Noise Pollution (Nadia)

Nadia was not expecting the tone of the conversation to turn like this. She watched, and leaned on the cart with her forearms, as the walls came down a little bit. There was emotion on the girl's face now, the weight of her experiences evident in the heaviness of her brow. She said she didn't know what loneliness was like, but Nadia imagined that with her parents suddenly gone, all alone on the streets, she must have known it. Intimately even. She just got used to it. Adapted, like a soldier does. Like a strong person does, to keep from falling apart. To survive. A lot of Eryka's previous words suddenly made even more sense. As she looked at her, Nadia thought that this person in front of her would probably outlive her, by sheer determination and will.

Even more unexpected than the sudden feeling, was the embracing of friendship with her. It was delivered in that austere way of hers, but it was still something like acceptance. Nadia smiled, and decided not to address Eryka's past. It was history now, as this moment soon would be, and presently, Eryka was more concerned about the present. "I don't have many friends, so I'm not really sure what Friends do. I don't mind helping with your shopping. But we can do something else if you prefer. Most of the time I just go where things take me." She leaned off of the cart and regarded Eryka with an honest and unguarded expression, "Thanks for telling me, by the way."

With the little heart to heart Eryka had with Nadia, even if it was really only one way, the general mood had shifted ending up much lighter than it had been or at least, as light as any conversation spent around Eryka could be. Still...the question was what to do now? Nadia seemed to be having the same difficulty as Eryka in that she didn't know what exactly friends should do. Hmmm....this was most definitely a difficult situation.

"Well I was planning to get lunch after I finished shopping. We may as well swap those around even if such a thing is inefficient." With a shrug, Eryka walked back to the entrance of the store, returned the basket and then walked outside into the street. Once she was outside she'd turn to Nadia and find herself more pondering where exactly she should go for lunch.

"I normally just grab food, take it home and eat there...so I have no real idea where to go for lunch." This was in fact the first time Eryka had ever had the desire to actually go and eat as a social activity. She often just ate by herself as that was much much simpler than eating with other people. Hopefully Nadia had some better ideas than Eryka and whatever ideas Nadia suggest they had better not be junk food.

Nadia nodded once, with enthusiasm. "Lunch seems like a good enough plan." She chimed, thinking. It was a good idea that she'd been around with her resume today, because for once, she was the one who knew where a few things were. Unlike her normal situation of being oblivious to her current location. She had to outgrow that at some point, right? For now, she had to think what kinds of things Eryka would like. Considering her passion for physical fitness, Nadia assumed she wouldn't want extremely fatty foods.

Nadia pointed with her finger. "Well, there's a Deli down this direction, if I remember right, that looked like it uses pretty fresh produce and real meat." She giggled. "But I think there was also a greek place back across from the hardware store. Aside from that...There was a sushi restaurant a few streets down from here, I think." She gestured across the street and down another block. That one she'd passed the other day when she was walking with Tomomi. "Or is there maybe something else you feel like eating. I'll eat basically anything. I even tried cow tongue once. It wasn't great..."

"Sushi." It was an easy decision for Eryka to make. Greek food she had never tried so that was out. Deli's were...okay she supposed as what you could order was immensely varied but it didn't seem elaborate enough for something to socialise over. That was where the sushi came in. Fish was very good for you, full of useful oils and had numerous health benefits; the main benefit was how it prolonged one's lifespan.

"Lead the way to this Sushi restaurant then." Eryka had never eaten sushi before in her entire life. Cooked fillets of fish was one thing. Raw fish was another but it was still fish so. The amputee would never try cow tongue. Red meat was often very fatty and not exactly good for you hence why her diet's meat was mostly fish and avian in origin. She should honestly look up the nutritional information about cow tongue.

Nadia nodded, leading the way across the street (using the correct crosswalk etiquette), and down the block on the other side. Along the way they passed by Ars Moriendi, the little shop where Nadia had applied for work. As they passed, she peeked inside, in between a set of animals skulls positioned in the window. She couldn't see Mr. Kaska, but he seemed to have closed up shop already. They must not get much business at this time of day. Shrugging, she continued walking.

The shop Sushi place was a small, cozy affair. But it was a nice atmosphere. "Have you ever had Sushi before?" Nadia asked Eryka as they entered, standing in line. "We order at the counter, then we pick a seat and they bring it to us." She relayed, helpfully.

The sushi shop Eryka ended up at was small, cozy and rather compact. Other people may have found the cozy atmosphere of the sushi shop welcoming but not Eryka. To her it was just...a sushi store; a place to get food and appease a basic human requirement. The quality of the restaurant's food would be the criteria upon which Eryka passed final judgement so no pressure or anything.

"No I have not had sushi before. Any suggestions of what to order?" Honestly? Eryka would have been happy with most things...however, there was one thing she disliked and that was spicy food. Eryka genuinely preferred more "rustic" food with deep rich flavours; especially if it was food from her home country. She missed eating Käsespätzle... hmmm she should learn to cook it sometime.

Nadia nodded. She knew just what to do. The same she'd done when she and Tomomi had come here. Since then, she'd found she quite liked this sushi shop. "Well, they have this great Sample platter that has lots of different things on it. We can get that, and you can try different things and see what you like. I like pretty much anything." She admitted.

Walking up to the counter, Nadia ordered and paid, and moved to sit down at a table, motioning Eryka over as she went.

