001 - First Flower

[holyfight]

[There are little doodles in the margins of this post - robots and flowers and flying tigers and dinosaurs! It's clear that Orihime has been using her book as a sketch book in addition to its intended use]

Does this really show up to everyone else if I write in it? Can anyone else see this? If you're the owner of this book, I'm really sorry for writing in it! But I can't think of any other way to find you!

Hi! I'm Inoue Orihime! From what I can gather, I'm supposed to be a Flower-Queen's Daughter. But I don't know any queens, so I think there's been a mistake! If anyone knows who that is, please let me know! I'd like to return her book to her!

Comments

[holyfight]

[;skldjfsk NO, CUTE BIRDY!]

Eh heh, you're welcome!

Oh, it was the beginning of summer for us! It feels like we just got out of winter, but now we have to go back!

[espigeonage]

[A pretty human girl is here to kiss him! :D]

That must have been a shock. I hope you've managed to procure enough warm clothing. [Being a bird and almost completely naked all the time, it's not something he worries about himself.] Certainly the people here seem friendly enough.

[holyfight]

Well, I still have my sweater, but that's really all I have right now. Maybe I should find a way to get a coat...

Oh yes, everyone here is great!

[She pats the side of the fountain beside her as she sits down]

Hop up here!

[espigeonage]

Perhaps you can prevail upon someone to give you something? It's unmannerly of whoever arranged this, not to provide us with currency.

[He does, wings unfolding for a moment. Yuuya's claws click on the stone.]

Or ideas about employment! But I'm sure something can be arranged.

[holyfight]

I can bake! I could probably get a job at the baker's shop... They have those here, right?

[espigeonage]

They must, I'm sure! I have seen bread about. Baking is a wonderful skill to have.

Myself, I am not certain. [A spy can always steal, but a smart one knows when not to - and if there really somehow is a personification of Justice about, it's better to be cautious. He fluffs up a little in chagrin.] Were it not winter I might live off the forest, perhaps. Well, I will ask around and hope no one requires an elaborate resume! I've a high school diploma, but regrettably it's still at home.

[holyfight]

I'm sure you can get something here! I can't imagine they'd want our documentation since we wouldn't have it with us anyway.

Umm...

So, how do you want me to kiss you?

[espigeonage]

Ahaha, well. I wouldn't want you to be uncomfortable, Orihime-chan. [He tilts his head in a way he knows is cute.]

As we have just met and both appear to be called princesses, perhaps you might play courtier and kiss my wing?

[He unfolds one and holds it out. The long feathers are jointed somehow, prehensile, and when held this way look like quite a large and flattened hand.]

[...clothed or not clothed urgh decisions]

[holyfight]

Oh! Well, in that case!

[Orihime bends over his wing, taking it as she would a fine lady's hand. With a flourish of her other hand, she gives the tip of his wing the lightest kiss]

It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Yuuya-hime!

[espigeonage]

Your manners-

[There is a magical girl transformation sphere rushing of ephemeral white feathers obscuring him. Yuuya's silken wingtip pulls out of Orihime's grasp -

and there where he stood sits a tall, rangy young man who looks partly white. For some reason all of his hair, and his eyes, are blue. Also, he is clothed only in gold-framed glasses and a yellow tie.

Before anything else - one foot is in the frozen fountain, the other on the cobbles, and quite clumsily human-Yuuya jerks his foot up away from the ice, trying to exclaim something despite no experience with lips or a flexible tongue.]

-aaah, 'a's coad!

Aww man, I wish I had all my icons right now!

[holyfight]

Eeek--!

[Naked man! Naked man! Orihime's too busy covering her eyes to tell him that it's winter, so the cobblestones are cold. In fact, she's so shocked that she falls right over]

I didn't expect it to actually work!

[espigeonage]

[Goosebumped and shivering, Yuuya laughs. It's a full-throated sound, not like his little social bird-laughs, and he's surprised to hear it.

A random NPC bustles over to put a hooded cloak on him, half scandalized and half amused by the "Dove Princess"'s lack of modesty, and departs. Yuuya draws it around himself and touches his fingers to his lips and face in wonder. When he speaks he's more careful to try and shape the words, but he's not that good at it.]

Waow... wow. Hah. Yeah. Youu know, hiss... kiss can mean twoo things, too birds.

[holyfight]

[Oh hay, he's clothed again! Awesome!]

What? It does?

What do you mean?

[espigeonage]

[Yuuya knows he could turn back into a bird, he can feel how, and then talking is easy again and he's not near-painfully cold. He tries sticking it out, struggling with unfamiliar anatomy.]

One... meaning is beak coontact. Like with you huumans. Th' other is cloacal coo- contact, wish-which can be more fun, but! not something to proopose on a first date.

[wait why is his face heating up. what is this. birds do not blush.]

[holyfight]

Cloacal....

[OH. Ohhhhhhhhhh]

Eh heh, no, I don't think we know each other that well yet!

Do you need a kiss to turn back? Or do you think you can do it on your own?

[espigeonage]

[He laughs again, sounding distinctly embarrassed, and concentrates on making each word sound correct.]

So it's good that oral kisses are what's needed.

Ah, well... [Yuuya smiles. That expression clearly comes easily to him. And then - there is the same spherical rushing of feathers, and he's an enormous pigeon once more. Wearing the most adorable pigeon-sized hooded cloak.]

Clearly, I could have thought this experiment through some more! I am sorry for any discomfort I caused, Orihime-chan. It was not my intent.

[is it really that he's more confident and smooth as a bird, or is it that emotions show more clearly when he's human?]

Ahaha, I knew it was cold, but quite a difference that makes.

[holyfight]

I-It's alright! I'm glad I could help!

Do you think any human kissing you could do it, or is it just a Princess?

...

Oh my gosh, what if that could happen with any of the animals around here?!

[espigeonage]

I'm not sure! It might be entertaining to find out, provided I can find people who are willing. And maybe acquire more clothing first, or find a place indoors. Hah. [He rouses up his feathers again, looking poofy.]

That could be most amusing, but I'm not one of the locals. It seems things are different here. If I might make an enormous understatement.

[holyfight]

I would offer you some clothes, but I only have these! ...and they're for girls, anyway.

Oh, I know that! But if there are so many fairy tales here, shouldn't some of the local people be them, too?

[espigeonage]

I appreciate the offer even so! Personally I have no objections to wearing feminine styles, I'm quite fetching in a frilly apron in fact! But likely such things pose more difficulty on a human body.

A good point. How might one go about finding this out?

[holyfight]

Frilly aprons are cute! If I can find some thread and a needle and some cloth, I'll make you one sometime!

Umm... I guess we could just ask around...

[espigeonage]

Ah, thank you! [he plucks at the new dove-cloak with his beak.] Perhaps there is a cafe or the like around here which needs maids. [In his part of future!Japan it's very common for young male birds to dress femme at work.] If there is, a human shape might make that easier. I expect if clothing scales down it scales up, as well. There's just the one way to find out!

Hah, there is that! I may be too eager to complicate matters, when they are complex enough as it is.

[holyfight]

Do you work as a maid? Ne, maybe we'll wind up working together!

It's alright! We should try whatever we can, right?

[espigeonage]

Hah, perhaps so! And I have dabbled in that profession before. Part-time only. Very part-time.

Yes, yes. I expect it might prove interesting.

[holyfight]

I've never been a maid, but I've been a baker before! I'm going to try to get a job doing that here! All sorts of fairy tales happen in bakeries, right?