Reina eyed him for a moment, after what he said. Of course she was disappointed that he didn't speak Cretan...but, what did he mean he'd only show her around because he was in a good mood? Isn't that what people usually do when someone's lost? Well, maybe not in this country. Or maybe she just picked the wrong person to talk with.

"Thanks, I guess...I'm Reina. Who are you? And I'm trying to get to East Command for now. I think I'll be able to find my way around if I start there..." She knew basic Amestrian really well, it's the more complicated sentences that caught her (and she also knew what to say when she got lost pretty well, too...go figure). East Command was probably somewhere very obvious, but she thought she was missing a right turn or something, because she hadn't seen any huge, important looking buildings yet. She held out her hand, hoping for a handshake of introduction. She should at least get to know the name of the person who's going to show her around, and maybe even help her with her Amestrian a little more. That was the only perk about being in a country where you don't know the language--you can learn from anyone.
But this was going to be difficult, seeing as she only knew so much of the language by heart, and this guy didn't know an ounce of Cretan.
But, she'll figure out later how they'll communicate. For now, she knows enough Amestrian to talk for a little bit. Besides, he'll only be showing her around for a little while. It's not like she's going to spend the rest of the day with him.

[Guest]

The alchemist shook Reina's hand after she extended it towards him. He replied:

"My name is Nathan Thimos." - he spoke his name with both pride and grace, as if he was royalty. Well actually he was royalty - just not in Amsetris. He had forsaken his father's legacy a long time ago, but he was a proud man still.
Nathan forced a smile on his face, with little ability to actually try and act in front of people. He never was really good at these things, but he felt like trying to smile at the girl. Then his smile disappeared in an instant and he spoke again, with a simple plain voice:

"East Command it is then, I shall lead you there. Follow me." - the man motioned the girl to follow him and turned around, starting to walk towards the East HQ. However he did not even make two steps as some guy on a bicycle nearly hit him, as he was riding through the street. Nathan had to dodge to his right, nearly dropping the bag of his precious hot dogs. No... they really did fly into the air, away from the grip of his hands. Nathan understood that only by harming himself he could save the God-sent food.
The man let himself fall to the ground, hitting his face and chest, only to make sure that the bag had landed into his open palms.
The bicycle rider was gone, but Nathan did not care about that - he only cared for the hot dogs. He mumbled, starting to stand up:

"Saved..."

[Guest]

Reina shook his hand a couple times. "A pleasure."
She took that hand into the pocket of her jean shorts, putting her dictionary back in her bag. She probably wouldn't be needing it. She followed Nathan into the streets of East city, stopping when he dived to save his food.

"Amestrians can be rather...strange." She thought, cocking an eyebrow at the man who hit the cement ground trying to save whatever was in that bag of his. "You know...if they dropped...I could have bought you more...of whatever it is..." She stood over him, holding out her hand before he stood up, hoping to help him up, until he got up by himself.
Even if she didn't know this person, she was nice enough to offer some money to him if he lost something that must've been that important to him.
"Now that we've gotten that out of the way...why don't we...continue on? I'm sure someone like you would rather spend the day doing something else besides show me around."

[Guest]

Nathan turned around, looking at Reina with a dead-serious expression. It could almost be called angry, since his lips closed tight, before he started talking. A trail of blood streamed down from his nose and onto his mouth and chin, dripping to the ground:

"New one's would simply mean that these hot dogs would be wasted. To waste a Hot Dog is a sin!" - he returned to his normal expression and started walking again, after wiping off the blood and pressing his fingers on the middle of his nose, from both sides, so to stop the bleeding. He then turned his head while they were walking and asked. - "Do you like hot dogs, by the way? What do you think of them?"

Nathan's eyes narrowed, as he looked back at Reina, trying to tell if she would lie or not. He had to know the truth, even if he wouldn't like it. All the meanwhile they were walking towards the center of the East City. There were more people on the streets now and a lot more cars as well. Gladly - no one else tried to push Nathan down or anything. The next person who would try and do that would experience pain like never before in their life. Both for pushing him and ruining his favourite meal.
Shellshock pulled out one hot dogs from the bag and started eating it. Oh - it was a taste worth living for.

[Guest]

Reina didn't give him a look of shock, or fear, or anything from his first expression. She was more confused as to why he was acting so serious about...food.
She was about to offer to help him with the bleeding, until he did it himself, again. She could tell from here that he wasn't going to take any help she offered.

"They're...alright, I suppose. It's not the best thing I've...ever eaten, but they're fine..." So far, so good on her Amestrian. She was getting better with forming the sentences. Maybe she wasn't so doomed as she thought she was with this language.

They probably weren't very far from where she wanted to go now. Maybe from East HQ, she can find her way around the city...either that, or she might be able to find a map or something to help lead her around. That would be better. Then, she could find a way back to Central and go back home to her brother. Her visit would be cut short in East City, but it's better then getting lost all the time and having to ask total strangers to help lead her around. She would always come off as a tourist to them, if she couldn't come up with the right thing to say. And that's something she did not enjoy.

[Aurelius Schwartz]

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