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

[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?

[espigeonage]

I think so! It's appropriately humble-yet-appealing, after all. Hah, you could bake the buns while I waited on the customers.

[holyfight]

Yes! We'll take over the town with our delicious baked goods and excellent customer service!

[espigeonage]

They'll never see it coming! [He makes a low cooing dove-laugh.] Now we just need to find a bakery-cafe sort of place that needs the help.

[holyfight]

Exactly! I might wait a day or two to get settled in before looking for a job, though.

Have you been here long?

[espigeonage]

A few days. Hardly enough time to overcome jetlag! Fortunately in this my proper form I am inured a bit to the cold and can sleep with little fear. And you, Orihime-chan?

[holyfight]

Oh! Because of the air pockets between your feathers, right?

I've only been here a few hours now!

[espigeonage]

Yes! [He puffs up again.] We doves do better in the cold than heat. Go on and touch me, if your hands are cold.

Ah, we will have to find you a place to stay, is it not so? Unless the mantle of princess also comes with a palace close enough to walk to.

[holyfight]

[She pokes him!]

Oh! You are pretty warm! That must be nice! I kind of wish I had feathers now!

If I have a palace somewhere, no one told me about it!

[espigeonage]

[His feathers are very soft.]

Heh, you'd make a pretty dove, mon amie.

A sorry world where princesses must scramble for lodging, isn't it? No matter.