"Sounds like the logical solution." It was only when the two of them went up to the counter, ordered and paid that problems occurred. Eryka was of the mind that both herself and Nadia should pay for the food, splitting he bill 50/50 which is why the amputee interjected.

"Stop. We shall split this 50/50" Eryka reached inside her suit and dug out a wallet, counting out exactly half of the cost of the platter and putting it forward. With payment wrapped up Eryka followed after her companion, joining her at a table and waiting in silence. Conversation was not Eryka's forte.

Nadia didn't reject The other's help with the bill, and, once they were seated, she didn't mind the silence either. The artist pulled out her sketchbook and started sketch people sitting at another table who were talking in an animated fashion. After a moment she asked, "Do you do anything other than train? What do you do for fun?" she asked honestly, glancing up from her sketch pad for a moment.

"For fun?..hmm..." That was a difficult question to answer. What did Eryka do for fun? Hobbies were genuinely something she had never devoted much thought to as she just focused on her job and surviving. It was easy for Eryka to answer about the things she did outside of training though.

"I don't really...do much outside of training. I go to school, do maintenance on my arm and that's really it." A small part of her did feel a little dissatisfied with her hobbies but honestly, what was she supposed to do?... She had little social life, poor social skills and no desire to do anything except "survive."

Nadia looked a little sad when Eryka said she didn't do anything outside of training and school and maintenance on her arm. It reminded her of Cecil, studying all the time. Was it really so strange to want to try new things? Everyone she knew seemed to be stuck doing the same old habits all the time. Nadia frowned and set her pencil down, looking over at her new friend.

"That sounds kind of lonely, Eryka." Nadia remarked, sadly, looking out the window. right now she could see three shops she'd never been to before, new activities to explore. Around every corner... She wanted to share that wonder with people. Not just Cecil. But anyone who she could call a friend. She'd feel like she wasn't being a good friend otherwise. "Well, friends do things together right?" Nadia chimed, turning her frown into a small smile. "So that means, now that we're friends, we'll have to go do other things. We could watch movies, or go shopping for things we don't need, or go to the beach..." Nadia listed just a few things off the top of her head. "We can do all kinds of things! If you want to. Not today, though! You've got so much shopping to do, after all." She smiled again as the platter of food was laid down.

"Oh! It's here...The ones with this stuff on it are spicy, these ones are pretty sweet, and these ones have..." She spent a moment explaining the types of textures that the different kinds of sushi had, so that Eryka wouldn't accidentally grab something that she knew she wouldn't like.

"If you say so. It's all I know." Eryka shrugged her shoulders, mechanical arm whirring slightly before settling back into a neutral position. The amputee's social skills were behind pretty much everyone else but worst of all? She'd never developed any hobbies. It was mentally, and emotionally, unhealthy but Eryka didn't care. How could she? She had never known differently which meant she couldn't be bothered. You could only lament the absence of something if you had experienced it.

"Do they? I have little in the way of experiences with friends." Eryka was undecided on the idea of going out and doing stuff. Movies, shopping for the unnecessary and the beach. Out of all those suggestions only the beach had any real appeal to Eryka and that was based on the fact she could exercise there. She really did not understand how "having fun" worked did she?

"Hmm..yeah. Well our meal has arrived." Disinterestedly, Eryka shrugged her shoulders and got to eating trying each and every single piece of sushi on the platter. If the amputee was bothered by the more spicy offerings then she didn't show it.

Nadia ate with the girl, thinking about how it must feel to not know any better. Nadia could remember how numb it felt when she had no one, and her current state was so much different. Now she had Cecil, Kendra, Eryka...even Tomomi...She wanted to help Eryka experience things beyond just surviving, if she could. But she had to do the pushing - which was fine. That seemed to be the way it worked with everyone. People were stuck in their own lives until something or someone pushed them into something new. Even if that something new was only 5 feet away from them in the first place.

When they had finished off the decent sized platter, Nadia leaned forward on her Elbows. "So...are you full? Or would you like to try something else?" she asked pleasantly.

"Hmmm...I am unsure. I no longer feel hungry nor do I feel full." Eryka only said that after she had consumed a rather large portion of the sushi. She was either immensely hungry or just possessed of an intense appetite given just how much of the sushi she devoured then again, given how much Eryka exercised perhaps a faster metabolism was to be expected. Putting down the cutlery, be it chopsticks of a fork, she had used to eat the sushi Eryka reached into her pockets pulling out a compact wallet.

"No. I have decided that my appetite is satisfied for the time being. I plan to take my leave." Eryka would rummage through the wallet and bring out, after a few seconds of mathematics, placed exactly half of the bill on the table. Oddly, the amputee mentioned nothing about whether she would see arrange to meet Nadia again or whether she was welcome to accompany the amputee further. Despite Eryka's silence on the matter, she did in fact wish to be left alone for the moment something hopefully made apparent by her walking out of the sushi restaurant alone.

Nadia nodded, and watched as Eryka paid half the bill and then stood up to leave. She made no comment as the other girl left her sitting there, just watched her go. It wasn't that her feelings were hurt, but rather than she was just interested in the parts of this person that must exist, buried deep down. The parts that weren't robotic. The parts that existed before the Divide had torn the world asunder. Nadia sat at the table a little while longer after the other left, thinking, sipping on the tea she'd ordered but nearly forgotten about, before she too, left the sushi place behind.

[end]